Agent Bartold Dobbs sped recklessly though with expert precision through traffic from the CIA divisional headquarters in Manhattan to Queens. Once he crossed over the North upper roadway on the Ed Koch Queens Borough Bridge and entered Queens, he silenced the siren and extinguished the red strobe light when he and his partner were within a few miles of their destination. Agent Dobbs was a bit of a renegade or so he liked to think of himself. His boyish good looks and border line flashy suits made him feel special. He still drove like a maniac just escaped from an institution avoiding pursuit, but not at all concerned about being pulled over by any of New York City's finest. All he had to do to back them off was flash his credentials. In a way he hoped they would get pulled over just so he could see the stupid look on the cop's face or faces - providing they were patrolling shotgun - when they learned he outranked them by government standards. His partner Agent Terry Kawalski, though ten years younger had an equally eager, gung-ho look in his blue eyes; they were a match made in hell. Kawalski was on his cell phone.
"He wants to know how much longer before we get there?" Kawalski asked Dobbs.
"About fifteen, twenty minutes tops." Dobbs said.
"Five minutes," Kawalski said into the phone. Yes, sir. Will do that, sir." He cut the call.
"I told you fifteen or twenty."
"The way you're fucking driving we'll be lucky to get there alive," Kawalski said. "They reminded us again to keep a distance of at least twenty feet at all times from the subject."
"That's weird. This guy has a communicable disease or some shit or a suicide vest?"
"Hell, you know as much I do. If we're pursuing on domestic soil, it must be of utmost priority," Kawalski inferred.
"So, what the hell we suppose…. hold on…" Agent Dobbs swerved inches around a yellow cab then cut right in front it, again by inches. The cab driver horn-cursed him New York style. Dobbs replied with raising a middle finger in front of the rearview mirror. "So, what are we supposed to do just shadow this guy around?"
"Until further instructed." Kawalski said.
"You know what twenty feet looks like offhand in relational distance to somebody?" Dobbs asked.
"Jesus on a stick, Dobbs. It's about two car lengths. You okay to imagine what that's like?"
"Armed?" Dobbs queried. "What if he is and engages us?"
"You were at the briefing," Kawalski reminded him.
"You call that a briefing? We have a priority target in Queens that needs to only to be followed and observed. No contact for any reason. And this is vital - stay at least 20 feet or more away from the target at all times. I've heard better briefings at a Disney employee meeting."
"You worked at Disney?"
"I was presuming."
"You said you heard."
"Forget it," Dobbs insisted.
" Anyway," Kawalski said, "We're just to taser him if it gets confrontational. They did mention he was way too valuable to kill."
"Easier said than done," Dobbs said. "Shit happens."
"Don't go rogue on me, Dobbs. Shit happens when we break protocol. This is our big break assignment. Don't fuck it up."
"Stay Zen, buddy," Dobbs advised. Stay Zen."
Whatever force lay behind the compulsion holding Leonard inside his brother's house was not, he knew, to be found on any computer. He had no idea whether or not Lawrence owned a laptop, because he did not find one anywhere in his bedroom or his plush office. Besides, if there were one more than likely it was taken by the visitors. They left a desktop computer on the cherry mahogany office desk, but Leonard knew it would be a waste of time to even turn it on. If there had been any valuable information on it that too would be missing. Surprisingly they left the place in its pristine condition. Perhaps they did not want to leave any evidence that someone had broken in or perhaps they had more respect for a person's privacy then given credit for – doubtful.
"If you can feel or hear my me, brother," Leonard said, whispering to the ether, "let me know where it is."
Leonard felt a tinge of guilt for not keeping in touch with Lawrence for the last five years. They had a falling out due to a strong difference in ideology. Though he and Lawrence never discussed it he felt the main reason for the rift that developed between them was caused by whatever experimentation they had been subjected to in that government lab. It affected the entire family. The burden of their father's guilt for his participation probably and ultimately led to an exasperated the current poor health of Jack's body; and the mother's not suppression of her own natural gift had led her to a never ending internal spiritual and psychological conflict, which resulted in her sometimes unpredictable and strange behavior. To please his mother's affections Lawrence also began suppressing his own talent in his potential power. In this process something had severely been altered in both of them that affected their bodies as well as their minds, permanently. When the experiments ended, they were never quite the same, personally or towards one another. This was the main reason Leonard left the country. That the country was in natural transition in all spheres of its existence was only an excuse and one much easier to argue than the truth.
Once again Leonard tried to focus on the possibility of receiving a vibrational contact of energy from Lawrence's ethereal form. It was something they had both performed together at one time when they were young boys a couple years before they were inducted into MK-Ultra. A friend of theirs had been hit by a car and died instantly. It was a hit and run and for almost a year police had a hard time tracking down the driver. One evening Lawrence suggested he and Leonard pool their gifts together in a mock seance to attempt contacting their deceased friend's spirit. It was their first time at such a venture, and they did not expect any results. On their second attempt however, they succeeded. They informed their parents of the discovery. After Jack and Dorothea, we're convinced of the evidence of their sons' revelation - the contacted spirit or entity - having given them an accurate description of the driver as well as the license plate number and confirming the date of the incident as well as a depiction of the scene - so as to not draw attention, Jack anonymously contacted the police with the acquired information. It was investigated. The driver led to police headquarters for questioning after which he eventually confessed after at first denying the crime. He was arraigned. Brought to trial and convicted. That was Leonard's and Lawrence's first and last foray into the esoteric realm of life after death. Until now…