Chapter 4
Claire staggered into the Official's office. She still felt the effects of the drug herself, "Is everyone alright?"
"Well, that depends on what you think *alright* is. If alright is that I don't have a brain exploding headache where my eyes feel like they're about to pop out of my head any minute and I can feel every artery pulsating in my head, then I would have to say 'no'." Darien said as he looked up from the table he was now using to lay down on. "Is it that gas again?" He asked fearfully.
"No," Claire smiled at Darien, "But those certainly are the side effects of the drug that was used on us." She held up a medical carrier with syringes and vials in it, "And I have the cure."
"Great, more needles," Darien whined.
"Well, I can just give you aspirin, but it would take longer and the headache will get worse, QSM worse." Claire held up gauze and a prepared syringe.
"I'm first!" Darien hopped off the table and stuck out his arm. "We have another problem, Claire."
"Yeah and what's that, Darien?" Claire prepared the injection site and inserted the needle into a vein. She pressed down on the plunger and the contents flowed into his arm.
"Hobbes is missing."
"What? Who would take Bobby? It's not the Chinese again is it?" Claire repeated the same procedure with the Official then Eberts.
"I think it has to do with Hobbes investigation." Darien looked worried.
"Maybe he got too close to finding the answer." Claire saw the look on Darien's face. She was just as worried as he was.
Darien thought for a moment as ran his hand through his tattered hair, "But why come here?"
The Official was in heavy thought, "Maybe they wanted to make a statement."
"What…that they can take us out one at a time?" Darien sat down and waited for the headache to subside.
The Official leaned back in his chair while he looked at Eberts, "Eberts, get Monroe on the phone, we're going to need her help on this one and she can keep an eye on Fawkes."
"Yes, sir…right away, sir." Eberts quickly picked up the phone and called Alex Monroe.
Darien rolled his eyes, "Great, is that necessary?"
"Yes, I need protection for my most valuable agent." The Official said.
"Don't you mean your most valuable gland?" Darien glared at the Official.
The Official cocked his head and nodded, "Speaking of, Claire, I want you to check the gland, make sure that what ever drug was used didn't effect it."
"Well thank you for your concern, the receptacle is feeling better. Thought I'd just let you know that." Darien left in a huff with Claire trailing behind him.
~*~
Hobbes woke up in a room, tied to a chair, gagged and blindfolded. Not a good thing to wake up too. The last thing he remembered was sitting in the Fat Man's office, feeling dizzy then everything went dark. He didn't even know if Fawkes was with him or not.
Hobbes sat there for awhile before someone came in and spoke to him, "This will help with the headache."
Hobbes felt a needle prick in his arm and then the gag was taken off. He moved his mouth around to loosen up the muscles, "You do realize I'm a Federal Agent for the United States of America and what you're doing…" Hobbes looked into the eyes of his captor. He tried to hide his emotion but couldn't.
"Yes, yes…You remember me don't you?"
"What do you want?" Hobbes followed the sounds of the footsteps.
"To continue what was started several months ago."
"Oh yeah, well, you're not going to get any help from me. Bobby Hobbes doesn't break so easily."
"Oh, you did the last time."
Hobbes listened as the footsteps walked away then stopped. He heard voices in the background. "Well, how 'bout I don't waste your time and you just go ahead and kill me."
The man laughed, "Agent Hobbes, that's not our intention at least not yet."
"I won't break," Hobbes kept repeating this in his mind.
The man leaned down to whisper in Hobbes ear, "You will, Agent Hobbes, you will."
Hobbes and Darien had spent months trying to heal from their last ordeal with the SWRB. They had tried to turn both of them into killing machines. The RATT device and the mental conditioning had worked on Hobbes, but on Darien, it had gone wrong. Now Hobbes feared that they had fixed their treatment and was ready to try it out again, which meant they must have Darien also.
'I've got to hold myself together for the kid,' Hobbes thought to himself as he tested the restraints. "Hang in there, Fawkes, don't let them get to ya."
~*~
Darien walked into the Keep behind Claire and he stopped when he saw her turn around. A concerned expression was written all over her face as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, "I was so worried about you."
Darien smiled, "You were?"
"Yes, when Claire called me and asked to come in to help she told me what happened. Did the medication help?" Lehana ran her hand over his face.
"Yeah, it's workin' but Hobbes is missing."
"What?" Lehana said in shock.
"Yeah, we think that the same people who almost killed me took him." Darien was concerned about his best friend. "These people well, are not very nice. I'm gonna go out to try and find him with Monroe after my tests are finished."
"Darien, you be careful."
"I will." He leaned down and pulled her in for a kiss. Claire stood off to the side and smiled. Darien broke the kiss and hugged her tight, "I can definitely get used to this."
"Well, you know what they say, 'Once you've gone black you never go back.'"
"Once you've gone vanilla no other flavah will thrill ya."
Lehana laughed and looked up at him, "Is that what white people say?"
"I don't know, I just made that up. I had to think of something for you," Darien said.
"Ahem, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to run some tests on the gland," Claire announced.
Darien rolled his eyes. He and Lehana walked towards the counteragent chair and he plopped himself down. "Uhm, Claire, how come you didn't tell me that Lee was here?"
Claire looked at him with curved brows, "Lee? Well, we certainly are getting to know each other aren't we?"
Lehana smiled as she looked at Darien. Darien looked at her and grinned. Claire noticed the two of them and waited. Neither one said a word as they continued to stare at each other. "Well, I guess that answers my question, which is why I didn't say anything. The Official may not allow me to call Dr. Rowe anymore when I need her help if you two are involved," Claire said as she got her supplies ready to run her tests.
"Ah, the whole conflict of interest thing," Darien said as he took his shirt off and tossed it to Lehana. Darien was so used to Claire and her tests that he knew what he needed to do and didn't think twice about it. Lehana folded his shirt and set it down on the table, "Claire, do you need my help with anything?"
"As a matter of fact, yes, I will need your help. The quicker we can get his tests done he can go out and find Bobby," Claire said.
"True, I'll stick around then, just tell me what you want me to do," Lehana said.
~*~
Alex walked in the Official's office and she had an annoyed expression on her face, "What happened?"
"SWRB," Darien said as he leaned up against the window. All his tests had come back normal and the gland was not affected by the chemicals used on him.
"Are you sure?" Alex sat down.
"Agent Hobbes apparently found evidence on some photographs that he suspected was SWRB." Eberts said.
"Like what?" Alex asked.
The Official turned to Eberts, "Show her."
A few moments later, Alex was studying the information that Hobbes had gathered. She had combined it with what she had found. Darien studied the film that had been taken the day of the mission.
Alex looked up, "You might not want to see what happens next," she said in a concerned voice.
"I know," Darien paused as he looked at the screen. "But hey, I have another story to tell my grandchildren."
Alex laughed, "The Invisible Geriatric Man, I can see it now…or not."
"Very funny," Darien retorted. He stared at the screen and watched as the Darien on TV stumbled from the house. He shifted uneasily on the chair as he saw how close to death he really was.
Darien was so busy watching Claire work on him that at first he didn't see the bushes move. But Alex did.
"Whoa…what the hell was that?"
"Ahh…I would say that's Claire putting a tube down my throat."
"No…not that…rewind it," Alex moved closer to the TV. "Okay, stop there, now watch the bushes here." Alex pointed to the area. The bushes on the film moved, "There, right there, did you see it?"
Darien rewound the tape again. "Oh crap…This is what Hobbes was talking about this morning only we didn't get this far."
"Where are the time lapsed pictures…you know the ones with the black hummer in the background?"
Darien and Alex scanned through the pictures that Hobbes had and they didn't see anything. Alex then pulled out the ones she had that were taken from a different angle.
Darien looked at one picture and then another, "Oh…oh…Monroe, take a look." Darien showed her the pictures, "Look here, the door is closed, right?"
"Right."
Darien showed her the next one, "The door is opened," he grabbed the next one, "And now the door is closing…look…you put them together and you get one of those moving cartoon things."
Alex watched as Darien stacked the pictures and then flipped through them quickly. They both watched as the door to the hummer opened and then closed without anyone visible. Alex and Darien looked at each other in shock.
"Another invisible man or woman?" Alex said.
"Or their doors automatically open and close," Darien retorted.
The Official grunted. Alex and Darien turned to look at him. "How did they develop another gland?"
"That's what I'm going to find out," Darien stood up and grabbed his jacket.
"Be careful," The Official said.
"I'll keep my eye on him," Alex added.
Darien paused, "If they have him, Monroe, we need to find him."
The black corvette convertible made its way down the streets of San Diego. Darien could tell that Alex kept looking at him since they left the Agency. Finally he turned to her, "What?"
"So, how was it?"
"How was what?"
Alex shook her head, "Your date."
Darien laughed, "Hobbes told you, huh? Well, it was a date until he crashed it. We ended up talking about his theories on who gassed the bad guys." Darien looked visibly nervous and Alex could tell that this whole incident had unnerved him
"Darien, I read the reports on what they did to you and Hobbes. No one blames either of you for what happened that night at the Agency."
Darien stared at Alex for a moment. She caught his far off stare. "Look, I know it's hard, having to relive what happened again, but…"
"I know it's just that…I had started to make some progress in that department. You know, on the road to recovery. With Hobbes in their hands again…it scares me. It's bringing back memories of what they did to me, of what they tried to make me do."
Alex reached and patted Darien on his knee in a reassuring way. Darien studied the hand on his knee and smiled. "You know, I bet most guys find you irresistible, but I find you totally resistible."
Alex turned her head away from Darien and smirked, "Okay, I deserved that." Darien smiled as he stared off at the scenery as they drove down the street.
~*~
Hobbes was placed in an isolation room with only one door and four cement walls. A camera with a red blinking light was set up high in the top corner of the room. They had given him white scrubs to wear and socks. The only furniture in the room was a bed. He prepared himself mentally for the brainwashing to begin. He was determined that what happened the last time would not happen again.
Like before, he had no watch on and the lights were kept dim. He knew the routine, confuse the subject and make him feel abandoned. The difference this time was that Hobbes was not restrained. This confused to him. "Ahh, but then maybe that's the point, to confuse me," he thought out loud to himself. "I would expect them to restrain me and start the brainwashing, but if they do things differently then before, then they would succeed in confusing me and that would make it easier for them." He sat on the bed and he thought about Fawkes. "I've got to get out of here and find him," he started to think of a plan to rescue his friend.
TBC…
Claire staggered into the Official's office. She still felt the effects of the drug herself, "Is everyone alright?"
"Well, that depends on what you think *alright* is. If alright is that I don't have a brain exploding headache where my eyes feel like they're about to pop out of my head any minute and I can feel every artery pulsating in my head, then I would have to say 'no'." Darien said as he looked up from the table he was now using to lay down on. "Is it that gas again?" He asked fearfully.
"No," Claire smiled at Darien, "But those certainly are the side effects of the drug that was used on us." She held up a medical carrier with syringes and vials in it, "And I have the cure."
"Great, more needles," Darien whined.
"Well, I can just give you aspirin, but it would take longer and the headache will get worse, QSM worse." Claire held up gauze and a prepared syringe.
"I'm first!" Darien hopped off the table and stuck out his arm. "We have another problem, Claire."
"Yeah and what's that, Darien?" Claire prepared the injection site and inserted the needle into a vein. She pressed down on the plunger and the contents flowed into his arm.
"Hobbes is missing."
"What? Who would take Bobby? It's not the Chinese again is it?" Claire repeated the same procedure with the Official then Eberts.
"I think it has to do with Hobbes investigation." Darien looked worried.
"Maybe he got too close to finding the answer." Claire saw the look on Darien's face. She was just as worried as he was.
Darien thought for a moment as ran his hand through his tattered hair, "But why come here?"
The Official was in heavy thought, "Maybe they wanted to make a statement."
"What…that they can take us out one at a time?" Darien sat down and waited for the headache to subside.
The Official leaned back in his chair while he looked at Eberts, "Eberts, get Monroe on the phone, we're going to need her help on this one and she can keep an eye on Fawkes."
"Yes, sir…right away, sir." Eberts quickly picked up the phone and called Alex Monroe.
Darien rolled his eyes, "Great, is that necessary?"
"Yes, I need protection for my most valuable agent." The Official said.
"Don't you mean your most valuable gland?" Darien glared at the Official.
The Official cocked his head and nodded, "Speaking of, Claire, I want you to check the gland, make sure that what ever drug was used didn't effect it."
"Well thank you for your concern, the receptacle is feeling better. Thought I'd just let you know that." Darien left in a huff with Claire trailing behind him.
~*~
Hobbes woke up in a room, tied to a chair, gagged and blindfolded. Not a good thing to wake up too. The last thing he remembered was sitting in the Fat Man's office, feeling dizzy then everything went dark. He didn't even know if Fawkes was with him or not.
Hobbes sat there for awhile before someone came in and spoke to him, "This will help with the headache."
Hobbes felt a needle prick in his arm and then the gag was taken off. He moved his mouth around to loosen up the muscles, "You do realize I'm a Federal Agent for the United States of America and what you're doing…" Hobbes looked into the eyes of his captor. He tried to hide his emotion but couldn't.
"Yes, yes…You remember me don't you?"
"What do you want?" Hobbes followed the sounds of the footsteps.
"To continue what was started several months ago."
"Oh yeah, well, you're not going to get any help from me. Bobby Hobbes doesn't break so easily."
"Oh, you did the last time."
Hobbes listened as the footsteps walked away then stopped. He heard voices in the background. "Well, how 'bout I don't waste your time and you just go ahead and kill me."
The man laughed, "Agent Hobbes, that's not our intention at least not yet."
"I won't break," Hobbes kept repeating this in his mind.
The man leaned down to whisper in Hobbes ear, "You will, Agent Hobbes, you will."
Hobbes and Darien had spent months trying to heal from their last ordeal with the SWRB. They had tried to turn both of them into killing machines. The RATT device and the mental conditioning had worked on Hobbes, but on Darien, it had gone wrong. Now Hobbes feared that they had fixed their treatment and was ready to try it out again, which meant they must have Darien also.
'I've got to hold myself together for the kid,' Hobbes thought to himself as he tested the restraints. "Hang in there, Fawkes, don't let them get to ya."
~*~
Darien walked into the Keep behind Claire and he stopped when he saw her turn around. A concerned expression was written all over her face as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, "I was so worried about you."
Darien smiled, "You were?"
"Yes, when Claire called me and asked to come in to help she told me what happened. Did the medication help?" Lehana ran her hand over his face.
"Yeah, it's workin' but Hobbes is missing."
"What?" Lehana said in shock.
"Yeah, we think that the same people who almost killed me took him." Darien was concerned about his best friend. "These people well, are not very nice. I'm gonna go out to try and find him with Monroe after my tests are finished."
"Darien, you be careful."
"I will." He leaned down and pulled her in for a kiss. Claire stood off to the side and smiled. Darien broke the kiss and hugged her tight, "I can definitely get used to this."
"Well, you know what they say, 'Once you've gone black you never go back.'"
"Once you've gone vanilla no other flavah will thrill ya."
Lehana laughed and looked up at him, "Is that what white people say?"
"I don't know, I just made that up. I had to think of something for you," Darien said.
"Ahem, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to run some tests on the gland," Claire announced.
Darien rolled his eyes. He and Lehana walked towards the counteragent chair and he plopped himself down. "Uhm, Claire, how come you didn't tell me that Lee was here?"
Claire looked at him with curved brows, "Lee? Well, we certainly are getting to know each other aren't we?"
Lehana smiled as she looked at Darien. Darien looked at her and grinned. Claire noticed the two of them and waited. Neither one said a word as they continued to stare at each other. "Well, I guess that answers my question, which is why I didn't say anything. The Official may not allow me to call Dr. Rowe anymore when I need her help if you two are involved," Claire said as she got her supplies ready to run her tests.
"Ah, the whole conflict of interest thing," Darien said as he took his shirt off and tossed it to Lehana. Darien was so used to Claire and her tests that he knew what he needed to do and didn't think twice about it. Lehana folded his shirt and set it down on the table, "Claire, do you need my help with anything?"
"As a matter of fact, yes, I will need your help. The quicker we can get his tests done he can go out and find Bobby," Claire said.
"True, I'll stick around then, just tell me what you want me to do," Lehana said.
~*~
Alex walked in the Official's office and she had an annoyed expression on her face, "What happened?"
"SWRB," Darien said as he leaned up against the window. All his tests had come back normal and the gland was not affected by the chemicals used on him.
"Are you sure?" Alex sat down.
"Agent Hobbes apparently found evidence on some photographs that he suspected was SWRB." Eberts said.
"Like what?" Alex asked.
The Official turned to Eberts, "Show her."
A few moments later, Alex was studying the information that Hobbes had gathered. She had combined it with what she had found. Darien studied the film that had been taken the day of the mission.
Alex looked up, "You might not want to see what happens next," she said in a concerned voice.
"I know," Darien paused as he looked at the screen. "But hey, I have another story to tell my grandchildren."
Alex laughed, "The Invisible Geriatric Man, I can see it now…or not."
"Very funny," Darien retorted. He stared at the screen and watched as the Darien on TV stumbled from the house. He shifted uneasily on the chair as he saw how close to death he really was.
Darien was so busy watching Claire work on him that at first he didn't see the bushes move. But Alex did.
"Whoa…what the hell was that?"
"Ahh…I would say that's Claire putting a tube down my throat."
"No…not that…rewind it," Alex moved closer to the TV. "Okay, stop there, now watch the bushes here." Alex pointed to the area. The bushes on the film moved, "There, right there, did you see it?"
Darien rewound the tape again. "Oh crap…This is what Hobbes was talking about this morning only we didn't get this far."
"Where are the time lapsed pictures…you know the ones with the black hummer in the background?"
Darien and Alex scanned through the pictures that Hobbes had and they didn't see anything. Alex then pulled out the ones she had that were taken from a different angle.
Darien looked at one picture and then another, "Oh…oh…Monroe, take a look." Darien showed her the pictures, "Look here, the door is closed, right?"
"Right."
Darien showed her the next one, "The door is opened," he grabbed the next one, "And now the door is closing…look…you put them together and you get one of those moving cartoon things."
Alex watched as Darien stacked the pictures and then flipped through them quickly. They both watched as the door to the hummer opened and then closed without anyone visible. Alex and Darien looked at each other in shock.
"Another invisible man or woman?" Alex said.
"Or their doors automatically open and close," Darien retorted.
The Official grunted. Alex and Darien turned to look at him. "How did they develop another gland?"
"That's what I'm going to find out," Darien stood up and grabbed his jacket.
"Be careful," The Official said.
"I'll keep my eye on him," Alex added.
Darien paused, "If they have him, Monroe, we need to find him."
The black corvette convertible made its way down the streets of San Diego. Darien could tell that Alex kept looking at him since they left the Agency. Finally he turned to her, "What?"
"So, how was it?"
"How was what?"
Alex shook her head, "Your date."
Darien laughed, "Hobbes told you, huh? Well, it was a date until he crashed it. We ended up talking about his theories on who gassed the bad guys." Darien looked visibly nervous and Alex could tell that this whole incident had unnerved him
"Darien, I read the reports on what they did to you and Hobbes. No one blames either of you for what happened that night at the Agency."
Darien stared at Alex for a moment. She caught his far off stare. "Look, I know it's hard, having to relive what happened again, but…"
"I know it's just that…I had started to make some progress in that department. You know, on the road to recovery. With Hobbes in their hands again…it scares me. It's bringing back memories of what they did to me, of what they tried to make me do."
Alex reached and patted Darien on his knee in a reassuring way. Darien studied the hand on his knee and smiled. "You know, I bet most guys find you irresistible, but I find you totally resistible."
Alex turned her head away from Darien and smirked, "Okay, I deserved that." Darien smiled as he stared off at the scenery as they drove down the street.
~*~
Hobbes was placed in an isolation room with only one door and four cement walls. A camera with a red blinking light was set up high in the top corner of the room. They had given him white scrubs to wear and socks. The only furniture in the room was a bed. He prepared himself mentally for the brainwashing to begin. He was determined that what happened the last time would not happen again.
Like before, he had no watch on and the lights were kept dim. He knew the routine, confuse the subject and make him feel abandoned. The difference this time was that Hobbes was not restrained. This confused to him. "Ahh, but then maybe that's the point, to confuse me," he thought out loud to himself. "I would expect them to restrain me and start the brainwashing, but if they do things differently then before, then they would succeed in confusing me and that would make it easier for them." He sat on the bed and he thought about Fawkes. "I've got to get out of here and find him," he started to think of a plan to rescue his friend.
TBC…