Chapter Seventeen


I thought it was weird when Patrick was being uber-polite to me after we stopped sleeping together, but compared to how he's acting now that was normal. I'm seriously considering asking Lainey to have a conversation with him to see if there's something wrong. For example, two days ago at the Neurology staff meeting Patrick stood up and thanked me for the work that I did helping one of his recent surgical patients. He said that the drug protocol that his patient was treated with prior to surgery made his job easier. You couldn't hear a pin drop after he was finished. Everyone was as shocked as I was. The next day he asked me to go to lunch with him, ostensibly to consult on a case file, but when we got to Kelly's he hadn't actually brought the file and when I said he could go back to the hospital to get it or we could eat in the cafeteria he said why don't we just kick back and relax. I got the feeling that he never really intended to bring the file. But I stayed and we had a great time. A lot like it used to be between us, but different. Almost like…and this may sound crazy…like he's courting me. Then there's the little touches, touches that I have to admit make my heart jump. Like today, I was finishing a fudge mocha bar on my way to the lab and Patrick happened to be there and he reached out and wiped smudge of mocha off my lip and then licked it off his finger, looking at me the entire time. It seemed so intimate. It set my entire nervous system racing. I blushed! I actually blushed and excused myself to go into the lab and hid out there for the rest of the day and into the evening. This is getting crazy, dangerous. I want to crawl back into his bed so bad even though I know it will end the same way – him running away and me having this hollow feeling inside. Okay, I'm just being crazy. He's just trying to mend our friendship and being his naturally flirty and charming self. I have to stop reading more into it.


"What do you plan on doing with me, you Soviet bastards?" The fake Dr. Laurent's eyes were wild as he surveyed the room. He laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess now technically it's Russkie bastards." His German accent was thick and beads of spit flew from his mouth when he spoke.

"What are you talking about?" Patrick put his hands on his hips and leaned towards him. They were all gathered in the basement of their latest safe house somewhere in Europe. Patrick had given up trying to remember where he was. The room was sparsely furnished with the one chair that their prisoner was sitting in, a folding chair leaning against the far wall and a long flimsy card table. There were only a couple of dim bulbs that still worked, throwing off a dingy yellow/orange glow sporadically around the room.

"Drake, back off." Sean glared at him from across the room, his face in shadows. The guy was in Anna's orbit for one week and already he considered himself a spy. Ridiculous. The kid continued to rub him the wrong way; he was definitely going to have to have a talk with Robin about her taste in men. Sean pulled himself away from the wall and slowly walked over to the man who tried to pass himself off as Laurent. He put his hands on the arms of the chair the fake doctor was sitting in and leaned forward, his face inches from the prisoner's. "Where is Dr. Scorpio?"

"You know I don't have her."

"I know nothing of the sort."

"You've got her and you're not going to let her go until she helps you kill even more innocent people!"

Sean stared blankly at the lanky "doctor" for a moment, then turned and gestured for Anna to follow him. "A word, Anna." She looked at him, nodded, and walked out of the darkened room ahead of him. Sean stopped and leaned in to Aidan. "Keep an eye on him," he whispered, his eyes flitting to their captive. "And that one over there," he added, nodding his head toward Patrick, wondering not for the first time why all these non-professionals needed to be in the room for this.

The fake Laurent's body sagged in the chair, his hands tied behind him. He looked broken. His long, stringy, dirty blonde hair hung limp around his face, and he shook his head to get it out of his sunken eyes, the dark circles under them a stark contrast to his pale skin. He reminded Patrick of all those granola doctorate candidates in the geology department back at Harvard. He never understood why anyone would pursue a higher degree in rocks. The fake Laurent looked pleadingly at Patrick. "You've already killed my brother and my fiancé. What else do you want from me?"

Patrick glanced at Aidan, unsure what the man was talking about.

"Just who do you think we are?" Patrick asked as he walked back over to the prisoner.

"Mate…" Aidan warned.

"Son, let's leave this to the professionals."

Patrick spun around and glared at his father. "Because they've done such a bang up job so far?" He turned back to "Laurent." "I'll ask you again, who do you think we are?"

The captive pulled back his shoulders as best he could with his hands tied behind him, trying to look confident, but his quivering lips gave away his terror. "I know you are DVX," he whispered. "I'm not afraid of you. There's nothing more you can do to me."

Brenda shook her head. "Buddy, you've got it all wrong. We are not DVX. We're the opposite of DVX."

"What the hell does that mean Brenda? The opposite of DVX?" Patrick looked at her, incredulous.

"We're the good guys you moron! How much clearer do I have to be?" Brenda couldn't believe she had to explain this to him. "Duh," she mumbled under her breath.

The imposter watched their bantering with a curious look on his face. "Who are you people?" he asked, his voice filled with wonder.

The door opened, and Sean and Anna walked back inside.

"We're looking for Dr. Robin Scorpio, but we've already asked you about that." Patrick started to pace in front of the prisoner. "She's been kidnapped and we believe the people who killed Dr. Laurent have her." Patrick stopped in front of "Laurent" and leaned in close. "And when you sent Robin an email as a dead woman, you can imagine it raised a few red flags."

Sean and Anna watched the scene before them silently.

A look of realization passed over the prisoner's features. "Dr. Robin Scorpio." The fake doctor nodded. "I knew of Dr. Scorpio's work. She was a brilliant doctor."

"What do you mean was? She is a brilliant doctor!" Patrick's face turned red with fury.

Anna slowly walked over to Patrick and put her hand on his arm. "Patrick." Her eyes traveled to Noah who joined her by Patrick's side and put his hand on Patrick's shoulder to steady him. "It's okay. I'm sure our guest didn't mean anything by that."

The fake Laurent looked ruffled and shook his head vigorously. "No, I'm sorry. I meant nothing. I don't know anything about your Dr. Scorpio. I'm sorry."

Patrick shook off his dad's hand. "What's your name?" Patrick had a single goal now. Finding out what this guy knew and he'd gladly beat it out of him like he had his French doppleganger.

"Gregorio," he said softly. "Gregorio Mantz. I'm a scientist and I worked on Dr. Laurent's original team out of Switzerland."

Anna walked over to Mantz, dragging the folding chair with her and placing it in front of him and sat down. "Doctor, is it?" Mantz nodded and Anna continued. "Dr. Mantz, my name is Anna Devane and I believe we are on the same side here. Robin Scorpio is my daughter and she's very important to everyone in this room."

Sean cleared his throat from the other side of the room. "Dr. Mantz, you're going to need to explain to us why you were pretending to be your old boss."

Gregorio lowered his head, fat tears leaking from his eyes onto his legs. "She was an amazing woman. Renee ran a wonderful lab." He sniffed and looked up at them. "We were to be married next month." He swallowed hard and his whole body stiffened. "But they took her away from me. They took everything away from me. I need to stop them."

"Who took her away?" Patrick asked.

"Aidan, please untie Dr.Mantz," Anna said.

Aidan looked questioningly at Anna, but at her nod walked behind Mantz and untied his hands. He rubbed his wrists, his eyes darting back and forth between his captors before they settled on Patrick. "Thank you."

"Dr. Mantz, what exactly happened to your fiancée?" Aidan stole a quick glance at Brenda, who he noticed was biting her nails and watching Mantz intently.

"Renee consulted with Dr. Scorpio about a year ago regarding a drug protocol Dr. Scorpio was working on. One of the unwanted side effects was, unfortunately, a condition called distorted fear. Renee is…was something of an expert in this field. After Dr. Scorpio's program was shut down Renee continued to work on the problem, thinking it could possibly help with some of her other work in the subject. About six months ago she was contacted by someone claiming to be with a large pharmaceutical company, interested in her progress."

"What company?" Patrick asked.

"Cryllium Industries."

The gang looked at each other.

Patrick ran a hand through his hair. "I don't fucking believe this!"

"Wait, the pharmaceutical company responsible for the encephalitis outbreak?" Noah looked from Sean to Anna.

"The one and only." Patrick ran both hands through his hair. "Nearly killing her once wasn't enough apparently."

"I don't think Cryllium is just a pharmaceutical company," Mantz said softly. "A few weeks ago Renee told me that she suspected that these people were not who they said they were and that they were trying to create distorted fear and not eliminate it."

"Bloody hell," Aidan said under his breath. "Cryllium Industries is DVX."

Noah looked around for a chair. He needed to sit down for this. "Is that even possible?"

Sean shook his head and laughed. "It's starting to look that way." His eyes locked with Anna's.

The room was silent for a moment before Anna urged Mantz to continue with his story.

"When the initial call came in Renee was thrilled. She was so excited to revisit the work Dr. Scorpio had begun. I was working on another assignment and could not continue with her project, so I suggested my brother Dietrich." He laughed. "It's my fault he's dead." Silently he bent over, putting his head in his hands. "When she began to suspect that these people were not who they said they were she started fixing the results. Slowed down her progress." He paused. "Then they got angry."

Patrick and Brenda shared a terrified look.

Emotionally, Mantz continued. "She begged them not to test the serum. Told them it wasn't ready. Would never be ready. But they took the compound and set up their own trials using both volunteers, and those who were not as….excited to be participants. My brother. One of the lab security guards. The girl at the reception desk. They all died from physical complications. Heart attacks for my brother and the security guard. The girl had a stroke. A 23 year old healthy woman, dead due to complications from a stroke." Mantz stopped for a moment, his face screwing up in anguish. "And then they forced her to become a trial patient as well," he sobbed. "Renee was not quite as lucky. Death didn't come quickly. Instead she slowly went insane. Terrified by the distorted fears her compound created." He looked over at Patrick. "I'm afraid your Dr. Scorpio may have already become a victim as well."

"My God…" tears ran down Brenda's face as she looked over at Patrick to see how he was reacting. Noah had moved closer to him, keeping his eyes on Anna.

"But you don't know for sure," Patrick said. "You have no proof that she's hurt!"

"No, but I'm afraid it's only a matter of time. They gave Renee only a few weeks before they started testing her protocol on live subjects."

"I need to – um – I just," Patrick licked his lips to stop his babbling and looked at the ceiling. "I need to get some air." He turned and darted out of the room.

Noah started to go after him until Brenda placed her hand on his arm. "Noah, let me go."

Noah walked over to Anna and watched Brenda walk out of the room and after his son. Quietly, he took Anna's hand.

Aidan spoke up. "Where is this lab? We can put together a team, take them out. It must be where Robin is."

"It's not." Mantz's voice was stronger now, angry. "They sent Renee away after injecting her with the serum. After she died I went to the lab, but there was nothing there. No sign a lab had ever existed."

"Typical protocol," Sean stated matter-of-factly. His unemotional tone infuriated Noah and he squeezed Anna's hand.

"Renee talked about other labs that Cryllium ran. They were all over the world: Munich, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow." Mindlessly, Mantz rubbed his wrists as he threw out all the different cities Robin and her lab could be. "There are others out there desperate for the serum," Mantz threw out. "I think it's one of the reasons why they keep moving."

"And that just might work to our advantage," Sean said. "It could be the one thing that makes the DVX sloppy and distracted."


Patrick sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his face, Mantz's words ringing in his head. What if they had begun testing her protocol on her? What if she was slowly being terrorized by her fears and there was nothing he could do to stop it? He shook his head, trying to get the thoughts out. His eyes fell to the two journals on the nightstand. He picked up the black leather journal, still wrapped in plastic and broke open the packaging. Searching the drawer for a pen he opened the book to the first sheet and began writing, the words spilling onto the page.

Robin seems to think this writing down your feelings thing works, so I'm going to give it a chance. Honestly, at this point I'll do anything to try to calm my mind and ease my fears….

Brenda looked through the half closed door and saw Patrick on the bed, hunched over and writing furiously. Curious, she gently pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Hey," she said quietly.

Patrick looked up and closed the book leaving his pen inside to mark his page. "Hey."

Brenda leaned against the door frame and nodded at the journal. "What are you doing?"

He laughed and held it up. "Thought I'd try writing down my feelings since verbalizing them doesn't always go so well."

Brenda made a surprised face. "Really?"

"Yeah. Thought I'd take a page out of Robin's book – no pun intended - and try this journal thing."

Brenda slowly walked over to the bed and sat beside Patrick. "She's been writing in a journal for years – ever since I met her. She must have dozens filled." Brenda glanced over at him. "She's never let me look at them though."

Patrick laughed again. "Yeah, well, I didn't actually ask for permission." He glanced over at the journal still on the night stand and pulled it onto his lap. "I started reading it for clues, but now I read it because it makes me feel closer to her. I can actually hear her talking to me."

Brenda looked at him for a long moment, his crumpled face breaking her heart. She reached over and took his hand in hers, staring out in front of her. Patrick looked down at his hand in Brenda's tiny one and swallowed hard.

They sat like that together silently, each lost in their own thoughts until finally Brenda gave his hand a squeeze.

"I just wish we had an inkling as to where Robin was." Brenda stood and walked over to the window. Using two fingers she pried the blinds open to take a peek outside. The fact that it was a beautiful day, the sun shining bright in the clear blue sky, didn't seem to make sense. She snapped shut the small opening she had created and turned to face Patrick. "So, what do you think we should all do after we find Robin?" Brenda looked at him expectantly. "Because we'll have to do something really great to celebrate."

Patrick smiled despite himself. "Well what I have planned for her really only involves the two of us. Unless you like to watch."

"You wish Dr. Hottie." She smiled back at him. "So after that five minutes you've got planned-"

"Ouch."

"We'll need to do something special. Maybe we will take you shopping with us."

"Long trip 4 wndw shppng." Patrick looked down at his hands. He had memorized that first nonsensical text message days ago.

Brenda walked over to the bed again and sat down. "You know, Robin and I had an inside joke about window shopping. I had a boyfriend who tried to convince us to take a weekend trip to Amsterdam to do some real window shopping. He was hoping for a little red light action. Speaking of watching, I think that's what he was hoping for."

"He sounds charming," Patrick said, his mind whirring. Brenda had made the allusion to Amsterdam when he was driving the taxi earlier that morning, then he had forgotten all about it. What if…

"Yeah he was a real perv. Actually we called him Paolo the Perv. He didn't last very long, but Robin and I still laugh about him. I couldn't say the words 'window shopping' for a good couple of months without her falling into hysterics."

The sudden vibration on his hip made Patrick jump as he whipped the Blackberry from it's case attached to his belt loop.

"What is it?" Brenda tried to see what he was looking at on the tiny screen.

"Get 2 chrch on time," Patrick stared into space, his brain struggling to make sense of the message.

"Do you think that's from Robin?" Brenda waved a hand in front of Patrick's face and got no response. "Patrick? Okay does even the mere mention of getting to a church on time throw you into a complete panic?"

"What?" His eyes flickered over to her as he stood up. "No, Brenda, I think this is a clue. I think I've finally figured out where Robin is."


Patrick and Brenda ran into the kitchen, where Anna, Noah, Aidan and Alex were gathered around the table.

" Amsterdam. I think Robin's in Amsterdam," Patrick exclaimed.

"Patrick, what are you talking about?" Anna asked.

"I just got another text message. 'Get 2 chrch on time'," Patrick looked at Noah. "Couple that with 'Long trip 4 wndw shppng' which, thanks to Brenda, I think refers to Amsterdam's red light district."

"It's a long story," Brenda said to the inquisitive looks.

"Dad – Amsterdam, church, red light district…"

"Oude Kerk," Noah whispered.

Patrick nodded. "Oude Kerk."

"What the bloody hell are you two talking about?" Aidan looked from one Drake to the other, completely befuddled. It was like they were speaking a different language.

"My wife was an architect-junkie. I think we've already established that." Noah looked at Anna shyly and then looked down. "We took a European vacation when Patrick was a teenager, and one of our stops was Amsterdam. Mattie was thrilled to check out all of the castles and medieval churches. She had read about one in particular that interested her."

"Oude Kerk," Patrick interjected.

Noah nodded. "Oude Kerk. It's the oldest church in Amsterdam, and a real architectural marvel."

"The one thing she didn't realize is that it's smack dab in the middle of the red light district." Patrick smiled at the memory. "You should have seen my mother's face when we walked through Old Centre Amsterdam, past the Prostitution Info Centre…"

Noah laughed. "She was mortified."

"We should talk to Mantz. See if Amsterdam jogs his memory." Anna left the kitchen to find Sean and Mantz who had moved into the small office down the hall, trying to come up with a plan of attack based on the bits of information that Mantz had.

"This has got to be it," Patrick said to no one in particular.


Anna knocked on the closed door and then quickly threw it open, startling Sean and Mantz who had been huddled together. "What do you know about Amsterdam?" Anna fixed a stare on their new friend.

Mantz racked his brain, searching for a memory, anything. "Well, Renee did mention a lab, underneath a church." He looked up at Anna and blushed. "It's in the red light district."

Anna looked at Sean. "Looks like we're headed to Amsterdam."


It was late afternoon and the sun was just setting, making the sky a dusty gray. There was already a glow permeating from the shops and red lights shone from many of the windows up and down the street. The modern red lights were a stark contrast to the cobblestone streets and brick and stone buildings. Every few yards was a new shop window with another girl advertising her wares. There was the school girl sitting on the teacher's desk who uncrossed her legs to reveal she wasn't wearing any underwear as Patrick walked by. There was the punk girl with a bright pink and purple Mohawk and piercings and tattoos in places Patrick didn't know a needle could get to. Fat women, skinny women, black women, white women, two women who didn't look like they needed or wanted a male client to interrupt them. The choices were endless.

The streets were almost bustling – a combination of older men with their eyes darting around and heads lowered, and young, excited teenage boys who seemed to travel in packs. He couldn't imagine Robin in this environment, but then again it wasnn't like she had chosen this place. Patrick swallowed thickly. It would end tonight. He'd bring Robin home tonight if it was the last thing he did. Pausing, he went over the plan in his head one last time.

"Hang on Adventure Girl. I'm almost there." He looked up at the ornate brass sign reading "Marry in haste, repent at leisure" poised above the bright red door of the church, let out a deep breath, and stepped inside.


TBC