The Trio unstoppable(closed)

[ericrodman101]

Aped the encryption. Lane nodded to himself and saw Eric watching. That made sense. But he cursed himself inwardly for not seeing what was plain to Kira. And he understood the gravity of her analysis...not done by your department. Whoever did it must be on the inside.

He'd never seen Kira so upset, so unable to control herself. She threw her phone across the room. Lane heard it bounce onto the floor and scuttle under the couch. He'd always thought she'd walked away rather than face her demons. He and Eric had discussed as much, that last time the two guys had met here at the apartment, fully expecting Kira to join them, but being disappointed. Not by the sex they'd enjoyed with each other. That was fucking great as always. Lane saw the quizzical look on Eric's face and wondered if he was remembering the same day. No, disappointed that Kira hadn't joined them. The trio unstoppable...they'd revelled in the name everyone gave them. The name they gladly used for themselves when they met at the apartment. Unstoppable....but they were wrong.

The liquor cabinet was full, just like the old days. Lane saw how well stocked it was when Kira opened the door. And well used by the number of half empty bottles. Who else had been here and when?

And then Kira took a bottle of bourbon, unscrewed the cap and put it to her lips. Bourbon. Her thinking tipple. Lane looked at Eric again. His old friend nodded. Kira was still on the bourbon. Something else about her that hadn't changed. He wondered whether he'd have to monitor what she drank and be ready to take it from her when she'd had enough.

"Just like old times," Lane said, to neither of them and both of them. "Just like," Eric said, waiting for the bourbon to work its magic and Kira's thoughts to crystallise.

 

[Asa]

She knew what any official reports would say hell there was an obituary and ashes everything.

Lane... I need everything you can find on one Calin Alexander. She looked to Eric.

Yeah him...

He had been connected to every agency in the known world at some time or another either as a hunter or the hunted. Her assignment 4 yrs ago included him... helping. One of the few pieces of Intel that the CIA didn't think she warranted knowing to name a few on that assignment. Hebalpegedly died 4 years ago it was publicly listed as a boating accident while on vacation.

Cross reference any of his know aliases with the killer and the first two victims.

 

[ericrodman101]

Calin Alexander. Eric knew that name. But not much else. Alexander was one of those guys who worked for you and against you and for himself and for who the fuck knew what? The double agent extraordinaire.

And yeah, he was dead. "He's dead, Kira," Eric said. "Calin Alexander was incinerated in the marina at Jekyll Island. The chief went to the funeral. And then danced on the grave if what I heard was correct. And anyway, you were there too."

Kira looked back at him as if was speaking Swahili, and took a swig of bourbon.

"You were at the funeral. That's why you didn't join me and Lane here that night. You were in Georgia at a funeral. Remember? And now you think Calin Alexander's ashes are killing people from a niche in a lawn cemetery in Dixie?"

 

[Asa]

How far back can we trace his life?

Her mind was in overdrive. Calin only seemed to appear 10 maybe 12 yrs ago from best she ever knew. It had to be a persona for someone else. Someone far more ruthless and deadly... But who?

 

[ericrodman101]

"Kira," Lane began, wondering how to say the obvious. "We've traced his life. We know who he is. I mean, Calin Alexander worked for us. More than once. He had access to everything. Until he died. He's probably been in this apartment."

Eric felt himself looking round instinctively. Calin here in the safe house. He shivered.

"We've got a birth certificate, a death certificate, we've got his will, we know who survived him...

"Yeah," Eric said, "the sister in Kansas."

Lane continued. "We know where he went to school, where he spent his holidays, we know who he fucked, where he took a dump...Jesus, no one has been examined more closely than Calin Alexander."

Eric could see the grim look on Kira's face, and more. The deep hurt she felt at getting it all wrong. She looked so vulnerable, so human in this moment. He wanted to hold her, to hold them both. But it wasn't quite right. Fuck.

"We know, Lane, we know all that. But Kira's right. There must be something we all missed."

 

[Asa]

Then why are the first two victims of this serial killer the two people who survived when we had to go up against Calin 6 years ago?

She turned back to the file and looked through the others and tossed 3 more to them.

Explain three veteran families.

 

[ericrodman101]

"Well....," Lane began tentatively...."it must be a coincidence."

Eric saw the looks on their faces, Lane twisted with indecision and disbelief, Kira dark with rage. He could see Lane reacting to her.

"He's dead, Kira," Lane yelled. "Calin's fucking dead."

Lane slumped into a chair, as if exhausted with the whole mind blowing craziness of Kira's theory. Even Eric, usually the one open to anything, was struggling to get his head round what Kira was saying, what the evidence she was giving them pointed to. He tried to adopt a calming tone, stepping over to where Lane was sitting and placing a hand on his friend's shoulder for support.

"So Kira, if what you're saying is true, who died in the fire? Whose ashes are in the niche in Georgia?"

 

[Asa]

Her phone rang as she went to find it. A code set of rings lednher to call Hillenson back.

Yeah what?

She listened carefully.

Yeah... Yeah... How did he pull it off? What... Hillenson wasn't Hillenson? He... Was always fairly wealthy... Yeah... The contacts he could have gained... Allies willing to die for him.

If he is.. that means... I know what it means... No... No transfer no added security... If we are right... I've got this... And it will end my way this time.

Hanging up again she made her way to the couch and sat down with the bourbon.

Ask what you two have been wanting to know it will probably lead back to his death and my last assignment and more than I have ever wanted to discuss.

 

[ericrodman101]

Kira answered the phone instead of answering his question. Hillenson wasn't Hillenson. What the fuck does that mean, Eric thought, looking at Lane who was clearly thinking the same thing.

And who the fuck was she talking to? Nothing made any sense. Eric hoped to Christ that they hadn't been followed. It wasn't like they hadn't been in danger before, or worked in the dark. But this was serious shit, and Kira's usual calm and methodical manner was missing tonight. Eric and Lane knew she was worried. Which worried them even more.

Allies willing to die for him. Now that was just wacky. Hillenson? Calin Alexander? Well he was dead, of course. And Hillenson....wasn't Hillenson.

Kira hung up and started on the bourbon again. She was well near through a whole bottle.

"Maybe I should take that for a bit," Lane said, trying to take it out of her hands. But she held tight. She looked at them both, from one to the other, sexy and determined and beyond belief angry, Eric thought. He knew then that he wanted her again, like before, wanted what the three of them once had. Wanted it all back. And knew he couldn't have it, even if they all knew what had made them happy before.

"Ask what you want to know," Kira said, looking daggers, not at them, but through them, to the past, their past, together in adversity and friendship and....desire. There, Eric had thought it, not said it, but thought it.

"Desire," he said out loud, but Lane was speaking.

"Who was on the phone, Kira, and what the fuck is going on?"

 

[Asa]

Who we knew as Calin wasn't Calin. We knew the American who he had paid to claim to be him. Apparently he had several people that he paid off like that.

She shook her head but finally let go of the bourbon.

 

[ericrodman101]

"You knew, Kira?" Lane said. "You knew Calin wasn't Calin?"

Eric watched his friend's face twist with anguish.

"If you knew, then Control knew. International knew. Then what the fuck were we doing burying the guy, winding up his affairs, closing the files, lifting the embargoes? What the fuck?"

Lane sat in one of the single chairs, drumming the arm with his fingers.

"And there was more than one?" Eric asked. "Several people Calin paid?"

Kira half nodded, the bottle of bourbon swinging in her hand.

"Then where are they now? I mean, there's one guy in a niche in Georgia, but the others? Calin? Jesus, Kira, we've been carrying on as if this whole case is closed. Do you know what that means? Anything could have happened. To you. To us."

 

[Asa]

I am just figuring it out. It's his signature style piggybacking the apes International encryption.

She growled before falling silent and walking over to a window.

To me...

Borneo... 4 years ago...my solo assignment... He was the last shadow backer I would have anticipated of a warlord. So he ran and "died" just a couple of days later.

 

[ericrodman101]

"Your solo assignment?" Lane laughed. "It always feels fucking solo with you, Kira." He looked at her hard, wanting to hurt her and see the damage. "We follow you round like two loyal lovelorn puppies, just like we're here panting for your affection tonight. To look after you, do your bidding, receive your pat on the head, clean up your fucking mess."

He stood and kicked the coffee table so hard, it fell onto its side. Eric was sure the noise could be heard blocks away.

"Hey, calm down," he said, stepping over to Lane and placing a hand on his friend's shoulder again. The feel of Lane under his palm was like electricity. Why did this little guy do this to him? Sure Kira was in charge, and he'd do anything for her. That was in his contract. But for Lane he'd gladly lay his life on the line for nothing.

And yet he knew that was unfair. Kira had been their glue. The one they came together for. Lane was his soulmate, for sure. And Kira his light on the hill. Eric knew he loved them both. And now they were both hurting.

"So Kira, tell us everything that happened in Borneo. Put the jigsaw together."

 

[Asa]

Yes my solo assignment in Borneo whole you were with him in Quantico or Paris or wherever they sent you two 4 years ago May. Separating us for needed assignments. Mine was a International/CIA joint task. International as primary butbbig surprise the CIA was less than forthcoming with Menon the Intel they had gotten from international and other sources. I went into Borneo nearly blind as I have been in the region enough times to "know the terrain" better than most.

She turned looking almost dead inside talking about it.

You want to know everything... Walking into villagers being used as bodies to work mines till they dropped kids used as easily expendable guards and who knows what all. The elderly little more than target practice and Calin living like a fucking king abusing and using whoever he wanted. He was the only other agent there and so presumably my contact that the CIA said I would have there.

He would have the older kids literally as expendable soldiers "bombs" and everything else. After nearly dying yeah I fucking walked away from it all. They had lied to us one too many times.

 

[ericrodman101]

Lane saw the disgust on Kira's face and regretted his outburst. Borneo sounded horrible. Kira had been distant when she returned from that assignment, and was never really the same with them again. He looked at Eric for a lead. Should he speak? Apologise? Beg for forgiveness? Hold her? Christ, how Lane wanted to hold her. Hold them both. Or more.

"Yeah, I was in Paris," Eric said, sounding distracted as if he was thinking hard. " But Calin was there too. Or someone who called himself Calin."

Eric paced the room, giving off a vulnerability that made Lane burn with desire for his friend. Eric came out of his trance-like state, realised they were both watching him, and smiled.

"So if Calin was in Borneo and Paris, which was the real one?"

"He was in Quantico too," Lane said. "I never saw him, but I remember he phoned me from the guardhouse, but never showed up."

 

[Asa]

Well we know that leave possibly three others.

She sighed. She wanted to break down to hold them and be held. To watch them kiss as she pay curled and angled between them on that over stuffed couch. She had missed them both so much could she really let them all three be close again? She had only ever been close I n any intimacy with targets she had to get involved like that with but never anything that meant amything. Not like it was before with them. She needed them in more ways than she could accept right now and that scared her.

 

[ericrodman101]

"Three more besides the three in Borneo, Paris and Quantico? Jesus, this is bad," Eric said. They could all hear the despair in his voice. He wondered where this was all going, what they were going to do now, tonight, tomorrow.

"So what's the plan now, Kira? I mean, we've got the file, we know who the victims are, and how and where they died. And we know the strange way they died might lead us somewhere, you know, all that weird sexually deviant stuff with the poisoned dildos."

"Yeah," Lane said, "but we thought it was self administered. Death by dildo. Ha!"

The two men looked closely at Kira as she thought. Where to now? For all her upset at what had happened, and the urgency of their meeting, she had taken trouble to look her best, look like a late night bar patron, to fit in with the glamour crowd. The long black dress, the slide split and plunging neckline, the cleavage, more than a glimpse of breasts. For two men who usually found pleasure in their own sex, they'd discussed their desire for Kira and how much working with her and each other had forged a bond way beyond the professional.

And how it had all stopped. Their menage simply cut off cold turkey. It had not only ended their relationship with Kira, but with each other. Eric and Lane, the perfect couple people said. Not any more. Not for years.

Yet here they were, reliant on each other again, alone at the safe house with nothing to do but wait for dawn.

 

[Asa]

I nearly died... At the hands of a child too scared not to kill for him all because they never tell us what we need to know.

She set the nearly empty bottle of bourbon down with a sigh.

That's why I walked away... I needed to think and feel something more than lies and death and I knew that you two would never leave the agency back then... And I would never have asked. Hell I didn't even fully leave I am just on an extended self inflicted hiatus.

She turned to face them her eyes finally showing even the slightest sign of tears.

 

[ericrodman101]

Eric realised Lane had placed a hand over his. The two men watched Kira start to unfold as she told the sad story. They knew how hard it had been for her, even if they didn't know all the facts. But for a career operative to just walk away, something big must have happened. It was rumoured she'd nearly lost her life, but they didn't know how. There were dangers everywhere in this line of work. It came with the territory. You were trained for it. You started every assignment making sure your affairs were in order in case you didn't come home.

But a child, wired with a bomb they guessed, was about as low as you can go. It didn't surprise Lane and Eric of Calin, even with what they knew of the guy then, let alone what they learned from Kira in the last half hour. But hearing Kira tell it and seeing the tears in her eyes, brought it all home, personalised it, made it real and heartbreakingly sad.

Eric felt Lane pat his hand, then held out his own arms to Kira. He wanted to make it right, make her feel safe and secure. He knew that was beyond his gift, beyond either of them to give her, but how else could he respond? He knew he loved her in a kind of way, not like a life partner the way he and Lane had once talked about a future together. A menage would never be like that, maybe. But he felt close to her, and fearful for her. And their past intimacy meant they'd shared so much, the three of them, in ways which didn't fit social norms for sure, but worked for them, or had at least in their trio days.

 

[Asa]

Some part of her had always suspected she wasn't really needed in their little trio. That they were happier just the two of them. Another reason why she walked away from them as well. She had seen other trips in the civilian world with two men or two women and she had thought that's what they were but she had maybe been lying to herself. She didn't know and that made her not know what to do here in this moment either. Humor the lie that they needed or wanted her with them or seal all the pain off like she always did accepting that as a woman in her field she was cursed to be alone.

 

[ericrodman101]

"Kira...." Eric began, struggling to find the words. He held his arms out and crossed to where she stood, alone and unsure, he thought, about why they were here and what to do next. Eric put his arms round Kira and hugged her, not tightly, but firmly, enjoying the feel of her against him again, but also regretting how limp and unresponsive she was.

"Kira, we're here because you asked us to come. And because we haven't been very good at our jobs." He heard Lane cough. "Well, I haven't been very good. Maybe we're just getting tired and soft, losing our touch...losing my touch. And whatever flows from tonight, from what you've told us and what we need to do next, at least we're together again, for tonight at least, and maybe...hopefully longer."

He paused, hoping Kira or Lane would fill the silence, add to what he'd said, affirm that being together again was good. And maybe say the things he wanted to say, but wasn't sure the time was quite right. That being together meant they could rekindle the personal between them, as well as the professional.

But time ticked on, the silence extended, Kira hung motionless in his arms, smelling of bourbon and exhaustion. He hugged her a little more tightly and then helped her to a chair, looking back at Lane who just stared enigmatically. If only one of them just said 'fuck it' and laughed and found some music and more booze and they could dance and hug and kiss and...well, maybe it just wasn't going to happen.

 

[Asa]

We have to figure out if Calin is the serial killer and if he is targeting me after Borneo.

She hugged him she wanted to hug both of them but again she was feeling almost like an outsider.

Together

 

[ericrodman101]

"Sure, Kira. We have to figure it out," Lane said, sounding frustrated from the chair.

"But not tonight," Eric said, still hugging her. "Not tonight, baby." He leaned down and nibbled her ear. He could see Lane watching them, looking at him enigmatically. Eric knew Lane well. His friend was like Kira in so many ways. He liked to watch too. But not tonight.

Eric signalled to Lane to join them, hugging in the middle of the room. He hoped to god the bed was made up. The kingsize bed he remembered. Where he and Lane fucked the night Kira hadn't showed. And where the three of them....what was the right word? He knew Kira was a stickler for the right word. The perfectionist. It was why she took Calin besting her so hard. What would she call a threesome, a menage, a threeway?

And was that what she wanted? How could he tell? Lane joined them in the middle of the room. They hugged. Kira bent into them, first Eric nibbling her ear, then Lane. Eric felt Lane's hand ranging across Kira's back to his own. A threeway hug felt so good and so awkward at the same time.

"Kira," Eric said, softly but so both his friends could hear. "We're...ahem...at that point in the night we always used to get to, where you have to decide. Do you want one of us, both of us, just to watch?"

He waited for her to react, to tense or relax, to use her hands or her mouth to signal her preference. To signal to him. Or Lane. Or both of them.

"Whatever you want, Kira. We're here for you."

 

[Asa]

What do you two want?

She snuggled there between them with a weak smile.

I want us... As we were... Together...

 

[ericrodman101]

Lane laughed nervously. He hadn't known what to expect tonight. There was the professional side. Kira was in trouble. It was his job to help. And he was happy to.

But here they were again. Together in the safe house. There was no avoiding the fact of what they had, professionally sure, but personally. He and Eric had fucked before they met Kira. He might have even loved Eric, although he wasn't sure any longer. They were good times and they were in the past. He'd moved on.

But standing here, in the dark, hugging Kira and Eric, feeling their bodies under his hands, remembering it all made him hard. He felt the yearning to have it all again. A threeway? Jesus. Who wouldn't want that with people as beautiful as Kira and Eric? Just the sex would be perfect, even without the belonging. Is that what they wanted too? That's what Kira was saying. That's what Eric was offering.

Just tonight then, Lane thought. Just tonight and we wake up tomorrow and go away with our memories renewed.

"I want it too," Lane said softly.