Chapter 2 – Suspicions

Agent Benjamin sprinted through the stairs as he reached his desire floor. Just as he opened the fire exit's door, he found himself starring at a long corridor filled with smoke. He could even see flames up ahead. With his gun still in his hands, he blindly ran in the smoke, trying to see any signs of movement.

"JANE?!" he screamed in the blinding grey & black smoke just as he saw a burnt patch on the floor with various flames up ahead. "BRANDT? ETHAN?!" in the back of his head, he knew something was wrong. The whole floor seemed to quiet for a hotel. He hadn't seen any person running or screaming for help.

It was few minutes of wondering around is when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulders that nearly scared the shit out of him.

"Benji!" he heard a voice just as he panicked and tried to claw the stranger's hand off. "Stop, it's me"

"Ethan?" Benji said just as the figure came closer to him, so he could see the face.

"Yes."

"Are you ok? What happened?" he asked as he saw his leader covered in few scratch marks and a bullet on his left arm.

"I'm fine. You shouldn't have come here. It's all a trap. They somehow knew we were coming." Ethan breathed out.

"Someone must have told them about us." Benji wondered as Ethan nodded. "Someone from IMF."

"Someone who's close to our team or inside." Ethan interjected. "We can't trust anyone yet. We need to get out of here. Now." Ethan said again as he pulled Benji in the other direction.

"No, No wait. The others are here as well. I was just looking for them."

"What?" Ethan exclaimed loudly. "Benji, the women. She bugged this floor with bombs. The whole floor is about to explode in few minutes. We need to find the others."

"Whoa, wait a moment. Women? What women? Who are you talking about, Ethan?" Benji fired questions at his leader.

"The one we came here for. She's the suspect."

"But I thought it would be a man?"

"I guess we were on the same page." Ethan replied with sigh. "Come on, we need to find the others. We only have few minutes left. You go in that direction and I'll go here." Ethan said again as he pointed the directions to Benji.

"Okay"

"Get out of here if you can't find anyone in the next two minutes. And remember the suspect has red hair." He heard Ethan's voice going fainter and fainter as he jogged in the said direction. This side of the floor was mostly covered in flames around the corners. He could see the smoke here was heavy and thick. It was getting for him to breathe.

"JANE! BRANDT!" he screamed his team member's names as he tried to clear the smoke with his hands. "WI...WILLIAM!" he screamed as he coughed on the smoke. He looked at his watch to see that 60 seconds has already been passed. That leaves him with only 1 minute according to Ethan's warning. He was about to head back when he heard voices from a side wall in the corridor to his right. At first he thought, the voices belonged to people screaming for help but as he got closer his ears picked up only two voices and judging by the sweet high pitched voice, he instantly knew that one of them belonged to a women. Still proceeding with caution, he walked a little closer and hovered just few paces behind a wall as he tried to listen to the sweet voice again.

"What the hell did you do?" a deep voice screeched. Benji was 100% sure that he had heard the voice somewhere.

"It's time." Okay, that was totally a women.

"What? Now?! I thought we were going to do this my way." Benji wasn't sure what to think of this. He's standing in a Chinese building on a random floor that is about explode in pieces, listening to someone's conversation that he had no right to.

"No time for that. Fury needs you somewhere else." Fury? Who the hell is that? Benji pulled up the courage to take a peek at the scene. He could easily see a women dressed in some kind of a blue/black cat suit facing the other way. Her back was facing towards Benji which gave him an advantage to spy on the duo. It was at that moment when he leaned a little further and saw the man's face that was facing the women.

"No, way." He whispered to himself in awe. It was his team mate William standing in the hallway talking to an unknown women. His first instinct was to smile and do a fist pump as he figured that the women must be Will's secret lady love that the analyst has been hiding since the time Benji caught him giving flying kisses to someone on the phone few weeks ago. He remembered his friend's red face on that day. Benji never had that much fun at teasing someone like he did to Will that day. But as the reality and the tension of the situation settled in, his face formed into confusion. Why would Brandt's lady love be here in Shanghai? And why of all places are they talking in a burnt down floor that is about to explode in few minutes?! Benji thought as he listened in on the conversation.

"But-..."

"No!" Benji heard women exclaimed with a deathly voice. A scary women and a cautious Brandt? Somehow these two phrases doesn't fit in Benji's head. It was at that moment when the smoke cleared a bit and his breadth got stuck in his throat. The women had red hair. RED hair! As in she was the suspect that Ethan was talking about.

"Aw! Come on, Nat?" he heard Will plead. Benji didn't know why Brandt was talking to her. She's the enemy for god's sake. Maybe Benji had it wrong. Lot of women have red hair... right? But her next sentence confirmed his suspicions.

"B, you already knew this has to end one day. Consider that day is today. You need to show your true self to IMF. " Wait, wait what?! Benji thought as he tried process her words.

"But, I don't want to be the bad guy. They trust me!"That's when it hit him. He's with her. He's the mole! And she's the suspect. The old technician froze in his place as pieces started to click in their places.

"Really? How many times have we done this before?" Benji was having a hard time at digesting the new Intel. It was Will who ranted them out. Will's a traitor. How many traitors are there in this fucking world? He always knew that Will has secrets. But this?! Betraying IMF was by far the worst secret ever. What if will's whole personality was fake? Did he really even cared about his IMF team?

"Many." In order to hear more clearly, he moved forward only to move back with a small scream as a small part of the ceiling fell in front of Benji. He knew, that the two people had heard his yelp of surprise.

Without a second glace, Benji ran in the other opposite direction away from Brandt and that red-head women. How could Brandt do this to us? He thought as he ran in full speed before he bumped into a hard structure. His breadth was caught out of him as he landed on the dry floor.

"Benji!" he heard Jane's voice from nearby as he tried to catch his breath and stand up from his position in the thick smoke. "Benji! Are you ok?" he felt Jane's hand on his arm just as he looked up at Jane's worried face.

"Jane?"

"Yes" he looked to his side to see Ethan also pulling himself up from the floor. Benji must have bumped into him.

"Benji. Did you find Brandt?" Ethan asked as he got hold of Benji's shoulders. Benji stared at Ethan in shock and worry.

"BENJI!" Ethan screamed before shaking Benji's shoulders.

"YES, yes. I found Brandt." The technician said weakly.

"Where is he?" Ethan asked. When Benji didn't reply, he was awarded with another shake. "Benji, where is Brandt?"

"HE… He... It's him." Benji finally whispered the words out looking directly in Ethan's eyes. "He was with her. He's the one who gave us out."

"Shit." Ethan cussed as he finally figured what his team mate was trying to say.