Chapter 1: National Coverage

Sarah's fingers slipped a little further closer to the edge of the windowsill. The sweat was starting to take its toll and she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold on. Nine floors below her a crowd had gathered. Sarah tried to regain her grip, her fingers slipped slightly and she lurched a little further away from the window. The crowd gave a collective gasp.

"CASEY!" Sarah cried, closing her eyes and making another attempt at pulling herself up. There were gunshots coming from inside the building, followed by the sound of a siren echoing up from the street, but it was the next thing Sarah heard that made her cringe. The unmistakeable sound of rotor-blades carving through the air towards her. Sarah held her breath and hoped for a CIA issue black hawk, or even the local PD. She turned her head slightly, trying to keep her face mostly hidden with her arm. The chopper was only a couple of buildings away, and Sarah's heart sank when she saw the WTV News logo emblazoned on the side.

"CASEY!" She bellowed again. This time a door flew open from inside the room.

"WALKER?" Casey called, bursting into the room.

"WINDOW!" Sarah yelled back. Casey raced over to the open window. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her easily and unceremoniously back inside the room.

On the ground the crowd cheered, but Sarah and Casey didn't hear them. They were already out of the room and halfway down the corridor.

Sarah pulled a gun from her belt, and checked the magazine. She slammed it back in and cocked the gun. "Damn it." She muttered.

"What's wrong?" Casey asked. "You dry?"

"No. News chopper. I think they got a shot of me."

"No point worrying about it now. Let's go get Chuck."

They broke into a run and headed into the stairwell.

---

Chuck was still at the laptop when they burst through the door into the third floor office.

"You got it?" Sarah asked.

"Just about." Chuck hit keys furiously.

"Come on, genius, we don't have all day." Casey urged.

"Cause insulting me's really going to speed things up." Chuck replied, pausing for a moment. He pulled a portable hard drive from his bag and plugged it into the laptop. "Give me 30 seconds."

Casey lent against the wall and opened the door slightly. A dark figure ducked round the corner at the end of the corridor. Casey fired two shots. The first caught the figure in the shoulder; the second put him on the ground. Sarah and Chuck both looked up. Casey nodded the all clear to Sarah and closed the door. Chuck unplugged his hard drive and shoved it back into his bag.

"Any ideas how we're getting out of here?" Sarah asked, leading Casey and Chuck out the door.

"The front door's not an option. Local PD and news crews are everywhere." Casey informed them. "Can you find us a back door, Chuck?"

Chuck pulled up his sleeve and hit a few buttons on the computer strapped to his wrist. "Ah… I don't… wait… okay, there's a service entrance off the kitchen in the lobby."

"That'll do." Casey took the lead from Sarah and, keeping his weapon up, led them towards the lobby.

"Good work, Chuck." Sarah smiled as she dropped back to cover the rear.

---

"Here it is!" Ellie yelled, grabbing the remote and turning the sound on the TV up. Chuck and Sarah came out from the kitchen.

"…and in other news the Trump Plaza in central Los Angeles was evacuated today after a number of gun shots were reported. Our news team picked up the following footage of a woman hanging from a window on the 9th floor…"

Chuck and Sarah exchanged a worried look.

"See!" Ellie exclaimed, as the shot changed from the newsreader to an image of Sarah almost loosing her grip. "She looks just like Sarah! Don't you think?"

"I guess. I mean, if you sort of turn your head and squint a little, it could be Sarah." Chuck demonstrated as he said this. Ellie slammed the remote into his chest.

"You seriously don't think that looks like Sarah?" She asked.

"Come on, babe," Awesome came out from down the hall, "you're not still going on about this are you? I told you, all blondes look the same. Besides, if it were Sarah, she wouldn't be here right now. She'd be off with the cops filling out reports and what not."

"Exactly." Sarah agreed. "I mean, obviously it's not me. Besides, I was far too busy serving frozen yoghurt to crabby customers all day to be hanging out windows in downtown LA." She looked at Chuck for help.

"It does seem like something you'd do, though." Chuck offered. Sarah hit him playfully and Awesome chuckled.

Ellie didn't seem quite as convinced. "It just freaked me out, that's all. We were watching some of the footage when I was at work earlier and next thing I know, there's my brothers girlfriend about to fall to her death! Then I tried calling you both and just got your voicemail."

"Well, we were…" Chuck started.

"… busy." Sarah finished deftly. She shot Chuck a helpless look.

There was an awkward pause and Ellie stared suspiciously at the two of them.

"Oh, yeah?" Awesome asked, breaking the silence. "Taking advantage of being a man of leisure, eh Chuck?" He chuckled awkwardly, "going for a bit of a midday rendezvous. Nice work bro." He gave Chuck a friendly thump on the shoulder.

Chuck grinned self-consciously. "You know it."

Ellie screwed up her nose. "Eww. Okay, we're done here." She headed off towards the bedroom to get changed.

Awesome waited until she was out of earshot. "Phew, that was a close one!"

"Yeah, um, thanks for your help, Devon." Chuck meant it.

"Anytime bro." He looked at Sarah. "Oh, um, sorry about the little bit of sexual innuendo. It's just that, that's pretty much the only thing that will shut Ellie down."

"It's fine." Sarah assured him. "It worked, and that's the main thing."

"What were you doing downtown today anyway?" Devon asked.

"Oh… um…." Chuck stammered.

"It's sort of, one of those, don't ask, don't tell situations." Sarah explained. "You understand?"

"Yeah. Of course." Devon assured. "Not a problem."

Devon turned a headed down to the bedroom after Ellie.

"So, do you think Beckman will be as easy to convince?" Chuck asked looking skeptically at Sarah.

"Somehow I doubt that." Sarah smiled.

"When do you have to report to her?"

"First thing tomorrow from Castle."

"Do you want to meet up afterwards for some late breakfast? I might be a man of leisure now, but I'm sure I can stretch the budget for some pancakes. What do you say?"

"Chuck, I'm not sure that's such a good idea." Sarah mumbled.

"Give me one good reason."

Sarah looked at him and hesitated, "because I prefer french toast."

Chuck laughed. "I think I can handle that."

---

A harrassed looking woman in her late 20's pulled up outside the Midvale Bank in Salt Lake City. She raced through the front doors just as the security guard tried to close them.

"Sorry, maam, we're closed."

The woman flashed him a pass and kept walking. Without another word the security guard turned back to the doors and locked them. The woman continued into the back of the bank, and marched into one of the rear offices.

"Alright, I'm here. Now what is it?" She demanded, dropping her bag on the table and glaring at the man behind the desk.

"The operation in Los Angeles didn't go as planned." The man explained.

"I gave you the information you wanted. It is not my problem you can't keep your men under control." She shot angrily.

"We were ambushed." The man tried to defend himself.

"By who?"

"NSA, CIA, FBI... we're not really sure."

The woman sighed and rolled her eyes. "Still not seeing how this is my problem."

"You gave us the info, we thought you might be able to identify one of the agents involved in the ambush." The man picked up a remote off the desk. "We're asking for your help."

He hit play.

"....a woman hanging from a window on the 9th floor…"

The woman watched the news footage of a blonde hanging out the window of an office building. If the man had been paying close attention, he would have seen a flash of recognition. But he wasn't, so he didn't. The woman's eyes danced back and forth quickly and she took a shallow breath.

"That's the exact shirt the cleaning staff of Trump Plaza wear!" She spat angrily. "That's not who ambushed you, it's just a civilian that got caught in the crossfire!"

The man shifted uncomfortably.

"I would be far more interested in whoever pulled her up, because I'm willing to bet, it sure as hell wasn't one of your guys. Did you get a shot of him?"

The man shook his head.

"Have you tried to enhance the video? Try and pick up a reflection or something? Anything?"

The man looked at her and shook his head again.

"Right, well maybe you should get on to that. And in the meantime, do not call me! Our arrangement is over. I'm done!" She grabbed her bag, turned on her heel and marched out of the office.

The security guard was waiting at the door when she approached. He flicked the lock and held the door open for her. She gave him a quick smile, then headed down the steps to her car. She threw her bag onto the passenger seat and plonked herself down at the steering wheel. Before turning the key she paused.

"Damn it, Sarah." She muttered angrily.

She turned the key and threw the car into a u-turn. Within 20 mins she was on highway 15 heading towards California.