Chapter 9.

Outside the Karbash Research Facility.

John ushered Shannon into the passenger seat and walked around to the driver's side. As he unlocked the door a bullet grazed his ear and flew through the window and into the car, putting a hole in the dashboard, causing Shannon to hit the ground.

"The next one won't miss." Charlotte said with a big smile. She moved slowly forward, her long red curls blowing in the wind as she stepped in front of John, "You're too late anyway. We have Kate, Claire and the baby, so you really didn't do a very good of protecting your assets, did you?"

"When did you last talk to Rahim?" John asked with a confident smile.

"Less than an hour ago." Charlotte said, while moving slowly towards the vehicle, "He said everything was going according to plan. I don't think things have changed since then. Anyway, I'm not here for you, I'm here for that dumb blonde cowering in the car."

"You're free to take her and if you want to kill her I'll give you the bullets." John said with a smile.

Shannon popped up from the floor of the car, "That's really nice John. I've tried to help you and this is the thanks I get?"

Charlotte smiled at Shannon, "Come here you pretty thing you. If I can get Rahim to go along with it I might not have to kill you."

"Don't listen to her." John warned, while keeping his eye on Charlotte's fancy .38 calibre American Derringer she kept waving around.

"You just offered to help me kill her, do you really think she should listen to you?" Charlotte asked with a cute smirk.

Shannon stepped out of the car and walked slowly over to Charlotte, "If you promise not to kill me I'll go with you."

"That's so sweet." Charlotte said as she put her arm around Shannon's waist, "You actually believe you have a choice." Once she had Shannon firmly in her grip she began to back up. Once she was far enough away from John she slowly turned around only to be met with a fist square on her nose, sending her to the ground writhing in pain.

John walked over and shook Sayid's hand, "Nice timing. Do you have any word and Kate and Claire?"

"Not yet, but Sun is in place and I hope to be hearing from her soon."

"God damn it, you broke my nose." Charlotte screamed from the ground, her hands covered in blood as she tried her best to stop the bleeding.

John picked up Charlotte's gun and stared down at the redhead, "Where were you taking Shannon?"

"You think I'm going to tell you anything?" Charlotte asked with a laugh.

"Kill her." John said as he tossed the gun to Sayid.

"Wait. You can't kill me, you're the good guys." Charlotte said, "You have to take me to the police or something."

Sayid smiled at Charlotte, grabbing the tall redhead by the shirt, "You didn't learn much on the island did you? I work for nobody. You won't be dying any time soon either. It's been a long time since I've had someone to practice my interrogation techniques on."

"What are you talking about?" Charlotte asked as Sayid pulled out a long serrated blade.

Shannon ran towards Charlotte, "Are you stupid? He used to be in the Iraqi army, he tortured people in ways you can't even imagine. If you think protecting Rahim is worth unimaginable pain then by all means have fun."

"You don't know Rahim, he's ruthless." Charlotte said, turning to John with a much less antagonistic tone, "Can you protect me from him if I tell you where he is?"

Sayid smiled and grabbed Charlotte by the neck, "I don't have time for games. Tell me where you were going and where Rahim is now."

"Fine." Charlotte groaned, "I was meeting him Los Angeles. He's taking a plane here as soon as he gets the kid. If he hasn't done it yet, he's planning on killing the two women as well."

"Get on the phone with Sun now." John ordered, looking right at Sayid as he did.

Sayid's phone began to ring before he pushed a button, "Hello?"

"I have Claire with me and Kate is safe, but Rahim has Aaron and Christian and he's headed for his plane." Sun said calmly.

"We have a tracking device on it and we know he's headed to LA so if he does manage to get on it there's no need to panic."

"I don't think Rahim is working alone." Sun said softly, hoping Claire didn't hear.

"We don't either, but we haven't figured out who his partner is, well besides Charlotte that is." Sayid slid his hands around Charlotte's cute yet tiny neck and smiled, "We do have her though and I'm positive I can get more information out of her."

"Good, because something doesn't feel right." Sun looked out the window and saw the group of vehicles she was following pull into a small airport. "I have to go, we're at the airfield. I'll try and stop him but I may not have enough resources."

Charlotte struggled to get free, but she couldn't move an inch, finally giving up with a disgusted groan, "Let go of me and I'll tell you what you want to know."

Sayid released his grip and let Charlotte loose, but kept his gun aimed at her head, "We're all listening."

"There is another person working with Rahim." Charlotte said, while trying to stop the blood from spewing out of her nose. "Someone you all know very well, but you think he's an ally. That's the amusing part."

"Just say the name."

"I don't know the boss. I really don't. I know who's carrying out his orders and he's much higher up on the chain of command than Rahim."

Sayid reached in with his knife and slid it up against Charlotte's throat, "One more delay and you are dead."

"It's Charlie Pace."

John moved forward, "More lies. He's dead. Do you do any research before you concoct your lies?"

Charlotte held her hands up, "I'm going to reach into my pocket and pull out the proof you need."

"Don't move one inch or I'll shoot." Sayid snapped. He turned to Shannon, "Find out what's in her pocket."

Shannon happily walked over to Charlotte, knelt down and put her hand inside her jeans, "Man these are tight, how did you get this in here, magic?" After a few seconds Shannon pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Sayid.

John walked over and they both read it together. It was an email from Charlie to Rahim dated one day ago. "I'm heading to Russia. Once we control that lab we'll make it our new home base. I don't think John suspects anything, but I'm following Ben right now and he'll lead me right to it. Let me know when you have the child. You need to come here not LA. This lab has everything we need and more."

"Well, do think it's real?" Sayid asked.

"I'll have to analyze it further, but one email is not enough proof, anyone can type an email." John said as he turned and shook his head in disgust, "I need to call Evgeni and see if he's still alive. Ben was right about that lab, we need to make sure they don't get control of it there's no telling what they can do."

Sayid grabbed Charlotte as she tried to inch away from everyone, "What do you want me to do with her?"

"At this point I don't care. If you want to kill her, go ahead." John growled and then turned and walked back into his own lab.

"Don't kill her." Shannon pleaded.

"Why? If she stays alive she's a threat to everyone." Sayid said, confused by Shannon's please, "In case you don't know, she's the one who injected that little boy with the alien DNA."

Shannon's face went white as she stared back at a smiling Charlotte, "You didn't do that? Tell me you're not evil?"

Charlotte shrugged, "I wish I could, but you don't understand what that little boy has inside him."

"Okay, I'm with John, kill her." Shannon said

"Looks like you're outvoted." Sayid said with a smile.

"We had a deal." Charlotte screamed at John, "I can still help you. Rahim doesn't know I've been captured, I can still help you get him."

"She may be right." Sayid nodded and again looked over at Shannon, "Go to my truck and get some rope out of the back." He tossed her the keys and kept his gun pointed at Charlotte's head.

Shannon took a couple steps and then stopped, "What are you going to do with it?"

Sayid rolled his eyes at Shannon's paranoia, "Perhaps I will tie her up so she can't escape."

"Could someone please get me some new clothes, these are covered in blood." Charlotte said as she looked down at her blood stained t-shirt and jeans, "And I would really appreciate a quick trip to the bathroom first so I can clean this blood off my face. I can hardly breathe right now."

"Fine, but you aren't going to be alone in there." Sayid grabbed Charlotte and dragged her towards John's lab.

Shannon followed with some rope and they headed back down to the lab.

Bali.

Inside a makeshift triage center.

Jack bandaged Kate's thigh and sat back down across from her, "Is this how you protect Claire, by getting shot and putting her life in danger?"

"Oh Jack, you know that's not true." Kate said with an annoyed smirk, before quickly changing to just plain annoyed, "Why are you here anyway?"

"Because as usual you need my help."

Kate rolled her eyes at Jack's lame answer, "Why don't you tell me the truth and save us both some time."

"Because I care about what happens to Claire and her little boy and believe it or not I still care what happens to you." Jack said calmly as he met Kate's angry glare and finally let out a sigh, "Fine, I've been working with Sun for a few months now, off the record. I couldn't sit by and do nothing while your lives were in danger."

"I appreciate you wanting to help, but I need to see Claire." Kate attempted to get to her feet, "Where did Sun take her?"

Jack quickly stopped Kate from moving, "Sun knows what she's doing. Let her take care of business and you'll be with Claire and Aaron soon enough."

"You know I can't just sit here and wait." Kate said, feeling very uneasy about Jack's demeanour. "Why are you so calm about all this. It's as if you know how this is going to end? How's that Jack? What aren't you telling me?"

"I wish you would just let it go. I promise you that Claire and Aaron are safe and you will be seeing them both very soon." Jack answered before getting another evil look from Claire, "I shouldn't be telling you this, but I know you're worried and I know you'll find out about it soon enough. Sun has been tracking Rahim for the better part of a week now and she's also had his communications bugged and let's just say she knows where he's going or trying to go."

"Then why can't I go be with her?"

"Rahim wants you dead, that's why." Jack said bluntly.

"I don't understand. I don't even know him." Kate shook her head, still puzzled by Jack's comment, "Someone on the plane said something similar to that. Why does a man I don't know want me dead so bad? You have all the answers, fill me in?"

Knowing he had little choice, Jack got to his feet, "Think back to 2002, long before flight 815 went down. You were on a mission in Saudi Arabia and as you know it didn't go according to plan and you were forced to kill just to escape alive. One of the people you killed was Rahim's brother and being a powerful and vengeful man, he vowed to hunt you down and kill you."

"I can't believe this. Then why didn't he just kill me?"

"Because, he values greed over vengeance and saw you as a way to help get control of Aaron, but now that he has Aaron, you became expendable."

"I don't care." Kate yelled, once again trying to get to her feet, "If Sun has everything under control then I won't be in danger. I need to see Claire. She's probably a wreck right now knowing some maniac has Aaron."

Jack smiled as Kate grimaced in pain after taking two quick steps away from him, "If you don't get some rest and let that injury heal it could become infected and I'm sure you don't want to have it amputated, so please sit back down."

Not liking her options, Kate slowly hopped back to her make shift bed and lay back down, "If anything happens to Claire I'm holding you personally responsible."

"It won't." Jack said confidently, "She's my sister and I promise you that she's going to be fine. I'm just waiting on Sun's call and all this will be over."

Sun sat in the back of a police van, staring at the video feeds of the airport, pulling out her cell phone as she saw movement at bay 14, "I think they're getting ready to take off. Is everyone in position?"

"Yes, there is no way that plane will get into the air." A man replied from the roof of the large hangar.

"As you all know the main goal here is to remove the child from danger first, once the child is secured you will do what needs to be done, preferably keeping Christian alive. Is everyone aware of their orders?"

"Yes. We have a roaming camera inside the hangar as we speak, we are trying to send you the feed. They have the child guarded by two armed men, with a third holding it. Christian has only one man watching him."

"Do we have enough sharpshooters to take the two men out who are by the child?"

"Yes, but we'd prefer to wait until we have more."

"I'd prefer that to, but we don't have time." Sun said, checking her weapon one last time, "We are going to move towards the hangar, once we get into position I will give you the signal to take those two men out. Once they are out commission, you have the authority to kill anyone in that room."

"Understood."

Claire put her hand on Sun's shoulder, "I don't like the idea of guns being fired around Aaron, what if something goes wrong?"

Sun turned and knelt in front of Claire, "Listen, we have the best marksman in the world here. They will not miss. We have no other choice. Now, there's one thing I want you to do for me." Sun moved back over to the side of the van with the video feeds, "See this button here? It's an intercom, basically it's connected to a loudspeaker above this van. I want you to call Rahim's name when I tell you to. This is going to set everything in motion."

"Why? Don't you want the element of surprise?"

"Believe it or not no. In this situation they are all on edge, but once you call Rahim's name they will be momentarily distracted and in that split second, when they start looking around for where your voice is coming from, we will take them out."

"Please do not let anyone hurt Aaron." Claire pleaded.

Sun squeezed Claire's hand and smiled, "I promise you I will bring him back to you alive." Sun got to her feet, motioned for the men in the van to follow and they moved swiftly towards the doorway to bay 14.

Once in position, Sun called Claire, "It's time. Call Rahim's name, say you want to talk to him and then stay in the van until I return."

Claire took a deep breath and pushed the button in front of her, "Rahim, it's Claire, I need to talk to you now."

Rahim got off the hood of a car inside the hangar, "You two, go find out where she is."

Sun pulled out her cell phone again, "Take them out now."

Up on the roof two men aimed their high powered rifles and in unison opened fire. Instantly the two men hovering around Aaron fell the to the ground. Sun and her team raced inside as the rest of the men from the roof flew down from above.

After a quick, but deadly gunfight, Sun had secured the hangar, rushing towards Aaron who lay peacefully sleeping in the back of a car. She smiled as she picked up the innocent boy, holding him tightly as she walked out of the hangar.

"You haven't won you know...this isn't over." Rahim said from the ground blood pouring out of his chest.

Sun handed the child to one of her men and walked slowly towards the wounded man, "We have won. We have Aaron, that's all that matters right now."

"You should...know better... than that." Rahim winced, "I'm not the...only...one left."

"What are you talking about?" Sun said, kneeling down in front of Rahim.

Rahim let out a muffled laugh, "I already...sold Aaron..."

"Sold him to who?"

"Just know that...he'll never... be safe..." Rahim moaned.

Sun checked the pulse and sighed as she got to her feet, "I want two of you to take this man to the medical center at the base. Do not let him out of your sight." Sun walked briskly out of the hangar, smiled as she got closer to Aaron, taking him in her arms and happily walking back towards the van.

"It's me Claire, I'm coming inside." Sun said as the door flew open and Claire stood anxiously waiting.

She stood in breathless disbelief at seeing her son in front of her, gently taking him from Sun's arms and wrapping her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're okay. Thank you Sun. Thank you so much for bring him back to me."

"I'm just happy for you both. You need each other." Sun said with a smile. She hopped into the driver's seat and turned back to her, "Now, I will get you back to Kate."

Claire smiled and sat back down in her seat, "Thank you again."

End of Chapter 9.

Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated