I do not own the Numb3rs characters

Chapter 32

Charlie slept longer than he had expected and hurried to dress. He needed to get to the NSA to get that security program taken care of. He came out of the bedroom with his sneakers in hand and sat on the couch to put them on. Alan was just walking into the room.

"Where are you rushing off to this early?"

"I need to go into work for just an hour or two this morning. I should have left earlier but I slept in."

"No time for breakfast then I assume?"

"Sorry Dad, but I shouldn't be too long and we can have lunch together. Please don't make a ton of food though."

"Charlie, on your way can you drop me at that car rental agency near the the grocery store? I think seeing a few of the DC sites doesn't sound like such a bad idea anymore."

"Sure. You ready to go now?"

"Let me just grab my phone and wallet."

Charlie drove into the car rental parking lot and his dad got out. "I'll be expecting you back for lunch, so don't keep me waiting."

"I'll be there. Hey, you should rent a sports car Dad. Lots of old… er, lots of older guys do you know."

"Thanks for the advice Charlie, but none of the sites that I'm interested in seeing are under eighty years old and they don't care what I drive."

Charlie laughed and told his dad, "have fun and don't be late for lunch."

When Charlie got to the NSA, he entered the office and set to work with backing up the program. Once he had all of the disks completed, he began the job of wiping the memory clean. Charlie put the disks into a plain large envelope and headed out the door. The bank that he chose was one that was closest to the NSA building. After he had filled out the form and paid the fee he put the envelope in the box, locked it and walked back to his car in the NSA parking lot.

When he reached his car, he looked up at someone calling his name. Vic was hurrying over to him. Vic scanned the area for anyone that might overhear him and he told Charlie that the cabin was all set up for him and told him to be careful that he was not followed. He pressed something into Charlie's hand and told him to keep it bundled until he was away from the NSA grounds. It looked to be another uniform. Charlie thanked Vic and got in his car and drove away.

When he was a few miles away, Charlie unrolled the uniform and there was a small handgun. He put it and the ammo included in the glove box and threw the uniform in the back seat.

When he got home his dad was just setting the table for lunch. "Hey, perfect timing Charlie. I made chicken salad sandwiches and blended it to make it soft enough. And this time I do have iced tea if you're interested."

As they were eating Alan told Charlie that he picked up a tour book at the car rental and was talking about some of the sites he would go see within the next few days. Charlie was only half listening as he thought about what he would need to do once he got to the cabin.

"I have to go back to work this afternoon Dad. I may be a little late so don't worry about me."

"You going to those training classes?"

"I don't think I have time for those today, maybe tomorrow. What kind of car did you rent?"

"I got an SUV. It wasn't something I was considering really but there was not much on the lot to choose from. It's bigger than I'm used to. When I got back here, you know how all those spaces in the front are reserved for the apartments, so I had to pull it around back. I parked it right next to another SUV, same make and model. The owner was just getting out. Turns out he's a new neighbor of yours. His name is Jason Drake and he just moved in last night across the hall. He's in advertising."

"Well I'm glad you're getting the scoop on all my neighbors Dad. You should see what you can find out about that lady living down on the other end here on the sixth floor. She's about your age. Very attractive and I think you just may find that she's retired since I see her around a lot during the day."

"Don't even think of trying to set me up Charlie. I told you those long distance romances don't work out. Besides, Pauline and I are still seeing each other."

"I'm just talking about a way for you to spend a few long days this week. She may even want to see some of those sites that are in that tour book. Thanks for lunch. I have to run." He got his laptop and walked to the door.

"Call me if you're going to be too late Charlie, so that I don't have to worry."

Charlie was just as careful with this trip to the cabin as he was the last and when he pulled up to the rocks and hid his car, he was confident no one had followed.

When he walked in the door, Charlie was pleasantly surprised with the change in the cabin. It had been cleaned and appeared to be dust free. There was more furniture too. A bigger table and more comfortable looking chairs. There was a generator hooked up and even a small refrigerator and microwave. The lighting was crude but it did a good job lighting the entire room. There was also a lock and dead bolt on the door now. All in all, it was more equipped than his garage at home.

"Dr Eppes?"

Charlie turned around and a tall, very powerfully built man flashed a badge at him. "I'm Philip Jordan and I've been assigned to assist you with your research here. Director Thompkins asked that you call him as soon as you arrived so that he can fill you in. He asked that I give you the keys to this cabin too." He handed Charlie two keys.

"Thank you Philip, please call me Charlie since it looks like we will be sending quite a bit of time together."

Charlie called the speed dial button for Bob.

"Hello Charlie. This is right about the time I expected you. Did you have any problems today?"

"None at all, the computer is swept and the disks are safe."

"Do you have the package that Vic delivered?"

"It's in the car. Thanks for thinking of it. I see a mountain of files here. What am I looking for exactly?"

"I had all of the files for the past ten years pulled and there are five other agents other than Philip and myself helping with this. We're looking for anything that mentions either the Judge or the Senator. You will find that most of the files will mention me, only pull the files if they mention a direct threat to me from someone. The Judge will be easy to find since he's tried a lot of cases here in the DC area over the years. The Senator should be the hardest to locate anything on; He has always lived in NY But, he's been a state senator for ten years. Pull any file that mentions either one of them and we'll take those files and see what they have in common. It may take some digging but I think the answer is here."

Charlie and Philip worked through the mountains of files until it was nearly dark. They had come up with more than two dozen files for the judge but so far nothing on the Senator. They decided to call it a day and meet here again early tomorrow morning. Philip told him he was under orders to follow Charlie to his apartment building.

While Charlie got out of his car and walked to his building Philip sat in his car until the front door closed behind Charlie and then he drove away.

Don and Alan were sitting in the living room when Charlie opened the door. Charlie thought it looked like both of them were ready to run out the door at a moments notice. Don looked relieved when he saw Charlie but Alan was the first to speak.

"Charlie I was getting worried, I thought I asked that you call if you were going to be late. It's after nine, I call that late."

"Sorry Dad, I really didn't think about it."

"We have all the food left over from yesterday, what do you want me to heat up for you?"

"A very small plate of whatever you want Dad. I really need to take that pain pill and I think I'll get to bed after that."

Charlie went to the kitchen for the medicine and to pour some iced tea, Don walked in. "I tried to call your cell phone today and it was turned off."

"Yeah, sorry I forgot it today."

"I've never known you to turn your phone off. I've known you to ignore it or even have the sound off, but not the phone. It struck me as pretty unusual for you."

"Don, I probably just haven't charged it. I'll do that before I go to bed."

After Charlie ate he told his father and brother good night and went to the bedroom. He opened the nightstand drawer and put the small gun inside. His cell phone was in his top dresser drawer where he stashed it last night before he borrowed his dads. Don was right, Charlie had turned it off.

He removed the back cover just to be sure and there he found a device that looked like the one that had been planted in Bob's phone.

As far as he knew today was the only day that someone could have gotten into the apartment when no one was home but his phone was. It sent a chill down his back.

Charlie left the phone in the drawer and went into the bathroom to call Bob. When he told him what he had found, The Director told him that he would have someone meet him outside his apartment door in two minutes and he wanted Charlie to hand the phone to him. He told him to just use the new one from now on. Charlie waited in the bedroom for two minutes and then walked to the front door and opened it. It really didn't surprise him that Bob had planted an agent nearby.

Alan and Don were looking at each other. Charlie had without a word to either of them, just opened the door to the apartment and apparently just looked out the door, closed and locked it again and went back to the bedroom.

Alan's glasses were down low on his nose, he had a crossword puzzle book opened in front of him. He looked at Don. "So Donnie, you said that I should inform you if Charlie was acting suspicious. I think that was a little suspicious."

"I agree." Don got up and opened the door. He looked out and when he did not see anything again closed and locked it.

Jason Drake in the apartment across the hall was busy calling the Director with what he found on Charlie's phone. His also contained a tracer and this just stepped up the investigation from one or two renegade agents to a more sophisticated plot.