Title: The 355

By: greygoose70

Chapter 5

Emily's office

Rich and Kate no sooner enter when Emily was out of her desk seat and leading them over to a sofa where Terri was seated conversing with another woman. "Rick, Kate, I want you to meet Doctor Vittoria Sanchez; she is a scientist with CERN the…"

"I know what CERN is," Rick politely interrupted. "You have some information for us Dr. Sanchez?"

"Yes, I do mister…"

"Rodgers, Agent Richard Rodgers actually, CIA. This is Agent Kate Beckett."

Kate went over shook Vittoria's hand and sat down next to her. "Please continue Dr. Sanchez," she said.

"I believe I know what the item is you are seeking." She then went on to tell them of the theft from the CERN laboratory and learning of the death of two of its employees from the Director."

"You believe these two men were responsible for this theft," Kate responded.

"Yes, I do, if not then why were they killed?"

"Because someone else or some other group is calling the shots," Rick explained to her.

"Whoever it is do they know how dangerous this item is?"

"I don't know the answer to that probably because I don't know myself so why don't you try to explain it to me.

"Antimatter is the direct opposite of matter," the good looking doctor began. "The size of antimatter we are looking at here is approximately one gram, roughly the size of a single raisin. If it comes into contact with regular matter of the same size it releases a huge amount of energy."

"How much energy," Kate enquire? "What," she said seeing the looks she was getting from the others before saying, "I took some science classes in college."

"About 22 kilotons, just over 40 percent more than the Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945," Dr. Sanchez answered.

Rick instantly whipped out his phone, scrolled through his contacts then pressed 'call' when finding who he wanted and waited.

All the women sat in silence waiting to discover who Rick was calling. That wonderment ceased when he said, "hey Sheldon, Rick Rodgers here."

"Oh shit!" Emily gasped. "Who's Sheldon?" Kate whispered to her. "Chief of the SIS, Secret Intelligence Service," Emily whispered back.

"I need to borrow one of you agents," they heard him say. A couple moments passed then heard, "Ilsa." A few more minutes elapsed before he spoke again, "thanks Shel we'll be waiting." Then disconnected the call.

"Who's Ilsa?" Emily and Kate spouted simultaneously. "Ilsa Ferguson, MI-6, she'll be here in 45 minutes.

"Why do we need somebody from MI-6?" Kate asked.

"Because she was undercover in Bosnia for a couple of years and maybe knows more about this Culper Ring," Rick replied. "You'll like her. Kate, she's cute. Why don't you tell everyone what we learned from Volkov."

"Sure," she said giving him one her infamous eye rolls as he described this Ilsa woman as cute. She then proceeded to give a rundown what information she and Rick obtained from Uri Volkov and about the Culper Ring.

Exactly 45 minutes later Ilsa Ferguson strolled into Emily's office and all the women let out a breath they evidently know they had been holding. Ilsa was not just cute, she was beautiful. Five feet seven, brown hair, hourglass figure.

Rick introduced Ilsa to everyone. When he got to Kate he knew she going to ask.

"So how did you and Rick meet?"

Ilsa ever the polite one replied, "I helped him out on a case a few years back; then went on to say, "you're his inspiration for Nikki Heat aren't you?"

Kate started to blush as she commented, "you've read his books."

"Of course," Ilsa responded, "but that's not why you wanted to see me, is it."

"No it isn't," Rick said coming over wrapping her up in a hug and placing a brief kiss to her forehead. A scene that brought an jealous look from Kate.

After releasing Ilsa Rick asked, "You were undercover in Bosnia for a while, did you ever hear of a group called the Culper Ring?"

"Oh sure. It was initially a group of Muslim women spies during the Bosnian War that gathered information to aid their faction in their fight against the Serbs. After the war they became more of a revenge group by capturing some of those responsible for the raping of Muslim women and the ethnic cleansing of their civilization. It's rumored they provided the intel that led to the killing of Colonel Anton Zlikovac in 1993."

"Really," Rick said surprised at this revelation (he had always wondered where the intel for that mission came from).

"Yeah. I heard it was a two-fer, some Russian bigwig was there with him, got taken out also."

"What about today," Kate enquired?"

"Not sure, I left Bosnia a year later, didn't hear anything pertaining to them."

"Think you still have any contacts that might know," Emily asked?

"Maybe but it will require a trip back. They are bit old school, don't use cell phones or the internet to communicate their private messages."

"Think your covers still good," Rick asked.

"Should be. I'll catch a flight out in the morning."

"Okay everybody that's about all we can do today so let's call it a night because I'm hungry," Rick explained.

"Me too." Emily agreed, "and I know where we can get a great 'bacon roll'."

"Marksman's," Ilsa stated. "Yep," Emily added.

"Let's go then, I'm buying," Rick told them.

TBC