"Where's Paige?" Cabe asked again. Walter looked towards her desk and saw she wasn't there.
"She… got a call that Ralph was sick and left to go pick him up." Happy faltered.
"Tracking her car GPS" Sylvester said quickly. "According to this…she's…still here." The team looked at each other for a brief second and ran outside. They found Paige's car where she had parked it this morning.
"Oh no." Toby said. "Ralph."
Cabe was already on the phone. "Confirmed? Okay thanks. Invoke baby blue bird." He hung up. "According to one of my agents Ralph is still at school. We'll be taking him to a secure location after his classes are over."
"One of your agents?" Sylvester asked.
"Last year I assigned Ralph an agent who would tail him and take him to safety in case anything bad happened. The agent is the classroom assistant. He confirmed Ralph's location."
"You put an agent in charge of watching Ralph and you didn't tell us?" Toby asked.
"You didn't need to know. And to be honest, you genius' are terrible at keeping secrets. I didn't want Paige to perceive my precautions as a reason to be worried."
"That's true I am terrible at keeping secrets" Sylvester admitted.
"We know" the rest of the team said at the same time.
"Here's her cell phone" Happy said picking it up off the pavement. "Collins must have tossed it because he knew that we'd track it."
Walter felt his stomach turn into a knot. Paige what have I done to you? He thought. Walter looked around hoping (though he knew it was pointless) for any sign of her. When he looked up Walter suddenly saw something in the upstairs window of the adjacent warehouse. He immediately recognized the object as a satellite dish from Collin's tower.
"Do you guys see it?" Walter said pointing to where he was looking.
"That looks like Collin's satellite dish." Happy said. The team ran toward the building, opened the door and climbed up the stairs.
"This building has had a 'for lease' sign for the past 6 month and 3 days" Sylvester said. "Could someone really been using the space?" They came to the top floor which was locked.
"Happy" Walter said stepping out of her way. She quickly worked her way through the lock and opened the door.
When it was opened Walter saw that the top floor had indeed been used by Collins. There were papers, cassette tapes, satellite dishes and a twin bed. By the window that faced the garage there was listening equipment hooked up to a recorder.
"He was watching us?!" Happy said, the disgust evident in her tone.
"And listening to us. Look, it's the recordings of everything we've said to each other for the past 4 or 5 months." Toby said picking through the tapes. "No wonder he's been one step ahead of us."
Walter shuttered and felt anger and guilt rise within him. This is all my fault.
"Why would Collins think that Paige is the most important thing to Walter?" Sylvester asked. "He only met her once.
"It makes perfect sense." Toby said jumping in before Walter had a chance to react. "Back in the reactor Walter told Collins that there was room for one more person on the team which is Paige because she binds us together. Collins sees her as being more valuable than him because, in his mind, she replaced him. Therefore she is the logical choice. Also, she could be more easily subdued."
Happy punched the table she was standing by. "I swear if I ever see him again I'm going to ring the life out of him."
"You and me both." Cabe said. "We need to figure out where Collins has taken her. Everybody head back the garage. Let's start tracking satellite coverage and see if we can pick up their trail." As team scorpion quickly filed out of the room Toby stopped Walter before going down the stairs.
"I'm fine." Walter said before Toby spoke.
"Involuntary tremors in your left hand indicate that's a lie." Walter put his hand behind his back. "Walter, this isn't your fault. You couldn't have known Collins was going to do this."
"I could have and should have."
"No, you shouldn't."
"I didn't protect her." He murmured, too low for Toby to hear.
"Believe me, I'm worried sick about her. But this is personal remember? Collins won't do anything until you are there. He wants you to feel his loss." Walter felt his hand shake more violently.
"Take a deep breath and then meet us at the garage. The more clearheaded you are, the better you'll be able to solve the puzzle."
"We don't have time for that." Walter said circumventing Toby and racing down the stairs.
Once Walter walked back into the garage he found Sylvester hard at work on his computer. "It isn't good Walter. I can't find any footage in our time frame for any of the cameras in the garage or street camera's in a 2 mile radius.
"He must have blacked out the cameras." Happy said.
"Looks like that's what happened." Sylvester nodded as he continued to type. "Department of Transportation is indicating a power surge from faulty wiring for the traffic cameras. He only needed a few minutes to get over here and get out before they rebooted the system."
"So our only chance to catch him is to figure out where he went." Walter said. He closed his eyes, determined to figure out where Collins had taken Paige as soon as possible. Down we go He thought.
"Why them and not me?"
Deeper.
"There was room for one more. Paige."
Deeper.
Walter opened his eyes to no longer see the garage in front of him, but Mark Collins. All their projects, their time together and the endless possibilities such a mind could achieve. He berated himself for not paying more attention to Collin's personal life. He probably could have figured it out without coming down here if he was more observant.
Paige popped in his mind despite his best efforts to concentrate. His heart lurched at the sight of her and he wished could physically reach out. "Why didn't you protect me Walter?" She said. "If anything happens to me, you'll never forgive yourself. And Ralph won't either."
"I'm sorry" he whispered.
Focus!
IknewThisWouldHappenIfICameBackDownHereINeedToFindCollinsThinkAboutColllinsThinkAboutCollinsWhereWouldHeHaveGoneWhereWouldHeHaveGone….
Immediately a memory came to mind.
"Where were you?" Walter asked Collins as he came into the garage.
"Oh you know. Out and about."
"Out and about? We have work we have to do."
"Relax Walter. Sometimes you just need to clear your head so you can get focused. That's what I do."
"And where do you clear your head?"
"Well if I tell you it won't be a secret anymore."
"Collins! You are late and I need a logical explanation."
"Geeze Walter calm down. Everyone here has their little project they work on and I've got mine."
"Which is…."
"Well if you must know, I am working on something at an abandoned relay tower in Calbasas."
"Where?"
"Oh you know, off of the Backbone Trail. I work on my radio projects there. You can see the city, and there isn't anyone annoying to bother you" Collins said looking at Happy.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She said angrily.
"You aren't very nice to newcomers."
"Well be that as it may" Walter said "we do all of our separate projects here. From now on work on whatever you have in the garage. I can set up a place for you."
"If you insist Walter. But you should get over there sometime. It's quite nice."
WALTER!
He blinked and was back in the garage.
"You've got to stop doing that!" Happy said raising her voice.
"I know you're upset, but I know where Collins went."
"You do? "
"Yes." He grabbed a pen to write on the white board. He wrote Collins might still be listening "I think" he said out loud "Collins decided to head back to the nuclear reactor. That's where it all took place." Walter wrote on the board there's an abandoned relay tower off of the Backbone Trail. He used to go there.
"Makes sense" Toby said, obviously playing along. "We know that he went in from the North and crossed the boundary of the power plant. There isn't anyone around for miles."
"Exactly." Walter scribbled on the board. Get new van. Ours may be compromised
"Copy that" said Cabe. Let me notify Homeland and get some backup." He got out his phone and texted.
"We can create a specific plan of how we're going to handle this once we are on our way."
"Homeland wands to escort us to the power plant. They will be here in 2 minutes." Cabe said. "Grab whatever you need and let's be ready to roll."