"You know I work a lot better without the pacing, the questions and the threats of violence?" Winn commented as he typed at his console. "I am already as motivated as humanly possible to find Kara."
"You're missing the point." Maggie said. "The pacing, the questions and the threats of violence are keeping Alex calm."
"Well they are not keeping me calm." Winn said as he continued to type.
"The difference being if Alex isn't calm people will get hurt." Maggie reminded him.
"Okay, I'm in and there is data." Winn said relieved.
"And?" Alex pressed.
"No information has been received for a week, so either they found it or it stopped working. But I do have every location where it was up until then." Winn said.
"And?" Alex asked chewing her lip.
"Lillian Luthor wasn't in National City the day Kara went missing. But for a week before Kara disappeared all the way up until the device stopped working she was in a single location. A very remote location. Not the type of location you'd chose to spend time at."
"Get every piece of intel about that location and send it to me. I'll prep the tac team." J'onn said before looking at Alex. "Get your gear. We head out in twenty."
"Do you want me to come?" Maggie offered.
"No." Alex said not wanting to place her in danger.
"You're not trained." J'onn added. "I appreciate the offer, but you would probably slow us down." With that J'onn and Alex marched off.
"But you get to hang with the cool kids." Winn offered. "If you want you can watch the whole thing from here."
-00-
As J'onn and Alex entered the armoury he turned to his subordinate and asked.
"Are you sure you are ready for this mission?"
"I'm not sitting it out." Alex said defiantly.
"I know. But I need to know that you will follow orders and not get yourself killed. You won't do Kara any good hurt or dead."
"I just want to find Kara." Alex said.
"I know. But remember Cadmus may not have her." J'onn said. "And regardless of what has happened we need some of them alive."
"I won't do anything to jeopardise Kara." Alex said.
"Good." J'onn replied before adding. "When we get there team with Dorne. I do not want you to leave his side."
"But-"
"No buts. You have not been fully cleared for active duty yet. If you want to come on the mission that is the condition."
"Fine." Alex agreed.
-00-
As the helicopter neared the location Winn had given them J'onn carefully laid out the plan to his team every so often glancing at Alex making sure she was paying attention.
"Two minutes out." The pilot called on the radio causing the team to fully check their weapons.
"Remember the base is likely to be crawling with traps." J'onn warned as an alarm went off.
"We are taking fire." The pilot called.
"Looks like it is the right place." Rushmoore said as the helicopter pilot took evasive action.
"I'm going out there, hopefully I can draw their fire, maybe even take out some of the launchers." J'onn said changing to his Martian form.
"Be careful." Alex asked.
"You too. See you on the ground." J'onn said flying out of the helicopter as Alex looked on helplessly. Forcing her focus back to the team around her she looked round and said.
"Stay alert out there. I don't want to give them the satisfaction of taking any of us out."
Seeing nods from the team she checked her weapon once more as the pilot set the helicopter down moments before the entire DEO team filed out following the predefined formation they had been assigned earlier.
-00-
"I would have preferred people." Dorne said as he and Alex walked down another empty corridor. "I hate automated systems, they feel so clinical."
"Well there may still be guards so stay alert." Alex said, hoping they would find signs of habitation.
"I'm always alert." Dorne said as Rushmore reported in.
"This is Rushmore. Prelim signs show no signs of anything living apart from us. Danvers, Dorne you are fifty feet away from a server room. Can you pull the data?"
"We can try." Alex said looking at the latest scan Rushmore had sent her.
"You know we will find her." Dorne said seeing how disappointed Alex was that the base was empty.
"We don't know that." Alex said.
"Yeah we do. You aren't giving up on her and neither are we." Dorne said as he entered the server room. Having checked the room he said. "All clear."
"I'll set up the transfer. Keep an eye out for trouble, just in case the scans are wrong." Alex instructed as she plugged a drive into one of the servers. As the backup started Dorne called over.
"Danvers."
"What?" Alex asked as she monitored the transfer.
"Does a count down and a red light ever mean anything good?" Dorne questioned. The question causing Alex to look over to him. Seeing the flashing red light she hurried to his side. Guessing it was a self destruct she tapped her radio.
"This is Danvers. We have reason to believe the self destruct has been activated. Everyone evacuate now." She then killed the connection and looked at Dorne before ordering. "Go."
"What about you?"
"I need the data. It may lead to Kara. I'll be right behind you."
"I'll stay with you." Dorne said. "I don't want to explain to the boss why you got blown up and I didn't."
"No one is getting blown up." Alex said as she went back to her panel where the transfer was happening.
"So the transfer will take less than seven minutes and twelve seconds?" He asked.
"Most likely. But that's not the issue." Alex pointed out.
"What is the issue?" He asked.
"To get back to the entrance will take at least ninety seconds. So you should really go."
"I prefer my chances with the explosion than I do with the Martian."
"Just don't complain to me when you start to smoulder." Alex said before tapping her radio again.
"All teams report evac status."
She then listened to all teams report in moments before J'onn came on the radio and asked.
"Where are you?"
"We'll be with you soon." Alex said glancing back at the window displaying the transfer status.
"For a telepath I would have thought he'd be better at picking up when you are stretching the truth." Dorne commented.
"I'm not stretching anything." Alex said as the backup completed. However as she pulled the drive a familiar face appeared on some of the monitors.
"Hello Agent Danvers. I should have guessed you would be involved in another explosion at one of my facilities." Lillian smiled. "But why wait for the count down?" She asked before pressing a button.
"Crap." Alex said before shouting to Dorne. "Go go go."
"No need to tell me twice." He said noticing the timer had sped up. "How long do we have?" He asked.
"Not long enough." Alex replied moments before a series of explosions rocked the base.
TBC...
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing.