Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of any of the characters from the R.E.D. or its sequel.

Four hours had passed since they had executed their plan and Rick, Alan, Russell, Jay and Steve, along with their hostage, were far from D.C. They had arrived at their safe house and were in the process of stowing away the hydro truck and transferring the Ambassador to the cabin. They had driven west to a secluded spot near a national park. Few neighbours, a hilltop forested position, a large well lit yard that spread out for at least twenty yards in all directions, separate garage for the truck and a large wood cabin with thick walls, large windows offering unobstructed views of their surroundings.

Ivan had been keep sedated for the duration of the trip but the gas mask had been long since removed. The last part of the journey had been on an unforgivably bumpy dirt road but he had blessedly felt none of it. They wheeled the stretcher from the garage to the house and then into one of the two small bedrooms. Jay and Steve then lifted Ivan, still strapped to the orange backboard, and placed him onto a bed.

"Do you want to clean and stitch him up now?" Rick asked Jay as he and Steve folded up the stretcher and stored it away under the bed.

"I think that would be best. Are you going to contact the embassy soon?"

"No. That can wait til the morning. I don't want to give them a search radius based on the timing of the call." Rick answered.

"Smart boss." Jay said as he opened a well-stocked, multi-tiered medical kit.

"Will you need help with this or are you good?" Rick asked as he turned to leave the room.

"Nah, I'm good." Jay waved off the offer of help as he began removing the head restraints, leaving only the neck brace, so he could clean the blood from the wounds on Ivan's face.

Over the course of the next forty-five minutes Jay stitched closed a cut above Ivan's right eyebrow and one on his cheek bone before moving onto the large gash that ran across his ribs. When he was finished with the stitches Jay ran his hands over the incapacitated man to assure himself that the man had no broken bones or other serious injuries. Besides some mild swelling, and not so mild bruising, everything seemed in order. Jay then checked Ivan's pulse and pupil response and, finding both within reasonable parameters considering the circumstances, Jay packed up his equipment, shut off the lights and closed the door as he exited the room intent on heading to the kitchen to find something to eat.


At the same time as Jay was searching for his dinner Victoria, Frank, Sarah and Marvin were disembarking from the helicopter Cooper had sent to retrieve them from the Eagle's Nest.

"See? I told you it would be fine, Marvin." Frank said as he helped Sarah from the chopper.

Marvin grumbled in response as he climbed, somewhat stiff legged from the machine.

Victoria quickly crossed to where C.I.A. Director Cooper was waiting for them with an SUV. Frank and Marvin loaded their gear into the back of the black Yukon as the ladies climbed into the vehicle. Victoria took the passenger seat next to Cooper and Sarah took the centre back seat, soon to be sandwiched between Frank and Marvin.

"My team has found the staging area. I'll take you over there right now. It was located just within the area of the blacked out cameras." Cooper said as he made good use of his SUV's in-grill emergency lights to part the traffic and get the group to the scene as quickly as possible.

"So they have some skill but limited foresight." Marvin observed. "That could play in our favour …" He waited a beat before continuing. "Or not." Marvin was never one to be overly positive.

"It does mean they may have overlooked something else that could lead us to Ivan." Sarah added hopefully.

Frank smiled at her and rubbed her arm affectionately. The woman's eternal optimism when it came to their line of work was endearing and hopefully not misplaced.

As the SUV rounded a corner, the location they were headed to became readily apparent. An old garage came into view, slightly run down, and perfectly unremarkable aside from the fact it was presently surrounded by black SUVs and hustling C.I.A. personnel. A man standing near the perimeter of the scene pulled back the yellow tape and allowed Cooper to drive right up to the building. Cooper put the vehicle in park and switched off the engine.

"I am not going in there with all those people." Marvin, having put the emphasis on the word 'those', fiddled nervously with the handgun in his lap.

"For heaven's sake, Marvin, put that away." Victoria sighed in exasperation, even as Frank was reaching to remove it from the man's grasp.

"Give me five minutes and I'll give you a private viewing." Cooper told the man as he opened the door and immediately took charge of the scene.

The SUV's remaining occupants watched with mild interest as Cooper cleared the scene and sent his staff on an enforced thirty minute break. After a few minutes the last person had left the building, leaving only those guarding the perimeter of the scene. The director then waved at the SUV, inviting the four to join him in the garage.

As they entered the open garage bay door it became evident that the men they were after were no longer using an ambulance as cover. Strewn carelessly across the formerly polished cement floor were various ambulance decals and a light bar.

"So they kept the same vehicle but changed the cover." Marvin surmised easily.

"I already have people scanning the CCTV footage looking for any trucks that fit that basic description. We should have a direction of travel soon." Cooper informed as he pushed the light bar with his foot.

"Any contact from the kidnappers yet?" Frank asked as he crouched down to search for a clue as to what new cover the men may currently be using.

"No. Nothing. I had met with the Ambassador right before the accident to discuss the capture of two Americans caught trying to break into a secure records room at the Kremlin. Neither of us had any possible motives or criminal affiliations but now, with what has happened, I am having a difficult time believing it's a coincidence." Cooper said.

Victoria was silent as she processed the new information and attempted to, somehow, piece it all together. Ivan had told her on the phone that he had not been concerned about the matter, and clearly this was the matter he meant.

"Could we trace his cell phone?" Sarah asked Cooper as she let her gaze sweep over the space, unsure of what to be looking for.

Cooper crossed over to a table in the corner in lieu of answering. He picked up a clear evidence bag with the remains of a crushed phone rattling inside.

"Oh." Sarah sighed. "Guess not."

"I've got something."

Frank, Cooper, Sarah and Victoria's heads all snapped round to look in the direction Marvin's voice had come from. They headed down a narrow hallway until they arrived at a room, lit brightly by the glow of nearly a dozen computer monitors. Marvin waved them over to the monitor he was sitting in front of impatiently.

"Take a look at this." He played the video he had found for them.

The group watched in silence for a moment before Sarah blurted out. "What exactly are we looking at? Someone shuffling papers? Is that Russian?"

Marvin paused the video with a click of the mouse and zoomed in on the image.

"That's his schedule!" Victoria exclaimed.

"That's how they knew when to plan the accident." Frank stated.

Victoria turned and walked out of the room as Frank, Marvin and Cooper searched through the various computers and found footage from various cameras and played them on the various monitors as Sarah watched. Once alone in the hall she pulled out her cell phone and punched in a number. Her call was answered on the second ring.

"Yana? It's Victoria. I need you to tell me if at any point someone other than you or Ivan had access to his schedule?"

"They were wearing fingerless gloves, like a bike messenger." Sarah said, appearing in the doorway and locking eyes with Victoria.

Yana appeared to have heard Sarah as she let out a sudden noise of realization. "There was a bike messenger. We collided in the hallway and he helped me pick up my papers. He did have his phone out, he said he hadn't seen me because he'd been texting."

"Thank you, Yana. Has anyone contacted the embassy about Ivan?"

"No. I will call as soon as they do." Yana said. "I am so sorry."

"None of this is your fault, Yana. I have to go, we will speak later."

As Victoria hung up she looked to Sarah. "Thank you. The collision with the bike messenger may have, on such a busy day, passed unremarked had you not noticed his gloves."

Sarah smiled meekly and looked down at the floor. "Glad I could help."

A printer in the corner of the room hummed to life and began printing pixelated photos of men's faces.

"Who are they?" Victoria asked as she picked up the freshly printed pictures, still warm from the machine.

"We think these are our guys." Frank said, coming over to look at the pages from over Victoria's shoulder. "The EMTs and the driver of the truck that hit Ivan's limo."

Victoria's head snapped up at his words. "Do you have the footage?"

Frank exchanged a look with Cooper and Marvin.

"So that's a yes." Victoria brushed past Frank to stand over Marvin. "Let me see it."

Marvin knew better than to argue and cued up the video.

Victoria watched without a trace of emotion as a traffic camera showed a quiet intersection. A moment passed before Ivan's limo drove into the frame and was immediately struck with bone-jarring force by a large pickup truck. The momentum of the crash flipped the car onto its roof and it slid several meters before coming to a rest. In less than a minute an ambulance appeared and the car door was wrenched open by the EMTs. The men worked extremely quickly and had soon pulled Ivan from the wreckage. Only once Ivan appeared on the screen, obviously unconscious, did Victoria briefly betray her emotions. Her eyebrows knit together in a flash of anger and concern but in an instant it had past as she suppressed those unhelpful emotions.

"Can your people ID these men?" Victoria asked once the ambulance had left the screen.

"The screen grabs are being run through our system as we speak." Cooper replied "I'm also having them check for affiliates of the two men captured in Moscow this morning."

"Are those camera feeds still active, Marvin?" Frank asked, leaning in over the back of the man's chair.

"I think so."

"We should go back through the cameras closest to this location at the time of the accident and shortly after. We may be able to pick out the truck and get a direction of travel faster than Cooper's team."

Cooper rolled his eyes. "I doubt it."

"Got it." Marvin announced.

"What?" Cooper exclaimed in disbelief.

"Direction of travel is south-west. I've tracked them to the edge of the city. Looks like they are headed for route 66."

"How did you-"

"I think you've had just enough time here, don't you?"

The strange voice that filled the room and emanated from the computers speakers, startling the group and interrupting Cooper's shocked response to Marvin's computer prowess.

"Who is that?" Sarah asked looking around the room.

"Did your people not sweep the building?" Victoria asked, nearly aghast.

"Its been quite entertaining watching you track down 'clues' but your time is up. We've left behind a little 'gift'."

At that word the group exchanged knowing looks.

"You've got less than two minutes."

Frank started guiding Sarah to the exit. "We've got nearly all we can. Let's go."

Victoria looked to Marvin. "Did we miss anything?"

"I would hate for you all to die needlessly." The voice mocked threateningly. "One minute twenty seconds."

Victoria felt a pressure on her shoulder and looked down to see Cooper's hand there, the message was clear.


From the comfort of a couch Rick, Russell, Jay, Alan and Steve watched as the five raced from the building.

"This is going to be good." Steve said, smiling in anticipation.

The other men grinned in agreement. Rick typed a series of code into the computer. The words 'Detonate: Y/N?' flashed across the screen.

"They clear?"

Alan watched on the other laptop as the last of the group, the older bowlegged man dressed in mismatched clothes, cleared the garage bay doors. He had surprised them by how quickly he'd traced their route. "Ya."

Rick typed out the letters 'Y-E-S' and his finger hovered over the enter key for a moment before pressing it with vigor.


Victoria felt the blast from the explosion a split second before the sound of the detonation ripped through the air, deafening all those in the vicinity. Debris and dust blew past in a rush of hot air as they dove for cover behind Cooper's SUV. When she opened her eyes the world was clouded with dust and chunks of what used to be the garage rained down around them. In her hand she clenched the crumbled papers that bore the faces of the men who took her fiancé upon them.

"Well that seemed unnecessary." Marvin said in an overly loud voice, his ears still suffering the effects of the blast.

Frank helped Sarah to her feet while Cooper did the same for Victoria, gently dusting off her shoulders as he did.

"Why would they allow us time to escape?" Sarah asked as she ran trembling fingers through her tousled hair in an attempt to straighten it and shake the dust free.

"They're playing games with us." Cooper replied agitatedly.

"They were watching us the whole time." Frank added.

"Still could be." Marvin stated, gesturing towards the traffic camera and waving.

"We should regroup elsewhere." Victoria said firmly, leaving no room for argument.

Cooper pushed a remnant of a door off the side of his SUV while Frank lifted a cinderblock off the now dented and scratched hood.

"I don't think that's going to buff out." Frank grinned.

Cooper gave a wry smile in return. "Good thing it's a company car."


"That went off better than expected." Steve laughed. "Nice fireworks, Russell."

Russell smirked and accepted the praise with ease.

"Kind of you to let the old fellow make it to cover, Rick." Alan observed.

"Like I've said before, I'm not interested in collateral damage." Rick replied. "It's easier to slip away from a job with no body count. We stand to make enough on this one job to last a lifetime so let's not screw it up. That old guy tracked our truck before we even realized he'd done it. Too close." He closed the laptop. "Excellent work on the facial alterations on the video though, Alan. Now they will be looking for three completely none existent men-"

"Or three unlucky real men." Steve joked, briefly interrupting Rick and garnering a laugh from the group.

Rick stood and clasp Steve's shoulder. He was about to speak when his watch began to beep. He pressed the button to silence the alarm. "Eight o'clock." He crossed to the kitchen island and grabbed a bottle of whiskey, pouring our five shots into the awaiting glasses. Each man took a glass and Rick raised his in a toast.

"Here's to the success of our friends."

"Success!" The men echoed solemnly before throwing back their drinks.

"If they all goes well we should know within the hour." Alan stated, pouring another round of drinks. "Once we receive the information we can put the word out."

"And the bidding begins." Jay said, raising his glass with the others.