With all the media duties completed for the day, the boys returned to the venue for the concert that night. Nick glanced at his watch. It was still in the middle of the afternoon.

Screaming fans greeted them as the limo pulled into the driveway; then faltered a little as Rachael stepped out after the guys, followed by Billy and Mark. There were suspicious glares as she followed them into the venue.

Billy got into step with her, chuckling. “If looks could kill, you’d be breathin’ yer last already.” He observed.

Rachael gave him a twisted half smile. “You don’t think they would be making the wrong assumptions just because I was in the same car as them?”

He shrugged. “Mebbe. I think your ID saved ya.”

“Hmm.”

Meanwhile, in the boys’ dressing room, the guys were planning for the week ahead. Apart from the normal schedule, there were gaps in the calendar, which meant free time.

“Movies?” Howie suggested.

“Nah. Been to two already.” Brian said absently, twirling a basketball.

Howie frowned. “Two? We’ve only been to one.”

AJ smiled knowingly. “Bri, did you sneak out with Leighanne again?”

Brian smirked.

“ Besides, we’ve got that photo shoot next Saturday, remember?” Kevin reminded them as the wolf-whistles and catcalls dies down.

“Oh darn. I totally forgot about that.” Howie muttered.

“It’s still next week,” AJ protested. “ What do we do till then?”

“We’ll think about something,” Kevin said reassuringly.

Brian watched Nick as he looked blankly at the table, his eyes far away. His fingers absently toyed with the necklace that he’s been wearing a lot lately.

“What did Rachael say?” he whispered to Nick, wincing as AJ and Kevin, in a bout of restlessness, crashed to the floor, locked in a game of wrestling.

Nick shrugged. “She yelled the roof off.”

“ About what?” Howie asked, curious.

“ I forgot the necklace.”

Brian frowned. “ She yelled at you for forgetting your own necklace? But why-”

“Guys! Stop it!” Howie yelled at the wrestling pair on the floor.

Nick was surprised. “ You mean you don’t know? She didn’t tell you?”

“ Tell me what?” AJ got up, dusting himself. “She barely talks to me.”

“Maybe cos she thinks you’re a bowling ball, knocking around.” Nick said.

AJ rolled his eyes behind his glasses. “Okay, okay, smart-ass, I got the point.” He raised his brows. “You’re just saying that cos you know I’ll win the match.”

“Bull,” Nick retorted. “Last time I won, remember. You’re just holding a grudge.”

Kevin held up his arm. “OK, time out! Nick, what about Rachael telling us something?” he asked.

“About the chain she put on me,” Nick muttered. “The beeper.”

“Beeper?” Brian echoed. “What’s that?”

Nick faltered a little. Somehow, knowing that the guys didn’t have a clue about the beeper made him hesitated. Nevertheless, he turned the heavy pendant around and showed them the small black instrument.

“Unreal!” Brian shot up and examined it. “What does it do?”

“It’s an emergency signal or something.”

They crowded around him and looked at the beeper. (‘Sigh~’ boys) “What, like a walkie-talkie?” Howie asked.

“Guess so.”

“ How does it work?” Kevin asked.

Nick was about to answer, then an idea slowly formed in his mind. Rachael was increasingly getting on his nerves lately- why not give her a scare? Besides, he thought gleefully, he hadn’t pulled a prank on anyone lately. His fingers were itching to try it.

“Why don’t we find out?” he said, twirling the pendant in his fingers, a devilish gleam in his eyes.

Brian knew that look. Nick always had that twinkling in his eyes whenever he was up to something big.

And just as disastrous.

“Nick,” he said in a low, warning voice, watching uneasily as Nick’s hand wrapped the pendant and clenched into a fist.

Nothing happened. Nick was a little disappointed, because despite everything, he was secretly expecting some kind of signal erupting from the beeper. “oh well, maybe it works-”

AJ, who had been waiting his chance to tackle Nick unguarded, saw it and lunged at him. Nick saw it coming and sidestepped the attack; AJ went crashing to the floor amid the make-up trays and other objects that were on the dressing tables. The noise was amazing.

Nick smirked. “A little too slow, Boner. Better luck next time.” He said smugly.

At that exact moment, there was tremendous smash- the tightly locked door buckled and gave, crashing into the wall with a force that made the Dressing mirrors tremble. Nick whirled around in shock. Oh shit, he thought numbly.

Rachael stood in the entrance, her sharp eyes surveying the scene, her face grim.

Nick’s eyes widened with horror as he saw the black, ugly gun that was gripped low in her hands- he prayed to God that it wasn’t loaded. Behind her, a short, beefy man in a black suit stood erect, his face tight. He also held a gun.

Silence of an ancient tomb settled in the room- the other guys stared at Rachael, frozen, and AJ slowly picked himself up, his wary eyes never leaving the weapon.

Rachael’s eyes narrowed as she examined the room inch by inch, missing nothing. Including the guilty look on Nick’s face. Her grip on the gun relaxed slightly, and at the same time, a small muscle leaped in her set jaw.

The man behind Rachael relaxed as well, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, false alarm. Don’t-”

Rachael threw the hand off with a vicious jerk, her eyes blazing, and started to curse furiously, crackling the air about her with oaths. Much to their shock, she didn’t only swear in English, but in other unidentifiable languages. They recognized some Spanish and German as well. AJ and Howie blanched visibly at some of the words she used.

Turning, Rachael marched out, still swearing darkly, oblivious to the horrified stares of the spectators that had gathered outside the room.

A stunned silence echoed long after her stormy exit. Nick didn’t know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or breakdown and hibernate for the rest of the year.

The burly man grunted, stashing his weapon away in his jacket. “Let her cool off,” he said. “She’s a bit…out of sorts right now.”

“We can tell,” Brian said weakly.

The man grunted again. “Well, as long as you know the dangers,” he muttered, coming into the room. He wiped his brow with a white handkerchief. “Is it hot in here or is it just me?”

“I think it’s Rachael’s temper,” Howie murmured.

“What did she say?” Kevin asked. “ I didn’t understand what she was saying.”

“You don’t wanna know,” AJ muttered. “You really don’t wanna know.”

“Russian.” the man said, stuffing the kerchief in his pocket. “It’s not that bad. It’s useful when you don’t want any interruptions when you’re….. into it.”

“I’ll bet,” Nick mumbled.

The man looked directly at Nick, his black eyes grim. “That beeper’s not a toy, kid,” he said bluntly. “Don’t treat it like one. Don’t try that again; Harrison was ready to rip the place apart stone by stone.” He said shortly, then snorted. “ She overreacts, sometimes. Gets excited too much.”

Nick found his voice. “Uh…. You know Rachael?” he asked feebly.

“Hell, I’m sorry.” The man pulled out his wallet and showed his ID. “Frank Randell. Chief Officer of CIAB.”

Nicks shook hands with him dumbly, his mind racing. So this was Rachael’s boss.

Frank looked at him thoughtfully. Nick saw a brief flash of surprise then it was gone just as quickly. He wondered what it was.

“The boss who forced Rachael to take the job at gunpoint?” Brian blurted out.

Frank gave a sharp bark of laughter. “she described me as that, huh?”

“Literally,” Brian said quickly.

“Ah.” Frank rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Come to think of it, maybe she’s right. And I’m wondering if it was worth it.”

Nick blinked. “What?”

Frank gave him a level look. “Seems like Harrison’s wasting her time here. I’ve got more important assignments for her. Washington D.C’s been hot at my heels lately.” He said brusquely.

Just then, Julian ran in, his face white. “God! What happened here? And what the hell is Harrison doing?” he demanded.

“What? What’s she doing?” Kevin asked.

“She’s swearing the roof off! I tried to ask her what’s wrong, and she called me a- never mind,” he said quickly, changing his mind about telling them exactly what she had said.

“False alarm,” Frank cut in smoothly. “The boys were having a game of wrestle. Rachael heard the crashing and thought it was an emergency.” He looked pointedly at the guys, especially Nick, clearly telling them not to mention the beeper. They got the message.

“Who are you? How did you get in?” Julian asked sharply.

Frank regarded the taller man with a cool look. He pulled out his wallet again and introduced himself. “Rachael Harrison is my agent.” He added.

Julian fell silent as he saw the ID.

“Jules, don’t worry about it. We’re all right.” Kevin said quickly.

“Except for the door,” Brian said meaningfully, glancing at the destroyed lock.

Julian muttered a curse. “Darn. Better call a locksmith.” He said, walking away, pulling out his cell phone.

Frank watched him go. “He seems to have trouble with Government people.” He commented mildly.

“God knows,” Nick muttered.

Frank turned to him, a frown on his face. “I’d better go and see what Harrison’s up to. She usually cools down by this time. You must’ve really needled her.”

“We’ve got our disagreements,” Nick said evasively.

Surprisingly, the beefy man chuckled. “That must be a lot of disagreeing. I haven’t seen her this ticked off since she quit FBI.”

“FBI?” Howie murmured.

Frank looked at his watch. “Damn. My plane’s leaving soon. Nice meeting you, kid.” He slapped Nick heartily on the shoulder. “This might be interesting after all. See you around.”

They watched him hurriedly leaving, dazed.

“You know, he’s not that bad,” Brian said after a while.

“Yeah, he’s cool.” AJ added.

Nick rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah, cool,” he muttered.

Frank found Rachael standing at the back entrance, her knuckle-white fists gripping the railing barrier.

“ He must’ve really annoyed you,” he began, searching the granite-hard face.

Rachael shrugged silently, not looking at him.

After a long silence, Frank spoke again. “Washington called.”

Rachael snorted. “What do they want?”

“One of the senior senators was found in the middle of the Mexican Gulf near Cuba. No one knows what happened.”

Rachael grunted. “Dead?”

“As a doornail,” Frank said. “Put a bullet in his mouth.”

“If it’s suicide, take it to the pathologists.”

“They already did. It wasn’t suicide.” He paused. “Someone bashed his head in before the bullet.”

Rachael looked a little surprised. “Any suspects?”

“ A few. They’re keeping really hush-hush right now. If the word gets out, the White House’s in trouble.”

“So he was that important.”

“Yes.”

“What’s that got to do with me?”

Frank shrugged. “I guess because of your years in the service. Dean put in a word about you.”

Rachael looked at him sharply. Dean Hunter was the head of FBI, and a close friend of Frank. She knew him quite well, too.

“I see.”

Silence fell again.

“Is he being difficult?” Frank asked.

“You mean him?” Rachael jerked her head towards the dressing room.

“Yeah.”

Rachael shrugged. “The usual symptoms. He’ll get over it.”

“May God be on your side,” Frank murmured.

Rachael smiled slightly, then sobered. “If you see Jake, tell him I said hello.”

Frank nodded. “I heard he was in the Florida base. We’ll probably run into each other.”

Rachael nodded. “I’ll send up the reports of progress up soon; if I get any.” She added sourly.

Frank chuckled. “He’s that bad, is he?” he asked, referring to Nick.

“You probably guessed by now that we aren’t on friendly terms.” She replied wryly.

He grinned. “Do I know. Watch out, Rocky- you’re not off his hook yet.”

Rachael smiled grimly. “He’s not off mine.”

Frank chuckled again, and with a brief hug, hurried down the entrance where his Mercedes waited. Rachael watched the car roaring away, her smile dying. She was torn between killing Nick with her bare hands and chucking that beeper away. That prankster, she thought ruefully, shaking her head. He had used her very own weapon on her!

Frank had come just after they had returned to the venue, surprising her with a visit. After assuring her that it was just a social visit, he had begun to ask her about the assignment- when the detector unit in her ear started to pulse frantically. Leaving Frank in the middle of his sentence, she had dashed into the backstage, her guts drawn tight with fear. After tracking him down the hallways- towards the dressing room. A second later, there had been a tremendous crash. Thinking that there was a struggle, Rachael had kicked the door open, just in time to see AJ sprawled on the floor and a smirking Nick.

She felt her fury rising again, and forced herself to calm down. She had no idea when, or what kind of confrontation it would be with the stalker- her sense of unsureness and insecurity had made her overreact. It was time she seriously started to pump out the information out of him. This had gone far enough.

She glanced at her watch. It was nearly time for showdown. She sighed and went back inside.

Well, another peek into the future; this is just the introduction (WHAT?!). I know. Now the real thing begins (let the drums roll…) things are going to get serious. DEAD serious. Watch out, Nick… someone’s after you real bad….