CIA BRANCH OFFICE
SYDNEY
The basement car-park was quiet, the office was mostly deserted this time of night, save for the few agents stuck working an urgent case.
However tonight the car-park was full but somehow ominously silent.
It made George's skin crawl.
As they came off the elevator on the 16th floor the eerie feeling grew.
The reception area was deserted.
Company protocol stipulated that all access area's of the building were to be manned 24 hours a day and under the constant security of surveillance camera's.
Tonight the 16th floor had neither.
A closed circuit camera hung uselessly from it black wall-mount, it's casing smashed beyond repair.
"Gillian?"
George called out to the secretary that usually manned the station, hoping but not really believing that she may just be on a break.
Clay put his hand on George's arm and nodded towards the vandalised security camera.
George leaned down and picked Cody up, she had assumed that this building would be the safest place in this crisis...so much for assumptions.
Clay walked closer to the secretary's desk and looked over the top, immediately wishing he hadn't.
Gillian Thompson lay behind her desk, dead eyes staring skyward, a single bullet wound to the forehead.
From the position of her body behind the desk, Clay assumed she must have greeted her attacker as they arrived off the elevator, she had not stood a chance.
"Thorpe is here." Clay said as he turned to Georgina.
Georgina resisted the urge to look behind the desk, from the look on Clay's face she guessed that Gillian was no longer with them.
The intercom on Gillian's desk gave a harsh squeal, startling them both.
"Welcome back Agent Webb, long time, no see."
Thorpe's gravelly voice issuing the insanely casual greeting sent shivers down Clayton Webb's spine.
Clay pressed the intercom button.
"What do you want Thorpe?"
"Just you and Agent Metcalfe...the boy can go. I'm not an animal y' know." Thorpe said with a soft laugh.
George shook her head; there was no way the she was letting Cody out of her sight.
"No deal" Clay said pressing the intercom button.
"I'm not talking deals Webb," Thorpe spat out. "These are my list of demands, and should those demands fail to be met, the lives of all 10 Agents I have in the training room will be forfeit. You and Agent Metcalfe have 7 minutes to present yourselves before I start killing one agent every 2 minutes til you get here."
"Don't do it Metcalfe."
Came a shout from the intercom, she recognised the voice as Allenbey.
The report of a gunshot, a female scream and then silence followed
"Correction Agent Metcalfe, there are now 9 Agents, better hurry."
"Where are the other agents Thorpe?" George asked quietly.
"Well Agent Troy decided to play hero and tried to send out a message form the comm room, his little act of bravery cost him his life."
"And the others?"
She asked, trying not to let the hurt come through in her voice.
"Got in the way." Thorpe said with a laugh in his voice. "You have 5 minutes 45 seconds Agent Metcalfe."
The intercom was switched off; silence hung heavily in the air.
Clay took Cody from Georgina and carried him down the hallway towards Allenby's office.
"George I want you to stay in here with Cody, I'm going to go and see if I can find any other agents in this section, I'll come back in a few seconds."
"Clay, if we don't go to Thorpe, he'll start killing those agents you know he'll do it."
"George, trust me, I'll be back in a few minutes."
With a silencing look Clay slipped out of Allenby's office and down the corridor towards the comm room.
The comm room looked like a small explosion had ripped through most of it, the panels of several of the tracking system monitors had been blown off and wires hung uselessly on the floor.
On the far side of the room something moved, catching Clay's eye.
With his pistol raised, he moved towards the object.
"Webb."
It was little more than a rasp, but Clay recognised the pathetic form as being that of Agent Daniel Troy, the agent sat slumped against a filing cabinet sized mainframe computer an oozing bullet-wound in his left side.
"Troy, what the hell happened here?"
He leaned down and took off his jacket, putting it over the younger man.
"Thorpe managed to get through security, everyone's in the training room...5 dead so far. Got message to Langley out before he found me. Fawkes sent another team to come down here, flew out yesterday with someone called McDaniels, they'll be here within the hour."
Troy gasped for air, the exertion of getting out that simple statement almost being too much for him.
Clay's mind reeled; Casey was heading into this mess without the benefit of any inside knowledge.
"Is Thorpe alone?" Clay asked Troy.
"Yeah, just him."
"Listen Troy, I need your help, Cody is here with George."
"Jesus Christ."
"I've got him and George in Allenby's office, if I get you to Allenby's office can you look after Cody til we get back?"
Troy looked at Clay then closed his eyes.
"If you can get me there Webb, I'll keep him safe."
CIA HEADQUARTERS,
SYDNEY
Allenby's Office
George had her gun raised as Clay and Daniel came through the door.
Although he was leaning heavily on Clay, Troy was still able to walk.
"Dan, thank god, Thorpe thinks he killed you."
"Agent Troy is going to stay with Cody while we go after Thorpe, George."
George looked at Cody and nodded to Clay.
"Cody's going to play the quiet hiding game with Dan, aren't you sweetheart?"
Cody nodded, looking form his mother to Dan, who was now wearing Clay's jacket, shielding the wound in his side from the little boy's view.
Clay watched as George kissed their son goodbye, telling him how much she loved him and giving him final instructions as to what he was to do for Agent Troy.
A minute later they were standing outside the training room door, on the other side Thorpe waited for them.
"Ready?"
George asked as she placed her hand on the door handle.
"As I'll ever be." Clay said priming his gun.
Georgina turned the handle.
Casey McDaniels was standing on the ground floor of the Sydney CIA HQ when the explosion rocked the building throwing her and her recovery team to the ground.
After checking the team's status she assembled them to make an assault on the 16th floor.
The elevator door opened of it's own accord, the elevator nowhere to be seen.
Agent Dobbs, a new graduate with barely 3 months experience to his name walked towards the elevator just as Casey heard the low whistling sound from the elevator shaft.
"Incoming" she yelled pushing Dobbs to the floor.
Seconds later the elevator crashed its way past the ground floor to the basement, its snapped cables whipping behind it.
Dobbs looked at Casey and nodded solemnly.
"Looks like we'll have to take the stairs, the elevators out of action."
"You're a master of stating the obvious Dobbs." Casey quipped. "Team 1 secure the stairway, team 2 no-one gets in or out of this building without my clearance understood?"
"Yes ma'am."
16 flights of stairs later Casey McDaniels was staring at what remained of the CIA's Asia Pacific Regional HQ.
She had only one thing on her mind...finding Clayton Webb.
10 minutes later Casey found Clay.
Pale and unconscious from a headwound but otherwise not seriously injured, the same could not be said for Special Agent Georgina Metcalfe.
Casey introduced herself as Clay's partner to the injured agent.
Bleeding profusely from a gut-wound, but hanging onto consciousness Georgina managed to gasp out what had happened.
"Thorpe rigged the door, they're all dead...all of them." She murmured softly. "Cody...my son Cody...Webb's son...he's in Allenby's office with Agent Troy...."
Casey was sure she had heard Metcalfe wrong, had she really said Webb's son?
"Your son is in the office you said?"
Georgina nodded.
"With a friend...Agent Troy...injured..."
Georgina Metcalfe slipped quietly into unconsciousness, leaving Casey to wonder what exactly was going on.
The scene at Sydney HQ had been catastrophic, 9 agents were pronounced dead, their murderer's body nowhere to be found.
The building had been flooded with Paramedics within 4 minutes of the blast.
As it stood, the CIA PR machine would take weeks to explain the scenario.
Casey McDaniels had never felt so drained in her life.
After she had left Georgina's side and gone in search of Georgina's son Cody she had come across Agent Daniel Troy.
He'd raised his weapon at her as she entered the room and had placed his body in front of the small boy.
Agent Troy had little strength left, his wounds were extensive and he was weak from loss of blood.
His first words to her after she had identified herself were.
"Is George alive"
Casey's nod seemed to put his mind to rest, and with a small groan he passed out, succumbing to his injuries.
From the moment she had seen little Cody Metcalfe she knew that Georgina had been telling the truth, Clayton Webb, her partner and her lover, was this child's father.
Cody's eyes had been wide with fear, but he had taken her hand without question and followed her out of the office.
They passed the paramedics that now crowded the demolished office space as they rushed to tend to Agent Troy and out into a waiting ambulance where his mother and her partner were being treated for their wounds.
Staring at the silent child who held his mother hand all the way to the hospital, she couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen to Cody if Georgina didn't make it through this.
The ICU ward of St Vincent's Hospital was a sterile, harsh environment certainly not the place for a little boy.
Clay looked on as Casey held Cody in her lap, softly stroking his hair as they sat vigil beside Georgina, waiting for any sign that she was going to wake, even as in the next room Special Agent Daniel Troy fought for his life.
Thinking not for the first time how much he sometimes hated this job, Clay went to get coffee for himself and Casey and some warm milk for his son.
2 Hours Later
St Vincents Hospital.
Intensive Care Unit.
Sydney, Australia
Georgina felt a surge of strength, her last one she knew, and she opened her eyes.
A woman she recognised from HQ, to be Clay's partner Casey, sat holding her son as Clay stood leaning against the door.
"Cody?" George whispered.
"Clay" Casey said softly" She's awake."
"Clay?" Clay came and stood beside her bed. "I'm here George." He said softly.
"Clay, I need you to take Cody, he'll need you to get him through this." George whispered.
"George you're going to make it through this, Cody doesn't need to go anywhere."
"Clay, you were never very good at lying to me, I'm dying, I need to know that you're going to look after Cody, that he'll be safe with you." She took his hand in hers and squeezed it softly. "Please Clay."
Clay looked down at George and nodded, unable to explain the sudden teary-ness he felt.
"I promise George, you have my word that Cody will always be safe with me."
Painfully aware that her strength was fading fast, George turned her attention to her son.
"Cody...wake up sweetheart." Georgina called out softly to her sleeping son.
"Mommy?" Cody opened his eyes at the sound of his mothers vice.
"I'm here Darling." She took in the image of his face, he looked exhausted and anxious, and his eyes were red from crying. "Cody I need you to do something for me OK?"
The little boy looked at his mother, bruises and the bandages marred her face, her voice was weak and she kept gasping for breath.
"Sweetheart Mommy has to go soon, to go be with the Angels up in heaven."
Cody's green eyes brimmed with tears.
"Don't want you to go..." he sniffled.
"I know honey, but I have to go. Do you know what I need you to do for me? I need you to go with Clay and Casey and go and be their little boy."
"Don't want to be their boy mummy..." " I only want to be your boy.... I'm your boy mummy" Cody gasped out, between choking sobs.
His mother was leaving him, saying goodbye and his world was being turned upside down.
"I know sweetheart, and you'll always be my boy. Even when I'm in heaven you'll always be my boy. But I have to go soon and I need you to go with Clay. " Another series of racking coughs disrupted her speech. "But I'll be looking down on you from heaven, and every time you say a prayer at night I'll hear you. Clay and Casey will take real good care of you for me." Georgina collapsed into another fit of coughing, blood tinging the corners of her mouth as she continued.
"Can you promise me to be a good boy for Clay and Casey?"
Cody nodded, tears streaming down his face as he swiped at them with a tiny hand.
"That's my brave boy, now come and give Mommy a cuddle and a kiss Goodbye."
Cody flung himself into Georgina's arms, holding tightly to his mother as he placed kiss after kiss on her face.
"Do you have to go Mommy?" Cody asked softly between his tears.
"Yes sweetheart, but I'll always be with you I promise you that." She murmured softly into his hair. "Ok you go with Clay while I talk with Casey for a minute OK?"
She let go of her son; her arms aching to hold on to him til the very last breath left her body, her mind knowing that she couldn't do that to her son.
Clay reluctantly left the room, carrying his tiny crying child in his arms.
Casey looked as if she had been crying when she came out of the room 5 minutes later, she would not tell Clay what George had said, only that George wanted to speak to him again.
Clay walked back into the room; the smell of death crept around the edges of the room like a darkening shadow as he walked to her bedside.
"George?"
She was lying so still he thought she may have already gone.
"Clay, promise me that you'll love him the way I love him." George said, her voice little more than a whisper now.
Clay looked down at George and nodded.
"I promise. He's my son, I'll love him unconditionally."
"I know...you're a good man Clay..."
George closed her eyes, her strength sapped.
With a rattling sigh, the hospital room fell deadly silent, as death claimed her.
Clay reached down and kissed George's forehead.
"Goodbye George."
He said softly as a single tear slid down his cheek.
Clayton Webb walked out of the hospital that day knowing that death had claimed not only another fine agent, but a mother and a friend as well.
Somehow that made it inexcusable.