Chapter Twenty

Meanwhile...

The warehouse...

Thompkins was impatient, as he needed to leave soon but he was told that they had to wait for both the Eppes to die from the poison but he was hoping to leave the country soon so that he could take care of other business.

'I have no idea what is taking so long, maybe we didn't give him the right dose or something.' Thompkins thought in frustration.

He looked at Penfield, who seemed to be enjoying this whole thing a little too much, as Thompkins was just doing this because it was business.

"What are you thinking about, Penfield?" Thompkins asked

"I was just thinking about a couple misdirections I set up to try to keep them off our location while we can." Penfield said with a smile

"What kind of misdirections, may I ask?" Thompkins demanded, feeling a little uneasy about what the younger man was saying

"Well, I hacked into Dr. Mildred Finch's email to try to sow some discord between her and Epsie and I told Brian that Matt Li was involved since I stole his identity several weeks ago and have been communicating that way with him ever since."

"Why?" Thompkins asked, confused by the younger man's methods.

"With Millie, I figured that I reopen old wounds with Charlie, as I figured he still wasn't happy with him seeing his father and with Matt Li, well I thought that if I took someone's identity, no one else would figure it would have been me doing this, and they would think Epsie would be crazy when he tries to accuse me of all this."

Thompkins couldn't believe this, as it seems like his partner believed that doing some hacking and identity theft to try to mess with his rival.

'I can't believe this idiot.' Thompkins angrily thought to himself, 'Penfield may have just jeopardized this entire thing, just to do some petty revenge against Professor Eppes.'

"Penfield," Thompkins began to say evenly, "Is there any way that can be traced back to us?"

"I wouldn't worry about that, sir." Penfield said arrogantly, "I used older computers and one at one of the libraries to ensure that it wouldn't be traced back to us when this whole thing is over."

"You do realize that Dr. Eppes will try to trace the emails and the possible identity theft once he finds us here, right?" Thompkins asked

"We will be long gone before they even find us, so don't get too concerned about him finding us." Penfield said

Alan was half listening to the conversation and could only make out some of it, but he got the gist of it.

'I thought that Charlie was exaggerating whenever he talked about Penfield but I can see that he was that and is even worse now.' He thought to himself as he checked Don's pulse, which, to his relief, was still somewhat strong but he was getting worried.

'If what they are saying is true, then we need to get him out of here, hopefully the doctors will know what to do.' He thought desperately

Before he could think about anything else, one of Thompkins goons suddenly approached them and tasered Don right in the chest.

"What are you doing!" Alan yelled as he pulled his son away and tried to shield him from any more attacks.

"Thompkins wants both of you dead soon and your son is taking too long, so he wants us to speed things up a little." The man said coldly as he went over to a table that looked like there were other nefarious gadgets to use on Don.

Alan put his body on top of Don in an effort to protect his son, and hoped that someone would get to them soon before it gets any worse.

'I just don't know how much longer we can hold out.' He thought desperately

Outside the warehouse…

Charlie and Ian got out of their car and looked around to see if there were any other guards around and Ian had found none.

"What do we do, Ian?" Charlie asked, anxious to get to his family.

"I am going to scout around for a quick look and see if I can take these people by surprise while you wait for backup…."

"Ian, you need me to come, as it might take a while for anyone to get here." Charlie insisted.

"Charlie…" Ian began before Charlie interrupted him.

"Ian, if what Brian said is true, we have to act fast before they get a chance to kill Don." Charlie pointed out.

"Fine, get in the car and set the sirens, that might help." Ian said, knowing that he wouldn't be able to change the younger Eppes mind.

'One of the things that he and his brother have in common.' He thought to himself as he got ready for a possible assault.

'Let's just hope this works.'