Chapter XV

Olivia was waiting for Astrid as she pulled her car into the FBI parking structure. Astrid saw that she watched her, as she shut off her engine, and obligingly kicked her door open for conversing as she gathered her things, cramming them into her bag, "Where are we going, Olivia," she muttered as Olivia smiled, leaning over to rest her elbow on the doorframe as she stooped to look in.

"license and registration, ma'am. Your car is a mess."

"I haven't exactly had time to clean it," Astrid replied, "So what's up? I know you're on to something, I've seen that kitty-cat grin before. Where's Charlie?"

"He got held up, some idiot that claims that his motorcycle was stolen at the opera house the night of Raze's murder. Did you know that little bastard was into narcotics' trading?" Olivia stepped back as Astrid emerged, flinging her scarf over her shoulder and shutting the door of her Toyota.

"Kids, these days."

"I know, right? Anyways, we've got to take a little trip over to a club of his. Seems that not only did he design the system for the FBI, he traded information, as well. To the government, I mean," Olivia stepped into the elevator with Astrid, and took the liberty of selecting the ground floor, where she had her car waiting, "He had a bodyguard, some guy named Edgar. Edgar did all of the dealings with the authorities, and was very appraised of the goings-on of our little vampire boy."

"Vampire?" Astrid questioned.

"What would you call him?"

"A freak, maybe. But go on. Edgars' got something to tell us…?"

"Yes. He said he can help us out, now that Raze is gone. He said something about obligations he had to Raze, something like that. He said he'll meet us at a club called 'Glass'. Ever heard of it?" Olivia lead the way as the elevator opened to the bright morning sunshine.

"There could be a dozen clubs in Massachusetts with that name," Astrid said flatly, "They've all got fruity names, like that."

"This one won't be too terribly hard to find. It's in the FBI's 'blind spot', if you will," Olivia explained as she chirruped the alarm, opening the driver's door of the loner cruiser, "It's a selection of shady businesses that we purposely avoid cracking down on, so we can use them to funnel information."

"Did you get the cruiser with the good heater?" Astrid asked as she got in.

"Yeah. But the more I look at this, the weirder it seems," Olivia said frankly, stilling in her motions of starting the engine to turn to Astrid, "I mean, Raze was a criminal. And the system has no record of him being a squealer, nor does he seem to be the type to be ignorant of Edgar's spying. Which can only lead me to conclude that Raze knew just how big his leak was, but had no intention of stopping it. Why?"

Astrid considered, "Maybe… he knew that he was being left alone simply because of the information his organization gathered, and didn't want to make the mistake of taking a fall simply to plug a tiny trickle of petty goings-ons."

"More gain that loss. Simple economics. But wouldn't taking Raze down mean ending half of the crap that goes down anyways?"

Astrid shrugged, "He had to have had a stronger support line than just helping the G-men and having a rich family, then."

xXx

Walter lay on his side, his arms circling his middle, "I feel sick again, Peter," he murmured.

"You've got to try to keep something on your stomach," Peter replied, "just try to think about something else."

"Regardless of my alternate thought patterns, I still feel sick," Walter answered, squeezing his interlaced hands between his knees in distress, "I don't like waiting. It makes me sick."

"It's only been a week, Walter. You've got to try, you can't keep loosing weight like this," Peter typed away on the laptop, watching his father's curled form on the bed. It had taken him two days to gather the energy to view over the files they had apprehended, and they had switched hotels again, "hey. Is there something you want? Anything you want to eat, that might stay?"

Walter shook his head. He looked up at Peter, his eyes glassy, "…I'm scared, Peter."

Peter shut the laptop with a sigh, rubbing his eyes, "Don't be scared, Walter. Tomorrow, this'll all be over. We can disappear. We won't have to do this anymore."

"But that's just it," Walter said softly, tracing the pattern on the bedspread with his fingertip, "If we're running or planning or doing something, I'm fine. But tomorrow, it ends, and there'll be no more of it. We're just waiting." he shivered slightly.

Peter smirked, "You're sorry it's over?" he asked.

"No. Well, maybe. But this just ends it, and nothing can go back… I guess I was just hoping that they would catch us, even if… is that terrible?"

"Nah. You should always root for the good guys," Peter replied, standing and dusting the front of his jeans, "Come on, get up. Let's catch a movie, shall we?"

"But we can't go out," Walter said, bewildered, "We're criminals, Peter."

"Yep. Now let's go do what criminals do; spend a ridiculous amount of money on everything we don't need," he offered Walter his hand with a smile, "trust me, I know."

Walter frowned up at him, "You're asking me to go shopping with you, boy?"

"Yeah. We'll get our nails done and everything, it'll be delirious. Up."

Walter took Peter's hand, sitting up, "What are we going to buy, if I feel like regurgitating everything ?"

"To whatever degree of our budget goes into your stomach, I'd say anything you could ever possibly want," Peter answered, pulling on his own coat, "You still wanted that pocket watch, right?"

"Throw me my coat, boy. I'll race you to the car."

xXx

Neither of them spoke. Both of their minds were racing, in the silence, on two entirely different levels. Olivia thought of how careful she would have to be, with this. Astrid was cynical of who they told about what they had just learned, "We can't tell them about this Olivia," Astrid said at last, breaking the silence of the drive, "They'll kill them."

Olivia nodded. That had not been on her mind, but it made sense, "We'll get them ourselves. With this… it's like shooting fish in a barrel."

"I guess so."

The club Glass was closed. Apparently, it had been since Raze's death. A sickening sign of mourning in the form of a black wreath hung on the door, just above the 'condemned' sign. Olivia and Astrid ignored them both as they broke an entering into the vacant club.

They shivered in the chill as their breath fogged the air, and they looked back and fourth cautiously. At last, Olivia raised her voice, softly calling "Mr. Gregory?"

There was a faint shifting, and a huge man emerged from behind the long bar isle. A gun rested on the glossy surface of the counter, and his face was grim behind dark sunglasses, "Dunham?" he questioned gruffly.

Olivia smoothly popped the snap on her holster coolly, "That's me. You said you had something to tell us, Mr. Gregory?"

He nodded to Astrid, "Who's this?"

"Astrid Farnsworth. Her partner," Astrid replied calmly.

"Don't pull that normal cop crap. I'm not stupid. Raze knew about you- you're anything but normal, aren't you, Agent Dunham?" He lightly pushed the gun away from him, and it skidded away on the bar, "So you're after the Bishops."

"You said you knew something, Edgar. We know that you were Raze's leak, that you were working for us."

"I still do," Edgar agreed, "But I'm a little out of work, for now. I was Raze's confidant for a great many years, Dunham, and there was very little going on that I didn't know about. I knew about his disease, I knew about his connections, and I knew about how he designed the systems for both the FBI and Massive Dynamic. I probably knew more about him than anyone- did Peter Bishop know as much about you, agent Dunham?"

Olivia recoiled slightly, "Massive Dynamic? But the Bishops stole that information. If he had designed the system, why didn't he just get it himself?"

"Even if I knew a lot, there was still things I didn't know. The fate of Massive Dynamic and Nina Sharpe aren't my concern anymore. But… your boys killed Georges. Perhaps not directly, but they caused it. Raze knew that he was going to die, or he wouldn't have stepped out onto that stage that night. Something the Bishops did killed him," Edgar took a few steps to tower over Olivia, his expression lost behind his black frames, "and I want to know what it was."

A dark smirk curved Olivia's lips, "So this is revenge, Mr. Gregory?"

"Absolutely."

Astrid placed a hand on Olivia's shoulder, grinning up at the tall Edgar, "Then we're on the same boat, then. Tell us what you can, Edgar- we'll see to it that you get answers."

Olivia looked over at Astrid, complete shock on her face, "You have the address and time, right?"

Astrid, holding up the folded bit of napkin, "Why?"

"For the first time in my life, I've forgotten the numbers completely," Olivia frowned.

Astrid was silent for a few moments, "…Wishful thinking?" she mused at last.

"Maybe. I don't know."

xXx