Sue Thomas was in the dark. It was evening, there was a strange man in her car and she didn't understand what was going on. She only knew that someone needed help and she was the only one who could provide it. Sparing a glance at her passenger, she assessed what she had so far observed. He was medium tall, strongly muscled and sure of himself. Reminded her of someone she knew. Dark wavy hair with a half beard and mustache. Same someone (except for the facial hair). Tanned and weathered, like a seaman and eyes the color of the ocean. She frowned at that. What could cause him to be blind?
Levi nosed her from the back seat. She looked at her passenger—Hector—again. He was resting but restless. She'd been driving about ten minutes, as far from downtown and the Bureau as she dare to go without any more information. She pulled up into the side lot of a sort of nice looking hotel. Switching off the engine, she turned on the dome light.
"Hector…Hector, wake up!" She shook him gingerly.
His response was to start flailing about trying to free himself from the restraints he was in. In his mind, he was strapped to a chair while voices shouted at him and lights flashed unmercifully bright in his eyes. He was so tired but he had to get away. "Stop it! Let me go! I don't know anything! Mara! No! Noooo! Althea…." At this point, Levi nosed him in the arm and Hector reflexively began to stroke the dog's head. His breathing calmed but he was still terrified in his mind. "Althea," he whispered.
At his reaction, Sue had jumped back in her seat. She watched helplessly as Hector fought his inner demons. She could tell he was shouting and caught a few of the words. Knowing she was no match for his strength, she was about to try to calm him down when Levi intervened. Whispering a quick "Thank you, God," she touched his hand.
"What? Who's there?" he asked.
Sue touched his chin to turn his head toward her. "It's me, Sue. Remember. From the diner."
"Yeah, yeah, Dollface. Deaf right? Need to look at you. Heh, I finally get a woman to pay attention to me and I can't even see her." He pressed a shaky hand to his temple. "My head really hurts. Are we somewhere safe?"
"I guess so. I have us at a hotel parked in the side lot so as not to draw attention."
"Good girl. We'll wait here for my pal to catch up. Did you call the sequence he gave you?" Hector grimaced. He closed his eyes.
"No, I'll do that now," came her rely. Sue reached into her pocket for her blackberry. She punched in the alphanumeric sequence that had been given to her. Just before she hit send she asked "Hector, if I can't hear him answer, how will he find us?"
She looked over at him. He was calmly sleeping with his hand on Levi's head. Sue hit send and hoped for the best.