Author's Note: Because I will be leaving the country on Friday and won't have much access to internet, this will be the last posting of this story until around New Year's Day. I hope everyone has a great holiday! Thanks!
Booth stepped into the café and quickly scanned the room for any familiar faces. For midday, the café was unusually quiet; Martha, the waitress, a young couple, and a mother with two kids were the only ones in the café. Booth sat down at a small table and pulled out his cell phone. The phrase' 4 Missed Calls' made Booth feel guilty. He had been gone for twenty five minutes and he could only assume it to be from Brennan. She was probably worried sick about him….
"Seeley," he heard come from behind him. Private George Yale was standing behind him, a tired expression hiding behind a grin. Booth extended his hand out to him and said, "Yale, how have you been? I got your message."
"Yeah," the man grunted, taking a seat at small table next to them. "I heard on the news about what had happened to Galeston and…he was a good guy."
"Yeah, I know. Wait, what was so important? You said that there was an emergency!"
"Yeah," Yale sighed and waved over a waitress. After ordering two beers, Yale continued, "I think whoever that son of a bitch who called you is, tried to kill me last night."
"What?" Booth exclaimed, nearly drawing everyone in the diner's attention. "What the hell does this guy want? We did what we were told to do- all for the greater good. Plus, barely anyone knows about Operation Delta Fly. It was on a need-to-know basis!"
"I don't know, Seeley. Bastard tried to jump me while walking home. He almost got me too, but a couple walked past and he disappeared- damn near vanished, really."
"We got to figure this out and I can't tell you everything, but George, he knows everything about Delta Fly. He even knows about what happened at the school." It was one of the things that never left him, one of the more destructive things he had seen overseas. There were many times where he wanted to talk to Brennan about it, but he feared that if she knew the truth…
"That sounds like a good solider gone bad." Yale took a sip of his beer before Booth blurted out, "Did we do the right thing?"
"We did exactly what we were supposed to do, Seeley."
"I know, but morally-did we do the right thing?"
Yale chuckled. "Marriage is screwing with your head. The man I had fought with wouldn't be doubting his decision."
"I was stupid then. I have a 12 year old, an infant, and a child on the way. I can't be irrational anymore." Booth took a gulp of his drink, his thoughts going back to Brennan and his children.
"I know that this might violate all that FBI rules and crap, but is there anyway I could take a listen? He's got to be high up to be or was with us when Delta Fly went down to be able to access that kind of information. Maybe I could recognize his voice."
"Alright, but we have to make it quick. The Bureau knows that this guy is interested in us, so we need to tread lightly." Booth placed four singles onto the table. He tried to stand up, but Yale grabbed his arm and sat him down.
"Seeley," he said in a low whisper, "If we find this guy, we're going to have to clean up this mess ourselves, you know."
"George, this isn't a spy movie. We arrest him and we're all in the clear."
"Seeley, this guy is pissed, nuts, and ready for revenge. Not even just that, this also goes into some high up national security crap that's going to come to light that some people don't want the nation to know about. This will get ugly."
"Well? Anything?" Angela demanded. Next to her, Sweets noticed Michael becoming more irritated at his mother's tone. He pulled the infant off of Angela's hip as Brennan answered, "No. He still didn't pick up."
"Ok, that's it. I'm going to find out what the hell Operation Delta- Fly is." She stormed into her office and pulled up Google on her computer known as the Angelatron.
"You're going to Google it?" Sweets asked.
"Hey, a girl's gotta start somewhere." She typed 'Operation Delta Fly' into the search bar and instantly pulled up only two sites. "That's really weird…..only two sites?"
"It's best we get a conspiracy expert on this," Sweets joked. Brennan gave him a confused look. "Who?"
"Hodgins." He turned and whispered to Michael, " Let's go find Daddy, huh?"
After Sweets found Hodgins, Angela pulled up the more professional looking site of the two. It had pictures on the main page; one had pictures of dead girls lying in a classroom. Brennan felt more sick to her stomach the more she looked at the pictures. Booth, please tell me you didn't do what I'm starting to think you did …..
"Umm….well, it says here that it took place in the July during Booth's stay-" Suddenly, the screen went blank. Angela tapped her keyboard twice nervously, praying that the screen would come back on. Brennan turned around and saw three FBI agents standing nearly the platform of the lab. One of them raised his hand and motioned for them to come to them. Hodgins' eyes widened in shock and excitement, "Obviously, someone doesn't want us to look into this! Let's go see what they are covering."
Hodgins stepped out of the office with a smug expression. "Can I help you boys?"
One of the agents glared at Hodgins while the other two marched past him and into Angela's office. Seconds later, Angela, Sweets, and Brennan were being escorted out of the office and taken to the platform. Cam stepped out of the office with Michael on one side of her hip and Madeline on the other. As soon as she saw the agents, she quickly stepped back into her office, nearly unnoticed.
"My name is Agent Browning. I ordered your computer to be hacked and shut down as soon as you started to search for Operation Delta-Fly."
Angela put her hands on the platform table and asked in a sweet, yet anger filled tone. "Why exactly is that, may I ask?"
"National security."
Hodgins burst out into laughter, saying, "That's the best you have? Oldest trick in the book."
"I'm only going to say this once: You all are to cease and desist on any searches on Operation Delta Fly," Agent Browning barked, " Any further investigations and you will all go to jail. That's an order."
"So what are we supposed to do? Sit here and wait for the caller to find us and kill us?" Hodgins exclaimed, earning a light nudge from Cam.
"We will catch this man, but as civilians the best that you can do is work on the skeletons that were dumped?"
"Skeletons?" Brennan stood up and thought, What? We haven't even finished the first one yet!
"Yes, another skeleton was discovered was found along with another dead civilian."