13Spent the day listening to my mom's moans and sobs. It scares the crap out of me sometimes as I am not convinced, she'll wake up the next day after going through so much suffering from degenerative scoliosis and arthritis, among other problems.
I am not just writing these little details from my daily life to elicit sympathy. It helps to share and chronicling my experiences here might turn in to a bigger project outside FF in the future. Also, for those counting, we have another new aide who will be our regular aide and I am pleased to report she appears to have more experience than any of the others combined.
Chapter Three:
Ellie Bishop and Tim McGee stood at the head of the barge.
"Doesn't it feel weird letting the Feds lead?" Bishop asked. "I mean, we are the Navy."
"Fornell said we should trust them, and Gibbs trusts Fornell," McGee said.
"How is Delilah holding up with the kids?" she asked.
"They're doing fine," he said. "I'm just glad to get them out of danger. The mother of a Fed is reciting Chaucer to them and they seem to enjoy it."
"Hi guys," Callahan said. "Any sign of trouble?"
"Not from our vantage point," Bishop said. "How about from below?"
"Nothing so far," she said.
"One question," McGee said. "Where does one keep a specially retrofitted barge ready for transport?"
"I have no idea," she said. "I was just given the instructions to show up at the navy yard with a bus full of families that could be used as bargaining chips if things went south."
"Do you get the sense that a bigger power is at work?" Bishop said. "Someone is pulling the strings who is more powerful than the US government."
"I try not to think about it honestly," she said. "I have one hundred fifty people I need to keep safe and worrying about what I can't control is a waste of energy."
"Fair point," Bishop said.
"What is that!?" McGee shouted pointing west.
They pulled out their binoculars.
"That's a missile!" Bishop said.
"It is heading straight towards us!" Callahan said and pulled out her radio. "Simmons, is this on radar?"
"You better believe it is!" Simmons. "Hold on to something. We're going to engage in evasive maneuvers."
The gripped the ropes holding supplies on top of the barge.
The missile was getting closer.
"Simmons," Callahan said slowly.
"I'm sorry."
A crackling came across the radio. It became rhythmic.
"That's Morse code," McGee said. "It says: Don't panic."
There was the sound of roaring force. A hundred feed away from them a missile launched.
Bishop, McGee, and Callahan stood still as the missile hit the one aimed at them.
"Still not curious about who is watching out for us?" Bishop asked numbly staring at the debris falling in the distance.
"As long as they keep watching out for us, I could care less who they are," Callahan said.
…
"The world is going to Hell and you're trying to get us expelled from the one safe place on the planet?" Leon said, as he, Kirsty, and Thea broke into the administration building.
"I gave you choices," Thea said. "Your betting operation could be exposed or you come with me. Kirsty, I could expose your school-wide cheating scheme or you could come with me tonight. You both chose to come with me."
"Why do you need us again?" Kirsty said as they sprinted through the halls. "As your shield?"
"I don't like the idea of getting busted alone," she said.
"Wonderful," Leon said.
Thea picked the lock to the principal's office and then deactivated the motion sensors and and shorted out the camera.
"So, we're looking for 'brainwashing' equipment?" Kirsty asked.
"I bribed an underpaid Westchester cop to get me Bertha's journal. She mentioned a chamber under the principal's office where 'students are reborn to serve the purpose of Octavian.'"
They used their phones for light and looked around.
"No door seams under the desk," Kirsty said.
"Let's lift the rug," Thea said.
After moving the coffee table, they rolled the rug to discover a trap door. Thea used her universal lockpick and it popped open.
"I'll stand look out," Kirsty volunteered.
"Is someone afraid, of the dark?" Leon snickered.
"It could be another deathtrap," Kirsty said. "This place is full of creepy s**t."
"Suit yourself," Thea said and climbed the ladder down.
"Wow," Leon said.
The chamber was lined with file cabinets, but at the center was a single chair in front of a basin facing a wall covered with a projection screen.
"Start documenting crap," she said. "We need to show the world that Octavian is more cult than school."
They took photos of everything. Files with names on them, the herbs in storage, as well as the sound equipment.
"Hey, Thea," Leon said. "Did your dad go here?"
"No, the family was too poor to send him here. Grandma Travers was a drugged-up flower child and Grandpa was a gambler, so they couldn't help him apply for scholarships. Why?"
"Then why is he on a list of distinguished alumni?"
Thea stopped dead in her tracks.
"Show me."
He passed her the file.
"Dad's friend who lived across the street went here," she said more to herself than anyone. "He died in a fishing accident junior year. Oh, they didn't!"
Leon pulled out another file.
"Does this look like your father's handwriting?"
Thea examined it.
"I've been forging it for years. I'd recognize it in any form. Dad was Michael Solomon for the last year of senior year. Then he got brainwashed and now he's working for Octavian without knowing it."
"Let's get out of here," Leon said.
Thea stopped and held her hand out.
A figure jumped from the ladder. Thea and the figure fought hard and Leon tried to kick the person nervously.
"I yield!" Thea shouted.
"You're better than last time," she said. The woman helped Thea up and Leon directed his light at her.
"Gen the Ghost?" Leon said.
"Hi, Leon," she said pleasantly. "I hear death has made you exceptionally popular and rich."
"So, what brings you back to Octavian, Genricka?" Thea asked.
"My Uncle Harrold noticed some hints of hypnotic triggers and wiped them," she said. "We put destroying this chamber on the back-burner but have now made it a top priority."
"How do you plan on destroying it?" Thea asked with a grin.
She pulled out a miniature explosive.
"Cool."
"It is not a coincidence, you and I met tonight," Gen said. "You're coming with me."
"Are you kidnapping the now-only child of one of the richest men on the planet?" she asked with a wide grin.
"The world is on fire, Thea," she said. "I could use your assistance more in the field than at school."
"What about me?" Leon asked.
"I'm sorry Leon. I never liked being known here as the ghost. I was taught to keep a low profile here while I trained to work in clandestine intelligence work."
"Wait, Gen you're a spy?" Leon said disbelievingly.
"Something like that," she said. "We don't have much time. Let's blow this place and get out."
"I like that plan," Thea said. "Is Kirsty okay?"
"How much do you mean that?"
"It's the polite thing to ask."
They climbed up the stairs and moved a sleeping Kirsty away from the trapdoor entrance. Gen pressed a button on the device and threw it down the hole.
"I'll carry Kirsty, back," Gen said. "Go to the black Lamborghini on Dervish. I trust you to know the camera blind spots."
"Are you sure I can't come?" Leon said. "I'm only two years younger than you compared to Thea's four."
"You've seen the Devil Leon," she said. "You can protect the others from it."
"Okay," he said.
They reached the exit of the building, when the explosion came.
"Nice work," Thea said.
"The real work begins tomorrow," Gen said.
…
"You can't leave me at any hospital!" Isabell Gardner said.
"You're five months pregnant Ms. Gardner," Lewis said. "Even if we wanted to bring you along, we'd be putting your child's life at risk.
They had washed the mud off her at another camping site and managed to find a men's shirt that fit.
"Please, it's Isabell," she said. "You don't get it. The man who held me captive is my ex-husband's father. He raped me and the child is his. Rodney Gardner is also the head of the New York state troopers! He's held me captive for six months. He lets me escape every few weeks to see how far I'll get before I fall into one of his traps. From the way he's abused me and judging from the remains in his basement, I don't think I am his first victim."
"So, we found a serial killer while on the run," Alvez said.
"You're FBI agents on the run?" she said. "How much has the world changed since I was captured?"
"This all just happened over the past week," Rossi said.
"Guys," Prentiss said, coming into the jeep. "We need to get going. I just saw a trooper from the observation post."
"I told you!" Isabell said desperately.
"We can only go backwards," Reid said looking at a map. "Then we'll take a left and head east for a while."
Alvez revved the engine and they spun backwards. They drove straight into the lights of the state troopers.
"We're dead," she said frantically.
"Reid, the phone," Prentiss said. "Text help."
"Okay," he said as he pressed the keys for each letter.
The troopers were fast approaching.
"Everyone, remain calm," Prentiss said.
"Attention, former federal agents," a trooper said on a bullhorn. "You are wanted on domestic terrorism charges and the kidnapping of a civilian. Surrender peacefully or face the consequences."
They saw shotguns being pulled out.
"We can't outshoot them," Rossi said.
"We surrender and Reid and Meirong will never be free," Lewis said.
"And I won't be safe either," Isabell said. "Nor will my child be."
They could hear a helicopter overhead.
"Show us your hands in three, two-"
There was the roar of multiple guns at once.
Everyone screamed out in terror.
When the smoke cleared, a woman of Iranian descent and a dark-skinned woman with frizzy black hair appeared on each side.
"I'm Harper and this is Sameen," the dark-skinned woman said cheerfully. "You called for help?"
Author's Note:
Okay, a bunch of new characters that are not mine. Some might know Bishop and McGee are from NCIS. Gen, Harper, and Sameen are from Person of Interest, one of my absolute favorite shows of all time. The POI characters will be sticking around while NCIS were throw away lines. IMPORTANT: You do NOT need to know about POI moving forward. I promise it will be organic and sound more like something I made up than from another show (I wish).
