Chapter 48:

It was the morning of the final day of trial, the one decisive day, the Chileans would be sentenced at – justice finally served. Jack was proud of Danny for making the decision to testify. He couldn't even imagine how hard this would be for the younger agent – facing his torturers and telling what had been done to him in front of a court.

He wanted to support Danny in any way possible and therefore had decided to pick him up from the hospital and take him to court. However Jack had a nagging uneasy sensation, a bad feeling – telling him that something was wrong. But it was most probably just the nervousness and the graveness of this trial.

When he arrived at the hospital, he was surprised to see Dr. Collins waiting for him at the entrance doors to the station of the hospital, Danny had stayed at for the past two days. His surprise changed into slight horror as he detected the expression on the doctor's face. She looked deeply worried to him. He didn't even wait for her to tell him what was wrong.

„What happened to him?"

„I'm not sure. He started screaming all of a sudden in the early morning hours and I couldn't manage to calm him down. I had to have him sedated and he won't come around for at least another few hours."

„But you have no idea what caused this?"

„I really don't know, but I have a certain suspicion..."

Flashback

Cristobal Adamén was seated in a comfortable chair in the hotel room, the suite he and Francesco had taken. He was holding a book about the Roman Empire in hands, but he wasn't reading it. He was paying close attention to his friend, who was nervously pacing in front of him up and down the room.

„Why the hell didn't you have him killed in first place?"

He stayed absolutely calm, having totally been prepared for the other man's reaction. There had been differences between the two of them already, when he had ordered that the federal agent in contact with Elizabeth Tejar was not to be killed. Francesco had called him stupid that day and careless, but he wouldn't have himself attacked in that way and Francesco had obeyed to his order.

„There was no need to."

„He is going to testify against us, Cristo, he's gonna take us down. He's a danger to us. Why don't you see it?"

„He will not appear in that courtroom tomorrow!"

„Why, because you say so?"

„Exactly. I'm gonna take care of it."

„So you will have him killed?"

„No, that's not what I said. I said I will take care of it."

Realization dawned on Francesco as he realized what the elder man would be doing. It was simply crazy and he had no idea why Cristobal would take that much of a risk. They could solve this problem of theirs much easier and without anyone of them getting in trouble. There were about a million ways to get rid of their victim, ways a coroner would never even notice. But Cristobal... he was simply mad!

„Don't tell me you are going there."

His older friend and partner – his mentor – didn't answer to him. He simply just looked at him with that calm, calm expression on his face, the book still held in hands and a slight, almost non-detectable smile on his face. He didn't seem to worry about this after all, like his decision was perfectly normal. Francesco however was enraged – he wouldn't let this happen.

„You will not do this, Cristo, you will not! This is insane. They will see you, they will take you down and then we will both be send back to Chile. You know what they are going to do with us down there?!"

„They will not see me, it's going to be okay."

„Why don't you just kill him. You killed that bitch searching for us – why not him? What's your problem, Cristo? Affection?"

„She was a danger to us, that's why I had her killed."

He was not willing to listen to him. Francesco had brought about more than a handful of good and reasonable arguments, but still he wouldn't listen to him. He knew it was hard to convince the other man when he had made up his mind. But as entangled as he was in doing this, he must know that it was madness. He couldn't actually be believing he would get away with it.

„He knows we tortured him, Cristo. He knows who we are and he will testify. Don't you call that a danger?"

„He will not. Trust me. We will walk out of this courtroom as free men tomorrow. He won't be able to testify against us."

Francesco saw one last opening, one last chance to convince his mentor and hopefully it would work. He simply needed to change his opinion, he needed to allow him to kill that FBI agent. Otherwise they would both be doomed.

„And what about the day after that, what about next week or next month or maybe even in a year? Don't you get this Cristo – we need to have a permanent solution for this problem."

„They have no right to harass us any further after that trial. Even if he makes up his mind and decides to testify, we will be long gone. We will leave this country first thing tomorrow. I thought you always wanted to see the Mediterranean Sea and I would really like to see the Acropolis. We will leave and they will never find us. Don't you think Athens sounds like a good choice?"

Francesco was in no way convinced by his partner's words and he still wanted to know why he was that unwilling to simply kill the federal agent, who had been in their wrath. He hadn't understood it in first place and he even less got it right now. But he trusted Cristobal, he deeply trusted him. So far he had always known what to do and he had always done the right thing. He would listen to him this time, even if he didn't like his methods.

End of flashback

„Someone has been to his room?"

„I have no proof for that, but I would highly suggest it."

„Thanks, Dr. Collins."

Jack was raging with fury, though his outward appearance didn't show any sign of these emotions. He knew very well who had been to Danny's room, who had managed to get in here unseen and had scared his agent that deeply, Dr. Collins had been forced to sedate him. He knew who was sadistic enough to do something like that – and once again he had no proof after all.

He arrived at the court about half an hour later and he knew, he was late. The trial had started some five minutes ago and he knew the judge didn't like any delays. He had made that very clear to Jack, the last time he had been in this courtroom.

He entered the room, getting a very annoyed look from the judge who seemed to have been waiting for his arrival and a very concerned look from Vivian who had come here before him, calming down the judge and telling him about Jack's delay. Jack sat down beside her and was immediately questioned by her.

„Where's Danny?"

Jack got no chance to answer her question. The judge addressed him right then in an annoyed, almost aggressive tone. He knew this whole hearing would go wrong, it would simply go down like a sinking ship and he couldn't help it. He had no chance to prevent that outcome of events.

„I would like to get this hearing started now as we finally have everyone present. What about your witness, Agent Malone? Can we start with the testimony?"

„No, your honor, we can't. Agent Taylor is in no condition to testify today."

The judge looked at him in absolute disbelief like Jack had just made a very bad joke. Jack strongly believed that if this wasn't such a delicate matter, the judge actually would have laughed. But for the moment he was simply getting more and more angry with him, not believing him after all.

„And why is that?"

„It seems like he has been harassed of some kind during the course of the last night..."

It was a feeling of deja-vu – once again they were not able to present a witness and once again Jack was exactly sure who was responsible for this. He knew the Chileans had found some way to keep Danny from this courtroom, though he had no idea how they had managed to do so, but he knew it – the smile on Cristobal Adamén's face told him so.

„Agent Malone, are you really telling me, that – for a second time – you are not able to present a witness and that – once again – some mysterious event you neither can explain nor have a person responsible for at hand, has caused this to happen? This is starting to get ridiculous – to put it in a friendly way."

„Yes, your honor."

„Alright then."

The judge had a short look at the paperwork on his desk and then gave a very hard look to Jack – obviously blaming him for what was happening to his case right now. Jack believed to even see him shake his head slightly, like he couldn't believe what he had to say next. He fixed his eyes on the Chileans, making the decision that could no longer be prevented.

„Cristobal Adamén, Francesco de Vierra - the charges against the two of you are dismissed as the opposite party hasn't been able to come here with any form of evidence whatsoever, which would prove the crime that was supposed to be committed by you. I have to say that in all my years of experience I have never been confronted with a case that sloppy and badly prepared. I highly advice you – Agent Malone – to not ever try something like that again, not when I am the judge in charge.

Mr. Adamén, Mr. de Vierra – gentleman you are free to go."

Author's Note : Now please don't hate me for the ending of this story... :-)

There's still one more chapter to go, but I wanted to say thank you already to all of you who reviewed this story – you make my day and keep my inspiration flowing. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it for you people. Thanks again.