Chapter Two

Steve felt torn into at least three separate pieces. He had too many things he needed to do, and he needed to do all of them now. He was sitting in a hallway, waiting to talk with Rudy and then, hopefully, with Oscar. He needed to inspect the crash site and the remains of the limo as soon as he could get there. Jack Hansen and several of his NSB agents were already doing that, because Jaime's disappearance was a national security matter as well as a potential intelligence breach.

Steve also desperately wanted to be up in the surrounding hills, personally searching for Jaime. If she'd panicked after the crash and run off somewhere, she could be lying up there, hurt - maybe dying - alone and vulnerable. Steve couldn't bear to think about that. Between the NSB, the OSI and the Air Force, there were three dozen men on the ground and a half dozen more in the air, looking for her already. There was also a team from the FBI investigating the entire incident, since it was potentially an attempt to assassinate the Director of the OSI.

"You look like you're a million miles away," Rudy noted, sitting in a chair next to Steve's.

Steve snapped instantly back to the here and now. "How's Oscar? Is he conscious?"

Rudy nodded. "Not entirely out of shock, though, and he's extremely weak. The force of the crash must have been astronomical to send his body into physical shock, but luckily he wasn't injured. Whatever he saw threw him into emotional shock as well; he's still pretty confused, shaky on a lot of the details."

"Didn't Jaime have tests with you this week?"

"She finished a day early. Just left this morning."

"What the hell was she doing in Oscar's limo?"

"I'd imagine he was giving her a ride, either back to his office or to her apartment," Rudy said tentatively.

"Why was he even here?"

"Checking up - seeing how Jaime's tests were turning out."

"He said something about kissing her. Was that part of the confusion you were talking about?"

Here we go, Rudy thought to himself. "Actually, Steve, that was probably true."

Steve was stunned, trying to process this and react appropriately when what he wanted to do was put his fist through the wall. He and Jaime hadn't been a couple in over four years, but Steve's love for her had never diminished. The thought of her in another man's arms tore holes through his heart.

"You must've noticed Oscar's feelings for her," Rudy continued, "or heard the rumors."

"Never paid much attention to rumors. Rudy, I really need to talk to Oscar about the crash. I'm heading the OSI's investigation and the search for Jaime. I need to get in there now, if possible."

"Alright, but be very brief. The more rest he gets, the sooner he's back on his feet and back to work."

"Yeah. Ok." Steve found Oscar, not resting in bed, but standing at the window, staring wistfully into the hills.

"Doc told me you were on bedrest," Steve began.

"She's out there somewhere." Oscar sounded dazed.

"We've got teams looking for her and more on the way." Steve helped him back to the bed. "Oscar, I need to know anything you remember about the crash - before, during or after - any sounds, anything you might've seen."

"Two sounds. The first sounded almost like a gunshot."

"A gunshot. Did it come from the car, or -"

"No; from the hills," Oscar told him. "Right after - not even a second later - it sounded like a bomb going off, right in the car. The whole car shook, hard, and the last thing I remember was Jaime...she said something like ' There's a man' or ' There's a van'. Then - nothing. I woke up outside the car, or what was left of it. My driver was dead and Jaime was gone."

Jaime saw something. "Oscar," Steve queried, "did you get cut at all; were you bleeding?"

"No." Oscar closed his eyes, physically and emotionally drained. "Jaime..."

Steve got up, patted his boss gently on the shoulder and headed for the door. "We'll find her, Oscar."

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Steve was in his car, on the way to the crash site, when Jaime began to wake up. Her vision and her mind were foggy and she couldn't clear either one. She was strapped into what looked and felt like a dental chair but this was definitely not a dentist's office. An IV was infusing some sort of cloudy liquid into her left arm and she guessed - correctly - that she was being drugged.

There didn't seem to be anyone else in the room, but her head felt too heavy for her to raise it to look around. She noticed a surveillance-type camera high on the wall opposite her chair. Jaime decided to create as much of a ruckus as she possibly could, to find out who was watching her. Were they the same people she'd been chasing on the hill, the ones who'd grabbed her? Then she turned her head to the side and saw something that caused her to freeze and rethink her strategy. A square, grey metal contraption sat on a table near her chair. Multiple wires stuck out of one side, and although she couldn't move her arms or sit up to check, the wires appeared to be connected to either the chair or her body.

Jaime's feeling was that she'd be safest for now if she feigned unconsciousness. She was in no hurry to find out what the wired box was, or what they intended to do with her, whoever they were. What she didn't know was that they'd seen her open her eyes and they were coming for her.

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