Part 13 – Whereabouts
November 2nd, 2011


1 : Liz

3:43pm
T minus 17 minutes

Bags in her hands, Liz walked out of the store with a smile on her face. She'd gotten a gorgeous scarf for herself, and a nice, black sweater for Max. Her husband had traveled light, so she knew he would be in dire need of something warm. And then again, he would just wave his hand, and use the same sweater in seven different styles all week long. He certainly made it hard on her to get him a present.

Her smile grew wider, and hurried it up to the corner, where Max had asked her to meet him. Before she reached it, however, she saw another Empire State Building hanging poster. That feeling of foreboding that she had managed to suppress came crashing in on her. She walked past it, looking at it until she had to turn her head to keep walking.

It's nothing, she told herself. The Empire State Building was not even on their list things to do while on the city. All the easier to avoid it like the plague then. Biting her lower lip, she looked up at the skyline, searching for the dark building. She couldn't find it. Good, she grimly thought, I don't need to have it in view while I'm with Max.

With a nod to herself, she picked up speed. She'd talk with Max about it, but she was not going to let it ruin her vacation.

The bistro was a nice, warm place, decorated all in reds and oranges. Small, intimate. She sat at the first table outside, chewing on her lower lip. Apparently, she was unable to stop thinking about it for more than two minutes. She looked at the hour, and frowned. Max was still far way. Far enough away to make it impossible for him to meet her at 4:00 pm. She didn't want to, but she felt disappointed. She reached for her phone, and stared at it as it displayed no connectivity whatsoever.

"Welcome to Bonjour Bistro. I'm Jacky and I'll be your waitress," the blond girl said in a cheerful manner. She handed her the menu with a smile, "let me know if you need anything. I'll be back in a minute to take your order." Jacky disappeared.

Liz stared at the menu, and all color drained from her face.

It was the same menu she had seen in her vision nine years ago. The same French words in cursive letters, a flowing design at the top of each section. Time slowed down. In her mind, she saw Max holding this same menu, she heard the echo of the bullet, felt the table shaking as Max's wounded body collapsed onto it. No! her mind shouted, No! I won't let it!

"Hey!" someone greeted her, standing in front of her. She raised her eyes, up, up, up. She knew the voice, but it couldn't be. Bending down to give her a kiss, Max stood in front of her. But it wasn't Max. It couldn't be Max. Max was somewhere else, somewhere at her right. Her connection told her so. Had told her where Max was since she had landed at JFK three hours before. The man who was just inches from kissing her was not Max.

He noticed her lack of response just before he was close enough to kiss her. He stopped his advance, and she read hesitation in his eyes.

"Please," the impostor whispered, so close she could smell his minty breath, "for his sake, pretend I'm him."

He kissed her nose lightly, and sat down in front of her, placing his hand over hers. It took all she had not to jerk her hand away. He smiled Max's slow smile, and she almost started hyperventilating. She tried to smile back, but finding it impossible, turned instead to read the menu. Her hand was shaking as she passed to the next page, pretending to read it.

"Where is he?" she quietly asked. She tried to call for Max through their connection, and her heart sunk when she felt it muffled somehow. As if there was a fog. She knew Max wouldn't be able to feel her.

"In a meeting," Not-Max answered, smiling to the waitress as she came over with a second menu. Liz didn't even glance at her. She didn't know how sick she looked and if that would attract the waitress's attention, becoming a problem. She looked around at the deserted tables.

"Who are you?" Liz asked once the waitress was out of earshot, her voice slightly quivering as she met his eyes. Max's eyes in color, but definitely not Max's eyes in soul. Whoever was looking back did not feel for her what her husband did. What she did see was fear, and that scared her even more. She contemplated if she should make her escape towards her hotel or to the metro station one block on the other direction.

He slightly gripped her hand and let it go, apparently not going to answer her. "Who are you?" she pressed, and after a second, he moved towards her as if he were going to tell her a secret. She didn't lean towards him.

"Well, Ms. Evans," he quietly said, "I'm the one who's been watching over you for the past six years. I'm your bodyguard."


2 : Max

3:47pm
T minus 13 minutes

Checking his phone one last time before getting into the elevator, Max got a sense of foreboding. The last time he had been in this building, it had been with Tess, and that trip had not ended well. He sighed, and let the memory go.

With no new messages to read, he pocketed his phone. He didn't like being disconnected. He tried to reach Liz, but barely managed to get a hold of her. He'd been feeling a little fuzzy all afternoon long, and he had first thought it was because he was nervous about telling Liz the truth. Now he wasn't so sure.

He fingered his epi pen. It had taken Jake a colossal effort to make him agree to carry it, but now he was grateful for it. It didn't feel like something was making him ill, it just felt as if his mind was being crowded with something. He got the sensation that his senses were getting dull.

The doors opened, and a dozen tourists got into the car before he did. The elevator doors closed. He was just in time to meet Dave.


3 : Dave

3:53pm
T minus 7 minutes

Someone entered the interrogation room and slipped a piece of paper to McKay. For the last forty-three minutes, the good General had been trying to taunt him into telling him anything regarding Max. All Dave needed to do was start counting how many words McKay was saying to numb his mind. How many words, how many syllables, how many letters… nouns, verbs, adjectives. It was an endless game.

Soon, McKay would stop with the verbal techniques and move to the drug techniques. By that point, Dave would be so engrossed in the word game, his mind would not be much use. In his inner voice, he was switching to his mother's tongue, Arabic, just to make sure McKay would have to really work at deciphering Dave's words.

McKay's eyes lit as he read the message, and then tore the paper to pieces. Dave's fingers longed for those pieces. He could use a puzzle right about now.

"You were the best," he said, a glimmer in his old eyes. "And you betrayed us. You know treason is punishable by death in time of war."

"I was six years old and you were using my mind to kill people. I doubt even a court martial would condemn a twelve-year-old for wanting out."

It was the first thing Dave had said since McKay had entered the room and he'd told him to believe whatever he wanted. Dave didn't hide the hatred he felt for this man. He understood the evils of war now. Hell, he played with the evils of war when he had to nowadays, but he would never forgive McKay for taking advantage of a six year old, and using him against what his parents had so passionately stood for. And he wasn't even factoring in what Jake had had to suffer. At least for Dave, things had been abstract. Jake had known exactly what his formulas were doing to the human body.

"You grew up to be a greedy bastard, David. Selling your own species to alien invaders? You can't get any lower than that. But… it doesn't matter anymore. We have a fix on Max now. He's going down as we speak."

Dave's asthma attack was triggered instantly.


4 : Michael

3:57pm
T minus 3 minutes

He was not going to make it. He was too far from Max to reach him in time. He wanted to blow up half the city, consequences be damned. He just had to get out of the goddamn hotel first.

The elevator had never felt more like a cage than it did now.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Michael had growled to Jake not fifteen minutes before. "Dave is not missing. He texted Max for an urgent meeting at 4:00pm."

He didn't need to look at his watch to know what time it was. He didn't need to remember Jesse telling them Liz was meeting with Max at 4 around the corner. Between the network failing, the impossible messages that both Max and Liz had gotten, and Dave going missing… Hardly anything had made sense after that.

It felt like watching the palace being taken all over again. His stomach hurt; he was going to be sick. There was nothing he could do. Nothing. Liz had been led away from the group, and Max was going to meet someone who had tricked him into going to the Empire State alone. When Michael had fled the room where they had been talking, he only had one thing in his mind:

Max was walking into a trap.


T – 0:00

End of Book Two


Thank you all for reading! Book 3 should be coming out in December :) I'll post the preview here so you can know when I've started!