nowhere to run (a sam drake fanfic)

The Expert

The sound of my footsteps echoed loudly down the hall as I walked. There wasn't another living being in sight, but of course it was three in the morning so I would expect as much. The glass of water I carried with me kept splashing out ever so often but I didn't really notice as I was too tired to focus on that anyway. I quietly pushed open the large wooden door to Rafe's study trying my best to keep my bottle of Advil and glass balanced it the same hand. Once I managed to open it I gently placed down my things before walking back to close the door behind me.

With a flick of a switch the once dark and gloomy room lit up and became quite warm and bright. Rafe's study was a perfect mixture of the classic Victorian style with a touch of modern edge. Darkly stained wooden bookcases went from the floor to ceiling... which doesn't seem too big but in this room the ceiling was two stories up. Many of said books hadn't been touched in years yet none had even a speck of dust on them due to Rafe's large and tedious cleaning crew.

In both the back corners of the room spaced perfectly on either side of the fireplace, there were beautiful spiral staircases that allowed you to walk to the second story level that wrapped around the room. You were able to see down onto ground level over railings that match the staircases perfectly. And of course no fancy study can be complete without a massive highly expensive chandelier, which Rafe had proudly on display hanging from the center of the ceiling.

After taking in the sight of the room that still amazes me (even though I've seen it many times before) I walked over to the large table that took up much of the floor space. Though a small chair and couch still was able to fit in front of the gas fireplace behind the table. Most of the furniture that was in this room before had to be removed for the table to fit.  Rafe always had to have his working space perfect and for some reason a very large table was needed for that. Next to the table there was a large cork board alongside a whiteboard. Both were filled with writing and images from top to bottom. I should talk to Rafe about bringing in another board. I thought to myself as I noticed the cork board was getting quite full.

I pulled out a chair towards the end of the table where most of my stuff was. Piles of notebooks, file folders filled with paper and random maps and images where not so neatly stacked around the small clearing I made to put my water. I slowly sat down while popping open the bottle of Advil, taking two just to ease my headache. I was starting to have my nightmares again which consequently caused me to sleep very little. A headache on top of exhaustion was not something I wanted to deal with today.

After stretching for a moment I grabbed a file off the top of my stack that I was working on last night. It wasn't anything important just a small town's noise complaints that were sent in about Rafe's team drilling next to the neighborhood. They're trying to fine Rafe for the disturbance which annoyed Rafe by itself. But what really got him going was finding out we were digging in the wrong country in the first place. I leaned back as I flipped through the file debating on if I should call them myself or just let Rafe deal with it later.

The next few hours went by exactly the same. I skimmed through the endless files and permits Rafe had given to me. I didn't have the energy to look at actual clues so I thought using my time on the little things would be fine for now. But after a few hours my eyelids grew heavy again and this time my will wasn't strong enough to keep them open for long.

The last thing I remember was opening a file about some jail in Panama. The file was filled with different views of the jails layout, some random guards names and a layout of a tower that stood behind the jail. None of it interested me much until I got to the back of the pages. There was a blurry picture of what looked like a cross. I studied it for a moment curious about its significance but as I tilted the folder more a picture slid out onto the floor. I gently picked it up as it seemed a little frail. It was of a brown haired man smiling shyly at the camera with his arm wrapped around another man just a little taller than him. The taller man also had brown hair but it was just a little longer and his smile was much bigger. It was refreshing seeing smiling faces after looking through all those other files for so long.