On board the Valenzetti

"What's the plan?" Annie whispered as Elian crept toward the stairs leading to mid-deck. "Why are we taking a brick of explosives upstairs, not down?"

"You're getting in a lifeboat," Elian walked up a few steps to get a look around. "Then I'll go set it behind the engine room and we head for the Searcher. It's in range of this."

She handed down something that looked like a small, square TV remote. It had a rocker switch on the side, immobilized by a safety catch.

"Is this a detonator?" Annie asked it in the same tone she'd have used if Elian had handed her a dead bird. "I don't want…"

"You have to," Elian went all the way up the steps now, and Annie followed. "No sense leaving a remote detonator with the person who has the bomb. If I get caught, you can still set it off once you get there."

They were whispering, inching their way in the dark with their eyes out for the few officers and guards still on board. The rest were already on their way to the Searcher. Annie kept looking up at the control room.

"Do you think," she asked, "Sawyer might still have his cell phone?"

"Maybe," Elian said. "He's not precisely a prisoner, Dori's still paying him."

She did stop, then, looking equally amazed and horrified.

"You're not suggesting we get him out of there, are you? He sold you all out. He's the reason your friends are fighting for their lives," she snapped, "he's why you're headed for a lifeboat with a detonator in your damn pocket."

"I'm not doing it for him, I'm doing it for Hurley," Annie said quietly. "He'll be crushed if there's no chance to make things right with Sawyer."

"He'll get over it."

Annie stayed put, shook her head.

"Son of a bitch," Elian marched back toward the stairs and Annie was confused until she saw her pull open the glass over a panel with a fire alarm box and a long axe. She handed it to Annie.

"That ought to take care of the control room door. I'm out of here in six minutes."

Annie watched Elian go, texted Sawyer.

"coming in w. ax. We'll head fr lifeboats. Get nr door, not 2 close"

She started to wonder if he did have his phone, it took so long to see an answer.

"u dnt need me, day-glo. u said so. GTF out."

":30" she wrote, "b ready"

The response was so much faster this time.

"I wouldn't do it for you."

Annie exhaled a disgusted little sound.

"liar" she wrote. ":10"

She bolted up to the top deck, and before she could panic she wound up, swinging the axe over her head and bringing it down on the door handle. It cracked apart, the glass around it shattering, and the pain that shot up her right arm made her nearly scream.

Annie reeled back as the fractured door slowly swung opened. She saw Sawyer taking a swing at one of the guards, the other one headed her way.

Annie dropped the axe, pulled out her gun and gasped at how much it hurt to grip it and pull the trigger. But she did, three times, and a second later both guards were on the floor and Sawyer was running past her, pulling her along.

"Can't stop now," he looked back at her, grim but almost apologetic over the pace he was setting as they ran, "or we're done."

Annie nodded, kept going despite the fact that everything was getting pretty blurry and she suddenly felt sick.

They heard shouts, and a chase behind and below them as they got to the ladder and Sawyer started down first, motioning for her to follow.

"You can do this, hold the rungs with your left hand. If you fall in the water, I'll get you in the raft," He scrambled a few steps, waited to see she was moving and went on. By the time she let herself drop the last few feet in and fell against the side of the raft, he had already detached it from the ship and was hitting the motor.

"Wait!" Annie yelled. "Elian. She's planting the bomb, she'll be here any second."

"So will the goons chasing her," Sawyer said, not stopping, but Annie jumped up and fought to get between him and the engine.

"She has a gun," Annie yelled and Sawyer sat back, looking from her up to the ship. "We might need it, when we get to the Searcher, right? And she saved me."

"Hate to break it to you Annie: You're a long way from saved." Sawyer pushed her back to the other side of the boat and kept one hand on the motor, eyes on the ladder.

Then Elian was above them, almost running down, yelling for them to 'Go, go, go!" She jumped the last ten feet, landing on her backside in the raft as it took off. She caught her breath, pointed back toward the ship, and fired four fast shots at the last of the rafts as guards climbed down the ladder. Annie saw them stop, wait, go back up as it deflated with three loud pops.

They were racing over open, almost flat water now, the waves very black in the dark and the Searcher a pinpoint of light in the distance. The motor whined and a thin sea spray flew over the raft, landed on them every hundred yards or so as they skipped along.

Sawyer stared at Annie, refusing to break his gaze until she gave up, returned it. She saw his hard, unapologetic frown.

"Tell me what you've heard," he said. "Catch me up."

"I learned," Annie returned the glare, "that your colleagues want to turn the island into the world's best-hidden bio-terror weapons plant ever. They're out to make nightmares come true, maybe a billion dollars too, knock out a few governments. That's pretty much it."

Sawyer looked at Elian, who raised both her hands to say it had been news to her, too.

"That's why I'm on this raft," she shouted over the motor.

"What about on the island, what's happening there right now?" He asked.

"We don't know," Annie said. "And if they take the Searcher and we can't get it back, we may never know."

Sawyer looked out over the water again and gunned the motor.

The Island

Inside the Weather Vane

Kate sat on the lower bunk in the hatch for a while, drinking a glass of water, half listening to Richard and Ben speculate about why the DI had wired so many things to explode but hadn't destroyed them yet.

"I think I know where they're holding Hurley," she said out of nowhere and they dropped their conversation to stare at her. "The Tempest or the Arrow," she said and Ben tipped his head, like 'go on'.

"They both have a single, easily defended entrance. And they're big enough to hold us all, if they catch us all," she got up, picked up her rifle and headed for the stairs.

"Woah," Richard stepped in her way, "How about you let the recruits check it out?"

"They don't know the island as well as we do," she said, "They don't know those stations. And they may be on our side but they haven't been through what we've all been through: If something goes wrong and they don't handle it well Hurley could be in trouble. We should go get him."

Richard stared silently at her a second, shaking his head and then he looked at Ben who gave him an 'it's not a bad answer' look.

Ben picked up his own rifle and pack.

"I'll go, too, Kate. We can talk about a plan on the way."

The three of them went upstairs, saw Miles walking in a prisoner.

"One more for Guam," He handed him off to Richard with a shove, "And," he said it loud enough to count as a gloat, "his patrol partner is dead. Four down, twelve to go if you're keeping score."

Richard nodded, pointed his chin toward Ben and Kate.

"Why don't you go with them? Kate thinks she knows where they have Hurley."

They fell into silence after talking out their plan, went off the path soon after and wound their way through the trees. Ben was watching Kate's face as they went.

"You've been … very solemn since you got back, Kate," he said, finally. "What did you find out over there? Did your friends get away?"

"Some of them did," she said, "More of them would have, if you hadn't sent Richard to sink the Searcher. Well," she said, "If their Ben hadn't… if their Richard…. you know."

She looked up as she said the last few words, trying to mask what she knew was illogical anger, watching his reaction. Ben flinched so slightly most people might have missed it, but she saw it. Then he looked over at her, sympathetic but not remotely apologetic.

"I know how hard it's been to get used to our new alliance. That place and what's happening there, it must make everything so much more confusing for you."

"Wow. Understatement from Ben Linus," Kate gave him half of a half smile.

"Do you know which of them made it?" he thought to ask and she shook her head.

"John couldn't tell me."

This time Ben's reaction was easy to see as he nearly stopped in his tracks and Kate felt genuinely bad she'd said it so casually.

"You saw John? He stayed on the island?"

"Of course he stayed," Kate said. "He'll probably be running it someday."

"How was he?"

"Fine. He seemed ….content."

Now it was Ben going quiet, distant, and he kept any other thoughts he had about that to himself.

The three of them stopped a dozen yards away from the front door of the station, on a hill behind a couple of large trees. A lone guard was walking back and forth in front of it. Ben pulled a set of binoculars from his backpack.

"At least three sets of footprints," he said. "Maybe four. If Hurley's in there, looks like he has a guard or two with him."

"Stick with the plan?" Kate asked, and Ben nodded.

"Yes. They'll come out eventually, for air, some sunlight. When they do we pick the guards off at the same time, and we take Hurley home."

"Okay," Miles sat, and they joined him, ready and waiting. "But we'd better make it count when they show their faces. There are nine or ten people running around who'd like to lock us up with him."

On Board the Searcher

"'Well, when you're lost, said Alice,'" Max Tegmark turned the page. "'I suppose it's good advice to stay where you are until someone finds you. But who'd ever think to look for me here?'"

He stopped reading, glanced over at an only-slightly drowsy Charlie.

"Hopefully no one comes looking for us, kiddo," He heard three more pops over their heads, the crew of the Searcher firing out at something on the water. He had a pretty good idea what the something was.

Max had wanted to stay above-board and help, but Desmond wouldn't leave Penny and Penny wasn't leaving Desmond. So here he sat, a cosmologist with a gun on the stand to his right and a copy of Alice in Wonderland in his hands.

He had come downstairs for them the minute the flash of light over the water told them the DI was on the way. Upstairs the crew was booting up the ship's computers and systems, a process that only took five to ten minutes and would let them fully power up and turn the standoff into a chase. Everyone on the main deck kept looking up with the same question on their face: What's taking so long?

Then the bullets had started flying.

"One of their boats keeps weaving around the ship," Doctor Scharff told Penny as he reloaded his rifle. "They're pulling up, getting a sense of where we all are, then spinning back out and around us."

"Do you think they're looking for the best place to storm it?"

"Could be. Or they're trying to see where exactly we are. Best to keep moving."

"I'll go warn tell the guys," Penny slid slowly to the port side, motioned for him to move toward Desmond the near the front to deliver the same message.

He'd barely gotten the words out to Des when they heard two clanking sounds, one north of them, one south. They turned to see small canisters rolling around, spewing a thick, burning mist that tore at their lungs, and they scrambled for clear air only to watch six more canisters fly over the rail. Each one slammed into the walls and the floor of the ship, banging and clattering and spinning as the toxins poured out of them.

Desmond crawled around to the other side of the boat and saw the air there full of the same mist, heavy with it. A chain link fence had been thrown up over the rail, and DI guards were scrambling up it. He pulled himself up from the floor and took one of them out with a single shot, retreated around the corner only to see Doctor Scharff lying flat on his back, out cold.

Desmond could hear Heinrick and Mathias still firing, then the sound of Penny screaming. He fought for breath and his footing, but never made it back around the corner.

His face settled against the cool metal of the steel floor, and as he fought for air Desmond wondered if this was the nightmare they wouldn't actually wake up from.

Five minutes later Dori Goodspeed and the rest of the DI troops peeled off their gas masks, and took over the control room of the Searcher.

"Go tie them up where they fell," Dori said to two of the guards.

He saw two of his people headed for the downstairs quarters and he stopped them.

"Don't waste time: Their son's down there," he said, "Whoever is with him, they won't show their faces for awhile."

Then he looked at the men who were continuing the work of firing up the computer systems.

"Get us in there as quickly as you can. I need to grab anything we don't already know about the Lamp Post and the island. I want us gone and this boat sinking in under an hour."

"Are we taking them with us?" One of his men asked as the computer banks lit up, started humming.

"We'll take the baby," Dori said. "Not the rest. They stopped being part of the deal when they fought back."

Near the Searcher

Annie thought the raft ride felt like a macabre version of some bad decision at the carnival, when all you can wait for is the ride to end so you can stumble out. But finally they pulled up to within sight of the ship, Sawyer dropping the motor down to nothing. Elian started to object before she realized he was making sure they weren't heard on the way in.

They saw no sign of movement, just a silent deck and the control room towering above them. Then Sawyer took them in a wide circle outside the range of the lights, and as they turned a corner they saw the DI rafts, empty, tied up to the ship.

"Maybe we already won," Annie said. It sounded ridiculous to her ears but Sawyer didn't sneer as she expected. He just shook his head, looking up.

"If Des and Penny won they'd be on their way back to island. Dori said they're going to pillage the Searcher and then sink it. They might be almost done."

"What do we do now?" Annie asked and the barest hint of a sardonic smile lit Sawyer's eyes, twisted up one corner of his mouth.

"Thought you were in charge of the mission, BAMFie? You tell me."

"Sawyer, if you even….." she started to get up to get in his face, but she had leaned on her right arm and she fell back with a wince.

"You screwed up your shoulder," he said. "Guess you can add that to my tab."

She thought she caught the slightest sign of regret in his eyes, but it was dark out and she realized she was probably just seeing what she wanted to see.

"This is so far from the worst thing that you've caused…"

"Can we focus?" Elian snapped, looking between them like they were both a little crazy. "May I politely suggest that half the reason you people keep finding yourself in these situations is you start worrying a little too much about each other and then shit happens?"

"Okay, Mata Hari," Sawyer's eyes were on Elian but his hand reached for Annie's belt as he pulled her gun away from her. "You and I are going upstairs with the detonator. Annie's going downstairs and she's looking for a nice quiet corner to hide in."

He looked back at Annie.

"You don't come up until someone comes to get you."

"What if you fail?" She asked, "Or they catch me?"

"Well, they sure as hell won't sink the Searcher after we blow their ship up," he said. "And whoever wins, seems likely somebody's going to need a doctor. There's your 'hey, don't shoot me' card."

Elian secured the raft to the Searcher as Sawyer steered them the rest of the way to the ship.

"Here goes nothing," He started up the chain link steps, whispered back to Elian, "When you hear me start counting down from five, be ready to set it off."

Sawyer slid over the rail first, looked for signs of anyone guarding the mid-deck. He saw Desmond lying to his left, about twenty yards away and an unfamiliar face the same distance to his right. Everyone who was still moving looked to be upstairs. He helped Elian over first, then Annie.

They were at the stairwell in seconds, and Annie watched as Elian and Sawyer started up. Then she realized how fast it all might happen, and bolted felt downstairs into the pitch black living quarters.

Annie felt around until she found a door that opened. She slid into the supply closet next to Charlie's room, sat on the floor and stopped fighting off the inconvenient tears that started flowing. She didn't have time for them, but they were a long time coming and there was no stopping them now.

A flight and a half up, Sawyer and Elian were sitting low against the last few steps to the control room door. Sawyer was eyeing the windows, calculating which ones might blow out the lights in the room if he hit them right.

"Looks like it's gonna be about five of them, two of us," he said. "How do you like our odds?"

"I'm more worried about shooting the wrong people."

"Yeah," Sawyer said. "We could sit here thinking that one out forever. And who the hell knows when they're rolling back out that door?"

He looked at her and nodded at the detonator in her hand.

"Ready? Five…."

Elian flipped the safety to 'off'.

"Four, three," Sawyer picked the two windows he'd shoot for, aimed high.

"Two…. "

When the C4 went off, Annie couldn't believe how loud it sounded from so far away. The concussion flew over the water with nothing to stop it, and the first bang was as shocking as a fireworks grande finale you didn't know was about to happen. She never heard the sound of the control room windows shattering, had no way to see the small, yellow-orange fireball visible in the distance.

Then the sound slowly faded to a thin rumble and evaporated. She heard shouting above her, Charlie crying in the room to her left, and then, worst of all, silence.

Annie remembered Sawyer's words to wait until help came but second after second it didn't, and her panic grew. She tried to calm her breathing but all she could picture was the door flying open and getting shot to death in the corner of a storage room, so she stood shakily and felt around for something to defend herself with. Her hands recognized a toolbox, flipped it open and she pulled out a wrench and opened the door.

The rooms that had looked so dark on the way down were grey with moonlight and she took small steps toward the stairs. She heard nothing but the sloshing of waves on the boat at first, followed by the light, rhythmic banging- of someone running her way. She pulled her arm back, bolted toward the sound, and came an inch from slamming the wrench into Penny's head.

Penny was too winded even to scream, just spun around toward the wall with a choked, 'No!" and kept running toward Charlie's room.

Penny turned as she opened the door.

"Get up there," she said, "They need you."

Annie dropped the wrench and walked upstairs. The moon on the main deck was so bright now that she squinted, and when she did she could see a shadow that was Desmond struggling to his feet, pulling off the last of the nylon twine the DI had tied wrapped around his wrists and ankles. Penny had checked him, freed him before running to Charlie and now he got up and went to Doctor Sharff as she ran to Heinrick and helped him free too.

Heinrick was still disoriented, but after a couple of tries he understood her request for any and all medical supplies they had on board and he went downstairs to get them.

Annie ran over to the stairs, and ducked her head under one of Desmond's arms as he struggled up them slowly. She stood, helped prop him up with her good shoulder, heard him mumble 'slainte' as they slowly climbed.

The had to slow down to get around a dead DI guard, and the doctor in Annie was glad she'd gotten her tears and the shaking out of the way.

Then they were done climbing. Desmond pushed open the control room door, and they stepped inside.

The Arrow Station

It took Kate, Ben and Miles one hour, forty minutes and eight seconds to free Hurley. The forty minutes was the walk to the Arrow, the hour was spent sitting and waiting, and the eight seconds measured how long it took them to pick off the three DI guards when they stepped out for air.

Hurley looked like he wasn't sure whether to run left, right or back inside the Arrow for a second, then he saw one of the guards stretching, reaching for his rifle on the ground. Hurley kicked it away, picked it up as they ran down the hill to him.

Miles pulled plastic cuffs from his pockets, remnants from his own DI security days and he secured their prisoners while Kate and Ben went to Hurley.

"Thanks for coming, Ben," he said, just a small smile, nowhere near ready to celebrate yet.

"Thank Kate," Ben nodded to her. "She figured out where to look for you."

Hurley put one arm around her and they started marching the prisoners back to the Weather Vane.

"Anyone have a two way?" Hurley asked and took the one Ben handed him.

"Richard?" He called, and they heard the scratch and the beep as the message went through, heard a 'yep' from Richard. "We're on the way back. What's happening?"

"I just got a message from the Searcher," Richard said. "Thirty seconds ago. They're on the way at high speed."

Hurley let out a whoop and Kate smiled up at him.

"They all okay?" Hurley asked, and their hearts all fell at the silence that followed.

"No," Richard said. A little more silence, and then, "Probably better not shared on two-way."

"Okay," Hurley said. "We're on the way. Get in touch with Frank in Guam. Let him know his next guests have some injuries. Tell him to get a doctor in there if he hasn't already."

They all walked on in silence and Hurley looked down at Kate after a few seconds, smiling the saddest smile she'd ever seen on his face.

"It'll be okay," she said, "Whatever it is, it'll be okay, Hurley."

"Yeah," he said, "Eventually, I guess. It will be. Let's go with that until we hear otherwise."