Chapter Four
Jaime wished she felt as fearless as the alter-ego 'Jaime' she was portraying. Although she'd protested bitterly when they were making these plans, she was glad she'd agreed to let Rudy implant a tracking chip in her arm -only temporarily, of course. She didn't want to spend any more time in this place, with these people, than was absolutely necessary. They were headquartered in a building that had probably once been a small factory with offices on one side, but it reminded Jaime of a cross between a run-down prison and a medieval torture chamber. She'd been escorted to a small waiting room and told that 'Sid' would join her shortly.
Wary, curious and a little bit bored, she tuned in to hear the voices in the next room. "We did an even better job than we thought," said a man she recognized as the same one who had brought her here. "Incredible likeness."
"So why haven't you secured everything?"
"I didn't want to spook her and have her try and fight her way out," the first man answered.
"We are more than capable of stopping her. Secure the doors - now!"
Jaime did not like the sound of that! She was on her feet immediately, but it was already too late. A set of two thick metal doors slid closed, one after the other, blocking her escape. She heard a strange mechanical noise and saw an observation camera slide out of a wall near the ceiling and point itself in her direction.
"What the -? Sorry, guys, show's over," she said angrily. Jaime took aim, jumped toward the camera and swung at it with her right arm. The camera's light went off, but it had been programmed with high voltage as a fail-safe, and Jaime winced as she fell to the floor, momentarily stunned. There was smoke coming from her arm. To make it all a little bit worse, a second camera took the first one's place. "Dammit!" she cursed, just before blacking out.
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In a make-shift lab down the hall from Oscar's office, Steve, Rudy and Oscar were hunched over the tiny screen that was fed by the tracking chip in Jaime's arm. They had narrowed down the area and were about to zero in on her location when the screen filled with grey and white snow and then went black.
"What would make the chip do that?" Oscar asked, worry lines creasing his face.
"A malfunction in the chip itself would do it," Rudy speculated, "but that's a brand-new one, and it was working perfectly a few hours ago."
"If...something...happened to Jaime, would it -" Oscar began.
"The chip would still transmit, as long as her arm was powered."
Steve understood. "So if something happened to her arm, if it was no longer functioning or getting power..."
"That would do it. Definitely." Rudy confirmed.
"Damn!" Steve slammed his right fist into the wall, leaving a hole. "Sorry, Oscar. I just wish it would've held out even a minute or two longer; we almost had her. Oscar, I'm gonna head for the general area, and you or Rudy can radio me if it gives you anything else."
"I don't think you should go in there blind, without back-up, Pal," Oscar told him. "I'll put a team together, and -"
"And by the time they're ready, who knows what might happen to Jaime?" Steve said grimly. "If it's true that she can't use her arm, she's already in real trouble. You go ahead and form your team, Oscar. When they're ready, they can join me; I'll be looking for my wife."
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"Jaime? Sweetheart, please wake up; we've got to get out of here."
Jaime forced her eyes open - they felt so heavy - and found herself in Steve's arms. "Oh, thank God!" she whispered. "I thought when my arm fizzled that you'd lose the tracking device."
"No problems on our end," he told her. "C'mon, let's go before they figure out I'm here. Can you walk?"
"I...think so."
He helped her to her feet and they hurried down the dark hallway. He led her up a flight of steps, out the back door and into an alley where she suddenly saw...
"Steve?" Jaime looked from the man with his arm around her waist to the one standing at the alley's entrance, staring at them in disbelief that echoed her own. The two men were identical. Jaime pulled away from the one who'd been leading her and backed into a wall, her eyes reflecting the shock and confusion that were paralyzing her.
The second Steve walked slowly toward them, trying to assess the situation. The first one turned to Jaime. "Gotta admit they've got some talent, to be able to build something like that," he told her. "But Sweetheart, you know who I am. If you don't, well, watch this." He raised his arm and punched a hole in the brick wall of the building they'd just left. Wordlessly, his eyes deadly serious, the second Steve did the same.
A very familiar voice came from just inside the back doorway. "Steve, if you're done showing off now, how 'bout going home to our kids?" Confusion, first multiplied by three, was now multiplied by four as a second, identical Jaime joined them in the alley.
"No way..." the first Jaime murmured, her legs beginning to give out from fear and shock. Both Steves rushed to her aid as she sank slowly to the pavement.
The second Jaime merely shook her head. "Real nice try there, Sweetie, but I'm not quite so melodramatic." The second Steve looked from one to the other, needing to embrace one of them and knock the other one into the next week. It was impossible to tell by looking at them.
"Come over here," he called to Jaime #2. He looked at them each in turn; even their eyes were the same. "Jaime," he said to both of them and neither one in particular, "what was the name of your childhood teddy bear?"
"Albert," #2 said with confidence. Steve looked to Jaime #1, pale and shaky and still on the ground.
"I didn't have a teddy bear. It was a rabbit. Mister Snug-Snug."
With no doubt whatsoever in his mind, Steve #2, the real Steve, took his wife into his arms and held her close. They were still in a huge mess of trouble, but at least they were together now, and in both of their minds, one plus one equaled ten, when they worked as a team.
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