FIC: In a Mirror, Darkly: Chapter 16/?
Title: In a Mirror, Darkly: Chapter 16
Author: Valerie Vancollie (valeriev84 [at] hotmail.com)
Characters: Don, Charlie, Alan, David, Colby, Nikki, (surprise)
Pairings: brief canon mentions of Charlie/Amita & Don/Robin
Rating: 15
Summary: There was a certain irony to the situation, that the brother who was a federal agent had been abducted to be used as leverage against the brother who was an applied mathematics professor at a highly respected college. Don Whump, Charlie Angst!
Betas: aleo_70 & fredbassett
Spoilers: Uncertainty Principle, Vector, Man Hunt, Protest, Dark Matter, Spree, Two Daughters, Brutus, Finders Keepers, One Hour, The Janus List, Breaking Point, Black Swan, When Worlds Collide, The Decoy Effect, Jack of All Trades, Arrow of Time, The Fifth Man, Greatest Hits, Angels and Devils
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Numb3rs characters, items or situations. I only lay claim to the original aspects of the fic.
Part V: Don: Basement
Chapter 16:
Monday, 15:28
Basement, Unknown Location
This was really starting to get old, Don thought as he woke to find himself slumped awkwardly in the chair. On the bright side, his mind seemed clearer than it had for the past few days and he could only assume the drug had worn off overnight and his exhausted body had slipped into a natural sleep in order to better heal itself.
Since he couldn't hear anything, Don slowly opened his eyes and looked around, relieved to find himself completely alone for once. Using the opportunity, he took stock of his injuries and the various other bodily complaints. His muscles were stiff and sore from having been kept in the same position for so long. His neck, in particular, hurt from the awkward angle he'd held his head at while unconscious or asleep. His lower back throbbed from the kick to the kidney he'd received, but it felt a bit better than before despite the way Frazer had jabbed at it yesterday. His chest was sending him two distinct signals, the first from the pain of the infected cut and the burn and the second from the cold.
A jolt of fear shot through Don as he recalled the events surrounding the removal of his dress shirt, but he forced it aside, needing to concentrate on other matters while he had a clear mind. Who knew how long it would be before Keane or one of the others decided he needed another dose of sedative? Or some other form of attention...
No, he couldn't think about that at present, nothing productive could come of it. Instead, Don looked down at his chest, trying to determine how bad the wounds were. The cut was an angry red, while the burn was blistering and peeling already. Where the two intersected, though, the burn took on the same hue as the cut and he feared that the infection was spreading. He cursed and took stock of his face, which felt much the same as before except for the burns on his cheek and throat, the latter of which he felt every time he swallowed.
Finally Don turned his attention to his left hand, by far the most painful of his injuries. As he'd feared, it had swelled, putting additional pressure on his wrist where the rope tied it down. Despite the fiery pain it already sent down his arm, Don carefully tried to move the fingers, assessing how much damage had been done and whether or not he'd be able to use it if necessary. The agony that resulted had him quickly rethinking his strategy and he reluctantly concluded that he probably wouldn't be able to use it without fear of causing him to black out at a critical moment.
If it ever came to that.
Not one to normally ever contemplate defeat, Don was forced to acknowledge that his chances were slim indeed. Not only had he already been held prisoner for over two and a half days, but his condition had only gotten worse the more time went on. The near orgasmic look on Frazer's face when he'd so stupidly given away his aversion to knives flashed before his eyes once more and he swallowed hard, fighting off fear that bordered on terror.
What the hell was wrong with him? He'd never been this afraid of knives before. Yes, he'd always respected the danger they represented and the damage they could do in the wrong set of hands, but nothing like this. Like before, on Friday evening, Don suddenly felt the agony of a blade stabbing into his chest as the memories of Radovic surfaced once more. He swore he could feel the cold length of sharp steel as it sliced easily though tissue and organs first one way and then the other as Radovic pulled it back out before dropping him like so much garbage. Don had to fight his way out of the memory, away from the horrible sensation of bleeding to death even as his own blood started to fill his lung, slowly drowning him.
Finally Don managed to successfully wretch himself free from the memory, but he was left drenched in sweat, panting desperately for breath. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his good hand, focusing on the pain of his short nails biting into his palm. Okay, so having been stabbed had clearly affected him far more deeply than he'd realized. Yes, he'd had the normal flashbacks to what had happened initially, but he'd had additional sessions with Bradford and discussed what had happened and had thought he'd dealt with it. Obviously not, given the recent flashbacks he'd had twice now.
Don had never experienced anything quite like this before, not even after the first time he'd been shot. What was so different about his experience with Radovic? Why this gut wrenching terror with knives? A gun could cause just as much damage if used correctly. As his mind turned to all that Frazer would be able to do with his knife now that he knew Don feared them, he tried to force it back to the matter at hand. He obviously couldn't afford to wait any longer to try and escape as soon he'd be in no condition to do anything.
"Bet you'd look real pretty covered in blood."
Frazer's voice echoed so clearly in his head that Don looked around, expecting to see him in the basement. There was still no one, though, and he tried to force his body to relax, afraid the tension would sap the remainder of his strength.
"Once I'm done with you, perhaps I'll go pay your old partner a little visit as well, maybe take him a souvenir. Something to remember you by before I kill him. Bet he'd like that."
Don squeezed his eyes shut again and tried to force the memories down. He had to think about getting out of here, not about what was likely to happen to him if he didn't. Okay, the best thing was to run through this like it was a normal case and not something personal.
First, what did he know for certain?
This whole thing had been organized by a man named Blakely who had a client interested in top secret information that the NSA possessed. Said client was willing to pay handsomely for the retrieval of the information, so much so that both Banner and Frazer expected to get a million dollars each out of the deal. This information, which he did not know any specifics about, was protected by some type of security that was math related. Security that Blakely thought Charlie could hack or overcome in some other manner. The problem was that Blakely was most likely correct, chances were that Charlie would be able to do what they wanted him to.
The thought made Don's anger reignite, which was good as it helped him ignore the fear that still lingered at the edge of his mind. The fact that they were using him to force Charlie into betraying all that he stood for and to help Blakely gain access to information that would surely cause severe damage to the country or its inhabitants left a bad taste in his mouth. He'd rather die than be used like this, as a pawn to be moved about at will by his enemies. The problem was that Charlie didn't know what he was working on. He didn't know the stakes involved or just how catastrophic the results could be if the wrong information got stolen from the NSA.
The thing was, even if Charlie did know all of this, Don wasn't sure if his little brother would be able to act any differently than he currently was. He wasn't sure if he himself would be able to make that decision if either Charlie or Dad's life hung in the balance. That meant he had to alter the status quo and take himself out of the equation somehow. It was thoughts like that which really showed how much time he'd been spending around his brother lately.
On the verge of veering off course again, Don forced himself to focus and was surprised to realize how much he knew about what was going on, but then, Keane had not been too secretive about most of it. Which was a large part of exactly why he'd known he wasn't supposed to survive this before Keane had confirmed his suspicions. What he didn't know, unfortunately, was nearly equally as long of a list.
He didn't have a clue as to what information Blakely's client was after. He knew it had to be extremely valuable given what the person was obviously willing to pay for its retrieval and the fact that Blakely felt they needed someone like Charlie to crack the security involved. Don didn't want to sound arrogant, but there had to be easier mathematicians to target if the math involved wasn't of the highest level. There had to be ones who didn't have family in law enforcement whose disappearance would trigger an automatic federal investigation.
He also didn't know what kind of damage the client would be able to wreck with this information.
Not really wanting to contemplate the possibilities too closely, Don shifted his attention towards those behind the whole scheme. He knew next to nothing about the client and Blakely, save that the latter had access to his records and was smart enough to realize the danger he posed to them if left unchecked. It was kind of flattering in a way, though it was the cause of his current predicament. Next was Keane, most likely former special forces and the man in charge of carrying out the actual operation. He didn't know how much contact Keane may have with Blakely at present, but he was clearly the one calling the shots here.
Banner and Frazer had obviously been brought into it for their connections with Charlie and himself, respectively. Banner was also a vital piece of the puzzle due to his ability to walk in and out of the NSA headquarters at will. No one would think twice of his comings and goings as he was supposed to be there. The same held true for Geek, whoever he was. Don was pretty sure he was a cryptologist or computer expert of some sort, so he'd work in a different part of the complex from Banner, but his movements would be pretty unrestricted as compared to a stranger who didn't work there.
Wait. Don frowned as he went back over the list. Frazer. Why exactly was the man here? Why was he a part of this crew? Yes, he knew Don from before, but unlike what Keane had planned with Charlie, that didn't really make a big difference to the whole plan. At least not as he understood it, was he still missing something? As far as he could tell, Frazer's role so far had only been to help capture him, which he was sure Keane and Banner could have managed on their own. Frazer's only other job was going to be killing him, which was again something one of the others could manage. So why was Frazer here? Despite his background in high tech crimes, he didn't seem to be doing any of the actual computer work involved, which made sense if Don was correct in thinking that George Frazer has been the one to take care of those aspects of their crimes.
It didn't make any sense. Not only could Don not think of anything specific Frazer might be needed for, but the man was also a serious liability in his own way. He hardly seemed willing to follow Keane's orders half the time and would probably stop doing even that soon. He was an uncontrolled individual in an otherwise very professional crew. All of which meant that there had to be a reason for his inclusion, a very specific one too that only he could fulfill or Keane would never have brought him on board.
Banner had mentioned something about Frazer needing to make certain preparations, but again, Don didn't see what the man would be able to provide that the others couldn't do themselves. Frazer had been in prison for the better part of the past decade, all of his old connections would be long gone by now. So what was Keane planning? His earlier thoughts about the type of death he'd get at Frazer's hands and how Keane's regret made no sense returned to him. Was that it? Was Frazer here precisely because of /what/ he wanted to do to him?
Don forced the images the question generated aside and made himself focus solely on the issue itself. Keane, while potentially finding torture distasteful, struck him as someone who could and would use it as a means to an end under the right circumstances. He also didn't seem to be the type to shy away from doing the dirty work, so if an ugly death was somehow a necessity for their plans, he could well have taken care of it himself. So why had Frazer been brought in? What was it about the fugitive that made him necessary to Blakely's plan? The man seemed averse to taking risks that weren't required for his plan to succeed and yet bringing Frazer and his volatile temper onboard was a big risk.
Try as he might, Don was unable to come up with the answer to his question. Vexed, he was forced to put the question aside as he turned his attention towards the remaining member of the crew. Like Frazer, Geek didn't exactly fit the profile of a member of a highly trained professional, but his skills in other areas more than made up for that. There was no question what his role in this scheme was. The fact that he lacked Charlie's brilliance with math was made up for the fact that he clearly knew his computer code and had access to the NSA databases. He was probably the one who had gotten the data Charlie would need to hack the security guarding whatever it was they were after.
Geek and Banner were two sides of the same coin, both necessary to penetrate the security of the NSA headquarters and steal some highly sensitive information from within. What didn't make as much sense were the emotions he'd seen Geek display since he'd woken to find him present Saturday morning. Surely the boy must have known they were planning to abduct and hold captive a federal agent in order to force Charlie to cooperate with them. So why all the fear? He acted like a cornered animal half the time instead of a-
Don froze as the pieces suddenly clicked together in his mind, painting a very ugly picture. Although he'd noticed the boy's reactions earlier, he'd been far too caught up in his own dire situation and what Keane was planning to do to Charlie to fully process and understand what it all meant. Not with the drugs in his system, clouding his mind. Now, however, with a clear head, it seemed stupidly clear.
Geek wasn't here voluntarily.
The boy hadn't come onboard after being tempted with money only to discover that things looked a whole lot different when the theoretical captive became a real person with the ability to both feel and voice pain when brutalized. No, he'd been coerced into this somehow. Keane must be holding something, or more probably someone, over him. The man was doing the same thing to Geek that he was to Charlie, only in this case he needed Geek with him while the person being used as a pawn was either unaware of the situation at all or being held elsewhere.
The revelation caused mixed feelings within Don. He hated the thought of anyone else in danger or of Geek being threatened with a loved one like Charlie was, but it meant that there was one less person standing between him and freedom should he make an escape attempt. It didn't change much, and probably made the situation worse in the long run, but in his present predicament, he'd take everything he could get.
The opening of the door caused Don to tense up, all other thoughts freezing as he waited to see who it was. As Geek stepped into the basement, holding a small tray bearing a glass, a large bottle of water and a plate with what smelled like instant mac and cheese, he relaxed though he kept his eyes trained on the boy. It took him a second to realize that Don was both awake and watching him, but when he did he stopped short, clearly hesitating before he looked at what he held before approaching the restrained agent.
"I- are you thirsty?"
"Yes," Don replied, trying not to lick his dry lips at the thought of getting a drink.
"Ah... okay, just give me a sec," Geek stated, walking to the desk so he could put the tray down and open the bottle.
"What's your name?" Don inquired gently.
"Huh? Me... my name?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Well, it would be easier if I had something to call you. If you don't want me to know your real name, then make something up, it beats letting me come up with something on my own. I'm liable to choose something you won't like, like Geek."
The words had the intended effect, washing away the fear and nervousness the boy clearly still felt with a new emotion. Oh, yeah, Don had definitely hit the nerve he'd intended.
"You call your brother that too?" Geek demanded angrily.
"Charlie? Nah, he's Chuck, or Chuckles, depending on my mood or what he's done," Don replied honestly, changing tactics again in the hope of establishing a rapport with the man.
They needed to stick together if they were to get out of this alive. He wasn't sure if Geek was aware of it or not, but though he didn't have the training or background to make him dangerous in Blakely or Keane's eyes like he himself was, by having been here, interacting with Keane, Banner and Frazer, he'd seen and knew too much. He was just as much of a liability to them as he himself was and, therefore, would be dealt with as soon as his role in this scheme was completed. Don just wasn't sure if he should point that out or whether it would be better to keep quiet on the matter. He didn't know Geek well enough to be able to judge how that particular knowledge would affect him.
Chapter 17