Chapter 28

Set the Trap and Follow the Goon

The goal today: Find Brody!. The first stop: Meet with Dr. Richard Bloomfield.

It seemed apparent that the research from Doctors Sadler and Nadu was now in Brody's possession. Yet, Bloomfield's was not. Why? "Bloomfield is a chemical engineering professor. He's doing a lot of work on alternative fuels. My guess is that he's developed a way to power the laser." Kristen filled in Lee on the research she'd completed on the good professor. "This doctoral assistant, Gloria Lopez, was killed around the same time as the other two assistants, but Brody did not get what he needed from her. I'm guessing maybe she was not cooperating, so Brody, or rather his hired men thugs, whatever, killed her anyway simply to keep her from talking." Lee agreed this was solid thinking. For this reason, Bloomfield would be critical today as he may unknowingly hold the key to finding Brody. However, he did not want the freshman agent to rely to heavily on her own conjecture, even she was hitting close to the mark. Lee felt it wise to impart some wisdom.

"These are some good assumptions, but sometimes they can get in the way when you're questioning a witness like Bloomfield. You can verify whether the information supports your theory, but keep your mind open for other possibilities. You can pick up some tips from Amanda on thinking out side the box. She's the ringer on that one. Keep your mind fluid. Next, timing on removing the bugs will be critical. As soon as we remove them, Brody will know we're on to him and he'll likely attack, go under again or both. At the same time, we can't allow Brody to keep listening in to them, so it seems today may be our now or never."

"No pressure there." Kristen then started thinking. They'd been avoiding Brody's thugs, maybe it was time to poke him with a stick and see what he does. "Maybe we just get rid of the bug in Bloomfield's office and see what Brody does?." Kristen suggested.

"If we cut the bug, he's just going to send one of his goons."

"Exactly! Set the trap and follow the goon?" Kristen said.

"That could work." Lee looked impressed. She was thinking on her feet. "We'll need to coordinate with the agent watching Bloomfield and I'll need to remain nearby."

"I'll cut the bug and talk to Bloomfield. Hopefully this will signal Brody to send one of his local L.A. goons to check it out. Do we have local agents available for backup once we locate Brody?" Kristen asked.

"Yes, we do. They will be listening in to our frequency so we can direct them once we get a location. Brody always has something up his sleeve, so we need to be cautious. I think we're set. Are you ready?"

"As much as I'll ever be."

It was GO time!

- SMK -

Kristen went to Bloomfield's office. She had the first office hour of the day. When she arrived, she saw the professor was just arriving at his office. He was talking to a man, about 30, average build with dark hair wearing khakis and a jean jacket. After speaking with Bloomfield, he left.

"Check out the guy in the khakis and jean jacket that just left." Kristen thought he could be a student or doctoral candidate, but better to be safe.

"We're on it." One of the younger agents posing as a student followed him out of the building. Kristen entered Dr. Bloomfield's office.

"Dr. Bloomfield? I'm Kristine Allen. I wanted to talk to you about your class next semester." Meanwhile she pushed the note to him to make certain he stayed quiet. Within a few seconds Kristen found the bug and put it inside the soundproof case. Let's see what this does. She turned to Bloomfield.

"My name is actually Kristen Adler, I'm a federal agent investigating the murder of several doctoral assistants, including Gloria Lopez." Kristen pulled out her badge for Bloomfield to inspect. He looked rattled, much more than the other professors. Clearly he knew more than they did. Bloomfield was thin, dark-haired with flecks of gray with thin-framed glasses. He paced the room shaking like a cocker spaniel in a thunderstorm.

"This is getting out of hand," he told Kristen. "People are dying and things are getting really scary."

"Exactly what is getting out of hand?" Kristen asked. Was he in on the deal?

"Oh Gloria, she was so lovely," he continued looking around nervously. "She told me that someone had offered her money for the research on my fuel pods. They are still experimental at this point but someone was willing to pay a great deal of money for my research. I did not want to give anyone my research, no matter the price. Neither did Gloria, but the assistants to Naveen Nadu and Jacob Sadler told her that she needed to cooperate or the deal would fall through and there could be dangerous consequences." Bloomfield looked visibly upset. There seemed to be more than just a professor/assistant relationship going on. Were they having an affair? "Gloria was going to tell them no. The very next day, all of the assistants were killed, including my sweet Gloria." Yep, they were having an affair.

"I'm so sorry, Dr. Bloomfield," Kristen said. "Did anyone ever contact you directly?"

"There was a man who claimed to be a medical researcher who came to my office once. I thanked him but told him I was not interested."

"Was this him?" Kristen pulled out the photo of Brody.

"Yes, that looks like him. Gloria said the men that contacted her, and the other assistants apparently worked for him. She never described them except to say that were large and intimidating." That was not much to go on, but it sounded like whoever they were, they met the typical "goon" profile.

"Did they ever get a hold of your research?"

"No, Gloria never gave it to them."

"Do you know if any copies were made of your research that you can recall."

"No, I keep all the information locked up," Bloomfield was wringing his hands now. "I don't mean to be rude, but you're rather small and young. Are you actually a federal agent."

"Yes, I was chosen as I could blend in as a student," Kristen said, "I'm tougher than I look." She was getting really tired of people assuming she was some helpless female simply because she was young and only stood 5'3". "Do you keep your research here or in the lab?"

"I keep it located up in a safe in the lab." Bloomfield said.

"Get someone to check Bloomfield's lab," Kristen spoke into the radio.

"We're on it," she heard a response from an unknown voice. She assumed it was one of the L.A. agents. The voice coming through was crackling. Something didn't feel right. "Lee, are you there?" Silence. "Lee?" Silence. Oh shit!

Something wasn't right Lee thought. He had been standing back behind the building for some time and had heard nothing from Kristen or any local agents. He was about to go into the building when Kristen came running out with a frazzled looking man he assumed was Professor Bloomfield following behind her.

"I think Brody's taken over the radio frequency. We need to get to Bloomfield's lab now."

The lab was in the next building. Kristen and Lee ran at full speed to the lab while Bloomfield huffed and puffed taking up the rear. The door to the lab was open. No one was there, but the room had been ransacked and the safe cracked open. Brody had clearly hired a thief versed in safe cracking.

"Dammit," Lee yelled.

Outside the building doors a man was getting into a car.

"Over…. there," Bloomfield choked out, trying to catch his breath. "I've seen that man talking to Gloria." The man was carrying a briefcase was getting into a car.

"Goon with the bait!" Kristen said as they ran for their car to follow him.

Lee sped along several narrow residential streets. He tried to hold back yet keep him in sight. They swerved around tight turns and sped down streets narrowly missing a number of other motorists. Lee ran several stop signs and fishtailed around yet another turn. Within minutes the car stopped in front of a small, bungalow style house. From the street, the house had a long walkway and two steps leading to the front door. The man ran inside with the briefcase. Lee pulled up to the house.

"You ready for this?" He said to Kristen.

"Yes," she replied firmly with an intense expression. Lee realized in that moment that in his discussion with Alex last night that the duality has just occurred. Kristen had left and Scarecrow was now talking to The Honey Badger. "Where do I go?" She asked for instruction from the senior agent.

"Go around back and look for another exit I'm going to go in the front so you'll need to stop them if they attempts to go out the back. I don't know if we'll get backup in time. Have your weapon drawn." Lee was nervous about having a freshman agent as the only backup, however, aside from Amanda, he had the cream of the crop with him.

"Got it." She said. As they jumped out of the car, Lee ran for the front door meanwhile Kristen sprinted to the wooden gate leading to the back yard. It was locked so she scaled the fence and hopped down into the backyard. She ducked below several windows along the side of the house, followed the length of the structure, then turned the corner toward at the back. There was a small back porch with a pergola. Several plants lined the back of the house, fortuitouisly providing some decent cover. She drew her gun and perched herself outside the door behind a larger plant, ready for anyone who may run out. There was a back window, but shades were drawn so she could not see any of the activity in the house, so she listened intently.

She heard a door slam open and Lee yell, "DROP IT!. I said drop it, now.!" There was rustling so Kristen moved closer to the back door. BANG! BANG! The explosion of gunshots. Where was the damn backup?! Terrified Lee had been short, Kristen grabbed the doorknob to find it was locked. She fired at it, grabbed the door and flung it open.

"Get back!" Lee yelled. "He's got a grenade!" Kristen saw two men lying on the floor with what appeared to be lethal gunshot wounds. She recognized the face of the man standing - for the first time, she was face to face with Nathanial Brody. Despite two men dead on the floor and two guns aimed at him, Brody's countenance remained calm and unaffected as if he were about to invite them in for tea. Well, maybe not tea, given the weaponry in both hands..

"Stetson, you know you're not taking me today," Brody's voice remained placid, bordering on eerie.

"Don't count on it, Brody. You drop the grenade and we're both gone." Lee said. In return, Brody gave a dissolute, sideways grin.

"Hmm. Not today I think." Brody slowly turned his head and looked at Kristen and then back to Lee. "Your little friend has such a pretty face. Well, at least she used to." Brody turned toward Kristen and as he drew his arm back, Lee ran toward Kristen at full speed,

"Nooooo. Get down!" He leaped from the back room of the house and grabbed Kristen, throwing her to the ground in the backyard with himself on top of her. Kristen felt herself hitting the ground with a thud, slightly knocking the wind out of her. Lee was on top of her like a protective shield, albeit crushing her a bit. The sound of the grenade was deafening, leaving her ears ringing making the sounds of the debris falling around her almost like whispers. Lee jumped back up, Kristen could breathe again. He ran around to the front of the house. The car driven by the first man was gone. Brody had escaped.

He ran back in the house to find Kristen picking up pieces of paper. The research pages floated about the blown out room like sparkles in a snow globe. "At least he didn't get the research," Kristen said, trying to find with the silver lining.

"Are you okay?" Lee asked Kristen.

"Yeah," she replied. "Other than you being really heavy, I'm totally fine. But you, Sir, are a mess," she said. Lee had several small cuts and was covered in debris. "Thank you." She smiled at him, for keeping her safe. Lee smiled back, satisfied he'd kept a promise to her family.

- SMK -

A short time later, agents from the L.A offices that including IFF, CIA, and FBI were at the house. While all had been initially alerted, Brody had managed to scramble the signal so that he and his men could listen in on Lee and Kristen then disrupt communication with the other intelligence entities. It was only after the explosion was reported did the other agencies realize what had happened.

"I really appreciate you looking out for me," Kristen said. "I'm just frustrated Brody escaped."

"Yeah," Lee said. "He's going to go back under again. We likely won't hear anything else for at least a couple months, but at least I think we were able to keep the research from being sold."

"Unless there were copies in the car." Kristen pointed out.

"That could be true, but I don't think so." Lee said. "Him taking off in the car did not seem planned, but spur of the moment. But only time will tell. We'll keep our ears to the ground to see if anything hits the black market."

"I told Amanda I'd keep you out of trouble," Kristen grinned, pulling pieces of debris off him. "She will never believe me again."

Lee took off his jacket. "Oh no." He said. "I really like this jacket too." He looked back at Kristen. "Hey, you did really good on this assignment. Not to sound condescending, but I'm proud of you."

Kristen smiled. "I'll take it."

- SMK -

Lee and Kristen returned later that day and checked in with Billy. So far, it appeared nothing had hit the black market, but all ears were to the ground.

"For now, Brody may back off on the Caltech professors as it's too hot." Lee said, "However, we don't know what information he may still have. He bolted from the house and it looks like the research was still at the house, but we don' know what was in the car."

"Apparently two of the assistants agreed to sell the research, but Bloomfield's did not." Kristen added. "I think he and his doctoral assistant were having an affair. Brody was trying to use it against her, but it backfired. Unfortunately, because of the other assistants, she was killed."

"We'll continue to keep our noses to the ground, but I agree Brody may back off for a while until things cool down." Billy said. "Good work out there, I'll be interested to see your full reports."

- SMK -

Lee returned to the Q Bureau to find Amanda waiting there.

"Hello, stranger!" Amanda greeted him with a smile,. "I'm so happy you're home."

"Happy to be home." Lee said as he took her in his arms, kissing her soundly.

"How was the assignment?" Amanda asked.

"Well," Lee said. "We think we shut down this deal, but Brody escaped. He threw a grenade toward Kristen like he knew I'd protect her so he could escape."

"Well, that's who you are. Is she ok?"

"Yeah, not even a scratch," he said with a bit of pride. "Although she told me I was heavy. I may be offended." He grinned. Amanda laughed.

"Well, you kind of are heavy, not that I'm complaining," Amanda gave him a seductive grin. Realizing they were at the office, she switched back to Mrs. King mode. "Looks like you took a bit of it," Amanda said, carefully looking over all the bruises and scratches.

"I'll be fine. Just frustrated." Lee told her, trying to disengage her mothering instinct.. Amanda realized what he was doing and reached for him another hug instead, which Lee gratefully accepted instead.

"I'm sorry," she said. "We'll get him eventually."

"Hey," Lee said in a much brighter tone. "I met Kristen's mother, brother and stepfather.:"

"You did?" Amanda smiled. "What are they like?"

"They were overjoyed to see her. We went by their bar where her mother, Kat, was performing on piano It was a nice evening. Her brother, Alex, has definitely figured out what she does, but understands she can't say anything. Hank seems to know as well, but I get the sense her mother has an idea but does not want to admit it to herself. They pretty much confirmed what we expected, that she's always been tenacious and independent. In fact, Hank referred to her as the petite dictator." Lee laughed. "I think the Honey Badger is the result of some bullying she received in high school that Hank helped her through."

"The Petite Dictator may be even better code name than the Honey Badger." Amanda found it to be rather endearing. .

"It's clear they love her and support her. Much like you are with the boys."

"Well, that's great. If my boys could grow up to be anything like her, I'd be the proudest parent ever."

"Oh," Lee remembered. "She even sang with her mother, it was kind of sweet." Lee told her. "Add amazing singing voice to the ever-growing list of her abilities."