"Where are you, Alex?" a voice called out. "I know you're here." He had a flashlight in his left hand and a Beretta in the right. "You can't hide from me!" The light illuminated the steam coming from the mugs on the table. "I know that quirky girl is here, too."
Garcia turned to Alex with her mouth hung open in shock. Alex put her finger up to her lips.
"Your boys aren't coming to help you. It's down to just you and me." He paced around the living room. "I know you're hiding somewhere, Alex. No point in delaying the inevitable."
He turned when he heard car doors slam. He looked out the peephole and saw Reid and Charles heading up the driveway. He fired two shots through the door.
They looked at the door and saw a puff of smoke from each bullet hole in the front door. Charles turned to Reid. "Either that's someone trying to kill us, or Alex is really pissed at you." They both backed away from the door.
"He's waiting for us. We would be going in blind. He turned off the power on purpose," Reid whispered.
"He's probably in there with night vision goggles like Buffalo Bill."
"We also can't just barge in there. He probably has Alex and Garcia."
"Okay, I have an idea," Charles started. "You keep him occupied."
"Where are you going?" Reid asked.
"Trust me," Charles replied. He rushed down the walkway and turned to the driveway out of sight.
Reid took a step closer toward the door then a shot was fired. "What do you hope to accomplish?" He yelled. Another bullet ripped through the door. "What did my door ever do to you?"
"It's what you did!" he snapped back.
"What did I do?" Reid moved just as another shot whizzed by him.
Charles was on the side of the house where he located the fuse box. He opened it and found a device attached to the switches. "Just as I thought." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Swiss army knife. He worked diligently on removing it.
"What are you blaming me for?" Reid asked with his back against the wall.
"It wasn't just you! It was all of you!"
"All of who?"
"Your group! You prodigy children."
"What did we do to you?" Reid asked with a puzzled expression.
"That job was created for me! Parker promised me that I would run the elite team of teenage spies. That I would be the change the CIA needed! You took Parker from me!"
"Well, Parker was a traitor. He went rogue and tried to kill us! Not sure if you should be bragging about that."
"And now you're trying to minimize my pain!" He shouted and shot another round through the door.
"You're creating one hell of a peephole!" Reid shouted. He took a side step closer to the door and put his hand on the knob. He turned it, then pushed open the door and rolled to the other side of the walkway. Three shots rang out.
"Just like you guys! Making jokes all the time!" He fired another shot.
Charles cut a wire when he heard a click sound. "Oh, that better not be what I think it is." He leaned in closer and looked behind the device. "Seriously? An explosive? This guy's crazy!" He put the tool in his mouth as he used his fingers to feel the wires behind the panel.
Reid edged closer to the door. "You only have about five more rounds left. Do you really want to waste them blindly shooting in this direction?"
"Would you rather I shoot your wife?"
"Where is she?"
"Don't play games with me! You hid her from me!"
"I'm sorry if you were passed over for a job, but that had nothing to do with us," Reid said. "We just did what we were hired to do. Besides, you still worked for the CIA. You are an operative. I don't understand what the problem is."
"Parker told me they were creating a new team of exceptional teenagers, and I was leading the team. Then I was passed over. The future I was promised disappeared! You guys go on with your lives with everything handed to you!"
"What are you talking about? Alex was in prison!"
"Exactly! Then she comes out as if nothing has happened! She's back at the CIA; she marries you! She carries on with her life."
"But why would you try to kill Charles?"
"I knew I had the perfect opportunity with Harris Knight on the loose! I contacted some of Cortez's men and told them where he was since I knew they wanted him dead. But you guys always manage to cheat the system and come out ahead."
"I wouldn't say that," Reid said. "He had to fake his death and hide from his wife and children to keep them safe. It's not like he was living the high life in Monte Carlo."
"He deserved to be brought down a notch!" he screamed, then fired another shot. The porchlight shattered, spreading glass shards across the entryway.
Reid shielded his eyes with his arm, then took a step closer to the side of the house, away from the window. "Look, whatever grievances you have, I'm sure we can work them out. Firing random shots at me is not going to help!"
Charles used a blade to peel back the wire covering. He then closed his eyes and scrunched his face as he was cutting one of the wires. He waited for a beat. He opened one eye and looked at the fuse box. He then opened both, and his mouth dropped open. "It worked! Ah, Ha!" He pulled off the device and threw it to the ground. He then flipped the main switch, and a light lit up the small window to the downstairs bathroom. "I am the man!" he said confidently.
Reid saw the lights turn on, and Brandon Shaw was standing in the middle of his living room, holding a gun in his hand. Reid ran toward him before Shaw realized what was happening. Reid threw his arms around Shaw and tackled him. They both landed on the coffee table, causing the mugs to break, and sprayed tea out over them, the carpet, and the couch.
Reid punched him with his right hand while the left was grabbing onto Shaw's gun. He punched him again. Then Shaw hit him with his left, and the two rolled around on the carpet, wrestling for the gun. Shaw worked on standing up while Reid grabbed onto his leg and pulled. Shaw fell backward and landed on his butt. He kicked Reid across the jaw.
Reid dove toward the gun. With four hands on the pistol, they struggled with it until a shot was fired. A bullet tore through the framed picture of Alex and Reid on their wedding day. Shaw released his left hand and then socked Reid in the face forcing him to stumble back onto the sitting chair.
Shaw turned just as Charles came to the doorway and shot him. Charles fell backward and landed on the broken glass.
Shaw pointed the gun toward Reid. "And now you all will pay for what you did to me."
Alex pushed open the shelf, took a couple of steps forward, and shot Shaw in the head. Shaw's body dropped onto the ground. His eyes remained open as if they were staring up at Reid while blood pooled around his head.
Reid immediately got up from the chair and ran to Charles, who was holding his arm. "The bastard shot me!"
"Yes, he did," Reid said. "At least he wasn't a very good shot."
"That's all you have to say?"
Alex rushed over with the first aid box. "Hold on. I have a tourniquet in here."
Garcia peeked out of the alcove. "Oh my god! I thought we were all going to die."
Alex turned back toward her. "Penelope, I need you to call for an ambulance. Can you do that? Charles has been shot."
"Shot? Charles? Oh my god, is he okay?"
"Ambulance, Penelope," Alex nudged.
"Right, ambulance. All over it."
"You know, it would really suck if, after all this, I die from a gunshot wound to my arm," Charles said.
"You're right. It would. So, don't die," Reid said.
"Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind."