Title: Soriteses
Author: Fishgirl
Description: When one of the Eppes brothers is arrested, will the other be able to solve the puzzle on his own? What if the puzzle is really his brother?
Warnings: I do not own the television program numbers or any of its characters.
Chapter 6:
"I want in on this investigation." Don stated before the other agent could even open her mouth.
Agent Simmons paused taking in the desperation on the younger agent's face. In her years in the bureau she had never been involved in a situation quite like this one. Her instincts told her to trust this man and yet she knew that he was in no state of mind to take orders or even follow protocol. He could be equally dangerous in or out of her investigation, although she highly doubted there was any way of keeping him out.
There were others to worry about too of course. The younger brother had many acquaintances inside and outside the bureau who had already brought pressure to bear. Fortunately for her, the troubles stretched even higher or her only suspect would already have walking papers.
"I cannot bring you into this investigation, but I don't think you would stay out of it even if I told you too. Here is what I will do. You know some of Charlie's connections, who he talks to, maybe someone he tells things he can't tell you. Look into that and come to me with anything you find out. If I get any ideas that you are withholding information from MY investigation I WILL have your badge. Do you understand me?"
Don took a moment to look over this enigma of an agent. He had been so keyed up with his brother he had barely noticed anything more than she was female. She was several years older than he and a good six inches shorter. Her eyes were hard but her face was not full of the anger lines he often found on older agent's faces. This was not a woman prone to anger. She took things in stride. He didn't much like the way his brother was being treated, but he wasn't being mistreated either, and he had been allowed to see his brother when he asked. He decided for the moment that he could put his trust in her.
"I understand, but I want you to know that my brother comes before your investigation. For now our goals match, but anytime they don't you WILL lose my cooperation badge or no badge."
"I am glad we understand each other Agent Eppes." She held her hand out.
Don accepted it and found her handshake as firm as her offer.
Charlie leaned back against the bars again trying to figure out where he had miscalculated to end up here. He remembered his friend Larry pointing out that anytime you tried an equation that included the human element you were bound to fail. He had built this entire equation around the human element and it had blown up in his face. The only thing he had left was the basic premise he had built the entire equation around. Protect Don. As long as that was still a possibility he could not venture from this course of action. If all else fails I can still protect Don…
Alan hung up the phone. He still couldn't wrap his head around it, Charlie… a spy? This had to be wrong. He never had any idea what his sons were up to but he always assumed it was honest. He never dreamed his younger son would get involved in… no he wouldn't believe it. There had to be some other explanation and Donny would find it. No matter what… that's all he had left to count on.
Don waited for Terry at a coffee shop near the college. 8 am, he had been up all night and he still had no real idea where to begin. Who would Charlie talk to? His list had not gone very far. Larry, Amita, Terry… but obviously she knew nothing. His father had no idea. Two people? That's it? Not a very long investigation to be sure. He had already reached both Larry and Amita and they said they would meet him at the college and show him anything they thought Charlie might have worked with.
Don had spent the last two hours trying to crack through Charlie's lap top security. He had made it all the way to the last password. He had already been though 5 encoded areas. By pure guess work and time Don had made it through Archimedes, Fibonacci, Einstein, Babbage, and Pascal. Now he was hoping he was on the last one. He knew it only had 5 letters. Charlie loves patterns and so far his passwords had 10 letters, 9 letters, 8 letters, 7 letters, and 6 letters. Charlie would never miss a pattern like that… and they were all mathematicians, Charlie's heroes…so five letters, he had gone through every 5 letter mathematician he could think of but no match.
"Come on Charlie, I know my mind doesn't work like yours but give me a hint here… 5 letters… 5 letters… who do you know with five letters in their name?"