11:43 P.M. Wednesday

          "Stephen!" I nearly screamed his name into my microphone.

          Moments ago there had been complete fallout on my comm line and I'd lost all contact with Steve Claire and the other members of Tony Almeida's Team Beta. They had gotten the drop on somebody – no direct identification had yet been made, or at least confirmed back to me sitting at my station at CTU – and there had been an engagement. Then the building had literally started to collapse around all of them. The last sound I had on my recording was a massive one that could either have been a gunshot or a heavy fall.

          My pulse was racing and my heart threatened to break my chest. I forced myself to calm down and execute the capable leadership skills I was able to use. That's the thing: I'm a good enough leader, but it's partly because I don't draw the line between emotion and execution. I don't worry when I feel something. I worry when I don't. And right now I felt total fear and mortification that my entire ops team and any lead we might have had were all crushed dead underneath the remains of a warehouse.

Sealed with lies through so many tears
Lost from within, pursuing the end
I fight for the chance to be lied to again

            I continued to call his name as I went back to my work, preparing an emergency rescue plan with keystrokes and quick thinking. Nobody was answering me. This was not good. I should have checked the structural integrity, I should have been clairvoyant, I should have done something…

          "Brittany?"

          "Tony?" I blurted, half-elated, half-confused.

          "Steve got hit in the head, he's a little dazed," my team leader went on to explain, "I'm taking over communications."

          "Is everyone all right? What's going on out there?"

          "We're going to need some emergency backup. It's a cavern in here."

          "On the way." I searched the floor for Jack, then waved him over. "I need you to keep talking to me, Tony. Whatever happens, don't let the line go dead."

          "I don't plan on it."

          Jack came over and I told him that Tony needed an emergency backup team at their last known location. He said he would get on it and immediately started rounding up the operatives necessary. As for me, I started preparing my mobile command station kit, transferring the mission data to my laptop. It was customary on an emergency for the operative running op-serv to check the tapes, keep an eye on the overview, and work out the kinks. However, it was my responsibility to get out there in the field and save these guys. They trusted me and it was time to make it up to them.

You will never be strong enough

You will never be good enough

You were never conceived in love

You will never rise above

          "Is anybody hurt, Tony? Is everyone still alive?" I said as plugged my headphones into my mobile kit.

          "Yeah … from what I can see it's just some injuries. Steve got clocked by a beam, and I think there might be some others…"

          "All right, we're bringing medical backup with us. What about the objective?"

          "Brittany, if there's anybody left in here, they're disarmed, and they're probably dead."

          I let this soak in for a moment. "Acknowledged," I finally said, simple and specific.

          Jack had rounded up some team members, so I threw operational command to Mark again and headed out the door. My mobile kit in my hand, my gun in its holster and my microphone still connected to the proper equipment, I raced down the corridor toward the exit, through the doors before anyone else and into the waiting van somebody had brought around. I couldn't shake the manic-perfectionist feeling that this was somehow my fault.

          "We're on our way," I told Tony, buckling my seat belt and resting my station on my lap. "We're coming for you."

They'll never see, I'll never be

I'll struggle on and on to feed this hunger

Burning deep inside of me

          There's nothing like trying to double-check your gun and drive at the same time. I'd done it a lot, having been taught how to properly multitask by Jack, who had done it a lot himself, and I had taught Derek how to do it. As he drove down the next street, he took one hand off the wheel, eased the firearm out of his jacket, examined it quickly, then put it back where it went. You could never check your gun enough times if you knew for certain it was probably going to be a big factor in whether or not you ever got to try that little manuever again.

          "I'd be prepared for safeguards," Lan was saying from the backseat. "It *is* a former highway patrol station."

          "What happened to it?" Jason asked.

          "They moved uptown."

          "I wonder why," Derek said sarcastically.

          "I'm sure there weren't Code Fives in it then," Chloe appended gently.

          "You never know," Jason said. "I didn't ever think I was going to be saving the world."

          "Not the world," Lan said, echoing Sandra Bullock in The Net, one of her (and my) favorite films, "just our part of it."

          "Yeah, whatever. It's just good to know I mean something."

          Derek nodded, a sign to Jason that he agreed with the comment and was proud of his friend for that kind of attitude. He swung the car down another side street. They would reach their target in a matter of minutes. "Arm up," he said, and everyone went for their weapons. They didn't have to be told twice. You do this enough times, the hard part is putting down the weapon.

But through my tears breaks a blinding light
Birthing a dawn to this endless night
Arms outstretched, awaiting me

          We arrived on the scene and I knew immediately it was going to be hell. It was a miracle any of this building was still standing. In retrospect I probably should have noticed that, but I bolted straight from the car with a medical kit right into the area. I had to kick in debris blocking in the door just to get in there, but I made it in. There was a massive gap in the floor and I suspected some of our guys (and some of theirs) had probably fallen through. It wasn't my concern to count heads right then; that would be later. I saw the remains of a stairway railing down the way, and I went for it.

          The steps and the pipe handrails were shaky under me, and I knew they themselves would probably give way at some point. Not wanting to risk it, I vaulted the railing and used it to drop the final couple of steps onto hard concrete. From my sheltered vantage point in the corner I couldn't see anyone, but I heard my team coming in above me and I started searching knowing they had my back. If I hurt myself at least there'd be somebody there to help me, unlike these guys.

          Nearest me I saw what appeared to be like it could be somebody, unfortunately buried under the remains of one part of the building. I didn't care. I rushed over and began pulling the remnants away, hoping honest to God I was going to find a person and not a corpse. I wouldn't be able to tell until it was too late to do anything about it.

Rest in me and I'll comfort you
I have lived and I died for you
Abide in me and I vow to you
I will never forsake you

          Finally the last of the debris gave way under my hands, and I reached down and grabbed Steve's hand. I checked for a pulse; he was still alive. I turned him over so he was on his back, trying not to aggravate any injuries he might have suffered in the fall. But he was looking at me with clear gray eyes, and he was breathing. I let out somewhere between a sob and a gasp and held him close to me, terrified of ever letting go.

          Somewhere else in the city, the four members of Code Black checked down the tunnelway, then went headlong into the darkness.