I want a aplogize for the long delay in posting this Chap. My old laptop, after six years and two combat tours finally gave up the ghost. May it Rest in Piece. It took me a while to afford a new puter and scavange the info from the old HDD, but now the story is back on track.
Thanks again to my longtime Betas Sentinel and CajunBear.
Also over the next few weeks, I am going to go back through the story and fix any errors and plot holes. Especally the ones from where FFnet messed up the formatting.
Chapter 29
Dreams
Sousuke was worried. More so about the presence of the two towering figures standing with the bastard than Leonard himself. Barring a very lucky shot to the visual sensors or some other critical area, not even the Rifle Squad had the fire power to stop them if Leonard gave the command to attack. The 5.56 mm rounds of the M16A2's just didn't have the stopping power needed to penetrate the built in armor. That's if they even had live ammunition. The magazines were probably loaded with the blanks for the service.
He very quietly, spoke to Kaname, "Kaname-chan? jū oka no toki ni!" ("Kaname-chan, 10 o'clock, on the hill.")
She looked in the direction and it took ever bit of her self control not to scream. Not in fear, but in rage! "Kore wa kuso yarō! Sousuke-kun?" ("That fucking bastard! Sousuke-kun?")
"Aruku to, kare wa soko ni sa re te i nai furi te kudasai." ("Keep walking, pretend he isn't there.")
"Tsugini nani wo shi tara ii no desu ka?" ("Then what do we do?")
"Umaku ike ba , dare mo tekitai teki na kōdō wo kaishi suru mae ni ofuni naru!" ("Hopefully get everyone clear before hostile action starts!")
By now Kim and Ron had started picking up something was wrong. Kim from the hushed and stressed tones and Ron from the bit of Japanese he had picked up.
"Uhh, guys, what's wrong?"
"Possible-san, Stoppable-san, do not react. On the hill. That's Leonard Testarossa."
Ron's eyes fluttered across the hillcrest like he was just looking around, noting the figure standing there. Kim laid her head on Ron's shoulder with her head slightly down but she looked upwards through her bangs.
They had both been briefed on the danger the tall young man represented and this was their first look at him. Kaname had told them how Leonard had, almost casually, ordered one of the machines to choke life out of the assassin Yu Lan, who had been sent to kill Kaname on the rooftops in Tokyo. He also tried on more then on occasion to kill Sousuke.
He was standing on the other side of the road where the cars were parked. And even from 75 meters, he had the look of an old world prince. They could see the haughty stance, the arrogant tilt of his head. You could just see that he thought he was better then anyone else by the way he stood there. For the first time, Kim wanted to unleash a selection of various styles of kung-fu on someone she hadn't met. Ron was a little more restrained because he had dealt with people like him before, on Bonnie's Food Chain. But even then, he knew there was something wrong with the guy.
As they continued walking to the car, Ron asked a surprising question, "How bad do we want him in jail?"
Sousuke said, "Mithral has a shoot-on-sight order out for him," That caused Kim to shiver and Ron to look over at Sagara for a second. "but I fear that if we act rashly, the Arastols will start to slaughter the people around us."
"Ok, so what do we do?"
Sousuke's mind was going through scenarios at a mile a minute. He knew there were times that you had to allow things to play out, even at the cost of 'collateral damage', but this one would have too high a price for too little return. They had to get the civilians and veterans clear before they could take action. He was still thinking when Ron asked a question.
"How tough are those machines? Think I could drop one with the Lotus Blade?"
Sousuke blinked. He hadn't thought of that. "The problem of innocent civilians still stands."
They continued to walk toward the car when Kim said. "How bout we stay behind as they leave. Ron could kinda say that he wants to wait for a while."
It was tempting, but the risk to innocents was too high. "No, if we fail or he moves before they are clear….No. It Kaname and myself he's after."
About that time, someone else was working on taking care of the silver-haired young man.
**********
Leonard stood looking down at the gathering, highly anticipating the coming meeting. He knew that sooner or later he would goad that fool Sagara into a display that would force Kaname Chidori to see him for the low-browed cretin he really was. And he would be there to gather her up like a child lost in the wilderness. Meeting the fascinating Ronald Stoppable would be a large bonus as well.
From seemingly nowhere a distortion appeared in the air about 2 meters in front of him. It resolved itself into a young African-American boy of about 13 or 14 years old. As the image stabilized, the Arastols started to intercept the forming figure, but Leonard raised his hands in a gesture forestalling the mechas. Wade was dressed in his now normal body armor and weapons with an additional holster on his left hip holding what looked like a plastic toy ray gun. He also had a combo ear piece/mic commo rig in his left ear.
Leonard was fascinated by the methodology used to create the illusion; it seemed to be a perfect holographic representation. But what he failed to notice was the depression Wade's feet were making in the short grass. Wade looked from Leonard to the two towering mini Arm Slaves back to the smug young man. Wade said, "Not bad! Do you use a micro Palladium reactor to power them?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact. You seem to be quite intelligent. Would you happen to be Dr. Wade Load?" This might turn out to be a better visit then he thought. Here was one of the young Whispered he wanted to examine. If he could convince the teen to join him, it would be an even greater coup.
"That's me. How were you able to shield the AI from the static discharge the reactor intermittently generates?"
"It took a bit of counter intuitive engineering. Instead of trying to shield the computers, I was able to insulate the reactor itself so the electronics are protected. What can I do for you today, Doctor?"
"Uh, look, I spotted you lurking around up here on the overheads." Wade tossed a thumb back down the hill indicating the group approaching the cars and limos, "You see, those are my friends, and uh, I'm not gonna let you bother them. So you can take your friends here and leave or we're gonna have problems."
Leonard got an amused smirk on his face and asked, "And just what can you do as a hologram?"
Wade held up a finger and said "Well first, I have a hormonal mercenary with itchy trigger fingers hovering cloaked overhead with every weapon aimed at this spot." He added a finger, "And second, I'm not a hologram!"
For one of the few times in his life, Leonard was surprised. Just as he started to signal the Arastols to take the teen, Wade, using his left hand, smoothly drew the 'ray gun' and fired it at the Arastol to his left. It was instantly engulfed in a halo of lightning. It stood for a second convulsing as tendrils of electricity danced over its' surface, then it dropped to the ground.
As the machine was hit, Wade drew the Glock with his right hand and strafed toward the downed mecha putting Leonard between him and the other Arastol, aiming the Glock at the now stunned Leonard from a range of less than 1/2 a meter. Much too close for his reactive armor cloak to engage to stop the incoming rounds. The other machine tried to intercept Wade, but Leonard saw that the teen could kill him long before the AS could get into position to protect and signaled the machine to stand down.
"I told you that I'm not gonna let you bother my friends. Now, you can either leave taking the other one with you and or I blow a hole in you big enough to see through and my friend upstairs fries that machine before you hit the ground!"
Out of the corner of his right eye, slightly down the hill, out of sight from the funerary party, Leonard saw another shimmer that revealed a hovering vehicle with some sort of cannon or ray aimed not at him, but at the AS behind him. In the cockpit was a woman with ebony hair and green highlights. Leonard looked into the dark eyes of the teen and saw nothing but an iron hard resolve to do exactly what he said. The muzzle of the 10mm Glock pointing at the center of his head looked like an open grave. His!
"I've heard all about you 'Mr. Silver'. I read every file that every intelligence agency on the planet has on you. Both Sagara and Kaname want your head on a pike. I even talked to your sister. She's pretty pissed at you too. You're lucky you're talking to me instead of them. I'll give you the chance to leave. But nobody messes with my friends!" The handgun never wavered and Wade didn't blink.
Outside Leonard struggled to maintain his composure. Inside, he was seething. He hadn't been caught this far off guard since he was a child. And the worst part was that it was a near child that caught him out like this. His thoughts raced as he tried to find a way to change the situation to one more in his favor.
Wade could see that Leonard was about to try something and he remembered a line from a movie the Team had watched. It was a John Wayne movie called 'Big Jake'. The memory was vivid because they watched it at Roger's recommendation.
He holstered the 'ray gun', supported the right hand holding the Glock with his left and quietly said, "You're gonna leave. Now! 'Because if anything else happens, your fault, my fault, nobodies fault, I'm gonna blow your head clean off!' That machine might get me, but before that, I'm gonna blow your head Clean Off! Your choice!"
With one of his Arastols down and the other covered, there was nothing he could do. For now! Maintaining his haughty, aristocratic expression, he said, "Very well, Dr. Load. Since I seem to have been outmaneuvered, I'll retire. The field is yours." He started to signal the surviving Arastol to gather the fallen one except Wade stopped him.
Still aiming the automatic at him, Wade said, "Nope, it stays behind." Leonard definitely didn't like that because the only examples of the Arastols anyone had were ones that had self-destructed, leaving behind pieces with the reactor and AI completely scrapped. But the hand-cannon Wade was aiming at him didn't offer him any other avenues but the one laid out for him. Full retreat!
As Leonard turned, Wade said, "A couple more things."
Leonard turned his head to look at the teen and Wade continued, "First, my friend there is gonna follow you for a while just to make sure you're really leaving." When he said that, Shego re-cloaked the hover-jet. "Next, stay away from Sagara and Kaname, because I'll be watching! Also, I can't prove it yet, but if you had anything to do with what happened to Roger Olsen, you better hope you can find a really deep hole and pull it closed behind you, because Ron's gonna be asking questions real soon. And when he gets the answers, he liable to do things to whoever did it that will turn a demons stomach."
Leonard smirked and turned, walking away down the backside of the hill flanked by the remaining Arastol.
When Leonard walked down the hill, Wade watched him for a moment, then knelt beside the crippled Arastol and attached something to it, causing it to vanish from sight. Then he adjusted a control on his armor and disappeared too.
**********
Back down the hill, everything happened so fast that a few people besides the Team knew anything was going on up on the hilltop. Sousuke and Kaname stood fast waiting to see what was happening and neither Kim nor Ron moved at first, because just like when they had confronted Team Impossible, they both thought it was one of Wade signature holograms. But when he fired on the first Arastol they all froze for fear of throwing off Wade's plan. They had no idea what he had in mind so they just mentally prepared to charge the spot if Wade needed help, but it all happened so fast, that it was over before they could move in his direction. Then Wade vanished before they could even call out.
Looking at one another, they said their goodbyes to the assembled relatives and guests, jumped into the Galaxie heading back to the garage.
**********
They arrived back at the garage to find Shego's hover-jet parked inside and the engines making the popping-hissing sound of metal that was cooling. There was the sound of laughter coming from the stairs leading to the lab. When they went to investigate, they found it was Shego, laughing fit to be tied. In the lab, Wade, Shunya and Ayame were watching her with a variety of expressions ranging from bemused and puzzled to embarrassed. When she calmed down enough to talk, all of them were slack jawed as Shego told them what happened and what was said.
"So I was sitting in the lab watching Drew go through that data Geek-boy here sent when he called us. He asked me if Drew had finished installing the cloak he'd sent over. When I told him it was ready, your boy asked if I felt up to a little job covering your butt's."
She looked at Ron as she continued, "Since Drew's so serious about helping you out Sporto, I asked him where to pick him up. When I did, he stuck one of those gadgets of his into the console on the hover-jet and off we went. When we got there he had us do a quick and dirty recon. He told me to deploy the tractor beam and keep it ready to grab one of the robots. I dropped him off just down the hill from the guy under cloak and Nerdlinger had a little cloak of his own. Since he stuck that gadget in the hover-jet I could see him on the console when he fired it up and, as calmly as you please, walked up to the pretty boy."
She was still laughing as she said, "Nerdlinger, you got guts! And let me tell you something else! That was the funniest thing I've seen in I don't know how long!" She looked at the others standing in the lab, "You all should have seen that pretty boy. The look on his face when his robot dropped was priceless! And when your boy here told him," she started to imitate the grim tone Wade used, " 'your fault, my fault, nobodies fault, I'm gonna blow your head clean off!' I thought the guy was gonna crap his pants! HAHAHA!" Shego looked back at the now bashful, self-conscious Wade, she said, "Remind me to stay on your good side, kid! HAHAHA!"
Sousuke asked, "Load-sensei, you were developing a weapon specifically for the Arastols?"
A perturbed Wade answered, "Of course I was working on a weapon to stop them. That's like asking Willie Wonka if he has a new candy recipe!" Shego nearly fell out of the chair at that one. Even the normally stern Shunya had a wry grin. Until he noticed the look Ayame had in her eyes. Hero worship with a vengeance!
Wade continued his explanation, "Every electrical device in existence can be overloaded. It's just a question of how to do it." He looked at Kim and asked, "Do you remember how we stopped the Lil' Diablo's?"
She was puzzled at first, "Yea?!" Then realization set in, "Oh Yeah!"
"Well I just streamlined the gun and gave the EMP dart it contained a higher speed. That made it a lot harder to intercept." He set the 'Ray Gun' in front of them. "If you would have had this one, Eric would have never been able to catch it. And with nearly one and a half gigawatts of power in direct contact with the outer casing, I figured it would be more than enough to overload the machine and trip its breakers."
He looked at the assembled Team stopping at Sousuke, "Give me a few weeks and I can probably have the EMP gun able to fire more than one dart at a time and we'll make it a part of your normal loadout. That way if Testarossa tries to ambush you, you'll be able to stop them without having to use high explosives."
Even as bad as Ron was feeling about Roger, he was still Ron. He chuckled and said, "Wade, I've said it before but, 'You are the MAN!'"
A few minutes later one of Wade terminals started beeping an alert tone. Wade hit a few keys, said "Excuse me." and headed upstairs. Everyone followed. Wade had opened one of the overhead doors, admitting an apparently empty flatbed truck. Until Wade tapped a control on his Kimmunicator, revealing the fallen Arastol. Sousuke was stunned. In 2 years of trying, Mithral hadn't been able to acquire a complete machine. And here Wade had done it the first time he tried.
"Load-sensei?!" Wade had a good idea about what was on Sousuke's mind.
"I got G.J. do a covert pickup for me and had them bring it here. I want to study the reactor system. I might be able to convert it for use in the Bonta-kuns. If I can, I might be able to increase the power output of the mini Lambda Driver." Wade could tell Sagara wanted to say something else. He grinned and said, "You wanna call your friends in Mithral? Let 'em know what we got here? I'll be glad to make it a joint research project as long as they pick up the tab."
"I'll make the call immediately!"
**********
Last week, it was the smoke from the fire that drew the attention of a Forestry Service Fire Tower. Once the fire was out, it was obvious by the hole in the bed of the truck, the crater underneath and the spread of debris, that something besides an accidental fire had occurred. All the debris as well as samples of the air, ground and plant life was brought to the forensics lab.
After they conclusively ruled out an accident, the homicide investigation started. And when the identity of the driver was confirmed and his relation to someone that had already had a bomb go off in their home, the FBI, BATF, U.S. Justice Department, Office of Homeland Security and G.J. descended on the crime lab like the Horseman of the Apocalypse. For the second time in two weeks, someone had bombed a United States citizen, this time costing an American life.
Once word reached the President, he went into a towering fury. He ordered a conference call with the heads of all involved agencies and once again ordered G.J. to be the lead for the investigation. There would be no interdepartmental wrangling or showboating. When it came to finding out who committed this crime, everyone reported to Betty Director. Period! And she got any equipment or personnel she needed.
**********
Once the forensics people had gathered every piece of debris, every soil, air and flora sample, every scrap of evidence they could find, Betty turned loose a team of mixed service personnel. Including someone that had a more than personal interest in the investigation. Dr Wade Load!
He was scanning the debris with every sensor and piece of equipment at his disposal. The onsite technicians had even gathered samples of the asphalt road in their zeal to find the evidence needed to find out who had caused the explosion. He had tracked the trucks last hours by the GPS in the cell phone the victim carried.
Using the data from the cell he had tracked the vehicle started acting erratically. From there he accessed the closest traffic cameras to follow what happened. He saw the beat up Ford Ranger stop at a traffic light when a large dark colored sport/luxury car stopped in front of it and a white van pull up beside it.
**********
"Dreams" by Van Halen
Start
www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=sZLKtjATZt0
He had just stopped to grab a shake and Roger was bouncing his head in time with the music as he headed home. He set the shake in the cup holder on the floorboard and cranked the music higher. He was carrying a load of several different types of steel in 12 foot lengths in the back of the truck. Mostly angle iron and small diameter tubing.
Since the Galaxie was now in Ron's hands, he had room to start working on a project he had been thinking about for a few years. He wanted to go on a 'Road Trip'. No real destination, just traveling where ever the road went. But he didn't want to take the trip in the truck.
He had an old 1100 Honda Goldwing behind the garage. He was going to use the materials in the bed of the truck to build a hitch for the bike and a small collapsible trailer that would have a rain cover with a hammock and bedding for when he stopped. Wherever he got tired, he'd pull over and there was camp.
As he drove through outskirts of town though, something was twigging the hair on the back of his neck. When the light turned red in front of him, he saw a large dark blue car pass him and turn to block the front of his truck while a white panel van stopped beside him. The side door slid open and two men carrying MP10's jumped out.
"Step owt of zhe vehicle!"
World turns black and white
Pictures in an empty room
Your love starts fallin down
Better change your tune
Yea, ya reach for the golden ring
Reach for the sky
Baby just spread your wings
Roger only had one thought, 'Like Hell!' Instead of trying to power through and escape, he did the unexpected and grabbed reverse.
Now it needs to be said that the seemingly beat up and underpowered small truck was anything but. While the body had damage literally from the front grill to the rear bumper, under the hood was a different story. Roger used it as a work truck so he didn't bother with the body, but the engine, drive train and mechanicals were excellent. About twelve years ago Roger installed a 5th wheel in the middle of the bed along with a piece of 1/2 inch plate steel against the front wall of the truck bed. The plate was a comfort to his wife who had worried about something sliding forward and driving through the cab.
We'll get higher and higher straight up we'll climb
We'll get higher and higher leave it all behind
The only problem was that with the additional weight and the possibility of a fifth wheel trailer, the original little 4 cylinder engine just didn't have the torque or horsepower. So Roger had replaced it with a 289 V8 and a four bbl Holley. Hooked to the five speed transmission and Dynatrack rearend, the Ranger would now pull just about anything he had ever put behind it.
Run, run, run, away
Like a train runnin off the track
Got the truth being left behind
Fall between the cracks
Standing on broken dreams
Never losing sight
Ah, but just spread your wings
So when he grabbed reverse, floored the gas and feathered the clutch, the truck launched itself to rear with more than a minimum of over-rotation in the rear wheels. To put as much protection between himself and the gunman, he slung the front of the truck to the left as soon as he cleared the back of the van. Shifting to first, he started to leave a set of black marks that investigators would later measure at 54 feet. White smoke partly hid the truck as Roger tried to leave the van behind.
Roger shifted through the gears enough to build speed, but he held the rpm's up to maintain horsepower. Since these guys seemed to be of the 'guns first, questions later' type, Roger had no qualms about using the truck as a weapon.
We'll get higher and higher straight up we'll climb
We'll get higher and higher leave it all behind
He had set his cell in a holder and kept trying to get it to call for help. But just as he'd reach for it, he would be forced to maneuver to escape. He finally got a hold of the cell when the car was close to passing him. He dropped the cell and grabbed the shake, tossing it out the window at just above the hood level of the car. It landed at the base of the windshield, spewing the thick chocolate shake to the roofline, blocking the drivers vision.
So baby dry your eyes, save all the tears you've cried
Ohh that's what dreams are made of
Cause we belong in a world that must be strong
Ohh, that's what dreams are made of
As he reached for the phone again and tried to dial, Roger saw a chance, braked and tried to hook a turn. When the van tagged the rear quarter panel the impact tossed the phone out of his hand and onto the passenger floorboard. "All right, by God, that's enough!"
The car was back now, wipers furiously working to remove the shake from the windshield. He led both out of town trying to outrun them. Evidently they were talking to each other because the van slid to the side enough to allow the car to pass it. The car kept trying to pass, but Roger maneuvered the Ranger to prevent it.
[Guitar Solo]
When he realized these guys just weren't giving up, he said, "Ya wanna play it easy, we'll play easy. Ya wanna play it hard, let's play it hard!"
Roger kept slewing side to side, keeping both the car and van behind him, but the road was wide enough for three vehicles. The van tried to come along his left side and the car on his right.
Roger timed his move for when the van was directly behind him, since it had most of the guys with guns. The twelve foot long steel in the bed was sticking out at least 3 feet past the tailgate. So when Roger hammered the brakes, the 1/2 inch plate protected the cab, but caused the angle iron and tubing to buckle between it and the van. Enough of the steel was driven through the vans grill and radiator forcing the van to fall out of the chase.
Good news; the van was out of action. The bad news; the maneuver allowed the car to get along side of and pass him. Roger floored the gas and pulled away from the van leaving pieces of steel clattering to the ground in front of now disabled van. The car tried to stay in front and slow him down, but since Roger gave less then a rats ass about the condition of the truck, he lined up on the rear bumper and crashed into the car.
Yeah, We'll get higher and higher straight up we'll climb
Higher and higher leave it all behind
Ohh, We'll get higher and higher who knows what we'll find
He kept his foot on the gas as he pushed the car faster and faster. They gave up trying to slow him down and accelerated a bit to keep him from making them lose control. When they passed another intersection, Roger drifted through a turn. The car scrubbed enough speed to barely make the turn and slid in behind him again.
Roger knew all he had to do was stay ahead until they passed some kind of law enforcement. The problem was he was being forced further and further out of town. He had an idea that if he could get onto unimproved roads, his all terrain tires and higher wheelbase would pass the advantage to him, forcing the car to drop back.
So baby dry your eyes, save all the tears you've cried
Ohh that's what dreams are made of
Oh baby, we belong in a world that must be strong
Ohh that's what dreams are made of
He kept glancing down to see if he could grab the phone before he passed out of cell coverage, but it had slid under the seat. 'Damn!' He finally saw an old fire road that he knew led into the surrounding forest. Making the turn so hard the truck nearly rolled on him, but he rode the clutch to keep the traction. Once on the dirt and gravel track, instantly the car started losing ground. He knew he was leaving a huge dust cloud that they could follow, but the dust would force them to slow down too. He even forced drifts to throw more dust into the air.
[Guitar Solo II]
A mile or so through the forest, the fire road intersected with another two lane blacktop. Roger skidded right and tried to open the distance. Once he was out of sight of the fire road, he got tricky. He found a bunch of scrub growing close to the road and backed the Ranger in behind it.
And in the end on dreams we will depend
Cause that's what love is made of
A moment later, the car came roaring past. Roger watched as it rounded the curve. Once it was out of sight, he pulled back on the road heading back the way he came. He drove for a couple of miles to make sure that he'd lost whoever they were and pulled over to find his phone.
As he reached under the seat, he never saw the shadow pass overhead, just before the Ranger erupted.
**********
The cell phone was found surprisingly intact inside an old steel toed boot found under the seat. How it wound up there was anybodies guess, but it provided the location of an intersection that had traffic cameras. That led the team to an abandoned van found a few miles outside of town. That led to the gathering of DNA evidence. That led to a seething Wade standing in front of Betty Director explaining that she needed to discipline one of her Agents. Again!
Wade was pacing back and forth in front of Betty's desk in full rant mode. "Ma'am, he must have screwed up somehow! Because he was the one who made the connection, he was the first on the scene. Now we have contaminated evidence! We found traces of Agent Du's DNA on the door handle and on the glove box from where he opened it! I mean the first rule of a crime scene is gloves! Now we have to test everything to rule him out."
"Very well, Doctor Load. I will speak to Agent Du."
"Ma'am, that's not enough! I want him off the case! Every time we turn around he's there, either berating us for being 'Amateurs' or hassling us about not developing leads. If it's not that, he's stonewalling us on promising data that he say's 'Isn't important!'. You can either keep him away from me, the team and the labs or I'll pack up and run the investigation from the garage. And if I have to, I'll hack anybodies databases to find what we need to catch these guys."
Betty calmly interlocked her fingers and said, "Doctor Load, you're allowing your personal feelings to bleed over into this investigation."
"So what? You think you can find a better tech guy then ME? You're right! I do have a personal reason to want these, these, AGGGGGG, I don't know a bad enough word. But I knew a guy, a really cool one. He treated me like a kid, but that's what I was, to him. Not a super-genius or a tech guru, just a kid. But he never treated me like I was stupid."
"Now that guy's a greasy smear! They barely found enough of him to bury. One of my best friends is a basket case and the other is barely holding him together. Two more of my friends are chomping at the bit, waiting for a lead. And when they get it, I don't think there's anybody on the planet that'll be able to stop them from using maximum force to bring these clowns in!"
"I want him off the case! Because if I have to try and explain why I want a listing of all the taggants used in explosives in the last ten years and he says 'It's not important enough to waste resources on.' again, we're gonna hurt him. And a bunch of geeks can come up with some nasty ways to hurt somebody without killing them!"
Betty could see that there was no way she was going to win. It wasn't the first time William Du had let his superiority complex interfere with an investigation. This case was too important to have friction within the team. And since Du was the only one that seemed to be making waves, he was the one that had to go. "Very well, Doctor Load. I will have Agent Du reassigned immediately."
Wade's brow furrowed and he looked a lot older than his thirteen years. "Dr. Director, there's something weird about him. I can't put my finger on it, but it's almost like he doesn't want these guys found. And that doesn't make any sense. Does it?"
Betty didn't have an answer for the young genius. And that worried her.
Particularly in view of the preliminary report he had handed her. Roger Olsen wasn't killed by a bomb as they first thought. He had been killed by a missile. And judging by the amount of propellent residue found at the crime scene, it had been launched from very short range.
**********