| "Warped Renderings" | ||
|
Chopper transport to SH1 They lifted off moments before the devices detonated. The structure seemed to implode, before a large fireball encompassed the remnants of the building now below them. Baz and Paige had occupied her mind from the moment she had stepped onto the heli, she had time briefly to ask Eric if he were ok before abandoning him to look after his wounds until she could spare time to look at them thoroughly. She worked together with Joshua on the wounded and she was surprised at how good he was, she hadn't known he had such skills and working with him was easier than she had expected or at least she was too occupied to worry about anything else. The golden hour had long since elapsed, and now they were well over that time and still a long way from proper medical care. But she had found a moment to examine Eric's wound, ascertaining that the bullet had scored him down the side, where the protection from the vest had been weakest. Other than the pain and blood loss, he was in no immediate danger unlike the other two. She gave him a dressing, "Do you want anything?" knowing what his answer would be before he even shook his head negatively. She looked down at him, calculating how much pain he must be in, wondering whether to insist but then sighed, he wasn't stupid, and he would ask if he needed to. "Did you see any signs of the Cardinal?" she asked him, deliberately changing the subject. Eric looked up, and shook his head. "None." "Any signs of anyone other than who we took out?" she probed, "any movement outside on the west side?" He thought about it, and then shook his head again, "No." Saf stood there for a moment, she had a feeling that they had missed something but now was not the time to deal with it. She returned to Baz's side, noting that the space next to Paige was now occupied by Joshua leaving her no space, she checked his signs, it was not getting any better, she spoke to Joshua, "He's crashing." "So is she," he looked down at his watch, "we're still ten minutes out." Her heart sank; she had nothing more to give either of them. They needed medical attention and stat or they would need two body bags not two trolleys. The minutes seemed to drag by, she cared for Baz the best she could, but it was never going to be enough. When the pilot informed her that they were two mins out, she started to think about landing and evacuation. They would need to get Paige and Baz out quickly, she spoke her thoughts out loud, "What do you think Joshua?" He ignored her, his attention solely on Paige; though his face was a mask of indifference. She was not in the mood for this, and raised her voice, "Joshua" letting the sarcasm edge her voice with its sharpness. "What?" he whipped around, his attention now on her. Well fuck you too, Mr Oversight. She returned his gaze silently, her eyes telling him what he needed to know. "What?" his voice less harsh. Was he admitting he was at fault she wondered? Too late, it didn't matter, he didn't matter. "Pilot says the landing is in two, do you think you could help?" one more her sharp tones attacked him, putting him in the wrong. `Pay attention Joshua. Focus on the big picture, not just a fragment.' His slow nod gave her the point. But it wasn't a game, there were no winners just losers and her two teammates badly injured deserved better from him. When they landed, the medical teams swept in to one side. Joshua was prepping Baz, tying his wrists together while the med team swept her up Paige efficiently onto a stretcher and wheeled her away out of site while she made sure Eric was also taken care of, though as walking wounded, he had a lower priority. There was little she could do now, so she slipped away while no-one was looking and made her way down to the 10th floor and changed out of her blood soaked clothes. Not bothering with a shower, she just pulled on dry clean clothes and left the dirty clothes in a bin, and took the lift back up to medical. The cow on Reception wouldn't let her in, despite her assurances she wouldn't get in the way. Instead she was told come back in at least an hour. Silently she turned away, not wanting to face anyone, still annoyed with how the mission had gone she would happily have stood up and argued with anyone, even Mr Jones, so she sought solitude as a antidote to her anger. The one place she knew would be quiet was, it was empty, dark and silent; a good place to while away time and dispel her anger. She logged in to her workstation and pulled up the data files on Cardinal, one of the advantages of her position was that it allowed her access to a lot more information and she used it. She downloaded the surveillance tapes of the site and then started to run through them, using a filter to give a better picture. She wondered who had taken them because they were poor quality; after one run, she was no wiser as to whether anything useful was on them. She put all four tapes onto a split screen and viewed them again, it was a small detail that caught her eye, and then she saw something else. She checked the clock, about 30 minutes prior to the teams being inserted, the North side surveillance film, showed movement, perhaps a car, in the distance. She could see the movement, though if it was a car it wasn't using headlights, which was suspicious enough but it wasn't proof. Stripping the north surveillance film, she ran it through some imaging rendering software, cleaning up the data and sharpening the images. She enlarged the picture and this time focussed in on the area where the movement had been seen. The software had done the work, now she could see two figures, moving away from the plant and into the surrounding woodlands where a car had been. The same car then moved away and this was the movement she had seen. The door opened behind her, and automatically she blanked what she had been working on. "Saf I want you to review the tapes of the mission�" Gray started to speak, she couldn't help smiling, and it was so very different to Section. There the team leaders had been expected to do it on their return, analyse and report on performance of operatives. Cancellation would have been guaranteed if they had to wait until asked. The only difference here was that she was interested in anything else other than the agents' performance, no more would she be responsible for reporting on mistakes or faults. Simon stood at the side of Gray with his mouth open, saying nothing. "That's what I was working on when you came in," her voice was calm, "it's the Cardinal isn't it?" she asked him. He just nodded. "I spoke to Eric on the way back; neither he nor his team saw anything. So I thought I would review the tapes made by surveillance." She flipped up the display she had been working on and showed them the details she had been looking at, "Someone left the structure on the North side about 30 mins before we entered." She watched them as they saw the evidence for themselves and then continued, "It suggests that whoever it was did not want to be seen leaving, and they almost succeeded." Gray nodded, "You think it was him?" She shook her head, "It's not clear enough. I tried to map the image against his picture, but the quality of the surveillance tapes is not good enough to prove or disprove it." "Gut instinct?" That surprised her, when he asked her that. She hadn't even considered it, Section was based on fact not instinct; instinct could lead you astray. Facts were easier and better to deal with, but in this case it did seem that the numbers added up. She shook her head, "I think.." she paused, thinking before continuing, "no, I know it was him." Gray stared at her, "Go through the sequence with me." She took him through the sequence of events on the tape, printing off the relevant images, and together they summarised the information in a report. When they had finished, he left her to clear up the papers presumably to report to Rebecca. She glanced down at her watch, 02.15hrs, it had been more than an hour and a half since she had left Paige at the tender mercies of the medical staff and she walked toward the lifts, pressing the buttons to call the lift and stifling a yawn as she did so. This time she was not going to take no for an answer, she would use force if she had to, but she would find out how Paige was. While she waited for the lift to ascend to her level, she found herself wondering at the memory of Paige's urgent statement about Michael back on the heli, saying she would have to feed him. It was so totally out of character, Paige worrying about him, especially when their last conversation about him looking tired and drawn had provoked a strange response. Paige had been almost gleeful she remembered; so it didn't make any sense to her to hear Paige worried by the idea he would die if he weren't fed. The lift arrived at the floor and the doors opened, it was already occupied by Joshua, she didn't hesitate but walked in and silently stood beside him, pressing the button for the 11th Floor. It wasn't like the last time they had shared a lift, then you could have cut the tension with a knife. This time the tension was not as bad, but she was glad when it arrived at the designated floor all the same. As she stepped out so did he, but she couldn't be bothered to say anything to him. As she stood at Reception to find out from the on-duty cow, who passed as a receptionist, where Paige was, she noted that Joshua disappeared into the treatment rooms, while the cow directed her to cubicle 5. Cubicle was the wrong word, they were rooms, fully enclosed and it was a haven of quiet. Paige was lying on her left side, peacefully asleep, her plastered wrist lying supported on a pillow. An aide was cleaning the blood from her neck and Saf indicated that she would take over. It might have been her natural charm, or the fact that she had pointed her weapon at the aide that got her the required result, she didn't care, this was her appointed task and no-one or nothing would make her deviate from it. Return |
||