Just a quick note, when I wrote the last chapter I must have been sleep deprived or something. For some reason I could have sworn the words "London" and "England" were interchangeable. (And yes, I am a college student.) Sorry if there was any confusion and thank you to the reviewer who pointed out the error.

Anyway, on with the story ...

Chapter 3

Don led the way into the conference room, sharing a brief look with Liz as she silently told him that she didn't have anything new to report. He gave her a slight nod and turned his attention to the boy.

"Hey Ari," Don said gently, "there's someone I want you to meet."

He looked up, his eyes widening as Charlie stepped into the room. The mathematician gave him an awkward smile and took a seat at the table, followed by Larry.

"Hi, Ari. I'm Charlie."

"I know," he said quietly, "I've read your work."

"You mean my book or my papers?"

"Both. The papers were better."

"I thought so too." Charlie chuckled, but sobered quickly. "I'm really sorry to hear about your dad."

Ari dropped his gaze back to his soda, wiping his face with his sleeve. For a minute, Don was afraid he was going to clam up again and took half a step forward, but stopped when the boy looked up.

"Are you going to help them find the killers?"

"I'll do my best." Charlie answered sincerely.

"Are you going to help too, Professor Fleinhart?" Ari asked, leaning around to see Larry.

"I'll do whatever I can."

"Here's the thing," Charlie started hesitantly, glancing from Don to the boy, "in order to find the killers we need to know anything you can tall us about what happened."

"Um … okay." Ari said slowly. "But first, can I ask you a question?"

Charlie gave him a puzzled look and nodded.

"Yeah, you can ask me anything."

"What is your security clearance level?"

At this point, Charlie looked beyond confused, and he wasn't the only one.

"Why do you want to know that?" Liz questioned.

"So I can know what he can know." Ari replied, as if the answer was obvious. "Dad's work was top top secret. I can't just talk about it to anyone."

Now it was Don's turn to intervene. He squatted down by Ari's chair and looked him in the eye.

"Are you telling us that you know what it was that they stole."

The boy bit his lower lip, dropping his eyes toward the floor. Though he stayed silent, his answer was loud and clear. And if he did know what the doctor had been killed over, he might be more then a witness. He might be a target.

"What was he working on?" Charlie asked quietly.

"I can't tell you until I know if you are allowed to know."

"Trust me," Colby assured him, "we're allowed to know."

The kid didn't look convinced and turned his attention back to his soda can. This was getting them nowhere. Clearly Twersky had taught his son the importance of security clearance, but somehow they had to convince him that they needed to know whether their clearance was high enough or not.

"Ari," Don said seriously, "if we are going to find the killers, we need to know what he was working on."

"Okay." The boys said hesitantly. "I'll tell you the secret stuff and if you need to know more I can probably tell you the top secret stuff, but I can't tell you the top top secret stuff. Not even the men from the government know about that."

At this point, Don was more than curious about what the late doctor was working on and how the killers had found out about it. First things first.

"Okay," he nodded for Ari to continue, "what's the secret stuff?"

"Dad was working on a project for the DOD involving missiles."

Yeah, they were DIFINITELY going to need to know more then that.

"What's the top secret stuff?" Colby questioned.

Once again, Ari bit his lip, but Charlie reached out and put a supporting hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, you can tell us."

For a moment, Don felt like he was looking in a mirror. The support Charlie was giving there kid was reminiscent of how Don handled many of the early school bullies. Of course, that was when they were at another school and it was harder for him to bust their face in. Then their was the look of absolute trust that Ari was giving his little brother. If it wasn't for the sandy hair and green eyes, he could very well have been his little brother. But the moment ended abruptly when Ari opened his mouth.

"Dad built a remote control system for missiles. Attach it to one and you can land on a moving dime twenty miles away."

"And when you say built …" Colby said slowly.

Ari turned to him and nodded.

"He finished it this morning."

The silence in the room was defining, but lasted only for a second before Don took control.

"Liz, get on the phone with ATF, see if they know of any weapon shipments that these guys could use. Colby, you and Nikki take the office building. I want to know how these guys knew when to move and how they got in. Charlie, you and Larry stay here with Ari. I have to go talk to the assistant director."

He and his agents left the room, splitting up once they past the door. Don headed straight for his office. Even after six months, he was still getting used to not being in the bull pen with everyone else, but at time like this, he liked the privacy. Waking up the assistant director of the LA office to tell them that you may have another 9/11 on your hands wasn't exactly something you wanted to do with an audience. On a side note, he might want to call Robin too, since it was likely he wasn't going to be heading home any time soon. Glancing at the photo of her he kept on his desk, he started dialing his home number. After all, a five minute delay was not going to chance the assistant director's mood.

"Hello?"

Just the sound of her sleepy voice was enough to bring a small smile to his face.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself." She replied, sounding more awake. "So, I assume since you are calling that you will not be coming home tonight?"

She knew him so well.

"Big case. Not sure when I'll be home."

"Anything I can do?"

"I'll let you know when we get a suspect."

"Okay." She yawned. "If your not hear in the morning, I'll bring you somethig on my way to work."

"It's a date." He smiled. "Goodnight."

"Night."

He hung up and had just started to dial the assistant director when his brother went running past his door. Looks like it was going to be a ten minute delay before he made his phone call.

"Charles." Larry called after him, rushing into Don's office with Ari in tow.

A few seconds later, Charlie came skidding inside panting for breath.

"Have you made the call yet?" He asked.

"No, why?" Don looked at each of them in turn. "What's going on?"

Charlie took a seat into one of the chairs facing his desk while Larry ushered Ari into the other.

"They didn't get it."

Don rubbed a weary hand over his eyes. As much as he loved and missed his brother, there were certain things he didn't. His cryptic messages for example.

"Who didn't get what, Charlie?"

"The killers. They didn't get what they were looking for."

That was more like it. He leaned forward, glancing at the little boy before turning back to his brother.

"You mean the program wasn't on the hard drive?"

"No," Ari shook his head, "it was."

"So, they didn't get the hard drive?"

"No, they did." Charlie answered.

Don shook his head, trying to make sense of this whole thing.

"So … what?"

Surprisingly, it was Larry who managed to give him a straight answer.

"Albert was so aware of the threat his work posed that he went to extream lengths to ensure it never fell into the wrong hands?"

"Okay … so, what does that mean?"

He had been looking at Larry, but it was Charlie and Ari who leaned forward.

"Imagine a clock with all the gears removed." Charlie started. "It's still a clock, but it's not gonna tell you what time it is."

"Exactly." Ari nodded "Dad finished a program, but he deleted key codes and algorithms, wiping them from his system. The only have a shell of what they are looking for."

Well, this was the first good news he had got in a while, but following Charlie's analogy, even a broken clock was right twice a day. If the data existed, there was still a chance that the killers could find it.

"So, where is the rest of the program?"

Based on the looks on their faces, they had already given him all the good news he was gonna get.

"Um …" Charlie said slowly, "that would be the top top secret stuff."

Of course it was. Don sighed inwardly, rubbing his hand across his face.

"It's really safe." Ari assured him timidly. "I just … I made a promise not to tell."

"The thing is," Don said seriously, looking the boy in the eye, "if I don't know where it is, then I can't protect it."

Ari dropped his gaze, fidgeting in his seat.

"I'm sorry … but I … I just can't tell you."

He got up suddenly. running from the room with Charlie at his heels. Larry sighed and shook his head.

"We'll talk to him, but I'm not sure if it will change anything."

"Do what you can."

Larry gave him half a smile and left the room. Don sighed and picked up the phone. This was going to be a really long night.

Looks like Don has his work cut out for him. What do you think?

Let me know and I will get started on the next chapter of this and any others that get requested. :)