Lucas stared at the code surrounding the fire wall. He manipulated several points, and an opening appeared. Well, step one was easy. Now it gets harder. The next wall showed as glowing red, a warning in any language. He was about to step inside but paused. With a mental wave, he summoned the vid-screen. I'm going in, but I don't know if you'll be able to follow me.
"Leave me here, I'll be able to see enough to make sure you don't pull anything." Julianna told him, looking at the fire wall with excitement.
Would it do any good if I asked you to free Jayde again?
She sighed and flared her eyes, "no, stop pushing me! All you have to do is..." The screen went black and dissipated.
Julianna? Lucas tried to find the screen again. That wasn't me! Don't hurt her!
"What did you do? Turn it back on Lucas! I'm warning you!" Julianna yelled into her screen. It wasn't turned off, but the screen was a softly glowing grey. She turned to Jayde, "you are going to pay for what he did!" Jayde didn't react to the threat, her eyes were closed and there was no movement at all. The room's installed vid-screen rang, startling yelp out of Julianna. She made sure she was the only thing it could see before answering.
"Who is this? I programmed this stupid thing so no one would interrupt me."
"I know Julianna, I had to fix it." Nick informed her, glaring.
"Oh, Nick... how did you find me?"
"Did you forget the night we made up our fake names?"
A sad smiled crossed her face, "For the Shadowrun RPG? No... I did forget how much you liked that one though. Look, I can't explain this now, Nick. Jayde and I are safer here. Have you told anyone where we are?"
He looked down slightly, "I... I didn't. I figured out where you were and called right away. What's happening, you know you can tell me everything."
"I'm sorry, it just wasn't safe on the ship anymore."
"Captain Bridger will protect you, he'll protect all of us."
Julianna's face darkened, "no, he's the one who wants to hurt us... we... we have to stay here. Some one else will come for us."
"What? You're not making any sense. Please come back."
"I can't Nick... I can never come back."
He fought the desperation from coming into his voice. "Where is Jayde?"
She made small wave over her shoulder, "she's sleeping right now."
"Julianna... why is there blood on your hand?"
Bringing it back to her lap, she smiled slightly. "Don't worry about it, Nick. Everything is going to be ok."
Nick shook his head and began speaking slowly, "Julianna, you need to come out and talk to us."
She stood suddenly, "come out where? Who the hell is us? Where are you?!" She screamed. "You lied to me!" She rushed to the small window and shoved the curtains aside. She saw him kneeling on he pavement of the parking lot staring at a small portable vid-screen, surrounded by Seaquest crew. "Nick... what did you do to me?"
"Please! We just want to help you and Jayde!" Nick pleaded with the screen. Now that Julianna was out of sight he could she the slumped form of the other girl. "Oh god... what did you do to her?"
Julianna closed the curtain again and crossed back to the screen, she spun it to face her. "It's to late for her, it's to late for me. Just leave me alone." She had a wild look in her eyes that Nick had never seen before.
"What do you mean it's to late for her?"
"I... I don't think she's breathing anymore..."
The screen jostled and quickly faced the ground. Julianna could hear voices shouting angrily before there was a knock at the door. "Let me in!" Nick yelled through the thin wood.
Before she could think about it to much, Julianna wrenched the door open and pulled her friend inside. "What are you doing? I told you to leave me alone."
"Not until you tell me what this is all about! I know those assholes who took over the node beat the crap out of you, but are you really working for them now? How could you do that to Lucas? How... how could you do that to me?" He looked at her sadly.
"Nick... I'm sorry... I just wasn't strong enough to fight them." She swallowed a sob and folded herself onto the floor, hiding her face. "They kept promising me that if I cooperated, they would stop.. and I just couldn't take it anymore..."
Nick dropped to his knees beside her. "I know... and I'm sorry I couldn't help you. But I can now, and we can help Jayde and Lucas too."
"Why do you care? I... mean I know Lucas and you are close friends... but why are you fighting for me so hard? Why can't you just let me do this?"
Nick placed both hands on either side if her head and lifted it until she was looking back at him. "Because, stupid, I love you."
"What? Don't make jokes, you always suck at them."
He sighed and smiled ruefully at her. "You were so busy following Frankie's hacks... that you never noticed me."
"No, I did... I just didn't know you were interested."
"Yeah, well, I'm not big on the butch. I didn't really push it in your face." He stood, "come on, I think we need to get Captain Bridger, and end this."
"It isn't too late?" He shook his head, and she nodded her's. "Ok, let's go." She allowed him to pull her up, and they opened the door together. They walked out with their hands raised together.
Shan and Crocker rushed them and twisted Julianna's hands behind her back. They clicked the metal cuffs closed as she wept. "Jayde needs a doctor, I don't know if she's still alive. I may have killed her... I'm so sorry."
Nathan singled Shan to get her and turned back. "And Lucas's mind? Where is it?"
"The hard drive is still there." Nick explained, "it doesn't look..."
Julianna interrupted him. "No, he's in the 'nex. I... made him break into the World Bank."
"But we cut the line... he won't be able to get back." Nick breathed, looking terrified.
"Go get it working again Nick, find him."
Nick nodded and broke into a run.
Lucas tried every movement he could think of to get the screen back. Finally he gave up and started looking for something else to communicate with Julianna. He knew she didn't have a cell phone on her since they left Node3 so quickly, but there had to be some way to get back to her. He was incredibly worried she would blame him for losing the connection and do something else to Jayde. Or simply let her die without getting help. The flickering fire wall drew his attention again. If I call her and I haven't done anything, she'll be pissed... With a sigh, he went back to work. Contacting her would have to wait. He touched one of the red lines of code and jerked back when he felt the burning sensation rage through his body. Oh, well that just makes this even more fun...
Shan came running out of the room with Jayde in his arms. "She's still breathing, but barely. We need to get her to Dr. Westphalen."
Julianna gasped, "she's alive? Oh..." she closed her eyes, "thank you."
"Get in, we'll deal with you later young lady." Nathan pointed to the door of the transport they had taken to the hotel. She nodded without speaking and climbed in the open door. She sat, staring at the floor with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Crocker came out of the room, carrying the hard drive. "Chief, stay with Nick, he's in the office." Nathan ordered. "We're going to the ship."
"On my way, Cap." He turned and ran the other direction.
Nathan took the towel Shan was trying to wrap around the wound with one hand and tied it tightly. He helped Shan get into the back seat of their transport before taking off at a high rate of speed. He called on his PAL while steering around other cars. "Kristin, we have an incoming injured."
"Who is it Nathan?"
"Jayde, have blood on stand by."
"How much?"
"As much as you can find."
"What happened, Nathan?"
"I'm not all together sure. We have Julianna too."
"And Lucas?"
He hesitated, "they're looking for him."
"Nathan... he doesn't have much time left."
"I know, Nick will find him."
