Chapter 3

         Amanda pulled her car into a parking spot right outside Marvelous Marvin’s and shook her head slightly smiling; luck definitely seemed to be on her side today.  First she’d gotten free parking in the garage near the Air and Space Museum because one of the attendants had accidentally hit her car.  He had barely scratched it, but still the garage manager wanted to make things right, and now, despite her misgivings for wanting to come to this particular eatery because of her last experience with Marvin’s, she had managed to get a spot right outside the restaurant.  She had a feeling that her two sons had secretly planned on eating at Marvin’s despite their earlier agreement to get deli sandwiches, especially since once they had left the museum, Phillip had instantly suggested Marvelous Marvin’s, and Jamie had readily agreed.  Despite their choice of a place to eat, she was seriously thinking about playing the lottery since her luck seemed to be so good. If she won, then she could treat Lee to dinner, rather than him always paying, even if he did insist because it was the gentlemanly thing to do. 

         Amanda chuckled to herself as she took the key out of the ignition.  It was funny how lately her thoughts always managed to turn to Lee.  She wondered how things were going on his current case and let out a small sigh. She hated not being involved when she knew he was working on a case, especially one that was supposed to be simple.  Oh well, she’d just have to settle for hearing about it tonight at dinner.  Smiling as she realized how much she was looking forward to their date tonight, she hoped that Lee was having the same kind of luck that she seemed to be having, and he would indeed have his case finished up in time and wouldn’t have to cancel.

         “Mom,” Phillip called to his mother as he stuck his head back inside the car. “Are you going to sit here all day?  I know you said you didn’t really want to eat here, but we don’t have money and we’re starving and we really want to eat at Marvin’s.”

         Amanda smiled at her eldest son. “Sorry about that Phillip. I just got lost in thought for a moment.” Checking her sideview mirror to ensure that she could safely get out of the car, she opened her car door and climbed out.

         “So we noticed.” Jamie rolled his eyes. His mother was getting ‘lost in thought’ a lot lately. In fact, ever since she came back from her latest business trip to California, it seemed she was daydreaming even more than usual. “How come you didn’t want to come here anyway?”

         “Yeah, Mom, how come?” Phillip asked as he held the restaurant door open for his brother and his mother. “Ever since you told us that you met Marvin Metz, you don’t seem to want to eat at one of his restaurants which to me sounds kind of crazy. If I’d met someone like Marvin, I’d want to eat here every day, just so I could brag about the fact that I’d met the man who created the place.”

         “He’s right, Mom, you keep finding excuses to go to other places.” Jamie stopped walking and looked at his mom seriously. “Is it because you found out how they make the burgers and it turned you off of them?”

         Amanda shook her head and ruffled her youngest son’s hair.  “No, sweetheart, nothing as drastic as that. I guess it’s just that during the convention we were filming, they served nothing but Marvin’s burgers, and I’ll gladly admit that I got a little tired of them.”  She hated lying to her sons, but telling them that the real reason she couldn’t face eating at Marvin’s anymore was because she had helped uncover a plot devised by a deranged Executive Assistant and the owner’s son to poison millions of people by substituting the special sauce on the new Colossus burgers with their own special recipe, and then she had been locked in a freezer and left to die because of that knowledge, probably wouldn’t have gone over too well. 

         Jamie nodded and shrugged his shoulders.  “Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense.” He then turned towards his brother. “So what are you going to order?”

         Phillip got in line and stared up at the menu board. “I think I’m going to get a Colossus Burger with extra special sauce, Jumbo Onion Rings and a Choco Blocko shake.”

         Jamie pushed his glasses up on his nose and concentrated on the menu.  “The Colossus sounds too big to me. I’d be full before I got through half of it.”

         “I agree with your brother, it looks awfully big and if you do manage to finish that you won’t have room for dinner later. How about you get something else, Phillip.” Amanda cringed and shook her head slightly.  Despite the fact that the secret sauce had been recovered, and none of the Colossus burgers had been poisoned, just thinking about what might have happened made her cringe.  She liked to live by the old adage that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

         “Aw Mom, I promise that not only will I eat all of the burger, but I’ll eat all my dinner and have room for dessert, too.” Phillip pouted his lips as he looked directly at his mother. “Please Mom. I really, really want to try it.”

         Amanda pulled out her wallet and sighed; she knew that she wasn’t going to win this battle, and perhaps she was being just a little paranoid.  “Well, if you really must have it.”

         Phillip beamed. “Thanks, Mom, you’re the best.”

         Amanda turned towards her youngest. “Have you decided what you want yet, Jamie?”

         Jamie nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ll get my usual.”

         “A Torpedo Burger with extra sauce?” Amanda smiled knowingly.

         “Yep, and a Jumbo Fabulous Fries and a Mega Mugga Cola.” Jamie grinned at his mom as his stomach started growling. “It’s a good thing we’re next in line, or I might fade from hunger.”

         Amanda chuckled as she glanced around the restaurant.  They had decided in the car after choosing to come here, that they would just eat the food at the restaurant since it always tasted better ‘fresh off the grill.’  Noticing that only a few tables were empty, she turned towards her sons, ready to recommend that they go secure a table, when she caught sight of two very out of breath white men entering through the front door.  Something about the way the smaller of the two was holding a pizza box tightly to his chest, and the other, taller man with lots of muscles, was glancing around nervously, put her natural instincts on alert.  If Lee were here, he’d probably tell her she was over-reacting, but then again, lately he had been praising her instincts more and more. Either way, she was going to keep her eye on them.

*****  *****

         Lee nodded his head slightly in thanks at the EMT as he closed the ambulance door.  Knocking on the metal just above the latch to let the technicians know the door was secure, he watched with a heavy heart as the emergency vehicle pulled away from the curb.  He may not have known Brady very well, but it always hit him hard when a fellow agent was fatally wounded. 

         “Scarecrow, what did the EMT say?” Johnson asked as he approached Lee.

         Lee shook his head sadly. “They confirmed your diagnosis.  They’re going to do their best, but they doubt he’ll be alive by the time they reach the hospital.  From what they could determine, the bullet ruptured an artery.”

         “So what’s our next move, Scarecrow?” Duffy twisted his hands together, ready to do battle. “Brady was a friend, and I want to find these guys and do some serious harm to the one who shot him.”

         Lee took a deep breath. “As much as I want to see these guys pay, we need to keep our heads in the game.  I’m going to go check in with Billy and see if we can’t get a few more agents to help us conduct a full-scale search.  However, until back-up arrives, I want you two to start searching the area.  Check out every building and shop between here and the next few blocks. I have a feeling they didn’t go far.  That disk is heavy, and unless they managed to commandeer a vehicle, they aren’t going very far on foot. We’ll keep in contact over mics.”

         Johnson nodded. “Should we split up?” 

         Lee shook his head. “No, stick together.  The big guy has already proved that he’s trigger happy, I don’t need any more casualties on this one.”  He watched as both men nodded in understanding and then started moving down the block, before turning and moving slowly back to his car. 

         Despite the wound in his leg, Lee was taking his time because he wasn’t looking forward to the upcoming phone call. He knew that his section chief wasn’t going to be happy about any of this. Having to give up a Saturday was bad enough, but having to deal with a dead agent was an entirely different matter.  This was supposed to be a simple capture, and he was getting extremely tired of simple turning into complex.  He knew one thing for sure, the next time he got a tip from Augie he was going bring out the militia as backup.  Augie’s tips usually were right on the money, but somehow it always caused him more headaches than positive results.   Glancing down the block to where his fellow agents were, he hoped they had luck finding the two suspects; however the way this day was going, those two goons were probably long gone.

*****  *****

         “Mom, you’re up.” Phillip turned towards his brother. “She’s daydreaming again. Must be a female thing.”

         “Yeah, Grandma does the same thing.” Jamie nodded in agreement. He tapped his mother’s shoulder. “Mom, it’s our turn to order.”

         Amanda, who had been pretending to read the menu while watching the two men out of the corner of her eye, turned towards her son. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She then moved to the counter and began giving the cashier their order. “We’ll have one Colossus with extra sauce, two orders of Jumbo Fabulous Fries…” she paused when she noticed a little boy, no more than five years old approach the two men.

         Herbie was staring at his brother in shock, unaware of their young audience. “I can’t believe you shot that man.” He whispered, and then lowered his voice even more as he fixed his brother with a hard stare. “Where did you get the gun, and why didn’t you tell me you had it?”

         Waldo shrugged as he continued to scan the crowd for anyone who might be one of those federal agents.  He had his hand inside his jacket, holding tightly to the now-concealed weapon, ready to pull it out if necessary.  He didn’t know how many federal agents were currently canvassing the area, but he didn’t want to take a chance that one of them had beaten them inside this burger joint. “Because, if I’d told you, you would’ve just freaked out.  It’s not like I planned on shooting that agent. I was carrying it so that we were protected later, when we met up with our contact.”

         “Excuse, me, Mister.” The little sandy-haired boy tapped the big guy on the arm. “Why did you guys bring a pizza into a burger restaurant?”

         A frantic looking woman ran up to the little boy. “Johnny, I’ve told you never talk to strangers.” She then looked up nervously at the big man. “I’m sorry about that.”

         Johnny turned towards his mother with a serious expression on his little face, and crossed his arms. “But mom, Tommy’s mom works for a Marvin’s and she was telling Tommy’s dad that the manager where she works once,” he twisted his face in thought as he tried to remember, “oh yeah gave someone the boot because they came in with food that wasn’t Marvin’s. I didn’t want to see them get booted. And they will you know,” he nodded his head seriously. “because he,” he pointed to the smaller man holding the pizza box, “brought in a pizza. And Mommy, he’s holding it wrong, all the cheese is sliding off the pizza.” He turned towards the two men, “Mister, don’t you know the right way to hold a pizza?”

         Waldo stared down at the annoying little boy. “Kid, I think you should listen to your mom, and not talk to strangers.”

         Johnny shrugged. “Why, are you going to shoot me like you shot that guy that I overheard him,” he motioned towards the other man, “say you killed?”

         “Johnny!” The boy’s mother’s eyes went wide and she wrapped her arm possessively around her son. “I think it’s time we go back to our food.” She then began to pull him back towards their table, never taking her eyes off of the two men as she went.

         “Mom, the big one has a gun, I saw it sticking out of his back pocket.” Johnny protested as his mother continued to drag him back to their table. “I was just going to ask him if I could look at it. I wanted to see if it looked like daddy’s.”

         Waldo’s eyes grew wide as he watched the woman heading for their table.  He didn’t see any sign of a man with them, but maybe he was in the bathroom.  Regardless, he wasn’t taking a chance. An older gentleman was heading their way, most likely trying to leave the restaurant, but Waldo stepped in front of him and pulled out his gun. “No one’s going anywhere. I suggest everyone move to a table and get comfortable. We’re going to be here for awhile.”

         Herbie’s eyes grew wide. “Waldo, what the devil are you doing? Shooting at federal agents was bad enough, hell, stealing this software wasn’t exactly a brilliant move, but now you’re adding holding innocent people at gun point to the list…”

         Waldo turned towards his brother. “I’m doing what I have to do to make sure that we don’t go to jail.”

         “And this is going to keep us out of jail…how?” Herbie closed his eyes and shook his head. “Waldo, sometimes I really don’t understand your logic.”

         Waldo shrugged and turned towards the woman, two boys and three cashiers at the counter. “I want everyone out front and seated in one of these tables where I can see them.  Tell your kitchen staff and any managers to do the same, and have someone bring a closed sign with them, unless you want more people joining our little party.” He waved the gun erratically in their direction and then turned towards his brother, pulling out the second gun from his back pocket. “Take this,” he shoved the revolver towards his brother, “put the box down and stand at the counter to make sure that no one sneaks out a back door.”

          “You want me,” Herbie stared at his brother with utter disbelief and pointed to the gun, “to take that?”

         Waldo glared at his brother. “Yes, Herbie I do. Now take it, or I swear there will be more than just those two federal agents as casualties.”

         Amanda’s heart ran cold at the idea that something might have happened to Lee. She prayed that he wasn’t one of the injured agents, the bigger man, Waldo, was referring to. Turning towards her sons, she looked at them with a calm expression. “Do as he tells you.”  She slowly walked with her sons towards a table, and as they passed the door leading behind the counter, it opened and a ton of employees started coming through.  She watched her sons approaching a table and, in the confusion of people, ducked down slightly, and slipped into the back.  She hid along the wall, out of sight, putting a finger up to her lips as the last few employees passed by her position.

         When the last of employees had gone through the door, Amanda closed her eyes as she listened to the frightened children crying on the other side, and prayed that her sons wouldn’t make a big deal about her being missing.  She knew she needed to find a phone and call the Agency, but if they were to alert the two men holding everyone hostage, her chances of success would be non-existent. Something about the way that smaller man was holding that pizza box protectively told her that there wasn’t a gooey delicacy inside, but rather something else.  She didn’t know exactly what it was, but since Lee had mentioned something about some software for the Army being stolen, it could very likely be a computer disk with a lot of top secret data on it. 

         Amanda made a quick glance around the room and saw a door just to her left marked ‘manager’ that thankfully was slightly ajar.  Bending down, she got on her hands and knees and slowly crawled to the door.  She looked briefly over her shoulder and could just make out the man the other one had called Herbie standing guard at the counter, standing very close to the pizza box now lying on the smooth surface.  Although she could see him, she hoped that if he looked back over the counter that he wouldn’t notice her, especially since the office wasn’t in a direct line of sight from the front of the restaurant. Quickening her pace, she made it to the office undetected and carefully pushed the door open just enough to squeeze through the opening.

         Once inside the office, Amanda stood up and, closing the door most of the way, breathed a sigh of relief.  The first part of her mission was complete, however, she realized, getting back out undetected was going to be harder.  She looked around the small office and saw a red Marvin’s blazer.  ‘Perfect,’ she thought to herself.  It was just the thing to make her blend in and, when she was done with her phone call she could leave the office and pretend to be a manager who wasn’t fully aware of the situation, coming out to discover why her employees had suddenly stopped working.  She just hoped that none of the actual Marvin’s staff made any kind of comment to blow her cover story.  Making her way over to the desk, she picked up the receiver and dialed the familiar Agency number.  As she listened to the familiar ringing, she kept her eyes on the door as she waited for the weekend switchboard operator to answer the phone.

         “International Federal Film.”

         “Yes, this is Amanda King,” Amanda spoke quietly into the phone. “I’m calling to speak to Mr. Melrose.” 

         “Hold on a minute please.” Amanda heard paper rustling and knew the operator was checking her list of names to find out if the person calling was cleared to be put through or not. After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few seconds, the operator came back on the line. “Hold on a minute Mrs. King, I’m connecting you now.” She said a mental thank you and then waited for what seemed like forever while the call was being transferred.

         “Melrose.”

         “Sir, its Amanda. I don’t know how much time I have, because I may be caught, but I’m calling from a Marvelous Marvin’s on 23rd, about a block from K Street.  Two men just came in and are now holding everyone hostage.  I know this is more a call for the police, but, sir, one of the men, Herbie I believe his name is, is in possession of a pizza box that I think might hold the item that Lee was hoping to keep from being stolen today.  The other man’s name is Waldo, and I think they might be related, they kind of look alike, but they talk to each other like they are brothers.  Oh and have you heard from Lee? I’m really concerned about him because one of the men said something about shooting two federal agents, and not that I want anyone to be dead or hurt, but I was hoping that Lee was okay.”

         Amanda paused briefly as she heard the outer door slam open and knew her time was up. Without giving her boss time to respond to any of her questions, she began speaking again. “Yes, that’s right. We need fifty more boxes of burger wrappers, and sixty boxes of fry containers.” She looked up just in time to see the smaller man enter the office, shakily pointing the gun in her direction.

         “Hang up the phone, Lady.” Herbie tried his best to keep his voice calm.  He had never held a gun before, let alone pointed one at another human being. When the woman seemed to be hesitating, he drew on all his courage and aimed it at her head. “Now!”

         Amanda nodded and slowly placed the receiver back on the hook.  She hoped that Mr. Melrose had heard enough to know that she had changed her tactics because she had been discovered. “What’s going on?” She asked playing up her innocent manager cover. “I was on a very important phone call with our suppliers. If we don’t get those supplies, we’ll have nothing to wrap our food in.”

         Herbie groaned. “Lady, I don’t care who you were talking to, just come around the desk, nice and easy, and let’s go join the rest of the nice people out front.”  He watched as the brunette did as requested, and then, letting her get in front of him, he kept the gun trained on her as he followed her out front.  He watched this confident woman closely, unnerved by the fact that she seemed a little too calm for someone with a gun pointed at her.  In fact, the more he thought about it, he could have sworn that she was the woman who had been standing at the counter with two boys. He was beginning to have some serious doubts about whether or not she had really been on the phone with suppliers.  Then again, maybe he was just being paranoid, because no matter who she was really on the phone with, his future wasn’t looking very bright at the moment.