"Eighteen months," the man growled and then swung around on the other man in anger. "What the hell do you mean eighteen months????" He moved across the small room until he was only inches from the second man's face.  "Less than two weeks ago you said there was no way that the new seaQuest would be finished in anything less than 36 months. How did that suddenly become eighteen months???"

The smaller man swallowed nervously a couple of times and cleared his throat before answering. "Two weeks ago the project didn't have Bridger."

The first man narrowed his eyes and glared at the second. "Bridger is one man. One man can't cut a production schedule in half."

The second man shrugged. "He shouldn't be able to but he is. Since he came on site two weeks ago he's already come up with at least four plans for division of the building that's reduced the expected production time by almost a year... and the problem is that once they get into really putting the boat together it won't make much of a difference. It's right now... right at the beginning of the building... that his adjustments are making the big difference." The man glared at the floor. "If we could only slow him down now... we could get our people into the workforce, get our own adjustments into the plan... but Bridger is just moving too fast. We can't keep up with him."

"This may seem like a dumb question," said the harsh looking blond woman in the corner. "But why don't we just kill Bridger?"

The first man shook his head. "No, that wouldn't do any good." He looked over at the woman. "The plans are already there... seaQuest is going to be built one way or another and killing Bridger would just raise the heat on all of us." He walked across the room and looked out into the dark night. "But we're not going to be ready if Bridger can get that boat in the water in eighteen months. We need more time."

The second man grinned. "So perhaps a little sabotage against the boat? ...something to put a little crimp in their production schedule?"

"No," answered the woman. "We don't want attention on the boat just yet or they'll clamp down security on the site so hard that we'll never get any of our people aboard. We've got to do something that doesn't key on the boat."

The first man turned and leaned back against the window regarding his compatriots with a silent steely glance.

"So what we want to do is to slow Bridger down... right?"

"Yeah," answered the second man.

"But we don't want to make it look like it has anything to do with the boat."

"Exactly," the woman said.

"Easy." The man pushed off the window and walked into the center of the room. "We just put Bridger out of commission for a little while." He turned to the woman. "Can his second in command do the job as well as he can?"

A short, harsh, humorless laugh was heard. "Ford??? You've got to be kidding. He lives on Bridger's coat tails."

"Alright," the first man nodded. "So we just need to take Bridger out of commission for... how long?"

"Two weeks should do it," the second man countered.

"But it can't look like it has anything to do with that damned boat," the woman countered.

The first man regarded her coolly. "Bridger is spending a lot of time at that boat. He comes home late almost every night. We've been watching him." He grinned a little feral smile. "And now that the Westphalen woman has arrived, he's spending even more nights out late."

"So?"

"So, it's gonna be a shame when Bridger gets mugged one night when he gets home from work, isn't it??"

The woman smiled evilly. "Do me a favor."

"What?"

"Make sure they kick him at least once where the sun doesn't shine for me."

Both men grinned back.

"I should be out of here by ten-thirty... eleven at the latest. Is that alright?"

Lucas grinned at the older man's image on the screen. "Sure, Cap. That sounds almost like banker's hours for you."

Bridger flashed a sarcastic smile at the boy. "Hey, I get enough of that from Kristin already... I don't need it from you too."

"But I've got a vested interest tonight. If you don't get home and get your beauty sleep we'll never manage to get to that ballgame tomorrow."

"We'll get to the ballgame, kiddo. I'm not going to waste perfectly good box seat tickets, trust me."

"Do you want me to leave any dinner for you?"

"What are you having?"

"Pizza."

"Ah, for a change, huh? Nah, I'll grab something here. Somehow your warmed up again pizza never tastes the same."

"Okay, drive careful," Lucas said as he reached for the disconnect.

"Always," Bridger grinned, cutting the connection.

Yeah, right, Lucas thought. He shook his head as he gathered up his dirty plate and glass and headed for the kitchen. Right, he'd drive careful. Lucas had been amazed to find out about Bridger's driving. The guy was speed freak. Okay, he was a careful and skillful driver but he had a lead foot like nobody's business. They'd only been on the mainland for three weeks now and Bridger already had racked up his first speeding ticket.

He grinned as he remembered last week and Doctor Westphalen's introduction to Bridger's driving habits. They'd gone to the airport to pick her up. Thank God. Lucas hadn't been too sure how much more of Bridger he was going to be able to stand with the Doc in Hawaii and Bridger here in New Cape Quest. They'd been here in New Cape Quest for almost two weeks while the Doc was tied up getting her department moved from the old UEO headquarters to here at the new one... and it seemed that Bridger and Westphalen were developing a  ‘relationship'. They'd gotten really close during the Captain's Court of Inquiry. That was nice, Lucas thought, it gave the Captain someone he could talk to... well, when they were talking and not kissing... but finally, after two weeks apart, the Doc's flight had arrived and they'd gone to pick her up. After getting all her stuff... and boy, oh, boy, she had a lot of stuff... Bridger had started driving them over to the UEO Headquarters Bachelor Officers Quarters where the Doc was going to stay until she found a place of her own. Bridger and he had stayed there up until a week ago when they'd moved into the house that Bridger had bought and it was really a nice place... and the Doc would be close to her work until she managed to get settled in. So they'd headed for the BOQ. They'd left the airport, turned onto the highway and a small smile had come to Bridger's face as he saw the open road ahead of him. Maybe it was that he was stuck under the ocean for so long without being able to drive but Bridger sure made up for it when he hit land. The look on Westphalen's face as the speed of the car crept higher and higher was almost comical. Originally, she'd been talking to them but as the speed increased she went silent. Then her face got a concerned look... then it turned into a stony mask until finally she reached over and firmly put her hand around Bridger's upper arm.

"You need to slow down," she had said firmly.

"Oh, it's alright," Bridger had reassured her.

Lucas could see Westphalen's fingers close resolutely on Bridger's arm and his answering grimace of pain. "No, you need to slow down."

Bridger glanced across at her quickly and pulled his foot up off the gas pedal. "Uhhh... don't like speed, huh?"

"No."

"I think I'll remember that."

"Good idea."

Lucas had to admit that he'd felt better during the rest of the drive also. It was kind of fun driving fast with Bridger but it was scary too. The guy really had no concept of a speed limit. Lucas put away the now clean plate and glass and wandered out into the living room. Ten-thirty or eleven... that should put him home at about eleven or eleven-thirty. That would be good. More than enough time for him to get his beauty sleep before they headed off for the one p.m. ball game. Lucas grinned again. It was almost hard to believe that the Captain was actually taking a day off of work so that they could go to a ballgame. That's something his own Dad would never have done... and Lucas knew how busy Bridger was just now with the boat and all but it had been him who suggested the game. He said he needed a break... well, that both of them needed a break and should take a day off. Lucas picked up the book he was reading and snuggled down into the recliner. ‘Hornblower and the Hotspur' ...it was a pretty good book. That had been one of the first things that Bridger had added to the house. He started filling up the book shelves in the den with all the books he liked to read. Then he'd suggested one or two to Lucas and just to humor the guy, Lucas had given them a try. He smiled as he turned a page... he was three books into the Hornblower series and each book was better than the prior one. Lucas didn't figure that he'd read this much in his entire lifetime. At least not voluntarily.

Captain Nathan Bridger straightened up at his desk and stretched his arms. He was going to have to try to  remember to move around a little more often. His back was sore from bending over plans, his elbows were sore from leaning on the table so long and his head and eyes were sore from concentrating too much. He glanced quickly at his watch as he pushed away from the desk and stood up. Ten-fifteen. Even better than he'd planned. That should surprise Lucas.

Waving his goodnight to the duty officer at the front desk, Bridger walked to his car in the parking lot. One nice thing about this time of night was that there weren't many cars on the road. That should mean that he could pick the speed up a bit. He smiled as he rubbed his upper right arm and the reminder of Kristin's opinion about his little speed problem. The bruises from where she had grabbed his arm that first night she was here had just faded away. He pulled out of the base and slid easily into the light traffic. Well, he supposed there was one problem with the amount of traffic at this time of night. It gave the cops nothing else to look at except him going fast. Nathan considered his options and then decided that in light of the traffic ticket he'd managed to get week ago that he'd keep his speed somewhat in the reasonable range... not necessarily below the speed limit... just subsonic. Even with that it shouldn't take him long to get home. Maybe twenty or thirty minutes.

Nathan pulled his car over the small rise at the end of the driveway to the house and smiled as the lights of the car played across the beach house they'd just moved into. He sure had gotten lucky getting this one. The prior owner had decided that he needed to move into a place with less stairs and less up-keep so he'd put the house on the market on exactly the same day that he and Lucas started looking. This had only been the third house that the realty agent had brought them to but they'd known right away that this was it. Just perfect. Right on the water, on a barrier island, with a pier and a great view. Perfect. Then there was that front porch that extended the whole length of the waterfront side of the house. Nathan could spend hour after hour sitting out there enjoying the water or the stars. He was kind of looking forward to sitting up there with Kristin some too. That was as soon as he got some decent furniture for it. Right now all they had was a couple of beach chairs.

He turned off the car and got out. Stretching his back again as he walked Nathan was only momentarily aware of the rushing behind him before he was blind-side tackled. The blow on his back forced the air from his lungs and the weight of his attacker drove him into the ground, hard. Bridger started to try to spin the weight off of him but as he threw his hip over a dark shape loomed above him and a solid fist smashed into his jaw. Nathan kicked out and heard a grunt of pain as his foot made contact with something solid. He felt a body behind him and thrust his elbow back into it hearing a short curse from this guy. Four of them... it looked like there were four of them. If he could just take one or two out for a moment and get a little maneuvering room he'd be able to take care of them... or at least maybe make enough noise to alert Lucas.

The elbow had given him just a little room. One of them was still holding onto his stomach trying to catch his breath. Now to try for another. Bridger had managed to get to his knees and he butted his head up into the ribcage of the guy in front of him slamming him into his car. Then he felt the hands on his shoulders that picked him up and threw him back into the pilings of the house, momentarily taking his breath away. He almost got his feet underneath him... almost... before the fist attached to those huge hands that had picked him up connected with his stomach and caused him to double over. He doubled over only to be straightened back up again as his arms were grabbed by two of the attackers and pulled to either side of the piling at his back.

Bridger caught a quick glance at the guy in front of him and the grin on his face just before the huge fist caught him again on the side of the face... and then the other side... and then the first side again. That third time Bridger thought that his head might spin off. He steeled himself to get hit in the head again only to have the goon's attention shift to his stomach. He tried to kick out again or shift before the first blow but he was pulled too hard against the piling and nothing he could do was going to prevent the punches to his stomach. He heard his own moans from a distance as the pile-driver of this guy's fist smashed against his stomach and ribs. It felt like he was going to drive right through him and at one point he heard and clearly felt the cracking of at least one of his ribs.

Blow after blow rained down on Bridger until they all melded into one massive feeling of pain. Finally he felt the hands on his arms loosen and he sank to the ground moaning. He opened his eyes, well, the one that would open, as he heard the big guy say the first thing he'd heard from any of them besides moans when he managed to hit them.

"And now by request," the guy said and Bridger saw the foot start moving. He tried to roll or at least cover  himself and deflect the kick but the hard toed boot caught him right in the groin and Bridger stopped breathing for a moment as stars exploded in his head. After that Bridger didn't feel anything except pain. The pain from the kicks and the blows that continued past when he thankfully slipped into unconsciousness.

Lucas reached for his drink and frowned as he picked up the empty glass. He stood and headed into the kitchen and grabbing the milk container filled up his glass again. He glanced at the kitchen clock on his way out of the room. Ten-thirty. He grinned. Perfect time for a wake-up call for Bridger. Lucas crossed to the vid-phone and dialed Bridger's office number. After two rings the out of office notice came on much to Lucas' surprise. One of the options was to leave a message but one was to connect to the duty officer and Lucas punched the number for that option. The UEO logo on the screen was replaced by the smiling face of someone Lucas knew.

"UEO Duty Desk, HT2 Oakley, how may I help you?"

"Hey, Oakley, how's it going?"

"Lucas, my man. It's going good... only one more hour to the end of shift and I'm off for two. What can I do for ya?"

"Can you tell me if Captain Bridger has left yet? I'm getting a recording in his office."

"Yeah, he cut out of here about ten minutes ago. You should be seeing him any minute now."

Lucas smiled back at the man. "Thanks, Oakley, talk to you later," he said cutting the connection.

Thirty minutes later Lucas looked at his watch again. Frowning, he went back to his book, but he was restless.  After another ten minutes he sighed and looked at his watch again. Frowning again he got up and went to the vid-phone. He sat in front of it for a moment before finally reaching across and dialing a number.

Kristin Westphalen reached across and pressed the button on the vid-phone while still looking at her book. As it connected she glanced up at the screen and Lucas saw that she was awake and apparently reading a book.

"Lucas," she said surprised. "This is a rather late call," she said taking her reading glasses off.

"Hi, Doc. I was kind hoping that Captain Bridger was with you."

"No," she shook her head. "He hasn't been by here tonight." She saw the concerned look that crossed the boy's face. "Why?"

"Well, he left work over 45 minutes ago and he's still not home." Lucas look a bit embarrassed. "I guess I just got a little nervous."

"Did you try his cell phone?"

Lucas sighed and shook his head and looked a bit disgusted with himself. "No, hang on a second and let me try that." The screen went to a saver for a few moments before Lucas' face came back on with a perplexed look. "It says that the phone isn't operational."

"Not no answer?"

"No... what does that mean... 'not operational'?"

"Usually it means the phone is broken. It was working this afternoon because he called from the slipway." She sat up and put her book down. "You're at the house?"

"Yeah."

"Stay there, Lucas. I'll be there in fifteen minutes or so."

"Okay, Doc."

"I'm sure he's alright." Lucas smiled at her wanly as he cut the connection.

Kristin made good time between the base and the barrier island and it wasn't more than twenty minutes later that she pulled into the drive of the beach house. A relieved smile crossed her face as she saw Nathan's car parked in the drive and she casually headed into the house. She climbed the stairs to the porch and was met by Lucas just coming through the French doors.

"When did he get home?" she asked with a smile.

Lucas knitted his eyebrows in confusion. "He's not home."

"His car is in the drive."

"What!" Lucas exclaimed and they both turned to head back down the stairs with Lucas grabbing a flashlight on the way.

Kristin went up on the driver's side of the car and looked inside to see only an empty seat. Lucas had walked up on the passenger side and looked across the top of the car at her with a worried look. He turned on the flashlight which was pointed at the side of Bridger's car.

"Jesus!" he exclaimed backing away from the car and the blood that streaked down the side of it. Kristin rushed to his side and also stared for just a moment at the car before looking around. Lucas shined the light across the ground around the car finding more evidence of blood on the ground and the pilings of the house. His breathing picked up to the point of being close to panic as he ran the light around in a frantic search for Bridger. Kristin had moved beneath the house, in the middle of the pilings and he heard her softly strangled call.

"Lucas!"

He shined the light over to the direction where she was standing next to a bloody bundle. As he lit it up Lucas gasped as he realized that the bundle was Bridger, on his side, his khaki uniform soaked in the blood that flowed from his face and cuts on his body. Kristin knelt next to him and felt for a pulse. At her soft nod Lucas began to breath again. She reached up to him.

"Give me the flashlight and get an ambulance."

Lucas hastily thrust the flashlight in her hand and ran to the vid-phone. On his way back down he grabbed up a couple of towels they had left on the porch. "The ambulance and the police are on the way," he said as he knelt back down next to her. She was holding the flashlight under her chin as she tried to examine the Captain. "Do you want me to hold that?" Lucas said indicating the flashlight.

Kristin nodded and handed the light over to the boy. She gently checked his breathing and used the towels to cover some of the more serious cuts. "He's breathing alright so I don't want to move him until we can stabilize him properly."

"How long do you think he's been lying down here?" Lucas asked with a catch in his voice.

"Not long," she heard a siren approaching. "Not very long at all." She took the flashlight from him again. "Why don't you go to the end of the drive and flag down the ambulance?" Lucas nodded and headed down the drive.

Left alone with Nathan, Kristin softly stroked the side of his face. "Good God, why?" she whispered.

Lucas sat in the emergency room waiting area feeling more lost than he ever remembered feeling. His lips quivered and he stared at the floor as he recalled the way that Kristin and the paramedics had gently turned Bridger over onto the backboard where they secured his head and neck. The bruising and damage to Bridger's face was awful and worse was the paleness that was evident on him beneath the bruising. Lucas had never seen Bridger look pale... even after spending countless days in a submarine beneath the water Bridger had never looked pale... especially that kind of pale... that chalky, unhealthy pale. He was so fixed on his thoughts that he jumped when a hand came down to rest softly on his shoulder. Lucas looked up in surprise at the dark eyes that regarded him.

"You alright, Lucas?" Jonathan Ford asked softly. He watched the boy as he nodded. He looked like he might start crying any second. "How's he doing?"

Lucas shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. Doc's back there with him but no one's told me how he is yet." Lucas  blinked as a definite sheen covered his eyes.

Jonathan sat down next to the boy and slipped his arm around his shoulder. It felt kind of strange... this was usually something that Bridger did but Lucas really looked like he needed an arm around his shoulder right now.

"What happened?"

Lucas shrugged again. "I don't know," he repeated. "His wallet was gone and his watch and the necklace that the Doc gave him when he got cleared by the Court so the police think it was a mugging."

"You don't sound convinced."

"You should see him, sir. Someone... someone beat on him. They beat on him really bad... why would a mugger do that?"

"Maybe he fought back."

"Doc said he probably did. I think the reason he still had his Academy ring was that it looks like he broke a couple of fingers on that hand hitting someone."

Jonathan looked up as Kristin approached and then took the seat on the other side of Lucas. She took the boy's hand in hers and put her other hand on top of it. She looked up at those hopeful eyes and knew that she needed to be straight with the boy. "He's holding his own, Lucas. He's not out of the woods yet." She sighed at the stricken look on his face. "He's got a rather serious concussion and he's still unconscious but at this time the meta-scans are coming up normal." She sighed again and continued. "As for the other injuries, obviously he was beaten rather severely. He's got a broken cheek bone on the left side of his face, a couple of broken fingers, a cracked rib, some cuts and some rather serious bruising on his face and abdomen. His blood pressure is staying pretty stable so we don't think there's any serious internal bleeding."

"But he's going to be alright, isn't he?" Lucas asked hopefully.

"I think so," she saw relief flood the boy's face. "Until he wakes up they're going to hold him here in the ER. I'm going to go sit with him. Do you want to come?"

Lucas nodded and Kristin looked across at Jonathan who also nodded in understanding. "I'll be out here whenever you need me," he said.

Kristin smiled at him and led Lucas back into the treatment area. She stopped at the door to a trauma room to be sure he knew what was in store. "Lucas, remember that he's been beat up pretty bad and it's a little disturbing to look at him like this."

Lucas smiled a little and nodded. "I know... but it'll be worse not seeing him."

Kristin patted the boy on the shoulder and then opened the door for the boy. Lucas knew from seeing Bridger lying there on the ground under the house that it would be bad... but for some reason he figured that after the Captain had been in the emergency room and was cleaned up some perhaps the injuries wouldn't seem quite as serious. He slowly approached the bed where Bridger lay. Lucas hadn't counted on the fact that now he was out of the darkness and all of his injuries could be seen in all their glory. That and he hadn't thought about how the white bandages over the cuts would contrast to the angry deep purple and almost black bruising that covered so much of his body. The Captain was still pale, but not as pale as he'd been in the ambulance, but he still didn't  look good at all. Lucas blinked as he took in the monitors and tubes attached to Bridger and slowly sat down in the chair next to him putting his hand over Bridger's still one on the bed.

Kristin pulled up another chair next to the boy and gently put one hand on his shoulder. "It doesn't make sense, you know," Lucas said softly.

"What?"

The boy looked up at her. "The mugging... it doesn't make sense," he repeated.

"If it wasn't a mugging then what?"

"I don't know," he glanced back to Bridger's still form and shook his head. "I don't know."

Across the city three people met again in a small office. "That should put Bridger out of commission for at least a couple of weeks."

"Your boys didn't do any permanent damage, did they?" the woman asked.

The man smiled a humorless smile across at her. "The closest they got to doing permanent damage was when they kicked him in the nuts for you."

"And the police think it's a mugging?"

"Yup."

"Good," said the second man. "That should give us enough time."