Inquirer Paging......

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 13897

Bishop laughs ruefully as he looks down at the security badge that Abbot managed to wrangle up for him for this semi-annual meeting with him about "business."

"Maybe Mom and Pop weren't married after all?" he mutters to himself, remembering the stupid joke he'd told to urge what he'd thought were NSA agents so long ago back in 1992. Since then, he'd seen and heard things from the inside that finally broken through ossified opinions built back decades ago. Oh, the things he'd seen....and the preconceptions dashed mercilessly. Bishop, only something like seven years older, felt much older yet sometimes from the stuff he'd seen.

"Welcome to Fort Meade, Mr. Bishop," Bernard Abbot said in as friendly voice as he could manage.

Bishop and Abbot still didn't exactly like each other, but at least they tried now to be civil.

That said, Bishop refrains from calling Abbot by his nickname (Darth Vader) that he'd garnered from that one night so long ago.

Bishop knew for a fact that it had been Mary who'd started it's spread, but had remained quiet. It wasn't like he and his gang had actually broken promises of secrecy and such (Lord knows it would be deathly foolhardy to do so). It did, however, win points for her with Bishop and the others. Well, Carl and she were already an item by that time anyway, so points by that time were irrelevant for the two.

"Thank you for inviting me," Bishop said, "Must have been almost impossible to do, considering my.....er.....past."

"We manage," Abbot shrugs, dismissing the headaches he had gotten in getting Bishop permission to enter the "holy of holies."

"So, what can I do for you?" Bishop finally asks, deciding to cut to the chase.

"Direct as usual, I see," Abbot nods, "Well, enough. There is something strange surrounding the recent death of somebody that has a particular odorthat suggests...... fowl play. At first, I thought it had been what the media and such said......heart attack, but something isn't right here at the NSA.....well, less right than usual."

Abbot is about to continue when his office telephone starts to ring.

Abbot pauses, and Bishop sighs, understanding that business was on hold for the moment.

"Setec Astronomy!" a familiar female voice chirps happily from the other end of the line.

Oh shit! Abbot thinks to himself, nearly dropping the phone in surprise.

Almost seven years of nothing, and then all of the sudden.....!

"What?" Bishop asks, perplexed.

"It's THEM!" Abbot mouths, pointing at the phone in his hands.

Bishop blinks, knowing well indeed who they are when Abbot speaks. Of all of the people Abbot talks about since that fateful day, Doctor Who's group had been the most vexing for the guy. In a matter of point, "they" had been the most vexing for Bishop and friends as well!

"Go ahead," Abbot says calmly into the phone, nothing of the sort in reality.

"Go to the corner of Fifth and Main at 2:00 PM today," Inquirer said simply, "It's about Hamersly and a nature tape. Bring friends. Out."

"Okay, but....." Abbot begins, but then mutters a curse when he hears a dail tone.

"Now what are they up to?" Abbot asks himself as he hangs up the phone, "Something to do with the death of Hamersly, though. And what about a tape?"

Intriguing. Bishop thinks to himself as Abbot turns to him.


Meanwhile.....

Hicks is holding his hand over the mouthpiece of the telephone inReynolds office.....

"It's Brill!" Hicks says, nervously.

"Yes?" Reynolds asks, taking the phone and speaking into it.

"Thomas Reynolds?" Brill asks on the other end, looking in askance at the strange device (a spare) that is supposed to be an auto dialer (but does something to throw off telephone traces?)

"Yes. What can I do for you?" Reynolds asks, feeling a bead of sweat form on his forehead.

"I'm calling in regards to a environmental study," Brill continues. "Interested?"

"Yes, I am indeed," Reynolds says with upmost sincerity, "Where can we meet? Can we discuss this in person?"

"Corner of Iowa and Third at 2:00 PM sharp," Brill says, smiling at Reynolds over the phone.

"I'll be there at 3:00....." Reynolds begins.

"At 2:00....else watch it on CNN!" Reynolds growls.

"But I....." Reynolds protests.

"You speak English?" Brill asks across the line, in the same annoyed, disparaging tone of voice he used when talking with Dean in their first encounter on the roof of a hotel (and with him holding Dean at gunpoint all the while).

"Okay.....two o'clock sharp," Reynolds sighs.

"Thank you." Brill says sarcastically, hanging up.

Reynolds just looks at the phone, and then turns to Hicks, his erstwhile assistant, and begins to get things ready.


"Okay, Inquirer," Brill says as he turns to look at the mechanical maiden, "I just finished with my side of the setup. We now have Abbot meeting catty corner to the spot where I'll be meeting Reynolds, at that police office precinct. Now, for a few questions from me, for my own edification."

"Within reason, of course," the Doctor put in, smiling.

"Within reason," Brill conceded.

"Now, first, how did you know that I still had friends within the Agency?" Brill asks, totally flummoxed that the adventurers had known.

"Even the worst of people have some friends somewhere," Elrondir puts in, smiling, "And it figures that you'd also have made friends.....networking.....throughout the Agency even before the need to run. Thus, that is the only logical reason why you'd have current executive NSA files in your possession, instead of decades old if otherwise!"

Brill slowly nods. It was kind of disturbingly obvious, once they pointed that out. Then again, no people before now had known of the existence of the place where he kept them.....

"The other is just this," Brill begins, trying to put into words a general....feel he got about some of these strange people. Those like the Doctor and Sigin, he wasn't exactly sure what to make of them. But two people in particular had a certain......

"Do you work for the Agency....I mean from somewhere and when else?" Brill finally asks. "Damn if Elrondir and you, Inquirer, have the....er....pardon, smell of one of my own as it were."

"Maybe not quiet that....but.....no......" Elrondir chuckled, "At a later date, perhaps. Not right now."

Not righ now and risk altering the future, Inquirer added to herself.

Brill sighs and nods.

"So this is near the end of the game of cat and mouse, eh?" Brill finally says.

"Oh, there still is a bit of sweep up after," Sigin smiles a smile more suited to his reptilian form, "I still can find those fugitive spies fleeing for the borders via the homing spells put upon those like Pratt......Should prove.....fun to include them along with the gift we'll be giving here soon."

Brill suddenly had a vision of what it would be like to giftwrap somebody like Reynolds nd Pratt, and just shakes his head.....

  1. "Let the games begin...." Brill says as he goes to get his policeman's outfit.

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11/3/2000 4:58:02 AM

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