Chapter 1
An interesting encounter
Barney accessed a file he hoped contained information about the razor trains that travelled to Nova Prospect. Maybe he could find a name he recognized, heck, maybe even a citizen's number. The file popped up and showed the timetables regarding the trains, and other trivial information. He tried opening the passengers list (simply called the 'shipment information' which left Barney slightly disturbed) but the information appeared to be classified. Which wasn't unusual for some razor trains, but seemed a bit odd in this case.
Deciding to take the risk, since there were very little options left for him, Barney tried to disable the security and hack into the file using a few tricks he had picked up the past few years. He knew the risk of being detected by the system, and almost felt as if someone was looking over his shoulder. Feeling that time was of essence, he temporarily focused all of his attention on the console. His heart lifted when the file opened itself and a list of names showed up. He gave a small sigh of relief and continued to read the file.
Train KH-909-C Station B3
Gilberto, F - 17860 - C1
Gadd, H - 18794 - C2
Madiev, B - 21989 - C3
UNKOWN, - 00001 - C4
Kade, M - 18349 - C5
Cooper, R- 21576 - D1
The list went on and on, and Barney scanned through it. He knew most of the people on the list were just unfortunate citizens who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It seemed that the first train wasn't going to ship anyone he knew that were captured during the raid, and he felt a small pang of guilt as he closed the file; He would just leave these people to their fate, even though he knew what lay in store for them...
The second one didn't reveal any clues either. He had almost completed the third list when suddenly he saw a name that stirred his memory.
Kellerman, L - 12738 - F3
Kellerman... Lukas! He remembered the bony blond guy with his distinctive German accent. Looking further down the list he saw more names that were familiar. It seemed he had found them, and judging from the station that the train would leave from it seemed they were close by, probably in the same block Barney was currently in. And the only other Combine detainment checkpoint was barely around the corner. Looking back at the timetable, Barney saw with a shock that the train would be leaving tomorrow, early in the morning. If the people had any change of escaping their gruesome fate, they had to be rescued tonight. There wasn't any time left to devise a plan. Barney cursed softly within the safety of his combine helmet; He was fresh out of ideas, and just barging in to free the prisoners wouldn't do any of them any good.
He quickly closed the file and tried not to leave any evidence that could point to him having accessed the files. He glanced towards the door from the corner of his eye, realizing that he had not kept a close watch on it during his search of the lists. None of his fellow metro cops had come barging in yet, but he couldn't be too careful. Of course he would probably have been alerted by their loud radio chatter if they had come up the stairs, and luckily all was quiet.
With a sudden uneasiness Barney realized it was too quiet; The presence of the civil protection in this apartment block had been noticeable from any part of the building, their movement and soft radio chatter had still been faintly audible when he had entered the room, but now everything was dead silent. He stiffened, realizing something was wrong, and kept his back towards the door. He listened intently, trying to pick up any strange sounds when suddenly he spotted a movement in the reflection of the console. With a start, Barney came into action, just as there was a soft click audible in the room. Barney let himself drop to the ground and a moment later the click was followed by a bang and the screen he had been standing in front exploded, showering the glass like material around the room.
"Shit!" It was a short panicked curse, but clearly a woman's voice. Barney didn't lose any time and hurriedly got up as another shot rang through the air, missing him just barely.
"Wait!" He yelled, trying to understand what was going on. He was being attacked by a human, and whatever she was up to she clearly had something against the Civil Protection. However, his plea came out scrambled through his mask and the inhuman voice of a combine soldier filled the room. He tried to grab his own weapon while charging towards the woman. The woman yelped as Barney collided with her, and his only thought was on disarming her. They both fell to the ground and the woman's weapon flew from her hand upon impact, skidding across the floor and coming to a halt a few meters away. Barney had little time to get back into a sitting position before a knee collided with his face and a elbow hit him in his side, causing him to sprawl backwards. The woman stood over him, preparing to give him a painful blow to his head, but Barney took his side arm and lifted it to target the woman's chest.
"Stop!" He screamed, trying to ignore the twangs of pain from both his nose and side. The woman stopped in mid blow, hesitating for a second, before letting her arms fall back beside her sides. A panicked look was visible in her eyes as they darted around the room, trying to find a possible change of escape. Barney hurriedly scrambled up into a standing position while keeping his pistol trained on the woman. He carefully shuffled towards the other weapon and picked it up from the floor while keeping his eyes on the woman. She tensed up and her eyes flew from him towards the door; she seemed as if she wanted to make a run for it.
Now, with both weapons in his possession, Barney thought it save to remove the front of his mask The mouldy and dusty air of the old apartment room rushed towards his face. He let the mask fall on the wooden floor and glared at the woman.
"Who the hell are you?" He demanded, taking a few steps back while lifting his left hand to wipe his face. It came back bloody, but he paid no attention to that. Instead he kept his eyes fixed on the woman. She seemed quite young. She was slender with short black hair and a slight tint, most noticeably was her choice of clothing, not the standard civil suits that most citizens wore, but a bunch of clothing combined together to make an unique outfit, with a plain blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She looked momentarily confused, and stood there helplessly.
"But, you're one of them!" She said, ignoring his question and almost seeming to accuse him of something. "What...who are you?" She asked, looking at him suspiciously. Barney frowned slightly and felt as if the conversation wasn't following the normal set of rules.
"I thought I was the one asking the questions?" He said, and his gaze shifted towards the gun in his hand for a second, as if to point out it was him who was in possession of a weapon at the moment, even though this little detail could not have possible escaped the woman's notice.
"The others, downstairs, you killed them?" Barney asked, trying to find out why exactly the woman had been so keen on trying to end his life prematurely. The woman just glared back, stubbornly keeping her mouth closed. Barney waved his left hand, signalling towards the door. "Look! I don't give a damn what happened to those guys, but what I do like to know is why I'm being freakin' shot at!"
The sudden outburst was met with silence and the woman's face betrayed a whole set of emotions as she tried to asses the situation. There was a longer moment of silence and Barney sighed. "We can stand here all night like this, but I'm quite sure the death of a whole squad of civil protection is not going to be unnoticed for long. And by then this place will be crawling with CP's and you and I both know you're not going to like that." He paused and stared into her eyes. "So...?"
The woman shifted uneasily, before deciding she did want to talk, though she refrained from answering any questions. "You're not like them?" She asked carefully, with a hint of disgust when she said 'them'.
"Who? The Combine?" Barney asked, and the woman gave a slight nod. "Hell no!" He answered, but looking down towards his uniform he realized this maybe seemed a bit hard to believe. "I don't actually work them, I..." He tried to search for the right words, but quickly gave up because he realized he wasn't here to explain himself.
"Look, I don't have time for this. You give me some answers or I'm going to march you straight towards the nearest combine checkpoint and let my dear fellow soldiers try to get something out of you." Barney threatened, knowing full well he would never be able to do that, but he was kind of getting desperate for answers. Besides, he had little time as it was, and this confrontation hadn't been exactly what he had expected.
The young woman's eyes widened, and her mind seemed to race to find possible solutions. Barney noted that she seemed desperate herself, and he guessed she was probably a person like any other, who had found herself in a bad situation just like the rest of them. He decided he wasn't going to harm her if he could help it, but immediately trusting her seemed a bit to early, too.
The woman sighed and finally gave in. "I...I just came here for some information." She began, and Barney raised his eyebrows, giving her a sceptic look.
"Geez, woman, you sure go through some lengths to 'just get some information'," he said sarcastically, "What can possibly be important enough to take such risks?"
The woman bit her lip, and seemed to give up her defensive posture. Her shoulder fell and she looked down. "It's someone I know, he...he got taken by the civil protection a few days ago, and I'm sure they're going to deport him to Nova Prospect!" She clenched her fists and looked up. "I can't allow that to happen, he can't be turned into one of those...those...things! If that happens then...well, I can't allow it, because..." She suddenly trailed off, as if the next part she was going to say was hard to put in words. There was a moment of silence and then Barney tried to guess the end of the sentence.
"...because you love him?" He ventured, lowering his weapon slightly, stunned that something like romance could still exist in this world. However, the woman's head shot up and a bewildered expression was on her face.
"What? No!" She replied, looking thoroughly confused. "Don't be ridiculous!" Taken aback by the sudden explosion of emotions, Barney lifted his hands in fake self defence. "Whoa, relax, I didn't mean anything by it. I mean," he said, looking hopelessly towards the woman, "I don't even know the guy!" He couldn't believe he was actually having this conversation, especially at this precise time.
The woman was still glaring at him, apparently offended by his comments, and Barney decided to take some action. "Well, I'd loved to have helped you find him, but, " He motioned towards the still smoking screen of the command panel, "seeing that you completely obliterated our only access to the combine database, and killed off every single member of my squad...I don't see us having much choice other than to go to another combine checkpoint, or just forget about the whole thing." he finished, watching her closely. As soon as he had finished his sentence, the woman looked up alarmed at the second choice and Barney sighed. "Okay, so plan B is not an option."
He waited for a few moments, thinking about what the hell he was going to do next, while the woman stared at him hopefully. He threw up his arms in exasperation, his mood darkening and feeling a bit hopeless. "I can't believe this, you expect me to help someone who tried to kill me just a few moments ago?" He exclaimed, but in a tone of voice that suggested he didn't really need an answer to the question. "Listen, I normally wouldn't get try to get into so much trouble trying to safe what's-his-name, but-"
"Cubbage, Odessa Cubbage." The woman interrupted, looking slightly uncomfortable. This revelation was met with stunned silence from Barney, who couldn't quite belief his ears.
"What? As in...Colonel Cubbage," He ventured, surprise and unbelief written on his face, "that goof!" The woman slowly gave an acknowledging nod.
"You know him?" She asked, and Barney stood there shaking his head.
"Who doesn't know him?" He exclaimed, "He's a freakin' idiot, what can he possibly have achieved that justifies the risk of a rescue mission?" The woman gave a shaky laugh, and shook her head.
"Yeah, it's hard to belief but he actually managed to get a hold onto some...valuable information before he got himself captured." She explained. "He's probably going to get deported sometime tomorrow, and I came here to find out where he was being held, we can't risk to lose the data he collected." She finished. Something stirred in Barney's mind as he suddenly realized something.
"So you say he got captured a few days ago..." He said, "If I may ask...did this happen, to be exact, last Wednesday around noon, near the centre of the city?" He asked, dreading the answer.
"Yes! How did you know?" The woman replied, her eyes betraying her surprise of his knowledge. Barney groaned, realizing now what had happened that faithful day. Undoubtedly the information the 'colonel' had gathered was important enough for the Combine to send a search party after him, and knowing Odessa, he would probably just taken the underground sewers to get to a safe place. Not realizing the risk he had taken by making this decision, he had involuntarily led the Combine to an underground resistance hide out. No wonder the Overwatch had detained so many people!
"Don't worry about finding another Combine checkpoint," Barney said, annoyance bubbling up inside of him. "I know where he's being held."
"You do?" The woman asked, surprised. "How?" Barney gave a slight smile as he realized that maybe the arrival of the strange young woman was exactly what he had needed.
"Well, the way I see it, we're both in the same boat, and I could use your help peddling." He said, and lowered his weapon, holstering the second one.
"You see, I'm going to take a risk and trust you, but I have to be able to trust you that you trust me...you get my point?" He asked, not making much sense at all. However, the woman just nodded and gave a small smile.
"I think any doubt about you being a Combine soldier has long since disappeared, seeing otherwise I would have been dead by now, Mr...?" She said, looking confidently now that she knew her planned rescue mission could finally get on it's way.
"Calhoun, Barney Calhoun. And you are?" The undercover Civil Protection officer asked, extending his hand in the process.
"I'm Alyx." The woman said, looking a bit confused at hand but finally accepting it. Barney grinned when he saw her look.
"I know we got off with quite a rocky start, but there's no reason for us to not have a proper introduction." He explained his actions, shaking her hand. "Now as to clean up this mess..."
