Chapter 5
Steak outs were probably the worst part of the job, at least for him. He hated being stuck in one place, sat around staying out of sight while he waited for something that may or may not happen. He'd been there all night, when the couple had first got home he'd heard a lot of noise, gun shots every ten seconds. He could honestly say he was glad he didn't live in this neighbourhood because the nice neighbours hadn't even called the police about it, that being said his own neighbours had to be the nosiest people he'd ever met, he'd prefer it if they'd just mind their own business occasionally.
He shifted in his seat and opened the window on the opposite side of the car to the house just a crack. He needed to let some fresh air into the car, it smelled like old coffee and the take out he'd brought with him last night. On top of that the car was getting stuffy and it was going to be another hour before his replacement arrived to relieve him.
He hadn't seen or heard anything for a while and he was beginning to suspect the couple had killed each other. He rolled his neck, stretching out muscles that had been stuck in pretty much the same position for far too long. He didn't dare close his eyes, he'd been given this assignment right on the back of another one and he hadn't slept in over a day, if he closed his eyes for more than a second he'd fall asleep.
There was movement in the house, he barely caught it in the corner of his eye but he was sure he'd seen something. He watched closely, he wasn't even sure where the movement had come from but if someone was alive in there he was going to find out. It was the upstairs window, someone walked by it but he didn't quite catch who it was. They passed by again, Elizabeth Weir, she was part way through changing her top and under normal circumstances he would have enjoyed that but he was from the other company, he would have preferred to see Sheppard. If Weir was still alive that meant his company had been the one to lose an Agent, he really didn't like losing.
She was talking to someone which didn't make sense, he'd been there all night and other than the two Agents no one had entered the house. He couldn't see who it was but she smiled at something so he guessed it was someone she knew. That's when Sheppard moved into view, he kissed her neck as he reached behind her for something.
"This is Tomlinson outside the Sheppard house," he said into the radio. "Both Sheppard and Weir are alive and they don't seem to be trying to kill each other anymore."
"Understood," a voice replied. "Assault Team moving in."
"Copy that," he replied, if the Assault Team was on the way then it was probably a good idea to get out of here. They could be quiet and subtle when they wanted to be but with two of the best Agents in the business as their targets they were probably going to make an all out assault on the place. He didn't particularly fancy getting caught in the crossfire. It was time to go home and get some sleep.
John finished pulling his shirt on as he made his way downstairs, Elizabeth was in what remained of their kitchen trying to find something to eat. John grabbed an apple and sat on a stool as Elizabeth decided she couldn't be bothered with her search and joined him. Last night had been... interesting. He hadn't been able to kill her and he was glad to say she hadn't been able to kill him either, after that it had been like when they'd first met, feelings he'd forgotten he had were suddenly the only things he could think of.
"I lied," she told him and he smirked, he figured she'd probably lied about a lot. "When I said you were just a mark, I didn't even know you were an Agent until I saw the footage from the McKay job."
"And I didn't know you were one until I saw you run out of the hotel across the street as a blonde, interesting look by the way," he told her and she smiled and looked down as he tugged on a strand of her hair. "I prefer the brown."
"Good because I have no intention of becoming a permanent blonde," she stated. "I can't believe I never knew who you were; you'd think being married to you I might have figured it out at some point."
"Yeah, well I thought I was busted six months ago when I came home in a chopper with a stab wound," he stated. "How did you not notice that?"
"I remember you being hurt, you said it was an accident at the construction site, don't recall the chopper though. Wait, was that right after got back from my three day trip?" she questioned and John thought for a minute before nodding. "I took a sleeping pill that night, hadn't had a proper chance to sleep for days and I didn't want to get woken up by you when you came back from wherever you'd been."
"Do you ever have trouble sleeping?" John questioned, "After you take out a mark."
Elizabeth shook her head. "No, I did at the beginning but not for years now."
"Same here," John replied. "You know I think..."
He was cut off by the sound of a small explosion near the front of the house; he was up in a second running through to the lounge for his gun. Elizabeth's was nearby so he grabbed that as well handing it to her as she ran into the room. It had to be his company; if they knew he hadn't taken Elizabeth out they'd do it themselves. There were voices in the house, several of them and he figured it was probably an Assault Team.
"We need to get out of here," he stated and Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him.
"You think?" she questioned sarcastically. A man came around the corner, gun in hand and John fired at him before he could even register his presence. He looked down at the body, Jeff, and they'd always gotten along so well.
"He's not from my firm," Elizabeth stated.
"No he's from mine, he owed me money too, kicked his ass at pool last week," John told her as he took the spare ammo clip from the body. Another two men came running in obviously having heard the shots and Elizabeth shot one before he could fire. The other managed to get off several shots in her direction, John tackled her to the ground, the bullets narrowly missing them both. He fired at the shooter, landing two bullets in his chest. Front and back exits would be covered, so would the garage but Elizabeth's car was still parked inside it so if they could get there and get the garage door open they had a chance.
"Come on," he said grabbing Elizabeth's arm and pulling her up from the floor with him. They shot three more men in the hallway and another two in the garage. John quickly checked the car for a bomb; they wouldn't have had long so if he couldn't see it straight away it would be there. Elizabeth was rummaging through a box she'd pulled out and John sighed as he went over to her. "Elizabeth, it's time to go."
"Just a second," she pulled out a smaller box and opened it to reveal several grenade, God he loved this woman. There was a clattering sound behind them and John turned around to see the smoke bomb rolling toward them. He ran over to the door and pressed the button nearby, the large white door started lifting and John had no doubt it had drawn some attention. Elizabeth pulled the pin on one of the grenades and threw it under the door as John shot the guy running through the other entrance.
They both got into the car, John starting the engine just as there was an explosion and once the door was open enough for him to get the car out he reversed down the driveway narrowly missing his own car. Bullets came flying at their car but it was too late for anyone to stop them now and John sped away down the road. He put his foot down and swerved around the corner parking the car in a driveway and quickly cutting the engine. He and Elizabeth got out and ran to the back of the house, climbing over the fence and running down the quiet street.
If anyone had seen where they'd gone then they weren't following. John stopped by a car parked at the side of the road and smashed the window, unlocking the door he got in and when he didn't find the keys he hotwired it instead. Elizabeth got in the passenger side and they drove away, it probably wouldn't be long before the car was reported stolen and his firm connected it with them but for now it could at least put some distance between them and here.
Ronon was exactly where John expected him to be, he had breakfast in the same cafe every morning and it seemed this morning was no different. They waited around a while to make sure no one was watching Ronon, anyone who knew him knew Ronon was his friend and probably the only person he'd go to for help. They went inside quickly and sat down at his table; Ronon looked at them both and then sighed.
"Nice to see you John," he greeted. "You look a little rough."
"Long night, bad morning," John explained and Ronon shrugged.
"There's a contract out on both of you now, the firm wants you both dead, $50,000 for each confirmed kill. There's a lot of money sitting at this table right now," Ronon told him.
"You gonna shoot me?" he questioned, he already knew the answer.
"Not today," Ronon replied and then looked at Elizabeth. "Can't say the same for her though, you should have killed her John."
John chose to ignore that. "What's going on, I know why they have a contract on her but why on me?"
"Not just our firm, hers too, every Agent from both firms is looking for the two of you, you're considered as much of a security risk now as she is," Ronon explained and John nodded his head trying to think of something he could do, with that many people after them it was only a matter of time. "Look John, you don't have a lot of options. You can kill her and hope the firm cancels the contract on you or you can run. If the two of you stay together you'll probably be killed, if you separate you stand half a chance. You'll probably get killed anyway but... you'll stand a chance."
John looked at Elizabeth, killing her was definitely not an option so it was going to have to be run but run to where, where could they go that their firms wouldn't find them?
"Have a good laugh did you?" Ronon asked Elizabeth who stiffened slightly at the question.
"I didn't know," she told him.
"Sure you didn't," Ronon replied sarcastically.
"Ronon," John cut in, he'd already had this conversation with Elizabeth and they didn't have time for going in circles. "I need to know where you stand."
"Me?" Ronon questioned. "I'm gonna finish my breakfast, tip the pretty waitress and go catch a movie."
That was as close as Ronon was going to get to admitting he wasn't interested in the contracts on him and Elizabeth. John nodded again and stood up gesturing for Elizabeth to do the same. "We'd better go."
"Good luck John," Ronon said as they walked away, John stopped for a second but didn't turn around before he carried on walking.
"I hate to admit it but Ronon's right, we do only have three options, kill, run together or run separately, all of which end with the possibility of us dying anyway, some more than others," Elizabeth stated as they sat in the car. They'd driven for a little over twenty minutes to put some distance between them, the cafe and any eyes that might have been on Ronon before they'd parked up. They needed to get another car soon; the firms were probably already trying to find this one.
"We're not splitting up," John ruled out that idea straight away. "I don't plan to kill you either."
"Alright," Elizabeth replied uncertainly. "Then we need a plan because running and probably dying doesn't sound like a good one to me."
"Well, we kill enough of them and they'll stop sending people after us," John stated.
"Shoot everyone, great plan John," Elizabeth replied sarcastically. "You know that is so typical of you, you never think you just make things up as you go along."
"As opposed to you who plans out every little detail of everything, you don't leave any room for anything to surprise you, anything not to go your way," John shot back with as much sarcasm.
"And what exactly is wrong with that?" she questioned. "I apologise if I don't want some idiot to come around a corner and shoot me by surprise."
"The problem is that planning for everything makes life really boring, where's the fun, what about life is interesting?" John countered. "Hell the day we went to the zoo a few years back you planned exactly which animals we were going to visit and in what order. I got close to one of the cages and you told me I should stay at least two feet back from the animals. It was supposed to be a fun day out and you turned it into a planned out operation."
"Don't exaggerate," she told him. "I like to know what I'm going to do, when and how, there's nothing wrong with that and... we're off topic here, let's just call 'shoot everyone' plan B. We need a plan A."
"Fine, got any ideas?" John huffed.
"We have to give them a reason not to come after us, other than we shot all their Agents," she stated thoughtfully. "We give them something they want more than us."
John caught onto her train of thought quickly. "The McKay contract."
"That's right, that contract was worth a fortune to both companies, more than most of the contracts we get. If we can get McKay we can we can make an exchange, his death and all the money for the contract in exchange for our lives. They leave us alone and they get a pay day, they come after us they get a whole lot of dead agents and an expenses list a mile long," Elizabeth explained.
"It could work," John stated and Elizabeth nodded. "We just need to find out where McKay is now."
"I think I can get that information."
They'd rented a cheep motel room, one they'd been able to pay for with the cash they had on them and without showing any ID. They'd used a fake name and gotten a room that was out of the way but with a good view of the rest of the motel, if they were found they wanted to know about it quick.
Elizabeth's phone rang; she'd contacted Teyla in the hopes that her friend would still be able to use the contact she had within the police to find McKay's current location. Teyla had said she'd try and call her back when she had something, Elizabeth could only hope she'd been able to find McKay, both hers and John's life depended on it. If this didn't work then they'd only have one real option left, run.
"Hello," she answered, wary of who might be on the end of the line.
"It's me," Teyla replied and Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. John was sat on the bed watching her, he hadn't been fond of the idea of her calling someone within her firm but he'd trusted her and she trusted Teyla. "I found him, it wasn't easy but between me and my contact we managed to get a location on him."
Elizabeth hastily scribbled down the name and address of the hotel McKay was in and handed the paper to John. "Thank you Teyla, I know you took a risk helping me."
"Anytime," Teyla replied. "Try not to get yourself killed okay."
"That's the goal, bye," Elizabeth said and hung up the phone. John was getting their few things together, his jacket and their guns. She had a stash of weapons, equipment and ammo hidden away in a storage locker; they'd have to make a stop there if they had any hopes of pulling this off.
"Are you sure we can trust Teyla?" John questioned.
"I'd put my life on it," she told him confidently.
He nodded. "Good because that's exactly what's on the line."
They'd both had to wonder around the hotel for a while before Elizabeth had spotted an officer. He was dressed in plain clothes but she'd been able to tell it was him. It was a hot day, too hot for the jacket the man had been wearing and a very brief glimpse of the gun holstered beneath it had told Elizabeth everything she needed to know. She'd followed him around, careful to stay out of sight and when she'd passed by John she gestured for him to take over following the officer. It had only taken a few minutes of walking in circles before the man had finally stopped and walked into one of the rooms, that had to be the one.
John had met Elizabeth in the car, they'd be better of waiting until dark, the officers would switch shifts as would the hotel employees who might have seen them wondering the halls. They could hopefully get in unnoticed, grab McKay and get out again without too much hassle. Elizabeth had of course planned everything; she'd hacked into the hotel computer system and got a map of the building, air conditioning vents included.
She was obviously sending John crawling through the vent while she got to go in through the door; he hadn't bothered to argue with the plan. They got ready, checked their guns and the radios and by the time they had everything set and Elizabeth had gone through the plan five times it was dark. They went back into the hotel, splitting up as soon as they were through the doors, Elizabeth went to the elevator and John took the stairs up to McKay's floor. He came out right next to the janitor's closet and quickly picked the lock, ducking inside the room before anyone could see him.
The vent was at the back of the room, half blocked by the metal shelving and tonnes of cleaning supplies that were in his way. He dropped most of them on the floor and pushed the shelf to the side so he could get access to the vent. Elizabeth should be getting the card from the maid right about now so he needed to hurry.
He removed the vent cover and threw his bag into the vent climbing up into it. It was narrow and dusty but it would get him to where he needed to go, that was if he could remember the directions Elizabeth had attempted to burn into his memory. A left that and a right, straight forward, another left and another or was it right, no, it was definitely left, then a right and voila, he was here. He could see the hotel room through the vent, the cop he followed was in there, he could see a couple of other people who had the whole cop demeanour. There were probably more of them that he couldn't see if the security around him the last time was anything to go by. He took his gun out of his bag careful not to make any sound that would alert them to his presence.
"I'm outside the door John, just waiting on you," Elizabeth's voice told him through the radio, as soon as she heard the shooting she'd come in. He aimed the gun at one of the cops; it was a shame that they were probably going to have to kill them. It was one thing to leave them alive when all he had to do was kill the target, kidnapping him was a different story though.
He opened the vent slowly cursing when it creaked and immediately drew the attention of the cops. He fired quickly, the first cop dropping and the second following him. He didn't have time to aim at the third cop before he had the man's gun aimed at his head. Before the officer could fire Elizabeth came through the door and put two bullets in him and John took the opportunity to jump down from the vent. Two more cops came running into the room and between him and Elizabeth they took them both out.
Elizabeth went through the door the two cops had just come through and came out a moment later with McKay in tow. The man was complaining about being manhandled but quickly switched to pleading for his life. They both ignored him; they needed to get out of there quickly; there were probably more cops in the building.
They threatened to shoot him right there and then if he didn't shut and that seemed to silence him, at least temporarily. Elizabeth pulled her blonde wig out of her bag and put it on McKay's head despite his protest. John told him he'd also shoot him if he didn't co-operate. Leaving the room they half dragged him along and into the stairwell, they got to the lower floor and out the front door easily enough. With the shifts having just been changed it was easy to get passed the couple of cops who were entering the building. They were so focused on getting to the room that they didn't notice their witness walk right passed them, especially since he was now a blonde.
They got McKay back to the motel and tied him to a chair in the room; John gagged him after five minutes of listening to him complain whilst he and Elizabeth tried to work out their next move. They'd argued about it for several minutes and it didn't seem to be getting them anywhere.
"I don't see how that'll help John," Elizabeth said. "We can only go to one company and even if they agree not to come after us the other firm has no reason to leave us alone."
Rodney started complaining in the background, trying to talk through the gag. John glanced at him and then turned back to Elizabeth. "We have to try, we haven't got anything else."
"What if we go to both companies, they can split the money between them, since they won't have to pay an Agent anything that'll still be a big pay out for them?" Elizabeth suggested as Rodney continued to complain.
"That might work," he stated and Rodney complained louder. John sighed and walked over to McKay taking the gag off. "What do you want?"
"You can't kill me," he stated.
"Actually we can," John told him and was about to put the gag back on.
"No, you can't, I'm testifying against Biocorp," he replied.
"We already know that, it was in your file," John said and once again tried to put the gag back on but Rodney pulled his head away.
"No, you don't understand, they've been messing with biological weapons, they created a virus that could kill a lot of people and they're selling it to anyone who can pay up," McKay told them, this was why they weren't given too many details on their targets. "If you kill me then they'll get away with it and millions of people could die."
"What makes you think we care?" John questioned, he did care but at the same time this was the only chance he and Elizabeth had. McKay didn't reply and for several moments there was silence in the room.
"Let him go," Elizabeth said.
"What?" John asked, if they let McKay go they had nothing.
"Just let him go John," she repeated and John sighed untying the ropes.
"Go," he said and the man opened his mouth to say something, John had heard all he wanted to from the man. "Go before I change my mind."
McKay ran out of the room taking with him the only leverage he and Elizabeth had over their firms. Elizabeth turned to look at him. "We need a new plan."
TBC