Undercover
33 - Ruffled Feathers
xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"
xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
Part 33 – Ruffled
Feathers
Mercifully, Megan didn’t rub it in that Don had screwed up
the interrogation. Instead, she set to
soothing Charlie’s ruffled feathers and left Don to brood in peace.
Don was in the break room, gloomily stirring Splenda into cold
coffee, when something out of the corner of his eye made his head jerk up.
“Dammit!” he swore and raced out of the room.
open the door to the interrogation room and advanced on Rubel.
“Who is stabbing me in the back?” Sanchez demanded.
Rubel stared at her.
“Who is it?” she yelled again.
Don stepped in behind her and said wryly to Rubel, “Matt
Rubel, meet Jan Sanchez, head of the LA office of the DEA.”
“Oh,” Rubel said, his lip curling.
“How many of my raids have you ruined?”
because of you?”
Rubel snorted. “How
many people have you killed this week?”
“I want answers!”
“And I want World Peace,” Rubel said with a sneer.
“Jan,” Don said, taking her arm.
Sanchez glared at him.
“Fine.” She shook off his hand
and stomped out of the interrogation room.
In the hallway outside, she turned on Don and snapped, “Why didn’t you
tell me you had him?”
Don just raised his eyebrows and looked at her.
“Fine,” Sanchez said testily.
“Yeah,” Don admitted, “But it didn’t get me anywhere.”
“You’ve got nothing
from him?”
“Well,” Don said, gesturing for Sanchez to step into the
observation room. “We’ve gotten some,
but not from intimidation.”
Sanchez went into the room, joining Charlie and Megan.
“Could you fill her in?” Don asked Megan.
Megan glanced between him and Charlie then nodded.
“Take a walk with me?” Don asked Charlie.
Charlie grimaced but went out the door.
Don shut the door behind them and said, “I’m sorry.”
Charlie glared at him for a second then, unexpectedly, gave
him a sideways smile. “No, you’re not.”
Don matched his smile and shrugged.
I mean, I’m sorry that you feel like I used you, but I …”
“Used me,” Charlie finished.
“Well, yeah,” Don admitted and pushed open the door to the
outside. “But it worked.
looked out across the city at night. He
was surprised that it was night. He’d
completely lost his connection with normal night and day rhythms, the only
rhythm that mattered was Will’s sleeping and waking cycles.
“You … doing okay?” Charlie asked tentatively.
“Better every day that Will gets better,” Don answered
without looking at Charlie. He hesitated
then asked, trying to sound casual, “How ‘bout you?”
“Me?” Charlie
responded. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, with Will getting shot.
Knowing that it could have been me.
Or Colby.”
Charlie heaved a sigh and leaned on the wall next to Don.
the difficult subject, and a year ago, Charlie would have gotten all tense and
defensive. They’d both grown up in the
tumultuous last year.
“It bothered me,” Charlie confessed.
where you get hurt or killed, then done the same scenarios for Colby.
what seems rational, the best thing to do is not think about it.”
Don chuckled and looked over at Charlie.
“But how do you not
think about something?” Charlie
continued. “It’s like telling you not to
think about green jelly beans and automatically you think about green jelly
beans.”
“Sour apple.”
“See?” Charlie shook his head.
“Yeah,” Don said wryly.
“’Don’t make a will and you never die’ sort of attitude.
“Like this time,” Charlie agreed.
“I know, I know,” Don said. “Will and I will talk about
signing some form or something, soon.”
“You won’t just not think about it again?”
“Nope,” Don said definitely.
“If Min had thrown me out, I think I would have done something really
stupid, like taking armed control of Will’s hospital room.
“And with Colby’s family …” Charlie said.
“Yeah,” Don said. At
least it had been Min against the rest of Will’s family.
get shut out completely.
They gazed over the city for a moment, contemplating the
unfairness of the situation, then Don said, “We better go back in.”
They returned to the observation room to find it crowded
with agents. Colby and David had joined
Sanchez and Megan and they were all watching a recording of Charlie and Rubel’s
conversation, interrupted as it was with Don’s intrusions.
Charlie watched but Don leaned against the wall and looked
elsewhere. He had no desire to see
himself screwing up, hearing it was plenty.
After Rubel had stopped talking and David had turned off the
recording, there was a thoughtful silence in the room.
“Maybe he really did pull the info on secret drug raids out
of the air,” Charlie mused.
“You mean, like bugs?”
“We get the office swept regularly, in fact, more often than the regs
say.”
“But what about an electronic bug?
asked.
Sanchez shook her head.
“The computer security is state of the art, best around.
“Well,” Charlie said with an apologetic shrug.
security, but if anyone could do it, he could.”
“So, he’s not only broken in, but still in and completely
invisible?” Sanchez threw up her
hands. “Great, that’s helpful.”
“I could look around,” Charlie said meekly.
Don was surprised to see Charlie look apologetic.
be feeling guilty for being such a drooling fan girl to the man who got Will
hurt. Don flashed a grateful smile
at Megan, who must have helped Charlie see Don’s point of view.
“Knock yourself out,” Sanchez said, a little testily.
can’t.”
Charlie nodded. “I’ll
start right on—”
“In the morning,” Colby interrupted firmly.
“But—”
“Rubel’s not sending out any more emails tonight,” Colby
said. “You haven’t been sleeping well
since Will got shot.
You are going home to bed.”
Charlie looked like he was going to argue, but Colby just
turned him around and gave him a gentle shove towards the door.
Charlie’s face flushed with embarrassment as he said to
Sanchez, “First thing tomorrow.”
Don saw that even Sanchez had to smile at the sight of Colby
being a mother hen to a grown man.
“Tomorrow, then,” she said.
“David, could you put Rubel in lock-up for the night?” Don
asked. “I’m gonna go see Will and tell
him what’s been going on.” He gave
Sanchez a tired smile. “And he’s gonna
be a lot more pissed than you.”