Omi as always
To the entire BTN Beta Team for putting up with me and this fic!
Special thanks to Betas Becky, Mel, Ecri, Dana, and Kim
You all worked hard to turn my unloved fic into a rather nice little story
Disclaimers:
"A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend" - Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I do not own the characters Charlie, Amita or Don nor do I have any
rights to anything related to the TV show Numb3rs. I plead fair use
and claim only my own writing and characters.
Chapter One:
Sunday Morning
"Don! This is serious! I need your help!"
"Charlie, what do you want me to do? I think you're overreacting."
"Overreacting? Amita's been missing for two days now. How is that overreacting?"
"You don't know she's missing, Charlie. You just don't know where she is, that's all."
Charlie had come to his brother's apartment seeking help in finding Amita. He hadn't expected a lecture, but that was all Don was offering him. He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. How could he make Don see? Amita wouldn't just disappear like that. When she said she was going to be somewhere she was there. She was a rock. Charlie's rock. She wouldn't just leave him like that.
"Don, there is no way Amita would just forget about all the plans she had this weekend with me, with her roommate, with her friends, and just take off."
Don took a moment to pour himself another cup of coffee before he settled back down at the kitchen table. "Look Charlie, Amita's roommate said that her overnight bag was gone and that she'd borrowed some of her camping gear Friday morning. To me that sounds like she got out of town for a while."
"She didn't take a tent! She didn't take all the camping gear, just a sleeping bag and a few flashlights. That doesn't equal a trip."
"No, but an overnight bag does. Charlie, it's Sunday. I'm sure she'll waltz into your office tomorrow with some story about a bachelorette party or something she forgot was going on this weekend. You'll see."
Charlie fell into a sullen silence and twisted his coffee mug around and around in his hands in a nervous circle. Don sighed. "You did file a missing persons report with the police, right?"
Charlie nodded. "Her roommate wasn't going to so I did. They made me wait 24 hours but then they let me file one."
"Charlie, there's a good reason for the 24 hour wait. It's because there usually hasn't been a disappearance and it's just a miscommunication. You're just reading more into this than is there," Don said patiently.
Charlie paused for a moment, thinking. "Don..." Charlie's voice grew quiet and frightened. "When you said before... about Amita... that if I wasn't careful someone would snatch her up?"
"Ah buddy, no! Don't think like that! Nobody's got Amita. She's just out of cell phone range or something. She does have a life outside of Cal Sci, you know."
Charlie stood up and began to pace, his anxious energy making him restless. "Yes, she does. So, if she's not with me, shouldn't she be with these other people? Her roommate gave me her phone book and I called all her friends. Amita had plans with these people for this weekend and she never called them. Amita! The woman who remembers all of my appointments in addition to her own! She wouldn't forget these things!"
"Calm down, Charlie. You're not making things any better by panicking. You checked with her friends, right?"
"Yeah, I called all the numbers in her book."
"Did you check her email? Maybe she made plans with someone and tried to email people to let them know her plans had changed. Maybe her email just never got through."
"I got her laptop from her roommate but I can't hack the password to get in. Amita's too good with computers."
Charlie continued his frenetic pacing, frustrated and annoyed at his helplessness.
Don paused for a moment before he finally stood up and put out a hand to bring Charlie to a halt.
"Charlie, listen to me. Just stop walking for a minute, okay? I'm going to help you with this."
Don grabbed a piece of notepaper and a pen from beside his phone. He wrote an email address on the paper and handed it to Charlie.
"Listen carefully. Send an email to this address. Do not send it from home or from Cal Sci. Create a brand new email address on one of the free services and don't put any real information in it at all. Nothing, Charlie, make it all up. Send them an email from that service from some public Internet terminal that can't be traced back to you in any way. The ones at the library are good for this. Tell them you need to hack a password on a laptop and give them any info you know about the laptop: make, model, wireless networking, operating system... Tell them that this is a favor for Brown Bear and then wait for them to respond. They should get back to you within a few minutes."
"Brown Bear?"
"Charlie, it's best if you don't ask questions. Let's just say my work brings me into contact with hackers from time to time and not all of them are white hats."
Previous Friday Afternoon
Amita arrived at her cousin's new house in San Marino and let herself in with the key the real estate agent had given her that morning. She had been shocked that her cousin and her husband had bought the house without ever having been there in person. She was surprised again when escrow suddenly closed early. Now that they were the owners, they were concerned about the house sitting empty until they arrived from India on Monday. Since Amita was the only person they knew well in that area, she was the only one they could trust with such a major investment.
"The house looks fine, Jaya!" Amita pocketed the key and wandered around the downstairs with her cell phone. "Honestly, nothing's going to happen to an empty house over a weekend." She stifled a groan as she listened to her cousin ramble about vandalism in California. "It'll be fine! I'm spending every night here until you arrive so no one's going to think the house is vacant, okay? I'm even parking my car in the driveway instead of the garage so it looks like someone is home."
She walked into the kitchen and flipped the switch to turn on the overhead lights. Nothing. "You were right, they didn't get the electricity turned on yet. Glad I brought flashlights." She walked over to the sink and turned the tap on and off. "Water's on at least. That's good."
She listened for a while longer then interrupted her cousin. "Jaya, really. It's fine. I have plans for this weekend but only during the day. I should be back at the house well before nightfall so don't worry about me or the house, okay? Just don't miss your plane! I'm looking forward to seeing you and Dev on Monday. Give my love to Mom and Dad and everyone... Bye!"
Amita looked around the empty house and sighed. This wasn't what she had planned for the weekend but at least she didn't have to cancel her morning or afternoon appointments. She had a thesis review session scheduled with Charlie in the morning and after putting it off to work on FBI cases they'd finally found some time to be alone together, even if it was to work on her thesis.
She carried her sleeping bag and overnight bag up to the third floor bedroom with the glorious mountain view. If she was going to be stuck here for the weekend, she might as well enjoy the view. Besides, the stairs would be good exercise.
Sunday Morning
Thankfully, Charlie hadn't had to wait long for a free computer at the library. He quickly sat down and created a new email account then typed up his email. He'd already written up detailed notes on what he knew about Amita's laptop, her Wi-Fi card type, operating system... He even included an overview of her skill level so the hacker would have an idea what he was up against. He clicked on send and waited with anticipation for any reply that might help him find Amita.
Previous Friday Night
Amita let out a groan of frustration when she pulled her cell phone charger out of her bag. She'd forgotten to charge the phone earlier and now she had a charger but no electricity. The battery on her cell phone was so low it would surely be dead by morning.
She sat in the top floor bedroom with her possessions arranged around the room. She'd had the good sense to get everything set up while there was still light in the sky and now she just had to eat dinner and go to bed.
Carrying a flashlight, Amita made her way down to the first floor kitchen. She'd only packed a small cooler of food, figuring she'd order in the next two nights. But now that her phone was dead, she thought perhaps she should bring more food home with her tomorrow after going to the museum with her friends. Maybe she could plug in her cell phone charger for an hour at Charlie's office in the morning. That might hold her for a day or so.
Sunday Morning
When the email appeared in his inbox Charlie opened it anxiously. It said only the following:
'Boot it up then click here.'
Charlie looked nervously around the library but pulled out the laptop and turned it on. A flashing light told him its wireless networking card was functioning. Once it got to the screen requesting a password he clicked on the link in the library PC email.
For a few seconds nothing happened, and then Charlie saw the laptop screen change. He tried to follow what was happening on the screen but it all went by too fast.
Finally, a box popped up on the screen. 'Password is: 662610343637'
Charlie memorized the number instantly, but wrote it down anyway just to be safe. The first part of the password was obviously drawn from Planck's constant, but the additional 3637 was extraneous. 'Of course', Charlie realized, 'those are the numbers we argued about during the train sabotage case.' Amita had been right, and Charlie had been wrong, so of course she'd want to remind herself of that rare moment every day when she logged into her laptop.
Charlie quickly used the password to access Amita's email. While it was downloading new messages, he took a few seconds to reply to the email on the library PC to say thank you.
He sent the message and almost immediately got an error message back saying that that domain name didn't exist. Charlie was shocked. This was some serious hacker.
Charlie scanned Amita's incoming email, but didn't see much that looked relevant. He switched views to look at her sent mail next. He found what he was looking for almost immediately in an email to her cousin Jaya in India.
He scribbled the address in San Marino on a piece of paper, and for the first time in his life was angry with himself for not having a car.
Previous Saturday Morning
Not having an alarm clock to wake her, Amita woke with the sun. The lack of blinds in the room ensured that. She tried to sit up but felt feverish and woozy. "Damn it..." she grumbled to herself. "Like I needed that this weekend." She'd been feeling under the weather for days but had pushed it aside to keep working. Evidently, whatever she'd been fighting off had caught up with her overnight.
Her head spun so badly she simply lay back down. She picked up her phone and checked the battery. Dead, just as she'd expected. She sighed. Well, Charlie might wonder what happened to her, but then he'd get caught up in some equation and forget they even scheduled this review session.
Sleep... Now that sounded good. She'd sleep for a while longer then drive back home to grab some cold medicine.
Amita pulled a sleeping blindfold out of her overnight bag, put it on, and fell back into a dead sleep.
Sunday Morning
Charlie paced outside the library waiting for Don to come pick him up. San Marino was way too far to ride on his bike, and a taxi would take too long to show up.
This was maddening! He knew where Amita was but not what had happened to her. Why hadn't she called? Why hadn't she shown up for any of her appointments? Had she even made it to the place she was supposed to housesitting?
Don pulled up to the curb and Charlie quickly jumped in.
"What about your bike?" Don asked.
"Just drive!" Charlie yelled. "Go!"
Previous Saturday Night
When Amita woke next, it was dark again. She rubbed her eyes and tried to sit up but fell back, too dizzy to rise. Her head swam and she took a moment to try to collect herself and felt a little alarmed when it wasn't as easy as it should have been. Slowly, she made her way to the bathroom, clutching a flashlight in one hand and holding herself up against the wall with the other.
After drinking a little water, Amita felt somewhat steadier and decided to go downstairs to get something to eat. There wasn't much left from the night before, but she was starving after not having eaten all day.
She made it down to the first of several landings on the stairs and regretted not grabbing a sweater. The top of the house was much warmer than the lower stories and in her tank top, pajama bottoms, and bare feet she could feel the difference right away. She turned to head back up the stairs, but going up them was far more taxing than going down. "Ah, forget it..." she mumbled. She turned around and headed back down the stairs, going a little too quickly out of frustration, which made her head hurt. She took her hand off the railing for a second to rub her temple. Suddenly her vision darkened and felt herself began to collapse. She blindly put out her hand for the railing to break her fall but just missed it, frantic as her fingertips merely brushed against it, slipped and found only empty air. The flashlight fell from her grasp and she tumbled down the stairs, pain flashing through her leg then her head. When her body came to rest the only sound left was the thumping of the flashlight preceding her the rest of the way down the stairs.