A/N: So glad you guys are liking the tension. And yes I did try to make the battle of wits between Morgain and Walter evenly matched. If I'm insane enough to keep this going for a while I really wanted Morgain to be the Moriarity to Walter's Sherlock. This chapter is a little short but it felt like a good place to stop it because where's the fun if I tell you the plan you've got to see it play out.
Plus building some tension between Paige and Walter in their just formed not really defined relationship.
Walter hobbled into the garage behind Cabe, Happy, and Elia. He was exhausted and felt like every muscle in his body was just about to give out. But he refused to listen. That little girl needed him.
"He's not looking great, Doc." Happy said pointing at Walter over her shoulder.
"Hey Walt, how about you take a seat on the couch and we'll get you feeling better than you can take a nap." Toby tried.
Walter went to the table by the couch and picked up his half-empty coffee mug and threw it against the fall wall. He picked up the picture of the girl.
"I am fine! This girl isn't! This girl is suffering and we have less than 30 hours to save her and it doesn't even matter because every hour feels like a year to her. She's depending on us, and I am not going to take a nap while someone is suffering and counting on me to save them. So, no more telling me I need to rest! From anyone!" Walter shouted glaring at all of them. Everyone looked a bit shocked except Simone who was smiling. Walter's dedication to cases was what drew her to him, they were so alike.
"Walter-" Paige started eyeing the others. They needed to address that Walter was definitely not okay. But Simone cut her off.
"Now that we have the sword how do we deliver it?" Simone asked walking to stand by Walter. Walter smiled at her gratefully causing Paige to frown. She motioned with her hands for the others to step in but Ralph got the wrong idea.
"What if we let them know by posting on the dark web in the same forum?" Ralph suggested.
"That's a great idea Ralph," Walter said immediately going to the keyboard.
The Scorpion is Armed.
Walter posted on the same forum but as a separate post not on the same thread, no reason to make it too obvious.
"Now Ralph did you make any progress on our mystery poster?" Walter asked.
"I think I have some ideas come look." Ralph said motioned for Walter to come to his computer.
Toby looked at the others and pointed to the kitchen. Immediately Cabe, Happy, Sly and Paige followed.
"Okay Doc, what do we do?" Cabe asked. "He's not going to listen to any sort of reason until that girl is safe."
Toby nodded. "He sees himself in that girl. He knows what it's like to be chained up, so he feels connected to her. It might also have something to do with whatever Morgain found out that he used against Walter. Morgain might know more about Walter's captivity than we do."
Cabe sighed. "I can reach out to Katherine and see what she can find out. I know the records were wiped from Homeland but maybe she can find out if anyone else could have talked to Morgain or if she knows what might be bothering Walter."
Toby nodded. "That could help but we can't let him know we know until he's ready to tell us. But it might help us figure out what might trigger him to be like this."
"But Doc, we can't just leave him to work himself to death on this case. Have you seen him?" Happy said gesturing to where Walter, Ralph, Simone, and Elia were still working.
Toby nodded. "We need to get the girl fast it's the only way we'll be able to get him to take a breath. Then we might need to take a break from cases for a few days."
"Toby…can't we sedate him? Just give him something without him knowing? He needs to rest or he's going to end up back in the hospital?" Paige said slowly. It really bothered her to see how little Walter seemed to care about what she had to say or about his own health or anything other than the case.
Toby raised an eyebrow. "Dating just two days and you're already willing to betray his trust and drug him against his will? 197 won't forgive that, especially if something happens and we don't save the girl."
"I know. But I can't stand to see him like this. And what is with Simone anyway? Can't she see he needs a break?" Paige asked frustrated.
"Don't mind Simone she's always put everything into the case, and she doesn't tend to notice anything else. Makes her a bit hard to get close to but she's the person you want working something like this." Cabe reassured Paige.
"Yeah, she's definitely seeing a kindred spirit in the way Walter is zeroing in on this case. Maybe she's still hoping Walter will take her up on her offer after the case." Toby said peering around to get a look at Simone.
"No there's no way she's interested in the kid, especially the shape he's in," Cabe said.
"Yeah, you might want to take a look," Toby said.
Cabe and Paige both moved over to look and see that Simone was standing so close to Walter that they were touching, and her hand was on his shoulder as she whispered something in his ear.
Walter smiled awkwardly in response and shook his head and pointed back at the computer to say something to Ralph.
"What does she think she's doing?" Paige said angrily heading over to where Walter was.
"Walter, can I speak to you for a moment in the kitchen?" Paige asked in a voice that was sickeningly sweet.
Walter glanced toward the kitchen where the others were still standing. "Can it wait? We have a job to do. Ralph may have figured out who the poster is. It's our other missing girl." Walter said loud enough so the others could hear.
"Other missing girl?" Toby asked. "Who else is missing?"
"Remember you told me about the family tree in the antique store, the descendant of Masamune? It looks like she made the post." Walter said.
"But why would she do that? The group is working to get the sword returned to her anyway why would she have someone rob them to steal it?" Happy asked.
"Walter-" Paige tried again.
"Paige, I promise we can talk soon," Walter said cutting her off and giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"That's the thing she didn't know how the group was going to go about doing it she just posted the challenge and the offer, and she must have been losing faith the group would find it before this resolution was passed," Walter explained.
"But why? Wouldn't the resolution be good for her? She'd get the sword?" Cabe said.
Walter shook his head. "No, the sword was relinquished by the Tokugawa family so they would be the ones that would be given back the sword if it was returned to Japan. It was in their family for generations as a sign of their position."
"We got a response on our post!" Ralph interrupted.
"What does it say?" Walter asked.
"Scorpion answers the call," Ralph said with a shrug.
"The call? What are we superheroes?" Toby asked.
"I don't think they mean that call," Walter said as they heard a loud ringing at the door.
"I'll get it," Paige said in a huff, annoyed that Walter wasn't even willing to take a minute to talk to her.
Paige opened the door to find a cell phone on the ground.
"Seriously that's just lazy," Sly said, looking at the phone as if he still couldn't trace any calls that were coming to it.
Paige put the phone on the table and answered it on speaker. The others gathered around, and Walter put his hands on the table to lean closer to the phone. Without his crutches, he almost looked normal except for his deathly pallor and line of sweat on his forehead.
"Scorpion, you have lived up to your reputation." The voice said.
"Release the girl and you can have the sword," Walter said. His voice was raspy but firm.
"I am afraid if you want the girl you will have to come and get her and deliver the sword in person."
"Just tell me where," Cabe said.
"Agent Gallow, I'm afraid you're not invited. If you or Agent Taylor come, I'm afraid the girl and her father will just be killed. Can't have Homeland or Interpol walking through our headquarters. Bad for business you see."
"Fine, I'll go." Happy said.
"Ms. Quinn is acceptable."
"Not a chance. I am not letting you go without protection." Cabe said.
"I'll go too," Toby said.
"He said protection what are you going to do to hurt their feelings till they surrender?" Happy said shaking her head.
"No, I think you've got that covered. Ouch." Toby said feigning a hurt look.
"I'm going too. I can help calm down the girl and it's not like I'm wanted here anyway." Paige said.
"Paige-" Walter started realizing his abruptness with Paige had crossed a line.
"And what about you, Mr. O'Brien? Will you be joining your team?" Walter looked across the table. All of their faces showed how much they didn't want him to go, and he knew if the girl or her father needed help, he would slow them down or divert the team's focus from where it was needed.
Walter looked down at the table in defeat.
"No. I'll be guiding my team from the garage." Walter said and saw the others visibly relax.
"Pity. I'm sure you would be most entertaining to toy with."
"Listen you hurt the girl or anyone on my team you won't be able to hide. I will make sure you are labeled a terrorist on every international watchlist, and I will tell them who you are and where you are." Walter threatened.
"Oh, my well if you can do all that why did you bother even getting the sword? If you think your threat is enough for me to listen to you? Is it because you don't know who I am or because even I don't want warrant Scorpion going against its morals?"
"You hurt them, and my morals will be the least of your concerns because I won't have any when it comes to you," Walter said vehemently but inside his head, he was building his plan. They wouldn't give up the sword and he was going to bring this entire group down. But to do that he was going to need Paige, Toby, and Happy to stall and he was going to send Cabe, Simone, and Sly as backup. While he and Ralph worked their magic from the garage. But could he really stay behind while they risked their lives? While they did the hard work? He had to.
"Challenge accepted O'Brien. But remember I'll have your team here. So, try anything and they will pay the price along with the girl and her father."
"Time and Place," Walter grunted out. They obviously underestimated his ability, or they had a trick up their sleeve.
"In three hours. Building 496 on the Canal Street." The call discontinued and Walter went into command mode.
"Okay, so we need to do three things. First, find out exactly who these guys are and give all their names and aliases to Interpol. We'll help track them all down. Second, we need to prove they messed with the software. If the software is disproven, they have no way to strike a deal with their imprisoned art dealer and he won't agree to validate the list they recovered. It becomes unactionable. Third, we save the hostages without giving up the sword."
Walter moved toward the whiteboard to start writing out his ideas, but his legs collapsed under him. Toby and Cabe were immediately at his side. Walter's arms were shaking as he pushed his hands from the floor. But as he allowed himself to be helped up, he instinctively tried to get both of his legs back under him. To his surprise, both legs responded or tried to. There was movement in his knee. It was slight and painful, but his knee moved. It was the burst of adrenaline he needed to push through to the end of this case.
"I'm okay. Thanks, just tripped over my own feet." Walter realized he had fallen because he had put his leg down and wasn't expecting it to hit the floor because he was used to the leg being unresponsive.
"Walter…" Cabe practically growled a warning that he was going to have Walter cuffed in order for him to sit down and rest.
Just then the alarms on Paige and Toby's phones went off.
"Ah, now you don't have a choice. Time for some pills." Toby said, pulling Walter toward the couch. Walter resisted and Toby sighed.
"Sly you go to the whiteboard and write what Walter says. 197 you detail your genius plan while I get you taken care of."
Walter frowned but seeing the angry look on Paige's face and knew he didn't want to upset her any further. He sat down on the couch.
"The first part relies on Toby, Happy, and Paige…."