RUN
By Jules
CHAPTER FOUR - SELF-RELIANCE
Icealina – a new reader – YAY !! – come on in and take a seat for a while – the ride is about to get quite bumpy so you better buckle up.
Sara – Made your day? – I aim to please where I can. You remembered my IT story – the one that I started so long ago that I promise will be completed. Except in that one they were like ghosts and could see and be in the same places. This idea is like the gadget I used in Hauntings – you have such a great memory for my stories. The Rodriguez name is totally picked out of thin air. Please keep reading and reviewing.
Kiddo – I swear, I haven't read your story, but I will wait until after I write this one and jump right on over there. This one shouldn't go down any familiar paths. LOTR fan – snickers inwardly – you are only looking at the most obsessed fan ever – and the proof is on my author page – but ROTK is not where I got that idea from. I just pictured Lucas looking out the window at Bridger – they wouldn't have been able to hear each other anyway because of the glass, so the goodbye was a silent one.
Dolphinology – thanks for the comments – I truly appreciate every review I get. I try and update as quickly as I can, but I write 3 different fandoms so I have to spread what little writing time I have between all of them to keep all the readers happy. Please keep reading.
Joxer – I was waiting at the airport for you – didn't see you LOL. It takes forever because I need more than 50 hours in a day instead of 24 and even that wouldn't be enough. You don't need to make me write, I love doing it – but I know how frustrating it is waiting. I just wish I could spend every day writing fan fiction. More cookies on their way – but only if you keep reading.
Inhi – Yeah, I can leave you like that, the evil person that I am. Makes you all stick around longer and want to read more. LOL. Keep reading. Updates as often and as soon as I can which sometimes is difficult.
Linari – Don't have to wait any longer – here is the next chapter. Glad you are enjoying it so far.
okay – on with the next part – might not be as long as other chapters – some of this should have been tacked onto the end of the last chapter.
Enjoy !! and please remember to let me know how it is going.
The forty minutes soon turned into two hours before Lucas showed any signs of regaining consciousness. The crew had been anxiously monitoring his condition, especially Kristin who had voiced her outraged opinion on more than one occasion during that time of drugging teenagers just to place a bug on them.
"Oh man," Lucas groaned as he tried to open his eyes and sit up all at once. Bad idea he told himself as his head throbbed from the effort. He brought his hand to his head to try and massage the pain away. It was now that he noticed the new piece of jewellery adorning his wrist.
"Why that...," Lucas shouted, adding a colour array of obscenities along with it directed at Harris who had placed it there. He already knew its purpose.
Lucas tried to pull himself off the chair, leaning against the armrest heavily for a moment while his regained his equilibrium. He cursed out loud again at the weakness he felt due to whatever concoction Harris had chosen to put into his can of soda.
Lucas's gaze was drawn to the number of revolving cameras working in the corners of the ceiling, and then he remembered the large mirror. In utter and sheer cheekiness, he now openly waved at the two agents behind the mirror. "Hi guys."
Kreig was sent into fits of laughter again as he come to like this new brash version of Lucas. Bridger was about to chastise the Lieutenant but instead smiled along with him. It was kind of fun to see a different side of Lucas.
"I am going to order Chinese, you guys want any?" Lucas said as he made his way to the phone.
"I will dial Hong Fu's on West Street," he informed them, holding up the yellow pages. The agents in the room made sure that the number being punched in was the same as the book. It couldn't hurt too much to get some take away food.
"I didn't even know Lucas like Chinese food all that much. He doesn't say so back here on the boat," Kreig noted out loud. The others nodded their heads in agreement at not knowing the teenager's like of oriental cuisine.
After hanging up, Lucas looked about the room and tried to decide what to do until the food was delivered. He grabbed the remote control and slump down onto the couch, flicking on the television to see if anything was worth watching.
Lucas found his gaze constantly wandering down to the bracelet around his wrist. It was awkward and cumbersome. He tried slipping letter opener underneath it to try and prise it off.
"Damn it," Lucas shouted as the letter opener caught on the skin and made a small cut on the inside of his wrist that began bleeding. He tossed the letter opener on a nearby coffee table, knowing that he would have to come up with another method of getting it off. While he pondered that thought, he held a tissue to the cut to stem the flow of blood.
Kristin had gasped out loud as Lucas fiddled with the letter opening, already guessing at the possible outcome and consequences. She was already promising to talk to him sternly once they were able to, much to the amusement of other crew members in the room.
A voice came from a microphone attached to one of the remote control cameras, "Your food is here kid," one of the agents behind the mirror informed him.
"Oh good, I am starved," Lucas declared, eager to head to the door.
"Wait a minute, we have to frisk the delivery boy to make sure he is safe," the agent stated.
Lucas rolled his eyes dramatically at such a statement, "You better check for the poisoned spike he is packing on him too and the sonic missile device he has jammed up his butt," the teenager said sarcastically.
The agents ignored the comments, but glared back at Lucas, totally unimpressed. They didn't ask to be there as baby-sitters, that was for sure. They could be out on the beat doing something more worthwhile.
Ben Krieg was laughing so hard it hurt. He wondered how long the teenager had been hiding this other side of him. When he came back to the boat, there were so many things they could enjoy doing together. That is, if he returned to the boat, he reminded himself solemnly. But then started laughing again at Lucas' bold comments. That was one to write down for his own private collection for later reference.
"Okay, he's clean," the agent said, allowing the slightly confused delivery boy through the door. Lucas couldn't help but smile at the person who stood before him. He couldn't have planned this better if he had tried. Standing before him was a way out of this place.
"Do you mind if the guy stays and shares the food with me," Lucas asked, winking to the delivery person.
"Nah, go ahead. We checked him out, he's okay," the agent said, glancing at the magazine he was reading rather than the two teenagers in the room. So long as they did what they were supposed to and not very much else, the two of them were happy. They just had to make sure that the kid didn't get killed until Harris came back in the morning and they would be off the hook.
Bridger and the others became intrigued as Lucas put a finger to his lips at the other boy, shushing him. Lucas tiptoed just out of frame of the remote control cameras, having been well acquainted with their optimum recording distance in the past. Lucas stood on the seat of a chair and ever so carefully, pulled at a wire on one of the cameras.
He climbed back down and walked back into frame as though he had just stepped to the side for a moment, "Don't worry, the guys in there can't hear anything that is said in here now," Lucas said with a smile.
"Dolts, when will they realise that they are messing with the best," Lucas said as he waved comically at the agents who were blissfully unaware that they were no longer able to hear any conversation. To them, they could see the two boys talking, but assumed that they were speaking softly.
"We can still hear him just fine," Commander Ford pointed out as he watched Lucas effectively disable the security equipment. Not all of it. Lucas was much to smart for that. He knew he could only do it on a small scale, so that it wouldn't be noticed exactly what he had done. With the agents still having visual contact to the room, they were being had and didn't even know it yet.
"Now that they can't hear us, we can relax a little," Lucas said. "How the hell have you been Wolfy?"
"Great Lucas," the other boy said, losing all of his nervousness in a second, the minute he knew they weren't being overheard.
"I think I got everything you asked for. Don't quote me. I don't often have what you asked for just laying around you know."
"Whatever you did will be just fine," Lucas assured his friend.
"Let's set the food down on the coffee table there so it looks like we are just eating. Then we can get down to the other goodies you brought. Just be careful about showing anything too openly."
"How does he know this other fellow?" Bridger said incredulously.
Did Lucas plan this? And if he did how? The boy seemed to have the art of espionage well at hand. He was very good at being that little bit deceptive so it looked like he was doing exactly what he was told.
"He is a shrewd operator, I will admit that," Ford commented. "I should have had Lucas help out on a few more missions during his last tour. I could have used someone like him."
"The point is, we didn't even know he had the skills to pull any thing like this off back then, Jonathan," Kristin said, still trying to comprehend what all of this meant for Lucas in the long term. He had obviously gained these skills over the years after being forced to rely on himself after what Diana had told them happened. But where would all of this lead Lucas.
"So where are you moving to?" Lucas's friend asked. It had been plain to him from the start that the teenager wouldn't be hanging around these parts very long. Lucas's theory was simple, if he was threatened or recognized, he would just lay low until things cooled down. Look at another part of the country as it were and change his name again.
"Can't put anything past you can I?" Lucas smiled as he handed Wolfy a paper plate and served some of the takeaway food. "What gave me away?"
"The things you asked for mostly," Wolfy answered with a forkful of noodles in his hand.
"It's not every day I get asked to lend you a car and clothes. I figured something major must have been up for you to call in the first place. Not very you, Lucas."
"Yeah, your probably right about that, and I am sorry that you had to get involved," Lucas replied, putting down the plate of food. He hadn't eaten anything but other things occupied his thoughts at the moment. There was a lot to be considered before he got away from here.
"You didn't answer the question?" Wolfy pointed out matter-of-factly. "Where are you headed?"
"I don't really know myself yet. Did you manage to get the 'other' thing I asked for?" he asked cautiously. He chose not to come right out and ask whether or not he could get his hands on a gun for protection.
"Yes, I got it. My Uncle's .38, he left it at my mom's house a long time ago. I don't even think he knows he hasn't got it anymore."
"It's in the glove compartment of the car that I parked downstairs for you. Are you sure you want to be doing this? You never know, this place could work out for a few days."
"Not!" Lucas stated firmly.
"I never agreed with Harris to come here in the first place. And despite what he says, I definitely don't trust him or Arnold to stop Dalton from getting to me. The odds are not great and I want to be far from here before there is any chance of them finding out where I am."
"Nathan, he is planning to runaway," Kristin said in alarm, noting what everyone else had assumed from Lucas's comments. "We have to stop him. If he leaves, we may never know where he will go to."
"Your right Kristin, but you heard Lucas himself. He doesn't trust this Harris character, and at the moment he is the person in charge of Lucas's safety. I talked to Bill about getting this much information. If we do anything to help Lucas, it will have to be on an unofficial U.E.O. basis. They will severe all ties or knowledge if something goes wrong."
"I don't think you have to worry about that Nathan," Kristin said, looking around the room and seeing the nods of agreement from the other crew members in the room that they would do whatever it took to help keep Lucas safe.
"You have our support Captain," Commander Ford said on behalf of the others.
"We can't let him have a gun, Captain," Ben pointed out firmly. The thought of his teenage friend with a weapon in his hands scared him badly.
"Okay, but for now we will have to use this gadget to keep track of him. Until he looks like leaving. At the moment it is the only link we have to where he is. We don't even have an address." Bridger said.
There was a silence that was clearly visible between Lucas and his friend. Bridger and the crew could see that Lucas had something on the tip of his tongue to say, but either was having trouble finding the right words or wanted to avoid the subject altogether.
"I don't think there will be a coming back this time, Wolfy" Lucas said in a deliberately low tone of voice. He paused, waiting to see what reaction the statement would cause.
Wolfy, although aware that Lucas had disappeared in the past, could hear a conviction in his voice now that spoke the truth. There was something final about this whole little meeting, and he didn't like it one bit.
"I sort of gathered that," Wolfy said, partly in truth. "You have never been one to put down roots too long in any one place. Not since your parents anyway."
Lucas seemed to ignore the reference to his parents, a shadow briefly crossed his face, like a stain that he had heard the words. It passed just as quickly, the teenager putting up his usual mask of resilience.
"Will we see each other again, Lucas?" Wolfe asked in a soft voice, not wanting to say goodbye for fear that it would indeed be the last time they spoke.
"I don't know," Lucas responded. He got up from his chair, and began pacing around the room a little nervously.
"When you do go, the usual arrangements if you get into trouble?" Wolfy asked.
"Yes, for now. Unless it gets too close to call," Lucas answered. "The bus depot key in your letter box. If it is blue, then everything is okay and there will be a message in the locker on 24th street."
"What about if it is red?" Wolfy queried, knowing in the past that colour key had signalled trouble and that Lucas was in danger. It usually also indicated that Lucas had changed addresses again and his name because someone had discovered him.
Lucas looked directly at his friend. "If it is red this time Wolfy, I don't want you to come."
"You can't...," Wolfy began to say, but was cut off sharply before he could finish.
"Yes I can and I mean it this time. If there is a red key you need to forget that you ever knew me or anything about me. It will just my way of letting you know what has happened. Promise me!"
"You know I won't do that," Wolfy said jumping to his own feet and ready to defend his fierce loyalty to his friend. He would help if he could find a way how. He couldn't just pretend that Lucas ever existed. Their friendship went back to far for something like that to be asked.
"Promise me!" Lucas demanded, a little regretful at the tone of voice he was using.
"No!" Wolfy said, clearly seeing it was time to leave and let Lucas alone.
Wolfy gathered his few possessions he had carried in with him and headed towards the door, the two agents behind the mirror, still blissfully unaware of their being an argument between the two friends.
"Thanks for getting the stuff I asked for," Lucas asked, looking at the floor as he spoke and feeling like a ham for treating his friend so appallingly.
It was like with Bridger and the crew, he had to cut all ties and put some distance between them and him. It was the only way to keep them all safe. He couldn't be responsible for any of them coming to harm or having Dalton turn up on their door step.
"I guess saying goodbye sounds a little lame," Wolfy said, but with a genuine smile. No matter what Lucas thought, there would be always those around him that would stick by him, no matter what.
"See you around, maybe in the next life," Lucas responded. It was at that moment that Wolfy knew Lucas meant to leave tonight or tomorrow morning at the very latest.
"He thinks he has to do this all on his own," Kristin commented as she followed the exchange between the two teenagers. It wasn't hard to draw an inference from what had transpired between them and the barriers that Lucas had put between himself and Bridger. He was trying to protect himself from physical harm and the mental anguish at having to leave behind the only family he had come to rely on.
Lucas watched Wolfy leave with a heavy heart. He knew why he was doing this, but it didn't make it any easier to alienate himself. Sometimes just sucked totally.
"I better get ready to go and get a few hours sleep before I head out of here," Lucas said to himself, unaware that the SeaQuest crew could hear him.
Lucas spent the next half an hour, going through the contents of a small backpack that Wolfy had provided. He had two changes of clothes and a few other essential items to keep him until he got to his new destination. In his head he had no real idea of where the road would lead him, but he supposed in his heart, there was a way marked.
Lucas had his concentration squarely on the bag until he startled at a noise outside the door. Instinctively, he crouched away from any light source that was coming into the room. He crept a short distance towards the kitchen, still trying to listen for a clue to what the noise was.
He heard it again, footsteps coming towards him. He doubted the agents behind the mirror could hear them that far away and if it was danger headed his way, it would be too late if a bullet struck him down right before their eyes.
"Run, get out of there Lucas," Bridger shouted at the screen, felling helpless that they could only watch what was going on. He didn't have any address to go on to try and get there to help the teenager.
Kristin was already on the phone to Detective Harris, trying to alert the man to a potential threat that existed to Lucas. She managed to leave an urgent message on his pager and hoped he would respond as quickly as possible.
Lucas opened a drawer in the kitchen and pulled out a long carving knife. He didn't have any other form of protection for himself. The gun he had organized through Wolfy was in the parked car downstairs. Handy but at the moment, not very convenient.
Creeping up to the door frame and holding the knife out in front of him, Lucas listened intently again as the footsteps neared even more. They were definitely headed his way, he just didn't know who they belonged to. It was unlikely that they belonged to Harris as he has only just left a little while ago.
Lucas tried to get the attention of the two agents behind the mirror, but had only managed to make a few waving hand gestures towards them. He couldn't be sure they had even noticed anything was wrong. He was hoping they would notice the knife in his hand and be alerted to his sense of unease.
The teenager now peered through the small peek hole in the centre of the door. He felt like a lamb waiting for the lion to come through the door. He needed to find out who the person or persons were before they got inside. If they were Dalton and his men, packing a piece, then there was little chance of the door stopping them from shooting through the door.
Just as he poised the knife ready to take on his would-be attacker, Lucas got a glimpse of who the footsteps belonged to. His arm fell by his side and he began to laugh a little, realising that the footsteps actually belonged to someone who lived in the building across the hall. Here he was, ready to carve them up like Jack the Ripper. Being cooped up in here was making him crazy.
Back aboard the SeaQuest, the crew also sighed in relief that the situation had not gotten out of control and that the threat seemed to be a false alarm. They had seen the feared look on Lucas's face though and knew the kid was running on pure adrenaline, not knowing who to trust and not who to. They understood why he was relying on himself to make it through a little more.
The two agents now saw the kid with the knife in his hand and caused Lucas to jump a little again as they ran out of their hiding place with guns poised towards the door. Lucas gave them a wry smile for their efforts and their tardiness.
"You alright kid?" the first agent said, clearly trying to hide the fact that they hadn't been paying close enough attention. They could see some of the nervousness still written on Lucas's face at the thought of somebody finding out his new whereabouts so soon.
"Thank you Beavis and Butthead," Lucas replied cheekily. "You're only what, a total of three hours late," he added, pretending to glance at his watch.
"Sorry...we sort of got distracted, that's all," the second agent said in their defence, putting their guns away but scanning the room and hallway to make sure the place was secure again. Harris would go mental when he found out about this blunder.
"And while you two were preoccupied, I could have ended up on the wrong end of a bullet," Lucas pointed out. "Let's try and keep me alive a longer than your first day on the job, huh?"
The two agents ignored the comments, knowing deep down that the teenager was right about the situation. They had to wait for the reaction from Harris now, which was not going to be pretty. They would have to make sure they kept up a better surveillance this time around.
Lucas made a conscious decision that false alarm or not, he had spent way too much time in this one spot already. It wasn't the time to be starting to take chances. He would be going now, as soon as he could manage to get away from their cameras.
"First things, first," Lucas said, grabbed a small implement that Wolfy had provided him with. The crew could see upon closer examination that it was a screwdriver. They watched as Lucas expertly began tampering with the wrist band on his arm. He couldn't afford to escape from here only to have Harris and his boys follow his every move because of the tracker.
It wasn't as easy as he thought though, and he had to conceal what he was doing from the two agents who were watching from behind the mirror. He made sure they could see him but were not taking much notice of what he was trying to do with his arm.
"Ah, got it," Lucas said in triumph, not too loud as to alert the agents though. He looked at the band for a moment, feeling a little ticked off at Harris and his underhanded tactics in the first place. Time to turn the tables. There was only one way to make them think he was still there in the apartment.
Very quietly and carefully, Lucas secured the tracking band around one of the metal pipes under the kitchen sink. Very ingenious he thought to himself and laughed at Harris's reaction when he finally found it. It would still give the agents behind the mirror a signal, but it would also give him the advantage of being able to slip out of the room undetected.
About an hour later, the SeaQuest crew together with Detective Harris, watched in awe and trepidation as they saw Lucas climbing down the fire escape of the apartment building where he had been put.
Harris had gotten Kristin's message and had gotten them on the way to the building. He had been informed by Bridger about the bungle that his two agents had made only a short time ago. He apologized for the mistake, but knew the frustration that they were feeling at having next to know input and not being able to do much to help Lucas.
"Sneaky little devil isn't he," Harris commented. He was just beginning to learn how intuitive and self-reliant Lucas was.
At the moment they all sat together in a darkened van to conceal their presence. If the teenager spotted any of them, he would disappear and they would have no trace of him to go on. They would have to be content enough to watch from a distance for a while and wait for the right time to intercept him.
"That must be the car that Lucas arranged to have left for him," Bridger commented as they saw a stray four wheel drive vehicle parked on its own in the car park of the apartment block.
"There is a gun in the glove compartment," he said, like Krieg not wanting to even contemplate the idea of Lucas handling a weapon.
"Don't worry Captain, we will just give him enough string to make him feel a little safer and then we can reel him in and take him somewhere else safer," Harris promised.
"I still don't like any of it," Commander Ford voiced. Something about this whole set up just sent alarm bells ringing to him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something not quite right.
They all inwardly breathed a sigh of relief when Lucas finally reached the sidewalk and started heading towards the car. The teenager kept looking all around, as if he felt someone breathing down his neck. He had the set of keys the crew had seen earlier in his hand and was quickly approaching the vehicle.
"There are no plates...," Harris noted before his sentence fell away from his mouth.
All in the vehicle watched in horror as the four wheel drive some 50 metres from Lucas now exploded in a ball of flame. The chassis was lifted from the ground and only a burnt out shell came crashing back down, spreading burning debris all over the car park.
"What the hell," Harris shouted, trying to get out of the vehicle in addition to everyone else, astounded at having seen the explosion right before them.
The force of the blast had knocked Lucas to the ground, and he seemed to be getting to his feet very gingerly. Bridger could see a partly torn shirt and singes on the rest of his clothes. He was about to run out to the teenager to check if he was alright and get him to medical attention.
At that very minute though, a second four wheel drive came speeding into the car park, pulling up beside Lucas. They could hear the driver inside shout at Lucas to get into the car. They couldn't see the driver due to the fire that was still erupting from the burning vehicle.
Rather than see Lucas climbing in, a hand from inside the second vehicle snaked out and grabbed a hold of Lucas's torn shirt, causing a cry of pain to come from the injured teenager. Before they had a chance to note anything else about the car or the driver, it sped off out of site, taking Lucas with it to an unknown destination.
to be continued...
Author Notes: The exploding car was similar to the one from Season Two in the show – I always envisaged something more happening in the episode Everything Nice and decided to write my own version.
I used Wolfy as Lucas's friend. I have used him in the past so decided to again. The idea of how he brought the stuff to Lucas was a bit lame, but anyway.
Who was the driver you ask? Well, that's the million dollar question. It could be a few possibilities. Meant to keep you guessing until the next chapter.
JULES