Chapter 11

"Listen closely Rider, 'cause what I'm about to say I will say only once," Desiree sighed, rubbing her temples.

Alex blinked up at her, before nodding and pretending to lock his lips. Four years ago, that should have at least elicited a smile from the girl. Now though, she barely noticed before sitting down on the bed next to him, making sure to put a rather large distance between the two.

"James Olsen never worked for the CIA."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Huh? But –"

"He was sent as an undercover operative," Dessi went on, pretending that Alex hadn't even spoken. "Olsen is one of the top ranking spies for Mossad. It was on their order that he began 'working' for the CIA."

"Then...then what was with him torturing a suspect into insanity?" Alex frowned.

"He never tortured anyone," Dessi said, rolling her eyes, "The CIA just like to exaggerate. No, the man that was supposedly tortured into insanity was actually one of the ring leaders of a counterintelligence ring operating in several different countries. His name was Ali Saied," Dessi added.

"Erm...was?" Alex asked hesitantly.

The girl shot him a look. "Ali Saied was the sixth highest on Mossad's Most Wanted list. When he found out that Olsen was from the Mossad, he freaked out. His brain cracked under the stress, and he was shipped off to the asylum before Olsen could get anything useful out of him. Right now, Saied has no idea who he is. Whatever information he once knew is officially lost in his fragmented mind. I doubt we'll be able to get it out of him again."

A slight shiver ran up Alex's spine as Desiree continued.

"So Olsen was fired for scaring the suspect into insanity, and the CIA fired Olsen since they were apparently under the impression that Saied was tortured," Dessi added carelessly.

"So...Olsen isn't dangerous?"

"Have you not been listening to anything I said?" Desiree snapped. "He was trained by the bleedin' Mossad! Of course he's dangerous!"

"Okay..." Alex trailed off, before deciding to drop the topic, "So, why are you working with him, anyway?"

Dessi sighed. "There was a counterintelligence ring operating in Australia," she said grimly, a haunting look passing across her eyes, "We stopped it, but at a price."

Desiree bit her lip, almost like she was trying to stop herself crying.

"Mossad found out about one of the final ring leaders, and contacted us for help," Dessi said when she got herself back under control. "I was flown here three days later."

"I see...so, can I ask who Matthew is?"

Dessi raised an eyebrow at him. "I would ask how you even knew his name, but I'd rather not know," she said coolly. "Agent Matthew Lake is one of the new agents assigned to Unit One...my unit," she added in a whisper, looking down at her hands.

Alex looked at the girl worriedly, before reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder. Desiree flinched rather violently, shifting slightly to dislodge the hand before her brain even registered the fact that it hadn't been a threat. A look of regret flickered across her face before it morphed back into its mask again.

"I heard Matthew and Olsen talking the other night..." Alex began, "And they were talking about a target trained by Scorpia, with a back-up team in place. At the time I thought they were talking about me but now...I'm not so sure."

"You know, the world doesn't revolve around you, Rider," Dessi said. For the first time since Alex had rudely barged into the girl's room, he heard a hint of amusement in her voice as the corner of her mouth twitched upwards. A moment later, it was gone.

"So they were talking about the counterintelligence leader?"

"Well...no, not really. They were talking about one of the men who work for the leader. A right idiot if I ever saw one, but his wide knowledge on chemical weapons and also on the weaknesses of the human body make him a rather intimidating opponent."

"Who is it?" Alex asked.

"Brad Willard, one of the lecturers at this camp. Like I said, a right idiot. He didn't even bother changing his name," Dessi rolled her eyes, "Scorpia taught him all he knows about chemical warfare though, so we're a little worried about that. Especially since we currently aren't able to get into his room to scout out his things."

"You're worried that he brought chemical weapons onto the camp?"

"No. I'm worried about what he's going to do with the chemical weapons he brought onto the camp," Dessi said grimly. "His backup team are experienced when it comes to this kind of thing, but he isn't used to working under pressure. I'm worried that he'll snap and fire off God-knows-what in the camp, and kill everyone."

Alex opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off with several loud bangs against the door. Dessi rolled her eyes at their impatience before crossing the room and unlocking the door. James Olsen walked back in, accompanied by one Agent Matthew Lake, who tossed Alex a look before glancing at Dessi enquiringly.

Desiree locked the door before rolling her eyes. "Matthew, this is Agent Rider of the MI6. He's going to be with us for the rest of our mission."

Matthew gave Alex a piercing glance before nodding in welcome. Alex couldn't help but notice the way he shifted ever so slightly closer to Desiree.

"He can't be working with us," Olsen said.

"Oh? And pray tell, why not?" Dessi asked, crystal blue eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"Because," Olsen went on, "This is our jurisdiction! MI6 have no claim over it!" Had he not been a trained Mossad agent, his tone would currently be classified as a whine.

"Really? Well unfortunately for you, MI6 is my jurisdiction. And since Agent Rider works for the MI6, he's also working with us." Though Dessi spoke very calmly, it would've taken a complete moron to not notice the dangerous undercurrent to her voice. Olsen definitely noticed it, and he immediately backed off the topic.

"Anymore complaints? No? Good," Dessi said, before turning to a confused looking Matthew. "What did you find out?"

Matthew blinked a couple of times before his brain clicked back into gear. "He was talking about BZ gases today. Mainly historical uses and that."

Desiree's eyebrows rose. "BZ? As in benzilate gas?"

"Yeah," Matthew said rather grimly.

Alex looked on in confusion. "What's wrong with that?"

Dessi sighed. "Remember how I said Willard is a chemical expert?" At Alex's affirmative nod, she went on. "Quinuclidinyl Benzilate, or BZ gas as it's more commonly known, is a military incapacitating agent. It's quite dangerous, especially since it's odourless so you can't detect it until too late."

"How does it get into your body?" Alex asked.

"That's the thing about BZ gas," Olsen said, "It can be released into the air or dissolved into a solvent for ingestion. Makes our lives very hard."

"BZ gas affects your nervous system," Dessi carried on, "It can screw up your vision, your heart rate, and your mind. You start to see things that aren't there, start to believe things that aren't true."

"There was a case last year," Matthew added, "A marine was subjected to 10 micrograms of this stuff. He...he ended up killing himself when he ripped out his eyeball."

Alex winced.

"So, you think that he has this...BZ gas?" He asked hesitantly.

"Almost certainly. Willard has never been one to keep quiet about his achievements – and it's quite an achievement to smuggle BZ gas into this camp. What I want to know is how the man got his hands on the stuff in the first place," Dessi scowled. "Its deadliness means that the military keeps an extra close eye on where their BZ gas goes."

"It should easy to trace, though," Matthew said.

"Okay then, you're in charge of tracing it. And Olsen, you help him." Dessi ordered. When the two gave her stricken looks, she all but shouted, "Now! Go!"

Without a backward glance, the two were out of the room, leaving Alex sitting with a rather bewildered expression on his face.

"Er...what just happened?" He asked as Dessi pulled out a small plastic container and unscrewed the lid. As he watched, the girl drew out a small brown contact lens, before carefully putting it into her eye. After repeating the process a couple of times, she blinked rather rapidly before the contact lenses settled into place.

"You look better with blue eyes," Alex said.

"Maybe, but they were too obvious," Dessi replied, turning her head as she put her contact case away. But not before Alex caught sight of a slight blush gracing the girl's cheeks. He almost grinned in victory.

"Anyway, I just sent those two off to get in contact with military headquarters. Hopefully they'll also think to contact the NCIS, since they were the ones who were actually in charge of the marine case last year," Dessi added. Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder. "Rider, are you coming?"

"Where?" Alex asked, getting up off the bed.

"We're going to pay a visit to a certain Professor Saunders," Dessi said, a trace of a smile on her lips.

"How –?"

"How did I know he was Ben Daniels?"

"Yeah," Alex breathed, looking at Dessi with admiration.

"Let's just say...I have a good memory."

.

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Well, hopefully you all followed the explanation...

So how did you like that chapter? Was it good? Did it make you want to puke? Please do let me know what you thought! REVIEW!

Anyways, I promise the action will pick up in the next few chapters!

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Love Chariots99

By the way, did any of you catch the episode of NCIS I was referring to? Lol...