Sergie was furious. Two days ago he had sat outside a small café across the street from Bankers Trust. It wasn't hard for him to spot the undercover agents on the outside of the bank. They did little things to attract attention to themselves if you watched carefully. He'd warned Calvin to lay low and let the money sit, but no; he wanted his money now. Sergie had watched as Calvin exited the bank and was confronted by the FBI. The agent who shot Calvin was one Sergie recognized. Agent Eppes efficiently neutralized Calvin when he pulled his gun. After the shoot out, Sergie had gone back to his apartment and called Fritz. There was no answer and he assumed the FBI had him as well. At that point he knew he wouldn't be able to get his money by just walking into the bank; what he didn't understand was how the FBI knew where the money had been moved. It didn't take him long to realize that Charlie must have put a trace in the program. He'd underestimated the math professor, but not again. Sergie would get his money and revenge on the brothers.
So here he was, walking down the hall at the CalSi math building. For the past two days he'd watched Charlie to get a feel for his routine. At this time of day he knew the professor was teaching a class on the floor above. This was the perfect time for him to get into Charlie's office. When he got to the office he tried the handle and found it unlocked. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
Amita just shook her head as she made her way to Charlie's office. Sometimes she wondered how Charlie got anything done without her. He was always forgetting things he needed for class and she would have to run back to the office to get them. Today he'd forgotten the transparencies for the overhead. As she stepped into the office she gasped when an attractive blond with striking blue eyes surprised her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"That's all right. Professor Eppes is teaching a class. Can I help you with something?"
"Professor Eppes? I think I must have the wrong office. I was looking for Professor Conklin."
"Professor Conklin is Astrophysics. He's in the building next door."
"Thank you, again I'm sorry to have startled you."
Amita smiled as he left. She gathered the transparencies and left the office.
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Charlie walked back to his office with Amita. The "Math for Non Math majors" was always a fun class for Charlie to teach. Okay' sometimes he got a little carried away and Amita had to bring him back to earth, but he knew he captured a few of the students' interest. As they entered the office they found Larry sitting at Charlie's desk.
"Hello, Charles," Larry said. "Amita, how are classes going?"
"They're fine, Dr. Fleinhardt," Amita answered.
"Larry, what are you doing here?" Charlie asked, dropping the papers on the desk.
"Came to see if you wanted to join me for lunch," Larry said. "It's a lovely day and I thought we could go sit out on the lawn."
"I don't know, I have a lot to do."
"Oh come on, Charlie, it will be fun," Amita said.
Before Charlie could protest Amita grabbed their lunches out of the fridge. She took Charlie's arm while Larry grabbed the other one and they pulled him out the door. As they made their way to the main lawn they could see others had the same idea. The area was full of people lying in the sun, eating lunch or just enjoying the beautiful southern California weather. They found a spot in the shade and got comfortable.
"Here ya go," Amita said handing Charlie his bag from the Deli.
"Thanks," Charlie said, pulling out his sandwich and looking at Amita. She was about to take a drink from her orange juice when Charlie stopped her. "Wait, that one's mine. I noticed we got the same thing this morning so I put my name on it."
"Thanks," Amita said as they switched.
"So, Charles, how go the classes?" Larry asked as he took a bite of his sandwich.
Charlie was taking a drink and stopped to answer Larry. "They're great. The students this year are really on the ball."
Larry talked with Amita while Charlie watched the other students. He finished the orange juice and grimaced at the odd flavor. Amita was telling Larry about some of the students in his advanced Calculus class.
"Yeah, one student stumped Charlie the other day." Amita said.
"You're kidding," Larry said in surprise.
Charlie just rolled his eyes. It hadn't been that funny, but Larry seemed to be amused by the incident. But it didn't mean they had to laugh at him. As Charlie turned back to Larry and Amita they seemed to be out of focus. They were laughing and pointing at him and he didn't like it. Charlie closed his eyes to try to clear his vision. When he opened them again he saw Larry leaning against Amita trying to catch his breath from laughing.
"Stop it!" Charlie yelled.
"Charlie, what's wrong?" Amita asked. "You thought it was funny yesterday."
"Really, Charles, it is funny." Larry said chuckling.
"You're right," Charlie said, rubbing his eyes. "It was funny. I just have a headache."
"So, stretch out in the sun," Amita suggested. "You don't have a class for another hour."
Charlie shrugged and decided to give it a try. It felt funny being out here when he had so much work to do. He sighed and tried to relax, except he couldn't. The noise outside was very distracting and Charlie decided to stare at the clouds.
Amita smiled when she looked over at Charlie. He seemed to be enjoying watching the clouds. They'd been out there for only twenty minutes and Amita felt completely rejuvenated. Larry had been right, this was a good idea. She was surprised when Charlie suddenly sat up. He looked wildly around then focused on Larry. She'd never seen that look on Charlie's face before.
"No!" Charlie screamed and punched Larry.
Amita was taken by surprise as Charlie smashed the glass Snapple bottle on the ground. The next thing she knew Charlie grabbed her and held the jagged edge of the glass against her throat.
"Charlie, you're hurting me," Amita said, scared.
"Shut up, bitch!" Charlie said, pressing the glass harder against her neck.
Larry sat up rubbing his jaw to see Charlie holding Amita from behind with a piece of glass at her neck. Charlie was holding the broken glass so tight in his hand that Larry could see blood running down his wrist. Larry didn't know what was going on but he could see they were attracting attention.
"Charles, please just calm down."
"Calm down?" Charlie yelled. "Don't you think I see what's going on!"
Larry looked around and could see Charlie's behavior was attracting the campus police. He needed to calm Charlie down before things got out of hand.
"Charles, talk to me," Larry said.
"They're always laughing. I can hear them but they don't think I can."
"We aren't laughing at you," Amita said.
"Shut up!" Charlie said squeezing her tighter.
Amita yelped in pain. She couldn't believe how strong Charlie was. His grip was so tight she could hardly move. Charlie had her right hand in his left, which was wrapped, tightly around her neck. She could feel something warm running down her neck and she was afraid.
"What's going on here?" one of the campus police said as he got closer.
"Just a misunderstanding officer," Larry said trying to diffuse the situation.
When the officer saw Charlie holding the glass against Amita's neck he placed his hand on his gun. Charlie saw him and backed away, causing Amita to cry out.
"Just hold it right there," the officer said. "Why don't you let her go?"
"Go to hell!" Charlie yelled.
"This is Officer Randall on the lawn by the math building. I need some back up. Possible hostage situation."
Larry knew calling for more police would only make things worse. There was only one thing to do.
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David followed Don back out to his SUV. They had come to see a forger about the fake passport Immigration and Naturalization had sent over. Normally INS would handle them but these particular passports were linked to a terrorist ring, which fell under FBI jurisdiction. After climbing into the SUV David flipped through some of the passports as Don pulled into traffic.
"I can't believe how many mistakes are in these," David commented. "If Reynolds hadn't shown us I never would have found them."
"Yeah, Jack is an incredible forger."
"Still, I can't believe how much work goes into making one of these."
"Yeah, I know."
Don drove for a few minutes when he's phone rang. David tried not to listen to Don's conversation, but he knew something was wrong from Don's tone of voice. He ended the conversation and stepped on the gas. David was surprised when Don turned on the lights and siren.
"What's wrong?"
"That was Larry," Don said, moving around a car that didn't get out of the way fast enough. "Something's wrong with Charlie. He said he's holding a piece of glass to Amita's neck and is acting crazy."
They were lucky that Reynolds' apartment had been close to the CalSi campus. David grabbed the roll bar above his head as Don made a sharp turn onto the campus. As they drove up they could see a group of people standing around on the lawn. Don slammed on the brakes and put the SUV in park. David scrambled to get out and followed Don. As they got closer they could see four campus police trying to move in on Charlie.
"Stay away!" Charlie screamed.
"Back off!" Don commanded as he stepped up next to one of the officers and showed his badge.
"We can handle this," the officer said.
"No you can't," Don said. "This isn't' the way you handle a hostage situation. Now back off!"
They did as Don asked, but didn't go far. Don looked at his brother and could see Charlie's eyes darting everywhere. He also noticed the blood on Charlie's hand and Amita's shirt.
"Easy, Charlie, everything's going to be okay," Don said, soothingly.
"Make them stop laughing!" Charlie demanded.
"I will," Don said, and motioned the officer over. "I want you to push all these people back." The officer reluctantly did as Don asked. David came over and stood next to Don.
"What do you think happened?" David asked.
"I have a pretty good guess," Don said, looking around for Larry. "Larry, what were you doing just before this happened?"
"We were just eating lunch," Larry replied.
"You think someone doctored his lunch," David said.
"Look at how Charlie's acting," Don said. "Paranoid, jumpy and delusional."
"Sounds like PCP," David guessed. "How do you want to handle this?"
"Move off to the left," Don instructed. "I'll try to talk with him."
"Right," David nodded.
"Larry, I need you to call an ambulance," Don said. Larry nodded and slowly moved away.
Don was scared. He'd dealt with criminals high on drugs and knew what it took to bring them down. He didn't think he could do that to his little brother. Charlie kept rapidly moving his head back and forth and Don looked behind him. The campus police were pushing the people back but Don knew they wouldn't go far. Just like at a car wreck, people just had to see what was going on. Don knew what was happening wasn't Charlie's fault but the spectators didn't. He could only guess what Charlie's peers were thinking. Young prodigy cracks under pressure. Don knew his brother would be mortified.
Don walked towards his brother and stopped about ten feet in front of him. "Talk to me, Charlie."
"Just make them stop," Charlie cried.
"I can do that," Don said as he slowly moved closer but stopped as Amita cried out. "But first you have to let Amita go."
"Why, so you can have her?" Charlie growled. "Don't think I haven't noticed."
"I just want to make sure she's safe. Don't you want that?"
"What's that!" Charlie cried out.
"What?"
"On your arm!" Charlie said, hysterically. "Don't let it come near me!"
Don wasn't prepared for Charlie to push Amita away from him. He grabbed her before she could fall, but he wasn't able to stop Charlie from slashing the glass down his left forearm. David tackled Charlie from behind and Don quickly moved in to help restrain his brother. The drug was making Charlie much stronger then normal.
"Sit on him!" Don yelled as he tried to grab the hand holding the glass.
David was finally able to pin Charlie, but it didn't stop the smaller man from struggling against them. Suddenly Charlie just stopped and went limp. David looked at Don in alarm.
"Charlie," Don called, grabbing his brother's chin. Charlie's unblinking eyes just stared straight ahead.
"What the hell's going on?" David asked as he got off Charlie. "I've never seen anyone act like this on PCP."
"I don't know," Don admitted.
Don was truly worried and hoped the ambulance got there quickly. He checked his brother's breathing and found it a bit rapid, along with his heart rate. Don didn't know what else he could do except try to control the bleeding. David was already trying to stop the bleeding on Charlie's forearm, while Don moved to take care of his right hand. Charlie was still clutching the glass in his hand and he had a hard time getting him to let it go. He finally pried it out of Charlie's grip and Don clenched his teeth when he saw the exposed bones. The ambulance arrived and the paramedics came over with their equipment. One of them took over from David and he stepped away. Don remained with his brother and talked with the paramedics.
"Are you okay?" David asked Amita.
She was sitting with Larry, who was holding his handkerchief against her neck. "I'm okay. How's Charlie?"
"I don't know," David said as he took a look at Amita's neck. "I think you'd better go to the hospital too."
"I'm okay," Amita argued.
"I'll take her," Larry said.
They watched as the paramedics loaded Charlie on a gurney and strapped him down. They headed for the ambulance and Don followed. Suddenly a student pushed his way over to the gurney and started taking pictures.
"What the hell are you doing!" Don said, grabbing the camera.
"Student papers going to love this," the student said.
"David, can you take care of things here?" Don asked as he pushed the "reporter" towards his partner.
"I got it covered." David assured him as he took the student's arm. "Larry's going to bring Amita over to the hospital."
"Good," Don said and followed his brother.
Larry watched as they loaded his friend into the ambulance. He helped Amita to her feet and started to walk away. He just hoped everything was going to be all right.