1Chapter 2
- One Month Later -
"I know Greg, I miss you too. Yes, I will be home very soon, I have maybe another two hours here. Alright, I love you. Bye." Michelle Dessler said hanging up the phone at her station. She took a quick glance at the room, seeing who was watching her. It was no surprise that Tony was looking at her through the glass walls of his office. She knew that he still hadn't let it go. Now that she had moved on and started seeing Greg, she was happy. Greg was everything she ever wanted. Everything that Tony couldn't be. But she didn't know if Tony knew that yet.
Allie walked over to Michelle's station with files in her hands. Her and Michelle hadn't necessarily been warm to each other, there was something between them that no one could figure out, even themselves. Needless to say, they wouldn't ever be going shopping together. Allie wanted to like Michelle, but for some reason she just had a feeling about her in the pit of her stomach, ever since she started at CTU LA.
"Here's the files you asked for. I ran a scan to make sure that they were up to date. The new information I found is on the top page." Allie said handing over the files she was holding. Michelle didn't even make eye contact with her.
"Thanks, could you go tell Tony that I need those CCB temps he was working on earlier?" Michelle asked clicking away on her keyboard. Allie was slightly taken aback.
"Well, you have a phone, why don't you just call him and tell him yourself?" Allie said trying not to sound sarcastic.
"Because, it'd be better if you did it instead." Michelle said finally said looking up at Allie. Allie let out a big sigh.
"Listen, Michelle, I know that since you and Tony's divorce it's been hard for both of you to face each other, but you're going to have to, I mean you work together." Allie said trying to say something supportive.
"Well, that's none of your business. What happened between Tony and I stays between Tony and I, and that's that." Michelle said. Allie could see that she was getting slightly aggravated.
"Sorry, I was just trying to help. Why don't you kill me." Allie said sarcastically walking away. She turned and started walking up the stairs that led to Tony's office. The door was open, so she walked right in. Tony was doing some research on the computer.
"Hey, anything wrong?" Tony asked looking up and seeing Allie standing there.
"No, nothing." Allie said. Tony gave her a sideways glance.
"You sure, you and Michelle don't usually talk for that long." He said, clearly reading her thoughts.
"Yeah, well she just asked me to take care of something for her, and I asked why she didn't do it herself, and I may have mentioned something about you, and I guess she took offense, so here I am her little messenger girl." Allie stated. "Anyways, she wants you to send her the CCB temps you finished this morning." She finished.
"What did you say about me?" He asked intrigued.
"Do you really want to know?" She asked slightly afraid as to what he would say about her meddling with his past.
"I thought me and you made a deal. No secrets, especially around here." He said folding his arms over his chest.
"Yeah, we did." She took a heavy breath. "She just asked me to come up here and tell you something when she was perfectly capable, and then I mentioned something about the divorce and I know it's been awkward around here for you two, and she pretty much told me to butt out, and here I am. End of story." Allie said really fast trying to avoid the subject at all costs. Tony was silent for a few minutes.
"Well, I appreciate you trying to help. Michelle, she's very her own person, so her asking you, and other people to interact with me when she should be probably means she's hiding something. But that's her choice." Tony said. "Anyways, tell her that I'll send them right down." He finished. Allie nodded and started to turn around, but something made her stop.
"Tony?" She said cautiously.
"Yeah?" He asked looking back up at her with those deep eyes.
"Are you over her?" Allie asked. "I know it's none of my business, but it would really make one end of my job a little easier if I knew. I mean I just interact so much with both of you, and I don't want to be thrown in the middle of anything. Not that you're throwing me in the middle. Wow, this is coming out all wrong." She said placing her hand on her forehead.
"Allie, listen, I understand where you're coming from. Don't worry about offending me, especially when it comes to Michelle." He paused and looked down at his desk, but picked his head up quickly. "Listen, I have an idea. Why don't we talk this out over a cup of coffee?" Tony said.
"You mean, outside of CTU, like personal, on our own time?" She said not quite believing what she was hearing.
"Yeah, I mean ever since you've been here, we've gotten really close, professionally. But what about personally? So, do you want to?" He asked gazing at her with the same emotionless expression as he had when she first walked into the room. Allie let a smile creep out from her mouth.
"Sure, I'd like that." She replied. Tony let a smile extend across his face.
"Great. After we get out today? Meet me at Jesse's Café at 6?" He asked, Allie just nodded, she couldn't get anything else to come out. After Tony acknowledged her reply, he looked at his computer and got back to work. Allie walked out of his office, slightly happy and slightly confused. She'd never thought about this possibility, but she liked it. Sure, she had always been attracted to him, even from day one, but he was her boss. And what did he mean by getting close personally. He was probably just talking about becoming close friends she thought to herself. That's good, keep telling yourself that, don't jump to any conclusions now, she told herself. She went back to her station, and sat down. She quickly picked up the phone and dialed Michelle's extension.
"Dessler." Michelle said from the other side of the room.
"Michelle, it's Allie, did you get the temps from Tony?" Allie asked.
"Yeah, I'm going through them now." She said sounding distant.
"Michelle, I also waned to say that I'm sorry for medaling. It wasn't my place." Allie said sounding very apologetic. There was a pause before Michelle answered her.
"Thanks, don't worry about it." Michelle said and hung up. The rest of the day Allie was working with Chloe and Chase to try and find a server that a terrorist by the name of Ungit Saiid has been storing information on.
"Chase." Allie said motioning for him to come see her. Chase's hand was still wrapped up from the Virus assignment he and Jack were partners for. It had already been slightly over a year since then, but his hand was still not in full working order.
"Yeah, find something?" He asked leaning over her side.
"Well, at first I didn't think so, but then I decoded a line of the message, and it says 'All who reach it will die.' Do you think this has anything to do with his last encryption?" Allie asked. Chase looked at the screen for a minute then picked up Allie's phone.
"Almeida." Tony said.
"Tony, Chase, listen Allie has just decoded a piece of a new encryption that we found on Saiid's server. It says 'All who reach it will die.' Any clues as to what that means?" Chase asked.
"Let me talk to Allie." Tony said. Chase handed Allie the phone.
"Yeah." She said.
"I need to you decode the rest of that message. We need to find out everything he's talking about." Tony said.
"Alright, but it's going to take some time." Allie said starting to work on it already.
"How much time?" Tony asked.
"An hour." Allie replied.
"Alright, get it to me before then. Tell Chase and Chloe to database all Saiid's former threats. I need them formally put into the system in 20 minutes." Tony said.
"Alright, we're on it." She said and hung up. "He wants you and Chloe to database all of Saiid's former threats and see if we can come up with something similar, but I have to finish decoding this message, and he's not giving me much time to do it in." Allie said to Chase.
"Alright, we'll be in the tech room." Chase said leaving Allie by herself. Allie immediately began working on the decoding process. It was a lot of trial and error. Twenty minutes later, Allie was half way through the message. So far, all it was talking about were blueprints of specific homes, and certain dates in the past. Allie picked up her phone.
"Edmunds." Chase said answering his cell.
"Chase, listen, have you finished putting his former threats into the system yet?" She asked.
"We're just about done. Why?" Chase asked.
"I've decoded some of the message, and it's listing certain dates in the past. I need you to see if any of them match former threats." Allie said. "I'm sending over a list of them to the computer Chloe is working on right, now. Get back to me when you're done." Allie said hanging up the phone. She went right back to decoding, and was interrupted when Michelle came to her station.
"Hey, listen, I need these files stored. Can you handle it?" She asked, trying to be polite.
"Well, I'm a little busy right now. Tony has me decoding this message from Saiid. Can you give it to Kim or someone?" Allie said, returning the polite manor.
"Well, honestly, I don't think Kim can do it as fast as you can." Michelle said. Allie let out a stressful sigh.
"Alright, when do you need it buy?" Allie said talking the file from her hands.
"Can you get it done in a half an hour?" Michelle asked.
"I'll try, but the decoding takes priority." Allie said looking up at Michelle. Michelle nodded.
"I know, just get it done, thanks." She said walking away.
"No problem." Allie said sarcastically when Michelle had left earshot. She worked solidly for another 15 minutes, and she had finished the decoding. The message was about plans for houses to be reconstructed on previous dates, and the owners to be paid off in full. Allie thought this was a bit odd, so she picked up the phone.
"Edmunds."
"Hey, Chase, I finished the decoding, did you get anything to match on the dates?" She asked.
"No. It's a dead end over here." He said. Allie was not happy with this news.
"Alright thanks anyway." She said hanging up, then dialing another extension.
"Almeida."
"Tony, I finished the message, but it might be a dead end. All it's saying is to rebuild certain houses in the suburbs, and the dates to do it on. It also says that the owners of the houses are to be paid off in full." She said.
"Alright, get Chloe and Chase to connect them to anything in the past." He said.
"I already did, and they came up with nothing." Allie said slightly stressed.
"Alright, I'll be down in a second to take a look at the message. What are you working on now?" He asked. Allie grabbed the file Michelle gave to her.
"Michelle wanted me to store this file on the computer. I asked her if she could give it to someone else, but she said that I could do it the fastest. She wants it done in 10 minutes." Allie said. Tony let out a big sigh from the other end of the receiver.
"Just remember, she's not your boss, I am." He said. Allie looked up in his office, he was standing now. He was getting ready to come down to the floor for a bit.
"Yeah, I know." Allie said and hung up the phone.