A shoutout to my awesome reviewers, this time, jagged1 and NickyR! Keep rocking. :)
A radio crackle broke the intense silence which had overcome the two Americans who were now sitting in a dusty, hot room five kilometers away from their destination watching a video feed from a tiny robot bug which had been sneaked into the small cell holding two American agents captive.
Casey started away from the screen before he could have to fight off any emotion. Carina Hansen and Sarah Walker. Two women who could easily be strong opponents against him in a fight. Carina was looking like a wraith. A skeleton hanging on to dear life. Sarah was bloodied and battered already. Her hand looked broken.
His mind was shoved out of it's thoughts as an enraged Chuck pushed him. "I don't have time for this surveillance shit anymore. Now. Let's go and get those two out." He started out of the room holding clumps of military-issue gear in his hands. Casey shoved him to a chair.
"We need to get them out, ASAP but possibly in a manner which doesn't get us all killed, Bartowski." He growled. Chuck merely gazed at him in a sullen manner and refused to interact with him for the next four hours. Casey had locked all doors and the gear before Bartowski's action could warrant another disaster.
Chuck's calm finally broke, "Casey, stop your planning and let's do what you always wanted. Go in guns blazing - come on!" Casey stared at him for a brief moment before turning back to his gun-cleaning nirvana. Chuck was fuming by now.
He slid out his tranquilizer gun, pointing it at his mentor's head. "It's either shoot or sleep, buddy." Casey snorted, "You're threatening me with a tranq gun, Bartowski? At least have the decency to use a real gun." There was no time for any more of his well-thought remarks as a jutting tranquilizer pulled Major John Casey into a deep, deep sleep.
"You killed my brother!" He slapped her on the face with a leather whip, stinging each cell of her body with a new kind of agony. "Destroying the only family that I had - you will pay Sarah Walker. You will pay for the rest of your life."
That had been the only primal reason behind a psychopath's entire trap. Almost like a squabble gone wrong, but then a midnight game of Russian roulette went wrong, and Hafiz Iqbal lay dead, staring at the same sky where once he had flown his kite. Perhaps in irony. Now it was just a group of rag-tag men with abusive intentions, no aim to kill them but use them until they dropped dead of their own accord.
Sarah had given up hope by now. Her mind was completely disoriented. If it had been a day, a month or even, a year - there was just nothing to tell. She had Carina to support her earlier, but Carina's last interrogation had left her in an almost catatonic state. Her rags were seeped with blood, and Sarah's greatest fear was that the men had left no stone unturned in destroying her last shreds of humanity, innocence and perhaps even, life.
She inched further and further away in the square-shaped cage from the live corpse as if the bruises on her mind could transfer by touch. As if she could get hurt by touching the contaminated.
She started concentrating on the images - slightly blurred - of a curly-haired man, brown hair, blinding smile. Trying really hard to remember what a warm touch felt like, or a room without rats for that matter. It was all she could do. It was all she had to do.
Chuck inched forward, completely alone - armed with a real gun from Major Casey's special armor collection - an AR-15 and a Colt 45 collected from a now unconscious guard. He wished he didn't have to touch the overwhelmingly powerful dehumanized metal - but the question was of saving Sarah's life. Perhaps in a selfish context, his own heart. Could that be left upto toys? Not.
There were twelve guards - half of them asleep on cots, while the rest enjoyed a game of parcheesi. The newly instated agent slipped past most of their primal systems, wearing the Pakistani garb instead of tactical gear. It was only when he reached the last corridor that seven suspicious men surrounded him with menacing expressions. It hardly took a moment before, the Intersect recognizing the danger calculated and executed the entire Krav Maga and Jujitsu against his muscled opponents. They was just a tattered pile of bodies lying on the floor as he moved towards a smelly cell.
He threw a tranquilizer grenade in the room of the guards immediately putting everyone to sleep before setting to work on the lock. Sarah's small lessons helped this time, as Chuck broke open in the lock in a few minutes opening the heavy metal door to meet the sight of a one extremely bloodied blonde woman and a unconscious brunette.
She squinted as she tried to wipe the disbelief from her face. Chuck smiled, "Hey there, beautiful." Sarah merely looked scared, unable to meet his gaze. Chuck said, "Hey Sarah, come on. We need to go, kiddo. Gotta get out of this place."
She muttered, "Leave me alone. You can't be Chuck." Chuck gaped at her for a moment, before recovering his composure. "Hey, this is me. You don't like olives but you obsess over Porsches, pancakes and your boyfriends."
She lifted her head slightly and whispered, "Chuck?" He merely nodded before signalling her to walk if she could as he needed to carry Carina. Sarah started walking out with him, unable to take in the fourteen men who now decorated the floor of the palatial house which held them prisoner. "You did this?" She rasped.
He merely smiled and nodded, "There is a lot I have to tell you, but for now will my 'I love you' suffice?" Sarah Walker cracked a smile after what seemed like a very, very long time, grasping his strong hands. She knew she would be okay now. Eventually.
He was here. He was very much alive. It was all that mattered. For now.
Thankyou for reading and reviewing, people. It has only helped to encourage me to write more and slowly, but steadily improve my techniques. ;] A major thanks to every single one of the 20,000 people who tried to read this. Love ya. I still have a few chapters to produce, so let's see how many of you catalyse me. :P