Current Grab bag story starts on chapter 6

Katherine's eyes grew puzzled. "What are you talking about Ralph? Of course he's dead, you've been in front of his body for several hours now."

Ralph nodded. "That's how I know. I've seen the minute changes as his body takes an almost imperceptible breath. You've got him on some medication to mimic death and I demand to know why."

Katherine stared at him. "How could you possible notice that? The breaths are so shallow and infrequent they aren't noticeable."

"To someone of a lower IQ that is probably true. But with my IQ and attention to detail I can tell the minute changes to his clothes caused by his breaths. Why didn't you tell Walter and Allie? Typically when a death is faked like this certain people around the supposed deceased is told so they don't grieve themselves to death over it. Do you have any idea what Walter is going through right now? Not to mention Allie? She can probably deal with this but Walter doesn't have it in him to deal with this. This is a very sick and cruel joke." Ralph yelled.

Katherine nodded. "I understand it seems like that but from the psychological examination done on Walter it told us he wouldn't be able to convincingly play the role as a grieving loved one. For this to work we needed the best possible performance."

Ralph shook his head. "I can understand that but whoever gave you this analysis of Walter doesn't understand the workings of a genius mind of Walter's level. Nor does he understand the complex problems of Walter's emotional development. You need to find Walter and make this right, now."

"Ralph, I promise you I've got a ton of people looking for Walter right now. We may have trusted the evaluation too much and I am sorry for what has happened." Katherine told him.

"What was so important that you even did this? Does Cabe know or did you just use the situation? And he's going to be pissed as hell when he hears how you guys treated Walter." Ralph continued being pissed.

Katherine nodded. "Most likely he will be. Yes, he knew we were going to use his heart attack to fake his death. I can't really go into detail about what this is about. But if we're successful a big threat will be taken out."

Ralph shook his head before he reached over and grabbed the door handle.

Katherine touched his hand. "Are we good for now?"

Ralph glared at her. "For now I won't spill the beans but you better resolve this quickly." He pulled the handle and pushed the door open. As he got out he headed back to Allie.

Simone's SUV pulled up outside of the Garage and as she turned the engine off Florence opened her door and moved quickly up to the door of the Garage. "Florence, wait." Simone yelled.

Paige and the guys were right behind her and they all looked at Simone as she finally moved up with her gun in hand. "Okay, we don't know what is going on here. You open the door and let me in and you all wait until I give you an okay to come in. Is that understood?"

They all nodded. Simone nodded. "Go ahead Florence."

Florence pressed the key to the lock but it wouldn't go in. She frowned and tried again. "My key won't go in."

Happy pushed through the gang. "Let me see that." She took the key and looked at it and then the lock. "This isn't the right key Florence."

Florence frowned. "It has to be, look at it, it's stamped,"

Happy looked and nodded with a frown.

Suddenly they heard the lock flip and Simone trained her gun on the door as Happy and Florence moved back. As the door opened Simone saw Mr. Levine who was looking at the barrel of the gun and threw his arms up. "Please, take whatever you want, just please don't hurt me."

Simone shook her head as she lowered her gun. "Mr. Levine isn't it? What are you doing here? Is Walter inside?"

Mr. Levine looked puzzled and shook his head. "He sold the building and everything to me the other day when I came to see him. He said he was going on a vacation for a while. He said something about dealing with the loss of his Father."

"Walter." Paige said softly. "Oh God, what have I done?"

"Can it Dineen, this is on all of us, not just you." Happy grumbled as she mentally kicked herself.

Sylvester nodded. "Now his words from the other day make more sense. He was telling us that we won, that he was giving up Scorpion. I didn't even see it. I didn't even think he could ever do this."

"You haven't sold anything have you?" Paige asked suddenly.

Mr. Levine shook his head. "It'll take a few days just to get everything cataloged and ready. Plus all the stuff we'll be throwing away that isn't really worth anything."

Happy reached up and poked him. "You don't throw anything away. Whatever you think is trash you put it carefully to the side. Walter isn't thinking right and as far as I'm concerned you took advantage of him. You make a detailed list and I'll be back in three days to review it. I'll take whatever you think is trash then. And before you get all high and mighty Walter is a high level government asset for Homeland. Mess with me on this and Homeland will be all over you like fur on a bear."

Toby nodded. "Confusing, but what she said."

Simone smiled as she reached up and tapped her coms. "Rusty, Walter is gone, and we have no reliable information on where he is."

"Damn it, Simone, does this feel like Walter has done this or if foul play is happening?" Rusty asked.

Simone took a breath. "Base on what Mr. Levine told us here at the Garage I believe Walter has planned this. I don't believe it is foul play."

"Mr. Levine? Isn't he the guy from the other day? What's he doing there now?" Rusty asked.

"Apparently Walter sold him the building and everything inside of it." Simone advised him.

Rusty sighed. "Damn it Walter, Cabe is going to kick your ass. Alright, return to the funeral home until we can come up with a plan."

"Copy that Sir, returning to the funeral home. And should you be saying that out loud?" Simone asked.

Rusty laughed. "Well I'm by myself at the moment and the jig is up, that young man of Paige's. He figured it out."

"Copy that." Simone replied.

"No, we need to formulate a plan. We can't waste time waiting for the end of the viewing." Happy barked.

Paige shook her head. "No, we need to go back. We need to support Allie until this over and then we can begin to figure out where Walter is."

Simone nodded. "Besides, Director Cooper has other people trying to track Walter down through other means. And Mr. Levine on behalf of Director Cooper, Homeland is demanding you hold off on any sales or throwing anything away."

Mr. Levine just nodded.

Begrudgingly the rest of Centipede agreed and they all climbed into Simone's SUV just as another Homeland car pulled up and an agent got out and got into Nick's SUV and they all drove off.

Ralph had sat glaring at Katherine every time she had come into the room to speak with Rusty and then she quickly left again.

Allie had decided she'd had enough of standing up as a grieving partner and stayed with Ralph. He'd been very upset since he came back in from speaking with Katherine but every time she tried to engage him about it Ralph closed down and refused to speak.

When Paige came back in Allie was quick to let her know that Ralph was really upset about something but he wouldn't open up to her about it. Paige tried many times to engage him but just like Allie he refused and dug his heels in even deeper.

As the last of the line finished and moved out of the funeral room Katherine came back in with eight other agents carrying various items. Paige and the others watched curious as they closed and locked the doors to the room and then set the items down. They watched as they opened and erected some kind of computer equipment in each corner of the room and once done and activated the equipment and they all heard a soft whine.

Sylvester leaned over. "Those devices are emitting a sonic sound so as to prevent any eavesdropping on this room."

Paige stood up. "Katherine? What is going on?"

Katherine touched one of the agent's arms and walked over while that agent walked over to the coffin with another agent. "Guys, this is going to be a bit of a shock to you. Ralph already discovered the truth while you were on your way to the Garage. But, we faked Cabe's death. While his heart attack was real and fairly bad the medicines he was treated with did their job and his heart isn't much worse for it."

They each joined in on a collective outcry. "WHAT?" So loud it almost overrode the sonic screen the devices were projecting.

Katherine held her hands out trying to get them to hold off.

"What do you mean? Cabe isn't dead?" Allie questioningly demanded.

Katherine shook her head. "He's been in a state of metabolic stasis since we faked his death. We did this to capture someone the government has been after for some time now. Unfortunately it didn't work, but we were able to confirm that France had him in custody just a short time ago. Unfortunately our psychologist failed in properly diagnosing how Walter would react. That was part of the reason for Rusty, Simone and Nick being with him. We didn't believe Walter would be able to act convincingly enough that Cabe was dead so we withheld that information from him. And we assigned them to keep an eye on Walter to keep him from going too far when Allie reached out to them. Unfortunately we failed to account for how brilliant and sneaky he could be."

Paige looked at Ralph. "You knew Cabe wasn't dead?"

Ralph nodded. "I noticed it a short bit ago. His body was taking tiny breaths and each time it caused minute changes to his clothes."

Happy looked at Katherine. "Okay, tabling the ass kicking you will be receiving over this, what do we do about Walter?"

"W-Wal-Walter?" Cabe's voice sounded barely loud enough to hear over the sounds being generated to scatter all of their voices.

Allie jumped up and ran over to the casket. "Cabe?"

Cabe's eyes fluttered a bit. "Allie?"

The agent standing there held his hands up. "Ma'am you've got to give us a few minutes to complete the process. This has very strict protocols."

Allie almost stood there vibrating as she looked down at Cabe, seeing his chest moving as he was now breathing somewhat close to normal. Paige and Florence moved up to stand with her.

"Okay, so the questions now are, where is Walter? How do we reach him? How do we let him know the truth?" Toby asked as he looked at his two partners.

Sylvester shook his head before Happy backhanded his stomach. "Think genius, you're the probabilities master. Where the hell is he?"

Ralph scuffed. "That's rich, like Sylvester has the brain power to figure it out."

They looked to Ralph. "Okay smart guy, where is he?" Sylvester glared at him.

Ralph smiled and just shook his head.

Paige looked over and frowned before she moved over to him. "Ralph Dineen, if you think you know where Walter is then you are going to tell us this minute."

Ralph looked up at his Mom and shook his head. "I won't."

Paige's eyes opened a bit wider. "Do you want to be grounded?"

Ralph picked up his tablet and held it out to her. "Here you go. You can take my other things when we get home too."

Rusty stepped over and then got down on one knee. "Son, I know we don't know each other but we both know Cabe. You know what he'd say to you about this. If you do know where Walter is, you need to tell us so we can help him."

Ralph looked Rusty in the eye. "You're right, we both do know Cabe and he probably would want me to. But I am not doing it."

Florence walked over and sat down next to Ralph. "Ralph, I get it. They all hurt Walter and you think you are protecting him by not letting them know where he is. But Ralph, Walter is hurting so much thinking almost everything he cares about is lost to him." She reached up and touched the side of his face. "No matter how much good you think he might do for himself out there on his own, it really isn't good for him, you of all people have got to know this. He needs to know Cabe is alive. Do you know the last thing Walter told me, while convincing me that he was just taking a vacation?"

Ralph had a tear in his eyes as he shook his head. "I'm barely holding on, if they came back and walked out on me again I'd lose it for real. I'd be as insane as Collins. Sometimes I think I'm already there. Some of the thoughts I am having." She watched the tear run down his face. "Ralph, Walter is in so much pain just from what your Mom and the others did to him. Now believing Cabe is gone is hurting him so much more. We've got to be able to give him back some hope. He needs to know Cabe is alive. Please, for Walter's sanity, if you know where he is or where he is going you have to tell them so they can help him."

Ralph looked down at his feet and then up to Allie. He slowly took in a deep breath. "What do you think Grandma?"

Allie smiled at him as a tear came to her eye. She nodded. "I think you should tell them Ralph. You're not doing it for them you're doing it for Walter."

Ralph slowly nodded. "Most likely he is going back to Ireland to live."

Florence nodded. "That makes sense. Regardless to how bad their relationship is, Walter believes they are the only ones besides you who love him now, even if they can't demonstrate it in a way that he can see. Thank you Ralph."

Katherine shook her head. "The only problem with that is I've had him on a watch list since Scorpion imploded. If he had tried to leave the country I would have been notified. There just isn't anyway for him to leave."

Ralph laughed. "That's because you aren't a genius bent on accomplishing something. Walter could easily fake an ID to get on a plane to any other country. Or he could have booked passage on a ship headed across the Pacific. Gone to Mexico or Canada there are plenty of ways around the so called security net the US uses. That was one of our favorite past times, coming up with ways around security measures. Not to mention he could have simply dropped a Trojan into the Homeland system and let it propagate out from there. And then every single system that might be looking for him would be blind to him and he'd walk right past all of your fancy gadgets."

Rusty looked at him and smiled. "Damn son, you are so impressive. Walter's lucky to have someone like you in his life."

Ralph looked down. "That's part of the problem. Thanks to Centipede Partners I'm not in his life right now."

Rusty nodded. "Well I can't speak to that but, would you help me check Homeland's system to see if Walter did put a, Trojan? Is that what you called it?"

Ralph nodded as he looked down. "I suppose I can. Have anyone on a Homeland terminal hold down the control key and then type xwt. That's Walter's favorite command override. If it is there they'll get a menu of some kind."

Rusty smiled. "I'm sorry this has been so hard on you too Ralph, but thank you for the information."

Ralph nodded as he continued to look at the floor.

"Oh, my head hurts." Cabe said as his hand came up and pressed against the side of his head. The two agents moved back away and Allie stepped up quickly.

"Cabe." Allie said as she grabbed his other hand.

Greetings! Hope you are all well! As I said on Twitter after I posted the other chapter I think I finally figured out why things have been so messed up for me. Sep 7 is our wedding anniversary and of course it is the first one that Cathy isn't here for so I figured that might be it. Sleeping is still hit and miss, writing comes in small spurts. I do have the next chapter of "A Knight Receives A Messenger" but I will wait until this few chapters are posted to post it. Depending on how things go from there, as in if I am still having troubles writing I will post "The Masked Calculator" story. It was kind of funny a few weeks ago during one of my writing times, listening to songs a cover of Dolly and Kenny's Islands In The Stream came on and I thought, man, I would love to hear Kat and David sing that. And as some of you might know, both of them are on Cameo where you can pay a fee and if they accept they will produce a video for you. So I said the heck with it the other day and made the request. I was pleased as heck when I came out of my game yesterday and checked my email and found they had accepted and posted a short video response. It was so cute.

2LawDog - Never mess with Ralph. The consequences could be disastrous! Yep, Ol'Gene back at the funeral.

Marti - Thank you! Sorry I caused you to worry, you can always find me on Twitter or IG, I'm on FB too but I seldom use it. I agree, way too many adventures! Hope they start screaming more too!

Lucy - Thank you! LOL Nope, Ralph's as sharp as they come I think!

Heleen - I'm so glad you guys are okay with it, right now this is the only story for it but who knows what may come down the road later! Yes, get to reading! lol

Railman - So glad, hopefully, in a way, there will be more to come in the future but right now there are only like 4 chapters of this. Since I used most of Sylvester's scenes from my one chapter of Knight's Tale already I'm not sure I will drop it in here, but I might.

Pearliegirl - lol No worries, I know Knight's Tale and Lady Knight are not for everyone.

Franxine - LOL Well, sometimes the cord just has to be pulled. lol

To the Adventure! -Tim