Twenty-One Guns
Shots bounced off the bricks, creating debris with every strike, blazes of light tore through the night sky as the rounds continued to be released on them. Chunks of concrete struck the men hunkered down beneath. A bound man held between two soldiers dressed head to toe in M4s clutched in their arms as they dodged the bullets heading at them from all directions.
The experienced team crawled one by one, the prisoner strategically placed to prevent him running or the IS troops from killing him to prevent him from talking.
"Can you do it?" the bearded man whispered to his colleague.
"You better hope I can" the softly spoken soldier replied as he moved forward, keeping his tall frame low and moved passed the rest of the team towards the doorway of the old barn. He took a breath as he reached into his webbing, pulling out the meagre supplies he had to work with. He barely flinched as a bullet struck the wall over his head, feeling a bullet whizz past his face in response, knowing that his team mate had hit their target he concentrated on his task at hand.
He laid on his belly, right leg bent at the knee to strengthen his position, sniper rested on the ground in front of him. He acquired his sight picture and took a deep steadying breath, zoning out in his own world of focus as he steadied himself. This one shot could change everything, he inhaled, he exhaled and his finger squeezed the trigger.
CIA-CIA-CIA-CIA-CIA-CIA-CIA
Carrie Mathison sighed as she flicked through the papers on her desk. She was settled, she was living with her sister and her family along with her young daughter and things were going ok. Foe the first time in many years she wasn't seeking danger and adventure, she was concentrating on her family and raising her daughter.
The fact she still working for the Central Intelligence Agency was something that for the first time in her life she wasn't proud of. She knew that there were many games between different agencies in different countries- but she didn't understand the latest twist. Setting free someone that was responsible for mass murders and an attack on their own embassy, that was messing with her head. She didn't even know where to start with that one.
Her most pressing concern at that moment was the whereabouts of the one person that she knew she could truly rely on no matter what. The one person who had put her welfare and safety ahead of his own time and time again and now she was terrified it had got him killed. She sighed as she looked through the log fir the previous 24 hours, looking for clue of a Black Ops deployment, anything to suggest he was safe, anything at all.
Nothing- yet again absolutely nothing to show where he could be. Nowhere to even start looking. She knew his deployment had been Syria- sure she didn't trust Dar Adal as far as she could throw him, but all the whispers of high profile targets had pointed in that direction.
She could kick herself- why did she yet again have to be so impulsive? Taking off and driving to Missouri, leaving him hanging when he had literally spilt his heart to her.
He had gone through hell in Islamabad- the entire posting taking more from him than she had ever known- yet she had kept on pushing. Pushing him to the point of no return- the point where he went by himself to seek retribution for all of their loss. She still had no idea how he had even gotten out of the country and back to US in one piece, what he must have gone through to get back and what was the first thing he chose to do? Come to her father's funeral to support her.
She didn't deserve his friendship, didn't deserve the love that he had shown towards her at such huge cost to himself. She had let him down, she knew that and now she was worried she would never get the chance to repair the damage she had done.
She had no intention of staying at the agency any longer than she had to, but for now it was her last remaining connection to the man that she owed do much to.
She looked up as Saul walked across the floor, she would never trust him again like she used to. When they had all sat around the patio furniture at her father's funeral she had been the most relaxed she had felt in years- literally feeling like everybody she loved was around her. Only a few short days later all of that all been shattered and Quinn was gone, back to a warzone.
CIA-CIA-CIA-CIA-CIA-CIA-CIA
Saul sighed to himself as he saw Carrie watching him. He knew he had hurt her, he also knew that she didn't understand, wasn't seeing the bigger picture. Haqqani would come- sooner or later they would take him out, but they had to get what they could from him before that moment came.
Dar had already told him that she was visiting him once a week begging, demanding and threatening him for any and all information on Peter Quinn and his current whereabouts- information that Dar did not trust her enough to share. She was irrational and impulsive, and although she got results- she could not be let in on this. There was too much at stake- including Quinn's life and the rest of the Black Ops team.
He took a breath and walked over to her desk, perched on the edge and waited for her to actually look at him.
"How are you?" he asked her softly.
"How do you think Saul?" she responded, the bitterness edging into her voice despite her attempts to control it.
"You need to think about it Carrie- remove yourself and really think about the possible value" he told her, his tone quiet as he looked around to make sure nobody was listening or close enough to hear.
"Possible value? Tell that to Fara's family!" Carrie replied, she took a breath, she knew how it worked she really did, but this one this was personal. "And what about Quinn's value?" she queried, knowing it was a low blow. Saul winced, he thought a lot of Quinn ever since they had all worked together on the Brody case and he knew that the two younger agents had grown close- that had been obvious at the funeral.
"Carrie you know Peter was in this line of work long before he met you- he has been all over the World in situations that me and you can only imagine and he survived and made his way home- you know that" Saul attempted to reassure her.
"And every single one killed a piece of him" Carrie snapped back, her eyes welling up with tears. Saul paused, he genuinely didn't know what had gone on between the two of them, but it was obvious that something had, and he understood what Carrie meant. Peter Quinn was a good man- sure he killed people by trade, but only for the right reasons- he always stood up for what was right and loss weighed heavily on the assassin. The man was a contradiction, but he was also dam good at what he did.
"Peter is alive Carrie" Saul stated softly, willing to offer her any comfort that he could. She blinked back tears at his words, comforted, reassured and joyous that he was alive.
"Oh thank god" she whispered, wiping her eyes. "Where is he Saul?" she asked him, and it broke his heart that there was no way that he could tell her.
End Chapter One