Episode 3: Remember Me
Part 6
Drums could feel the hatred boil through his non-existent eye as he stared at the man who had been inferior to him in every way while he was at the agency. On the other side of the curtain, Diamond held Nick’s prone and bloody body. The metal remnants of the transmitter lay scattered around them, shattering the meticulous plan.
“Ahhh!” Drums yelled in frustration as he turned and ran. They’d reached a standstill. He would not let them take him in, and they would not let him end his vengeance. He would return to take his revenge on the group that turned him away for his ‘defect.’
When Drums reached the alley behind the casino, he slumped to the ground, hidden between two trash dumpsters. He dropped his head into his hands; he could feel tears start to well in his good eye. Unwilling to cry, Drums slammed his fist into the dumpster next to him. Pain was better than sadness. He clutched his hurt hand tightly and threw his head back against the wall behind him. Closing his eye, he let the pain wash out the other feelings and memories that emerged from his defeat.
He had been watching places he knew that HimTak agents frequented. Since he left, there was no way he could get close enough to the building, but if the agents were outside the building when he took them, that was a different story. His anger rose as JC approached the spot where he hid. It was not the agent he wanted, but any HimTak agent would do for the beginning of his revenge. It would only be a matter of seconds before he would reach the spot; then he could grab him and let the torture begin.
“You’ll find revenge this way satisfying for a while, but it will not hold you.” A voice startled him from behind. He turned to face the man holding a ferret in his arms.
“Get outta here, you freak!” Drums shouted at him and turned back, realizing it would now be too late to grab JC. “You made me miss him!” Drums turned back to the man behind him and lunged forward to knock him down. The man made a slight movement, darting out of the way of Drums’ attempt.
“I think you will make a nice addition.” The man smirked as he ran his hand down the ferret’s fur.
“Addition? You some sorta collector? You a freak!”
“Ah, ‘freak.’ Many HimTak agents have called me that, too.” He smiled widely as realization crossed Drums’ face. “Yes, I know of the group. I know how they only take the elite and leave the rest. If you are not perfect, they toss you aside like an apple core. I was rejected, but I refused to lie down and take it. I formed my own group of anti-agents to take HimTak down. Only when the agency is defeated will the group wither and die. Taking out one agent is only a flesh wound to them — take down the entire group, and you defeat the enemy.”
“How you propose ta do dat?” Drums asked, wary but intrigued.
“By wreaking as much havoc as possible. And, of course, taking over the world is always on the agenda.” He cackled gleefully.
“Fuck, dawg, the world? I’m jus’ innit fo’ HimTak, yo!”
The other man paused from petting the ferret to look up, his eyes shining with crazed malevolence. “Excellent.”
The man — Dr. Rough — had told Drums all about FANS and their objectives. He immediately knew that he wanted to be a part of this group to take down HimTak and all their ‘perfect’ agents.
There had been a tough few weeks where he was under surveillance at the FANS headquarters; they had to make sure he was on their side and not undercover for HimTak. In the end, he had passed all their tests and quickly risen to become the right-hand man of the group. Now his new master might demote him for failing in this mission.
He slammed his hand against the dumpster again, then stood. He needed to get back to the headquarters. Dr. Rough had probably already formulated a new plan, and he would need Drums to help implement it.
Vengeance would be his, no matter how long it took.
***
“Nick? Nick, can you hear me? Say something!”
Nick’s head lolled from side to side as his eyes slowly rolled back to the front of his head. He looked up into Diamond’s concerned eyes and somehow managed to turn his swollen upper lip into a cheesy grin. “I must have died and gone to heaven ’cause I see an angel right in front of me.” He chuckled, amused with his cliché one-liner, but his laugh turned into a cough of pain when Diamond slugged him.
“You scared me, Nick! You look like hell!” Diamond let out a shrill laugh, but there was fear in her voice.
Nick went back to business. “Where’s Drums?”
“I’m sorry, he’s gone.”
“Shit!” Nick bolted upright. “And McGrath? Please tell me we have at least one of these evil bastards to fry.”
Diamond nodded and, with a sexy smile, began to clear the blood from Nick’s swollen face with a folded paper towel. Her touch was so delicate that his mind once again drifted from the mission.
“You know,” he began as he pulled Diamond close to him, “we’ve still got a room upstairs, and the trunk on that new car of mine is definitely bigger than any holding cell Mark’s gonna get where he’s going. He’ll be fine for a few hours…”
“I think that’s the best plan you’ve come up with since we got here.” Diamond’s face lit up with delight, and she pressed her lips firmly to Nick’s.
Nick, still running high on adrenaline and ready to release the tension this emotional mission had caused, pulled Diamond onto his lap, deepening the kiss.
“We could take more than a couple hours,” Diamond suggested between kisses, running her hand down Nick’s chest. “Order room service… have champagne… celebrate your first successful mission back… I’ll let you take control…”
“What about McGrath?” Nick teased while his hands began to wander from Diamond’s back.
“You don’t have to worry about Mark. Emerald’s here with some CIA guy. They’re gonna take him into custody. We have plenty of time to do anything you want.”
Nick’s eyes flew open as he jumped to his feet so fast that Diamond hit the ground with a loud thump. It only took him a split second to spot the Avril Lavigne wannabe and the stiff in the suit. Steam spewed from his ears as he stalked over to them.
Disgust seeped from Emerald’s green eyes. “What’s the matter, 008, misplace your Viagra?”
“What the hell is this?!”
Officer Littrell was shocked, not only by the volume of Nick’s rant, but that his anger was directed at him. Emerald smirked widely and placed her hand lightly on Brian’s arm. “This is a real man. Get a good look and then take notes. Officer Brian Littrell of the CIA, meet Nick Carter.”
Brian held out his hand at the introduction, but Nick never even saw it. “What the hell is the CIA doing here?”
“We’ve been sent to bring the suspect in.”
“The hell you are! This was my damn assignment! My perp! I’m bringing him in!”
“I’m sorry, son, but I have my orders, and they came straight from your boss.”
“Who the fuck you calling ‘son’?”
“He’s right. K’s the one who sent him here. He told us to bring him in, and he wants you to see Red Jewel right away.”
Nick glared at Brian as if he were ready to kill the man and pry the criminal from his cold dead fingers. Brian stood his ground firmly, despite Nick towering over him. Maybe that was where the alias “The Rok” came from.
Nick began to see his defeat but remained unwilling to back down. No way would he let this go without a fight.
***
“This is bullshit!”
Normally, Nick loved watching his mentor hard at work; no one could interrogate like Jay. But instead of being in the room with him, getting to play a bit of good cop, bad cop, he was forced to watch from behind the one-way glass.
“008, you’d better curb that temper fast.” K’s gaze remained fixed on the interrogation.
“You’re just gonna hand him over? Just like that? To the U.S. fucking government? They don’t give a shit about this case!”
“This case? Mr. Carter, you stopped the bad guys. You saved the day, and America’s grateful. This case is solved.” The condescending tone in Brian’s voice only angered Nick more.
“You see what I mean? That’s the shit I’m talking about! This case is far from over. Until we find that organization, there will be others. Many others! And what about Drums? Are we just going to pretend he wasn’t there?!”
The mention of the ex-HimTak agent-turned-terrorist sent such a chill through the room that even K stiffened. His voice became quiet and almost sympathetic. “We’ll get him, Nick.”
Brian was shocked at the change. To hear Kevin call this snot-nosed, cocky, prima donna by his first name in such a fatherly way actually stung. “Kev, is there something you’re not telling me? You swore you were going to cooperate with us one hundred percent on this. That’s why I let you question the man before I take him back to Virginia.”
“I’ve told you everything I know. You know I have.”
“Then who is this Drums person?”
K sighed. “That’s a long story. And one that has nothing to do with this case, I assure you.”
“If he was there, then he has everything to do with this case, and I want to know everything about him.”
“As if we’d tell you a damn thing!” exploded Nick. “You would take the information back to all your little friends in the Pentagon as fast as you could, and they’d have everything fucked up before breakfast.”
Brian could no longer bite his tongue, and he blew up in Nick’s face. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but you’d better cut the shit before I have you arrested for treason!”
“Brian! Nickolas!”
Brian and Nick stopped their bickering, both completely dumbfounded that K had actually raised his voice. K crossed his arms tightly across his chest and stared at the two of them until he once again had complete control of the situation. “Whether you’re on the same team or not, you’re both some of the world’s best in fighting terrorists.”
K walked over to a desk and picked up a thick file with ‘TOP SECRET’ stamped across it. “Brian, I have told you everything you need to know, and, Nick, you know I will not let this case fall apart, so you’d both better trust me on this. And you damn well better learn to trust each other because in our line of work, not trusting your partner will get you killed!”
Nick’s mouth practically dropped to the floor. “Partner?”
K handed Nick the file. “I have your next assignment, and I need the two of you together on this one.”
Nick and Brian glanced at one another and simultaneously lost their tempers again.
“WHAT?!”
***