I hope part of this make those of you, and you know who you are, happy! I don't normally give in to anything.
Remember what I said about that other thing I had collaborated on? The character is NOT me, I just used the name a pen name. Since she was mostly my creation. I'm much too busy for that. Go to the journal section of my web page.
Sign my guest book.
I own nothing.
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XI. Lumina
Jake McCartey really didn't want to reach La Guardia. In his mind, he had gone over as many scenarios as he could think of. The one he was rooting for was the one where Sara wasn't able to pick him up, and he could disappear and never have to face her. He knew that she knew. He had checked all of the standard databases.
His file had been tapped.
It hadn't been breached, but it had been located.
He wasn't mad at her. Jake had expected to have to tell her sooner or later, but not now. He was hoping that she would understand. Knowing his luck, she'd slap him. With the Witchblade in it's armored form. It was going to hurt.
A lot.
"Please return you seats and trays to their upright position in preparation for our arrival." Aww man!!
The plane touched down on the runway. He always hated landing. Especially when it was snowing out side. At least there was no ice. The plane taxied to the gate.
Now that he wanted things to slow down, everything was going too quickly. The plane came to a halt. He took in a deep breath, grabbed his bag, and did his best to stall. Screw it. Might as well face the proverbial music. He kept his head down when he walked through the gate. A quick glance found his partner walking up to him.
Damn.
"Did you get it?"
Jake held up his bag and nodded. He was surprised when she hugged him. Oh, he was in for it.
"How was your trip, Agent McCartey?" Sara whispered in his ear. She was pissed.
"Not here. Please." He replied.
Sara let go of him and nodded, "Let's go then." They walked out of the airport, and to his car.
Nothing was said during the entire ride to his place. He hadn't thought of this one on the plane. It was too late to try and get out of this, and it wouldn't look to good if he even attempted to get away. Sigh. He'd tell her what he was allowed to.
She opened the door to his apartment and turned to face him as soon as the door shut.
"Ja-"
"I took an oath, Sara. It's not the best idea to break it."
"You're CIA?! Why are you with the NYPD?! How many times could you have-"
"Yes and no. I'm no longer active, Sara. I joined up because, I thought I'd be good at it."
"Yes and no?! What the hell does that mean?!"
"I was Deparment of Justice, they loaned me out to the CIA for a while."
"You do have federal connections, you lied to me!"
"I have used whatever I still have access to. I don't withhold stuff like that!"
"You already have! I-"
"Not when it could help someone!"
"I trusted you! You've been here, looking in on everything we do, and reporting back to who knows who!"
He dropped his bag and ran his hands through his hair. He took a deep breath to calm himself. What could he say?
"Sara, I told you I'm not active anymore. I'm not with the Agency or with the DOJ!"
"Somehow I doubt that they just let people go!"
"You're right they don't. We still keep an eye on people, but I'm not an operative anymore."
"You- you're not watching me? Are you?"
"No. Not you."
"If you had just told the Navy who you were over the phone, they would have sent the files over, right?"
"More than likely."
"You could have saved us time!"
"I can't just say something like that on an open line. They wouldn't have even believed me!"
"If you had found a way, then you wouldn't have had to leave! And I wouldn't have had to have anymore of those damn dreams!"
"Sara?"
He reached out to touch her arm and she pushed him away.
"Don't touch me!"
He grabbed her arm anyway.
"You're not that mad at me for not telling you about my old job, are you?"
It was more of a statement than a question. Sara nodded her head yes.
"I'm sorry. Like I said, they wouldn't have believed me. The General thought I was 'that surfer guy'."
They sat down on his couch, "You are that surfer guy." She smiled a little.
"They didn't know that. I did that after."
"Aren't you a little young to have done all that. You're only 33."
"You'd be surprised how young some of the us are."
"I'm still mad at you."
Jake smiled at her tone and wrapped his arms around her. He rested his chin on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Sara."
"Just don't do it again."
He laughed, "What?"
"Don't leave, and if there is any other little facts you forgot to mention - spill it."
"I can't promise that one of us won't have to take off. As for the other one: I was the one who broke the water machine."
"I'll have to report that."
The both of them laughed at the comment, and Sara turned to face him.
"Were the dreams that bad this time?"
She nodded her head, "Yeah. More than the others."
"So much for the wondering if it rubs off, huh?"
"That's exactly what I thought, you're back so it doesn't matter."
"I guess not."
Jake closed the remaining distance between them, and kissed her.
* * * *
The Partner was back sooner that he had expected. He wasn't happy. He thought that the Lady Detective and the Partner didn't like each other like that. The white-haired man had been wrong. It must be a new thing.
This would make things more difficult. He would have to wait for some time to take the Lady Detective. He would have to get both of them. He would send her to the others, and dispose of one more Negation. He would help someone, and make the world a better place. He would have to be careful. He had to put being happy aside for them, but it would wait.
He needed to go find that English man who was at the outdoor restaurant. He would be taking his break soon.
The Partner tensed, and pulled away from the Lady Detective. She looked confused that he had stopped.
What was going on?
He said something to her, and looked towards him thorough the window.
Had the Partner seen him? No. But the Partner knew he was out here. It was time to leave before they found him. He was angry with himself, he hadn't been careful enough. He had been sad that the Lady Detective and the Partner were together. Negations weren't worthy of the seers. He took off down the fire escape, and started running. He ran for a long time.
He was half way to the restaurant the English man worked at. He could slow down now. They wouldn't find him. He had learned that English man got off work soon. After breakfast was done with. The English man had a very pretty apartment. He would leave his picture there this time. There was a pretty glass wall, it had color all over it. It would be a really pretty picture. Maybe better than Rebecca and David.
The Lady Detective would make another pretty picture. He liked pretty things. He would be doing the Lady Detective a big favor by killing the Partner.
He wouldn't get a picture.
* * * *
"There's something wrong."
"There's always something wrong."
"With Seiji."
"Like what?"
"First of all, Seiji doesn't even know how to be late. He and punctuality are biologically related. He should be here, M!"
"Calm down, Drew. The weather isn't that great. It could be holding him up," She eyed him, "You could fix that, you know."
"I don't think that ninety degree weather in the middle of New York's winter would be a good idea. If I did that, there would be flash floods. Besides, I think it would cause a problem when they noticed that weird weather patterns were originating form JKF International, don't you?."
"It never stopped you before."
"We're not in battle . . . But that's not all. We're connected, Seiji and I. At first it thought it was the distance separating us, but know that I'm here. . . it's wrong."
"We're too young to rent a car: We're only 19, you have to be 25."
"We can take a cab to the hotel. I know where Jim's bike is. We can get it after we get settled in."
Ian Nottingham watched the two teens try to figure out where their friend was. Kenneth Irons would be interested to know that they were in New York. The male stopped talking and stood up straight. He began to look around his location. He knew Ian was there. He was more aware than Detective McCartey. Irons was right, they were impressive.
And it seemed that one of their number was missing.
Ian blended into the crowd and headed towards the pay phone. He dialed his employers private line.
"Yes, Ian."
"Something worth knowing. Two of the Yorid-"
A hand took the phone away from Ian. It was the male, Drew was his name. He hung up the receiver.
"Leave it," He told Nottingham.
He took of with his female companion, and walked away from him.
This was going to be very difficult.
Ian hated being bested.
* * * *
They had been stuck in grid lock for almost an hour, and hadn't even made it half way to the precinct. Sara didn't mind too much. It gave her time to rest. She could do that. As part of Jake's punishment, she had made him drive.
For the past thirty minutes she had lingered in the half asleep, half waking state of mind. Not really aware of anything. Except, perhaps, Jake's hand on her thigh. She had been confused when he had abruptly ended their kiss. But he was adamant that they were being watched. A search of the neighboring building had confirmed his feeling. Whoever it was had taken off. It wasn't Nottingham, he wasn't messy.
She was being tailed by two people now. Great.
They were going to have to find someplace else to go. She had informed Captain Dante over the phone. Her new stalker had shown up at both her apartment and at Jake's.
Dante told them not to go home. Maybe it was their killer. Find someplace else and don't let each other out of their sight.
She smiled at that. Dante had given them permission to see each other. She really didn't know the policy on fraternization between partners and co-workers. Truth be told, Sara had skipped over it thinking it would never apply to her. She hoped it was nothing to be worried about. Come to think of it, she didn't think there was one. A list of names of partners who had even gone af far to to get married ran through her head. Nothing to worry about.
"It had better be something worth looking at."
"Hmm?"
"Whatever has us sitting here."
Yawn.
"I'm fine."
"I can see that."
Sara smiled.
"We could be getting work done if you would let me go through that file you went through so much trouble to get."
Jake shook his head at her, "There's stuff in there you're not supposed to see, Sara. I can't."
"I can keep a secret."
"I know you can, but they always find out. I need to go through it before I show anything to anyone."
"National security risk?" She teased him.
"You never know."
"You don't strike me as the spy type."
He leveled a glare at her, then smiled. "That's the point, Sara." So much for flirting. Her cell phone rang.
"This is Pez, go . . . and . . . we'll get there as soon as we can."
"Let me guess, another one?"
"Yeah. In those apartments on 45th and 7th. The north side."
"Let's see if we can get out of here."
* * * *
Another person had died. Seiji loathed being helpless. He didn't want people to die. Especially in the manner that this guy was doing it. Seiji had taken lives before, but it was in combat. He had never done it in cold blood. He rationalized it that way. Some would say that there was no difference. In actuality, he couldn't kill a person if he wanted to. Halo required just cause for him to do that.
That didn't apply to some.
His captor fell into that category, but he had re-evaluated his opinion recently.
The drug that Seiji had been given had reeked havoc with his telepathic abilities. He wasn't able to project his thoughts or feelings, but the receiving end of it had not been shut down. In turn, he was also shut of from Halo for some reason. He had not been lying when he told the man that he was learning about him.
His mind was slowly deteriorating. It was strange, however. The man's mind was becoming more and more childlike, but he still fully understood the "grown -up" world. It didn't seem natural. But Seiji couldn't be sure. He had never seen anything like it.
Seiji wondered what had been done to him.
"What are you thinking?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"You look like you're thinking. I wanted to know."
"I was thinking about you."
The man seemed overly happy about that. He smiled and shook his head like an exited five year old.
"About what?!"
"Just what you're doing, is all."
A chill ran down Seiji's spine. The cold didn't go away after it was finished. That always accompanied her arrival. Oh no. She would kill the man if he got in her way. Granted her mind was no longer plagued by the madness that had made her psychotic. He had fixed that. She was very lucid now, but she wouldn't hesitate.
Another presence touched his mind. Drew. Between the two of them, he wouldn't be here much longer.
"You look sad."
"Believe it or not, in a way, I am. For you."
"Why me?"
He looked at the man, and the man's face fell. He knew.
Seiji's friends were here.
* * * *
After some yelling and threats, Jake and Sara had made their way out of traffic, and to the less traveled side roads. They had arrived at the apartment an hour ago. They had searched the apartment of Brian Currie, and had come up with almost nothing. Almost, this time, might turn out to be a good thing. There was a smear of blood on a the door knob. From the way the room looked, it didn't seem to belong to the victim.
When the forensic team had found it, the team had broken into something resembling a victory dance. She and Jake had rolled their eyes at the guys. They needed to get out more.
But, if it was from their guy, it would be a huge step forward.
The coroner began to cut away at the remains
of the stained glass wall. Brian Curry had been impaled on the glass. Several
of the large jagged peak had made sections out of his body. Sara had a
vision the minute she had stepped over through the door way.
It was blurry, but she had made out two
people. Other that than the sounds of shattering glass, the ever present
song had been the only thing that was heard.
Jake put his hand on her back and began to lead them away from the scene.
They wished the forensics team good luck, and headed for the car.
Jake closed her door for her and rounded the car. When he had gotten behind the steering wheel, he dropped something in her lap. The Xanus file. She turned her head and grinned at him.
"If there us anything in that package that is sealed . . ."
"I won't open it."
He gave her a quick kiss and started the engine. She opened the box and began to sort through it's contents. It was like Christmas, in a morbid sort of way. It had started snowing again.
She took a look at some of the pages, and sighed in frustration.
"Jake."
"Uh, yeah?"
"I hope you can read this."
"Read what?"
"The stuff that isn't english."
He leaned over and glanced at what she was holding.
"Sure I can. Just go over the stuff that is in English."
Sara thumbed through the sheets of papers, and halted when she though she had seen something familiar. She went back a few, and pulled out a stapled packet. It was written in what looked like German to her, but she didn't need to be able to read the language to recognize this.
"Vorshlage."
"What's that, Pez?"
"Can you read German?"
"I need to get out my dictionary, but yeah."
"This thing mentions Vorshlage."
Jake observed at her profile at the red light. It looked like they would be paying Kenneth Irons a visit.
