Chapter Nineteen of the Story

A muffin in one hand and a small carton of chocolate milk in the other, Elliot banged on the room Jerin and Zann were staying in. Bleary blue eyes pear around the door.
“Mmm?”
“Wake up, Jerin! Breakfast is almost over! They’ll be severing lunch food, soon. Have you seen Zann?”
Jerin rubbed his eyes into wakefulness. “No, I thought he was with you. He stomped out last night.” He paused. “Or was it this morning? Doesn’t matter. The point is, he’s not here.”
“No matter,” Elliot replied through a mouthful of muffin. “I’ll ask at the front desk.”
It was only after the woman had disappeared into the elevator with Sherlock had he realized that asking at the front desk was not a good idea. Running a hand through his messy hair, Jerin bounded down the stairs—too impatient for the elevator.
He just reached the lobby floor as Elliot was saying, “He has red hair, green eyes, and looks kinda Russian.”
Jerin froze, watching as the men behind the desk studied her. After several minutes of eying her cheerful face, he asked, “Is your name Elliot?”
Before Jerin could stop her, she replied, “Yeah, why?”
“I was told to give you a message. It is: if you want your friend alive, don’t tell anyone about my operation. The man said you’d know what it meant, and who it was from.”
Elliot slumped on the bench. After checking them out of the hotel, Jerin had relocated them to Central Park. Now, he sat next to her.
“They’ve got Zann.”
He nodded.
“We have to get him back.”
He sighed. “For all we know, El, he just went back with them. How do we know we can trust him?”
“He had a key to your room. He would have killed you if that was all that happened. No, somehow they found us and got him.”
Jerin wished he could argue with that, but her logic was sound. He sighed, knowing what he was about to say would not make her happy. “El, we need to tell the Agency what’s going on. You need to tell them what Lisa Clearwater is planning.”
She frowned and shook her head. “They’ll kill Zann! He saved my life. I can’t turn on him.”
Jerin sighed. “You would be saving a lot more lives. Don’t you think that’s more important?”
Elliot glared at him. “How do you know? It could just be she doesn’t like Mount Rushmore.”
He rubbed his eyes. “It’s a logical assumption. Anyway—”
“No!”
“Elliot—”
“We’ll just have to rescue him and stop Lisa.”
Jerin knew he wouldn’t win—especially since it was only half-hearted. Grinning, he stood. “Right. Let’s go save the world.”
Elliot held a finger up. “I hate to rain on your parade, but where would they take him?”
Sighing Jerin sat down. “Right. Way to ruin my dramatic statement.”
“Just being logical.”
“Okay, Spock. How do we go about this, then?”
Holding her nose in the air, she said, “The logical place for them to go would be Washington D.C.”
Jerin arched an eyebrow. “Would it?”
“Well, there or Virginia.”
“This has to do with the Pentagon,” he guessed. She eyed him warily, so he held his hands up in submission. “I’m not going to tell anyone. We’re going to save Zann and the Pentagon.”
“And the White House.”
“Great. I just put the Pentagon and the president on the line for a Russian Assassin.”
“Quit whining and help me think. They would take him somewhere that would incapacitate him, right?”
“Riiight.”
“So what do you know about Zann Kolzak? Surely you did some research.”
“Yeah.” Jerin rubbed his eyes again. “The guy has no fears. He’s perfect at what he does and never fails anything. He’s like Superman with no kryptonite.”
“He’s got to have something. Everyone has a weakness.”
Jerin peered at her. “Yeah, he does, but there’s no way they can get to that.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” He frowned, pulling everything he knew about the assassin from the depths of his mind. “Wait. Wait, I think I’ve got something. One time, a snake got into the base. He avoided it at all costs.”
“You think he’s afraid of snakes?”
“It’s possible. He took the long way to Vang’s office once because the snake was in the way of the short way.”
“It’s a shot. Where’s the one place in Washington D.C. that has the most snakes?”
Jerin grinned. “The National Zoo.”
Standing, she grinned back. “Let’s go save the world.”
“Hey! That’s my line!”

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Sorry, Babs. He's stiiiiiiill kidnapped. So, Zann's afraid of snakes. Hehehe. Bab's/Holly's idea. Oh, and Foaly, the Babs and Dick thing is from Batman, in case you're wondering. You can be the Joker. *nodnod* By he way, we are very sad you are not coming back soon.
Anywho, the story! Thanks to Holly for giving me the great idea to make Zann terrified of snakes. You'll get the wonderful pleasure of seeing his fear played out next week. Oh, wait, I'm on vacation. I may or may not post. My dad's unhooking (nooooooooooo) the router at the beach house. I am very sad, but (sssssh!! tell no one!!) I am planning on trying to see if I can connect to the neighbor's wireless. Hehehe. I feel evil.
See you guys next week hopefully for a python-filled fun chapter!