THIRTEEN
Martin sat in the lobby to the Federal building, waiting for Sam. The day had been long, tiring, and no firm leads were being found. They'd found a number of leads, sure, but in the processing of looking further into those, nothing had been found.
Flashback
"These guys are too good." Michael sighed rubbing his eyes, dropping his pen on his desk.
"We can't give up yet." Danny mumbled, but he too was finding it difficult reading Jack's file for the umpteenth time during the investigation, and was now finding the words to swim on the page.
"Please tell me you've found something." Kelly moaned re-entering the office with a fresh coffee.
"Still nothing." Michael moaned. "Its days like these where I become both petrified and happy that I'm married with three kids." Michael sighed looking up.
"You're being very quiet Martin." Danny said, looking to the desk beside him.
Martin had been reading over Mario Rodriguez's file, hoping to find a flaw in his, he hated to say it, brilliant operation. It didn't help that his brain was also allowing him to remember the previous night with Sam
It took Danny a number of attempts to grab Martin's attention, eventually resorting to throwing a rolled up ball of paper at him, hitting him on the head. "What?" Martin looked up to see his team-mates laughing.
"I've been trying to grab your attention for the past five minutes." Danny laughed, leaning forwards in his chair.
"Sorry, my mind's been, elsewhere." Martin said looking back at the file.
"Yeah I noticed." He smiled, wondering whether or not to ask him about what was going on with Sam.
"Please tell me you guys have got something?" Vivian moaned entering the office. "If we don't the press is going to have a field day." She leaned over Danny's desk, watching the team work.
"It's like he's disappeared off the face of the earth." Michael moaned. "I've gone over and over this on Richard Major, the guy who fed us with heaps of info on Rodriguez back in 1999, before he was killed." Michael dropped the file back on his desk.
"I went back to the Malone's," Kelly moaned sitting at her desk. "I couldn't find anything, fake passports, ID, photos or notes."
"That doesn't really surprise me, given that his wife is an Agent." Viv sighed glancing at Martin.
"Well if it helps, actually it probably won't, but I didn't recognize the guy who followed us out of the bar." Martin sighed, dropping the file on his desk.
"Have we been through all Malone's old case files?" Vivian asked.
"Yeah and the only people Malone 'helped' were those who had links to Rodriguez." Danny sighed.
"They were linked?" Vivian asked Danny curious.
"Yeah, I cross-referenced all the people who got helped, and they all had a familiar link, Devon Campbell, and I checked him out, it's an alias for one of Rodriguez's closest confidantes, Mikey Stanza."
"How does Stanza link to all these cases?" Vivian asked taking the file Danny was holding up to her.
"That was who they all claimed they worked for." Danny finished.
"Was Stanza ever questioned?" Vivian asked.
"Yeah, he admitted that they all worked for him but that was it. And guess who was always in on his interrogation?" Danny asked.
"Let me guess, Supervisory Special Agent Jack Malone." Vivian sighed as Danny nodded.
"He wouldn't have questioned him for very long then." Michael, who had been listening, spoke up.
"Oh he did, at least according to these logs, but he obviously always asked him the i right /i questions." Danny yawned.
End Flashback
Martin knew that they had to re-question Stanza, but given that he was out of the country and no-one knew where he was, that was going to be a difficult task.
He looked up to see Sam leaving the elevator, trembling. When she saw him she ran up to him.
"He called me." Sam whispered onto his shoulders.
"What do you mean? Who called you?" Martin asked her, leading her to the back hall of the floor so they couldn't be seen from the street.
"Just after you called me, telling me to meet you down here, Jack called me, told me that what my ass looked great last night, but I should really consider watching my public display's of affection when people are watching." Sam shivered as she spoke.
"He also said that we should keep an eye on traffic tonight, anything can happen when you're listening to the radio." She let go of him, leaned against the wall and slid down, crouching into a little ball when she hit the floor.
"There are people still up on my floor, how about we go up there and sort this thing out?" He offered her his hand, glad that they weren't far from the elevators.
She smiled weakly, taking his hand. "For some reason, I could be falling into an erupting volcano and I wouldn't be afraid. That's the affect you have on me." She blushed as he led her to the elevators.
He smiled at her, allowing her to know that it was okay to be honest. They entered the elevator, allowing the trip up to be filled in a comfortable silence, as she leaned against him, her arms around his shoulders.
"Hey what are you still doing here?" Danny asked as the elevator doors opened.
"I got a call from Jack." Sam sighed, the fear that she had felt before returning.
"You did?" Danny asked shocked, forgetting that he had a hot date with Rachel from Counter-Terrorism, and joining them as they headed for Vivian's office.
"Yeah, and he knows……..too much." She felt her cheeks redden, looking away so Danny couldn't see her face.
"So now we're going to go and talk to Viv to see what we can do about it." Martin added.
Knowing that Jack could have such an affect on her, make her fear for her life in her own workplace, it scared him as much as it scared Sam. He knew he cared for her more than he was letting on and he had a slight feeling that she did too, but he didn't know how to approach it, and couldn't even say whether it was that word.
He had only ever been in a situation like this once before, although he didn't admit it because she had broken his heart, and in the worst possible way. He didn't want that to happen again.
The trio walked along the hallway in silence. Sam wrapped her arms around Martin, much to Danny's amusement. Neither Martin nor Sam noticed the smirk cross his face. As they entered Vivian's office, she was on the phone talking to someone rather animatedly. Danny saw the time on the clock on her desk, remembering his hot date and sprinting to the elevator.
"I don't care how long it takes you, yes I appreciate it, hello I've done a heap for you, like the Greengrass case? Yes, thank you." Vivian's tone went from agitated, to sarcastic, to appreciative with traces of sarcasm as she ended the call.
"Everything okay?" Martin asked as they entered.
"I could ask the same for you." She turned her attention to Sam.
"How do you know about that?" She asked startled.
"A call from an unknown location came into your desk, I was notified." She said simply sitting back down at her desk. "I know what he said to you." Sam looked away.
"We know that they know where you live, Martin, and by the sounds of the call, something more than sleeping happened last night." Both Sam and Martin felt their cheeks redden, both looking to the floor to hide their embarrassment. "That means that you could both be in danger."
"The person I was just on the phone too works in Witness Protection." Martin and Sam both glanced at each other and then looked at Vivian curiously.
"Who is in Witness Protection that we don't know about?" Martin asked.
"Richard Major. When he was shot, he was wearing a specially designed vest, there were thoughts that he would be killed as a possible police contact, and we prepared him. He went into Witness Protection a week after he was 'killed'. I'm sending Michael and Kelly to Austen to talk to him. We think he might know something." Vivian said.
"So what's the plan for Samantha and me?" Martin asked, if he was in danger too he wanted to know he was safe.
"You'll both be taken to a safe house just out of the city in an unmarked car." Vivian said simply.
"Are you sure that's safe? I mean Jack knows all the protocols when agents are in serious trouble." Sam stuttered.
"Well is there anywhere safe that you both know about, a friend that you could go and stay the night with, no question's asked?"
"I know someone." Martin said after a silence.