"No one move in until I give the order. Linden's only got three guards with him and it is absolutely vital that they don't know we're here. Maintain the blind perimeter and be ready for my order." Michelle briefed her teams one last time as she flicked her safety off and her silencer on, and got ready to go in by herself.

"Chloe, do we have any change in position?" Michelle asked as she cautiously approached the back basement door.

"No. The first guard is still on the inside entrance to the basement. The other three people are moving around upstairs, but I'm pretty sure they're in the same room. You're good to go."

"Copy that." With her gun drawn, Michelle took a deep breath and slipped inside the door. The guard turned when he heard it open, but Michelle had surprise on her side. Before he realized what was happening, Michelle had him pressed against the wall with her gun to the back of his head. The familiar but always exhilarating rush of adrenaline coursed through her, mixing with the fear and thrill already present.

Having restrained the man twice her size, Michelle neatly knocked the gun from his hand and removed a knife and a second gun from his waist. She slipped both into her own holsters under her black leather jacket.

"Don't make a sound or I will kill you right now," she hissed, keeping the gun against his head as she stepped back and pulled out her handcuffs. She snapped them onto him, and then kicked him to the floor. Michelle stood over him with her gun aimed directly at his head.

"How many more people in the building?" she demanded. This was among the most basic and useful interrogation techniques. Ask a question you already knew the answer to so you'd know if he was lying.

Silence.

"Tell me now."

Silence.

"Fine. I'll let my teams interrogate you later." Michelle reached down and deftly applied a sleeper hold before handcuffing the man to a secure pipe and gliding into the next room.

"Michelle." Chloe's voice came over the earpiece again. "The lower floor is clear. Find a staircase and go up. Do not open any doors until I clear the room."

"Copy that, Chloe. I'm going upstairs now… I see the door. Am I clear to go in?" Michelle stood with her back against the wall with her gun in front of her, tensely awaiting Chloe's clear to enter.

"Yes. We have no bodies in the room around you."

"I'm going in." Michelle breathed deeply before putting a hand on the knob and kicking the door open. She pressed herself against the wall of the room. It was rectangular and totally empty save for another door on the opposite end. "What's the position, Chloe?"

"…Chloe?" Michelle heard static. Nothing but static. "Damnit," she muttered under her breath. There was no way she could try her cell; the beeping would give her away. She was on her own. Michelle pushed the door closed behind her and cautiously approached the door opposite.

She would never, ever admit it, but Michelle was terrified. If her comm had gone dead, it sure as hell wasn't a coincidence, and it meant that Linden's men must have known that CTU had gone in. And she was on her own, severely outnumbered, and without any idea where the hostiles were.

Well, she thought to herself, that made it all the more vital that she take down the three remaining hostiles. If she could neutralize all of them, then she could get in contact with CTU and this would work. Having restored her confidence, the confidence indispensable to a field agent if she wanted to be successful, Michelle prepared herself to go in.

"Damnit!" Chloe typed another code into her keyboard, and when that didn't work, she leaned back and bit her nails. Of all the goddamned habits she could have…

"Chloe, what the hell is going on?" Furious, Tony stormed over to Chloe, staring at the dead screen and static speaker.

"Someone activated some kind of jamming signal. They disabled Michelle's comm." Chloe reached for her keyboard again and brought up an application finder.

"Well, can you override it?" Tony ran a hand through his hair, exerting every bit of self-restraint that he had not to go out of his mind right there on the CTU floor.

"I'm trying! But I don't think so… we're just gonna have to wait for Michelle to contact us. We can't try her cell; it'll make too much noise."

"Can't you do anything?"

"I'm trying to find out what kind of program could disable our comm, but realistically, no."

"Damnit!"

Breathing hard, Michelle nudged open the door with one foot. A man, whom she noted was not Linden, was standing behind it. He raised his gun to her as she entered, but she was quicker, and leveled her gun at his head before his had been fully raised. She used an elbow to knock the gun from his hand, kneeing him in the back as he tried to reach around.

"Put your hands on your head…Do it!" Slowly, the man lifted his hands and placed them on his head, looking at Michelle with utter disgust. "Get on your knees!" Again, he grudgingly complied.

Keeping her gun pointing directly at his head, Michelle pulled out another set of handcuffs. "Cuff yourself," she ordered, extending the cuffs with one hand while the other continued to hold the gun steadily at his head.

Satisfied with him for the moment, Michelle glanced towards the half-open window to the outside that she had seen when she entered. It left her vulnerable to have it open. Without moving the position of her gun, Michelle edged towards the window and slowly inched it down. It was while Michelle was sliding the window shut that a bullet came whizzing through the grate in the upper left of the wall.

Michelle choked back a scream as the bullet shot through her upper right arm, the pain forcing her to drop her gun. Damnit! Damnit, how the hell am I…

Cursing herself for allowing pain to disarm her, Michelle bit her lip so hard it bled to keep from crying out, and moved toward her gun. But before her left hand reached the weapon, she felt something heavy slam into the back of her head and everything went dark…

Michelle woke to the sound of heavy breathing over her. As she attempted to orient herself, her first thought was of the pain. Almost slipping back into unconsciousness from the throbbing of her head and intensely painful sensations in her arm, Michelle tried to figure out where she was. For a brief moment she had no idea what she was doing or where she had been, but all in a rush she knew what was happening. Michelle forced herself alert and quickly became aware of her surroundings.

The heavy breathing was from a man she hadn't seen before… he had a hand on the waistband of her pants and the other was groping down the v-neck of her top to her breasts. He was starting to slide her waistband off her hips…

Though barely conscious, Michelle was fast aware of what situation she was in, and instinct and training kicked in to get her out of it. She knew he didn't realize she was awake; that was to her advantage.

It took only a matter of seconds from the time she regained consciousness for Michelle to use her left arm to twist back the hand reaching into her bra so that its owner shouted in pain, and then she shoved her knee into his groin and pushed him off of her.

Able, then, to sit up and get her bearings, while the man rolled to the side, Michelle saw that the man she had cuffed earlier was now leveling a gun at her. He was talking to the other man, the man who had been on her.

"You wouldn't have had time for this now, anyway. Linden wants her the second she's awake."

Struggling not to pass out and overcome by pain, Michelle forced herself to stay alert as Linden entered the room and approached her, standing over her, where she had been forced onto her back.

"I need to know how much your people know about me. You're going to tell me."

Michelle was silent.

"Fine, then. We can do it this way if you want."

Linden shoved up the sleeve of her jacket, staring intently at her bloody arm. He appeared to be satisfied with what he saw, because the twitching of a smile played at his lips as he reached back and produced a knife.

Unable to help herself, Michelle groaned as the knife traced in a full circle around her arm, cutting deep and gauging at the bullet wound. She forced away the tears forming behind her eyes and again bit back the scream trying desperately to exit her throat.

"Are you working alone?"

Michelle was silent again, trying instead to figure out how to get out of this. How the hell was she going to get out of this? Her weapons had been taken from her, all three men were staring at her… and then it came to her. She had to distract them; do something that would make them loose their focus.

Linden had his knife at her face by then, and she knew she didn't have much time. She whipped her head around, ignoring the intense pain from the deep gash she'd opened on the side of her face by dragging it across the knife.

"Jack!" she shouted. In that moment, Linden fumbled and his men turned around. Before he had time to realize that no one was there, Michelle had pushed him off of her and had the knife at his throat.

One of Linden's men had gone out into the hallway to look for the man who was not and never had been there. The other had shot at Michelle, but missed. Before he had time to hit her again, she'd gotten hold of Linden's gun and she shot Linden's man, fatally. Just as well; as long as they had Linden, his men weren't vital for information.

Michelle used the butt of her gun to knock Linden unconscious, then slipped out into the hallway. Catching sight of the other guard, she aimed at his leg and pulled the trigger, and as he fell, she knocked him out.

Too drained and too wary to search for another exit, Michelle returned to the other room and slipped out the window. Out of the immediate danger that had made her numb to her injuries, Michelle almost passed out when a surge of pain came over her. It hurt so much. So much. And she felt lightheaded and dizzy; not only had that blow to the head been severe, but she knew she'd lost a lot of blood. After a few seconds, she snapped back to reality. You can't do this now, Michelle. Drawing a deep, long breath, Michelle regained her composure and managed to dial.

"This is Dessler. All teams, come in! I need all teams on the first floor and the basement, now! Move! We have three hostiles down and I want them alive. Move! Now!"