Now

Basin City, Nevada

"I'll take the fall."

"Don't be stupider than usual, Priest." Said Mona as she sipped a cold beer as the minutemen sat in the living room of a rundown house they'd rented on the edge of the red lights district known as Old Town.

"We all agreed to do this. And don't forget that it was my idea."

"I have hypothetical question, guys." Said O'Brien, "Would Sheikh fire us?"

"Unlikely."

"Would he fire Priest?"

Priest looked to O'Brien with confusion.

"I mean, he wouldn't would he? You're our biggest button man."

"If you're trying to imply that Priest should take the fall, you stop it right now."

"Hey, some of us are just filler anyway." Said O'Brien, "You think they would can me just to make an example?"

"Whatever. Where's Lang?"

"Pouting." Said Shaun, "She's still a bit iffed."

"She's acting like she's the only who was ever drugged and abducted to Sin City."

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"You want to laugh? Laugh. Otherwise, leave me alone."

"They're here." Said Lucy as she stepped away from the window, "They just pulled up outside."

"Alright. We have nothing to worry about," said Mona, "This didn't cost us anything and we got what we needed. So we'll just say the truth."

A minute passed slowly till Nemo and Al-Sheikh came bursting through the door.

"Is she here?" asked Al-Sheikh calmly.

"Yeah, she's in-"

"Good. Sax, Priest, Kitchen. Everyone else, get out."

The minutemen exchanged a look before Sayid headed to the door, followed by O'Brien, Shaun and Lucy.

Gotham City, Maryland

"A crook from Southie, a z-list celebrity, a bartender, a nazi…. What kind of crack-team is this?"

"The kind that successfully infiltrated this building." Said Josephine without looking up from the a report in her hands. Mandy sighed and looked down.

"What I meant is that since we now know what we're dealing with, we don't need to go outside the company to recruit anybody."

"You have your orders, miss Hughes."

"Don't call me Miss Hughes, don't pretend like I'm not…. ."

Mandy sighed.

"Are you just going along with Leiter to… I don't know, share the heat when the Chairman finds out about this?"

"That's precisely what I'm doing." Said Josephine, "Who is Leiter sending as his representative?"

"He wanted to send Woolfwood, but knew the issues we have with him. He said he wont press the matter if we have a problem with it."

"Inform him that we do have a problem."

"Alright."

Now

Basin City

Al-Sheikh leaned against the doorframe, surveying the others in silence. Mona looked nervously at Nemo, who in turn stared directly at Priest, who seemed generally unconcerned as he and watched the smoke from Al-Sheikh's cigarette as it twisted and moved.

"Who's bright idea was it?" asked Nemo emotionlessly.

"Captain," started Mona, "Sir, we-"

"Mine."

Mona rolled her eyes as Priest went on and said, "It was my plan."

"Miss Sax?" said Al-Sheikh.

"He's lying."

"No, I'm not-"

"I suggested it; we all made the decision to go through with it."

"You know, I wouldn't be too eager to take credit for that spectacle of sheer stupidity." Said Nemo, "Now, obviously, one is lying, and I'm at a loss for who it is. On one hand, this is the lunacy I expect from you, Priest. But on the other hand, I don't see how the rest could be persuaded to follow your lead."

"I only had to persuade one."

"Oh, really?"

"Priest, for Christ's sake! Enough." Said Mona.

"Lucy."

"I beg your pardon?"

"All I had to do was convince our resident psychic this was the right thing to do. With her help, swaying the rest was simple."

"Bullshit." Said Al-Sheikh as he stepped closer to Priest and put out his cigarette on the kitchen table, "Maybe you're both covering something, maybe Miss Sax is telling the truth. You want the blame? Alright, consider yourself held accountable."

"Oh. Good."

"You're out." Said Nemo.

Priest's went from indifference to visible shock, his jaw dropped and his fingers stopped drumming on the kitchen table.

"Shit."

"What do you mean he's out?"

"Your operation was not authorized by myself, Mr. Al-Sheikh or any of the Captains."

"You're kidding!" Priest barked.

"Excuse me, I feel like I should point this out." Said Mona, "Didn't we have an okay to attack a security convoy the same day?"

"It's not the same. This is a cold war." Said Al-Sheikh calmly, "We're supposed to do things a certain way to keep it from escalating into an all-out-war. We attack the league, but not in their stronghold. Ever."

"Look, we all made it out in one piece!" Priest said, "We have the one person who can bring down McNeil in the other room!"

"But you've cost us one of our top operatives."

"Who?"

"Our man in Gotham didn't take too well to the part he played in your plot."

"Is it my fault your boy didn't have the stomach to do what had to be done?"

"You launched an attack on a main branch of the League!" shouted Nemo, "You engineered a terrorist threat! Impersonated the city's police commissioner! Doesn't any of that strike you as something we should have known about beforehand?"

Priest sighed.

"You forgot about the part where I threw the branch director out of a window."

"Way to go, Priest.That'll get 'em real mad." said O'Brien as he sat in the car's passenger seat, listening alongside Lucy, Shaun and Sayid to the static ridden transmission received on the car's radio, coming from a bug Sayid had planted inside the house.

"Priest is stupid." Said Lucy as she sat in the back, "Doesn't he realize it's my ass on the line if they believe his story?"

"You did what?"

--

"…That settles it, then." Said Nemo, "If this doesn't put us in a state of active war with the League, nothing ever will."

"Oh, come on!" Priest barked, "Nemo, seriously! There was a day I was born and it wasn't yesterday. Are you going to say we were'nt already in a state of active war with the League?"

"No, we weren't."

"Well, seeing as how you're so sure, I dare you to go out there and tell it to Shaun, tell him that in the grander scheme of things, everything that happened to him was of little consequence. I dare you!"

"Is that what it was all about, Priest?" asked Al-Sheikh, "Easing your conscience through petty revenge? Did throwing Wilhelmina Jekyll out of a window make you feel redeemed?"

"I don't give a rat's ass about redemption."

"Did it all help sleep at night?"

Priest's face was unchanged for a few moments, before a smirk spread across his lips.

"Almost. Maybe next time I'll get to kick Bond in the balls or something, that oughta do the trick."

--

"I know about the listening device you used," said Al-Sheikh, facing five of the minutemen, "So I'm going to assume you're already caught up. Lana Lang is being escorted to the city docks by Mr. Priest, that's where she will board the Yellow Submarine. You're not going to be seeing him for some time. As for the rest of you, you are to head there as soon as I leave."

"Where are we going?" asked Shaun.

"Away from the States for some time, till I can make arrangements."

"What kind of arrangements?"

"For security measures, you may not know that until you're aboard the Yellow Submarine."

"What about Priest?" asked Sayid, "Will he be returning?"

There was a long pause before Al-Sheikh said,

"Perhaps."

"What kind of answer is that?" asked Mona, leaning against the window frame, "Is he or isn't he?"

"Mr. Priest has some important work to do in Eastern Europe. His returns depends on him performing his assignments, and surviving them."

"Exactly what did you send him to do?"

Al-Sheikh looked into Mona's eyes in silence and then turned to the door, picking his suit jacket off of the coat rack and put it on.

"I'm heading home. You've done good work, all of you."

Next Chapter

Life on the Yellow Submarine. Deep Throat. Priest in Russia.

R&R.