Surprise

Continuing his observation of Neal, Peter noticed more points of inconsistency. For one, Neal seemed to be muttering to the Marshals low enough he couldn't hear what was being said. What was so secret he couldn't know about it? Then another was how the Marshals didn't seem to be monitoring Neal for an attempt at escape, but rather, they seemed to be more alert for an outside threat of an attack.

That made him think; did Neal trust these strangers to watch his back more than he trusted him? Peter didn't like the thought. Neal had been his friend and partner, so they had been through several rough situations where Peter had always done his best to keep the younger man safe. Then he realized he hadn't been doing a very good job of protection in recent times. After all, Agent Smith was under his command and appeared to have been involved in several attempts on Neal's life. Had he failed so badly that he was untrustworthy?

Feeling his gut kicking again, Peter suddenly realized he might be on the right track. Neal was keeping secrets from him because he had failed in some aspects to protect the kid. Still, that wasn't quite right either, he had been doing his best with the information Neal had shared, so it wasn't his fault.

Then he was irritated and kind of angry again. Why did Neal always put him through these emotional ringers? The kid withheld information from him until it blew up in their faces, then Neal would want his help to fix it, and if anything went wrong, then he would feel guilty for failing.

Shoving his remorse and guilt aside, Peter tried to hide behind his anger again. Neal would have to face the consequences of his own actions.

Sighing, Peter knew it wasn't going to work. He was the FBI agent and handler. It was his job to figure out Neal's secrets and to keep at least one step ahead of the young criminal, which was something else he wasn't doing recently.

Interrupting the silent puzzling, there was the sound of approaching footsteps. Neal went back to playing up his role as an annoying con, the Marshals were pretending to ignore him again, and Peter realized they were putting on an act, that an attack had been expected the whole time!

Before he could react, several men dressed in black rounded the corner from the back part of the building. Each one had their identities obscured by masks and were heavily armed. They were essentially a kill squad sent to ensure Neal's death, and everyone else was in danger because of it.

Taking two quick shots, they took the Marshall's out before aiming their guns at Neal.

Raising his hands and moving up and away from the bodies, Neal tried to placate them. "Why are you trying to kill me? Do I at least get to know why?" He played innocent and ignorant to come off as non-threatening.

Peter could hear the smirk in the leader's voice. "You come from the wrong family. James turned on the organization and threatened the bosses, so we can't risk that you might have learned anything. We are finishing up the loose ends."

"What organization or bosses? I was always told he died in a hail of gunfire as a hero." Neal kept up his role.

"That's too bad for you then. He was actually a crooked and murderous cop who killed his superior to keep his involvement with us a secret. The boss is looking for a higher position than Senator, so we need to make sure nothing about his past is going to be coming out. Although you might not know anything, we aren't going to take any chances," they moved forwards threateningly.

Neal had managed to shift away from one side of the group and was looking for an exit. Tripping over one of the Marshals sprawled on the floor; he pulled a neat flip to land back on his feet on the other side of the fallen man. "Really? Why should I believe your story instead of what my mother and aunt always told me?" He pushed for more information.

"Because, we are going to kill you, and don't have to worry about your reaction. Did you know your aunt wasn't actually your aunt? She was actually your father's partner and the officer who investigated most of our organization. We finished her off with your mother. They begged for their lives before we fed them lead." The leader switched to taunting. He wasn't worried about his confession, there weren't supposed to be any witnesses when he was finished.

"F…fed them lead?" Neal stuttered in horror.

Laughing amongst themselves, the killers were enjoying the prospect of emotionally torturing their victim before finishing him off. "Shot them up, just like we did your father. Do you have any idea what firepower like this can do when you let it loose?"

"I don't think it's something you can forget." Neal scared Peter by alluding to having had previous experience in such shoot outs. "Remember, you have taken shots at me before."

"Your survival is something we intend to rectify, right here, and right now." They moved to begin pulling the triggers, but Neal reacted first.

"You succeeded, I'm not Neal." Then he dropped the chains showing he had freed himself.

"What the…?" The group wasn't sure what to do.

Taking advantage of their momentary surprise, not Neal started throwing punches. Hitting the leader hard and fast, he took him down, which made the rest of the team more vulnerable. Without their leader, the rest of the group went after him, each in an effort to take the threat down and complete their objective.

With mixed martial arts and dancer smooth evasive techniques, not Neal flipped over some swing kicks from two different directions before dropping to spin under a second attack of swing kicks. Coming back up with an aggressive counter-attack of his own, the man threw a couple of punches in one direction before kicking out at an opponent in the other direction.

When Peter moved to be of any assistance, the man ordered him. "Stay put, Peter, you aren't trained for this, but I am." He growled in a warning for his own protection.

Determined not to sit by and watch; Peter moved to help anyway.

Fighting his way through, the man was right in front of Peter before he could reach their attackers. "I told you, sit this one out." He pushed Peter back into the seat. "You're going home to Elizabeth." Then he spun back into the fight.

Realizing that not Neal was serious, Peter still didn't want to sit by and watch the kid get hurt. It had been bad enough last time when he had stood by and watched as he danced around bullets. This was several killers trying to finish the man off between heavy firepower and combat. How could he ever sit by and forgive himself?

Suddenly understanding, he knew who was fighting the men before him, but he still didn't know why. "Bryce… I can't sit back and do nothing."

"Obviously you figured out who I really am. There is a lot more going on here than you know, but that is a big step in the right direction." Pausing to deal out a few more pains for his attackers, Bryce resumed the conversation as he still needed to talk Peter out of joining the fight. "They aren't going to focus on attacking you while I'm keeping them busy, and you aren't going to leave even if I told you to. So, keeping you safe… while you act as a safeguard to protect the others… is the best that I can compromise with. I won't risk your safety… and later you can ask Chuck what lengths I'm willing to take in an effort to protect my friends."

Growing angry, Peter was also at a complete loss. Neal was dead, and Bryce was impersonating him in an effort to get his killers. There were still a lot of questions, but at least he knew their friendship had been real. It still didn't help the feeling of helplessness he was experiencing though.

Seeing his argument wasn't enough to keep Peter at a safe distance, Bryce upped the aggressiveness of his fighting to keep the attackers distracted by the more dangerous threat. In an effort to keep the outliers busy, he began chucking the magazines from the weapons he had managed to take at their heads or faces as hard as he could. Moving quickly, he was decimating their forces even faster.

Finally reaching the last two, he didn't hold back as he took them down. "You aren't trained for black ops combat. As much as you don't want to stand by and watch me get hurt, do you think I want to face your wife to say I let you get shot in the back by a rogue agent?" Bryce growled at Peter. "My entire career has been spent dealing with traitors and kill squads with the occasional super solider. This isn't anything compared to some of my history, but have you ever taken on such a combat situation before, Peter?"

Horrified again, Peter was at a loss for words. The allusions towards operations and agent activity meant Bryce was black ops and government-sanctioned. That didn't mean he liked being protected by his consultant, but he did have a point. "No… no, I haven't ever dealt with anything like this before." He wasn't in shock, not from the attack. It was the reveals he was still trying to catch up on.

Breathing out through his nose, Bryce seemed to let some of his frustrations go. Peter was dealing with a lot of new information and his protective side didn't deal with being idle very well. "Sit. I'll check over the Marshals and my teams should be moving in shortly." Then he put his hand up and touched his finger to something in his ear, "Copy that Casey."

The second attack struck quickly. One man approached from one direction by coming around the corner and putting two rounds into Bryce's back. Coordinating with the shots, another came from out of a side storage closet and put a round to the kid's heart and sent him spinning towards the floor.

Wincing at the cracking sound that was made when Bryce's head connected with the ground, Peter felt his stomach drop at the sight of the kid sprawled out on the floor. It was bad enough to keep his focus distracted from the two gunmen approaching him.

"Hello, boss," the first shooter who had fired two rounds into Bryce's back seemed to smirk. "Did you miss me?"

"Smith," Peter decked the man hard enough he spun on his way to the floor. He let his anger loose for not realizing Bryce was undercover, at not seeing the second attack coming, and most of all, for letting this man take Bryce's life. It didn't help much, but there was a slight relief from venting some of his furies at the responsible party in front of him.

Swinging up his weapon, the second gunman had his finger closing on the trigger. Peter wasn't watching though, his focus was on Bryce.

Transfixed with their eyes on the blind corner, the group didn't know what to expect. Obviously, there was something wrong, and the others were probably involved, but the extent of the danger was unknown.

Stepping up to a position of command, Chuck waived for them all to pay attention to him. "I'm agent Larkin's counterpart and this is my partner Agent Walker." As the group at least shifted to give him some attention, he continued. "We knew the likelihood of attack and have several teams stationed throughout the building, a sniper in the gallery above to provide backup, and Bryce is one of the best-trained combatants I know. The situation is going to be okay, I just need you to remain calm and stay in your seats."

Waiving as another team moved around the corner, he signaled for them to stand guard to protect the group and ensure that none of them moved off into danger.

"Sarah and I are going to provide back up. These agents are going to keep you safe, just do as they say." He looked at them for a moment to gauge if they were going to listen to his instructions.

Observing their reactions, he wasn't entirely surprised. The Larkin family were mostly curled up to the side as they worried about how much danger they might be in, or how foolish Bryce was to get himself mixed up into such situations. The group from New York was staring off towards the distant corner, presumably in concern for their friends and loved ones who were in the center of the danger. Finally, Jonathon looked at him in relief. He seemed relieved that someone knew what was going on with Bryce and were able to provide full support. Chuck was glad he didn't have to tell him he had only been briefed because he was called as a witness.

Pausing to press his finger to the device in his ear, his eyes opened wide in worry, "Not again." He stood straighter and tried to keep the full extent of his emotions off of his face, which wasn't a small feat for such an open book.

"Sarah, we need to go, now! There is a second attack in progress and Bryce is in trouble… again." He took her hand and led them at a run down the hallway. In the distance, he could hear a squealing alarm going off from Jonathon's phone.

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