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A Hero's Sacrifice

Chapter 23: Missing

From Chapter 22:

"Agent Lowry, it's already been taken care of. I am being moved."

"Why haven't I been told?"

"I'm assuming it was because Agent Stevens was the one who was supposed to be assisting me and my dad."

"Fine," she said harshly. "We'll work around this."

"What do you mean we'll work around this?"

~oOo~

"I am not leaving here, Agent Lowry, until I have some answers," demanded Brennan.

Lowry gave a long-suffering sigh. She was warned that Dr. Temperance Brennan was difficult. "I called to give Agent Stevens an update about an hour ago. She didn't answer her own phone. It was somebody by the name of Agent Hillman. I was suspicious and contacted headquarters. They don't have an agent by that name working for the Bureau in any state. It raised my suspicions even more, of course. Thank God I made it here first. Now can we leave?"

"I don't believe God had any power over your speediness," said Brennan frankly without noticing the agent's stunned expression. "I should probably call Booth first."

"From the car." She was already heading to the door with the luggage she saw sitting in the hallway. "It's probably not going to be much longer before she, alias Hillman or someone else gets here. Let's go," she demanded.

Giving the agent a glare, she grabbed her purse and phone and then she took her luggage from her.

"Stay low in case there's anyone looking to fire a gun at you."

~oOo~

It had only been 10 minutes, but Booth wanted to call her back to find out what was happening even if it annoyed her. His phone chirped telling him he had an incoming text and he noticed he'd already missed two while on the phone with Bones. The first one was from Cam.

2 BODIES HAVE BEEN IDed. CALL SOON

The second one was from one of agents investigating the where-abouts of Agent Paul in Minnesota.

AT THE FIELD OFFICE. ETA 4 SAFE HOUSE 30 MIN

The newest one was from Agent Stevens.

AT THE SAFE HOUSE. IT'S EMPTY. CALL ASAP

Booth's heart began to beat rapidly and his hands began to shake. He quickly brought up her number and tapped 'call' and he soon realized he needed to pull over as soon as possible to handle the call. Thankfully there was an exit ahead of him."

~oOo~

As soon as Agent Stevens answered the phone, he barely gave her time to say her name. "What do you mean Dr. Brennan isn't there? You were supposed to be checking in on her. You were late!" he growled. There was no way Max could have gotten there that quickly.

"I beg your pardon, sir, but I know how to do my job," Stevens answered as calmly as she could and mostly succeeded. "And varying my times does not constitute being late."

If she could see his glare, it would be enough to spook her. "Tell me exactly what you see there. Nothing is too small."

"The lights were left on in the kitchen and dining area. The doors and windows are locked and no signs of forced entry. There's a partially filled cup of what I assume is coffee on the counter top in the kitchen."

"Did you check the bedroom? Do you see her phone, purse, luggage… are her clothes still in the drawers and closet?"

"I'm in the bedroom. Negative on all three. She must have planned on leaving."

She had. But Stevens didn't need to know that now. He hadn't planned on updating her until she got there in the evening. Now that everything had changed, he was hesitant to let her know anything else.

"Sit tight. Do not go anywhere until I've given you the all clear order."

Booth immediately called Agent Lowry only to get her voice mail. "That wasn't good," he thought to himself. He called Bones next. Same thing… voice mail. Something was wrong. He tried the next number while praying he would get a live person to talk to him.

"Max. What is going on there?"

~oOo~

Brennan was annoyed. She'd never had trouble using her cell phone in the suburbs in the past. After the third attempt failed, she asked Lowry for her phone.

"I've already tried to send a text and it didn't go through. But you can try again," she answered.

"Damn!" she uncharacteristically swore. "Not only do we need to talk to Booth, but if we don't hurry, we'll miss Max. Where are we going?"

"I thought we could drive to Baltimore and fly out of Baltimore/Washington International to avoid the obvious choices of Reagan or Dulles. But now that your dad is in the picture, we need to adjust the plan. The cell phone snag isn't helping though." She thought for a few moments. "We may just need to go with my plan and contact him later."

"Did you get these plans approved by anyone?" she asked suspiciously.

"Of course, I did. I talked to my unit chief about a half an hour ago."

"But no one thought to include Booth in those decisions," she stated more than asked.

"There wasn't any time Dr. Brennan. This was an unexpected move. You do what you have to do. That's what training is for."

She let out a long-suffering sigh she knew could be heard, but she didn't care.

~oOo~

Max had learned how to stay focused even when others would have panicked already. Years of experience had taught him that panicking was the last thing he could do if he was going to find his daughter. He waited too many years to get her back; he wasn't going to lose her now. After talking with Booth, he knew he needed to figure out a new strategy even if it was a back up one to the one Booth wanted to give him when he called back. Just then, the power shut down with the backup generators kicking on in certain highly restricted areas of the airport. "Oh yeah," he thought. "I'm going to need some help." He pulled up the cell number for a contact he hadn't talked to since he had been acquitted.

"Stan. It's Max. I'm at Ronald Reagan Airport…" And then the call dropped. The volume in the airport suddenly went quiet as people stared at their phones. After a few moments of surprise, everyone started talking at once as they realized they were far from the only ones without cell service.

"What the hell is going on?" grumbled Max.

~oOo~

Lowry looked over at Brennan and noticed that her frustration was slowly turning into anger. She liked to be in control. Lowry could relate to that. She took the next exit off the expressway. Brennan looked at her with surprise.

"Need gas. I'm sure we can also find a pay phone," she explained.

"Huh," exclaimed Lowry as they encountered traffic from their second stop light that wasn't working. "Looks like a power outage."

Brennan was annoyed to find the phone was out of order. Booth would say it was bad luck or fate was against him or something strange like that. But Brennan reasoned that fixing pay phones wasn't a priority with so many people using cell phones. She walked into the small building to get a key for the bathroom and hoping it too wasn't out of order. It wasn't.

"You ladies were quick," said the cashier as she was returning the key and Agent Lowry was paying for the gas. "And smart. I'm sure it won't be long, though, until we're slammed."

"I don't know what that means," said Brennan.

The middle aged man pointed to the small television behind him. "The city and surrounding areas have lost power," he explained. "And cell service seems to be jammed." He then turned up the volume.

Brennan's first thought was, "Hannah didn't write about this. Booth is going to be angry."

~oOo~

"Agent Booth, I need you to relax."

"Relax?" he asked incredulously. "Dr. Brennan has gone missing from the safe house she was in. I think that is pretty damn important. Why am I talking to you instead of…"

"Booth!" Hacker interrupted. "We are moments away of raising the terror alert here. Trust me when I say that she hasn't been forgotten. We already have two agents on their way to her. I just don't know how long it will take them as I suspect the highways to be experiencing heavy traffic soon."

"Well, have you been in contact with Agents Stevens and Lowry?"

"No. Cell towers are experiencing periodic service problems because of panicked people."

Booth wanted to hit something. "I'll call back when I get to a land line phone. I expect more information when I do."

Before he could pull off the side of the road and back into traffic, his cell rang.

"Booth," he answered harshly.

The agent on the other end of the call cringed. Booth's mood wasn't going to get any better.

"It's Agent Moore. We have a problem. Agent Paul is not here."

THANKS FOR REVIEWING! I LOVE READING THEM!

They keep me motivated!

A/N Sorry that this hasn't being updated fast enough. I think I've learned my lesson about writing too many stories at once.

turtle001 – (Amazing chapter! I can't wait until the next one. I am excited to see how this all comes together.)

Thank you so much for the compliment! I hope this chapter was exciting even though it hasn't given you a resolution yet.

darkpsychoqueen – (cliffies are soo evil! cannot wait for the next update)

AND

anteffyhotmail. com - (Aaauugghh! Another cliffy! Are you trying to kill me? ;-)

AND

Diko – (I'd love to fuss about cliffy's but errmm well I seem to have a few of them myself *cough* I really didn't mean for them to be that way it just happened. Ahh well interesting chapter..can't wait for more! Get to writing ;-)

Sorry about the new cliffie… And I hope it's still interesting.

Aching Bones – (Ooh! This is getting exciting! Booth on a mission with his sniper rifle! Not one hundred percent sure about Agent Lowry...and yay! Max in on his way!)

Thank you for the compliment. I hope it's still is definitely fishy! But what is it? What is Max going to do?

NCISaddict77 - great chapter

Thank you so much! You've always been so kind in letting me know when you like something. I hope it's still exciting.

KatBonesCrazy – (Uh oh... Somethings fishy... not liking this. Don't trust this agent with Bones. Hope Max gets there awful fast. Love the story. It's totally awesome.)

Thank you for the compliment, Kat! Something is definitely fishy! But what is it? What is Max going to do?

toffeeeclairs – (As long as Max is on time to kick Lowry's ass since she is clearly a baddie! Or better yet, Brennan can kick her ass...just so long as Brennan does not fall into the wrong hands! I gotta say I hated Hannah during season 6, but your Hannah is so much more satisfying to hate - she was a Booth distraction and a baddie! :) Can't wait for the next update! Even more love if it's just as quick! Granted, I'll still love you and this story even if it's not as quick. :)

I am thrilled you like my Hannah! Something is definitely not going right! But what is it?

mendenbar – (Forgive Hot4booth this day for our daily cliffhanger! Don't trust Lowry AT ALL! Hurry up, Max!)

You totally made me laugh. Thanks! Something is definitely wrong! But what is it? What is Max going to do?

bookwormlady – (Uh-oh, Lowery's up to no good, isn't she? Brennan should've let Booth talk to her!)

Something is definitely not going right! But what is it?