Numb3rs: Phobia
Numb3rs: Phobia
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. No financial reward gained. All real organisations are used in a fictional sense. Original characters and the storyline are mine however.
A/N: I tried but could not find the name of this phobia. The closest was Linonophobia (fear of string) or Merinthophobia (fear of being bound or tied up). Neither was quite right for fear-of-rope or fear-of-strangulation. Anyone know the answer to this question?
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A cell phone buzzing disturbed Don's thoughts and he looked over to see Tod answering the call.
"What? How-?" He listened some more, nodding his head. He glanced at his watch, "Okay."
The phone was put away and Tod stood. Don watched warily as the man approached and couldn't help but stiffen as the end of the rope was picked up. Tod looked pointedly at the gun in his right hand then took up the slack in the rope with his left. Don felt the loop move in response even though the rope had not actually slid through the knot or tightened. The discomfort from lying still on his side on the hard deck for the last couple of hours vanished. He struggled to control his breathing as his heart began racing.
"There is a search party coming. My brother is part of it and will check this room. There are others with him. If you even look like trying anything I will yank on this rope. Understand?"
If Tod pulled the rope hard enough the loop would tighten immediately and he would not be able to relieve the pressure. He knew that raising the alarm if others were present would bring him aid, however with the gun Tod would be able to hold them off long enough for Don to strangle. That wasn't a viable option for him so he would remain silent. He nodded.
"Tough guy." Tod muttered.
Swap places with me bud, see how you feel. Don managed to keep the words trapped safely inside his head, saying them out loud would not be the smartest thing he could do. He was far from happy with his acquiescence but there was no other choice for now.
Five minutes later there were voices outside the Halon control room.
"Why we have to search for some stupid fed that can't stick with the rest of his group I don't know." A man grumbled.
"I hear you." Martin commiserated.
"We were supposed to have long been off shift." The man continued complaining, definitely not happy. "We should have had dinner hours ago yet here we are traipsing all over this boat."
"Then the sooner we're through, the sooner we eat. You check that side, I'll check here."
There was a tapping at the door, as if Martin was indicating his choice of room to search. Tod tensed and tightened his grip on both the gun and the rope. The door opened a few inches and Martin's face appeared. The sailor's eyes flicked first to their captive then up to his brother. He winked and Tod grinned in reply.
Martin made his report as he closed the door and dogged it. "Not in here either."
The other man muttered something in reply and the voices faded away.
Tod flicked the rope to see what reaction he could get from the agent. Nothing. He was a little disappointed but dropped the rope and returned to his spot on the other side of the room. He still managed a smirk on his face. "Piece of cake."
Don had won a small victory, controlling his expression and giving no external reaction to the deliberate attempt by Tod to scare him when he twitched the rope. More positive reinforcement, but he had a long way to go before he would ever be able to say that a rope around his neck didn't faze him.
He knew for sure now that the alarm had been fully raised, the ship was being searched for him and although this first sweep had failed there would be more. Megan would be starting to raise all sorts of hell ensuring that he would be found.
Martin and his brother may have been feeling confident now as evidenced by the wink and grin but Don knew that their luck would not hold forever.
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Megan followed the female officer back into the captain's office. As agreed she was to get an update on the progress of the search.
"We've drawn a blank on the first sweep." Commander Sagan reported. "We'll start again –"
"No." Megan interrupted. She'd given their options some thought and had come up with an idea. But first there was something she needed to know. "Have you let on to your crew that we've found the SUV?"
"No." He was puzzled at where the agent was leading.
"Good. Call off the search."
Sagan seemed taken aback. The agent had pushed him to start the search and had complained that it wasn't going to be thorough enough if he didn't allow her colleagues to take part. Now she wanted him to back right off? "Agent, what –"
"Call it off. Let the word get out that we think Agent Eppes is no longer on board the ship. Restrict access to those already off the ship but let those who want to leave the ship do so."
"Ah. You think he is still onboard, being held by one or more of my crew. You want them to think it is all clear so that they make their move to try and escape."
"Exactly. They can't help but know by now that we are onto them and they've managed to keep Agent Eppes secured. If we let them think that having failed in the shipboard search we now believe their misdirection to be correct then they will make the next move. Continuing the search now will just push them further into hiding." Or push them into getting rid of the subject of the search, she added to herself.
He gave the proposal some thought before nodding. "Alright. I can give that a go. I suggest you move your people landside so that it looks like you believe Agent Eppes has left. I'll get base security on the phone and we'll work out a take-down scenario in case."
"Thank-you. My offer still stands. I have a lot of experienced agents that want to help."
"I'm sorry, but there are protocols that we have in place." Sagan said in repetition of his earlier refusal to let the FBI agents help. He changed the subject. "What have you found with the SUV?"
"We found a sailor's sea bag inside." Unfortunately there was no ID on either the bag or any of the contents.
"What was in it?"
"We found about a kilo of Cannabis and a small bag of white powder." Megan told him.
The captain was incredulous. "That's it? You think one or more of my crew has taken your boss and done who knows what with him, over that?"
"You'd be surprised what some people would do for something we'd consider minor in the scheme of things." Megan explained. "What would they be looking at for the gear?"
"Some time in confinement for sure, followed by a dishonourable discharge." Sagan sat behind his desk, still shaking his head. "If Special Agent Eppes stumbled onto them and they are holding him hostage then they would be looking at a very significant period of confinement, assuming he is unharmed. Not worth it." Clearly he had his doubts.
"Not worth it to us but there are those out there who are not prepared to spend any time in jail and will try whatever it takes to ensure that they are not caught or punished for their crimes." Megan had seen some of the extraordinary lengths that some criminals would go to trying to prevent paying for their crimes. It never seemed to register on them that if they didn't commit the crime in the first place there would be no problem.
"Alright Agent," Sagan got back down to business. He was hardly naive but he still found it hard to believe anyone would be foolish enough to compound their crime to such a degree. Especially not one of his sailors, the navy had minimum standards of intelligence. "I have some things to attend to. I've got your number and will let you know what we work out."
"Thanks Captain. I'll move my people off like you suggested."
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Another hour or so crawled by before Martin returned. He'd changed into some civvies of his own, a jacket tied around his waist. "They've called it off." He announced smugly.
"The search? Already?" Tod seemed surprised.
So was Don. He expected the search to be immediately repeated and ramped up, the more times an areas was searched the higher the probability of finding the subject. So much for Megan raising hell. Hot on the heels of that thought came another, Megan was up to something. He managed to hide the slight smile, now that sounded more like his partner.
"Yep. They finally figured that our friend here has gone off somewhere."
"Then why'd they search for him here in the first place?"
"Some FBI chick got all hot under the collar and talked the captain into it." Martin explained. "All we have to do now is keep a 'sharp eye out'."
"Saunders." Tod commented.
"'Eagle-Eye' Saunders." Martin agreed.
Don silently listened as the two sailors shared what was obviously an in-joke.
"So, can we get out of here?" Tod asked eagerly. The time he'd spent cooped up with their hostage had been tedious and had felt like forever.
"I think now is good. Nearly everyone is down at the mess having a late dinner." Martin dug into a pocket and turned to their captive. Pulling out the pocket knife he crouched at Don's heels.
Don watched as Martin carefully cut off the length of rope leading up to the rope around his neck before cutting the rest of the rope away from his ankles. Martin sat back allowing Don to struggle up to a seated position. It was far from easy with his hands still secured to his belt and having stiffened up from lying still for so long but finally he managed.
Martin reached out and lifted the rope loop over his head. Don worked to stifle the sigh of relief he felt. But it was to be short lived. Martin untied the knot and quickly retied a sliding knot before putting the loop back around his neck. The new knot would allow Martin to tighten it simply by pulling on the trailing length. More worrying was that it would not loosen off by itself once tightened. He realised it was set up to be similar to a dog's choker lead. He'd been leashed.
He'd been told earlier that he was going with them, this was confirmation. His enforced wait had also given him some time to think, coming to the conclusion that he really didn't want to go with them off the ship. As to whether he would have any choice in the matter was up for debate.
"Can I make a suggestion?" Don offered.
"Sure, why not?" Martin's tone left little doubt what he thought of taking a suggestion from the FBI agent.
Regardless, Don pressed on. "Leave me here when you go."
"I don't think that is such a great idea."
"They know I am missing, right?" Don received a nod. "As soon as they see me they will know for a fact that I am not simply missing but being held against my will. They will also know for a fact that they are dealing with the pair of you and will work to resolve this. You leave me here, they will still not know where I am or whether or not anyone is involved in my disappearance. There will be nothing pointing to either of you at all. You will be able to walk off this ship without hindrance." Don wasn't concerned with capturing this pair at the moment, he knew who they were and they could be hunted down later. He was concerned at getting out of this unscathed. If what he suspected were to happen then he would be at great risk if Martin and his brother continued with their plan.
"He can identify us." Tod threw in. He raised the gun he still held. "We leave him here we have to shoot him."
"That would be an even bigger mistake." The agent said calmly. Truth be told, aside from the noise of the gunshot, it probably wasn't. With him dead it would take some time for his assailants to be identified. Given that option however, he preferred to take his chances with whatever Megan was planning. He just hoped she was working on an assumption close to what had really happened to him.
"Give me that!" Martin angrily took the Glock from the younger man. The weapon had been pointed towards the agent but the problem was that Martin had been between the agent and Tod at the time. He faced the agent again. "You're up to something."
"How?" Don countered. "How can I possibly be up to anything?"
The sailor didn't seem convinced and had already made up his mind. "We're taking you with us."
"Figures." Don muttered. He just couldn't get a break.
Martin reacted to the smart comment. He tugged on the rope causing it to tighten slightly. He saw the agent tense and felt back in control. He stood and took up the slack. "Get up."
Don struggled to get his feet under him and rise without pulling any further on the taut rope. Already the loop was about as tight as an uncomfortable tie meaning that there was not much room for it to go any tighter before he really would begin to strangle. His breathing rate was increasing along with his heart at the shot of adrenalin Martin's actions had caused. Once on his feet he concentrated on taking slower, deeper breaths. After he regained his control he felt he had to make another attempt to convince them to leave him here.
"As soon as someone sees me they will raise the alarm." The bright yellow letters across the back and on the sleeves of his windbreaker were hard to miss.
"Way ahead of you." Martin said, obviously pleased with himself as he used a finger and thumb to untie the jacket from around his waist. He handed it to Tod as his hands were a little full with the gun and the rope leash. "Put it on him."
Don had to take a step forward away from the wall to allow Tod to put the jacket on. It was zipped up over the top of his arms, hiding the fact that he was restrained. Tod then tucked the ends of the sleeves into the jacket pockets at his older brother's suggestion. Don had to admit, to himself, that it was an effective disguise. There was just the light rope trailing away from his neck to mar the image but he knew that if Martin stayed close enough it was unlikely anyone would even notice.
Martin tucked the gun into the front of his waistband and hung his shirt over the top. Another TV influence, very dangerous indeed but the agent wasn't going to comment. It worked in his favour if Martin accidentally shot something important. In fact, Don rather liked the idea.
"Let's go." The older sailor ordered once he was ready.
If it were possible there was even less sign of life as they travelled back through the corridors and up the companionways heading for the quarterdeck and the gangplank off the ship. The agent found it difficult to climb the stairs with no way of maintaining his balance and had to be assisted a couple of times to prevent him from falling. The resultant jolt of adrenalin each time meant that his legs were feeling well and truly rubbery by the time they halted at a point just prior to stepping out onto the quarterdeck.
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Just one more chapter to go…