Chapter Nine #3
“We didn’t send them, Viv,” Callen said. “Elizabeth might have gotten them from Devon Slater, and they could have trace to help us.”
Were they shocked he’d send flowers to taunt her?
No.
Knowing that prick, they were likely gloating about Jet, and what had gone down in DC. If this card said anything about that, she wasn’t seeing it, or the flowers.
Carefully, Gene opened the card.
And he was horrified by what he saw.
‘Roses are red.
Death is sudden.
One sniff of this rose.
And your body is frozen.
I’m coming for you.
You’ve been a nasty lass.
Thanks to that press conference,
You will watch one of them pass.’
Oh, holy shit,” he said, shoving himself and Chris away from the vase of roses.
The ME gasped.
“What?” Chris asked.
Only, before he could say anything, Vivian got incredibly wobbly.
“Why is the room is spinning?” she asked. “Why do I feel…?”
And she didn’t get to finish.
Instead, she fell to the floor, as a red rash started spreading on her body, and her lips started going pale.
From that, and that alone, Chris knew what the hell had just happened.
He began pulling off his clothing and pointed at Gene since they’d gotten closest to the flowers.
“Slowly, take off the gloves without touching your skin, drop them, and get in the shower!” he stated. “That’s poison!”
Oh, holy fuck.
“I’ve seen it before. Elizabeth and I had a case where someone was poisoning people with blood red roses and Aconite. She breathed it in, or she pricked herself.”
Gene did as he asked, and the other two men stood over Vivian as her body went into shock. She was frothing at the mouth as the seizures started.
“Don’t touch her,” he said. “Call down for decontamination protocol!” he stated, as he and Gene headed into Elizabeth’s adjoined bathroom to get under the water. They couldn’t risk it if Gene had touched their skin with the gloves when he shoved them away.
Ethan did as he asked.
“Decontamination in the director’s office. Come up in suits to save us.”
As soon as he hung up, the room lights began flashing, as the decontamination alarms began going off all around them, and the floor went into lockdown.
Callen stood there, not sure what to do.
“What about Vivian?” he asked.
And Blackhawk knew the truth.
Vivian was staring up blankly at the ceiling, her eyes empty of life.
It was too late.
Devon Slater had struck again, and he’d given them more insight.
Picking a poison that Elizabeth had once encountered on a case said one thing. He knew about their cases too.
This was worse than they thought.
Nothing was safe.
NOTHING.
AT.
ALL.
* * * The Blackhawks * * *
The Jet
En Route
Monday Afternoon
Finally, she’d fallen asleep, but unfortunately for Elizabeth, the dreams chased her. In them, she was stuck in that sports car, watching Jet die over and over again.
For the life of her, Elizabeth simply couldn’t get out of that loop.
It was non-fucking-stop.
Each time, she tried to intervene, and each time, it went bad.
Like REALLY bad.
At first, it was Jet who died, and then it was everyone else BUT her. It was like her brain was trying to punish her over and over again.
It was almost too much.
Finally, on the last attempt to stop it, she couldn’t take it anymore, and she screamed.
It was feral.
It was painful.
And it did what she needed.
It pulled her from that particular dream, and she found herself standing in the middle of the street in a completely different one.
Oh, and it was worse.
All around Elizabeth, she recognized the people who were passing her by.
They were all the victims of each and every one of her cases. She was surrounded by the dead, and the knowledge that each one had died and she couldn’t help them.
Oh, she’d solved the cases, but they’d still lost their lives.
“What the hell?” she asked, touching her head. “Please wake up. Please wake up.”
Only, she didn’t.
This dream had her by the balls.
Then, she heard him.
“Hey, Baby Girl.”
When she turned, there was a very familiar face moving toward her through the crowd.
There stood her father.
The younger version.
“Daddy?” she asked, not sure what was going to happen next. Would she have to watch him die?
Again.
He laughed.
“Yeah, it’s me, Elizabeth. You’re having one hell of a rough dream.”
She stared at him.
“Apparently, I still am because you’re dead, and I rarely dream about you. Usually, it’s when the shit hits the fan.”
He moved toward her, and when he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, she could feel his fingers and smell his cologne.
He felt so real.
What wouldn’t Elizabeth give to have him back in her life, if only for a day? She’d do anything.
“Well, things in dreams are seldom what we think they are, pumpkin. What looks like one thing is generally a completely different thing.”
Yeah, tell her about it.
“Daddy, I’m lost.”
He hugged her.
“No, you’re not, Honey. You’re right where you need to be. We’re with you and protecting you. I’m sorry you’re going through this. I know you’re feeling so many emotions.”
Yeah, she was.
Clinging to him, he felt so real. The scent alone took her back to her younger days. Here, he was barely fifty, and it wasn’t lost on her that now, they were the same age.
A lot of time had passed.
Deep down, she knew this was only a dream, but she missed him.
Desperately.
“I don’t know why I can’t wake up. I feel like there are so many levels, and I’m just short of breaking the surface.”
He reassured her.
“The three of us are right beside you,” he stated as water began filling the street. As they spoke, it was up to their ankles.
Setting him free, she stared into his eyes. She assumed he meant him, Sam, and her mother.
God.
She missed all three of them.
“Daddy, I don’t know how to stop him. I’m not sure if I can. I feel like all I can do is brace for impact. I feel like I’m underwater, and I can’t breathe.”
He looked concerned.
“I can’t give you that answer, Elizabeth. I raised you to know the difference between right and wrong.”
She knew why he was saying that.
Well, why her psyche was telling her that?
It was clear that she was going to break the law.
AGAIN.
“The world is not black and white, Charlie. I wish it was, but it’s not. I’ve seen too much, and I’ve learned things that showed me that.”
He was well aware.
“Everything is not what it seems,” he stated, as the water was now up to their knees. “You’re not seeing the real picture. I can’t get you out of this. Only you can, Elizabeth. Only you can wake up from this, and come back.”
She held his hand.
“How do I stop him?”
He stared at her.
“You can’t stop what isn’t real.”
Elizabeth didn’t understand that.
“You’re so close to waking up,” he admitted. “All you have to do is wake up, Elizabeth. WAKE UP!” he shouted at her. “We need you to come back!”
The space between them started stretching.
“Charlie!”
He was to the point.
“Fight! We’re fighting for you to win this! I love you, Elizabeth! I love you so damn much! Don’t die! You can’t die! We won’t be the same!”
The water got deeper, and a wave came in, washing everyone away around her. She treaded water, Charlie gone, as she was swept out of that town, and away from the people.
When she heard her phone ring, she gasped, sitting up.
And she was on the jet, back in that bed.
“Jesus Christ. I need a psych evaluation,” she muttered, looking around.
When she found her phone, she picked it up.
Elizabeth was disoriented, and she didn’t like the feel of that dream. She didn’t know what it meant, or why she was being tormented, but she was.
“Deputy Director Blackhawk,” she said, her voice groggy.
It was a husband on the other end.
“Sweetness, did I wake you?” Chris asked.
She cleared her thoughts.
“It’s okay. I was having a dream. I’m glad you woke me,” she stated, not sure why she thought about her father.
Honestly, she couldn’t count on one hand how many times she dreamed about him.
Maybe four.
Possibly five.
“What’s up?” she asked. “Have you guys found something?” she asked, hopefully. “Please tell me Gabby found a way to track this asshole.”
She needed that.
Elizabeth was running out of steam, and if this last-ditch attempt to slow him down didn’t work, they had a huge-ass problem.
Chris needed to know.
“Are you heading here?” he asked.
Elizabeth stretched.
Her shoulder was killing her but not as badly as the pain in her ass from this case.
“Yeah, I’m en route. I’m not sure he’s going to hit there, but I suspect it.
The song he was playing might not be for me.
It occurred to me two hours ago, before I took a nap, that it might be about Ethan.
Damascus is his home, and it’s his journey back down that road. That’s why we’re there. For him.”
Chris wasn’t shocked that she’d been piecing it together, or that she was right.
Because they had a problem.
A big one.
“How far out are you?” he asked.
Elizabeth looked at her watch and saw the time. Thankfully, and regretfully, she’d only been sleeping about ninety minutes.
“We’ll be landing within the hour, unless something changed.”
Well, that was exactly what had happened, and now, he needed to tell her. They’d specifically asked her security not mention what had gone down, so one of them could do it.
“Can you call me on the tablet?” he asked. “I need to talk to you about something, and face-to-face is best.”
Uh-oh.
That.
Was.
Bad.
Immediately, she went there.
“What happened, Chris?” she asked. “Who was hurt?”
Well, never let it be said that his wife wasn’t attuned to the shitstorm.
She was.
“Let me call you on the tablet,” he said, still not delivering the bad news.
Already, she knew.
The ME was doing a notify.
She’d seen him in action, and she knew exactly what this would be like.
Commence freakout.
Something bad went down in Damascus.
“Okay.”
Without hesitating, she ended the call and picked up her tablet. As soon as she did, Chris’ face came onto the screen, and his hair was wet. He looked as if he’d just gotten out of the shower.
“Just tell me. Don’t sugarcoat it.”
Oh, and he hated this.