If you've been following my story, just a note again that it has been re-written from Ch 4 onwards. Thanks :)

Nine Inch Nails – the good soldier

Chapter 10 - Dancing in the dark

"This is Charlie One; we're in position. Facilitator is approaching the drop off point. 10 men located outside. Cannot confirm whether they're armed."

Angela heard Gavin over the headsets. Davey would be approaching the pier with his load of 'homeless' (actually S.R.T. officers undercover). He had received different instructions from usual from Juliet – take the people he had picked up straight to the docks instead and join the others moving containers across the state. Despite the huge risks to the members going undercover – the unknown situation and dangers, limited Intel about what they would be facing, potential casualties – nobody turned down the assignment. They had found the warehouse Davey had told them about completely cleared out and they knew they needed to follow this lead - the G-virus was too serious not to take the risk.

Angela and her team of three moved into their secondary positions as a cargo ship came into sight. Alert, they watched as it landed in the docks and was being secured. There looked to be about thirty men at the dock: several were inside the warehouse; some operating machinery to unload the containers from the ship and onto awaiting trucks; while most of the others seemed to be doing menial tasks about the place, probably MFE's men keeping an eye out for trouble. One of the guys pulled his jacket to the side to pull out a cigarette, briefly flashing his handgun. "This is Alpha One; we have confirmation that there are firearms, but exercise caution - some of them may be unarmed."

With that, the three teams received their orders and moved in on their target. They moved stealthily, taking out a few stragglers silently and disarming a few others. They would ambush the group and round up the all the men, but only when all the containers were safely off the ship. So far things were going smoothly and Angela and her group spread out a bit; they were on the larger more secluded side and it looked like there weren't too many men on their side. The rest of her team moved further towards the ship and took up their positions. Keeping an eye out for any movement she noticed a man with a cap over his face coming from the back of the building not far from her. She couldn't afford to let him find her team and she moved towards him quickly ready to take him out.

Grabbing the man by surprise, she managed to get him to his knees, the plan being to knock him out. However, after the initial shock the man sprang into action and knocked her onto her back, extracting a soft grunt from her as she hit the concrete. It was dark, but Angela could make out his silhouette standing up quickly, ready to take her out. She was winded, but she had to act quickly. She kicked his feet out from under him and rolled away as he fell down. Unfortunately, she didn't manage to get out of reach and the man grabbed her before she could activate her headset to call for back up.

They kicked and punched each other on the ground a few times before he got Angela in the gut winding her a bit. She gasped as her body slackened a bit giving him enough time to grab her hands and restrain them above her head as his body pinned her down. A gunshot rang out loud in the silence before all hell soon broke loose.

Leon skulked around the warehouse unnoticed. He was pretending to be one of the other MFE members helping out, but he'd have thought they would recognise their own members or at least keep track of who was supposed to be there, but nobody had paid him much heed. It surprised him, but he wasn't complaining, it made his job infiltrating their operation here tonight easier. From what he could tell, there seemed to be around twenty men from MFE and the others appeared to be military – some he recognised from the MIA Special Forces team he had been investigating – his theory definitely had some weight. The warehouse didn't have any real clues or anything incriminating, but there were a few trucks waiting to be loaded with containers. Hopefully he would be able to hijack one of them after the containers came off the ship and find out more about what was being transported. Leon saw the man who seemed to be directing the others move towards the other end of the warehouse, towards a small room that acted like an office. Moving unseen, he neared the office and could make out one side of a conversation.

"Yeah, let them know it just came in... I had a look around just to make sure…A few stranglers to include, but we got a few more of the boys to help move the stuff…Course they don't have a clue about what the hell they're really doing! You think those idiots would still be hanging around if they knew?...Ha ha, well we'll be joining up on route 77 tomorrow… We'll be joining the others now that Phase One is nearly complete... Phase two isn't our problem - it's just one person and until we get pulled in, there's no point getting involved…Right, we'll meet there."

The man hung up and Leon quickly made his way out the back before he was seen. Unfortunately, the man hadn't revealed any details, but the implication had been that their end-game was something even MFE wouldn't want a part of. Leon was hoping that he had come onto this operation early enough to stymie whatever was going on here, but it looked like it may have already been in full swing. Phase One was likely related to the abductions – the high numbers indicated that it was probably for experimentation - but now that that was complete, what did that have to do with the individual required for their Phase Two? He was positive TRICELL was involved, but what was their end goal? The events and actions of the people involved indicated that this wasn't anything legal or legitimate, but he had to question why here? This was a highly populated area and conducting experiments without getting found wouldn't be easy. He didn't want to assume that one of the viruses was at the heart of it, but he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was developing a Biological Weapon. Leon didn't get a chance to think about it further though as he was suddenly hit from behind.

Leon fell to his knees, stunned for a moment from the blow before he quickly acted and knocked his assailant to the ground. They tussled for a while until a particularly hard punch connected with his attacker's gut and winded them. A particularly feminine gasp was expelled before her body slackened enough for him to pin her down with his body and restrain her hands above her head. Suddenly a gunshot rang clear in the night.

"Alpha three is down, Alpha three is down. Engage! Engage!"

Angela could hear the shouting over the headset, but she couldn't do anything under this guy. "S***! You're obstructing an officer of the law, get off me!" She yelled before kneeing him in the crotch.

The man groaned and slid off her. She was about to knock him out when she recognised his voice, "Angela, it's me."

Angela was shocked motionless. Was that…it couldn't be him. Did she really hear correctly? "Leon?" she said stretching out her hand out slowly to help him to his feet.

"Yeah. We could have killed each other. Not to mention you got the drop on me a few times there," he said while slowly getting up with Angela's help.

More orders were barked over the headset and Angela was snapped back to reality. Now was not the time to be distracted; Reid had just been shot – she couldn't be here…she needed to be there for them. "Leon…I don't know what you're doing here, but I'm sure as hell we could use your help." She said as she looked at him hopefully.

He desperately wanted to stay with her and make sure everything was alright, but he couldn't just yet, "Angela, I have to secure the containers, or get a sample of whatever it is that's in there. I'll come to you the moment I can."

"I understand, but I'm the only one who knows who you are. If you turn up in front of the others with a gun, they won't hesitate."

"Don't worry about it Angela, just worry about your team and yourself - you're dealing with Special Forces out there, so fight dirty if you have to."

"I…thanks. And be careful Leon."

They briefly exchanged a small smile before Leon watched Angela dash off in the direction of her teammates. He took a few moments to recover a bit; he hadn't been expecting Angela and her team to be here and it had put a spanner in his plan. They'd only managed to unload a few containers and it was unlikely that they would be following their original plan now unless some of them were able to get away. If he had known the S.R.T. were going to be here anyway, he would have coordinated with them even if he had had orders to keep everything as low-key as possible. Regardless, he had to try to recover whatever he could and he ran towards some of the trucks trying to escape the dock.

As Angela raced to help her team she couldn't help letting her thoughts stray briefly to Leon. She had no idea that he would show up again like this…did it mean he was investigating the virus experimentation as well? She pushed those thoughts out of her head though when she reached the rest of the team and found that things were not going well. They were under heavy fire from MFE's 'hired muscle' – they were a small group, but being Special Forces, they were organised and had superior weaponry. She managed to surprise them with a spray of bullets as she had approached them that injured one and took out another, but she now took cover behind a truck beside Melissa. The MFE men themselves were nowhere to be seen, but at least Reid's injury wasn't life threatening.

"Good to see you're still fine and dandy girl. Who'd have thought the b******* would have given us this much trouble."

"They're ex-Special Forces."

"S***t! Where'd you get that info from?"

"Leon, he's here too, but I'm worried about one of us taking him out accidentally."

"I'm sure he can take care of himself honey, he's a big boy. Right now, we've got these idiots to worry about shooting us new breathing holes."

"That's true. I didn't think it'd be as bad as this Melissa. Gavin's team is in a snipers position, but he hasn't had a clear shot to be able to take them out at all; they're Special Forces and they haven't let up sufficiently for any of us to get a good shot; and we can't use any explosives because we don't know what, or who, is in the containers."

"Did I ask for a depressing sum up of the situation?"

"Sorry. It's just that we're going to have to do something…Give me a lift up. The others aren't able to get a higher vantage point, but I might be able to get them off guard from up there," Angela said looking at the flat top of the tall dock vehicle. From her position on top of the vehicle she could see the other men clearly. She might be able to take out two to three of them before they might react or take cover. Breathing evenly she took aim, and squeezed the trigger. Two had probably been kill shots, while two more appeared to be fatally wounded before they retreated to better shelter. Another had been taken out by Gavin while he had been making his way to join his comrades. That left four of them and the rain of bullets had stopped and allowed the rest of the team to approach them. Suddenly Angela heard the others yelling, "Take cover! They've got grenades!"

They were all sitting ducks. Most of the team were in such close quarters they wouldn't be able to escape any explosives thrown and Angela scrambled from the vehicle as she saw a dark object flying through the sky towards the two of them. She grabbed Melissa's shoulder and dragged her, "Run!" She yelled as the two of them sprinted towards the dock edge and the rain of bullets started again. Melissa was hit in the leg and as the grenade exploded behind them, they were sent flying over the edge. They plunged into the black icy water beneath and Angela had a moment of déjà vu as tonight's events shared several similarities to one that occurred a year ago. It took her a few moments for her to swim to the surface after their sudden impact with the water and she looked around for Melissa. She spotted her struggling in the water, illuminated by the lights on the dock. She must have been injured, because she was usually an excellent in water and Angela swam over to her to help her stay afloat while they looked for a way back to the top of the dock.

Their headsets were ruined in the water, so they could no longer communicate with their team, but fortunately there was a ladder a short distance away from them. They could still hear gunfire and while they knew the other group's numbers had dwindled, they didn't know who else on their team may have been caught in the explosion. It was a hard and time consuming slog getting up the rickety ladder, especially with Melissa being unable to use her leg properly, but they cautiously scoped the area out over the edge. It looked clear, but as Angela helped pull Melissa up further, one of the Special Forces men was in front of them. Caught by surprise, he managed to grab Angela by the throat as she struggled to keep her foothold on the slippery ladder rungs and fight him off. He started lifting her up and she knew she didn't stand a chance against his stronger build and most likely his greater experience and skills. Still, she couldn't just give in and lifting her leg she kicked him in the abdomen. He lost his balance and tipped forward towards the water, with Angela still in his grasp.