Standoff

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 12628

Bishop stared at Abbott with a slowly increasing sensation of dismay. He'd had what he'd thought was a wonderful plan, truly inspired, for once they'd acquired the Item. It had quickly become obvious to him that the only possible application this device could have would be for spying on Americans. After all, Greg had told him that the Russian codes were based on an entirely different system than the US ones. It would be useless on them. And it was thus obvious to Bishop, at least, that this thing did not belong in the NSA's hands. No, it belonged in the hands of someone who would use it for the right purposes. Someone like... Well, not too be too modest about it, someone like Martin Bishop. Hence his plan (which he had naturally not discussed with these strange interlopers): to obtain the item, replace it with a non-working duplicate for the NSA and keep the original for themselves.

Only things hadn't gone to plan, obviously. Now these weirdos had the Item, there was no duplicate, and the NSA was here on his doorstep. Bishop wasn't sure just how to deal with this, but the one thing he did know was that the NSA could not be trusted with this thing.

So he squared his shoulders, looked straight at Abbott, and told him so. "It doesn't belong to you," he said. "And not only that, it doesn't belong in your hands. You and I both know, that the only thing this box would really be good for is spying on Americans. And I'm not going to let you have it." He felt faintly surprised at himself, even as he said it.

Abbott gave him a rather frustrated look. "I told you, I'm not a member of the cabal."

"The stress analyzer did back him up on that one, Bish," Carl chimed in "helpfully."

"Shut up, Carl." He continued staring at Abbott. "It doesn't matter if you're a member of the cabal or not. You can't be trusted with this, and I'm not letting it into your hands."

"Oh?" said Abbott. "And whose hands does it belong in, then? Yours? You're a criminal, Martin Brice, and I have a duty to my country to see that people like you don't have this kind of power, either!"

  1. Bishop and Abbott stood there, glaring at each other. Unless the NSA folks wanted to resort to violence, it looked like a standoff...

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ragan

9/8/2000 10:38:12 PM

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