Cassie pulled up at the warehouse and walked in. She wondered all the way there why Mr. Cross had asked to meet her there. One look around gave her the impression it was deserted.
"Mr. Cross?" She called.
"Over here." He replied from the shadows.
She took a couple of steps toward him when she felt a mist on her face...a second later she was lying unconscious on the floor.
"Cassie!"
She moved slightly.
"Wake up girl!"
The blonde groaned and slowly opened her eyes...to find herself shackled, hands and feet to a metal wall.
"Thank goodness."
"D.D.? What the hell...?"
"Yeah." The shorter blonde answered relieved.
"Hey, I'm over here too."
"Sorry." Cassie replied looking around D.D. at Shane. "What the hell is going on?"
"Ask the boss." Shane snorted and glared ahead.
"Is this some kind of test?" Cassie called to the man who stood a few yards away.
"I don't think it is." D.D. answered quietly.
"Deeds?" Cassie asked.
"He came to the beach house and gave me a few knocks, threatened me with his pen too."
The other women knew how serious that was, their boss was a professional killer and a pen was a deadly weapon in his hands.
"We need to find out what he's doing and why." She said.
"Good luck, the man hasn't said a word." Shane muttered.
"Feeling a little kinky today were you boss?" Cassie called.
"Yeah, I like a good handcuff too but these are a little tight." Shane added.
"Usually have my legs in a different position too." D.D. agreed, getting looks from them. "What? I was just following your innuendos."
Cross didn't react, instead he continued to work on something in front of him until his cell rang.
"Cross speaking. I've neutralized them. I understand I'm on my way to the hotel right now, when the mission is complete I will terminate the enemy." He finished and looked at the women sending a chill down their spines as he hung up.
"He's using his scary voice...and it's working." Cassie murmured.
"We gotta get out of here." Shane hissed.
"If you were like Jaws in those James Bond movies you could chew the handcuffs off." D.D. suggested getting another look. "What? He was a really bad guy."
"No, he just had bad teeth." Shane deadpanned.
They looked back at Cross who was holding a scope rifle, he aimed it at them and they held their breaths, he slowly rotated until he was facing the loading bay door, all the way across the warehouse. He adjusted the scope and pulled the trigger. No bullet was discharged but the women could imagine what it would do to a person at that distance or farther.
Cross clicked on his walking talkie and listened to the messages being relayed.
"Prime Rib? Isn't that...?" Shane asked.
"English P.M." Cassie nodded.
"Cross sent us to find...him?" D.D. asked confused.
"Never suspected the assassin was the boss." Shane replied.
"This doesn't add up. Cross gives us a mission to find an assassin targeting the P.M. but it's really Cross? He's too much of a straight shoot--- sorry." Cassie said.
"I'll be back to take care of you ladies soon." Cross promised then left with the rifle.
"Okay, any ideas on our escape?" Cassie asked once he'd gone."Just...one." Shane grunted and pulled her hand out of the cuff.
"She really is double-jointed." D.D. murmured.
Shane reached up and pulled her hoop earring off, straightened it out and lock picked the other handcuff until she was free then quickly undid theirs.
"We gotta call Comcent!" Cassie said trying to find their phones to no avail. "Deeds, get to a phone, tell then Cross is...he's going after the Prime Minister, have Duncan triangulate his cell to locate him."
"Meanwhile, we gotta figure out a way to stop him after we find him." Shane added.
"He said a hotel, the P.M.is speaking at the pavillion,there's a couple of hotels right across from it." Cassie said leading them out. She dreaded a confrontation with Cross, not only because he was a former agent who could beat them but also because they might have only one choice to stop him...kill him.
They jumped into Shane's car while D.D. took Cassie's to find a phone.
"What do we do when and if we find him? How do we stop a guy this good?" Shane asked.
"I'm working on it."
"Work fast, we'll be there soon."
Cassie put her mind to it and decided a straight approach was the best...they'd also try to take him down without taking him out.
"Do your best not to seriously hurt him, just try to incapacitate him." She said as they pulled to the curb down the street from the hotel and the pavillion where the P.M. was speaking.
They hurried through the crowd of protestors who gathered to shout at the Englishman over some policy or other.
"McBain!"
The women hurried over to Agent Paul Muncie who held out the phone to her.
'It's me Cassie, he's at the hotel directly across the street from the pavillion. I'm on my way.'
"Okay Deeds." She replied and hung up handing it back.
"Where is he?" The man asked.
"The hotel." Cassie replied.
They and several more agents hurried there and showed the clerk Cross's photo.
"Never seen him." The man said.
"You're sure?" Muncie asked looking at the women.
"Guy doesn't look familiar."
"Do you have anymore photos?" Cassie asked.
Muncie handed them over puzzled and watched as the women,using a marker, changed the appearance of Mr. Cross to what they had seen in his apartment after he was framed for killing the Chairman.
"How about these guys?" Shane asked the clerk pushing them toward him.
"This one!" He exclaimed pointing out the one of Cross with hair brushed forward and wearing a mustache.
"Which room?!?" Muncie demanded.
"7070."
"We found him, room---"
"Wait, let us see if we can stop him first." Cassie requested.
"He's an assassin!" Muncie glared.
"No he isn't! Something about this whole thing is wrong!" Cassie argued.
"A guy doesn't just turn overnight." Shane agreed.
"That guy has 10 million in a Caribbean account!"
"Let us do it, if we can't stop him in the way we were trained...then we'll do it however we have to." Cassie met his eyes.
"We've got two agents going into room 7070 to stop Cross, all other agents take up position...deadly force may be necessary." MUncie radiod then looked at them. "Ten minutes, if he's not neutralized by then, we're coming in."
"Got it." Shane nodded and they headed for the elevator. "So what's the plan when we get up there?" She asked.
"Don't have one."
"That'll help." Shane rolled her eyes.
"Cross knows the book forward and backward, he's probably written a few rules for it---" Cassie reminded.
"When did we ever play by the book?" Shane asked as the elevator ascended.
"That's where we have the advantage." Cassie agreed.
"I hope you're right."
The women strode down the hall and saw several agents ready to intervene at a moment if they failed to stop him.
"Pick it?" Shane asked crouching by the door to inspect the lock.
"Do it." Cassie nodded.
Shane quietly did and Cassie opened the door just far enough to see inside.
"Damn it! He's not here!" Cassie uttered as they went inside to find the room empty then hurried back into the hall.
"Wrong room." Shane told the other agents who relayed it to Muncie and he ordered them to open every room on that floor.
The women returned to 7070 and searched it with some of the others to determine when he might have gone.
Shane nudged her and Cassie followed her eyes to the ceiling, the blonde serruptitiously checked out the speck then led her into the hall.
"Surveillance in the ceiling? Cross is good." Shane murmured.
"How long before the P.M. shows?" Cassie asked.
"Five minutes." Shane checked her watch.
"Let's move!"
The women hurried up to the eighth floor and Shane, even more quietly,unlocked that door. They gave each other hand signals and on the count of three they rushed him.
As they expected he was a formidable opponent and they had a tough fight even taking him on together. He swung the rifle at Cassie knocking her to the floor. Shane kicked at his bad leg but he grabbed her leg and spun her around causing her to lose her balance and hit the floor. Both women recovered quickly and were horrified to see him leap over the balcony rail. Cassie lunged and grabbed one arm between the railing slats then cried out as he used his weight to swing himself causing her grip to loosen. Shane punched him in the jaw stunning him momentarily giving her the change to grab his other arm.
"He's heavier than he looks." Shane grunted.
"Don't let go!" Cassie ordered.
"Be nice if some help came along soon!" Shane retorted,her arms aching.
Mr. Cross started to move around making it even harder to hold on.
"Stop or we'll drop you!" Shane snapped at him.
"I think that's the point!" Cassie replied.
"Suicide?!? Not on us boss!" Shane gritted.
A hand appeared out of nowhere and stabbed Cross in the arm with a needle, he went slack moments later and they looked up to see D.D.
"A powerful sedative." She smiled and helped them pull him up.
The women sat panting as Mr. Cross lay unconscious near-by.
Muncie and several agents rushed in.
"Get him an ambulance." Cassie said.
He radiod for one then stepped to the balcony and watched the P.M.'s motorcade depart.
"Nice work ladies." He complimented.
"Our work isn't done." Cassie said looking at Cross.
"How is he?"
"We're still waiting on the doctors." D.D. answered Duncan.
"I still can't believe Mr. Cross was going to assassinate the British Prime Minister."
"He wasn't, not the Cross we know." Cassie answered.
"I hope they find something that made him do this." D.D. agreed.
"If not..." Shane met their eyes.
"There's the doctor." Cassie said and led them to the older medic.
"How's Mr. Cross?" D.D. asked.
"Resting. His bloodwork showed heavy amounts of sedative of course...it also revealed a psychotropic drug."
"That's why he was acting completely different." Shane nodded.
"I've never seen such high amounts before." The doctor replied.
"How was it administered?" Cassie asked.
"Injection?" Shane asked.
"Ingestion." The doctor replied.
"Excuse me? He ate the drug?" Cassie asked bewildered.
"Food or drink. It accumulated over time." The doctor nodded.
"How long?" Duncan asked.
"By the amount, at least three weeks."
"He'll be okay though?" Cassie asked.
"It'll take a while for it to work through his system but his prognosis is good."
"Thanks." Shane nodded and he left them.
"No one at Comcent would have done it, right?" D.D. asked.
"Well technically, if they did it would have affected everyone who ate or drank anything he did at the office." Duncan pointed out.
"Anything on his cell records?" Cassie inquired.
"The call was made from a pay phone across from his apartment." Duncan answered.
"Talk about bad taste!" Shane said.
"Let's go." Cassie ordered heading for the exit.
"Where to?" Shane asked.
"The place it all started." She replied.
"This is Mr. Cross place?" Duncan gaped.
"The guy does have taste." Shane nodded.
"We'll need to take all his food and get it tested." Cassie said leading then to the kitchen.
They found his fridge actually had very little in it. A loaf of bread, a couple of eggs, a bottle of wine and a couple of water bottles.
"So what has he been eating?" Shane asked.
"The doctor said drink too." Duncan reminded.
"The coffee maker?" Cassie asked walking over to it.
"Deeds, can you grab a bag?" Shane asked pulling food from the fridge.
"Earth to Deeds." Cassie teased seeing her stare at the sink.
"Diagnosis Murder." She uttered.
"Huh?" Shane said.
D.D. opened the cupboard under the sink as she explained. "On Diagnosis Murder, Jesse thought he had been abducted by a U.F.O but it was actually a plot---"
"Deeds." Cassie interrupted.
"They drugged his water and it caused him to hallucinate." She jumped to the point ducking her head under the cabinet. "Look." She said motioning to them.
"What exactly are we looking at?" Cassie knelt down.
"This." D.D. pointed.
"Not standard on a sink I take it?" Shane asked.
"Only if you want a little something extra in your water." D.D. replied.
"Cross drinks bottle water, why spike his sink?" Cassie asked.
"We drink bottle water too but how do we make iced tea, ice cubes, coffee...?" Shane asked.
"If he drank enough of those over three weeks he could have been infected." Duncan nodded silently calculating how much would been ingested.
"Okay, let's say he was drugged with this water, how did they get him to go after the P.M.?" Shane asked.
They heard a noise at the door and ducked behind the furniture.
"Get the transmitter from the bedroom, I'll take care of the water."
"I think you're about to get your answer Shane." Cassie whispered as the two men parted.
D.D. peeked over the couch as the footsteps retreated and nodded as Cassie pointed toward the bedroom. Cassie smirked to see Duncan tiptoe behind her down the hall. She and Shane stood and softly walked to the kitchen.
"Wonder how much you're gonna cost him?" Shane said to the man.
"What? His life isn't enough?" Cassie glared at the man.
He swung at them and they easily took him down giving a few extra chops for Mr. Cross.
D.D. and Duncan dragged the second one out of the bedroom and dropped him next to the first.
"Let's get a sweeper team in here." Cassie said and pulled her new cell out.
"I always knew getting to finish watching my programs would pay off." D.D. smiled at the sink.
"The Red Brigade are an anti-British government group, mostly Irish but a few others as well. Mr. Cross arrested key members several years ago, they must have thought they could get revenge on him and take care of business at the same time." D.D. said.
"So they drugged his water making him succeptable to their suggestions." Duncan explained.
"They tested him with small things first, he had a call on his cell to a phone sex line." D.D. added.
"T.M.I." Shane held up her hand.
"T.M.I.?" Duncan asked.
"Too much information." Shane grinned.
"Mr. Cross has been cleared of everything." D.D. smiled.
"Speaking of..." Cassie nodded toward the stairs as he descended them wearing his customary blue suit.
"Ladies, I'm surprised to see you here as we have no mission today."
"Figure you'd take a few days off too." Cassie replied.
"I have weeks of work to catch up on." He answered and headed for his office to which they followed.
"We really should have a sideline of 'thank you' cards." D.D. mused.
"Yeah, thanks for proving I'm innocent and recovering stolen nerve gas." Shane nodded.
"Don't forget, thanks for preventing me from assassinating the Prime Minister and leaping to my death." Cassie added.
Cross turned to them.
"Thank you." He said.
"You're welcome." Cassie smiled.
"This calls for a shopping trip." D.D. said.
"And lunch." Shane agreed as they tuned to go.
"Don't put it on your expense account." Cross replied.
"Save a guy's life and this is the thanks we get." Cassie snorted glancing back at him with a smile as they walked out.
Cross watched them go and smiled too, they had saved him again...he felt fortunate to have their belief in him be as strong as it was. He took a breath and turned back to his computer, he did have a lot of work to go over.