12:05 A.M. Thursday
The blood ran down my arm and pooled at my wrist, running up against the bottom of my hand. I wiped it off and traced it back to my elbow. Rolling up my sleeve, I quickly threw a Band-Aid over the wound and went back to jobs that couldn't be fixed with Band-Aids to begin with. I pushed my way out the main entrance and crossed the now debris-covered asphalt back to where the CTU van and the ambulance that had arrived shortly later were parked. It looked like a crisis center, which I guess it was.
Tony was standing, talking to Jack. He had been pretty badly tossed around but seemed to be okay, just trying to brush dust and debris off of his clothes and deal with the few small wounds that had accrued. That was good. I've worked with Tony many times, and he's saved me many times, and we don't drink together or anything, but I do respect the man immensely.
Steve was sitting on the edge of the van's door area, holding an ice pack to the back of his head. Stephen Claire is one of those people who wouldn't complain if you'd dropped the whole building on him (which maybe it had dropped on him in some respect), but he did have a quite nasty concussion. I walked over, sat down next to him, folded my hands in my lap and watched some of our responding team help the paramedics cart out the not-so-lucky suspects in body bags.
"How's the head?" I asked randomly, a completely asinine question since it was fairly obvious.
He cocked his head and looked at me. "I'm fine." Pause. "Thank you for getting me out of there, however."
"It's my job, Steve. And even if it weren't I owe you one for the Michelle op."
"No you don't."
"Oh, yeah I do. We got mauled, but you made us make progress." I smiled at him, cocking a half-grin. "Besides, come on, you have more tenure than I do."
He laughed shakily. "Whatever."
I looked over the top of his head at Jack issuing orders to those of us who were outside the building. He was saying that we were going to rotate Team Beta out with Team Epsilon, one of my backup teams. That was fine by me; it made sense not to send the rumbled-up guys out on another run and Epsilon was fresh. I didn't have any need for them yet anyway. I got on my comm kit and got a hold of Lex, telling him to give Team Epsilon the remainder of Team Beta's objectives. He told me he'd get on it. It's amazingly simple to pick up after a crisis happens; you just never see it coming is the thing.
We were now into the next day. I hadn't slept since 6:10 the previous morning.
Derek stood on one side of the door, weapon level, prepared to execute the task. Across the doorframe from him, Jason nodded, and the two of them began mentally counting down from three as we had a habit of doing.
In the middle of his countdown a sound stopped him. Acting only on instinct, he spun, bringing the weapon up in the direction of the sound. He was very grateful to be able to put it down when he realized it was a friend that was approaching. None other than Special Agent Ben Carroway, one of the three people that was supposed to be anywhere but there, cleared the fence and carefully approached, producing his own weapon.
"You're not supposed to be here," Derek whispered as the older man approached.
"No, but I got out of it," was Ben's only explanation. "I got the brief from Leticia. You ready?"
"Just about to take it," Jason interrupted.
Ben nodded, taking up position behind Derek, across from Jason and Chloe, next to Lan. "Let's do it."
Jason took in the door, which splintered and gave under his perfectly executed manuever, and stepped into the darkness. Everyone else followed right behind him. On a two-count, the lights got flipped on, and the battlefield came into the yellow haze of a couple almost-dead light bulbs. With one more glance at each other, the five of them began to break apart and secure their ground. If there were Code Fives on the premises, they'd move away from the light. Or so the methodology went.
Jason was the first to engage the enemy, narrowly avoiding a gunshot by diving for cover, causing everyone else to shift into a heightened state of awareness. The enemy had never been armed with guns before. This made things serious. Derek reacted by trying to get off a shot at Jason's attacker, but it didn't connect. He waited for the nod from Jason that told him the situation was under control before he backed off and went his own way.
Ben was covering Chloe, and Lan had Derek taken care of. The one problem was where the hell the targets were hiding, and if they could get to them in time.
I knelt amidst the rubble, headset firmly on as I began doing a forensic sweep of ground zero.
"Why are you still there?" Lex's voice crackled in my ear.
"Two words," I said, "Actually, a name: Andrew Goodman."
"What? Who?"
"From the film Murder In Mississippi," I elaborated, moving from one section to another with weary grace. We probably wouldn't find much in the way of why these suspects had been using this building as a base, but we had to at least try. "He was killed standing up for what he believed in. All he had to do was lie and say he was a racist and they would have let him live, but he said he wasn't one and they shot him. I'm not very good at that kind of dilemma either."
"I guess you still know how to bring the film references after all this time."
"Damn straight." I smiled just a little as I moved some debris to get a better opening. "How's everything?"
"Mark's doing fine." He emphasized the last word, one step ahead of me already.
"Good. I needed to hear that." I moved a bit closer and shined my flashlight into the open space, and then I yelled for somebody to go find Jack and bring him down immediately.
"Jason! Coming your way!" Derek yelled, about all he had time to do except get the hell out of the way of the oncoming target.
His own attacker missed him as a result at the same time another one slammed into Jason. Waiting for his right moment, Jason fought the choke hold long enough to carefully pop a bullet into the Code Five's abdomen at close range. The resulting explosion blew out the window behind him and startled Derek's target long enough for Derek to get the jump and terminate him as well. During that explosion he was already moving forward. Two down.
"How many more are there?"
"At least four," Ben called from behind cover, readying a shot of his own.
His bullet went wide, but it was meant to; it pierced an already unstable shelving unit and sent the metal collapsing down on another nearby target. The second shot dusted him, the blowback leaving scorch marks on the near door and flash burns on the carpet. Slightly pleased with himself, Ben nonetheless was undeterred from the ultimate goal. Of all the members of Code Black, he seemed to be the most dissatisfied. Always trying to be better than he was, although he was good enough. Like he was trying to atone for something.
Meanwhile, Chloe misdirected a target right into the path of Lan's waiting shot, and the explosion shook the building again. Make that three more targets. This was a battle they might just be able to win.
Jack and I shared an uneasy glance. He held the flashlight steady as I wedged the crowbar into the appropriate position. As close friends, surrogate family members, and mentor and student, we were both inextricably bound to whatever was in front of us. Finally, the paneling gave with a rough sound, and I reached in and pulled it back the rest of the way.
"Is that … blueprints of some sort?" Jack asked me worriedly as I removed the contents of the hidden safe that had – and had been meant to – survive the building.
I unfolded the paper. "It's the plans to…"
"Plans to what?"
"Jack, I think these are the plans to the Port's main facility." When I looked at Jack, I looked at him with the fear and concern I had once had as a young rookie, the look in my eyes that I needed him to take me by the hand and convince me the end of the world was not at hand. "They're not trying to get in. They're trying to keep us from getting out."
