((If I understood Antitrust correctly, it takes place in California... that's a good drive from Montana and if my figuring is right, they're meeting somewhere in Idaho. That would probably be about a 6-8 hour drive, I think, if not more.))
Lizza, Milo, David, and Danni were the ones who would meet John. Kelli, Ryan, and Lisa stayed behind. They drove for about seven hours before making it to the town John had specified. There, they got a hotel room in the same hotel he said he'd use and waited.
((John won't know they're there, so he'll just call Danni's cell number to figure out a different place in the town to meet.))
John was sitting in his car outside the building. just waiting, he got out, walked around and stood for 10 minutes, then he called Danni's cell again.
"hey? Danni? i'm at the meeting stop, should i be in the open?"
"No," Danni answered quickly. "Drive around a little and find a small restaurant. We'll look for you."
She hung up and turned to the rest of the group. Milo decided to voice a concern.
"How can we know if they're not already following him?" he said. Lizza laughed.
"That's why I'm here," she answered. "If anybody's being followed by anybody, I'll know it."
Milo had other objections, but as he and Lizza talked them out, Danni turned to David.
"What are you thinking about at the moment?" she asked, her voice a little softer so as not to disturb the other conversation taking place in the room.
"alrighty" John got back in his car, and drove around until he found a small restuarant, he went in and ordered a pepsi.
David grinned "Well first I'm thinking about food, because I get hungry when I'm nervous and you just told him to find a small restaurant" His face grew more serious
"Then I'm thinking about wether or not I can trust this guy."
He stepped closer to her.
"Finally, I'm thinking about wether you'd like to have dinner with me tonight"
"That's quite a pile of thoughts," Danni laughed. She looked as if she were about to give answers to all his thoughts... the look was right.
"First," she said, "you'll not get the chance to eat when we meet him. Second, we're all concerned with trusting him or not. That's why Lizza came with us."
She looked straight into his eyes. "Finally, I'd love to."
"Is he on his way?" Lizza asked. Danni jumped and looked at her. "To the restaurant, I mean."
"Oh!" Danni exclaimed. "Oh, yes, yes he is."
"Then we'd best get going," Milo said. They went out to the car and as they went, Danni squeezed David's hand with her own. Then, she slipped into the left back seat. Lizza got in the driver's seat and Milo got in the front passenger seat. That left only the seat next to Danni for David.
They drove to a nearby restaurant and Danni went in. John wasn't there, so she came back out and they went to a second one. Danni went in again and came back with the news that John was there... looking rather frightened.
"We're here to meet somebody," Milo said. "We've seen he's here."
They were allowed to enter and Danni led them straight to John.
"Hello, John," she said. She slid into the opposite side of the booth.
David slid in next to Danni.
"Hey John."
"h-hello to both of you" John said as he started at Danni, then realized what he was doing and loked down at the menu.
"u-um s-so what's going on?"
"The Synapse disaster isn't too far in the past," Danni said. "You remember it, don't you, John?"
"The Synapse disaster isn't too far in the past," Danni said. "You remember it, don't you, John?"
"The Synapse disaster isn't too far in the past," Danni said. "You remember it, don't you, John?"
"The Synapse? y-yes the Snypase i remember it why?"
"Gary's stealing information from programmers again," Danni answered. "When the information is stolen, he has them killed off, just like he did when NURV was working on Synapse."
"If you'll remember," Milo continued, "I was the one who exposed him for Synapse. Because of this, I was one of his first targets, but he failed to catch me. His next targets were David and Danni, but thanks to their speed they escaped with nothing worse than a bullet through Danni's leg."
"Another complication has arisen," Danni went on. "You remember Lisa Callaghan, right? She pretended to be working with Milo, but betrayed him when it really counted. She's back, but Gary tried to kill her too."
"This is where I come in," Lizza cut in. She extended a hand in John's direction. "I'm Elizabeth Grant, but call me Lizza. My sister and I have developed a top of the line security system for our own home. Nobody gets in without our permission. Since you're working with us by writing the story we'll use to get Gary's computer, we're inviting you to join us."
"What do you think?" Danni said. She glanced at David, trying to read anything of his emotions from his face.
David's face was expressionless, but his eyes kept shifting suspiciously from John's face, to measure his reaction, to the street, to check for anyone suspicious.
John was scared, overwhelmed and excited as he shook Lizza's hand
"u-um sure, yeah i'll join you" John studdered.
"Good," Lizza said, appearing to relax. Then, before anybody really realized what had happened, Lizza was on her feet and moving for the door. Danni threw a puzzled glance in David's direction and looked at Milo.
"I guess we're leaving," Milo said quietly. He got up and ran after Lizza. Danni pushed lightly on David's arm to get him to move and then got up and ran after the other two.
"We're renting a car from here," Lizza said. "I'm paying cash... don't need identities thrown around here."
She got in the driver's seat of the car they'd brought again and Milo got in the passenger seat. Danni leaned over to David and whispered in his ear.
"I think we'll have to postpone that dinner," she said. "Our friends seem rather intent on moving quickly."
John got up and followed them to the car. He looked around caustiously, even thought he didn't know who he was looking for.
"I'll think of something. Even if it ends up being a burger at the drive thru at macdonalds.."
"Anywhere but McDonald's and you've got my participation," Danni whispered back.
Everybody got in the car and drove to a rental car place. When they got there, Lizza and Milo went in alone. They came out a few minutes later and motioned for everybody to follow them. They led the group to an older mini-van. This time, Milo got in the driver's seat.
And so it was that they began the long trip back to the Grant home. None of them noticed that they were being followed.
Arriving at the house, David started wondering. What restaurants could he find nearby. They have ot have a phone book somewhere in that house.
Danni went to check on her brother and Milo went to see how Lisa was doing. Lizza found Kelli and she went to greet John.
"Welcome to our home," she said. "There's a desk in there... I hear you're the writer. Plenty of paper for you, too."
"And a gun in the bottom drawer... just in case anybody gets through our system," Lizza said from the door. "It's not likely, but we do like to be safe."
David kept exploring, finally stumbling onto the kitchen. He looked around at what was available.
Ryan and Danni were in the kitchen. Danni was on a laptop and Ryan was rummaging in the refrigerator. As David walked into the kitchen, Danni was saying, "Come on, Ryan! Don't you think about anything but your stomach?"
"Sure I do!" Ryan protested. "Who made you that case for your computer?"
"Oh, you mean that boxy one that you 'accidentally' glued to my desk?" Danni laughed. They both turned as David entered the kitchen.
"Hi, David," Danni said.
"Hey, Dave!" came Ryan's somewhat less quiet echo.
((was it jsut me or did we do a little time warp there?))
"oh th-thank you very much" John studdered. He went into the room where the desk was and he sat down and started to right down the first part that he already wrote at his house.
((Backwards, you mean? Well we lost all the posts, remember?))
"Hey. Looks like I'm not the only one who's hungry."
"Oh, great," Danni muttered. "Now I have two fridge hogs to worry about..." She laughed. At that moment, a quiet siren began to sound all throughout the house. Lizza and Kelli immediately bolted to the front windows.
"Should be a great show, right?" Kelli said. Lizza shrugged.
"If we have everything placed right, it certainly shout," she answered. Three black SUVs broke through the gate and sped toward the house. One seemed to be practically swallowed up in the ground. The second was too late to avoid a wall that broke out of the ground just in front of it. The sisters watched the third SUV and Lizza swore silently when it reached the house.
"I'm not liking this," Kelli said. She reached under the couch she was kneeling on and brought out a shotgun.
In the room where John was writing, the desk drawer with the gun in it shot open of its own accord and an arrow began to point to the gun, almost as if the house wanted John to take the gun. In the kitchen, Danni's laughter was silenced by the alarm and she glanced at the two men in the kitchen.
"What's going on?" she asked quietly
"How am I supposed to know, I've been in here with you two." David said, but he moved toward a window.
"All right, there's at least three SUVs outside, two seem out of comission but one's pretty close."
The third SUV skidded to a halt near the house and several men jumped out. One ran under a tree and his foot was caught in a noose that pulled him off his feet and left him hanging upside down from the tree. Another was attacked by what originally seemed to be a bush, but was really some kind of security robot. The man hanging from the tree started screaming wildly and shooting his gun in random directions. One of the bullets crashed through the window that Lizza and Kelli were watching from and the sisters dove in opposite directions.
"I thought that was bulletproof!" Kelli screamed.
"That makes two of us," Lizza yelled back, diving for the couch and retrieving a sniper rifle from underneath it. Using the couch as cover, she sniped the gun out of the hanging man's hands and disabled another. The one she disabled fell, triggering another part of the security system and he was swallowed into the ground, just as the first SUV had been.
Two men bashed out the window in the kitchen and started climbing through. Two more rushed the front door and knocked out the windows to either side. Kelli shot one, with the shotgun, but the other fired wildly and she was shot twice in the chest and dropped. Lizza screamed in rage and shot to kill at the man who had just shot her sister.
Meanwhile, another small group smashed the window of the room that John was in...
David punched the guy climbing out the window nearest him, grabbed the man's gun, pushed him back out, and shot the other man.
"Get his gun"
As soon as the drawer shot out, John knew something was wrong. His next clue to that was a group of people smashing through the window. John took the gun and shot one of them and ducked down behind the desk. the two shot at the desk. He took the knife from where he had put it. He held it firmly then ducked out the side of the desk and threw it at one of the guys killing him. the last guy was too quick and shot jon once in the arm and once in the shoulder.
In the kitchen, Ryan grabbed the other gun and shoved his sister down behind the counter. "Stay," he ordered. Another man attempted to crawl through the window and Ryan brought the gun down hard on his head before shooting him in the chest.
Toward the front of the house, Lizza had discarded the sniper rifle and was using her sister's shotgun. Three more men came through the front and each was knocked back by a single shotgun blast. One more man made it through the front and bashed his gun against Lizza's forehead. She dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Milo heard the noise and came downstairs with a knife in hand. When he saw a man leveling a gun at him, he didn't think twice. The knife left his hand immediately and embedded itself in the other man. Milo turned and bolted back upstairs to keep an eye on Lisa.
Two more men broke in through the back windows. Danni saw them coming and could only mutter, "Oh, dear God..." Ryan whirled at the sound of her voice and froze at seeing the two new guys.
Then, a peculiar thing happened. They had almost reached Danni... in fact, one was reaching out to grab her when the roof over their heads opened and the floor launched them upward. From the sounds she heard, Danni could only assume they had hit the roof and tumbled off.
One more man came through the window where John was... and the wall seemed to close up on his head, holding him where he could not do anything... the rest of the house was silent.
David kept a close eye on Danni and stayed in the kitchen ready to shoot anyone else that might try to grab her.
The man that had shot John walked cockily towards him, he leaned over him and pointed his gun at John's head. John quickly punched the guys kneecap and he fell ontop of John, he pushed him off, grabbed his gun and shot him in the face. John got up, his arm and shoulder were in so much pain. Blood spattered and bleeding John walked out of the room to go find the others.
In the front of the house, Lizza was just recovering from the knock to her head. She rolled over and moaned. Then, she remembered Kelli. Despite her pain, she hurried over to her sister.
"You'll be ok," she whispered. Kelli rolled her eyes, but the eye roll ended in a grimace.
"I know that," she grunted. "I'm shot. I'm not dead."
"Nothing vital hit then?" Lizza asked. Kelli shook her head.
"But it hurts like hell... so if... we could.... get a doctor in... here, I'd like that," she answered. Lizza smiled and ran for the phone. As she passed the kitchen, she slowed slightly.
"Everything ok here?" she asked. Ryan nodded and Lizza kept moving.
When John came out of the room, he found Kelli lying on her back, just as Lizza had left her and he could see Lizza hurrying away. ((Just to give you a little something more to do, I suppose, Curt :) ))
"Something tells me we're moving again." Said David to Danni
"I doubt it," Danni answered. "The Grant sisters just need to do a little work on their security system. It seemed to work pretty good... for the most part. Two of the three SUVs were taken care of and they had their guns ready to deal with the men that made it inside."
She chuckled. "This place is practically a fort!"
John crouched down beside Kelli.
"Are you ok?" He asked.
Kelli groaned and opened her eyes. "I'd be better... if I... don't talk... at least... for now...."
Lizza came back with the phone to her ear. "She's been shot twice in the chest," she snapped at John. "Do you think she's ok?" The person on the other end picked up and Lizza turned away.
"Hello!" she said. "Kevin, it's Lizza Grant... yeah, save it, Kelli needs your doctoring skills as quickly as you can get here... she's been shot twice, damnit!" Another pause. "Just hurry, please... thanks, Kev." She hung up the phone and stared at her sister for a moment before throwing the phone at the couch. Tears were in her eyes and she moved to go up the stairs.
David approached Lizza silently.
"She's going to make it."
Lizza didn't respond at first. When she did, she drew close and nearly growled in David's ear. "Do you have younger siblings, David?"
David's eyes suddenly turned cold, and his voice extremely soft, Danni would know that Lizza had just barked up the wrong tree.
"What's that? Do you think that I, that no one could possible could've ever gone through the same thing? Guess what. I did have a younger sibling. A brother. You want to know what happened to him? We were on a road trip. We decided to make one final pit stop. He didn't want to, but I insisted. We got off, and walked in right in the middle of a robbery. He walked in first, spooked one of the robbers.
The robber shot him in the chest. With a shotgun at close range. And I cannot describe the damage that it did. Let me try anyway. When he fell to the ground, his guts started pouring out. I could identify some of the parts, his intestines, his stomach, even his appendix. His ribcage was shattered, I found some pieces on the ground next to him. And he was still alive. And still concious. The robbers ran, they never caught them. The owner called for an ambulance we all knew would never get here in time. We gave him every painkiller we could find in the store, but they didn't help.
He died, crying out for his mom, 500 miles from home because I had a case of the munchies.
So what was it you were telling me? I believe something about wether I had a sibling?"
Lizza's tears flowed freely. "You want to protect them..." she muttered. "After all, they're younger than you... they should learn from you... let you be in their situation... and they're the ones that end up getting shot..."
She ran up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door. Danni came to David.
"What happened?"
"Nothing....she's upset about her sister."
"What happend to..." Danni began. Then, she saw Kelli. "Oh. No wonder she's upset... did she call for a doctor?"
"Good," Danni said. She hurried over to Kelli.
"You don't have to talk to me, Kelli," she said when Kelli seemed to be trying to say something. "I know how much it hurts to be shot. Just hang in there, your sister called a doctor."
"I know," Kelli gasped. There was a knock on the door and Danni went to answer it. The doctor came in without a word and glanced at David and John.
"Gentlemen," he said finally. "I need your help. I want to move her to a bed as gently as possible. You." He pointed to David. "You take her head, and you," pointing to John. "You take her feet."
"Well I kinda only have use of one arm" John said pointing to the bleeding bullet wounds in his arm "but I'll try." John tried to pick up her feet with both arms, but screamed in pain then fainted from loss of blood.
The doctor swore. "Lizza didn't say that more than one of you had been shot." He glanced around. "Any of you familiar with first aid?" Danni nodded. The doctor sighed. "Ok, first help me get Kelli to a bed and then come back to... whoever this guy is. Take the bullets out and try to stop the bleeding."
Danni nodded again. She, David, and Dr. Kevin Styles lifted Kelli gently. She moaned at the movement, but managed to hold in any other noise. They placed her on a bed and Danni ran back to John.
"Oh, damn," she muttered. She ran to the bathroom and got a pair of tweezers. With the tweezers, she took out the bullets and dropped them on the floor. Then, she ripped his shirt and bound the arm tightly. It could stay that way until the doctor could reach him.
Once they got Kelli on the bed the doctor asked David to leave so he joined Danni.
Frustrated by everything he admitted "Lizza asked me if I had a sibling...."
John woke up and found his arm being tied by Danni.
"An angel? I didn't think I...was....dead..." John's words trailed off as he fainted again.