Second part, I hope you enjoy! Please review, it means a lot :)


The House closely resembled a battlefield. Dead bodies were scattered everywhere, nobody took the time and effort to clean up the mess. The walls were decorated with blood and a thousand bulletholes. Walking the corridors was like one of those scary video games, where you had no idea what moment a zombie will jump out from a dark corner. The hairs stood on my neck and my senses were tingling, the danger was present and I proceeded cautiously from door to door. I had no idea how and where the other teams were positioned and didn't want to suddenly meet up with an armed enemy. I walked past empty rooms and some windows, fortunately it was dark outside and inside too, so there was no way I was seen by anyone. The radio was still on in my ear, but I guessed that they have turned it off, as a precaution, after we escaped from the basement, as it was silent for a long while now. I tore the plug out of my ear, it started to bother me and I knew that if I was this irritable, I was at the end of my line. I needed some sleep, or something to keep me awake and focused or there will be trouble.

It struck me while I was descending on the stairs, that I knew close to nothing about Kang's plans and I was sure that there is much Banning haven't told me yet. I will be sure to interrogate him once we meet up, I decided. I just turned the last corner to the canteen when I noticed him standing in one of the alcoves. He was not alone. Another man - I guessed from the suit and the height - was standing opposite to him, holding a cigarette. I nodded to Banning and he nodded back in response. I took it that he knew the other man, for he was relaxed. That somewhat reassured me, so I lowered my gun, though I still had a bad feeling. I didn't know we missed another Secret Service agent while we were securing the House.

The man only turned around when I was already standing beside him, and then it was too late. I recognized him and him me too, he was part of the Korean PM's security detail too, meaning he worked for Kang.

"Shit." I uttered, but before I could raise my gun he simply pressed the burning end of his cig into my right eye.

I screamed out and clutched to my eye, backing into the other wall. I heard the sounds of a struggle and a table upturned in the dining room behind me. I stood there, back to the wall, trying to calm myself down. I wasn't sure if I was permanently blinded or not, and the panic started to spread inside me quickly. I willed it away, along with the considerable pain of the burnt wound. By the time I managed to get hold of my gun again and with slightly shaking hands went to assist Banning and shoot the other bastard's head, Banning had already taken care of the business. I saw him kneeling above the other men, saying something to him. I stepped closer, keeping my gun pointed at the guy's head, but Banning pushed my arm aside.

"Sit down."

I backed up to a table and sat on it, watching them closely. Banning apparently managed to convince the guy to tell Kang that he was dead, and the mission was over. This would give us a few undisturbed hours at least. When he was done with the radio message, Banning mercilessly stabbed this guy in the neck too. I lowered my gun and put it away in it's holster on my hip, not wanting to shoot Banning by mistake with my shaking hand. He came up to me, with a concerned expression on his face.

"Let me see it."

"No."

I tried to slip away from his reach, but he grabbed my arm, keeping me in place.

"Come on, show me."

He gently but firmly pulled my hand away from my eye and turned my head towards him. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see his expression while he examined the damage. When he tried to pull my eyelids apart I goaned and yanked my head away.

"This fucking hurts!"

"You have to open your eye."

I heard his voice not two inches from my face. It was unusually soft and coercing.

"No can do."

He sighed and tilted my head back towards him.

"Open it, this is an order."

"You're not my fucking boss, Banning."

"Shut the fuck up and open your eyes for God's sake!"

The sudden yelling prompted me to pop my eyes open, which hurt like hell.

"Fuck."

"That's better."

I tried to ignore the pain which shot through my eye every time I blinked. I saw Banning closely examining the wound and wondered if he did it on purpose, or I just rubbed him the wrong way and that's why he lost control, elevating his voice.

"How is it?" I asked after half a minute of his careful observations.

He straightened out and smirked.

"Some singed eyelashes and a nasty burnt mark on your lid, but otherwise..." he lifted two fingers in front of my face "How many fingers I'm showing?"

I sneered, showed him my two middle fingers and jumped down from the table. I heard him chuckle, that was new, until now he displayed no signs of appreciating my humour. I walked into the kitchen and plopped down on a chair this time.

"You said we could get something to eat."

"And I'll get you some ice for that."

"And maybe a coffee?"

He looked back at me, annoyed slightly and I smiled widely at him in response. He rolled his eyes and started for the back of the kitchen where I suspected the pantry was. I leaned back on the chair and tried not to fall asleep. A few minutes later Banning was back with some tea cookies, cold coffee and a bowl of ice cubes. From the latter he put one on a napkin and without any warning pressed it onto my eye.

"OUCH! Watch out... ! Fuck."

"Quit whining, it'll get better. Hold this."

I took the napkin while glaring daggers at him. I reconsidered my initial attraction towards him, now I wanted nothing more than punch his face in. And maybe have sex after. I quickly turned my attention towards the cookies and munched down a few of them. My stomach growled in dissatisfaction, but that was all it would get for the time being. The coffee wasn't just cold, but awful as well, I tried not to throw up and honestly hoped that drinking it was worth the effort. I changed the ice in the napkin frequently and the pain had really subsided after a few minutes. Looking around my glance fell upon the dead man in the dining room, so I decided to start asking questions now. As good a time as any.

"Who was that?"

Banning followed my gaze, though I was certain he knew who I was referring to - there really wasn't that many people around. I saw the look in his eyes change, from cold and hard to something bitter and I realised it was a sensitive topic.

"Ex Secret Service." he murmured.

So much information, but I decided not to push the matter.

"So, will you tell me what's going on here? I'm kinda in the dark."

Banning leaned back in his chair with a sigh.

"Yeah, sorry. Kang wants us to empty the DMZ, call back the 7th fleet and a helicopter."

"Hm… Just that? And what if we don't?"

"The usual, he'll kill the hostages. And probably blow up a few nuclear missiles while he's at it."

"Sorry, what?"

"Do you know of a system called Cerberus?"

I pondered for a second or two, the name was familiar, just didn't know where I've heard it before.

"No."

"It's a system that can destroy all of our nuclear warheads. And it happens to be installed on the computers in the bunker."

"What a wonderful coincidence."

"Yeah… And not only that, but all of the three people who have the codes to the system happen to be in the bunker too."

I sighed, again. "Peachy."

The ice was all but melted and the napkin sogged from the water. I put it down and prodded at my wound to see how bad it hurt now. To my surprise it was considerably better.

"How is it?" asked Banning, glancing at me through half lidded eyes.

"Better. It seems I don't have to wear an eyepatch for the rest of my life after all."

Banning laughed then stood up. "I bet you would've made a wonderful pirate."

It took some time to get over that fact that he laughed and joked with me, but I responded in kind.

"No doubt about it. What's the plan, boss?"

He lifted an eyebrow at me, suspicious. "I thought I'm not your boss."

"You can be. But just for this mission."

"Deal. Just do some recon. This time together, just to keep your other eye safe."

"Ha-ha. Hilarious, Banning."

"Mike."

He walked out before I could gather my jaw from the floor. Just like he transformed into another person. He would've made a wonderful CIA agent.


After half an hour of walking the hallways, which were literally dead, Banning's phone rang again. I only noticed because he punched the bluetooth, this time he didn't put me on speaker.

"Yes."

He stopped and turned to me, then the frown on his face deepened.

"Sir, do not launch an attack before we're done with the recon."

I rolled my eyes, but he was seriously angered.

"Wait, let us get to the roof first."

I don't know what he heard next, but he uttered 'Fuck.' and motioned to me to follow him. We ran as fast as we could to the main staircase leading up to the roof.

"Wait, wait, wait. There is a military grade air defence weapon on the roof. I hope they are not…"

"Oh, fuck it all. Sir, they have a weapon on the roof!"

We continued running until we came upon the door leading to the room just below the roof.

"They've launched the choppers, they'll be here in a few minutes." he took the automat in his hand and motioned for me to stand behind him. "We're going in, take out the hostiles and any weapon we see."

"Aye, captain. Let's go."

He kicked down the door and burst in, me following close behind. There were two guys inside, one Banning took out, the other got a bullet in his brain, my trademark. We saw that a heavy machine gun was being lifted up to the roof.

"They know about the attack." I highlighted the obvious.

Banning nodded sternly and went to the control panel of the gun. The boxes that once contained it bore the word 'HYDRA' all over them in capital letters.

"Abort the fucking mission." I heard Banning growl into the bluetooth.

The control panel flashed red with the sign 'ACCESS DENIED'. The shooting started a second later, just when two other terrorist appeared in the door. This time they had the better ground, so we had to take cover with Banning. We returned the fire and one of them was hit on his arm, but that wasn't enough, we had to do something about the HYDRA too.

"I'll go up and take care of the HYDRA. Can you hold out here?"

"Of course. Go!"

I covered him while he ran to the ladder leading up, picking up an RPG on his way. It didn't take long to eliminate the two guys still shooting at me, and I walked back to the control panel, trying to gain access, unsuccessfully again. I was sure that those choppers stood no chance against the HYDRA and was about to go help Banning when I heard an explosion from not too far away. The shooting had stopped, so I assumed that was Banning taking out the HYDRA. I was just about to relax when another explosion shook the ground beneath my feet. I instinctively turned back towards the door, which was lucky, because otherwise the blast would've blown me into smithereens. Like this it just smashed me clean into the opposite wall, knocking me out for a while.


When I awoke I was disoriented. I sported a nasty concussion, it was hard not to throw up at the swirling room around me. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, while trying to figure out if my skull cracked or the blood on my neck was just my scalp being ripped a bit. It was the latter, fortunately. When I opened my eyes again I was faced with the reality that half of the White House was just gone. The top floor was simply blown away in the explosion, there was nothing left of the roof either. I tried not to think too deep about what had happened to Banning. When I felt up for it, I tried to stand up, only to have a sharp pain shoot through my left leg. I looked at my thigh and found a piece of the wall lodged in it, just above the knee. I felt the nausea hit me again as I looked at that piece sticking out of my leg. I gently pressed down on the flesh around it to see how much blood was coming out. I knew that I probably shouldn't remove it, lest I wanted to bleed out on the spot, but it was impossible moving around with that too. I felt the pain when I touched the area, but there wasn't much blood. I proceeded to take down my belt and strapped it around my thigh, upwards from the wound, pulling it painfully tight. I had some patches in my vest too, I took out one of them and the bandages. I moved that piece of wall around a bit to see how deeply it was lodged. It hurt like hell, that's for sure, so I stopped moving it immediately. I looked away when I yanked it out from my leg. It hurt less than I thought and there wasn't a flood of blood following, no ripped arteries it seemed. I was very glad about that. I bandaged it up and stood up with a bit of difficulty. I checked my gun, my automat was nowhere to be seen, but I found another handgun, it probably belonged to one of the late terrorists. I stepped to the ledge which was once the west wing and looked down, searching for… something. I decided to search the ground floor, if there were any survivors, they had to be there.

Descending the stairs was a nightmare incorporated. Every step was like someone stabbed a white-hot rod into my thigh. The bandage was slowly soaked with blood by the time I got down to the ground floor. I had my gun in my hand in case someone was looking for survivors, but I didn't meet anyone. I proceeded slowly, partially due to my wound, partially to caution. Turning into the third room I saw a figure laying on top of what was once a table. He crushed the thing when he fell from above, it seemed. I carefully looked around before kneeling down beside Banning. I tried to slap him awake, but either I was too gentle, or he was too deep in sleep, because he didn't even budge.

"Shit."

I pulled the zipper down on his vest and traced his torso, looking for any wounds. While doing this examination I couldn't help thinking that in any other situation this would be the start of another thing, and I sniggered.

"What's so funny?"

Banning was looking at me a bit disoriented. I found a nail sticking out from his side, fortunately it didn't hit anything vital. I pulled it out of him which earned me a groan, not one of the sexy ones, unfortunately.

"Hello, Sleeping Beauty. I haven't even kissed you yet."

The words just rolled down from my tongue without thinking them over first. I heard Banning laugh softly then he showed me his middle finger. I smiled, although frankly, I was a bit embarrassed about what I said.

"Hilarious, Cameron."

"Lee."

I sat back down on my heel, stretching out my wounded leg. The bandage was soaked with blood and the wound was throbbing painfully. Banning propped himself up on his elbows then sat up, looking at my leg.

"Let me see it."

He seemed perfectly fine, but a little tired. He must've had a concussion too from falling this much, but he showed no signs of being hurt at all. I was jealous of his self-composure, although I was trained to take the pain, I was never able to hide it this well.

"Do you have some weird fetish with wounds, or what?"

He blinked at me, slightly confused, but then he realised I was referring to my eye. He grinned while he unwrapped the bandages.

"I guess that's not what people usually ask you to show."

He glanced up at me and I saw a twinkle in his eyes which was never there before. I was astonished, was he flirting with me? Sitting in a blown up White House, in the middle of a terrorist attack?

"No, they're only interested in my shooting skills." I said with a sigh.

We looked at each other then burst out laughing. It swept away some of the stress and pain of the day, refreshing me a bit. Banning suddenly pulled on the bandages.

"OUCH! Careful!"

"It's not that bad." he commented.

"Oh, really?! Then you try climbing some stairs with it."

"Chill out, it's almost done."

I dropped my head back to look at the… remains of the ceiling. It was a sorry sight, but a building was just a building, nothing compared to the lives taken.

"I'm totally chill. Just… I don't like this, not one bit. This should never had happened. Never. And you know… it was my job to prevent this, and I failed, gloriously."

"I'm sure you've tried everything you could…"

"But that everything wasn't enough! You have no idea how it feels to have this thing rest on my chest."

I admit, I was becoming a bit hysterical, so it was for the better that Banning yanked on the bandages again, causing a sharp pain to shoot across my leg.

"Fuck."

Banning patted my shin and stood up then offered his hand to me. I took it and he pulled me on my feet quite easily, steadying me when I wobbled, the sudden weight was a bit too much for my leg to take.

"Actually, I know how you feel like, but take it from me, that you can do no good if…" he stopped abruptly and grunted, then punched his bluetooth "Yes, sir."

He let go of my hand and we finally stepped down from the table while he put us on speaker again.

"Are you alright, son?"

"Fine."

"And Agent Cameron?"

"Still kicking, sir."

"With all due respect, Mr. Speaker, but your team needs some serious fucking help."

I heard some gasps from the other side, then some rustling.

"This is General Clegg, Army Chief of Staff. I am ordering you to stand down."

We exchanged wide-eyed glances with Banning.

"Remove your only eyes and ears from the ground. Genius." said he with an edge in his voice.

This General Clegg was becoming a huge pain in the ass.

"We need to pull you out of there before we lose another hostage! I am giving you a direct order."

"Perhaps you should've listened to us, before sending in your troops, sir." I cut in, just couldn't bear it anymore.

"I'm gonna hold you in for subordination, Agent…"

"Newsflash, asshole. We don't work for you."

Banning pocketed the phone when a heated argument erupted among the Pentagon officials. I found a flat surface I could sit on and what wouldn't break apart beneath me, and rested my leg a bit. I saw on Banning's face that the argument was still ongoing, then he nodded to me.

"We're good."

I sighed, it was really a good thing that we didn't get pulled out, but our chances were pretty slim. Banning was about to turn off the bluetooth when confusion flashed across his face.

"My wife?" he asked, incredulous.

I was a bit baffled. He had a wife? But there was no ring on his finger. I shook my head, it wasn't my business, after all.

"I have to take this." he said to me, then walked over to the other side of the room.

I paid no attention to his conversation, the throbbing pain in my leg distracted me enough. I started pacing up and down to ease the pain a bit. Then I checked my gun, unfortunately I was running low on bullets. Banning walked back to me when I was looking for a spare magazine in my vest.

"I have some spares, if you need them."

"I might. What's your plan?"

"We'll flush the bastard out, that's what. The Pentagon gave us half an hour to do that, and then Kang will get everything he wants."

"Great. Where to?"

"The control room."


The third part is still under construction, but I'm working on it. Thanks for reading :)