Disclaimer – I don't own them, I just borrowed them. Numb3rs and its characters are the property of those that created them. No copyright infringement intended. All real organisations are used in a fictional sense. Original characters and the storyline are mine however.
A/N: The medical detail in this chapter comes off the top of my head, I am not a doctor. Please accept any errors as artistic licence.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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"You think Telford will go after him?" Megan said into her phone. She was riding with a senior technician, reattempting their previously aborted mission to locate radio signals near the mall that could be from the terrorists' cameras. The delay and subsequent action had allowed the computer techs at the office to determine that there was no intrusion on the data links from the mall to the external website where they stored their security footage. That meant that the terrorist had to be using wireless cameras to keep the mall and the bombs under surveillance.
She listed to Don's response. "Don't worry." She told him. "I've already sent someone around. They should be there by now."
The relief in Don's voice was evident. The thought had crossed her mind just after Don had been taken from the alley by the DHS and had called Merrick to have a guard authorised. Merrick had recalled the threats made by Telford during Don's last encounter and had agreed to spare an agent to the task.
She'd then called Alan herself and told him to expect the agent. Alan hadn't been happy, but he'd seen the news broadcasts and knew that Don was heavily involved. He assumed that this was the reason for the protection against a long shot risk that the terrorist would come after Don's family. Megan saw no reason to change his thinking by telling him about Telford being back on the scene. She also doubted that Don had told his father about any of the other events involving Telford beyond his kidnapping from the hotel room and being left in the warehouse.
"Approaching our start point now." David's voice came over the radio speaker mounted in the tech's van without preamble. They'd been given their own channel to use so they wouldn't interfere with the main operations.
"You're a few minutes ahead of us. Start your sweep." Megan replied.
Colby and David were approaching the mall from the south and would make their sweep along the southern perimeter before moving to the eastern side. Megan was to start on the western side and sweep around to the northern side. They should meet up off the north-eastern corner of the mall, but a block over to avoid the attention of the media.
It was slow going, Megan driving the van at around twenty miles an hour to give the tech's equipment the best chance of isolating a signal. David would be doing the same with Colby monitoring their portable equipment. Only a short time passed before the tech, Michael, called out that he had a possible signal. He noted it down as Megan kept going. They'd agreed that they would cover the entire area, noting contacts, meet up then retrace their route using both vehicles to triangulate their hits. Finally they met up and exchanged notes. They'd both had numerous hits all around the perimeter.
"Alright, let's get to it. The sooner Charlie has the data the sooner he can help us get the locations." Megan said once they'd compiled their list of all possible targets.
This time it took longer as each vehicle stopped a measured distance apart near each target. The direction finders were used to obtain a compass bearing from each vehicle which were then plotted on their maps. The bearings were radioed between the vehicles, thus they each created a map showing the placement of the cameras which could be cross checked for errors before they left.
Michael was also briefly to tune into each signal to confirm that it was a camera set up to view the mall. He made a brief recording of each image that he obtained, saving it to a flash drive. Michael had helped with the surveillance footage obtained via the internet and in one of the images he recognised a location inside the mall. A man in a security uniform moved and Michael saw the shopping bag that had been carried by the man they'd suspected of being a terrorist.
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"Donald Eppes?" A pleasant male voice asked.
Don opened his eyes. He was surprised, in spite of the pain he'd managed to almost fall asleep. He didn't appreciate the interruption. "What?"
The lights came on as a man entered the room. He stopped next to Don after putting a bag on the nearby table. "My name is Doctor Pierce. I'm a government medical officer. I understand you are in some pain?"
Don sat up and looked around. Merrick was nowhere to be seen and Wachowski was trying to make himself unobtrusive whilst still standing near the door. He rubbed his face, careful not to touch the side of his head. "Yeah, Doc. Can you give me something?"
"Well that all depends on what is wrong with you, don't you think?" The stethoscope came out of the bag along with the standard doctor's flashlight and a blood pressure cuff.
The examination was thankfully short as it involved more painful prodding of the side of his head and stomach, bright lights in his eyes and then his blood pressure taken. Don took it all with good grace. Thankfully the doctor didn't make Don take his shirt off so the small stab wound went undiscovered. He didn't need any more fuss over that. After he'd given a brief description of his symptoms along with a highly edited version of his day the doctor seemed satisfied. "Well your blood pressure is a bit high, but given what you've told me it is understandable and only a real concern if it continues. A day after this is over I suggest you see your GP and get another check up. You also have a mild concussion, again not surprising. The stomach cramps are caused by the multiple hits of adrenalin that have flooded your blood stream. Have you eaten today?"
Don had had stomach cramps before after adrenalin dumps but never this bad. Then again he'd not had this many shocks to his system in one day either. "Not since this morning."
"Good, your stomach can't handle food at the moment. Lay off the coffee, drink plenty of water, and I recommend a sports drink to keep your electrolytes up." He nodded at Wachowski. "Perhaps your friend will get you one. I'll give you a muscle relaxant to help ease the spasms."
"No, I can't afford to be knocked out." Don objected although the idea had more than a little attraction. But it was not to be, he was expecting a phone call from Telford as Zuheen any time.
"Don't worry Mr. Eppes, it won't knock you out but it should take the edge off the spasms enough to let you sleep if you get the chance." The Doctor explained rummaging in a side pocket of the bag. "When exactly did you take the paracetamol?"
Don told him and was given two tablets of the muscle relaxant, popped out of a blister pack, in return. The doctor fetched him a glass of water and watched as he swallowed the medication.
The Doctor handed him the remainder of the blister pack. "If you still feel ill, take another one in two hours. You can take another dose of paracetamol in four hours. You have some of that? Good. Ice the side of your head when you can and you should be on the mend soon. Now I suggest you try to get some rest, I saw you were nearly asleep when I came in. Sorry about that."
"Thanks Doc." Don meant it, waving the apology off. For this he didn't mind being woken up. If the medicine made him feel better then he would be able to think more clearly.
"No problem." Pierce said cheerfully packing up his bag. "Is there anything else before I go?"
"No. Thanks." Don settled back down on the couch. His stomach still cramped painfully but with the promise of relief coming soon it didn't bother him so much. The doctor's order of rest sounded like the best thing he could do for now.
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Buoyed by their success after comparing their maps the team returned to the field office and met up in the AV lab. The flash drive was plugged in and the different images examined. They could see a bag, a box or a trash bin near the centre of each image. They exchanged significant looks, there were seven such images, not the five they were expecting. There were at least seven suspect devices.
They noticed a cleared space around one such suspect package, the shopping bag they'd seen carried by a suspect terrorist earlier. It appeared that mall security had located the device and had created an exclusion zone. They were impressed that security had been able to get that far, they had a lot of people to control. But they had to be sure so Megan rang the security office number.
"Mr Fawcett, Megan Reeves, FBI. How are you going in there?"
The voice on the phone was tired, annoyed but in control. "As well as we can be. Have you got anything for us?"
Megan was reluctant to say too much, who knew where the terrorist got his intel? "I just noticed something on your video surveillance. I think you have something for us."
"We found one of the bombs about an hour ago." The security chief advised. "Didn't you get the message? I phoned it through to your office."
"I've just got back into the office, your message would have been passed on to the Incident Commander." She told him. "Did you get a look at the device?"
"No way!" He was emphatic. "None of us have training for that sort of thing."
"I understand. Have you found any others?"
"Agent Reeves, my staff have had their hands full just keeping everyone calm. We have a few possibles, I also told your office about those. But there are that many abandoned packages around that we are at a loss what to do with them all. The one we isolated we're sure about because one of the cleaners saw a man leaving it. She remembered it about an hour ago and went back to have a look. She lifted up a scarf at the top of the bag and saw the bomb. She nearly had a heart attack, she's still in the office now worried sick that she nearly set the thing off."
Fawcett was definitely annoyed, but Megan couldn't blame him. "Fair enough. We'll keep working on it from our end. You and your staff have done a great job so far, just keep doing what you are doing and we'll work at getting you all out."
"Is the government going to pay the ransom, the gold?"
"I can't discuss that Mr Fawcett. The government's responses to the demands are well and truly out of my hands anyway."
"You know, it always sounded so good, the whole 'we don't negotiate with terrorists' thing. But I got to tell you Agent Reeves, when you're in the hot seat negotiation sure sounds like the way to go."
"I guess it does. Thanks Mr Fawcett." She hung up.
"So they found one and we now know where six more are located." Colby summed up after Megan had relayed Fawcett's side of the conversation. "Do we tell mall security where the other six are?"
"No. We tell Merrick what we got." Megan instructed. "Michael, can you organise that gear and can you get it all in place?"
"Sure thing." The tech replied. "I'll need a few extra hands though. Perhaps the ADIC will authorise a recall of some more of our staff?"
"Just get the gear ready, I'll make sure you get people to help, even if it is just us." Megan promised, picking up the colour printouts of the suspect devices, along with several exterior views of the mall. "You guys stay here and help out. I'll go brief Charlie and Merrick."
David and Colby for their part were only too happy to let Megan take point on that. They got stuck into helping Michael and another tech pull out the equipment and check it over to ensure each piece would work.
Megan for her part had to give her briefing to SAC Brenton. Merrick had left the MIR for a private conference.