Rollie and Guillarmo arrived at the clinic de ayudar in Toledo in less than two hours due to the heavy foot of Rollie on the gas pedal. Guillarmo did have sympathetic Interpol friends who had scouted the clinic out, got him the Pyridium and technical medical equipment in order to stage the ion purge. One agent was willing to assist as the physician who would administer the antidote. In setting up the gag, Rollie had devised a scam that would introduce Loubar to a plasmaphoresis machine that would be used to flush his system and flood it with the Pyridium. This would actually be done and the Pyridium would be injected. The challenge was putting in some drugs that would give Loubar some nasty side effects so as to make the effort of ion binding seem a task and a risk.

 

After discussing some of the possible drugs, they decided on a combination of Antabuse and alcohol by intravenous feed. The combination of Antabuse which was an antagonist to blood alcohol would make Loubar stuporous, vomit, have severe abdominal cramps and chills. The I.V. would be started as a saline flush and Loubar would not know since the Antabuse and alcohol would already have been mixed together in the IV bag. Any device that Loubar might have on him that might be a trigger for setting off a bomb or something planted on Angie to harm her would be difficult if not impossible to activate in the state that would be produced by the drugs.

 

In the event that Loubar would test these agents on Rollie to make sure the IV was safe, they would line up several bags of mixture of saline solutions. The Pyridium, in and of itself, was harmless. Rollie would be administered Narcan as a reversal agent or antidote for the alcohol if it came to that.

 

An ion receptor scan would be performed after the infusion using a regular CAT scan at the clinic. Realistically, unable to pick up the ion chip that was circulating in Loubar’s blood, they would tag the table with a metal transducer small enough to show up as microscopic on the scan and look to be inside Loubar or anything else they wished. The medical crew that was assisting Guillarmo’s friend from Interpol was excited about their role in getting this international criminal to justice as well.

 

They waited, patiently at first. Rollie thought of Angie, alone with Loubar and the past week in Spain. There were many times that Angie had been the one that had come through in saving his life with the many stunts he had pulled with Leo and with Mira. She was always worried about the danger, but she was there always when he needed her. Thinking back, he could remember times when he had not appreciated her warnings or did not notice her for the shiny wrapping paper that would grace the sets now and then. Dani had been one of those packages. He smiled thinking about how jealous Angie had acted and he just hadn’t noticed at the time. Her partnership was something that he had taken for granted.

 

"Rollie," Guillarmo said, getting his attention and his thoughts came back to the present, "Loubar is at the back of the clinic. He has a scanner for weapons."

 

"Right, we anticipated that. We don’t have a weapon in the place, right?"

 

"Actually…" Guillarmo began.

 

"Get rid of it!" Rollie told him, "We agreed to no weapons."

 

Guillarmo had the agent who was playing the doctor remove his concealed weapon and put it behind a lead x-ray apron that was hanging on a wall. Loubar was already walking in, a wry smile on his face. Angie was not with him.

 

"Where’s Angie?" Rollie demanded, wanting to choke him for being so close and undisguised. He was right there in their grasp. They could easily overpower him. But Rollie kept his composure.

 

"She’s a little tied up right now, Tyler. You knew I wouldn’t bring her here. Do you think I am a complete idiot? See, here- in my hand. I have implanted a tiny detonator. One false move and she’s history."

 

Rollie was prepared for this but angry that the bastard still tried to control the board.

 

Loubar held a monitor in his other hand, "See, in good faith, I have brought this monitor. Hook it up and you can see your beloved Angie and of course, if you try anything, you can watch her die."

 

Rollie grabbed the television monitor from him and set it on the counter. Once plugged in, it brought up a picture of a car that was being suspended over an embankment. Rollie could see the detonation device attached to the rope holding the car. He would have to make sure that Loubar’s hand would be kept straight, without allowing the fingers to touch the palm area while infusion was occurring.

 

"So, let’s get started. Tell me what you will be doing and how this ion purge will take place," Loubar told them, almost smacking his hands together and then as he watched Rollie nearly jump out of his skin, laughed and pointed at him.

 

"Gotcha!"

 

"In order for us to trust you, Loubar- during the treatment- we want your palm flat, fingers fanned out and not able to bend, understood?" Rollie told him.

 

Loubar nodded and the doctor/agent began to explain the plasmaphoresis machine, the ion receptor antidote and what it would do and how it would work. Loubar had already studied these methods as they knew he would, and he was impressed that they were not trying to trick him. Tyler was such a sentimental jerk, Loubar told himself, an easy pawn in his game.

 

Rollie glanced back once at the monitor, not seeing any movement but then, Loubar had told them that Angie was bound in the trunk.

 

As expected, Loubar wanted Rollie injected with the same drug and without changing needles, inject him then with the same dose in the syringe.

 

"What, not afraid of sharing needles," Rollie asked him, as he rolled up his sleeve for the doctor/agent to inject him with the Pyridium.

 

"Tyler, remember- I have been watching you for sometime. You haven’t been exactly getting into any unsafe sex or drugs- you’ve been a model of virtue since Dani."

 

Rollie rolled his eyes and made a face as the needle was injected into his skin and the Pyridium entered his blood stream. Loubar then stepped up for his injection and the agent promptly injected him with the same syringe.

 

"So far, so good!" Loubar said, watching Rollie and smiling, "Now, hook Tyler and me up to the perfusion, bifurcate the line so that we are getting the same IV bag mixture."

 

"So trustful," Rollie remarked, as the agent started an IV in his arm and did the same with Loubar. They both laid down on stretchers as the IV infusion began. The perfusion machine hummed on a low register the background.

 

"You should be getting a taste in your mouth," the agent/doctor told both of them, "You should feel a little nauseous as well."

 

Loubar made a face, he definitely was feeling nauseous. Rollie, in an effort to remain in sync with Loubar mirrored his symptoms. Soon, Loubar was diaphoretic, having chills and complaining of cramping in his abdomen. Rollie did the same, though not feeling these symptoms. The Narcan was doing its thing.

 

By the time the infusion was over, Loubar was vomiting. He was becoming stupordous and Rollie sprung up from his stretcher, reaching for the armboard where Loubar’s hand had been taped down, palm open and fingers out. They worked quickly to remove the small detonator in his hand. Between retches and stupor, Loubar laughed.

 

"You stupid imbeciles. The monitor – look at the monitor…"

 

Rollie looked up and saw that Loubar must have had another detonator on his body. There was a pop and then the rope started on fire. It was quickly over before doing any real harm.

 

"You see," Loubar grimaced, "I still have another detonator and I am not telling you where."

 

"Doc, can we get him over to the scanner and see if the ion is still in his system?" Rollie interrupted, angered by the elaborate Mr. Loubar.

 

The agent assisted Loubar down from his stretcher, removed the IV and promptly told him to eliminate his water. Loubar watched as he could actually see the orange chemical purger leaving his body. He was impressed. Tyler was such a sucker.

 

On the CAT scan table, Loubar laid down and he watched as they scanned him, seeing for himself, the ion tracker being circulated into his kidneys and then, to his bladder. He laughed, "and out it goes…"

 

The agent playing the doctor then took the sample of urine produced by Loubar and ran the solution on the CAT scan. It immediately produced the replica of the ion tracker that Rollie had designed. Loubar was finally free, he thought as he smiled at Rollie.

 

"Okay, as a man of my word, once I get out of the city limits, you may pick up Angela. I will radio you with her coordinates.

 

"No," Rollie replied in anger. We had a bargain- give me the coordinates now. I will decide when you can leave."

 

"Wrong, Tyler. Stop me now and Angie goes boom!"

 

Rollie knew this was coming but he also knew that Loubar would have the entire Interpol tracking team on his tail, "Let him go, Guillarmo- we have no choice."

 

Released by Guillarmo, Loubar pranced out of the clinic, grinning at his fortune as usual. He had wished he could stay around and play some more with Tyler but arrangements had to be finalized. He pulled out the detonator he had hidden on the buttom of his tongue. He drove to where he had left Angie, knowing that Tyler would be following and trying to remain covert. His last act for the over-trusting Tyler would be to get rid of once, and for all- the one thing he loved the most.

 

Loubar reached the tree and the car was still rocking precariously as it hung over the cliff into the canyon. He waved at the camera where the monitor was set-up and then with one graceful motion, knowing that he had Tyler’s full attention; set off the second detonator.

 

Rollie jumped, as he watched the explosion and the car released over the cliff. Guillarmo was following Loubar and was supposed to have stopped him from any movement that might have signaled a detonation before it could happen. On the monitor, he could see dust rising from the side of the canyon. His heart went to this throat as he screamed at the monitor. Why had Guillarmo not stopped him? He sank to his knees in the clinic, a victim of a gag within a gag.

 

Loubar smiled back at the camera and Rollie, in a rage, went over to the monitor to grab it and throw it to the ground. No one in the room tried to stop him, they were all standing as though stunned. He held it up in the air, still plugged in when he heard her voice.

 

"Hands up, you son-of-a-bitch!" Angie was standing behind Loubar holding something in her hand that she had pushed into Loubar’s back.

 

Rollie sat the monitor down stunned in amazement as he saw Angie. She looked as if she had been in the fight of her life but she was alive and in control.

 

Looking closer, Rollie could see that she only held a bottle to Loubar’s back but he didn’t know that.

 

"Don’t move, because I am one pissed -off bitch!" Angie told Loubar. The master of illusion looked actually quite surprised by the sudden change of events. Before Angie could react, there was the sound of car tires screeching to a halt and Loubar swung around and smacked Angie to the ground.

 

Rollie could hear shouting and Loubar grabbed Angie by her arm and started to drag her to the edge of the cliff. Trying to throw her off the edge, Angie took a wild kick to his groin which stunned him but not enough to stop and he fell, struggling with her on the ground. In the mayhem and the confusion, Rollie held his breath. The camera was blocked then by Interpol agents who had their backs to the camera lens. He could hear scuffling and then shock verbally displayed as there was a scream. He could see the agents moving and Guillarmo’s large form kneeling over the cliff, yelling down into the canyon. The Cuban was crying out Angie’s name over and over.