Regrouping

by Alton Reich

[Day 1 - mid afternoon]

> It took but a fraction of a second, but Leo's automatic was soon in > his hand and the kid had somehow slipped his gun past it's restraint > and started to fire at Leo. Leo squeezed off an equal amount of > shots as he heard the door open behind him. With each shot that he > got off he knew that he had managed to hit each bullet that came for > him since he wasn't hit or he didn't hear any sounds of richocheting > behind him. The kid stood there, his eyes unbelieving as he saw Leo > standing there, his automatic pointed at his head. The kid then > shook violently, dropped his gun, and fainted dead away.

Jordan led the way out the door of the Sheriff's office and down the stairs. Zenya and Martin followed closely behind him. Jordan stopped at Leo's side and put a hand on his arm, "You OK."

Leo was breathing a bit fast but he nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Jordan knelt down by Chris Laughton. He had no idea what was wrong with the teen, but really didn't want to take any chances. "Sheriff, call an ambulence!" Jordan shouted.

"Right!," Dolan called back before ducking back inside to use the phone.

"How did you do that?" Zenya asked Leo.

He shrugged, "Just something I picked up in the military," he said casually.

Martin knelt down by Chris, who's shaking had subsided, "I'll bet you five bucks he doesn't remember any of this when he wakes up."

"I'd take that bet if I wasn't sure I'd loose," Jordan replied wryly.

Sheriff Dolan came down the stairs, "The ambulence will be here in a few minutes. Can I do anything in the meantime?"

Jordan looked around at the crowd that had been attracted by the shootout, "Yeah, you can keep the crowd back," Jordan replied while reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a pair of handcuffs.

"What are those for?" Dolan asked.

Jordan looked at him for a moment before kneeling down and handcuffing the still unconcious boy. When he stood he regarded Dolan sternly, "You don't seem to have a good grasp on what's going on here Sheriff. This boy just attempted to murder a Federal Agent."

"Oh," Dolan replied, "I hadn't looked at it that way."

"I didn't think you had."

Dolan looked at the pavement for a moment and moved off to keep the crowd away.

Zenya stepped over toward Jordan and Martin. Leo was scanning the faces in the crowd around them, as if looking for something in particular. "He seems awfully casual about this whole thing," Zenya said with a slight nod of her head in the Sheriff's direction.

"He's probably just in shock," Martin said with a slight grin.

"This whole thing seems wierd to me," Leo said.

"Did you see anything?" Jordan asked.

"Nah, but I think the ambulence is coming."

The began to hear the wail of a siren and an ambulence soon came into view. It pulled to a stop and the paramedics got out and began to prepare Chris Laughton for the trip to the hospital.

Jordan's cell phone began to ring and he pulled it out and answered.

>

> "Reaper Chief. We're still at the airport. We just saw someone arrive and I > don't think it's good news."

>

> "No, but close. It's Thaddeus Cross himself!"

>

> "Yeah, they just left. They said they were going to a hotel and *Daddy* said > he was going to 'oversee the operation *personally*'. It's not looking too > good."

> Jordan hung up with a mumbled curse.

"Rebecca?" Leo asked with a hint of steel in his eye.

"Worse, Thaddeus Cross himself. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or pissed off," Jordan replied, "I think we're going to have to operate in pairs, just so we can back each other up if we run afoul of Mr. Cross."

"That's prudent," Martin agreed.

"Martin, I want you and Leo to go to the hospital with Chris. See if you can get any useful information out of him. Zenya, lets go interview those other two kids."

"Gotcha, Chief," Leo said, but Jordan thought he saw a glance pass between Agents Jones and Gorky.

***

[Later - Sheriff's office]

"Well, what do you think?" Jordan asked Zenya across the conference table in Sheriff Dolan's office.

Zenya flipped through her notes for a moment while considering her answer. "Lori Carter chases two cows out of her yard at noon on a Saturday, and then slits her parents' throats that night while they sleep. Will Dugins goes to the farm meet Chris Laughton to go fishing. They end up feeding the cows before going, and that night he kills his dad."

"There seem to be too many cows involved in their stories," Jordan pointed out, "that didn't make the Sheriff's report."

"When you consider that the kids in the restaurant across the street remember the heard of cows in the street, but not watching us, it makes the cows our prime suspect."

Jordan smiled, "That would be an interesting conclusion in our report, cows made teen killers do it. No, I just think it's a wierd coincidence."

"Then it's possible that someone is using the cows as a trigger. Planting some kind of mass hypnotic suggestion. It seems far-fetched, though."

There was a knock at the door, and Jordan called out, "Come in!"

Vanessa and Jim walked through the door.

{*Snipped from Sau Woon's post and modified a bit.*}

"Ready to go?" Jordan spoke the moment they walked into the office.

"To where?" Vanessa asked.

"The one and only motel in this town. They have only ten rooms, and had graciously allowed us to have six of them."

"Hey, don't look so sad, its only ten minutes away." Zenya chipped in.

"Come on, let's go," Jordan shoo-ed them out.

Before they left, they said their thanks to the Dolan and Prentice, and promised to call the moment they had any progress.

They walked out, and almost had a 'human accident' when Jordan, who was at the very front, stopped suddently.

"What's wrong?" Zenya asked, curious.

"Two Suzuki Swifts?" Jordan turned to Jim and Vanessa, and asked.

Jim shrugged.

"We ruined the last two Tauruses they had. It was a very popular car." He explained.

Jordan looked at the two cars in front of him, murmured something, and then got in.

"We'll have to swing by the hospital and pick up Leo and Martin," Jordan called out to Jim, "It's only a five minute detour."

***

[Day 1 - Evening at hotel.]

They had gathered for dinner in Jordan's room, and the Agents were now seated on almost every horizontal surface in sight.

"So, what do we know," Jordan asked around a mouthful of food.

"We know these kids forget everything. At the hospital Chris Laughton claimed to have never seen me before, and he certainly didn't remember knowing my name and taking shots at me," Leo answered.

"We also know that there's something going on with the cows," Zenya said.

"Don't forget that Thaddeus Cross is in town," Jim added.

"I'm not real sure what to do about him, but my feeling is that we shouldn't wait for him to come to us. I also want to talk to Chris Laughton's dad about his cows," Jordan said.

NRPG:

Ok, I think the concensus is that the cows are involved, but we need to figure out how and why. Is it some kind of cow hive mind? Is someone using the cows as a hypontic trigger? Who would be in a position to hypnotize an entire town? (I have an idea, but I'm still trying to figure out what his motive would be.)

Sydnie: What are the odds that Sheridd Dolan makes it to the end of the mission, and could I have the pleasure of killing him?

Peter and Sau Woon: I don't think Thaddeus Cross is involved with the killings in town (Any opinion Jeff?) jordan will probably send Jim and Vanessa to go find Thaddeus and have a chat with him.

I think that's it.