Happy swallowed hard as she looked at the seriousness in Walter's face. She'd seen this look several times in their friendship. It was never a good look. She slowly let out her breath before inhaling again. "Okay Walt, but only because I feel I owe you for walking out on you and helping form Centipede. But this has to be the last nutty thing you do. I need you in our lives."
Walter nodded and just as his weight shifted to take a step he stopped. He gestured with his hand for Happy to leave first. "It isn't that I don't trust you Happy. But this is too important."
Happy made a face as she had planned to crack him in the back of his head. "Fine." She turned and walked out of the room before him.
Walter followed along behind her and as he stepped out of the room Happy turned and walked along beside him as they walked down the corridor. "What exactly is your plan to get this guy?"
Walter shrugged. "Since he wants me I plan to offer myself to get the principle and any other hostages he might have free. Once I am close enough I bust another vial and watch him pass out."
The man was sitting in the principle's office behind her desk. She was sitting in the chair in front of her desk. His gun trained on her. Suddenly he looked up and saw a news alert on the TV. "Turn it up."
The principle slowly reached back and turned the volume up.
"Thank you Becky. Folks I'm Dan Timbers with KCBS News. I'm on location where mercenaries have tried to take a local school hostage. I've been briefed by a confidential informant that the genius problem solving company Scorpion, a private contractor with Homeland, somehow first became aware of the unfolding situation and called for Homeland's rapid response team while racing over here. You may recall as I covered the vehicle accident a few weeks back that the head of Scorpion, a Walter O'Brien whose car was sabotaged and was caught up on the cliff side up behind the Griffith Observatory for a second time." Dan reported.
"They evacuated a number of the children and right now it seems they are working in conjunction with the rapid response team and they have captured all but one of the men involved. The leader is hold up in the office of the school with hostages. We'll be staying on location and we'll be keeping you updated as more information becomes available, back to you Becky." Dan said.
The man swore. "Well, you better hope they want you guys to live."
"You're assuming a lot there Walt. What if the guy lied to Toby and Cabe? What if all he really wants is to get you close enough to kill you?" Happy asked.
Walter smiled. "Do you think he went to all this trouble to kill me when he could have simply got on the roof across the street from the Garage and killed me as I came out? Do you think his guy could have really fooled Toby? Toby would have spotted a lie from him a mile off."
Happy grunted. "He's a freaking lunatic Walt. Who knows what he wants. And I'll give you that. The Doc would spot a lie, but what if the guy didn't know it was a lie? What if what he told the Doc is what the guy told him he wanted?"
"Well then, this will be a short experiment. But I'm not going to let him get away with this Happy." Walter looked at the camera feeds and nodded. "The other hall is still clear."
Happy nodded. "Probably would still be prudent to look around the corner carefully first."
Walter nodded. "If you want to do that, I'm okay with it."
When they reached the next corner Happy carefully looked around and nodded. "It's clear."
Walter stepped out with her and they began walking towards the offices. "Dad's walking down the hallway towards the offices Mom." Ralph told her.
Paige looked down and frowned. She reached up and pressed her coms. "Walter, what is your plan?"
Walter cleared his throat before touching his coms. "I've got a small vial of gas that will knock the man out. As soon as I get close enough I'll use it, he'll be out a second after."
"What do you mean close enough?" Paige asked cautiously.
"He wants me to do something. So I'll tell him I'll agree to do it if he lets whatever hostages go free. He'll agree because he would have me at that point." Walter looked at the camera they were coming towards and smiled.
Paige smiled seeing his smile but then frowned. "Walter, where is Cabe and Toby?"
Walter had already looked back down from the camera. "I believe they are still with the other prisoner."
Paige looked around as she mentally counted the men they had brought out. "Wait, they can't be with him. They already have seven men out here."
Walter shrugged. "Maybe they are on their way out there to you guys to make sure Ralph is okay?"
"Walter, why are you lying to me?" Paige demanded.
"Busted." Happy said quietly.
Walter glared at Happy. "They didn't want me to do this so I told them to stay back. Happy feels the way I do so she came with me."
Paige looked towards the school. "Cabe, what is it about Walter's plan that you don't want him carrying it out?" Paige frowned as Cabe didn't answer. "Damn it Cabe. Toby, answer me."
"She's so going to kick your ass Walter. And I am not lying to her to cover this up." Happy told him quietly.
"Happy, I want to know why Cabe and Toby aren't answering me." Paige demanded.
Happy looked at Walter as they reached the office door. "Walter tested his knock out gas on them, it worked."
Paige stood there completely stunned for a moment unable to believe Walter had done that.
Walter reached up and took his coms out and stuck it in his pants pocket. He reached out and took the door knob in hand then twisted it and pushed the door open. "You must really want a bloody mess in here." They heard a man call out to them.
"Actually, I don't want any blood spilled here today. Your man said you wanted me to do something for you so here I am. Let me come in and let the hostages go and I'll do what you want." Walter told him.
"You think I am just going to accept you are who I want?" The man questioned.
Walter sighed. "If you let me step in you will see I am Walter O'Brien. It was me who discovered how you guys robbed that casino."
They heard the sound of a gun cocking. "Fine, step inside and prove it."
Walter handed the tablet to Happy before he slowly started walking in with his hands up and palms facing out. Happy heard Paige scream for Walter through her coms. "He took his coms out Paige."
"You got to stop him Happy." Paige begged.
"I tried, Walter caught me. I'm sorry." Happy explained even as she watched as Walter turned to his left and looked back somewhere in the office.
"It really is you. You cost me a lot. Money, freedom and now you are going to make some of it up to me." The man spat out at him.
Walter nodded. "Let the hostages go. You don't need them now."
The man smiled. "Take three steps forward and I will. I don't want you trying to run out of here behind them. Three steps is more then enough time to kill you if you try."
Happy swallowed hard as she watched Walter step out of her field of vision. She looked at the tablet but the cameras in the office were out.
Cabe slowly blinked as his hand came up to his head. It hurt like hell. "What happened to me?" He slowly questioned himself as his eyes slowly began to focus and he saw Toby lying next to him. "Oh man, Doc." He said as he reached out and pulled himself over, his body sluggishly responding to his mental commands. He saw Toby's chest moving and he felt better that he was alive. He didn't see any blood so that was a good thing as well.
"Doc, you okay kid?" Cabe smacked his cheeks trying to get a rise out of him.
Toby's head jerked. "Stop hitting me. Oh my head. What happened?"
Cabe shook his head. "I don't remember."
Toby's eyes flickered open as he tried to wake up more. "Man, that light is harsh. I feel like I've been on a week long bender."
Cabe nodded. "I drank some hooch back in the day that made me feel this way a time or two."
Toby nodded as he rolled over to try and stand up. "Whoa, that wasn't a good idea." His cheeks flared out but then went down as he grabbed his stomach. "That was a close one." He looked around. "Are we in a classroom?"
Cabe looked around. "I think we are. Do you remember being in a classroom?"
Toby shook his head. "To be honest I'm not sure where I remember last being. The Garage I think."
Cabe frowned. "Seems like I remember we left the Garage but, I'm not sure where we went."
Toby made a face as his hand came down on something on the floor and he looked and saw a coms lying there. "That's weird, there is a coms lying here." He picked it up and slipped it into his ear as Cabe looked around him.
"Yea, there is one here too." He picked it up and slipped it in his ear.
"Hey, is anyone on the coms?" Toby called out.
"Doc?" Happy said shocked.
"Happy, where are you? Actually, where am I?" Toby asked.
"You're in the class room where Walt gassed the two of you. Get off your asses and get to the office now." Happy told them.
Cabe frowned. "Walt, kid, what did you do?"
"Walt took his coms out. He's gone in to make a deal with the lunatic that tried to take the school hostage to get him. Don't you guys remember?" Happy asked.
Cabe shook his head. "To be honest no, I seem to remember leaving the Garage but, not much after that."
Happy rolled her eyes. "Great, well you get out of that room and follow the hallway to the right until you see me."
Toby finally got up and saw several bottles lying on the table back against the back wall. He saw on the desk in front of him several small glass shards. He stepped over and read the labels on the bottles. "What the hell Walt. You could have killed us with this crap."
"Hey, birdbrain, get your butt in gear and get out here. The hostages are coming out of the office." Happy told them.
Toby helped Cabe to stand before they slowly started walking towards the door at the front of the room.
Walter stepped on into the small room that belonged to the principle. He looked around as he lowered his hands slowly. "So what do you want me to do?"
The man smiled. "Get on this computer, hack a bank, I don't care what bank and put one hundred million dollars into this bank account for me to start."
Walter nodded as he saw the small card lying there by the edge. "You want to step out here from behind the desk? There isn't a lot of room back there for both of us."
The man grinned and slowly stepped out. "No tricks, I'll settle for killing you."
Walter nodded as he stepped back behind the desk. As his left hand had slipped into his pocket his right brushed along the card on the desk and knocked to the floor.
He slowly pulled out a glass vial. Walter looked at the desk. "Where's the account number?"
The man frowned but then nodded as he took his right hand off the gun and its trigger and slipped it into his right pocket.
Walter smiled and tossed the vial and it broke striking the desktop and quickly the mixed chemicals turned to a gas as they made contact with the air and the man looked up with wide eyes and tried to grab the gun to shoot but his pupils rolled back into his head as he dropped the gun and fell over.
"Happy." Toby called out as he moved up towards her with Cabe.
Happy smiled. "I'm so glad to see you Doc." They hugged before they heard a large thud.
"Walt?" Happy called out.
Walter grabbed up the gun from the floor and he turned it around and pointed it at the man's back. "You sick demented fool. I'm so tempted to kill you for threatening my son."
Cabe frowned hearing his words. "Walt?" He pushed past Happy and Toby and ran into the office. He looked back and his eyes went wide. "Son, don't do it. You saved all the kids, all the teachers and the office staff. Come on out of there and give me that gun."
Happy frowned as she walked into the room with Toby. Both of their eyes opened wide as they saw the dark look on Walter's face and the gun pointed at the man lying unconscious on the floor. "Walt, you can't do this, you got to listen to Cabe." She told him softly.
Toby nodded. "Come on Walt. I know this man threatened your son but this isn't the answer. Besides he'll be spending the rest of his life in prison for this."
Walter looked up a hateful stare on his face. "Like Drew was going to spend the rest of his life in prison? I can end this once and for all right here, right now. So why shouldn't I?"
Cabe opened his mouth to speak.
"Because then you would be in prison and not in our lives." Paige said softly as she entered and walked past Happy and Toby. She touched Cabe's shoulder as she stepped by and she watched as Walter's face looked up at her. "Please, step out here Walter. Let Cabe arrest this scumbag. I need you, our son needs you and our baby is going to need you."
Walter stared at her as his desires conflicted against each other. Finally he drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before he stepped over the man and walked out of the room laying the gun on the counter outside the room and Paige ran into his arms and they hugged as Paige cried into his shoulder.
Cabe quickly moved around them and handcuffed the man. He looked back towards Toby. "Hey Doc, maybe you should take a look at this guy. He's bleeding a bit."
Toby nodded as he stepped around the couple still clinging to each other.
"I'm sorry Paige. I had to do something to protect Ralph." Walter whispered.
Paige shook her head as she made a soft shhhhh. "For now it's okay Walter."
Toby examined the man and nodded. "He's got a broken nose and a supraorbital foramen. He could end up having some nerve damage too."
Greetings! Hoping this finds you all well and warming up!
Railman - Thank you! You got me there, Walter definitely wouldn't risk innocent lives with a deadly gas!
Lucy - hehe He was a bit on the scary side there. Hope you and everyone is feeling some relief now!
Marie - Thank you!
Marti - Thank you! Yep, there is a very long list of people who have a grudge with Walter now. Including some fairly smart people who had explosive diarrhea! lol
Susan - Thank you! hehe
Franxine, Margaret - Not Collins, he is currently in Colorado in ADX Florence Max prison awaiting trial in this story line.
I think this story is starting to wind down, got some clean up to do from this segment and then to see if anything comes from Ralph's little adventure to visit Drew. And then I think that will wrap Secrets up. After that, Lady Knight!
To the Adventure! -Tim