Fic: Target, Chapter 6 (Numb3rs, Colby, Don / Martin, David)
Title: Target, Chapter 6
Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger,
Don Eppes / Martin Fridegord,
David Sinclair / Ian Edgerton / Bobby
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
NUMB3RS Main List
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“Great. Thanks a lot, just leave him at the security checkpoint, I’ll pick him up from there. No, we don’t have Lost and Found for mathematicians here, but the security people will send him up. Thanks again.”
Colby hung up and waved at David and Martin, who had just stepped out of the elevator. Both men seemed to be unaware of the rapid-fire rumours going around in the office. They were both in good spirits and unusually far away from fitting into the surroundings. David’s suit looked more than a bit rumpled and Martin’s T-shirt and loose sweatpants, that hung low on his hips were like an exclamation point turning heads as they walked through the bullpen.
“Something wrong with your phones?”
“My battery died on the way here.” David reached his desk and hooked his phone into a charger. “Did I miss something?”
“You didn’t listen to your car radio?”
“We couldn’t agree on the music.”
“And I think my phone’s…” Martin patted his pockets, but could only find his wallet and keys. “… in my bag, and that’s in the car. The traffic was awful, we spent more time waiting than moving.”
“And we stopped by at the store on the way.” David added.
“Well, you’re both here. And I called Millie, she tackled Charlie in the parking lot.”
“Why were they at the parking lot?”
“Charlie was gonna drive.”
“Didn’t they suspend his license?” Martin commented with a slight grin. “After that rendezvous with an ice cream truck?”
“Yeah, but that was just for a month.” Colby stated and patted his phone against the palm of his hand. “I had no idea that woman can run so fast, but it’s a good thing she can.”
“You still haven’t said why she had to tackle Charlie.”
“Not exactly tackle, more like forcibly remove the car keys from him. Charlie was really upset, and it was mostly my fault. I should’ve said it better-”
“Said what?”
“Car bomb went off in that same hotel you were in. It must have been right after you left. I’ve been trying to call Don, but he’s not answering his phone.”
“Have you heard anything about casualties?”
“Not yet, but some sources say it was a bureau vehicle.”
“Don.”
“We don’t know yet-”
“No.” Martin looked past him and pointed at the elevators. The doors had just opened and Don walked slowly through the bullpen. Right behind him was a young woman who had recently started at the reception, and currently looked ready to quit. She gave the crowd in the people in the bullpen a small “he’s your problem now” shrug and stepped back into the elevator.
Don bruised face lit up small, faint whispers all over the room, but he focused on ignoring every one of them. Finally he came to Colby’s workstation and grabbed Martin by the shoulders and slumped against him. In the back of his mind he knew he probably should have done it in private, but his exhausted limbs didn’t care. Don had held on until he got to his own desk, but now he seemed to deflate like a broken balloon.
Martin wrapped his arms around the man’s waist to keep him up, and nodded at the direction of the break room. Colby got the message and opened the door for them. All strength had left Don’s legs and he held on to Martin like a rag doll. Colby and David helped to place him on the couch and closed the blinds. Martin sat down next to Don and examined the cuts on his face.
“Don?”
Don could see his lips move. He could even imagine what he must sound like, but none of the words got through the ringing in his ears. He shook his head and carefully tapped his ear with his fingers. The small tap send a wave of pain through his head.
“You can’t hear me?” Martin tried to keep his lip movement as clear as he could. He got up and grabbed a small notepad from the table. He scribbled a quick message and gave the pad to Don.
Are you okay?
Don nodded and took the pen. He wrote a quick response looked up at David, who took the message from him.
“What is it?” Martin stretched his neck to read over David’s shoulder. The note was short and the slight shaking of Don’s hands had made it almost unreadable.
Wilson’s car, Bobby was with him. I’m sorry.
David read the note again and again. He could hear Martin’s breathing getting laboured behind him. Controlled breaths to keep his emotions in check.
“Are you sure?” David finally said. “Are you absolutely sure?”
Don didn’t know what David had asked, but he could guess what it had to be. He opened his mouth and forced his voice to work.
“I escorted them to the parking garage.” He stopped to wonder if the words had come out the way he had meant. He could feel his mouth moving, forming words, but without hearing them he couldn’t tell what his words had sounded like. He took a breath and continued. “The hall was empty, I left them, I was going back to the elevator, and then… The blast knocked me down and after that’s it all blur.”
Martin grabbed the notepad and quickly scribbled few words. He shoved it to Don and crouched down in front of him to take a better look at his cuts. Don rested his head against the warm palms and checked the message.
Did anyone check you after it? Do you need to go to the hospital?
Don placed his hand on top on Martin’s and shook his head despite the small stab of pain it caused.
“They checked me out, a paramedic even gave me a ride here.”
“I’m taking you to the doctor anyway, you got a lump the size of an egg in the back of your head.” Martin’s hands travelled across Don’s hair, circling the obvious lump. “And we’ll have your hearing checked too.”
Don had tried to follow the moves of the man’s lips. When he realised Martin had said something about his hearing he grimaced.
“They said it should go back to normal in few days. I don’t need a doctor.”
Martin scribbled something on the pad and handed it back. Don read the message and grinned.
You should know by now you’ll never win any arguments with me.
The little smile, that was ghosting on Martin’s lips suddenly disappeared and he turned to look at David like had completely forgotten him for a moment.
“Sorry-”
“Don’t be.” David was still holding staring at his hand where the note had been. Colby stood behind him, holding his hand loosely on the man’s shoulder, offering silent support. “Everyone always worries about their own ones first. I… I have to call Ian, he’s probably seen the news.” He shook Colby’s hand off his shoulder. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Agent Frantz knocked on the door and pulled it open. David used the opportunity and marched out.
“Agent Granger?” The young agent seemed to be his normal jittery self, but he had gotten over his moral outrage. After he had been relieve from his guard duties, the close-up information about the virility of agent Eppes had made him very popular among the gossip network. “You told me to tell you if there’s anything new about the car bomb-”
“What do you got?”
“Well, it’s not an official source, but someone who was there at the hotel downloaded these to the web about five minutes ago.” He pulled out a palmtop computer. “Shots from the scene, apparently taken with a cellphone from the crowd. The picture quality’s not that good-”
“Show me.” Colby grabbed the PDA and quickly browsed through the pictures. He frowned and checked the photos again. “Put them on the big screen.”
“They’re pretty grainy, if I enlarge them-”
“Frantz.”
“I’m on it.” He turned and walked into the empty war-room. The large screen was flicked to life and he hooked the PDA to it. A series of grainy pictures appeared on the screen.
“Agent Granger?”
“Yeah?” Colby didn’t bother to turn his head to look at the kid. His attention was focused on the pictures.
“If agent Sinclair hadn’t placed another man on the guard, I could have been there when the bomb went off.”
“So what?”
“Isn’t that… kinda like… initiation ritual here or something? Being near a bomb or a guy shooting at you-”
“Almost doesn’t count, and you don’t get any credibility around here if you keep reciting that story.”
“But-”
“You’ll be the new kid as long you act like one. Everyone who has been here a while has been in some kind of a situation. We don’t talk about them. We just make sure they’re okay, and then we move on. Like the army without the crew-cut. Save the whining for your own time, but don’t do that when you’re working.” Colby clicked few buttons and enlarged one of the photographs. “What do you see?”
“Hmmm… A burned car wreck?”
“What else?”
“Guys from the bomb squad?”
“Keep going.”
“A lot of debris?”
“What about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at the debris. What do you see?”
“The ceiling`s pretty low… pieces hit the ceiling and fell down again.”
“Charlie could explain this a lot better than I can, but I’ve seen enough car bombs to know that’s not right. Have you heard about the case we had where an airplane went down and Charlie deduced there was more cargo on board than was listed?”
“I’ve heard about it.”
“You know how he knew it? The debris didn’t look right.” Colby placed his hand in front of the picture and pointed at it. “And this debris doesn’t look right either.”
“Yeah… of course.” Frantz agreed, but didn’t sound too convincing. “What is it supposed to look like?”
“Low ceiling and thick walls on two sides of the vehicle. Only two directions for the crap to fly and it’s all within ten feet from the explosion. It was directed and whoever did that was making sure only that car would blow up, and cause only minimal damage to anything else.”
“If they meant to rub off just the people who would get on that car, wouldn’t it make perfect sense? I mean the whole thing is personal.”
“No. If you want to kill someone, you don’t take a chance that he might be just stepping into the car or coming out, the target could survive. People, who use car bombs don’t usually care about who else might get hurt. More casualties, bigger success.”
“Maybe they made a mistake-”
“No, this has deliberate written all over it. This looks almost…” Colby’s eyes went wide with revelation. “… staged.”
Chapter 7