The Retrieval... Ch. 02

"Hank, I can't really go into this over the phone," Jules explained. "It's not safe."

"Not safe?" Atwood repeated and his instincts kicked in. He'd been in the intelligence game long enough to know that you simply do not take chances. "Alright, Jules. How can I help?"

"We need to come in, Hank," Jules whispered into the phone. "We need to meet in person so I can tell you everything."

"Understood," Atwood replied. The "we" did not go unnoticed, but he didn't say anything. He glanced at his calendar and then at his Rolex. "Can you be in my office in two hours? Or do I need to send someone to pick you up?"

"Your office in two hours?" Jules repeated for Leah's sake. Leah nodded. "Okay. Don't send anyone. We'll be there. And Hank?"

"Yes?"

"Will you please keep this to yourself? Just until we get there?"

Hank Atwood sighed deeply. "Alright. I can do that."

"Thank you, Hank," Jules breathed.

Right outside of Atwood's office, his administrative assistant punched a button on her phone that disconnected her headset from being able to listen in on her boss's phone. She waited until the blinking light went out to indicate Secretary Atwood had ended his call. Once it went out she waited another minute and then punched the intercom button to Atwood's office again.

"Secretary Atwood?" she spoke into the microphone piece of her headset. "I'm going to the ladies room. Is there anything you need me to take care of first, sir?"

"Okay, thank you, sir," she said sweetly and hung up. She carefully took her headset off and laid it on her desk and grabbed her purse.

She stopped to push her chair in and make sure it was aligned just so before stepping out into the hall. Atwood's secretary made sure the hallway was clear and then walked quickly down to the ladies restroom. Once inside, she checked each of the stalls to make sure she was alone and then went back to the door and locked it. She slipped into the far stall, sat down and took her cell phone out. She dialed the number she knew by heart and listened to it ring.

"Mr. Smith?" she replied quietly into her cell phone when it was answered. "This is Joanna Richards from Secretary Atwood's office...I have an update for you...Yes, it's about that same problem I called about earlier."

****

"Absolutely, Mr. Smith," the man nodded even though the affirmation couldn't be seen over a phone. "I'll take care of it, sir."

The Team Leader disconnected the call on the encrypted cell phone. He walked through the kitchen area and hurried down the steps so that he could inform the rest of his team of the new direction their mission was about to take. At the bottom of the steps he paused to appraise the men currently under his command. His team was purposely small, but he knew he could count on each of the three men seated around the circular table in the basement of one of The Council's safe houses in Arlington, VA.

He had to be able to count on them - this was his big chance.

For months he'd been relegated to the second team. His team always ended up being assigned the support roles...they provided back-up, secured perimeters and maintained over-watch while the first team under Loki got to kick in doors, eliminate targets and get their hands bloody. They got all the praise and the lion's share of the rewards. Well, not today...today he'd be leading the first team.

He knew this was a real-deal test. How could it not be? He literally didn't think he could made up any tougher, more stressful mission parameters than the ones his team was about to face. He wasn't worried though. Mr. Smith had been extremely helpful with some suggestions on how to navigate the most daunting of those obstacles. He liked Mr. Smith or whatever his name really was. The Team Leader felt like they were in similar positions in terms of having to prove themselves.

"Heads up, men," he announced and took his seat at the table. "We just got some new Intel and we're rolling in ten."

"Destination?" the man who handled transportation and logistics asked. His operational code-name was Magni, who had been one of Thor's sons. Each man was assigned a code-name from Norse mythology since they never used their real identities when working for The Council.

"Before you get all puckered up, let me preface this with yes, I have a plan," the leader chuckled. He paused dramatically and then told them the address. Every pair of eyebrows shot up and one of the men whistled.

The Team Leader nodded and let the other three men make their comments and pose their questions and allowed enough time so they could get it all out of their systems. When they were finished and ended up looking at him expectantly, the leader grinned and step by step, started laying out the plan of execution to once and for all take their target out.

****

Exactly two hours later Jules Bradford flashed her Homeland Security-Logistics Agent credentials at the DHS Headquarters security desk.

She followed the Security Officer's instructions and scanned her handprint and then showed him the Congressional subpoena. She and Leah had discussed at length the quickest way to gain access to the building and get to Atwood's office. Since Leah insisted that Jules shouldn't go anywhere alone, Jules had explained that rather than going through all of the protocols of registering Leah as an official visitor and waiting on the background check and security screening, it would be much quicker if they used the actual truth to their advantage.

"This says she's supposed to testify today," the Security Officer observed and looked up at Jules. "Why are you bringing her here instead of the Senate building, Agent Bradford?"

"Well...Analysis needs to clear a few points in her testimony, Officer Fox," Jules lied confidently after reading the man's nametag. "There might be an issue with some details relating to ongoing operations."

"Okay then," Officer Fox nodded and was already looking at the next person in line behind her. "Make sure you escort her the entire time she's in the building, ma'am."

"Absolutely," Jules smiled and took her credentials and the subpoena back from him as she turned towards Leah. "I won't let her out of my sight."

"You're smooth," Leah commented quietly as they walked towards the elevators. "Remind me not to play poker with you."

Jules nodded with a small smile as they walked, but didn't say anything. The finally reached the end of the hall and stood facing the bank of elevator doors in silence. Jules forced herself not to look around until an elevator on the end finally dinged and the doors opened. Jules managed to keep her cool until the elevator doors closed. As soon as they did she let out a quivering breath as she slumped against the wall.

"Oh man, I thought I was going to have a heart attack."

"Could have fooled me," Leah grinned and shook her head. "You did great."

"Thanks," Jules replied shakily and managed a smile.

"Hey," Leah reached out her hand and Jules took it. "It's almost over."

Jules nodded and squeezed her hand.

The elevator slowed and came to a stop on the third floor. The doors opened to an empty hallway. The women glanced at each other as they waited for the doors to close and resume its ascent. The doors remained open. They waited another twenty seconds before Jules reached over and mashed the 'doors closed' button and held it down. Nothing happened. She glanced over her shoulder at Leah with raised eyebrows.

"I thought you said Atwood's office was on the fourth floor?" Leah asked with a frown.

"It is," Jules confirmed. "I pushed four. I mean, you saw me push four, didn't you?"

Leah nodded and took a couple of steps towards the open doors. She put her back against the wall and slid closer to the opening until she could see a short distance down the hallway. Her eyes scanned everything she could see for a few minutes and then she quickly darted past the open doors to the other side and did the same thing.

"What?"

Leah shook her head. "I really can't see anything."

"Maybe the elevator just stopped working," Jules offered.

"Maybe," Leah commented flatly without any conviction.

"What do you want to do?"

Leah seemed to make up her mind with a very small nod to herself and then looked at Jules. "I don't know if anything is going on or not, but it's always better not to take chances. We should take the stairs."

"Sure," Jules agreed and followed Leah off of the elevator.

Leah hesitated and Jules indicated the direction of the stairwell with a nod of her head. They walked down the hall and Jules thought it was really weird that all of the office doors were closed with the lights out. Then she noticed that there wasn't anyone in the hallway. No one stepping out to get coffee, no one headed to a meeting or to the bathroom. Jules was just about to mention this to Leah as they turned the corner and came face to face with two men wearing security uniforms.

"Sorry, ladies," one of the men held out his hand to stop them like a traffic cop. "This floor is closed."

The four of them just stood there looking at each other for a full five seconds. Leah took in a dozen details about these two men during that time and was rapidly running various action plans and counter moves through her head when all of a sudden Jules took a small step forward and put her hands on her hips. "Who the hell says this floor is closed?"

The two men exchanged a look before the taller one spoke up. "Uh, we're Security, ma'am. Those are the orders."

"Orders?" Jules frowned and looked from one of the men to the other. "From whom?"

The same man cleared his throat. "Downstairs."

"Well, those orders certainly didn't come from my office," Jules huffed. "So I'd like to know exactly who this person is downstairs that decides to close this floor to the Executive Secretary when I'm supposed to have a meeting with Rear Admiral Nunez in ten minutes."

The two men exchanged another look before Leah urged Jules to start walking past them with a very subtle tug on her elbow and said quietly, "Ma'am, we should go down and straighten this out ourselves."

Jules looked at Leah and then glared at the two men. "Yes, that is exactly what I intend to do."

Jules continued to play the part by storming past them and stomping down the hall in her high heels with Leah striding right next to her. With every step, Leah subtly shepherded Jules to ease over until they were gradually hugging one side of the hallway as they walked. They passed a couple of offices and had almost reached a little alcove that had a small table in it upon which stood a full coffee service. The alcove was five feet from the entrance to the stairwell. Leah mentally figured if they could just get past the alcove, they could make it to the stairwell when one of the Security Officers behind them called out.

"Excuse me, Agent Bradford?"

"Yes?" Jules replied automatically out of sheer habit. She had stopped walking and was halfway turned around when she froze and closed her eyes.

Leah came to a stop next to her and muttered, "Shit," under her breath.

"I think you should come with -" the same Security Officer who had done all the talking to this point started to give instructions when something in Leah's peripheral vision made her instincts kick in. She shoved Jules into the little coffee nook and literally dove on top of her, forcing the redhead under the table just as three ragged holes appeared in the sheetrock where they had been stopped.

"What the -" Jules urgently whispered, but Leah silenced her with a hand over her mouth as they crowded into the corner. Leah grabbed Jules's purse from where it had landed under the woman's thigh and ripped it open. She quickly dug around until her hand closed over the grip of Jules's service weapon. Leah knew she had maybe twenty seconds or less. Two more holes opened up in the recessed wall of the nook above their heads and the chalky drywall dust clouded into the air and slowly rained down on them. The dust was stinging Leah's eyes as she ejected the clip from Jules's SIG Sauer. She tapped the magazine lightly against her thigh and then slid it back in as quietly as she could until she felt it seat home with a click. She eased the slide back on the 9mm pistol.

They were obviously dealing with professionals. Leah had recognized the faint click-clacking sound of the slide on the man's weapon. The fact that it could be heard over the muffled muzzle blast indicated at least one of these guys was using a suppressed weapon. She also knew from the lack of the whip-cracking noise of the rounds he had fired that he was also using subsonic ammunition. Leah knew from first-hand experience that there was only one reason anyone would use a suppressed firearm with subsonic ammunition.

"Why is Security shooting at us?" Jules whispered wildly.

Leah was wiggling down to get on her stomach and trying to get as low to the ground as she could. Jules gripped the back of her leg, demanding an answer and Leah tried not to lose her patience or her focus. As calmly as she could, she explained, "They aren't Security Officers, Jules. They're here to kill you."

"What?" Jules squeaked. "Why?"

Instead of answering, Leah took a deep breath, let it out slowly and eased out a little from under the table. She took another quick breath and then quickly rolled into the hall on the floor onto her back and took aim down the hallway. The first of the two men posing as a Security Officer was slowly advancing closer to their position with his weapon held up in front of him with two hands. The man's handgun had the fat tube of a sound suppressor attached to the end of the barrel. His eyes tracked Leah's movement, but before he could adjust his point of aim down, Leah squeezed the trigger twice, double-tapping him with one round in the upper chest and another in the throat.

The report of Leah's weapon was ridiculously louder than their opponent's and the sound of the shots she fired reverberated off of the floor tiles and walls. Leah watched the man who had been about to shoot them as his weapon clattered to the floor and he reached up with both hands to claw at his throat that was just now beginning to gush blood. She didn't see anything else as she quickly rolled back under the table in the shallow alcove. The man's partner had been ten feet further back down the hallway and had reacted by firing several rounds that slammed into the floor where Leah had been laying.

Leah was panting and blinking sweat and dust out of her eyes as she moved around to sit up with her back against the wall. She extended her arm so that just her hand reached around the corner of the wall. She blindly fired two more rounds in the direction of the other man. Jules was curled up into the corner as far as she possibly could with her hands over her ears. Leah touched her arm as she adjusted her position with a grimace and to make sure she was okay.

"Leah," Jules whispered or at least it sounded like she was whispering since Leah's ears were ringing so badly. Leah read her lips. "You're bleeding."

Leah looked down and saw that on the side of her blouse down near her beltline was a dark red blossom that was growing bigger the longer she looked at it. She pressed her hand against it. "Do you have a tampon in your purse?"

"You need a tampon?" Jules asked with raised eyebrows. "Now?"

Leah closed her eyes and gritted her teeth at the burning pain that was now flaring in her side. She swallowed hard and then opened her eyes and looked as calmly at Jules as she could. "Yes, Jules, I need a tampon...right now."

Jules dug around in her purse and finally came up with the requested plastic wrapped tampon and obediently handed it to Leah. She watched as Leah paused to stick her arm out and fire two more rounds blindly down the hall and then ripped the tampon wrapper off with her teeth. She pulled the plastic tubes apart and dropped them as she freed the cotton cylinder. Leah held the tampon in her teeth by the little string on the end as she carefully pulled up her shirt. Jules actually felt a little sick as she watched Leah feel around and use the tail of her blouse to wipe blood away. The redhead's eyes went wide when without hesitation Leah stuffed the cylinder shaped piece of absorbent material into the hole that was in her side where most people would have a love handle.

Jules was just about to make a comment when Leah held up a hand for silence and leaned forward to listen. The remaining fake Security Officer was talking into what Leah assumed was a either a cell phone or some type of hand-held radio. "Roger that, I repeat Hodr is down, Hodr is down. Be advised that the floor is secured but I have incoming."

Neither Leah nor Jules could hear what the response was so either it was a cell phone or the man had an earpiece. He began talking again. "Negative on the medic. I repeat, negative on the medic. Yeah, copy that, Magni, Hodr was a good one... yeah, affirmative, I'll get him some payback soon enough...10-4. Repeat...I say again Magni, repeat that?"

Again, the two women could not hear what was being said on the other end. Then they heard the man cuss quietly before saying, "Roger that, I confirm that Loki is on site. Be advised I copy to hold my position for Loki's arrival."

Leah closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. The smell of cordite, the burning ache of a bullet wound combined with the coded jargon and speech patterns the man had used caused dozens of memories to come rushing up into her mind's eye, each one fighting for her attention. Leah snapped her eyes open and blinked a few times. She did not have time for a walk down memory lane. She turned her head and looked at Jules.

"Listen to me very carefully, Jules. We have to move, okay? We can't stay here."

"Okay," Jules nodded shakily.

"They're going to bring more men with guns up here and if we don't move, we die," Leah continued. "Do you understand? You move when I say move and you keep moving, okay?"

"Okay."

They heard the far off ping of the elevator doors opening and Leah braced herself against the wall, Jules's gun in one hand and Jules's hand in the other. Leah took a deep breath and let it slowly and took another and just as she was about to push off of the wall with the bottom of her foot to make their dash to the door of the stairwell, a voice from her past echoed down the hallway.

"Don't tell me that's Artemis causing all this trouble," a man called out loudly in that same authoritative tone of voice that she remembered so well...that voice that was tinged with a flat Midwestern accent. Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting and had been Leah's call sign on her last Op.

"Rack?" Leah said softly and it felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. She felt like she had suddenly fallen into some weird time-warped, mind-fucking dream.

"What's a rack?" Jules was really confused.

Leah looked at her blankly for a moment, but a sudden surge of pain from her wound served as a reality check that this was real and happening right now. She shook her head and said it louder. "Rack - is that you?"

"The one and only, sweet cheeks," the voice chuckled. There seemed to be genuine affection in the man's tone. "I guess it's the proverbial small world and all that."

"Obviously this is not a coincidence," the sarcasm quite evident in Leah's voice.

"Obviously," he agreed and she could hear the grin in his voice. He actually seemed to be enjoying this.

"What the hell, Rackley?" Leah drawled and then her voice grew louder. "Have you gone stupid or insane? I mean, seriously Rack...running an Op in a Federal building?"

"What do you want me to say, sweet cheeks?" the voice replied. "Definitely not my decision."