Shadow Men – 43 – Anders and Grant

Grant heard hobbling footsteps come into the living room, accompanied by more normal ones. He ignored them for the moment to answer Nicky's question about something happening in the TV show he was watching. Then he turned to see Steele standing there with Anders close beside him.

Nicky looked over as well. "Oh, Daddy, someone hurt him," he said.

"Yes they did."

"The bad men we got away from?"

"Yeah, kid," Steele replied as he made his way slowly to the sofa and sat down on the other side of Nicky. "I'm Steele."

"I'm Nicky." The child looked Steele over carefully. "Does it hurt?"

"Like hell," Steele admitted. "Okay, maybe shouldn't have put it that way," he added when he caught the frown on Grant's face.

"It's okay, but you gotta apologize," Nicky told him.

Steele smiled. "Sorry, Nicky."

Nicky nodded then turned his attention back to the TV.

"We need to talk," Anders said from behind Grant.

"Not until he's in bed and asleep," Grant told him firmly.

Steele chuckled. "Which might not be too long."

Grant agreed when Nicky suddenly curled up beside him and rested his head on Grant's thigh. Grant turned to look at Anders. "Bedroom?"

"Upstairs. Take the one on the left." Anders handed Grant one of the bags that had been moved to the table. "I got him pajamas too," he muttered.

"Thanks." Grant carefully picked up his now nearly sleeping son, putting him in the crook of his arm so he could carry the bag as well and headed to the stairs.

* * * *

Grant returned to the living room fifteen minutes later. With a sigh he sat back down on the sofa before he said, "So talk."

Anders, who was now seated on one of the chairs beside the sofa, glanced at Steele. Steele nodded so Anders took the reins of the conversation.

"You know what's in those papers, right?"

"Some, yes. I only skimmed the first few pages before I realized what they were about. I called a friend and he suggested I get in touch with Senator Rogers."

"How much did you tell your friend?"

"Nothing," Grant replied. "Just that I'd found some documents I thought would be considered classified and wasn't sure what to do with them."

"Good, then he should be safe, especially if you didn't tell the Senator about him."

"I didn't."

"All right. Now we have to get them to the right person, someone we can trust who will actually take them seriously and do something with the information."

"Which," Steele said, "isn't going to be easy."

"That's where you come in, Grant."

"Me? Why me?" Grant tried to hide his panic at the idea.

"Because you're just another John Doe with no axe to grind," Anders told him.

"What if…? What about…?" Grant tried to think of an excuse, any excuse, to make them change their minds. "What about the police? They have to think I killed that man and then picked up and ran," he said quickly.

"Doubtful. There's been nothing on the news about it. Best guess the other man with him called in a clean-up squad to dispose of the body. The Colonel and the Senator don't want the information falling into anyone else's hands and that would include the police. But I'll have Corrie run a search, just in case."

"On it," Corrie said as she came into the room. A moment later she was booting up the computer, which sat on a desk in one corner of the room.

Grant frowned. "Can't that be traced?"

            "Nope," she replied with a grin. "I know what I'm doing."