"Sounds like a plan coming together!" Tracy said with a chuckle. "So how’s Katie doing at the lodge?"

"’Bout as good as the rest of us. Still nothing concrete." Then Dean located the room Katie was in and set the audio to match.

"… you and your sister had fun growing up in this lodge." Katie’s voice came over the headphones.

"Yep. Me and Lilly had a lot of fun in this place." El’s voice replied.

"What kinds of games did you have to play as kids? Our family plays a lot of board games now and even when we were kids. Monopoly, Clue, Chinese checkers, that sort of thing. How about you?"

"Oh, we didn’t have a lot of money for store bought games. We just played a lot with our imaginations making up games. We did play card games a lot though… and oh my… we’d have lots of fun playing hide and seek in the lodge and out on the grounds."

"Really? You mean the grown ups didn’t mind you playing in the lodge?"

"Oh no. Mr. G’s parents didn’t mind at all. See, we were almost the same age as their kids so we played a lot with them. As long as we didn’t get under foot or disturb the guests, we pretty much had free reign of the lodge." El said then added, "This was quite the family place to vacation back then."

"Hide and seek huh? Bet that was fun in a big place like this."

That’s my woman… Dean thought to herself…see what you can find out about this lodge… see if there’s any secrets still to be had in the old place. Dean was mentally urging Katie on with this round of conversation. She looked over at Tracy who was smiling back and giving her a thumbs up signal.

"Oh, it certainly was. Why there’s so many places to hide in from the attic to the cellar we could play all day and not get bored." El was chuckling at the memories of good times past. "Why… my favorite trick was to use the dumb waiter to get past my sister and the boys." She snickered some more. "They never could figure out how I could get from the attic to the cellar without being seen on the stairs!"

"What fun!" Katie said trying to keep the mood going. "Sometimes I wish I could use a dumb waiter to sneak away from some of these guests. Especially some of the men… if you know what I mean." Katie said in a low conspiratorial voice. "It’s a good thing Darla is pregnant or they’d be after her too!"

"Oh sweetie, I know just what you mean. I’m glad I’m an old hag or I’d be puttin’ a few of them in their place mighty fast." She said in a whisper.

"Well, I would too, except I really need this job and can’t afford to offend anyone… but a few tricks might come in handy."

Dean could almost see the emerald eyes doing their poor puppy dog routine on El and she chuckled inwardly. Atta way Katie… go for it!

"Well, I really shouldn’t be tellin’ ya this but that old dumb waiter is still intact and operational. In fact, when no one’s here I often use it to cart stuff up and down these floors so’s I don’t have to carry ‘em." El chuckled lightly. "Of course, I’m too old and too big now to fit in it like I used to, but you could fit!"

"Wow! That would be really cool El. Can you tell me where it is?"

Dean could hear the hopefulness in Katie’s voice as she and Tracy listened in and watched Katie’s blue dot on the screen.

"Sure thing sweetie. But it’s got to be our little secret. Come with me."

The ethereal body with the blue dot and another reddish orange body signifying El started to move. The two bodies went into the pantry area where they stopped.

"It’s right here behind this door. Mr. G’s Dad didn’t want to get rid of it ‘cause it was a nice old fashioned feature of the lodge but he didn’t want to use it either so he built this broom closet in front of it. If I hadn’t grown up in this place I never woulda’ known it was there! See, this panel just slides over like this…." The women listening in could hear a creaking, sliding noise. "And there it is!" El finished with a flourish. The space was about five foot square and five foot high. "You’d hafta scrunch down, but it’s sturdy enough to carry over three hundred pounds. Built with steel cables and not ropes. They used it to carry fireplace wood, small pieces of furniture and the like and of course the boot legged booze!"

"Whoa! That’s so cool! So where does it let out?" Katie’s voice could hardly contain her excitement. She noted that it was electric by the red and green buttons and the up and down indicators. She also noted a hand crank that was probably used prior to it being electrified.

"Well," began El. "It goes clear up to the attic following the length of the chimney that’s here to the right. In the attic it lets out behind the chimney. Then on the third floor, which we haven’t used for years, it lets out in the bathroom on this end of the lodge behind the towel rack. You just pull on the rack and the door pops open. It’s set up pretty clever, you’d never know there was a door behind the towel rack." El paused for a breath before continuing. "Let’s see now… on the second floor it lets out in the back of the hall linen closet next to that oriental ladies room, then here on the main floor… then behind the chimney again in the basement. You just push the button for up or down, green for go and red for stop. Each entrance has a call button to bring the dumb waiter up or down when it’s needed."

Bingo! Thought all three women. "I wonder if Kasimov knows about this?" Tracy asked as she looked over at Dean.

"Probably not from the sounds of the conversation with El." Dean answered back. It almost seemed as though Katie was tuned into the conversation the two women just had because in her next sentence she asked if Ezra knew about the dumb waiter.

"Nope!" El said with a proud voice. "I never told Ezra about it. Had to make him wonder how I’d get my linen’s and things moved up and down so quickly, but it was always my little secret. I’ll even bet a week’s wages that old Mr. G forgot all about it too. Now… it’s our little secret!" You could hear the giggle of both women as the creaking and sliding noise indicated the closure of the dumb waiter.

"Gee thanks El." Katie’s voice came across the headphones. "I promise never to tell anyone." Except maybe my partner, and the task force… and maybe I should tell Lin too, just in case. Katie mused as she and El stepped out of the pantry.

"Well, it looks like there’s another way into that cellar that no one knows about except El and now Katie." Dean said as she slipped off her headphones.

"Yeah, that sure is good to know." Tracy said as she took her headphones off too. "Now all you need is an opportunity to get in and out without anyone being the wiser."

"It sure would help if we could find something… anything… that would clue us in on the target’s and the location of the drug canisters. I’m not holding my breath though, what with the four added guards and Dimitri." Dean studied the lodge lay out and located the approximate position of the dumb waiter. "Wish we knew more about the layout of the cellar."

"Hmm, that would be helpful. Maybe Katie can get that info from Lin at their next get-together?"

Dean nodded her head then sighed. "I wish there was a better way for those two to pass information. I know it makes Katie uncomfortable but at least no one’s tumbled to them yet."

"How about you…" Tracy asked with a serious look at her friend. "Does it make you uncomfortable too?"

Dean thought a minute before she answered her friend. "Yeah… I guess it does. I know it’s just a means of passing information, but I can’t help feeling a bit…"

"Jealous?" Came the answer from Tracy. Dean just lowered her head and nodded. "Well, if it’s any consolation, I would be jealous too if was my Col in that situation."

"Speaking of Colleen," Dean raised her head and lifted an eyebrow. "She’s really into technology. Computers and audio/visual stuff right?"

"Right… so…"

"Do you think she’d mind going over the tapes from the night the two FBI agents were killed? I know it’s a lot to ask. It is pretty gruesome." Dean shook her head then added, "I guess I’m grabbing at straws for answers. And I’ll try to get them any way I can."

"It’s okay Dean. I’m sure she won’t mind. What are you looking for?"

"That mind control drug needs some kind of an external stimulus to activate it. We just can’t put our finger on it yet. Maybe a fresh point of view will help." Dean shrugged and went to the tape storage area to pull the audio and video tapes from that night. "Here’s the originals… we’ve got plenty of copies out at the courts. And tell Col thanks."

"Sure thing Dean. I’ll give them to her this afternoon. I’ve got to run by her office anyway so I’ll drop them off after lunch. And speaking of lunch… you interested?"

The two friends left the surveillance room after putting new tapes in the machine. On their way out, Linna asked Tracy if she’d mind stopping at Gino’s to pick up an order for her. Linna said she’d call it in so it would be ready for them on the way back to the office. Then she went back to her typing until she was sure they were gone.

Okay, I’ve got maybe forty-five minutes to do some snooping. Linna thought to herself as she locked the door to the office, put the ‘time return’ sign on the door, then unlocked the surveillance room. She slipped on the headphones and began to listen.

"Hey El, do you need help putting this grocery order away?"

Linna recognized the voice as Katie’s but wasn’t surprised at all. Not after her last peek into this room when she figured out the two women must be undercover cops.

"Sure would appreciate the help. Most of the canned goods go into the cupboards in the pantry. I’ll get the rest put onto the refrigerator."

The secretary recognized that voice as belonging to El Schlott, housekeeper and long time employee at ‘The Lodge.’ I certainly hope that El and Ezra aren’t involved in anything illegal. Naahh! Linna thought as she continued to listen.

"Boy this sure has been a weird winter so far."

Hmmm, Katie’s making with the small talk… Wonder how long she’s been working there?

"That’s just fine by me." Came El’s response. "I certainly have learned to appreciate warmer weather and I’m in no hurry to have winter to return."

"I like warmer weather too, but I guess winter will arrive one of these days."

"Ezra says were gonna have some bad weather soon."

"Oh? What makes him say that?"

"His knees. They always act up when the weather gets bad. He says were liable to have a nasty storm in the next week or so."

"Well, if he’s right, he’s a better forecaster than the weather channel!"

Linna could hear both women giggling. Well, it doesn’t sound like much going on right now. I really don’t want to change any of these dials. I almost got caught the last time. Guess I’ll just have to try again another time. Then Linna took the headphones off and was careful to replace them exactly where she found them, then left the room locking it behind her.

* * * * * * * * *

Thursday… 2000 Hours…

Dean and Katie were at the court building going through a briefing of the days work from the task force. So far no good news was reported.

"That special breaker box won’t be in until morning." Gus commented, as it was his turn to report. "I’m glad you still had the console at your other location still operating. We should be back on line by noon tomorrow, then we can take down that other console."

"No need. I’ll take care of it myself." Dean cut in.

"Okay, sure. Whatever you think is best." Gus said.

"I just want you to put your full attention into solving the mystery on those tapes. The other console is of no significance now." Dean explained as she smiled at Gus. "Now for a little good news." She turned to Katie for her turn to report.

"Today I was having a conversation with El, the housekeeper, and found out about a secret dumb waiter…. " She went on to inform the group about it’s location, size, and operation before she completed her report.

"That may come in handy if we ever have the opportunity to get in." This came from Bruce as he looked up at Dean for confirmation.

"Yeah, but only if we have the opportunity. I don’t want to scare off Kasimov before we know more." Dean returned the look to Bruce who nodded in agreement. "Until then, we won’t be using it. Anybody have anything else they want to say?"

No one ventured to add anything else so Dean called the briefing to a close then she and Katie went into the small office.

"Something’s gotta give soon. We don’t have much time left." Dean said with a sigh as she sat in her chair. "Did you get anything from Lin today?"

"No, we just kept up our daily ‘contact’ to keep up appearances but she hasn’t heard anything either. She did think that Natasha will be going to join Kasimov for the weekend. That would leave Dimitri and the four guards behind to keep an eye on things."

"She’s not thinking of doing anything rash is she?" Dean lifted an eyebrow as she looked over at Katie.

"I don’t think so, but I’ll warn her off if you want me to."

"Just tell her to wait a bit. We don’t want to do anything prematurely and scare Kasimov off." Dean said as she stood. "Let’s go home and get some rest. We can’t do anymore here."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Part IV

Sunday… 1200 Hours… Six Days Before Christmas

It had been a long week and the teams were starting to get on each other’s nerves. The tension was so thick, Dean had opted to meet Tracy at the office rather than do her surveillance at the court building. Together they kept an eye on the young agent as she performed her routine at the lodge. She figured this would give the teams time to work together without having to feel stressed by her presence. The physical complex at the court building was actually looking a bit better since the new circuits, heaters, and kitchen were installed. At least everyone seemed to be in a better mood now that they didn’t have to put up with the intermittent lack of heat and power, but the pressures of the case were taking their toll. Especially since they had not been able to make much progress in their respective areas. Bruce and his team were still whittling away at the myriad of possible scenarios and they were actually making progress. Gus unfortunately was still coming up empty on locating any possible stimulus from the tapes, but his team had been preoccupied with the circuitry installation that had taken longer than expected. Now that it was complete, they could focus on their task without interruption.

Dr. Berg and her team had relocated to the local hospital where they could avail themselves of the necessary medical equipment in the hospital laboratory and pathology departments. General James had pulled some strings with the hospital CEO who just happened to be an old West Point colleague and got them in without questions being asked. Dr. Berg was eliminating as many false leads as she could on her trail to finding the stimulus for the mind control drug. The team did find that the drug could remain dormant in the body until activated for an undetermined length of time, perhaps weeks. She assumed that once the stimulus activated it, the ninety-six hour life span would then start ticking away. Unfortunately, they still had not discovered the enigmatic stimulus to test this assumption. This new information came through a new team member that had been flown in from California. A forensic pathologist whose specialty was on the cellular level, Dr. Leigh Randall discovered that the drug had an affinity for brain tissue. She explained that it was similar to oxygen attaching itself to the red blood cells until it was needed when it would then be released to the cells requiring it. Only in this case, the elusive stimulus was the cause for detachment of the drug, which would then enable the nervous system to provide the actions indicated by the verbal cues given. Dr. Randall also found that the drug would ‘pool’ mostly in central nervous system tissue, specifically the gray matter, although, it was found in miniscule amounts in other tissues of the body. The ability of the drug to lay dormant in the body for two weeks was not good news. If Kasimov’s plan was going to take place sometime between Christmas and New Year’s, that meant they had to find out where the drugs were this week. That prospect was looking pretty dim right now.

"How’s Col doing with the tape project?" Dean asked during a lull in the surveillance conversations.

"She’s really been trying to get you something concrete, but so far no go. She’s not about to give up though." Tracy added hastily. "She knows how much this assignment means to you."

"Yeah, I’d like to really nail that bastard." Dean said with a feral smile.

Following a pause, Tracy decided to while away the time on mundane conversation. "We’re really enjoying Katie’s cats. Brutus loves playing with them. How did you adjust to them when they were at your place?"

"Actually, I was becoming pretty fond of them. They all have pretty distinct personalities. We’ll both be glad to get them back." Dean said with a smile then continued. "When I was a kid, we always had animals around. We had cats, dogs, cows, horses, and even an old goat." This brought out one of those dazzling smiles that could just take your breath away. "I used to hate going out into the pasture when the goat was around. It used to sneak up on me when I would feed the cows or brush the horses. Wham! She’d butt you right in the old derriere every time!" She shook head chuckling at the memory. "I finally learned to recognize when she was coming. I guess that goat had a lot to do with my ability to perceive would-be attacks from the rear!"

"Col and I really love Brutus. He’s a great German Shepard… really loyal and smart as a whip too! The other day I taught him how to open the back door using his mouth!" Tracy said in excitement. "He’s been bugging me a lot lately to let him out in the backyard and I just got tired of getting up to let him out."

"What? No doggie door?" Dean said a little sarcastically. "I’ll bet it was hard for you to get your mouth open wide enough to grab the handle." She finished with a soft pat on Tracy’s shoulder.

"Verrry funny Dean and no, no doggie door… too drafty in the winter." Tracy’s eyes just twinkled mischievously back at Dean. "Actually, I just sat in my chair and verbally told him what to do. Next thing I knew, he walked over to the door, opened it, and let himself out! Cool eh?"

"Not bad, Tracy. Any chance I can get him on my team?"

"I bet he’d love that! Though he has been acting a bit weird lately… must be a change in the weather is coming. In fact the cats have been a little on edge in the evenings too."

"Hmmm, could be. We’ve gotten away with really mild weather so far. Can you believe it was almost sixty the other day? I thought the Catskills would be buried in snow by now." Dean said as she switched tacks on the audio surveillance.

"Been that way for two, no, three winters now. Haven’t been able to get my cross-country skiing programs going at all. Well, maybe after Christmas." Tracy said as the two women stopped their conversation to listen in on an interesting one at the lodge.

They didn’t recognize the voices as any of the ‘guests’ or the staff, especially since they

were speaking with a very heavy Russian accent.

"Hey Mika, I hear the General is coming back tonight with that bitch, Natasha."

"That’s what I heard too. Maybe we’ll get to go home soon. This place gives me the creeps."

"Me too. I hate being in the dungeon all the time. Do you suppose Dimitri will find out we came outside in the daylight?

"I hope not. He would probably kill us on the spot! We better get back in."

"Hmmm, interesting. Must have been two of the guards. At least we know that Kasimov is coming back. Maybe we’ll get some new information." Dean was saying as she continued to rotate the scanning dial. "I wish there was some way we could alert Lin that he’s coming back. Guess we’ll have to play it by ear."

Tracy nodded then the two women continued their surveillance in relative quiet. At 1500 Tracy left the office to return home and Dean continued her watch as she waited for Katie to arrive after her shift at the lodge was over. At 1530 Katie pulled into the parking lot and entered the office. She passed Linna pulling out of the drive just as she turned the corner to pull in.

"Hey love, how’s it going here?" Katie said in a chipper voice as she entered the surveillance office and walked over to give Dean a big hug.

"Same old, same old. But it looks like the lodge is getting company tonight." Dean replied as she stood and took the young woman in her arms. "Tracy and I overheard two of the guards talking. Kasimov and Natasha are coming back tonight." The tall agent leaned her head down and placed a very long, very tender, and very loving kiss on the smaller woman’s lips. They lingered that way for a while enjoying the comfort of each others touch, totally caught up in each others eyes, before Katie was finally able to speak.

"Mmm, now that’s the way I like coming home from work!" She looked up into the gorgeous blue eyes across from her and winked, before she got serious again. "Yeah, Lin already knew about Kasimov and Natasha. Dimitri told them all there would be a meeting tomorrow after lunch." She paused then asked as an after thought, "Was Linna here earlier?"

"Linna? No, just Tracy. Why?" The blues looked back into the emeralds questioningly.

"Hmm, well she was pulling out of the parking lot driveway as I came around the corner. I tried to wave, but she didn’t see me."

"Well, maybe she was just cutting through from the back lot." Dean said as the two women sat down to discuss the day.

* * * * * * * * * *

Darn! Thought Linna as she pulled out of the driveway from the parking lot. I thought for sure I was going to be able to sneak in for another listen. Sure wish I knew what kind of a schedule they’re following. It would definitely make my snooping easier. Guess I’ll just have to come back another time. Then Linna turned out of the drive and headed home not seeing the young agent turn the corner and wave.

* * * * * * * * *

"So… there’s going to be another meeting of the reps, eh? Hope he lets a little more out of the bag. We’re not doing to well on our end so anything he can throw us will be a bonus."

"Lin said it’s got something to do with their assignments." Katie said as she pulled her chair closer to Dean.

"Assignments… good. Maybe that’ll be the break we need." Dean considered as she pulled Katie out of her chair and into her lap.

"It’s a good thing Dimitri told them. Lin was ready to do some serious snooping tonight. She’d figured she could run the shower with the bath door open, fogging both surveillance lenses, then put a ‘fake’ body in the bed using extra blankets I’d been dropping off. That way if Dimitri looked in on her room she’d appear to be sleeping." The blonde informed Dean. "I was not looking forward to trying to talk her out of that. She’s a very determined woman, ya know."

A shake of the long black tresses as Dean replied. "All this sitting around and waiting has got to be tough on her. Believe me, if I were in her place, I would have been snooping a long time ago."

"We must be getting close to Kasimov’s target date. Does Bruce have any solid scenarios yet?" Katie asked she rested her head on Dean’s shoulder enjoying the scent of White Diamonds on her lover while she began nibbling on her ear lobe.

"Mmmmm… what?" Came the sultry reply.

"I said… has Bruce… come up… with any… scenarios?" The blonde repeated pausing between words to lick, then kiss, and finally… gently… exhale each word into her lover’s ear.

The gentle teasing became too much for the older agent to ignore so she slowly got up carrying the young agent in her arms, who incidentally did not protest this move, and walked over to the lone couch in the room. As she sat down on the couch, still holding Katie in her arms, she replied, "I guess we’ll just have to wait until later to find out." Then she reached over and pulled the young woman into a kiss that drove all thought of anything other than each other totally and completely out of their minds.

* * * * * * *

By 2000 hours, after a quick trip home for a bite to eat, shower, and change of clothes the two agents made their way back to the court building at the old resort complex. They informed the teams of the coming return of Kasimov and Natasha and the meeting scheduled for tomorrow after breakfast. Then each team leader went through a summary of their day’s accomplishments. This didn’t take long. Bruce was the only one with a fairly lengthy report as he reviewed the latest scenarios and explained why some were eliminated.

"In conclusion, I’d have to take an educated guess that whatever’s coming down will be in either Albany, Boston, New York City, or Washington, D.C. Otherwise Kasimov would not be based here in the Catskills." Bruce concluded. " By car, Albany and New York City are just an hour and a half away. Boston and D.C. are more like five to six hours out, but still not a bad hike from here. All are a stone’s throw if they use air transportation."

"I doubt that." Dean interjected. "Too many bodies to move to use air. They’ll probably move them by car, van or truck."

"Or possibly the train. There are several Metro stations throughout the area." Suggested Gus. They all nodded in agreement at Gus’s comment.

"Well, at least we’ve got it narrowed down to four probable target areas. Good work Bruce, but keep on it, we’re running out of time." Katie said. "If the good doctors over here are on track with their drug dormancy theory, our possible victims may already be ingesting, inhaling, or absorbing it."

"Yeah," the ex-Seal replied. "That’s just what we were thinking too."

"Okay then. It should be a quiet evening at the lodge tonight, so you might want to let your teams get some needed rest. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get lucky." Dean suggested at the conclusion of the briefing

* * * * * * * *

Monday… 0530 hours…

Dean rolled over and turned the alarm off as Katie turned over and stared at the ceiling. The two women had spent most of the evening going over all the facts of the case and had come to the same conclusion. They needed a break and they needed one soon. They both agreed that the most logical target areas were Albany or New York City, and the latter was the most probable, only they couldn’t rule out D.C. entirely. They also had to assume that the target population was already exposed to the drug, but how was another question and who and why were even bigger ones. If the drug was already out in the target population, then they had to concentrate on finding the elusive stimulus that makes it work.

"Gods, Dean. I hope we can get to the bottom of this soon." Katie sighed as she turned her gaze toward her partner. "There’s enough of that drug out there to affect millions of people."

Dean rolled to face her lover and reached over to gently caress Katie’s cheek with her strong hand. "I hope so too love." Then she swallowed hard before she began to speak again. "I want you to be extra cautious from here on out. Don’t take any chances and make sure your ‘toys’ are on you at all times." She peered intently into the emerald eyes across from her. "We’ll be watching every move at the lodge so if you need help all you have to do is ask for it."

"I know." Came the soft reply as she reached up and held the hand to her cheek. "But we can’t be storming the place until we find out what’s going down. Otherwise we’ve wasted all this time and Kasimov wins again."

No way love, Kasimov will not win this time… I guarantee it!" Dean said with such conviction that Katie truly believed in her partner’s words.

"All right Dean." Katie spoke quietly. "Let’s get him together!"

* * * * * * * * *

Monday… 1400 Hours…

Dean and Gus were intently listening to the voices coming from the dining room at the lodge as the meal concluded and Kasimov began to speak.

"Ladies… and gentlemen. Thank you for humoring me and keeping to my request not to leave the premises. I know that this may have been a very difficult task. Some of you, I’m sure you have enjoyed the time to relax…."

Come on, come on…. Get to the point…. Thought a very inwardly anxious but outwardly cool Lin as she sat in silence with Ito and Hiro. Let’s get to this new information… I want to end this now!

The house staff was ordered to remain in the kitchen while Kasimov talked to his ‘guests’ and they were all availing themselves to a needed rest and a wonderful lunch. All except for Katie who appeared to be enjoying with the rest of the staff, while in actuality she wanted to be a fly on the wall. Guess I’ll have to wait to get the scoop from Lin… or the team later. I just hope this will be the proverbial straw that we’ve been clutching for.

"…while others of you are eager to know more about the plans I have in mind." Kasimov paused for effect knowing the tension in the room was thick and he was enjoying every minute of it. "Natasha… please pass out the information to our esteemed partners."

"Damn it!" Dean and Gus cursed along with a silent one from Lin at the lodge. "Now we’ll only get a piece of the picture. I hope Katie has an opportunity to meet with Lin this afternoon." The tall agent commented as Gus nodded in affirmation. "Their meetings have not been as consistent as I had hoped thanks to a meddling Ito. According to Katie he wants in on their ‘action.’ They’ve been putting him off by not meeting as often." Dean explained as they both continued to listen.

"Once you have had time to read over your instructions, you will be needing to make arrangements to meet with your people at the prescribed locations. Natasha and I will be leaving in the morning so if you have any questions I suggest you contact me before we leave. Dimitri will remain here until you have all left per your instructions. If anyone needs to reach me, please contact Dimitri."

The General finished his short speech and Dean and Gus watched Kasimov’s and Natasha’s ghostly signatures disappear into the impenetrable labyrinth of the cellar.

"Well, I guess I could try to contact Katie at the lodge." Dean suggested as Gus thought about that for a moment.

"Are you sure that’s wise Colonel?" He asked as Dean just shrugged.

"It’s either that or wait till tomorrow to find out what the Japanese groups instructions are." She replied as she picked up the phone and dialed the number for the lodge.

"The line is probably not secure." Gus reminded the tall agent who nodded in comprehension as the phone was answered at the other end.

"Lodge. How can I help you?" Came El’s very familiar voice.

"Hi. This is Mrs. Miller. My daughter Katie is working thar today. May Ah please speak with her?" Dean did a fairly good impression of a woman in her fifties from the south.

"Sure thing Mrs. Miller." El put her hand over the receiver and called to Katie. "Katie, it’s your Mom." Then extended the phone out to a somewhat startled Katie.

"Um, thanks." Katie managed to get out as she placed the receiver to her ear. "Mom?"

"Hi sweet pea. I’m sorry ta hafta bother ya’ll at work, but Ah need ya ta stop and pick up some of that ol’ Japanese shark oil from the health food store on your way home. Your little sister didn’t get the message at school today, and your pappa really needs that oil."

"Oh, um, sure Mom. I’ll do my best to remember." Katie answered still somewhat thrown.

"Thank ya sweet pea… love ya!" Then Dean put the receiver down smiling to herself.

"Love you too Mom." Katie replied into the receiver as she handed it back to the waiting El.

"Everything okay at home sweetie?" El asked, concerned at the confusion on Katie’s face.

"Um… ah… actually yeah. The blonde said snapping out of her thoughts. "Mom just needs me to bring something home from the store tonight. I was just surprised to hear from her." Katie then returned to the table to gather her composure. Guess that means they didn’t get enough information on their end and they want me to meet with Lin. Okay, I can do that. I just hope that Ito doesn’t get in the way today.

The staff was just finishing up their lunch when Natasha came into the kitchen and gave orders to clear the dining room. When she left, El and Ezra just looked at each other and you could see them biting their lips to keep from making any comments. Hmm, guess they don’t like her either. Katie considered as she picked up her dishes and rinsed them before putting them in the large commercial dishwasher.

"I’ll go start clearing the tables." Katie offered.

"Thank you sweetie." El said as she slowly got up. "Darla will give you a hand just as soon as we finish up in here."

Katie nodded and took a large serving tray with her into the dining room. When she walked in she saw Lin, Ito and Hiro putting papers back in a manila envelope and rise to leave the table. Their table was fairly close to Katie, so she picked the one next to it to start cleaning. Lin watched Katie out of the corner of her eye then motioned towards the upstairs when she saw Katie look over. Ito too noticed the motion, but did not say anything to his beautiful partner. Instead, he decided that maybe today would be his lucky day and he walked out of the dining room smiling.

Katie glanced at her watch as she and Darla brought in the last of the lunch dishes from the dining room. It was 1430 and she had only a half hour left on her shift. She needed to get upstairs and meet with Lin quickly. She grabbed her cleaning supplies and headed up the back stairs.

"I’m going to finish my rooms now." She called over her shoulder to El. "I’ve just got a couple left to do and I promised Ms. Yamakura I would do her room before I left."

"Ok sweetie, but we can’t pay overtime you know." El said as she watched Katie run up the back stairs. That gal sure takes her job seriously. And she’s been especially attentive to that nice Japanese woman ever since she was sick. Maybe I can talk Mr. G into keeping her on when Ezra and I retire. She’d sure make a good replacement. El pondered as she busied herself with putting the dishes in the washer. I might just have to mention that to Mr. G next time he stops in.

Katie did a quick clean of Trina Carbon’s room then went over to Lin’s room and knocked. "Maid." She said in her usual tone as she waited for Lin to respond.

"Come." Lin quickly replied as she opened the door for Katie. The two women went into the bathroom where Lin already had the shower going. It was effectively fogging the spy lens and they were able to cover their conversation with the running water only by their close contact and whispered conversation.

"I got a message to try to meet you today and bring back the information." Katie whispered in Lin’s ear as they embraced.

"Kasimov threw a curve and gave each group their assignments in separate folders. I can only give you our assignment." Lin informed Katie. "Our group is to meet at an abandoned warehouse 121 Lamont Road outside of Newark, NJ on December 27^th. Our job is to familiarize ourselves with the equipment we will need for our part of the project."

"Do you know what the target is yet?"

"No, just that we will be handling the broadcast part of the project." Lin said then quickly put her fingers to her lips as a sign of silence. She no sooner gave the signal than the bathroom door opened and Ito came in grinning at finally finding the two women in their ‘embrace.’ He was dressed only in his robe and was disappointed to see the two women still fully clothed.

"Ito!" Lin exclaimed. "It is not proper for you to enter my room without my invitation."

"I have been waiting for an invitation to join the two of you for two weeks now, and all I get from you is ‘later.’ I decided that today would be my lucky day." Ito said with a sneer as he closed the bathroom door behind him and boldly walked over to the two women groping at their clothes.

Katie looked at Lin and searched her eyes for a sign of what to do. Not seeing an answer, she decided to take matters in her own hands and reached into her pocket for the red pen. She motioned for Lin to hold her breath then held the pen in front of Ito as she released a short burst of the knock out gas sending Ito immediately to the floor and ready for a long nap.

The women waited a safe period before they chanced taking a breath. "Wow, that stuff works fast!" Katie whispered as they checked Ito out for any injuries. "He’s got a bit of a bump on the back of his head. We’ll have to get him into your bed while he sleeps it off. Hopefully, when he wakes, you’ll be able to convince him that he slipped on the tile and knocked himself out. That would explain the bump." She smiled up at Lin. "The hard part will be getting him into bed with those surveillance cameras watching… but first, what else was in the assignment papers?"

"That’s pretty much it. We’re supposed to be in place by the 27th, familiarize ourselves with the equipment we find, then we’ll be contacted later with our broadcast materials and time schedule."

"Okay, we can work it out as it unfolds." The young agent whispered. "Now, let’s make a good show of getting him into your bed…."

* * * * * * * * *

"So the three of you…" Dean’s sentence was cut off quickly by Katie’s reply.

"Yeah… the three of us, in Lin’s bed, naked as jaybirds, and Lin and I trying to act like he’s making love to us! I hope Dimitri enjoyed the show. Do you suppose the DEA would give me hazardous duty pay?" Katie said with a snicker that soon was joined by hearty laughs from the team leaders.

"Well, at least we know the pen works! Now let’s get down to business." Dean said as she wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes. "Gus, get that warehouse pin pointed and see what we can do to get it wired or something, but be careful, Kasimov may have it under surveillance. Gus nodded in understanding. Bruce, what’s the latest on finding those drug cylinders?"

Bruce pulled out a huge map of the tri-state region and spread it out on the table. "Well, it looks like the target area is going to be somewhere around New York City. That’s a lot of area and a lot of people to consider."

"It certainly falls in sync with the hundreds of canisters that are out there somewhere. Kasimov is really targeting millions of people if the location is right." Katie cut in. "It sure does make things more difficult though… there must be hundreds of targets in that area alone."

"Ya got that right! We’re gonna need more information to scale this down a bit." Bruce concluded.

"Do you suppose he’s going to do something involving Newark Airport?" The young blonde asked in amazement. "If he wanted to threaten our government for some kind of ransom money that would be one hell of a hostage situation with all the holiday travelers and all."

"Could be, but I kinda doubt that. It’d be too easy to reroute traffic around it." The ex-Seal commented. "But who knows with a tricky bastard like Kasimov. We’ll explore all the possibilities, but it’s gonna take time."

"We haven’t got that luxury Bruce… do the best you can as quick as you can." Dean instructed.

"You got it Colonel. We’ll get right on it." The Bruce rolled up his map and headed over to his team.

Dean looked over at Katie and asked her if she was really okay with the events of the afternoon. "Yeah, I just kept hoping that ‘toy’ of yours worked like it was supposed to or I would have been doing some really fast talking about whipping out a pen at him! And I’m really glad you guys couldn’t get that on film…" Dean put an arm around her partner’s shoulder and led her over to the office. "I’m glad too." Dean added as she gave Katie a gentle pat on the back. "Do you think Lin will be able to get any information from the other guests?"

"I don’t know, but I’ll see what she can do." Katie offered. "My god, Dean… New York City! How? Exactly where? And why?" She shook her head in disbelief. "Too many possibilities and not enough time."

"I know what you mean. I hope Lin will be able to shed more light on this or we’ll be in deep trouble here." The tall agent acknowledged.

The two agents retreated into their office and spent the rest of the evening pouring over the facts, maps, and team reports. They needed more information to put the pieces together and time was not on their side. Nothing seemed to fit right. By 2300 hours they called it quits for the night and headed back to Dean’s cabin.

* * * * * * * * * *

Wednesday… 1800 Hours…

"That’s all the information she was able to get out of the other cartel members. She was just lucky that Trina Carbon was a bit inebriated last night or she might not have gotten that much." Katie finished her report to the task force members.

"Transformers! Are you sure she said transformers?" Katie nodded. "What on earth is he going to use those for?" Dean thought out loud. "Anyone have any ideas?"

No one volunteered any ideas so Dean added them to the blackboard along with the original information Dr. Berg had put up. Then she directed her attention to Bruce and the warehouse recon. Bruce informed the team leaders that the warehouse was located in a corporate park that had a pretty tight security set-up. He wasn’t concerned about that, but was concerned that it may be difficult to ‘wire’ the place for sound before the weekend. He was hoping that the number of security guards would be on the slim side since it was Christmas weekend and there wouldn’t be much business going on. Unfortunately, not much business would make it difficult for his men to ‘blend’ in. Dean warned him to be extremely cautious so as not to tip our hand.

Doctor’s Berg and Randal confirmed that the drug had a higher life expectancy than originally thought. Their tests indicated that it would remain in the system for several weeks before losing its hold on the gray matter of the nervous system and then get flushed from the body. They also found that the initial samples recreated by Dr. Berg were still highly potent. Hopefully they still had time to stop the flow of the drug to its intended targets before the canisters released it. Work on the antidote was not looking very good right now, but they were pursing that end too.

Gus and his team were still monitoring the lodge and it’s occupants. He informed the group that he was not able to glean much out of the conversations recorded to date. The elusive stimulus that put the drug in motion was still that… elusive. He also contacted his colleagues in Washington to see if they were able to tap into the Russian Embassy to track Kasimov’s moves there, but they weren’t successful.

Katie suggested that with Kasimov and Natasha out of town, she and Lin could do a little recon at the lodge utilizing the ‘dumb waiter’ entrance into the cellar. She and Lin figured that the best time to do it would be at night when the guards would be patrolling the grounds, leaving only Dimitri in the cellar. The group discussed the pro’s and con’s for such a move and had decided that it would be used as a ‘last ditch’ effort prior to this weekend’s departure of the cartel representatives.

Dean concluded the briefing with a reminder that once the representatives leave, they’d have to split their efforts by sending surveillance teams to follow each group. Any information that they would be able to come up with before then might mean the difference between success and failure. They all agreed to double their efforts.

In their private office, Dean looked at Katie with intense blue eyes. "I’m not sure I like the idea of you and Lin doing any recon while Dimitri and the guards are still around."

"We’ll, I’m sure when they leave, all information regarding Kasimov’s plans will depart with them." Emerald eyes returned the intensity. "Desperate times call for desperate measures." Katie softened her tone and her look. "I’ll be fine. You’ve given me just about every ‘toy’ imaginable to keep me safe. And that last one is definitely a good insurance policy against discovery."

"Yeah, but will you be able to use it?" Glacier blues peered back at the emeralds across from her.

"If I have to, I will." Katie said with certainty. With that, she crossed the short distance to her partner and put her arms around Dean’s neck then looked up into the blues once more before she pulled her down into a passionate kiss. "We’ll be careful love, I promise."

Dean held the young woman tightly for what seemed like hours, then slowly released her hold and put her forehead on Katie’s forehead, noses touching gently. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before opening them and replying. "You better be careful, or so help me… the rivers will run red with my revenge from here to New York City!"

In an effort to lighten the mood a bit, Katie looked up at Dean and winked then said, "Well, you’re lucky that it’s been a mild winter or the rivers around here wouldn’t be running anywhere!" She paused then pulled away abruptly smacking herself in the forehead as she did so. "I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before!" She said excitedly.

Dean in the meantime was totally confused over the unexpected change in her lover. "C’mon!" Katie said as she grabbed Dean’s hand and drug her out of the office and over to where Bruce was working with his team.

"Bruce!" She hollered over as they approached. "Pull out your maps again!"

Bruce looked up as his name was called to see the two women rushing over to his area. "Yeah, sure." Then he reached up for the maps and spread them out on the table. Dean and Bruce stood by as Katie reviewed the maps.

"Oh, yeah… yeah…!" Katie muttered as she poured over the maps. "I think I know how Kasimov is administering his drug."

Dean, Bruce and now Gus were watching the young agent as she finally turned to face them. "Look at this map and tell me what you see." Katie said as she moved over to give them all adequate space to view the map she selected. They looked down at the map, then up at her, then back down at the map. Dean was the first one to get it.

"I think you’ve got it." Dean said to Katie "It makes perfect sense now."

Bruce and Gus were still looking at the map then they finally said in unison "got what?"

"Look." Katie said as she pointed to the map. "Here, here, here, and finally, here… they’re all part of the Catskills Watershed. The watershed is owned by New York City… it’s their water supply!" Heads started nodding in understanding. "These three reservoirs," she pointed them out on the map, "the Cannonsville, Pepacton and Neversink send their water into the Roundout where it then travels 85 miles through the Delaware Aqueduct to New York City!" The four of them studied the map a bit longer then Katie continued. "What if Kasimov placed those five hundred plus canisters in these reservoirs with a timer to release the drug on a prescribed date… this water is used by millions of people daily in the city. We already know the drugs in the canisters were highly concentrated; we just didn’t factor in the diluting of them before they reach the intended targets." Katie finished speaking, then searched their eyes for comprehension, smiling when she found it.

Dean was the first to comment. "Good work Katie. This may be the break we’ve been waiting for." She reached over and gave the blonde a hug.

Bruce then spoke. "But why wouldn’t he have just contaminated the water supply with his drugs closer to the city instead of all the way up here?"

"My guess is that it would be easier to do here since there is less security around these reservoirs." The tall agent commented. "Just look at the size of them… there’s no way they could be patrolled. It would have been a piece of cake for Kasimov!"

"Yeah, and people are still allowed to use them for fishing. Rowboats are on them all the time." Katie supplied. "No one would have taken notice of him. And he could have gained access just about anywhere. And he probably placed them right after the scientists filled them in the lab. That way he didn’t have to store them or chance having them discovered before placement."

"Well," said Bruce, "there’s only one way to find out if you’re right. I’ll take a dive team down to the Neversink Reservoir in the morning and check it out. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find them still full."

"Better wear full dry suits Bruce. We don’t want any of your team absorbing any of that stuff if it’s already in the water." Dean added. "And start closest to the intakes."

"Right you are Colonel!" Bruce said as he departed to prepare his team and get on the phone to have the needed diving equipment sent up from Quantico immediately.

"Chances are, they’ve already released their loads." Gus said as he looked down at the map again. "But at least we know who will be affected." The enormity of the situation finally hit them. "Millions of people! How on earth are we going to stop millions of people? And when?" Gus said in a muted whisper as he raised his head from the map and looked into intense blue eyes.

"We’ll just have to figure that out too my friend." Dean answered as she reached out and patted his shoulder. "Before it’s too late."

* * * * * * * * * *

Thursday… 0700 Hours…

The dive equipment arrived at 0500 hours and Bruce and his team checked it all out to insure it was working properly. By 0700 hours, the team along with Dean and Gus were on their way to the Neversink Reservoir in two vans. One held the team and their gear, the other had the communications set-up.

"You know Bruce," Dean said as the men unloaded their tanks. "We should be thankful that you don’t have to chop through a few feet of ice to get in. I guess the mild weather does have its benefits."

"It’s still gonna be damn cold! But these suits will help, they’re a closed system suit, no water can get in." He said smiling as he donned his gear. "All right guys, let’s do it!" Then the five-man team entered the water and began their search. The team could communicate to each other with the gear he selected, which made the search a bit easier since they could spread out, and cover more area and still stay in contact.

Dean and Gus entered the communications van and waited for the team to report in. While waiting they discussed the perplexity of the problem they were facing. Kasimov was subjecting millions of people to his mind control drug. Once the drug was stimulated to act on the nervous system, he literally had an army of people at his command. The shear thought of the havoc he could wield was frightening, and perhaps, that was his intention all along. To show the world his power by bringing one of the mega centers of the world to its knees. They were running out of time. They had only four days before the cartels would be in place ready for their instructions. Whatever Kasimov was planning would be happening shortly thereafter. At least Lin was on the inside. That should give them a tiny window of opportunity… provided they knew what to do with it. They had to find out what caused the drug to activate and they needed a way to neutralize it. Without those two items, they would be hard pressed to come up with a ‘happy’ ending.

"Colonel." It was Bruce’s voice over the speaker.

"I’m here Bruce. What have you found?"

"I think your partner is right on the money. So far I’ve found at least a hundred of the canisters." Dean could hear the rest of the team reporting in on numbers of canisters in their quadrants. "My bet is there must be thousands, not hundreds of these things."

"Have they released the drug yet?" Gus asked quickly.

"Looks like mine are all empty." Came Bruce’s reply. The same response was coming in from the rest of his team.

"Okay Bruce, bring your team in. At least we know the ‘who’ part of the question now." She said then added as an after thought, "And bring one of those canisters up with you."

"Yes, ma’am." Bruce responded then gave the order for his team to surface and return to the vehicles.

"Well Gus, that cinches it!" Dean said as she shook her head in dismay.

* * * * * * * * * *

"We’ll do the best we can Colonel, but you better start praying for miracles." Was Dr. Randall’s reply to Dean’s request to find a means to neutralize the drug. "It certainly would be a lot easier if we knew what activated it."

"Then call in for reinforcements!" Dean shouted. "Just get me something I can work with!"

"Colonel… Dean…" Came the soft voice of Dr. Berg. "We’ll do the best we can, you can count on that. And now that we have an actual specimen of the drug maybe that will help. Maybe the one we replicated isn’t exactly the same… we’ll get the answers you need."

"I know… I’m sorry. It’s just..." Dean just stopped and shook her head.

"It’s okay Colonel… we’re all feeling that way right now." Dr. Berg gave Dean’s arm a gentle squeeze then turned to leave the court building with Dr. Randall.

Dean inhaled slowly to calm her nerves. This was probably the most complex case she had ever worked in her life. She had nothing but a string of successes all her military career, and now she was facing failure. She couldn’t fail now… too much was riding on her ability to do the right thing… but what if she failed? How could she ever face her superiors… how could she ever face Katie? Well, damn it all to hell! I just won’t fail. Not now… not ever! I can’t let Kasimov win. Not this time… Her mind made up, Dean turned and went over to the surveillance section where Gus and his crew were working feverishly to find the drug’s stimulus.

"Anything happening at the lodge?" She inquired as she approach.

"Same old, same old." Gus replied. "Doesn’t seem to be much interaction between the participants. They must all be getting ready to head out on Saturday morning and to meet up with their counterparts."

"Knowing Kasimov, he probably put on a ‘gag’ order to keep the flow of information between groups at a minimum." Dean told the technology leader.

"As much as I hate to, I’m going to give Katie permission to do some sleuthing with Lin tomorrow night. Maybe then we’ll get some answers."

"It’s the only thing you can do at this point Colonel." Gus answered. "That’s one sharp young agent… and with the insider, well… all we can do is hope."

* * * * * * * * *

"So… their granddaughter had the emergency surgery this afternoon. She came through with flying colors, but they want to go to Rochester and see her." Katie was filling in Dean on the chain of events for the lodge caretakers. "I offered to stay at the lodge until they come back from Rochester on Monday morning, and Mr. G approved."

Dean just looked at her skeptically. This was just too much of a coincidence in her book. "Okay… so you get to stay for a couple of nights. That’s good cover for a little snooping, but it just seems too convenient if you ask me."

"Oh, come on Dean… how could Kasimov possibly ‘set-up’ an emergency appendectomy?" Katie’s emerald eyes pinned Dean’s ice blues with a very valid argument.

"You’re right, you’re right. But I’ve asked Beth to contact the hospital in Rochester to check it out… just in case." Dean gave in raising her arms and shaking her long dark hair, but added, "Just the two of you be careful. Don’t take any chances okay?"

"Yes, ma’am!" Came the retort form Katie as she whipped out a salute causing Dean to grimace a bit, but then smile at her young partner. "I’ve pretty much got the laser security beams all located, and that can of stuff you gave me will help us out in case I missed some. The dumb waiter will be our main means of getting up and down the lodge floors. There are definitely no surveillance cameras or bugs of any kind in it."

"If at all possible, stay away from Dimitri. Don’t let him even catch a whiff of you down there. And pay attention to the breaks the guards take. They’ve been pretty regular so far, but be ready for any change in their routine." The tall agent was all business now as she and Katie went over the plans for the sleuthing deciding on protocols in case they got into trouble. "We’ll keep watching from here, but remember, we can’t penetrate the cellar. If you get into trouble, one of you will have to somehow get topside to warn us."

"Is there any kind of a wire I can wear that won’t be detected by Dimitri?"

"Can’t chance it." The tall agent said as she shook her head. "I don’t know how sophisticated his equipment is, but I’d bet it’s the best." Dean replied. "At least there won’t be too many of the cartel groups left at the lodge tomorrow or Saturday. That’s in our favor. Less folks to trip over."

"Well, they’ll all be gone by Sunday, so it’s now or never." Katie supplied. "I’m sure Dimitri will be closing up shop to meet up with Kasimov and Natasha as soon as the last one is gone."

"Okay… let’s go over this all one more time, but with the rest of the task force." Dean rose and called the teams over to the briefing area. They went over the plan several times before they were all satisfied and the two Doctor’s reviewed the latest weapon in Katie’s arsenal with her until she fully understood the ramifications of using it.

"The results are very realistic and the pain accompanied by its use is too." Beth told her old friend. "Believe me a bullet is much kinder but unfortunately too obvious."

"Last resort only." Katie murmured as she placed the lethal weapon in her backpack. "Too bad I won’t have my trusty old Glock with me. I hate using these other things. Just not as comfortable with them I guess." She said as she raised her head and looked into her old friends eyes.

"The best thing for you to remember Katie… is to keep a healthy respect for all weapons." Beth said as she took Katie’s hands in hers and gently squeezed them. "Good luck and be safe!" Then the doctor rose and exited the area as Dean approached having returned from a phone call with General James.

"Well," Dean said as she sat down in a chair next to Katie. "That was General James. He’s not too happy with our progress."

"Neither am I," Commented the blonde, "but its all we’ve got for now."

"Oh, he’s dealing…" Dean informed her. "He just hates it when things go to the wire."

The two women sat there a bit longer going over the past few weeks in their minds and trying to find that one piece of information that would put them on top. By 2230 hours, they gave up and decided to head for home and for what may be their last bit of piece and quiet for a while.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Friday… 1000 Hours… Christmas Eve Day

"Okay sweetie, I think Ezra has everything in the car and is ready to go." El looked out the back door window to see Ezra motioning for her to come out. "The caterer will be bringing in all the meals about thirty minutes before they’re supposed to be served. Just throw them in the ovens and keep them warm till serving time."

"I really can cook." Katie said for the fifth time.

"I know sweetie, this will just make things a little easier on you and Darla. That’s all." El said as she gave Katie a hug. "Now if you need anything else, just call Mr. G., okay?"

Katie nodded and walked El out to the car. The weather was fairly mild so far, but they were predicting rain, possibly sleet by early this evening. Katie opened the door for El and handed her the thermos of coffee she had put together for them. "Just a little something to keep you warm." She said as El took the offering and smiled. "Now you drive careful Ezra… the weather is supposed to be turning nasty here, but from the looks of it, you should be ahead of it most of the way."

"Yup, its coming up the coast line… just like a ‘Nor’easter. You better hope it stays as rain… it doesn’t take much to shut this town down." Ezra said as he started up the old Buick. "Remember where the emergency back-up switch is!" Then he put the car in gear and they drove off towards the Quickway. Katie waived and watched them go before she headed back indoors. Just our luck the weather is deciding to turn now. She muttered to herself as she walked back into the kitchen. Well, at least I won’t have to drive home in it.

The caterer arrived precisely thirty minutes before lunch was to be served. It turned out it was the same caterer that she worked for in her spare time so the exchange went pleasantly. Darla and Katie served the lunch and then Darla cleaned up the lunch dishes while Katie went upstairs to tackle the rooms that were vacated that morning. Well, instead of the whole group for dinner, we’ll be down to only twelve. By tomorrow, we’ll be down to only six, Ito’s group and the Chi Chong group from China. I think I can handle this. She was in the middle of finishing Trina’s room when she felt a presence behind her. She picked up her clipboard and selected the red pen and nonchalantly started checking off items on her task sheet before she turned around.

"Oh… hi!" She feigned surprise as she bumped into Ito. "Is there anything I can do for you Mr. Sukazi?"

"Oh no. Not now. But later perhaps we could…?" He let the sentence trail off leaving the innuendo hanging for Katie to pick up.

Inwardly Katie cringed as she picked up his intention while outwardly, she was all charm. "Gee Mr. Sukazi… I’d love to, but El and Ezra had a family emergency to attend to and they left me in charge. I couldn’t disappoint them by ignoring my duties. It wouldn’t be the honorable thing to do." It seemed that appealing to ‘honor’ was the right cue to use. He said he understood, then bowed and turned to leave. As he left, he turned over his shoulder and said smiling, "I guess that means Lin will be alone tonight." Damn! Thought Katie, now we’ve got to deal with Ito all over again! Maybe Lin can slip him a mickey or something. Well, her room is next, so maybe we can come up with a solution.

Back at the courts, Dean and Gus were keeping a close eye on the lodge and Katie. They were impressed that Katie had things going so smoothly. She certainly is a jack of all trades, thought the tall agent, definitely good talents for an undercover agent. Bruce and the two Doc’s were computing the odds that the drugs released in the water system would be too diluted to be effective, while Bruce had his team check out the Roundout reservoir for canisters too. They were expected back shortly, but knowing Kasimov, they knew that the odds were in his favor and not theirs but they kept hoping anyway. They all looked up as Bruce’s team leader came in. The dive leader immediately headed over to Dean after he spotted her.

"Colonel." Dave saluted. "I’m afraid the news isn’t good." By this time Bruce, Gus, and the Doc’s were there to hear Dave’s report. "There must be at least another five to six hundred of those things in the Roundout too. And if I were a betting man, I’d say they’re in all the reservoirs up here. That bastard wasn’t taking any chances."

Dean just nodded at the report. She looked at the Doc’s but before she had a chance to say anything Beth said that they’d double the efforts on finding the stimulus… and Leigh said she’d work on a way to block the drugs reaction on the nervous system.

Dave spoke up again, "There’s something else Colonel. The weather’s going to be a factor real soon. Forget the rain and possible sleet that was predicted… we’ve got a hum dinger of a blizzard developing out there."

Now this piece of information took them all by surprise. Since there were no windows in the building to speak of, they didn’t even think of the weather. All eyes immediately turned to the entrance door as the last of the dive team came in. When the door swung open, all they could see was a wall of white behind an ambulatory snowman. Four voices all on cue proclaimed a resounding, "Oh Shit!"

* * * * * * * * * * *

"Tracy… it’s Dell on line one."

"Thanks Linna, we’ve been expecting this one." Tracy picked up the phone and began talking with her boss. The weather was not a big surprise for Tracy and her staff. They had been getting ready since 7:30 in the morning. Linna had an uncanny ability to predict weather better than the weathermen so they had already began the conversion of the senior center into an emergency shelter. Byron was busy getting the big park truck loaded with sand and had already attached the plow. His last job for now was to bring in the frozen food supply from the park concessions building. By the time Tracy finished her conversation with the Town Supervisor, Linna finished bringing in the last of the blankets.

"Bet he was surprised that we’re already ready!" Linna said as she piled the blankets she was carrying on the first available cot.

"Yep! Very impressed to say the least." Tracy gave Linna a big smile. "I don’t know how you do it, but you sure make me look good!"

"You just be glad I like you or you wouldn’t be looking so good!" The two women chuckled as they finished making up the last batch of cots.

"Well, if the power stays up, we won’t have too many guests, but if it goes out, we’re one of the few buildings in town with a back-up power supply. Speaking of supply, how’s the food supply?"

"Byron should be back any minute with the stuff from the concessions stand and with what we have from the nutrition site we should be okay." Linna replied as they went down the back stairs to the office. "In fact, I think that’s him pulling in now."

Just then, Byron came into the hallway carrying several containers of burritos. "We’ll get our coats on and give you a hand." Tracy shouted as she and Linna went to get their gear.

"Man! It’s coming down like crazy! It’s a good thing I put the chains on." Byron said as the three of them made a short assembly line passing the boxes of food through the recreation room door. "This one’s going to be a real bear! I brought over the ATV too."

"Good thinking Byron. Hope you weren’t planning on going home tonight." Tracy said over her shoulder. "I’m afraid we’re all going to be here for the duration."

"Nah! You’ve got all my favorite foods here, why should I go home?" They all laughed then transferred the boxes once more into the storage room that was thankfully unheated and would keep everything good and cold.

* * * * * * * * * *

Having finished Trina’s room, Katie went next to Lin’s room. After knocking and entering, she found Lin working at her desk. She exchanged pleasantries as she cleaned the room then went into the bath to clean there. Lin followed her in and asked if she could have some new towels then handed her the dirty ones. As Katie took them from Lin she felt a paper thrust into her hand under the towels. She closed her fist on it and took the dirty towels out to her cart in the hall but managed to transfer the note to her pocket in the process. When she went back in with the clean towels, Lin was back at her desk working on her daily haiku. Katie watched the graceful penmanship as Lin wrote in traditional Japanese style.

"The Japanese symbols are very artistic." Katie said as she stepped closer behind Lin.

"Yes, they are. Each stroke if not done correctly can completely change the meaning. I find it very relaxing to work on them." Lin answered as she looked up at Katie.

"I would find that very stressful." Katie commented. "Speaking of stress, I will be staying here tonight for the Schlotts while they are away." Katie leaned down to hide her head from the camera angle and whispered to Lin as she made it appear she was examining the symbols more closely. "Ito has plans for you tonight, got anything to get rid of him?" Then out loud she said, "I think your hiku’s are beautiful!" As she raised her head she got a barely perceptible nod from Lin who responded with a simple ‘thank you.’

"Well, I guess I better get back to work. If you need anything, just let me know." Katie said as she gathered her cleaning supplies and turned to leave. Lin just continued her graceful strokes on the parchment as the door closed behind her.

As Katie put her cart back in the linen room, she transferred the note to the pages under her clipboard, and began sending the dirty laundry down the shoot to the laundry room next to the pantry in the kitchen. On her way down the back stairs, she lifted the sheets of her clipboard and studied the note as though she was reviewing her checklist of duties. The note simply said ‘must go tonight.’ Katie was hoping they could put it off until Saturday, but Lin must have a good reason for going tonight. Well, let’s hope she can take of Ito before midnight when we agreed to meet.

The rest of the afternoon went smoothly, especially since there were only the twelve ‘guests’ left. Unfortunately, the weather was not going as smoothly as everything else. Instead of the expected rain and possible sleet, the precipitation came down in the form of snow... heavy, wet snow. And it was quickly piling up. The caterer showed up early with the dinner meal. It was a good thing she had a four wheel drive vehicle since there was at least six inches of the stuff on the ground and not let up in sight. Carrie, the caterer, agreed to contact a friend that did plowing on the side to come and plow the circular drive by morning so the guests that were leaving would be able to do so. Having taken care of that situation, Katie sent Darla home with Carrie so she wouldn’t get ‘stuck’ at the lodge tonight. No sense having any innocent bystanders around… Katie thought to herself… just in case. She took her time cleaning up after dinner so she wouldn’t have to wait long before her meeting with Lin. After that, she served espresso and after dinner drinks to the few guests that were still in the lounge. She was about to return to the kitchen when Ito came up to her.

"Excuse me." Ito said with a grimmace as he was obviously plagued with an abdominal spasm. "Would you have anything that I might take for an upset stomach?"

"Oh, Mr. Sukazi…" Katie answered in a concerned voice. "Are you coming down with something?"

"No, no. I’m sure its just indigestion. Perhaps the meal was a little too rich for me." He explained as another spasm took him.

"I’ll go see what I can find right away." The young woman said as she headed for the kitchen. "Why don’t you go up to your room. I’ll bring it to you."

Just then, Lin came up behind Ito. "Ito, are you not well? Perhaps we should postpone our plans for tonight." Concern and caring just filled her voice as she looked up at Katie and winked.

"Yes, yes!" He said quickly. "Lin, please go with her and bring the medicine to me."

"Yes, Ito." Lin said as she gently pushed Katie towards the kitchen.

"Will he be okay?" Katie whispered as they entered the kitchen.

Lin just smiled and shrugged whispering back, "I’m sure it will pass by morning."

Katie went through the cupboards and found some Pepto Bismol and asked Lin if that would do. She merely smiled, then said it probably wouldn’t help, nothing would until it ran its course. Lin took the Pepto and a large spoon then left to deliver it to Ito. Guess we won’t have to worry about Ito tonight! Katie thought as she went back into the lounge to see if anyone needed anything else before she ‘called it a night.’ Most of the guests were concerned about the accumulating snow, but she calmed their concerns assuring them that the plow would be here at daybreak or sooner and they would all make their travel ‘connections.’ This may just work in our favor, she thought, if they can’t get out of here, then Kasimov may have to cancel his plans… well, it’s a nice thought anyway.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Katie spent the rest of the evening in her room, actually the Schlotts apartment, going over her ‘toys’ and making sure the guards did indeed go out for their nocturnal patrol. At precisely five minutes before midnight Katie left the Schlott’s modest apartment, passed through the kitchen, and entered the pantry. She stopped to pick up a small flashlight to add to her ‘equipment’ for the night’s sleuthing. Previous surveillance on the lodge showed the guards patrolling from 2300 to 0500. Of course, they didn’t have to put up with a blizzard before. Katie hoped that they would be holed up in the shed outside rather than trying to brave the elements on their normal patrol route. As she slid back the secret panel, she fervently hoped that the dumb waiter was also a mute. It wouldn’t do to make a noisy entrance at the second floor linen closet. Katie switched on the flashlight to look for a light in the small space. There was none so she kept the flashlight on. She entered the dumb waiter, slid the hidden panel closed, crossed her fingers, turned the directional lever to up, and hit the green start button. To her relief, there was a mild hum and a slight jerk before the apparatus started its slow climb to the next floor. Great! How do I know when I’m there? Wonder if it will stop automatically or just keep going? "Now’s a fine time to be thinking of that." She muttered to herself. "Guess we’ll just find out when it stops." A few seconds passed and then it finally stopped. Slowly Katie looked at the wall in front of her for any sign of where she was. On the wall, about eye level she could barely see the number ‘2’. Aha! Must be on the 2^nd floor! Now how do I get out? She gently felt the wall in front for some kind of a latch or locking system, than remembered that the pantry entrance was a sliding panel. She pushed to her left first without any success, than tried again to her right. This time the panel slid open and she found herself at the back of the linen closet. The tricky part coming up would be to exit the closet and hug the wall to where the statue with the surveillance lens was located. Once there, Gus had designed a holder for a picture she had taken of the hall from that angle. The miracle of digital cameras and computers turned that daytime shot into a nighttime one. She could only hope that Dimitri wasn’t looking at that particular camera shot when she made the switch. It took her about five more minutes to complete the set-up and wait long enough for a response before she decided it was safe to go to Lin’s room. She had already given Lin holders and pictures for the two lenses in her room and only hoped they were in place before she entered the room. Those were fabricated at the temporary headquarters by Gus and his technology wizards and were very believable.

Lin was waiting by the door when Katie slowly entered. She almost made a sound when she felt Lin’s hand on her shoulder as she stepped in, but managed to swallow it. Using hand signals, Katie led Lin to the linen closet and into the dumb waiter before she spoke.

Katie was finally able to ask Lin why there was a change of plans. After Lin explained Katie asked how long ago she made the switch on the lens.

"About 45 minutes ago. If Dimitri saw it, he didn’t react to it." Lin replied in a soft voice.

"Good. This thing doesn’t make too much noise, but in the dead of night, he may hear something. We’d better be prepared when we get to the cellar for a confrontation." With that Katie handed Lin and extra set of pens, one black and one red, and went through their operation. When they were comfortable with the set up, she moved the lever to down, and hit the green button. Again there was a slight hum, a subtle jerk and the descent. The dumb waiter stopped at the 1^st floor, then Katie hit the button once more to descend into the cellar.

"El said this will let out behind the chimney. Do you remember where that is in respect to the control room?"

Lin nodded. "The chimney is in the room they used for a lab. The control room is on the other side of the building. We should be in the clear… at least for a little while."

* * * * * * * * * *

The task force was pretty much snowed in at the court building. They didn’t have the equipment for snow removal, so they were waiting it out until morning when Tracy would send Byron over with the plow truck. She had called Tracy earlier to make the arrangements then she watched the monitor most of the evening. When it appeared Katie was going to call it a night she headed to the office. Tomorrow night was slated for the venture into the cellar so she decided to catch a few minutes of shut eye while things were calm. The calm however didn’t last. She had been asleep for about 45 minutes when Sarah, one of Gus’s team members, came knocking on the office door.

"Colonel. You’d better get out here. There’s movement in the lodge and one of them’s Katie." Sarah’s voice was subdued so as not to disturb the other agents that were trying to get some sleep.

Dean thought she was dreaming at first then became fully alert when the knock turned into a loud bang. She flew off the cot and ran to the door just about pulling the young female agent off her feet as Sarah had decided to open the door at the same time Dean had.

"What did you say?" Dean looked at the startled agent through bloodshot eyes. Sarah caught her breath and repeated her message. "Go get Gus and Bruce." The Colonel ordered as she ran to the surveillance sets. A few minutes later, Dean, Burce and Gus were glued to the monitor watching the blue dot move from the Schlott’s apartment and to various stops until there were two ethereal bodies now moving on the screen.

"What the hell is going on? I thought the recon was set for tomorrow night?" muttered a sleepy Gus.

‘Yeah, well, things have a way of changing. Something must have come up, or they would be waiting till tomorrow."

They were glad to hear the whispered comments were coming from Lin and Katie. They overheard Lin telling Katie that the change was necessary because Ito had decided to leave in the morning for Newark. Seems he was anxious to get moving and doing something productive for a change.

"Guess that explains it!" Bruce commented. "Now let’s hope they can get us some good information and get out without Dimitri or the guards walking in on them."

* * * * * * * * *

The senior center only had three customers by early evening. A young couple and their child had come in for shelter when they ran out of fuel oil in their small trailer. Linna got them settled down in the back and she and Tracy were about ready to crash for the night when Tracy’s cell phone chirped. She looked at her watch and noted that it was only 9:00 PM. Maybe it’s Col. Tracy thought as she flipped open the phone.

"Yeah?" Tracy said into the phone.

"It’s Dean. Can you have Byron come up and plow us out first thing in the morning?"

"Sure thing. When do you want it done?" Tracy asked.

"As soon as possible, but at least by daybreak."

"Are you expecting any trouble tonight? I can have Byron run up now and do a quick plow."

"No, nothing on the agenda till tomorrow night, but I’ll feel better if we can mobilize if necessary." Dean thanked Tracy then hung up.

"Problems?" Linna inquired.

"Nope." At least not yet, Tracy thought. "Time to hit the sack… better get some rest while we can." Then she got up and headed to an empty cot. Byron was already snoozing away and it didn’t take long for Tracy to follow. Linna on the other hand, was not tired yet so she decided to watch some TV downstairs. As she entered the office, she had a second thought and decided to watch a different kind of TV…

* * * * * * * * * * *

The dumb waiter stopped descending after another few seconds. Lin and Katie waited for an additional thirty seconds before Katie slid open the partition as quietly as possible. The lab was dark so Katie hooded the flashlight she carried with her hands to narrow the beam of light. "Are there any windows in this room that could be seen by Dimitri in the control room?"

Lin stopped to think then shook her head in the negative. She whispered back to Katie that the room was solid concrete, had a row of tables along the back wall and another in the center of the room then a third row against the next wall. The area to the right was where Kasimov had set up desks and filing cabinets. The two women cautiously entered the lab spilling only what light was necessary for them to keep from bumping into things. They silently made their way over to the desks and began going through them one at a time searching for any information that could possibly be useful. When they got to the third desk, they hit a minor vein of information. Most of it was already known by the Doctor’s working on the drug, but the amount of the drug produced in this lab was enormous. "My God!" Katie whispered. "He made enough of this stuff to drug half the people on the east coast!" They waded through some more papers and Lin found the maps Kasimov used to deploy the canisters. They showed the location of each one of the reservoirs and the sites where the canisters were dumped. They also listed the release times for each reservoir. "Too bad the guys already went diving this morning Katie told Lin, "We could have saved them the trouble. Looks like Kasimov wants to get the entire city on this stuff." Lin nodded as they moved over to the filing cabinets. The first one was unlocked and had a lot of miscellaneous stuff in it like receipts for chemical deliveries, the canisters and timers, etc. It also had a file on each of the ‘guests’ at the lodge. Katie was amused to see a file on the staff too. She opened hers and found only the information that she and Dean had planted for her cover story. Guess he didn’t have time to do an indepth study on me. Too, bad, he may have found me interesting reading.

The second file cabinet was locked. Katie was not expecting to ‘pick’ any locks so she didn’t bring her picks with her. Lin on the other hand came prepared. She pulled out her set of picks and in fifteen seconds had the cabinet unlocked and started going through the top drawer. "This looks like it might be the mother lode." Katie whispered over her shoulder noting that the files were records of experiments on the mind control drug, most stamped with the word ‘FAILURE" in red ink. Now all they had to do was find the one that was the winner. It took them less than five minutes to find it. It was in the third drawer of the four-drawer stack. They took the file over to the closest desk and flipped through it quickly. Katie broke in and suggested that they take it up to the kitchen and away from Dimitri, just in case he decided to check the rooms. They quickly moved back to the dumb waiter, slid the door shut and started to ascend. Once the got back to the kitchen, they sat at the kitchen table and started reading… they did not notice the door open or Dimitri and one of the guards walk in.

"So that’s how it’s activated!" Katie whispered. "We may have never figured it out in time."

"Yes." Lin said turning the pages to read on.

"Yes… It is rather unique isn’t it?" Said Dimitri in what seemed like a loud voice.

The two women immediately jumped up at the sound of his voice. Assessing the situation, Lin and Katie stepped away from the table and each other making their opponents split their efforts too.

* * * * * * * * * *

Dean looked up at Gus when she heard Katie’s voice mention the activation of the mind control drug. "Thank God!" Dean said and before they could turn back to the conversation, the entire building went black, then a few red emergency lights went on throwing an eerie glow over the large room.

"What…" Bruce stammered.

"Oh, shit! Not now!" Dean shouted. "Somebody hit the back-up switch!"

"Damn it!" Was the exclamation from Gus followed by, "There is no back-up switch!"

"What the fuck do you mean?" Dean looked incredulously at him. "You didn’t put in an emergency back-up system?"

"Uh… no… actually they didn’t have one to send up… uumm… it was supposed to come in today." Gus stuttered and started backing up as Dean approached him. "Colonel… it was out of my control… the storm…"

Dean stopped in front of him and pinned him with her ice blue eyes before speaking. "You should have told me. I could have found temporary generators for the essential equipment. Now it’s too late."

"Maybe the power will be back up shortly." Bruce offered.

"We better hope it is." Dean said as she stalked off to her office to check if the land phones were still working.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Linna was in the surveillance room thoroughly engrossed in watching the two ghostly bodies move on the screen. She had realized that the second voice was not Dean’s but assumed it was another undercover agent. When the agents went in the cellar she lost them and started to panic, adjusting the dials every which way she could think of. After about ten minutes, she reset the dials back to where they were when she lost them and found them again. The two women were talking about activating something when she heard another voice over the headphones. The power went off at that instance then the back-up generator kicked on. She continued to listen to the strangers voice. He had a very distinguished accent, foreign, but not one that could be easily placed… and he didn’t sound friendly. This point was made perfectly clear when she heard him order the women to come with him. She now saw four of the wraithlike bodies on the screen, one with a blue dot on it. Two of them made some quick moves and she could hear scraping and sounds like blows being struck along with several grunts. One of the larger bodies suddenly became motionless and the smaller one with the blue dot went towards the other two. Then she heard voices again.

"Stop right there or I’ll put a bullet in her!" Came the unknown man’s voice. The blue dot stopped. "You have some nice moves for a maid!" He said.

"I take karate lessons." Katie shot back then started to slowly walk forward.

"Don’t Katie… this isn’t your fight. I shouldn’t have talked you into this." Lin cried out then turned to address Dimitri. "Leave her out of this, she’s just a little diversion of mine!"

"Really? Now why should I believe that?" The man’s voice interrupted. Linna could hear the other woman’s voice scream then heard Katie shout for him to stop. As Linna watched the screen, she noticed another body image appear behind the blue dot body. Then heard a voice start to shout and get muffled. Next thing she heard was a ‘thunk’ and the blue dot body was motionless with the new image next to it.

"Good work Natasha. Now let’s get them back to the cellar." Linna watched in horror as the bodies all disappeared from the screen along with their voices.

Oh shit! Now what… do I go get Tracy and tell her? Damn! I can’t let this go… gotta get Tracy. Linna jumped up and ran upstairs to wake Tracy. When she got Tracy awake she whispered for her to follow her. After she got her downstairs she quickly told her boss what she had done and the gist of the situation she overheard.

"Damn!" Tracy reached for her phone and dialed Dean’s cell phone. It was answered almost immediately.

"Dean, it’s Tracy. Have you been watching?"

"Until we lost power. We don’t have a back-up in place yet. It was supposed to get here today. What’s happening?" Dean asked with a noticeable edge to her voice.

"You need to get here fast. They’ve been compromised. I’ll get Byron over to pick you up ASAP"

"Right. I’ll be ready." Dean hung up and ran out to the court. "Bruce! Over here on the double."

Bruce was there in a heartbeat and Dean filled him in. They decided to both go to the Parks & Rec office when Byron got there. Bruce went to his second in command, and filled him in and gave him instructions for the team to assemble as soon as Byron could get back to plow them out. He grabbed his weapons duffle and went to Dean’s office.

"They’ll be ready when Byron gets them plowed out Colonel. We shouldn’t need reinforcements. There’s only a few of the cartel people left and five of Kasimov’s. We can handle it."

"Okay. But tell them to make it quick." Bruce left to give additional information to his second, and returned to the office. Dean got out her Glock, checked the clip, took extra shells, clips, and her silencer. They were already waiting outside when Byron arrived. The snowfall had stopped, but the wind was beginning to pick up blowing waist high drifts in the open areas. The trip back only took ten minutes but to Dean it seemed like an eternity. The roads were thick with snow and drifts were developing rapidly. This doubled the normal five-minute ride, but the big 4X4 truck made it without too much trouble. As soon as Dean and Bruce got out, Byron turned the truck around and went back to plow out the others.

Dean led Bruce to the surveillance room and found Tracy and Linna waiting there. Quick intros, then Dean went straight to the tape and rewound the last hour of tape. They all sat there in silence listening and watching. When it finished, Dean turned to Linna.

"I’m sorry." Linna started. "I just couldn’t control my curiosity. I knew things weren’t right so I started poking around in here."

"How long have you been ‘poking" around?" Dean asked starring at Linna.

"About two weeks, maybe a bit more." She answered honestly.

Tracy asked the next question. "Who else knows?"

"No one, honest, just me." Linna went on. "I didn’t even tell Kelly… or Byron."

"Good." Dean cut in. "Linna I can’t approve what you’ve been doing. If you had suspicions you should have just come out with it and trusted Tracy. Your ‘poking’ could have cost lives." She paused, then added. "But it looks like this time… you may have saved some... if we can get there in time… thank you." Then she smiled at Linna. "You’ve got great instincts… too bad you’re stuck here with Tracy!"

Linna breathed a sigh of relief then asked if she could be filled in on what the hell was going on. Tracy and Bruce looked at Dean, who shrugged and said she might as well know the full story. Tracy filled her in while Dean and Bruce waiting for the rest of the team to get there, continued the surveillance.

* * * * * * * * * *

When Katie came to, she found herself lying on a cot with her head in Lin’s lap. They were currently locked up in one of the old storage rooms that Kasimov must have converted to very Spartan sleeping quarters, probably for the scientists then the guards.

"Ooww. That hurts." The young blonde said softly. "How long have I been out?"

"About five minutes." Lin informed her.

"Who hit me? And where did he come from?"

"She hit you… Natasha. And she came down the back staircase."

"What… how did she get here? It’s been snowing like a banshee in heat all day!" Katie tried to sit up but the pain sent her back into Lin’s lap.

"Sorry, I tried to warn you but he stopped me." Lin informed Katie. "Looks like you’ll just be suffering from a rather nasty bump on your head. You really shouldn’t move around too much, just in case you have a concussion, but you do need to stay awake."

"Umm, thanks." Katie said as she stretched and found everything else working okay. "What did she hit me with… a lead pipe?"

"Close… looked like and old fashioned meat tenderizer mallet if you ask me. I wonder what she’s doing back here?" The oriental woman shifted on the cot. "I overheard her talking to Dimitri about destroying the files."

"Yeah, well, at least we got a look at one of the ones that count first." Katie said with a pained chuckle. "Of course, we have to get out of here in order to make any use of it. Too bad Dean can’t penetrate the cellar with all that technology I could just tell her what we found."

"Better yet, Katie, I would rather tell her face to face." Lin said with an amused smile.

"Hey…" Katie said smiling back at Lin. "Careful there… that’s my face you’re drooling over!"

"Really? You and Dean?" Lin shook her head in surprise. "So…how is the old war horse?"

"Well, the ‘old war horse’ is terrific! In fact, she’s better than terrific…. She’s…"

"Okay, I get the picture." Lin stopped abruptly putting her fingers to her lips. "Shhh, someone’s coming."

Katie became very still as she heard the door unlock and watched Natasha and one guard, pistol at the ready, come into the room.

Natasha strolled in and walked around the room eyeing the two women with contempt. "Well, well. Isn’t this a cozy picture?" She stopped in front of Lin, and then bent low locking her with eye contact. Lin returned the stare with a raised eyebrow and smiled. This defiant gesture enraged Natasha to the point she lashed out at Lin with the back of her right hand, sending a violent blow to the ex-cop’s cheek causing her head to snap back and contact the concrete wall. The action caused Katie to try to sit up and charge at Natasha only to be stopped by the butt of the guard’s pistol as it made contact with her head. The blow wasn’t enough to cause unconsciousness, but left her dazed and unable to respond further.

"Dimitri tells me you got the maid to help you. My, my, you must have hidden talents I’m not aware of." Natasha looked at Lin with a seductive smile. "You must tell me your secrets to wooing young blonde’s." The Russian said with a venomous hiss. "Too bad she’s going to have to die for you… but, Dimitri might make her last few minutes fun!"

"Why don’t you just leave her alone… she’s just a kid!" The ex-cop said trying to sound convincing. "She just offered to help me get in the cellar, she doesn’t deserve to die for that."

"Oh, how touching… you should have thought of that before you got her to help you!" Natasha spat out. "Now it’s too late for your little tart. We’re leaving now so don’t try anything stupid. Andre would prefer you arrive in one piece, however he has left me much latitude in this regard should you resist." Natasha turned to the guard and instructed him to cuff Lin and escort her to the waiting helicopter. A second guard entered the room and helped him, roughly dragging her up the stairs to the main entrance. Natasha stopped and looked at Katie then said. "Your mother should have taught you to beware of strangers." Then she laughed and exited the room. She stopped to give final instructions to Dimitri regarding the destruction of all the files and to insure the rest of the cartel member’s pack and leave for their destinations now rather than in the morning. She also told him to dispose of the blonde before he left. Then she grabbed her parka and headed to the main entrance. As she opened the door to the frigid air she turned and smiled at Lin. "Sorry, no time to get your coat." Then she and the guards took Lin through the blowing snow towards the helicopter. When the two women were on board, Natasha added another set of cuffs to Lin locking her to her seat. When the guards were clear, the helicopter rose and headed into the night.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Continued - Part 5

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