Alan sat at his dining room table, an untouched plate of food before him. His appetite was something of a memory; despite his insistences to his sons that they eat even if they weren't hungry, Alan couldn't bring himself to follow his own advice. It had been three days since he had seen that car take off with both of his boys inside, and it seemed as though the FBI was no closer to finding them than they had been when Alan had first called them.
Sleep, too, was elusive. Every time Alan closed his eyes, horrible images of either Charlie or Don, or both of them, appeared before him. Images of them hurt, bleeding, scared . . . it was too much for Alan to bear.
He knew he was being irrational. Don was thirty-seven for crying out loud, and a federal agent. He was more than capable of looking after himself, particularly in this type of situation.
Charlie, though, wasn't even thirty. He was still so young . . . but he had his big brother looking after him. Alan had to believe that Don was watching over Charlie, keeping them both safe until they could come home.
Both grown men, both with jobs . . . but in Alan's mind, in his heart, they were still the tiny babies he had held in his arms all those years ago. Nothing would change that.
Abandoning his plate, Alan stood and headed into the living room. Several agents, including Terry and David, had set up camp in the event a ransom demand would be made. So far, there had been no calls. Alan hated the fact that there had been no calls- any ransom made, he would pay it. Money meant nothing. Not without his boys.
Larry was also there, busy on the couch with one of Charlie's notebooks. In the interest of organization, the agents and Larry had moved Charlie's books. The very thought made Alan's skin crawl. He hadn't wanted to disturb anything his sons had left behind; it was as if a part of them were still with him, there in the house. He had gone through a similar feeling when his wife had died, and recognized it for what it was, but it didn't make it any easier.
"Hey, Mr. Eppes, did you eat?" Terry asked softly, looking up from the files in front of her.
Alan waved her question to the side. "Any new developments?"
The look on her face told Alan all he needed to know. He nodded, trying to maintain some semblance of control, but with each passing hour that was spent with his sons in danger, it was quickly slipping away.
"Wait," Larry said suddenly.
All eyes suddenly turned to the professor expectantly. Larry passed his pencil over the notebook, then looked up. "I think I have something."
"What?" David demanded.
"Charles actually figured it out just before he was taken, but he started to go back over his work just to be sure," Larry told them. "He's managed to prove that the signal isn't extraterrestrial. It's a hidden communications relay from an unspecified source in our country to someone on the other side of the world."
"You mean some kind of international espionage is going on here?" Terry asked.
Larry nodded. "There's no doubt about it. Someone hiding out in our country is leaking valuable defense information to our enemies."
"We need to get the CIA in on this, along with NASA," David stated, pulling out a cell phone. "Someone should be able to pinpoint the source of the transmissions."
"Can you decrypt the message?" Terry asked.
Larry nodded again. "Actually, now that we can isolate the transmission, that part should be easy. It's actually relayed through old Morse code."
"What, nothing more complicated?" another agent Alan didn't know asked.
Larry only shrugged. "I think managing to cover up their communiqués in our own satellites is complicated enough. It really was a stroke of luck that anyone caught the discrepancy, really. You know, I would tell NASA to watch the satellite transmissions very closely. If they know that we know about this, then they may try to change their methods of communicating. We should get everything we can from them before it stops."
David nodded, already on the phone with someone from NASA.
Alan sought out Terry's eyes. "All right, so you figured out the source of the satellite transmissions. What about my sons?"
Terry held Alan's gaze evenly. "Now that we know more about what's going on, we should be able to trace the source of these transmissions. It may very well lead us to where Don and Charlie are being held."
Alan nodded. For the first time in three days, he felt a tiny flutter of hope in his heart that his sons would be found safely.
Charlie rubbed his weary eyes and stepped back from the board. He felt as though he had been working on the same equation for ages without making any headway, though he knew that to be inaccurate. They were making some progress. It was just hard to see it. He knew that their captors were already using his equations in their illicit transmissions; he just hoped someone would find the little trail he had built into the encryptions.
A hand fell onto his shoulder and squeezed it. Charlie looked up at Don, blinking owlishly through the dim yellow light in the workroom.
"Take a couple minutes and rest," Don ordered, steering Charlie to a chair. "You've been on your feet since early this morning."
Charlie let his brother push him into a chair without protest. The truth was, he was exhausted. He had lost track of how long they had been held here, so caught up was he in his math. Don had to remind him to stop and rest every once in awhile. Charlie didn't know what he would do if Don hadn't been brought along with him. It seemed like Don was the only thing keeping him sane at the moment.
Several packages of chips and cookies littered the table. The unappetizing snack foods were all their captors seemed to want to feed them, and Charlie was already getting sick of it. He scowled as Don snagged a bag of animal crackers, opened it, and pushed it into Charlie's hands.
"Don, I'm sick of cookies," he said.
"You have to eat," Don replied firmly. At Charlie's reluctance, he continued, "Look, I'll make you a deal. You eat when I say you eat, and I'll take you to dinner anywhere in L.A. you want to go. My treat."
Charlie eyed him suspiciously. "You're serious."
"Honest," Don answered, grabbing himself a bag of Doritos.
Charlie watched him eat the chips, then finally reached into his bag. "When we get out of here, I'm not touching another cookie or bag of potato chips again."
Don only grinned. "We'll see."
The door to the workroom opened, and Reed walked in, trailed by Sarro and the two men who had accompanied him to the Eppes home. Don and Charlie immediately tensed; whatever it was they had come down there to say, it evidently wasn't good.
Sarro seized Charlie's arm and hauled him to his feet, forcing him over to Reed. Don instantly jumped to his feet and lunged at Sarro, but the two other men grabbed him and held him immobile. Don watched, fearful, as Sarro stopped in front of Reed, Charlie's arm still in his grasp.
"We have been putting our new transmissions through your government's satellites once more with some success," Reed stated. "You are a very gifted mathematician, Dr. Eppes, and your new encryption sequence was by far more advanced than any I've seen."
"Um . . . thanks," Charlie replied, his heart pounding in his chest.
"But imagine my surprise when a friend of mine pointed out a little something extra built into your encryptions," Reed went on.
Don's heart sank at Reed's words. They'd been found out.
Charlie's face was a blank mask. "E-Extra? What do you mean? I did everything you told me to."
Reed smiled thinly. "Yes, you did, and then some, didn't you? You created a trail in our code that could easily be picked up by anyone with half a brain. Well, Dr. Eppes, your little message for help was rather ingenious, but I'm afraid we can't allow your attempt to go unpunished."
Charlie felt bile rise in the back of his throat. "No, wait, you don't understand!"
Reed merely waved a hand dismissively and left the room. The door hadn't even closed when Sarro's grip became painfully tight. Charlie barely had time to react when he felt Sarro suddenly fling him full force into the nearest wall. He hit the chalkboard with a loud crash, and he sank to the ground, a stab of pain shooting through his body.
Don thrashed wildly, trying to free himself and go to his brother's aid. "You leave my brother alone, you son of a bitch! I swear to God, if you touch him again, I will rip your fucking head right off your body! Do you hear me! Don't you touch him!"
Sarro leaned over Charlie and, drawing back a fist, let fly with several fierce punches to the young man's face. Charlie lifted his arms to protect himself, deflecting the staggering blows on his forearms.
Suddenly, the assault stopped. Charlie felt a hand clamp down over his newly forming bruises on his arm, and he was lifted to his feet. Sarro pulled Charlie away from the board and threw him into a chair, then walked over to Don. Don paused in his tirade, dark eyes burning with hatred for Sarro. He knew what was coming next, and knew that he couldn't prevent it, but as long as Sarro focused on him, he wouldn't touch Charlie.
Sarro drew a fist back and punched Don firmly in the face. Don's head snapped back with the blow, and he sagged in his captors' grips. He felt more blows rain down on his face and body, but he didn't let out a single cry.
"No!" Charlie cried, staggering to his feet. "Stop, please! He didn't do anything! It was me! Leave him alone!"
He grabbed at Sarro's hand and held on. Sarro tried to shake Charlie off, but Charlie's grip was too strong to be brushed aside. The taller man turned from Don, a vicious glint in his cold, gray eyes. With a tremendous force, he shoved Charlie against the wall. Charlie's head rang with the impact, and he released Sarro's arm and slid to the ground, stunned.
Sarro looked down at Charlie, then nodded at his companions. The two men released Don, who sank to his knees, breathing heavily. Without a single word spoken, the three men exited the room, locking it behind them.
Don wiped his mouth, looking at the blood on his hand. Wiping it on his jeans, he crawled across the floor to where his brother sat, shaking and gasping for breath. He could see bruises starting to form on his little brother's face, but thankfully, the damage looked superficial.
Sitting beside Charlie, he wrapped his arms around his brother and tugged him into a tight hug. Charlie went to him, wrapping his arms around Don in return. The two sat like that for a long time, willing to seek comfort in their company rather than words.
Finally, Don spoke. "Charlie . . . you all right?"
He heard Charlie sniff and nod against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Donnie."
The old moniker from their childhood caused Don to tense. Charlie hadn't called him Donnie since they were kids, and only used the name when he was seriously upset. "Sorry? Why?"
"This is all my fault," Charlie said. "It was my consulting case that got us kidnapped, and it was my stupid message that got you beat up."
"Yeah, well, I hate to break it to you, Charlie, but this isn't just about you," Don told him pointedly. "I got myself into this mess. Sure, they came for you, but if I had minded my own business, I wouldn't be here, so quit thinking you're responsible for my kidnapping. I did that one on my own."
Charlie sniffed again. "Okay. And the message?"
Don grinned. "Sorry, you're on your own there."
He felt Charlie let out a huff of laughter, and his grin widened. "You okay?"
Charlie nodded again. "Thanks, Don."
Don felt his tension slip away. "Hey, that's what big brothers are for."
Charlie withdrew from Don and looked up. "What do you think they'll do now? They probably won't let me work on the encryption anymore. Not after that."
Don had already suspected as much. He knew what was most likely to happen, what years of training told him usually followed in situations like this. He and Charlie had outlived their usefulness, and unless they could attribute some other value to them remaining alive, they probably wouldn't last another day.
Don knew all this, but found that he simply didn't have the heart to share this information with his little brother. Instead, he went with his old standby.
"I guess we wait for the cavalry, little brother," he stated. "If they were watching, like you said, they should already be on their way."
Charlie nodded and settled back against the wall to wait with his brother.