Walking an Endless Path Pt. 02

Melissa explained that they planned to head out to dinner. Doug insisted they join him for dinner at his condo. After a few rounds of we couldn't impose, and you really aren't, I'd be delighted, they agreed it was their best option. Joe just wanted to get Amy away from the trouble he'd left back in the washroom.

They crossed over to the parking structure and found Doug's car. Luckily, he'd driven his luxury SUV, so there was room for the bags and the two extra passengers, even for someone as large as Joe.

As they made their way down the ramps, the building's lights came back on, and they only had to wait an additional twenty minutes for the backlog of cars to make it through the exit gate. Soon, they were driving toward Santa Monica.

Joe relaxed back in the plush seat and smiled at his sister. They'd made it!

Chapter 5

LAX buzzed like an angry hornet's nest. The night shift cleaning crew started their rounds roughly an hour after the power returned. One of the maintenance staff noticed the out-of-order sign on the washroom door. He went inside and found the two injured men. He immediately contacted security, who brought in the police and an ambulance. When it was determined that the two men worked for the NSA, there was an immediate lockdown of the area, and NSA officials were called in.

The press, who'd arrived to investigate the mysterious power outage, now had a much bigger story to report if they could only get someone to talk.

NSA branch director Roger Bannon pushed through the press mob, ignoring their shouted questions. When he'd been told that two agents from his office had been found badly injured in a washroom of LAX, he'd immediately placed the entire office on alert. He left the meeting he'd been in and was driven to the scene. Along the way, he'd received updates as they were confirmed. When he'd learned the names of the two agents, his initial concern was tempered with doubt. He knew Agents Cooper and Ryan mostly by reputation; none of it was particularly flattering. They had a history of abusing their authority and, in Cooper's case, overzealous use of violence. They'd been hires of the previous branch director, and Bannon had them on his list to be terminated. He didn't need that kind of agent on his team.

He asked for details on their current assignments and why they'd been at the airport. Nothing in their caseload explained why they'd left the office that afternoon, though there had been an incoming call from the Washington branch to Agent Cooper shortly before they headed off to the airport. Just before he left the car and headed inside the terminal, Bannon asked for a trace back to the originating caller.

Bannon saw the forensic team was on the scene and stopped at the washroom's doorway. He caught the eye of the team lead, Bill Ferris, who walked over to speak with him. They'd known each other for years, and both men appreciated cutting through the crap to get to the base facts.

"Hi, Bill. What's the news on Cooper and Ryan?" he asked.

"Hey, Roger. Both men are alive and in stable condition, last I heard... though Cooper is missing the first two fingers and a piece of his thumb on his right hand, which is also extensively burned. He might have bled out, but he was found with a rough tourniquet tied very tightly around his hand. Ryan's chest is a mess. Looked like someone hit him with a battering ram. We think he must have been pulling his gun when he was hit, as the barrel was actually jammed between his ribs sideways. Any idea on what they were doing here?" Bill raised an eyebrow when he asked his question, as they both knew there might have been some unofficial activity going down with these two.

"Nothing in their caseload to explain the visit, but I'm waiting on a trace on a call from someone at the Washington Bureau. They may have been directed to be here outside of regular channels." Bannon looked at the scorch marks on the floor and ceiling and looked back at Bill. "Any idea on what went down here?"

"Well, we found the remains of what might be a stun gun, but as you can see from the marks on the ceiling and floor, we believe it exploded, causing a major electromagnetic pulse. To release that much energy, it couldn't have been standard issue. There must have been some modifications, but we haven't found anything yet. I don't know the specifics yet, but we're working on the remains of the weapon." Bill indicated his team, who were carefully picking up debris from the floor and bagging what they found. "Cooper must have been holding the weapon and fired it. The darts had been deployed, but the only trace on the darts were fibers from the cotton t-shirt we found wrapped around Cooper's mutilated hand. Someone, possibly the target, took the time to bandage Cooper's hand with the t-shirt and subsequently saved his life."

Bill continued, "As most of the terminal's power and security lines run through the conduit space just above this ceiling, they got hit with the EMP blast. This knocked out the lights, backup system, and, unfortunately, the security systems, including the cameras. We have no footage from just before the power failure to forty-five minutes afterward."

"There's something else weird." Bill picked up a large evidence bag and showed it to Roger. "This is a police, standard issue expanding baton. As you can see, it has a significant bend, so the baton was used to strike someone or something. So far, we don't believe this was used on Ryan, as none of his injuries show marks from such a narrow surface. None of the surfaces in the washroom, sinks, toilets, stalls, or walls show marks that might explain this damage. From where we found it on the floor, we think Ryan might have been holding it. If it was used on a person, I highly doubt they'd be in any condition to walk away. There's some trace stuck in one of the expanding joints, so we're taking that back to the lab for analysis. So far, that's all we've been able to piece together."

"Thanks, Bill." Bannon gave him a nod and let him return to his team. He felt his phone buzz, so he pulled it out and read the text. "Call to Agent Cooper routed back to the office of Agent Rachel White."

"Damn. Agent White," he growled to himself. His contacts in the Washington office kept him abreast of the movers and shakers at headquarters, and Rachel White was certainly generating a reputation. After transferring from the CIA, she quickly rose through the ranks as a brilliant, if difficult, agent. This rise was often at the expense of her peers, though she never treated them as such. She'd definitely made enemies along the way. However, in all that negative press, he'd also heard things like ridiculously detail-oriented, fanatically determined, headstrong, and willful, which had been written on his own file when he'd been a junior agent.

"Who's the senior agent here?" he heard a loud, demanding voice say from behind him. He intuitively knew who it was.

"Well, damn. She's actually here."

Replacing his surprise with a carefully neutral expression, he turned to face her for the first time. His mind categorized her features quickly. Tall and athletically slim. Ice-blue eyes. Straight black hair hanging to her shoulders. Her pale, almost porcelain skin sharply contrasted with her dark plum lipstick and nail polish. All this was packaged in a sleek, tailored black suit. Severe but sexy... if intensity was your thing.

"That would be me, Agent White," he said.

Those cool eyes locked onto his, and he almost felt it like a physical blow, though he let nothing show. Rachel seemed a little off balance by his greeting. He could see her regroup.

"And you are?" she asked.

"NSA Director Roger Bannon, Los Angeles Division. I believe you have knowledge as to what two of my agents were doing here at the airport?"

Again, a small jolt of surprise ran through her, and her eyes widened. Obviously, this wasn't how she thought this would go.

"Ah, I—I'm not quite sure what—" she began hesitantly.

"Agent Cooper received a call from you at three forty-five PM. He and his partner immediately left for the airport for reasons unrelated to any current case assigned to them. At approximately five thirty PM, Agents Cooper and Ryan confronted person or persons... unknown?" Bannon said, his voice rising in question to indicate he was expecting Agent White to provide this bit of information.

"I'm not sure I can help you—" Rachel began.

"Yet here you are. Directly involved in my investigation affecting two of my agents," Bannon interrupted, his steely voice calm. She might have a slight height advantage over him, but she'd damn well know who was in charge.

"Of course, I'm willing to share my information with you to help in any way I can," she said, backpedaling.

"Great! Let's start with who you directed them to meet," Bannon pushed forward.

Agent White peered over Bannon's head and saw the scorch marks, the debris, and the busy forensic team for the first time. She gasped quietly, and Bannon could see a small smile forming on her lips and a kind of fierce joy flare up in her eyes. "Where are Agents Cooper and Ryan?' she asked quietly as she surveyed the damage, a smile slowly spreading across her face.

Bannon stared at Rachel's expression. Any lingering doubt he might have had of her involvement was gone. Rachel was in it deep. "They were taken to the hospital. Is there something amusing about that, Agent White?" he said, his voice as cold as her eyes.

Rachel's smile disappeared quickly as she realized how inappropriate it was. "No, sir! I'm sorry!" He could see her struggling internally as the look in her eyes swung between an almost fanatical intensity to agonized doubt as she tried to read him.

Bannon asked once more. "Who did you direct them to pick up?"

Rachel's determination seemed to win over her doubt, and her eyes locked on Bannon's. The intensity of her gaze was a little unsettling. "Yes, we should speak... but not in public." She glanced at the reporters, still trying to get attention from anyone with information.

"Fine. Follow me." Without giving her another glance, he set off towards Security, knowing she'd follow. It was the next stop in his investigation anyway, and he could use their interrogation rooms to finally get her part in this cluster fuck. While Bill had indicated the security system had been knocked offline, maybe they'd been able to recover something in the interim.

Once he'd introduced himself to the Airport Security Chief, he asked for a private room to speak with Agent White. Soon, Rachel was sitting across a small table from him, pulling a tablet PC from her case. She set it on the table and activated the screen. She took a moment to center herself before she spoke.

Bannon listened carefully as Rachel meticulously described the events starting when the Neumann siblings entered airport security in Fargo, North Dakota. She presented the data she'd collected from the airport security agent, and he watched the footage of the explosion and reviewed the body scan image. Rachel indicated that the burnt shirt was on its way to the lab, and she hadn't received the report on it yet. While she pointed out things in the video that she felt might be significant, she offered no conjecture, conclusions, opinions, or even theories during her entire presentation. Bannon was impressed, and so far, she was disproving some of the worst elements of her reputation.

He looked at the DMV images of the two young travelers and read the limited information they had on them. He tried to envision how they might be responsible for taking out the two agents in the washroom. Certainly, the man looked physically strong, but when he thought of the extent of the damage, he still felt something was missing from the picture.

Rachel sat across from Bannon, quietly watching him as he processed the evidence she'd collected.

He glanced at her and had to look away when he saw she was unconsciously biting the corner of her lower lip. A slight chill ran down his back as his mind flashed to an image of another woman who used to bite her lip just as Rachel was now. The memory further unsettled him. With an iron will, he pulled his mind back to the present. He felt that she was holding something back. Her information was clear, and he agreed there was enough to warrant a conversation with the Neumanns. He looked up at Rachel again and was surprised to catch on her face an expression of... hope?

"Okay, I believe we need to speak with the Neumanns," he said. Rachel's face lit up with a thousand-watt smile, and he felt a definite pull but locked his emotions down. "Before you get ahead of yourself, there is still the matter of you asking two of my agents to perform an unauthorized detention. And there is a big piece missing. How did your involvement with this begin? Why did the airport security agent contact you specifically?"

Rachel took a deep breath and looked Bannon in the eyes. She steeled herself for the next phase.

"Are you aware of the report I presented to the Washington Director regarding the anomalous gravity fluctuations that have been recorded over the past sixty years?" she asked.

Bannon knew of the report and how badly it had been received. He knew it was likely the main cause of the unofficial blacklisting she was receiving. He'd never had a chance to read it, and it wasn't readily available. "Sorry, I haven't had the opportunity to read it," he said. Rachel looked for scorn but relaxed when she saw none in his eyes and heard none in his voice.

"I won't go into the report's details, but I compiled a listing of geographic locations that experienced brief but extreme gravity field fluctuations combined with higher-than-normal background radiation levels. I then correlated all higher-than-baseline activities recorded in those locations. I believe I found a pattern that warrants further investigation. There is a notably higher number of police reports of fatal accidents, murders... and abductions from these locations around the time of the energy fluctuations. These are hotspots, and I've been monitoring as many as possible with a network of watchers." Rachel glanced at Bannon and was encouraged to continue by his attentive expression.

"Over twenty years ago, one particularly large energy event coincided with a police report of a confrontation with assailants using homemade flame throwers. A male newborn was found at the scene, but the file is incomplete and lacks information on his parents. The infant was adopted by a local family. Today, that same individual traveled from this hotspot to LAX, and you saw the result. This is the first time I've been able to record anomalous activity from someone directly linked to one of these energy events."

Rachel tried to keep her passion from her face, but Bannon could see her almost holding her breath as she watched him, expecting him to reject her findings like everyone else did.

Bannon leaned back in his chair and locked eyes with Rachel. Combined with the information Bill gave him, he was now convinced that he needed to speak with this Joseph Neumann and soon.

God help him. He believed Rachel may have something. He wasn't completely sure what it was yet, but it was becoming obvious to him that she had a keen mind. What she didn't have was the ability to work well with others. Maybe he could help her out with that. He might catch a lot of flak for wanting to work with her, but his gut told him he'd be a damn fool not to.

"Breathe, Agent White," he said.

Not realizing that she hadn't been, she suddenly gasped in relief. Then, that dazzling smile returned. Christ! She looked like a different woman when she smiled... but the intensity remained.

Bannon couldn't stop a smile of his own from slipping onto his face.

Chapter 6

Joe pushed himself back from the dinner table with a deeply satisfied sigh. He was totally unfamiliar with the dishes they'd been served, but each one had been more delicious than the last. Now, he was completely stuffed and feeling more than a little tipsy. Melissa had insisted that he enjoy some of California's best wine with dinner as it perfectly complimented the exquisite flavors of the dishes. Then, a second glass of a different wine with another course as it was better suited. He lost track after Melissa handed him the third glass. He wasn't much of a drinker. For such a big man, he was definitely a lightweight when it came to alcohol.

Their host, Doug, was a gifted hobby chef responsible for creating the entire meal. He truly enjoyed cooking for an audience and complained that he had too few opportunities, so he welcomed their company in his humble home.

Joe took another look around and snorted to himself. Humble was not a word that could be used for such a gorgeous and enormous home. Taking up the entire top floor of a ten-story condo development, the place had to have at least forty-five-hundred square feet of floor-to-ceiling windows, stunning marble, imported tile, rich upholstery, beautiful wall art, and elegant but sturdy wood furniture. The condo had five bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, a living room with a gas fireplace, a small but complete gym, an office for when Doug worked from home from time to time, a world-class kitchen, of course, and a theater room which Doug called his man cave due to its extensive technological wonders.

When Doug wasn't cooking extravagant and delectable meals for guests, he was an entertainment lawyer working for one of the major movie studios. His occupation and some very savvy investing set him up with enough income to afford this little slice of heaven. Those were his words.

While it was much larger than he needed, he took every opportunity to entertain and invite family and friends to stay over. As long as they allowed him to cook for them.

When Joe and Amy learned Doug was involved in the movie industry, they blurted out that they didn't want to impose on Doug's hospitality. Melissa and Doug chuckled about this and explained that Doug had no involvement in the casting side of the business. However, they both insisted they wanted to see Amy act after dinner. She blushed, but the twinkle in her eye let Joe know she was very pleased.

They retired to a comfortable seating area on the wide balcony to finish their wine. Joe switched to water as he knew from his one previous attempt at drinking that he'd pay for it in the morning if he didn't hydrate well. Amy had been drinking water all night as she didn't like alcohol, and it wasn't legal for her to drink in California even had she wanted to. She wasn't going to put her host on the spot like that.

Joe settled himself back against the soft cushions of his lounge chair, which was large enough to be called a bed, and watched his beautiful sister blossom as she was in her element. Melissa and Doug were clapping with delight as Amy slipped from character to character, doing all her favorites from her days on stage in high school and with the troop in the park.

Doug got a distracted look on his face and asked Amy to wait for a second as he rushed off to his office to get something. He came back out with a script in his hands. He told them he was working on a contract to get the movie rights for the play he was holding. Doug confessed that he had read it from front to back and found it very powerful. He asked Amy if she wouldn't mind reading his favorite passage from it.

Amy quickly read over the page and asked Doug for his impressions of how the scene should be played, who he felt the character was, and how they should react. Once Doug finished, she nodded as she read through the page several more times. Doug could see her working her way through the scene as he slowly stepped back to his chair.