CHAPTER FOUR

"It appears that Nick is trying to bring all of his Trans-locators on line all at once." The Professor commented.

"What are their full capabilities?" Candy asked.

"Based on the amount of the amount of energy that is being sucked up, they could transport any number of persons or things to any place or time." Agent Reynolds replied.

"Professor, whatever the power source, it is taking quite a bit of time to power each one up." Agent Turnbuckle said in a surprised tone.

"Can you isolate the power source?" The Professor asked.

"Actually Professor, I already have. He is using the sun." Agent Reynolds stated.

"Wow, he is slick!" Agent Smith said.

"Yes, but not very patient I am afraid, especially since he knows we are here and on to him. He must have a way of enhancing that solar power. We need locate that enhancing station!" The Professor ordered.

Agent Snow discreetly pulled the Professor off to one side.

"Nick is not going to wait until all these comes on line. Look Professor, he is out for revenge. I suggest a face-to-face meeting with him to stall for time."

"Agent Snow, the Director told me he wanted revenge on him. The Director is not here, what good would it do for us to meet with him?"

Agent Snow stayed silent.

The Professor's expression turned to one of horror.

"You?"

"Look Professor, back in the day, an agent had to be a master of disguise. I knew it might come down to this, and Nick would not even talk to anyone other than the Director." Agent Snow said with raised eyebrows.

"Look, I took a big risk in just agreeing for Agent Snow to be a part of this assignment. Taking her into the lion's den is absolute craziness!" The Professor stated as forcefully as he could without risking being overheard.

Again, Agent Snow remained silent.

"Look, the Director himself said this guy is nuts, whacko, a fruit cake, a loose cannon. He is bound to be surrounded by bodyguards as well as tons of electronic protective devises!" The Professor stated.

Once again Agent Snow stood silent. After another minute or two she spoke up.

"Are you done now? If you are totally honest with yourself, you know this is the only way. Nick does not believe we will do anything that is not standard operating procedure. Standard procedure states, take out power source, return to the agency, return for capture if deemed possible. He will not be expecting a face-to-face meeting, thus should not have a bunch of security measures in place."

Agent Snow paused a moment.

"Besides, I know Nick. He would not trust anyone else to push the button to bring those translocatorsfully on line besides himself. Face its Professor, we have no choice."

Agent Snow paused to see his reaction.

"This is why I had to on coming along, I will take full responsibility for whatever happens on this part of the mission…as the Director, not Agent Snow."

The Professor formulated no less than thirty arguments for Agent Snows last statement, but in the end, he knew he really did not have any choice.

The Professor turned and faced the group.

"Okay agents, it is time for a new strategy. As soon as Agent Reynolds pinpoints those enhancer units, hit them with everything we have. This is what Nick will be expecting us to do and we certainly do not want to disappoint him."

The Professor now walked over to Agent Peters' station.

"I need you to locate the most likely location of Nick. Start with the ideal location for him to be able to have complete control over all the power transfer units." The Professor instructed.

Agent Peters went to work on it right away. Three minutes later The Professor and Agent Snow, had the address of the most likely location for Nick.

"Agent Snow and I are going to take a shot at trying to see if we can distract Nick long enough for the rest of you to get a better opportunity to knock out all those units.

"Professor, how do you intend to get anywhere close to him? Just from the amount of trouble we got into by simply going into town." Agent Smith said in a concerned voice.

"I know this sounds cliché, but I have been getting in and out of tough spots since before you were born, don't worry about us, you…all of you concentrate on putting an end to Nick's scheme." The Professor stated as he and Agent Snow started to leave.

"Professor, could I make a suggestion?" Agent Smith ask shyly.

"As long as you do it quickly."

"Well, seeing as we must get this done quickly, and most likely the enhancers are in the same building as Nick, and you said he is expecting us to play by the rules…"

"Is there a point to this Agent?" The Professor asked tapping his foot.

Candy cleared her throat, stood up straight and said in a stronger voice,

"Yes sir, my recommendation would be to transport all of us in to different locations in the building. Each of us equipped with our Z35's modified to mimic the damage done by a dynamite explosion. This will confuse their tracers, cause a bigger distraction, and it will not only eliminate his threat, but it will also give us the best chance of capturing him at the same time."

The Professor did not say a word for what seemed like to Agent Smith to be hours. All eyes were on him. Finally, still without saying a word, he nodded to all the agents. They immediately went to work on Candy's recommendation. It did not take long for all the the weapons to be modified, the coordinates for each Agent to be selected, and all had assembled for their final instructions.

"Only so much can be said for the element of surprise. I have no doubt that all of you will have your hands full and your personal shields will only hold so long. All, you all are the best of the best. Focus on your objective."

The Professor paused a moment.

"You may recall a little-known rule #10011.001 which states 'under extreme circumstances the lead on an assignment may wave certain codes of conduct.' On this next phase of our assignments, I am waving them all."

Agent Snow's face turned beat red,

"Professor, you have no authority to…"

The Professor covered her mouth.

"Agent Snow! You of all agents should know rule #3995.5 that states, 'Any and all perceived, or confirmed violations of the established code of ethics ordered by a lead agent should be fully documented and personally report to the Director.' You are well within your rights to write and report whatever you like and turn it into the Director as well! However, you are to follow my instructions. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly," Agent Snow responded through gritted teeth.

"Good, for none of us can afford any more interruptions! Now Agents; To the success of efforts and the good of the people!" The Professor shouted, and the agents repeated.

*******************

The agent's sudden appearance on each floor did give them the expected advantage. Most were able to fight their way to the enhancer units with little problem. Unfortunately, not all managed to destroy the enhancers at the same time. The explosions caused two unexpected results. First, it caused a mass of Nicks devoted current century hired guns to come rushing in with guns a blazing, forcing the agents to flee to higher floors and second, it also gave Nick a heads up that something was wrong. The Professor and Agent Snow easily turned back the thugs that tried to defend their boss, but by the time the other agents reached the top floor Nick had escaped by means of a transport refractor that he evidently carried on his person all the time.

The Professor started everyone on the normal "clean up" procedure, which would help speed up the time line to return to normal.

Agent Snow dragged the Professor off to one side.

"Agent…"

"Look Professor, this is maybe our one and only chance to put Nick away!" Agent Snow said quietly.

"What are you talk…"

Agent snow pulled out a small square shaped object with several lights and buttons on it.

"What in the name of…"

"Remember I told you that Nick and the Director were in competition with each other? Nick thought I was afraid to venture outside the rules, and that is why I got the Directors job. He was wrong. The reason I got the job was I was smart enough to play the game and play outside the rules and not get caught."

The Professors face was a mixture of bewilderment and one of, do we really have time for this.

"I'll give you the condensed version of this. I was tired of simply doing cleanup work first as an agent and catching the thug second, so I came up with this."

She gave the Professor a closer look at what was in her hand.

"Because of the century we are in, and his power sources weakened, Nick had no choice but to use a Transport Refractor."

"So!" The Professor inserted.

"So… that is why I brought this!"

Agent Snow entered a code on the box he was holding.

"I would prepare a holding tube if I was you." Agent Snow told the Professor.

"Smith, Turnbuckle, Prepare a holding tube and no questions!" The Professor barked.

The device Agent Snow used began to flash.

"As you know Professor, Transport Refractors, work on the principle of bouncing a transport beam off an older existing transport signal." Agent Snow started out.

"Yes, Agent, I don't need or want a science lesson."

"Pay attention, my dear Professor. I can teach you, an old dog, a new trick. Nighty five percent of all those we are assigned to fix what they mess up use some sort of time refractor to make their escape."

Agent Snow put up her hand to keep the professor from interrupting.

"I know what our official records show, but I have done extensive research and have all the numbers to back up what I am saying. Anyway, once I learned the common thread that each one of these devises had in common, it was easy to create something to intercept that signal and divert anywhere I wanted."

Agent Snow looked to see if the other Agents had the holding tube ready.

"Why, didn't I bring my invention to the attention of the Board? You may want to ask. Because simply because it broke about every code of ethics that the agency had. I did try for years to get those changed, but the older members of the board would not budge."

Agent snow looked again to see if the tube was ready. Ten seconds later a very bewildered Nick Vanbarrow was held tight in the tube.

The agents sent the tube back to the agency and completed their normal cleanup work.

"You know I have to include all of this in my report," the Professor stated.

"You do what you have to do." Agent Snow replied.

**********************************

Three days later The Professor was in the Directors office with his full report.

"I think you will find everything in order," the Professor stated, as he dropped the file on the desk and turned to leave.

"Just like that? No questions, no comments, no recommendations?" The Director asked.

"What would you like me to say? I have worked under a number of directors, and up till now had nothing bad to say about Director Washington."

The Professor got as far as the door before he turned to face the Director.

"You have some mighty big shoes to fill. It will be interesting to see if you have any skeletons in

the closet." The Director told him.

Late that afternoon the Professor went down to where the holding tubes were kept before those enclosed in them were sent to their permanent cells. It was ironic to see Director Washington in the tube right next to Nick.

He went over to communication device and pressed the button.

"Come to say your goodbyes?" The former Director asked him.

"Actually, I came to ask why?"

"Seriously? I thought for sure you of all agents would be able to figure that out."

"Humor me." The Professor commented.

The former Director looked over at Nick, then back at the Professor.

"When I discovered that it was Nick we were dealing with, I had to make a choice. I could just have sent your team, but I figured that Nick would not stop until he forced me to show my hand."

He paused and moved over closer to Nicks tube, which caused Nick to beat furiously on the tube's walls and shout at the former Director. The Former just smiled at him and wave.

Nothing could be heard, but it was obvious that Nick was now shouting at the top of his lungs.

"His hatred of me would have cost much more than I could ever bare to keep hidden. Besides, I found outwhen we got back that he was also beginning to attack the personal lives of my agents."

"What are you talking about?"

"Agent Turnbuckles former girlfriend. Nick used threats against her and Agent Turnbuckle for her to notmonly call off their wedding but for her to leave the country."

"Did you tell Larry this?"

"Yes, but I advised him to not pursue it. He would not be able to give any details of how he was sure that she would not have to worry about the threats any more. I also discovered that Nick had plans to make similar personal attacks on other top agents."

The Professor shook his head.

"I spoke to Deputy Justice Carter and he thinks you have a good chance of commuting your sentence," the Professor told him.

The former Director laughed.

"Deputy Justice Wallace told me the same thing. I have hidden too much for too long from the Board toever hope such a thing."

The former Director's expression changed to a big smile.

"Professor, I am dying to know one thing, can you guess what that is?"

"No," the Professor said curiously.

"Come on Professor. Okay, I will come out and ask. What did you think about Agent Snow?"

"Brash, disruptive, unprofessional…"

"Unprofessional?" The former Director shouted.

"That 'unprofessional' agent bagged the most wanted former agent this agency has ever seen!" The Director said in a softer, yet firm tone.

"Tell me, if I had some secret devise that broke every code this agency has, and I on one mission used that devise to 'bag' an infamous time criminal, and that came to your attention, as the Director, how would you react?"

"Do you have such a device?" The former Director asked.

The Professor knew where this was going, so he simply stated.

"If Agent Snow was to ever goes out on another assignment, I do not want to lead the team."

"Because?"

The Professor looked at the former Director and smiled.

"Her pink lipstick does nothing for me."

He turned to leave, then turned back around.

"It doesn't do much for you either."

The former Director vigorously began to wipe his lips on his sleeve. Seeing nothing there he wagged his finger at the Professor.

"Works every time." The Professor mumbled to himself then whistled a little tune as he towards the

elevators.

He was deeply saddened that the former Director would spend the rest of his days in a prison cell. He also was a little apprehensive of the new changes that the new appointed Director would implement. This, however, was not the first change of leadership his had ever experienced, and he had a sneaking suspicion, that it will not be the last.

THE END