As they stood there talking, Bridge started zoning out. But it wasn’t from the effects of his head getting crushed. He was already contemplating his next steps.
“You all right?” Nicole asked.
“Yeah. I was just thinking…”
“You’re not supposed to do that,” Happ quipped.
“Yeah, yeah. I have a feeling that Werther isn’t who she appears to be.”
“We kind of already know that,” Nicole said.
“No, I mean, I have a feeling that Werther is an alias. I bet she has a different name elsewhere.”
“Possible.”
“And I’m willing to bet that if we were to look at some pictures of people that Kenny’s associated with, we might find out who that other guy is too.”
“It’s gonna take me a while to come up with that.”
“I wasn’t talking about you. There’s someone else who’s already got all that on file.”
Nicole raised her eyebrows. “You’re talking about…”
“I am. Things will go a lot faster. And we don’t have time to waste here.”
As the FBI covered the scene, Bridge and Nicole gingerly got back to their feet, taking a few more minutes for the pain to lessen. They each took a few steps, while staying in the same general location, making sure they were good enough to continue.
“You all right?” Happ asked.
Bridge nodded and felt the back of his head. “Yeah. It’ll take more than that to take me out of commission.”
“You’re lucky they didn’t kill you. Both of you. They had the chance to.”
“They were probably in too much of a hurry to get out of here to wanna worry about us.”
“They had to assume we were coming soon. Lucky for you.”
“Yeah. This might be one of the few times you can get the crap kicked out of you and feel like you’re the lucky one.”
“It was my fault,” Nicole said. “Luke was winning his fight.”
“We were outnumbered. We did what we could. One on one, I’d take our chances all day long. Both of us.”
As Nicole kept talking to Happ, Bridge stepped outside, not wanting anyone else to hear his conversation. He dialed a familiar number.
“Yes?”
“This is Alpha One-Two-Seven-Six-Five.”
“OK?”
“I need to speak to Pinnacle One. Now.”
“I’m not sure that is feasible at the moment.”
“Tell him it’s urgent. I need him… now.”
“Stand by.”
As a few FBI agents came near him, Bridge wandered even farther away from the house, getting closer to the street to avoid any listening ears. It was a good three or four minutes before Pinnacle One got on the phone.
“Luke, what’s the emergency?”
“I just ran into our friend Greg Kenny.”
Pinnacle One hesitated for a second. “So he is here.”
“Yes. And he’s got friends, apparently.”
“What happened?”
“Got a lead on a woman,” Bridge said. “Met her, she lied to my face, then we followed her to a house, where she met Kenny and another guy I haven’t identified.”
“They got away?”
“Temporarily. I tried to do what I could, but they outnumbered and overpowered us.”
“I see.”
“There’s something else. They also had Chris Abbott as a hostage.”
“Gary’s brother?”
“Yeah. Now what would they be doing with him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is he somehow involved with you as well?”
“No. I swear to you he’s got no involvement with us.”
“Well, Kenny’s got him for a reason. Just have to figure out what it is.”
“Where do you think he’s going?”
“I don’t know yet,” Bridge answered. “I was hoping I could come in, look at some of your files, put some names to the faces.” Pinnacle One was silent for a few seconds. Bridge knew he was hesitant to allow any unauthorized personnel into the building. “Listen, if you wanna find this guy, and quickly, you need to help me as much as you can. I can do some of this on my own, but it’s gonna take longer. If I can look at some of the people that Kenny’s known to be involved with, maybe I can make them out, and we can piece together where he plans on going.”
“Fine. How soon can you get here?”
“Half hour?”
“I’ll have someone waiting for you in the lobby.”
“Good. Thank you.”
After hanging up, Bridge looked down the street and sighed. He then held his head. “What is all this about?” he said to himself.
Bridge headed back inside. He found Nicole and Happ standing next to each other, still talking. He tugged on her arm.
“We gotta go.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Happ asked.
“We have to see a former… associate.”
“Let me in.”
Bridge shook his head. “Sorry, bud, can’t. It’s not up to me. Just us going into the building is against protocol. It’s only supposed to be active agency employees who are working on that project.”
“What’s the project’s name?”
Bridge grinned. “Can’t say.”
“Where’s this building located?”
Bridge’s grin got even bigger. “Can’t say.”
“What can you say?”
“That I can’t say.”
“Well, do you think you’ll be able to loop me in when you’re done?”
“I would think so. We’ll see. Depends on how classified the information is.”
Happ sighed. “I have a feeling you’re gonna freeze me out.”
“I won’t. I’ll tell you everything I can. You know how it works with secret government agencies.”
“No, I don’t know. How is it?”
Bridge smiled again. “Can’t say.”
“Are you gonna say anything?”
Bridge shrugged. “See you later?”
“Gee, thanks. You get this place shot to pieces and then hightail it somewhere else and leave me with the cleanup.”
“At least there’s no bodies.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Bridge tapped his friend on the arm. “The least I could do.”
“The very least.”
“You sure you wanna go back there?” Nicole asked.
Bridge shrugged. “Why not? I don’t have any unpleasant memories.”
“Maybe it’ll make you wanna sign back up again.”
Bridge laughed. “Nothing could make me wanna do that again. Too dangerous.”
“Yeah, like what we do now is so safe.”
13
It was familiar, but different. The layout was pretty much the same as the last time Bridge had been in there. There was a receptionist’s desk in the middle of the lobby, but not much else. It’d gone through an upgrade in its design, though. Everything looked brand new. And expensive. Alternating marble-colored tiles on the floor
