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Follow the Breadcrumbs Part 3

By Carol M.

Summary: Arnaud spoils the fun

Spoilers: Most of the back nine

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don't own em, I just play with em.

Okay, so I know I've been leaving you guys with cliffhangers. So I worked my tail off and decided to post the rest of the story all at once. Now you will only have to wait a few seconds while you switch from part to part. Enjoy!

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Claire sat in a wooden chair, her hands tied behind her back tightly with rope. She had been trying unsuccessfully to loosen them for the last hour. Arnaud sat at a small desk, typing away on a laptop computer, while his two goons, Jake and Frankie, sat at a table, drinking coffee. Every few seconds one of them would look over at her to make sure she wasn't trying to escape. She gave them a nasty look every time.

At least Arnaud was visible, so to speak. He had gotten his own face and hands cloned, so he looked pretty much like normal. Claire didn't think she could take another invisible man, at least not one this sinister.

She was scared. Not so much for herself, but for Darien. She heard the panic in his voice when she had been on the phone with him for those few seconds. She was afraid what he might do. If he actually did what Arnaud wanted and broke into the computer and stole the files, then the Official would have him killed. Of course, Arnaud would probably kill him before the Official even knew the files were gone.

Another small problem that came with this whole ordeal was the matter of counteragent. She didn't know if Darien had gone invisible much the day before. She hoped not. She remembered that there was a spare hypodermic full of counteragent in the Keep that she had made the day before so she could start the counteragent experiment. She just hoped that Darien would think enough to look around and find it.

She leaned back in her chair and stretched her cramped body. Arnaud noticed her. "Are you finding the accommodations comfortable Ms. Keepley?" Arnaud said with a smile as he walked over to her.

Claire smiled evilly. "Oh they are just bloody perfect," she snarled.

"Now, now Claire, there is no need to get testy," Arnaud said as he got in her face. He took his finger and ran it gently down her face. Claire tried to move away from his touch.

"Tell me, has Fawkes ever touched you like this?" Arnaud asked as he moved his hand away from his face. "Because I sensed something between you two during your little phone conversation."

Claire just stared at him, refusing to talk. He ran his hand through her hair. "It's too bad really. You two would have been a cute couple. I would have loved to have a picture of your kids for my wallet, but since Fawkes isn't going to survive, I guess that will never happen," Arnaud said with a smile.

Claire glared at Arnaud, a tear trickling down her cheek.

Darien pulled into his spot at the Agency for the second time that day. He walked through the front door, trying to appear cool and collected. That was much easier said than done. He felt sheer panic rise in him as he walked past the guards. "Hi Fawkes," one of them said.

Darien just waved as he walked into the elevator and headed down to the Keep. He was struggling with this whole situation. He didn't know if he should tell Bobby and the Official about this or not. He figured it was probably better to just not tell them and get on with it. Plus, he knew the Official would never let him give Arnaud the files. He also knew that Arnaud would never buy fake files.

Another fact that Darien was very well aware of was that he couldn't trust Arnaud. Arnaud would probably kill both of them as soon as he got the files. But Darien was going to try his hardest not to let that happen.

He stepped out of the elevator and walked into the Keep after opening the door with his keycard. He marched straight to Claire's computer. He opened her desk drawer and started digging through it, searching for a disk. "Bingo," he said as he pulled out a brand new disk.

He pressed enter on the computer to undo the screensaver. A big box with the word password appeared. "Aw crap," muttered Darien. Think, damn it, think, what would her password be, he thought.

He started typing things in the computer. Quicksilver. Nope. Claire. Nope. Darien thought for a moment. Pavlov. Nope. Hobbes. Nope. Darien smiled nervously for a second. Fawkes. Nope. He looked around the Keep. He turned back and typed Bartholomew. Bingo. He chuckled softly

. "Score one for Darien," he said to himself.

If this hadn't had been done under such dire circumstances, Darien would be sitting back and smiling right about now, but he had to concentrate on the task at hand. He pulled up the files on quicksilver and inserted the disk into the computer. He pressed download.

Darien sat impatiently waiting for the files to download. It had been 15 minutes and he was at 90 percent. He heard the Keep door open. Darien panicked and immediately quicksilvered.

Bobby stepped into the Keep. "Fawkes," he yelled. "You down here?"

Bobby started to walk around the lab. "Fawkes?" Bobby yelled again. He walked over towards the computer and saw the files being downloaded.

"You're down here, aren't you Fawkes? Playing the old invisible game. Come on man, I'm you're friend, we can talk this out," Bobby said firmly.

Darien let the quicksilver flake off of him. A quick look at the computer told him the files were 96 percent downloaded.

"Fawkes, what are you doing? Does this have something to do with Claire?" Bobby asked in a worried tone.

Darien shook his head. "I can't tell you Bobby, I wish I could," said Darien in a sincere voice.

"No, no. Please tell me you aren't doing what I think you're doing kid. He's got her right, Arnaud's got her and he wants the files. You can't trust that bastard Fawkes, he's just messing with your mind," said Bobby with concern.

"I have to man, he's gonna kill her. I'm not going to let her die for this crap. You have to let me do this," Darien begged as he stepped towards the computer to get the completed files.

Bobby stepped in front of him and pulled out his gun. "No man. This is a trap Fawkes. I can smell it. He's going to kill you and he's going to kill Claire. Let me help you. We'll get his guy for good," Bobby pleaded.

Darien shook his head. "No, I can't. I'm sorry, Bobby," said Darien as he quicksilvered.

"Fawkes!" Bobby yelled as he waved his gun in the air. Darien quickly moved behind Bobby and picked up a glass bottle. He smashed it down on the back of Bobby's head, knocking him out.

"I'm sorry, my friend," Darien whispered as he looked down at Bobby's unconscious form. Darien let the quicksilver flake off his body. He took the disk from the computer and started to walk out the Keep. Then he noticed a jar full of needles on one of the lab tables.

Counteragent. He needed counteragent.

He checked his tatoo. So far so good, but he wanted to have some with him just in case.

He searched through Claire's desk drawers coming up empty handed. "Come on, Claire, you got to have something," he said to himself as he started to search frantically through the Keep.

He shuffled through papers on her desk and through the medical supplies. The last hope was the refrigerator. He opened the door and pushed aside Chinese food containers, noticing a hypo full of a blue substance in the back. Counteragent. Thank god, he thought.

He pulled the counteragent out and tucked it into his jacket, along with the disk. He took one last look at Hobbes and then walked out the door.

Darien walked quickly to his car. He looked behind him and expected to see half the agency on his tale, but the coast was clear. As he was about to open the car door, a hand stopped him. Darien looked to his right and saw a large, bald man pointing a gun at him.

"Do you have the files?" asked the man sternly.

"Yeah," Darien said coldly. "Are you Arnaud's guy? The one I'm supposed to hook up with?"

The man nodded. "Give me the files," said the man as he started to reach towards Darien's jacket.

Darien backed away and shook his head. "Uh huh, I'm not giving this thing to anyone but Arnaud."

The man waved his gun towards the car. "Get in," he said.

Darien opened his door while the man walked around to the passenger's door and got in the car.

"So where is Arnaud's little hideaway retreat," Darien said as he started the car.

"You'll see, for now just get to the highway," the man said as he dialed a cell phone.

"He's got it," the man said into the phone. "We should be there in about 2 hours."

Darien slipped his hand nonchalantly in his jacket pocket. He looked at the man to make sure he

was not watching him. Darien carefully took the counteragent out of his pocket and placed it under his seat. He wasn't taking any chances that Arnaud might try to destroy the counteragent if he discovered it. This would be Darien's own little insurance policy.

Later

Darien had been driving for over an hour on a dirt road. They were in the middle of nowhere and he had absolutely no idea where he was. He was starting to think that maybe letting Bobby in on the situation might not have been such a bad move.

Darien could see the start of a forest a couple hundreds yards up the road. As he drove closer, he realized that the road they were on was about to end.

"Stop the car now, Mr. Fawkes," the bald man said roughly.

Darien stopped the car and shut it off. The man got out of the car. He pointed his gun at Darien. "Get out. We walk the rest of the way," the man said.

"Well if I would have known that we were going to be walking, I would've brought my hiking books," Darien said sarcastically as he got out of the car. The man rolled his eyes in disgust. "Move it, now," he said forcefully.

Darien just nodded, not wanting to piss the man off and end up getting Claire killed. He followed the man as they started to trek through the woods.

Bobby woke up with a groan on the Keep floor. "Claire? Fawkes?" he said softly.

Then he remembered. Fawkes copying the files, Claire kidnapped, Fawkes hitting him over the head. Damn kid, he was going to get him back for that one.

He got up slowly, wincing at the pain in his skull. Fawkes. He had to find Fawkes. Actually he had to find Arnaud. Wherever Arnaud was, Darien and Claire would be there too.

Bobby walked over to the medical supplies and put some cotton on his head, wiping the blood away. Then he put a small bandage over the cut. He walked over to the Keep door, not knowing what to do.

Who could he turn to? He couldn't trust Eberts and he damn sure couldn't trust the Official. Alex. He would go to Alex. She scratches my back and I'll scratch hers, Bobby thought. If Bobby wasn't so worried about Fawkes and the Keeper, he might have taken that last thought straight to naughtyville, but as it was he just wanted to find them both as soon as he could.

He walked out the Keep door and onto the elevator, taking it to the fifth floor. He stepped out and walked to Alex's office. He knocked on the door loudly.

"Come in," he heard Alex say.

Bobby stepped in and saw Alex working at her computer. Alex leaned back in her chair when she saw Bobby. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Bobby," said Alex.

Bobby walked over to her quickly. "I need your help," he said cautiously.

Alex looked at him in surprise. "Why do you need my help? Why don't you ask your partner? I thought you two were inseparable," she said in confusion.

Bobby shook his head. "Look, Fawkes and the Keeper are in trouble. I need someone I can trust, someone that isn't going to go running to the Official to tattle. Now can I trust you to help me help them?" Bobby pleaded.

Alex looked at him for a moment and nodded slowly. "Yeah, you can trust me. What's going on?" she asked with concern.

"Arnaud De Phon… you heard of him?" Bobby said as he looked at Alex. Alex shook her head. "Well Arnaud was one of the scientists responsible for putting the gland in Fawkes' head. He also killed Fawkes' brother. To make a long story short, he hates Fawkes and he wants the files on quicksilver. He kidnapped Claire and made Fawkes copy the files to get her back," Bobby said.

"So basically, you caught Fawkes stealing the files and he said he wasn't supposed to tell anyone about the situation. He got away and now you don't know where any of them are," Alex said.

Bobby nodded. "Yeah, that's how it happened," he said. "Look Alex, Arnaud's going to kill both of them once he gets what he wants. Fawkes, he's the best friend I ever had and Claire, well Claire ain't so bad either," Bobby said softly.

Alex nodded slowly. "Okay, let's go," said Alex as she walked to her desk and picked up her jacket.

"Where are we going?" asked Bobby as he followed her.

"I've got some connections that may be able to help us find them," she said as the two of them walked out of her office.

Darien and the bald man had been walking for about 30 minutes. Darien could faintly make out some kind of cabin in the distance. He figured that was probably Arnaud's place. God, he hoped Claire was all right.

Darien and the bald man approached the house. The man stepped up to the door and pounded loudly on it. "We're here," he yelled.

The door opened, and Darien was greeted by Arnaud. "Hello Fawkes," said Arnaud as he punched Darien hard in the face. Darien fell to the ground, dazed. The bald man picked Darien up and dragged him in the cabin, shutting the door behind them.

TBC