A/N: Thank you for not killing me after my previous chapter! I hope you enjoy this one ;)

I don't own them…

Chapter 13

Brandt couldn't believe what was happening. It was too crazy. So crazy that even trying to make sense out of it made his head hurt. The first shot tore through his arm, also breaking some of the ropes restraining him as the bullet went through the muscle and came out from the other side. Gritting his teeth in pain, the former analyst struggled to look up at his shooter. For a moment he thought he saw tears on his friend's face but it was hard to tell because of the blood from his forehead covering it. There was something else there, too. It looked like he was struggling against pain or something Brandt couldn't even begin to understand. Benji's hand was shaking when he aimed the gun right at William's head this time. In anticipation of whatever was going to come next, Brandt shut his eyes. He heard a gunshot. No additional pain anywhere. Then there was the sound of a body hitting the floor. Still no pain. Brandt opened his eyes.

Benji was standing at the same point where he had been before, shaking and panting quite badly. Their captor was lying on the floor, a pool of blood forming underneath him. For some reason Benji suddenly dropped the gun and pushed it with his foot as far as he could. Brandt opened his mouth to ask his friend just what the hell was going on, but the sudden alarmed expression of the tech's face distracted him. The analyst quickly remembered about the goon behind him who was probably just coming out of his stupor. Using the damage to the ropes, he shot up, breaking free from their remains, and grabbed the chair he had been tied to before hitting the unsuspecting goon with it. The guy proved to be tougher than Brandt had expected him to. Or maybe the hit with the chair wasn't perfectly placed. Either way, the agent had to put a bit more effort to take the guy out, as quite a short fight occurred.

Having made sure the attacker was out cold, Brandt finally turned to look at Benji and his eyes widened in the mix of confusion and worry. The former technician was nowhere to be seen.

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Dr. Phillip Wickham was truly fascinated with how the experiment had been going so far. The subject was responding well, obeying to every command almost instantly. Occasionally he tried to fight it with his will but that was to be expected. And it could be overpowered.

Wickham was also fascinated with Mr. Benzie's insight. Having a communicator and being able to send the commands to Wickham who had the controls to send them to the subject… Genius. And placing them at distance from each other meant it would be harder to figure the whole thing out. He watched the numbers and indexes on the screen, nodding to himself. The only thing he regretted was that he didn't have the video connection, as they didn't have enough time to place cameras everywhere in the building.

Sometime before now he would have called such experiments utterly outrageous. Now he had no idea why he would say that. It was definitely a huge step forward for the science. And several sacrifices were nothing compared to the progress of the whole mankind. And it was Mr. Benzie who shared this wisdom with him.

His phone rang, and he picked it up despite not wanting to tear his attention from the screen. The voice on the other side was familiar. It was one of Mr. Benzie's guards.

"Doc, there are two people heading your way," he said without any formalities. "We'll try to stop them".

"And why are you calling me then?" Wickham didn't like to get distracted. If they could deal with the situation by themselves, what was the point of disturbing him?

"Well…" the guard was unsure. "Thought you might want to know…"

Wickham rolled his eyes and disconnected. When he looked back at the screen, he turned pale. He ran a few additional procedures and checked the comm. After a short hesitation he made the decision. He had to stick to the plan after all.

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Things were getting progressively more and more insane every second. Brandt's mind was racing. He had to find Benji. He had to warn Jane and Ethan about a more than probable attack. If it wasn't too late. And he really had to get some help, as his arm was bleeding quite badly. He immediately decided to delay the last one for a while.

He searched through the guard's pockets before finding a phone and dialing the number. He had to hold back a relieved sigh when he heard Ethan's voice.

"It's Brandt," he mumbled quickly and had to interrupt a flow of worried questions he heard from both of the other agents. "Listen, you have a situation there…"

"I know!" Ethan yelled. All Brandt could hear after that was the noise of a speeding engine and some distant gunshots. He sighed. Not as reassuring as he wanted. But he had to hope that two agents as good as Ethan and Jane were could deal with some average goons. He took the guard's gun and hesitated before taking the one lying on the floor, too. He had to be ready for more obstacles.

Having ran out of the room he found himself in a long corridor. As there was no better option, he just ran down it, bursting all the doors he could see open, sometimes having to smash them, ignoring the pain it caused and the slight dizziness most likely due to the blood loss. All of the rooms were empty. Except for one.