Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider/NCIS.
Chapter 15: Aftermath (~2,450 words)
She fixed a whole new hatred-filled glare on Vlad, spitting at his feet.
"You are a vain, arrogant bastard. I will never belong to your little collection. Remember that. I only say it once. And if you dare to touch me, I will bite your little friend off so you can sing the high C for the rest of your miserable life."
Walker hid his amusement, but Alex saw the skin around his eyes wrinkle minutely.
They are everything but united. These two hate each other's guts...
Vlad paled in anger (or fear?). "No food for the next two days. Get her out of my presence! Put something on her lashes. She can't be delirious for the next session."
The guards obeyed right away. Orders were not questioned.
Not if they didn't want to decorate some other wall with their blood and brain matter.
Alex, still bound at her hands, struggled with superhuman pain-tolerance against the men that man-handled her back to the cell. She was weakened by her wounds and the blood loss, but she was Lioness.
She would never give up without a fight.
Tony's phone rang again.
It was a message from an anonymous source.
Without thinking this through, Tony opened the mail.
They all paled considerably as he watched the video on his display.
Sabina couldn't stand the horrible, brutal lashing without vomiting.
And the others were all tempted to follow suit.
Eagle wanted to close his eyes or at least look away.
He wanted to vomit, to shower, to wash his eyes.
He wanted to scream, to cry, to yell at the man to stop.
He wanted a lot of things in that moment.
But he couldn't. Some sort of morbid sense made him stare at the display, unable to do anything but watch.
At least she's still alive.
He felt the rage grow in him again, this time it was stronger than ever before. But that had to wait.
"That's Alex. Right?" Sabina's voice sounded even more hoarse now.
Eagle finally closed his eyes for a second, reigning in his emotions, so they would not color his voice. He had enough of misunderstandings.
"Yes. Unfortunately."
"What exactly were they doing? Why?"
He looked at her, examining her face.
She was so innocent compared to Alex. She still saw the world in black and white, even after being kidnapped by Damian Cray and Gregorovich.
"Sabina, you don't want to know. Trust me," he begged her.
"I need to know. I will have nightmares if I don't find out. I probably will have them anyway. So just tell me. Okay?"
"Alex... They whipped her. Literally. That's what the nauseating sound was," Eagle explained, suppressing his fury and disgust.
Tony looked at the soldier, trying to read him. "Do you know what she said to the guy when he started?"
"No. She probably riled him up. That's the way she works."
"You mean she made him even more angry?"
Eagle nodded curtly, barely keeping himself together from verbally lashing out at anything or anyone in his vicinity.
Now is not the time. But Walker, you are mine. This time I will kill you if you had anything to do with this. And you 'friend'...
Tony sent the message to Abby who had never met Alex so she was not as attached. "Abby might filter it out. It could be important. And at least we have a face now."
"But why? Why should they give us a face now?"
Alex sat on her cot, in her cell.
The dead guard had thankfully been removed from the floor, but his blood and brain were still splattered on the walls.
Even when she closed her eyes she could see him, lying there.
The pain had a strange effect on her. She felt fuzzy and some things swam in front of her eyes.
Walker had brought her a few bandages and disinfectant so her wounds wouldn't hinder a new session. A guard was instructed to tend to her wounds. His rough fingers touched only what was necessary to touch – which she was grateful for.
Maybe the threat has intimidated some of the guards...
They had to know that Alex could be deadly if she wanted to. Some should have heard of her escape attempt by now, additionally to her threat of castrating anyone who tried something with her.
The guard had done his best, knowing she would be needed tomorrow.
Alex tried to push the pain away.
She needed to get a way out of here. And fast.
She had left all of her gadgets at NCIS though.
This wasn't even supposed to be a mission at all in the first place!
She decided to sleep for a while. Maybe she could clear her head in the process and find a solution for her problems. Folding the uniform jacket and putting it on the pillow, she lay down, on her belly.
Closing her eyes, she inhaled the calming scent of her boyfriend, easing the way to a new dream.
Abby was surprisingly fast in filtering the speech from the video. Simultaneously she ran a search on the face in all known data bases – Mrs. Jones cleared her for this single purpose.
Gibbs, Ben and Wolf now stood in her lab, listening to the conversation during the video.
"Aleksandra, you know that we have to reprimand you for trying to run away. Don't you? You have been in this business long enough to know it's not all James Bond makes it out to be. So what do you have to say for yourself?"
"Does your knee hurt badly, Vlad? Is the pain almost too much to bear?" That was Alex's voice.
She was cut off by a thunderous lashing sound.
Ben grimaced.
"Have I shattered your bloated ego? I'm so not sorry."
"Oh, Alex... Why," Ben shook his head sad and angry. "Why don't you just shut up when you can take the easier way out?"
"Because she really is a lioness. She won't give up until she is dead, Ben. You should know that by now. Alex never takes the easy way out. If anything she deliberately takes the hard way," Wolf reminded his friend.
"Do you enjoy (lash) the view, you pervert? (double lash) With an ugly face like yours (lash) I wouldn't be surprised (lash) if even the paid company (lash) would run away from you. (double lash)"
Alex kept her voice even and steady throughout her whole taunting speech.
Gibbs had to hand it to her – she had more control over herself than anyone else he knew.
"Those lashes must be painful. I saw the video. Each of them left some sort of mark, but at least ten need stitches," Abby informed them gravely.
"I know. They won't play nice with her. Especially not after attempting to escape," Ben told the goth.
"Could we get this over with, please?" Wolf was not very keen on continuing this conversation. He wanted to grab Alex and shake her for doing this and kill her torturer.
"It appears to me as if you made your choice. Twenty lashes and Walker, you're counting," the torturer said. He spoke Russian the entire time.
Ben clenched his teeth together. Eagle would kill the ex-CIA agent for sure now. Or would die trying.
"No food today, I'm afraid. I hope you enjoy your new décor?"
"Oh, brain matter was always my favorite," Alex answered sardonically.
Abby giggled a bit about this. She had taken a liking for the poor girl, not knowing who she was or what, but she thought, she must be the most stubborn and bravest woman that she ever heard of.
"You might be able to... persuade me to change my mind about the food... Depends if you ask – nicely."
At this every one of the men tensed further, hands balled into fists. Ben was the most affected, because he honestly didn't care to hide his emotions anymore.
He was really, really mad.
A spitting sound could be heard. Then Alex growled: "You are a vain, arrogant bastard. I will never belong to your little collection. Remember that. I only say it once. And if you dare to touch me, I will bite your little friend off so you'll be able to sing the high C for the rest of your miserable life."
"She is fierce, isn't she? I like her. Can I meet her when you save her? Please, Gibbs," Abby said, sounding a bit more like her usual cheerful self.
"Did you have a hit on the face yet?"
"No. But it's still running."
"Then let's finish this," Gibbs replied.
"No food for the next two days. Get her out of my presence! Put something on her lashes. She can't be delirious for the next session," the same Russian that had spoken earlier said.
"Was that all?"
"Yes. I think she will be okay for now at least, considering the situation. The guards seem to be wary around her. Maybe because she never screamed once the whole entire time. She has to have superhuman strength or self-control. I counted. She was whipped about thirty times. And the freakiest thing was, she even smiled at the end."
Gibbs stared at his favorite. "She did what?"
"She smiled. It even unnerved the Russian. He didn't expect her to control herself so much. Nor did he expect her to refuse his...offer. And she still struggled after the torture when they went to get her out of the shackles."
Ben nodded. That sounded much more like his adoptive daughter. "That's typical Alex. Never underestimate her."
"She has a weird tattoo. Do you want me to run a search on that?" Abby wondered.
"No need. We know what it means. And we saw the scars as well," Gibbs told her, already heading for the door.
"Oh... What am I supposed to do now? I mean until the face-recon gives us a name?"
"McGee tries to hack a cell. Maybe you can help him. Just ask him."
"Alright. Send him down!"
Eagle and Tony were exchanged with CIA agents, gladly provided by Joe Byrne. He had known that the Pleasures were close to Alex and he heard about her abduction. The least he could do – or so he said – was to provide efficient protection for Alex's loved ones.
The man was very different from anything they were used to SO-wise.
In a different situation, Eagle might have liked to have a nice chat with him. Alex respected the man – if not even genuinely liked him – so he wanted to get to know Byrne.
And he had the sneaking suspicion that this feeling was mutual.
But Eagle could think about this later. Now he had to help Alex.
Tony, Snake and him got back to NCIS HQ as fast as possible.
When they opened the door to their temporary mission control room, hoping the others would be there, working or having made a progress, they were disappointed. McGee was the only one there, typing fiercely on his keyboard.
His concentrated expression led Eagle to believe he was in the middle of something important.
Then his gaze wandered over the room. Something was nagging him in the back of his head.
His eyes fell on the blue duffel bag in one of the corners. Cautiously he opened it.
Alex had left them her gadgets.
The coins, the gum – everything. Ben would be most likely able to explain how some of them worked or could find someone who would be competent enough.
They can be very useful if they were to infiltrate the compound where Alex was held...
Meanwhile Tony sat down. He had added the information they had gathered from Sabina to the board which now held an excessive amount of Alex-related things.
Someone had written down what she had said during the session they had watched on Tony's phone. His whole body tensed with anger – no, fury.
"Calm down, Chris. I know it's hard but you need to breathe," Snake muttered worriedly.
"If we find out where she is, and Walker is still there, he belongs to me. Clear? And his friend as well. I would hate for him to miss out on all the...fun."
Snake made him sit down. "You are of no use to anyone if you storm in there like the Angel of Death or something like that. Call Taipan. Show him the face. Maybe he knows him. His face can't be hard to forget."
A shout drew their attention to the American techie. McGee grinned. "Abby and I have a clue. The coordinates you were sent are in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing but trees, grass and the road, not counting a few buildings."
"Perfect. They could probably spot her all the way," Eagle muttered darkly.
"Probably. But it overlaps with what you were told by Sabina. So they are most likely holding Alex where they held her friend. I cross-reference everything she said with what we know so far and maybe we'll get a hit."
"Good work, McGee," Gibbs said. McGee's grin widened.
"I'll talk to Taipan then," Eagle mumbled. Someone had elected him the main spokesperson with Hell, probably because they wanted to give him the feeling of doing something useful while sitting there and waiting.
He entered the MTAC room, clearing the area. Everyone left willingly. Most of the agents had heard that his girlfriend had been abducted and they were trying to find her through one of Ziva's contacts.
Eagle typed something in the computer, concentrating hard on the task at hand.
When the lines connected, the Sergeant and Taipan appeared.
"Do you know this man?" Eagle had no time to waste.
Taipan seemed to appreciate that. He studied the picture the soldier had sent him attentively.
The Russian finally nodded, after thinking about it. "I know him. Where did you get his face from?"
"They sent us evidence of her...situation."
He meant torture and every one of them knew it.
Taipan's face hardened. "Do you have something to take notes on? I will tell you everything I know."
Eagle left the MTAC room, feeling like the team had accomplished something.
They had a name. They had a bit of history to go on.
They were making progress.
Hold out for a little longer, Princess. We'll find you.
Another gleeful shout from McGee tore him out of his thoughts.