April 1, 1981
"All this manuvering is making it worse!" Park groaned in pain.
"I know it hurts but we're having to take a detour." His heart was racing and he could feel his legs begining to tire from carrying her.
"We need to go underground. Theres an exit right in front of the hotel." Park pointed to a metal plate on the ground just a few feet ahead.
"Alright then." He set her down and moved the plate out of the way. He helped her down quickly before grabbing the bag and sliding the lid back over.
"They have multiple cops looking for us now." She said, hearing the sirens passing by.
"They saw my face, and not much of it. But they never saw yours."
"No, but it wouldn't be a terrible idea if I went back to my actual hair color."
"Natural? This isn't your natural?" He seemed almost stunned.
"No." She let out a small laugh.
"We'll take care of that later, come on let's get moving. Hopefully we bought ourselves some time." He carried her again, this time without having the sprint.
"This should be it." She said after many lefts and rights.
"Let's hope so." He said setting her against the wall of the sewer. He climbed the ladder and pulled away the large metal plate. "Finally." He said with releif. He carried her up and shut the plate behind them.
Obviously walking through the door covered in blood probably wasn't the best idea so he snuck them in through the fire escape ladders on the side of the hotel. Benedikt knocked on Portnova's hotel window.
"What in the hell happened to you two?" She asked, opening the window and helping them in.
"We forgot the money." He tossed her the bag of weapons.
"Well at least you still got them." She said looking through the bag and setting it aside on the desk.
"Go get Beck, grab me some towels and a bottle of alcohol while your at it." He took off his coat and laid it on the ground.
"Just stop the bleeding you don't have to remove the bullet." She winced as she sat down, her injured leg lying on his coat.
"If we don't remove it you can't operate in the field." Portnova and Beck came rushing back into the room, she handed him a towel. "We need you." Benedikt said. He let Beck apply pressure while he grabbed the bottle of vodka. "Hey, I need you." He said soflty, placing a hand to her face with a warm smile.
"Just.. let's get this over with please dear." She said.
"This isn't going to tickle." Beck said.
Benedikt popped open the cap and took a small sip from the bottle before pouring the alcohol into the wound. He frowned at the sight of the bullet wound, it was a deep one. A loud scream filled the room.
"Here remove it." He handed Portnova his combat knife.
"Hey, hey your doing great. I know it hurts but just focus. Focus." He crouched in front of her, distracting her as best he could from the feeling of a knife moving around in the back of her calf.
"When this is all over why don't we go watch one of those "soccer" games." He smiled.
"Football, and that sounds lovely." Her voice broke, letting out another painful scream.
"How's it looking Portnova?" He asked, sounding like he was in a rush.
"Almost got it, its a difficult one."she said, manuvering the blade in her hand while Beck took care of the blood.
"I know this is a lot to ask in the moment but try not to scream so loud, I'm suprised people arn't banging on our door as we speak.
"My apologies Commander, I should have tried and pressed the mute button on my nerve receptors so I wouldn't have to feel a knife digging around in my leg!" She shot back.
"Got it!" Portnova had to literally rip the bullet out as Park screamed.
"Great job Comrades. Stitch it up and we'll be done here." Benedikt remained crouched.
"You did great." He smiled.
Stitching up the wound was no problem. They had just finished cleaning up when there was a knock at the door.
"We can't be here!" Benedikt whispered to Beck and Portnova.
"What do you mean?" Beck asked.
"The police, they saw my face when we were running away. I don't think they saw hers but we can't afford to gamble that chance."
"Go, stand agianst the wall outside the window, we'll make sure nobody looks outside." Portnova whispered sliding the window open and shutting it.
"Your going to have to stand for this one, I can't carry you." He said helping her balance against the brick wall. The tips of his shoes hung off the ledge. If only they could have just stood on the fire escape platform.
"My leg, it's about to give out. I can feel it." She said quietly.
"Hang in there just a bit longer." He could hear Portnova and Beck talking with someone.
"No need to go near the window." Beck said loud enough for them to hear.
"Quiet quiet!" He said softly. He could see someone looking through the window, luckily they didn't stick their head outside. He watched the figure walk away from the window.
"Ben!" Park said said quietly. Her leg gave out, she slipped.
"Park!" He grabbed her hand. He stumbled forwards. He grabbed onto the ledge with both hands. He looked down to see her holding onto his ankle with both hands.
"After this, we're never coming back to Washington." Benedikt said to her from above.
"Agreed."
He could feel his grip slipping. He was holding on tight enough that his knuckles turned white. "Beck! Portnova!" He shouted. He was barely hanging on now. The window slid open. Beck grabbed his hands just in time. "Hold it there Beck." He said. "Park, climb up, be quick!" He said looking over his shoulder and down. He felt her boot dig into his shoulder. Portnova helped her back inside while Beck helped him.
"Who was it, the authorities?" Benedikt asked, once they were all back inside.
"No, just the lady at the front desk is all. She said someone complained about loud screams. I just told her we were watching a scary movie is all." Portnova explained.
They all went back to their rooms. He helped Park back to hers.
"I'm sorry I didn't explain eveything earlier, before we left I mean." He sat beside her bed. "Just talking about it makes my hands sweat. My biggest concern is what he might say when I face Adler again. What if he tries to ... "reprogram me"? He couldn't find the right word.
"Tries to activate the brainwashing process?" She said.
"Yes. I don't know what will happen. What I will see, what I'll feel. It terrifies me." His glance was focused on the wall across the room. "I don't want to accidently kill you." He looked at her.
"You can't. Literally. When we took you in Adler wanted to make sure there were protocols and phrases put in place in the event you ever did try to murder one of us. I was the one, along with the other scientists who really understood the research and effects it had on you. Adler wanted you to be incapable of killing him. That was why he had another phrase prepared just in case. We never fully knew if it was successful or not, I don't beleive he ever did say it. But even if he had it wouldn't had worked. While we took care of the science portion of the work we also were responsible for interpreting it to him. I'm not sure why but I'm glad I did, I made it to where the phrase doesn't work for him. It works for me."
"It works?" He asked, curious.
"It did, or theoretically it should have but I never needed it so I have no idea. You have nothing to worry about the worst you may experience is a few sharp pains and some sounds. Don't let it spook you. You haven't been consistent with your dosages in a month or so."
"A month, that still wasn't all that long ago." He looked at her, panicked.
"I can't tell you exactly what will happen. Theres still so much about you we never bothered to study, we didn't have time. You will be fine tomorrow." She held his hand a gave a warm smile.
He sighed. "I know." He returned the smile before standing up and kissing the top of her head. "Rest easy, we have a big day tomorrow." He shut turned the lamp off and shut the door behind him.
He laid in his own bed, his mind feeling as if it moved a million miles an hour. This time tomorrow they were about to sneak into one of America's most iconic buildings and murder the president. This was borderline insane but he loved it.
AN: I am putting the file 1 stories on hold for now. They have been fun to write but not getting much feedback so for right now my main focus is writing the file 2 chapters and chapters for Before the Bell. Thanks for the support on these stories!