Against The Grain (THIRDS 5)

The three of them left Ash’s office and found Dex sitting behind his desk. His brother quickly tapped his desk, as if they hadn’t noticed the brightly lit neon table hockey he’d been playing on his desk’s interface. Ash entered his badge number into the security panel and initiated the office’s safe mode. The walls went white, and he turned to Sloane.

“Your doctor at the hospital was Dr. Ward, right?”

Sloane nodded. “Yeah, why?”

“Was he the one who prescribed your meds?”

“Yeah, Thelxinomine. I’ve still got another few weeks left. What’s going on?”

Ash walked over to Sloane’s side. “Where the bottle?”

“In my desk.” Sloane opened his drawer and frowned. He tried the other drawers. “At least it was in my desk.” He looked up at Dex in question. “Have you seen my meds?”

“Not since this morning when you took your last dose, but I saw you put them back in the top right hand drawer.”

Cael turned to Sloane. “Were you and Dex out of your office recently?”

Sloane nodded. “Sparks called us into her office about twenty minutes ago. She wanted to know how I was doing and if Dex was up for some extra training.”

“How long did the meeting take?” Cael asked.

Dex shrugged. “Maybe ten minutes at most.”

“Guys? What’s going on?”

“We’ll let you know as soon as we get some answers. Until then, don’t let anyone know your prescription has gone missing.”

Cael entered his badge number into the security panel, and the office went back to normal. He left with Rosa and Ash in tow. As they left the bullpen and headed for Sparks’s office, Ash took hold of Cael’s arm and pulled him to one side.

“Before you go in there, connect to my com and leave your line open.”

Cael stared at him, his voice low when he spoke in case anyone was close by. “You want to listen in. Why?”

“Trust me. I’ll explain later.”

“Okay.” He had no idea why Ash was asking him, but there had to be a good reason for it. He tapped his earpiece and connected to Ash, then pressed the button in farther until it clicked, putting it on covert mode with no green light to give him away. Ash would be able to hear whatever Cael heard. They walked into Sparks’s office.

“Close the door behind you,” Sparks said from behind her desk in her usual no-nonsense tone.

Cael obliged, pressing his hand to the security panel. The door closed, and he joined his partner, taking a seat in the empty chair.

“Why the detour?” Sparks asked.

Shit. How the hell did she know? “Sorry. Dex had asked me to pick up some ibuprofen from the hospital while I was there. For Sloane.”

“It could have waited.”

Cael cleared his throat and tried his best not to fidget under her penetrating stare. “My apologies.”

“I apologize as well.”

Wait, what now? Cael was flabbergasted. Since when did their lieutenant apologize for anything? Before he could ask, she elaborated.

“You and Agent Santiago weren’t supposed to have been called out to NY Presbyterian Hospital. Dispatch was misinformed. They were under the impression you were taking calls. They were meant to have put the call through to another Recon team. That’s why Dr. Colbourn and Dr. Bishop weren’t on scene when you arrived. The CSIs had already been there and processed the body.”

“You mean Dr. Ward.”

“I’m afraid that information is classified.”