Mike and Connie prepare for the break-in.
Chapter 6
They continued to stand at the end of the hallway, out of sight from the surveillance cameras.
Mike explained the plan to break into Kim Brody's protected FBI office.
"It's crazy, Mike!" Connie said, of the plan.
"Weren't you the one who wanted an adventure?" Mike asked.
He was right. She did.
Here it was in front of them.
It didn't take long for her to make a decision.
She nodded, "Alright… I'm in!"
Connie watched as Mike took out a pair of wire-framed glasses and put it on. She didn't even know he wore glasses.
"My driving glasses, a.k.a. my disguise," he quietly explained, "Tell me you don't recognize me."
Of course, he was kidding.
Connie personally thought he looked very suave in the intellectual glasses. Like if James Bond wore glasses. In addition, it really brought out the blues in his eyes. Connie shook her head to try and clear her mind.
She needed to stop her mind ramblings and concentrate on the mission on hand.
After all, they were going to break into an official secured government agency.
What could possibly go wrong with that?
They began initiating their plan.
Mike and Connie each pinned their District Attorney badges on.
A badge signified power.
Mike explained the strategy behind the plan. He theorized to Connie that if a person wears a badge and speaks in an authoritarian manner, people would tend to believe whatever nonsense that person is stating.
Hopefully the people they come in contact with will not take a good look at what their particular badge represented.
"Okay, ready?" Mike said, looking at Connie.
They were actually going to break into an FBI facility.
She looked down the sterile, white hallway, which appeared to stretch out forever.
Being a lawyer, she also knew the full consequences of breaking and entering an FBI office. But they needed that information on Jack. The risk would be worth it.
She hoped.
Connie's heart was suddenly beating faster. She felt her adrenaline pumping.
They were actually going to do it.
Once they started, there would be no turning back.
Connie took a deep breath in and out, trying to even out her heartbeat.
Reaching into her purse, she took out her police baton, given to her by Lupo and Bernard.
Connie turned to Mike and nodded.
Mike nodded confidently back at her.
"NOW!" Mike said decisively.
Mike rushed to the fire alarm unit, pushing down the lever. Instantly the lights flashed on and off as the fire alarm went off.
The sound of a fire alarm bell reverberated throughout the hallway.
Eeee-ahhh Eeee-ahhh
At the same time, Connie ran across and with her baton, smashed the glass of the fire extinguisher, and handed it to Mike.
Mike pulled the pin on the top of the extinguisher. He aimed the fire extinguisher at the surveillance camera and squeezed the lever. The extinguishing chemical coming out of the unit covered the surveillance camera lens completely.
In the meantime, people were quietly walking out of their offices, in a straight line. Obviously they had done fire drills before.
The fire alarm noisily persisted.
Eeee-ahhh Eeee-ahhh
Mike and Connie proceeded the opposite way of the striding FBI agents who were leaving the building. Mike and Connie continued walking towards Kim Brody's office.
As they advanced down the hall, Mike or Connie would utter words like, "Fire Marshall" or "Please proceed in a straight line" to any listening agents leaving the building.
The agents seemed to be buying the whole scenario of two Fire Marshalls with badges, observing fire drill procedures in the hallway.
At one point Mike stopped one of the younger looking agents, who had been walking out the building, hoping he was an intern.
Newbie agents tended to be the most gullible.
"You a junior agent?" Mike asked with an official sounding voice.
"Yes sir!" he said, proud to be singled out by the Fire Marshall.
"Make sure you evacuate everyone, including the agents in the surveillance room."
"Right away!" The intern agent almost saluted.
The hallway lights continued to flash.
The alarm bell became deafening, but they had become accustomed to the loud sound.
Eeee-ahhh Eeee-ahhh
Mike and Connie advanced down the second hallway, the one with Kim Brody's office. They waited at the doorway, allowing the agents to exit the hallway. When no agents were in sight, Mike reached up and covered the second surveillance camera with the rest of the extinguishing chemical from the fire extinguisher.
They then sighted Kim Brody's office door opening.
She was coming out of her office.
Like everyone else, she had to vacate her office. Kim Brody would definitely recognized them, and not as Fire Marshalls.
Mike and Connie swiftly opened the door to the supply room, located two doors down, the only door without an entry code or door number.
In the small room, they listened to all the footsteps passing by, hoping one of the footsteps would be Kim Brody's.
From the bottom slit of the door, they could make out the shadows of footsteps rushing by.
Mike and Connie were breathing hard in the dark, confined room.
Suddenly they were aware they were alone with each other.
The small enclosed room was built to store cleaning and office supplies.
It was not built to hide two individuals, so the supply room had been a tight squeeze for Mike and Connie.
Connie couldn't believe she was feeling hot. And it wasn't due to the temperature of the room. Their bodies were so close together in the tiny, dark confined space. She thought about him in the wire-framed glasses. Looking so intellectually sexy.
Now is not the time to have these thoughts, she willed herself.
Mike was cognizant of Connie standing so close, too. He could actually hear and feel the rhythm of her breathing. Their shoulders were touching. He turned to view her silhouette and realized she was looking in his direction. They were no longer checking out the small opening underneath the door. All he had to do was reach out and—
"Mike," she whispered, her voice a little shaky, "I think everyone has left. I don't hear any more footsteps."
"…Quick then," recovered Mike, "We have less than three minutes before the all- clear bell."
They opened the door.
The hallway was empty.
Eeee-ahhh Eeee-ahhh.
The lights continued to flash.
Mike and Connie rushed to office door #14. Mike got out his small keychain flashlight. He scanned the numbers on Kim Brody's office door code box with the small ray of light and took note of which three button keys of the code box looked the most worn down. Those would be the three numbers used to open her door.
He tried various three number combinations. It was just a matter of time. He knew eventually he'd hit the right order of the three numbers.
He did. The door buzzed and opened.
They entered and quickly went to the one file on her desk.
Connie already had her Blackberry out. She snapped pictures of each page in the file as Mike stood guard.
It was done.
"Let's go!" said Mike.
They covertly walked out of the office, just as the alarm bell and flashing stopped.
R-r-ring!
Another bell signaled the drill was over.
Connie smoothed out her clothes, walked down the hallway, and tried to act as a Fire Marshall again, observing how well the drill went.
The FBI branch office was back to normal. It was as if a fire drill had never occurred. A small number workers again strolled down the hallway, along with Mike and Connie.
The two attorneys tried to maintain a normal walking pace when what they wanted to do was run.
Meanwhile, Kim Brody was over at the surveillance room, viewing the monitors to see what little could be made out from the foamed camera lens. Checking the clipboard, she noted that a fire drill had not been scheduled today.
She knew exactly who pulled this fire drill stunt. If the FBI could get the surveillance tapes cleaned up, there would be a strong possibility it would show Cutter and Rubirosa somewhere on that tape, breaking into an FBI facility.
Kim Brody felt she could use that fact against them, to make them stop searching for Jack McCoy.
She was determined that the FBI locate Jack, not them.
She watched the two figures as they left the building.
"Hmph…novices," she thought, displeased, looking at the screen. Such nuisances. They would just get in the way.
Unfortunately, she knew this would not be the last she would see of them.
She knew how determined the two of them could be.
She continued observing them until they disappeared from the screen.
Her mind had already forgotten about Rubirosa.
She switched her mind to images of her run-ins with Mike Cutter…when she first saw him in the Quit Claim case…in the courtroom proceedings where he was the lead prosecutor, she the defendant…the verbal showdown in front of the grand jury….the parking garage confrontation with the gun…and now covertly breaking into an FBI facility.
He certainly was a man who wore many hats, a man obviously with many talents, she mused. And, Kim Brody added in her thoughts, besides being intelligent, he was attractive.
Yes, that was absolutely an added plus.
Michael Cutter…she will definitely keep a vigilant eye on him…
Meanwhile Mike and Connie had walked out of the FBI office door, to the elevator, through the lobby and out the building door.
They were once more on Hudson Street.
Connie heaved a huge sigh of relief.
She couldn't believe they got away with it. At least now they will get some answers regarding Jack. She was anxious to get back to the office.
They started walking back to their car.
A Lincoln Town Car was parked nearby as they hurried down the sidewalk.
The passenger door of the Lincoln car suddenly swung open, just as Mike and Connie were about to walk past it.
From the passenger side of the car, a big, burly man with long hair tied up in a ponytail got out, stuck out his gun, and aimed it directly at them.
"Get in or you're dead," he viciously threatened, motioning with his gun.
He looked serious.
Dead serious.
Connie gave a look of apprehension as she turned to look at Mike.
"Damn," she heard Mike say under his breath, "Now what?"
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Okay…read only for entertainment purposes—not for realism! Ha!
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(Btw…I saw a few pics of Linus (oh wow, I'm on a first name basis with him!) in wire framed glasses and thought he looked amazing, so I just put it in the story just so I could swoon again; it won't figure in the plot.)
Please review!