Agent Cooper burst through the door to his office and marched down to Aram's desk, he towered over the younger man intimidatingly.
"Have you got them back yet?" He asked in a deep voice.
"Er, no, sir." He sighed. "And it's not technically their fault, their earpieces have been destroyed."
Harold didn't look overly impressed but then again he rarely appeared that way.
"You've had long enough to re-establish contact and if they've been destroyed that's not going to happen. I'm sending our men in."
"It'll take them ages, Sir, to get through the guards and could trigger an alert." Said Aram solemnly.
"We don't have any other options, Aram."
XXXX
Kjell's and Valenka's workspace was dark as they sat typing, the siblings could go hours without a word to one another, instead they just seemed to know what the other wanted, a result of having grown up alone with only the other for company.
"Brother mine," Began Lesk as she spun around in her chair. "I have a bad feeling. Ruiz has shut down his coin transfer."
"I know." Said Kjell when he turned to look a his sister. "And the bad feeling is mutual. Ruiz hasn't just shut it down it's dead. Something is gone wrong."
"I'll call Donny." From her dark jeans came one of Valeska's many burner phones and she dialled quickly hoping beyond hope that her friend would answer; Kjell watched knowing it wouldn't happen. "Nothing." She called Dembe. "No Dembe either."
"Ruiz will have taken their phones at the door."
"Still, it was worth a shot." The dark-haired Dane responded quickly. "Ruiz wouldn't have shut down the coin transfer if something wasn't wrong, he was making too much money off it. Only knowing someone was in the system but make him do that which means he knows it has been breached. He knows, Kjell, he has to."
"Good that Red always has a plan B then. I'll contact Luli, she's got the EMP."
"Blackout time it is then."
XXXX
Red, Donny, Dembe and the two FBI agents continued down the mass of turns and halls, the place truly was a labyrinth. Every now and again they came across a dead body sprawled on the ground, some in a pool of blood while others had deep bruises on their necks. Suddenly one of the white walls dropped half way nearly crushing Liz – not that Donald would have been overly devastated by that – the lights died only to be replaced a moment later by an evil red glow of auxiliary power. The group ground to a halt.
"What the hell is happening now?" Growled Keen as she looked around for another direction they could take.
"Power failure?" Suggested Navabi from the back of the group by Dembe.
Red grinned. "That's Luli, I brought an EMP just in case. Kjell and Lesk must have noticed something was wrong."
"You brought an EMP just in case?" Lizzie didn't look pleased but Red just continued to grin at her.
"Of course, always have a back up plan, Lizzie. Shall we?"
Donny ducked under the half dropped wall only to be grabbed instantly, Dembe burst to the front of the group and followed the blonde ready to attack and kill. They all clambered through just as Donny kicked a man square in the chest and sent him to the floor, he was about to stab the attacker when Red shouted.
"Donny, stop!"
The blonde ground to a stop, eyes blinked rappidly as the adrenaline faded from his body only to realise that he'd been two seconds from killing Diego Cullen; or from the karambit Cullen had to his stomach they'd been about to kill each other.
"Oh, hey Red, Donny, Dembe." Cullen flashed them a smile. "What brings you down here on this fine day?"
"Well, Diego, this is what we commonly call a rescue." Said Red as he helped the younger man to his feet.
"Doesn't look like much of one."
"You do love to complain, don't you?" Grinned Donny before slapping the arms dealer on the back in greeting.
Diego shrugged. "It's a hobby." He held the karambit out to Dembe. "Here, Dembe. You're probably better with this than me, I prefer my hands." Without a word the dark-skinned man took the weapon, Diego had always been better with his fists than a blade or gun. He looked to Raymond. "Red, I'm guessing the power failure is your doing."
"But of course. Luli is outside somewhere, Kjell and Lesk are working the tech side of things and yours truly came to get you."
"This wasn't exactly what he had in mind but we found you so who cares?" Donny stretched, Diego had gotten a damn good punch in before he'd knocked him to the ground.
"Have you run into Kovrov or De Vos yet? Of course you haven't, you're all alive. De Vos is nuts, he was on my tail until the last path changes. We can't pull that one again by the looks of the power failure."
"Any good news for us, Cullen?" Asked Red.
"Sure." Grinned the arms dealer. "On a brighter note I found a map at the centre of this madhouse, I can get us to the exit."
"Are you sure you know where you're taking us?" Questioned Navabi, she'd been so quiet the last few minutes that they'd almost forgotten she was there.
"Mister Cullen has a photographic memory, he knows." Informed Dembe from her side.
Slowly they all followed Diego Cullen down the darkened halls, the labyrinth was larger than they could have imagined and their only boon seemed to be that the EMP had taken down the cameras meaning Ruiz had no idea where they were. After about five minutes of walking they turned to the left and found a young girl no more than twenty-five crying on the floor, knees up to her chest.
"Hey there," Started Keen. "are you alright?"
The girl jumped back further against the wall. "I just wanna go home!" She sobbed. "I want my brother back!"
It was then they all noticed the dead body opposite her, he was covered in blood.
"Okay." Lizzie tried to sound calm and relax the girl but it didn't really have much effect. "What's your name?"
"... Autumn."
"Alright, Autumn, my name is Elizabeth. This is Samar, Raymond, Donald and Dembe. I need you to come with us okay?"
"I can't leave my brother."
"We'll come back for him." Donald told her softly and Autumn thought it over for a few seconds before nodding. Navabi helped her up.
"You'll be alright now." Samar smiled softly.
Suddenly a gun fired and Autumn dropped down dead beside her brother, the other's had no choice but to dart around the corner which was the only available cover as the gun fired again.
"You don't have to do this." Yelled Navabi. "We can get you out of here."
"Yeah right!" Shouted their attacker, he didn't believe a single word she'd said. "The sick fuck on the speaker said killing one of you was the only way out! I'm leaving this place so one of you is going to have to die!"
They could hear the man slowly getting closer, they doubted he'd got much experience with a firearm. Knowing they couldn't wait any longer Dembe and Donny darted out from cover, the man fired but missed. Dembe landed a punch to the man's jaw and Donald took the opportunity to disarm him, the attacker launched at Donald knocking the Glock from his hand, none of them had expected this middle aged chubby man to move as fast as he did, it didn't matter though Red had already picked up the gun and fired killing the attacker quickly. No one hurt his sweet Donny.
"You didn't have to kill him, Reddington!" Growled Lizzie.
"If I hadn't he'd have killed one of us. He said so himself."
"At least we have a gun now." Reasoned Cullen.
"A bowie knife, a karambit and a Glock with a handful of rounds left-" Dembe cut Donald off.
"It's better than we had before."
"We need to keep moving." Stated Navabi. "Cullen, which way?"
Diego pointed to the right and they all followed down the corridors lit by horrible red light. They saw more and more bodies but thankfully no more living people ready to kill them all for their freedom.
After a time Red's feet started to ache and he found himself dreaming of laying in a big bed with a naked Donald draped over his warm body, their lips locked.
"Diego, tell me it's not much further."
"With the way the walls are now it's going to take a while, sorry Red. I-"
Cullen cut himself off abruptly when the sound of footsteps filled their ears. Only Kovrov or De Vos could have gotten that close without being heard and everyone went into instant fight mode.