Identity - Rewritten

Chapter Twenty-One

April 2014

The sun is just starting to rise when all four agents pile back into the car and make their not-so-daring escape from the CDA compound. As expected, Asha is in the driver's seat, her mirrors double-checked and her hands at ten and two. Mel managed to claim the passenger seat before anyone else could get to it, and now she's having a fun time squishing Diego's legs with her pushed-back seat. Ian almost expects Mel to cackle.

It's not until they're reached the highway in relative silence that Diego perks up in his seat, lips puckered into a silent "Oh." He says, "There's something I forgot to tell you all– everything was so crazy with coming back here, and then the Red Op."

Ian turns to him, curious. "What?"

"I stayed over at Tommy's last night, and I got to snooping around. I only managed to get a look in Gregory and Trevor's room, but I found a burner phone hidden at the back of a drawer– I checked the call history, and there was only one number." Diego recites the number slowly, from memory, and Asha glances back at him.

"That's the Manhattan area code," she says. "More evidence that the kids are being held somewhere in the city."

Diego replies, "I know that's not incredibly helpful, but it's something."

Ian says, "Well, it also confirms that the parents are being blackmailed. Assuming that the phone really was for that and not some other reason, but like Asha said, Gregory's as clean as a whistle."

Mel twists around in her seat to look at them, a burner phone of her own in hand. "Let's see if the line is still good, shall we?"

"Since when do you have a burner phone on hand?" Diego asks as she begins to punch in the number, the click of the keys loud in the small space.

"Since it's smart to have for situations exactly like this," Mel says, and rolls her eyes. She holds the phone up to her ear for a few seconds, and then snaps it shut. "Line's disconnected."

"Damn it," Asha says. "They must be using a different phone for every parent." She looks at Ian in the rearview mirror. "Next opportunity we have, we have to try and get one from one of the parent's whose kid is still missing."

Ian nods.

Mel leans forward in her seat, and music blasts loudly from the car radio; Ian slaps his hands over his ears as the onslaught of sugary pop threatens to burst his eardrums. "Would you turn that down?" he asks, having to shout to be heard over the music. Judging from Asha's cringe, she shares the sentiment, but Diego looks like he couldn't care less.

From the passenger seat, Mel just swivels her head to smirk at him. "Whatever you want," she says, with a laugh. Killian only knows what she's saying by reading her cherry red lips, the music too loud for even Mel's voice to conquer it. The music does turn down to an acceptable level, but then Mel switches to another station that's playing some rap song that Ian's vaguely aware he should be offended by.

Ian spends the next few minutes just staring out the foggy morning window at his left, watching as the trees flit by. Maybe they're leaving the CDA under more duress this time, but there's an unmistakable focus between them. This isn't just about the mission anymore. It's personal. They're giving up years of their lives, and possibly their lives themselves, for this mission, and they'll be damned if they don't save those kids.

Ian's lips quirk up a touch. Sunlight is streaming into the car, the current song is slightly less offensive than the last, and they have a plan and a mission and two more weeks of freedom. If Ian may die on the Red Op, whatever it may be, he'd better start enjoying the now before it's too late. And today, this sunny car oasis seems like a good place to start.