Chapter 6

"OK, hermano, what's up?"

"Nothing."

"Max," Berto groaned, "I got you out of that meeting on the terms that you would tell me what was wrong so I can fix it!"

"Well, nothing's wrong, so there's nothing to tell."

The scientist sighed, and then rolled his swivel chair over to his console. He picked a CD off the surface and waved it at Max. "See this?"

Max didn't need his enhanced vision to recognize the red and black CD. His eyes widened in horror at the sight of the CD that had been blasted through the house for seven days straight when his younger cousin Jill came to visit. It was Simple Plan's No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls. They were a whiny, wannabe punk band, and all their songs sounded exactly alike. "Bro, don't fool around," he warned.

Berto pushed a button on the console, and a CD player rose out of it. He opened the CD player and put the CD in. Closing the slot, he turned to Max. "You need a code to open that, and only I know it. If you don't tell me what's wrong, I'll be forced to push play."

"I'd lock you in the closet!"

"Doesn't matter, you'd still need me to enter the code when you started to go insane...assuming you haven't already. Now talk."

"If you had time to install a CD player that locks just for the purpose of torturing me, you have way too much time on your hands," Max grumbled.

Berto sat in his chair, arms folded and eyebrows raised. "Habla."

"All right, fine. I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone else...not even Jefferson."

Berto whistled. What was the big deal? he wondered. He mimed locking his lips and throwing away the key.

Max gave a heavy sigh, and then leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling. "I've been hearing voices...well, not really voices, one voice, in particular."

He looked back at Berto, who was keeping his face expressionless. Max couldn't read his face.

"What kind of things does the voice say, hermano?"

"It..." he stopped mid-sentence and stood up. "This is ridiculous!" he yelled.

Berto rolled his chair back towards the console and put his finger on the play button.

"Okay, okay," Max said, sitting back down. "It argues with me."

"About what?"

"About...my morals, I guess."

"For example..."

"Well, this morning with the whole motorcycle thing, it was trying to convince me that what the guy was doing wasn't really that bad, and to let him get away with it."

"And in Jefferson's office before?"

"It was trying to convince me that I was crazy." Josh stared at the floor. It sounded so stupid! Maybe he was crazy. No, he told himself, you're NOT crazy, don't listen to that stupid voice. He risked a look up at his friend, and saw Berto looking thoughtfully back at him. He decided that was a good sign. The younger agent didn't look skeptical or even scared, just thoughtful. "Well?"

"Could be a bunch of things. I don't remember of it ever happening before to any of our agents, but then again, what happened to you has never happened to anyone else either."

"What do you think we should do?"

"What about a psychiatrist?"

"WHAT?!"

"Come on, hermano, you've been way too stressed lately, especially after that thing with Abigail. Stress is known to do weird things...I think maybe...a break would do you good."

"Bro!"

"Hermano, if this keeps happening, especially during missions, you could put yourself and your partner in serious danger!"

"Just give me one more chance. Come on, put me on probation of you want to!"

Berto didn't say anything for a few seconds. Then, shaking his head in defeat, he got up and grabbed the phone off the wall. "Sir? This is Dr. Martinez." There he hesitated and glanced at Max, staring at his feet. "I'm putting Max on probation. There shouldn't be any more problems. However, just in case there is even one more, he'll be put on break, and we can look into what, if anything, is wrong." Berto felt like scum. He never lied to his superiors. Never. Especially Jefferson Smith, who had given him a job when no one else would him being so young. He knew he wasn't actually telling a flat-out lie, but he felt his words were close enough to one, and he felt guilty.

"How's your wrist?"

"Better, still can't shoot with that hand though," Kat said, holding her pistol in her good hand. She squeezed off a shot, and hit her target. Though it wasn't her dominant hand, she could still shoot well with it, having trained herself equally with both in preparation for a situation similar to the one she was currently in.

"You know, I can't think of a mission where Max has actually spaced out. Sure, meetings, but I even fell asleep in one of those once."

Kat lowered her gun and turned to stare at Rachel. "You? Rachel Leeds fell asleep in a meeting?" she asked, incredulously.

Rachel didn't take her eyes off the man's silhouette with a bull's eye in the middle. She fired off another shot, leaving a smoking hole right in the center. "Haven't you?"

"Well duh, but I never thought you would."

"I'm human," Rachel said, firing another shot, purposely missing the target altogether. "See?" she said innocently.

Kat laughed. "All right, sorry."

"No need to apologize, but you buy lunch."

Kat groaned. "I bought yesterday!"

"Person who makes the better shot wins, Rachel said, adjusting her goggles."

"You're on," said Kat slyly. "You first."

"Fine then," Rachel closed one eye, aimed carefully, and squeezed off another shot, landing in the ring surrounding the center.

"Pretty good," said Kat. She clipped something onto her gun, and before Rachel looked to see what she was doing, Kat raised her gun, and Rachel saw what had been clipped on.

"A laser pointer! No fair!"

"Hey, I'm using my bad hand. I'm just making it even," said Kat. She looked at the small red dot focused on the bull's eye, and pointed her gun slightly below where she wanted it to go, because she knew recoil would jerk the gun up a bit when she fired. Pulling the trigger, she heard the bullet tear through the paper target, and saw the hole directly in the center of the bull's eye. She smiled sweetly at the other woman. "Hope you have money, because I am hungry."

Simple Plan fans...I have nothing to say. Oh wait, yes I do: MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!