The Retrieval... Ch. 02

They were in a narrow alley behind the café. Directly behind them the alley dead-ended into the back of another building. The café's dumpster was butted up against the brick wall. Standing in front of them at the entrance of the alley was the same scary looking man from the Land Rover which was why Jules had stopped short. He was dressed business casual in a coat and polo shirt, but he didn't look like any businessman Jules had ever seen. Leah gently pulled on Jules's arm until the redhead was standing behind her.

What followed was one of the strangest thing Jules had ever seen in her life.

Without a word Leah and the scary businessman walked directly at each other and then the man reached out like he was trying to poke Leah in the throat. The blonde acted like she was swatting at some kind of insect, but instead of an insect it was the man's arm that was swatted aside and then she swatted his other arm. Leah also slapped him on the side of his head. Next Leah lifted her foot and tapped it against the scary man's leg. The man backed off a step and gave Leah a mean look.

After that, things got really confusing as it looked like Leah and the stranger came together again and began shuffling back and forth like they were dancing and playing some crazy, dangerous version of patty cake at the same time. Their hands were a blur, but the sounds of flesh meeting flesh and grunts and heavy breathing were loud. From what Jules could see there was blood running down the side of the man's head from his ear and he was sort of limping.

All of a sudden it looked like Leah did a sudden bow from her waist towards the man and the guy went to his knees. Leah brought her knee up and then he was flat on his back and Leah bent down to pick something up the guy had dropped.

****

Leah gently pulled on Jules's arm until the redhead was standing behind her.

Leah met the hard stare of the man at the end of the alley. He didn't draw his weapon, so in some kind of silent, mutual agreement they both started walking purposefully towards each other at the same time. The man closed the last step by lunging and trying to catch her in the throat with a leading knife-hand strike. She surprised him with how smoothly she parried it by using her left wrist and palm to redirect the jab. She surprised him even further when she countered it by coming right back in and palm striking his ear. She also grabbed his ear and gave it a yank while she blocked the man's follow-up strike with his other arm with the outside of her right forearm.

As the man backed off and recovered his position, Leah saw that she had nearly ripped the guy's ear completely off and it was hanging down grotesquely against the side of his head. He seemed to be caught off guard for a second by her level of skill in close quarters combat. He feinted high, but Leah didn't fall for it and landed a solid foot check against his knee as he started to lift his leg for a low line kick. He grimaced and she knew she had caused some damage. Frustrated he launched a series of short, heavy strikes with his fists and elbows that were meant to overwhelm her and end the confrontation.

Leah smoothly moved her feet to change her position and remove herself from his angle of attack. She used her palms and forearms to proficiently block, parry and redirect each of his strikes. As she swept his final strike aside with her palm it caused the man to overextend which left his centerline exposed. Leah saw her split-second opportunity to go on the offensive. She knew that many amateurs often made the mistake of trying to use their neck as the fulcrum, but Leah instead made her neck as stiff as she could by flexing every muscle in her neck, shoulders and upper back as she rapidly swung her entire upper body forward into the head-butt.

The man was completely stunned on the impact of the top of her forehead with his face. He immediately dropped to his knees as blood exploded out of his ruined nose. He was just starting to bring his hands up to futilely try and protect himself, but Leah didn't hesitate as she put all of her bodyweight into the vicious Muy Thai knee strike. It connected solidly with the man's jaw and lifted him far enough up into the air to cause him to flip over backwards to land flat on his back, out cold.

Leah was breathing heavily from the exertion and adrenaline and then her face darkened into a scowl when she saw the syringe roll away from his side. It must have fallen out of the man's coat pocket.

She bent over and picked it up.

****

"What is that?" Jules asked as she cautiously came up behind Leah.

"Looks like a little present for you," Leah said with a trace of disgust. She flipped the cap off of the needle with her thumb and without hesitation stabbed it into the unconscious man's thigh and depressed the plunger.

"He was going to drug me?" Jules asked with wide eyes.

"Either that or poison you," Leah said in a matter-of-fact tone as she broke off the needle in the man's thigh, tossed the rest of the syringe aside and stood up. She grabbed Jules's hand and started walking towards the end of the alley.

"Wait!" Jules said and pulled her hand away from Leah's as she stopped walking. She cast a panicked look over her shoulder at the man lying in the alley. "Poison? Leah - did you just kill that man?"

"Jules," Leah said with her teeth clenched and reached over and grabbed the redhead's hand again and started half-walking / half-dragging her towards the entrance to the alley. "We need to go."

"But we can't -"

"Jules!" Leah said firmly and stopped to look the redhead in the eyes. "We have to keep moving. Do you understand? I will keep you alive, but we need to go...Now."

Jules went pale and nodded her head up and down quickly. They made it to the end of the alley, turned right and disappeared into a passing crowd of tourists, heading in the opposite direction of the hotel.

****

The handsome man who owned the log cabin on steroids was very pleased with himself.

A few weeks ago he had casually suggested that The Council would be more than welcome to use his home for their next get together and was pleasantly surprised when word was sent that they would take him up on his offer. The only thing this could mean was that they were feeling him out, testing him to see if he was the right kind of man to be invited to join their group as a full member. It was about time. He'd had his fill of playing the role of fixer for these men. In his heart he knew he was their equal and deserved that kind of respect.

This secret group of more than a dozen politicians, military leaders and business tycoons were currently sitting around the long oak table in his formal dining room smoking Gurkha Black Dragons and finishing their second bottle of Macallan 1926. This was after a lunch of fresh venison steaks, Maine lobsters and every kind of fancy side-dish his staff could whip up. The entire afternoon would end up costing him well over three hundred grand, but it would be money well spent if it helped him get that elusive invitation. He tried not to frown as his head butler approached from the side door.

The man-servant bent over and quickly whispered in his ear that he had an urgent phone call. It had to be important as the head butler had worked for the handsome man for over a decade and knew just how important this dinner was. The handsome man smiled and dismissed the butler. He knew he was receiving more than one inquisitive look from some of his guests at the interruption which was a break in their normal protocol.

"My sincerest apologies, gentlemen." The handsome man announced as he wiped his mouth on a linen napkin. He set his cigar down in the crystal ashtray and scooted his chair back. With another polite nod of his head he excused himself from the room. He went out into the hallway through that same side door and grabbed the encrypted cell phone off of the silver tray that another of his servants offered him. He cocked one eyebrow as he brought the phone up to his ear.

"Yes?" He listened intently. He pursed his lips as he took in the latest development.

"That's very disappointing," he observed. "Stand by and I'll get back to you."

He hung up and looked casually over his shoulder. In his dining room sat some of the most powerful men in the country. Men that did not take kindly to being disappointed by not having their instructions carried out. He hadn't failed them yet and he certainly wasn't about to start now. Not when he was so close. The man stood looking at the phone for another moment considering his options and then pushed one of the speed dial functions.

"This is Mr. Smith," the handsome man greeted whoever picked up on the other end. "Please run a system search and locate the asset Loki. Advise me of his current location as soon as possible...No, not yet. I just want him ready to go and on standby for now."

****

The two women eventually slowed their pace and tried to blend in with the meandering crowds.

They ended up walking aimlessly around for over an hour. Leah used that time and the casual physical activity to let the adrenaline wear off and also to give Jules the opportunity to calm down. They kept walking until they ended up near the National Gallery of Art. Leah spotted a vendor parked on the street and went over to the food truck and purchased two bottles of water and a couple of oranges. She took Jules by the hand and led her over to sit down on a bench across from the Capitol reflecting pool.

The tall blonde insisted that Jules drink at least half the water and eat the fruit. They sat and ate and drank in silence. Jules mechanically put pieces of orange in her mouth and chewed on them without really tasting them. She felt numb and couldn't believe that had just happened. Leah sat and chewed and sipped and thought about how quickly those men had been able to locate them.

"I need to ask you a question," Leah finally broke the silence.

"Okay."

"But I need you to really think about what I'm asking you," Leah continued. "I don't want you to jump to conclusions or get defensive."

Jules steadied herself and mentally committed to keep an open mind. "Okay. Ask me."

"Do you trust Atwood?" Leah asked. "I mean - do you really trust him, Jules?"

Jules considered the question carefully. She turned and looked Leah in the eyes and began to softly explain how long she had known Hank Atwood, what all he had done for her in her career and how many times he had gone to bat for her when she had screwed up including this last time. Finished Jules took a deep breath and then slowly let it out before saying, "Yeah...I trust him."

"Okay," Leah took her own deep breath and looked up at the sky as she sighed. "That doesn't mean that I trust him, but I am going to trust you. With what you just told me, none of this is making sense."

"What isn't?"

"How those men found us by the hotel so quickly."

"Do you think they had it under surveillance?" Jules suggested.

"No," Leah disagreed. "I pulled that place out of thin air. There's no way they could have known we'd be going to that hotel."

"Could they have Hanks' office bugged or something?"

"I guess it's possible," Leah scowled. "But I highly doubt it. It's a lot harder to do than what you see in the movies...Besides, I'm sure y'all deal with all kinds of secret shit and SOP would be for the entire building to be swept weekly if not daily."

"True," Jules agreed. She stared at her shoes for a minute and then asked quietly, "Can I ask you a question now?"

"Go ahead," Leah said and leaned forward on the bench so her forearms were on resting on her knees.

"Do you think that man in the alley is dead?"

"Don't know," Leah said simply. "Don't care."

Jules waited for her to say something else, but the blonde woman didn't. Leah just sat there looking off into the distance. Jules tentatively reached out her hand and let it rest on Leah's arm. "Why don't you care, Leah?"

Leah turned her head and looked at Jules's hand and then let her eyes move up to look into the redhead's face. She finally spoke. "He was going to hurt you, Jules. He was going to kill you."

"I -" Jules started to say, but Leah cut her off.

"The moment he accepted that assignment," Leah said quietly but with a touch of menace in her voice, "he made his decision. He knew exactly the kind of situation he was putting himself in. You didn't. You didn't ask for any of this."

"True, but -" Jules tried again.

"But nothing...this is my world," Leah continued, the tension rising in her voice. "Nice people like you don't belong in it...Its ugly, it's nasty and it's dark. Decisions are made and people end up dying for those decisions. That piece of shit made the decision that he was going to end your life. For what? Money? Because somebody told him to? Well...I stopped him. That was my decision. I chose you over him. That's why I really don't care if he's dead, Jules...I chose you."

"Oh," was all Jules could manage. She was so caught off guard by what Leah said that her brain was reliving the fact that she could have been killed all over again. She remembered seeing that syringe on the ground and her hands started to shake. She drew a quivering breath and felt her eyes start to water.

"Shhhh," Leah suddenly sat up and gently pulled Jules into her arms. "Hey, I've got you. You're safe...shhhh..."

Jules couldn't stop shaking and ended up sobbing into Leah's shoulder as the blonde patted her back and whispered reassurances in her ear. A few minutes later, Jules was sniffling and hiccupping and trying to wipe the snot off of Leah's shirt. It ended up making an even bigger mess and then the two women started laughing and hugging and laughing some more. Leah closed her eyes as Jules clung to her and was amazed all over again at how absolutely perfect their bodies felt pressed up against each other.

Then Leah remembered their conversation in the motel room and pulled away. She resumed her position of forearms on knees and went back to looking at the water, her laughter long gone.

"Why did you pull away?" Jules asked as her smile faded as well.

Leah didn't say anything. She just dropped her head for a moment and shook it a few times.

"I'm not very good at this," Jules admitted and slumped back on the bench. "I don't know what to say."

"I think you said it all at the motel," Leah replied quietly.

"Ouch...guess I deserved that," Jules mumbled and then said a little louder, "Look, I'm sorry, okay?"

"Don't say you're sorry for being honest," Leah corrected her. "Never apologize for telling the truth."

"Well, then my apology stands," Jules shrugged and wiped at her nose. "Will you accept it?"

Leah sat back and turned a little towards Jules. She studied the redhead's face for a few moments. "Yes. I accept your apology."

Jules smiled. "Thank you."

"Why did you say all those things?" Leah asked quietly.

Jules smile fell and she shrugged and looked down. "I don't really know."

"Did you say them to hurt me?"

Jules shrugged again as she felt fresh tears start to well up in her eyes.

That look told Leah it had all been a front. It was a mask Jules wore to try and protect herself.

Leah had just caught a peek behind that mask and could see there was obviously a great deal of emotional pain this woman was hiding from. The tall blonde immediately felt guilty. This whole situation wasn't fair for Jules and it wasn't helping that Leah was taking advantage of it by being confrontational. Leah also knew they needed to worry about their current situation and having deep, emotionally intense conversations wasn't going to help either of them stay alert.

"You know what?" Leah said suddenly and stood up. "This isn't the time or place to get into this."

Jules's eyes looked up in surprise at the unexpected reprieve.

Leah flashed that familiar half-smile and held out her hand until Jules took it. "We'll talk about it later."

"Okay," Jules let out a deep sigh of relief.

Leah turned around and pulled Jules close. She could not get over at just how perfect Jules's body felt against her own. Still holding Jules's hand, Leah brought the other one up to touch Jules's cheek. Leah hesitated as she seemed to be searching for something within the depths of those green eyes. Leah drew even closer and pressed her lips to the redhead's. The kiss was like the one from this morning...sweet and soft and powerful. But this time there seemed to be an underlying heat. Jules liked that. She moaned a little and surrendered her mouth to the brief exploration of Leah's tongue, but then the blonde pulled away and straightened up.

"Yep," Leah cleared her throat and regained her composure. "We'll definitely continue this later."

Breathless, Jules could only nod in agreement.

****

Eventually they got themselves sorted out and straightened up and Leah reminded Jules that they still needed to call Atwood's office again. The two women walked down the block and hailed a cab. Exhaustion from the day's events was starting to settle in and Jules was having a hard time fighting it. She let herself lean over until she was resting her head against Leah's shoulder and closed her eyes. Leah squeezed her hand to let her silently know that it was okay to rest.

"Leah?" Jules said quietly with her eyes still closed. "Are you still upset with me?"

"No, I'm not upset," Leah squeezed her hand again reassuringly. "Everything's going to be okay. We'll talk about it later."

"Leah?"

"Yes, Jules?" Leah answered patiently and lowered her head down so she could hear.

"Thank you," Jules whispered and then offered her a tired smile.

Leah returned the smile and paused to plant a soft, tender kiss on Jules's forehead. She wasn't going to let anything happen to this woman. Leah turned her head and stared out the window of the taxi and allowed herself to think about the past...or at least parts of it. She knew what she was capable of when she truly believed in her mission. She was willing to do whatever it took to ensure Jules's safety. Unfortunately, these assholes had no idea just how far she was willing to go and exactly what she was willing to do to protect Jules.

Leah leaned forward and asked the cab driver to take them to the nearest pay phone.

"Pay phone?" the man gave her a look like she was crazy. "This ain't a DeLorean, lady, and I ain't Michael J. Fox. Where the hell am I going to find a pay phone?"

Leah sighed. "Then just take us to Union Station, please."

"That I can do," he nodded with a smirk and then muttered something about the eighties under his breath.

****

"Secretary Atwood?" Joanna's voice came over the intercom feature of the phone console sitting on the corner of his oversized desk.

"Yes?" Atwood paused from reading over the stack of threat analysis updates sitting in front of him and looked expectantly at the little light that was flashing on his phone.

"I have Agent Bradford on the line for you, sir," his administrative assistant announced.

"Put her through," Atwood said immediately and snatched up the handset. "Jules?"

"Hank," Jules breathed and he could almost feel the relief in the young woman's voice. "Thank God."

"Julia," Hank Atwood lowered his voice. As hard as it was to hold back from peppering her with the dozens of questions that were almost burning his tongue, Atwood could also sense there was something wrong in the tone of his former analyst's voice. "What's going on?"

Jules looked over her shoulder at Leah who was hovering behind her at the pay phone kiosk. Leah kept her head on a swivel watching the people flow past them in the great hall of the train station. She paused and shook her head at Jules. "Not over the phone."