FAMILY TIES
      By Spense
 

Chapter Twenty

"Well, any plan in mind?"  Race asked as they sat down in Race's
sitting room.

"Yes," Will answered grimly.  "We still have the pager she gave
Jonny."

"SHIT!" Race exclaimed, using language he didn't tolerate from any of
the kids.

Will nodded, "I know.  I didn't think of it myself until tonight."

Race shook his head in disgust.  "I can't believe I didn't think of
it!  Lots on our minds, I guess," he added with a dry look at
Will.  "Some pair of agents we are."

"You said it.  And we could have spared Jonny a whole lot of
anguish," Will added in frustration.

"Speaking of Jonny," Race said, "How is the kid?"

"Not good.  He's just about at the end of his rope, and frankly,
Benton isn't much better," Will sighed, the concern in her voice
clearly evident.

"Well, lets get this done, then," he commented, "and the sooner the
better.  DAMMIT!" he snarled, running his hands through his short-
cropped hair, "I can't believe we forgot about that damn pager.  We
could have set this trap days ago!"

Will sighed agreement.  "You go plug the pager into IRIS.  Run a
transcript of all incoming and outgoing messages.  Oh, and call
Corvin and let him know what we're cooking up.  I'll get Mrs. Evans
up here to take care of Rae.  Benton's in no shape to handle both an
infant and a sick kid."

Race nodded, adding, "And I'll get Phil to send a couple of agents
over here so someone is on site; even with the compound locked down,
I want to be sure!"

Will nodded in return, and they both headed out their separate
directions to get dressed, and prepare for the task ahead.

*    *    *

By the time Race and Will had everything taken care of at the
Compound, the transcripts run and faxed to Corvin, and finally
entering the hotel room serving as the I-1 headquarters, it was
nearly dawn.

"How's Jonny doing?" were the first words out of Terry's mouth as he
handed Race a strong cup of coffee.  He did a double take at Will as
she indicated that she'd like one.  Terry just shrugged and handed
her a mug as well.

"Not good," Will said grimly.  "Still very sick from the gas PHIL,"
she glared pointedly at the senior I-1 agent, who threw up his hands
in silent defense, "and still uncertain of who's telling him the
truth, or even what the truth is!  He's having horrible nightmares
and anxiety attacks.  And who in HELL," Will continued, her anger
winding up from the frustration of the last week, "let Dr. Lainer
keep Rachel's face?"  she snarled.  "That was a real smooth move.  A
lot of our problems could have been easily prevented by fixing that
little problem a long time ago!"

"Easy Will," Race muttered.  However, Terry thought that the look in
his eyes didn't look any less dangerous than that in Will's.  Wisely,
he kept silent.  Phil, unfortunately, did not.

"Will," he began in concern, conveniently ignoring the last part of
Will's tirade, "Why isn't Jonny still in the hospital?  Sounds like
he belongs there."

"Security, Phil, security."  Race growled.  "Or course he should
still be hospitalized, but we couldn't guarantee his safety there
with Dr. Lainer's escape.  He's much safer under wraps at the
compound.  He was a little better, off the oxygen and beginning to be
able to keep down solid food,  and besides, Benton IS a doctor."  He
shrugged.  "So we took the chance.  Lesser evil of two bad choices."

Will had thrown up her hands in frustration at Corvin's question and
stomped off to get some sugar for her coffee as Race explained.
Terry watched Will loading sugar into the mug until the coffee was
just turning into a sweet syrup.  "That's a really bad idea," he
commented quietly.

"What?" Race asked, then spotted Will and registered what she was
doing.  "Uh-oh."

"What?"  Phil asked puzzled.

"Will, caffeine, and sugar," Terry elaborated.

Corvin furrowed his brow quizzically, clearly beginning to lose
patience.

"The brat hates coffee," Bannon explained.  "Absolutely detests it."

"And sugar winds her up like no tomorrow," Terry elaborated, then
added almost as an afterthought, "and caffeine affects her almost
like speed."

Phil's statement of puzzlement turned to one akin to
apprehensive.  "On, no.  Someone could get hurt."

"Oh, absolutely," Terry concurred, "Somebody is dead."

"Most definitely," Race agreed.  "Manslaughter."

"Well, then its your job to make sure she doesn't kill anyone," Phil
said sarcastically, with one more apprehensive glance towards the
female agent.  He then changed the subject and got down to
business.   "Thanks for faxing over the transcripts.  And how did you
manage to keep Dr. Quest away?  I thought he'd be here for sure,
hounding us to get hold of Andrea, and wanting in on the kill."

"Easy," Race said, "We didn't tell him.  Will left him a note."

Corvin raised his eyebrows and Terry grinned.  Race continued
grimly, "And frankly, he's practically near a breakdown himself.  You
know he was the one who released the gas?"

"SHIT!"  Corvin exclaimed explosively.  "No!  I didn't!  How the hell
did that happen?"

"He thought that both Jonny and Will were in trouble.  The brat's
still not a hundred percent after Rae's birth."

Terry laughed, earning dark looks all around.  "But even if she's
only fifty percent, I still give her excellent odds!"

Race laughed humorlessly.  "Yeah, well.  Harkness and I have worked
together enough to be able to work non-verbally.  She was getting
into position to free Jonny.  But Benton didn't know that, and he
thought he was about to lose both of them.  He wasn't exactly
thinking clearly.  Neither Will nor I even knew he had it."  Race
shrugged.  "It dissipated quickly enough in the breezy conditions so
only Dr. Lainer and Jonny were affected.  So anyway, Benton's on the
edge right now too.  He's terrified for Jonny, and feels guilty about
the gas and the fact that he nearly killed his own kid, plus
mortified that he hadn't picked up earlier on that fact that
something else was going on, other than normal adjustments."  Race
crossed his arms over his chest.  "And so do I, honestly.  I should
have been more aware than I was, that's for sure."

"Don't blame it all on yourself, Snow," Will growled as she returned
to the group.  "I'm guilty of that, if not more so."

Corvin looked at her, then quickly looked away.  She looked like an
angry mother bear, and just as frightening.  "So, do you have an
idea?" he asked.

"Yep," Will said succinctly.  "Here, at the State Park."  She pointed
to a section on the transcripts that was already highlighted.

Phil nodded.  "Yeah . . .  Looks good.  Easily defensible.  Think
she'll bite?"

"Oh, yeah," Will said firmly.  "I do.  For one thing, she doesn't
know Jonny is allergic to the gas formula.  She would think it would
probably just affect him the way it did her.  She doesn't know we
have the pager, either, and frankly, she has enough of an ego to
believe that even six or seven days later, Jonny will still buy her
line.  Especially if we word the message carefully enough."

Race nodded agreement.  "We can hedge our bets that much more if we
are sure to insert something to the fact that he couldn't get free of
supervision until now in order to page her."

"Perfect," Terry commented.  "Tight."

Will nodded, and continued the thread.  "Also, maybe something short
and quick to the effect that we keep telling him she's not Rachel,
but he doesn't believe us.  Which, unfortunately, isn't that far from
the truth," she finished with justifiable bitterness.

Corvin nodded slowly.  "I think it'll work.  Lets get agents into
position, then send the page when we are set."

There was unanimous agreement, and they set to work.