Title: Marshall Flinkman 007
Author: Midnight
Feedback / E-Mail: Reviews are welcome. Feel free to e-mail me at: varzideh@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All Alias characters and related material does not belong to me, but to J.J Abrams.
Classification / Genre: Action/Adventure/Romance
Summary: Marshall's never considered himself to be the 'secret agent' type, even if he did work for SD-6. Things change however as a sudden trip to London shows everyone, including himself that he has more promise than even the deadliest of agents. Will he give up his life as an 'Op Tech guy' to become a field agent? Or will he remain as he always was? Double-agents, assassinations, elegant parties, beautiful women, The Truth, and more, are all that await him.
Rating: PG.for now
Author's Note: Since both Marshall and Leila are on a mission together, you'll see a lot of Leila's perspective of things in this chapter. Also, in regards to the French spoken, I've put the English translation of it at the end. Enjoy!
Chapter 5: The Mission
Luckily for Marshall, no flying was involved with going to Paris, as they were taking the Chunnel which would have them entering France within three hours.
Train tickets were untraceable and therefore it wasn't such a bad trip as Marshall sat beside Leila (who spent the entire time reading Le Monde).
In all of the time that they had known each other, Marshall doubted that she had even said more than twenty words to him. He wondered if it was something about him, or just the fact she didn't really like anyone.
***
Most of the day passed by in a blur as they took separate cars to the hotel and checked in to their rooms. Their cover for the time being was that of them attending a business convention. Details didn't really seem necessary for the moment.
The only communication Marshall and Leila had was when she had knocked on his door and told him that they needed to survey the hotel and all the exits just in case something should arise. That only took about forty-five minutes and after that they parted and went back to their respective rooms.
The CIA was tracking the KGB activity around the cathedral, so if any registered KGB members were seen nearing it, both she and Marshall would be notified. They were only ten minutes away from the cathedral by car.
There was only so much Marshall could do however, to keep himself occupied for the day. French TV didn't really interest him, and he didn't want to risk going down stairs to look around, as he wasn't sure what precautions they were taking.
After two hours of boredom, Marshall gathered enough courage for what he was about to do. . .
***
Hearing a knock at her door, Leila opened it to find a nervous looking Marshall standing in the hallway.
She wasn't able to ask him what he wanted, when he started talking rather fast.
"Oh! H-Hey there. . .I-I. . .well considering the fact that it's time to eat. . .you do eat don't you? Of you-silly question. I-I'm hungry so I'm going down stairs to the restaurant; I just. . .will you come eat with me? If you've ordered room service of something I understand. I-I'm going now, so it you want we could just-well bye" Marshall quickly turned around and started walking away, not even waiting for an answer. Unfortunately for him, he didn't realize that Leila was biting back a smile, before quickly yelling for him to wait.
"Hang on their Marshall. I'll come with you" she said as she went back inside her room to grab her purse.
As she caught up to Marshall, she quickly passed him in the hallway, only to realize that he hadn't budged.
"Uh Marshall? For us to go to dinner, you actually need to move" she said in a rather humorous tone.
Grabbing his arm she slowly led him to the elevator, as little by little Marshall came to his senses. The serene elevator music seemed to have snapped him back to reality as he quickly noted that he was no longer standing in the hallway, but rather in an elevator with a slightly worried Leila.
"You s-said okay."
If Marshall thought things couldn't get any weirder. . .he was wrong. Leila actually began to laugh.
"Oh course I said okay" she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. " It's just dinner, not to mention the fact that I'm really hungry" she said as they arrived at the hotel lobby.
Marshall's initial shock being over, he was able to converse (to the best of his ability at least) with his new partner. She wasn't really all that bad, once you got past the whole cold hostility thing she had going on. To his surprise though, she found his stories rather funny, and had smiled or laughed at all his jokes.
He knew that he was talking on and on (totally forgetting about the Filet Mignon that was in front of him), but he didn't care. She actually seemed to be listening to him. . .and she didn't seem bored in the least. Unfortunately for him though, whenever he asked her a question about herself, she merely gave a one-sentence answer and would quickly change the topic. He took it as a sign not to ask her about anything she didn't openly tell him herself. . .but that wasn't much, as she hadn't even told him her name. . .he had had to learn it from McNeilly.
After about an hour of sitting in the restaurant, Marshall realized that it was getting late, and he had no idea when they would be notified of KGB activity.
"Well I'm stuffed. . .and that's saying a lot let me tell you" Marshall said as he took a sip of his water. "I-I mean if you had been at the last Flinkman family picnic, you probably would have been full just watching m-" he cut himself as he realized he had totally digressed from what he had wanted to say. "I-I'm just gonna head off to-back to my room" he finished saying.
"Good" Leila said as she got up from her table, making sure that she had left enough Francs. "I'll come with you then."
"W-What?" Marshall exclaimed with shock "to M-MY room?"
Apparently he was missing something as she shot him a look. "Yes Marshall, to YOUR room. If you recall, we haven't gone over any of the 'gadgets' I guess you would call them. Since they're in your room, and I need you to clarify what everything is, I assumed that the logical thing to do would be to go with you to your room. If that's not a problem?" she asked bemusedly.
"Oh. . .no, that's fine. I mean hehe. . .of course. Go over the equipment. . ." he muttered the last bit to himself as they both heading back to his room.
Various objects were sprawled out on the dresser in the small room. Little objects from small shirt buttons to larger ones such as a powder compact seemed to be laden everywhere. Careful not to touch anything, Leila followed Marshall to a small black leather bag that had been under the bed.
Opening the bag, Marshall put his hand in, and (what could only be described as painfully slowly) brought it out again to reveal what looked to be three light blue marbles.
"They're marbles" Leila stated, looking at them warily.
"Oh no. . .these babies aren't marbles. They're coating is actually rubber and I'd bounce them to show you b-but of course that's a big no-no" he said putting them into an ashtray on the bedside table.
"Anyways, as I was saying, their structure is held by an thin layer of rubber, actually based on the resin found in chewing gum which is of course, pretty neat considering the fact you wouldn't imagine a piece of grape Bubble Yum to be made from w-what this is made of. But those gum guys always come up with the greatest stuff to chew o-"
"Marshall" Leila interrupted condescendingly, reminding him very much of Sloane.
"Right, sorry, anyways, inside each of these balls there's about two doses of Halothane, which is what they use usually in general anesthesia. It's not enough to knock someone out for several hours, but each should last up to about fifteen minutes. Now, I know what you're thinking. . .how is the gas inside going to g-get outside and make everyone go. . ." Marshall closed his eyes and snored for effect. "Well, each time the ball is bounced the pressure inside the ball increases. It should take three bounces for the rubber to split and release the compound. And the beauty of it is that as the compound is release the chemical coating on the inside of the rubber reacts with the air, causing it to dissolve. So whoever gets a dose of this, can look and look, and they won't find anything. They'll pretty much think that they've fallen asleep. Of course that depends on where you use it. So. . .what do ya think? Pretty sleek if I do say so myself."
"Impressive. . ." she said, eying the rubber objects once again. "Now, what else do you got for me?"
They went through a couple of other things including a laser digital watch, grenade cufflinks, as they weren't really sure what they were going to come up against when the time came. Yet considering the amount of 'gadgets' that Marshall did in fact have, it didn't seem as if there would be any difficulties. However, for Leila, nothing matched a good firearm.
As Leila went back to her room, Marshall let out a breath that he hadn't even known he'd been holding. He seemed way too eager to impress Leila with his work, which wasn't really good for his nerves. With a deep sigh, he got ready to go to sleep, hoping that everything would go well, and that nothing bad would happen. 'Just grab it and run, just grab it and run' he chanted to himself as he drifted off.
***
The next morning 9:30 am
It seemed all too soon that Marshall heard the loud ring of the phone. Slightly disoriented, he made no real effort to grab it, until realizing as he looked around, where he was and why he was there.
Picking up the phone, he heard Leila at the other end, sounding hurried and under pressure. Apparently KGB was taking action, and both Marshall and Leila had to be there to make sure that no one but themselves ended up with the scroll.
Within fifteen minutes Marshall was dressed impeccably in a crisp business suit (one of the Armani's which he had never worn) and a pair of wire rimmed glasses. Gelling back his hair, he looked in the mirror shocked at the serious looking guy he saw before him. Smiling didn't seem to look good with the suit, so he settled for a small grin as he made his way to the lobby to wait for Leila.
It didn't take long for her to follow in black business suit with a black turtle-neck, and a leather briefcase in her hand. She also had on a pair of glasses, but Marshall thought she looked much better in them that he did, despite the fact that she looked serious enough as it was without them.
A black Bentley with French government plates was already waiting outside for them as they exited the hotel. Getting in, Leila adjusted her com set which was carefully hidden behind her ear.
Marshall in the meantime tried hard not to look nervous as they got nearer to the cathedral.
"Alright, we're good to go. There are two CIA vans rotating around the cathedral, so hopefully if there's any trouble we'll have back up ready and waiting. You okay?" she asked Marshall as he seemed to be focusing on breathing.
"Oh yeah. . .just fine" he said, trying to laugh, but being unsuccessful.
"Don't worry. . .this is a simple grab and go. We'll just knock them out, grab the scroll and walk out. It's as simple as that" she summarized for him.
There wasn't much else she could say as they approached the cathedral, although to both their surprise, it was much larger than they thought it would be. Which meant that unless the KGB operatives knew exactly where it was, they could probably spend a week in there and still come up empty.
"Okay. . .here we go. Just look like you're better than everyone else. Don't talk to anybody, even if you bump into someone or something" she said to Marshall as the driver came out and opened the door for them.
Walking slowly up to the cathedral, they passed the hundreds of people that appeared to be waiting in line to get in. That was a good sign for them as it would keep them inconspicuous if they needed to be.
"Enter through the back door, there's a security guard waiting there" a voice said suddenly near Marshall.
It took him a minute to realize that he had put his com set on, but so far this was the first time anyone on the other end had spoken to him.
Leila seemed to have gotten the message as well, as they headed around the cathedral to the massive doors where a large and gruff looking security guard dressed all in black stood watch.
He watched them come towards him, looking them over as they approached.
"Madmoiselle Bertrand et Monsieur Artigne" Leila said with a surprisingly good French accent and motioning towards her and Marshall. "Nous sommes avec le Commissionne du Point de Repère Historique. Je crois que nos compagnons est déjà dans la cathedral" and with that she flashed her identification.
The security guard looked Marshall over, and so, with an annoyed sigh (which he thought sounded rather convincing) Marshall took out his identification and showed it to the guard.
"D'accord."
The guard moved aside and allowed them to pass. Unfortunately, the time they spent convincing the guard to let them in, was time they could have spent catching up to their targets.
They quickly entered the cathedral, not expecting to see a low cut ceiling and what looked to be a secretary's desk. Apparently the back had been made into a sort of office area, which served as the staff's work center.
A voice from behind made them turn, as they had been looking for any possible indications of where their targets had gone.
"Vous êtes un peu en retarde" a petit elder woman said to them as she approached. "Le directeur a pris vos compagnons sur un tour. Je crois qu'ils sont dans le soubassement. Il y a une galerie privé là-bas. Si vous prenez l'escalier là" she pointed to across the corridor "vous leur verrez."
Leila barely waited for the lady to finish her sentence before she quickly hurried towards the staircase that the lady had pointed to.
As Marshall quickly caught up, he whispered next to her. "What did she say?"
"She said that they went down the staircase. There's a private gallery downstairs. I'm guessing that's where the scroll is kept."
Making their way down the stairs, she slowed her pace so that her footsteps could barely be heard.
Both their com sets seemed to pick up static as they descended, and pretty soon reception was lost. Hopefully lack of communications wouldn't be a problem.
The staircase finally ending, Marshall and Leila found themselves looking down a large, yet damp, torch-lit corridor, which was very gothic like in appearance.
Walking slowly down the corridor, it didn't take long before a figure became visible at the far end.
Sitting upright on the stone wall was a man dressed in a sharp suit. . .with several bullet holes in his chest.
"They're armed" Leila said with a sigh as she checked the man's pulse. Not noticing Marshall's look of horror, she took out a pistol from a hidden holster under her blazer . . .just in case.
Motioning for Marshall to keep quiet, they both crept along the rest of the pathway, which made a sharp left turn and ended with a large dome shaped, wooden door. It was slightly ajar.
Putting her ear to the door, Leila could barely make out the voices that seemed to echo throughout the room.
Taking out a small compact from her pocket, she opened it to reveal a small vial of a colorless liquid, which seemed to be attached to a thin spray valve. Spraying the hinges of the door, she opened it slowly, happy to see that the oil had worked in preventing the door from creaking.
Allowing Marshall to peer inside, he quickly noted that there were more stairs that had been formed out of the cave wall, which led downwards in a spiral to where countless glass cases were propped up on podiums.
He couldn't make out the people faces, but he was happy at least to see that there were only two of them as they had suspected. They seemed to be looking at various glass cases, before setting down what looked to be a small black bag.
He could hear the sound of glass being cut, and knew immediately that they had found what they all had been looking for.
"There's two of them, and I think they've figured out which one is the scroll!" he whispered urgently.
Hurrying, Leila put down her gun, and suitcase. Opening it, she found what she was looking for. Taking out a glass jar, she opened it and took out a small light blue rubber ball.
"You might need more than one. . .the rooms really big" Marshall said as he realized what she was going to do.
Reaching in and taking out three more, she inched towards the door and threw them in one by one.
Marshall watched his tiny creations bounce down the stairs before suddenly stopping. They were working. . .to his delight.
Hearing the sound of two faint thumps, both of them opened the door all the way and slowly descended down the stairs. The two of them had pistols in their hands (which Leila had handed to him. . .despite his reluctance) just in case the compound hadn't knocked them out.
But it seemed to have worked. As they got nearer they noticed that two figures seemed hunched over one another, neither of them moving.
Tip-toeing cautiously towards the glass case (which now had a large circular hole in the middle) Leila slowly reached in and grabbed the scroll.
The fear of an alarm being triggered didn't come to pass as Leila brought her arm back out.
"I need the copy Marshall" she whispered softly to him as she handed him the scroll.
Marshall in turn, immediately took out of his jacket, a small scroll, not identical to the original. . .but close enough.
As Leila put the copy back in the glass case, Marshall opened the original and read through it. Thank heavens for his photographic memory.
As they turned to leave, Leila edged down and slowly picked up the pistol that lay beside the man. Something about him. . .something about both of them struck her as odd. . .even those they both seemed to be face down on the ground.
"What are you doing?!" Marshall exclaimed quietly as Leila slowly pushed both the KGB members over on one side.
"Oh shit" Leila said softly, something that Marshall never really expected her to say.
As Marshall bent down, he too seemed very surprised.
Ana Espinosa and Mr. Sark lay right in front of them, very much unconscious.
Turning around and basically running up the stairs, Marshall followed. . .not really understanding what the big deal was. . .despite the fact that they knew who the operatives were.
"This is bad. . .well it's good too" she started as they made their way back down the corridor. "I've only known of the two of them working on one other case together, (considering the fact that their respective agencies are against each other) and it was for something very important. Hell, I don't even know what it was. If they came for the scroll, it must be more important than we thought it was."
That was all she said as they started climbing back up the stairs. Of course, Leila made several glances back as a precaution.
"God I wish I could kill them" she muttered as they almost reached the main floor. Her murderous thoughts however were interrupted as a loud voice rang in both her and Marshall's ears."
"Leila! Marshall! Get the hell out of there!" John their Op leader yelled.
"What's wrong?!" Leila said quietly back as they were now on the main floor and making their way towards the exit door.
"The KGB knows you're there! Someone must have been standing watch! Both vans are standing by at both locations to pick you up, so get out of there!"
Marshall immediately seemed to suffer an anxiety attack and now started sweating heavily as they pretty much ran towards the exit.
In the meantime Leila was trying to figure out who could have tipped them off. Passing the old lady that had told them which way to go, she noticed that the lady was wearing a blue blazer with the letters S and C emblazoned in gold.
Looking around, Leila realized who it was.
Running head on to the door now, Leila didn't appear to have surprised the guard, who had apparently stood waiting for them. He was the one who tipped them off.
As he reached for what could only be his gun, Leila kicked him in the stomach, ignoring the shocked voices that echoed around her.
Unfortunately the man in question weighed at least a hundred pounds more than she did, and he therefore recovered from having the wind knocked out of him.
Ignoring his gun, he dealt a punch in her direction, which she quickly ducked. Kicking out her right foot, she swung it around and behind the guard, which thankfully caught him off guard and sent him to the ground.
Not even looking behind her, Leila got up and ran out the cathedral hoping to get mixed in with the crowd.
She didn't notice that the guard had recovered again rather quickly and now had his gun aimed at her in the distance.
"Leila move!" and with a shout Marshall lunged for the guard, which sent both of them sprawling to the ground. Three months of intensive training kicked in as Marshall quickly disarmed him and sent a quick blow of his elbow towards the guy's neck, which caused the guard to lie there choking.
Not really having time to register what he just did, Marshall grabbed the gun and sprinted after Leila. Unfortunately they didn't get far.
As they headed down the street to wear a van waited, they were abruptly cut off as three black town cars swerved onto the street and headed straight for them.
"Oh my god! What are we gonna do?! You have t-we have to do something!" Marshall said, not really seeing any escape.
Looking to her left, Leila saw a small café right next to the cathedral, which appeared to be unblocked by any traffic whatsoever. Her eyes lit up however, and she grabbed Marshall's arm and made a dash towards the café.
***
The young couple had no idea what was going on as the girl got out of her car, as what appeared to be her boyfriend, parked it.
In a flash however, the man lay sprawled on the floor, with Leila in the driver's seat, the car keys in her hand.
"Get in Marshall!" she yelled to him as she started the car.
"I'm so sorry! I swear w-we'll pay for any damages, honest!" he said sincerely to the man, who was now waving at them angrily as they sped down the street.
For a car a chase, Leila sure had picked a prime car. The black Mercedes convertible seemed highly versatile and fast. . .which they were definitely going to be making use of.
The three black town cars, which seemed to have realized the two's change of plans, quickly swerved around and were now hot on their tail.
"This is so not my day. . ." she yelled at no one in particular as she made a sudden left turn and sped along down a small French alleyway.
Unfortunately, the journey didn't last long as the end of the alleyway revealed about fifty wooden crates which blocked the rest of the road.
Screeching to a halt, they both watched as the black cars behind them blocked off the only exit.
"W-What to we do now?" Marshall said looking at Leila, who seemed to have become unusually silent.
It seemed as if several minutes passed before she even answered, although it couldn't have been more than a second or two.
"We wait" she said evenly, watching as the KGB got closer and closer. . .
To Be Continued. . .
*Translations are as follows:
"Madmoiselle Bertrand et Monsieur Artigne
Miss Bertrand and Mr. Artigne
"Nous sommes avec le Commissionne du Point de Repère Historique. Je crois que nos compagnons est déjà dans la cathedral"
We're with the Commission of Historical Landmarks. I assume that our associates are already inside the cathedral.
"D'accord."
Alright
"Vous etes un peu en retarde"
You're a bit late.
"Le directeur a pris vos compagnons sur un tour. Je crois qu'ils sont dans le soubassement. Il y a une galerie privé là-bas. Si vous prenez l'escalier là" she pointed to across the corridor "vous leur verrez."
The director has taken your associates on a tour. I believe that they're in the basement. There's a private gallery down there. If you take the staircase there she pointed to across the corridor you'll see them.
Author: Midnight
Feedback / E-Mail: Reviews are welcome. Feel free to e-mail me at: varzideh@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All Alias characters and related material does not belong to me, but to J.J Abrams.
Classification / Genre: Action/Adventure/Romance
Summary: Marshall's never considered himself to be the 'secret agent' type, even if he did work for SD-6. Things change however as a sudden trip to London shows everyone, including himself that he has more promise than even the deadliest of agents. Will he give up his life as an 'Op Tech guy' to become a field agent? Or will he remain as he always was? Double-agents, assassinations, elegant parties, beautiful women, The Truth, and more, are all that await him.
Rating: PG.for now
Author's Note: Since both Marshall and Leila are on a mission together, you'll see a lot of Leila's perspective of things in this chapter. Also, in regards to the French spoken, I've put the English translation of it at the end. Enjoy!
Chapter 5: The Mission
Luckily for Marshall, no flying was involved with going to Paris, as they were taking the Chunnel which would have them entering France within three hours.
Train tickets were untraceable and therefore it wasn't such a bad trip as Marshall sat beside Leila (who spent the entire time reading Le Monde).
In all of the time that they had known each other, Marshall doubted that she had even said more than twenty words to him. He wondered if it was something about him, or just the fact she didn't really like anyone.
***
Most of the day passed by in a blur as they took separate cars to the hotel and checked in to their rooms. Their cover for the time being was that of them attending a business convention. Details didn't really seem necessary for the moment.
The only communication Marshall and Leila had was when she had knocked on his door and told him that they needed to survey the hotel and all the exits just in case something should arise. That only took about forty-five minutes and after that they parted and went back to their respective rooms.
The CIA was tracking the KGB activity around the cathedral, so if any registered KGB members were seen nearing it, both she and Marshall would be notified. They were only ten minutes away from the cathedral by car.
There was only so much Marshall could do however, to keep himself occupied for the day. French TV didn't really interest him, and he didn't want to risk going down stairs to look around, as he wasn't sure what precautions they were taking.
After two hours of boredom, Marshall gathered enough courage for what he was about to do. . .
***
Hearing a knock at her door, Leila opened it to find a nervous looking Marshall standing in the hallway.
She wasn't able to ask him what he wanted, when he started talking rather fast.
"Oh! H-Hey there. . .I-I. . .well considering the fact that it's time to eat. . .you do eat don't you? Of you-silly question. I-I'm hungry so I'm going down stairs to the restaurant; I just. . .will you come eat with me? If you've ordered room service of something I understand. I-I'm going now, so it you want we could just-well bye" Marshall quickly turned around and started walking away, not even waiting for an answer. Unfortunately for him, he didn't realize that Leila was biting back a smile, before quickly yelling for him to wait.
"Hang on their Marshall. I'll come with you" she said as she went back inside her room to grab her purse.
As she caught up to Marshall, she quickly passed him in the hallway, only to realize that he hadn't budged.
"Uh Marshall? For us to go to dinner, you actually need to move" she said in a rather humorous tone.
Grabbing his arm she slowly led him to the elevator, as little by little Marshall came to his senses. The serene elevator music seemed to have snapped him back to reality as he quickly noted that he was no longer standing in the hallway, but rather in an elevator with a slightly worried Leila.
"You s-said okay."
If Marshall thought things couldn't get any weirder. . .he was wrong. Leila actually began to laugh.
"Oh course I said okay" she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. " It's just dinner, not to mention the fact that I'm really hungry" she said as they arrived at the hotel lobby.
Marshall's initial shock being over, he was able to converse (to the best of his ability at least) with his new partner. She wasn't really all that bad, once you got past the whole cold hostility thing she had going on. To his surprise though, she found his stories rather funny, and had smiled or laughed at all his jokes.
He knew that he was talking on and on (totally forgetting about the Filet Mignon that was in front of him), but he didn't care. She actually seemed to be listening to him. . .and she didn't seem bored in the least. Unfortunately for him though, whenever he asked her a question about herself, she merely gave a one-sentence answer and would quickly change the topic. He took it as a sign not to ask her about anything she didn't openly tell him herself. . .but that wasn't much, as she hadn't even told him her name. . .he had had to learn it from McNeilly.
After about an hour of sitting in the restaurant, Marshall realized that it was getting late, and he had no idea when they would be notified of KGB activity.
"Well I'm stuffed. . .and that's saying a lot let me tell you" Marshall said as he took a sip of his water. "I-I mean if you had been at the last Flinkman family picnic, you probably would have been full just watching m-" he cut himself as he realized he had totally digressed from what he had wanted to say. "I-I'm just gonna head off to-back to my room" he finished saying.
"Good" Leila said as she got up from her table, making sure that she had left enough Francs. "I'll come with you then."
"W-What?" Marshall exclaimed with shock "to M-MY room?"
Apparently he was missing something as she shot him a look. "Yes Marshall, to YOUR room. If you recall, we haven't gone over any of the 'gadgets' I guess you would call them. Since they're in your room, and I need you to clarify what everything is, I assumed that the logical thing to do would be to go with you to your room. If that's not a problem?" she asked bemusedly.
"Oh. . .no, that's fine. I mean hehe. . .of course. Go over the equipment. . ." he muttered the last bit to himself as they both heading back to his room.
Various objects were sprawled out on the dresser in the small room. Little objects from small shirt buttons to larger ones such as a powder compact seemed to be laden everywhere. Careful not to touch anything, Leila followed Marshall to a small black leather bag that had been under the bed.
Opening the bag, Marshall put his hand in, and (what could only be described as painfully slowly) brought it out again to reveal what looked to be three light blue marbles.
"They're marbles" Leila stated, looking at them warily.
"Oh no. . .these babies aren't marbles. They're coating is actually rubber and I'd bounce them to show you b-but of course that's a big no-no" he said putting them into an ashtray on the bedside table.
"Anyways, as I was saying, their structure is held by an thin layer of rubber, actually based on the resin found in chewing gum which is of course, pretty neat considering the fact you wouldn't imagine a piece of grape Bubble Yum to be made from w-what this is made of. But those gum guys always come up with the greatest stuff to chew o-"
"Marshall" Leila interrupted condescendingly, reminding him very much of Sloane.
"Right, sorry, anyways, inside each of these balls there's about two doses of Halothane, which is what they use usually in general anesthesia. It's not enough to knock someone out for several hours, but each should last up to about fifteen minutes. Now, I know what you're thinking. . .how is the gas inside going to g-get outside and make everyone go. . ." Marshall closed his eyes and snored for effect. "Well, each time the ball is bounced the pressure inside the ball increases. It should take three bounces for the rubber to split and release the compound. And the beauty of it is that as the compound is release the chemical coating on the inside of the rubber reacts with the air, causing it to dissolve. So whoever gets a dose of this, can look and look, and they won't find anything. They'll pretty much think that they've fallen asleep. Of course that depends on where you use it. So. . .what do ya think? Pretty sleek if I do say so myself."
"Impressive. . ." she said, eying the rubber objects once again. "Now, what else do you got for me?"
They went through a couple of other things including a laser digital watch, grenade cufflinks, as they weren't really sure what they were going to come up against when the time came. Yet considering the amount of 'gadgets' that Marshall did in fact have, it didn't seem as if there would be any difficulties. However, for Leila, nothing matched a good firearm.
As Leila went back to her room, Marshall let out a breath that he hadn't even known he'd been holding. He seemed way too eager to impress Leila with his work, which wasn't really good for his nerves. With a deep sigh, he got ready to go to sleep, hoping that everything would go well, and that nothing bad would happen. 'Just grab it and run, just grab it and run' he chanted to himself as he drifted off.
***
The next morning 9:30 am
It seemed all too soon that Marshall heard the loud ring of the phone. Slightly disoriented, he made no real effort to grab it, until realizing as he looked around, where he was and why he was there.
Picking up the phone, he heard Leila at the other end, sounding hurried and under pressure. Apparently KGB was taking action, and both Marshall and Leila had to be there to make sure that no one but themselves ended up with the scroll.
Within fifteen minutes Marshall was dressed impeccably in a crisp business suit (one of the Armani's which he had never worn) and a pair of wire rimmed glasses. Gelling back his hair, he looked in the mirror shocked at the serious looking guy he saw before him. Smiling didn't seem to look good with the suit, so he settled for a small grin as he made his way to the lobby to wait for Leila.
It didn't take long for her to follow in black business suit with a black turtle-neck, and a leather briefcase in her hand. She also had on a pair of glasses, but Marshall thought she looked much better in them that he did, despite the fact that she looked serious enough as it was without them.
A black Bentley with French government plates was already waiting outside for them as they exited the hotel. Getting in, Leila adjusted her com set which was carefully hidden behind her ear.
Marshall in the meantime tried hard not to look nervous as they got nearer to the cathedral.
"Alright, we're good to go. There are two CIA vans rotating around the cathedral, so hopefully if there's any trouble we'll have back up ready and waiting. You okay?" she asked Marshall as he seemed to be focusing on breathing.
"Oh yeah. . .just fine" he said, trying to laugh, but being unsuccessful.
"Don't worry. . .this is a simple grab and go. We'll just knock them out, grab the scroll and walk out. It's as simple as that" she summarized for him.
There wasn't much else she could say as they approached the cathedral, although to both their surprise, it was much larger than they thought it would be. Which meant that unless the KGB operatives knew exactly where it was, they could probably spend a week in there and still come up empty.
"Okay. . .here we go. Just look like you're better than everyone else. Don't talk to anybody, even if you bump into someone or something" she said to Marshall as the driver came out and opened the door for them.
Walking slowly up to the cathedral, they passed the hundreds of people that appeared to be waiting in line to get in. That was a good sign for them as it would keep them inconspicuous if they needed to be.
"Enter through the back door, there's a security guard waiting there" a voice said suddenly near Marshall.
It took him a minute to realize that he had put his com set on, but so far this was the first time anyone on the other end had spoken to him.
Leila seemed to have gotten the message as well, as they headed around the cathedral to the massive doors where a large and gruff looking security guard dressed all in black stood watch.
He watched them come towards him, looking them over as they approached.
"Madmoiselle Bertrand et Monsieur Artigne" Leila said with a surprisingly good French accent and motioning towards her and Marshall. "Nous sommes avec le Commissionne du Point de Repère Historique. Je crois que nos compagnons est déjà dans la cathedral" and with that she flashed her identification.
The security guard looked Marshall over, and so, with an annoyed sigh (which he thought sounded rather convincing) Marshall took out his identification and showed it to the guard.
"D'accord."
The guard moved aside and allowed them to pass. Unfortunately, the time they spent convincing the guard to let them in, was time they could have spent catching up to their targets.
They quickly entered the cathedral, not expecting to see a low cut ceiling and what looked to be a secretary's desk. Apparently the back had been made into a sort of office area, which served as the staff's work center.
A voice from behind made them turn, as they had been looking for any possible indications of where their targets had gone.
"Vous êtes un peu en retarde" a petit elder woman said to them as she approached. "Le directeur a pris vos compagnons sur un tour. Je crois qu'ils sont dans le soubassement. Il y a une galerie privé là-bas. Si vous prenez l'escalier là" she pointed to across the corridor "vous leur verrez."
Leila barely waited for the lady to finish her sentence before she quickly hurried towards the staircase that the lady had pointed to.
As Marshall quickly caught up, he whispered next to her. "What did she say?"
"She said that they went down the staircase. There's a private gallery downstairs. I'm guessing that's where the scroll is kept."
Making their way down the stairs, she slowed her pace so that her footsteps could barely be heard.
Both their com sets seemed to pick up static as they descended, and pretty soon reception was lost. Hopefully lack of communications wouldn't be a problem.
The staircase finally ending, Marshall and Leila found themselves looking down a large, yet damp, torch-lit corridor, which was very gothic like in appearance.
Walking slowly down the corridor, it didn't take long before a figure became visible at the far end.
Sitting upright on the stone wall was a man dressed in a sharp suit. . .with several bullet holes in his chest.
"They're armed" Leila said with a sigh as she checked the man's pulse. Not noticing Marshall's look of horror, she took out a pistol from a hidden holster under her blazer . . .just in case.
Motioning for Marshall to keep quiet, they both crept along the rest of the pathway, which made a sharp left turn and ended with a large dome shaped, wooden door. It was slightly ajar.
Putting her ear to the door, Leila could barely make out the voices that seemed to echo throughout the room.
Taking out a small compact from her pocket, she opened it to reveal a small vial of a colorless liquid, which seemed to be attached to a thin spray valve. Spraying the hinges of the door, she opened it slowly, happy to see that the oil had worked in preventing the door from creaking.
Allowing Marshall to peer inside, he quickly noted that there were more stairs that had been formed out of the cave wall, which led downwards in a spiral to where countless glass cases were propped up on podiums.
He couldn't make out the people faces, but he was happy at least to see that there were only two of them as they had suspected. They seemed to be looking at various glass cases, before setting down what looked to be a small black bag.
He could hear the sound of glass being cut, and knew immediately that they had found what they all had been looking for.
"There's two of them, and I think they've figured out which one is the scroll!" he whispered urgently.
Hurrying, Leila put down her gun, and suitcase. Opening it, she found what she was looking for. Taking out a glass jar, she opened it and took out a small light blue rubber ball.
"You might need more than one. . .the rooms really big" Marshall said as he realized what she was going to do.
Reaching in and taking out three more, she inched towards the door and threw them in one by one.
Marshall watched his tiny creations bounce down the stairs before suddenly stopping. They were working. . .to his delight.
Hearing the sound of two faint thumps, both of them opened the door all the way and slowly descended down the stairs. The two of them had pistols in their hands (which Leila had handed to him. . .despite his reluctance) just in case the compound hadn't knocked them out.
But it seemed to have worked. As they got nearer they noticed that two figures seemed hunched over one another, neither of them moving.
Tip-toeing cautiously towards the glass case (which now had a large circular hole in the middle) Leila slowly reached in and grabbed the scroll.
The fear of an alarm being triggered didn't come to pass as Leila brought her arm back out.
"I need the copy Marshall" she whispered softly to him as she handed him the scroll.
Marshall in turn, immediately took out of his jacket, a small scroll, not identical to the original. . .but close enough.
As Leila put the copy back in the glass case, Marshall opened the original and read through it. Thank heavens for his photographic memory.
As they turned to leave, Leila edged down and slowly picked up the pistol that lay beside the man. Something about him. . .something about both of them struck her as odd. . .even those they both seemed to be face down on the ground.
"What are you doing?!" Marshall exclaimed quietly as Leila slowly pushed both the KGB members over on one side.
"Oh shit" Leila said softly, something that Marshall never really expected her to say.
As Marshall bent down, he too seemed very surprised.
Ana Espinosa and Mr. Sark lay right in front of them, very much unconscious.
Turning around and basically running up the stairs, Marshall followed. . .not really understanding what the big deal was. . .despite the fact that they knew who the operatives were.
"This is bad. . .well it's good too" she started as they made their way back down the corridor. "I've only known of the two of them working on one other case together, (considering the fact that their respective agencies are against each other) and it was for something very important. Hell, I don't even know what it was. If they came for the scroll, it must be more important than we thought it was."
That was all she said as they started climbing back up the stairs. Of course, Leila made several glances back as a precaution.
"God I wish I could kill them" she muttered as they almost reached the main floor. Her murderous thoughts however were interrupted as a loud voice rang in both her and Marshall's ears."
"Leila! Marshall! Get the hell out of there!" John their Op leader yelled.
"What's wrong?!" Leila said quietly back as they were now on the main floor and making their way towards the exit door.
"The KGB knows you're there! Someone must have been standing watch! Both vans are standing by at both locations to pick you up, so get out of there!"
Marshall immediately seemed to suffer an anxiety attack and now started sweating heavily as they pretty much ran towards the exit.
In the meantime Leila was trying to figure out who could have tipped them off. Passing the old lady that had told them which way to go, she noticed that the lady was wearing a blue blazer with the letters S and C emblazoned in gold.
Looking around, Leila realized who it was.
Running head on to the door now, Leila didn't appear to have surprised the guard, who had apparently stood waiting for them. He was the one who tipped them off.
As he reached for what could only be his gun, Leila kicked him in the stomach, ignoring the shocked voices that echoed around her.
Unfortunately the man in question weighed at least a hundred pounds more than she did, and he therefore recovered from having the wind knocked out of him.
Ignoring his gun, he dealt a punch in her direction, which she quickly ducked. Kicking out her right foot, she swung it around and behind the guard, which thankfully caught him off guard and sent him to the ground.
Not even looking behind her, Leila got up and ran out the cathedral hoping to get mixed in with the crowd.
She didn't notice that the guard had recovered again rather quickly and now had his gun aimed at her in the distance.
"Leila move!" and with a shout Marshall lunged for the guard, which sent both of them sprawling to the ground. Three months of intensive training kicked in as Marshall quickly disarmed him and sent a quick blow of his elbow towards the guy's neck, which caused the guard to lie there choking.
Not really having time to register what he just did, Marshall grabbed the gun and sprinted after Leila. Unfortunately they didn't get far.
As they headed down the street to wear a van waited, they were abruptly cut off as three black town cars swerved onto the street and headed straight for them.
"Oh my god! What are we gonna do?! You have t-we have to do something!" Marshall said, not really seeing any escape.
Looking to her left, Leila saw a small café right next to the cathedral, which appeared to be unblocked by any traffic whatsoever. Her eyes lit up however, and she grabbed Marshall's arm and made a dash towards the café.
***
The young couple had no idea what was going on as the girl got out of her car, as what appeared to be her boyfriend, parked it.
In a flash however, the man lay sprawled on the floor, with Leila in the driver's seat, the car keys in her hand.
"Get in Marshall!" she yelled to him as she started the car.
"I'm so sorry! I swear w-we'll pay for any damages, honest!" he said sincerely to the man, who was now waving at them angrily as they sped down the street.
For a car a chase, Leila sure had picked a prime car. The black Mercedes convertible seemed highly versatile and fast. . .which they were definitely going to be making use of.
The three black town cars, which seemed to have realized the two's change of plans, quickly swerved around and were now hot on their tail.
"This is so not my day. . ." she yelled at no one in particular as she made a sudden left turn and sped along down a small French alleyway.
Unfortunately, the journey didn't last long as the end of the alleyway revealed about fifty wooden crates which blocked the rest of the road.
Screeching to a halt, they both watched as the black cars behind them blocked off the only exit.
"W-What to we do now?" Marshall said looking at Leila, who seemed to have become unusually silent.
It seemed as if several minutes passed before she even answered, although it couldn't have been more than a second or two.
"We wait" she said evenly, watching as the KGB got closer and closer. . .
To Be Continued. . .
*Translations are as follows:
"Madmoiselle Bertrand et Monsieur Artigne
Miss Bertrand and Mr. Artigne
"Nous sommes avec le Commissionne du Point de Repère Historique. Je crois que nos compagnons est déjà dans la cathedral"
We're with the Commission of Historical Landmarks. I assume that our associates are already inside the cathedral.
"D'accord."
Alright
"Vous etes un peu en retarde"
You're a bit late.
"Le directeur a pris vos compagnons sur un tour. Je crois qu'ils sont dans le soubassement. Il y a une galerie privé là-bas. Si vous prenez l'escalier là" she pointed to across the corridor "vous leur verrez."
The director has taken your associates on a tour. I believe that they're in the basement. There's a private gallery down there. If you take the staircase there she pointed to across the corridor you'll see them.