Chapter 29

Charlie sat watching the clock impatiently. It had been an hour and half and Charlie was going insane. He had finished transferring everything to a disk in an hour and Don hadn't let him hand it over.

"Don" Charlie called out for what was the tenth time

"Charlie, what did I say?" Don called back. He had to arrange everything for the process of handing over the equation, which was a lot more then most people think

"You said I had to wait until it was a half an hour away from the dead line. Well, look at what time it is" Don looked down at the clock on his desk and it was indeed time to hand over the algorithm

"Ok, ok. Listen up everybody" Don called out those who were on the case stopped dead in their tracks and gravitated towards Don's desk "It's a half an hour before the deadline, and we're ready for the tradeoff. David, hand me my cell phone" David silently walks over to Don and hands him his cell phone, Don nods as a thank you and then hits two for speed dial and presses speaker phone. Charlie quickly realizing that the phone is ringing takes a place next to his brother

"Don, ask how Amita is, if you can" Charlie adds almost inaudibly. The fear in his eyes was staggering. Don nods to him, he wasn't going to forget to find out about her again

"Don" Terry's voice rang from the phone

"Terry, before I say anything, how is Amita?" Don looked at Charlie. His eyes were begging for good news even though in his heart he knew none would come

"Don, she's lost a lot of blood and, well don't tell Charlie but-" In the spilt second before she continued, all eyes fixed on Charlie then but he was too busy listening to find out what he wasn't supposed to know. Don, kicked himself for putting her on speaker because there was no reason "-Amita had lost consciousness. I tried to keep her awake, it worked for a little while, she went to lie down a minute or two before you called and I think my phone would have woken her up" Charlie felt his knees go weak and he thought he was going to faint but he refused to show weakness this time

"Thanks for the news about Amita Terry" Charlie spoke out loud. Charlie was wishing for better news but realized that bad news is slightly better then no news

There was a gasp from Terry's end of the phone. She must have just realized she was on speaker phone "Oh Charlie, I'm sorry"

"It's ok Terry, I calculated as much" Charlie said with a voice that sounded calm and collected to anyone that hadn't grown up with him but to Don it was strained and he knew his brother was struggling to just stay standing

"So Don did Charlie finish the equation?" Terry asked abruptly changing the subject. Don almost said you know we had finished before we even called you but it took a second to realize that he must be on speakerphone too

"Yes he did. It's all on a disk we just have to arrange an exchange time" There was a long pause and Don was afraid that he has some how lost the call when Joe's voice came on the phone

"There will be no exchange. There will be a drop off" Don's temper flared at those words. That changed the whole way he was going to have to deal with this

"What do you propose? We knew where you are, do you really expect all those cops to let you through?" Don said with a forced calm

"No, they won't let me through but they will let your precious Terry through" You could barely hear the string of curses being issued from Terry's mouth over Don's. After the cursing stopped, Don opened his mouth to let loose on Joe when Charlie took the phone away from him and handed it to David. Don turned quickly on Charlie and opened his mouth to yell at his brother when Don saw the look in his eyes. It said what Don needed to hear: you have to let David handle this right now because you'll say something stupid and that will only hurt Terry and Amita, and she's already hurt.

"What do you have in mind?" David asked calmly

"We let Terry here go to a designated street corner, you give her the disk and she comes back to us. You wait fifteen minutes before entering, well be gone by then"

"Hmm" David replied

"What does that mean?" Joe snapped

"Well frankly I'm surprised you're trusting her to leave and then come back"

"I know that she'll come back because I know that she knows if she doesn't Amita will be shot, fatally this time" Hearing this Charlie almost fainted for the second time within fifteen minutes (at most). After the lightheadedness passed, the words of what he said sunk in and he lost it

"FATALY THIS TIME! DO YOU NOT REALIZE THAT IT MAY ALREADY BE FATAL! SHE'S BLEEDING TO DEATH RIGHT NOW!" Charlie was going to continue but was surprised to find that he was being dragged into the conference room by is brother

"Charlie, calm down, Charlie you have to calm down" Don spoke softly and calmly to his brother

"Don he-" Charlie started but he didn't have the heart to finish. He just closed his eyes and collapsed into the chair, praying that when he opened his eyes he'd be back in his bed with his arms around Amita and this had all just been a dream

"Charlie, get up. We have to get ready for the exchange" Don said pulling him to his feet

"Didn't you just drag me in here?" Charlie said following his brother. Don however didn't answer and just continued walking

After a half an hour the team was in place and Don was pacing

"Where is she?" Don spoke into his headset

"She's two blocks away" David answered, then double with other members of the team

"I think I can see her" Don spoke

"She's a block away" David confirmed watching her walk towards Don from the car he was in. Don waited patiently until he saw Terry across the street. Had it not been for the little voice of David saying 'stay put, stay put' he would have run across the street and jeopardized the whole thing

"Don" Terry called from a few feet away

"Terry" Don said back and pulled her into a hug. She was shaking "Are you ok? Let me see that cut on your head" Don said holding Terry at arms length to examine her. Don felt anger surge through his veins at the cut on Terry's head; it was going to take at least eight sutures

"I'm ok. As much as I regret going back, but I have to. Give me the disk"

"Here" Don said handing over the disk

"Thanks. The sooner I get this back, the sooner Amita gets medical attention. I'm seriously worried"

"It'll all be over soon" Don said not wanting to let Terry go but he knew had to, for Amita's (and inadvertently Charlie's) sake. Terry turned to cross the street again when she suddenly she turned back and kissed Don passionately on the lips

"I love you too" Terry whispered in his ear then dashed across the street, leaving Don in a stunned silence.

Author's note: I decided that he was already mean, so I continued with making Joe be the evial (yes evial) little man that he is