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Jaz was not a patient person.
That was probably the understatement of the century... And it certainly wasn't a revelation to anyone who knew her.
She hated sitting and doing nothing. She hated not being able to see the whole picture. When she was on overwatch she had her sights on everything that was happening. She was constantly surveying and evaluating, looking for any little detail that might turn the battle on its head. In control of the whole situation. That was her happy place.
This… This was about as far from that as possible. Just sitting and doing nothing. Waiting. Hunkered down in a cramped, smelly, stolen car where she was both literally and figuratively in the dark about what was going on outside around her. It blows.
The alley she was parked in had minimal street lights which made it ideal as their anticipated egress point for Amir….assuming he got out. She still thought Top's plan was nuts, but then again she usually did, and they usually worked out.
That didn't mean she had to like it, and it didn't mean she had to like her role in it. Being the getaway driver meant lots of sitting and waiting. She was pretty sure she had drawn the short straw in this equation. Preach and McG were going to have way more fun with their assignments.
Her hands tapped anxiously on the steering wheel waiting for things to start. She couldn't get the picture of Amir in the overturned chair with all his weight and the weight of the chair pressing his face to the floor. That couldn't be comfortable. Unfortunately they had needed to wait a few hours for darkness to really fall to have the best chance of success with their plan so he had been stuck like that for a while.
She paused her rhythmic drumming when she finally heard Dalton send the signal to Amir to move. It was reassuring to have him back on their communication channel. It had been a very impressive sleight of hand by Preach. Even watching for him to make his move she had still almost missed him slip the device into Amir's ear.
She listened intently, waiting for the next update. A long moment later Amir's voice confirmed he had cut his bonds with the knife he had acquired in his scuffle with Preach. "Ready to move"
Noah acknowledged that he had control of the electronic systems and was also ready to proceed. The man still seemed incredibly stressed about this plan. His blood pressure was probably through the roof by the sounds of things. She wondered if the other Omega teams were as much trouble for their DIA counterparts. She felt like their team managed to have an inordinate amount of missions that went a little haywire. She didn't mind, it kept life interesting. However the DIA was often left scrambling, pulling out all the stops to help bail them out. Maybe they should all chip in for a vacation for him..he sounded like he could use it.
Dalton gave McG and Preach their green light and her eyes searched the distance north east of her position where the front of the prison should lie. Even though she expected it the large explosion still made her jump slightly in her seat. Some well coordinated flashbangs did an admirable job of passing for a bomb minus the danger and devastating damage. Preach had looked seriously underwhelmed when he was given the parameters for the distraction, Initially disappointed with the lack of firepower, he had rallied and certainly had made the most of what he had been allowed to work with.
Her ears caught the sound of gunfire as McG joined in causing some chaos. She knew that he was just lighting off firecrackers, and she liked to think that even if she hadn't known that she would have been able to tell the difference. Although she had to admit with the flashbangs going and the crackers popping it was a fairly convincing charade of a coordinated attack.
A loud siren and flashing lights brought her attention back to her immediate surroundings as a police car whizzed by the main road at the end of the alley. The police response on the outside would hopefully mimic the prison response on the inside. Best case scenario most of the guards would be rushing towards the apocalypse happening at their front gates leaving some breathing room to enact their plan.
She re-focused on the buzzing in her ear listening to Noah and Adam work in tandem to direct Amir through the prison on the designated route. Continents apart they worked seamlessly amalgamating real time security footage with dated blueprints to maneuver Amir towards their exit route without being detected.
Top's voice gave a steady stream of directions.
"10 meters, take the door on the left"
"Hold one"
"Noah lock that door behind him"
Amir was mostly silent as he moved but she could hear him breathing heavily as he tried to follow the frantic pace of the instructions. Noah too sounded out of breath as he typed away attempting to keep up with hacking the different security systems to allow access to rooms and doors as needed.
She tried to visualize Amir's progress through the building but to be honest she hadn't paid much attention to the blue prints when they were planning. She had known that her part lay outside the walls and had focused on learning the best routes to get him out of the city undetected. They would have to move fast and smart through the streets of Paris to get out before roadblocks could be set up.
"Down the stairs, turn right at the bottom"
"Almost there Amir, third door on the left should be your target"
She straightened out of her slumped position. It sounded like he was nearing the Laundry room. He was close.
"Okay Amir, there should be a drain in the back left corner, you are going to need to pry it up with whatever you can find."
She cringed slightly at the loud clangs of metal in her ear that signaled Amir had found some sort of tool to work with. Watching more police cars speed by toward the scene out front of the prison she muttered "come on, come on" impatiently and then turned on her mike on to alert the team.
"Top, police presence on the street is heating up"
"We just picked up chatter on the police channels. The prison knows Hamid escaped, that presence is going to keep growing". Hannah confirmed her suspicion.
"Acknowledged, McG and I are falling back to the safe house" Preach signalled.
"Amir, hurry up buddy" Dalton urged with a calm urgency.
"Yah, yah, I'm working on it" Sounds of exertion and small grunts of frustration carried over the line before she finally heard Amir let out a victorious "got it!"
"Okay Amir, down the rabbit hole, Jaz is waiting for you in a grey megane"
There was a pause as the man undoubtedly considered what he was being asked to do. He had dutifully followed directions to this point, working off adrenaline and trusting the team to lead him. Now with the dark murky sewage pipe open and visible below him it seemed he might having second thoughts.
"You have got to be kidding me." Yup, definitely second thoughts. Jaz stifled her laughter as Amir's disgust for his escape routing rang loud and clear over the line. She could imagine the pained expression he was making, likely similar to the one that he made when it was their turn to cook and the food didn't live up to his gourmet standards.
"Come on princess" Dalton's tone offered no pity but a slight hint of amusement.
"I hate you all"
But in he went.
She tracked his progress through the piping by the clarity of his mutterings. They caught patchy parts of his rants about bacteria and sanitation systems as his coms faded in and out. As he got closer to the end she static lessened and his voice got clearer allowing her to hear his latest exclamations about burning his clothes and bathing in purell.
Laughing slightly she leaned forward on the edge of her seat trying to get a better view of the exit in the dark. Finally, she saw a dark shape emerging.
"I have a visual" she reported in and flashed the car lights once to direct Amir towards her.
He hustled in her direction and jumped into the backseat.
She grimaced as he slammed the door behind him, wafting the odor of sewage and shit up towards her.
"Ugh you reek"
"Nice to see you too, Jaz"
She rolled her eyes and signalled the team "One very smelly team member accounted for, we are on the move"
Amir climbed over the backseat, hunkering down in the hatch below the window line.
She started the car and pulled out into the deserted streets. It was close to midnight and their weren't a lot of cars on the road in this area. Even less after their pyrotechnics had sent people fleeing the area.
It was her turn to blindly follow directions as Hannah called out police movements in her vicinity. She quickly had to deviate off of her planned route as Dalton steered her away from detection. Taking turn after turn she started to feel like she was trapped in a pacman game. It didn't matter how many corners she went around the ghosts just kept coming. It was a shame she couldn't eat them and send them back to jail for a few minutes. Instead she just had to rely on her team to weave her through the maze successfully.
Suddenly the car shuddered beneath her and stalled out. "You have got to be kidding me" she muttered.
Amir's head popped up from the rear "What happened?"
"Get back down before someone sees you!" She hissed.
She turned the key in the ignition and it sputtered weakly several times but refused to come back to life.
"Jaz, we have several police cars coming up behind you. You need to get across the bridge bridge now" Hannah's voice was higher than normal as situation took a turn.
"Trying here… seriously McG did you have to pick such a junker to steal?"
She took a deep breath, ignoring the voices in her ear urgently pressing for updates, and turned the key ever so gently in the ignition. The car jerked back to life. She exhaled in relief, tentatively pushing on the gas and rejoicing when the car rolled. "Alright, we are back in business!"
Her celebration was short lived.
They made it another hundred meters, right out onto the center of the bridge when the car decided to crap out again. This time it is DOA and no amount of coaxing or cursing will resuscitate it despite her best efforts.
"Shit. We aren't going anywhere in this puppy"
She doesn't need the frantic voices in her ear to tell her they are screwed. She can see the flashing lights in her rearview mirror maybe 100 meters back from where they've broken down.
Go past the bridge, go past the bridge she urges them in her mind.
They don't.
"Stay down and be still" she throws back to Amir. The first police car passes, and she breathes a sigh of relief.
But the second one slows to a stop beside her.
Adams voice reminds her "Alright, keep it cool. They don't know you are involved."
The passenger side officer rolls down his window to speak to her.
"You can't stop here"
"I know, I know" she pulls out her most apologetic french, "My car, I don't know what is wrong" She tries for her best innocent expression as he eyes her and the car suspiciously.
"We need this bridge clear."
"I'm so sorry, my brother is coming. it shouldn't take long."
The officer considers and she prays under her breath... please go, please go.
But he doesn't. His partner turns off his car and they both get out. Her heart stops, but then he smiles at her
"Here, it's downhill to the other side, together we can push it to the main road."
She smiles weakly, trying to think of a way to protest their kindness. But the damage is done, they have already decided to help the damsel in distress. Shit. Shit. Shit.
The voices in her ear have all gone quiet watching the scene unravel with horror just as she is. It seems to take an eternity for them to step around her and reach the back of the car. It's like a slow motion scene out of a movie. Like a commercial where a cup of red wine is falling through the air towards the pristine white carpet. Its falling and falling and falling, and they are walking and walking and then boom, the wine explodes splattering everywhere.
The first officer rounds the corner of the car and the scene is instantly frenzied chaos. Guns are out and pointed at them, they are yelling at her, they are yelling for backup, they are yelling at Amir. She slowly raises her hands to the air in surrender and sinks to her knees trying to calm things down.
It barely seems to take a second and more cop cars are converging on the scene from both sides of the bridge. If there was any way out of this there isn't now. They are royally screwed.
Shit.
They were so close.
They finally open the trunk and Amir is walked over to her at gunpoint. He kneels beside her in the same submissive position.
"I guess the gig is up" she murmurs to him. He doesn't respond, stony faced and seething at their rotten luck.
The officers are shouting back and forth, hyped on adrenaline and excited with their find.
In the distance she can make out a several news helicopters coming their way. Drawn away from where they were filming the still smouldering prison gates, they are chasing the lights and sirens to the hopes of something else exciting. And who was she kidding, those media vultures probably had a police scanner somehow.
"Well Top, you wanted public. This is definitely public. But I don't think more footage of Hamid being captured is the story we were aiming for" She muttered under her breath.
Amir glared at her dark humor not as amused. But then he stiffened and straightened up, eying her speculatively. "Maybe not" he said contemplatively.
She wasn't sure what he was thinking but she was fairly confident she wasn't going to like it. "Enough of the spy games Amir, those are real guns pointed at us. Don't be stupid"
He nodded his head contritely, inching closer to her on his knees. The cops caught sight of the movement, guns raising higher and shouting out commands to halt. Amir ignored them. He didn't hesitate, reaching over to Jaz and pulling her in front of him while drawing his knife to her throat.
Confusion reigned. The police were frozen, confused by the turn of events. Was she with him? Was she a victim? Their indecision crippled them as they tried to sort out what just happened. Unsure how to proceed.
"Amir what are you doing?" She growls at him.
Dalton's voice echoes the same question in their ears.
She feels him slowly start to shuffle backwards towards the ledge of the bridge. Turning her head as much as she can she catches him glancing over the edge at the river below.
"No way…..Not happening"
"What are you scared of a little water Jaz?" he asks innocently and she swears she sees a glint of humour in his eye. How the hell is he finding this situation even remotely funny?
"Amir don't you dare. That's insane."
"Amir, don't do anything stupid," there's a warning tone in Top's voice.
The knife disappears from her throat and she relaxes, expecting him to finally give it up. Instead his hold tightens around her and it's too late to stop their momentum as he pulls her over the ledge. They are weightless for a moment before gravity does its work and they plummet to the water below.
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