Revelations

Chapter Three

Frank waited several minutes before going downstairs to fill the rest of the team in on what had been discussed on the phone. Actually he needed the time to come to grips with situation. Every fiber of his being was screaming that this was a monumentally bad idea. He didn't want her here. The two of them working together again, especially now, could spell disaster. Not that she wasn't a competent profiler, in fact, she was one of the best. No…the problem was a personal one. One he guessed he was just going to have to try his best to live with. So much for keeping your personal and professional lives separate. Sighing once more, he opened the office door and proceeded down the stairs.

"People……listen up," he announced as he approached the main seating area. He noticed that Jake, Alex and Monica were present already. Cody was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Cody?" Frank inquired, looking around.

"Still sleeping," Jake answered. "You want me to wake him?" he asked with a glint of mischievousness in his eye, remembering all too well how the young tech-op had woken him from a sound sleep some months ago. Ice water down the back was no way to be startled awake.

"Yeah, get him up. This concerns him too," Frank replied. "And Jake……no horsing around…we don't have the time." He couldn't help but chuckle to himself when he saw the look of disappointment on Jake's face as he turned to retrieve Cody.

A few moments later, Jake and a very sleepy Cody emerged from the area where the sleeping cots had been placed. The two made their way to the conference table.

"Alright……first off. Do we have any more info on the type of mechanisms used to construct the bombs?" Frank began.

The four were silent until Cody seemed to remember that this was his responsibility. "Oh…right….that's me." Scooting his chair over to his nearest computer console, he retrieved a manila folder and began to page through it.

"So far, the components used are fairly common. In fact, most are things that can be bought at any local hardware store. There are a few partial pieces that we're trying to identify, but so far nothing definitive."

"OK…..Alex? Jake? Any other leads from the police phone line?"

"We spent the afternoon following up on a few calls, but nothing. Just crackpots who get off on trying to get in on the action," Jake answered for the two.

"And still no sign of our suspect," Alex added. "When he left his house, we'll have to assume it's for good. The PD has the area staked out and so far they've seen nothing. The usual statewide APB's have been posted. We've also alerted Canadian authorities in case the guy decides to head for the border. But so far, the elusive Mr. Henry Sumner is nowhere to be found."

"Right. Monica……it's been almost five days since this guy's last strike. What or where do you think he's going to hit next?"

Monica considered the question for a few seconds before replying, knowing the importance of supplying accurate information to the rest of the team. Rising from her chair she approached one of the adjacent computer terminals and clicked a few keys. Up popped a map of the Chicago area with several spots highlighted in red.

"This is a map of the bomber's previous hits. The mailbox, the restaurant, the playground, etc. If we highlight his house and consider that ground zero, as you can see, his comfort zone is expanding. As with most serial criminals, he started close to home and slowly moved outward as his confidence level increased. In this guy's case not only is he expanding geographically, he's also increased his level of destruction. His first bombs were simple, nothing more sophisticated than a few packs of firecrackers taped together. The last ones are…well…..a hell of a lot more complex." She paused briefly and then turned and leaned against one of the counters folding her arms across her chest.

"As for the next target, I wouldn't be surprised if he targeted someplace where there would be a lot of people. And as to why he's waited so long, I can only surmise that what he has in store will be his biggest and most complicated hit yet." She sighed and looked down at her shoes. "I know that's not enough information to go on, but at this point if I tried to come up with specifics, I'd only be guessing."

Frank studied the young profiler for a few seconds before responding. Of all of them in that room, her job was the most complex. Sure Jake and Alex regularly put their lives in danger and some of the things that Cody could accomplish on a computer could only be described as something close to miraculous, but she was expected to crawl inside the head of whatever type of criminal they were chasing this week and come up with viable motives and actions. All in all, an incredibly difficult job.

"All right. You're correct, at least at this point any scenarios any of us could come up with would only be guesses." He paused for a brief moment, trying to decide how best to broach the next subject. Looking around the table he saw them all eyeing him curiously. They can tell that I'm stalling. Might as well get to it.

"As you know, I had a conversation earlier with Craig Stevens." He saw the group shift uncomfortably in their seats, trying their best to stifle the groans that he could imagine them emitting. "I know, I know, he's not your favorite person, but I think this time he may have made a valid point."

"Well that'd be a first," Jake interjected sarcastically. "What did our fearless director have to say this time?" Frank shot Jake a disapproving look, although inwardly he had to agree with him.

"We were discussing personnel allocation."

"Come again?" Alex asked confused.

"He wanted to talk about how we were dividing our time up, especially since I told him that we were working round-the-clock on this one." He glanced at the four and saw that they were listening intently waiting for him to get to the point. "He feels that we need more personnel on board if we're going to continue to go 24-7 on this."

"He wants to bring in outsiders? Now??" Jake asked suspiciously. "How many people are we talking about here?"

"He suggested two people." Here we go….. "Someone to help with tech-ops and another to help with profiling." He watched the reaction closely. Cody immediately took a defensive posture, kind of like 'no way in hell am I letting someone else touch this equipment.' Monica, on the other hand, looked rather shocked and somewhat defeated, as if he had just told her that her work here was not good enough.

"Let me explain before anyone says anything," he started, hoping to head off any battles that could be forthcoming. "The point he made was this……at any given point during the day, we're without one of you. At least with Jake, Alex and myself, we can divide our time so that at least one of us is available at all times to follow up on leads. For the two of you, that's not the case. What he suggested was that we bring in these extra people so that we would have round-the-clock coverage in all areas." He saw Monica's posture change slightly. She at least would be willing to listen to reason. Cody, however, still looked like he was willing to fight about this.

"He's not suggesting……I'm not suggesting that either one of you is not doing your job to the best of your ability. Quite the contrary, what the two of you have contributed so far is outstanding as always. Please don't feel that this is a reflection on either one of you."

"So….do we have any names, yet?" Cody asked defensively.

"The tech-op is someone that I worked with before. His name is David Kelton."

"Hot damn! You shittin' me?" Cody nearly yelled, a wide smile now plastered across his face.

"No Cody. I am not shittin' you. I take it you're all right with this now."

"You better believe it! I went through training with Kelton. He's one of the best out there, present company excluded, of course," he added with false humility.

"Well good. He should be here by later this evening. Now, our new behavioral expert should be here by sometime tomorrow. Her name is Laura Daniels. Monica…..I trust you'll be able to get her up to speed as quickly as possible."

"No problem. I'll have all available data ready for her when she gets here. May I suggest that for the first day, the two of us work together?"

"That's a good idea. The two of you can bounce ideas off each other while she's getting settled." Monica nodded her head in approval.

"Good. Now that that's all settled do we have anything further? Any new details on this guy's background? History?" The four shook there heads in the negative.

"All right. Let's get back to work. I'll be in my office if you need me."

The four agents watched their boss climb the stairs and disappear into his second floor office. When he was well out of sight, Jake turned to the others and said, "Anyone else see that?"

"See what?" Alex inquired confused.

"The look on his face when he mentioned the new girl's name."

"What are you talking about Jake? I didn't see any look," Monica replied.

"I don't know…..it wasn't there for long…..just a fraction of a second. It almost looked like he…..I don't know……winced or something. Like this wasn't such a good thing, her coming here."

"I think you're dreaming Jake," Alex announced. "You're just imagining things."

"Oh yeah?" he answered defensively. "I tell you, I know what I saw. And there is definitely something up." he looked at the other three and knew that they didn't believe him. "Ok, Cody…..see what you can dig up on this new girl. Maybe there'll be some clue in her file."

Cody sighed heavily and rolled his eyes but he moved to do as Jake requested. "You're getting as bad as Donovan….Cody do this….Cody do that," he mumbled under his breath. "It'll be nice to have someone else here to get ordered around." Typing away at his computer console, he soon found what he was looking for.

"Ok……let's see…….Laura Daniels……..she's been with the FBI for…….looks like the past 10 years, although for the last four she's been working as a freelance consultant. She only works when she wants to basically. Nice……her background is in serial criminology with emphasis on violent offenders………and she's quite a looker too. 5'8", blonde hair, green eyes…….very nice," he added appreciatively while admiring her file photo. "Let's see if we can go back a little further……..damn!"

"What is it?" Jake asked looking over his shoulder.

"Her file's classified. Anything before the past ten years is totally off limits and come to think of it……there's not a whole lot of personal info on her regular record either."

"See…..I told you there's something going on," Jake stated, proud of himself.

"Jake….you don't know shit. Just because part of the girl's background is classified doesn't mean that there's something going on," Monica berated. "And as for a lack of personal info, try checking your own file sometime. You might see a similarity."

Jake looked at the others perplexed. He didn't understand how they could miss what he thought was a red flag moment. Everything in him, all the instincts he depended on when he was undercover, told him that there was a huge missing piece of a puzzle staring them all squarely in the face. He didn't get how they were so willing to overlook it.

"Hey….I'm not saying she's a bad person or anything. I'm just saying there's more to the story here," he stated defensively.

"What story Jake?" Alex asked quizzically. "Let it go. And for God's sake, when she gets here, don't give her the third degree," she added tiredly.

"All right….geez…..I'll let it go, but I'm telling' you, there's more to the story."

"Fine….whatever…..can we please get back to work?" Alex asked exasperatedly.

The four then set about their respective duties. Jake and Alex left to check in with the local PD. Monica began compiling all pertinent information for her new colleague and Cody started dreaming about how nice it was going to be to have someone else around who understood all the tech garble that often escaped his mouth.

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Shortly after entering his office, Frank was sure that the other four agents were now doing their best to disseminate the information he had just given them. The fact that Cody knew Dave Kelton was a huge plus. That was one hurdle avoided. No….the obstacle that they were all tackling right now had to do with their soon to be new profiler. None of them knew her, and he was fairly sure that they were now looking up her file trying to get a handle on who they'd be dealing with.

He knew what was in her file. Nothing too specific and anything too telling had been deleted or encrypted a long time ago. The less they know, the better. Part of him didn't want things to be that way, but the other part of him knew that it was for the best. It'll be easier for them to work with her, if they didn't know all the facts.

Leaning back in his chair, he sighed heavily and rubbed his face vigorously. Damn, I'm tired! I can't remember the last time I felt this tired. Yes…..you can. Don't go there Donovan. Rising from the chair he paced the office hoping that a little movement might help to wake him up. He soon found himself leaning on his chair staring at his phone. I should probably call her…………no……tomorrow will come soon enough. It always did.

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