Out of Control

Wyatt can’t help but laugh just a little at the discovery of Ed. “They shouldn’t have removed the venom.” He rolls his eyes. “You’re right though – if someone doesn’t take care of him, there will be someone else dead.”


Reese taps his pencil nervously on his desk as the minutes tick by. This case bothered him. TJY had started due to the Agency, but it had evolved into so much more…the Agency case usually wasn’t the priority anymore, simply because of lack of leads, or silence from the Agency itself. Now though…the Agency had moved from Texas attacks to Nevada. …As far as everyone knew, the Agency still didn’t know about TJY specifically…was that in jeopardy now?

It didn’t help to have one of his men going out half-cocked. Jamie was in danger, but even more dangerous was someone out there who wasn’t using their head.

Reese gets up from his desk and heads for Con’s office. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he needed to know just where Con had gone.

Once he reaches the office, he sees Con’s computer still on, and looks at the file that had been brought up. Dirk Jones. And he lived in town. Surely Con wouldn’t do anything stupid…would he?

Not wanting to take the chance, Reese dials Jason.


Jason looks at Herb and Mable, himself feeling terrible. This shouldn’t be happening…it wasn’t right…it wasn’t fair. No one’s child should be taken from them.

That thought brings back the image of seeing his own mother for the first time after being rescued from Alex. That had taken over a year. How much suffering had happened during that time…how much sorrow.

Jason snaps himself back to reality, as the remnants from yesterday’s episode make themselves known. He gives a little nod to the couple. “We’ll let you know as soon as we find anything. In the meantime, just sit tight, and let us know anything…anything at all that seems suspicious or if you feel in danger.”

The borrowed cell phone on his belt rings and he goes for it as he walks to the door. “Yeah? ….He what?” Jason rolls his eyes as he pushes open the door. “Great. Well what do you want me to do? …Yeah, alright. No, you better get the others too, just in case. It was stupid of him to go alone. Might not be anything, but he could be in over his head. …Hmm? Alright…I’ll meet them there.”


Wyatt grabs his phone as it rings, still sifting through some paperwork in Jamie’s office. “Yo…yeah, Dad, what’s up?” He pauses in his work. “Aw, great. No…we can leave stuff here and come back later. There’s not much to go on.” He pauses, finding a pen and piece of scratch paper to jot down the address. “Got it. We’re on it. Right. Bye.”

He heaves an irritated sigh and shakes his head, ending the call, and he turns to Nate. “Con took off for a place across town where this guy of his supposedly is. Reese doesn’t want him out there alone in case he’s bit off more than he could chew. Jason’s already on his way over, but Reese wants us there just to make sure everything is okay, then we can come back here.”

Wyatt gathers a few pages that had been found earlier. “These have TJY info in them…Not sure what all is here, but I’m taking it in case anyone comes back. Better not to let anyone get their hands on it.” He aims for the door. “We’re heading to the other side of town. You can follow me.”


Con keeps his back to the side of the old house, his gun held up in front of him. Reaching a window, he barely looks around the frame to see four men sacked out in a messy living room. They were all relaxed without a clue anyone was there.

Taking advantage of the element of surprise, he makes his way noiselessly onto the porch. Glancing around the run-down neighborhood, he sees no one in sight. Bracing himself, he gives one swift kick to the door, forcing it open with a startling crash before stepping in, his gun aimed at the living room. “Everybody freeze!” he barks.

The four in the living room were already on their feet, and stop, stunned by the intrusion.

Con scans their faces, spotting Dirk. “You. Stay where you are. Everyone else, out.” When no one moves, he fires a shot in the ceiling. “Now! Move!”

With a few murmurs of confusion and fear, the other three shuffle out of the room, Con’s eyes bearing down on them. “Call the cops and you’ll regret it,” he growls. “Now get!”

He keeps one eye on the retreating party until they’re down the street, then focuses on Dirk. “Well, well, well…what a cozy little scene.”

Dirk’s hands are in the air, his face pale, though angry. “What do you want? Who are you?”

“Don’t play stupid. You know good and well who I am. I’m the guy you were supposed to kill, but failed to do so.” Con motions to the adjoining kitchen. “Get in there.”

“Naw, man, I…”

“Move!”

Dirk gives in, backing into the kitchen, his hands still raised.

Con moves after him, and shoves him down into a chair. “I’m here for answers, so you better just cooperate with me, or you’re gonna find out how I felt after your little dose of poison got through with me.”

Dirk scoffs. “You can’t prove anything. Besides, if you kill me, they’ll find you.”

The back of Con’s hand meets Dirk’s face with force. “Who said anything about killing?”

Dirk blinks, and tries to recover. “Look, I don’t know nothing.” His head whips to the side as he receives another blow, his lip splitting open. “I just follow orders!” Again, knuckles meet flesh, this time to Dirk’s eye, sending him to the tiled floor.

Con reaches down to pull Dirk up by the collar. “Now you listen to me. I’m not playing games. I know it was the Agency that tried to kill me, and I know it’s the Agency that’s holding a friend of mine. For your sake, I hope you know where they have them because I don’t have a whole lot of patience today.”

“You’re crazy.” Dirk looks up at Con.

“Am I?” Con twists Dirk around, putting pressure on the right arm. “Then I can plea temporary insanity when they try to put me away for your unfortunate death.”

“Come on, man!” Dirk struggles to free himself. “Just because I got paid to do the job on you doesn’t mean I know anything else. I don’t know nothing about no girl, or anything.”

Con catches the fact that he hadn’t mentioned his friend was female. “Wrong answer.” Applying a sudden force to Dirk’s arm, there’s a sickening crack before Dirk screams. Con twists him around, mercilessly shoving him back down into the chair.

Dirk winces in pain, cradling his now-broken arm. “I’m not telling you anything.”

“No?” Con reaches out, yanking Dirk’s arm in the air and planting a chop to the shoulder.

Dirk cries out again, sweat starting to run down his face, mixing with the blood from his mouth. “Alright, alright! So he sent me to poison you! But I don’t know anything about the girl!”

“You’re lying!” Con grabs a fistful of Dirk’s hair to pull back his head and look down on his face. “The Agency has been torturing people for years, and I’m sick of it. Innocent people are being hurt and worse, from nothing they’ve done wrong. I see senseless pain being applied to people who deserve to be happy, but the Agency keeps them under their thumb all the while.” He stares down into Dirk’s angry eyes. “Medridge likes to play with his lab rats to see their reactions. Well, he messed with the wrong rat this time, and he’s going to get more of a reaction than he bargained for. Now you’re going to tell me all your know. If you don’t, I’ll just find someone else, and I’ll hunt them down one by one until I find what I’m looking for.”

Fear passes through Dirk’s eyes. “You wouldn’t kill me. Medridge said none of you had the guts to do anything but sit back and take what he dishes out.”

Con takes his free hand, cocking his gun and pressing the barrel into Dirk’s skull. “You willing to bet on that?”

“Con!” Jason stands in the doorway of the kitchen, having found the front door open, and followed the sound of voices. His eyes are wide at seeing the scene before him. “Don’t do it.”

Con keeps a hand on Dirk, but spins around, his arm outstretched, the handgun pointed at Jason’s chest. “Stay out of this,” he growls.

Jason automatically takes a step backward, both hands held out to his sides. As he stares at his friend, he knows in an instant, that this was not the Con he knew. This was the Con that existed thirteen years ago when he’d been kicked off the police force for brutality. By the time Jason had met him, Con had undergone a change that had settled him into his position at TJY. But right now…there was no mercy…there was no remorse…there was no hesitance.

Jason swallows hard, looking Con in the eye. He had to believe that Con would not shoot him, but the threat alone was enough to make his face pale.


Wyatt parks alongside the curb and makes sure Nate is still behind him before exiting. He sees Jason’s bike in the driveway, but draws his gun anyway, and makes his way to the door. Peering inside, he sees no one, and motions with his head to Nate to go ahead and enter while he keeps his eye on the outside surroundings.


“Reese, Katie’s been holding on the line for you.”

“Thanks, Susanne.” Reese picks up the phone. “Hi, Katie, how are you doing today?” He can’t help a weary sigh. “I suppose you’d like to know how things are going. So far no one’s reported back to me with much. Though Con went out of here like a bomb ready to explode when he thought he found the guy that poisoned him…I called Jason, Wyatt and Nate off their locations to go after him and make sure nothing stupid happened, though I’ve never seen Con like this before…. I’m just waiting now to hear back from them.”


Carson lets out a laugh. “Might be kind of fun to have Sam try and attack me.” He rolls his eyes and heads for the door. “Alright, let’s see what kind of nerves this little lady’s got.”

Within moments he’s in the darkened room, his eyes sweeping the floor. Spotting Jamie, he glances to Joe. “Nice job. She must be a pretty tough one. I like that.” He approaches Jamie and reaches down, grabbing her arm to yank her up and drag her into the chair. He takes a second chair, turning it around to straddle it and rest his arms on the back, facing the captive. He reaches out to turn Jamie’s head toward him, studying the blood and bruises. His finger runs along her jaw line almost gently, but his eyes show their sinister glint. “So…you’re Jamie. A nice prize won, I must admit. I hear you haven’t been too cooperative though.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a knife, snapping the blade into place, testing the sharpness with a thumb. “See…the Agency has been following this fellow of yours…Conrad Gibbs, for a while now. Apparently he spent a lot of time with a group of people quite important there back in Texas.”

Carson twists the knife in his hand, the light reflecting off of it. “He also, apparently, works with someone else…somewhere…and that’s what we’d like to know. We’re pretty sure that a group out this way is looking for us, and we’re not too happy about it. So…you’re going to tell us where this place is, and what they know about the Agency…and don’t try telling me you don’t know, because I’m awfully confident that in that pretty little head of yours you hold quite a bit of information.”

He pauses, reaching out to take Jamie’s arm and stretching it out before him. He rests the knife blade on her skin and presses just enough to draw a slow stream of blood. “You’ve resisted pain…you’ve stood against questioning and torture… But would you be so brave if you knew we had a sniper whose sites were lined up with your boyfriend’s head?”

Carson’s grin is a contrast to his threatening words. “You wouldn’t want to be set free just so you could go to Conrad’s funeral, would you?”