| "Shadow in the Glass" | ||
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23rd May 2008 She made her way upstairs, still dressed in the bike leathers and damp t-shirt, which was beginning to smell slightly. She desperately needed a shower and time to collect her thoughts. Stifling a yawn, she pushed open the doors into the locker room, it was empty but evidence of other people having recently been there was left lying around; like the damp towels carelessly draped on the floor. Stripping off her clothes, she hung them up in her locker space and shivering slightly in the cool air she grabbed some clean underwear from the shelf along with a towel. The water was hot, and turning the pulse up to high she felt the benefits of the little fingers of water massaging away the tension in her neck. She stood passively for a brief moment, and then pulling some soap from the dispenser, scrubbed herself down and washed her hair feeling cleaner and more alert. Her focus now was on the mission ahead of her; she was looking forward to this, the thrill, anticipation, danger; the thought of it excited her and yet her anticipation had to be tempered. She got out, dried off and redressed. A black Lycra top and pants completing her outfit; the same style of clothes provided by Section for their operatives. It was lightweight, warm and non-reflective, perfect for covert work. She tied her hair back, picked up her bag and moved through into the small lounge on the floor. It was empty, the others must still be downstairs, and she didn't stay but headed downstairs. With less than 30 mins before they were off, everyone other than the former section operatives was restless. Moments after she arrived, they were on the move. Into the elevator and up to the 14th Floor while they waited for the transport to arrive. She felt the tension as much as any of them then, hating the waiting; impatient for the off, but being held back. Joshua's eyes bored into her back, but she ignored him, instead she headed for a quiet corner. From her bag, she took out her holster and weapon, the modified Sig Sauer 9mm. She checked it over one more time, knowing already that it was good to go; the magazine was full and she had two spares tucked into the pocket on her belt. She thrust it into the holster and tied off the closure. She didn't feel him come up behind her, knowing only when he was behind her when his words made her lose her concentration. "What do you think of the scenarios?" She turned and stared at him, recovering her composure fast, "Too much depends on what we find inside the warehouse, but they seem to be broad enough to cover multiple possibilities," giving him the standard answer, or bullshit whatever worked. She noted how his gaze was on someone or something the far side of the room who is he looking at? but his response was for her "Yeah, that's what I thought. You remember what we talked about?" Now he turned his gaze fixed on her, trying to see her inner thoughts, but she had already shuttered them away behind a blank stare. "I remember." "Not the part about telling me off in your subtle little way," he smirked, and that more than his words got up her nose but she was not going to let him know that, instead she held his gaze aloofly, waiting for him to continue and he nodded slowly, "The part about you being the backbone to certain missions." Now I guessed those compliments were leading up to something, so what is it you want? "Well, you're gonna need to be the backbone of this mission." His words were quiet. Her response was to say nothing, only a slight arching of her brow gave away her interest. "If anything happens to me�you got lead. Don't let Simon or especially Gray take over. You'll be in the field, you call the shots." Why me? Why not someone else, like Baz or Eric? She stared at him but said nothing. "It's not stated but there's a well defined pecking order amongst you. They would listen to you if you stepped up to the plate." Yes, right. Pecking order. Don't make me laugh. After all the shit I put them through, I don't think so, but have it your own way. Her stare was quiet and gave nothing of her thoughts away. "You will step up�we specifically profiled�" She interrupted, "I'm sure it won't be necessary. But you know I will do what I need to do." A satisfied smile diffused his features, "I know," but his tone was flat. Once more they were talking at cross purposes, but that smile was worrying. What was he up to? She heard Simon announce the heli's were ready, it was time to move out. He motioned to her palm, which was in her hand, "Keep an eye on your palm, we'll be working through scenarios throughout the trip." His voice was quiet, and authoritative. She looked down at the palm after nodding her acknowledgement. Just go away. She was folding it up, preparing to put it away in her pocket. She saw him moving out the corner of her eye, and then he brushed away a stray hair from her ear. She stiffened in anger, unable to voice her displeasure at his presumption, he leaned down over her, and she felt his lips to brush ever so softly against her ear, "Glad to see you feeling better after your neck surgery." His voice was like molten glass, but she was rigid with anger; her ability to move as frozen as her mind. He slid away, like the snake he was, she wanted so much to shout after him, to punish him, but knew it was not an option. Furious with herself for her paralysis, she turned back to face the table, zipping up her jacket, and shoved the hood into a pocket. She pushed her way past the others and headed for the roof; according to the profile, she was on the 2nd chopper, so there was no reason to go near him again and for his sake, she hoped he wasn't anywhere near her during the mission because with a loaded weapon in her hand, she just might not control her temper. She muttered to herself, watching his smoothness as he spoke to Jordan who just nodded. She turned her back on everyone and strode across the roof to the second heli, glad to know that she wouldn't have to share a ride with him. She strapped herself in to her seat, watching as Cindy and Timothy took their positions. Eric had already briefed everyone on the new ingress, and they could do nothing until they arrived at their designation. The doors were shut. Gray had taken a seat next to her, and Simon across, with the others fitting either side. Gray and Simon had to be in the middle, they were staying on board while their team deployed down. She knew when they lifted off; she could feel the wind pushing them. She knew she couldn't let Joshua's words get to her, but he picked his moment, to let her know that he knew about the tracker removal, just before the mission was to get off. Unless he was deliberately trying to throw her off her stride? If that was his intention, she was damned if she would do what he wanted. Though one thing puzzled her, how would he know about the tracker removal? Would Michael have told him? She didn't know, the relationship between Oversight and Section had always been symbiotic, each needed the other, but Oversight held all the keys to the doors. Without them, Section was nothing. A thought struck her that perhaps Joshua not only knew about the tracker removal, but also that he authorised it, she wanted so much for that to be wrong, she would hate to owe anything to anyone, but in particular she would hate to owe anything to him. She isolated those thoughts, putting them deep down inside her, it would not help her concentration to have them flying around. This mission was going to be hard enough, not enough personnel and too many possibilities without a loss of concentration due to him. The first drop was from Heli 1, the Ground Team, Paige, Baz and Joshua being deployed first, then it returned to where Heli 2 was waiting. This was the time that she hated most, waiting for the signal to move in, listening to the sounds of noises on the comms line. Finally Joshua signalled, they had made a decision on how to approach the warehouse. The Heli's picked up speed, and they were on their way, the wind was much worse, gusting violently and the pilot shook his head. The team deployed on the ropes, swinging violently 20ft below the chopper as the wind tore at them. She felt the helicopter turn, and then she was twisting over the target, and then away again. Cursing now, loudly, she screamed into her comm. Unit, "Get us over the target," and then they were turning again violently. "Alpha 5 to all units, we are under heavy fire." His voice appeared calm, but underlying his words was something else. "Pilot, this is Alpha 4. Get me down now." Her voice was cold, and calm, but full of menace. She felt the heli lowering, and lurching over the roof. She released herself from the ropes, landing heavily on the sloping roof and having to scramble to keep her balance though the small rail edging the roof prevented her from sliding to the ground. A sideways glance showed her that Cindy and Tim were still unhitching themselves. She didn't wait, they would join her. "Alpha 5, give me an update." His reply was slow, "Alpha 1 and 2 are down," she didn't like the way he spoke, it was as though he were holding himself together, `was he also injured?' The adrenalin was flowing strongly now, casting around she saw the skylight, it would be perfect. She took the rope from around her waist and securely attaching it to the rail behind her she hooked her karabiner onto it. For speed connection she was using the M�nter Hitch, which would give some natural friction, though the gloves she was wearing were designed for just such an event. Seconds later, she was ready, primed. She jumped down, through the skylight letting the rope fall beneath her. The glass fell like a shower of crystals, but her attention was on the flashes of fire below. The Sig was not the best weapon for this work, but she fired off a series of shots drawing the tango's attention away from the location of the ground team. As she got near the ground, she slowed her descent, sparing the time to locate the whereabouts of the ground team. She saw the prone figure of Paige lying on the floor, looking curiously vulnerable, her heart was in her mouth, but she couldn't afford to think about her condition right now. Baz, was lying awkwardly, clutching his shoulder and blood was colouring his hands black. Joshua was trying to provide covering fire for them both, though she saw at a glance, that he must have taken a hit, because his movements were also awkward. More shots were fired now from above, and she knew the others were right behind her as she started to hear the sounds of gunfire from the West side of the building, which mean that Eric and his group were also drawing fire. Detaching herself from the rope, she moved towards the ground team's location, her priority was to see to the wounded, then to deal with the objectives of their mission. Despite Joshua's premonitions of earlier, she didn't want any of them to be so badly hurt that she had to take over. Return |
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