Alan woke again to complete darkness. He sighed as he wondered how long he had been there. He had no perception of time-all he had for company was a disembodied voice that sounded almost mechanical. With effort he pulled himself up into a sitting position on the cot. He moved his hand slightly and pulled it back, startled when he felt something foriegn on the blanket. He took a deep breath and inched his hand back out. There! Three foriegn objects. One was a bottle, two were small and rectangular.
He opened the bottle blindly and sniffed at the contents. There was no smell so he hesitantly took a small sip. It was water. He drank about a quarter of the bottle before closing it and opening one of the long thin packages. He quickly discovered they were granola bars and they were gone in no time.
"Enjoying your breakfast, Alan?" Alan jumped briefly startled at the sudden return of the disembodied voice.
"Well?"
"It was fine." Alan's voice was monotone.
"Good. I'm glad you liked it."
"How long am I going to be your prisoner?" The voice laughed, sending chills down Alan's spine.
"Until Agent Eppes remembers of course. But once he does, I might kill you just to watch you die. Rest Alan." Alan knew the voice was gone. He was shaking slightly at what the voice had revealed. He finished the water bottle, paced around the room a little, then slumped back onto the cot and let despair overtake him once again.
Charlie woke with a start. Where was he? It looked like he had fallen asleep on the floor of his office at CalSci. He paused-momentarily wondering why his dad wouldn't have called when he had obviously been gone all night. HIS DAD! Reality came crashing down with a heavy brutality. His dad had been taken, Don wouldn't let him work on the case, he couldn't go home. Charlie stood up and stretched, then reached for his phone on his desk and turned it off. He picked up a piece of chalk. Even if Don didn't approve-Charlie snorted- Don wouldn't approve Charlie began to put together all that he knew of what had happened into an equation. Time slipped away as he began to write frantically.
At exactly noon, Don stepped back into the FBI offices and was surprised to find all desks for his team empty. Then he saw Megan ste pout of one of the conference rooms.
"Down here, Don!" She called, disappearing into the room again. Don stepped into the room and felt his jaw drop. Stacks of files were piled everywhere and divided into two groups, it seemed.
"This cannot be all the people I put away down there."
"No, just that side." Replied Colby.
"Than what is this side?" Don turned to Megan.
"These are agents you worked with down there, Don. The consistent use of your name as Agent Eppes when the caller calls you makes me think it might be an agent." Don started and turned toward the stack of agent files.
"Don?" David voiced hesitantly.
"Look for a file on Special Agent Mark Manning in that stack. Killed in the line of fire. Killed by one Daniel Mitchell. He should be in that stack." David, Colby, and Megan exchanged smiles as they started digging through the files. Their leader was back. Behind them, the office began slowly filling as people filtered in from lunch breaks and field work.
After several long minutes the files had been pulled. While they had been searching-Don has stepped out and tried to call Charlie. He had been forwarded to voice mail and Don left him a brief message apologizing and asking him to come down to the FBI offices.
"Don, we have the files." David has stepped out of the conference room. Don nodded and followed him back in.
"This is interesting, Don. Daniel Mitchell was released from prison on good behavior-he is on parole in Sacramento." Colby looked up from Mitchell's file.
"Agent Mannings partner was Special Agent Michael Leif. He left the FBI shortly after his partner was killed-records say he moved to Connecticut."
"Well, that rules him out."
"Colby and I will go and pick up this Mitchell fellow. Bring him in for questioning." Don and Megan both nodded. When they had been left alone MEgan looked Don directly in the eye.
"Charlie?" Don sighed, why hadn't he seen that one coming? He briefly explained the argument they had and also mentioned he had called and tried to apologize. They sat in silence for a while before looking at the files of Daniel Mitchell once again. A hesitant knock at the door of the conference room jarred both of them from their thoughts.
"Excuse me, Agent Eppes? This was on the front desk. No fingerprints, it's addressed to you." Don accepted the plain manila envelope and looked at it. Neat, cursive writing wrote out the following 2 lines: Agent Eppes On behalf of Alan Eppes. Don's fingers shook as he hesitantly opened the envelope, several sheet of paper slid out onto the table.
"What the?" Megan peered over Don's shoulder to get a better look. It was line after line of printed numbers. All ten to twelve characters long. Before Don could react further, Megan had scooped up the papers and was heading for the door.
"Where are you going, Reeves?" Megan turned around and addressed Don calmly.
"I'm taking them to CalSci. You were warned not to get Charlie invovled. I, however, wasn't. You are welcome to ride along."
"Megan! I was told not to involve Charlie. It could cost my dad his life!"
"That's right, Eppes. You were told not to involve Charlie. I wasn't." Megan reached the elevator, Don had to move fast to catch up with her as the elevator closed.
"Reeves, when I get through with you..." he let the sentence trail. Megan smiled at him.
"I'm willing to bet Charlie will know what these are. When you get through with me, you'll be thanking me." Don rolled his eyes, half of him was amused half was angry. They walked out to Don's SUV and as they headed toward CalSci Don smiled his first real smile in almost two days. Megan was probably right. Though he wanted to kill her, he would probably end up thanking her-but not until he got his father back.
