Hello all! So I've been playing with this idea since the first time I saw the movie and I'm just now getting around to writing it lol. I'm not too happy with this chapter, it seems...off for some reason O.o Anyway, I hope you guys like it! :D
I own nothing =(...dammit .
Going over the details in his head, Jensen was pretty sure he could pin-point the exact moment this mission went from a simple steal-the-file-and-go to total shit-storm. Everything started off smoothly; he'd gotten into the building with absolutely no trouble thanks to the ID card and pass code he'd lifted off one of the other employees. It was after hours, roughly 6:30, and he managed to get through every floor without any of the custodial staff realizing he was Robert Michaels from the eighth floor. He'd even managed to quip out a smooth line for the pretty brunette he passed in the hall. But that's where the simplicity of the mission stopped.
The office he needed access to, the one with the computer he needed files from, was less empty than he'd hoped. The man looked up at him coldly as he entered, eyes narrowing slightly at the intrusion. "Who are you?" He demanded, voice sharp like a knife. He was about 60, with greying black hair and a no-nonsense expression on his face. He was also the CEO of the main insurance agency connected to GOLIATH and a personal financial executive, both of which gave him a direct link to every purchase and sell Max made. Jensen had hacked into their system about a week ago; it had taken a little over 37 hours to get past all the firewalls and codes but he'd managed to get in. However, not everything they needed was on the hard drive. There were files he couldn't open without direct access to the computer and those were the files that had the most recent location of Max.
"Oh...my bad." Jensen rambled, putting on his best fake smile. "I think I ended up on the wrong floor. I thought this hallway seemed longer..." He trailed off, looking down the hall quizzically like he wasn't sure how he got here.
The man seemed less than amused. "Leave." He commanded sharply, looking back down at the stack of papers on his desk. "I have work to do."
Jensen hesitated, bouncing on the balls of his feet absently. He really needed those files..."Hey, is that an Apple MacBook?" He asked, nodding to the computer on the man's desk, unable to keep the tech-talk to himself. He took a few steps into the room, much to the irritation of the man behind the desk. "Man, I hear that thing has like 4 gigs of RAM...does it work as well as everyone says?"
The man stood abruptly, shoving the papers he'd been working on into his briefcase and tucking a few disks and a flashdrive in the mix as well. He glared at Jensen and turned the computer off, stepping away from it and in front of him, blocking his path. "Did you not understand me earlier when I said I had work to do?" He asked, the acidity in his voice giving him an even colder expression.
Jensen shifted a bit and took a step backwards. "Sorry, just geek talk." He laughed a bit, trying to give of the impression of innocence.
The man eyed him carefully for a second, taking a half step closer to him. "What did you say your name was?" He asked, looking Jensen hard in the eye.
"Uh..." Jensen shifted again, uncomfortably this time, and absently ran a hand over the ID card he'd taken earlier. "Robert Michaels, sir." He stammered, hoping like hell the guy wouldn't recognize the name. "I just started yesterday."
Something flashed in the man's eyes, a mild look of panic and suppressed anger. "Really?" He asked, his voice almost condescending. "Because the only Robert Michaels I have in our system works on the eighth floor and has been with this company for the past fifteen years."
Shit, forget the part about him not recognizing the name. Jensen just flashed him another one of his award winning grins. "Wow, what are the odds, huh?"
The man's eyes narrowed but he said nothing for a full thirty seconds; it felt like the longest thirty seconds of Jensen's life. "Yeah, what are the odds?" Without another word, the man took a step past him as if making his way to the door.
Jensen was still debating on what he could do to stall in the office and get access to the computer when something heavy and solid connected with the back of his head. The blow was enough to knock him off his feet and send him sprawling to the ground in a daze. He could vaguely hear Clay's voice in his ear piece, saying something that was probably important, but another blow to the head blocked out all of the words.
The man bolted from the room, briefcase in hand, leaving Jensen dazed and disoriented on his hands and knees on the floor. He wasn't concerned with the computer anymore; if the man had left anything of value on it he wouldn't have left Jensen in the room with it. However, there were papers and disks in his briefcase, disks that more than likely had the information he needed. Pushing himself to his feet, forcing back the wave of dizziness that accompanied the rise, he ran into the hall after the man.
"Clay, he's on the move." Jensen explained as he ran down the hall, catching a glimpse of the tip of the man's jacket as he rounded the corner of the hall ahead of him. "I think he has the files in his briefcase."
"Stay on him." Clay instructed, his voice hard with determination. "We need those files, Jensen."
"I know, boss." Jensen rounded the corner, skidding a bit on the newly waxed floor and kept running.
"You're covered on the East side of the building." Clay added as a side note, probably because he, Aisha, and Pooch were half-way across town following another lead and couldn't really offer much more assistance than that.
Jensen didn't say anything, he didn't need to. He knew Cougar was on the opposite roof, watching and waiting for his chance to strike. It was comforting in a way but he had about ten other things to worry about at the moment. A short scream echoed through the hall and Jensen cursed softly under his breath; make that eleven things to worry about.
He rounded the corner just in time to see the man grab the pretty brunette he'd passed earlier and wrestle her into a strangle-hold, keeping her pressed tightly against his chest, the shiny barrel of a gun dug into the soft skin beneath her jaw. "Don't move." The man ordered, his voice cold and deadly, keeping his eyes on Jensen and ignoring the crying young woman in his grasp. "One more step and I'll kill her."
"Ah shit..." Jensen muttered, stopping in place and holding his hands up in a non-threatening way. He had no doubt he'd shoot the girl, Max had a tendency of making even remotely decent people do really crazy things.
"What's going on?" Clay asked, his voice sounding even further away than it had before. Maybe it was from being smacked in the head earlier or the fact that this had somehow become a hostage situation, but Jensen couldn't really concentrate on anything other than the gun pointed at the girl's throat.
"He's got a hostage..." Jensen muttered, hoping it would be loud enough for them to hear. Apparently it was because he heard Clay mumble something that sounded an awful lot like "fuck" before there was a low sigh.
"Okay, just stay calm, we're working on it. Don't do anything stupid."
"Good plan, boss." Jensen mumbled and flinched just slightly when the man snapped at him.
"Shut the fuck up!" He growled, pressing the gun more forcefully into the girl's neck. "I don't know who the hell you're talking to but I will shoot her." He assured him, shaking the girl a bit for emphasis. She let out a strangled sob and he tightened his grip, silencing her almost instantly.
Jensen took a slow breath, keeping his hands up so the man knew he wasn't holding anything. "Look man...let her go. This doesn't involve her, its just you and me." He glanced between the girl and the man holding her. "You don't want to do anything stupid, alright? No one has to die today." God, he hated hostage situations.
"You want what's in the briefcase." The man said; it wasn't a question. "Max will kill you and then me and everyone else in this whole Goddamn country for what's in here." He shook his head slightly, backing up a bit and keeping the girl pressed against him.
"I know." Jensen said, keeping his place in the hall. He knew approaching the man would only upset him further. "Jesus, why do you people work for him? He's such a dick!" He could hear Clay talking through the ear piece, not to him but to Cougar.
"Can you take the shot?"
There was a pause, a much longer pause than all of them had hoped for. "No...the girl's in the way."
Shit. Something dawned on him just then, a realization he should have come to earlier. He wasn't using the girl as a hostage, he was using her a shield. Whether he knew he was in the Sniper's scope or not, the man didn't plan on leaving himself open. Even if it meant using the young woman in front of him as a shield. Shit again; this was definitely going to get worse before it got better.
"Dammit!" Clay growled and Jensen couldn't agree with him more. He knew full well that none of them would act if there was a chance that an innocent civilian would pay the price. "Have you tried moving your location?"
Cougar paused again. "If I moved, I wouldn't have a clear shot. This is the best angle I can get." The roof he was perched on was a architectural mess of drops and rises in structure; some of the raised sections were slanted toward the street below and lower sections were too low for a clean shot. In short, he was stuck where he was.
Jensen wasn't really paying attention anymore. All he knew was that he was pretty much on his own for the moment. With Cougar unable to take the shot without hitting the girl, it was pretty much all on him. He needed the man to lose his focus on her long enough for him to move away or shift just enough so that he was in the Sniper's range. Jensen was about to do something really stupid.
"Alright, look-" He took a large step forward, knowing it was going to be exactly the kind of distraction he needed in order for the man to move. What he didn't count on was the gun whipping in his direction faster than he could blink and firing twice. There was an explosion of pain in his chest and his side and he staggered awkwardly, unable to really believe what had just happened. There was another shot, the sound of glass breaking, and the man buckled slightly as a bullet from the opposite roof ripped through his skull.
Jensen watched him fall, could hear the girl screaming at the top of her lungs, but everything else faded into one large blur. His legs gave out beneath him and he sagged to the floor. Getting shot in the arm had hurt like hell but this was different, there was almost no pain with this. It was like having all the air knocked out of your body and no being able to get any of it back. He could feel blood gushing from the wounds, soaking his clothes and falling into large, crimson puddles onto the polished tile floor. He felt slightly cold, an odd sensation compared to the heat of the blood covering his shirt.
"Jensen!" Someone was yelling his name through the ear piece. Clay probably. Jensen winced, falling back onto the tile and feeling the cold solidity beneath him. "Jensen, answer me God dammit!"
"Can't talk right now boss..." He gasped, his head swimming a bit as he stared up at the ceiling. Whether the dizziness was from the briefcase earlier of the blood loss, he couldn't be sure. "Bleeding."
"Shit!" Clay growled and then there was muffled words from Aisha and Pooch. He tried to focus on them but the words seemed foreign and far away, it was much easier to drown them out. He could hear Clay saying something to Cougar, and muttered Spanish on the Sniper's part. "-sen, hang on! We're on our way-!"
He wanted to say he was fine, but the sheer amount of blood pooling around him and sealing him to the floor said otherwise. Instead, he just laughed softly and went back to looking at the ceiling. "I'll be here..."
There was another voice talking to him now, this one almost assuredly Cougar's, but he couldn't focus on it as much as he wanted to. The voice was saying something reassuring, he was coming, he was going to be fine, something along those lines, but it all ran together after a while. the world tilted a bit above him and his fingers twitched in the blood surrounding him. He let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes, letting the darkness win. "Jensen!"
Okay, so I know Cougar could shoot a speck of dust from the top of the Empire State Building but making him not able to take the shot immediately helped with the plot O.o I'm sorry! I know its awkward! :S