Post by C_Miller on Apr 5, 2013 14:56:52 GMT -5
Ultimate Infinity Inc. #1
Kindred Spirits Pt. 1
By C_Miller
Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Present Day
“Okay, team, let’s roll.” Lyta Kosmatos ordered with her gun held up to her cheek, barrel pointed to the sky. With one swift kick, the door to the farmhouse was open and the team of seven plowed through into the foyer.
Despite her name that was steeped in Mythology, at 5’5’’ with golden blonde hair and soul piercing blue eyes, FBI Special Agent Lyta Kosmatos’ appearance didn’t exactly scream Greek, but one encounter with her would make her ethnic background crystal clear. She graduated High School at the top of her class and was star and captain of the track and field team.
Rather than attend college right away, she spent four years in the Marines where she excelled and powered through ranks as quick as one could. After the Marines, she attended college where she got a degree in linguistics, which she used to join the FBI only one short month after she graduated.
She excelled in the FBI, quickly solving several major cases with seemingly great ease. That is until she was assigned the kidnapping of Norda Cantrell, son of Frederick Cantrell, the Secretary of Defense.
The FBI Hostage Recovery Team plowed through the building, leaving not a single nook or cranny uncovered. Lyta kicked down a door that seemingly lead into the basement, and went down the spiral staircase to the cellar with both her gun and her flashlight outstretched.
Carefully trying not to make a sound, she tiptoed down until she felt her foot through her shoe touch down in a puddle. Nearly instantaneously, the cold, wet sensation made her jump back onto the steps. Once she retained her composure, she continued.
She continued down through the basement and while her light was on, it still left most of the area obscured. “Dammit, Lyta. This is not what you went to college for,” she said to herself.
“Norda!” She called in the dark, garnering no audible response.
Suddenly, she heard a creak behind her and before she could cycle through the possibilities of what it was, she spun around and pointed her gun in the direction of the stairs, aiming her flashlight there as well.
Adjusting her eyes to the new light, she saw a man in a HRT uniform waving his hands that like her held a gun and a flashlight, trying to shield his eyes from her light. “Dammit, Lyta. It’s just me.”
Lyta breathed a sigh of relief, dropping her gun to her side and moving the light away from his face. “Hector, I could have killed you. What are you doing down here?”
Hector Hall was another young FBI Agent who joined the Bureau a year prior to Lyta despite being a year younger. Where she had gone into the military right after Secondary School, Hector went right to Oxford where he obtained a bachelor’s in Psychology with a concentration in Abnormal Psychology and Criminal Profiling.
“I was looking for you.” He murmured sheepishly.
“You didn’t need to.” Lyta scoffed. She quickly spun back around, causing her ponytail to flop back and forth, almost hitting Hector in the face. Without another word, she continued on through the darkness with Hector in close pursuit, looking for any sign of the Secretary of Defense’s son.
Despite the relatively small size of the basement, there were plenty of fake walls, trap doors and curves. Hector moved closer to Lyta, putting his mouth by her right ear and caught a whiff of her shampoo. “This looks like a home that was used on the Underground Railroad. There’s no other need for all of these trick walls.”
“Plenty of places to hide a hostage.” Lyta curtly replied, uninterested in Hector’s small talk.
After roughly an hour of tearing apart the farmhouses’ basement, the pair decided to call it quits and return upstairs to the rest of the group. When the Commanding Officer asked if she had found anything, she began to breathe heavy before she clenched her fist and punched the wall as hard as she could, sending her hand straight through.
“Careful, Kosmatos,” the leader, Frank DeMarco replied in frustration.
She shook her head. “Sorry, boss. Did anyone find anything?”
“No. Just a bible in one of the bedrooms that was open to Matthew 25:46 and had the passage highlighted.
Lyta furled her brow and rolled her eyes into the back of her head, one of her many habits that she had when she was deep in thought. Suddenly she snapped her fingers and gave her boss a smile that indicated that she was pleased with herself rather than truly happy. “Matthew 25:46. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Hector stared dumb founded at Lyta. “Didn’t know you were religious.”
“I’m not. But when your Mom’s a practicing Pagan, you really do anything to fit in.” She explained, but quickly brushed it off. “But this is the fifth tip we’ve had that involved some quote eternal life. That has to have some meaning.”
DeMarco rolled his eyes. “Like what, Kosmatos?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s some religious order, clearly interested in the political implications of kidnapping the son of a cabinet member. But why the Secretary of Defense? Maybe someone we’ve gone to war with recently. The Secretary of State has no Children, so after the President, he would be the best bet,” Lyta reasoned out loud, her blue eyes darting back and forth as she made points.
DeMarco shook his head and left the room, leading the rest of the party except Hector Hall to follow suit. Despite her normal disposition to carry herself as taller than she actually was, she sunk down, now barely coming up to the middle of Hector’s chest. Hector placed a light hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “It’s okay, Lyta. These guys wouldn’t appreciate outside the box thinking if it came up and gave them a billion dollars.”
Lyta slowly shook her head, staring into space. “This isn’t like me. Trying to connect things that aren’t there, seeing things that don’t exist. Back in grade school, my teachers all used to say that while I was brilliant, I had no imagination which held me back.”
“Perhaps you didn’t have an imagination, but there’s no way you would be where you are now without an open mind. That’s what keeps you focused on the possibilities that are abound. You want to find this kid as much as everyone else, if not more.” Hector caught himself rubbing her back and quickly pulled away, despite her seemingly not realizing his actions.
Lyta shrugged and sighed. “You’re probably right. Let’s just get back to the hotel… we should get a good night’s sleep before we head back to Washington tomorrow.”
Hector nodded. “You got that right. So, I know this nice place in Tarboro, want to have dinner and some drinks first?”
Lyta stood there dumbfounded, surprised at the suggestion. “Um… It’s really late… I should really be getting back to the hotel… we have an early flight tomorrow.”
A wave of sadness flashed over his eyes that wasn’t lost on Lyta’s cognition. “Come on, we both have to eat right? It’d be more fun if we do it together, right?”
The golden haired woman flashed him a winning smile, in hopes that it would make him feel a little bit better. “Come on, Hall. If you think that’s what would convince me, you obviously know nothing about me.”
Hector nodded slowly as he contemplated what she said to him. At 6’2’’ with deep blue eyes, a rigid bone structure and chiseled build, he was far from the type who would be turned down by anyone, even someone as pretty as Lyta. He scratched his head and sighed as Lyta turned away from him towards the door.
Lyta took a step towards the door, but was stopped by Hector’s hand on her upper arm. She turned around to see Hector who had a desperate look in his eye. “Look, Kosmatos… if it means anything… I think you may be on to something with this connection.”
Lyta stood there dumbfounded again with her mouth agape. “Uh… oh… wait, really?”
Hector nodded. “Yeah. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Lyta sighed. “Um… maybe we could discuss it over dinner…”
***
Bobby’s Barbeque Pit. Tarboro, North Carolina
“So what’s it like to get along with your family?” Lyta asked quietly, with a hint of regret and sadness in her voice that wasn’t lost on Hector.
Hector shrugged. “It is what it is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard to be noticed when your brother has been working towards his future since he was six. Makes it even worse when you’re adopted… I’ve never really had much direction, to be honest.”
“How does someone without direction end up in the FBI?” Lyta questioned with an audible tone of disbelief, taking a sip of her beer, which had grown, and warm and flat due to lack of attention.
Hector smiled sheepishly, looking down at his plate of ribs. “I’m not sure. I just kind of fell into it. I was always successful in school, I always excelled in athletics, it just kind of fit, you know?”
Lyta frowned and used her fork to toy with her food. She looked up at Hector who was holding a steadfast gaze at her, attempting to melt his blue eyes into hers, but she quickly looked down again before he could. “I can’t imagine that.”
“What?” He responded quickly.
Lyta shrugged. “Not having any direction. Any conviction. I joined the FBI because I thought it was a way of using my skills to help people. Despite our differences, my mother devoted her life to helping those less fortunate and that inspired me.”
Hector nodded as Lyta took a sip from her water glass. “What did your mother do?”
Lyta spit out the water that she hadn’t swallowed yet all over Hector. The man stifled a laugh as he picked his napkin up from his lap and wiped his face with it. Lyta’s eyes grew huge and threw her hands up in defense. “Hector. I’m so sorry. I just… I don’t know what got into me.”
The man smiled widely at the woman across the table as he reached out his hand and touched hers to calm her down. “This isn’t the first time a woman has thrown a drink in my face. True, most of them just use the glass, but it’s the same idea.”
Lyta smiled slyly, realizing that she had the ability to change the subject. “That sounds like a story…”
Hector shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to bore you. Plus, it’s getting late. We should really be getting back.”
Lyta gave him a questioning look, but dropped it as he signed his name to the receipt and they got up to leave.
***
DoubleTree Hotel. Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Lyta and Hector returned to the hotel just as the clock tower at the center of town struck 9 PM causing the nine chimes of the bell to reverberate out off the sycamore trees at the edge of town and through the valley. It was an especially muggy night for April in North Carolina, but not entirely outside the bounds of possibility. It was hot, but not uncomfortable. Just hot enough to cause your skin to slightly stick to itself.
As they reached the door of the hotel, Lyta paused a second and closed her eyes, taking in the songs of the south such as the ambient drone of the cicada that rattled through the parking lot, bouncing off everything sight. The rattle was accentuated by the hoots of owls and the mating songs of crickets and grasshoppers in the fields of Eastern North Carolina. Lyta smiled and breathed a content sigh. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Hector nodded as he swiped his keycard in the scanner, causing the double doors to slide open. The pair silently made their way up to the FBI block on the fourth floor, stopping at Lyta’s room. They looked up at each other, unsure of where the night was going to take them. Hector was getting lost in her starry, pool blue eyes as he leaned in for a kiss to seal their fates, but before he met her lips, she took a step back.
“Thanks for dinner, but I should be getting to bed. Early flight tomorrow.” She stammered as she blindly toyed with her lock and her keycard. After a few moments of stumbling, she managed to open the door.
Hector nodded. “Uh, yeah. You, um, can’t put a price on good conversation.”
Lyta averted his eyes and laughed sheepishly. “Er, yeah. Well, goodnight, Hector. See you tomorrow.”
Hector sighed and slumped down, clearly showing his defeat. “Yeah. Bright and early. Goodnight,” he said quietly before he skulked off to his room down at the end of the hallway.
Lyta closed her eyes and brought her hand lightly to her forehead. Lyta was a brilliant mind, but she wasn’t great in social situations. She had no clue that Hector saw this as more than dinner between friends. “Stupid Lyta.”
As she entered the room, she lazily tossed her key and shoulder bag onto the table near the entrance hall as she made her way to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom, she removed her clothes and stepped into the shower, turning the water all the way to hot.
Lyta’s stiff muscles instantly relaxed as the hot water droplets danced off her skin and fell to the floor of the shower, causing her to lightly moan and breath a sigh of relief. She never realized how tense her body was until she got into the shower at the end of a long day. For someone, who never ate junk food, smoked, drank in excess, did drugs or participated in casual sex, long hot showers were the once vice that she allowed herself.
After roughly a half hour, she pouted as she turned off the water before stepping out of the shower and wrapping herself in one of the hotel’s coarse fibered towels. Rather than dry off her hair, she let her wet, long blonde locks hang freely over her shoulders.
She stretched once and then securely fastened the towel over her torso before she turned the doorknob of the bathroom and went out into the main part of the hotel room. When she stepped out, she instantly knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what.
Turned the corner into the bedroom and saw a shadowy form sitting on the chair in the corner of the room, holding a gun pointed at Lyta. “Good of you to finally join us, Miss Kosmatos.”
Reflexively, Lyta pinned the towel to her body, making sure that it didn’t come undone. “Wh— Who are you?”
“That’s not important right now.” The man spoke in a low, emotionless voice that almost sounded inhuman or out of body to Lyta’s ears.
Lyta froze up, not even flinching to the ticklish sensation of water droplets falling from her hair down her back, shoulders, arms and chest. Her mind began to race, thinking about where her own gun was (‘In the bathroom,’ she thought) or if she’d be able to take the gun from him. Her mind stopped and she shivered when she caught a chill from the cool, air-conditioned air caught up with her wet skin. “What are you doing in my hotel room?”
“Calculating the time that it would take for you to run to the bathroom to get your gun. 5.7 seconds, by the way. The second you turn around, I’ll have two bullets in your back and you’ll be bleeding out on the floor.” The man replied coldly. “Fortunately for you, I have no interest in harming you.”
She couldn’t explain why, but she calmed down after hearing his reassuring tone. “Then, what do you want?”
“You were right to look into a pattern with the Cantrell kidnapping. There is a connection between this and the quotes that keep popping up. The connection goes wider than you know.” The man got up and walked over to Lyta. When he was directly in front of her, he flipped the gun around and held it by the barrel to hand it to Lyta. She took it graciously and quickly disassembled it, throwing the pieces in to different parts of the room.
She looked at him with a skeptic eye, taking in his face for the first time. “Why did you do that?”
The man shrugged. “I came into your hotel room, surprised you without your gun while you were in a towel… hardly fair play.”
“So, you have information on Norda Cantrell’s kidnapping? It’s useless if you keep playing coy with me.” Now that the gun was disassembled, she was beginning to feel as if she were in control of the situation again, so she started to express her anger.
The man nodded. “That’s something you’ll have to figure out. But if my name gets out, I will be dead within the hour. I won’t be much help to you when I’m pushing up daisies.”
Lyta sighed. Keeping the towel pinned to her chest, she took a step back and began to pace around the room, a habit that she had when she was processing information. “I guess the next bit that we need to work out is what you have. What can you do for this investigation that we don’t already have?”
The man reached into his coat and pulled out a manila envelope, handing it to the young FBI Agent. Lyta quickly opened it and pulled out the contents. She sighed deeply when she saw that all the paper had on it was a list of names. “Garfield Logan, Rachel Roth, Victor Stone, Eliza Thomas… what do all these names have to do with Norda Cantrell?”
“I can’t grant you that information at this time, Agent Kosmatos. But do note that you’ve never been closer to finding him.” The man spoke cryptically, but she nodded in understanding.
The man brushed passed her and headed towards the door. As he put his hand on the doorknob he turned back to face her. “And for the record, Agent Kosmatos. Don’t attempt to identify me based on the firearm. It was stolen. Goodnight.”
Lyta opened up her mouth to speak, but before she could form a word, she heard the door open and subsequently close. Not knowing what to do, she collapsed onto the bed to go right to sleep.
***
J. Edgar Hoover Building. Washington D.C. Two Days Later
Lyta Kosmatos’ office was the definition of a hole in the wall. It was in one of the subbasements of the J. Edgar Hoover Building and she was convinced that it originally wasn’t an office at all, but a converted broom closet. It was dark with a dim overhead light that she had been meaning to change for several months but never got around to it. Despite being assigned to such an important case, the office only had enough room to fit a file cabinet and a desk, but that was enough for her. She wasn’t complaining.
Since the team had arrived home in Washington, Lyta had been hard at work on dissecting the list of names that the Mysterious Man had given her. She had only been home once to shower and get a change of clothes, choosing to sleep at her desk rather than her warm bed.
She was deep in thought researching one of the names, a certain Eliza Thomas when she jumped to the sound of a light tap on her open door. She looked up and saw Hector Hall standing in her doorway with two Styrofoam cups of coffee. “Hey, Kosmatos. Thought you could use some the caffeine. DeMarco says you’ve been here for two days straight. Found anything?”
Lyta shrugged and let out a light yawn. “Thanks, Hector. I’m not sure though. All of these people seem to be missing, but aren’t nearly as high profile as Norda Cantrell. Well, except for Rachel Roth who was pointed to as a suspect in those occult murders at Yale last year.”
“Oh yeah, that’s where I remembered the name from. If I remember correctly, Roth didn’t become a suspect until her disappearance.” Hector explained.
Lyta nodded. “Yeah, I remember that too. But the rest of them are just random kidnappings. However, half of them underwent medical testing administered by several different pharmaceutical companies as children, including Norda Cantrell.”
Hector scratched his head and furled his brow. “Interesting. But for there to be a real connection, shouldn’t they all have been part of these medical experiments?”
Lyta looked back down at her computer and brushed away a few strands of her long blond hair out of her eyes as she continued to type with one hand. “Not necessarily. Sometimes it may be examples of poor record keeping and others may have been registered under different names. Not all parents like to flaunt the idea of their children being a part of chemical testing when in most cases it’s to put food on the table.”
The male FBI Agent nodded, contemplating her statement. For someone who grew up completely free from want, the desperation was not something that registered with him at all. “I suppose you’re right. So where does this lead us?”
“That’s the real kicker. It doesn’t lead us anywhere… all of these companies only existed for a few months each between the early 80s and the early 90s leading me to believe that they’re shadow corporations. Created to do some very nefarious things that respect companies can’t.” Despite the gravity of her statements, Hector noticed Lyta getting giddy with each passing word, barely able to contain her excitement.
Hector smiled at her excitement level. “And let me guess. That’s not all…”
Lyta shook her head emphatically. “Nope. As the Mysterious Man was leaving the room, he told me not to bother checking the gun’s registration because he stole it. So, naturally, I did check the gun registration and I got a positive match…”
Hector scrunched up his brow again, this time more interested in what Lyta had to say. “And…?”
“And it’s registered to the Security Division of Infinity Inc., one of the Nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies.” Lyta smiled wildly at the conclusion she reached with only a little help from the Mysterious Man. Lyta stood up, grabbing her jacket and high tailed it towards the door and down the hall.
Not fully realizing what was going on, Hector took off and followed her in quick pursuit. “Lyta! Where are you going?”
Lyta looked back over her shoulder with the same wild smile that she had on back in the office. “I think it’s time that we paid a visit to Anthony Ives.”
TO BE CONTINUED!
Kindred Spirits Pt. 1
By C_Miller
Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Present Day
“Okay, team, let’s roll.” Lyta Kosmatos ordered with her gun held up to her cheek, barrel pointed to the sky. With one swift kick, the door to the farmhouse was open and the team of seven plowed through into the foyer.
Despite her name that was steeped in Mythology, at 5’5’’ with golden blonde hair and soul piercing blue eyes, FBI Special Agent Lyta Kosmatos’ appearance didn’t exactly scream Greek, but one encounter with her would make her ethnic background crystal clear. She graduated High School at the top of her class and was star and captain of the track and field team.
Rather than attend college right away, she spent four years in the Marines where she excelled and powered through ranks as quick as one could. After the Marines, she attended college where she got a degree in linguistics, which she used to join the FBI only one short month after she graduated.
She excelled in the FBI, quickly solving several major cases with seemingly great ease. That is until she was assigned the kidnapping of Norda Cantrell, son of Frederick Cantrell, the Secretary of Defense.
The FBI Hostage Recovery Team plowed through the building, leaving not a single nook or cranny uncovered. Lyta kicked down a door that seemingly lead into the basement, and went down the spiral staircase to the cellar with both her gun and her flashlight outstretched.
Carefully trying not to make a sound, she tiptoed down until she felt her foot through her shoe touch down in a puddle. Nearly instantaneously, the cold, wet sensation made her jump back onto the steps. Once she retained her composure, she continued.
She continued down through the basement and while her light was on, it still left most of the area obscured. “Dammit, Lyta. This is not what you went to college for,” she said to herself.
“Norda!” She called in the dark, garnering no audible response.
Suddenly, she heard a creak behind her and before she could cycle through the possibilities of what it was, she spun around and pointed her gun in the direction of the stairs, aiming her flashlight there as well.
Adjusting her eyes to the new light, she saw a man in a HRT uniform waving his hands that like her held a gun and a flashlight, trying to shield his eyes from her light. “Dammit, Lyta. It’s just me.”
Lyta breathed a sigh of relief, dropping her gun to her side and moving the light away from his face. “Hector, I could have killed you. What are you doing down here?”
Hector Hall was another young FBI Agent who joined the Bureau a year prior to Lyta despite being a year younger. Where she had gone into the military right after Secondary School, Hector went right to Oxford where he obtained a bachelor’s in Psychology with a concentration in Abnormal Psychology and Criminal Profiling.
“I was looking for you.” He murmured sheepishly.
“You didn’t need to.” Lyta scoffed. She quickly spun back around, causing her ponytail to flop back and forth, almost hitting Hector in the face. Without another word, she continued on through the darkness with Hector in close pursuit, looking for any sign of the Secretary of Defense’s son.
Despite the relatively small size of the basement, there were plenty of fake walls, trap doors and curves. Hector moved closer to Lyta, putting his mouth by her right ear and caught a whiff of her shampoo. “This looks like a home that was used on the Underground Railroad. There’s no other need for all of these trick walls.”
“Plenty of places to hide a hostage.” Lyta curtly replied, uninterested in Hector’s small talk.
After roughly an hour of tearing apart the farmhouses’ basement, the pair decided to call it quits and return upstairs to the rest of the group. When the Commanding Officer asked if she had found anything, she began to breathe heavy before she clenched her fist and punched the wall as hard as she could, sending her hand straight through.
“Careful, Kosmatos,” the leader, Frank DeMarco replied in frustration.
She shook her head. “Sorry, boss. Did anyone find anything?”
“No. Just a bible in one of the bedrooms that was open to Matthew 25:46 and had the passage highlighted.
Lyta furled her brow and rolled her eyes into the back of her head, one of her many habits that she had when she was deep in thought. Suddenly she snapped her fingers and gave her boss a smile that indicated that she was pleased with herself rather than truly happy. “Matthew 25:46. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Hector stared dumb founded at Lyta. “Didn’t know you were religious.”
“I’m not. But when your Mom’s a practicing Pagan, you really do anything to fit in.” She explained, but quickly brushed it off. “But this is the fifth tip we’ve had that involved some quote eternal life. That has to have some meaning.”
DeMarco rolled his eyes. “Like what, Kosmatos?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s some religious order, clearly interested in the political implications of kidnapping the son of a cabinet member. But why the Secretary of Defense? Maybe someone we’ve gone to war with recently. The Secretary of State has no Children, so after the President, he would be the best bet,” Lyta reasoned out loud, her blue eyes darting back and forth as she made points.
DeMarco shook his head and left the room, leading the rest of the party except Hector Hall to follow suit. Despite her normal disposition to carry herself as taller than she actually was, she sunk down, now barely coming up to the middle of Hector’s chest. Hector placed a light hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “It’s okay, Lyta. These guys wouldn’t appreciate outside the box thinking if it came up and gave them a billion dollars.”
Lyta slowly shook her head, staring into space. “This isn’t like me. Trying to connect things that aren’t there, seeing things that don’t exist. Back in grade school, my teachers all used to say that while I was brilliant, I had no imagination which held me back.”
“Perhaps you didn’t have an imagination, but there’s no way you would be where you are now without an open mind. That’s what keeps you focused on the possibilities that are abound. You want to find this kid as much as everyone else, if not more.” Hector caught himself rubbing her back and quickly pulled away, despite her seemingly not realizing his actions.
Lyta shrugged and sighed. “You’re probably right. Let’s just get back to the hotel… we should get a good night’s sleep before we head back to Washington tomorrow.”
Hector nodded. “You got that right. So, I know this nice place in Tarboro, want to have dinner and some drinks first?”
Lyta stood there dumbfounded, surprised at the suggestion. “Um… It’s really late… I should really be getting back to the hotel… we have an early flight tomorrow.”
A wave of sadness flashed over his eyes that wasn’t lost on Lyta’s cognition. “Come on, we both have to eat right? It’d be more fun if we do it together, right?”
The golden haired woman flashed him a winning smile, in hopes that it would make him feel a little bit better. “Come on, Hall. If you think that’s what would convince me, you obviously know nothing about me.”
Hector nodded slowly as he contemplated what she said to him. At 6’2’’ with deep blue eyes, a rigid bone structure and chiseled build, he was far from the type who would be turned down by anyone, even someone as pretty as Lyta. He scratched his head and sighed as Lyta turned away from him towards the door.
Lyta took a step towards the door, but was stopped by Hector’s hand on her upper arm. She turned around to see Hector who had a desperate look in his eye. “Look, Kosmatos… if it means anything… I think you may be on to something with this connection.”
Lyta stood there dumbfounded again with her mouth agape. “Uh… oh… wait, really?”
Hector nodded. “Yeah. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Lyta sighed. “Um… maybe we could discuss it over dinner…”
***
Bobby’s Barbeque Pit. Tarboro, North Carolina
“So what’s it like to get along with your family?” Lyta asked quietly, with a hint of regret and sadness in her voice that wasn’t lost on Hector.
Hector shrugged. “It is what it is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard to be noticed when your brother has been working towards his future since he was six. Makes it even worse when you’re adopted… I’ve never really had much direction, to be honest.”
“How does someone without direction end up in the FBI?” Lyta questioned with an audible tone of disbelief, taking a sip of her beer, which had grown, and warm and flat due to lack of attention.
Hector smiled sheepishly, looking down at his plate of ribs. “I’m not sure. I just kind of fell into it. I was always successful in school, I always excelled in athletics, it just kind of fit, you know?”
Lyta frowned and used her fork to toy with her food. She looked up at Hector who was holding a steadfast gaze at her, attempting to melt his blue eyes into hers, but she quickly looked down again before he could. “I can’t imagine that.”
“What?” He responded quickly.
Lyta shrugged. “Not having any direction. Any conviction. I joined the FBI because I thought it was a way of using my skills to help people. Despite our differences, my mother devoted her life to helping those less fortunate and that inspired me.”
Hector nodded as Lyta took a sip from her water glass. “What did your mother do?”
Lyta spit out the water that she hadn’t swallowed yet all over Hector. The man stifled a laugh as he picked his napkin up from his lap and wiped his face with it. Lyta’s eyes grew huge and threw her hands up in defense. “Hector. I’m so sorry. I just… I don’t know what got into me.”
The man smiled widely at the woman across the table as he reached out his hand and touched hers to calm her down. “This isn’t the first time a woman has thrown a drink in my face. True, most of them just use the glass, but it’s the same idea.”
Lyta smiled slyly, realizing that she had the ability to change the subject. “That sounds like a story…”
Hector shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to bore you. Plus, it’s getting late. We should really be getting back.”
Lyta gave him a questioning look, but dropped it as he signed his name to the receipt and they got up to leave.
***
DoubleTree Hotel. Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Lyta and Hector returned to the hotel just as the clock tower at the center of town struck 9 PM causing the nine chimes of the bell to reverberate out off the sycamore trees at the edge of town and through the valley. It was an especially muggy night for April in North Carolina, but not entirely outside the bounds of possibility. It was hot, but not uncomfortable. Just hot enough to cause your skin to slightly stick to itself.
As they reached the door of the hotel, Lyta paused a second and closed her eyes, taking in the songs of the south such as the ambient drone of the cicada that rattled through the parking lot, bouncing off everything sight. The rattle was accentuated by the hoots of owls and the mating songs of crickets and grasshoppers in the fields of Eastern North Carolina. Lyta smiled and breathed a content sigh. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Hector nodded as he swiped his keycard in the scanner, causing the double doors to slide open. The pair silently made their way up to the FBI block on the fourth floor, stopping at Lyta’s room. They looked up at each other, unsure of where the night was going to take them. Hector was getting lost in her starry, pool blue eyes as he leaned in for a kiss to seal their fates, but before he met her lips, she took a step back.
“Thanks for dinner, but I should be getting to bed. Early flight tomorrow.” She stammered as she blindly toyed with her lock and her keycard. After a few moments of stumbling, she managed to open the door.
Hector nodded. “Uh, yeah. You, um, can’t put a price on good conversation.”
Lyta averted his eyes and laughed sheepishly. “Er, yeah. Well, goodnight, Hector. See you tomorrow.”
Hector sighed and slumped down, clearly showing his defeat. “Yeah. Bright and early. Goodnight,” he said quietly before he skulked off to his room down at the end of the hallway.
Lyta closed her eyes and brought her hand lightly to her forehead. Lyta was a brilliant mind, but she wasn’t great in social situations. She had no clue that Hector saw this as more than dinner between friends. “Stupid Lyta.”
As she entered the room, she lazily tossed her key and shoulder bag onto the table near the entrance hall as she made her way to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom, she removed her clothes and stepped into the shower, turning the water all the way to hot.
Lyta’s stiff muscles instantly relaxed as the hot water droplets danced off her skin and fell to the floor of the shower, causing her to lightly moan and breath a sigh of relief. She never realized how tense her body was until she got into the shower at the end of a long day. For someone, who never ate junk food, smoked, drank in excess, did drugs or participated in casual sex, long hot showers were the once vice that she allowed herself.
After roughly a half hour, she pouted as she turned off the water before stepping out of the shower and wrapping herself in one of the hotel’s coarse fibered towels. Rather than dry off her hair, she let her wet, long blonde locks hang freely over her shoulders.
She stretched once and then securely fastened the towel over her torso before she turned the doorknob of the bathroom and went out into the main part of the hotel room. When she stepped out, she instantly knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what.
Turned the corner into the bedroom and saw a shadowy form sitting on the chair in the corner of the room, holding a gun pointed at Lyta. “Good of you to finally join us, Miss Kosmatos.”
Reflexively, Lyta pinned the towel to her body, making sure that it didn’t come undone. “Wh— Who are you?”
“That’s not important right now.” The man spoke in a low, emotionless voice that almost sounded inhuman or out of body to Lyta’s ears.
Lyta froze up, not even flinching to the ticklish sensation of water droplets falling from her hair down her back, shoulders, arms and chest. Her mind began to race, thinking about where her own gun was (‘In the bathroom,’ she thought) or if she’d be able to take the gun from him. Her mind stopped and she shivered when she caught a chill from the cool, air-conditioned air caught up with her wet skin. “What are you doing in my hotel room?”
“Calculating the time that it would take for you to run to the bathroom to get your gun. 5.7 seconds, by the way. The second you turn around, I’ll have two bullets in your back and you’ll be bleeding out on the floor.” The man replied coldly. “Fortunately for you, I have no interest in harming you.”
She couldn’t explain why, but she calmed down after hearing his reassuring tone. “Then, what do you want?”
“You were right to look into a pattern with the Cantrell kidnapping. There is a connection between this and the quotes that keep popping up. The connection goes wider than you know.” The man got up and walked over to Lyta. When he was directly in front of her, he flipped the gun around and held it by the barrel to hand it to Lyta. She took it graciously and quickly disassembled it, throwing the pieces in to different parts of the room.
She looked at him with a skeptic eye, taking in his face for the first time. “Why did you do that?”
The man shrugged. “I came into your hotel room, surprised you without your gun while you were in a towel… hardly fair play.”
“So, you have information on Norda Cantrell’s kidnapping? It’s useless if you keep playing coy with me.” Now that the gun was disassembled, she was beginning to feel as if she were in control of the situation again, so she started to express her anger.
The man nodded. “That’s something you’ll have to figure out. But if my name gets out, I will be dead within the hour. I won’t be much help to you when I’m pushing up daisies.”
Lyta sighed. Keeping the towel pinned to her chest, she took a step back and began to pace around the room, a habit that she had when she was processing information. “I guess the next bit that we need to work out is what you have. What can you do for this investigation that we don’t already have?”
The man reached into his coat and pulled out a manila envelope, handing it to the young FBI Agent. Lyta quickly opened it and pulled out the contents. She sighed deeply when she saw that all the paper had on it was a list of names. “Garfield Logan, Rachel Roth, Victor Stone, Eliza Thomas… what do all these names have to do with Norda Cantrell?”
“I can’t grant you that information at this time, Agent Kosmatos. But do note that you’ve never been closer to finding him.” The man spoke cryptically, but she nodded in understanding.
The man brushed passed her and headed towards the door. As he put his hand on the doorknob he turned back to face her. “And for the record, Agent Kosmatos. Don’t attempt to identify me based on the firearm. It was stolen. Goodnight.”
Lyta opened up her mouth to speak, but before she could form a word, she heard the door open and subsequently close. Not knowing what to do, she collapsed onto the bed to go right to sleep.
***
J. Edgar Hoover Building. Washington D.C. Two Days Later
Lyta Kosmatos’ office was the definition of a hole in the wall. It was in one of the subbasements of the J. Edgar Hoover Building and she was convinced that it originally wasn’t an office at all, but a converted broom closet. It was dark with a dim overhead light that she had been meaning to change for several months but never got around to it. Despite being assigned to such an important case, the office only had enough room to fit a file cabinet and a desk, but that was enough for her. She wasn’t complaining.
Since the team had arrived home in Washington, Lyta had been hard at work on dissecting the list of names that the Mysterious Man had given her. She had only been home once to shower and get a change of clothes, choosing to sleep at her desk rather than her warm bed.
She was deep in thought researching one of the names, a certain Eliza Thomas when she jumped to the sound of a light tap on her open door. She looked up and saw Hector Hall standing in her doorway with two Styrofoam cups of coffee. “Hey, Kosmatos. Thought you could use some the caffeine. DeMarco says you’ve been here for two days straight. Found anything?”
Lyta shrugged and let out a light yawn. “Thanks, Hector. I’m not sure though. All of these people seem to be missing, but aren’t nearly as high profile as Norda Cantrell. Well, except for Rachel Roth who was pointed to as a suspect in those occult murders at Yale last year.”
“Oh yeah, that’s where I remembered the name from. If I remember correctly, Roth didn’t become a suspect until her disappearance.” Hector explained.
Lyta nodded. “Yeah, I remember that too. But the rest of them are just random kidnappings. However, half of them underwent medical testing administered by several different pharmaceutical companies as children, including Norda Cantrell.”
Hector scratched his head and furled his brow. “Interesting. But for there to be a real connection, shouldn’t they all have been part of these medical experiments?”
Lyta looked back down at her computer and brushed away a few strands of her long blond hair out of her eyes as she continued to type with one hand. “Not necessarily. Sometimes it may be examples of poor record keeping and others may have been registered under different names. Not all parents like to flaunt the idea of their children being a part of chemical testing when in most cases it’s to put food on the table.”
The male FBI Agent nodded, contemplating her statement. For someone who grew up completely free from want, the desperation was not something that registered with him at all. “I suppose you’re right. So where does this lead us?”
“That’s the real kicker. It doesn’t lead us anywhere… all of these companies only existed for a few months each between the early 80s and the early 90s leading me to believe that they’re shadow corporations. Created to do some very nefarious things that respect companies can’t.” Despite the gravity of her statements, Hector noticed Lyta getting giddy with each passing word, barely able to contain her excitement.
Hector smiled at her excitement level. “And let me guess. That’s not all…”
Lyta shook her head emphatically. “Nope. As the Mysterious Man was leaving the room, he told me not to bother checking the gun’s registration because he stole it. So, naturally, I did check the gun registration and I got a positive match…”
Hector scrunched up his brow again, this time more interested in what Lyta had to say. “And…?”
“And it’s registered to the Security Division of Infinity Inc., one of the Nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies.” Lyta smiled wildly at the conclusion she reached with only a little help from the Mysterious Man. Lyta stood up, grabbing her jacket and high tailed it towards the door and down the hall.
Not fully realizing what was going on, Hector took off and followed her in quick pursuit. “Lyta! Where are you going?”
Lyta looked back over her shoulder with the same wild smile that she had on back in the office. “I think it’s time that we paid a visit to Anthony Ives.”
TO BE CONTINUED!
