Missing
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Chapter 9
Michael is in total darkness.
His first thought
is of Fi.
His second thought
is of being more thirsty than hungry.
Then blackness.
.
The next time he is conscious, he feels brightness on his closed eyelids.
Dark shadows hovering.
Voices in the background.
They seem very far away and he can't make out any words.
Just sounds. Angry sounds.
Voices become louder. Now they are in his ears.
"Wer-air-et"
Michael opens mouth.
Throat is chalky.
No sound.
An insistent voice is shouting at him.
"Wer-air-et! Wer-air-et!"
A different voice, "He doesn't understand."
Then nothing.
.
Spasm.
Michael wakes up to pain and he cries out.
"Fiiiii!"
No reply.
"Enough" second voice says.
Darkness.
.
Shivering.
Eyes can't open.
He is lying down on something cold.
Someone shoves him... "Hey you!"
He understands words now.
Michael blinks.
Bright, white light.
He squints. Everything looks blurry.
His head feels heavy, like he's in a fog.
Two shadows, one speaks out.
"You are working for the CIA!"
Michael nods. Doesn't know why.
Tired. Wants to sleep, wants to drift away forever…
"You know about us. You've heard the rumors."
Us? Rumors? Michael is confused...
Must rest. Closes eyes.
Voice in Michael's ear.
"Nobody knows where you are, nobody will find you. We can keep you forever, or we can kill you on a whim."
Michael shakes...
Fingers wrap around Michael's biceps.
Something bad will happen to him.
Must fight...must fi-
Something is pricking his arm. Nooo...
It hurts.
"Fiiii!" he screams in his head.
Why isn't she here?
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At CIA headquarters, Agent Pearce had been occupied with various conferences upstairs that had proven vital to national security. Going back to her own office, she had been unprepared when her assistant, Thomas Wright, had entered.
"You might want to take the call on line two," Wright told Pearce, "It's Harry Grant."
Harry Grant had been the agent hired to keep surveillance on Fi in Tampa. The agency had assumed the worst when his place had been torched and he had gone missing.
So he was alive after all. Pearce closed her eyes to give a silent prayer of thanks. She then concluded that he had been in one of the cars chasing Fi.
Pearce punched line two, "Pearce here. What's going on, Harry?"
At the other end a disgruntled voice said, "What the hell kind of agent did you send for me to babysit, Kim?"
Agent Pearce couldn't help the smile that escaped from her lips at the idea that Harry didn't appreciate being Fi's back-up. She and her assistant exchanged grins.
"Why Harry, what do you mean?"
"She's crazier than any bad guys I have ever encountered, hands down!"
"Crazier?" Pearce asked innocently, yet knowingly.
"Yeah, you heard me right!" growled Harry, "She's a real nut job! Just make sure she goes in and out of the bookstore with a book, you tell me...ha! Some simple surveillance job!"
Pearce didn't know whether to continue grinning or be alarmed.
"Go on, I'm listening, Harry."
"Yeah, you listening in the comfort of your office!" Harry guffawed, "So get this...I'm watching her go in the bookstore at 9:50, right? But she's in there for a bit and I sense trouble, so I decide to investigate. By the time I get down from my perch, I see this Hawaiian shirt guy sneaking towards the back of the shop..."
A guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt?
Sam? she asked herself, what is Sam Axe doing there?
"Pearce, you still there or what?"
"Harry, I'm here," Pearce assured him, "please continue.."
"Yeah, okay," said Harry, "Anyways, as I'm heading inside, I hear a gunshot. I rush to take a look inside and...and... I see Agent Nut over there doing some Kung Fu Master on amphetamines moves on this other guy...yeah, you heard me!...and in-between that , she musta shot the HawaiianShirt guy with her left toe because he was bleeding some and I wouldn't be surprised if she ate a midget afterwards! "
Pearce either cleared her throat or snorted, "That's...some...descriptive action."
"Tell me about it!" Harry exclaimed, "so...I figure I better go in - if only to help the other guy- when this old lady behind me began beating me with her purse, so I skedaddled outta there and called the cops."
"What about Agent Glenanne..." Pearce was concerned, "did you see her leave? Did she look harmed?"
"That's a negative," Harry said, "She wasn't hurt unless you count her sore knuckles after beating up the guy so badly... So...then I see Agent Nut drive off with Hawaiian Shirt guy. After I get PurseWhacker off of me, I follow them in my car. Before I know it, two other cars are following me and the Nut Agent!"
"So she's being chased by three cars now?" Pearce asked. This verified what she had heard earlier from her assistant.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "I always knew if it had wheels or a skirt, it would give me trouble. Now I got both here!"
"Right, right..." Pearce had to keep Harry on track, "So, then, what?"
"So we high-speed all though town, Agent Nut taking the corners like she's Mario effing Andretti. Finally we get her corner on this one street, no way out for her..."
Fi cornered. Pearce's heart was pounding.
"So she's trap." Pearce made it sound like a finality.
"No way..." Harry countered, " This is the part she goes ballistics!"
"What?"
"Oh, yeah!" Harry's voice was loud and clear, "She swerves her car, makes a U, hits a SUV, and heads straight towards us...headlights to headlights!"
Pearce looked over to her assistant who looked wide-eyed.
"...but she obviously passes all three of you and escapes?" Pearce wistfully asked.
"Are you kidding me?" Harry shouted through the speaker, "She crashes into me!"
"What?" Pearce's mouth dropped.
"Yeah, wham! bam! thank you ma'am! It was like being in a scene from Die Hard: Stunt Driving Street Vengeance or something! She skidded off the walls and rammed her car into me before taking off again!"
"So she got away..." Pearce said in awe.
"Yeah, if you call being chased by the other two cars getting away!"
"Oh?" Pearce's adrenaline was pumping, "Did you know what happened to them?"
"Yeah, stupid, delusional me, I decided to follow them, wrecked car and all!" Harry exclaimed.
"So...then what?"
"Then I catch up with them," Harry declared, "and that's when the shooting begins..."
"...t-the shooting?" Pearce blinked quickly," The other two cars were shooting at her?"
"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Harry sounded sarcastic, "But noooo, it was Agent Nut being her nutty self! Bang! Bang! Bang!Then off she drives off into the sunset!"
Dani and her assistant leaned back in their chairs. She didn't know if she should feel admiration or shock.
"So you didn't follow her, Harry?"
"Follow her? Jesus H. Christ! I couldn't get far enough away from her!" Harry insisted.
He was being sarcastic, for the truth was, his car had become inoperable.
Pearce sighed, "Anything else?"
"Anything else? You hear all about Street Armageddon and you want to know if there's anything else?"
A sigh erupted from Pearce. Next time she'll have to assign a calmer agent to backup Fi.
"You know what I mean, Harry...and I must commend you on a great job you did, considering..." complimented Pearce, "Oh! One question, Harry...you didn't happen to notice whether or not she had the book in her possession, did you?"
"Naw, she wasn't driving a see-through car," he replied sardonically.
Pearce figured there was a good chance Fi did have the book; otherwise, why would the other two vehicles be chasing her? There was a sense of relief. Fi was safe, at least for now.
"Just one other thing, Harry," Pearce said, "...those other two vehicles…did you get a good look at the drivers? Can you describe them?"
Despite Harry Grant being a grouch at times, he was actually a very good, observant agent.
"Not much.." Harry said, "with the first car, the green one, there were two macho guys in suits and sunglasses."
Perhaps rogue CIA agents? theorized Pearce to herself.
"Not a lot to go on," said Pearce, "What about the other car?"
"There was one guy in the black vehicle," Harry recounted, "Let's see... Hmm... dark hair...just kinda nondescript, actually."
The Butcher? Pearce's blood froze.
She at least took comfort that Fi was still alive, and possibly with Sam.
But where was Michael? Pearce had been trying to reach him all day and he hadn't picked up. That was so unlike him. Michael would want to leave his phone on and pick up all calls in case there was news regarding his girlfriend.
Pearce's temple was throbbing. Another headache coming on.
Her assistant, Thomas Wright, who had been quiet the whole time, dug into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of aspirin.
"Thanks, " said Pearce, "You're a lifesaver."
"A lifesaver?" Harry mistakenly spoke out, "The only life I saved was my own! "
"No, uh, I wasn't talking to you, Harry," Pearce said, and then added sternly, "But regarding you now, you need to stay out in the field. We can get a new car out to you because you still need to find Agent Glenanne."
"You're kidding, right?" he said, "You got any other agent with full coverage life insurance besides me?"
Pearce was not in the mood for this. With all the budget cuts, they didn't exactly have a battalion of extra agents laying around, and she wouldn't have time to apprise them of the situation anyway.
"It's you, Harry," decided Pearce, "Or you could come back to the office and deal with all the paperwork to be processed here. That was one doozy of a story you told us. Hopefully the agency won't insist on a psyche evaluation for you."
She heard an audible frustrated sigh coming from Harry's side.
"I should have retired when I had the chance!" he remarked and then he reluctantly added "Fine! I'll be the crash test dummy one more time...So how am I supposed to find her? By checking all Audis in the Tampa area to see which one has my car paint on its front bumper?"
"If you have to," Pearce said.
"Seriously, Kim?" Harry sounded incredulous, "Come on! Don't bust my chops here!"
"I'm not," Pearce said, "and just to let you know, I'm calling myself Dani from now on..."
"What?" Harry impatiently relayed back, "You've taken on a new identity because of this?"
"No, Harry," Pearce said, "It's a long story but that's neither here nor there ...so regarding this mission, I may have a lead for you, but I can't guarantee anything."
"What is it?" Harry asked almost reluctantly.
"First I need to preface it with the fact that this whole debacle may involve Gideon Hunter," said Pearce.
She heard a low whistle coming from his end.
"Mother of all that is holy!" said Harry, "The Butcher? Wasn't he thrown in the slammer two years ago or something?"
"We have a call out to Rikers now," Pearce said, "Until we find out if this mission involves him, you need to watch yourself."
"Hey, if I lived through this, I can live through anything!" Harry insisted, "So this lead you have...is it possibly involving Hunter's location?"
"Yes, in an indirect way," stated Kim, "Records show that his mother lives in Tampa. You can scope out her place in hopes Sonny will make an appearance."
"Mommy Butcher, eh?" Harry considered, "Okay, I'll go check it out..."
"Keep me posted, Harry," Pearce reminded him before she hung up.
Afterwards, Pearce looked at her assistant, Thomas Wright, who had a grin on his young face.
"That narrative Harry told us was amazing..." noted Wright his eyes shining brightly with admiration, "Miss Glenanne is certainly holding her own out there in the field!"
"True..." Pearce felt somehow proud as she sat taller, "and regarding her and Harry, at least we have two agents safe," then her smile faded, "but we still have an injured Sam Axe and a missing Michael Westen in the mix. "
"Yeah," Wright suddenly became solemn, "And also...where is The Butcher now, and who is in possession of that book?"
.
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In the afternoon, Fi found Sam sitting up in the 'living room' of the safehouse, which consisted of one long sofa. He was reading an old People magazine, his injured foot resting on a stool.
"Really?" Fi asked, looking at the cover, of the magazine "What kind of magazine is this?…and who are those people on the cover?" She took a closer look, "...this…Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?"
Her expression was a puzzled scowl.
That got Sam's attention as he now looked up at her, "Tell me you're kidding, Fi. You've never heard of those two? Have you been living under a rock?"
"No" shrugged Fi, "But they can't be known for their looks...they're fairly average looking people, if you ask me."
"Average looking? Just…never mind," Sam was too tired to make the effort.
Fi took a seat next to Sam. Despite Peppino attending to Sam's injuries, he still had a bedraggled look about him.
"Why the glum look?" Fi asked him, "You look like you've lost your best friend…but as you can see, I'm right in front of you…"
"That's why I'm looking glum."
"Funny, Sam…well, just to let you know, I am in a marvelous mood!"
"Uh-oh," responded Sam, "I don't like the sound of that! What could be going on in that dangerous head of yours?"
"Well, first, thank you for the compliment," Fi acknowledged, "anyway, it's just that I was in the tech room with Roberto, going over what little information they had on The Butcher and one thing that stuck out was that his mother actually resides in Tampa."
"And?" questioned Sam.
"And, I plan to do some snooping over there tonight. Maybe there is a clue as to The Butcher's whereabouts."
"Not without me, you aren't!" Sam stated firmly.
Fi looked doubtfully at him.
"Sam, you still have a temperature," she reminded him, "and don't forget about your leg. There's danger out there, too."
"Well, there's boredom in here, sister!" exclaimed Sam, "Look at me! I'm sitting here reading an outdated magazine about an unknown, plain- looking couple! I'm going crazy in this place already!"
"You going crazy? I guess you are getting back to normal, Sam," Fi jested, "But seriously, I think you need to stay and rest up."
"I plan to do that for the rest of the day," Sam said, "but tonight I am going to go prowling with you, no matter what! After all, somebody has to protect the bad guys from you!"
Fi grinned, "Why Sam, you are just full of compliments today, aren't you?"
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