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.
CHAPTER TWENTY
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Ryder was calm as he stood over Don, no trace of the lacklustre tone that had been his voice moments before. "You are too dangerous to us. A simple phone call from him to my private number and you figure this all out."
Don realised Ryder's fatalism, his apparent attempt of suicide, had all been a ruse and he'd fallen for it. Don's desperate leap had created a scenario that Ryder could now use to his advantage knowing that another agent was close by. He tried to see the door from his position crouched on the floor, where the hell was Wachowski? He tried to stall for time. "So what now, boss?"
Ryder winced slightly at the inflection Don had put on the honorific. "You attacked me, under orders of the terrorist. I had to use deadly force to protect myself. I'm truly sorry, Eppes." Ryder actually sounded regretful as he outlined his plan. The safety clicked off Ryder's gun just as the door finally sprang open.
Using the distraction Don grabbed at the gun with both hands, rolling himself onto the floor and dragging Ryder with him. It was a desperate move, one that was a last resort as it was just as likely to get him shot. He kept his hands locked, concentrating everything on the gun, fighting to keep it aimed away from him or anyone else. He ignored the vicious knee to his ribs as Ryder fought back. Suddenly it was over, other hands reaching in and pulling Ryder away. Don was finally able to wrench the gun from the other man's grip. Breathing rapidly and shallowly due to the pain in his ribs he rendered the small weapon safe before being helped to his feet by David. He gingerly probed his ribs but it seemed nothing was broken.
Ryder was still struggling but it was useless, he was already in cuffs and being held securely by Colby and Wachowski.
"He attacked me!" Ryder said, trying to maintain the fiction. "Watch him, he has the gun!"
"Sorry, boss." Colby managed to put almost the same inflection on the title that Don had moments earlier. He smiled at his team leader. "We got it all Don."
"Good." Don looked to the other man that entered the room. "Agent Barnathan, he's all yours."
Ryder realised it was all over as he saw the recorder in the DHS agents' hand. His struggles stopped abruptly.
"Deputy Assistant Director David Ryder, I'm placing you under arrest for crimes of terrorism against the United States of America."
"Where is the remote?" Don demanded.
Ryder stared at him before glancing at Barnathan. He sighed. "I want a deal."
"No deal." Barnathan and Don said at the same time.
"But you might get a credit if you cooperate on this." Barnathan added ignoring Don's glare.
"I suppose you'll find it anyway." Ryder said finally. "Mobile phone, speed dial 1."
"Where?"
"My pocket."
Don pulled two cell phones from Ryder's pocket and carefully put them on the table next to the man's laptop. One would be Ryder's work phone, the other his private cell.
"Get him out of here." Barnathan ordered. Colby and Wachowski pulled the prisoner out of the room, Colby surrendering his place to another DHS agent waiting outside. Merrick was also waiting, an expression of absolute disgust on his face.
"That was a risk you took, Eppes." Barnathan said shaking Don's hand.
"Yeah." He knew it was true but he was the only one that could have got the final evidence they needed to move on Ryder. "Now we just have one more loose end to clear up."
"How are you going to find Telford?"
"He's lost his inside source. He'll call me soon, he has to, to find out why I didn't go to the mall as ordered. He'll arrange a meet."
"Why would he meet? He'll just ask you over the phone."
"He thinks I'm still his and he'll want me to go to him. He wants to expose me to Zuheen."
"I hope you're right. We've got Ryder's phones, one will have Telford's number in it but we can't use them." There were two reasons for that. They didn't dare fiddle with Ryder's phones until the techs had gone over them ensuring that they couldn't accidentally detonate the explosives. Despite shutting down the cell phone towers covering the mall area, timed to coincide with Don entering the office, the risk that the detonators weren't satellite phones wasn't alleviated. The other was that they couldn't trust Ryder to make a pretext call on their behalf to lure Telford into a trap.
"The mall?" Don asked. He saw that Barnathan was wearing an earpiece letting him stay in contact with the teams in the field.
"We've isolated the bombs but the people are still in the mall. It's far from secure yet, but having the remote takes away most of the risk."
They had switched Ryder's real time feed to the surveillance cameras to their recorded footage just after Don had gone into the office, counting on Don to divert Ryder's attention. They had been sure that Ryder would have been monitoring the footage via his computer. At the thought Don opened the laptop up and showed Barnathan the screen. A series of thumbnails of the 'terrorist's' surveillance footage of the mall along with another larger window open to a news broadcast. They couldn't do anything about the threat posed by Telford though but they'd had to take the risk.
Bomb disposal had only had the time since Don had entered the office, barely enough time to get into the mall via the DWP's underground tunnels and put portable shields over the bombs. Now they would be working on moving the hostages as far from the explosives as possible using Charlies blast analysis work to find the safest places. They couldn't yet evacuate them because the media would be broadcasting within seconds. It had to still be kept quiet with the blocked cell phones also preventing the hostages from calling out and alerting family or media.
Bomb disposal would also be starting to secure the bombs for removal once they were sure there were no motion sensors as a secondary detonation circuit. Don doubted there would be, they way the explosives had been planted left them open to being jostled and accidentally set off if they were motion sensitive.
Now as he had said there was one final loose end and they had to wait for that to play out. Fortunately the wait wasn't long, Don had missed the allotted time and Telford wanted an explanation.
Half an hour later Don climbed out of the surveillance car having arrived at the meet back under the same freeway overpass. He'd left his SUV behind, taking the non-descript car instead due to the risk of Zuheen targeting him. Several vehicles left the FBI garage at the same time, including an armoured SUV which was a close match for his. They had then spread out in different directions within a few blocks of the building. It was their best plan to protect Don in case their current thinking was wrong, that Zuheen hadn't cut his losses and taken off to escape the now obvious trap. Don was alone and couldn't even wear body armour, it would give the game away.
Telford was already waiting, confident in his power.
"I see you managed to get away without your escort, agent." Telford noted.
"I told them I had to meet with Zuheen's man. It wasn't easy but they finally realised that they had no choice but to let me go." Don said.
"Good."
"So why am I here?"
"I want to know the state of play."
Don hid his feeling of elation, now they had confirmation from a second source of Ryder's traitorous actions. Telford had lost contact with his boss and was no longer being fed information.
"Did you shoot at me?" Don demanded. He needed to be sure.
"No, it was Zuheen." Telford answered. "Why did you miss the broadcast?"
"After that attempt on my life earlier they refused allow me to risk the last news briefing as you ordered."
"You convinced them to let you come to me, you better convince them to let you make the next broadcast slot. You are lucky that my employer hasn't detonated a bomb for your disobedience." Telford threatened. "We are close, we almost had Zuheen."
"Zuheen's long gone now. He's not stupid, he would know that this has all been a trap. Continuing this charade is a waste of time. It's over."
"We continue until we decide otherwise." Telford frowned. Don was arguing back too much, wasn't backing down as he should be. "I don't like your attitude, have you forgotten what we are capable of doing?"
"No, I haven't forgotten." Don decided he had enough evidence. He unhurriedly drew the gun from the concealed holster at the small of his back, raising it to point at the other man. "I'm just not doing anything more for you."
"Put the weapon away, agent." Telford said calmly, dismissively.
"Oh? Why should I do that?"
Telford hesitated. He knew that something was very wrong, he'd lost control. He tried to bluff it out. "Your life is mine, Eppes. Don't make me take it."
"You have nothing over me anymore, Telford." Don said watching as his tormentors eyes narrowed. "The bombs are disarmed, all seven of them, and the mall is being evacuated as we speak. Deputy Assistant Director Ryder, your 'employer' as you called him, is in custody."
"How?" Now he seemed rattled.
"How did I know who your boss was? It was you actually. If you hadn't have rung him when you did I would never have put the pieces together. Once I had the first bit the rest just fell into place." Don couldn't help it and added: "That included you, Steven James Telson."
"So you do know." Telson, formerly Telford said. "I told Ryder you were too dangerous to let live."
Don noticed that Telson now had his emotions locked down and was eyeing the gun with more respect now that he knew Don had no reason not to use it. "Good thing you weren't in charge then."
"You've solved that for me now. I shall have to remedy old mistakes." Telson's voice was cold. He saw Don's sudden, small movement and added: "But not, I think, today.
Don had placed his finger on the trigger and taken up the slack at Telson's threat. "Just give me an excuse." Don said tightly, bracing himself, ready to shoot.
Telson shook his head. "I am yours, Agent. But unlike you however, I don't give my life away so easily."
Don watched with a degree of surprise as the former agent raised his hands, palms outward, away from his body and made no threatening moves. He knew what Telson meant, he had surrendered but would not make Don kill him. Don took no chances however, pulling his handcuffs out and tossing them at Telson. There was no way he was going to step within grabbing range. "Put them on."
Telson snapped the first cuff on then started to do the same to his right wrist but stopped at a command from Don.
"Behind your back. Turn around."
Telson turned, put his hands behind his back and closed the second cuff.
"On your knees, cross your ankles."
Telson knelt then awkwardly crossed his ankles. It was a classic position used by law enforcement agencies to make it hard for a suspect to rapidly get to his feet.
Don finally felt safe enough to close the distance between them, moving up behind Telson intending to search the man for weapons. He had a sudden flashback to the warehouse, of Boots standing behind him. The safety clicking off, the gun pointed at his head. When his vision cleared and returned to the present he found that he was now only a few feet behind Telson, standing over his prisoner as Boots had stood over him.
His breathing stopped then became ragged. The temptation was great, the greatest he had ever experienced. He forgot about searching his prisoner, forgot about procedure, forgot about being an FBI agent, his awareness fixed on one thing. His hands flexed on the butt of his Glock as he aimed squarely at the back of Telson's head. In his mind's eye he could see the result of a shot, Telson falling forward bonelessly, dead in an instant. It would all be over. Telson would not be able to control him again. It was justifiable, Telson had killed agents, had threatened innocents. Had terrorised Don into working for him. He would be doing everyone a favour if he just squeezed the trigger here and now. A few pounds of pressure were all it would take. His finger almost of its own volition slid back inside the trigger guard, caressing the trigger and started taking up the slack.
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A/N: Uh-oh!