(After 'The Recluse in the Recliner')

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I don't own Bones.

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Slightly nervous, Agent James Aubrey sat in Booth's office while the older man made a quick phone call to someone called Angela. While he talked to her on the phone, Aubrey took the opportunity to study the display case of Army medals on the wall behind the SAC. So, someone not to screw with. Got it.

After another early meeting with the Director and the Deputy Director that morning, it had been decided to bring Aubrey into the blackmailer case, but Booth was to use discretion. Booth had hesitated, but he realized he didn't have a lot of choices. He needed backup and it wasn't as if Stark or the Director could fill that role for him. He'd had Angela run a background check on the younger agent before he'd met with him and she had run his name through the data that Wesley Foster and Pete Jackson had collected. Aubrey appeared to be clean. He'd trust him until Aubrey proved to be unworthy of that trust. He just hoped the younger Agent was what he appeared to be.

His call complete, Booth took a long drink from his cooling cup of coffee and placed the cup back on his desk. "A few days ago, me and a few friends of mine were attacked in my home. The attackers were former Army Rangers." He flipped open a folder but didn't look down at the paper sitting on top. "All three of those attackers had been given dishonorable discharges in the past and all three went to work for a mercenary company owned by William King. King was killed in a plane crash three years ago and his company was taken over by a man named Adam Peterson." Booth hesitated before saying more.

"So, we know who sent those guys to your house." This seemed very strange to Aubrey. "Why use men that can be traced back to a mercenary company? Do we know if this company was paid to take you out? This seems a little too easy doesn't it?"

"A lot of good questions." Booth picked up a folder resting on the corner of his desk and handed it to the younger agent. "You can read this once the meeting is over . . . About three and a half years ago we started investigating the murder of a CIA Analyst named Gale Storm. He had stumbled upon something going on at Homeland Security that involved Deputy Director Wayne Kitchen. Gale had found out that Kitchen had links to the traitor Robert Hanssen. Storm realized that that connection to Hanssen had led Kitchen into being blackmailed by someone who is unknown to us at this time. Kitchen did some terrible things for Hanssen including the murder of a reporter and the blackmailer was using that against Kitchen. During our investigation we found out that Kitchen had been responsible for Storm's death. Somehow, he had found out that Gale was on to him and he had Storm killed. He was tried and convicted of murder and treason and he's currently serving a 999 year prison sentence. It's all in the report you're holding . . . He should have got the death penalty, but I'm not the Attorney General and it wasn't my call . . . During the investigation we found connections between Kitchen and William King the owner of King's Company. It was a couple of King's men who killed Gale Storm for Kitchen. Shortly after Kitchen was arrested King was killed in a suspicious plane crash. It's possible that the blackmailer was afraid that King would talk and give him up to the FBI."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Aubrey felt a little overwhelmed at that moment. "So, King's company provided men to kill a CIA Analyst and that case was closed . . . what three years ago? I read about the trial. I agree that Kitchen should have got the death penalty . . . um, why would King's Company send men after you now? That seems like a long time to wait to get revenge on you or is this unknown blackmailer behind it and using King's Company to do the job? I mean King is dead, but I guess the blackmailer could be using Peterson because of what King had done."

"Adam Peterson says that those men that attacked me don't work for King's company anymore." Not that Booth believed him. "He informed Deputy Director Stark that those men were fired a year ago for something they did in Somalia. I'm trying to get their employment records and history from King's company, but Peterson is fighting it. He claims that if he gives us the information he would be endangering some of his people that worked with those men . . . If he's telling us the truth and they weren't working for King's Company then we need to find out who they were working for. That's imperative."

Slowly nodding his head, Aubrey knew that he needed to hit the ground running. "What's our next move?"

"Like Stark told you, I work with some squints over at the Jeffersonian." Booth leaned back and studied the agent in front of him. He wasn't sure if the man was trustworthy or not, but he needed help and at least he'd never worked in the District before. "My partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan is the best forensic anthropologist in the country . . . and she's my wife. We've been working on the Wesley Foster case. He used to be a reporter, but for the last couple of years he's been running a conspiracy blog. His murder has been connected to the McNamara Corporation. He was looking into some awful shit being done by that Corporation and by shell companies owned by the McNamara Corporation and it seems that someone found out about it and killed him."

Booth paused and sipped more coffee. "The McNamara Corporation was run by Giles McNamara. His daughter was a serial killer we called the Ghost Killer. She was responsible for a lot of deaths. She was murdered a few weeks ago by someone that her father framed to take the fall for his daughter. Giles covered up her crimes to cover up his crimes as a rapist. If that's not bad enough, he had connections to King's Company and Congressman Abbot. The Congressman was connected to Wayne Kitchen and he was killed in prison. It's possible that Abbot was killed to keep him quiet. He was murdered by another prisoner just a few days after being arrested. We suspect the murderer might have been ordered by the blackmailer to do the killing, but we don't know because he's not saying why he killed the congressman. Again, that stuff is in the report you're holding. There's something going on and I'm trying to figure out what that something is. I'm being helped by my partner and her squints and as you know, Deputy Director Stark is also in the loop about this . . . We're keeping the number of people that know about this investigation to as few as possible. The reason we need to keep a rein on this information is because we suspect we have a traitor in the FBI with connections to Wayne Kitchen's blackmailer and the McNamara corporation. Everyone working on this case is in danger, so if you're working with me on this case, you need to watch your back and don't trust anyone. When I say no one, that includes everyone here at the Hoover besides me, Stark and the Director. Since I started this investigation, we've discovered a lot of people have been murdered that were connected to Kitchen, King and McNamara."

Sighing, Aubrey looked down at the folder in his hand, then gave Booth a smirk. "You know if you gave me a book with this as a plot, I'd call it garbage and throw it away. It's complicated and complication is what trips people up."

"Well then, it's a good thing this isn't a novel but my fucking life." Booth wasn't sure if he was angry or just irritated, but he was worried about trusting the younger agent and statements like that didn't help the situation. "If you're not interested in working on this case just say so and you can go back to where you came from."

A little shocked, Aubrey laid the folder on Booth's desk. "I didn't say I wasn't interested in this case or that I didn't want to help you work it. I just meant this case is a really complicated mess and just listening to the details makes it seem kind of surreal to me . . . I believe you. I have to, the Deputy Director told me some of this stuff already and the Director has your back . . . Look, I want to find out who this blackmailer is and I want to help you find out who attacked you in your home. If there are traitors in the FBI, we need to find them, all of them. We're the good guys and we don't need some treasonous bastards making us look bad."

Giving Aubrey the benefit of the doubt, Booth nodded his head. "Good. I'm sending you over to the Jeffersonian. I want you to talk to Angela Montenegro. She's going to give you what information we have about the Foster case and how it's connected to the McNamara corporation. She's been compiling data for three years now . . . the connections between Gale Storm's death and Knight, King, McNamara and now the attack on me. Once you're done at the Lab come back here and we'll talk again . . . I'm going to remind you to trust no one unless you check with me first. Right now, our team consists of Dr. Temperance Brennan, Dr. Cam Saroyan, Angela Montenegro, Dr. Jack Hodgins, the Director, Stark, me and CIA Agent Danny Beck . . . his boss too, but it's not likely you'll ever meet him let alone talk to him . . . Oh yeah, Dr. Lance Sweets has been helping me out in the field too. He's a psychologist, but he's been working with the FBI for a long time and with me and Bones . . . Dr. Brennan. Now that you're here, I don't plan to use him as much. It's not that I don't trust him, I do, but he's not really a trained agent. He didn't go through Quantico like you and me. He's a doctor and I don't want to risk getting him killed any more than my wife or the other squints. He's a good guy."

"Got it." Aubrey stood up. "I'm here to help you, Booth. You don't know if you can trust me or not and I get that, but you can. I will help you find out who sent those guys after you and your friends and I will help you find out whoever this blackmailer is. I'm good at what I do and you're going to see that as this case moves along."

Once the agent was gone, Booth shook his head. He knew he'd been a little shitty with Aubrey, but he was so damn tired and he was worried about what would happen if he screwed up. He was afraid that his wife and child were in danger and the only thing he could do was to try to protect Brennan while Max watched over Christine. Max was a bulldog and he was counting on his father-in-law to protect his granddaughter. It was all he could do and he was afraid it wasn't good enough. If anything happened to his family, he wasn't sure if he could go on without them. He loved them so much and the thought of someone killing them or hurting them made him feel sick. He had to find out who the blackmailer was and what was going on. He had to stop whatever it was because he knew that it was the only way they would be safe. It was the only way any of them would be safe.

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Pete was still trying to fill in the puzzle pieces. He had a copy of Wesley Foster's data that the blogger had collected about the McNamara Corporation and the shell companies it owned. With that data and the information he had collected himself he was certain that they might be able to find the traitor soon. There were a lot of puzzle pieces to look at, but it was starting to make sense, the picture was becoming clearer. Angela had come up with an organizational chart for the traitor and some of the people the blackmailer controlled were powerful people in the government. That meant that the traitor was very dangerous and Pete wanted to find him as quickly as he could.

Max was now watching over his granddaughter and he would make sure that the child would be safe during these uncertain times. Pete trusted Max to take care of that part of the equation while Booth, Temperance and he along with Angela worked on the puzzle. It was his plan to kill the traitor as soon as he found him. The man was too dangerous to live and Pete would take care of him just like he had taken care of Pelant. No one was going to hurt Temperance or her child. Not while Pete was alive to stop it.

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