Disclaimer: I have checked with my legal staff. This job not only shows no profit, it has cost me money. I can't even write off my Dell, dude.
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How Did This Happen? Chapter 21
Alan would not look up from the floor, so the first thing he saw was Don's shoes. He tried to determine from their placement how his eldest was standing. Was the news good, or bad?
"Dad." The voice was gentle. Too gentle. The news must be bad. Alan kept looking at the floor. "Dad!" Don became more insistent, and the shoes shifted as he sat down next to his father.
Alan took a breath and turned watery eyes to Don. Go ahead, they said. I'm ready, now. Go ahead and rip my heart out.
Don reached out and held Alan's face in both hands, leaning his face close to his Dad's. "It's not him," he said quietly, but firmly. He shook Alan's face, a little. "It's not Charlie."
Alan reached up with one hand and grabbed Don's wrist. He squeezed his eyes shut and let tears fall out of the corners and drip over his son's hands. "Thank God," he returned in a whisper. "Thank the Lord." His eyes popped open, and Don slowly dropped his hands. "Where is he? He's still not answering his cell, or the landline at the apartment."
Now that Don knew his brother was not lying dead twenty feet down the hall, he could think, again. "Did they let you see Colleen? What did she say?"
"I saw her for a moment, but she was barely conscious. I couldn't make out any words." He chewed a fingernail worriedly. "I hope the x-rays didn't hurt the baby."
Now was as good a time as any. "Dad…it's good that they're running the test again, but she may not be pregnant."
Alan looked at him as if he was crazy. "What are you talking about?"
Don explained. "It's what I forgot, last week, what I remembered this morning. The marriage was not genuine. The judge does not exist, and no marriage license was issued to Charles Eppes."
Alan gaped like a koi, finally managing a strangled, "What? Why would he do that?"
Don sighed. "That's what I wanted to ask him, this morning. Will they let us back in to see Colleen?"
Alan started to stand. "I'd like to see anyone stop us."
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Colleen was pale and still on the hospital bed, her eyes closed, and at first Don thought she was unconscious again. The sight of her injured tugged at him in a personal way, and he angrily fought an inner battle with himself. Now was not the time to worry about anyone but Charlie.
"Colleen," he said softly, leaning over to speak directly into her ear. "Colleen, we need you to wake up, now. Tell us where Charlie is."
Alan stood on the other side of the bed. He could see Colleen's eyes moving behind the lids, but they didn't attempt to open. He looked at Don sadly. "I don't think she can help us."
Don spoke a little louder, and wrapped a hand around her wrist, above the IV lines in the back of her hand. Later, he would never know why he had phrased it the way he did. "Colleen. Wake up. That's an order."
Her eyes still did not open, but her mouth began to work. "…all omp…", she rasped, and Don bent even closer to hear.
"Tell me again," he insisted.
She swallowed. While she did, her eyes finally opened a slit, and she tried to focus on Don. She knew it was him, she recognized his voice. "C- call Tompkins," she said, more clearly, and Don felt his blood freeze.
He exchanged a look with his father. "Director Tompkins, NSA?", he clarified.
She tried to nod, but groaned and immediately stopped. Her eyes slipped shut, again. "Yessss…..tell….Rav – Raven compromised. Martinez…has…Charlie…"
Don squeezed her wrist in apprehension. "Martinez? Jorge Martinez?"
"Yesss…..", she confirmed. Colleen seemed to drift off again, and Don straightened slowly.
He met his father at the end of the bed. "What was that all about?", his father asked anxiously.
Don looked at him in defeat. "She has a code name. She wants Tompkins. I think she's undercover NSA, and an international terrorist has Charlie."
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Terrified as he was for Charlie, Alan would not let Don take the car and go to the crime scene. He finally agreed to let him go with Megan, and Don called the other agent.
He was waiting for her in front of the hospital, and he quickly slid into the passenger seat, directing her to his apartment. On the way, he filled her in on all that he knew. When they reached the scene, his suspicions were confirmed. The place was crawling with NSA, and Charlie was not lying upstairs nursing a migraine. Charlie was really missing.
Don found the agent in charge and identified himself. He didn't have his badge, but Megan flashed hers. He convinced the agent to contact Tompkins on his cell phone, and tell him who was calling. The agent took them to the perimeter of the scene, to an agency vehicle, and made the call.
Within seconds, Don was handed the phone. "Agent Eppes. I understand you have spoken with Raven?"
Don almost lost it. "What the hell did you think you were doing? Charlie is a civilian consultant, damn it! Not only do you put him on an undercover assignment, you sent him after one of the most dangerous people in the world!"
"Raven is one of our best," Tompkins answered. "This could not be anticipated. We believe the cover was compromised when a medical operative was brought in. His body was discovered late this morning."
"I don't really give a shit," Don growled to the head of the National Security Agency. "I want your ass in L.A. by morning."
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Even in his migraine-weakened, terrified state, Charlie knew he was dead.
He knew he was dead when no-one bothered to blindfold him, or gag him, or restrain him in any way beyond holding him at gunpoint. He kept his eyes closed against oncoming lights quite a bit, but whenever he opened them, he recognized something. He knew exactly where they were going – to a private air field just outside L.A. Martinez must have landed there in a private jet.
He was going to take Charlie somewhere, and make him do what 'Samson' was supposed to do. His organization would have done enough research by now to know that Dr. Charles Eppes held the patent on the data compression and string coding algorithim that Samson favored. He just hoped that they only killed him. He began to sweat with fear as he imagined all kinds of scenarios. He thought it was most likely that they would arrive at the airport, and Don and Alan would be hostages already.
He shut his eyes against rainbow halos, and saw Colleen go down screaming. He had known she was hit, and when she managed to get back on her feet, he was happy, at first. She was a kind woman, a dedicated agent…and Donnie liked her, he could tell. Then he had seen her bounce off the windshield, cracking it, and he had grunted in protest. That had earned him a shove from someone – something everyone in the car regretted all the way to the airport, since more bile had been expelled as he was held down on the floor boards. Cortez, in the back seat with him, swore loudly and let him up. Charlie slumped back in the seat, and waited to die.
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Alan had unwillingly gone to a safe house, in protective custody. The woman in the hospital was not his daughter-in-law, and she was not carrying his grandchild. Her room was soon under NSA guard, and there was little reason for him to stay at the hospital. He was both sorry and glad that Don was insinuating himself into this case. On the one hand, his eldest was not well, himself, and Alan worried. On the other, if anyone could bring Charlie home, it was Don.
Since he didn't have to wait for a commercial flight, Tompkins was in Merrick's office with Don and Megan by 3:00 in the morning. He briefed them on the operation.
To Don's surprise, Merrick beat him to the question he most wanted to ask. "What are you going to do to get Dr. Eppes back? Can he complete this assignment without your agent?"
Merrick sighed. "Unfortunately, no. The NSA server he would have to access has its password changed every day at midnight." He looked at Don. "You say he's been sick. Even if Raven managed to get him yesterday's password and it's lodged somewhere in that brain of his, it changed three hours ago. To change it back would further jeopardize national security."
Don jumped up from his place behind the conference table – a little too quickly, if the swaying was any indication. "I don't give a rat's ass about your operation," he said. "How are you going to find him?"
Tompkins held his gaze. "The location of the operation was to be witnessed by the NSA agents we had watching them, and then relayed to a full-force unit for take-down. Those operatives, the 'handlers', died, tonight. Raven must have given the 'abort' signal, or they never would have stormed that parking lot."
Again it was Merrick who spoke, this time because Don found he couldn't. "What are you saying?"
Director Tompkins looked away from Don then, and stared at his hand, which lay flat on the table. "I'm saying we have no idea where he is," he answered. "And we're dealing with Jorge Martinez. By the time we find out, it will be too late."