I was silent in the car on the way home, I was too exhausted and Parker had hit a nerve with me considering recent events; I never asked for this crap to happen, but claiming me as a daughter and then grounding me was a step too far and it hurt. I clocked Spike looking at me as he drove us home, we just wanted to crawl into bed and feel safe as we wrapped ourselves around each other and fought as one.
It was the back of 3am that I woke up in a mess, I got up and went to clean up in the bathroom and decided to head down for a glass of water, I sat at the piano and gently touched a few keys on the old stand-up I had bought for the house. I turned around and started to gently play a song I had found online and fell in love with, within seconds I was fully playing the song and singing along – getting the stress out my system on the keys and pedals; I didn't hear the soft squeak of the forth stair that signalled I had a visitor.
"Mac, we need to talk or you won't deal with what happened yesterday," a voice whispered behind me.
I turned round and nodded, I took his hands and we cuddled up on the couch under the blanket; I had already dealt with the stress of yesterday morning, I was just pissed off with Greg's attitude towards me. Spike pulled me under the covers and soothed my sore muscles, I curled into his side as I climbed onto his lap and rested my head on his shoulder and played with the leather bracelet around his wrist.
"Talk to me Mackenzie, something happened between you and Greg, what is going on?" he whispered.
I pulled the cover over us better and snuggled deeper into his arms, my head under his chin and I felt his other arm snake around my waist and wrap around my hip – it was a sign and promise of a session later on.
"I went to update Greg on what happened during the day and during the incident afterwards, he went all profiler on me and after I had told him everything that happened and passed him the CI number to check – he made a comment that surprised me, and then insulted me!" I started.
"What did he say?" he whispered.
"That I broke his heart every time I kept something back, that I was his daughter and I recklessly risk my life to ensure my teams safety. And to be honest, I went nuts at him. I know with all the crap recently he must be having a coronary and it's not a healthy dose of stress to deal with but…." I replied.
"But?" probed Spike.
"I have sucked everything up recently and dealt with it the best I can, I sure as hell am not perfect and will never try to be; but I am there immediately for anyone who needs me. Parker basically condemned me and now I don't know if I am going to be on the team?" I continued.
Spike pulled me up his lap and I snuggled in as I wrapped my legs around his waist; he just held me for a few minutes and let me get the tension out of my shoulders as he knew I would never get to sleep again with this much stress. He pulled us me in tighter and kissed me gently, it went no further as exhaustion hit me and I was slumping on his shoulder.
I woke up the next morning at 11am, I had sleep solidly for seven hours and I lay in bed and stretched, the door opened and in walked Spike looking all hot in jeans and shirt, I grinned and sat up.
"That's a sight to wake up to Mr Scarlatti, think I can get an encore before I have to go train with Ed?" I asked innocently.
"Would love too but Ed is downstairs," he replied.
I fell backwards and drew the covers over my face.
Twenty minutes later I was walking downstairs in jeans and top and stopped at the bottom to put my boots back on, I was so ingrained into wearing them I owned about four pairs and not much else in the footwear department. Ed was outside talking to Spike with a coffee and I grabbed my jacket while putting my hair up in a tail to keep it out the way, I grabbed a coffee for myself and a bowl of porridge that Spike had heated up for me – he hated the stuff and nearly threw up the first time I made it for him – he got his cocopuffs after that! I walked up behind the two boys and rocked on my heels gently, it was a trick I loved playing on people to give those frights and it normally worked.
"Good morning sleepy head – ready for some fun in the range?" he asked.
I stopped rocking and laughed gently, he hadn't turned round and I knew he had just sensed me with his other senses; I scoffed into my porridge and headed out the door to join them on the patio.
"How the hell do you eat that stuff?" they both asked at the same time.
"Squaddies breakfast, you become immune to the taste after a while!" I replied laughing.
"What's the plan today, straight onto the range for a re-qualification?" I asked.
Ed looked at me and nodded – little did I know they were going to do an intervention between Greg and me to stop the argument we had yesterday.
Wordy was due to come around at lunchtime to help out with the DIY upstairs and I had left plenty of snacks for them due to not getting the BBQ last night; I kissed Spike as we left and Ed drove us towards the range. We talked about yesterday and how I was dealing with it and that if I wanted to talk then I just had to ask. I nodded in reply and checked my phone when it beeped.
"Team four have been released, no lasting issues and the labs have come back clean – good news for all of us!" I updated him.
"Good to hear, talcum powder and a moisture strip with the common cold virus on it – why would someone pull that kind of prank?" he asked.
To be honest I had been thinking the same thing and I had a disturbing thought last night when I went over the profile packet I had created; it was something that one of the men had said to me about 'cross-training'. I suddenly sat up straighter and it clicked,
"Dammit, they lured me out!" I said suddenly.
Ed looked at me and after a few moments pulled into the hard shoulder and stopped the car, he turned around to me and asked me to explain.
"After 9/11 all countries went to high security and all government agencies cross-trained with Hazmat and Decon specialist units, in case of a bio-terror attack, the army were called to give homeland support and the local governments started new legislations for what powers the different agencies had in these situations. The SRU was one of the agencies due to being a gun squad – the protocol would be for us to go full tactical and have full access to everywhere in the city, no matter if it was private property or whatever. The one thing that is not known outside the legislation is that if the main subject is found, they are taken to a military base and sealed in the bunker while tests are performed."
"Okay, I knew that much – but you're talking about a 'typhoid Mary' scenario, is that a possibility?" he replied.
"It's one of the biggest fears the agencies have due to logistical nightmare of tracking outbreak patterns, incubation times and the method of transmutation; in other words if its transdermal or by direct contact, can it adapt and go airborne and contaminate the city quicker. If that would happen then it's only a matter of time before the city would collapse and mass panic would start – basically 28 days later for the laymen!" I replied.
"You said that they 'lured you out?'" he asked starting up the SUV again.
"By using our own protocol against us and having our own team members call in the ERT. It's SOP for contamination that they can't identify, once that call is made to 911, the procedure is to secure the site with help from local police units, clear the area but contain the public within the cordon site and then the ERT would set up its mobile lab and Decon unit. I should never have been called yesterday, I'm not officially part of the ERT until it's declared by law – the only reason I was there was because it involved an SRU team and had an armed suspect within the local AO."
He looked at me and revised everything that had happened yesterday and some other odd chatter he had heard from the news, friends and contacts within the emergency services. He also thought of the strange behaviour from Greg he had noticed, it was like he was seriously stressed and harassed about something? He looked back at me and started to summarize.
"They drew you out, they knew you would go and support your fellow teams as SRU Medical protocol overrides downtime. That's a clever plan Mac, they known our procedures and are trying to get to you from within the teams itself," he replied.
I nodded and racked my brain for further indicators and evidence.
"And then all they had to do was wait for me to come back from the hospital after Decon and try and take me out; they didn't plan on me being prepared with a weapon in my bag, and then when the last man gave me the message, he chews on a cyanide capsule."
Ed looked at me and then pulled back onto the road; I knew he was thinking about the logistical nightmare that this could turn into and probably running through what drills to brush up on. I had already started a list of my own and had emailed Commander Halloran some ideas for the SOP guidelines.
"Is there a specific reason you wanted to do a re-qualification today?"
I looked at him and then back onto the road, there was a specific reason and I knew he was going to go thermal.
"Parker is away today on training, I want you to put me through the basic marksmanship brief." I replied.
Ed looked at me and frowned.
"Thought he had vetoed that idea for you,"
"Yeah well considering we are a man down for a possible month and you're the one when I first started to offer me the training – I thought I would take the offer up today and Halloran gave me the ok."
"You're going against Greg's wishes; no I'm not doing it!" he said as he turned the car around.
"Ed, am I a member of this team?" I demanded.
"Yes of course you are but…" he stuttered.
"But the boss doesn't think I can handle the constant trauma of being a Sierra. So in other words, in his eyes – I'm not a member of the team!"
The car slammed to a stop and he turned around to face me.
"You have been through a lot of crap in your short life and I know it hasn't been easy to deal with the emotional trauma it has caused, you made so much improvement over the last year it has been amazing to watch as you have just shined in our team and made us all better people. But that stunt you pulled going back to Afghanistan – out of line on so many reasons and it broke everyone up – Spike and Greg included. We lost you for over two months and then you suddenly reappear and tell us it was to protect us from a danger we hardly know anything about? Then you are targeted three times in under a week and go thermonuclear on your boss because he laid his emotions out on a plate for you to see!" he hissed out.
I sat there and nodded, there was no use to deny it as that's what I had done to everyone and Greg; I knew he loved us all, but he had a soft spot for Spike and me because we were the youngest….and the most likely to put ourselves at risk to complete our jobs!
Something clicked in my head suddenly and the look on my face must have shocked Ed enough that he shook me hard, I looked up at him and then I vented my anger.
"Quel figlio di puttana!" I hissed through clenched teeth.
"What's wrong?" Ed demanded.
"Get to the barn, we need to speak to Greg!" I demanded.
As usual with Ed his loyalty and danger sensors kicked in and he spun the car back around and hammered down the highway, I clicked up the number for Halloran and waited on the pickup.
"Commander it's Mackenzie….yes sir…I need information urgently about where Parker is right now for his training? Is he in the briefing room or the shoot house?"
"He cancelled the training as he received a visitor and needed to leave the station for a while. They were heading into the library when I passed them a moment ago!" he replied.
I looked up to Ed and he saw my face, he slammed his foot down on the pedal and hit the cut off for the station.
"Commander, evacuate the building and bring two radios and our weapons to the main car park….don't argue with me or I will schedule you for an enema!" I shouted down the phone.
"What's the word?" he demanded.
"He cancelled his training after getting a visitor; I'm going to log in to the system and get eyes in and see what's going on!"
We arrived at the station a few minutes later and met up with the Commander and Winnie who had organised themselves in the CT; we grabbed our vests and weapons from the locker-box and headed inside.
"Winnie, get the rest of the gang down here and patch live feed to my phone and Ed's so we have a clear LOS – Commander, describe the visitor for me?"
"Black male, 20-30 with a distinct facial scar." He replied getting the photo up on the screen capture.
"What the hell is going on here Fraser?" he continued.
I looked at the photo Winnie had brought up for me and I spat out a string of crude words that made everyone look at me, I clicked my knuckles and then reached over for the box with my name on it.
"This man is a marine from Dwyer – he was also in the square!" I replied.
The Commander had very quick reflexes when it came to discovering danger around those he commanded, he must have sensed my internal warning alarm hit the highest alert and signalled to his teams to be ready to move.
"Alright, put Team three onto black walls and Five onto the Red walls and swimming pool, make sure they go onto channel four and only enter on our command. Ready to go Mac?" he asked after giving the orders.
"Troy, take your team and stay in contact with command, do not enter without our command and do not take any chances, these guys are special forces and lethal! David, team is our backup on Red Wall – again, do not enter without command!"
Ed looked at the two teams getting into position and once they were ready he turned to me, I was strapping everything on and tied my hair back, I slipped on my knuckle gloves and clicked on my comms.
"Ready?" Ed whispered.
I finished strapping on my body armour and locking in the extra magazines into my vest; I nodded and we headed off through the main entrance to find our boss.
We cleared the areas one by one and Winnie kept us updated with location markers on those still in the building so we could clear them out in case this turned into a shooting gallery. After a few minutes we got a view of where Parker and the marine were; they were in the long corridor leading to the personnel records, what the hell were they doing going along there?
Ed had slipped down the second corridor from the lifts to do a sweep and still hadn't met me at the back of the dispatcher desk, I clicked my radio and called on him gently.
"Ed, do you copy Winnie's last message?" I said seconds later.
I stopped. He was going to check an area that we knew was empty but he wasn't answering his radio – shit!
"Winnie, check the surveillance from earlier on and make sure it was just one man who entered the SRU?"
"Copy – Mac it was two men, the second went through the pool window that was being replaced – I missed him the first time Mac!" she replied seconds later.
"Team Five, be alert for a male subject who is dressed in black and looks to be of Caucasian features – we have another player!" the Commander ordered.
They all copied me and I alerted all of them to the disappearance of Ed, my guess is that he had been overpowered or taken hostage which was hard to do, I heard a double click over the radio followed by six – I knelt down to where I was and clicked back locker room entrance in Morse code. I headed over to the weapons locker and grabbed some more weapons in a bag along with some flash bangs and pitch grenades – I picked up a few CS grenades too just to clear a couple of rooms out if necessary.
"Mac, coming in on your six from the outside stairs, meets you at your locker!" Wordy whispered over the chatter.
I did a quick sweep of the locker room to be safe and found it empty, I headed over to my locker and dragged out my gloves and knee pads, thirty seconds later Wordy, Spike and John from Team five joined me in the room and crowded around the tablet I had set up of the cameras in the record room; the feed was being patched through Winnie and I had zoomed in on where the three men were.
"Afternoon gentlemen, ready to kick some ass?" I asked greeting them.
"What the hell has happened?" Spike demanded as he pulled me to the side.
"Argument with boss last night and the talk with Ed earlier on, he made me see something I completely missed because I was too focused on Nathan's actions. What Parker told me, he told me in Italian – I have never heard him speak Italian and I sure as hell have never seen him display that kind of emotion to me before? It clicked, Nathan Toth is dual citizenship, Canada and Italy – he was dropping me a hint that he had been contacted and was under duress. He told me it hurt him every time I walked away…..have you noticed how easily depressed he has been the last couple of days – he's been pressurised and trying to hold it together!" I explained as best as possible.
Spike looked at me and then nodded, I turned back round to update the new team that had joined me and show them the clean areas.
"Where are they exactly?" John asked looking at the layout.
"In the corridor between two and four that leads to the annex and storage room, best way to do this would be splinter team along this corridor and I can climb this ladder to the vents and through to the light decking above them. On the signal you enter through the door and I can cover the boss from above. I know, you don't want me to be Sierra, but the light fixture only carries 127lbs, and the donuts are showing boys!" I replied to their question.
They all looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders, I would need to stop baking and bringing it in for everyone!
"I can get Team five to cut the power to this section on our entry and if we use scopes then we can have the element of surprise; our biggest issue is that marine, he looks huge!" Spike whispered.
"He is over 6ft 4, built like a brick tank and is trained by the SAS, trust me and use force if needed. We have the go for 'Scorpio' as needed." I replied.
"He looks injured, he's limping and that gives us an advantage if he tries to run," Wordy replies as we get ready to leave and head for the annex corridor.
"Yeah he has a GSW to the upper thigh near the groin, it's a through and through and bled like a stuck pig!" I replied taking point.
"How can you tell from the camera?" another voice came.
The Commander had been listening to what we were organising and had given full permission to go lethal as required, we just weren't allowed to make a mess of the record system or we would be in trouble.
"How can you tell where he is injured?" asked John.
"I gave him that wound at Dwyer after he shot Sam!" I replied.
Silence from everyone.
"Fair enough – go get our guys team!" called the Commander.