When I come to remember that day – and I do… often – when I look back on that nightmare that was a part of my life and ask, could I have saved them? It breaks my heart to know that in all probability the answer is “no.” I allowed myself to be manipulated; acted out of fear, pride, arrogance… any one of a hundred other weaknesses.
My mistake – I forgot about the only person that truly has power over an individual; the only one whose mores and ideals really matter as we try to make the world a better and safer place for the lives we lead as individuals and the lives of others important to us.
My mistake was not that I didn’t trust in the team’s ability to have worked it all out and, no matter the odds, to have helped me – helped everyone – to come through it safely. I forgot to trust in myself.
If… as we try… to hold it all together when everything we know would come crashing down around us; when everyone we love is suddenly taken from us, we have to believe in ourselves; to trust ourselves and to hold fast to our ideals.
Know yourself and be true to who you are.
NORTHWEST MEMORIAL HOSPITAL – 5.17pm June 7th
He caught her arm as she virtually ran past them in the corridor. She slid to a halt and he watched her pass her eyes over the front of Jake’s shirt, stained with Saran’s blood. He’d refused the clean scrubs they’d offered him.
“How is she?” she fired the question at him as she tore her eyes away from Jake, “How’s Donovan?”
He sighed and closed his eyes.
“What?” she demanded. “Cody, what?”
“She didn’t make it.” Jake said flatly.
“What?” she whispered, barely able to voice the word.
“She died in the ambulance. They couldn’t resuscitate her,” he said, finally opening his eyes and looking up at Monica.
“Aleth—”
“They killed her too,” Cody said, fighting tears himself. “Broke her neck.”
“Crime scene investigators figure Saran was shot trying to defend their daughter,” Jake added, peeling himself away from the wall. “She took all nine rounds…”
“God, Jake,” Monica took a step back, and Cody watched as conflicting emotions fought for expression on her face. “She was… she was just fine when—”
“Don’t you go blaming yourself for this, Monica,” he said. “This was not your fault. This was cold, and calculated, and meant to punish Donovan for getting too close.”
“The slugs match standard government issue firearms.” Jake said. “Chicago PD wants our weapons, on the advice of the FBI SAC.”
“They can’t think we—” Monica looked as though she was going to hit someone. “Who the hell?”
“Straight from Bloom’s office,” Cody told her.
“And you can guess who’s pulling his strings,” she said. “How is Donovan?”
Cody shook his head.
“You contacted Alex yet? Pulled her in?” she asked.
“I was all set to. He told me not.”
“He can’t possibly keep this case active; ongoing at a time like—”
“Actually he threatened to fire me if I did… Monica,” Cody said, “so yeah. He is.”
“I should talk to him,” she started to turn from them.
“I shouldn’t if I were you,” Jake caught her arm. “You do not want to get caught up in that shitstorm.”
She shook off his arm. “Jake, it’s my job to advise…” she broke off as Donovan came out of the room at the end of the hall and started toward them, walking stiffly, as if holding himself in check.
“Eight am, Agents. My office. Tomorrow morning,” he said, and moved to continue along the hall.
“Donovan,” Monica called after him. Cody looked down again and sighed, “Frank, wait!”
Donovan stopped walking and turned slowly.
“I know what you’re going to say, Monica,” he said, his jaw tight, “and you can save it. Now… and only now… can we crack this case.”
His nostrils flared as he fought for control of his voice that wavered as he spoke. Cody looked up and stood straighter as though doing so could somehow lend Donovan his strength.
“You think I don’t want justice for Saran and ‘Thea?” He started to come back towards them, advancing on Monica. Cody almost moved… almost… to put himself between his fellow agent and their boss. “That I would give up on this case, and any chance of getting that?”
“Donovan,” Monica tried again, “I just think—”
“You’re damn right I’m too close to this case,” he said, cutting her off. “But I will crack this – and take these bastards down and you can either help me…”
Cody exchanged glances with Jake. The expression on Donovan’s face was one of contained fury that he knew was covering the grief. When he spoke again, Donovan’s voice was low, and dangerous.
“…or keep the hell out of my way.”
“Donovan,” Cody said softly, and met the man’s eyes when Frank snapped his head around to look in his direction. “Let me drive you…”
But where? Where the hell would Donovan go after something like this?
Donovan nodded and said, “Home, Cody. I’m going h-ome.”
**
RESIDENCE – FRANK DONOVAN: 2.06am June 8th
He stood in the doorway of the room, illuminated only by the light filtering in through the open drapes from the street lamps outside, staring alternately at the dark stain on the carpet and the wreckage of the bed, still upended against the wall.
Memories of the terrible discovery held him immobile… Jake’s voice, calling to Cody to keep him out of the room… being held against the wall, struggling with his tech-op to get to his wife’s side… finally freed, and picking up the shattered headboard of the bed to find his daughter trapped – not breathing… her tiny body still against his – her little hands cold against his neck… head of the investigative team all but telling him the killing had been, if not by a government agent, then at least sanctioned by one…
He had a pretty good idea who. The man had been careless and the sharp minds in his team; the sharpest mind – his tech-op – had not missed the common thread. He though about the hesitant conversation in which Cody had disclosed the information, knowing what it had cost the man to discover it.
“Donovan, you got a minute?”
He looked intently at Cody, searching his eyes for clues to what it might be that he felt he could not say in front of the others. He knew this case had been hard on the Tech-op, and for that he felt responsible. He frowned at that thought and nodded.
“Walk with me,” he said and moved away from the other agents at Cody’s side.
“I erm,” Cody started sheepishly, “I was going through some stuff looking for leads…” Then the man sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I should maybe start at the beginning.”
“It’s all right, Cody,” he said softly, reassuringly, “Whatever it is, you can talk to me, you know that.”
“I know it’s just... some of it is personal, you know? Michelle…” The wiry man trailed off, and fidgeted slightly.
“After what I know about you and Michelle…? Cody what could be personal any more?”
“Just let me start at the beginning, Donovan,” he insisted.
Frank nodded. “All right,” he said and crossing one arm over his chest, the other resting against it with the side of his thumb against his mouth he leaned slightly toward Cody, listening intently.
“Leggett came to me supposedly with compensation for the things I’ve been through in this case; a sealed envelope. I believed it was supposed to distract me from the case, but he practically gave me the key to crack the encryption on your file.” Cody sighed, “Then when Monica gave us the briefing on Walsh she mentioned the R-99 coding that had gotten him out on parole. I didn’t think anything about it at the time, but when I got home – you know what I’m like – my mind wouldn’t stop chewing around on it. I started trying to figure out who would have authorised a thing like that. At first I worried that it might have been you, I mean… You have R99 clearance…”
“Cody why would I do a thing like that?” he asked, frowning darkly.
“No… I know it wasn’t you. Let me finish.”
Donovan nodded again, still frowning, his own mind going over what he knew, trying to put the pieces together himself.
“It made me go back and look at what was inside that envelope. Leggett had given me a copy of her medical records from the women’s clinic where she’d had the abortion. I was… damn sure at that point that it was a distraction… God it hurt…”
He reached out and put a hand onto his agent’s shoulder, leaning down a little to look into the man’s face as Cody looked down, trying to grab a hold of his emotions. There was something else. He could see it in the tortured expression in Cody’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, Cody,” he said softly.
Cody shook his head, but didn’t say anything for several more moments. When he did, the revelation hit him – hard.
“I was about to put it away when I spotted the government HMO coding,” he paused again, and cleared his throat before saying, “and to make a long story very short, once I cracked through the file classification, I found out she was with the Company. Low rank, but she was CIA… and the agent that had classified her file was an R99 agent. The same one that had gotten Walsh out of jail; authorised the swoop on your house; the raid on the Crib and my arrest – X207. I think you’ll know that number.”
His blood almost stopped flowing as Cody handed him an envelope, explaining that he’d made copies of all the evidence he had to support his findings. He did know that number. He knew it very well…
The face of the man to whom X207 belonged swam before his eyes, his weapon raised, aimed at Saran as she put herself between the man and ‘Thea. Hate twisted in his gut, bubbled over into fury and finally exploded through his whole body.
He turned slightly to face the dresser beside the door and with a growling cry upended the heavy piece of furniture without effort. Snatching up the straight backed chair he brought it down repeatedly against the back of the dresser until it shattered into kindling in his hands. Throwing it aside he advanced on the full length mirror and mindless of his hands, punched hard against the glass until it splintered in spider-web cracks, at which he snatched it from its stand and threw it with all his strength toward the far wall, where it shattered completely, scattering shards of glass over the floor to wink at him from the carpet stained with the blood of the woman he’d loved. He kicked at it… kicked at the upturned mattress, the ruined bed frame… kept on kicking until the wood cracked, until his legs and feet ached… until his balance faltered in exhaustion and he dropped gracelessly to the floor.
There beneath the wreckage of his marital bed the edge of a crocheted blanket caught his eye. Snatching at it with hands bloodied from his assault on the mirror he pulled with all of his remaining strength to get it free, almost bringing the remains of the bed down on top of his head, until he could hold it close, breathe in deeply of the scent still lingering on the fibres… the clean, slightly milky scent of his daughter.
He tried to say her name, but all that came to his lips was a wrenching sob that came from deep in his gut, so painful it shook the whole of his body. Another followed, and another, each one more desperate, more wretched, until there was nothing left of him but the pain and the tears and the caress of the blanket that had comforted ‘Thea through everything when he could not. Awareness of everything else became meaningless and finally disappeared completely as exhaustion and emotion dragged him down to oblivion.
**
RESIDENCE – CODY FAULKNER: 3.35am
His hand groped for the light switch as the insistent sound finally broke through into his sleep. He sat up and looked at his watch, and then at the alarm clock on the night stand. The insistent ringing continued and finally he got out of bed and padded to the phone in the living room.
“Cody, listen,” Jake’s voice on the other end of the phone didn’t bother with preliminaries, and held an urgency that woke him immediately. “Nova called me – some kind of situation – said he needs me. I’m en route now. Tell Donovan—”
“Jake,” Cody warned. “I’m not so sure this is a good idea.”
“If we still want this cover I don’t have a choice.” Jake told him.
“You’re not kitted out,” he said, still trying to dissuade his fellow agent from going U/C until they knew more about what they were dealing with.
“I’ll be in touch when I can,” Jake’s voice had a kind of resigned finality to it that told Cody he was about to hang up.
“Jake…” he tried and again, “Jake!” but all he got in answer was the buzz of the dial tone in his ear.
“Damn it,” he said, almost hissing the words and looking skyward added, “Tell me something else that could go wrong.”
**
NOVA-LUCAS TECHNOLOGIES: 7.49am
Alex draped herself as languorously as she could across Nova’s shoulders as she reached to pour coffee into his almost empty cup. She figured that as long as she could keep him distracted, ply him with coffee and sweets, the longer she’d stay free of his advances. She was getting herself quite the reputation from the reports the clients he gave her to were sending him and he was starting to seem curious about her himself. Of course those reports had all been clever computer generated forgeries created by Cody, as all of the clients she’d left handcuffed to hotel beds for the team to pick up – take in for questioning, but still… a reputation, it seemed, was a reputation with this man, and he seemed increasingly anxious to sample his own product.
The video screen in the conference room came to life and it took all the years experience she had as an undercover agent to prevent her from reacting to the face that came onto the screen, though her mind raced through millions of possibilities in a single instant, including one she wanted very much to dismiss, but which sang the loudest in her mind.
“That’s quite the decoration you have there, Madeira.” The man on the screen smiled and nodded his head in her direction.
“She’s quite the beauty isn’t she?” Nova chuckled and ran fingers along her arm, caressing her. Alex tried very hard not to shudder. “And quite talented too, so I’m led to believe, though I have yet to sample that pleasure for myself.”
“Oh, she’s very talented, I’m sure.” The face on the video screen stopped smiling and added, “You know, of course, that she’s a Federal Agent?”
Cold twisted in Alex’ belly as every undercover agent’s worst nightmare played out in front of her. He mind raced through the options open to her. Run…? She wouldn’t get far through Nova’s security. Hope that Cody was in early, had heard that and was even now mobilising SWAT to come in and effect an immediate takedown – get her out? She doubted that would happen and even if it did it would still take time to organise, and between then and now she would be on her own. Bluff…? It might work for a while, but she doubted that she’d be able to convince Nova for long, particularly if she continued to avoid his advances, and she had no intention of allowing him to get more than a whiff of the perfume she was wearing behind her ears. No… it seemed she had no choice but to tough it out until the team reviewed the tape and could get someone in to get her out, takedown or not.
She started to try and stand up, but Nova closed his hand around her wrist, and scuffling with him now would only weaken her position, but he held her pinned and she couldn’t reach the small weapon she had fitted to the inside of her boot. She was at a distinct disadvantage. She held her breath waiting to see what would happen; what Nova would do, or say to the man in the video link.
“Of course,” Nova purred, but he was lying. Alex could feel the tension in his back and shoulders and in the way he tightly gripped her wrist.
The man on screen nodded, “I have the documents you need and the authorisation codes.” He held up a small black briefcase for Nova to see. “I can bring them to you… say… within the hour?”
“Wait on that, my friend,” Nova smiled coldly. “I have a busy morning, and I’m sure that a lunch time meeting would be more beneficial to all of us.”
“But—”
“Do not seek to change our relationship now, Mr Government-Agent,” Nova warned, then he smiled, it was a sickly smile, “Besides, I need some time to deal with my little… domestic problem.”
“Lunch time then,” the man sighed.
“Excellent,” Nova said, and killed the video conference link.
Finally he let go of Alex and she backed up and drew the gun from her boot, and levelled it at Nova’s head. The door burst inward and four henchmen, all bearing weapons pointed in her direction, stopped just inside the door. It was only then she realised that as he stood he had pushed the panic button.
“Drop your weapons or he dies,” she said harshly.
“Oh, I don’t think so, Ms…?” Nova purred, and when she did not give him her name continued, “Besides the fact that you’re a Federal Agent and it’s against the law to kill and unarmed man…” he spread his arms to the side, “Do you really believe that you could shoot me and not expect my men to open fire in return? Yes, you might kill me, but you too would be dead, and you do not strike me as the kind to invite that kind of fate.”
He gestured to his henchmen and two of them moved forward in her direction, their weapons still pointing at her head. Momentarily she shifted her aim to the men advancing on her, before backing up a little and returning the focus of her weapon to Nova.
“Back off,” she ordered the men, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice, “I mean it!”
The men kept coming.
For a moment her finger tightened on the trigger, but in that moment everything flashed before her eyes… her life, the people in her life and those that had been… she was not ready to give that up. She was not ready to die.
The cold of metal pressed against her temple and hands closed around hers. She let them take her weapon and stood still, defiantly staring at Nova.
“A wise choice,” he told her calmly. Then to his henchmen he said, “Take her upstairs. Find their listening and tracking devices and then find out what they know.”
The cold barrel of the gun left her temple, but in the next instant pain erupted beside her ear none the less, and her vision faded to the black of unconsciousness.
**
UC CRIB: 8.06am
“Damn it, Donovan, you knew,” she accused, “We have to go in there, and we have to go in now. Where the hell is Cody?”
Donovan caught her arm as she started to pace toward the intercom. She stared at his hand on her arm for a moment then up into his face, searching for any sign of something that could give her cause to order him from duty – from command. She saw nothing. Yes, his eyes were red rimmed, either from lack of sleep or from weeping – probably both, and there were Band-Aids plastered across the knuckles of the hand that held her arm, but his expression was rational, even calculating… and he was calm, which she thought, in that moment, put him in better shape than she was.
“Monica, listen to me,” he said in a low, commanding voice. “We can go in there now, arrest Nova and his men and shut down the arms production, but if we do that without the evidence to take down the government insider as well, we might as well just package up the weapons in nice fancy Christmas paper and send them to Eastern Europe courtesy of the
“But Alex…”
“I won’t pretend this isn’t a calculated risk, Monica, but Jake is in there somewhere, and they both of them know the risks they take every time they agree to go undercover.” He let go of her arm as he spoke. “We have to trust them to keep their eyes open for any possible mean of escape they can… any way they can help each other to be safe.”
The computer bleeped, and she turned her head to see what was coming up on the terminal screen. What she saw made her leap for the keyboard.
“No!” Donovan grabbed a hold of her again, and swung her away from the terminal access.
“But he’s deleting the files.”
Donovan held her pinned against the desk, his hand open, fingers spread against her upper chest. “No, he thinks he’s deleting the files and covering his tracks. Cody has everything running through a second backup relay in the operations van. All he’s doing is incriminating himself as he’s done all along.”
“Then why can’t we go in and get Alex and Jake out of there?” She pushed him away in frustration.
“Think about it, Monica. What do we know? What do we need?”
She took a deep breath, forcing her analytical mind to calm itself against the panic and worry for her friends. “We need incontrovertible evidence that this rogue agent is involved in the arms trafficking. We need the nuclear activation codes he’s taking to Nova. We need the evidence that General Scirocco knew about what was going on from the beginning and was encouraging Nova in order to get approval to send troops into Eastern Europe, and we need the files detailing shipments, transactions and destinations for all of the consignments of arms.”
Donovan nodded slowly. “And that’s why I’m sending Cody in to get them.”
Monica rounded on him in shocked anger once more, “You can’t do that.”
“I have no choice,” he told her with a note of true regret in his voice, “The files we need are kept on a dedicated system, and it’s not linked to the mainframe, so there’s no remote access.”
“But Cody—”
“Cody what?” Cody asked as he came into the room.
“I’m going to need you to get the files from Nova’s computer,” Donovan said.
Cody shrugged, “Okay,” he said brightly… and it was clear to Monica that he did not understand quite what Donovan meant. She was about to open her mouth to spell it out to him, when Frank caught her eyes in a warning stare. Something about the way he looked at her stopped her from speaking.
“Monica, I need to see you in my office,” he said simply, and started for the stairs. Without knowing why, she followed rather than staying to explain to Cody that he was about to be sent into a hostile situation.
**
FRANK DONOVAN’S OFFICE: 8.25am
“I can’t believe you’re planning all of this without letting him know just what you mean,” she said accusingly as soon as he closed the door behind her. She pointed out of the window down to where Cody was sitting at the computers, working. “He’s not an undercover agent, Donovan, he’s a technician. His expertise is not out in the field.”
“He is the only one that can do what needs to be done,” he said running a hand through his hair, frustrated by her obstinacy. “You think I’d send him into danger otherwise?”
“Quite frankly,” she snapped at him turning her back and walking away a few paces before swinging round to face him again, “right about now I’m not sure what you’d do. I think you’re angry, and grieving and I think you’re letting that grief drive you to getting revenge on this man no matter what... or more to the point who that might cost.”
“You are wrong,” he told her. Her accusation smacked of a loss of trust in him, and that hurt more than he could articulate, so he just let the hurt colour his voice.
“Then what, Donovan?” she almost implored him to answer.
Donovan took a deep breath and looked at her for a long time before he said softly, “He was the one that came to me with this; that worked it all out and in the course of doing that he found out things… things that a man shouldn’t ever know.”
She crossed her arms and stood with one hip cocked to the side as she raised her eyebrow. It was a posture she used often when she wasn’t convinced and he knew then that in order to make her understand he’d have to betray Cody’s confidence.
“Just after I joined the team Cody got involved with a woman called Michelle.”
“I know about Michelle,” she said, puzzlement in her voice. “She was perfect for him. We all thought they’d get married. Never understood why they split up.”
“CIA,” he said softly.
“No way!” she almost visibly rocked back on her heels. “And he found out about that?”
“She was sent undercover into a relationship with the one man that could keep them informed about every single move I made. That’s how long this has been going on.”
“But he found out, right? Blew her off…?”
Donovan shook his head, “It’s worse than that, Monica.” He stopped speaking for a long time, turning over in his mind the things he knew that Cody wanted… needed to keep private, but without which his profiler would not have the information she needed to see why the takedown of this case had to proceed as it did. He had to give full disclosure. He continued softly, “She got pregnant and quite obviously that was further than she was prepared to go for the sake of an undercover operation. She waited until we were out of town on a case and had an abortion. Somehow, he found out about that and Monica he… totally. Lost. The plot.” He sighed. “I got a call from the Chicago PD. He’d gone out… gotten drunk… damaged property… waving his gun around and… other things that I won’t go into because it’s not fair to Cody.”
She nodded, listening attentively now. “Did you know what she was?”
He shook his head, “Not then – not until Cody brought me the evidence the other day. We ran her of course. We run anyone that any of you get involved with in more than a casual way. It came back clean. Dental technician working in a downtown office, no criminal record, expired moving traffic violation, speeding as I recall, but nothing at all to suggest she was anything other than she said she was.”
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t want to lose my tech-op, and some of the charges they were laying against him would have finished him in the bureau so I strong-armed the cops. Told them it was all part of an ongoing U/C sting and used my clearance to get the charges dropped and completely expunge his record of even the arrest.”
“I had no idea,” she said softly.
“Cody wanted it that way. Took bereavement counselling outside the bureau for the loss of his child – a daughter as it turns out it would have been and everything got buried, forgotten until Leggett brought him Michelle’s medical records from the women’s clinic that did the termination.”
“The envelope…?”
“Yep,” he said, his voice clipped. “It was a mistake. You know Cody doesn’t miss things that easily and he was investigating the R99 that got Walsh out; saw the insurance admission coding and… followed the paper trail. The same man that set all this up; the man we need to take down in all of this… is the one that sent Michelle to Cody. He needs closure in this as much as I do… as much as the
“Holy crap!” she sat down and looked up at him.
“So…” he said quietly, turning his mind back to the business in hand, “We have work to do.”
“Just promise me one thing, Donovan,” she said and he cocked his eyebrow waiting for her to tell him what that thing was. “If he feels uncomfortable with this, we’ll find another way.”
Wordlessly, he nodded. He knew it wouldn’t come to that.
**
NOVA-LUCAS TECHNOLOGIES: 10.55am
“Jacob, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you.”
Jake tried not to jump away from the office door as he heard Nova’s voice behind him. He turned round and fixed what he hoped was a rather helpless and sheepish smile on his face.
“You have caught me,” she said, trying to sound embarrassed. “I was looking for the secretary.” He sidled up to Nova and nudged his arm in a conspiratorial and suggestive way, “She is pretty, no?”
“You will have time for secretaries later,” Nova laughed, “At the moment I need you to… run an errand for me.”
Jake gave him an interested look and then took the bag that Nova held out to him.
“A business associate of mine is staying at the Sheraton Hotel, room three-oh-five… We’re meeting for lunch and while he’s here I want you to… take the bag to his hotel room. Leave it in his closet. Max will go with you.”
“A simple delivery and I need a minder?” Jake frowned.
“Today is a big day for me, Jacob. I wouldn’t like anything to happen to you.” Nova raised an eyebrow, and the look on his face told Jake that he shouldn’t push his luck. Instead he nodded.
“All right,” he said. “I will go and find Max.”
**
UC CRIB: 11.06am
Frank Donovan looked up as Monica came back into the room and nodded to him. Both of them looked over at Cody. The tech-op was fidgeting in his seat, restless, nervous.
“Cody,” he sighed, “you can still—”
“Forget it, Donovan. You and I both know that we don’t have that option.” Cody turned the chair around so that his back was to the computer screens and he was facing them.
He levelled him with a steady and searching look and finally satisfied that Cody was resolved to do whatever had to be done, he nodded, though he still added, “All right, but if it gets too much… If at any time you feel insecure in what you’re called upon to do, Cody, you get out… right out and we’ll send in SWAT. It will be messier, but—”
“I’m fine,” Cody said, and got up to pace.
“And a bad liar,” Donovan told him, watching him for a moment or two before nodding to Monica to take up the narrative.
“Based on what we know,” she said, “you’ll have about eight minutes to—”
“Whoa!” Cody interrupted, rounding on the woman, “about eight minutes? What’s that – seven minutes and forty seconds or seven minutes fifty seven? It makes a big difference. In twenty seconds I can draw my gun and fire off a few rounds. In three—”
“Sorry, Cody, that’s as precise as we can be,” she said.
Cody sighed, and looked down. Donovan watched the breathing slow as the other man took steps to calm himself. After a while he looked up again and said, “So, eight minutes to…?”
“Get in, establish Alex’ location, make contact with Jake and download the files.”
“In eight minutes?” Cody’s voice squeaked, “Are you out of your—”
“Cody,” Frank called his name.
The tech-op sighed and turned an apologetic look Monica’s way. She shrugged. Donovan was aware she knew they were cutting it fine. She’d told him as much. Quickly he took over the explanation.
“You’ll be going in as a system’s engineer. It’s the only way we can get you in and you’ll be wearing coveralls, so that you can wear a vest. But it will – and Cody listen to this and pay attention – it won’t be a full vest and it won’t protect you against automatic weapon’s fire for more than a couple of seconds.”
“I got it,” Cody told him.
“Anything looks like it might happen; it looks like it might go bad – you pull out… and I’m not hearing argument on that,” he said.
“Ear piece?” Cody asked.
“And mic… in the case.”
Cody nodded, appearing comforted by that. He himself was more comfortable knowing that they would be able to maintain contact with Cody.
“Anything else I should know?”
“You’re not going in there to be a hero, Cody. You job’s to find out where they’re holding Alex, find Jake, download those files and then get out. Let the retrieval team handle it from there.”
“I have no intention of trying heroics, believe me,” he said. “I’ll find her though, I—”
Donovan put a hand on Cody’s arm. He didn’t need to say any more. “I know.”
Cody nodded, and then Donovan led him to study the building schematics… the three of them working together to find the best way to achieve the desired results.
**
SHERATON HOTEL: 12.42pm
Jake put the bag down carefully into the closet and glanced over his shoulder to check that Max was not watching before he opened up the bag to look inside. He had no doubt as to what he would find, but it would help the bomb squad if he could tell them exactly what type of device and more importantly, if he could ascertain what time the device was set to go off.
Obviously Nova didn’t want his ‘business associate’ to be around to tell the tale. He figured there was enough C4 in the bag to take down the entire building, not just to take out one man. But how could Nova be sure that, whoever this man was, he would be in the hotel room at the time of the explosion.
Realisation dawned on him as a cold knot forming in the pit of his stomach, leaving him feeling weak and sick. He meant to use Alex. He had to find a way to get rid of Max and warn the others without blowing his cover.
**
UC CRIB: 12.43pm
Frank came down the stairs after taking the call in his office. He came straight to where the others were watching the live feed that was coming in from the on site operations van.
“It’s now or never, Cody,” he said, “We have to go.”
Cody got up from his seat, wiping his hands on the legs of his pants. To anyone who didn’t know him he would have looked collected, but his eyes betrayed his nervousness, and he knew Monica would see it as well as he had.
“You know you don’t have to do this, right?” she said predictably and put a hand onto Cody’s shoulder as she too got to her feet.
Cody shook his head, “She saved our ass out there more times than I can remember, Monica. She’s a friend. I have to,” he said.
“Cody,” Donovan called him over to the door and to the unmarked car that was waiting outside. Before he came to join him, Cody took out his weapon and checked the breach.
**
SHERATON HOTEL: 12.44pm
Jake got to his feet and turned around, ready to leave. He’d decided a trip to the bathroom on the way to the car would give him cover enough to at least get a message to Cody. He trusted his fellow agent to take it from there.
He stopped dead as he found himself staring down the barrel of Max’s gun as he stood up.
“Hey,” he put a puzzled frown on his face, trying a bluff, “this is no time to play games.”
“You can drop the act, Fed.” Max said, pulling back the hammer on his weapon.
Slowly… carefully, he raised his hands… waiting for his moment, breathing slowly to keep his cool. It would come.
“Okay,” he said softly, “But put down the gun, huh? You know as well as I do that there’s enough C4 in that bag to blow the whole block into the middle of next week, and with a home-made detonator? Come on. It only takes… what… a hot shell casing… a through and through and…” He shrugged and shook his head to indicate what he meant. “Maybe I stumble back and… knock into it…?”
Max’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, but there was worry too.
“We can both still walk out of here,” Jake told him, using as soothing a voice as he could.
“Get on your knees, Jacob… if that’s even your name.”
“It’s Jake,” he said. “And you don’t have to do this…”
“I said get down!”
With what he hoped would pass for a defeated sigh, Jake started to lower himself, crouching a little as he appeared to be following Max’s instructions. He didn’t have a choice. He had to act now, if he got to his knees, he’d lost.
As soon as he’d coiled himself enough, tensed the muscles in his leading leg ready to give himself the momentum he’d need he exploded in motion. He’d only get one chance. He lowered his head and barrelled toward Max’s chest.
Max grunted as his head connected with his sternum, Jake hooked his leg around the back of Max’s feet and let the momentum overbalance them both. Max fired, but the shot went high over Jake’s bent spine, the trajectory of the bullet toward the ceiling as both men began to fall.
Without giving the other man a chance to recover, he smashed his elbow against the side of his head, his other hand reaching to grasp the wrist of the hand holding the gun and slam it repeatedly into the ground. He ignored the pain of the punches that were landing again and again against his side and his kidneys. He kept his weight pinning Max beneath him as much as he could, as Max bucked and writhed to get free.
Again he brought his elbow up against the side of the other man’s head, hoping to stun him. This was a fight that, as low and dirty as it was, he could not afford to lose.
**
U/C OPERATIONS VAN: 12.57pm
Frank ran ahead of him toward the non-descript van parked at the side of the building in the block opposite the manufacturing plant and Monica followed behind. Inside the van the SWAT commander stood stiff backed, watching the monitors. He turned as they entered, and Donovan nodded to him.
“What do we have?” Donovan asked, in command of the situation as soon as they entered. Monica squeezed Cody’s arm as she passed him and slipped into her usual seat.
“Same as when I called you,” the commander answered, “Two in the stairwell, one in the main lobby, we’re not sure about the basement – boiler could be masking the heat signatures, but there’s someone on the roof. This is in addition to the usual personnel of course.”
The man finally nodded a greeting to him and Cody answered with a quiet, “Hey.”
“Waiting for a chopper?” Donovan asked the man about the men on the rooftop.
The SWAT commander shrugged and instead asked, “This your guy?”
Donovan nodded. “Cody this is Alan Mitkin, Alan, Cody. Usually my tech-op, but…”
“Pleased to meet you, Cody,” the man held out his hand and Cody took it in a firm handshake.
“Sure,” he said.
“You’ve been briefed, I hope.” When he nodded the commander continued, “Good. It’s going to be tougher than we originally thought. You okay with that?”
Cody exchanged a glance with Donovan.
The commander continued, “If you’re not—”
His cool finally snapped. “I’m fine!” he knew he sounded far from fine. He knew he sounded irritated – well that was just as well because right at that moment he felt irritated, “Would everyone please stop! Stop assuming that just because I spend the majority of my time sitting in front of that computer—” He ended up pointed at his usual seat without even looking to see if it was the right place.
“No one is assuming anything, Cody,” Donovan interrupted smoothly.
He sighed and turned his attention back to the commander to ask, “So it’s more difficult. What’s changed, aside from the additional personnel?”
“The additional personnel mean you’re going to have to go in through the main entrance rather than the rear stairwell as we’d originally intended. Anything else will arouse too much suspicion,” the commander said.
“And I’m to get past internal security how?” Cody turned to his boss and added, “You know… you wanted covert, you could just have given me the chance to plan this myself. The system in there is—”
“We’re well aware of that,” Donovan interrupted, “but it won’t be an issue. You’ll be given a diversion. Just… slip through in the cover.”
“What cover?” he asked.
“We’re calling in a bomb threat,” the SWAT commander said.
Cody threw up his arms, on edge this was getting close to the last straw. “And leave me fighting through people trying to get out.” Again he rounded on Frank, “Donovan… eight minutes… four hundred and eighty seconds… doesn’t leave me long to hack into the system, find Alex, contact Jake…”
“Leave Jake to us,” Donovan told him. “Alex is your priority now.”
“Find your agent, download your files and get out,” the commander repeated.
After a moment he nodded, taking a deep breath to try and compose himself. He jumped when a knock came at the doors of the van.
“That’s your cue,” Donovan said, handing him a vest. “Quick as you can.”
Still breathing deeply all the while, he changed quickly into the white coveralls, the vest beneath them. It felt bulky and obvious to him… uncomfortable… but better than going in without.
“Okay,” he said at last, tilting his head to settle the tiny earpiece into place after Monica had gently inserted it. “Let’s do this thing.”
**
SHERATON HOTEL: 1.07pm
Jake delivered another elbow-smash to Max’s temple and finally felt the man go limp beneath him… stunned but not unconscious. He raised himself enough to turn the man onto his stomach and pin his arms behind him and was just reaching for the man’s lost gun when the door exploded inward.
“Federal Agent!” he yelled as the police also yelled at him.
“On your knees, hands behind your head!”
He obeyed, of course he did, but added, “My wallet, back pocket… check my ID. I’m a Federal Agent.”
While his partner covered him, one of the police officers reached into Jake’s back pocket and pulled out his ID. After only a moment he handed it back and helped him to his feet. “Sorry, Agent Shaw,” he said.
Jake shook his head, understanding and not having time to stand around debating the finer points of police procedure. “Cuff this guy and then clear the hotel. There’s a holdall in the closet filled with C4 on a rigged detonator. You might want to call the bomb squad.”
“You might want to get yourself across town,” the officer answered, “Or at least call your SAC. SWAT was just given a standby on a takedown to get an agent by your name out of Nova-Lucas Technologies.”
Without thanking the officer, Jake set off at a run, pulling out his cell phone as he went.
**
NOVA-LUCAS TECHNOLOGIES: 1.15pm
“Okay,” Cody said quietly to himself as he pulled open the heavy front door of the office building, “Call me paranoid, but… tell me you guys are hearing me okay?”
“We’re right with you, Cody. Just keep your head. You know the schematics.” Donovan’s voice sounded in his ear, and for the first time he started to appreciate how Jake and Alex must feel.
He didn’t have time to ponder it further, because he reached the front desk and the receptionist, a bored looking man in glasses and an tie that didn’t really go with the shirt he was wearing asked, “May I help you, sir?”
He pulled off his clipped-on ID and tossed it onto the high reception desk for the man to pick up and examine as he said, “We were told they had a problem and they sent me. Servers at this time of the day is not my idea of a good time.”
The man checked his list and looked up at him with a frown. “They haven’t left any—”
With an irritated sigh, Cody snatched back the ID. “Fine!” he said, “I’ll just go back to the office and let you wait until it falls over completely and—”
The man evidently understood the implications of this and said quickly. “No… no… It’s all right… um… top floor and—”
“Thank you,” He took the elevator key the man handed to him. “I know where it is.”
As he turned around, he made sure the camera in the case got a good look at the lobby and then he headed for the elevator. Once inside he breathed a sigh of relief and slumped against the wall.
“Easy, Cody,” Monica’s voice in his ear sounded more than welcome in that moment, “You’re doing just great.”
Before long the doors slid open, giving him a good view of the mess of people between him and his destination. Many of them were obviously the ‘hired help.’
“Donovan…” he hissed.
“Making the call now, standby.”
He knew that if he didn’t move he’d start to look suspicious, so trying to look as though he was exactly where he was supposed to be, he started down the corridor. His eyes actually filled with tears when the alarms started to sound… a coded ring… one long, one short.
Technicians in booths, secretaries in glass offices and the goons on the floor all started to exchange confused, then worried glances. Some reached into drawers and lockers to snatch up purses and bags, but it wasn’t long before Cody found himself brushing past people all moving in the opposite direction than he was heading.
It was chaotic… almost frantic as everyone scurried ant-like toward the nearest stairwell, and under cover of the confusion cause by workers who obviously were way overdue for any kind of evacuation drill, he slipped easily in to the main computer room and stopped, calmed by the air conditioned cool and carefully designed acoustic quiet. From where he stood he had a good view of the security booth, surrounded by the banks of monitors. His calm evaporated in a second.
“Oh shit!” he gasped.
**
U/C OPERATIONS VAN: 1.35pm
“Talk to me, Cody,” Frank leaned toward the monitor, trying to see if the camera in the case would show him what had so alarmed his agent.
“That contingency plan you assured me you have? You better—”
The monitors showed him nothing. “I said talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“Alex is on the roof… there are two – no three men with her. She looks hurt.”
The image on his screen suddenly twisted and spun before settling again into a clear view of the bank of monitors. It showed him exactly what Cody had seen. He leaned closer again, and then nodded to himself.
“You getting this?” Cody asked, then added, “No sign of Jake.”
“I see it,” he said. “And Jake’s all right. He was outside. He’s on his way here now.”
Cody breathed a sigh of relief. “’kay.”
“Cody, Listen to me,” Donovan said urgently, “We need that data to bring this down. You’ve found Alex. You have to get us that data.”
“You can’t leave Al—”
“I don’t intend to.” Frank assured him, getting up from the chair and starting to strap on a vest. “The data, Cody.”
**
NOVA-LUCAS TECHNOLOGIES: 1.43pm
The security of the familiar swept over him as he looked around for the terminal computer. “I’m on it,” he said. “Just get to Alex… somehow.”
Without waiting for an answer, he quickly crossed the room to the workstation and opened the case to take out the peripherals he would need, pulling the computer’s casing and quickly attaching leads and patches where he needed to, before sitting at the keyboard, and letting his fingers fairly fly over the keys.
He knew the kind of security subroutines to expect and as he started working, concentrating on the task in hand, what remained of the fear he’d felt and the distractions of everything going on around him faded into insignificance. This was his demesne… he was king here… master…
His decryption key cycled through millions and millions of ciphers per second, trying the combinations to get him past encryption and password protection alike. He almost chuckled as the thought occurred to him that it would probably take him longer to download the data itself that it would to break through the security measures.
At last the screen cleared from the blank terminal screen he’d been seeing for so long and presented him with the admin screen. He took a Microkey from its safety case and slipped it into the writer, keying the instructions to dump the entire contents of the drive onto the key… and then he sat… and waited…
Ten per cent… fifteen… twenty…
“Come on… come on…” he urged the computer.
Thirty-five… forty… forty-five…
The soft click that came from behind him was the loudest sound he’d ever heard. He knew in an instant what it was and without hesitation he threw himself from the chair, pushing it backwards as he rolled to the side.
“SWAT Go!” he yelled as he rolled, drawing his weapon and putting a table that afforded only insignificant cover between him and the man he could now see was momentarily distracted by the chair. “I’m compromised. Go!”
Before the man could recover his balance and find him to take aim again, Cody let off a couple of shots, almost blind, forcing the man back… forcing him to take cover. He risked a glance at the computer screen…
Seventy percent… seventy five… eighty…
Heat grazed his right cheek and he threw himself aside again as the second shot missed him by millimetres. For a moment his vision blurred as he hit his head against the corner of the server housing… he fired blind in the direction he thought the man had taken, until the trickle of blood from the side of his head ran into his eye and he squeezed his eyes closed for a second, and wiped the side of his face with the back of his hand.
Another shot came his way, and he ducked low. He had to change the clip in his weapon and his spare was still in the case. Cursing himself for a fool he reached up for an alternate projectile. Committing the ultimate sacrilege he pulled out one of the server blades and hurled it hard in the man’s direction. He scrambled to his feet, and pulled out a second, throwing that too as he sprinted for the case, flicking the switch that would eject the clip from the butt of his gun. When he reached the case he dived into a roll, snatching up the spare clip, and fitting it into his gun mid-roll. Slapping it home he pulled back on the top casing of the gun, ignoring the pain as the hot metal burned the palm of his hand, needing to be sure he had one in the chamber when he completed the roll.
As he came to his knees, he came up firing. One shot, and then a second. He heard the crash as his attacker went down. Cautiously he rounded the metal cabinet that had been between him and the man before he’d rolled across the room. The man was down, bleeding from a wound to his chest and another in his shoulder. Carefully he retrieved the fallen man’s gun before returning to the computer as it bleeped in readiness.
As he walked across the room again, he caught sight of the monitors. They were dragging Alex toward the stairwell… back into the building… and all around them both; all bloody hell was breaking loose.
**
U/C OPERATIONS VAN: 1.51pm
“I’m going out,” Donovan said urgently, snatching up his weapon.
Monica followed him to the door of the van. “Donovan, wait!” she called, but he didn’t stop.
A car screeched to a halt at the end of the alley, and Jake leaped from it, she called to him urgently.
“What’s going on?” he asked, frowning at her
“Cody’s pinned down inside and Alex’s cover is dead. Three perps have her up on the roof… and Donovan just went in behind SWAT.”
“I’ll go after him,” he said and started to turn.
“Jake,” she tried to stop him, “vest.”
“No time,” he called back and sprinted off after Donovan.
**
NOVA-LUCAS TECHNOLOGIES: 1.52pm
“Relax,” Nova told his visitor, “this is the most secure room in the whole compound. From here we can watch this entire drama unfold and then wait for my men to come and give us the all clear.”
“And if they don’t?” the other man asked.
“Oh they will,” Nova assured him with a smile. He flipped a switch on the desktop and the video screen changed to show a view of the manufacturing wing of the building, to where a group of ten men in coveralls were taking automatic weapons from an unmarked crate. “Because Mr Donovan and his team, and of course you, my dear friend, had no idea about my reinforcements.”
**
He watched the monitors in mounting horror as the men started up the stairwell from the manufacturing floor toward where SWAT were abseiling in through upper story windows… and caught right in the middle were the men holding Alex captive.
He hadn’t intended heroics, but there was nothing left open to him. He had to head them off, stop them from walking into the nightmare coming in. If he didn’t, there would be a mess… a bloody mess.
Taking a look around him, and making sure he pocketed the Microkey somewhere safe, he sprinted in the direction of the stairs.
**
Donovan hit the front doors at full tilt, almost breaking them as he ran to take the stairs two at a time. He heard footsteps behind him, but didn’t turn. He didn’t have time to deal with whoever it was behind him… and they weren’t shooting at him so they weren’t a threat. He had to get to the conference room… and trust in the retrieval team to get to Alex.
A body slammed into him, driving him into the wall. He raised his fist, ready to strike out, but stopped as he saw Jake, his arm across the top of his chest, using his entire stocky frame to keep him in place.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jake demanded, out of breath. “You’re breaking protocol.”
“You can’t follow protocol when the men you’re after practically wrote it, Jake. Trust me,” he said.
The pressure against his chest abated as Jake eased away from him and let him stand away from the wall.
“All right,” Jake nodded. “I’ve got your back.”
“No,” Donovan said firmly. “Alex and Cody need you.”
Before Jake could argue with him he pushed him in the direction of the stairs, and set off down the corridor toward the conference room.
**
Cody burst from the stairwell into a large office space and sprinted for the other stairs. As he neared the door it opened and he all but ran into one of the three men, the other two dragging Alex between them.
Her face was bloodied and bruised, her left eye swollen almost closed. Her lips were cracked and dry, and blood trickled from one corner of her mouth as though she had bitten her tongue.
Almost on automatic Cody held up his ID in his free hand and ordered as commandingly as he could, “Federal Agent! Let her go!”
One of the men holding on to Alex thrust his gun under her chin and forced her head back. “I don’t think so…” he said.
Alex moaned at the movement and murmured, “Cody…?”
“Right here, Alex,” he told her as an almost fatalistic calm descended over him. “You’re going to be fine.”
The two men holding Alex exchanged glances and chucked between themselves. “Don’t you just love optimism?” one of them said, pressing his gun against Alex’s side. Her breath caught. It obviously hurt.
“Don’t,” Cody said, shifting his aim between each of the men. Three against one, it occurred to him that this wasn’t the smartest thing he’d ever done. “Let her go. Let her go and step away. This doesn’t have to be like this.”
“And what?” the man in front wanted to know, “Let you take us in?”
Mentally he was counting down the time he’d estimated it would take SWAT and Nova’s gunmen to meet up, and it was running out. He spoke urgently, “Listen to me… any second now SWAT is right here… they aren’t going to give you the benefit of the—”
“Oh we’re so grateful, Mr Fed.” The sarcasm in the man’s voice was heavy but Cody didn’t let it stop him and he continued as though the other man hadn’t interrupted.
“Just let Alex walk over to me and—”
The next interruption was not one that he could ignore.
The door behind the men burst open and a full team of SWAT officers poured through like ants from a nest, yelling for the men to surrender; to drop their weapons… and hardly a second later, the opposite stairwell door flew into the room, scattering those now faced off as the men Cody had seen on the security monitor stormed through the doorway in its wake.
He’d never afterward work out who it was that fired the first shot, but it didn’t matter. Someone did, and suddenly the room was a confusion of light and noise. People dived for what cover the desks and other furniture could provide and Alex, pushed into the deadly no man’s land between the opposing forces as her captors also sought cover, stood… dazed.
**
Guerrilla tactics had lured the men guarding the door around the corner of the hallway and into his waiting ambush. He’d had no choice but to kill the last of them. He’d fought back too much and in the end it came to a choice between that drastic measure and alerting the men inside the conference room at the end of the hallway to his presence. He didn’t want to do that. He needed surprise to be on his side.
Carefully he inserted the key-card into the slot beside the doorway and then taking a deep breath, kicked hard against the oak door.
As the door swung back and slammed against the wall he surged through and took in the room at a single glance. Just the two men inside. He squeezed the trigger and his weapon retorted, letting off a single round that took Nova in the shoulder as he was only half way out of his chair. Incapacitated, he fell backwards to the thickly carpeted floor, but Donovan had already turned his attention to the other man, shifting his aim immediately. He was completely unsurprised to see himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
“Put it down, Leggett,” he demanded, “It’s over.”
“What are you going to do, Frank? Shoot me?” Leggett asked mildly, beginning to move and keep the conference table between the two of them, as he advanced further into the room.
“If you leave me no choice, Niall, I will shoot you,” he said, “and I’ll kill you.”
“You won’t kill me,” his former supervising agent in the CIA told him steadily. “We’re brothers, you and me.”
Frank shook his head. “No. Not even close. I never target the innocent to get to the ones I need. You never got that did you?” He started to circle the other way, giving Leggett no opportunity to get closer to the door, although no small part of him wanted the other man to try and flee. “Not even through all the questionable acts you left me vulnerable and open to do, there was never anyone innocent deliberately hurt at my hands. Is that what this is about? Professional jealousy…? You somehow feeling threatened that I can still walk with one foot either side of the line and never fall into hell?”
“You flatter yourself, Donovan.” Leggett almost sneered the words, “and you’re wrong. I never hurt anyone innocent either.”
“So Agent Faulkner is guilty by association, is that it? So what about Agent Pennerton?”
For just a moment Leggett’s face showed surprise, and then a grudging respect. “I must commend you and your agents on their excellent investigative skills,” he said, “but yes, being who they are, doing what they do does rather exempt them from being innocent, don’t you think? After all, you executed enough Eastern Europeans simply for being involved in their terrorist cells.”
“It’s not the same,” Frank said calmly, staring down the side of the table again towards Leggett, refusing to be baited by his words. “Those men joined those organisations only to cause harm.”
Leggett shrugged, “We could argue philosophy all day, Frank. But I don’t think that’s what you want, is it?” Donovan said nothing. “You want to know why, don’t you?”
“She was my wife,” he growled.
“Yes she was.” Leggett gave him an almost sad smile, “I’m very sorry for your loss.”
Donovan’s arm shook slightly and he resettled the gun in his hand, allowing the grief to show on his face and in his voice as he accused, “You had her killed.”
“Yes I did,” Leggett said, “but that doesn’t change that fact that I am sorry for your loss. You’re a lesser man without her.”
Frank’s finger started to tighten against the trigger at the other man’s words, but he opened his hand and stretched his fingers, refusing to give in to the urge to simply take vengeance. That would make him a lesser man.
“And ‘Thea?” he asked instead.
“An unfortunate accident.”
Donovan shook his head, “Not what the ME said.” He closed his eyes for a moment to banish the memory of the doctor’s words. …twisted upwards and to the side…
“I’m sorry,” Leggett tilted his head to the side a little, “I was not privy to the medical examiner’s report.”
“You surprise me,” Frank’s voice was thick with emotion, “you made yourself privy to just about everything else.”
“How else was I to protect my investment?”
The words caught a hold of the investigator inside the grieving man he was in danger of surrendering himself to be, and Donovan took a deep breath. When he spoke again, his voice was calm.
“It’s over, Niall. Put down the gun.”
Face to face at the end of the conference table, Frank Donovan stared into Niall Leggett’s eyes. He saw the cold, calculating and hardened criminal that the agent hid behind the Company mask, entrenched and irredeemable. He saw the strength of the man’s convictions, wrong though they were, that matched his own, and wondered how he had ever missed what had obviously been a part of the other man for a long time. Had he been trying to groom him to follow in his footsteps, with everything he’d ordered him to do… to be…?
Leggett moved suddenly, stepping forward he smashed his forearm across Donovan’s face, momentarily stunning him and following up with an upper cut to his diaphragm which drove him to his knees, winded and gasping for breath.
The rogue CIA agent leaned down and grabbed a handful of his short hair to pull his head to the side, before he leaned down to whisper to him coldly confidential.
“Now, it’s over… Ivan,” he said. Then he pushed him, hard, to fall back against the leg of the conference table.
He lay there for a moment, winded and dazed, watching as Niall Leggett walked slowly down the length of the room toward the door. With an effort that was more than monumental, Frank Donovan pulled himself to his feet… staring at the man’s retreating back.
His hands were by his sides, his gun held loosely. Leggett had never been more wrong… whatever he thought, whatever he imagined, Frank was no more Ivan now than he ever had been. Ivan was a mask, a cover persona created out of the nightmare of his childhood nothing more, and certainly not a part of him now. As if in proof of this, he called the other man’s name.
Leggett turned, almost in the doorway and then surprise registered on his face as the sound of a gunshot split the silence. He fell to his knees, and then to the side, a single bullet wound in the centre of his forehead.
**
Crouching beside the booth, Cody watched the horror unfolding almost in slow motion in front of his eyes. He could almost feel his breath moving in and out of his lungs. A volley of bullets splintered the wood near his head and he was forced to pull further back behind the shelter, but even as he did he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Alex... his friend… a fellow team member… they watch each other’s backs…
From the corner of his eyes he saw a dark blur fly through the door behind Nova’s gunmen, but even then the first of the bullets flying between the two groups of men hit Alex, spinning her around. Somewhere inside, he registered surprise that it had taken this long before she had been hit, but the surprise faded quickly in the wake of the knowledge that he had to do something, as more of the bullets hit her and she almost stuttered on the spot.
It was only a couple of steps. All he had to do was make her hit the deck, it should be easy… and the vest would give him a few seconds, Donovan had said so.
Taking a huge breath and taking hold of the side of the booth for leverage, to give him a start, he called her name as he launched himself toward her.
“Cody, NO!” he somehow heard Jake’s voice amid the noise, and vaguely registered the higher pitch of the Sig amid the sound of the gunfire.
As he sprinted the few steps through the open ground of the battlefield he could feel the steady punch… punch… punch of the automatic rounds hitting the vest… could probably have counted them as they stole his breath little by little with their relentless pounding.
He’d almost reached her… almost… when searing pain erupted in the left side of his body, front and back. He started to fall, his legs giving way as what was left of his breath flew from him in the cry of pain as a white heat felt as though it had severed his left arm. He tried to force himself onward, but as he fell his body connected with Alex’ and the momentum carried them both to the ground. Refusing to let go of consciousness he moved to cover Alex and in spite of the added pain it caused him, wrapped his arms around his head as the battle continued over and around them.
It was an age of chaos, and noise… of the terror of being pinned, unable to move in his need to protect his team-mate, but every age has an end and at the end all descended into momentary silence.
“Cody!” Jake’s voice was the first to split the smoky stillness around them.
“I’m okay,” he gasped, forcing himself to sit up, ignoring every pain he felt in his determination to help Alex. His hand trembled as he reached for the side of her neck, to feel nothing. Shaking his head in disbelief he tried again and growled, “Don’t you do this to me.”
Amid the shouts of ‘clear’ from the SWAT team, he heard Jake’s voice crying out, “Agent down!” but still he dragged himself to Alex’ side; A. B. C…
The pain was almost unbearable in the whole of his left side, and he began to feel light headed as he began chest compression, and leaned down to give her what precious breath of his he could snatch between movements. Carried on adrenaline, one cycle… two… three…
Something in him registered Donovan’s arrival… knew that the man was at his side and tugging at his shoulder… there were others too, hovering nearby.
“Cody,” Frank’s voice was quiet, “Cody, it’s over…”
“No!” he shook his head in denial and tried to push him away with his body, keep up the compressions…
Arms came around him, and he felt himself pulled back against the warmth of a body. Why was he so cold…? He struggled to stay with Alex… couldn’t leave her…
“Cody… stop. Stop!”
He was pushed down to the ground, and struggled with them, fought until he had nothing left to fight with as the adrenaline faded, and defeated he finally stopped. Blue and white clad figures moved to his side… he turned his head… there were others by Alex. EMTs… working on her with lines and bags and…
“I’m okay….” He protested weakly, “I’m okay.”
He saw Donovan shake his head. “They’re taking you in, Cody.”
“Jake?” he breathed the question.
“Right here, buddy.” He felt a warm hand take his own. “Try not to move any more, hmm?”
As if suddenly remembering… he freed his hand from Jake’s and reached into his pocket. When he brought his hand out again, he pressed the Microkey into Donovan’s hand. Then suddenly exhausted he didn’t fight as Jake once more took his hand when they lifted him onto a stretcher.
**
UNSPECIFIED LOCATION – SOUTH AMERICA: 10.45pm
He turned at the sound of the measured footsteps coming into the room and frowned in puzzlement as his retained held out the silver tray that bore a single folded sheet of paper.
“What is this?” he asked.
“I received the call a moment ago,” the man said. “I’m so sorry sir.”
Frowning even more deeply he picked up the solitary piece of paper and read the words, not once, but several times as he sank into the nearby chair.
**
RESIDENCE – CODY FAULKNER: 11.03pm
Cody heard the sound of the television click off as he turned the key in the lock and let himself in and stood leaning against the door, breathing in the slight smell of the fresh paint, and staring at the man that looked up at him from the couch.
His dark hair was damp, and his tanned skin, in places, still specked with water above the towel that was wrapped around his waist. Cody breathed out and closed his eyes against the tears that were gathering behind his eyelids. Then he pursed his lips to stop the lower one from trembling.
“Code?” Land said softly, a greeting and question all in one, using the nickname that had become so special to him.
“Hey…” he greeted the man, little more than a breath really as he advanced to the middle of the room and swallowed hard, feeling lost.
“God, I’m so glad it wasn’t you,” the words burst from the other man as he got up and crossed to take him into his arms and just hold him – not even particularly careful of the injured side of his body. Holding him tightly, just as he needed to be held.
“God, Land…!” he clung to him, breathing in the clean scent, knowing that he’d stand there as long as he needed him to. After a while he said, “I’m sorry.”
Land suddenly pushed him back to arms length, looking him square in the face and said, “Absolutely not. Don’t you ever apologise to me for coming home.”
Cody trembled as he said, “I said I’d be okay…”
“Yeah, and mostly you’re all in one piece… on the outside,” Land answered, breathing out as a glassy tick… tick… tick… sounded from the table. Part of Cody wondered what was making the sound, but he was tired, and he hurt like hell. At Land’s words he reached up to touch the four tape stitches that closed the gash on the side of his head, and tried to settle the sling that supported his injured left arm and shoulder more comfortably around his neck.
“Yeah…” he leaned his head down onto Land’s shoulder. “Mostly. You okay?”
“Well, I’d like to know—” he stopped, shook his head and started again. “Yeah, I’m okay. Had a scare… and a fight with a pissy paint can, but yeah.”
Cody pulled away a little to look his boyfriend over in worry, “You’re hurt?” he started doing a visual check… knowing the reaction was over the top, but not able to help himself.
“No. You’re hurt. I’m fine.”
Cody took hold of his hand as he felt it brush against his fingers. Then he remembered something that Land had said a moment ago and asked, “What do you want to know?”
Land led him by the hand across toward the couch. “Forget that,” he said sitting down and tugging on his hand to get him to do the same, “Now… sit…”
Cody did. He felt too far away standing as he was. He sat down and fit himself into the waiting arms, almost burrowing into them, breathing slowly, only blinking every so often, hardly aware of the ticking sound that had begun again. Eventually he just breathed Land’s name… feeling the man was his lifeline.
Gentle fingers ran through his hair, just once and very lightly, and then passed gently over the hale and whole side of his body. He sighed at the touch. It felt so good… grounding…
“I’m okay,” he said again, feeling Land’s worry in the way he then hesitated in repeating the caress over the left side of his body. “Mostly flesh wounds and bruises. Slug went right through my shoulder, and they had to take the one out of my arm, but otherwise…”
His voice trailed off and he looked up at Land who suddenly took a deep breath.
“I was painting,” he said. “Had on the news and suddenly everything felt so crazy. Somehow I knew and couldn’t think of any way to check on you. So I went about setting everything up like you were coming home, like you do every day. Finished painting, showered, never even bothered to get dressed ‘cause I was gonna meet you right here and force the couch on you by telling you we had a little one to worry about now.”
Cody took a breath, his eyes filling with tears again to think that Land had to suffer that. “I’m okay,” he breathed, and then as the words caught up and made sense in his addled mind he frowned, “Little one?”
Land smiled and nodded over at where he’d left a bowl, a notelet folded beside it. “Yeah… a beautiful baby boy.”
Cody followed the direction of his nod and saw the beautiful, deep blue beta fish swimming around in the water occasionally tapping its nose against the side of the glass to make a the ticking sound he’d heard. He couldn’t help smiling, “Oh wow!”
Land chuckled. “Well like I said on the card, they didn’t have any elephants. I asked though.”
Cody leaned his head on his good hand, shaking it in amusement before he remembered why he wasn’t going to do that and said to himself in an almost admonishing tone, “Ow.”
“I figure Eric and Cody can eventually—” Land stopped himself, shaking his head then he added, “Well I keep Cody by my computer, so I figured something of me could go here too. Somehow naming a fish Land was just wrong.”
Cody looked up at Land again and couldn’t stop his eyes from filling with tears. Very quietly he said, “Thank you.”
Land gave a little grin, “Well considering I didn’t actually have to give birth to him…” he reached out and ran his left hand through Cody’s hair again then wrapped it around him. “You need anything? And don’t worry about your baby tonight. I’ve fed him already and put him to bed. He should be just fine.”
“Just you,” Cody said, and then sighing added, “And maybe some water to take these.” He started fishing around in his pants pocket for the tub of medication and swore a little when he couldn’t reach it.
“C’mon. We’ll get you to bed; get you comfortable. I’ll get you your water and then you can have me.”
Cody smiled and started to get up. As he did the room tilted slightly and started to swim around. He wondered then if he should tell Land that he had discharged himself AMA, but knew how perceptive his boyfriend was, so only leaned against him as he slipped his arm around his waist supportively and asked, “You okay?”
“Yeah… just a bit sore,” Cody said and surrendered tiredly to the other man as he led him through to the bedroom and helped him to lie down after pulling the plastic sheet off the bed.
“You did amazing things in here… the whole apartment, you know?” he called through to Land as he went to the bathroom to get the water. Land came back smiling.
“It’s better then, hmm?” he asked as he sat down on the bed and handed him the glass.
“It is,” Cody said around the pills and water. “It’s much better.”
“And you don’t mind the couch any more?”
Cody grinned, remembering the cure they tried for his hatred of the leather couch he’d bought at Michelle’s insistence. “Suddenly it all kind of just… fits together.” He set down the glass and took hold of Land’s hand. “Thank you.”
Land shut his eyes for a minute or two, but the gentle smile didn’t leave his face and he said, “I didn’t want it being a double whammy, you know? Sort of… let the past go before you deal with the future?”
“Yeah,” he said and leaned his head back. Somehow Land’s shoulder was there to support him. “A future sounds amazing right around now.”
“What?” Land asked, moving his hand a little, “You don’t have one? Everyone has a future, Code.”
Cody’s sigh trembled from his body and he said, “I know, I just… I thought I had her, you know?”
After a long silence, Land said softly, “Yeah.”
“But they told me it was probably already too late before I even reached her.”
“It was Alex?” Land’s tone sounded as though he’d just put all the pieces together and was surprised and shocked.
“Yeah… caught in the crossfire between SWAT and the guys we were there to take down.” He watched as Land’s head dropped and he shook his head sadly, “She was my friend Land. She’d saved my ass more times than I can count and the one… time… the one time I have her back I let her down.”
He sighed… a shuddering sigh, and leaned against Land as he just held him. He knew there was nothing anyone could say; doubted many would understand, so it was a strange kind of relief to him when he looked up into Land’s eyes and found them brimming with tears.
‘”I’m sorry…” he whispered, “tell me about your day.”
Instead, Land asked, “Cody, you wanna know what I need?”
“Yes.”
“I need to make everything easier for you. I need to snap my fingers and make it all right again… and short of sicking some kind of deep, Native American magic on the city of Chicago to bring her back, or on you to make you forget… I can’t. And you know, feels like shit to know that I could do something and I can’t. I can only imagine how it’d feel if I couldn’t do anything.” Land paused for a moment and Cody took the time to realise he meant that even if he could make him forget the pain of what had happened to Alex, he wouldn’t do it because it wouldn’t be right. It was part of what he was coming to love about Land. He didn’t say anything. Only listened as the man continued, “So I need to listen to it all if that’s gonna do you any good. Who cares about fish, and paint, and cuts and every day shit? That’s the same old, and I’m not gonna melt away from any of it…”
Finally, Cody spoke, turning to face Land as best he could. “Alex… we talked about it a lot just after Keller died. He was the SOG Commander before Donovan… and they were in love. He was shot in the line of…” he sighed, “like Alex. This possibility was something she lived with – we all live with – every day and it scared her half to death at the best of times. I’m just looking for someone to blame… you know? And do I blame Jake, because he was u/c with her… Donovan for not pulling the plug… no. I blame myself because it’s easier than admitting that actually it was an accident. No one’s fault and just one of those things that happen to people in a job like ours… and it scares me because it could have been me.”
Cody ran out of steam and sighed, then smiled a little as Land did, and he realised that he’d just opened up to the other man and admitted a lot of thing that he needed to hear himself say. He closed his eyes as Land leaned forward and gently kissed his forehead, liking their hands again.
After a moment or two, Cody frowned in confusion as a thought came into his head, not properly formed.
He heard and felt Land ask, “What’s the question?” then Land chuckled, “You know, I think we have way too may rules in this relationship. A sentence rule; a truth rule; question rule; no sex when you’re injured rule.”
Cody couldn’t help chuckling, knowing the last one hadn’t come up yet among the many things he’d insisted was between the two of them. He knew they were his own form of defence against getting hurt again… making sure sentences got finished… always telling the truth no matter how hard… not being afraid to ask questions…
“Did I miss something?” Land asked at the chuckle.
“No. I think I did, though.”
“Well there you go,” Land told him as though it proved his point. “We’ve got too many. We should just lay it all on the line and do away with ‘em.”
Land made a grand gesture, his hand coming into contact with the night stand, and he winced.
“Damn, that smarts,” he said.
“You want that?” Cody asked as he tried to get a hold of Land’s hand to take a look at it. The other man played at trying to keep it away.
“Hey,” he joked, “you should see the other guy. His innards are all over the walls.”
Cody chuckled again and then examined the cut to Land’s hand as he finally gave in and presented it to him. The cut was across the second and third knuckles and though it was red, and had reopened, it was not so bad.
“Want what?” Land asked.
“Do away with the ‘rules.’” He said.
“And how do you propose we do that?” Land wriggled his hand away from him and went back to the bathroom. He heard water running as an accompaniment to their conversation that continued through the open doorway.
“I’m not,” Cody confessed, then as a coda added, “Well particularly not the truth thing. I just wondered if you would want to, not that we should or could.”
Land returned to stand by the bed. “Sure, I mean…” he paused as he came to lounge beside him, “…what good is any relationship with someone if you can’t trust ‘em; can’t tell ‘em stuff and give ‘em sex when they’re in pain?” he frowned “Oh and whatever the new one is about questions.” Then he laughed, “And what good are they if you can’t remember ‘em?”
Cody looked up and smiled, their eyes drifting together to meet. He found himself drawn almost sleepily into the deep brown of Land’s eyes. Softly he said, “And rules are only any use if people stick by them. It’s by choice I do all the things I do, because I do trust you; because I—”
“So, we keep ‘em, I guess?” Land shrugged and looked away, around the room, looking as though he was checking to see if he’d missed a spot. Cody called his name quietly and his gaze returned to his face. He thought he looked almost afraid.
“Cody… don’t—” he sighed.
“Forget the freaking rules, Land,” Cody said, extremely quietly, “Just don’t do this. Don’t hide from me.”
Land began to laugh… in fact he laughed so hard that the bed trembled under him. Not quite understanding, Cody let himself be taken into Land’s arms, and held on just as tightly as Land was holding him.
“Code, I lie naked before you… hell, I met you at the door in this state. What am I hiding?”
“Then why panic? What did you think I was going to say?”
“Who am I to tell you what you’re about to say?”
Cody shook his head. He was pretty sure that Land knew exactly what he had been about to say, just that he was afraid to hear him say it. They’d had that conversation very early in their relationship… weeks ago… fear of commitment, emotional ties… all that crap, but Land had committed more to him; had given him more in those last few weeks than anyone before ever had… and he loved him. Cody had to admit it to himself if to no one else.
“Need anything else before we settle?” Land asked quietly.
“Did I take anything for this?” he nodded toward his arm, “I don’t remember.”
“Yeah, when I brought you the water. You sure they checked you out okay?”
“Yeah, they checked me out. They wanted to keep me in but…” he shrugged as best he could with one arm.
“I thought so.” Land sighed a little, and his worry was plastered all over his face. “Well if you have any problems at all I’ll…”
“I know you will,” he said, and laid his head against Land’s, “But I’m okay. It hurts, yeah… and yeah, so I’m tired, but I’ve had a mother of a day, you know?”
“I’m not even going to agree with that ‘cause I can’t imagine…” very gently their lips met, and Cody relaxed as the tenderness of it swept over him, his eyes closed as the kiss ended and Land said softly, “I’m here, ‘kay?”
“Yeah,” he said leaning into to the touch that Land was sweeping through his hair, “And I’m glad, because if you weren’t—”
“I’m here,” Land whispered again.
**
ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH YARD: 2.30pm June 11th
It was raining. A soft, light rain as though trying to wash away the stain of sadness that clung to the four people standing by the grave, watching as the casket was carefully lowered into the ground, accompanied by Father Michael’s words.
It had been at Jake’s request that father Michael had performed the funeral and no one had seen any reason to argue against it as it had been a loss to each one of them as surely as if they were all family, and to Jake the only family he’d know had been Father Michael.
Land, standing a respectful distance back, stepped forward to put a comforting arm around Cody as he first let go of his tears. Monica almost smiled as Cody leaned in to Land’s side.
Donovan nodded. It was right that, after everything that had happened, Cody should have found some kind of peace at last. He glanced over at Land and inclined his head in gratitude for that. Then he sighed a little as Land reached out to put his free hand onto his shoulder.
None of them were able to hold back tears as the second, tiny casket was lowered into the ground, to rest there in the arms of her mother.
**
NORTHWEST MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: 8.58pm
Light from the hallway outside the private room cast long shadows into it as he stood in the doorway looking in. He did not move for a long time, transfixed by the slow… too slow measure of a struggling heart.
Eventually… when he could stand the sound no more he stepped into the room, quietly closed the door and crossed to stand at the side of the bed.
For almost as long as he’d stood in the doorway he remained at the bedside, immobile, watching her chest rise and fall at the behest of the ventilator before he reached down to carefully take her small hand into his.
She was cold, and so limp… lifeless… The thought struck him hard and he all but fell into the chair at the bedside, still holding her hand in one of his, and reaching up with the other to run his fingers over the bruises still showing on her cheeks; to run his fingers through her hair.
“Alex…” he whispered, “My Alex… my beautiful… Why? Why didn’t you come with your papi…?
Fin