A Work of Fiction: Chapter 6

Danny slid in beside me, and I didn't even notice.
"Jeez, you don't even try and you get the good ones."
You can't even imagine how much I wanted to grab him by the throat and choke some sense into him, while screaming, "I'm being tailed you idiot!"
But, unfortunately, I couldn't. You see, I haven't necessarily been, well, honest with him. I haven't been too honest with the FBI.
Okay, how do I put this, in order to get Intel, you need to give Intel. Sometimes, research just doesn't cut it. Six months ago, when I started going on this tear, I was given a tip about a cell of terrorists here. All I got was a location, and a contact's name.
But the thing about the tip was, it was a huge one. There was no way the FBI higher ups would let me keep it. Caste system or no, these kinds of cases were only for the veterans of the squad, not the two-year upstarts. So I had to go in, undercover, without anyone here knowing. And, well, to get trust, I had to give away some secrets.
The cell knows I'm FBI, but they think I'm working for them. Luckily, no one in the cell has seen me, save one. And she's actually on my side. She's the only one who knows my real name, and not my pseudonym. Her name is Xandra Wilcox.
She's keeping my true identity a secret to the rest of the cell; it's best that way for the sake of both our lives. But in exchange for the info she gives me, I have to give her info as well. Don't worry, it's nothing huge, but it's getting me everything I could need on this cell.
Eventually, I'll tell Danny, Aaron, and the rest of the squad, but I have to make sure that I have all the info I can get, so that they don't take it away from me. Why do I not want to give this up you ask?
Think of what would happen if 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Oklahoma City bombing were combined into one single event. Getting the picture here? This guy isn't messing around. Who is this guy? You know about as much as I do on this front.
I have who's working for them, I have their main headquarters, I pretty much have their entire schedule of operations, but I don't have a name. In the FBI, if I don't have a name, I have nothing. So all I needed was a name and I'd be fine.
Luckily, this cell hired Njego, so I get to put him away, and hopefully get a name without ever alerting Danny and everyone else.
But anyway, back to the whole reason I was panicking. If this girl was working for the NSA, I was screwed, because I basically wouldn't be able to explain why the hell I was giving away government secrets. Not even the whole "For the overall good of the country" excuse would work there.
Or...
If she was part of the cell I was following, not only was I screwed, but possibly Danny, Aaron, Greg, Holly, pretty much everyone I've had contact with in the last six months.  Like I said, this guy doesn't mess around, I've seen him kill entire families because someone was late to a meeting.
So that's why I wanted to strangle Danny.
Fortunately, I didn't. All I did was stammer, guffaw a little, and finally get a, "Yeah, that's life" out.
Danny gave me a strange look. "You okay, partner?"
"Yeah, no, I was just, uh..." My hand went up to scratch the back of my head, I had never been this caught off guard before in my life. "You know, admiring her beauty, and all."
Danny's look got even stranger, and Laird joined in as well. Luckily, Klark's pager going off saved me.
"Finally! I would not want to be anyone in the field waiting for these guys," she said as she looked down at the screen.
"Hey, I'll walk you down," I said, emphatically.
"Edwards!" Danny called to me as we walked out the door. I reluctantly stopped. Come on Danny; don't put me on the spot here. I thought to myself.
"Don't forget about our little meeting later today."
I smiled back at him, for more reasons than one. "Wouldn't miss it for the world," I said as the door closed and hid my quick exit to catch up with Klark.
"So what was with the sudden loss of speech in there," She asked before I even caught up with her. "You off your game today?"
She called it; I've had guns to my head before and still was practically able to spit out Goethe without breaking a sweat. I should have been able to handle that back there.
"Well, did you see the same girl I was seeing? That body, that look, that hair; I should go out and find her and ask her on a date," I said, thinking quickly on my feet.
This seemed to take Klark back for a moment. She took a moment to struggle to find her words as well. She finally found them as we got to the main offices.
"I work with pigs."
I had to laugh, that wasn't true, and she knew it. We were all very professional, but if we were serious all the time, we would be certifiably insane.
"Well, to tell the truth, I'm thinking she may be some sort of hit man...uh...woman, out for my head. I have pissed off a lot of people in the short time I've been here," I halfway joked.
"Edwards!" A booming voice that shook my spine yelled from behind me. I stopped in my tracks, but didn't turn around. Maybe if I didn't make eye contact he'd go away.
"Looks like you can add another person to that list," Klark informed me as she looked over my shoulder. "He looks pissed."
"Thanks, as if I couldn't tell," I said through my teeth. I took a breath in, and turned.  "Yeah, boss?"
Klark was not joking. If Ivers' eyebrows were any more furrowed, you could mistake them for his beard. That didn't really help his face in hiding his age. As a matter of fact it looked like a few new wrinkles joined the party in that moment I looked at him.
"My office, now," He said, angrily stalking back into his office.
My teeth were clenched as I turned back to Klark. I didn't have to say anything.
"I'll have the results on your desk as soon as I get them."
"If I'm still here," I added as we parted ways.
I walked up to the open doorway and took a breath before heading in. Ivers was leaning over the back of his chair with his hands folded, much like my Dad did when he was disappointed with me.
"Close the door, and sit down," He barked softly.
I did as I was told, and prepared my self for the verbal lashing I was about to receive.
"I thought I told you not to come in today," He said, looking me dead in the eye.
"Well, yes, sir, but D..."
"That wasn't a request, Jeff," He stopped me. I wanted to say something back, but thought better of it.
He stood there and read me for a moment, much like I would when I would interrogate a suspect. He then sighed and walked over to the window.
"How long have you been with us Jeff," He asked, looking out at the city.
"Including my internship? Four years," I said, preparing myself for where this was leading.
"And never once have you taken a vacation."
"I've never seen the need to, boss. I don't see any of the dirt bags were chasing doing it," I said.
"That's where you're wrong, Edwards. You know how I know that? Because the main guy we've been after has been on vacation for the past two years, hiding in a cave in Pakistan somewhere." He was now facing me again.
"Turkey," I managed to get in.
"Not important, right now, Jeff," I pushed the wrong button there. "The point is, he does it, and it's because there are other people who can handle what he does while he's gone. And the same rings true here, Edwards," He said, as a vain quickly became prevalent on his forehead.
"Sir, I don't believe that's tr..."
"Oh, can the machismo for one second," He said glaring at me. "Look, I'll be the first to admit, you one of the, if not the best we have here. I wouldn't have gotten you on this squad out of college if I didn't see that. I know it, you know it, and every goddamn agent out there knows it. " He almost threw his finger through the closed door. "But, I'm not asking for you to go away for two years, I'm just wanting a week. The entire division isn't going to crumble in that time that you are away."
He took a breath and looked at my stone face.
"Jeff, I like you, and I appreciate everything you've done for us. But I have people I need to answer to as well. And they've been on my back about this for three months now. Almost missing that bomb on the plane yesterday pretty much sealed it for them."
This perked my ears. "What are you saying Aaron?"
"My hands are tied Jeff. As soon as you walk out of this office, if you don't immediately go home for a week, you might as well stay there permanently."
Okay, stay calm Jeff, like he said his hands are tied. Maybe a vacation will do you some good.  Nothing like having your job threatened to put things into perspective. I didn't show anything on my face though.
"Jeff, I know you got into this because of your parents, but..."
That did it.
"Don't bring that into this Aaron," I said with a growl. "That has nothing to do with this."
"Dammit, Jeff," Aaron yelled, accenting with his fist on his desk. "That is what this is all about. And if you don't see it, you're going to get yourself killed one of these days."
My hand shot up to my forehead, then fell to my lips where I rested my head on it.
"Jeff," he said, calming down as he sat on the corner of his desk. "It's okay. But it's beginning to cloud your vision. You're becoming dangerous…both to you and to us. You can't keep going like this. So go home, and let us handle it."
I finally looked at him out of the corner of my eyes. "I can't do that, boss."
Aaron looked at me as if I was crazy. How that was different from any other day, I don't know.
"Jeff, think about what you are saying."
"I already know. Danny's got an interrogation set up with Njego later today, and it may just give us the break we need. You can't expect me to miss that."
Aaron's head dropped, but he was smiling. He then threw his hands up in submission.
"Alright, alright, I'll hold the dogs off for this interrogation, but, barring a major break in this case in the next..." He looked at his watch. "...six hours, you are not to even step foot in this office for a week. Are we clear?"
I stayed silent, what the hell was I going to do for a week?
"Are we clear, Edwards," He repeated, this time with a slightly more threatening tone.
"Yes, we're clear, we're clear. Are we done," I said, halfway annoyed. Well, okay, fully annoyed, but he was my boss.
Aaron was still smiling. "You remind me too much of myself, Edwards," He said as he motioned his hand towards the door, and picked up the phone.
I was just about at the threshold when the entire building shook violently, a low rumble echoing through it. The busy office room went silent momentarily as the lights flickered. Both Ivers and I looked up at them.
"What the hell was that," Ivers asked aloud. He was answered by the computerized voice of the buildings fire alarm.
Please evacuate the building. Please evacuate the building. Please...
Okay so quick math problem here. Building shaking, plus low rumble, plus fire alarms, typically equals explosion, and today, there was only one place where that could have come from. Aaron and I shared a look as we came to the same solution simultaneously.
After a bunch of punches on the receiver button, and a few keystrokes on the keypad, he calmly but sternly yelled into the phone, "We need EMS services to the forensics lab now!"
I was already halfway down the stairs, almost ripping my shirt off to cover my face when I got down there.  I'm glad I did, because when I opened the door to that floor, my eyes immediately started burning from all the dust and smoke.  Not that I could see anyway, except for when the severed electrical lines arced on the rare occasion.
I managed to find the main lab where she was working.  "Klark?"  I called out through the darkness, the dust trying to keep my lungs from working.  "Klark!"
Just then I felt a hand grab my ankle weakly.  I looked down and managed to catch a glimpse of the bomb tech's uniform, from the light glaring off the piece of metal sticking out of his chest.  He mouthed something to me, his eyes already glossing over; so I leaned down to hear him better.
"Tim...Time.."  He struggled to get out.
"Timer," I tried to finish so he could conserve the little energy he had left.  He managed to nod.  I then gave him a meek smile and patted him on his good shoulder, in a vain attempt to offer some condolence before continuing my search; He grabbed me again and managed to pull me down.
"C...4" He managed to get out before finally passing away from his misery.  I couldn’t help but stare in horror at him.  C4 plastic is all I could think of what he meant.  This definitely was the work of my cell, and not some two-bit terrorist.
I then caught a glimpse of his partner.  I won't go into detail, but lets just say it took me a while to piece together that it was his partner.  This did not bode well for my hopes of Holly surviving.
Aaron then appeared at the door, along with the EMS team.  "What do we have?"  He asked.
"Two dead," I answered still looking, and beginning to toss light pieces of debris around.  "I still haven't found Klark yet."
No sooner than I said it, did I see a flash of light right in front of me.  It was a hard clear plastic, the blast shield we have for just this type of situation.  I began frantically clearing the debris off of it, and through it I saw her.
"Got her!  Help me get this off," I motioned to one of the EMS techs there.
The two of us cleared it off of her, and he bent down to check her pulse.
"She's unconscious, but alive...barely," He said to the room. "Get the stretcher!"
A few moments later we lifted her onto it, and the EMS techs began wheeling her away, leaving Aaron and myself alone at ground zero for a moment.
"Before one of them died," I stated, trying to calm my breathing, "he told me that it was C4, and it was on a timer."
I looked over at Aaron's horrified face looking back at me.
"Major enough for you,"  I said before stalking back up the stairs.