Cabe nodded. "Okay, but could they be, I don't know, holed up someplace? Perhaps there is a vehicle out front of the school with more of them?"
Walter smiled. "I know this seems reckless Cabe but we have to decide now. If we wait much longer these guys are going to be too close to this point for you and Happy to get safely back out of the way."
Cabe nodded. "Let's go then."
The group moved back down the stairs and began to move up the other corridor. Walter had the four men stop and drop to the floor to present less of a target if the men fire at them. Walter gestured to two doorways on each side of the hallway with the men lying between them on the floor. They were alcoves for class rooms and Walter moved into one as Toby moved into the other.
Cabe and Happy moved forward and as they reached the corner Happy leaned out just a bit and saw where the men were. She smiled and aimed at the lead guy. "Hey!" She yelled as she fired and the paintball smacked the man in his left thigh.
He let out a scream of pain as Happy and Cabe ran back down the hall. Happy slid into the classroom door alcove with Toby grinning as Cabe slid into the alcove with Walter. "It was real stupid to bring a paintball gun to a gun fight." They heard from one of the men running down the corridor and they came around the corner as the four officers commanded them to drop their guns.
The six men stood there, their guns slightly pointing off to their right and they were trying to decide if they could aim their guns and fire first. Happy pointed her paintball gun around the corner and took aim at the man on her right. "Don't even think you might have a chance because there are six of you and only four agents. Their highly trained black ops, they'll take you out before you can move the tip of your barrel four inches."
Toby's face panicked. "Are you nuts?" He whispered while trying not to pull her fully back into the alcove.
Cabe did the same with his .45. "Just do the smart thing boys and put those guns down slowly. If you don't want to die, you won't get a second chance."
The guy with the paint on his leg nodded as he slowly let go with his right hand and the butt of the gun swung down to point the barrel straight up. He bent his knees and laid it on the ground before sliding it forward. He slowly knelt on down and put his hands behind his head. Slowly the other men followed suit.
Cabe breathed out a silent breath of relief as he stepped out keeping his .45 trained on the guy on his left. "I want you to slowly stand up and move on over here and put your hands against the wall right here."
One by one they got each man handcuffed and moved back away from the hallway that ran up towards the school offices while collecting their guns. Walter looked at one of the men. "What exactly is your objective here?"
The men stood there silent. Walter nodded. "Toby, I think you're up."
Toby stepped up and sized each man up. His eyes were probing into each one of them when he suddenly smiled. "This one right here, he's most likely to give their plan up."
"What? No I'm not. I ain't saying anything without a lawyer present." The man looked nervously at his companions.
Cabe grinned as he reached out and grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him down the hall to a bathroom down by the stairs. Toby walked with him as the four agents began leading the other five men in the same direction.
Cabe shoved the man into one of the stalls. "Maybe he'd like a swirly." Cabe grinned.
The man looked back and then looked at Cabe. "Look, if I tell you these guys will kill me."
"That's a tough position to be in friend. I'll make you a deal, you give it up and I'll speak with the prosecutor. You'll get a good deal. We'll make sure you will be sent some place these guys won't know about. We'll even give you a new name while you are in there." Toby smiled as he looked at Cabe and then looked back at him. "Of course if you don't tell us, we're going to make them think you did by taking you out of here in a separate car and keeping you separate from them. At least until you are taken to the same prison with them." Toby smiled looking at the sweat build up along his hair line.
"Okay, look it may already be too late anyway. Philip was supposed to have already grabbed the kid. Our job was just to walk around and make a lot of noise to distract from what was going on." He looked from Toby to Cabe.
Toby nodded watching his responses recognizing he was telling the truth.
"Who's the kid?" Cabe asked gruffly.
The man licked his lips. "I'm forgetting the name. All I'm remembering about him is he's supposed to be pretty smart. He was to be in the computer lab. Uh, he has brown hair, he's twelve maybe thirteen years old, has a really hot Mom."
Toby frowned as he looked at Cabe. "Have you seen a picture of him?"
The man nodded.
Toby pulled out his phone and brought up his gallery and pulled up a picture of Ralph and showed it to him.
"That's him, Ralph, yea, yea, seeing that picture brought back his name. He's supposed to have a connection to this real brainiac. They wanted to use him as leverage to get the guy to do something. But I never found out what." The man told them. "So, you're going to help me right?"
"Damn it." Cabe said as he reached up and pressed his coms.
Toby shook his head. "Don't tell them on the coms. Call Katherine and tell her. She can get some guards on Ralph."
Cabe looked at him for a moment and finally nodded before he pulled his phone out and turned it on before calling Katharine Cooper. "You better be right Toby. I don't feel good about this."
Katherine heard her phone and she pulled it out. She breathed a breath of relief seeing Cabe's name. "Hey Cabe, how's things?" She frowned as she looked around. She lowered her voice. "He's here beside his Mom and the scene commander." Her eyes opened wide. "I'm on it Cabe." She hung up her phone and stepped over to one of the agents. "I want you to gather three other agents and I want the four of you to stand, discretely if possible, with Ralph, he's that young man right there and his Mom. This was staged to get their hands on him."
The agent nodded before he walked around and got three other agents he knew and they stepped over and stood by Ralph and Paige.
Toby looked at the man. "Okay we covered why you are here. The next question is, are there anymore here? Your boss perhaps?"
The man nodded. "He's in the principle's office. You have to be careful. He'll kill anyone he has to. He has no remorse."
Toby continued to watch him for signs of lying and nodded. "Is he the one wanting Ralph to get to the brainiac or is he just a middle man?"
He nodded. "He's mad at the guy. Because of the guy and his friends he spent some time in prison in Nevada along with some people who tried to get away with robbing a casino."
Toby's eyes opened wide and he slowly looked at Cabe. "Okay, now you can tell Walter."
Cabe nodded as he pressed his coms. "Hey Walt, we know more about what is going on now. Maybe you better come in here so we can explain it."
Walter frowned. "That would be inefficient. Just tell me."
"Hey buddy, it would be better in private." Toby tried.
"Toby, just tell me, especially if there are anymore men here." Walter told him clearly exasperated.
Toby lifted his hand towards Cabe. "You wanted to tell him."
"The guy responsible for this is still in the principle's office. He orchestrated this to force you to do something for him to make up for being sent to prison when you guys stopped them from getting away with robbing the casino." Cabe told him.
Walter frowned. "That is inefficient. Why involve so many men and risk so many children?" Walter's words came slowly at the end as his brilliant mind raced to make the connection. "They were after Ralph." It was clearly more of a statement then a question.
Paige gasped at what she heard and instinctually reached out and grabbed Ralph and pulled him in close to her. She looked about the scene and saw the four agents standing around behind them almost forming a wall. She saw Katharine standing there and she nodded at Paige. Paige gave her a grateful smile.
Toby touched his coms. "To put it in a simple term Walter, yes."
Happy glared at the men she was standing across the hall from. "You better be glad they've got you." She reached down and pulled a large survival knife from her boot. "But I dare you to try and escape."
The five men all swallowed even as the agents waiting for the other agents to escort them out of the school laughed at them. Ralph's classroom door opened and several agents walked out and with the other four agents took the five men into the room and got them out of the school.
Cabe walked out of the restroom with Toby, bringing the man with them. Cabe and Toby both saw the look on Walter's face and Cabe ticked his head. "Son, you got to calm down. We need you thinking your best. According to this guy, the guy responsible for this is a bit unhinged and has no problem killing people. But if you can't, I can respect that and I'll take you guys out of here and let the rapid response team handle it."
Walter looked at Cabe and the look actually frightened Cabe a bit.
"Doc, I think you need to speak with Walt, now." Cabe whispered from the side of his mouth.
Toby's eyes opened wide as he looked at Cabe and then adjusted his hat and walked over towards him.
Walter's eyes looked over at him and Toby swallowed looking into them. "And that is the end of our counseling session." Toby turned and walked over to Happy and stood there.
Cabe glared back at Toby but Toby ignored him. Cabe stopped and talked with one of the agents giving him the run down to make sure this guy was kept far away from the others and to let Katharine Cooper know he'd need to speak with her about him before they did anything.
The agent nodded and took the guy and led him through the door into Ralph's classroom.
Cabe turned and frowned not seeing Walter. "Where'd Walt go?"
Toby pointed at the classroom door closest to them. "Sorry Cabe, but after seeing that look in his eyes, I'm not getting involved with that."
Happy slapped his arm. "Go help him Fungus."
Toby inhaled slowly and walked over and found the door locked. He knocked. "Hey Walter, the door is locked, how about you come back to the door and let us in?"
They didn't hear anything for several moments. Cabe knocked louder. "Hey, Walter, come open the door."
Still nothing happened. Cabe looked at Happy. "Open this lock."
Happy pulled her tools out of her boot and worked for a moment and smiled as she turned the knob but then frowned as she realized he'd applied the boot to the door. "Crap, not good."
"Walter, in the name of the US Government I am ordering you to open this door." Cabe called over their coms.
"Cabe? What's wrong?" Paige asked hearing his demand over the coms.
"Walter's locked himself inside this classroom." Cabe told her.
Paige swallowed hard. "Walter, I don't know what is going on, but please. Do what Cabe says, for me."
Walter sighed. Everyone else he could ignore but Paige, he couldn't resist doing anything she wanted. "One minute."
A few moments later they heard a noise and realized Walter had moved the boot.
Cabe turned the knob and pushed the door open and the three of them walked into the room. It was one of the school's chemistry class rooms. They saw Walter working on something in the back. "Walt, what are you doing son?"
Walter continued working without looking back. "I'm working on something to help deal with the last guy."
Toby, Happy and Cabe walked on back and saw the chemicals he had out. Toby swallowed. "Okay Walter. I gave you some room out in the hallway but I can't do that now. You have a lethal mix of chemicals. And you are not a chemist. We need to step back and let the rapid response team deal with this."
Walter turned and glared at him. "They were going to threaten my son Toby. How do you expect me to react?"
"Son, I get that but this isn't the way. Ralph is safe with Paige and the others. Doc's right. You can't do this, you aren't thinking clearly because you are too close to it. Step back from those chemicals and let's go outside and let the response team finish this up." Cabe pleaded with him.
"Walt, I'm just as pissed at these jokers. You guys are part of my family and no one messes with my family." Happy told him.
Walter looked down at the floor and slowly slid his hands into his pants pockets. "Maybe you are right, I don't know." Walter looked up and smiled. "Happy, grab me that cloth over there so I can cover these chemicals."
Happy looked and nodded and walked over.
"You leave me no other choice then." His hand came up out of his pocket and breaks a small vial on the table in front of Toby and Cabe. The gas causes both men to swoon a bit and Walter grabs Toby and lowers him to the floor before grabbing Cabe and doing the same. Walter looks up breathing through small carbon filters he has stuffed inside his nostrils. "I'm sorry guys." He tells them softly.
Happy turned hearing the glass and saw Walter putting Toby on the floor. "What the hell did you do O'Brien?"
Walter looked to Happy after stepping so far away until he was about half the distance to Happy. "I'm sorry Happy. They're both fine, they'll regain consciousness in about ten minutes. I didn't want the possibility of you inhaling the gas. Being pregnant it most likely wouldn't cause any harm but I didn't want to take any risk. I'm going to stop this guy. You can either be part of it or you can stay here and wait ten minutes until they wake up by which time this will be over."
Greetings! Hope this finds you all well! Looks like another interesting delay in the story. lol
Heleen - hehe Thank you!
Lucy - Thank you! I'm so glad everyone is enjoying it!
Railman - Thank you! Not quite as much action in this chapter. I do have a lot of computer knowledge or did, I haven't kept up with it as much the last 10 years. So while maybe the concepts I am using might not be completely accurate, I am glad I am presenting them in a way that seems plausible!
Margaret - Thank you! An Emmy huh? Boy that would be something! hehe
Marie - Thank you!
To the Adventure! -Tim