Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
A/N: Look who's back again… I came down with a heavy flu Friday evening, tried to hang on, gave up on Monday. C'est la vie.
"Ames is in a building showing signs of destabilization after an earthquake?" Ilsa's voice rose in pitch towards the end of the question.
"Don't worry, by now she and the documents will be half way to the office, safe and sound." Seeing Ilsa button her blouse again, Guerrero decided Chance was definitely in for another sparring session.
Soon.
"If there's no need to worry, then why did Chance call in the first place?" Ilsa exited the kitchen area and Guerrero watched her retreating backside with regret.
"Payback for your introduction of the transparent information policy..." Guerrero followed her into the living-room.
"God, how old is he? Five?" Nevertheless Ilsa switched on the TV.
"BREAKING NEWS" said the words on the screen, and a split second later the regular program was interrupted by a report on a collapsed building in the FiDi.
Guerrero was already pulling horrified Ilsa out the door when his cell phone rang. The display showed Winston's number. "We know, dude", Guerrero told him. "We're on the way to the office." He cut the connection.
"The office? Not the FiDi?"
"What good could we do there?" He took Ilsa's hand and dragged her into the elevator.
... ... ...
Chance's instincts screamed at him to barge in and rescue her, NOW. But barge in where? The building was reduced to a giant heap of steel, concrete, glass, with parts of the staircase and the elevator shafts sticking out like skeleton fragments from a mauled body.
"This requires heavy equipment, Chance. Rescue Dogs. A team of specialists. Let the firemen do their job." Winston knew Chance well.
"I sent her in there." Chance's voice was croaking, outsiders might have thought from the building's dust cloud.
"We all did." Winston knew he had to be firm on this point. A Chance on a guilt trip was the last thing they needed.
"But I..."
"Save the remorse part for later, dude." Guerrero had apparently managed to log himself into their earpieces' channel. "You know the rules - rescuing first, indulging in useless feelings of guilt later."
Winston had to admit, he had never been happier hearing Guerrero's voice.
"Ilsa just hooked up with some professor from the earthquake monitoring station. Tons of data are coming in right now and the way it looks they fear this minor one was only a preliminary tremor to a much bigger one", Guerrero continued.
At this very moment sirens started wailing all over the city, warning the people that a big one - maybe the big one - was coming.
"You know the fire brigades' guidelines in these cases, dude..."
Yes, Chance knew them. Nevertheless he grabbed a fireman passing him by: "My girlfriend is in that building!"
Despite the situation everybody who was listening in raised an eyebrow at Chance's word choice. Was he only trying to put the fireman under more pressure or...?
"We're doing our best", the fireman replied, but the look on his face betrayed him. According to the SF Fire Department's book of guidelines, firemen were not to enter a destabilized building when a major earthquake was imminent.
Chance turned away and started walking along the barrier the fire department had erected. He didn't pay any attention to the fact that his brief exchange with the fireman had been caught on camera. Granted, he was covered in dust, but people who knew him well could recognize him. Such as a certain FBI agent, for example, who had just arrived at her SF hotel.
"Winston, no matter what you say..." Chance was ready to turn the earpiece off, should he object.
In the light of the latest developments, however, Winston had changed his mind. They needed to get Ames out of there now. Waiting for the authorities was not an option anymore. "Guerrero's already working on her location. Her earpiece is out, but he thinks he can calculate something with the help of satellite data. I contacted an old buddy of mine who is with the squad that's on the spot. Called in a favor. He'll leave his uniform with equipment for you around the corner."
Guerrero spoke up again. "The elevator shafts and the staircase share one supporting wall that was steel clad during construction in case of a fire. That's the part of the building that's still standing. If she was near that wall..." He let the sentence trail off. They all knew it was a big "if". "Still working on the exact location."
"Any news from Ilsa's professor?"
"Get her out of there, Chance." Ilsa's voice was shaking. "And don't die."
"Sending you Ames' approximate position now." Guerrero's voice again. Chance's cell phone gave a bleep.
"The best point of entry should be the parking lot underneath the building. It is still intact… If you climb up one of the elevator shafts..." Guerrero didn't need to point out that the garage was still intact for now and if the major earthquake came, or even another minor one, this would be the end of Chance. "Watch out, bro..."
"We'll meet down in the garage then." Winston's voice. "At the shaft."
"Winston...", Chance croaked.
"See you in ten, Chance."
... ... ...
Inside the giant heap of debris that had once been a proud forty floors skyscraper in San Francisco's Financial District, another wall gave in and set free a small avalanche of building parts, furniture, paper, glass and steel shreds. Small stones rained down on a lifeless body in a small cavern right by the elevator shaft, roughly where once the 9th floor had been.
It didn't move at all.