I'm not updating all that often, I know. My mom has me doing revision... damn her. I hate physex.
Chapter Six
Nikki caught up with Don at the front doors, but he refused to look at her.
"Is it done?" He asked, curtly, and she nodded, feeling ashamed.
"I still don't see why we can't-"
"Yeah, and that's why I'm heading a department and you're not." He interrupted sharply, not caring that he was being unnecessarily harsh. Nikki shut up after that, but didn't hesitate to throw a nasty glance or two his way.
They drove to Don's apartment before speaking another word; the silence between them solid and impenetrable.
Nikki looked around herself, intrigued, as Don opened his door not bothering to hold it back for her, and threw his keys in the dish on the small wooden table near the door. So this was where he lived. It was small, and open plan, and a lot neater than she would have imagined. The only evidence that anyone lived there at all was the jeans hanging over the side of the brown leather couch and the slightly rumpled sheets on the bed.
She wondered briefly how he got from his sheets to his jeans in the morning, and was momentarily distracted by the image of her naked boss wandering across his apartment. Don jolted her from this image, too tired, confused and pissed off to care what she was day dreaming about. If only he knew...
"You can set up on the table." He picked up the jeans and wandered through to his bedroom, expression showing plainly that he had given up. On Ian, on Charlie, on everything. Nikki had only been working with him for a week or so, but she knew him well enough to know that he was uncharacteristically blue. And Don Eppes wasn't one to dance around with puppydogs and balloons.
"Sure." She answered, though she wasn't sure if he could hear her through the wall. Taking her shoulder bag off, she set it down on the table and extracted the laptop which she was carrying in it. "I still don't see why this is necessary."
"Shut up Betancourt and connect the damn thing up." Came the muffled reply, and she heard the faint sounds of his body moving around his room. She did as he said, her anger fluxuating; she couldn't decide if she was angry, sad or confused. Bouncing back and to between her emotions, she shivered his sudden presence behind her, the breeze of warmth from his body on her back not helping her indecisiveness. Glancing over her shoulder, she realized that he had changed his clothes, having worn the other ones for longer than was really sanitary. "Hurry up."
"Sure, boss, just give me a minute. I'm not -" She was going to say 'Charlie', but stopped herself just in time. "Really good with technology." He noticed her slip up, but did not show it. The fact that she went to the lengths of stopping herself was worth enough not to confront her about it.
The laptop beeped, alarmingly, and then its scripts ran across the screen. Concentrating hard, the tip of her tongue sticking out, Nikki typed into the command prompt, until the machine beeped again. Leaning back, looking relieved, she nodded towards the screen. Another window popped up, showing a media file. Don reached past his partner and pressed play, and both of them waited tersely.
"It's okay, Nik. You had no reason to trust me, not when I was acting the way I was." Edgerton's voice blared from the speakers, and Nikki adjusted the volume levels, but not before more rustling was heard, and the audible sound of a kiss. Don looked away, almost embarrassed. His partner didn't share his embarrassment. She looked disgusted. "I'll see you later though. Good luck." Both partners heard the sound of Ian pulling away from Nikki.
"You too. You'd better find Charlie."
"I will. Go now, Eppes isn't a patient man."
"Damn right he's not." The sound of Nikki's footsteps were heard, padding away, and becoming fainter. Only Edgerton's breathing was heard through the speakers.
"He watched you go before leaving. That's suspicious." Don said, breaking the silence. Nikki ignored him. She didn't want to believe that Ian had any malicious intent, even if it was so simple as she didn't want to believe that he had fooled her into believing that he was on their side. Don would either be right or be wrong. Her feelings in either instance would tear her apart.
More rustling, then footsteps. Still breathing. Through the busy office, and into the busy elevator. Someone's phone rang. Edgerton's breathing pattern did not change. Nikki leant back in her chair, curling her feet up onto it, seeking warmth. Her back was hurting again. The elevator dinged and more footsteps. Nothing. This wasn't Edgerton's stop. Closing her eyes, as if this may shelter her from her messed up emotions, Nikki hugged her knees and Don came subconsciously closer. He was staring at the screen hopefully. He would find out what was going on, even at the expense of being arrested for bugging the Agent in charge of Charlie's case.
The elevator made two more stops, putting Edgerton on one of the higher levels. Six or seven, at least. If not Executive.
"Is he going after David and Colby?" Don asked, rhetorically. Nikki didn't answer, as she usually did to his rhetorical questions.
Edgerton knocked on someone's door.
"Come in" was barely audible. Don reached over and adjusted the sound settings again, realizing that Nikki wasn't going to move from hugging her knees, eyes squeezed shut. "Have you done what I asked, Agent Edgerton?" The same voice. Then Ian's.
"Yes Assistant Director Easton. Everything that you asked." Don glanced down at his partner, noting the glazed look in her now open eyes, and rationalizing that he probably didn't look that different right now.
"And is Agent Betancourt going to be a problem?" Don considered placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, but rightly assumed that it was not welcome.
"No Sir, she believed me." Nikki choked a little, strangling on too much oxygen.
"Are you certain? I don't want a fuck up because you can't keep your feelings to yourself."
"Yes." There was a pause. "Yes I am sure. Is Eppes okay?" A look of confusion passed across both agents' eyes, thinking that they meant Don. The fuzzy static of the bug whispered tauntingly between raspy words.
"He will be returned to his family, as will Professor Rumanujan, when I feel that the time is right." Immediately, there was no reaction. Then, after a two second delay, Don grabbed the nearby chair and threw himself down in it, his legs giving way. Nikki was thankful that she was already sitting down.
"They're already looking into Assistant Director Wright-"
"That will be all, Agent Edgerton." Nikki squeezed shut her eyes again, wishing and hoping with everything that she had that Ian would disagree. That he was undercover and this was his big break. That this was all just a big fucked up misunderstanding.
"Yes Sir."
Apparently not.
Once Nikki stopped throwing up Don brought her coffee. It was cold but she drank it anyway, and was sick again. Eventually, when all the contents of her stomach - meager as they were - had been expelled, she sat with him at his kitchen table. The laptop was on mute, but the program was still running. The little green lines fluxuated sharply, and the manuscript wrote itself underneath. Neither agent read it. There would be time for that later. Now they had to make sense of the situation they found themselves in.
"I can't believe that..." Don trailed away, unsure of what he couldn't believe. That Ian was a dirty agent. That Assistant Director Easton was a dirty agent. That his boss had kidnapped his brother. All of these things, they were just the highlights. Nothing was making sense to him anymore. It was all just a giant knot of backstabbing and betrayal. Two of the two things he hated the most.
"Yeah, me neither." Nikki could. That was the ultimately destroying aspect. She could believe that this was happening. In some twisted sense, she knew it had been coming and when Don had asked her to bug her lover; she had only done it because she knew that there was something that he wasn't telling them. She just didn't know that it would be this bad. "Have you looked at Wright?" Don looked surprised, and then motioned at the computer indignantly.
"Did you not hear that? It was Easton. He wants Wright gone for some reason." He cried, louder than really necessary. The anger was beginning to surface, the situation playing through the first of his violent and unstable emotions. Nikki scoffed.
"Maybe, but if we look at Wright, we might find out why Easton wants Wright out of the picture. Plus, we can get David and Colby to trace the information that Edgerton's planted." She sassed her voice hard as nails again. She was almost hungry again, but knew that if she ate anything, she would throw up. Cleverly, she ignored the rapidly cooling coffee in front of her. Don nodded, slowly.
"Yeah, that makes sense."
"I wouldn't have said it if it didn't."
"Shut up Betancourt." He hissed, shoulders squared and muscles tensed. "Do your job." Growling and muttering rudely under her breath, Nikki pulled the laptop closer and glanced over the script.
"At least we know that Charlie and Amita aren't in danger anymore." Don shot her an incredulous glare.
"And how do you figure that?" He asked, voice still raised. "We still don't know where they are!"
"Easton's not stupid enough to kill them until we've 'arrested' AD Wright. Then, we would look too far into what we were doing. Which means that there's a good chance that he's planning to do more than arresting Wright." Nikki mumbled, musing to herself as much as she was talking to Don. She was making an odd kind of sense, he decided.
"He's planning a hit on Wright." Nikki nodded, grimly.
"If Wright looks dirty, no one will ask questions. They'll assume that it's one of his associates."
"Which he's probably going to frame for something else." He finished, surprised at the outlandish nature of their claims, while simultaneously suspicious at how perfectly they fitted. "But who?" Nikki shrugged.
"I ain't your eightball, baby. I'll search through Wright's life on the login account that Ian gave us - he's probably watching it. You call Colby; tell him to do the same. He'll be under surveillance too. Get David to go back into the office and apprised Liz of the situation Ian's constructed. Then, after she's left the building and been checked for bugs by security, tell them to come to us." She ordered, still staring at the laptop as she typed. Don raised one eyebrow.
"Yes boss." He said sarcastically.
"Deal with it." He rolled his eyes, and pulled out his phone, striding through to the bedroom to make his calls. The only reason that he wasn't angry was that he was busy. He was no longer concerned about Charlie and Amita's safety, for the time being. Ian would eventually lead them to the kidnapped mathematicians, maybe if with a little help from Larry and some of his CalSci students. Don knew that this was irrational. That he should be more worried. But now he was on the job. He was investigating a corrupt agent trying to instigate another agent to be corrupt, under the order of another more powerful corrupt agent. Shit. When this was all over, it would be a killer to explain in the paperwork.
"Agent Warner, I don't think I have to reiterate the seriousness of the situation which you now find yourself in." The thin, tall agent told her, in his nasal and frankly quite annoying tones. "You broke protocol, compromised the security of an investigation, and had intent to obstruct that investigation if we hadn't picked you up on it." Liz watched him coolly, having been on that end of the interrogation before. It was going to take a little more than some bureaucratic one-liner to scare her.
"You have no grounds in saying that I had intent to obstruct the investigation."
"But you do not deny that you compromised the security of the investigation and broke protocol."
"You broke protocol by watching me, and not letting Agent Eppes into the information of his brother's case." The man was clearly becoming angry now; at how little his best techniques were affecting her.
"And what if you had all of this information on Professor Eppes' case? What would you do with it?" Liz was silent. "You would have gone to check out the person who owns that license plate and compromised our investigation further."
"You have no proof of that." She said, quieter this time. She hated lying to the good guys. If that indeed was what they were.
"But I'm right, aren't I?" The man leaned forwards, and she noticed with a fair dose of disgust, the beads of sweat on his temple and the yellowy tinge to the whites of his eyes. He leered."You have a promising career, Agent Warner, which you only just pulled from the wreckage of your relationship with Agent Eppes. It is clear here that you are biased-"
"I'm not biased because I'm in love with my boss; I'm biased because those are my friends out there! Charlie and Amita, they are my friends. And since you don't seem to be doing much to get them back-"
"Are you insinuating that we are not working to our full potential to find Professors Eppes and Rumanujan?" The interrogator asked triumphantly, as if this was a great moment for him. It probably was, Liz thought, sourly. He probably loved squeezing useless confessions out of innocent people then grating down their souls. She wondered how long it would take the other agents outside the door to respond if she shot him.
"Fuck this." She muttered, pushing back her chair and pacing around the room, hands fisted in frustration. She hated Level Four clearance. "You're twisting my words."
"Are you insinuating-"
"I'm not insinuating bloody anything, I'm telling it how it is!" Liz shouted, shrilly. The smug smile on the man's face was so infuriating that she was compelled to look away. Otherwise she could say hello to a nice cozy cell at Pelican Bay Detention Centre. "Jesus."
Thankfully, (for the interrogator) someone chose to interrupt at this exact moment. Unfortunately (for Liz) this someone was Ian Edgerton. She rounded on him immediately.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, keeping me in here?" She asked; her voice still loud and shrill. A guard outside the door rubbed his ear painfully. Ian looked calm, despite the fact that he had just emptied the contents of his stomach a few minutes earlier, and was shaking like a leaf in the strong October wind. Still reeling from his actions.
"I have no grounds. Agent Prihoda: thank you for conducting this interview." He spoke fast, but calmly, and didn't break eye contact with Liz once. Agent Prihoda looked put off that he didn't get more credit, or a confession of the Kennedy Assassination, but accepted a 'thank you' instead. He walked away sourly, catching the cue for his departure.
As soon as he was gone, Ian motioned Liz to sit back down. When she didn't, he sighed and did, taking Prihoda's now empty seat.
"I think that you'd better sit down, Agent." Liz stared at him coldly, making clear that she had no intention of doing so. Ian banged his fist on the table, making clear that he meant business. The defiance in the female agent's eyes flickered. "Sit, Warner." She did so, reluctantly, but quickly.
"What do you mean by keeping me in here? You know my motives. You know what I was trying to do. So either charge me or let me go. There's no middle ground, as far as I'm concerned." She put forwards boldly, upon realizing that he was not going to say anything. There was something about his demeanor that she trusted, though at the same time something that she distrusted. Knowing that her emotions were a mess right now, she ignored all instinct and stuck to the blunt facts. She supposed they would get her where she needed to be in the end.
"I'm letting you go-" She stood up suddenly. "But," His voice was so authoritative that she sat back down again. "But first you need to listen to what I have to say."
"I've already had the 'share with the other kids' talk."
"That's good. Now we move onto the 'listening to your elders' talk." He shot back sarcastically, and she glared. "Now, as soon as you are released, I would like you to go talk to Don. He will tell you everything." Edgerton reached into his pocket and brought out a wad of papers. "You need to give him these." Liz picked them up.
"These are encrypted."
"Tell them that it's part of the transactions that prove Wright's guilt. From the archives; he can't reach them from there." Liz's brow knotted, her anger replaced by intrigue.
"Wright as in AD Wright?" She asked, appalled. "What's he guilty of?" Ian made a show of looking around himself, checking that no one was watching him, and shushed her.
"Shh. Don and Nikki will explain everything." He passed her phone, gun and other personal effects they had confiscated off of her over the metal table. "Just hurry up. We may not have much time." Unsure of her mission, her situation and herself, Liz raised herself off of the chair and backed away, pocketing all the items which he had given her.
"Edgerton?" He looked up from where he was staring at the desk. "Maybe I was wrong about you. I'm sorry." Her voice was curt, and he didn't blame her, but the apology made him feel sick again. It wasn't false, and that was enough to make an honest man guilty. And even though he was far from being an honest man, that empty feeling on the left side of his chest was still there, and more powerful than it had ever been.
Review for more chapters... I always wait until I have at least one review before submitting. I know one is a small number, but it's something at least. You can make it more if you all review.
