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Julie Lawrence smacked her desk in frustration. Before her lay three files all related by one name, Logan Dupré. File one contained a highly placed missing persons case, leaked to her by people in the National Security Agency’s classified persons department. The second crime scene was in an alley that contained enough of Logan Dupré’s blood to have guaranteed his death. Thirdly and most disturbing, the seemingly insane ramblings of a wanted felon, Clarence Sampson, who claimed to have been attacked by a healthy Dupré and an unknown woman a day after the blood in the alley was discovered. How did Dupré, their best covert ops man, manage to be named in three reports in twenty-four hours? Julie was angry Mercury couldn’t be discovered now! Dupré’s incompetence had involved the Police, the F.B.I. and angered Mercury’s benefactors. Resigned she closed the files and pressed the intercom button on her desk.
“Leon, fuel the jet. I’m going to New Orleans.”
~*~*~
“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU shoot Clarence with?” yelled Logan as they drove out of the city.
“I used my stunner,” replied Meghan. She took out the long slim crystal to show him. “Don’t worry, he’s not dead. I only froze him for a couple of minutes to give us time to escape.”
Logan took the crystal and as he drove he examined it.
“I assume you pressed one of these buttons to freeze him?” he asked her.
“Uh huh,” Meghan nodded. “The blue one.”
“What does the yellow button do?” he asked.
“It knocks a person unconscious.”
“And the red one.”
“I try to avoid pressing that one,” she said solemnly. “It vaporizes the person.”
“Vaporizes? What does that mean?” asked Logan.
“It means that the beam from the red button kills the person by literally making him disappear, he burns from the inside out and there’s nothing left,” she explained.
“There’s no way I’m giving this back to you" Logan tucked the crystal into his pocket; his eyes coolly dared Meghan to fight him on the issue. She let the moment pass.
"Where are we going Logan? You should probably eat, the procedure tends to make people hungry."
"I’ve been hungry in the past, it doesn’t bother me." His tone low and controlled Logan stared at the road ahead.
"I know you’re angry..."
"Angry doesn’t even come close lady! What did you think you were doing forcing this on me! I have responsibilities, what you’ve done puts people’s lives at risk!"
"You know as much as I do that Mercury has people who can take over your job, they may not be as good but they can do it."
"Logan I need you," Megan paused and looked at Logan, making sure they locked eyes, "and like it or not now you need me."
~*~*~
AT 12:35AM A MERCURY jet was given clearance to land at a little known airstrip outside New Orleans. Forty-five minutes later Julie Lawrence entered NOPD headquarters. Fake ID and skilled flirting gained her access to the staff area, a great memory of the floor plan gained her access to Detective Ryan Harrison’s office.
Quickly she fiddled the locks on the filing cabinet and desk drawers, less than twenty seconds. Julie allowed herself a smug grin; it was delicious to be that good at being bad! Methodically she scanned the files, which, like his office were oddly tidy. It would seem that Detective Harrison was very, very neat. The man must be doggedly dedicated to his job or have far too much time on his hands. Julie was of the belief it was the latter.
The Dupré crime scene was in the front of the active files drawer. Using her hand-held scanner she copied what her files had lacked, unfortunately it wasn’t much. As she turned to leave Julie remembered something about detectives, the stuff in their files wasn’t always everything they knew. Files mostly contained facts and evidence, good detectives worked on gut. Julie looked at the clock 2:12am, far too early for desktop detectives, later today however she would meet with the good Detective.
~*~*~
DETECTIVE RYAN HARRISON hated call-outs, and at night they were NEVER pretty. As he was entering NOPD headquarters five hours earlier than his usual start time, he bumped the shoulder of a woman leaving the building.
She turned and briefly caught his eye but a soft beeping began in her pocket. Harrison was amazed as she pulled out the smallest cellular phone he’d ever seen; it was the size of a matchbook before it popped open.
Watching her walk away he gave her an amazed once over. This woman with long dark hair pulled tightly back, clothing that caused her to blend with the night and hard eyes that were just as dark, moved like a panther. If he hadn’t bumped her, he probably wouldn’t have even seen her. As the door closed, he heard the faintest strains of her voice.
“Leon, I’ll need that hotel booking after all. Oh, and Leon, send me everything that exists on a Detective Ryan Harrison.”
Bursting out through the doors Ryan searched the darkness but he knew it was futile she was gone.
~*~*~
LOGAN PULLED INTO A truck stop just off the highway. Before they could get out of the Jeep a ringing sounded. Meghan twisted around searching for the sound.
“Open the glove compartment and pass me the cellular phone,” said Logan.
Meghan opened and riffled inside the glove compartment. She searched for the cell phone but couldn’t find it.
“It’s not here,” she said as the phone rang again.
Exasperated, Logan leaned over and grabbed a black little square that to Meghan resembled a matchbook.
“That’s a cell phone!” she exclaimed. “It’s so small!”
Logan opened the cell, “Hello!”
“Hello Logan,” said Julie Laurence. “What in the blue blazes is happening?”
Logan pulled the phone away from his ear and grimaced. This was all he needed. Julie on the warpath, what was he going to do now?
“Julie, what’s up?” he asked.
“You tell me! Your blood is found in an alley, a lot of it I might add. You’re named in a missing person’s case and there’s some lunatic named Clarence who says you and some woman froze him with some kind of ray gun!” she shouted in his ear.
"Calm down Julie..."
Julie snapped, her voice becoming deceptively low and controlled. Glancing around the hotel car park where she was standing, her eyes briefly came to rest on a man who seemed a touch too interested in her conversation. Her language slid easily into rapid French.
"Logan I am always calm, you’ll remember even when I’ve been shot I remain calm. If you ever tell me to calm down again you are going to regret it. Now, I need to meet with you so we can come up with some sort of solution for this mess. And while you’re on the way you can report to headquarters, they are just about ready to have you declared a liability."
"Julie, I have someone with me, that meeting may not be such a good idea. Let’s just do this now."
"I don’t want to. Meet me in the square in two hours. If you’re not there I’m going to activate a tracking team and have you hunted down. So help me Logan..."
Julie took a deep breath. "You are going to help me fix this mess."
Logan considered her order; he hated being told what to do, especially by Julie whom he’d helped to train. He would have said no but couldn’t afford to have Mercury hunting him too.
Mercury wasn’t the main reason though. Julie was like a bulldog; she would just keep at him, even until she died if she had to. It was a good trait he may need her.
"How will I find you, the square is always crowded"
"Don’t try, I’ll find you. I’m glad you made the right choice Logan. Bring your lady friend and keep her quiet, do not draw the attention of the police. You are wanted for questioning and I don’t want to have to get you out of jail on top of everything else!"
The phone went dead, Logan almost laughed out loud Julie had never been one for pleasantries like ‘Good-bye’ it was highly unusual for her to even say `Hello`.
"What’s going on? What did Julie want?" Meghan was dying of curiosity. If Julie’s call managed to rattle Logan, it had to be big news.
"We may be in trouble. How do you Know Julie?"
"So, what does that mean?" asked Meghan. She ignored his last question.
"What it means Meghan is that Mercury’s pulled out the big guns.”
“Ah yes, Julie. If I remember correctly the data files on Mercury said that you trained her. She’s very good at accents and infiltrations. Her I.Q. is way off the charts. She graduated University at the age of 17. She has a Doctorate in Forensics and she’s very good at reading crime scenes. Boy they really did send out the big guns,” said Meghan with a huge grin. “Oh, and I just remembered something else about her.”
Disgruntled by her accurate assessment of one of Mercury’s top operatives Logan glanced at her, “Oh yeah what else?” he asked.
Meghan looked him straight in the eye and said, “She’s more open-minded than you are.”
Meghan was almost high on excitement and curiosity as she and Logan entered Jackson Square. Even with her extensive resources in the future she'd been unable to find anything but a hazy black and white photo of Julie.
Meghan was sure if Julie believed her, Logan would trust her completely. Music floated on the air, happy people crisscrossed her path. Gradually Meghan began to relax and drift away from Logan's side, New Orleans seemed so safe.
Deliberately a woman stepped into her path. Meghan stopped; she was slightly taller than her accoster but felt a sudden overwhelming urge to run screaming in the opposite direction.
Near black eyes steadily bore into her green ones. Gasping Meghan took a step back, feeling her body hit a wall of warm muscle. She went rigid then sighed with relief as Logan spoke.
"I see you've mastered the fine art of silent intimidation."
Realization hit, this was Julie! She looked surprisingly young. Meghan saw Julie's eyes flick from Logan's to hers then come to rest on Logan's again. Meghan held her breath something was going on. The tension grew in the air, reaching fever pitch before Julie took a step back and cracked a huge grin.
"Get a hair cut you big lug!"
"You're the one with pig tails"
"This is a plat you uneducated swine! Look I haven't slept in 32 hours and I gather this is going to take a while. I think that strong New Orleans coffee is in order. Incidentally did you notice my native drawl, took 2 hours of solid practice to master this accent."
Logan looked stunned, Julie continued.
"I swung by your apartment earlier, it has been given a serious go over. Here's a bag full of clothes and selected other goodies, you can thank me later. The rest of your stuff is wasted. I don't see any point in your going home."
Julie led the way to a cafe. She was in shock. Logan had been so protective, almost livid when she started on the woman he was walking with. Julie hadn't even been serious at first, until she saw the look on his face had promised all manner of torture if she didn't back off, she'd left it until his eyes showed the beginnings of panic. No matter their past here she was in control, he hated it and that's why she lay it on. Their brotherly-sisterly exchange had been for the benefit of his lady friend.
~*~*~
THE TIME HAD COME FOR explanations by the time they were all seated and had a drink Julie stopped smiling. Turning first to the woman apparently named Meghan and then to Logan, all pretenses of happy smiles faded completely.
Slowly, almost hypnotically so she placed both of her hands palm down on the table in front of her. Meghan noticed a tattoo where the face of a watch should have laid, the planetary symbol for Mercury.
Julie calmly met her eyes and exhaled, breaking contact only to begin talking.
"Three reports in twenty-four hours is a poor reflection of the man who helped to train me. I now have a huge mess with a detective, who by my research is as dogged as me. You are going to aid me in the creation of a solid story to ram down his throat. Jake is seriously pissed, I've been told not to frighten or order this detective off the case. Jake says the challenge of completely fixing your mess will be good for me. I did not join Mercury to be anyone's personal assistant! So, I want to know everything, it is not a request. One of you is to start talking right now."
Logan began; he had been talking for well over an hour when Meghan took over. She was animated, throwing everything into her explanation as if her life depended on it, perhaps it did. She told Julie about the Time Healers, how immortality occurred, time travel, her use of weapons and defense, ending on the NIA, Tracers, their poison and how if they succeeded they could be a threat to anyone not just immortals.
Logan watched Meghan as she talked. Her features colored with pride at the actions of her people one moment only to be washed with horror at the mission of the Tracers, mesmerized him. She was so passionate both Julie and Logan were engrossed.
Briefly her gaze met his; Logan was shocked when he identified a veiled sadness barely hidden below the surface. As Meghan turned back to Julie, Logan realized the sadness had been there from the moment he'd opened his eyes to meet her bewitching emerald gaze.
Was this sadness for the plight of her people, could she feel so deeply for them? Or was it more personal? The surge of so something closely akin to anger that thought rose shocked him. As he brooded, Julie's lilting French cut into his thoughts.
"Well it's an extreme story, but I've heard extreme before. Before I consider it any further however I need to ask you something. Forgive me Logan but do you trust her?"
Logan hesitated momentarily, in their line of work trust was a four-letter-word, and misplaced it got you killed. For Julie to even ask it meant that his response would make or break her opinion of Meghan. As far as she knew Logan only trusted two people on earth Jake and her. So his honest response shocked them both.
"Yes." He nodded as he gazed into Meghan beautiful green eyes. He didn’t know how it happened, but in the short time he’d met her and she told him about the Tracers, the serum, her immortality and HIS, she had somehow gotten under his skin. He could actually feel the walls around his heart cracking. It had been long since any one had affected him this way. He reach under the table and gave Meghan’s had a squeeze. He turned his gaze back to Julie.
“Yes,” he said again, “I do trust her. We haven’t told you this but she did save my life. I was mortally wounded in that alley. She got me home and mixed her blood with mine. I don’t know if it’s true are not but she tells me that I’m also immortal now.”
Julie looked at Meghan and her widened in surprise. Logan? Immortal? She’d heard the sincerity in Meghan voice when she’d recounted how she’d found Logan. But this immortality thing was pushing it a bit, wasn’t it?
Julie became thoughtful as she considered what they said. She was sure they weren’t lying. She would know if they were. Ever since she was a little girl she’d had this ability to tell when someone was lying to her. She didn’t know where the ability came from because she’d never known her real parents. They had died when she was just a baby. She’d grown up in various foster homes all across Europe, which is where she’d learned how to be different people for her, various foster parents.
Julie looked at them again and decided they were telling her the truth. She bent down, grabbed her briefcase and put on the table. She opened it and removed a large envelope.
“Here, take this,” She said as she passed the envelope to Logan. “There’s money, an untraceable SAT-CELL phone, get rid of the one you have, and two passports in the name of Lucas and Lila Winters. Find a place to lay low and I’ll call you after I’ve located a lab you can use to research the antidote to this Waxen serum.”
Logan took the envelope and stood.
“Thank you, Julie,” he said as he took Meghan hand in his. “I’ll wait for your call.”
Julie watched as they left and walked away. She closed her briefcase and took out some money. As she stood up and turned to go she bumped into a wall. Her head came up and she looked into the amused hazel eyes of Detective Ryan Harrison.
“Going somewhere?” he asked innocently.
Pinned to the spot Julies mind filled with cuss words in at least seven separate languages. Three things struck her simultaneously. One, she'd let Logan and Meghan go before they sorted out a plausible story. Two, she was under no cover at all, not even the contacts she usually wore to disguise her distinctive eyes. And three if she didn't break eye contact with this man right now she had about a snowball's chance in Hades of thinking of a plan.
There were so many variables, she was furious with herself for this situation ever having occurred. Never before had she been such an idiot. Had he seen her with Logan and Meghan? She didn't think so; surely he would have reacted before they'd left. Had he heard her talking, what accent had she been using with Logan just then?
Most worryingly though did he recognize her from last night? Damn him for having been at work before she'd seen the ID photo in his file! If he recognized her she was in serious trouble.
Think, think, think! She was taking to long to respond. Last night! Did she still have the FBI ID in her pocket? She hoped that no one at the police station had bothered to check it out yet. Yes, she'd have to take her chances with that.
With the barest shreds of a plan Julie took a step back, said a silent prayer and with a blink of her midnight eyes became someone else. Ryan watched with interest as the woman’s facial expressions changed rapidly. If he hadn’t been looking at her so intently he would have missed them. First there was shock, then recognition. He could swear he saw the wheels moving in her mind as she tried to come up with a story to feed him. He knew the instant she had a firm plan. Her midnight eyes lost all expression except for a mild interest in him as if she’d never met him before.
Ryan knew that couldn’t be true because they’d bump into each other last night at the precinct. When she’d disappeared last night, he’d returned inside and asked the desk Sergeant who she was, nobody could give him an answer. It was as if she hadn’t been there at all. No one had noticed her.
When he’d entered his office it had felt strange to him. He knew someone had been there but nothing had been moved. So, he’d booted up his computer and had contact an old friend of his in the FBI. This morning his friend had got back to him with the name Logan Dupré who lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans. From there he’d called in various favors and had learned about Julie Laurence.
He’d called all the Hotels and had finally found her at the Sheridan. He’d parked in front and had followed her when she’d left to meet the couple that’d just left in the Square.
Thumbnail at her lips Julie looked intimidated, took another step back, banged into the table and knocked a cup to the floor. At the sound of shattering glass all eyes in the cafe landed on Ryan and Julie. He scowled then played the part of a concerned gentleman.
“I’m sorry if I frightened you ma’am it wasn’t my intent, I simply wanted to apologize for walking into you earlier this morning. Allow me to introduce myself, Detective Ryan Harrison.” He extended his hand. “And you would be?”
Julie let recognition to flood her features, stepped forward and shook his hand with gusto. In her best New Yorker accent she launched right in.
“Just on my way to meet you! I’m Lizzy Simpson, FBI SMPD Special Missing Persons Division. Sorry for coming across startled then, I just never expected to walk into a huge slab of man twice in one day! Imagine the odds of both slabs being you! Are you here for coffee? I’m running on the stuff. I was planning on visiting the precinct but if you’re on a break I could come see you later. To be perfectly honest a break sounds fantastic, I need some sleep and I have to make some calls. Speaking of calls I hear nature, could you just hang on a moment I’m going to use the ladies, then I’ll be right with you.”
She was in the toilet before Ryan could react. She’d been like a walking assault! The description he’d been given by a FBI contact earlier filled his mind.
“Julie Laurence was the best undercover person we ever had, she wasn’t actually FBI we used her a few times though. She could be ANYONE at the drop of a hat. It was eerie to watch her slip in to character, she seemed too good, almost like she had split personalities.”
“No photos of her exist but I’ll never forget her eyes, without contacts they were almost black, it made her impossible to read. She died four years ago, shot in the thigh during a firefight. We tried to stabilize her on the ground but she died in the chopper on the way to hospital. A total waste the man who shot her died of a single wound to the head. By all accounts Julie shot him as she was passing out. Her funeral was government funded, low key you know, a closed casket, she had no family. Haven’t thought about her in a while, she was the best Harrison, young and brilliant it’s a damn shame.”
So was this Julie? Why would she fake her own death? What did she want with him? Five minutes ago she’d been a hellcat poised to strike him down, then she'd become a bubbling idiot. Before that she’d been as cold as stone listening to that couple talk. Had the man she’d been talking to been Logan Dupré? And why did she talk to him in French? He’d picked up the word ‘trust’ a few times but then their French was fast and Ryan hadn’t been close enough to listen properly.
She was a real puzzle. Ryan loved puzzles, he made a decision right then he wouldn’t arrest her like he had first planned, ‘Lizzy Simpson’ was about to have a new best friend.
