Hannah
The sound of a heavy crash carries through coms, chasing after Frank's shout. For a split second I'm frozen, tailing the Uncle completely forgotten in the wake of our current problem. Then I'm in frantic motion, scowering the room with my eyes and hurriedly zipping in between throngs of people.
"Hannah?" Liam asks; his tone panicked. I shake my head, the blood rushing to my ears with a slight dizzying sensation. I shove it down and force over a cool façade, freaking out won't help anything.
"It's Jason." Peter announces, and after a beat of my heart, I'm tearing across the room, slamming through people as I go. Hands grab at me, it seems, dragging my back, and ropes ensnare my legs slowing me down. I was supposed to have Franks under control; it was why I was here. And if Jason gets hurt...
"I can explain!" Jason protests, the sound gargled over the noise in the background, and another crash thunders through, followed by more interference. I flinch a little this time, my mind racing, trying to process everything happening at once. I'm spinning, spinning and spinning and spinning...
"Stay off the coms!" Owen suddenly shrieks, fear and panic racing though my veins in equal measures. "The crackling, I finally traced the frequency, it's…" Another painfully loud sparking, as if someone was holding a microphone up against speakers, cuts off his next words.
"Take them off!" Peter growls, and I hurried yank mine out my ear, dropping it as I keep elbowing my way through the crowd. Without my ear bud, I'm suddenly very much aware of how alone I am. This is all on me, and I'm not letting this happen.
Finally, I break free of the crowd, struggling to get clear. Clumsily, I kick off my impractical heels, flinging them into the hallway and skid to a stop in front of Franks' office. I hesitate at the door, pressing my ear to the cold wood. There's a similar slam to the one I heard earlier, except,so much louder, and I feel the door tremble. A sharp exhale of air tells me someone had just been slammed against it, and I don't think its Franks.
"Look dude, I wasn't…" That's Jason. He continues but my intention is diverted by even, purposeful footsteps coming from behind me. I rush around the corner, not wanting to make things worse by being found.
Peeking around the wall, I spot something that I know will make the situation much, much worse. Erik Palino doesn't strut, he doesn't prance, and the word "Meander" is not in his vocabulary. At the moment, there isn't anything in his gait that suggests stress or urgency. I watch him carefully, studying the most minute details, from the unconscious twitch of his hand to hip, and the slight peek of a leather holster beneath his jacket. I shouldn't have ever doubted that the ex CIA agent wouldn't be armed . I take a deep breath knowing that a gun changes things, big time. Someone could get shot if this goes down, and the situation's already perched on the cliff.
As he closes the door quietly behind him, I follow at a crouch, and press my ear to the cool surface again.
"What did you do?" The gruff voice snarls, and it could only be Palino, addressing his nephew.
"I didn't do anything, this creep was just snooping in my office!" Franks angrily defended. Jason sputters and protests, and I mentally hush him, he needs to keep quiet and wait out the storm. All opening his mouth will get him now is a set of handcuffs and a one-way drive in a police cruiser.
"I was coming here to meet a girl." He lies, and for a split second, I'm just a bit insecure, wondering who this girl is. Until rationality shimmers its way back into existence in my brain and I force myself to stay focused on the task. Now is not the time for irrational jealous freak-outs. The door creaks open just an inch and I gratefully peek inside the room, thanking God or Allah, or Zeus, or whoever, for small favors. Palino and his uncle are on one side of the room, with their backs' towards me and Jason is a few steps in front of them, his arms crossed over his chest and his expression steely. I try to catch his eye and get him to notice that I'm outside but he misses me entirely.
"What girl?" Palino demands gruffly, not crossing his arms like his nephew does, obviously knowing it will slow down his reaction time, I nervously eye the slight bulge in his coat pocket, and shake my head. I can't just rush into this one, if I go in fighting there's a good chance I could both of us killed. Jason doesn't stutter under the pressure like I would've, but smirks.
"I lost track after a while, I think it ended in an "a" though." He chuckles a little, and I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes. Franks seems almost abated and for one precious moment hope flickers its way into existence.
Unfortunately, Palino rocks off his heels and strides forward before walking around Jason, surveying him, like a predator does its prey. For a split second the angle he's facing is perfect and I can see the expression on his face: the raised eyebrow and the twisted leer, and I know we're truly screwed.
"You know the funny thing is, I found something the other day, after that incident I told you about." He nods at Franks, who mirrors his raised eyebrow. "A listening device, in one of your curtains." Franks posture stiffens, and he immediately steps forward as if to assure his uncle it was a one-time incident. Palino shakes his head and continues his eerie circle. "The funny thing is, I had one of the tech guys I knew from my old job trace the signal, which led him to a laptop, and he easily tapped into the feed." My stomach lurches and I reach up to my ear, to start to relay the message to Owen, when I remember my ear bud lying abandoned, amid hundreds of partygoers. "He found the frequency and all the information needed to hack into a set of military grade communication units. Unfortunately, slight static would occur as he listened in, but we both agreed thieves wouldn't be smart enough to figure it out. " The jarring static suddenly makes sense, and I have to shove aside the tiny prickle of indignation when I remember he's right. I have to stop myself from gasping when Palino darts forward, and with nimble fingers, yanks the coms unit out of Jason's ear. He rolls it between his fingers and smirks, as Jason's grin disappears.
"Hannah!" A voice hisses from behind me, and I turn around, ripping my eyes away from the showdown going on in front of me. Liam's eyes are wide and frantic, as he gestures hurriedly while he speaks.
"Come on Hannah, let's go, we're blown!" He whisper-shouts. I stutter, glancing over my shoulder at the door, he shakes his head. "The new-be can figure it out on his own, he's the one who got caught."
"He's part of the team." I remind him, hisses and pushing him back a little, I start to go back to the door when Liam pleads his case.
"No he's not, you have to look out for yourself and your family, he's not family." He hisses, grabbing hold of my wrist, and I shake his hand off and return to the door. I miss Jason's question, but I hear Palino's answer.
"Oh...I'm not going to be calling the cops, there are better ways to handle this situation," His hand twitches towards his pocket, and my eyes widen, realizing exactly what he means by "handling it." Jason's eyes widen, the warm chocolate features, positively panicked. My heart lurches out to him, and only part of my mind register's Liam's restraining hand, before I break free and fling open the door.