(Chapter 7. Enjoy! I own nothing but Helene)
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"Goggles...what if they have met?" Helene heard Brandt worry a few minutes after Benji had left to collect the diamonds from Wistrom.
"Focus Brandt." She spoke softly into her communicator, hoping he would hear her as she kept an eye both on him and Jane's positions in the hotel. From another camera angle, she could see Benji coming down the hallway with his tea cart and Wistrom approaching Jane's room from another hallway.
He and Leonid stopped at the door and knocked. Helene held her breath. "Come in." She heard Jane answer calmly from the other side in a thickly accented voice.
Wistrom opened the door and led the way into the room where Jane waited seemingly calm and composed on the outside. Helene quickly diverted her attention to the real Moreau where Ethan and Brandt were standing guarded by several men in black suits in her doorway.
Moreau gazed between them and inclined her head once she had finished with her observation. "Which one of you is Wistrom?" She asked, making Helene and the others relax significantly.
"I am." Ethan responded readily and Helene turned to watch Jane again.
"Which one of you is Wistrom?" Jane asked still using her accent and the two men turned from the window to focus on her.
"I am." Wistrom spoke almost simultaneously with Ethan. "I admire your work." He smiled.
Jane smiled back.
"Sit." Moreau motioned to the chairs on the opposite side of the sofa which she was currently standing in front of. Brandt and Ethan readily complied.
"Where are my codes?" Ethan asked, in a tone similar to one Wistrom would use.
"Where are my diamonds?" Moreau countered.
Helene saw Benji approaching Jane's room. "Benji's in position." She spoke softly, hoping Ethan and Brandt would pick it up.
"You have my payment?" Jane asked and Wistrom smiled discreetly. "When I see the codes." He said calmly.
"I have arrived at Jane's room." Benji spoke into his COMM and Helene nodded as he knocked on the door.
Wistrom and Leonid flinched slightly when they heard the knock.
"Ah! Not to worry. Come in!...I thought we could have tea." Jane said getting up to answer the door.
Benji entered, smiling brightly at the two men seated across the room.
"Mademoiselle...Monsieur." He greeted Jane first.
Helene smothered a smile at Benji's avid cheerfulness and returned to her attention back to Moreau.
"No diamonds. No codes." She smirked coldly at the two men before lowering herself gently onto the couch.
"No codes, no diamonds." Ethan answered.
Moreau frowned. "Kill this one." She glared at him.
Helene tensed. "Benji, do you have the diamonds?" She asked, hoping no one, but the tech agent would hear her.
"We didn't come alone. That hallway out there is a kill box." Ethan said, quite calmly for someone who just recieved a direct death threat.
"You know who we work for." Brandt added, quite threateningly given his earlier unease with the job.
"We come back with the codes or don't come back at all." Ethan finished. Moreau seemed impressed.
"How good is your back up?" She asked.
"The best." Brandt smiled.
Moreau laughed at his confidence. "I've killed the best." She said snarkily. Helene heard Jane inhale sharply when she heard that.
She frowned. "Benji, you need to move." She tapped her earpiece again, turning her attention back to Jane's room.
"Do you care for some sugar?" Benji asked and Helene knew he was trying to pick up the pace subtly.
"Enough. Let's get this done." Ethan's voice cut into her COMM again. "You want payment. I want guarantees. When he's authenticated the codes. I'll make the call and you get your diamonds. That or we all go home in buckets. Nobody leaves this hotel alive." He threatened.
Moreau contemplated Ethan's words. "Get the papers." She said finally and one of the black suits turned to grab something behind a table.
Out of the corner of her eye, Helene saw Jane retrieve the tampered case from behind a potted plant just as Benji left the room.
"Okay! I've got the diamonds. I'm en route to Moreau. Stand by, Helene." He whispered into his COMM. Helene nodded her head as she watched Wistrom struggle with the briefcase for a minute.
"Benji's on the move." She spoke into her COMM to confirm it to Ethan and Brandt.
"Is there a problem?" Jane asked and Wistrom looked up at her. "It's locked." He said, clearly unamused.
Jane glanced down at the case anyway and smirked slightly. "Ah, forgive me. There must be a key. One moment, huh?" Jane said, getting a bit nervous.
Helene started tapping her fingernails on the keyboard as she waited for Benji to reach Moreau's room.
"Ah...my mistake. It's a combination, not a key." Jane said after pretending to search her room for a keychain.
Wistrom kept her from taking the case back. "You tell me the numbers." He said in a low menacing voice. Jane merely raised her head.
"They're good." Brandt spoke, directing his gaze at Ethan though he was really telling Jane that he was finished replicating the codes.
"Zero," Jane began as Benji reached Moreau's room. "Zero...Zero." She finished just as Benji was admitted into Moreau's room. A minute later he emerged, breathing in relief before heading back down the hallway.
"Okay! Payment delivered." He confirmed and Helene sighed a bit in relief. It was almost over. As soon as Moreau got her diamonds and Wistrom got his code copies, they could make a break for it onto phase two of their plan.
"Whoo!" Benji dashed into the room, startling Helene a little as he shut the door behind him. "That's over. How are we doing?" He asked coming over to look at the computer next to Helene after pulling off his disguise.
She moved over to give him space. "They're about to wrap up. Keep your fingers crossed. We're not out of this yet." She shot Benji a look before getting up from the couch.
Benji resumed her spot.
"It was a pleasure doing business with-." Jane started and got cut off when Wistrom slammed the door after himself.
Helene tapped her COMM. "Jane, what happened?" She asked, sensing that something had gone wrong.
"Wistrom's got the launch codes. He's on the move." Jane responded no longer using her fake Russian accent.
Helene glanced towards the doorway. She knew they were right down the hallway from their position and tentatively reached for her gun, wondering if she ought to go after him since Jane was too far off and everyone else was too busy.
"It was a pleasure doing business with you." Moreau said calmly from the other room. Helene waited tense for the meeting to end.
"Kill him!" Moreau suddenly screamed and a gun shot went off. Helene spun on her heel and ran for the door, pulling her revolver out from the back holster of her belt.
"Where are you going?" Benji asked, more like demanded when he saw the gun in the medic's hand.
Helene didn't bother to answer him.
"Moreau's on the move!" Ethan called through the COMM in between throwing punches.
Helene cocked the gun.
"I've got her!" Jane snarled and Helene heard the sound of fabric being whipped through the air.
"Jane! She's an asset! I need...her...alive!" Ethan shouted, punctuating each word with a jab as the fighting continued on his line.
Helene threw open the door.
"Acknowledge!" Ethan called, but there was no response. Helene gritted her teeth together.
"ACKNOWLEDGE!" Ethan tried again.
"Acknowledged!" Helene responded, making for Jane's room just as Moreau skidded into her path.
Seeing her Moreau fired a few shots in her direction, but Helene managed to dodge them and fired back making sure to avoid her vital spots just as Jane came rounding the corner.
Helene paled when she saw the fury blazing through her eyes. "Jane!" She tried to get her attention, but the agent was deaf to her.
Giving up on diplomacy, Helene reloaded her gun and followed the two women towards the stairwell.
"Helene! Come in!" She suddenly heard Brandt's voice call to her on the COMM. She reached up to tap her earpiece. "Will! What's going on?" She asked, slowing her pursuit a little despite herself.
"I need you at the elevators! Leonid's been shot! Two to the chest!" Brandt explained. Helene blanched. "What?" She paused watching as Jane and Moreau tumbled out of view.
She knew she ought to follow them and make sure Jane did not kill Moreau against Ethan's orders, but Leonid was also an asset. If she could save him, he could probably help them track Hendricks before he activated the launch codes.
"Helene?" Brandt called to her, when she failed to respond to him. Helene bit her lip. "I'll be right there." She tapped her COMM and turned to head back towards the elevators praying with all her might that Jane wouldn't do anything rash.
"Oh my God!" Helene paled when she reached Brandt. A severely hemorraging Leonid was lying on the floor propped up against the wall in front of him. His hands stained a deep bloody red.
"Oh my God!" The medic quickly slid to her knees in front of the dying man and removed Brandt's hands carefully so she could see how deep the bullets had gone in. She could tell already though, just by how much blood was staining the carpet and Leonid's shirt that he wasn't going to last another hour.
Not without the proper medical attention at least.
"Hey hey! Stay with me! Stay with me!" Brandt tried to coax the man as Helene hastily tried to reapply pressure to his wounds.
"I won't be able to remove the bullets until the bleeding stops, and he's already lost so much blood." Helene nodded and grimaced at the puddle beneath her feet.
Brandt grimaced at her diagnosis. "We've got to do what we can." He said frowning as he continued to monitor Leonid's pulse.
Helene glared at the blood that seeped through her hands as she quickly tried to think of an altenate solution to their problem.
"Okay, here's what we're going to do!" She motioned at Brandt. "I need you to keep applying pressure to his wounds. I'll try to make some make shift bandages here and if they hold we'll get him back to the base room and fix him up." She switched positions with Brandt and started to tear at the fabric lining her jacket.
Leonid's breathing suddenly became labored. "No no no! Don't go to sleep on me! Look at me! Look at me Leonid! We're going to help you!" Brandt started to get louder, his tone becoming more and more frantic as the light faded in Leonid's eyes.
Helene stopped tearing and looked up to gauge the other man's condition with a worried expression. "Leonid?" She tried to calling his name and his gaze moved to meet hers for a second, then his eyes rolled and he went horribly still. His head rolling back over his shoulder as his last breath left him.
"No no no no no no no no." Brandt panicked as he instinctively tried to apply more pressure to Leonid's bullet wounds.
Helene just stared in shock at the dead man in front of her. "Leonid?.." She reached to check for a pulse. Her heart plummeted sixteen feet when she felt nothing in his jugular.
Brandt reluctantly took his hands off of Leonid's chest and started to gaze in Helene's direction when a gun shot went off startling both of them.
"Oh shoot! Jane!" Helene hissed and threw herself to her feet. Brandt followed and both of them cocked their guns at the same time before entering the room where Jane and Moreau were struggling with each other getting dangerously close to the open window frame.
Brandt fired a few shots in their direction trying to distract Moreau as Helene dashed forward nearly tripping over Benji who was knocked out on the floor.
"Jane!" She tried to get Jane's attention, but at that moment Moreau flipped her to the ground and grabbed the gun when it got loose in the tussle.
Jane was already reacting though and as Moreau got ready to shoot her, she kicked out with her right leg knocking her straight out of the window.
"Jane no!" Brandt shouted, but it was too late.
Helene stared in shock at the other woman as Moreau's screams faded away gradually into the wind.
Brandt lowered his gun as Jane got up, huffing and puffing with the same fiery look still set in her face as he and Helene stared her down.
"Ohhh..." Benji groaned and slowly came to, rubbing his head as Helene dropped her gun.
What have you done?...
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