Stake Out:

Stake Out:

Darien walked into the Official's office to find four pairs of eyes staring at him.  "Hey guys, what's going on?"  He said looking over at Claire.

"Fawkes, You're late. Make a note Eberts." The Official said.

"No I'm not." He said looking at his watch. "It's 10 to 7.  I'm early."

"You're watch must be wrong partner, it's 7:30." Said Hobbes.  Darien examined his watch, and realized that it wasn't ticking.

"Darien, I've come up with a more effective counteragent, but to make sure of the correct dosage and how it will effect you we need to do some tests." Claire explained.  Darien looked at her with an expression of dread on his face.

"What kind of tests?"

"Well, first I'll give you the minimum dosage and see how that affects you."

"What you mean affects me. Either it works or it doesn't right?"

"Not exactly. If the counteragent is too strong then you wouldn't be able to quicksilver as well as you usually do.  Or it may affect your immune system some how. It's hard to tell until we try."

"How long is this going to take?"

"Well, like I said, first we'll start with minimum dosage and then we'll work our way up to the best amount. It could take a couple of days maybe more if there are setbacks."

"In the mean time you are taken off of active duty." The Official piped up. "Hobbes, you will be given an alterative assignment."

*********** 

Hobbes walked into the Federal Bureau of Investigation building.  As he looked around he got that old feeling of excitement from doing government work. 

"Agent Hobbes?" A young woman said.

"Yes."

"I'm Amy Taggart. I will be working with you on this assignment."

"What exactly is this assignment?"

"Well, I'll need to brief you but we better not do it here in the hall way.  Lets go into my boss' office, I'll fill in all the details later."

"Agent Hobbes, it's nice to see you again." Lewis Freed said from behind the desk extending his hand to Hobbes.

Hobbes shook the man's hand and said "Same here my friend."

"This investigation has been agent Taggart's for some time now and I believe it's time for a stake out.  I wanted to make sure that she was with someone who knew the ropes, so I contacted your agency."

"Well then it was a good thing that my partner's indispose or you would have had to find someone else to take the kid out."

************

As Hobbes and Taggart were walking down the empty hall to the exit the building she pushed him into the wall.  "Listen, I'm not a kid. I can take care of myself and I do.  This stake out was my idea and I don't need you to hold my hand, alright?"

"Alright, alright take it easy."

With that she let him go.      

***********

After confirming a time to meet tonight with Taggart, Hobbes drove back to the agency to check up on Darien.

As he walked into the Padded Room he asked Claire, "What happened?"  Claire was taking blood from the sedated Darien.

"It wasn't enough, it had no effect on him what-so-ever.  I had stopped giving him the minimum of the original counteragent two weeks ago. I thought this would work just as well."

 "Wait a minute keepie, what happen two weeks ago?"

"I increased the amount of counteragent I was giving Darien because he was going Quicksilver mad too fast. I thought the minimum amount of this new counteragent would do the same job but I think his body completely rejected it and he went mad."

"So what are you doing now?"

"I'm taking a blood sample and then I'll give him some old counteragent.  If you wanted to talk to him about something he should be waking up soon."

"No that's alright, I gotta go home and take a nap, stake out tonight.  I just wanted to check on him that's all."

"Bobby that's sweet of you.  I'll tell him you were here."

**********

Hobbes looked at his watch. 8:51.  "Aw Crap." He had to be at the FBI in nine minutes. He had over slept.

"Agent Hobbes, for a minute there I thought you weren't going to show."

"Over slept."

They drove out to an old abandoned warehouse and parked the van in the farthest parking space.

"You know you never did tell me what we are doing here."

"Well what I've heard from my sources is there's going to be a drop off of biological weapons made tonight.  There has been contact between a group of suspected terrorists and a someone called the phone."  

"Aw Crap, the phone?"

"You've heard of him before?"

"You could say that.  Boy I'm glad Darien's not here."

"Darien?"

"My partner. He's got a personal vendetta against Arnaud."

"Arnaud?"

"The phone is Arnaud De Fohn, he's Swiss."

"He deals in biological weapons a lot then?"

"Among other things."

**********

It had been two hours and no movement. 

"Listen about earlier. I didn't mean to came off so so…"

"Don't worry about it.  I was new man on the job once to I know how frustrating that can be."

"The boss is such jerk. He treats me like I don't know anything at all.  Like when I came to him about this stake out, he told me we didn't need to go on any wild goose chases."

"He didn't sound like he thought it was a wild goose chase this morning, or we wouldn't be here."

"That's only because I went over his head."

Taggart began to pull out her assortment of cameras and lenses.

"Since when does the government invest in such expense equipment?" Asked Hobbes

"It doesn't, these are mine."

"You must have one hell of a credit card bill."

"Well not exactly.  I don't use credit cards, because, well, I have a theory.  So sooner or later people will completely stop using money and just use credit cards that their paychecks will be invested into automatically. And the government will be able to track every carton of milk you buy."

"Good theory."

***********

A few minutes later Hobbes was asleep.  Amy had to give him a few gentle shoves to get him to stop snoring.

*********

"Hey I think we got some movement over by the door there." Amy said waking Hobbes up after a few hours. Taggart took out her telescopic lens and focused on the door.  "Here, is that the phone?"  She said handing Hobbes the camera. 

"Yeah that's him alright."

"Take a picture, we're going to need proof."

Hobbes took a couple snaps of Arnaud and another man exchanging money then they left in separate cars.

"They're going somewhere." Hobbes said handing the camera back to Taggart. He started the van and they began to follow the cars.  They turned out onto the street and were a few cars behind Arnaud.  When the light turned green Arnaud and the other car turned in opposite directions.

"Who do we follow?" Amy asked.

"I'm going to follow Arnaud. That way even if the pick up isn't tonight we'll have a known whereabouts of him."

They followed Arnaud for what seemed like hours.

"He's going in circles. He knows we're here." Amy said.

"No one gets away from Bobby Hobbes."

Finally Arnaud went back to the warehouse and went inside.  Hobbes parked the van in the same place it had been before.  Just as he shut the engine off the other car pulled in and the man got out and went into the building. 

"I say we up grade this stake out to a bust. What do you think?" Hobbes said as he unbuckled his seat belt.

"I got your back."

They got out of the van and walked up to the door. They both drew their guns and slowly opened the door.   Hobbes went threw first and motioned to Amy that it was clear.  They walked down a long narrow hall that turned to the left. This hall had many doors on both sides.  Most of the doors were either locked or had a wall behind them.  Hobbes slowly opened a door a quarter of an inch and heard a familiar accent.  He motioned over to Amy and opened the door.

"FREEZE FBI!!"

"Well, well, well, look who it is." Arnaud said in his arrogant way.

"You shut up and drop your weapons." Amy said.

"Who's your friend Hobbes? Trust me my dear, you are the one who's going to be dropping your weapons."

All of a sudden gunfire began from deeper in the room. Amy and Hobbes took cover under two tables. They started to return fire. After Amy heard no more shots she checked to see if the coast was clear. When she was sure that it was she yelled out to Hobbes.

"Hobbes you ok?"

There was no answer.

"HOBBES?!"

She ran over to the table he was under.  He lay there, shot in the chest.

"Bobby, can you hear me?" She realized he wasn't breathing and started CPR.

***********

Hobbes slowly opened his eyes and realized he was in the hospital.  He saw his two partners standing over him.

"Hey guys."

"Bobby how do you feel?" Darien asked sounding concerned.

"I'm a little tried that's all.  What about you kid?"

"I'm fine.  Claire found the right dose."

"I thought that was going to take a couple days?"

"It did. You've been asleep for awhile."

"What about you kid?"

"I'm fine." Amy said in a quite voice.

"Yeah, they said she saved your life, Hobbes. If she hadn't been there to start CPR, you would've been done for." Darien exclaimed as Amy gave him a look that told him to shut his mouth.

"Well I suppose I owe you then."

"Well maybe we can catch Arnaud next time."

"Arnaud?"

"Long story partner." Hobbes explained as Claire walked in the door.

"Bobby, I'm glad you're awake. You should be out of here in a few days."

"Thanks Keepie."                                                      THE END