The door was nearly shut as Tesar slid into the room which made Zeleny’s head pop up to look at him. He got up and walked to Tesar, “let’s get her out of here. She’s still under but is coming out of it.”
The motion of the car was her first inclination of consciousness as they drove to the apartment. The sounds of the city slowly began to increase in volume and she could begin to feel the wind blowing on her face. She kept her eyes closed and drifted in her half conscious state. As the car went around a corner she felt a hand hold her head from lolling to the side.
The car stopped and she felt herself lifted from the car and set into a wheelchair. Her eyes still shut she was rolled into the elevator and she knew the feeling well as it began to rise. As she was rolled down the hallway from the elevator she chanced to crack her eyes open but the brightness shocked her and she closed them tight again.
Zeleny lifted her from her wheelchair and lowered her onto the bed which she recognized the softness instantly. She slowly opened her eyes as Zeleny’s form gradually came into focus next to the bed she mumbled, “where, where…?”
“Just go, I’ll get her settled then be out,” Zeleny said as he sat on the edge of the bed and brushed his hand over her hair.
Her eyes finally focused and she looked over to Zeleny and asked, “did it go okay?”
“It went fine, just took a while. You just need to stay resting here for a while. Let the anesthesia were off,” he replied.
She smacked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and the crackle made her wince, “I need water.”
Zeleny grabbed a partial bottle from the bedside table and handed it to her. She lifted her head a bit to drink and managed to get most of it in her mouth as some ran down her cheeks and around to her neck. Zeleny grabbed a tissue and quickly dabbed it away before she laid her head back on the pillow.
“Does your leg hurt at all?”
She reached with her hand and her fingertips touched the bandage wrapped over her leg, “a little, but it’s still pretty numb.”
“Do you want anything to eat? I can go check the kitchen for something.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled, “yeah, I just want something light right now.”
“I’ll go see if we have crackers or something,” Zeleny said as he stood from the edge of the bed.
“More water too,” she said as he walked out of the room.
After a few minutes he returned with a bottle of water and a box of saltine crackers which he pulled a sleeve from and opened for her before setting next to her on the bed.
“Thanks,” she said as she pulled a stack from the sleeve.
She slid a cracker into her mouth and began to chew then slowed as she thought. She pushed herself up on her elbows and looked around the room. Her eyes landed on the bag of her clothes from the surgery that were sitting in the wheelchair by the bedroom door. She could see the shape of the shoulder bag pressed against the side and she smiled as she finished chewing.
“Are you going to be fine here? We’ve got to go take care of some things before tomorrow,” Zeleny asked.
“I’m okay, I just want to rest for a while longer.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later,” he said as he closed the bedroom door behind him.
She pushed herself to a sitting position on the bed and continued to eat crackers from the sleeve interspersed with drink of water from the bottle. After half the sleeve was gone she again looked over to the wheelchair. Her legs slid off the edge of the bed and she teetered against the bed for a moment before she slowly walked to the bag then took it back to the bed. She opened the string on the end and upended the bag, the contents fell out on the bed, the shoulder bag landing on top of the pile.
Her hands trembled slightly as she opened the bag to reveal the bundles of cash which she pulled out one by one and set on the bed. Soon she had a stack of seven bundles of hundred dollar bills. She picked the top one up and flipped the bills on one end as she looked at all the numbers. The corners of her mouth turned up and soon her face was in full smile.
The keys of the keyboard clacked quickly as Agent Brent Monroe typed. His fingers worked fast to output the thoughts that streamed from his head. He glanced down at the top page of the stack of papers next to him occasionally while he typed then looked back to the screen.
“Beep, beep, beep,” the sudden sound of his phone startled him.
He continued typing as he looked to the screen for the caller id and saw it was Director Cross. He typed a last quick flurry then picked up the phone, “yes sir?” he said.
“Brent, I’ve got questions about the case, I need you in my office,” CIA Director Ferdinand (Ferd) Cross said firmly.
“Okay, I’ll be there in a bit, I just have to finish this part of my report,” Brent replied.
“I have meetings after noon so make it fast,” Ferd said then hung up the phone.
Brent looked back to the paper then continued to hammer away at the keyboard for another five minutes before he stopped, saved his file, and closed the laptop. He glanced at his watch at just before 10:00am as he walked out of his office.
He rode the elevator up two floors to the management floor and walked down the open and bright hallway to Ferd’s office. He knocked and Ferd motioned him in.
“You wanted me?” Brent said as he closed the door behind him.
Ferd motioned to the chair in front of his desk as he said, “Brent, good. I need to know where you are on the case. We’re getting a lot of pressure from the White House to get this taken care of as soon as possible. There is a lot of fear about having that stuff in public.”
“We’re really close now. The brothers are likely to cooperate with us, everyone has a price. We’ve dialed in on the bartender that has a price and now I’m just needing to try to convince Anika to turn the canister over. Zeleny is the one wild card we haven’t managed to get yet.”
“Make damn sure you don’t have any problems, that canister would cause serious problems if it were to have the contents exposed. The last thing we need is a crisis that big in this city,” Ferd said directly as his eyes narrowed.
“I get it, I just need a little more time and I’ll have it. It’s helped having the division get us into the FBI files, it saved a lot of legwork.”
“Make sure to keep this operation out of sight and keep me informed, I need some answers for them sooner than later,” Ferd said as he pointed to the ceiling.
“Sure thing,” Brent said as he stood then asked, “our only concern is the canister right?”
“Correct. Just minimize the collateral damage,” Ferd agreed.
Brent nodded then walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.
He rode the elevator back down to his office floor but instead of going to his office he went straight to office for the lab. He peaked through the glass window beside the office door and saw Wen at his desk, then knocked on the door before opening it and walking in.
Wen watched Brent as he entered, “agent Monroe,” he greeted him.
“Wen,” Brent replied with a nod as he pulled a chair out from a desk against the wall and sat down in front of Wen’s desk. “I’m curious if you’ve been able to source the agent yet?”
Wen stood and walked to chemical storage locker in the corner of the office and opened the doors. “Yeah, we were able to have cryo pull a small bit from storage. It took a bit to make the capsules that wouldn’t dissolve too fast but we figured it out in the end.”
He pulled two small amber glass vials from the top shelf then closed the doors before walking around his desk to stand beside Brent. He handed the vials to Brent who took them between his finger tips and held them up in front of his face.
“Those are capsules?” Brent asked as he shook the vials gently. “Those look like poppy seeds.”
Wen chuckled and said, “you definitely don’t want those on your bagel.”
“I presume they’ll dissolve fast?” he chuckled.
“Instantly on contact with liquid. Alcohol works the fastest but most any liquid will work. The hard part was making them only dissolve with liquid, if the air was too humid they would melt.”
“It’s what I wanted. Keep the recipe cause these will likely be extremely handy for a lot of situations. You can capsule pretty much anything or is there limits?”
“Well, the smaller the molecule the better, and the more potent the better. Otherwise they start getting far to big. Really that’s the main limiting factor if you want it clandestine.”
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