Shalimar looked around at the world spread out below her. The rotary blades of the helicopter sped around above her head, the noise deafening. Everything that had happened since she had woken up had been overwhelming and it didn't look like that was going to change anytime soon. She smiled at the memory of Brennan's arm around her waist, his chest pressed against her back. Her hand had been holding onto his throughout the night which had been, thankfully filled with dreamless sleep. Her eyes had opened easily, the exhaustion that had built up over time sliding away from her because of the contact with old friends and the comfortable bed that she had found herself and Brennan in. She had slipped out from between his arm and the sheets and had padded across to the bathroom. Her face seemed less pale than it had been, more colour in the cheeks, the eyes brighter, a spark lying in them that had been too long absent. She had showered and by the time she left the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her, her hair dripping silently into the material Brennan had been awake. It had been like old times, the connection re-established. His lips against hers had made her stomach flip and her knees lose their strength just like they had when he first kissed her. Her arms had stole around his neck, pulling him down to her level. Eventually they had pulled apart, and for that moment, when they stared into each others eyes everything had seemed hopeful. All the bad things that had happened, all the bad things that were to take place disappeared, none of them mattering.
But now it all mattered so much. The contrast in the two emotions was what was overwhelming her. How could she have gone from blissfully happy with her wonderful boyfriend (she supposed that was what he was now) and her beautiful daughter and her great friends to completely distraught at the thought of what could happen over the space of the next few hours? Her state of mind made very little sense to her but as she looked down at the ground below she noticed the city of Seattle coming up on her left side. Surrounded by mountains and water as it was it looked picturesque. Shalimar would have loved to have been a tourist, taking a sightseeing tour in a helicopter, just checking out the view. But her perfect eyesight caught almost instantly the tallest building in the city. The Bank of America Tower was in the central business district and at 937 feet it was daunting to say the least, even from the sky. The blueprints were still fresh in her memory. She could remember exactly where she could easily gain access to the ventilation system but that wasn't the part that worried her. It was everything that came before that that was freaking her out.
Jesse hadn't wanted to say goodbye. He guessed he wasn't alone in that but the feeling of detachment from everything he knew had become more intense now that he was standing outside the building he was supposed to be infiltrating. It was the Canada Trust Tower in Toronto. Owned by the Brookfield Properties Corporation it was a home to lawyers, accountants, and an organisation with the main objective of world domination. It made perfect sense, he thought wryly.
He turned to the two men behind him, both of them agents he had worked with before, both of them carrying large black bags full of the kind of equipment only people hacking into major computer systems would need.
'You guys ready to do this?' he asked quietly. They were standing in the relative gloom of the underground parking lot, directly underneath the building, the only light coming from the dim overheads, any illumination they had to offer sucked up by harsh concrete. The plan was that Jesse phase the whole team into the basement level of the building. They would hack into the system to loop the camera feed throughout the building, giving Jesse the chance to make his way undetected to the top ten floors of the building where the Dominion were located. While he was doing that the other two agents would get the data. That was the plan anyway. Jesse had no idea whether it would work or not as he had absolutely no clue what kind of security he would face once he found the Dominion council member. New mutants were a certainty but beyond that he was completely in the dark.
'Ready when you are.'
Jesse turned back to the wall, the nerves beginning to build inside of him, filling him with adrenaline and fear. He didn't want to do this, there was too much at risk and the Dominion were way too big for 15 people to take down no matter how well prepared they were and no matter what kind of resources they had backing them up. Most of all he wanted to hear the voices of his friends, of the people he considered family. In all his years with the CIA he had never taken part in a mission that hadn't included Lexa. This was not entirely separate from her own assignment but the fact that she wasn't asking him if he was ready freaked the hell out of him.
He shook his head slightly, clearing his brain of thoughts unrelated to what was going to happen next. He needed to focus, needed to be clear in his actions. There were too many people relying on him to do his job for him to screw it up by giving into his feelings. The silent pep talk going on in his head became stronger as the silence grew and he gradually felt his heart rate slowing slightly, to a more manageable tempo.
Raising his right hand he spoke into the ring on his middle finger, the one he had never removed and spoke into it.
'Everybody in place?'
Lexa's new blonde hair moved in the whisper of a breeze that swept across the steps of the United States Capitol building. She raised her hand self consciously to her head, making sure that the hair was still there and that the wig hadn't been swept from her head. Realising that she looked a little ridiculous holding onto her hair like it was some kind of hat she dropped her hand to her side and fiddled with the jacket of her black pant suit, designed to make her look like an aid to a senator. Both herself and the two agents that made up her team had been standing there for a minute and a half, waiting for everyone to get into position. They had been making conversation about a brief of documents that Lexa had been holding, flicking through it all idly, trying to look like they fit in. Fortunately there were numerous suit wearing individuals on the steps of the building along with a couple of tourist and school groups. Lexa was relieved at the abundance of people. Nobody would notice them, which was perfect.
She heard Jesse's voice through her comlink, the sound of him making the ends of her fingers tingle, a talent he had managed to retain throughout their relationship.
'Pulp Fictions ready,' she said as inconspicuously as possible into her own comlink. The code wasn't a complex one, it had mostly involved them all picking their favourite movies.
'Memento's ready,' came Daveigh's voice.
'Starship Troopers ready,' said Brennan, causing a grin to appear on Lexa's face. Trust Brennan to pick one of the worst movies in the history of film.
'True Romance is ready,' replied Shalimar, the amusement at Brennan's movie clear in her tone.
'X-Men 2 is ready.' Jesse's voice came last, his choice clearly ironic. 'Lets do this,' he said, and on the last word Lexa turned and began to walk up the steps towards the front door of the Capitol building, knowing that everyone else was making their own way into their own buildings.
The cool air hit her in the face as she stepped out of the intense sunshine. She blinked quickly as the light changed, aware that there were as many people inside the building as there were outside, relief hitting her again. There was only bustle around her, people moving to and fro, nobody paying any attention to three people with seemingly genuine access cards attached to their jackets. Lexa walked through the immediate crowds, just inside the front doors and once she got through them she quickened her pace, wanting to make sure that she remained on schedule. Her eyes flicked from one thing to the next always keeping an eye on security personnel and cameras just to make sure that she hadn't been detected.
Eventually she turned into a new corridor, just as dim as the one which preceded it. She and the two agents halted in their tracks as they took in the entourage sent to meet them. There were six suit clad men, all of them with earpieces and presumably with holster clad guns attached to their backs. She had hoped that her disguise would have worked a little better but a smirk appeared on her face as she saw a school tour out of the corner of her eye. The entourage was merely going to escort her to exactly where she needed to be.
'Dominique requests that you follow us.'
The smirk disappeared. This was what she had been waiting years for, now it was finally happening.
Brennan walked across the ornate lobby covered with tiles towards the back of the building where the maintenance elevator was to be located. He reached up a hand to tilt his cap forward even more, hoping to obscure his face from view completely. He could hear the purposeful footsteps of the two agents behind him. He realised with a frown that he didn't even know their names.
One of the agents, a blonde woman, no taller than Shalimar moved forward as a set of double doors became an obstacle to their forward progression. She pulled a plastic card from her pocket and swiped it through the machine allowing them access to the corridors beyond. He heard the click as the fake ID card did its job perfectly. They all walked through, their presence in the building going as unnoticed as if they had been real maintenance workers.
Brennan's pace quickened as they moved out of the sight of any security guards and he made his way swiftly to the elevator. His finger pushed against the button but it was like nothing was moving fast enough for him. Everything was taking too long, elevators, steps, everything feeling like it was wasting his time. Eventually the lift arrived at the ground floor and they all stepped in, surreptitiously looking around them for any sign that they were being followed. But the area was clear.
Brennan leaned against the rail which ran around three sides of the elevator. He had noticed the camera in the upper corner and figured nonchalance and keeping his head low was probably his best bet. The female agent pulled a palm top from her breast pocket and idly pressed a few buttons, looking for all the world like she was merely checking out her schedule for the next week.
'They're looped,' she said after a long moment of silence. Brennan stepped forward and pushed the emergency stop button on the side panel of the lift. The carriage juddered to a halt and Brennan removed the navy blue cap, ruffling his hair as he did so. The female agent pulled a laptop from her bag which she had dropped on the floor next to her feet. She began to hack into the mainframe, her fingers moving like lightning across the keypad.
His eyes rose to look at the display above the lift doors. They had reached the 56th floor, the required destination. The Dominion spanned from the 56th to the 71st floors, the biggest Dominion cell out of the five. He felt kinda useless. The two agents were doing things, clear obvious things, tangible things while he could do nothing but stand there watching them. He really needed something to punch.
She wanted to turn and run. She didn't want to be anywhere near this building at any point in the near future. If she never had to return to Denver it would be too soon. Everyone had made plans but nobody had bothered to ask her if she agreed with them or if she wanted to go along with them. And the guilt was still tugging at her. She wanted to help, she really did but if there was a job that required slightly less participation from her then she would have eagerly accepted it.
The clicking of computer keys brought her back to the real world. She looked across the room at the door at one end and then turned to look at a door set into the opposite wall. There was no one around but the feeling of dread growing in her stomach wouldn't stop building. It had started forming the night before and with nobody around to tell her that things were going to be okay and no overt displays of tension to take her mind off it all she had allowed it to fester.
The thing that was freaking her out the most was that she had to fight the boss of the facility she was currently in. It hadn't mattered which cell she was sent to infiltrate because she was going to die regardless. She had accepted it already and not because she was a born pessimist. It was a fact to her, she wasn't getting out of the whole situation alive, never had been. The Dominion would be pissed off that Mutant X was taking them apart from the inside out but they would be furious that she had and still was helping them.
And while everyone else involved in the assignment seemed prepared to believe that the Dominion weren't ready and waiting for this she knew better. The Dominion had known this was coming, not a specific time, not a specific date but they had known anyway. They had to have some kind of back up plan. She didn't know what it was, didn't have the faintest clue but she didn't want to be around when they put it into action.