A/N: So after this chapter, I have two different ways this story could go. I have a longer, more elaborate version, or a shorter, quick solve version. I'd like it if you told me which one you'd like, if I don't get a decent amount of responses, I'm going to do the shorter version, so if you want the longer one, speak up! Tell me in a review or a pm, it doesn't matter, thanks! It's been a while, but here you go! Keep up the reviews and enjoy!
Chapter 11: Hide and Seek
Words couldn't describe how nervous Faber was as he paced back and forth in his confined office.
He had tried multiple times to contact Saunders, heck, anybody, that was in Mexico, and not a single person had responded.
Of course, there were several different reasons for which Saunders wouldn't call him back, but the one that Faber had on his mind was that something had gone terribly wrong.
Again.
He was now debating whether or not to head down to Mexico himself, as it seemed that all people he assigned to do so were just too incompetent for the job.
He had already killed one of his scientists, paranoid that they were leaking information, and now he was wary of his guards. Not even Faber could deny that the current situation he was in was driving him near insanity. He was in too deep. The FBI was never supposed to get involved. The other man was never supposed to be taken along with the Special Agent. She was never supposed to escape, and now, he feared that the other man had escaped as well.
There weren't many other practical explanations, and Faber found it easier to expect the worst, so that when it came, it wouldn't come across as too much of a shock and he wouldn't think irrationally.
Sinking into his large chair, Faber allows his head to roll back and sighs. Saying that things weren't going as planned would now be an understatement.
Disobeying orders from her superior wasn't initially part of Olivia's plan, but there was no way in hell that she would ever wait an extra day, already in Mexico, for Broyles to send another agent to accompany her. Especially after the whole fiasco with Saunders.
She had arrived in Mexico City without a problem, and had been expected to communicate with Mexican officials and explain a few things until another agent came to help.
She had briefed the officials, though maybe not as thoroughly as she should have, but immediately after, she had hopped on another plane to take her closer to the Yucatan Peninsula.
She was currently in a taxi, driving down a road that had seen better days. According to the driver, they were a mere ten minutes away from Peto.
Ten minutes felt like ten hours as she stared out the window, watching signs pass by. The cab driver, who had introduced himself as Henry, was a talkative guy and had explained that he was from the U.S., but had come down to Mexico to be closer to his wife's family. He seemed nice enough, and had made the three hour drive go by faster than it would have, but Olivia couldn't pay much attention to what he was saying as she was too stressed out.
"Hey." Henry said abruptly, breaking her out of her daze, looking at her through the rearview mirror, "You okay? You seem to have something on your mind."
Olivia shook her head slightly, a weary smile on her face, "You could say that. I just have a lot to think about right now I guess."
"Does it have to do with that, that weird FBI job you were telling me about?" he gestured with his hand to emphasize the "weird".
Olivia smiled slightly, "Yeah, it does. Almost everything I do now has to do with it."
"Well in that case," he said, the cab entering the outskirts of a small town, "I suppose it's a good thing we're here. Anywhere specific you wanted me to drop you off?"
Olivia hadn't really thought about this next part of her plan. She knew the girl appeared here, but there was no telling where she would be now, and Peter had told her to call him. "How about you just drive around the town for a while? I have to make a call."
"Sounds fine to me." Henry replied, turning onto a neighborhood road.
Peter had been walking around endlessly trying to find out where Brianna was. He had asked shopkeepers, residents, pedestrians, and even school kids if they had heard about a strange girl in the town, but he hadn't gotten a straight answer. He was pretty sure that people were now suspicious of him. That was when he decided to head back to where he had hidden the car, hoping to cover more ground with it.
Finally reaching the empty lot where the car was, Peter started to toss the tarp he had placed on the car off. Having sat for the better part of two hours in the sun, it was extremely hot, and he couldn't imagine how hot it would be inside the car. He was about to open all the doors to let the heat out when the phone he had rang.
A contact under the name of "Faber" had called multiple times over the course of the past day. Peter had ignored all those calls, not wanting to let the person, who clearly had something to do with the girl, know that Saunders didn't have his phone, but he really wanted to get some info on the guy.
He took out the phone, and was ready to respond to this Faber guy, only to find it was Olivia's number on the other end. Without hesitation he answered, "Hey, you here yet?"
"Yeah, I'm in a cab, and I'm pretty sure it's the first one the townspeople have seen in a while, I'm getting a lot of looks." she paused, "Anyway, I'm hard to miss."
"Okay, well I'm in an empty lot across the street from the school, think you can meet me here?"
"Yeah, I'll be there in a second, just don't do anything stupid within that second." Olivia replied, exasperated.
"Will do," Peter said sardonically, hanging up.
Saunders was certain at this point that Faber was at least aware that something had gone wrong, and he was now beginning to feel grateful that he had lost his phone along with everything else. Talking to Faber wouldn't help things in the least.
He was just reaching Peto, and was ready to collapse from exhaustion, but there was no way he could rest with everything falling apart.
He had contacted the rest of his team that was supposed to wait at the Mexican border to come down, and they would be here sometime today. For now he was on his own.
The narrow streets were fairly empty as he wound through them, not sure what he was looking for. Bishop might be here searching too, and with Bishop, came Dunham. He still didn't have a clue as to what happened to her, but his bets were on that she was still alive.
Saunders was approaching a local school on his right, when movement caught his eye to the left. Looking closely, he saw a man opening the doors to what could only be his car. "Bingo." he muttered to himself, parking the car at the side of the road.
Getting out of the car, he checked to see that he still had his gun in its holster. Satisfied, he crept up along the side of the building, and saw that he was right, just a hundred feet around the corner of the building Bishop was rifling through a duffle bag full of papers. There wouldn't be a better time to catch him off guard, Saunders knew there wasn't a weapon in the bag.
Taking a few steps from his hiding spot, Saunders raised his gun and aimed it at Peters head, "Game over, Bishop, put your hands on your head." he sneered.
Slowly, Peter rose from the ground, and brought his hands to his head with a grin on his face, "I've gotta hand it to you, I wasn't expecting you right then."
Ignoring Peters quip, Saunders continued, "Step away from the bag." he thundered.
Complying, Peter took a few slow steps in Saunders' direction, hoping for Olivia to come around any moment now, a cocky grin still plastered across his face, "So how you been? Can't say I'm surprised you managed to steal a car, though it won't help once you're in jail."
"Enough with the formal bull shit!" Saunders snapped, sick of Peters attitude, "Now get down on the ground before I kill you."
Remembering what Olivia said earlier about not doing anything stupid, Peter decided it was a good idea not to piss him off, "Yeah, yeah, getting down." he said casually, flattening himself on the ground, the rough gravel digging into his already bruised face.
Calming slightly when Peter was on the ground, he took a few steps toward him, gun still trained on his head, "Now don't-"
"...move or else I'll blow your brains out." Olivia finished for him, stepping out from behind the building, gun aimed at Saunders, "Freeze." she elaborated.
Saunders immediately froze, eyes closing in frustration, but he still kept the gun on Peter. Of course the worst possible thing would happen when he needed it least.
"Put the gun down. Now." Olivia continued, stepping closer to Saunders. There wasn't the slightest hint of hesitation in her voice.
Saunders couldn't let this happen. Couldn't. He was only a few steps from Peter, he might make it to him before Dunham could shoot him...
"Whatever you're thinking, I'll kill you before you do it, so put the gun down." Olivia said, her tone icy.
She was right, he wouldn't make it in time, but that didn't mean he would go down easy. He turned to face her, noticing a taxi in the street with the driver gawking at the situation unfolding before his eyes.
Slowly, he lowered the gun to the ground, all the while not breaking eye contact with Olivia. Rising to a standing position, he raised his hands above his head. He had yet to say a word.
"Now step away from Bishop," she commanded again. As Saunders stepped away from Peter, she finally acknowledged him, "Peter, stay down."
"Yes ma'am." Peter muttered sarcastically, lifting his head slightly to watch what was happening, the glare of the sun blinding him.
Olivia ignored Peter and turned to Saunders, who was now a good distance from Peter, "Okay, now slowly get down on the ground."
It was then that Saunders remembered that the rest of his team would come to meet him in Peto any day now, and with such a small town, they would most likely run into them. With the current situation, that was his best bet. With this new idea in his head, Saunders lowered himself to the ground.
The second his head touched the ground, Olivia approached him, taking out her handcuffs. Peter took the liberty to stand up and dust himself off as she cuffed Saunders' hands behind his back.
"You had pretty good timing there, Dunham." Peter said jokingly, watching Olivia get Saunders up from the ground and into the back seat of the car. "You might want to wait before you leave him in there, it's like an oven in there."
"Good." she replied, slamming all four of the doors shut on him, "You have the keys?"
Amused, Peter couldn't say he minded Saunders baking in the car, so he just let it be, "Yep, you okay?" he asked, noticing her impatience.
"Fine, besides I should be asking you that. Did Saunders do anything to you?" she said, deflecting his question.
Peter decided to let it slide this time, "Nope, I'm all good, but I'd like to point out that we aren't alone." he pointed at the taxi in the road that hadn't moved since it arrived.
All this time and Olivia hadn't even noticed that Henry was still there, she hadn't even paid him yet. Running her hand through her hair, she walked over to the drivers' side, taking out her wallet. "Hey Henry, sorry about that, how much do I owe you?" she grinned, noticing his expression. He probably didn't know what to think about the situation.
"Uh, no, it's fine you don't have to pay, you did a good job out there. Besides, my shifts over and I only live fifteen minutes from here." he paused for a moment, debating over what he was about to say next, "You need a ride somewhere else or any help?"
"No, you've done enough Henry, thanks so much." Olivia replied gratefully. Then, taking out two hundred dollars, she handed it to him, "Here, you don't have a choice, so take it."
Taking the money, Henry smiled and shook his head, "Thanks, good luck Olivia." he started the cab as she backed away, then with a last look back, drove away down the road.
Peter was kneeling on the ground sifting through a duffel bag full of papers. Walking back, Olivia joined him on the ground, "Did you lock the car?"
"Yeah..." Peter said absently, intently reading a particular sheet of paper. Concern and darkness clouded over his eyes as he read, and the more he read, the grimmer his expression got. Finally he tossed it aside and tore through the rest of the bag looking for another paper.
Concerned, Olivia picked up the discarded paper, "What is it?" she asked, scanning her eyes across the words, looking for anything that would merit Peters reaction. She found it.
There, in the middle of the paper, were the words "Experimental Expectations: Olivia Dunham".
A/N: So what do you think? Review please! If you didn't read what I wrote in my first authors note, please do so, because it directly pertains to you! Incase your to lazy ;), I'll repeat myself, I have two ways to finish this story, a long way and a short way. Obviously the long way will be more elaborate, but I need you to tell me either in a review or pm which one you'd want. If I don't get enough replies, I'm going to do the short version, so you've been warned! Thanks for reading! :)