I do not own the Numb3rs characters
A/N Thanks for the great reviews
Chapter 35
When had it started raining? Charlie realized that he was barely able to see out the windshield and he hadn't even noticed. That was not a good sign and he made it a point to pay attention. He turned on the windshield wipers and put in a CD. Thinking too much about the disk was not going to get him anywhere but in a car accident.
He squinted through the driver's side window to get his bearings. Why was his name now listed as one of those involved in the conspiracy? He fought the direction his mind was turning to. Where was he? It looked like he must have missed his turnoff because nothing at all looked familiar. He pulled into the first place big enough to turn around.
He pulled back out onto the road and headed the way he had just come. Charlie realized that he had not made the effort to make sure he was not followed. 'Not much point in starting now.' When he saw the turnoff now on his right hand side, he had nearly passed it again and had to hit his brakes so as not to miss it. He took the left fork and made his way toward the barren land that would eventually lead him to the cabin.
While Jason was racing toward where he believed Charlie would be heading, Don had could feel his anger rise. "Get the Director on the phone. I want to talk to him now."
Jason pushed the speed dial button and handed the phone to Don.
"Jason did you find him?"
"Director Thompkins, It's Don Eppes and I want to know what's going on and I want to know now."
"Agent Eppes, we are doing everything that we can to save Charlie. But first we have to find him. If you had let him out as you were ordered, we would have been able to pick him up. By the time we figured out that you took him home, he was gone.
I just spoke to Agent Collins and I have sent him to the cabin where I believe Charlie would go. Jason also knows it's the first place we should check. The only place that Charlie may be safe now until I can get him to a secure location. The NSA received another disk today and I was called this morning. That disk placed Charlie's name above mine as the next on the hit list."
Don's voice rose. "And he's alone? You should never have had him working on this case. Why did you not have more protection on him? Why wasn't it turned over to the FBI in the first place?"
"Agent Eppes, Charlie wanted to work on this case. It is his line of expertise and I did have protection on him, but that was before he was bumped up to the hit list. As far as why I chose not to inform the FBI, it was my biggest fear that letting the FBI know about that disk would have caused the people involved to run scared only to return later to finish what they had started. Charlie wanted to inform you but we talked him out of it."
"Because Director Thompkins, Charlie knows that the FBI is not all that incompetent when it comes to finding answers or scaring suspects away as you said."
"One thing the NSA has over the FBI is that we don't have to follow the same rules. I did assure him that once we had answers and the guilty in custody that they would be turned over to the FBI at that time. That is still our intention. Right now we have a lot of questions and absolutely no answers. I don't who and I don't why. I only know that Charlie is in grave danger and my team is looking for him. Now please let me speak to Jason so that I can update him."
Don could hear that is was pretty much a one way conversation and Jason wasn't saying much. The rain had slowed down to a heavy sprinkle now.
Charlie's car was losing traction with every few yards and he had to gun the engine to spin the tires and get the car moving. Until finally the car was hopelessly stuck and no amount of spinning tires was convincing the land to give up its hold on the car.
He knew he still had at least three miles to go to reach the cabin. And from the looks of it he would be wet and muddy when he did get there. Charlie opened the door to get out and found that the right side has sunk and the car was leaning. He had to push pretty hard to get the door to open at all.
After he managed to climb out of the car, he faced the direction that he knew the cabin to be in and he started walking. He was startled to hear a voice behind him.
"Having problems Dr. Eppes?" Charlie turned around and saw Jeff. He did not look the least bit concerned. He had a smile on his face.
Charlie looked around. He didn't see a car anywhere and he had no idea how Jeff could have gotten here so fast from where the FBI had let him out at. He was suspicious and he knew Jeff's being here was not to help him out of the rut his car was in. "Just a few."
"It's just not your day is it?"
Charlie's eyes narrowed. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.
"I mean first you almost get shot by your own brother. Man, that would have been better than my original plan but I guess you only have me now."
"What's this all about Jeff? What happened to the "My life is the NSA speech?"
"Oh that." Jeff smiled. "I really always wanted to be an actor. How did I do?"
"Oscar material. You had me convinced. You want to tell me why you did all this?"
"I joined the NSA to get my revenge. I did as I was told and I managed to fool them all but I hate the NSA. I hate what it stands for. I hate how they turn their backs on their agents that gave everything, including their lives for the organization."
"Sounds like you think you have a good reason to turn traitor. I can't image any good reason to sink down to the level of cold blooded murder. The very scum of the earth Jeff. Something that you can be proud of I'm sure."
"Oh I am proud. I had some help of course, but I did most of this all on my own. How many people can have that kind of power? How many people can beat so many odds? I was able to have two very important men killed. I was able to make some more very important people run and hide. Yeah, I'm very proud of my actions, of my power. I have already ordered the hit on you and the Director but looks like I get to do this one myself. That's okay; the hit man is a personal friend so I'm sure he won't mind that I took over his job. He hates the NSA every bit as much as I do though. But, he wasn't able fool them as well as I did.
"You know I hated that Judge; he was the one that started my uncle on his downfall. My uncle who had lived and breathed NSA all of my life. He was a man that followed all the rules. He knew his job, his obligation and he was good at it. He told me it was his responsibility to keep the scum off the streets. That judge, he accused my uncle of tampering with evidence and he threw a case out that Uncle Steve had put so much of his time into. That was time that he took away from us, his family. Time that he said would be worth it when the man was locked up. But that judge turned that man loose and put a black mark on Steve Pitts' record. A mark that started the downfall. That man raised me. He took over for a father that was nothing but a drunk and whom I haven't seen since I was five. Steve Pitts raised me and he loved me and the NSA killed him. And it's time that all of the guilty pay for their crimes against him.
"Took me a while to catch up to that piece of filth that the judge turned loose, but I enjoyed watching him die, choking on his own blood. Just like I'll enjoy watching you die." Jeff took the gun out that he had kept hidden behind his back. A gun that Charlie had already known was there.
"Jeff, I didn't even know your uncle and I don't believe the NSA killed him. You can't blame everyone for a court error. It could have been anyone that tampered with the evidence and it wasn't the judge's fault that he had to throw out the case. It happens and he was only following the law."
"Oh they couldn't official accuse him but the was in charge of the case. After that my uncle couldn't even get on a team that was handling a decent case or project. No one trusted him anymore and he was babysitting overblown politicians. He died protecting the very scum that he had fought his entire career to get off the streets. Everyone knows that politicians are the worst of the lot and are just well dressed criminals themselves. Terrorist threats against one certain Senator and then a political rally that should have been postponed. My uncle died saving that windbag."
Jeff was now holding the gun loosely and Charlie knew that he needed to get a little closer to him if he even stood a chance of getting away.
"But why me? Like I said I didn't even know the man, why do you figure I need to pay for his death?"
"Not his Dr. Eppes. You have to pay for Kristen's death. I trusted her and she betrayed that trust. She believed that you could stop me; she thought you were better than me and see how wrong she was? Right from the start she talked about how great your mind worked. She told me that I couldn't win. She said that if anything happened to make the NSA suspicious that you would be the one to stop me.
"So I knew I needed to keep an eye on you until I finished what I came for. I trumped up how many people were involved and I added a bunch of nobodies to the list of people that had to die. I thought I had her support finally when she saw all of the people involved.
"But when Director Thompkins disappeared without a trace, I knew that she had betrayed me. And before I let her die, she told me how she did that. She slipped you a disk. But then you didn't do anything to stop those men from dying and she knew that you had to be involved too. That's real funny huh? She thought you'd save the day and you were the one that caused her to die, as sure as if it had been you that plunged that knife into her.
"She must have sent that second disk to the FBI after you let that Judge die. I didn't know about that one but it turned out to be a good thing. Your own brother thinks you were involved with those killings."
Charlie had been inching forward while Jeff was talking and now he saw his chance and he took it. With lightening speed he kicked out at Jeff's hand and when the tip of his sneakers connected with the back of Jeff's hand he heard the crunch of something breaking in that hand and the gun went flying. Charlie looked around for the gun and couldn't see it. He thought now would be a good time to put some distance between him and a man with murder on his mind. He turned in the direction of the cabin and Charlie ran.