On the Third Day of Christmas my I-Man gave to me…
Darien slipped around the corner of the Agency hallways like some thief on the prowl, which wasn't so improbable. He couldn't believe he came back here again. After hearing The Official roaring like a boar yesterday, Darien couldn't hear a squeak from him today and that was making him nervous, for he was sure if The Official caught him here on his day off, Darien would quickly find himself with a stack of paperwork to do.
Why 'am' I here? The ex-thief sarcastically thought to himself, quickly rejecting the immediate response of, life, and him needing one, to the uneasy feeling that hadn't left him since he'd run into the holiday help the day before. He'd swear he knew her from somewhere, he just couldn't think of where. It'd been racking his mind so bad he had come in today in the hopes of figuring it out. Maybe if he just saw her one more time.
"Whoa! Darien! What are you doing here?" Eberts exclaimed also 'sneaking' around the corners and barely missed a near collision.
"Ah, Eberts. Ya, hi." Darien said, nervously trying to think up a good excuse, but then he suddenly realized Eberts wasn't in his usual business suit and looked as guilty as Darien felt. "What about yourself?" Darien turned the question on the man, giving him his best interrogation look, something he'd picked up from Hobbes. "What are you doing here, Ebes?"
"Well, I," Eberts floundered, then sighed and told the tall man, "If you must know, I heard that the temporary help is making a complete disarray of everything in the file room, I'd thought I'd get a head start in fixing it before it get out of hand." Then he leaned in closer to Darien and murmured, "But if you could keep my presence here quiet it'd be greatly appreciated. I don't want The Official to think I don't trust him." Eberts stated quite seriously.
Darien nodded his head in agreement, easily reading between the lines. If The Official thought they'd come in on their days off without being told, he'd be liable to never give them another day off again! "Ya, ya man, no problem." He clapped Eberts on the arm bringing a smile to his shorter friend's face. Then Darien's thoughts went back to the girl. "The Temp, uh? You know I got the weirdest vibe yesterday, from that girl Rena."
"Rena and Pierre Labec were both brought in for the week." Eberts told him as they started back down the hall towards the file room. He was about to continue but movement caught Darien's attention and he put a hand on Eberts to stop him. They both slipped back inside an open doorway and peered around the frame to see what was happening.
At the end of the hall they could see Pierre and Rene exiting the file room, a small stack of files in Rena's hands while Pierre was bent over talking too low for the two onlookers to hear.
Ducking back, Darien and Eberts watched with apprehension as the two temps continued by. Then Pierre looked up and seeing the two together Darien suddenly knew exactly where he'd seen them before. They were the two Canadian Terrorists that had tried to kill him and Hobbes back in Mexico! "Hey, wait!" Darien called out amidst Eberts' startled exclamation as the ex-thief suddenly bounded out of hiding and straight into the hall. "Stop!"
Pierre and Rena turned, but apparently they knew about him as well and immediately took off running, Rena going so far as to throw the files at him in a vain attempt to slow him down. The two foreign spies left the building with Darien in hot pursuit, but as they skidded down the steps a black car came racing up to meet them and the two practically dove in, leaving Darien in the car's dust as it sped away.
"Great! Just great!" Darien growled out walking back up the steps defeated. He knew that anytime someone broke into The Agency, more often than not it was going to involve the gland, which when interpreted meant his life was in danger, again. Reaching for the door, something caught the corner of his eye causing him to pause. For a second he thought he saw Eberts rounding the corner of the building, but no, he was probably just waiting inside. Darien pulled the door open, then stopped again. A shiver was dancing on his spine and it was still hot out. Hadn't Hobbes told him often enough 'It's better to trust your instincts than all the money in the world?'
Letting the door fall closed again, Darien jogged slowly to the corner of the building. Down the street he could see Eberts in the phone booth, which, right there was dramatically out of place. Why didn't he just use the phone in The Official's office, or his cell phone?
Frowning deeply with confusion Darien walked the rest of the way down the back alley. Eberts had his back to Darien and seemed completely engrossed in his conversation so he didn't even notice the tall agent until Darien tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.
Jumping a foot into the air, Eberts spun around swearing in reaction.
"Ebe-Arnoud!" Darien exclaimed realization dawning instantly. On instinct, Darien reached out and ripped off the mask of his friend and coworker to reveal the invisible face beneath.
"Hello Darien," the once again accented voice responded, and taking full advantage of Darien's momentary pause, Arnaud kneed Darien as hard as he could then bolted from the confines of the telephone booth.
Grunting, but not swayed, Darien ran after the Swiss-German, confident he'd overtake the shorter man. Yet, like déjà vu, a black car come screeching around the corner to which Arnaud dove into, yelling to the driver, "Drive! Drive, you idiot! Drive!"
Darien grabbed at the door, rage creasing his face as he pounded relentless at anything he could in his attempt to get inside to the man that had cause him so much misery. Broken glass cut at his already injured hand but the window didn't shatter and all too soon the vehicle was pulling speedily away.
Darien swore. "What is this, get-away cars in abundance day?!" Frustrated and angry he slowly made his way back to the Agency. There was no hope of a continued vacation now.
Hours later found Darien in The Official's office with The Official, himself and the real Eberts inside, although the man still wasn't in familiar attire.
"Rena and Pierre Lebec. You were right Darien, they work for the Free Quebec Militia." Eberts stated slipping through a small file in hand with a frown. An odd look for a man wearing a Disneyland shirt and Mickey Mouse ears.
"How did they get past screening?!" The Official demanded
Eberts shook his head. "I can't say, sir. It's my fault, I should have done a more detailed back ground check, I compl-"
"Shut up Eberts!" The Official barked. Eberts instantly went quiet.
After a moment of continued silence Darien looked up from his bandaged hand in curiostiy. Eberts was regarding his boss with a raised eyebrow, and if Darien didn't know better he'd say The Official had a look of complete bliss on his face. At last the Fat Man spoke. "It doesn't matter how they got in, what matters is what they wanted, and how Arnaud's involved in all this."
Eberts began to speak, stopped then began again. "I'm not sure about Arnaud, but when I got here I checked the backups. Seeing as how they'd need a key card to get into the Keep, the best alternative would be to find the backups and steal the information that way." Eberts eyebrows came together with a look of regret. "There are three disks missing."
"Missing?" Darien questioned, the alarm rising that little bit more.
"What was on them?" The Official asked.
"Some partial information about the gland and parts of our last medical check ups."
"Partial?"
Eberts shyly grinned, "I never keep all the information in one spot, just in case, well, of something like this."
The Official chortled with laughter, "haha, good work Eberts!" Then he turned completely serious again. "Still, even partial information is more than I want out there. Darien, I want you to find any leads you can on these two spies and get those disks back!"
"Me?!" Darien asked startled. He was used to the spy, steal, and get slaughtered routine, but despite following Hobbes around for the last year and a half, he still had no clue how Hobbes Net really worked! "What about the others?" He asked feeling a bit frantic.
"Unfortunately, we're having trouble locating them." Eberts replied. "Alex we know is out of the country, and we're pretty sure Hobbes is in, ah…" He frowned at the paper. "It's north of Ridgecrest. We haven't been able to locate The Keeper as yet."
"She's in Utah," Darien glumly told them. Both men's eyebrows shot up in question. Sighing heavily, Darien got to his feet stuffing his hands deep into his pockets. "Well, I guess I better get started."
"I want a report by the end of the day!" The Official roared before Darien made it out the door. Yet all Darien could think was that it'd be the shortest report he'd ever do.
He didn't have even the slightest inkling where to start looking.
…Three Missing Disks
Two Foreign Spies
And Arnaud in a Telephone Booth
