10. Don't Say A Word
It wasn't surprising that his captor couldn't keep an eye on him constantly, but he had expected to be at least placed into a holding cell or something. Instead he received another babysitter, who was just as the rest of this bunch, intimidating and intense to be around. The only difference between his captor/the Boss was that this person seemed to be just a few years older than him. Fermat would rather pick someone his own age than that crazy man who was running this show like his own personal playground.
Still he found out quickly that his new guard dog was not of the chatty type and simply appeared to be annoyed to be assigned to watch him. The guy was dressed in plain dark clothes that were fit tightly around his well-muscled body. His light-brown hair was so short that it was almost a buzz-cut, meanwhile his dark eyelashes covered the sea-green eyes that stared at him with a penetrating gaze. The only other physical trait that stood out was the scar on his cheek that looked like an x or a small cross. Nonetheless Fermat was stuck in the same room as before only with a guy who probably could kill him and make sure no one ever found his body ever again. And even though every part of his body told him to just sit there and stay quiet, but his curiosity got the best of him. So he asked with slightly awe, "W-what is your n-name?"
The guy snorted and didn't reply at first, just like Fermat expected, but the guy must have found him staring at him with curious eyes annoying so he finally answered reluctantly, "Blaze."
Then he moved his gaze away like he was ashamed or something, but if that was the case Fermat wondered what it could be that made him feel so ashamed about his name, unless it wasn't really his name. From what he had heard Vinnie and the Boss had called Alan by the nickname Ghost, though he didn't know the reason why he was almost certain that this guy too had the same deal, a nickname that meant or were associated with something and were commonly used around this place.
"B-but that's not your r-real name, is it?" He felt bad for him, assuming that he must have experienced the same as Alan. Blaze looked honestly shocked that he managed to figure out that fact and appeared to be debating with himself whether he should just act on it or try and keep quiet, but in the end it had rattled him too much so he said frustrated, "How do you know that? You are just a prisoner here, a nobody that is never going to return back home, so how can you know that when you don't even know me?"
Fermat sighed, pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose and said, "I figured it out when your boss and Vinnie was talking earlier about my friend, who I know is doing his best to come and get me back."
"Oh, really," Blaze folded his arms and smirked with confidence. "And who is this supposed friend of yours that my boss and Vinnie would talk about and who apparently works for them?"
Fermat grew insecure whether it was a smart idea to tell him about Alan or not, but he was almost certain that this guy would know him and who know maybe revealing the truth might work for his benefit. So he answered quietly, "Alan or w-what your b-boss and Vinnie c-called him, Ghost."
Hearing that name obviously caught Blaze off guard, seeing as he leaned against the wall with a broken expression on his face like someone had died or something. He covered his mouth with his hand and shook his head in disbelief. Fermat felt instantly bad for saying something since it had obviously caused him some distress and immediately apologized for his words, but somehow his apology brought Blaze out of his distress as he uncovered his mouth and asked, "He's still alive? And he is coming back here because of you?"
Fermat nodded. That horrible feeling in his stomach grew bigger over being reminded what exactly Alan was doing and what he was giving up in the process just for his sake. He was glad to know that he and the friendship they had was worth a lot to Alan, but it devastated him that it would ultimately lead to his doom once everything was over.
Either way Blaze looked vivid after getting that piece of information as he sneered angrily to himself, "How stupid can he be? It wasn't enough that he didn't do what he was told before that would ultimately result him being heavily punished. But now after finally getting an apparent clean break he decides to come back just to save his friend."
Then he shook his head and honestly appeared to have lost all sense of rationality before he just stopped and sighed heavily. Fermat asked what was the matter and received the most serious and desperate gaze he had ever seen his entire life.
"Alan is already getting himself way too deep into this and by returning to our world is going to destroy every chance he had in having a safe and ordinary life ever again, and not because of what the feds or the government in general is going to do with him if they managed to catch, but because of what Boss and Vinnie is going to do as well as the person he is going to meet in order to locate our current location. Trust me when I tell you that she holds a great grudge towards him since those two were close back in the day and he just disappeared on her. So I'm worried if our common friend will get here alive once he's been through her," Blaze explained before he completely shut down and ignored him again, but that was fine by Fermat since his worry over Alan's well being increased to a whole other level.
The FBI agents had already started trying to track down and capture Alan Shepard by using roadblocks, wanted posters and the media. Nothing had currently given them any information of Alan and Virgil's current location, but it was expected it would take some time until someone would notice the two boys. Meanwhile Lady Penelope and Parker were in the meeting room, watching closely at the interrogation video, both figured out very quickly that the two agents that was leading the show had already decided he was guilty despite the fact that there wasn't much that tied him to the kidnapping of Fermat. Agent Farrell and Agent Emerson had proved his innocence on that charge since they had found several reliable eye witnesses from the beach as well as his apartment manager that confirmed his alibi that he wasn't near the academy or his apartment afterwards in the time period of the kidnapping. Also his cellphone pinged at the same tower, which was located in the opposite direction of the school, during the timeline of the kidnapping. And there wasn't anything that proved that he had paid off the kidnapping, so it was literally impossible for him to have committed the kidnapping. Still that didn't mean that the rest of his charges disappeared. He had still escaped the feds custody and taken upon himself and kidnapped Virgil, so he was definitely not off the hook.
Anyways what intrigued Lady Penelope and Parker was the minutes after the interrogation was over and Alan was left alone in the room. It had not taken long before he retrieve whatever he had hid underneath his blond hair and used it to pick the lock on the handcuffs.
"Did you teach him to pick locks?" Lady Penelope asked Jem Cassidy with politeness and with authority that told everyone that it was no use trying to deny or lie to her. Jem shook his head and replied with hint of annoyance in his voice, "No. I never brought my handcuffs home and I would never teach him how to do it either since he was already a troublemaker enough, why put more flare into the flame?"
"And never taught him to use a gun either I assume?" Penelope continued and Jem remained strong and firm in response as he shared that he never did that either. She nodded and accepted the answer before she quickly moved her gaze to Parker, who looked closely at Alan picking the locks and appeared quite awed and familiar with the picture like he had seen this before. So she asked straight forward, "Have you seen this before?"
"Yes, milady," Parker answered without removing his gaze away from the screen. "The technique as well as the method the young man is using is similar to an old rival of mine from my old trade."
Parker's life before he was hired into Lady Penelope's staff was rather different and unassuming when people first learned about his former profession. He is a reformed criminal, one of the best he liked to add, who used to rob banks and among other things as well. Among his line of expertise, he was quite adept in picking locks and cracking safes, so it was no surprising that he recognized the method the young Shepard had used.
When the agents heard what he had just said they all asked what exactly was his old trade and who this rival was, obvious and understandingly questions, but he wasn't about to reveal his old past to the American government as well as two strangers. Both parties had no need knowing about it and he preferred to keep it at that. So he said, "I believe the young man have been apprenticed by him, but I need to talk with him to confirm it."
Penelope agreed and ordered Parker to leave immediately to find his old rival, which he did without question. Once he was gone she noticed that the two Cassidy siblings looked unnaturally worried, and even though Jeff and the others explained to her how they were helping them out with reluctance since their main priority was to protect Alan and bring him home, and she had a good feeling that they knew more than what they were letting on. But for the sake of their adoptive brother they decided to keep quiet, she hoped she could have a word with them in private and possibly gain their trust in order to get the information they were sitting on. However it wasn't meant to be at the moment, seeing as she was currently occupied with another security camera tape on what happened downstairs when Alan grabbed Virgil. Still she was determined that sooner or later she was going to get into the bottom of this and once again reunite the Tracy family. They have already been through enough and she wasn't about to bring another unfortunate event on their hands.
The drive towards New York was going surprisingly light well, despite the weird circumstances with his and Virgil's acquaintance. Sure, it was possible that it was a false sense of security, but honestly Alan preferred it more than having ill feelings between him and Virgil, even though he did kidnap the man in order to escape and not to actually take him.
Virgil was looking around in the backseat like he was searching for something before he asked curtly, "Where is my wallet? And my phone and my wrist watch?"
Of course he would have noticed that his personal affects were removed from him, but Alan couldn't take any chances right now that the feds wouldn't find them before they reached New York and though he planned on dropping Virgil off somewhere in the big city.
"I removed as a precaution," Alan responded lightly, trying to convince Virgil that he didn't feel to bad about taking his stuff. Though he had a past of being a thief, there was something about Virgil that made him feel terrible for taking his belongings, but he couldn't figure out what exactly. Either way Virgil glared at him and said, "I can get why you removed my wallet and my phone, but my watch, really?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Do you really think I didn't know that your watch is a telecommunicator of some sort? I saw Fermat use it to call up your brother…John, I think his name was, and asked for help. And I can take the chance of you calling the feds right now while we are on the road."
"What about the fact that you promised my father that you were going to let me go once we were far away from the federal building, because frankly I'm not in the mood to go on a road trip with my kidnapper," Virgil said snarky.
Alan held back the urge to roll his eyes over that comment before he sighed and maturely answered the comment, "You want me to drop you off here in the middle of nowhere? Seriously, the chances of you encountering suspicious people on the road are too big and most likely end up being mugged and punched to a plump. And I can't have that on my conscience."
"But you can have kidnapping on your conscience," Virgil said bluntly. "And by the way, do you think I'm some kind of weakling? I have served the military, so I know how to fight and defend myself."
Alan couldn't help but snort over his response. He didn't doubt for a second that he couldn't defend himself and he could see that a mile away that he had military discipline thoroughly incorporated into his body.
"I don't doubt that, but honestly you would be a target nevertheless since you stand out like a fish on land. Besides I promised your dad that I would keep you safe and unharmed until you were returned back to them, and I have every intention to fulfill my promise, but I would rather let you go somewhere I know was safe than somewhere in the middle of nowhere," He explained seriously, hoping that Virgil actually saw his reasoning and didn't make a big deal about it.
Virgil was quiet for a moment, appeared to be almost surprised and awed by his response, which Alan didn't really understand what was the big deal, but then Virgil asked quietly, "Why? Why do you care about what happens to me? You don't really know me."
"And you don't know me," Alan pointed out. "And I care because…"
Honestly, he didn't know why he cared. There was something that pulled him to Virgil, made him want to protect and care about him, which didn't make any sense at all. He liked the older man well enough, if you overlook the whole kidnapping thing, but that didn't mean he should feel something like that from some stranger he had just 'met' and forced into their current situation. But the truth was that he indeed felt strongly about this and couldn't really answer him, so instead he changed the subject and simply stated, "Look, let's just drive to New York without a hitch. Once we are there we'll part our ways and hopefully we never have to see each other again, good?"
Virgil growled an untranslatable response, which he took as a form of agreement to his notion, and then returned his focus back on the darkening road in front of him, even though his mind was still lingering on his troubled past and how he was supposed to fix everything.
It really didn't come as a surprise to him that the feds found out about the mystery to Alan's origins, no matter what anyone assumed it really wasn't a national guarded secret, but he didn't think that out of the four federal agents working the case it would be Agent Farrell who would find out and confront him about it. At least not that quickly since he had just filled up his mug with coffee for third time just this last hour when the woman walked up to him. He had been about to make some smartass comment, but was almost immediately interrupted with her exclaiming, "Were you ever going to tell us that Alan was adopted four years ago and that there are no information on him before he came into your custody?"
Jem had been caught of guard, that he would admit and how impressed he was over how quick and blunt she was, but he wasn't about to make her job easier for her since she was most likely going to use it against Alan. So he responded with a light and cocky attitude, "Gee, I don't know, maybe its because it was none of your guys' business and as I told you earlier neither I or my sister have any intention in helping you in gathering dirt on Alan, especially since you are doing such fine job on your own."
"He is a criminal, kidnapped somebody to escape custody!" Agent Farrell pointed out. "Sorry if I don't take the time to work on finding the list of Alan's good deeds."
Jem snorted, "So what is it you want to yell to me about? What exactly do you want to know?"
Agent Farrell glared at him and placed her hands on her hips and asked bluntly, "Who was Alan before he came to live with you? What caused him to become the person he is now?"
Her question was definitely not something he wanted to answer, so he shrugged his shoulders and replied, "It's a bloody mystery to me."
"Don't lie to me," She looked at him with dark eyes, which almost scared the mind out of him. "You know it, don't you?"
He didn't say anything this time, but it was obvious that she had taken his silence as confirmation to her question. So she sighed and said tiredly, "The only thing I found out about him before he came into your care was that Alan was admitted to the hospital. Will you tell me what he was in for?"
He shook his head; once again he didn't want to give them the explanation that Alan had or have amnesia and was only now starting to remember his horrible past. It was hard enough for him and Haley to know the truth and how it affected Alan, but should the feds and the Tracys learn about this then he feared a disaster would happen. So he answered, "Sorry, but honestly don't want to tell you. And if you wish to look into his medical files then you got to either have my consent, which I'm not giving, or you get a warrant."
Once again she glared at him hard, murmuring something about making her job a lot harder than it was worth, but nevertheless she walked away and pulled out her phone to call to get a warrant, leaving him alone with his concern over how long he was able to keep things as secret as they were now.
The usual noise of cheers and happy cries was coming the other room, which was more than disturbing, but it was still quiet enough for her to accept the phone call that had been buzzing for hours. She knew who it was and it annoyed her to no end how he didn't understand that she was busy working, but she also knew that he wouldn't stop until she accepted the call. And besides it could be worse, he might decide to come down personally to talk to her, something she was definitely not interested in since she rather have as little contact with him as possible. So she ran an annoyed hand through her dark hair and answered the phone, "What do you want?"
"Nice to hear your wonderful voice too, Temptress," Vinnie chuckled. "Didn't think you would miss me after so long."
She wanted nothing more to end this conversation, so she hissed into the phone, "What is it that you want? I have to get back to work."
"Fine," Vinnie said sort of hurt, but she couldn't care less. "The Boss thought you should know that the Ghost is on his way to you."
Hearing that name made her almost drop the phone to the ground, but somehow managed to catch herself. It has been so long since she had heard that name and different feelings were coursing through her like an uncontrollable train like worry, care, hurt, affection and most apparent anger. A lot of things happened four years ago, but that didn't make it any easier now.
"Why?" she asked once she was over the initial shock over the news. "Why come back after all this time?"
Vinnie didn't give her any clear answer, not that he ever did whenever it came to orders from the big boss himself, but he only said, "Because you are the clue to get him to come back to us."
An indirect answer again, which really frustrated her, but if what he was saying was true then she was going to get her answers once Alan showed up at her door. It would mean that she could finally deal with all of these unresolved emotions and finally move on from that place, but she was almost certain that her reunion with Alan was going to be anything but pleasant. At least at first that is. So she sighed heavily before she asked for the directions Vinnie was supposed to give her from the boss as well as any back up plan they may have in store. The conversation lasted just for a couple of minutes before she hung up and returned back to work. However now she had exactly a plan in mind to welcome her old friend and co-worker, and it was going to be grand that was for sure.
Jeff wasn't certain what to think about the whole situation, even though they were not supposed to be working actively to help the FBI with their job regarding the return of Virgil and Fermat, they did it no matter what they were told or ordered to do. Mostly it was fine, but Scott was still angry with him, obviously blaming him for letting Alan take Virgil, but he didn't try and defend his actions to his oldest son because honestly even he didn't understand why he had allowed it to happen. And he was pretty sure that no matter what answer he gave him wouldn't justify or sooth his son the slightest anyway.
He was standing in the background, watching Scott attempting to talk to the younger Cassidy sibling, Haley he believed her name was, who was desperately trying to keep him at an arm length. He found the action odd, seeing as he remembered that his oldest was once in a relationship with her but broke up for some reason Scott hadn't been willing to share. He moved his gaze to look at Brains, John and Gordon, attempting to try and track Virgil down through his wristwatch, but was not having much luck. Most likely that Alan figured out about the device and turned it off.
Then he turned his eyes on the other Cassidy sibling, the one who was Scott's friend, though he wasn't sure if their friendship were on a pause at the moment to do the difficult circumstance that was currently happening. Nevertheless he looked deep in thought and Jeff was almost certain that he knew more than he showed, but he had no evidence to confront him about it yet so it was no good idea to talk to him about it since he probably wouldn't talk.
He was completely lost in thought that he didn't notice at first that Penny was trying to get his attention until she was calling his name over and over. When he snapped out of it he turned to look at his friend and asked, "What is it, Penny? Have you found something interesting?"
"I have indeed found something, pretty interesting and peculiar if I may say so myself," She replied with the strong and polite voice that she always used whenever she was deeply focused the job. She waved her hand, signaling him to come to her side and look at the computer in front of her. He complied silently and walked up to her side and looked down at the screen. It was the interrogation tape, but he couldn't honestly understand what she found fascinating about it especially since there was no sound.
"What?" Jeff asked, turned his head to look at her with a questionable face. "What am I supposed to look at?"
She pointed with her nicely manicured finger at the timestamp and said, "Look at the time."
Then she sped up the video, and during that period he watched closely at the time when he too noticed something strange about the video.
"It's missing a couple of minutes," He stated shocked. There was missing five minutes between when the interrogation ended and till Alan began picking his handcuffs. It was strange that no one had noticed that before.
"Exactly, and I think I know why," Penelope explained. "The sound and picture is kind of blurry during those five minutes, probably due to some kind of jammer, but we can clearly see the frame of someone else enter the room to talk to him."
Again he hadn't noticed before, but there was indeed a large frame of a person entering and talking to the young man before he left shortly after that. And from what he could gather from Alan's facial expression the boy wasn't happy to see who it was either.
"You think this stranger has something to do with this?" Jeff asked, which Penelope confirmed by nodding her head and answered, "Yes, I do. Now we only have to find out who this person was and then we can get somewhere."
Jeff agreed to her notion and requested that she allowed Brains to look at it. If there was anyone who could make miracles happens with a computer then it was Brains. Penelope had no issues about his request and immediately called for Brains assistance on the matter, leaving him alone looking at the computer screen. He wasn't sure what it was, but he felt an ominous feeling about this stranger and his involvement in this whole charade, which is why he could only hope that his feelings were wrong.
This was starting to get ridiculous, Virgil thought to himself as Alan slowed down the car once he saw the roadblocks with police officers stopped to check everyone out, which he assumed was because they were out to look for them. In the normal sense this was good thing, but being on the other end meant that Alan had to do something or else they were going to get caught. And what Alan suggested was far as rational and sensible as you could get, hence the ridiculous part.
Alan thought out an act that would get them pass the cops, which could have worked if he had been alone in the car, but unfortunately for both of them that he was in the car and frankly wasn't going to help his kidnapper out.
"Come on," Alan said with that annoying begging sound that he had heard so many times from Gordon growing up. "It is simple. You don't have to say or do anything, just look the part and then we are good to go."
Defiantly, he shook his head and answered, "I'm not helping you get away from the cops. No way. Do it yourself since it is your fault that I'm involved in this."
Alan responded by letting out an exasperated sigh, "Look, it is either do as I say or I knock you out again. Which is it?"
Neither of those two alternatives sounded good to him, but he rather be in control and know what was going on than laying in the backseat unconscious for heaven knows how long. So he gave in and grumbled an annoyed reply. It was frustrating how he easily fell into the command of a wayward teenager. Alan on the other hand grinned happily before he began using one free hand to search for something in front of the car. Meanwhile Virgil began making his disguise, which consisted in a black cap that covered his brown hair entirely, when Alan finally found what he was looking for he stopped the car for a moment and covered the front view mirror to do something. Virgil noticed that the kid fixed his hair, making it messier and more tangled than it already was. Once he was done he started the car again and he leaned in to see what exactly he had done and he was definitely taken by surprise when what he had doing. If he ever mistaken the young teen for having feminine traits before and looking like his dead mother, well he wasn't mistaken now when the kid wore makeup on around his eyes and lips. It was freakishly amazing and scaring to see how much Alan looked like a woman, that is why he said shocked, "Oh my God."
"Please don't say a word," Alan said exasperated. Probably because he was embarrassed and most likely felt ashamed to have to use his one frequent disadvantage that everyone mistook him for being a girl to his advantage now. "Let's get this over with. And you will shut up about this and keep it that way till you are underneath a tombstone. Got it?"
Virgil nodded, though he wasn't sure how much he could promise to stay quiet about the fact that his kidnapper had gone as far as cross-dressing to escape the government in his quest, but nevertheless they drove till they were stopped by the cops. One officer walked up to the driver seat window and said monotony, "License and registration?"
How Alan was supposed to pull that off was a mystery to him, but he let the kid run the show and see how far he would get with his antics.
"Sorry, officer," Alan said with a charming grin and surprisingly a light female voice, though it still sounded a little fake considering the circumstances. "I was just driving my brother, Gus, here home since he have been drinking."
Then Alan began his elaborate and detailed how he ended up driving without his license and registration, and honestly he couldn't believe that the officer didn't find this whole thing strange since he actually looked like he believed this act that Alan was selling. Virgil grunted over being called 'Gus' and was annoyed that he was being ignored like he was a piece of wallpaper, but then again the officer probably liked what he saw with Alan as disturbing as that was.
After what seemed like hours the officer let them through and even gave Alan his number and asked him to call him later, which Alan gave him a fake and strained smile to before he hit the gas pedal and drove as fast as he could away from the scene. Then when they were out of the police's eyeshot Alan let out a relived breath and mumbled something that sounded like, "I can't believe that actually worked."
Virgil gave him a glare that literally said 'really' and Alan just awkwardly smiled back at him. He removed the hat from his head and afterwards trying to brush it into a maintained hairstyle when he grumbled, "Why did you call me Gus anyways?"
Alan stared at him through the front mirror before he tilted his head and answered, "It is your name, isn't it?"
"What?" Virgil looked peculiar at him. "No! Why would you think that?"
The kid gave him a conceited smile and replied, "Your license stated your full name was Virgil Grissom Tracy, and I distinctively remember reading about the astronaut you were named after had the nickname, Gus, based on his last name."
He wasn't sure how to make out of this kid. Seriously, he wasn't sure whether he should be amazed or worried that the kid knew that he was named after one of the Mercury 7 astronauts or the fact that he actually read about astronauts in the first place, because frankly he really didn't seem like the bookworm-reading-type. But then again looks can be deceiving, which Alan making a point on.
They continued to bicker back and forth about the whole thing with the cops and it was only pure luck that it actually worked in the first place, Alan didn't necessary disagree about that fact, but it had also been more than luck that the cop hadn't realized that he had been flirting and given his number to teenage boy instead of a hot chick. The kid just shuddered by the thought what had happened back there and it was clear as day that it made him more than uncomfortable, which is why Virgil used it for what it was worth and teased him about it like if he had been with one of his brothers.
Anyways they continued driving on their path to New York City, both not knowing what to expect or face once they arrived to the Big Apple.
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Thanks again for the response I have been receiving, hope you guys like this chapter.
So since school has already started I can't promise when or how often I will be updating on this story, but I will continue it and write on it during the few moments I have time to spare and write.
And as for those of you who reads my other TB story, Whispers In The Dark, I will be trying to weekly update the story on Mondays, but again I can't promise I will always be on time since I will be busy.
With that said, please please please continue giving me reviews, favorite and/or followings, and the next chapter will be out as soon as its done.
xXrebelgirl07Xx