Disclaimer: I have no beta so I'm alpha. That doesn't really make any sense so just blame me.
I'm sorry I haven't updated this story for two weeks because I made a different story... dedicated to passionovermind. And life happened (lost my job and Comic Expo on the weekend).
Jill approached Chuck slowly and touched his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Chuck. I didn't mean to… I mean. I didn't know."
Chuck turned to her and gave a sad smile. "It's okay, Jill. I'm sorry I shouted at you." Jill hugged him and patted his back. "I know you miss her, Chuck. You don't have to lie to me."
"Are you sure that it's her?" Jill slowly pulled away from the embrace. Chuck walked towards the other side of the room and sat down. "I saw her, Jill. She was with Ellie moments before the explosion happened. Plus, she's CIA."
"I know." She looked at her from the window. "She told me." She turned his attention to Chuck who had a pensive look on his face. "What do you mean?"
Jill sighed and combed her hand through her hair. "Chuck, there is something seriously wrong with our government. I think you should listen to our earlier conversation."
Chuck looked at her curiously as she went to the computer and replayed the earlier conversation.
~0~0~
"Please, take a seat." Sarah leaned back in the chair. Jill took a seat while studying the woman in front of her suspiciously.
"Look, woman. If I wanted to kill you, I would've done it earlier. By earlier, I meant the moment you stepped into the room." Sarah let out an annoyed sigh.
"By the way, your trainers should start teaching you people correctly. No wonder the crime rate is high." She mumbled under her breath. "What I am going to divulge to you has to stay in this room. Do you understand?" Sarah looked at Jill ferociously.
Jill nodded her head. "I understand."
"Look, I am not stupid. I know you have this conversation recorded and frankly, as long as the people you trust are the only ones who will get hold of this, I couldn't care less. God knows we need all the help we could get. Because if this conversation gets out, I promise you… I will enjoy watching the life disappear from your eyes." Sarah leaned to the table and said each word slowly with a malevolent tone. "Understand?"
"Crystal." Jill crossed her arms in front of her.
"Defense mechanism", Sarah thought. "Good. She's scared."
"First off, my name is Walker. Sarah Walker. CIA." She raised her hand in front of her, anticipating a handshake. Jill looked at her hand curiously. Measuring her. Giving up, she took the proffered hand."Roberts. Jill Roberts." Sarah gave her a small nod and broke the handshake. A truce.
"Let's start from the beginning, shall we?" Sarah linked her hands in front of her and on the table. "The Ring. That's what they're called. They're an organization composed of the government's higher ups. An opposition, of sorts."
"So they want to take down the government?" Jill inquired.
Sarah gave a noncommittal shrug. "In a nutshell, you can say that. They plan to overthrow the government."
"A coup?" Jill suggested.
"Yes."
"Why do it? Our country is doing well. Why wreck it?" Jill scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion.
Sarah placed her open palms in the table. "Look, officer. No offence, but that's kind of hypocritical. Do you realize what sacrifices had to made in order for the government to 'do well? Do you know how many people died for it to 'do well'?"
Jill gave her a vicious look. "Of course I do! I'm a police officer, for God's sake!"
"Then that answers your question. What do you think happened to their families? Do you think they're happy that they lost someone? Let me tell you something, no one takes anything for face value anymore. Not anymore." Jill saw Sarah's stoic face turn soft… vulnerable… human.
"Who did you lose?" Jill whispered softly.
"Damn it. Get your head in the game, Walker!" Sarah berated herself.
"That's none of your business." She cleared her throat and Jill backed off. "Moving on… For many years, the whole intelligence community was hunting down the organization. Years and years yet no lead came out. Until the CIA wised up and decided to throw a CIA Agent into their hole. That agent's name is Daniel Shaw."
"This is harder than I thought", Sarah stood up and leaned against the wall but remained facing Jill.
"He was undercover for years and finally, he was accepted into their ranks and found where their hideout was. Problem was, he was 'enlightened' by The Ring." Her fists clenched unconsciously.
"So, like the puppet that he is. He ran back to our superiors and reported where the hideout was. The superiors were a little confused as to why he decided to give the information now, of all times. So, they took his wife and son."
"The hell!" Jill shot up from the chair and shouted. "They can't do that! That's unconstitutional!"
"Yeah well, they ARE the constitution." Sarah said sarcastically. "They figured that it was the only way that they can assure his loyalty."
"At the cost of his family's life?" Jill asked, appalled.
"Officer, we signed up for the protection of the greater good." Sarah sighed. Jill shook her head in disgust. Sarah put her hands in her pockets and continued.
"So Daniel ascertained the location of the hideout. We formed a team to attack the hideout. And I was in charge of that team." Sarah took deep breaths to compose herself for the next part of the story. "We were preparing to attack their hideout and he planted a bomb. I doubted him so I followed him outside and unknowingly, following him saved my life. But my team… they all died in the blast." Sarah closed her eyes briefly to swallow the pain from retelling the story. "Long story, short. I hunted him down. Beat him to a pulp and he was captured by the Agency. And now, he escaped. The Director decided to pair me up with a NSA Agent and his partner…under the radar kind of mission. We had this sting set up for Shaw, turns out that the NSA Agent's partner is a traitor which leads us to where we are now." Sarah went back to the seat in front of Jill and raised her eyebrow as she saw the wheels in the head of the person in front of her turned.
Jill looked at the emotionally stunted woman in front of her. "Let's say, hypothetically, that I believe you. How do I know that you're not part of The Ring?"
Sarah shrugged at her. "You don't and you can't."
Jill sat there, stunned at the revelations that the person sitting in front of her just said. In fact, her jaw might be hanging. Taking control of her bearings, she looked at Sarah with a confused yet curious expression.
"So let me get this straight, there is a psychopath roaming this city, as we speak." Jill raised an eyebrow in Sarah's direction.
Sarah let out a sigh in exasperation and nodded. "Yes, his name is Daniel Shaw and he's not really a psychopath but he is a trained agent who is working with an enemy organization called The Ring."
Jill nodded dumbly. "Yes. Yes. And you're working for the CIA?" Sarah just nodded at her to continue.
"And you worked with a ghost killer from the NSA and his partner but it turns out that his partner was a traitor and captured said NSA agent?" Jill looked at Sarah with disbelief in her tone.
"Look, Officer, if you're not willing to help just say so already! You're wasting my time! My partner could be dying as we speak!" Sarah stood up anger and annoyance.
Jill appraised her with a questioning look. "And why can't your Agency help you in rescuing your partner?"
Sarah was already at the end of her rope and this police officer is just asking for it. "Because he is a freaking ghost agent! And the point of them being called "ghost agents" is because they're GHOSTS…meaning they're under the radar so the Agency cannot be held responsible for them!" Sarah punctuated each sentence with a pound on the table.
Okay. So maybe that was a tad bit too much,Sarah thought to herself.
Jill opened her mouth to answer when both of them heard a knock on the 2-way mirror.
With a heavy sigh, Sarah ran a hand through her hair.
"Your mirror's knocking, maybe you should get that." She turned away from Jill and paced in the interrogation room. Jill just looked at her in disbelief but stood up to walk out of the room.
~0~0~
"Getting shot hurt. It hurts like a bitch. That doesn't really make any sense because there's nothing painful about being a female dog. Unless…" Casey stopped the stupid musings brought about by the pain from the gunshot wound. He struggled against his restraints with blind pain. He was seated in a chair- no handles, his arms were tied behind him and fetters in the floor restrained his legs. He was situated in the middle of a dark room with a single light bulb above him, illuminating the whole room.
"You're gonna pay for this, Daniels. You son of a bitch." He growled in his head. He looked at his bleeding leg and assessed the damage.
"Just enough to make it hurt", he thought to himself wryly. He tensed himself when he heard footsteps outside the door. He grinned. Let the games begin.
~0~0~
Chuck stood up and processed what he just heard. Jill turned the recording off and turned to him. "Do you think she's telling the truth?" She asked gently.
Chuck combed a hand through his hair and started walking around the room. "I don't know, Jill. I don't know what to believe anymore." He leaned his back against the wall and scrunched up his eyebrows.
"Twilight Zone, huh?" Jill joked mirthlessly.
"Harry Potter Zone, actually." He turned his head slightly to look her in the eye and gave her a slight smile.
NB: I know that Twilight is different from The Twilight Zone. :) Please, do leave a review. Even if its a simple ':)', it would be appreciated so much.
Believe me, I am tempted to bring a deathly notebook and a shinigami into the mix. ;)