About Time

Chapter Eight - Well, That Worked Well

Cal stepped out of the car, which quickly sped away. He unlocked the front door of the apartment and went inside. Something was wrong. There were cameras in here too, but they hadn't been turned on until about three hours ago. Somebody was here. He could feel it.

Gillian, Eli, Ria, and Agent Dillion watched the screen anxiously. Everyone else had been sent home as per Cal's instructions and the four of them had gone into the lab.
This mission needed to go well for not only Reynolds' sake but also Lightman's. Cal had just gotten out of the car and gone inside. Eli switched from the contact camera to the ones inside the apartment. Lightman appeared on the screen, in a green hallway.
"Something's wrong. He's too tense." Ria noted.

Cal made halfway to the kitchen. He had just walked by the living room when the four men jumped him. They jumped out of nowhere, kicking Cal's leg out from under him, before kicking him in the ribs and hitting him over the head with a vase grabbed from a table beside the doorway. Cal never saw it coming.

Ria watched Foster's facial expressions go from anxious to surprise to fear to guilt to sadness and finally, to extreme anger. Then she exploded.
"This is all your fault! The only people who knew where Cal was going are in this room and the driver! If you had bothered to make sure your men were trustworthy, this never would have happened! If anything happens to Cal, I will have your head on a silver platter!"
She stormed out with Ria running after her, leaving Eli and Bernard in the lab staring at the door the two women had just disappeared out of.
Ria found Gillian in the bathroom, leaning over a toilet, throwing up. And crying.
"Foster, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Gillian said, standing up and wiping her eyes.
"You've been on the verge of falling apart for the last month. Are you sure?"
"No." Gillian answered honestly. "I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. And now, I have Sophie to take care of, and a baby on the way, everything I eat comes back up -I've lost ten pounds in two weeks which isn't healthy anyway and it certainly isn't good for the baby- and now this. So no, I'm probably not."
"Maybe you should go home-"
"I'm not leaving, Ria. Anna said Sophie could stay with her as long as I needed her to."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Ria sighed. "Did you happen to notice-"
"Dillion's face when I accused his driver of telling those men the location of the apartment? Yeah, I did. The driver didn't do it. It was Dillion himself. He's behind all of this. He probably took Ben just to get to Lightman. They've never liked each other. We'll have to figure out a way to warn Loker without alerting Dillion."
"Just leave that to me."

Cal woke up in an unfamiliar room, handcuffed to a metal rack.
"About time you woke up. You've been out for hours." A very familiar voice spoke up.
Cal looked to his left and saw Ben Reynolds handcuffed to another rack. He had a black eyes and several cuts to his face, but appeared to be okay.
"Well, that worked well." Cal said.
"What? Your undercover mission? Never stood a chance. Dillion's the man in charge. He made me disappear when I got too close."
"I always knew Bernard was up to no good. And I knew that. I knew it was him before he ever opened his mouth. Full of pride over this, that one."
"Why are you in such a good mood, Lightman? The only reason I'm here was so Dillion could get you. Now that you're here, he no longer needs me. And I know where we are, so I'm a dead man. So are you. That's all Dillion has ever wanted. To see you dead."
"I know. Though I don't know what I ever did to the man to make him hate me so much."
"Probably nothing. You were probably just being your annoying, jackass self."
"Oi, mate! I'm not a jackass!"

Ria and Gillian were walking back to the lab when Loker rushed around the corner.
"There you are! Lightman's contact camera just came back on, which means he woke up. Wherever he is, he's with Ben. They both seem fine. Lightman's wire has been removed though."
"Listen, Loker. Dillion is behind all of this. We have to figure out a way to get him out of here." Ria told him.
Agent Dillion came around the corner then, gun pointed at Gillian.
"There's a wire on Loker here too. Now back in the lab, all of you!"
None of them moved. Dillion fired a warning shot past Gillian's head, making her scream.
"Next time, she won't be so lucky. Back in the lab!"
They moved quickly after that. Dillion grabbed Gillian by the arm and put the gun to back of her neck, pushing her towards the lab. They stopped right outside of the door.
"We have to make those two listen now, don't we? The best way to do that is to put a gun to their boss' head. Unless you've done something and they just really don't like you."
"Please don't do this." Gillian begged. "Just put the gun down. We can talk about this."
"You don't care about the other three. All you care about is your partner."
"That's not true. I don't want any of them to get hurt."
"We both know that if you could only save one, it would be Lightman. Which is bad news for you because he's not getting out of this alive. But none of the rest of you are either. Not now."
"What are you going to tell your boss? That the four main employees of The Lightman Group and one of your agents just disappeared without a trace?"
"Oh, I'll think of something. Now get back in the lab. We have work to do."