A/N: I've returned! Lol, at least this update didn't take as long as that last one, right? Forgive me?
"Are you pulling my chain? Please tell me you're not pulling my chain, because I swear, if this is a joke-" Max pauses to listen to the voice on the other end of the phone. A chipper smile spreads across his face as he takes a sip from his martini glass. "Well, that is good news; plus, it means I don't have to kill you. Yeah! I'll be there in two hours. Don't start without me." He hangs up the phone and directs the driver of the limo towards the airport.
Jensen sits stalk-still and eerily quiet, his hands shackled in front of him, mindless of the two doctors circling around him.
"Fascinating," the one with the cane says, jotting something down in a notebook.
"Like flicking a switch," the other agrees, shining a pen light directly into the blond's eyes. The pupils don't even react to the stimulus. "Curious…" he says, grabbing a scalpel off the table.
"He said not to start without him!" the cane-doctor frantically yelps.
"He won't even know," the other answers, bending down to roll up the hacker's pant leg. Slowly, he draws a small cut across the man's calf. "Anything?" he asks.
"Didn't even blink," cane-doctor answers, his curiosity also peaked.
Quickly, the uninjured scientist cleans up the blood and wraps the wound, allowing the pant leg to fall back into place. "There," he grins. "Max won't know a thing."
The hacker suddenly jolts awake, his eyes flicking across the two doctors and the few guards standing around the room. "Max?" he asks no one in particular.
"Mr. Jensen, welcome back," cane-doctor greets, ignoring the question.
"Where's Max?" Jensen asks again, ignoring the greeting.
"He'll be here soon," the other doctor assures him. "He's very interested in seeing you join your unit."
Jensen furls his eyebrows. "My unit?" His eyes dance back and forth along the floor as he searches his memory. They stop and he looks up at the two doctors in alarm. "Oh god, I killed them," he nearly whispers. Tears well up in his eyes when the men in front of him merely look at him with mock sympathy. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no," the blond mutters, bringing his bound hands up to cradle his head. He freezes when he sees the dried blood covering his fingers, palms, wrists, and running down his arms. A second later, he throws himself down out of the chair and lands hard on his knees, retching violently.
"Come now, no reason for that," the uninjured doctor soothes, resting a hand on Jensen's back. "Like we said, you'll be with your men soon. Then you'll have nothing else to worry about."
The techie allows himself to be picked up off the ground and placed back in the chair. His tears suddenly cease and he cocks his head to one side. The doctors watch closely as he blinks a few times, then begins to laugh.
"Did we miss a joke, Mr. Jensen?" cane-doctor asks.
Jensen leans forward, glancing at both of them. In a whisper, he giggles out, "Pooch is in my head." At their confused expressions, he rocks back into the chair, his laughter echoing around the small lab. The scientists look at each other, shrug, and jot down more notes concerning the erratic behavior of their subject.
Pooch, dressed in a guard uniform and keeping his hat tugged down low over his face, makes another pass down the hall outside the room Jensen is being held in. He pauses at the large mirrored window looking into the lab and has to hold himself in check when he watches the doctor cut into his friend's leg.
"You're mine," he promises.
"How's he doing, Pooch?" Clay asks over the comm.
"They're treatin' him like a damn lab rat," Pooch snarls, "but he's still in one piece."
He sees Jensen snap out of his latest trance and exchange words with the scientists, then witnesses the hacker's emotional outburst. "Shit," he mumbles.
"What's going on?" Aisha asks.
"Either our boy really does deserve that Oscar, or he really thinks he killed us." He hears a slew of curses coming through his earpiece but ignores them. Instead, he looks up and down the hall to make sure no one is watching before pressing his forehead against the glass. "Hang in there, Jensen. We're right here for you, buddy." Back on the chair, Jensen cocks his head and Pooch's eyes light up. "That's it, man, focus your freaky RoboCop hearing right here. Listen to your boy, Pooch. We're gonna get you outta there, you hear me?"
As he watches the hacker slide into a fit of laughter, he can only hope his words got through to the man on some level. "Damn," he curses, and pushes away from the window to make another of his assigned rounds.
Cougar maintains his position in the same tree he had started in at the very beginning of this mission, frowning when he sees a dark vehicle enter the compound. He shifts around on the branch so he can get a better view of the individual stepping out of the car, and his frown quickly transforms into a scowl.
"Max is here," he informs the others.
"…Cougar, repeat," Clay requests.
"Max. He's here," the sniper says again.
"Little fucker…" Aisha hisses.
"This doesn't change anything," Clay is quick to point out. "If Max is here, he's after his virus. They'll start on Jensen when he gets to the lab. I want everybody ready to move. Jensen's still the priority, here."
"But you won't object if Max happens to eat a bullet along the way?" Pooch asks.
"No objections," the Colonel affirms, and they can practically hear the smile in his tone. He continues in a more serious manner. "Aisha, I think it's safe to say Jensen won't be backing you on this one. You good to handle it on your own?"
"He walked me through everything just in case. I got it," she assures him from her position back inside one of the dark electrical consoles.
"Good. Pooch, make your next round right behind Max. I want to know the second they start extracting that virus so we can pull Jensen out of there. Keep your distance, though, we don't Max recognizing you."
"I know how to tail a guy without getting caught," Pooch huffs indignantly.
Clay ignores him and moves on. "Cougar, be ready. We're gonna be coming out fast."
"As usual," the sniper grins, keeping his eye trained on his scope while he snakes one hand down into the bag hanging from the branch beside him.
Clay presses himself against the wall as another guard passes his location. Ignoring the cameras in the halls he makes his way carefully through the building until he reaches a familiar door. Aisha opens it for him on his signal and he slips into the room where Jensen first contracted the horrible virus. The computer still sits in shambles in the middle of the otherwise empty space and Clay smiles wickedly at it.
"Hey Sparky," he says, patting the side of the burned out tower. "No offense, but you just happen to be sitting in the best place to set the charges." He pulls his hand back to reveal the black box with the blinking red light he's stuck to the side of the tower. He moves about the room setting several more in various corners. Just before he leaves, he turns back to the machine. "I take that back. The offense is intentional"
With that, he slips out the door and heads down the corridor towards the lab, a satisfied smirk playing on his face.