| "Sans d'espoir (Without Hope)" | ||
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23.05hrs She sat silent, brooding, staring out the window at the blackness outside. Joshua was driving fast, but not dangerous she would give him that; if very little else. Since his words, his admission of guilt, she had thought of nothing else but getting to Paige. But she knew she had to step carefully for whoever had taken her, and she knew that Madeline must be behind it, would be waiting for them to come after her. The miles flew by, but the time seemed to pass so slowly, Joshua had spoken very little and Jordan had kept her own counsel leaving Saf with her own thoughts. If Madeline knew Joshua was behind the data then she would also know that Joshua would be coming after her and forewarned was forearmed. She and Jordan would be better off on their own, but how to ensure that Joshua was out of the way without compromising their chances of success? With Michael coming along with a team from Section 1 as well, there was no point in trying to take Joshua out of the picture, it would be too visible. Calculating her chances, and the odds of Paige being at the location they were heading towards, if she and Jordan could get away from the others, they could be in and away before Madeline was even aware of their having been there. She turned to Jordan, but Jordan was dozing, her head resting on Joshua's shoulder, and as she looked over she caught his eyes. He was looking at her as though he could see into her very soul, and she stared back at him coldly her scorn for his actions clear in her eyes. He said nothing but simply turned away, his gaze back on the road ahead and she hunched up and tried to rest. 06.00hrs She stirred as Jordan moved, despite closing her eyes, she had not slept, but she felt ready to go regardless. Joshua was silent, and she had no intention of breaking the silence to enquire as to how far they had to go. He turned off into a track, and then into a smaller side track. A black van was waiting, and as they drew to a stop, she watched Michael step out from inside of the van, Nikita at his side. Jordan nudged her as she spotted Birkoff at the doorway. Joshua got out of the truck and walked over to Michael, she stayed where she was, observing and watching the actions of the other. Jordan was staring at her, and her eyes on the characters in front of her, Saf outlined her ideas for a quick result, knowing as she did that it was probably not the best solution, but she was prepared to risk all. When she had finished, she opened the door and walked slowly over to join them. It was clear to her that Joshua had briefed Michael on the situation and that he was also looking shifty. 'So they should' she thought, 'they had risked Paige's life and for what?' "Bob and Joe are recce'ing the site, there are a number of buildings, but they haven't seen a sign of�" he started to say, Saf had walked passed him, and into the van, her target was the surveillance equipment that Birkoff had lined up. While her memory retention wasn't up to the same high level of Paige's it was adequate to give her an outline of the buildings and site. She didn't say very much, simply picking up a flak jacket, some gloves and her gun. With just a nod to Jordan, she set off on her own recce of the site, smiling to herself when she saw Joshua glowering at her, but not saying anything. 09.30hrs She made her way back to the vehicles, there was no obvious sign that anyone else was here. Yes there had been recent traffic on some of the tracks, but that could have been anyone not necessarily Paige and her abductors. She had sat patiently, watching and observing, but nothing disturbed the sounds of silence, before returning back to the others. As she returned to the van, Jordan went to greet her, "Joshua is pretty pissed off at you for disappearing on your own.." Saf smiled at her, "Good, he has to learn, we are not his to control or order around." To her surprise, Jordan nodded, "I agree, but take it easy, it's more important to get Paige back than just to annoy each other." They walked to the van together, and Saf reached for a bottle of water, the temperature was already rising and her actions were deliberately antagonistic as she ignored the other participants until she had slaked her thirst. She lowered the bottle, and turning to Joshua she stared at him coldly, "There is no sign of anyone here, and with the best will in the world, the signal from the tracker could have been tampered with." As she had expected, Joshua exploded at her, "She is here; we just have to be patient�." Her voice was equally as cold as his had been, "and in the meantime, she is probably being tortured to get at the information.. Your best call?" Michael stood between them while Jordan took the middle line. "I think we should wait and see. We have no better information, do we?" she looked towards Joshua who gracelessly nodded, "and nothing to gain by running around?" the latter question being aimed at Saf. Saf nodded, Jordan who was always the wise one. Whatever was happening was already in play, Paige was strong enough to hold on, and she had to. Silently she made her way to Birkoff's side, needing to be kept busy. He passed her some monitoring equipment and she started to trace signals in the area, only moving on when she had established that the signal she was listening to was not what she was interested on. Between them, they covered a lot of the signals but Saf kept thinking they were missing something, but she couldn't put her finger on the pulse. The hours passed slowly, she and Birkoff were quietly concentrating on their part of the task and they were left alone. She was idly playing around with a spare link connected to the DOD satellite system that she had hooked up to when she caught a signal burst, it had been so small as to almost escape notice had it not been for the fact that she and Birkoff had secured a net to trap everything outgoing in the area. She nudged Birkoff, and replayed the signal, it was not clear, there was a lot of crackles and static distorting the signal, but some of the words could plainly be heard, "� need to be retrieve the files �.. the woman has �." As she was listening to the words replaying on her headphones, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up� they were discussing Paige. `Damn Joshua for being right.' She traced the signal to its source, well to a close proximity, after a lot of triangulating from the origination they came up with three possible sites; close to each other. She allowed Birkoff to brief Michael and Joshua, preferring to keep her distance from both of them for the moment, not want to see that smug look that Joshua would have at knowing he was right and she was wrong. Instead she stood outside, trying to calm herself down in order to resist the urge to go in blazing guns, and waited for the others to make their decisions known. It was hard to just wait, with nothing to occupy her hands or her mind, she even mulled over trying to bum a cigarette from one of the others. 17.30hrs Finally, they emerged, and motioned everyone into a circle. Joshua stared hard at her, but she was giving nothing away. "Saf/Jordan will you take position 2?" not so much of an order as a request; he had obviously learned something from them. Birkoff handed her two comms units, "The signals are hard encoded to secure transmissions from being detected." She took both and nodded to the other two, and zipping up the flak jacket she motioned to Jordan to follow her. Stake-out time. As they walked away, clipping on the comm. units, the orders could be heard flying thick and fast; and orders they were rather than requests. Section was the same as ever. The point they had been assigned to was overlooking a small compound, they lay down and moved as far forward as their cover would permit and took out some glasses. There was no movement in the early evening air, Saf motioned to Jordan to rest now, and she would keep watch, indicating 1 hour before they would change places. Jordan didn't move, but instead relaxed where she was; reducing movement in order to remain unseen. Saf returned her gaze to the compound and the building behind it, the dry dusty surface of the compound stirred by the breeze. 18.55hrs Jordan tapped her urgently. Saf opened her eyes and turned her gaze down on to the compound, two men dressed in Section black, had appeared. Jordan was snapping pictures with the camera, while Saf called in the others. She had plenty of time to think about it, but Paige's safety was paramount, she was the most important chess piece to retrieve. If need be Saf would be the sacrifice to ensure her safety, if it wasn't for her asking for the information then Paige wouldn't be as involved. She knew she was kidding herself, as Joshua and Michael were equally as guilty for their part, what was most important was retrieving Paige alive and keeping her safe. "Alpha 4, to all units. Tango spotted at location 2, East side." Five mins later, she could hear them moving in on their position. She drew back; leaving Jordan keeping an eye on the compound, in order to discuss the situation with the others. There was little to say, only that in the general shuffle, she ended up paired off with Joshua. They moved forward to take up position, silent and antagonistic, neither of them saying anything to each other. Saf concentrated on the scene below, ignoring Joshua. The two men returned inside, only for the door to open a few minutes later and for two figures to shuffle out; Paige and Baz, to be joined by a third smaller figure. She focussed in on the figures, the third person was a child, she estimated him to be about 8 or 9 yrs old with light brown hair. They were accompanied by what she considered to be a Section operative, dressed in black. She watched their movement as they stumbled out into the dusk. A strange sensation spread over her, when she realised that the figures did not appear to be guarded, rather escorted, for Paige was not exploring her surroundings looking for an escape route, and at one point seemed to be discussing something with the guard. Stranger still was the hand that she had on the boy's shoulder, almost as though he was her child. Was Paige involved in this? And willingly? She didn't know. Certainly, Paige looked stiff and bruised, and Baz didn't look good either, but neither of them was looking cowed, Saf felt confused, and turned sideways to look at Joshua. She signalled to pull back, wanting, no needing to talk to him. They pulled back far enough and spoke in soft tones, "Something is wrong, Paige is acting not within normal parameters." Joshua agreed without offering up anything else. She shrugged, not willing to hold a longer conversation with him; he stalked off without a word, and she returned to her position watching the compound. 20.15hrs Birkoff's voice came over the comms� "securing comms, in 3, 2.. done. Joshua the comms are now secured." She wondered at what was going on, but this was swiftly answered by Joshua speaking, "Everyone, move in�" Return |
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