*Author's note*
You know how you come across a chapter that you really don't feel like writing but its essential for the story? This is one of them. It's part one of two.
Also, thanks for the new reviews I received. They mean so much. And yes, Muttsandmoggies, I'm a Lost fan and some of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse's story telling techniques rubbed off on me.
Chapter 11
August 13, 7:00pm EST (August 14th 9:00am KST)
Annie sat watching her curser move as she absently pushed it around her desk computer not really working. It had been almost 10 days since she last saw her best friend live and in person.
By now the DPD reluctantly had to move on and put his op on the back burner while other pressing matters took center stage. It pained everyone to do so but they had no choice. After returning from Miami, they hit wall after brick wall of dead ends in the investigation- the orchestrators were covering their tracks astonishingly well, sending Clandestine services through a loop like this.
In the days that had followed, Annie and the rest of the DPD attended the funeral service of the five agents they had lost during the bombing, pulled double duty with both current affairs and Auggie's case, and even went on a successful non-incident filled mission to Uruguay- though, instead of the calming voice of her trusted 'Saint Bernard' in her ear, she had Barber...eating a taco.
The DPD just wasn't the same place without him around. She wanted more than anything to see his grinning face hovering over her work station, or the telltale flash of his green laser approaching- prodding her to alert him of her presence. She thought it was funny that the object that had once so completely caught her off guard on her first day at the agency was now something that she would come to miss so much.
She looked across to his office- which was looking less and less like 'his' as the days went by. His gadgets- much to the dismay of Joan had all been pushed aside by the other workers of both his team and the additional team she'd brought in. It was no longer neat and clean as he liked it- more like a disaster area. Annie suddenly felt a wave of apprehension for his fellow tech team when he came back to find it in this state.
That was 'if' he ever came back.
The Campbell residence,
August 14th 3:00am EST (August 15th 5:00pm)
Arthur stood over his sleeping wife who lay gracefully on the sofa still holding the book she had intended to read. He hated to wake her since she so rarely got any time to look so peaceful as she like this. She made her job as Head of DPD look so effortless on the surface but in reality it wore her as ragged as it would anyone, and he knew it better than anyone- though she would never admit it to him.
"Joan... Joan wake up, honey," he tapped his wife's shoulder nudging her further into consciousness as she began to stir.
"hmmm..What is it?"
"We just received word from our friends in Sweden who passed on a message you're gonna want to hear."
Her eyes widened-now fully awake and alert, her mind was already connecting dots to that her husband hadn't even given her yet.
"Sweden..." she said absently, as she ran scenarios in her mind as to why they might be involved in something she 'wanted to hear'. Her head snapped towards her husband. "Is it... about Auggie?"
He regarded her for a moment silently before adding that they should just get to the DPD as quickly as possible.
Reading his momentary silence as a 'yes' she sprung up and headed to the door- not even bothering to change from the less- than- professional jeans and tee that she had been wearing.
…...
Annie ran towards Jai from across the DPD parking lot as he was opening the door. He was going to give her a smart remark about her wardrobe choices; a Georgetown sweatshirt, pajama's bottoms with ducks on them, and flip flops, when he caught a look at his own reflection in the glass door; a violet colored polo with bright red sweatpants that he had cut off into capris. One does not throw stones in a glass house he thought to himself while giving Annie an appreciative smile.
"Jai do you know what this is about?" she asked as they made their way out of the elevator and into the department.
Looking at the familiar company that was already buzzing around them as they went through the doors, Jai didn't even have to answer. Auggie.
"Annie. Jai. In here," Joan said as she leaned over the railing and tilted her head towards the conference room where Annie noticed they were setting up video conferencing equipment.
In the room Arthur stood beside his wife along with some other faces Annie pegged as '7th floor prestige' this is big she thought as she watched the minions scurrying about around them to finish setting everything up.
"You should say something," Arthur said to his wife as he saw the questioning wide-eyed gaze of the young operatives watching them for what to do next.
"Nothing to say. I know as much about what's going to go on in the conference as they do."
Arthur took the opportunity to fill the room in on the little amount of what he knew before the lights went dark and they were patched through to the Swedish Security Service, who on this and many other occasions a neutral proxy between the US and North Korean government relations. All he knew was that they had information on the whereabouts of a missing CIA agent and a civilian who accompanied him.
After a short debriefing by their Scandinavian counterparts as to why this was arranged, the feed broke and the next 10 minutes were an exercise in agonizing anticipation as they looked upon a blank screen that may or may not decide the fate of one of their own. The blue loading bar seemingly taunting everyone in the room.
It came to a stop.
There was a black pixelated overlay tone and some muffled microphone sounds until the first image they saw was a... ceiling-the image slowly craning down until it came upon two familiar figures as it pulled into focus.
They were sitting next to each other, hands bound, clad in warn beige clothing, neither of them looked to be in the best of health; they were both skinny and haggard and pale looking.
Annie's heart dropped. She didn't know which emotion was going to win the war that waged between relief and panic as she watched onwards.
Molly hesitantly began to speak as if reading from cue cards in front of her;
"I Molly Harker along with August Anderson are being held captive from within a secured facility in North Korea." the young girls voice was shaky and reluctant, and the look in her brown eyes- not all that dissimilar from Auggie's, told a thousand different shades of fear. "The North Korean government is willing to make arrangements for our release in exchange for all materials and persons responsible for Project Golden Eagle, if this cannot be arranged we also might consider a full working prototype built from within the safety of your own country. If a deal is not met within 48 hours of this conference I, along with August Anderson, will be taken to hard labor camps where we will be held indefinitely."
Auggie was silent- expression undeterminable, at her side as she read.
"As long as you agree to your end, we will not be harmed. On that, the DPRK give you their word. This is a very simple choice; a device that you didn't find important enough to continue, for the lives of two of your country's citizens. Choose wisely-"
"TELL MY SISTER NOT TO WORRY. TO ASK THAT HERO OUT!" Auggie blurted out suddenly.
BOOM!
The room was set alight just before the feed cut off, leaving the entire room full of agents in a state of shock.
"Auggie doesn't have a sister..." Annie broke the silence in an effort to quell her own fears that she had just witnessed the death of her friend.
Joan shot up out of her seat with purpose and left the room, over shoulder she yelled to the others without stopping; " I want everything and anything connected to South Korean covert missions that are currently ongoing pertaining to the north."
"It's an anagram." Jai said to Annie after seeing her trying to connect dots that were not yet clear to her. "Auggie had his own collection of them he used as codes during his glory days. Its hokey and ridiculous, but its entirely him. I remember my look of confusion when he radioed in his request for "a active training pen," when he was secretly being held captive in Argentina. Only Joan knows all of them."
"So his sister... that's Joan right? A message meant directly for her?"
"Right," Jai looked around to the minions that still seemed to be staring at the blank screen screen. "you heard the woman. Get to work." At that Auggie's team scampered into action.
Annie turned towards Jai, eyes wide and hopeful; "so there's a pretty good chance he's ok right? The message- that was just... like a show?"
"It looked real enough to me," it came out before he knew he said it. His arrogance against other's emotions came to play so poorly at all the wrong moments. The whiplashed look Annie gave him in return before she stormed out- his only evidence that he'd even handled that badly.
Annie stared at the clouds below her from her seat on the plane. Seeing them floating by always had a way of relaxing her worries, but not today. Those worries were far to grand to suppress.
After they were stone walled by the NIS-denying any activity at all happening north of their borders Annie convinced Joan to let her fly over and see if she could try a different angle. The 'Annie approach' where enough smiles and sunny personality got her the results she needed...usually.
She got the thinking of previous discussions she'd had with Auggie about the plights of air travel. There he was again. Always in her head.
Recalling the picture Joan had showed her of Auggie and the story that went with it to reassure herself.
"Did you miss me?"
I sure do she thought.
It was that moment when she realized she was not stepping foot off of Korean soil without his hand around her arm.
Ok now that we got that over with we can get back to the interesting stuff next chapter.
