Posting this for Kristi, so everything is caught up.
Chapter 13
Will and Jack cautiously climbed out of the air vent. They were in the main office. Jack looked around and noted that everyone was still under the effects of the gas. He pressed his com as he watched the C.I.A. teams download all the SD-6 files.
“Bubbleliscious, do you copy?” he asked.
“I copy, Spy Daddy. I have Marshall and I’m coming upstairs,” Kat replied.
“What about you, Doublemint? Do you copy?” Jack asked.
No answer.
“Doublemint, do you copy?!”
Silence.
“Bubbleliscious, get up here, now,” Jack said.
“We’re on our way.”
A few minutes passed, and Kat and Marshall had not made it upstairs. Jack knew he had to leave.
“Will, you stay here. Take this,” Jack said as he handed Will his tranquilizer gun.
“Do I really need this?” he asked with a look of concern.
“Would you like me to take it and let you find out?”
“I’ll take the gun.”
“Good idea. I’ll be back.”
So Jack left Will and walked down the stairs, then disappeared.
Will stood staring at the SD-6 office. There were men with guns everywhere. Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. Spinning around with the tranq. gun ready, he noticed that it was only what appeared to be a C.I.A. agent. He was escorting Sloane outside. Will slowly put his gun down.
At first it didn’t rouse suspicion, then Will noticed something. He made eye contact with the man, and realized immediately that that man was no C.I.A. agent. It was the man who had just spent countless hours torturing him.
He casually began to walk behind them, seeing where they would go. They went down a set of stairs, opened the wall and walked through it, and into a hallway. The door began to close, but Will stopped it. He waited a few minutes, then went inside.
They had just turned down a hallway, and Will cautiously followed. There was a set of stairs, one going up, the other going down. Sloane and his “escort” went up, so Will went up too. They opened another secret, barely visible door, and went inside it.
Will waited a minute and then followed. To his surprise, they were in a parking garage. Will realized that they would soon try to escape. He raised his gun and aimed at the imposter C.I.A. agent. He fired, and missed.
The man and Sloane both looked up. They started to rapidly fire at Will, no mercy evident on their faces. Quickly taking cover, Will jumped behind a slab of concrete. He prepared himself to die or to kill a man or two, both equally frightening.
With shaking hands, he readied his gun and willed himself to get up. He heard the guns stop firing and then the squealing of tires. Will stood up, aimed his gun and fired. He missed, so he shot several more. The escort was hit, but Sloane took out his gun and fired. The bullet hit his arm, and then Sloane jumped into a van and sped away as Will stood helplessly watching.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The two guards ripped Sydney out of Michael’s arms. Their guns still pointing at his head, they slammed him into the wall. Michael winced in pain.
“Who sent you here?” one whispered to him in an eerie voice.
They didn’t wait for him to answer. He was slammed into the wall again.
“I said, who sent you here.”
Michael still said nothing. He had to get to Sydney before it was too late. He tried to come up with a plan, but he was thrown into the wall again.
The gun was fiercely shoved into Michael’s neck.
“Tell us who sent you here, or we will end your life,” a guard said.
“And hers,” said the other guard.
This made Michael furious. He tried with all his might to get free, but could not. He was slammed into the wall again. Their laughter erupted as he tried to attack them and failed.
“This is your last chance…”
Michael fought the desperate urge to tell them everything to save Sydney’s life, but knew he could not. There was still a C.I.A. team upstairs doing official business, and he couldn’t just tip the enemy off…but he had to save Sydney.
“Fine, she’s going first.”
Michael’s head was now bleeding from being hit so many times against the wall. He was slammed again. The man not slamming him into the wall walked over to Sydney. He pulled out his gun, and released all the safeties.
BANG!!!
“SYDNEY!!!” Michael screamed.
BANG!!!
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Kat and Marshall made it back to the main office. They saw the teams were still busy. Kat found Marshall an empty chair and wheeled him into Sloane’s secured office.
She was expecting to see Sloane still handcuffed and Eric fiddling with his yo-yo, but to her surprise, that’s not what she found. After looking all around the room, she found Eric handcuffed to a leg of Sloane’s desk. He was breathing very heavily, and bleeding from what appeared to be a gunshot wound. Kat walked closer and stepped on something. It was a silencer from a handgun.
Kat immediately ran back to the main office.
“We need a medic in here!” she told the teams. “Now!”
A man approached her with a medic badge on his shirt. She quickly explained the situation as they ran back to Sloane’s office. He immediately began to examine Eric.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Will took off his shirt and made it into a sling for his arm. He now had two options, and was uncertain of what he was going to do. He had to get back upstairs and notify a C.I.A. agent of what he found. The man laying at his feet had to get back upstairs as well, but that would mean he’d have to carry him. His arm wasn’t in that kind of condition. He couldn’t risk Sloane being overly stupid and try to come and save him, so he began to drag the man up the stairs.
Will had Jack’s gun, just in case the man woke up. Besides the fact that Jack Bristow scared him, and he had a pretty good idea of what would happen to him if he left it. He refound the “secret door” and began to slowly go up the steps.
The climb was hard, but Will kept going. His arm hurt, and the man he was carrying was fairly heavy. Will kept going, though, stopping only once to fix his “sling”.
He was reaching for the door when the man began to wake up. Will didn’t notice, and struggled to open the door. The man reached Will’s arm and hit it as hard as he could. Will fell back and landed roughly on the top step.
Seeing Will was on the ground, the man got up and began to walk towards him. Will got up, ready to fight. He was kicked several times, but still stood, his arm throbbing. Will waited until the perfect moment, then kicked the man with all his might.
The wind was knocked out of the man, and he fell down the stairs. He cried out in pain when he hit the bottom of the stairs. Will heard a loud crack, sounding much like a gunshot, and knew the man wasn’t going anywhere. So, he ran all the way back up the stairs and into the secret door.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Michael felt blood slowly flowing down his neck. The guard’s gun was no longer near him, and he heard a little thud behind him.
He didn’t feel much pain, except for the pain in his heart. He couldn’t believe that Sydney was dead. He just couldn’t. Michael sank to the floor, his eyes slowly welling with tears. He refused to look at her; he wouldn’t be able to take it. He heard footsteps, but what did he care. Sydney was gone, he had nothing left to live for. Whatever happened to him next happened.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
“He needs to leave soon,” the medic told Kat. “If he doesn’t he could die.”
Kat nodded. “What about Marshall?”
From the look Kat received from him she knew whatever it was wasn’t good. The medic pulled her aside. In a low, whispery voice he said, “Your friend has been exposed to a combination of serums. The combination itself is painful, but…”
“But what?”
“Did you give him any morphine?”
“Yes, just a few minutes ago…why?”
“Mixing the morphine with the serum combination is life threatening. If he falls asleep for too long, he could die.”
Eyes welling with tears, Kat shook her head. “Wh-what can we do?”
“We’ll have to get him into a hospital. He’ll need to have surgery, to get the serums out. That’s all we can do. We’ll have to wait until all the files are downloaded, and then they’ll be able to—“
“We need to get Marshall and Agent Weiss out of here, NOW.”
“We can’t just get up and leave we have to have the proper protocol—“
“Forget protocol! Those men could DIE soon, and if they do…I’ll personally find you and—“
“Agent Bristow, they can not leave.”
Kat glared at him. “If you do not get them out of here in 20 minutes, I swear that with or without proper protocol, they will be leaving with me,” she said wanting nothing more than to kick the medic and get Marshall and Weiss out of there and into a hospital. The medic said something else, which Kat chose to ignore, when she heard Will stumble into the room.
He lay on the floor, panting, blood smearing on Sloane’s expensive office floor. The medic raced over to him.
“What happened?” the medic asked Will as he checked Will’s vitals, and dressed as best as he could the gun wound.
“I found a secret door…Sloane and a man…they went through it…saw me…they hit me…Sloane’s gone…but other man…he’s down there…”
“Is he secured?” Kat asked.
“He fell down the steps…I heard his leg crack…He’s secured.”
“Unless Sloane comes back to get him…” the medic mumbled loud enough for all of them to hear.
“Sloane may be stupid, but he’s definitely not THAT stupid,” Will proclaimed. “He’s not coming back.”
“Your vitals seem to be fine, Mr. Tippin. Do you think you can walk when the ambulance gets here? I’ll have to go through all the necessary protocol,” the medic glared at Kat as he spoke, “but then you’ll be able to get that bullet out.”
“I think I’ll be fine…” Will replied.
The medic got out his radio phone, and dialed in to speak to Devlin. The beauty of his phone was that Kat could hear both ends of the conversation.
“Sir, this is Medic Roberts, I’m requesting an okay to get an ambulance here.”
“And you’re asking me…because?” Devlin questioned.
“Um…well…I thought I had to go through the proper…protocol.”
“Are you absolutely insane? Any agents or civilians hurt in an operation like this need to be treated immediately! You can’t just let them die! Call the stupid ambulance in!”
“Yes, sir.”
“And, Roberts,”
“Yes, sir?”
“Don’t waste my time again. That’s an order.”
And then Devlin hung up.
Kat couldn’t help but give Roberts an “I told you so” look. He noticed, but said nothing as he dialed in to get an ambulance.
“This is Roberts. We need several ambulances right away. Location, operation takedown. They’re already on their way? Excellent.”
Then he hung up.
Kat looked over at Marshall and saw he was sleeping.
“How long has he been like that?” she asked Roberts, who simply shrugged his shoulders, making Kat want to strangle him.
“Marshall?” she said as she gently shook him. “Marshall, wake up. Marshall! Come on… Marshall?!?”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The footsteps Michael heard stopped abruptly.
“Vaughn,” he heard Jack say.
Michael tried to turn around, which to his surprise, he could. The guards laid dead at his and Sydney’s feet. Sydney was still on the ground, but with no blood on her at all. Jack was kneeling next to Sydney.
“How long has she been like this?” Jack asked,
“I-I’m not sure,” was Michael’s reply. “She was like that when I got down here.”
They began to do C.P.R. on her. Jack doing the series of thrusts and Michael pinching her nose and breathing into her mouth. They did it several times, each time wanting her to get up.
After what seemed like an eternity, Sydney sat straight up. She began to cough almost uncontrollably.
Michael let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding.
“Syd, are you—“
Michael was cut off. Then she kissed him with her cold lips.
“I-I’m fine. Thank you.”
“We need to get back upstairs,” Jack said. “Do you think you can walk?”
She was cold, shaking, and aching. “I’ll b-be fine.”
Michael and Jack helped Sydney up. They both immediately noticed her wince in pain. Her legs felt like they were being stabbed repeatedly by knives where the guard had been sitting. Sydney began to fall, but Michael caught her in his arms.
“I’ll carry you,” he said.
“No, you don’t h-have to,” Sydney objected. “I’ll b-be f-fine.”
“No, you won’t.”
Sydney sighed and turned to her father.
“You’re not fine, Sydney,” Jack agreed. “Let him carry you.”
“Fine,” Sydney sighed.
So Michael picked her up and Jack began to lead the way to the main office.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Gunshots went off in the main office of SD-6.
“You idiot!” an angry agent yelled. “I told you to secure all the members of security section!”
“I did!” another agent yelled.
“Evidently you didn’t!”
“Shut-up and help me shoot them!”
More gunshots went off. The gas was wearing off of everyone, and several were already awake. The desk trained agents were screaming and taking cover, the security section members were shooting at the C.I.A. agents, and appliances were exploding and sparking. Sheer chaos erupted in seconds.
Kat raced out of Sloane’s office, heading to what Marshall would call his “Tech Room”. She dodged several bullets, received several stares, and safely made it to Marshall’s office. After only a few minutes of searching, she found what she was looking for: Marshall’s caffeine pills. She picked up the bottle and ran back into Sloane’s office.
She took out one pill and smashed it with a pocketknife. Gathering one fourth of it, she put it in Marshall’s mouth, hoping he wouldn’t choke. Five minutes passed, and then Marshall woke up.
Kat didn’t give him a chance to say a word. She kissed him long and hard.
“Don’t do that again…”
“I won’t be able to. You did give me a caffeine pill right? It sure tasted like one…I mean I can taste caffeine before it hits my mouth…I love caffeine! CAFFEINE! CAFFEINE! CAFFEINE!”
“Marshall?”
“CAFFEINE! CAFFEINE! CAFFEINE!”
Kat kissed him so he would shut up. Which, to her pleasure, worked…for a minute or two.
“Marshall, I did give you a caffeine pill, but not a whole one…only part of one. That’s because…well…Marshall, you have to…you have to have…”
“MORE CAFFEINE!!!”
“NO! Marshall, you could be DEAD in a few hours! You have to go into surgery! THAT is why I gave you only one fourth of the pill…”
“Say what?”
“Marshall, it’s my fault…I-I’m sorry. That morphine I gave you…it made the serums toxic...and they…they have to get it out or-or you’ll die…and it’s all my fault…I’m so sorry…it-it’s all my—“
“No it’s not. I asked for the morphine.”
“Yeah, but…”
Marshall stopped her mid-sentence with a kiss, then he gently wiped away her accumulated tears.
“’Yeah but’ nothing. It’s not your fault, and anyway, I’ll be fine. So no more crying, okay?”
Kat gave up and managed a weak smile. “Alright. Just don’t fall asleep, okay?”
Marshall knowing that he now couldn’t fall asleep even if he wanted to for at least an hour and agreed that he wouldn’t fall asleep, just to put her at ease.
“Look out!” Will yelled as a bullet came flying through the glass door and whirled into Sloane’s office.
Everyone got down on the floor. Kat crawled over to the medic, as bullets soared out in the main office.
“Do you have a gun?” she asked.
He looked very surprised. “Nooo….”
“You’re hopeless!” she exclaimed. “Absolutely hopeless!”
Will crawled over to them. “I have one.”
“Good…you’re going out there with me.”
“Okay…WAIT! Hold the phone. You want ME to go out THERE and SHOOT people? You have got to be kidding me…”
“I’m not…look, whether you like it or not, they need our help!”
Will just stood there, staring and looking like the biggest baby in the world.
“I knew the minute I heard your voice on the phone that I wouldn’t like you. I should’ve known you would be a coward. Now, I’m going out there, with or without you. Do what you want.”
She paused for a few minutes for the impact of what she had just said to slap him in the face, which Kat decided he deserved. Then she grabbed her gun, and went out the door into the middle of the chaos.
Bullets were flying everywhere, Kat saw several CIA agents down, and some she knew others she didn’t. Then she spotted the members of Security Section who, fortunately, didn’t see her. She fired and hit several men. They retaliated, only one of the many bullets hitting her that left only a scratch.
Kat got on the floor to better protect herself. She was running out of darts, not to mention back up. Behind her she heard footsteps. Her gun readied, she turned and shot, not even seeing the face of the man. Only after he was sound asleep did she realize who she shot: Will Tippin.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Jack, Michael, and Sydney all heard the many gunshots as they neared the door back to the main office. They knew where they were coming from, but had no idea why. The first thing the teams did after using the gas was disarm all the security section members. Jack turned his com back on and so did Michael, hoping to get news from Kat or Weiss.
“Bubbleliscious, do you copy?” Jack asked.
While Jack was talking through his com, Michael turned to Sydney. She was shaking. It was so bad that Michael had to strengthen his hold on her to keep her in his arms. She was pale and had a far away look in her eyes.
“Sydney,” Michael said in a soothing voice. “Sydney, are you okay?”
She didn’t answer.
Kat’s voice came through his ear. “I-I copy, SpyDaddy.”
“What’s going on up there?” Jack asked.
“Well, somehow Security Section got their grubby paws on their guns and are attacking…I came out to help, but I’m running out of back up and bullets…Marshall…he’s…well I might be the cause of his death if he doesn’t have an important surgery soon. Weiss was shot, by we think that freaky torture guy when he came to get Sloane, who by the way escaped…Will got shot by Sloane, which I’m sure he’d explain except I just accidentally shot him with my tranq gun…and what do you know… I’m stranded in the middle of a shoot out with no more tranq darts...whoa, hold on!”
As Jack waited he heard several gunshots followed by three very loud ones, that he assumed Kat was firing.
“Okay…I’m back. I had to dodge a few bullets. Yes! I got one down…twenty to go…give or take a few…good thing I carry a spare gun. Oh, and did you or Michael call the police?”
“No…”
“I hear sirens…so I thought maybe you did.”
“It must have been one of the Analysts.”
“Is Sydney okay?” she asked.
“She’s—“
That’s when Jack looked over and saw that Sydney was on the floor, Michael standing over her, checking her pulse. She was still shaking from the cold. Just by a glance you would be able to tell she needed immediate medical attention.
“She blacked out a minute ago,” Michael explained. “She was mumbling something, but I couldn’t understand her.”
“Daddy?!” Kat said not worrying about the code names. “Are you okay? Is Sydney all right? Hello?!”
“I’m sorry, Kat. No, she’s not doing very well. I’m coming up to help you. I’ve got a gun and some extra bullets,” he told Kat. Then to Michael he said, “Stay here with her and make sure she’s alright.”
Michael nodded, and then watched as Jack went up the stairs, and out the door, fully prepared to fight till the death.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The almost silent home in Downtown L.A. housed a depressed and angry woman. She was very mad at a certain Michael C. Vaughn. She knew she shouldn’t cry over the man who broke her heart, but she couldn’t help it. So, her days were consisting mainly of watching movies like
Pearl Harbor,
A Walk to Remember,
The Wedding Planner, and
Sweet Home Alabama while stuffing herself with assorted chocolates.
She was on her third discounted box of chocolate hearts, and trying her luck with
Lilo and Stitch when the phone rang. Like all the rest of the times the phone rang in the past week, she let the machine pick it up.
“Alice,” a distorted voice said. “We know you’re home.”
Alice jumped a mile. She had no idea who the person on the other end of the phone was, but she did not particularly want to find out at the moment.
“Pick up the phone, Alice. I want to help you.”
Hesitantly, Alice picked up the phone and still afraid said, “Who is this? What d-do you want?”
“I want to help you.”
“Help me w-with what?”
“I believe we both have our issues with a certain Michael C. Vaughn. Do we not?”
“Well, h-he did break up with me t-the other day…he found a new girl…her name was…”
“Sydney Bristow.”
“Who?”
“Sydney Bristow.”
“Oh…Okay…Thanks…I guess. What are you suggesting we do? I mean why do you need me?”
“I have a plan, but I will only tell you when I have a guarantee of your cooperation.”
“Do I have to kill anyone?”
“Would you like to?”
“Not really…Wait…isn’t that a line from a movie trailer?”
“Yes, it was. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No.”
“Good. Now, are you willing to help me or not?”
“I don’t know…I need to think about this. I’m not sure if I’m physically or emotionally ready for any type of plan. This is a big decision, and I need to think about it. My name is Andrew, by the way. That’s all I am able to give you at this time. We’ll be in touch. Oh, and Alice?”
“Yes?”
“Somebody’s watching.”
And with those words, he hung up. All was silent except for the T.V. chatter of
Lilo and Stitch, and the beating of her broken heart.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Jack Bristow wasted no time. He had already taken out several members of security section along side of Kat. They soon regained control of SD-6 and called in for another team that arrived in less than 5 minutes.
The ambulances all showed up. Marshall, Eric, Will, and Sydney were all immediately loaded onto stretchers and into the ambulances. The SD-6 workers were all being handcuffed and taken by the C.I.A. agents.
Once they were outside, a very unhappy Jack Bristow had to speak with the police before they would let anyone leave. They wanted all the information about what was going on, which took Jack less than 2 minutes to assure them that that intel was none of there business, and classified intel of the C.I.A.
They okayed the ambulances to go. Jack and Michael were in the same ambulance as Sydney, both wishing she would open her eyes and smile up at them. Kat was sitting in with Marshall, trying to restrain herself from crying. Everything was situated, so the ambulances sped down the streets and drove to the special C.I.A. hospital.