(Chapter 2. I own nothing but Helene)
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"That was too close!" Brandt gasped as he, Helene and Ethan finally managed to scramble to shore from the river. They ran to a nearby train station where it was dead quiet save for the faint echoing of the gunfire they left behind.
Helene gasped when she tripped over the gravel in her bare feet almost hitting her head on a pole lining a set of tracks. "That was insane!" She corrected gasping as the fatique started to make her legs cramp.
"Why would that work anyway?" She turned towards Ethan who met her gaze sharply. "Why would what work?" He asked with a bit of an edge to his voice.
Helene gritted her teeth. "The flare on the body! Why did that work? They must have known there was more than one person in the car!-"
"It did work!" Ethan cut her off, slowing the pace suddenly as they rounded a corner together. Brandt narrowed his eyes a bit at him. "Well yeah, but I think what she means is-!"
"This way!" Ethan interrupted again motioning with his arm when Brandt started to go the wrong way. Helene sighed as he quickly turned around and scrambled to follow Ethan.
"What she means is, how did you know that would draw their fire?" Brandt finished. Ethan shook his head. "I didn't. I played a hunch." He explained scanning a line of boxcars before running again.
Helene struggled to follow. "So..a hunch." Brandt tried to think this through like he always did as an Analyst. "Three people being shot at in the water and all of a sudden one of them decides to light a fuse and start swimming around?" He asked.
Ethan shrugged. "More or less. These guys aren't Rhodes Scholars you know I could tell by how scattered their aim was that they were just shooting at whatever appeared to move. I just gave them a target so we could make our escape." He stopped at another row of boxcars, but they weren't at the right platform yet.
Brandt exchanged glances with Helene as they looked around trying to spot the train where the overlooked safe house was located. "It's really happening, isn't it?" Helene asked as if it was all sinking in for her for the first time tonight.
Ethan nodded his head. "Yeah." He started to look sympathetic for her when a distant train whistle caught his attention.
"You hear that?" He asked looking at Brandt, but directing his question at both of them. Brandt nodded his head first. "Yeah! That's our ride out of here! Come on!" He grabbed Helene by the wrist and pulled her in the direction of the whistle.
"Okay! It's a green car! Number 47!"
Brandt let go of Helene and hopped up onto a platform as Ethan followed suit. "Brandt!" Helene called up to her partner before motioning down at her bare stockinged feet.
Brandt groaned before turning to pull her up.
"I see green!" Ethan called, already hurrying over the platform as Helene scrambled to get over the railing.
"Number 47!" Brandt repeated following Ethan at a brisk pace. Helene bit her lip. "I don't see it." She muttered ignoring the discomfort on the bottom of her feet.
Brandt gave her a little push. "Come on! Let's go go go!" He urged her as Ethan doubled back from the train he was following.
"I don't-!" Ethan started to speak then he stopped himself when a green car passed by. "Number 47!" Helene pointed without pausing.
"Oh s***!" Brandt cursed before pivoting around on his heels again. Helene ran past him to get alongside Ethan.
"Whoa Pole!" Brandt warned barely giving Ethan and Helene enough time to avoid face planting into the metal.
He turned to motion toward a panel on the side of the car. "This is it! The Manifest!" He told Ethan who immediately turned around to activiate the Identification process.
"Press enter." A calm mechanical female voice spoke after Ethan finished punching in his code. Ethan groaned and whipped around to enter his information.
"Pole!" Brandt shouted again and Ethan dodged to the side. Helene tapped him on the arm before motioning to a device that retracted from the car. "Retinal Scan!" She yelled over the noise of the train motioning from her eyes to his.
Ethan understand immediately and tried to jump up at the machine. "Retinal Scan required." The voice spoke again.
"I noticed!" Ethan barked in frustration before jumping onto a narrow foothold on the side of the car.
"Agent confirmed." The machine responded and a door on the side of the car slid open. Brandt jumped in then pulled Helene up after him reaching for Ethan in the blink of an eye.
The door slid shut after Ethan managed to get in and the group collapsed in a heap after that trying to catch their breath when the lights came on. Helene flinched when someone pressed a gun to the side of her head.
"Ethan!?...Jeez! I thought you were dead!" A man exclaimed lowering his gun which he had pointed at Ethan's head. The woman who was holding Helene at gun point did the same.
"We are." Brandt muttered sarcastically as he attempted to get back on his feet. Helene grimaced as her blisters flared up the minute she tried to stand.
"Who's this?" The woman asked looking from Helene to Brandt in a distrustful manner. Ethan merely shrugged.
"Agent Dunn and Carter." He motioned to his two teammates who still had their guns in their hands. "William Brandt, Analyst and Helene Meyer, Med Tech." He introduced them hastily.
"Analyst." Carter narrowed her eyes at the newcomers. "Med Tech?" She looked back at Helene who merely shrugged at her in response. Brandt tried to help Helene up while Ethan pulled a flat screen down from one of the panels built into the wall.
"No don't!" Helene pushed Brandt away when he tried to jerk her to her feet. Brandt stared at her concerned while relinquishing his grip. "What's wrong?"
Helene shook her head. "Nothing. I just need a first aid kit." She turned to Carter and the agent nodded before tucking her revolver away into her belt.
"We have one in the back." She confirmed before heading towards a room in the back of the compartment. Helene nodded at her gratefully. "Thanks Carter."
"It's Jane." The woman corrected and smiled before leaving the main area. Helene smiled back.
"Oh geez! Why didn't you say anything while we were running?" Brandt asked, grimacing when he saw all the cuts and popped blisters covering the bottoms of his partner's feet.
Helene just shrugged at him. "Cause we were running?" She said, causing Dunn to snort from his corner of the compartment.
"Agent Confirmed." The mechanical voice spoke again as Ethan inserted the flash drive the Secretary had given him. Jane returned a minute later carrying the first aid kit.
"Here. You'll probably want to change into some drier clothes afterwards." Jane motioned at Helene and Brandt's water soaked garments after setting the kit down on the floor.
Brandt looked down at himself. "Yeah probably." He muttered while clenching his teeth to keep them from chattering. The car wasn't exactly warm and now that the adrenaline was finally starting to wear off the coldness was getting harder to ignore.
"I'll go find something in my bag you can borrow." Jane nodded to Helene before moving her gaze back to Brandt. "And maybe Ethan has something he wouldn't mind sharing." She smirked before turning to head towards the bunks in the far side of the room.
Brandt grinned back.
"How will the world finally end?" A female voice spoke from the monitor Ethan pulled up as a Russian man spoke in his native language to a large group of rather importantly dressed people.
Helene frowned as she listened to the recording, tearing her ruined stockings away so she could work on her wounds.
Brandt knelt to help her. "Will don't. They'll see." Helene whispered so that no one would catch what she was saying. Brandt looked up to meet her eyes.
"I don't care." He murmured and looked down to pull away the remains of her right stocking. Helene sighed and tore away her other stocking.
"It is my job to predict the unthinkable. To treat the deaths of billions as a game." The Translator continued speaking. Dunn frowned when he heard that and stuck the end of his laser pen into his mouth.
"Ow!" Helene hissed and bit her lip before dabbing at her wounds again with a disinfectant gauze. Brandt frowned, but kept his mouth shut until Jane returned to the room.
"After twenty years of this, I was numb. Until a new question crossed my mind. What happens after the end of the world?...Every two or three million years..."
"Here, change into these. They'll be a lot warmer than what you have for now." Jane whispered setting a stack of clothes in Brandt's arms before heading over to sit next to Helene.
"Thanks." Brandt murmured so he wouldn't bother Ethan who was still watching the video footage.
"Don't mention it." Jane shrugged and set another stack of clothes down on the floor. "I brought you some sweatpants and a t-shirt. They might be a little big, but they'll do until your clothes dry." She patted the stack before pushing it closer to where Helene was.
"Thank you." Helene nodded gratefully at the Agent before turning to grab a bandage from the first aid kit.
"...some natural catastrophe devastates all life on earth...but somehow life goes on." The Russian man continued causing Brandt to sigh disturbed even though he'd already heard it all before.
"And what little remains is made stronger. Put simply world destruction is an unpleasant but necessary part of evolution." Helene grimaced as she finished wrapping up her feet.
She was about to try to stand up, when a whooshing sound made her jump and she fell back on her bottom creating a loud thumping noise that drew Agent Dunn's attention briefly.
"Sorry." Brandt murmured and leaned away from a panel he had accidentally put his elbow on opening a weapon vault. Jane sighed and rolled her eyes.
"What happens next then, I wondered when mankind faces the next end of the world?" The footage continued to roll.
"I looked to Hiroshima, Nagasaki...thriving cities rebuilt from the ashes. Monuments to the unimaginable, dedicated to the concept of peace. It occured to me here that nuclear war might have a place in the natural order, but only if it could be controlled...Only if it touched every living soul equally."
Ethan stopped the video. Helene turned to exchange glances with Brandt as the image of the Russian stayed frozen on the screen. His gaze unsettlingly was pointed at them.
"IMF now believes that this man, Kurt Hendricks is the nuclear extremist code name Cobalt." Ethan explained while motioning back at the screen.
"Today he was seen leaving the Kremlin, with what is likely a nuclear launch device...Two days ago Sabine Moreau killed one of our agents in Budapest and relieved him of Russian nuclear launch codes." He directed this last statement at Brandt and Helene.
"Intel indicates she will check into the Burj Hotel in Dubai in 36 hours. Marius Wistrom is a known operative of Cobalt. Wistrom is currently on en route to Dubai. For the launch device to work, Cobalt needs the activation codes. He's sending Wistrom to buy them from Moreau."
Here Ethan paused before continuing and he faced Dunn and Jane as he spoke. "The Secretary..is dead."
Jane looked shocked. Dunn dropped the pen he had been fiddling with in his hands.
Brandt shook his head in despair while Helene glared holes into the floor.
"The President has invoked Ghost Protocol. We're shut down. No satellite, safe house, support or extraction. The five of us and the contents of this car are all that remain of the IMF and as of this moment any action is unsanctioned so if you want out, speak now." Ethan finished and glanced back at the newcomers.
Brandt started to open his mouth. "Uh.." He began then stopped when he thought better of what he was going to say.
Helene averted her gaze from Ethan. "If he stays, I stay." She muttered, meaning Brandt obviously though she wasn't looking at him when she spoke.
Ethan looked satisfied. "Our mission is Hendricks. We're all that stands between him and his goal. Nothing can be left to chance. Everyone connected with this man is considered an asset with valuable information about our target. No one can know we're still online. We lose Hendricks now. We lose him forever." He finished and Jane raised her chin.
"So what's the play?" She asked.
"Wistrom will take delivery from Moreau in 36 hours." Ethan told her. "Now we cannot let the launch codes leave the hotel, but we need Wistrom to lead us to Hendricks."
"And he'll only do that if he has the codes." Brandt muttered tauntingly in a bitterly sarcastic way. Helene shot him a look.
"Or if he thinks he has them." Ethan corrected. "Our objective is to intercept the sale, replace the authentic codes with counterfeits and follow Wistrom to Hendricks." He explained.
Helene nodded her head. "Well that sounds simple enough." She agreed, while eyeing Jane, Brandt and Dunn with the corner of her eye.
"Exactly!" Dunn piped up from the other side of the room. "We snatch the codes, gin up some fakes. Jane you double Moreau and sell the codes to Wistrom and Bob's your uncle." He shrugged.
Helene smiled slightly at him. "And how do you propose we just snatch the codes from Moreau?" Brandt asked still doubtful, earning a glare from Jane.
"We take her out." She said simply, a slight edge to her voice though Brandt didn't really seem to hear it.
"Yeah, we take her out! But...you know, discreetly." Dunn chimed in. Brandt raised an eyebrow. "Discreetly?"
"Yeah." Dunn said in an obvious tone.
Helene frowned when she noticed the sudden murderous look in Jane's expression. She was obviously very eager to end this Moreau, but there was also a sense of pain in her eyes. A sense of loss that made the Medic wonder about its source.
"Benji we can't take her out!" Ethan barked, obviously frustrated that his teammates had missed his earlier point. Dunn immediately ducked his head.
"Oh right! She's an asset. Right! Sorry. Nothing left to chance we -. " He stopped when he noticed Jane glaring at him.
"He said- I'm spit balling here! It's not all going to be gold!" He protested.
"We don't touch Wistrom." Ethan added. Benji nodded his head. "All right." He conceded. Jane still looked angry.
"Ethan-."
"Or Moreau!" Ethan cut her off though his tone wasn't unkind. It was understanding and that piqued Helene's curiousity even more.
"She'll answer for Hanaway...but it has to be when I say. After we hit Hendricks." Ethan continued and Jane dropped her gaze.
"Hanaway?" Helene murmured out loud without thinking. She thought back to Ethan's speech earlier after the video ran out and gazed at the back of Jane's head.
Moreau killed an Agent Hanaway for the codes. Could it be that he and Jane were...
Jane cringed when she heard his name being spoken, but said nothing before turning to go back into the spare room.
Ethan sighed as the door slammed rattlingly loud after her. "Everyone get ready!" He nodded towards the rest of the group. "And get some rest."
Dunn sighed and got up to go check something on the computer. Brandt nodded and nudged Helene in the arm.
"You got it Team Leader." He picked up the clothes Jane had left him and headed for the bathroom on the other side of the compartment. Ethan sighed and nodded at the door Jane had gone through a minute before shaking off the comment as if he were waking up from a bad dream.
"You can change in there." He spoke to Helene and she nodded at him gratefully before reaching for the dry clothes and the first aid kit.
"Thank you." She murmured and walked past Benji to get to the room. "You don't think...she'll mind if I go in do you?" She directed her question at Benji who looked up to make eye contact with her when he heard her question.
"Better you than me, Love." He grinned cheekily before looking back down at data he had on his laptop. Helene gave him a nervous smile.
"Thanks Dunn." She reached for the handle of the door and quietly pulled open the heavy metal door. "It's Benji." Benji corrected, but the only reply he got was the slamming of the door.
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