Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:38:11 -0600
From: Paul Tolbert <jatonblue@gmail.com>
Subject: The Unit 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine -- Say Goodnight to Me

"Now THAT was relaxing." Lincoln stepped out of the tepid bath and dried
himself off with a plush white spa towel. He emptied the bath water from
the tub and listened to the soothing sound of the water flowing gradually
down the drain. His headache had subsided and all was right in the world
for him again.

He tidied up everything and blew out all the candles. He sighed and wrapped
the towel around himself and left the bathroom. He couldn't think of
anything else to do for the night so he decided to take an early
slumber. He went to fetch Chaz from outside when he was confronted by a
tall dark figure in the doorway of his bedroom.

"Who are you?" Lincoln asked frantically. He stumbled back near his bed.

The stranger ignored Lincoln's question and just stood there, still and
silent. He held his head down low, a hoodie over his head to seal his
identity.

"Who are you?" Lincoln asked again. He stepped back but the man walked
forward.

"How dare you come into MY office and accuse me of not being a good father
to my son! Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Mark Hanson?" Lincoln asked baffled. After he realized that it was indeed
Mark he finally put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Mark Hanson was
the murderer. He killed Cheryl Gillette and Kathleen Baker, and now his
life was in danger.

Mark removed his hoodie and drew out a gun from his back pocket. He pointed
it at Lincoln's chest and laughed.

"I will not have someone like you disrespect me. You are beneath me you
vile piece of crap!" Hanson said through gritted teeth. His handle on the
firearm was firm and tight, his arm slightly shaking, his finger lightly
squeezing the trigger. Lincoln was wide eyed and scared. He was nervously
thinking of a way out of the situation.

"Mr. Hanson... Please put the gun down."

"YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL! I AM!" Mark said waving his gun at Lincoln. The
scared psychic held his hands up in surrender. He could feel his towel
becoming loose around his waist.

"OK OK! Listen we can talk about this OK? There's no need—"

"You are in no position to make any negotiations you punk! No one
disrespect me and gets away with it. Cheryl and Kathleen learned that the
hard way didn't they? Those bitches tried to blackmail me but I put an end
to that. Cheryl wanted money and Kathleen wanted me to leave my wife for
her. They both got what they deserved. No one tries to pull a fast one on
me and gets away with it.

Lincoln stood there shocked as Mark continued to go on a rant against the
women he'd killed, explaining in great detail how he murdered the 2 women.

"I will not let my career fall apart because of incompetent and brainless
people. I worked too damn hard for it to just let things fall out of
place. My son Peter nearly cost me the election with his crimes and my wife
Susan is a nutcase who can't function right without being drugged
up. SHIT!"

Hanson began pacing around the room, his hands gripping the sides of his
head in frustration. Lincoln needed to come up with a solid plan and
quick. Mark was becoming more unhinged by the minute.

"So you can here to kill me didn't you?" Lincoln asked fearfully. He needed
to buy some time.

"What do you think?" Mark asked sarcastically.

"Why?"

Mark didn't have an answer for him. He just gave Lincoln a scalding look
and continued to pace back and forth.

"It doesn't make sense Mr. Hanson. Why me? "

"Of course it does. I remember you from my rallies. You and your idiot
liberal freaks protested at every rally I held during my campaign. You were
determined to make sure I loss in the elections. When you came to my office
earlier today I saw my chance and I took it. I used my abilities to follow
you here."

"Your abilities?" Lincoln asked puzzled.

"Thanks to the drug manufacturer Kelencine, I have supernatural
abilities. Those headaches you been experiencing were because of me
remotely viewing through your eyesight to find out where you live."

Lincoln gasped in horror. 'The headaches Cheryl and Kathleen had before
they died. They were caused by Hanson.'

"You don't understand what I have to do on a constant basis to keep my
job. Politics isn't as easy as you'd like to think it is."

Lincoln continued to allow Hanson to prolong his rant, waiting for the
right moment to run. He figured he could take out Hanson when his attention
was averted.

"You are the source of my problems. I get calls left and right from the
media about all the crap that goes on in the city that I'm expected to fix
and deal with. I know you are behind it all. With you gone I'll finally get
some breathing room."

"That's not true. I'm not the source of your problems. Besides, you'll just
be creating more problems for yourself. The FBI will link you to my and the
other 2 murders sooner or later. Your career is already over Hanson."

"SHUT UP!" Mark shouted as he re-aimed his gun at Lincoln and
snarled. "Time to end this."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"We're almost there." Dave said to Priya after he sharply made a right hand
turn. He continued to speed down the road, desperately trying to arrive at
Lincoln's house on time.

"You should turn off the sirens. We don't wanna spook Hanson if he is there
with Lincoln." Priya said.

Dave nodded and promptly turned off the sirens. He made another right hand
turn and entered Lincoln's quiet neighborhood. He slowed down slightly when
he passed a green Cadillac parked near the stop sign at the end of the
street.

"That's Hanson's vehicle." Priya noted. Dave swallowed hard and continued
driving until he stopped hard in front of Lincoln's residence.

"Stay here." Dave instructed to Priya. She nodded and got on her phone.

"I'll let Topher and Boyd know that Hanson is here." She said.

Dave rapidly jumped out of his vehicle and raced up towards the house. The
door was wide open. He ran inside and drew out his gun.

"LINCOLN!" He yelled out. He heard shuffling upstairs soon after. He ran up
the stairs and positioned his gun in front of him as he crept down the
carpeted hallway towards a room with light coming from inside. He heard
muffled voices inside.

"Lincoln?"

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"

Dave entered the room and saw a nude Lincoln being held at gunpoint by
Hanson. He used Lincoln as a human shield and pointed his gun at the back
of Lincoln's head.

"Let him go Hanson!" Dave said through gritted teeth. Hanson shook his
head.

"Put your gun down first or I'll blow his brains out!"

"Hanson..."

"I'll shoot him. I swear I will! S-STAY BACK!"

Dave was put in a hard place. He needed to take down Hanson while keeping
Lincoln safe. It was an impossible situation.

"OK OK I'll put my gun down." Dave slowly lowered his arm and placed the
firearm on the ground. He stood back up and held his hands up in surrender.

"It's over Hanson. This place will be swarming with feds soon. You have
nowhere to go."

Hanson darted his eyes back in forth, as if trying to look for an escape
route. He couldn't possibly get out of the daunting situation he'd put
himself in. He had only one last trump card to use, Lincoln.

"Move towards the window, now!" He instructed to Dave. Dave looked at a
scared Lincoln. He had no choice but to do anything Mark told him to keep
Lincoln safe.

"OK. Just let him go first."

"You don't call the shots. I do! Now move!" He waved his gun at Dave
violently, coaxing him to do as instructed. Dave looked into Lincoln's
watering eyes. He noticed that the naked man was shifting his eyes near
Hanson's gun.

'Is he trying to tell me something?' Dave thought to himself. Lincoln
continued to dart his eyes at the gun and look at Dave. Dave finally
understood and nodded slightly.

"I said Mo—"

Lincoln slapped Hanson's arm out of the way, causing the nervous man to
pull the trigger on the gun as his arm was jerked to the side.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Priya sat in her car nervously as she waited for Boyd and the rest of the
small team that accompanied him to arrive on the scene. She began tapping
her feet on the vehicle floor and kept her eyes glued on the 2-story house
just yards away, worried about what was going on inside.

"Oh god..." She said, her nervousness increasing. Seconds passed when she
noticed blue and red lights flashing behind her. She looked in the rear
view mirror and saw several black SUV's approaching. The Calvary had
arrived.

She jumped out of the car and ran over to the lead vehicle. Boyd stepped
out, sporting a standard FBI bullet-proof vest and firearm.

"There inside!" She yelled. Boyd nodded and instructed his team to circle
the house, creating a perimeter. Priya noticed a tall, well built man step
out of one of the vehicles, a man she recognized instantly.

'Glad he's here.' She thought. She knew the mystery man would want to be
the first inside the house to make sure that Lincoln was ok.

Boyd and a few agents were about to close in on the house when a gunshot
was heard from inside.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Dave instantly sprung into action. Lincoln pushed Hanson on the bed as Dave
ran over to subdue the gun-wielding man. The bullet that shot out of the
gun hit the wall across the room. Dave grabbed Hanson's wrist and pried the
gun out of his grip. He immediately aimed the gun at Hanson, who laid on
the bed in defeat.

Lincoln grabbed some clothes from his wooden dresser and quickly slipped
them on, a purple mesh shirt and lime green boxer shorts. Clearly he didn't
care what he was wearing as long as he concealed his nudity.

"Are you OK?" Dave asked a petrified Lincoln. He nodded rapidly, keeping
his focus on Hanson. A few seconds passed and Dave went over to Lincoln to
place his arm around him reassuringly. He was interrupted by the sounds of
heavy footsteps racing up the stairs.

"Backup." Lincoln said quietly, placing a hand on Dave's shoulder as he
pointed his gun near the bedroom door. The agent lowered his firearm after
the revelation.

"FBI Freeze!" Agent Langton yelled as he and a few other men entered the
room. They quickly went to cuff Hanson. Lincoln was safe and Dave was
relieved.

Dave turned to Lincoln to make sure he was ok when he noticed the young man
swiftly running over to one of the agents. Dave had a puzzling look on his
face when he saw Lincoln and the other man embrace.

"You OK Linc?" The man asked.

"Yeah I'm fine."

Dave looked on in horror as he realized who the man was.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Lincoln and John watched on outside the house as Boyd led the mayor in
handcuffs to one of the unmarked, black vehicle. Lincoln was cold from the
night air. Dave stood a few feet away, watching intently at the two men. He
wasn't aware that Priya was watching him.

"That's—" She said.

"I know who that is." Dave said softly, with a hint of disgust in his
voice. "John Cena."

John Cena, Dave's former FBI colleague. He and John worked as rookies back
when Dave first joined the Bureau. John and Dave had a past, a past that
had bad blood. He carefully looked on as he noticed the two men were in
close proximity, holding on to one another.

"They're lovers, aren't they?" Dave asked frustrated. Priya nodded.

"You sure you are OK?" John asked a shivering Lincoln.

"Yes John I'm OK. Just a bit shaken up that's all."

"I should have been here to protect you." He whispered.

"You didn't know I was in danger. Luckily Topher put the pieces together,
or at least I assume he did."

"Yeah Topher is the man I need to thank. I'm buying that guy a beer
tomorrow."

"I don't think Topher drinks." Lincoln said chuckling.

"Well I guess I need to get him drinking then." John smiled.

"You should also thank agent Batista. He was the man who saved my life."

"Agent Batista?" John asked confused. Lincoln looked equally confused.

"Yeah. Dave Batista."

John looked on in horror as Lincoln pointed out the big man to John. Both
men got a good look at each other as they walked towards one another
cautiously.

"Dave..."

"John..."

Lincoln looked at both men and gasped.

"You two know each other?" He asked surprised.

"Yeah, we do." Dave said gently. He continued to stare at John, who
returned the stare. The tension was so thick you could only have cut it
with a chainsaw.

"Agent Cena." Boyd called out to John from his vehicle. He nodded and
turned to the two men.

"I'll be right back OK?" He said to Lincoln. Lincoln nodded and John gave
him a soft peck on the lips as he turned away and walk towards
Boyd. Lincoln refocused his attention to Dave, who was looking at John.

"So..." Lincoln said. He didn't know what to say to the shocking news he'd
just learnt. "Not to be ungrateful but what are you doing here exactly?"

Dave paused for a moment. He cleared his throat and spoke. "Priya came to
see me. She tried to convince me to return to The Unit."

"Oh..."

"I told her no." Dave said silently, lowering his head. "Anyways I was with
her when she got a call from Topher about Hanson."

"And you rushed over here, right?"

Dave nodded. He kept his head down, avoiding Lincoln's eyesight. A long
silence passed when Lincoln gently placed his hand on Dave's forearm.

"So, do you still feel that way? Do you still want to quit?"

Dave thought for a moment then answered.

"What time should I report to work tomorrow?"

Lincoln smiled excitedly.

"Well I think DeWitt might give us a day off or two. Besides I've seen
enough action for a month."

"Just another day at the office for me." Dave replied. Lincoln smirked.

"So what's the history between you and John?" Lincoln asked.

Dave frowned.

...

*THE END*