by Peter Shillen
8< SNIP >8
A few minutes later, he heard a ruckus coming from the outer office. A second later, the door opened and a box was tossed into the room, followed by the smiling face of Agent Jim Reaper as he walked into the room.
"Hey Jim, what happened.' Martin said, 'They kicked you out of the Training department already?"
Jim laughed as he walked to Martin's desk.
"I guess they thought my training style was too... how shall we say... intense."
Martin laughed as well as he got up to carry Jim's stuff to his desk, seeing that Jim had another box in his hands. It was then that they heard the door open and close a second time.The laughter left Martin's face as he saw Leo and Zenya standing inside the door.
Jim turned around and said, "Hey Leo, Zenya... I'm back!"
Martin then whispered, "Jim, it's not them. Leo and Zenya are still in New York."
Jim gave Martin a confused look, then started to draw his gun only to find that 'Leo' and 'Zenya' already had their guns trained on them.
"Don't make us hurt you." 'Leo' told them. "That's not what we want. We just need to know what you know. Drop your guns."
'Zenya' pulled out a canister and tossed it toward Jim and Martin as she and 'Leo' put on gas masks. A few moments later, Jim and Martin dropped to the floor unconscious.
8< SNIP >8
Jim felt terrible. He was beginning to recover, his body automatically doing a system check, trying to sense injuries. He could remember the smell. Gas. Leo and Zenya had gassed them. Martin had said it wasn't them. What the hell was going on?
His eyes opened, but he appeared to be in a dark, confined space. Martin was with him. Then, he began to hear noises. They were muffled, but he thought it was Leo and Zenya. He tried to move, but he just bumped down. That seemed to attract their attention and they moved towards them.
As the door opened, Jim took every ounce of strength he had. He lunged at Leo, but with no chance of connecting as the man simply stepped to one side.
"Easy Jim," he said.
"I'm going to rip your heart out," Jim stammered.
"What is he talking about?" Zenya asked Leo.
"It must be the gas," Leo said. "Jim, it's Leo."
"I know who you are, you bastard! You're the guy who gassed us.." He tried to continue his train of thought. "No. It was you, but it was someone else."
Zenya and Leo exchanged glances, but Leo remembered the Airport assistant asking about their double flight.
"Are you saying someone who looked like me did this?"
Jim nodded. Martin was also coming round now.
"It's OK Martin - it really is me."
Martin relaxed a little while Leo told Zenya about the flight check girl. Jim was coming too a little better and stood up, swaying a little.
"That was a great 'Welcome Home'. Two friends knocking you out with gas." At that moment, Jim leaped at Leo for a second time. They tussled on the floor until Leo got the upper hand with a neatly executed throw.
"What the hell's the matter with you?" he shouted.
Jim felt really bad again. "I had to make sure, Deadeye," he said, trying to grin, "and I couldn't think of a question to ask you."
"Well, now that we've got it sorted out, let's try to get to the bottom of this."
"First of all," Zenya said, "Welcome Home, Jim!!" They all laughed, even Jim, whose head felt like an African drum.
"Thanks guys," he smiled. "I wish I knew what the hell was going on."
Jordan came in to the office at that point. He could plainly see that something was wrong.
"What the hell are you two doing in here?" he indicated Zenya and Leo. "I thought you were after those two in the elevator?"
Leo explained to Jordan what had happened and the Agent's face hardened.
"What can you say about that! Now we can't even trust each other."
"Well, I've already established Leo's identity beyond doubt," Jim smiled.
"OK. It's good to see you Jim, and better to see you're alive and well. We'd better brief you on the case."
NRPG:
Please brief Jim someone! Or I'll never know what's going on.
This is a short post just to say "It's good to be back".