A/N: You know.
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Hotel Bar, Pearl Continental, Karachi, Pakistan
Late as it was, they were the last patrons left in the bar. Boland and Bryce had remained at the scene of the gas leak explosion that destroyed the seemingly empty building across from the internet cafe. Seems "gas leak" was the standard explanation of intelligence services the world over.
Bukhari, Zondra, Chuck, Sarah and Casey sat on the low lounge chairs and sipped their drinks. They were not a particularly happy lot. The destruction of the building had cut their link to the Orion (or supposedly Orion) trail that had started with the incursion into Chuck's computer. They would look at the ownership of the building, of course, but didn't hold out much hope that it would lead to Orion. He'd proven smart enough to avoid that sort of paper trail.
"Think there will be any evidence left in the rubble?" asked Bukhari.
"I guess there might," answered Chuck, "but I kind of doubt it. He had the place wired to blow just in case anyone found the cantenna connection to the internet café. Anyone that paranoid would make sure that the first thing destroyed was the evidence pointing us towards him."
"Just lucky the explosions weren't a few minutes later," said Casey. "We'd have gone in by then to check the place out."
"Not luck, Case," said Sarah. "The cameras from the compound were pointed at us moments before the explosions. He knew we were checking the place out and waited to act until he saw us focus on the compound. I don't want to say he was a step ahead, but he was certainly prepared."
"Think anyone was hurt in the explosions? Orion?" asked Bukhari. There had been no debris ejected onto the streets, but emergency workers were still digging through the rubble of the building itself.
"I doubt it," said Chuck with a shrug. "I guess Boland and Bryce will tell us. At least no casualties so far. They'd have called us if something like that showed up."
"Our friends at the ISI are going to need an explanation from us. Buildings blowing up in the biggest city in the country is a pretty big deal," said Bukhari.
"Yeah, I know," said Chuck. "Can't really blame them much, to be honest. We'll meet with them tomorrow. I figure we just tell them the truth. Orion's been on the international watch list for years, not that it's done much good. The fact that he surfaced here in Karachi might be a bit of an embarrassment to them, but we can't blame them for it. I don't want to take an adversarial position with these guys."
"No. I don't want to say we kiss their asses, but we do need them for the war next door," said Bukhari.
"For sure," said Casey, finishing his drink. "Well, I'm going to hit the sack. Long day today."
Sarah said, "Yeah. We'll go up too." Turning to Zondra and Bukhari, she said, "You guys staying?"
Zondra said, "Yeah. Little bit longer, I think. See you all in the morning."
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Chuck and Sarah's hotel suite, a few hours before dawn
Sarah woke slightly at the sound of the hotel room door opening. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was just past 4:30 in the morning. Bryce must be exhausted. She decided to recommend to Chuck that they let him sleep. If he'd had anything to report from the rubble, he'd have called them.
She had just closed her eyes and snuggled back into her husband-to-be when the door to her bedroom opened violently and three bright flashlights were shined into her eyes. She could see the guns behind the lights and a rough male voice said, "Don't move."
Both she and Chuck were startled, but neither had the poor judgement to move. From outside the door to their room, they heard the same instruction being given to Casey.
Satisfied that they weren't going to do anything stupid, the voice said, "Very slowly, show me your hands." They did so. The man flipped on the lights with the switch on the wall. There were four men in business suits, three of them holding silenced pistols pointed at them. The unarmed leader seemed to be a tough looking guy with a closely cropped head.
"Very good, so far. Carmichael and Walker. I'm Vincent Smith. I've heard a lot about you both. Now please come with me. I have a number of questions to ask you about Orion."
Smith moved into the living room of the suite, leaving his three armed men with Chuck and Sarah.
Chuck got up first and motioned for Sarah to stay in bed for a second. He moved to the room's closet. One of the men said, "Hold it," and gestured with his gun.
"Getting the hotel's robes for us," said Chuck.
"I said stop," the man growled.
"I heard you, dude. But if you think I'm going to have this conversation with Smith with my junk hanging out...or worse, with Agent Walker nude, you guys are insane."
From the other room, Smith yelled, "Let them put on robes, Barry. Don't be a dick."
Chuck took one of the hotel robes and handed it to Sarah, who said, "Thanks, sweetie."
Chuck pulled on the other robe and he and Sarah, at gunpoint, left the bedroom for the living room of the suite.
Bleeding from a split lip and dressed in boxer shorts and a tee shirt, Casey was already in one of the seats. He looked pissed. There were another three men with guns in the room, making seven in total, counting Smith (although he wasn't holding a weapon at the moment).
Chuck and Sarah sat, Sarah pulling him to straight backed chairs, which were easier to stand from quickly. Smith stood with his back to the picture window and said, "I have to say, I like working with professionals. Saves everyone such unnecessary bother. Thank you for taking this so well."
Casey growled.
Smith seemed to glance at him and then ignore him. "So, tell me, Carmichael. What do you know about Orion?"
Chuck said, "And why should I tell Fulcrum anything?"
Smith gave a short bark of laughter. "You see, I like that. You are as serious as I would expect. Embedded in your response is the questionable assumption of who we are. Are we Fulcrum or some other actor? I shouldn't tell you anything. But, of course, you and your team will not be seeing the sun rise, so it's harmless to confirm. Yes, we are Fulcrum. And, as to why you should tell us, it's because we have the guns and you don't. And we will commence shooting people in painful but non-life-threatening places until you do."
"And you will kill us when we are done?" asked Chuck.
"Well, it seems unprofessional to do otherwise," said with a shrug.
Casey grunted, presumably in agreement with Smith.
"So let me repeat. What do you know about Orion?"
"I know he's been on the run for many years. No one seems able to find him. Including us."
"And you came after him just now why?" asked Smith.
"Why the assumption that we are coming for Orion?" asked Chuck sounding legitimately confused.
"There was an attack on your Intersect program," said Smith.
"There was. We assumed it was you and your guys from Fulcrum. You really messed us up. All the data and the backups are gone," said Chuck, sounding upset.
"Stop playing me for a fool, Carmichael. We both know that you ordered the intersect data backed up and airgapped. You saved the project from Orion," said Smith, sounding annoyed.
"Humm. So, you have someone inside the project?"
Smith said, sounding impatient, "I don't have time for this. You already know we have someone inside. You didn't react this way to protect against us and we both know it. If you continue to toy with me, I will shoot the Colonel and then move on to Walker. So, start telling me what I want to know."
Chuck sighed and said, raising his hands in defeat, "Fine. Fine. Someone reached out claiming to be Orion. We still don't know if it was or wasn't Orion, but we traced the incursion to Karachi. You must know by now that the building blew up. That seems to have cut off the trail. We expect that Orion … or whoever it was...died in the explosion. We're looking for the body."
"Of course we know the building blew up. We were shadowing you from the moment you arrived at the airport, at least until you spotted the tail. Then we just staked out the internet cafe. One man, almost impossible to spot. As to Orion's body, I've been after the bastard for years. He's faked his death over and over again. I won't believe it til I see a body. Even then we might not be able to positively identify it," said Smith grimly.
"I've got to tell you, I've been wondering about that myself. The ID thing. Do you think he dyes his hair? I've been trying to figure that out."
Smith gave a short bark of genuine laughter. "Good try, Carmichael, but we don't know what he looks like any more than you do."
"And you want him for what? Does he owe you money?" asked Chuck.
"Same thing you do. Perfecting the Intersect, of course. His greatest invention," said Smith.
"I didn't know Fulcrum's Intersect was that far along," said Chuck.
"Still fishing for information from me? Admirable, Carmichael. Your reputation is earned, it seems," he said.
"Well, as long as you're in a sharing mood, have you moved to human trials?" asked Chuck.
"Scheduled soon enough," said Smith with a shrug. "The virus you and Perseus uploaded in Palm Springs set us back, but didn't destroy the project."
"Well, I'll just have to try harder next time," said Chuck.
"There won't be a next time, Carmichael," said Smith. "You and your team won't live to see the rise of Fulcrum. When we can take over the government of the country and save it from the cowards who want to surrender to the..."
There was a knock on the door and one of the Fulcrum men looked out the door's peephole and saw a somewhat disheveled looking Zondra, tears on her face, her hair messed up and being held by a single fist in her hair to put her face right up to the lens. "Rizzo," he said unlocking and opening the door.
Zondra stumbled into the room with a sob. Her hands firmly behind her back. She wore an open dress shirt and nothing else, her beautiful body tantalizingly on display. Almost in tears, she looked around the room and said, quietly, "Seven."
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Some minutes earlier, Zondra Rizzo's hotel room
The door to her room clicked open and three armed men rushed in, shining lights in her eyes.
"Freeze, Rizzo," one of them barked.
She raised her hands, the sheet falling away from her torso, exposing her breasts to the men.
"Get out of the bed," he commanded. "We're taking you to Carmichael's suite. We've already caught the rest of your team. Time for you to join them."
She pushed the sheet aside and moved one long leg off the bed and onto the floor, exposing herself fully to the mens' eyes. Inside, she was hoping none of them were gay. It appeared they were not and none of them noticed Durab, equally naked, slip silently from the bathroom behind them.
He had a hand towel in his fists, gripped lengthwise. Silently, he came up behind the men while they were staring at Zondra. Moving very fast, he snapped the towel down and around the neck of the nearest man, instantly pulling him backwards and off balance.
Durab let go of the towel with his right hand and grabbed at the man's gun, twisting it to the side and shooting the man next to him in the throat. Durab shot a hard foot out to connect with the side of the wounded man's knee.
Meanwhile, Zondra had exploded off the bed and attacked the third man, distracted as he was by the unexpected appearance of the naked NSA agent. He was turned to the side and trying to get a sightline past his partners to Durab. While he was focused that way, the edge of Zondra's left hand hit him in the trachea and crushed it. He stumbled backwards and began to bring his weapon to bear on Zondra. With both hands she grabbed at the pistol and twisted it upwards to point under the man's chin. With her thumb, she depressed the trigger. The man jerked backwards as the top of his head sprayed red onto the ceiling.
Durab was struggling with the man he was choking. Zondra kicked the man in the testicles very hard and immediately drove a knee into the face of the man Durab had wounded. She snatched his gun from his hand and killed the man struggling with Durab.
As that man's body fell, Durab took his gun from the man's hand and killed the wounded man on the floor.
Without a word to each other, Zondra grabbed Durab's shirt from the floor while he was pulling on a pair of boxer shorts.
She tossed the dead man's gun in her hand onto the bed and reached for her own weapon, in its holster on the floor.
"What are you doing?" asked Durab.
"I like my own gun better," she said, gun in hand, screwing on a silencer.
"Oh," he said, nodding. "Good point." He found his own weapon and began to apply a silencer as well.
They were ready in mere seconds. Nodding their heads to each other, they sprinted out of the room and down the hotel corridor to the suite for the rest of the team.
Zondra put her face in front of the door. Durab reached out and grabbed a fistful of her hair. She nodded once and pounded on the door, her face to the peephole, then put her hands behind her back.
The door opened and she pushed herself in with a stumble and an audible sob. All eyes were on her near naked state. She quickly counted the bad guys and said to Durab, "Seven."
While still in the hotel corridor, Durab killed the man who had opened the door while that man was staring at the almost naked woman. Zondra's pistol came out from behind her back and came to full extension in both her hands. She killed one of the men standing behind Sarah and Chuck. Durab entered the hotel suite and killed one of the others. Both nearly naked agents stood side by side, guns at full extension, killing targets as quickly as they could be acquired.
Casey slammed an elbow into the groin of the man standing behind him. Zondra shot one of the other Fulcrum agents. Casey grabbed at the head of the man behind him and pulled, to flip the man over the couch to land at Casey's feet. Casey stamped his heel into the man's gun hand, breaking several fingers.
Chuck hit the ground so as not to block anyone's shot at the Fulcrum people. Sarah flew off the chair she'd been on and jumped at Smith. Both her feet hit him in the solar plexus, sending him flying backward. He hit the plate glass window and shattered it, falling from view.
Zondra and Durab both shot the last man, leaving the man attacked by Casey as the only Fulcrum man left alive. That man saw what had happened and bit down on a poison pill he had in his mouth, dying with a grimace and the words "Fulcrum wins."
Standing over the man, Sarah sniffed and said to Casey, "Almonds."
"Yeah. Cyanide."
Team B looked at the six bodies on the floor of the hotel room. Casey said, "In your room?"
"Three more," said Zondra.
"Ten bodies total," said Casey grimly.
Sarah looked at the ground outside the third-floor window and said, "Nine. Smith is gone."
Durab rubbed his hand over his face. "Oh man, my friends in the ISI are going to have a field day with this one."
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A/N2: A somewhat abbreviated conversation with Vincent Smith, but some useful information anyway. Human trials of the Fulcrum Intersect are in the offing. Wonder where those will be conducted?
A/N3: Poison pill. Actually, it's a real thing. Spies, and others, were given the pills to avoid the alternative of a more attenuated and painful death. In fiction, James Bond would take his and flush it down the toilet, being sure to wash his hands afterwards. In real life, they were (are?) small glass capsules full of cyanide and covered in rubber. If swallowed, they would pass harmlessly through the system, but, if chewed, would result in instant death. At least that was the idea. In practice, death might not always be so sudden and painless (but very few people survived to leave bad reviews of the pill's efficacy). In the canon episode, Smith used tetrodotoxin, the same substance I had Sasha Banacheck use on Roan Montgomery. I used simple cyanide here, though, seeing no need to repeat.
A/N4: Love to hear from my friends.