Chapter six
Ethan had followed the others closely when they headed back to the safe-house, leaving just enough distance between them and himself to not be associated with them by any casual observer. Hardly a minute after they had entered their apartment he was climbing the steps to his own little flat, a room on the top floor of the building facing the safe-house from the other side of the street.
He hung his jacket over the only chair and flipped open the laptop computer on the desk, while his glance habitually drifted out of the window. It got stuck on the front door to the opposite building which he could have sworn had been closed when he had passed it earlier. He picked up the binoculars from the windowsill to have a closer look, just in time to see Brandt running out of the house and down the street. The agent was followed by several figures, but Ethan couldn't make out any details.
Looking back at the flat's windows he saw the chaos inside, but no movement. All rooms seemed to be empty. With a curse, he set down the binoculars and ran back down the stairs, right onto the street. The door of the safe-house wasn't locked and he entered with his gun drawn.
Now that he could see the full picture, the rooms looked even worse than they had from the outside. He stepped carefully between broken porcelain and overturned furniture, making as little noise as possible. At first, he thought the intruders had been looking for something, but as he kept looking between the clear signs of fights the rest of the chaos seemed almost random.
Ethan relaxed a little when he found the entire apartment was empty. Now he was sure he was alone he could think and look for clues. There was something very unsettling about the whole situation. He had seen Brandt leave, but there was no trace of Luther or Benji. And if the intruders hadn't been searching for anything, why make it look like they had?
The ring of his phone ripped him out of his thoughts. It was Brandt's number.
"Ethan?" The analyst sounded breathless and harried. "There's someone in our safe-house. They've got Benji and Luther. And probably Leandre and de la Vega, too."
"I know," Ethan replied curtly. "Where are you?"
"A few blocks west," Brandt answered. "They were chasing me, but I think I lost them."
Ethan thought quickly. They had to meet up, but they couldn't use his flat. It was too close to the safe-house and whoever was after them would probably come back. "Keep going," he decided. "Make sure they're not behind you anymore. Then meet me at the station."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Once he was sure he had lost his tail, Brandt had slowed his run to a brisk walk. Calling Ethan had been an impulse decision, but he felt better knowing he was not in this alone. He realigned his mental map towards the station and returned his phone into his pocket when it started buzzing again.
It was an unknown number. When he accepted he was answered by a hollow computer voice.
"If you want to see your team alive, come to the abandoned saw works in Houldsworth Street. You have half an hour. Don't be late."
Before he could reply, the line was dead.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Brandt didn't notice Ethan until they were walking side by side. They found a bench in a quiet corner of the busy station hall and sat down.
"They called me. Right after I called you," Brandt explained and checked his watch. "They told me to come to an abandoned building in twenty minutes."
"Did they say what they want?" Ethan asked.
Brandt shook his head. "Only told me to be there."
"How far is it?"
"A mile west of the city center," Brandt said, checking his watch again. He knew he was losing time by sitting here, but he also preferred to not go alone.
Ethan nodded. They wouldn't have time to pick up any supplies, not that it was a good idea to go to the safe-house now anyway, which made things risky. "Then we better get going."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
The saw works turned out to be a two-story red brick building with smashed windows that were secured with wire mesh on the ground floor. The back was walled up completely, but there were two garage doors in the front and a pedestrian entrance set into the rounded corner. When Brandt touched it, it swung open easily.
The room they entered might have been an office room once but now cardboard boxes and other junk were stacked against the walls and windows. There was just enough room to get to a second door in the back, which led to a hallway with a staircase to the second floor.
Without a word, Brandt continued exploring the ground floor while Ethan headed upstairs. On the upper level, the staircase opened into a big square room that probably had been a workshop. Markings on the concrete floor showed where machinery might have once stood. Now the bare stripped room was covered in a thick layer of dust that showed footprints and drag marks.
When he emerged from the staircase, Ethan saw a shape lying in the shadow between two of the sunny rectangles thrown on the floor by the roof-lights above. Stepping closer he could make out a human form, turned sideways, a ponytail of curly red hair floating fanned out in a pool of blood that had spread around the torso. He didn't have to examine the body any more closely to know that Adrienne Leandre was definitely dead.
Carefully Ethan stepped around the corpse and towards the door behind it. As he came closer he could hear muted screams coming from it. He opened it, but there was only another empty room behind it, similar to the first one but bigger.
The scream sounded again, an inarticulate wail of agony. Ethan's blood froze when he recognized Benji's voice. Then there was another voice, silent and calm, so low he couldn't make out what was being said. Both were coming from a second door at the other end of the room and he quickly crossed the empty space.
"I don't know," Benji shouted behind the door, repeating the words until the volume had sunk to a normal level. There was a teary quality in his voice, but also a steely resolve shining through the trembling. Then a soft thud sounded followed by a sharp crack and the words turned back into an inarticulate scream.
"You know I could do this all day," the second voice said. It was female. "Where is Ethan Hunt?"
Ethan decided that this was his cue. "I'm right here," he said, ripping open the door and stepped in. The first thing he saw was Benji sitting in the middle of the room, his torso and right arm tied to the back of the chair and the armrest respectively. His left wrist was held down on a table by a man with a hammer. Benji looked surprised to see him, but mostly alarmed.
Hunt had just enough time to realize that and that something was odd before he was hit sharply over the head from behind and blacked out.