Ok...here's a bit more....
I'm crossing my fingers at this point...I don't normally post as I write (usually it's the whole totally finished shebang or nothin')...because I hate continuity errors!
I am doing my best to avoid writing myself into a corner or making some big goober mistake three chapters from now that will force me to come back here and rewrite this one.
;-) Wish me luck!
Bass twitched out of the light doze he had fallen into and then flinched as he opened his eyes. He froze, finding himself surrounded by four members of the Jeffersonian team as they stood staring down at him. He rolled his eyes to scan each face as they stood in a loose semi-circle and waited for him to fully wake.
Their silent scrutiny warned him, and he drew in a deep breath. He uncrossed his arms, pulled in his legs from where he had stretched them out in front of himself, and shoved himself into a more upright position in the waiting room chair. His eyes flicked over Brennan, Cam, Angela, and Hodgins as the four of them dropped into seats around him.
Angela, having plopped into the seat to his right, leaned towards him and drew his gaze when she was the first to break the silence with a quiet demand, "Ok, give…"
"Excuse me." Warily, he eyed her before he glanced at each of the others. Brennan sank gracefully into the seat directly across from him and pinned him with a direct blue stare. Hodgins settled into the seat across from Angela and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his own crystal blue gaze fixed steadily on Bass.
Cam took the seat on the other side of Brennan. She raised an eyebrow and gave Bass a tight-lipped smile that brooked no argument, "Explain to us how Booth ended up…" Gracefully, Cam indicated with a gesture the waiting room and, by extension, the hospital, "In here."
"Uh…" David darted yet another glance around the group, obviously trying to decide what he could or couldn't say. "I don't know if…."
"Nuh-uh…" He turned to his right to find himself facing a very sweetly determined glare from Angela as she shook her head. "Ain't buying it…."
"Yeah," Hodgins chimed in from across the aisle, his voice as firm as his stare as David turned to him, "Don't even try that 'need to know' crap with us." He gave Bass a thin smile, the expression not softening the hard edge of his voice or eyes. "Cullen's already tried feeding us that line."
Bass drew in a deep breath, measuring their expressions and finding them all united in their intent. He sighed, weighing them with his gaze, then, telling himself sternly 'these are Booth's people', he relented, "Okay."
"Well…" He ran a hand through his hair, mentally choosing and sorting his words, hoping to be able to satisfy them without getting himself into too much trouble with his boss. "I'm sure you already know that our department requested some help from D.C. We've been working short-handed for months."
Three impatient nods and an unrelenting stare from Brennan answered him. "And…after we asked D.C. for help we ended up…" He sighed heavily. "Well, we ended up needing assistance even more."
Cam's knowing gaze pierced him. "Problems?"
"Yeah." David flicked a quick glance at her, then shrugged and continued with reluctant honesty. "We had an operation go south on us… " He hesitated, then sighed, "We lost a man." The weight of the tragedy darkened his tone.
Cam's lips pressed together in a thin line and she nodded understanding, "Just what kind of operation are you talking about."
"Drugs." His answer was short. At Cam's delicately raised eyebrow and stern glower, he sighed and leaned back in his chair as he gave her the details she was silently requesting. "Meth specifically. There's an outfit that we've been trying to shut down for over a year now. They're well-organized, tight." He shook his head in frustration. "All of our efforts so far haven't panned out…they're always one step ahead of us."
"You've got a mole…" The flat statement of fact came from the man seated on Brennan's left.
Cam rolled her eyes and then shook her head with an exasperated sigh as she chided, "Hodgins…"
"What?" The fire of paranoia flared brightly in Hodgins's blue eyes, softened only by the quirk of his lips as he caught the bemused glance Bass aimed at him. He continued earnestly, "It's gotta be…it's the obvious answer…" He shrugged, his certainty unshakable.
"Not so obvious…our office hadn't considered it until…just recently…" Bass eyed Hodgins with the same detached curiosity the entomologist occasionally used on subjects under his microscope lens. Hodgins met his gaze, his direct stare questioning why it had taken them so long to consider the possibility.
Dry wonder in his voice, Bass commented sardonically, "Booth really wasn't kidding about you…" Hodgins answered the dig with a snort, and leaned back in his chair with an air of superiority.
"Anyway, we did consider that possibility…." Bass conceded, trying to ignore Hodgins. "It did seem like they knew what we were doing before we could put anything into motion…" He scowled into the triumphant grin Hodgins shot him, "But, so far there's nothing to prove it."
"Except what Booth said earlier…" Brennan's voice was soft as she quietly contradicted him. Her voice pulled his gaze up to her as Brennan glanced around at her other companions and explained, "When Booth woke up…he implied that he thought there was…"
"A mole…" Hodgins interjected smugly.
"Yes," Brennan nodded, accepting the interruption without it slowing her in the least. "A mole…in your organization…"
"Yeah, well… It's a possibility." David was reluctant to admit the fact, "But right now it's just conjecture."
"No." Brennan's voice was firm. "Booth was very clear on that point." Brennan pinned him with a direct stare as she ticked off the facts she had put together from the conversations with Booth. "He trusts you implicitly." David's eyes widened, her revelation catching him by surprise.
"He does not think SAIC Tyler is involved, but has decided to reserve judgment." She glanced at Cam and confided softly, a bit of mild exasperation with her partner showing in her tone, "I think that this is one of those times Booth is thinking with his internal organs again."
She turned her direct stare back to Bass, missing the amused shake of Cam's head, "But he is certain there is someone who…" Brennan faltered slightly at the slang. "Tipped him up."
Bass stared at her in bemusement, one eyebrow climbing. He wasn't sure whether to be amused by her incorrect turn of phrase, or impressed at her ability to read into the disjointed and drugged snippets of information that they had gleaned from her partner.
Hodgins sniggered slightly, and then raised a hand to hide his grin while Cam closed her eyes and bit back a chuckle. Brennan glanced from face to face, her expression showing her puzzlement.
"Um…sweetie, I think you mean that Booth is certain that someone "tipped off" the bad guys." Angela took pity on Brennan's confusion with a smile.
"Oh," Brennan frowned, tucking the phrase away for future use, "Yes." She turned her expectant gaze back on David Bass.
David shot a quick glance around the small group, unsure of whether to laugh or beat his head against the back of his seat. Instead, he decided with a sigh to concede the point and continue his explanation, "Okay. There is a good probability that we have someone feeding this group information." He admitted the chance reluctantly, guilt and anger both warring within him at the thought.
"We've been trying to gather enough evidence to put a halt to the operation. So far, we haven't had any luck getting anything solid even though we've had a couple of teams working on this for almost a year. Then, about six months ago, we had a breakthrough." David glanced around the group as they listened with full attentiveness.
"One of our techie types," he gave the group around him a nod of acknowledgement, "Was getting close to pulling out enough data for us to make a move on them. He was putting together some intel that he said would be enough to take out the operation from the top down."
Bass sighed, "He had promised to get us the information soon, and then, he just didn't show up… And, all of the data he'd collected…everything he had…disappeared right along with him. It kind'a put a halt to everything."
He dropped his gaze to the ground, falling silent for a moment before he raised his eyes to the people listening to him. His voice was flat as he continued, "Then, two months ago, he finally turned up…" His jaw clenched around the next words.
"Dead." Cam's interjection was as flat in tone has his had been, full of understanding and anger.
David's blue eyes darted over to meet hers and he nodded abruptly. "Yeah. Very dead. And we still have very little idea about what happened. He was found, shot through the head, execution style, in a ditch on the south side of the city."
Hodgins leaned back in his chair, a frown furrowing his brow. Cam, Angela and Brennan exchanged glances filled with understanding. Bass continued speaking, not noticing the reactions, lost in his continued narrative.
"The head of this group is a man named Samuel Jenkins. He's ex-Army. They call him 'the Captain'." Anger in his voice, David raised his hands to air quote the term. "Our background on him is sketchy, but we're pretty sure he never really held that rank, it's just an affectation that he's adopted."
His blue eyes snapped with leashed rage as he continued, "His whole organizational structure is military based. He's been doing this for years and his recruits are generally ex-military…usually dishonorable discharges."
"And…" Brennan's voice was calm, her mind already having leapt to the connection. "Booth is ex-military."
Bass gave her a wry smile, acknowledging her guess, "Yeah."
Angela shot a quick frown between the two of them before her eyes widened in understanding. "And so, when they sent Booth up to you…" Her stare turned accusing.
"Yeah," David squirmed in his seat, feeling the weight of four pairs of reproachful eyes as he shrugged and admitted, "It was a perfect opportunity to see if we could get someone in on the inside…set up a sting operation."
"So your boss ordered him to go undercover…" Hodgins's disapproval was thick in his voice.
"No," Bass refuted the other man's accusation firmly, "Tyler didn't order Booth to do anything." David sighed in exasperation at Hodgins's skeptical glance.
"We just presented the problem to him." He leaned forward earnestly as he continued to explain, not quite able to hide his own feelings of guilt about what had happened to the older agent, but wanting to explain the situation to Booth's friends.
"Look, the shit these guys are making is strong. This organization isn't into pushing their stuff at street level…but they're the source…and they're turning out a lot of product. The pushers have been really hitting the schools hard in our area using the stuff they're making."
Understanding immediately, the Jeffersonian group traded meaningful glances before Cam spoke their thoughts aloud, "Booth and kids…"
"Yeah." David nodded at Cam's succinct summation. "Once he heard, he volunteered…" He sighed, running a hand along his jaw as he thought back. "Getting him in was easy…it was a perfect setup…"
"It obviously was not perfect…" Brennan's comment was a quiet contradiction, but had a biting edge that earned her a measuring glance from the young FBI agent. Her friends exchanged quick looks, ready to jump to her defense if Bass decided to take exception to her acidic comment.
Bass studied Brennan quietly for a moment before choosing to continue, keeping his tone mild, "It was the most optimum opportunity we'd had so far." His deliberate change in phrasing deflected the direct blue stare that had been pinning him as Bones gave the slightest of nods, accepting the qualification.
"With just a few doctored files on his military record, we had a good cover for him…and we figured his specialized…" Bass glanced around the group listening to him and decided to use the euphemism, "Training…would make him pretty irresistible to Jenkins." He discovered that his discrete phrasing had been unnecessary as expressions of swift comprehension crossed the face of every person there.
"I guess having a sniper on hand would be pretty tempting to a group like that…" Hodgins muttered to emphatic nods from the others.
Bass hid the surprise he felt as he realized just how much Booth trusted these people. A small smile edged his mouth as he relaxed slightly, now just a little more comfortable with giving them more details with the explanation they wanted.
"We made sure that there would be no connection between Booth and our office. Tyler made it public that the D.C. office had turned down our request for help…" Bass turned a jaundiced eye on Hodgins as the acknowledged conspiracy theorist of the group, "Just in case Booth decided to agree to the sting op." He got a regal nod of acceptance from the entomologist in response and he sighed.
"I met Seeley at the airport before he could report to Tyler and told him what we were up against. He didn't hesitate…most of the op was his idea actually…" David met Hodgins's quick eye-roll with a bland stare,
"Booth went UC immediately. And his cover worked. He got in with these guys pretty quick." Bass shrugged, letting a bit pride show as he continued, "He kept contact to a bare minimum—only just enough to let me know that he was getting to a point where he thought he could get enough on these guys to put them away."
"But…somebody got wind of it despite your precautions…" Cam's words were less a question than a statement. Her lips tightened, her background in law enforcement leading her to the conclusion.
Bass met her gaze, seeing the understanding in her eyes as his jaw tightened over the word. "Yeah," He sighed, "We're not sure who or how yet, but I got a call last week from Seel. The op had gone all to hell."
Bass shifted in his seat, the very thought of the hasty phone call he'd received making him edgy all over again as he remembered the urgency that had been in Booth's voice at the time. He scrubbed a hand across his face and sighed. "He was rushed, under pressure. He said he had what we needed but that he'd been made. We arranged for an extraction…but…"
Cam watched as the young agent's jaw clenched around the rest of the words, his eyes going distant and unfocused. She had seen firsthand the results of undercover work that had gone wrong and knew the angry, frustrated, and helpless glint in his eyes. Softly, she finished for him, "He never showed up."
Bass dropped his eyes to meet her knowing gaze, "No." The word was gritted out before he visibly shook off the memory. Clearing his throat, he continued, "We looked everywhere." His voice revealed the hopeless urgency that he had felt during the search for his temporary partner.
"We hit every place we'd already identified as being part of Jenkins's business fronts, but…we came up with nothing." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and scrubbed both hands across his face.
"Then I got another call from Booth late Saturday night. He was on somebody else's cell phone and he sounded…well, he sounded like hell. The connection was cut off before he could tell us where he was." He shook his head, reliving the moments, his eyes distant once again.
He missed the exchange of glances between Cam, Brennan, Angela, and Hodgins as he continued speaking, "Our techs managed to use the cell signal to narrow things down to the old wharf are, but by the time we got there, he was gone again. We found…" He broke off, remembering the blood-soaked rags.
He gritted his teeth, his blue eyes haunted. He glanced around the group and decided to edit what he'd been about to say, "We found… evidence… that he'd been there, but no Booth. We had to assume that Jenkins's men had managed to get their hands on him."
Bones scowled fiercely at him, "Booth always says that when you 'assume' it makes…"
"So…" Cam jumped in and interrupted Brennan's antagonistic words before she could finish the cliché and possibly offend Bass, "What did…"
Her attempt did not go unnoticed, Brennan's glower transferred briefly to Cam before Bass held up a hand to halt the flow of words. Cam stopped speaking and she, Hodgins, and Angela all darted uneasy glances between the FBI agent and their friend as Bass gave a determined frown and turned his full, undivided attention on the forensic anthropologist.
Leaning forward to face Booth's partner, David waited until Brennan's focus had turned back to him. Softly, but with a voice that had a steely core, he challenged her, "You don't like me very much do you?" He tipped his head in inquiry and silently demanded an answer with his eyes.