Chapter 9:
(LAST CHAPTER): He continued to run towards the edge, holding his phone in hand, ready for Ben to call back. Was there some problem on Ben's end? Was Aiden ok? Was Wolf being stubborn? Was Ben bringing Aiden into the danger zone? Had Ben crashed his car and was now awaiting medical attention, or worse?
When he was about two feet from the edge, he paused slightly, only to feel a great force hit him in the back followed by a great pain. The phone slipped from his grip, and he stumbled forward before falling limply under the waves of the harbor's water.
On the dock, his cell phone began to ring.
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(STILL LAST CHAPTER): Quickly pulling it out, Ben found the tracker blinking not even an eighth of a mile away. He raced there as fast as possible. At first, he thought that Alex's phone was in the water, but it soon became obvious that it was simply at the end of a long dock. Reaching the end of it, the first thing that Ben noticed was the phone lying haphazardly near the end. The second thing he noticed was the small drops of blood on the edge of the boards.
Futilely, he called Alex's name into the waves. No reply came. Five minutes later, he dropped to the ground, pulled out his phone, and called MI6.
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Wolf was worried when Ben hadn't called back within two hours. He understood that Ben had not had time to explain what 'trouble' Cub had gotten into and that depending on what kind of trouble it was it might take a while to sort out. On the other hand, Ben knew that Wolf was sitting in his house waiting for a phone call. The phone call that had not yet come.
Wolf sighed and stood up, drawing the attention of the 7-year-old kid from the ever riveting TV.
"What's wrong, Uncle Wolf?" Aiden asked the man.
"Nothing's wrong, Aiden," Wolf replied with a fake carefree smile. "I'm just going to try to call Uncle Ben and see if I can figure out where he is."
"Ok!" Aiden replied with a wide grin. "Do you think he's going to bring me chocolate when he comes back? Or something else? He always brings me something when he comes back. I think it's to make up for the time that he's away or something like that…"
"I'm sure he'll find something to bring you," Wolf replied.
Happy, the kid turned back to the cartoons and Wolf left the room and entered the kitchen. He pulled out his cell phone and speed-dialed Ben. Eight rings and no pickup. He tried Cub's phone. Eight rings and no pickup. Worried, Wolf tried Ben's phone once more before dialing a new number.
"Wolf? What's up? We just got back; surely their not calling us in again ALREADY," Snake questioned after reading the caller ID and picking-up.
"Nothing like that. At least not yet. We both know all too well how MI6 is. At least we know that the SAS will actually give us our time off," Wolf replied with a smirk.
"So what's up then? Already missing our lovely company?"
"Not exactly. Currently, I'm babysitting Aiden for Fox who was babysitting for Cub. Cub was being debriefed at HQ today. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but somewhere along the lines Cub ran into trouble and I guess called Ben to try and help him get out of it. But that was close to three hours ago and neither is picking up their phones."
"So you think that this 'trouble' was a little bit more than Cub and Fox could deal with and want to go investigate but want back-up and need someone to watch Aiden," Snake surmised.
Wolf sighed. This was why he called Snake first. Snake always understood. "Yup. Can you call the rest of the team and have them meet us at Ben's place?"
"Sure. And I'll call D-Unit to come and watch Aiden for us while we take a look around. And before you protest, we both know there's no way any of the team will willingly sit around waiting, even if they were watching Aiden. D-Unit are on leave and get along well with Aiden. They won't mind watching him."
Wolf nodded, "Thanks."
"Yup. You can tell us what you know when we all get there, alright?"
"Yea, bye." Wolf hung up, not waiting for Snake to reply as he felt there was no need.
Ten minutes later had K-Unit, D-Unit, and Aiden in Ben's living room. Wolf was finishing telling both units everything he knew which wasn't much.
As K-Unit filed out the door, Wasp called out, "Good luck! If you need any more back-up, don't hesitate to call us."
Wolf nodded an affirmative and the door closed. K-Unit got into the van sitting outside.
"To the harbor?" Eagle questioned as Wolf pulled out onto the street.
"To the harbor," Wolf agreed. They drove in silence, each not wanting to think about the probable outcomes of their adventure.
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Two hours later had Wolf and the rest of K-Unit feeling very discouraged. They had searched seemingly everywhere around the harbor for the two spies and all they had come up with was Fox's abandoned car, left parking haphazardly near the water's edge. This did nothing to improve the soldiers' moods as it seemed to be a clear sign that something major had happened that had taken their teammates from them.
"Can we track either of their phones?" Eagle questioned as the group met up once more at their van after giving up their search as futile.
Wolf shook his head before remembering a number Fox had given him years ago.
"Wait! I know someone who can."
He pulled out his phone, looked through the contacts, and found the one titled 'Smithers'.
"Hello? Wolf is it?" The voice on the other end picked up.
"Yea, its Wolf. I would ask how you knew that, but I have a feeling the answer should be obvious. I was wondering if you could try to track Ben Daniels' phone for me. I'm trying to find him, but he seems to have disappeared."
"Sure, old chap. I'd be glad to. Takes no effort at all. Mr. Daniels placed a tracker on your phone a while ago so he could always find you so I don't need to even try to track his phone, even if it would only take a second. It's easier to just reverse the signal. I'm sending its tracker to you now. Ring me if you ever need anything at all. I owe Alex that much. Ahh, it seems as though Mr. Daniels is exactly where I expected him to be. Good luck." With that parting note, the man hung up.
"Well?" Snake questioned as Wolf brought the phone from his ear and frowned.
"Cub and Fox always described that man as really cheerful. I wonder if his cheerfulness is something that only spies can perceive because he definitely did not sound happy. He sounded resigned for whatever reason…"
"Wolf?" Badger questioned as the man trailed off and stared at the road. "Did he have a tracker on Fox's phone?"
"Wha- oh yea. Apparently Fox bugged my phone a while ago so all he had to do was reverse the signal. I have the tracker on my phone. It says he's…but why would he be there?" Wolf questioned, a frown once more covering his features.
Eagle sighed, "Wolf! Come back to earth until we find Ben. Then you can go all contemplative on us."
Wolf once more snapped back to the present, glad to have a reason to stop thinking about the dark thoughts that had entered his mind. He had a feeling he knew exactly what had happened- or at least the gist of what happened- and was in no hurry to want to dwell on those thoughts until he knew them to be true.
Without another word he climbed back into the van and drove off almost before his entire unit was in and buckled. He did not speak once on the way, instead focusing on the driving. Everyone gave him some space, not knowing what Wolf knew but letting him try to piece the puzzle together by himself. If he wanted help, he would ask. And if and when he wanted to tell them he would. He looked first to the interests of the unit before he looked towards the interest of himself.
A worried and slightly relieved look came into the eyes of K-Unit when the van stopped and they found themselves outside of Fox's local pub. It was about two blocks away from the man's house and the unit had gathered there on several occasions. If Ben was there, things couldn't be too bad. He wasn't still out looking for Cub, which was probably a good sign. And he wasn't in the hospital either with his own injuries or with an injured Cub. But why would he be at a pub and not home if everything was ok?
The four silently filed out of the van and into the pub. They expected to see Cub and Fox having a drink together in one of the booths, as they had often. They half expected to see money passing between the two due to a bet on how long it would take the unit to find them. But that was not the sight that met them.
Instead, the unit found a man leaning hunched over the counter and over his beer with a weary expression on his face. The bartender looked relieved at K-Unit's entrance. They had been in there enough times that the bartender not only recognized them but also knew them to be close to Ben. He waved the unit over a little ways down from where Ben sat hunched.
"Glad you guys came. I was about to try to steal Ben's phone and find a way to contact you guys or that other man that generally comes in with you. He's been in here for a few hours and hasn't said a thing except asking for beer. He's really really drunk and I didn't want to just let him leave on his own. I don't know what's gotten into him. He's normally so responsible and never gets all that drunk. Please take him home and do what you can for him," the bartender said.
Wolf slowly opened his eyes from where he had shut them in pain. It wasn't physical pain he was experiencing. No, it was the kind of pain that came from the knowledge that something that you'd been dreading for a number of years had finally caught up to you and was occurring.
He took charge and pushed down his own feelings. Whether or not what he thought had occurred, which now looked highly likely, had occurred, there were higher priorities at the moment. Such as his team, who looked like they were starting to guess what Wolf had been thinking about for a number of hours. But the highest priority at the moment was Fox, especially if Wolf's assumptions were correct.
"Right. Let's get Fox and get him home. There we can find out what's wrong and why he's getting himself so drunk."
Snake nodded and the other two snapped out of their musings. Wolf headed over to where Fox sat and pulled the drink out of the man's hand. Fox didn't even seem to acknowledge Wolf's presence, nor the presence of the unit behind him.
"Hey Fox. I think you've had enough to drink. It's time we got you home and back to Aiden, ok?" Wolf asked in his gentlest voice, not wanting to anger the spy whose inhibitions were low and had probably heard the worst news of his life earlier.
He didn't get any type of reply. Fox didn't even look at him. Carefully, Wolf grabbed Fox's arm and tugged him out off of the barstool. There wasn't any resistance. No anger, no confusion. No acknowledgement.
Briefly, Wolf flashed back to a time over a decade prior when he had met Cub for the third time over a year after Point Blanc. This was how the kid had acted. This was Cub's behavior when he was at his lowest. This was the type of behavior that MI6 had caused Cub to adopt. The one that kept him in the slums of uncaring until K-Unit and Fox had managed to break through into Cub's mind and slowly start to fix the damage that MI6 had done on Cub's mind.
He led Fox out of the pub and the unit followed. Once outside, Fox leaned over into the bushes and vomited. Wolf kept an insistent but gentle grip on Fox's arm and turned to the rest of the unit.
"I think that Fox and I are going to walk home from here seeing as he lives so close. I have a feeling that he'll probably throw up again given the amount he drank and the walk will keep him conscious and maybe battle some of the effects of the alcohol. You guys can either walk with us or drive. It's your choice."
Seeing the acceptance in their faces, Wolf turned and started walking with Fox down the street towards the man's house where Aiden and D-Unit waited. Wolf didn't fail to notice that while all of his unit members had opted to drive, the van drove down the deserted street alongside of him in case Fox should pass out.
When Fox and K-Unit finally entered (or in Fox's case stumbled) the house, a worried D-Unit was waiting for them in the living room with Aiden. Gecko took one look at the appearance of Ben and picked up Aiden off of the couch and set the boy in his lap. The slightly sleepy boy was annoyed to be kept from going to his uncle, but settled down once he realized that no one's attentions were on him anyways.
"What happened?" Wasp was the first to speak.
Wolf shrugged as he sat Ben down on the couch, "We searched for hours and found nothing but Fox's abandoned car. We finally tracked his phone and found him in a pub drinking his life away. Hasn't said a single word but got the bartender all worried with how many beers he had drank before we showed up."
D-Unit exchanged glances. Like K-Unit, they had taken in the signs and had guessed what had occurred. Now they were just waiting for a conformation from Ben.
Silence reigned for a few moments until Ben opened his mouth, "I want another beer."
Wolf sighed before gently telling Ben that no, he could not have another beer and that he had to tell them what happened.
Ben froze and everyone saw his eyes become a little less cloudy. "They killed him. I was too late. They killed Alex. It's all my fault." And then he passed out.