The Fugitive

The Base

Emily Anderson's POV

Exhaling heavily, I sat down in my office. We were back at the FBI headquarters, with less than we had started with. Nick Sievers was out there, and Aldridge with him. We should have put a tracker on her, too. I placed my hands on my computer's keyboard, unsure what to do.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in," I said.

Conway entered, a file and iPad in hand, but paused. "Did I come at a bad time?"

I sat up. "I....no, you're fine. Just thinking about Sievers again."

"We'll catch him," Conway promised.

I nodded. "Did you find out anything about the man named Derek?"

"That's what I came here to talk to you about," he said. "I searched the criminal database first. Nothing. So naturally, I accessed the birth registry."

"And?"

"Nothing. According to the database, he doesn't exist."

I steepled my fingers. "A false name."

Conway shrugged. "It's possible. But even that doesn't explain what I found next." He pulled a photograph out from the file he was holding and slid it onto my desk. A red-head with short, nearly buzzed hair stared directly back at me.

"Derek?"

Conway shook his head. "Precisely."

I stood up and held the picture up to the window, using the sun's natural light to study it. But I didn't recognize the man.

I turned back around. "How did you get this picture?"

"The security department installed cameras into our uniforms a couple weeks ago. Said they were for legal protection. But I managed to access the feed and found this."

"I....don't understand. How does this help us? If this man is collaborating with Sievers, he is most definitely wearing a disguise in this picture."

"You can't alter skeletal structure. We can compare this to possible suspects until we find a match."

"But we can't do that until we have suspects." I sighed. "Anything else?"

Conway began typing on his iPad. After a few moments, he placed on my desk. "We got an audio, too."

I pressed the play button and listened.

"I can watch her if you need to go, Agent."

"I....okay. Thank you. Don't let her out of your sight!"

I sat back in my chair. "Did you run it through an audio file?"

Conway nodded. "Of course. We've tried everything. And every time, it's the same thing. No match."

I groaned. "Keep looking. Whoever this person is, he's good. But every criminal makes one stupid mistake. We just have to figure out his."

Nick Sievers' POV

"This team Derek works with," Aldridge said, "they can be kind of....intense."

I chuckled. "Please. They haven't met me."

Aldridge held her hands up. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Derek took off the headphones and smiled at Aldridge. "And that is what you call a smooth landing! Welcome to Special Ops Base 3!"

He took her hand and helped her out of the jet. As I stood at the exit, Derek reached up a hand. I shook my head. "I can move for myself."

I leapt down to follow Aldridge, but Derek's hand caught my shoulder.

"Look, man," he said. "I had some time to think while flying that plane. I'm sorry about how I acted toward you earlier."

I nodded. "I'm sorry, too." Derek smiled, but I wasn't done. "Sorry I didn't kill you on sight." His eyebrows furrowed and he opened his mouth like a fish out of water. I chuckled and patted him on the shoulder before walking off.

Aldridge was standing in the middle of a field, hands on her hips. The strands of hair she hadn't managed to pull back in her ponytail whipped around in the wind. When Derek approached, she turned to him. "This doesn't look like much of a base to me," she said.

Derek grinned and wrapped a hand around her wait. "That's the beauty of it, Brook. Someone could build right over it and have no idea."

He took several steps forward before squatting in front of a small bump in the field. He knocked three times before pausing, then twice in rapid succession.

After several moments, there was a creak and the bump lifted. A hatch. Of course. Out popped a man's head. Thin face with mousy brown hair. And as I looked closer, I realized this kid couldn't be any older than eighteen or nineteen.

"Glad you made it," he said to Derek before disappearing again. Derek followed, climbing down the hatch.

I waited for Aldridge to go, but she gestured toward me. "After you. Don't want to risk you getting any smart ideas."

I chuckled. "Sweetheart, I've always got smart ideas." I approached the hatch and looked down to see several ladder rungs.

I winked one last time at Aldridge before descending into whatever waited for me below.