TAKING TO TASK

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"GAME ON"

Ned brushed a hand through his thick hair and shifted uncomfortably from foot-to-foot as Nancy stepped away from him and frowned defiantly at him. She very purposefully put her hand into one of Frank's and held onto his arm with her free hand, keeping herself well within Frank's well of safety as she regarded her former boyfriend. Ned merely stood, looking boyish and handsome and very much the same as the last time that Nancy saw him, despite the suit he wore.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy demanded a moment later when she got her composure back. "Why did you come here? How did you find us?"

"I've been keeping an eye on you," Ned admitted, the boyish expression leaving his face as he stood a little straighter. "You're in over your head this time, Nan. You shouldn't have ever gotten involved with Marcius Ras-Alman."

"What are you talking about Ned?" Nancy demanded hotly. She had never felt so angry in a long time, not even when Ned walked away from her after their failed engagement. She remembered loving this man, wanting to spend the rest of her life with him, wanting to know she'd wake up in the morning in his arms and feel his breath on her skin and he had taken that away from her.

And now he was here, talking mysteriously, like he had a clue what he was saying!

Ned sighed and motioned to a nearby doorway. "Let's go in there and talk," he said. "I have some things you should probably know before you get more in over your head than you are now. I don't want you to argue with me Nancy. Frank. Let's go."

Nancy whirled on her heel and went into the room indicated. It was another office but they weren't going to be alone here. There was another man in a suit similar to Ned's standing there, the phone receiver from the desk to his ear as he talked in low tones. Ned motioned to the empty chairs and Nancy and Frank sat down in them, still keeping contact with each other by holding hands.

"I guess I should confess something now," Ned sighed as he sat down in one of the other chairs. "I, uh don't know quite how to say this."

"Usually you just open your mouth and words come out," Frank said mildly. He'd been awfully quiet since the talk with the doctor and Nancy knew he wanted to get upstairs to see Joe. "That's the best way to say anything."

"Fine," Ned glared at Frank for a moment before turning a more placid expression on Nancy. "I'm older than you think I am, Nancy. I graduated from the University of Illinois – Chicago four years before you think I graduated from Emerson."

Nancy's eyes went wide at that little tidbit of information.

"I'm sorry I kept it secret from you but there were… reasons for that, reasons I can't go into right now. I'm a special agent, based out of the office in Chicago and I've more or less been undercover since I was assigned here."

"Undercover?" Nancy demanded. "Doing what?"

Ned sighed. "There was a major drug ring running on Emerson. Since I was still very young – and young looking – I went undercover as a student there. That's how we met, of course, but I couldn't tell you what I was doing – it was too dangerous for you and me for you to know. You were getting into all those mysteries and I was in over my head trying to track down the major players in the drug ring."

Ned paused and looked down at his hands for a moment. The other man, obviously another agent, was off the phone and perched on the edge of the desk.

"I really did fall in love with you Nancy," Ned confessed softly. Nancy froze, not wanting to hear it. "But it couldn't last. I… our duties were going to interfere. I had my chosen path and you had yours and nothing was going to get in the way of that, not even each other. It was… it was easier to call off the engagement…"

"And let me think it was all my fault!" Nancy exclaimed. She wanted to get up and hit him now, really hard. Normally a non-violent person, the burst of anger she felt nearly bowled her over. She had to calm down before she really did something bad.

Frank caressed her hand gently and made a calming noise that she barely heard.

"I'm sorry," Ned said softly. "I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth. I'm afraid I was… I was totally messed up inside. I kept having nightmares where you got badly injured – or killed – from something I did and it was easier to push you away and, I admit… I was hoping you would blame yourself and quit being a detective. I was so scared for you… it was stupid, Nancy, I KNOW that. You can hate me all you want but you won't hate me more than I hate myself."

Ned paused, sighing.

"That brings me to what you're doing, though," he said. "In the last six months I've been here, assigned to the Ras-Alman case. That's my partner over there, Agent Samuel Sinclair."

Sinclair, a man in his thirties, waved to them, a quirky smile on his face.

"The Bureau would have our heads if they knew what we were about to tell you," Ned continued. "But I feel we don't have a lot of choices here. You need to know what's going on and we need your help – all three of you. I've told Sinclair how good you all are at detective work and I think… I know we can use that."

Sinclair nodded. "Which is why I agreed to any of this."

"Okay," Frank said cautiously. "What?"

"We have a major leak in place at Ras-Alman's – not just the agent who was killed a month ago but another man. Ras-Alman has a major action planned in two weeks, a terrorist act. The man – our leak – says Ras-Alman is organizing the bombing of the Arch and Busch Stadium. What we need, however, is to tie him directly into it. So far, he's only the planner, he's not getting his hands dirty by coming out and doing anything himself. We need you guys to draw him out, make him act rashly, do something stupid… he's got a major case of 'hate' on you guys and we can use that."

Nancy's eyes were wide with shock. "You should just stop him now, before someone gets hurt!"

"Nobody is going to get hurt and no major landmarks are getting blown up, Miss Drew," Agent Sinclair said. "But if we don't at least let them plant the bombs, Ras-Alman will be out in a week, maybe less, because his lawyers are that good. If we catch him in the act of the crime, he's gone for good. That's what we're working on."

Nancy and Frank exchanged looks of worry.

"We need you two to draw them out," Sinclair said. "We're raiding his house in St. Charles and the building on Manchester. That's going to make him desperate to begin with. If you guys are openly working with us – me that is – he'll know where it's coming from and you guys will definitely be on the hit parade. He'll want to see to your… demise… himself. Of course, we won't let that happen."

Nancy shook her head. "No," she said. "We need to do more. There has to be something else, something… look, Frank has a baby!"

Ned nodded. "We know that, Nancy. And Ras-Alman will do anything he can to get his hands on her."

"So you want us to cause as much trouble for him as we can?" Frank asked, a small smile on his face.

He looked at Nancy and squeezed her hand, looking certain and resolved.

"We can do that. Oh yeah, we can cause trouble for Ras-Alman."

He grinned now and Nancy felt herself giving in.

"Game on!"