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| Scene Title | The Watery Grave |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Len senses something is not right and his investigative prowess leads him and Carrie to Meadow Lake. |
| Date | October 9, 2009 |
When that little alarm tingles inside you at a change in behavior, sometimes it's best to take heed. It's been two days and Minea Dahl has not checked in per Len's request. With her being placed on his 'unofficial' team to help him find Humanis First, he's asked that she ensure that her whereabouts are known. Calls to her PDA go straight to voicemail. Texts go unanswered. He walked over to her quarters on base and found her vehicle gone from the driveway and no one answers at the door. A call to tech to trace Minea's phone go unfruitful. "It must not be turned on," is the answer he is given. He finally tells them to track her isotope. She is one of the few non-evolved who chose to be given the isotope just in case.
Just in case, indeed.
When the report is given back that the isotope of Minea Dahl is sitting in the middle of Meadow Lake earns a curse word from the lips of Len Denton as he crawls into his Jeep and tears rubber out of Fort Hero and heads out towards Meadow Lake. As he drives, he's calling for emergency assistance at Meadow Lake. His second call is to Carrie Castillo to have her meet him at the lake. He doesn't mention just yet why he wants her there. He wants to be certain he's not overreacting before he says anything.
Pulling in to the lake, all seems peaceful as he parks his Jeep and feels the pebbles crunching underneath his feet as he steps out and walks towards the edge of the lake. Nothing looks out of the ordinary in this peaceful place.
Nothing at all.
"I hope I'm wrong." Occasional glances at his phone, practically wills it to ring with Minea checking in.
With how things have been lately, Carrie's first thoughts when Len called was, What did I do this time? She knows better to ask why he wants her there, Len doesn't make a habit of asking things without a good reason, so she just goes.
It's not too terribly long after Len's arrival that the sounds of her jeep and the crunch of it wheels on the gravel surface, as Carrie pulls up along side his. She quickly hops out of the jeep and joins him at the edge of the water, looking out for a moment, before glancing over at him. "Sooo… what's going on?" Carrie asks, sounding really cautious, hands tucked into her black jacket.
Len is standing at the edge of the Lake. It's chilly and he didn't bring a jacket in the rush to get on out. "I'm hoping it's a misunderstanding. I think something's happened to Dahl. According to Tech, she's out there." He nods towards the lake. "I hope it's a mistake."
It's then that emergency services begin to arrive. Len moves away from Carrie long enough to give some direction to the crew leader who nods as they begin to lower boats into the water. "We'll see what we can find, sir." Len turns back to Carrie, "Can you put a few feelers out and see if anyone has seen her?" He's grasping for any other possibility possible as the one that's going through his mind is not ending up at a happy place.
She can only sit there for a moment and stare at him, her brain not quite wrapping around the reality of what he's hinting at. Carrie's eyes turn to look out at the lake and her jaw clenches. "Yes sir." Pulling out her Blackberry, Carrie starts calling up people. She moves away from Len, after dialing the first number. "Hey, Grim… When you get this message gimme a call. I need to know if you've seen or run into Agent Dahl…" Her voice, which sounds somewhat stiff and forced, fades away some as she continues to talk. Occasionally, the phone comes away form her ear so that she can dial up another number.
But with each call, Carrie's face turns worried and rather grim.
The boats begin to travel across the lake. There is a method to their searching, first with sensors to see what's going on under the water. They move in a practiced pattern. After about thirty minutes, there's some activity from the center. During this time, Len is calling anyone he can think of with about as much luck as Carrie has had, which is none. At the activity, Len turns his face towards the boats. As they comes back towards shore, the guy in charge walks over to Len. "There's a vehicle. We're going to pull it out." Len clenches his fists for a moment, then nods. He turns away from Carrie and takes a few steps, then stops, turning back around and watches as the works begin to fix up the wench and head back out onto the lake.
A chime on her phone, Carrie looks down at a text message from Grim. Normally, she'd smile at his comments, but the mention of a car being found… There is a soft sigh from the Agent and she texts a thanks and tucks it away. Arm cross as she tries to keep her expression neutral. When Len moves away, she glances at him briefly, before watching the progress of the workers.
Finally, the suspense of it all, Carrie suddenly turns her back on the lake and walks back towards the jeeps, even though she listens. It's too hard to keep the fear from twisting up her stomach and her face from showing nothing.
The sounds of the wench as it begins to pull the vehicle from the lake startles Len as his attention is now drawn to the end of that cable as it disappears into the water. It's not long before the top of the familiar vehicle emerges from its watery grave. Len knows the vehicle. He knows it well. He clenches his fist again as the tires touch the shore, then is pulled up onto the land.
Water drips down the sides and onto the ground as Len moves towards the vehicle. As emergency workers begin to descend on the SUV, Len points to them. "Get back. Don't go near it." His voice is loud and full of authority as he walks up to the car and looks into the window. He cups his fingers over his eyes and tries to peer in. He suddenly pulls back, walks over and jerks a sledge hammer from the hands of a worker and walks over and takes a swing, shattering the window as the water pours from the vehicle. He reaches in and unlocks the door and pulls it open, dropping the sledge onto the ground and reaches in and pulls the body of Minea Dahl from the wet SUV. He sinks down onto the wet ground and glances up at the faces that look down at him. "Find me a stretcher." he says, nearly choking on the words as he speaks them.
The sound of shattering glass, rings Carrie running from behind the jeeps where she was leaning trying a few more contacts. She gets to the corner of the car just in time to see Len pull the body out, her stomach suddenly feeling like she had been punched. There are a few more steps closer, before Carrie just slowly sinks to her knees, not far from him and the body. "No." The word is moaned out softly as if she really doesn't want to believe that's who it is. Glancing at Len, her eyes seem to threaten to tear up.
Upon closer inspection, two bullet holes are noticible at her chest. As the emergency workers start coming back to life, paramedics comes over with a gurney and Len helps them place the fallen agent on top. He reaches over and gently brushes some of her dark wet hair from her face. They start to cover her and Len stops them. He waits a few moments, then finally pulls the cover over her face. They load her into the ambulance. They know where to take her. This will not be made public. Stoically, Len walks over and places his hand on Carrie's shoulder. "If you want to go with them, make sure they make it back to base, I'll finish up here." His offer is for her benefit as well as his own, though it's not an order, just a suggestion.
"Yeah…" Carrie manages to choke out, pressing her hands on her thighs and pushing herself to her feet. "I'll make sure they get there and that they don't just treat her like another body." She brushes the heel of her hand across her cheeks to forestall the tears that manage to slip from her eyes. Carrie might not get along super well with most of the Agents, but didn't mean it didn't still tear her up some to see one go down. Her eyes watch them load her up, and she starts to move around Len to head for her Jeep. Pausing long enough to rest a hand on his arm, gripping it briefly, her voice soft, "Please tell me were going to find out who and take them out?" She doesn't look at him when she asks, her eyes stay on the ambulance.
Len isn't making any promises with anyone anytime soon. He does nod as he turns away from Carrie and walks back towards the SUV, allowing her the chance to move out with the ambulance. He reaches for his phone and calls for a tow truck to take her rig back to Fort Hero.
Lips pressed tight, Carrie does press or even linger any longer as the ambulance starts to move out. "See you back there." She murmurs before hurrying away to hop in her jeep and quickly follow after Minea's body.
Len leans inside to see if there's anything at all left inside that could possibly clue him in on what happened, but the interior is destroyed. Waterlogged. Once it's dried out, perhaps there'll be something. Underneath his normally cool exterior, Len is burning with rage, dampened with sorrow and his mind is racing nearly a million miles an hour. There are so many who would want to see an agent of the Company dead. More yet, specially for Minea Dahl. Yet, still.
He kicks at the inside of the open SUV door. Kick after kick after kick until it bends to the point it will no longer close, as his cowboy hat falls from his head and drifts away with a windy breeze. The sudden violent outburst will go answered by the others as they prepare to leave, surely having seen such outbursts before. He reaches up and places his hand over his forehead as he walks towards the water's edge and picks up the phone and dials Elisabeth Harrison's phone.
The blonde detective barely manages to answer the phone before it goes to voicemail. She has, after all, been in the rubble of the Municipal Building for almost three full days at this point aside from a few snatched hours of sleep. It's hard to tell where's he's caught her, the curt voice could be sleepy or it could just be stress. "What?" She knows who it is from the caller ID, but she's not going out of her way to do the pleasantries right now.
The voice, well the tone of Len's voice, may be unfamiliar as it takes every fiber of his concrentration to keep his voice from choking up. "I may need your help." His body turns as he directs his attention back towards the vehicle. "I just found Minea Dahl. Two bullets to the chest. I just pulled her out of her SUV that was sunk at Meadow Lake. This is not for public consumption. I'm telling you because.. because you gave a damn about her." There is a soft choke as he puts the period onto the sentence.
His desire for help causes Elisabeth to stop what she's doing on the other end, and the last of his words brings dead silence on the line. "Wh…. what?" she finally chokes out, stunned. "You… what?" Disbelief is all she can feel at this moment.
With all that has gone down in the last month, it wouldn't surprise him if she didn't believe a word he said. As it is, he's about to lose it. He reaches back to rub the back of his neck as he walks, his boots crunching into the sand. "Give me a couple of days. We'll meet. I think you might have some answers for me. I'll call." The words come out quick, rushed, and he hangs up before she can even respond. The urge to throw that phone into the lake is strong, but he maintains his will to at least keep whatever composure he has yet to lose. He walks over and places his hands on the truck and as the final emergency vehicle leaves the scene of the crime, Len gives in the the need to release his emotions.
He cries.