Chapter 3: Alliance
"Got a lead on Bagwell," announced Agent Lang as Jack walked past her desk.
"Anything on Scofield?" asked Jack as she thumbed through a file on her desk.
"No, but…"
"Then I'm not interested," snapped Jack as she sat down behind her desk and turned towards her computer.
Lang and Wheeler exchanged a glance, but said nothing. Just then Mahone strode into the office, coffee in hand.
"What do we got?" he demanded.
"Lead on Bagwell," said Lang, standing up, "Apparently he brutally assaulted a man…"
"And what do we have on Scofield?" he asked, glancing briefly at the papers Lang handed to him. He glanced over at Jack, but she shook her head, frustration clear in her expression.
"What does anybody have on Scofield!?" shouted Mahone as he kicked a nearby plastic trashcan, his eyes wild with anger, "If we kill the head the rest will die. Scofield is the head of this whole thing! If we catch him, the other cons will panic and start making stupid mistakes. So find me something on Scofield!"
Everyone in the main room had stopped what they were doing when Mahone began to yell. Mahone was known for his temper, but it had never really been this bad.
"Agent Mahone?" asked a geeky-looking man as he peered out of his small office, "I have something."
Mahone took a deep, steadying breath and walked over to the man.
"What is it?"
Jack stood up from behind her desk and walked over to Mahone. They exchanged a glance, and then looked back at the techie.
"Well, I managed to retrieve some more information from Michael Scofield's hard drive. It took awhile, but what I did was…"
"We don't care how you did it," snapped Jack, "Exactly how much information did you recover?"
Mahone could not help but smile slightly. She sounded exactly like himself. She was young, but confident and mature. He admired that.
"About sixty-percent," replied the man as he pushed his thick rimmed glasses up on his nose.
Mahone nodded in approval and glanced back at the other agents. He gave them a scathing look and pointed back at the techie.
"You see? Now this is what I want. Now, have it printed and on my desk within the hour."
As he turned to leave the techie's office, he grabbed Jack's arm.
"See me in my office," he murmured into her ear.
Jack nodded briefly as Mahone slipped back into the main room.
About half-an-hour later, Jack stepped into Mahone's office and walked over to his desk.
"You wanted to see me?"
Mahone looked up from the paperwork he had received from the techie and took off his glasses.
"Yeah," he said, pausing to look her over, "Have a seat."
Jack felt her pulse rise a little bit. Did she do something wrong?
"How are you holding up?" he asked, genuine concern in his eyes and voice.
"I'm okay," replied Jack with a sigh, "Just, um, keeping busy so I don't have to think about my parents too much."
Mahone leaned back in his chair.
"Well, you're a stronger person than I am," he said as he pulled out his pen and began unscrewing the cap, "These little guys here keep me going."
He dumped the pills out onto the desk and returned the pen to his jacket pocket.
"Be careful," replied Jack, "Those things can destroy you."
Mahone laughed weakly, "I self-destructed a long time ago," he said as he swallowed the two pills.
Jack raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but chose not to ask any questions.
"Can you do this?" asked Mahone, growing suddenly very serious.
"Do I have a choice?"
"I mean if, no, when, it comes time…can you kill someone? Or will you freeze up on me? I need to know before we go out on the field together. I need to know that I can rely on you and trust that you'll do what it takes to end this. Because if you freeze, and this whole thing goes south, my ex-wife and my son will die along with your parents…and I can't let that happen."
"I know," replied Jack as she leaned in and gazed into Mahone's eyes with a look of intensity, "I won't freeze. I will do whatever it takes to save our families. I don't want to do it, but I have to…and I will. You can trust me."
Mahone looked into her eyes for a moment longer, trying to read what he could see in them. Finally he glanced away and nodded.
"Okay…I believe you."
"Good," said Jack with a slight smile, "I better get back to work then."
Jack stood and walked out of Mahone's office. He followed her with his eyes until she closed the door behind her. Then, he unlocked a desk drawer and pulled out an orange pill bottle. He opened it and glanced inside. It was empty. He took out his pen and unscrewed it again. He tapped it on the desk, but it was empty as well. Frustrated, he tossed the bottle and the pen across the room. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed.
He stood up from behind his desk and strode out into the main room. He walked passed Jack, Wheeler, and Lang's desks and approached a map on the other side of the room. This map had smaller pictures of all eight escapees and color-coded pins and string to plot their most recent positions. He looked at the lines and points on the map intensely, trying to find a clue, a hint about where Michael Scofield could be.
Just then, Wheeler dropped his phone on the floor and leapt from behind his desk. He grabbed some papers and ran over to where Mahone stood in front of the map.
"We have a sighting on Franklin!" he announced as he approached Mahone.
"Where?" snapped Mahone, irritated that it was not Scofield.
"Preston, Idaho. Apparently he jumped off of a moving train."
Lang and Jack exchanged a glance and stood up from behind their desks to go join Wheeler and Mahone.
"What's a black man doing in Idaho?" asked Lang as she stood beside Wheeler.
Jack took up position on the other side of Mahone. He glanced at her for a moment before turning back to the map.
"Don't know," replied Mahone, "But Bagwell was last seen in Nebraska. Looks like they're both heading west, but why?"
Just then, Mahone's cell phone rang.
"Excuse me for a moment," he muttered as he turned to go back into his office.
"What?" he barked into the phone once he closed his office door.
"I got what you wanted," said a man on the other line.
"I'll be right down."
Mahone swung open his office door and made a bee-line for the exit.
"Where's he going?" asked Wheeler as he watched Mahone practically run out of the main room.
"I don't know," murmured Jack, uncertainty in her voice.
Lang shrugged, "Don't worry, he'll be back. In the meantime let's see what else we can figure out about the cons' current locations."
Outside the building Mahone walked up to a young man on the sidewalk. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching him.
"Where are they?" he demanded.
"Right here, Agent Mahone," replied the man as he handed Mahone a full pill bottle, "You know, you can just go to the doctor and tell him you need something to calm your nerves."
"Doctor's write notes," replied Mahone, "That's why I have you."
Mahone turned to leave, but the boy grabbed his arm.
"Hey! Don't you want to ask me about Shales?"
Anger spread across Mahone's every feature as he turned back to face the kid.
"All I want from you are the pills," he growled, "I know longer need that information."
He whirled around and stalked back towards the entrance to the building.
"Hey, Mahone!" called the boy, "You gonna pay me, or what?"
Mahone walked aggressively back to the boy and shoved a few bills into his chest.
"It's right there...okay?" he snapped.
Without waiting for the boy to reply, Mahone turned and went back into the FBI Field Office.