Fic: Target, Chapter 8 (Numb3rs, Don / Martin, Megan, David)
Title: Target, Chapter 8
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
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7
The phone rang almost a minute before David answered.
“Sinclair.”
“Hey, it’s me.” Martin greeted. “Are you home?”
“Yeah, and I don’t meant to sound rude, but did you want something?”
“No, I just wanted to ask how it went with Caroline. Did you tell her yet?”
“I told Ian and then we told her about it together.”
“How did she take it?”
“How would you take it if someone told you that a guy, who just took you to the carnival is now a pile of ash?” David groaned and the line went silent for a while. “She locked herself to her room. Ian’s trying to talk her out of there.”
“Maybe you should wait for her to come out by herself. If you need help, I know a very good therapist, who’s specialised in children-”
“Sorry.” David interrupted. “What the hell was I thinking? I actually talked to our own kid without asking the all-knowing resident saint for a permission. Maybe we should just ship her over to your house for good! I bet you’d do it better than we do, after all you always got some advice to give whether or not anyone wants to hear it!”
“I didn’t mean-”
“Of course you didn’t! Just stay away form us, we can handle this by yourself and we sure as hell don’t need your help to deal with our girl.”
Martin closed his phone and sat down on the edge of Megan’s desk.
“He hung up.”
“What did he say?”
“Basically ... he told me to mind my own business and that they don’t need outside help with Caroline.”
“Death brings out strong reactions.” Megan stated sympathetically. “People say things they don’t mean.”
“Or maybe I’m just too pushy.”
“Being worried or protective is good. It would be more worrying if you didn’t want to help them. That’s your nature, and there’s nothing wrong about it.” She assured. “David is there dealing with a child, who has already had more drama in her life than a lot of grown ups. He’ll snap at people, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
“I hope so. Kids can handle a lot, even more than adults, and Ian had already lost someone important to him in the last year.”
“He has David. And people usually hold themselves together better when they have a reason for it. David and Ian will keep things together for Caroline’s sake.”
“For how long?”
“Until they’re ready to deal with it on a personal level, and not just because they have to be strong.”
----------------------------------
“Agent Eppes?”
Don turned to see the man talking to him. He quickly scanned him up and down, mapping out the badge hanging from his belt and the FBI ID-card clipped to his breast pocket.
“Yeah.”
“Agent Garrity, I’ve heard about you.”
“Just good?”
“Well… this and that. Actually, I’ve heard some interesting stories about you and your brother. How was your doctors appointment?”
“My hearing’s almost back, but he wants to put me on one week leave.”
“Better play it safe. We’ll make this quick and then you can go and rest.” Garrity guided Don into one of the conference rooms. “First of all, our men just picked up the men, who were behind the assassination attempts.”
“Did they resist?”
“You mean did we have to use force?” Garrity grinned and his expression made it clear he knew exactly what Don had meant. “They may have gained some injuries during the arrest. And when they were brought in for the booking. But of course that was only when needed.”
“Like you said, better play it safe.”
“Wilson didn’t tell you some of the aspects of the case. The men, who hired them had been suspected of smuggling constricted material to hostile countries.”
“Weapons?”
“Weapons and technology and material to manufacture them. Including explosives. When the big bosses went to jail, their minions continued the business. They were charged with lesser charges, and had to keep a low profile to stay on parole.”
“Then why did they take the risk and make three attempts? They must have known we would suspect them right away.”
“Their foreign contacts were getting restless and the change to get the main bosses outside was too much. They send their underlings to handle it and the idiots thought their bosses would protect them. We observed them and cached them when they contacted the middleman to let him know the hit had been a success.”
“You had them under surveillance?” Don repeated as soon as the meaning hit him. “You had them under surveillance and you didn’t stop them from setting the car bomb?”
“We had to be able to connect them the middleman and that way to the big bosses. Otherwise it would have been useless.”
“Useless? Two people died!”
“Shut up, until I’m done here.” Garrite shot back. “We got a tip about their location after the second attempt. When it became clear what they were going to try next, we took action.” For a minute he looked uncomfortable under Don’s glare. “Maybe not the action you would have preferred, but it brought results. Wilson did well considering she got her orders on a short notice.” Garrity paused and toyed with the TV remote. “The bomb was set to go off when the car was started, and the men couldn’t risk getting caught in the parking hall, so they weren’t there to see it themselves. When something like that happens, the whole L.A. will hear about it in few hours.” He pushed Don down to one of the armchairs and walked to the other side of the conference table. “Our boys managed to take it apart and replace it with one of their own.”
“Their own?” Don stared at him. The whole conversation was quickly moving from uncomfortable to unreal. “Their own car bomb?”
“How much did you actually see?” Garrity switched on the TV monitor that was embedded on the wall. A black and white security camera footage rolled on the small screen and Don recognised the parking hall. On the screen he turned to leave while Bobby and Wilson continued through the hall. A large van covered them from sight and few seconds later the car in the other end of the hall exploded.
Don remembered how he had turned back again, but seeing it on the grainy footage was more painful than he would have guessed. He saw himself flying back and landing on the ground. Don reached across the table, grabbed the remote and shut down the television.
“We’re done.” He clutched the remote in his hand. It seemed to be the only thing to control the urge to grab the man by the neck and squeeze. He heard the sound of door being opened, but he didn’t turn to look who had come in. “You can be sure as hell I’ll get you kicked out for this. You killed a civilian and you killed one of our own-"
“Don?”
The voice stopped all of Don’s brain functions for few seconds. He breathed deeply and turned around slowly to face the man at the door.
“Calm down.” Bobby took a step closer and gave him a tentative smile. “You look like you’ve seen a dead man.”
Chapter 9