Episode 12: Around Every Corner

There was something wrong. Ethan Fairchild knew this down in his bones.

His trying to kill Michela was only the first clue to how disconnected he'd become from himself. There was something not quite right going on in his head and he'd bet dollars to donuts that it had something to do with the micro chip implanted in his brain.

Suddenly, everything seemed like such a trial. His feelings about Faith and how she had screwed up Ian's life were only intensifying. The slightest error on anyone else's part and he was biting their head off like they had drastically fowled up a mission.

Yes, something was not quite right with him.

First, it was losing Michela to Julian. Although the memory was painful for him, it still seemed somewhat disconnected from reality. His brain said, ‘you love Michela', but his heart was another story. Deep down he knew he wasn't in love with her no matter what his brain was saying.

Then when he thought of Julian Black, head of the Black Council, his head said ‘friend' while his gut cried ‘enemy!"

What was going on?

Ethan was beginning to question everything he had ever believed. Who knew what that chip in his head was doing to him. Maybe he truly was a threat to everyone in the Legacy.

His mind ran like a tape player on a constant loop telling him to worry about Michela not loving him enough and that if he did pursue her, what that might do to Julian, his friend. He'd never worried like this about any woman before. It wasn't in his nature to angst about anything, especially when being distracted could equal getting killed.

Yes, something was definitely going wrong with him. That's why he decided to talk it out with his father, Franklin. Franklin would know what action to take and where to turn for expert medical advice... he hoped.

Emma Rappaport, the women Ethan had always thought of as his surrogate mother met him at the gate of Smith Island, and she did not look happy. Her cheeks were stained rosy red and her breathing was erratic. Something had upset her greatly.

If he hadn't known her as well as he did, Ethan would have suspected she had a fever. But since he did know her well, he immediately came to the logical conclusion... she was angry, damn angry. And this wasn't normal angry, this was hopping, ready to throttle someone angry.

"What's wrong," he asked, with the calmest voice he could muster. He knew from training that using soothing speech was always better when someone was going off half cocked. He thought it might apply here as well.

"That man!" Emma's arms flailed and she pointed back toward the main hall of the castle. "He's infuriating. That's what he is! He hasn't been back to the mansion one week. One week! Before he hops into bed with that, that," she grunted with the force of the image that bombarded mind. "Two-bit Russian hussy!"

Emma screamed and the resulting sound was like a steam valve releasing excess pressure.

Yep, he was right. She was hopping angry.

If Emma Rappaport was anything, she was intensely loyal to the Fairchild family. Ethan knew deep down that Emma always had a crush on his father. She had never pursued it or even told anyone about it, but he could tell. Emma periodically would harbor a far-off dreamy expression, usually after having a long discussion with his father. So he was certain Emma thought of Franklin in more than a platonic employer/employee way.

Whomever was up there must have really set her knickers in a knot.

"I'll advise you now. You set one foot up there, and I'll guarantee you're going to lose your sanity." Emma flailed her arms again and grunted out a frustrated scream. She tried to bring her emotions under control by doing some deep breathing, but even that didn't look to be working. "I've never met anyone so infuriating in my life. That woman treated me like I was some depersonalized hired help. Can you imagine?"

Ethan decided against arguing that "technically" she indeed was the hired help. He knew it would only provoke her more.

"Would you like me to talk to him? Explain things for you?"

"Emma's expression softened. "Would you?"

She reached up and pinched his cheeks. "You always were such a good boy. I love you dearly, as if you were my own flesh and blood." As she released his cheek, she planted a quick kiss where her fingers had been.

Suddenly, she seemed muchcalmer. "I'll see you tomorrow just like always."

As she walked out the gate, Ethan's curiosity grew. Who could have set off Emma like that?

***

Paris was not a patient woman, she discovered. The endless taunting from the cowering Katrina made her head pound. If only she could find a way to get rid of the annoying twit.

"You're not going to get away with this," said a lone voice from inside her own head.

Katrina. Paris sighed. Why wouldn't she go away like every other normal failure?

"I'm not giving up," Katrina Bradley said again. "I'm never giving up. So you just better learn to live with that. And if you don't like it, then give me my damn body back and go back to whatever computer hard drive you came from!"

Katrina knew immediately she had hit one of Paris's nerves.

"I am NOT a program!" Paris insisted. "I am alive. And I am in control. You're the one who needs to go away, so stop torturing yourself and GIVE UP!"

"You don't seem to hear me. I'm not giving up." Katrina's voice was strangely calm. "I want my life back. I want Declan back. I want it all!" Katrina didn't know why she couldn't get past the foggy veil that imprisoned her inside her own mind.

Paris laughed. "You want Declan? The man of so very few words? You seem to forget, prescious, that I know everything you know. He doesn't want you. He never did. Why do you think he stayed away so long never coming after you when you went back to your husband? The man isn't capable of love. He is only capable of using sniveling wimps like you. Using them and then throwing them away."

Paris knew that had gotten to Katrina because her mind became silent again from the annoying chatter.

"So, if I were you... which it so happens I, ironically, AM... I'd let that loose end go. He'll never come looking for you. To him, you are D-E-A-D, dead."

***

"For a woman who was so recently on death's door, you look amazingly well." Philip Lancaster tried to make light of a situation that was slowly becoming painfully unbearable.

"Looks can be deceiving," Gia Doyle spat.

They regarded each other in the sallow light of Philip's office. Philip spoke first, obviously uncomfortable with the silence.

"I heard they let Kevin Fairchild out of lock-up."

"So." Gia picked through the daily mission logs sitting on the edge of Philip's desk.

Philip was surprised by her lack of response. "So? I heard him threaten you."

"Then I assume you're the one who had him arrested?"

"He threatened you, dammit!" Philip stood to emphasize his point.

"Threatened yes. Shot no. Kevin isn't that stupid. He knows I could make his life a living hell."

Gia watched as Philip stalked back and forth.

"You're sure of that?"

Gia seared him with a look that hit him with pin point accuracy. "When have I ever not been sure of anything?"

"Point taken. Then who was it?"

Gia was not ready to hand over Ethan and Ian's step sister, Faith, especially if she wanted to extract a little revenge of her own.

***

It wasn't hard being a good undercover operative.

Janette Ambrose knew that very well. When she had innocently married Julian Black eight years ago, little did she know how good she would get at lying – and killing.

In fact, she was a master at lying... lying to herself. To become a master undercover agent you had to believe you were who you said you were. And Janette was able to believe she was Michela Forsythe down to the inner dialogue she conducted with herself.

Janette was nearing her goal. One she and Julian and the Black Council had implemented recently yet agreed upon years ago.

She watched Declan as he drove quietly to Ethan's apartment. She had begged him to take her there. And once they arrived, another part of the plan would unfold giving Declan O'Connor the biggest shock of his life.

No music played on the radio during their drive. Only silence and the sound of wheels hitting pavement.

Janette had to keep reminding herself that she was playing a role. Her name, for the time being, was Michela. The real Michela was safely tucked away back in America with no memory of her life in Europe as a thief or meeting Ethan in Bulgaria.

The switch had gone so smoothly Janette couldn't believe her luck. It was only later she realized that one of the Gray children had been watching. Michela had slipped away to talk to her contact on the phone one minute and the next she was being drugged and whisked away by Janette's accomplices. Janette then easily took over the role of the Bulgarian thief Ethan hated so much.

The next part had been the trickiest. While Gia and Octavia thought they were testing Ethan's mental state in the underground lab, Janette and her team had replaced him with a duplicate, a very convincing looking clone. The clone didn't have to talk or even act like Ethan, merely look like him so as not to arouse Octavia's or Gia's suspicions.

The tests and implantations had taken longer than she expected. Her team's mission was to successfully implant false memories into Ethan's psyche. Memories that would make him believe he was in love with Michela Forsythe giving Janette access to the operative on a level no other could reach him. She also implanted memories of Julian Black and Ethan remaining friends. The incident that had torn the two friends apart had suddenly, with one flick of a switch, never happened.

It was true that at one time Ethan and Julian had been friends. But once Julian took the position as head of the Black Council, their friendship had effectively dissolved. Instead of friends, they had become enemies.

During her short time as Michela, she had tried to seduce Ethan. But the one thing she hadn't counted on was his saintly loyal attitude. Due to the false memories they had implanted, Ethan knew she was Janette and that she was married to Julian. What she hadn't counted on was him resisting her.

This time her seduction tactics would be different, yet more effective.

This time she would successfully reach her goal and make her husband proud.

***

Kevin Fairchild stumbled out of the Wolf's Den.

It had been a long night of drinking. Trying to douse the memories of his bungled marriage proposal to Michela took more and more liquor. Why couldn't he fall in love, just once, with someone who was both physically and emotionally available?

Jazz Demarco, owner of the Wolf's Den, called out after him.

"Taking a cab, Fairchild, right?"

Kevin didn't answer as he leaned on Lenny, the bouncer, for support.

"Right? Lenny, let's make sure Mr. Fairchild finds a safe way home tonight." Jazz poked her head out of the door making sure Lenny was doing as she asked.

"I'm fine," Kevin said. "Just fine..."

He stopped mid sentence when he observed an unusual sight. Was that Michela with Declan O'Connor? Damn, that woman got around. But he couldn't imagine Declan turning to another woman so soon after Katrina's death. The two of them entered a black sedan and sped away in the direction of downtown.

A cab pulled up next to him and Lenny pushed him toward it. This time he didn't resist the bald black man. Instead, he jumped into the car with more clarity than he had had in a long time.

Kevin perched himself over the back seat and pointed toward the sedan that was quickly getting farther away.

"Follow that car."

***

Ethan never made it into the mansion at Smith Island. His cell phone stopped him cold on the steps to the main hall.

"Mr. Fairchild. I believe you forgot to bring me a present back from your last mission."

"And what present would that be Phil old boy?" Ethan knew he shouldn't have answered his phone.

"You know damn well what present. The nox list. The one you went undercover to get in the first place? Need I refresh your memory? Bulgaria? Park? Isidor?" Philip wasn't at his usual laid back best.

"Oh, THAT nox list! Sorry, but I don't have it."

Ethan held the phone away from his ear as Philip threw verbal insults at him.

"Calm down," Ethan said as soon as the shit stopped flying. "I may not have it, bit I have a good idea where it may be. Trust me."

Philip heard the intonation in Ethan's ‘trust me.'

"I'll trust you when you deliver the micro dot with the nox list safe and sound into my hands."

"No problem, Phil. The mission is already accomplished."

"And Ethan, try to make the pick up smooth this time. I don't want to have to wait another minute for that classified information."

***

Ian Fairchild found his way back to Ethan's apartment by sheer luck. He had been experiencing black outs since the day he rose from his proverbial death bed back in the Bulgarian underground lab. Ever since he swerved off the road to avoid the semi, he was feeling more shaky than usual.

Just when he thought he was getting stronger, another mishap would occur. During a dream once, he remembered seeing his brother Ethan lying on a slab next to him. Wires and tubes were everywhere. That was a nightmare by anyone's definition. But it seemed almost real somehow. He remembered faceless men and hearing whispers among the technicians about how cutting edge the technology was. He wanted to stay awake and talk to Ethan. He hadn't seen him in so long. But he found he couldn't keep his eyes open.

Then later, when he was alone in his bed, he wondered if it had all been a crazy dream.

Ian didn't know why all that came flooding back suddenly.

He was surprised to find the door to his brother's apartment ajar. This wasn't a good sign, especially when you took into account that your brother was an international spy.

Ian didn't have a weapon on him and he was still feeling oddly woozy from the car accident. Quietly, he slipped inside. He could tell from the doorway that the light in Ethan's bedroom was on. The lamp illuminated half the downstairs portion of the apartment.

Looking around, Ian grabbed the nearest lethal object which turned out to be a fireplace poker. He really needed to talk to Ethan about keeping weapon's handy and stored in a convenient area of the apartment. He doubted the poker would do any good, but at least it was something.

Silently, he crept up the spiral staircase to the loft bedroom. He readied his weapon and jumped out into the light like a samurai warrior with the poker thrust over his head.

"Hello, darling," the blond woman purred. "Have we succumbed to caveman tactics?" Paris slithered from the bed and came up to him wearing only a camisole and a thong.

God, he didn't know women really wore those outside of fashion magazines. The combination definitely looked awesome on the lithe female who resembled a blond amazon.

"I've been waiting for you," she said with a husky sexiness.

Ian's voice caught squeaking out the answer. "Really?"

When she drew her head forward and kissed him, Ian knew something was wrong. Warning bells were going off in his head like fireworks. By the third kiss, Ian was willingly kissing her back. And the poker he had only seconds before wielded like a sword, fell to the floor forgotten.

***

Phoenix and Scarlett Gray thought their lives had quieted down after their adventure in Bulgaria. But little did they know exactly how much danger they were really in.

"Where did you get that?" Scarlett asked her brother.

He was trying on a black leather jacket that was obviously a few sizes too big for him.

"I wonder what happened to him," Phoenix said not realizing he'd voiced his concern out loud.

"Who?" Scarlett winced from the pain as she got up from her place on the bed. She was still recovering from nearly being crushed inside a monastery that exploded while she and Phoenix were inside.

"Secret agent guy. I wonder what happened to him. One minute he was in the monastery, then next it was blowing up."

"I thought you said you saw him in that lab thingie."

"No, that wasn't him. Apparently, he has a twin too. And whomever that guy was, he majorly freaked out Faith. I've never head anyone scream so loudly before."

"Faith screamed? You mean, that Barbie wanna-be? I didn't think she was afraid of anything." Scarlett was still a little mad at the girl who had driven her and Phoenix nearly into the jaws of death.

"Yeah, major screaming fit. But the guy, I think someone called him Ian. I don't know for sure because I was losing consciousness at the time."

"Ethan. Ian. Whatever. You could have heard wrong." Scarlett walked to the window of her bedroom and gazed out at the rolling London countryside. "It's all sort of weird, isn't it? I mean, we overhear a guy at the Embassy and land smack dab in the middle of an international incident that never made it's way to network news."

"I think that would be because it was a ‘secret' mission. No reliable spy worth his salt would end up on the ten o'clock news."

Phoenix thought a moment and a light flashed on inside his head. "Wait a minute. Remember when we were in the park in Bulgaria?"

"Before or after things started blowing up?" Scarlett meant it as a joke but in reality it was all too true.

"Before. Definitely before. What was spy guy doing in that park in the first place?"

Scarlett knew Phoenix was doing his impression of a Hardy boy, trying to solve something that was unsolvable. So she humored him.

"I don't know. Maybe he was taking a walk?"

"No. What if he really was on a mission. A secret spy mission!"

"Dream on, brotherly. It looked more like a hit than a secret mission."

"But what if I'm right?" he said. "We can figure this out. What did he do when he got there?"

Scarlett shook her head. Now she knew how Phoenix felt all those times she acted exactly the same way playing teen detective Nancy Drew.

"He was playing chess with that old man."

"When he sat down, what did he do?" Scarlett could tell Phoenix was really getting into this.

"I don't know." She thought hard trying to picture the moment in her head. "I think he reached into his inside jacket pocket."

"You mean, this inside jacket pocket?" Phoenix indicated the jacket he was currently wearing. From the breast pocket he pulled out an object.

Scarlett sighed. "A postcard? Yeah that looks like some real high tech spy gear you have there."

Phoenix flipped the postcard over in his fingers. He felt like his hunch was right, and Ethan was in the park that day for a reason. But what if Scarlett was right and this was just a plain old postcard and not at all related to Ethan's ‘mission' in the park that day.

He put the card on Scarlett's dresser, but kept the jacket on. Maybe today he'd wear it to school and impress some of those cute gals he had been keeping his eye on.

"Let's go, spy guy. We have school to attend to. We can live to fight a new mission another day."

"Yeah, another day," he said with a wistful longing in his eyes.

***

Everything had gone perfectly according to schedule. This next step was crucial.

While Declan parked the car, Janette called her shadow team to make sure Paris was in place.

"Is everything ready?" she whispered, not wanting to be overheard.

The voice on the other end assured her that Paris was indeed positioned like she had planned.

"Good. Make sure everything goes off without a hitch on your end. We're approaching target area." Janette snapped the phone closed just as Declan appeared behind her.

"Are you sure you want to do this tonight? Black's accident was shocking enough for you. Why don't we wait until tomorrow."

"No," she said too quickly and louder than needed. "I have to talk to Ethan tonight. It has to be tonight."