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Chapter 3
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"How did you find me?" Tony was lying on the floor of the shed, a few bundled rags beneath him.
"Nina," Jack said as he tore open the leg of his pants. "She finally got a sat image. Saw you in the field." Jack peered intently at the bullet wound. The flesh around it was puckered and angry. He probed the entrance wound gently and Tony hissed.
"I didn't know we had satellites in this area," Tony said distractedly. He felt lightheaded.
"Yeah, well you know Nina." Jack wasn't concerned with anything but Tony at the moment. "CTU's sending backup, but it will be awhile." He frowned down at the wound.
"There's some debris," he began, but Tony interrupted him, nodding minutely. "From the creek," Tony finished. Jack looked at him for a long moment and narrowed his eyes. Tony's lids were half-closed and he was sweating. "It's ok Jack. Just do what you have to do," he breathed.
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Mason leaned over the display. "How far out are they?"
Nina consulted the readout uselessly. She knew exactly where they were. "Thirteen miles," she offered mildly. Mason nodded. "Have tac teams do a sweep of the entire area. We need to extract Jack and Tony without resistance if at all possible."
As he walked away, Nina turned back to her computer. The little messaging signal at the corner of her screen blinked insistently. She looked around casually, grabbed her purse and walked into the corridor. She didn't stop until she'd made it to the ladies room. She ducked into one of the stalls and dialed.
"I told you not to contact me like that," she said icily. There was a pause.
"And I told you to do your job. Where is my visual?"
Nina never missed a beat. "Surveillance malfunction. We're flying blind here too." Secretly, Nina smiled. She was an excellent liar.
The person on the other end did not respond immediately. "You're lying," he said finally.
"I have no reason to lie," Nina countered. "And I have no reason to betray you."
"That doesn't mean that you won't." The person on the other end paused, considering. "Has CTU made contact with either one of the agents?"
"No."
Nina could hear the person on the other end exhale. "You know what will happen if you do not deliver." It wasn't a question.
Nina narrowed her eyes. "The next time you hear from me be ready to move in."
She hung up the phone, weighing her options. It was too early in the Drazens' operation for her to be expendable (although she was fully aware that there would come a time when this would not be the case). Nina was all too aware that she might not get another chance like this…to make restitution for future sins and hope it would be remembered.
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Jack sat next to the window, the rifle in his hand. He was more than surprised when he'd found the two guns tucked behind a stack of crates. The rifle, a shotgun and a small clutch of ammo had been stored near the back, no doubt tucked away for a sportsman of years passed, having spent long hours gazing over the open field waiting for his quarry to cross his path. Jack probably sat in the exact position as that person years ago, looking over the same field, only his was a more lethal game.
The sporadic sound of far off gunfire no longer caused him alarm…he'd been hearing it for the last hour. There was no reason to speculate, only that perhaps the hostiles had engaged another unit. After all, Jack ruminated, if it had not been for their allies, the mission would've failed completely.
Beside him on the floor, Tony began to stir. Jack watched him with some regret. He hadn't been able to extract the bullet, it was lodged too deep, but Jack had cleaned out the wound as best he could. Thankfully, Tony was unconscious for most of it.
"Did you get it?" Tony's voice was stronger than it had been, and he strained his neck to look up at Jack near the window.
Jack shook his head. "Couldn't," he said. "It's too deep."
Tony put his head back in resignation. "Shit."
Jack propped the gun against the frame of the window and sat down next to him. "Here," he said, handing Tony a canteen. Tony propped up on one elbow and drank from it eagerly.
"We've got to get that out soon, though, before infection sets in." Jack looked at the dark wound with enough gravity to make Tony worry. He felt his hot skin. "You're already burning up," he said tersely.
"I'm fine," Tony said roughly and handed off the canteen.
Jack looked him curiously then, favoring him with the half-formed smile that was standard for him. He chuffed. "Yeah." Tony could see his eyes glitter in the moonlight.
"Nina told us to say put," Jack said. "CTU is going to sweep the area and extract us."
Tony frowned. "Feels overexposed to me. We need to get out of here."
He moved to sit and Jack pushed him down. "You're not going anywhere. And I'm not leaving you. So we're stuck." Jack quirked his mouth reflexively. "It could be worse."
Tony smirked at that, allowing a half dozen or so "worse" scenarios that he and Jack had faced in their history run through his mind as he lay there. The pain in his leg was a steady ache, and if he didn't move it, it was tolerable. He closed his eyes. Sleep pulled at him with insistent fingers even though he fought to stay awake. Jack needed him, he knew. He could cover the other window now that they had the shotgun. Tony tried to say something, but the words wouldn't form. The concrete floor with its bundle of rags was as inviting to him as a four poster bed at the moment. His vision blurred with the haze of sleep. His lids slipped closed, shrouding him in darkness.
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"Have your men in position, they'll go on my mark."
Nina pinched the bridge of her nose, pacing quietly as the men readied themselves on the other end of the comm. It was a nervous action, yet she felt no trepidation. She'd never been more sure of her actions, yet she still thrilled at the coiled tension over comm. She could almost hear the men's quiet instruction, the nervous energy, and she fed on it. Not long now, she thought mildly. She rubbed her upper arms absently, relishing the goose flesh there. Nina had always savored the moments just before a strike.
But now she was running two of them.
It had not been that hard to fool the Drazens. They might be better organized and better funded than some other operations she'd been a part of, they still didn't know her, which was always to Nina's advantage. Nina found that, no matter who she was dealing with, she was consistently and reliably underestimated. This little "slip" on her part would be forgiven, of course, and would be blamed on faulty imaging and bad timing, perhaps the rudimentary workings of CTU as a whole. She was still too useful to them to incite enough wrath to make her leave. In her mind, the Drazens were jumping the gun to move now, anyway. She believed she'd actually done them a favor by not complying with their poorly laid plans. She smiled to herself. They wouldn't thank her later, but they should.
Nina accessed another screen, checking the infrared image again. They were together now, Tony and Jack, their heat signatures nearly indistinguishable. She studied it closely, wondering vaguely which one of them was hurt. CTU had not dispatched Medical…just the usual field agents with special training, standard for extractions like this. She couldn't have told them they needed more, because then they would know. She could only hope it would be enough.
Nina pressed her lips together and touched the small void between the two glowing silhouettes. Nina was glad they were together. They were partners, after all.
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Los Angeles
Two months prior
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"Is anything wrong?"
Tony brushed one of her short locks away from her forehead, caressing her face meaningfully before he withdrew his hand. Light streamed in through the sheer drapes, escaping through the gaps to slant coolly across their exposed bodies. They lay on top of the coverlet, facing each other.
"Nothing. Don't be silly." She said that a lot, "don't be silly." It was a stupid thing to say. She kissed Tony on the lips, taking her time with his talented mouth.
But he halted her. He withdrew and looked at her face, deeply into her eyes. His thumb was making little circles at her waist, and his hands were hot. "You never tell me what you're really thinking." He smiled. "We're partners, remember?"
She wasn't expecting that. Most conversations she could thwart with sex or an argument. But Tony Almeida liked to talk. A lot. She smiled lasciviously. "I'll show you what I'm thinking." She kissed him again, running her hand along his strong neck and pressing into him.
"No, Nina."
She looked at him, feigning insult, and quickly pondered a way out. Pillow talk made her venerable. Abandoning herself to the release of sex, something she'd always enjoyed, made it difficult to keep the rest of her lives in balance. So she preferred not to try. Talking, however, and sharing (she cringed) postcoital made that nearly impossible.
Plan B, then. Her eyes flashed suddenly, and she recoiled. "Fuck you," she muttered. She slid off the edge of the bed, grabbing her white button-down on the way. Maddeningly, he remained unrattled.
"Are you happy?"
She whirled, her eyes livid. "What the hell is this, Tony, therapy?" She was concentrated on the buttons and on not answering his questions.
He was zipping up his pants, looking at her. Tony's gaze could appear both open and unreadable at times.
"Stop looking at me like that."
He didn't. He was waiting.
He looked like a golden god, standing their in the sunlight that raked across his bare chest, and she wrapped her mind around the memory of his body pressed into hers, his dark skin smooth and beautiful, knowing she would never feel him again. Her body seemed to protest this, and an almost mournful ache shivered through her. She was saying goodbye.
But her sorrow was merely physical. Nina knew that it was time to move on, accepted it. She sighed and looked at him. "No, Tony. I'm not happy."
It was the fist time she'd told him the truth.
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