A/N — today I took my five-year-old to a Barbie themed birthday party. It was like pink glitter exploded across the park but seriously so much fun. Personally, I don't think Sasha ever played with dolls but I can see Kara having a weak spot for Barbie. xoxo — kals

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Chapter 16

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Tom stood, watching the small television hooked up to the wall of the helicopter bay. Karl Ferdinand had certainly come through in a big way. Nobody from the White House even contacted them about Doctor Scott's morning briefing, not after news broke that an airplane carrying the President of the European Union and the Secretary General for NATO to the United States for a secret meeting with President Obama regarding the plan to combat the Red Flu had been blown up over the Atlantic Ocean. The news was covering the story non-stop, currently showing helicopter footage over the alleged debris field containing hundreds of metal pieces covered in slicks of oil. The news anchor was speculating that this was part of an effort by the Chinese to establish a monopoly over the vaccine and cure, citing to people claiming to see the trail of a missile shortly before the airplane exploded and hinting that it was the Chinese — rather than the Russians — who caused havoc with the Nathan James' mission to the Arctic.

Mike entered the bay, heading in Tom's direction. Knowing that Mike was coming from the infirmary. "Any change in Walker's condition?"

After a fair amount of back-and-forth, Tom made the decision to keep Walker on the Nathan James despite the severity of his condition. Originally Mike planned to move Walker to Solace as soon as the helicopter returned with Tom and the team on board. But after speaking with Rachel, it became clear to all of them that there was no good place to send Walker. Fort Sam Hueston was overwhelmed dealing with the virus outbreak and every available medical practitioner in New Orleans had been diverted to either the Superdome or Solace. Tom briefly considered moving Walker to Solace, but eventually conceded that the care Walker would get from Doctor Scott was almost certainly superior to what he would receive as one of hundreds or thousands of patients moving through Solace.

"He's still stable," Mike replied. "Doctor Scott said the first twenty-four are critical but he's passed the most dangerous period."

Tom nodded. With Walker unconscious upon his arrival on the Nathan James, there had been no chance to debrief the man. From what Smith said, however, he was taken out before so much as lifting his weapon, indicating that his survival was due to luck rather than intent. The television feed abruptly cut to a press conference with Amy Granderson front-and-center, again attempting to reassure the American people that there was no reason for concern. Watching her, Tom wondered what she thought had actually happened, and whether she suspected her cartel friends were involved.

"As a distraction, that certainly worked," Mike said dryly. He turned to Danny. "This is all a slight of hand. Your friend didn't actually blow up that plane, right Green?"

Danny didn't look up from where he was checking his gear. "He definitely blew up the plane. If you're asking whether anyone was on the plane when it exploded, probably not."

"Probably not?" Mike asked, worry creeping into his voice. He glanced at Tom, mouth twisting in a familiar way, one that told Tom without words that Mike was second-guessing the decision to involve Karl — a man neither Tom nor Mike knew anything about. Tom probably would be too, if he weren't so damn numb right now, his entire focus pinpointed on a single agenda.

Get Sasha back.

"Karl does things his own way," Danny replied, looking up this time. "I wouldn't put it past him to kill two birds with one stone and take someone out, if he thought that was in Germany's best interest. His one redeeming quality is that he is loyal to his country."

"But he probably wouldn't blow up his own family," Tom said, slipping on his bulletproof vest. He lifted his head in time to see Benz hid a smile, while Mike scowled. "Our friend Karl is a member of the House of Hohenzollern. Alexander von Hohenzollern would be a relative. Perhaps an uncle?"

"A cousin," Danny confirmed. He turned to look at Benz, who shrugged. "Maybe a second cousin? The guy is related to practically every current or former royal family in Europe and Russia. That's why he's useful. But he never does anything out of the goodness of his heart. He always has an agenda. Always."

At that, Danny looked up, meeting Tom's eyes. Tom nodded, understanding the message, but not caring. Because getting Sasha back in one piece?

That was worth any favor that Karl Ferdinand might demand in return.

xxxxx

"Your new home."

Sasha allowed herself to be pushed into the room, feeling her feet sink into thick carpet. Carpet meant a house or, more likely given the way their footsteps echoed upon entering the space, a mansion. Given the few glimpses she managed to get of the landscape they were traveling across whenever her hood was removed to allow her to drink or pee, as well as the length of time that they drove, she was fairly certain that they were in Mexico City or somewhere close by. Sasha hid a satisfied smile.

Mexico City would be the first place that Tom would look.

She tensed as she heard footsteps behind her, but nothing happened. Instead, a door slammed. Sasha stood perfectly still, certain that she wasn't alone, yet there was no sound from the other person. As though they were also attempting to remain as quiet as possible.

"Kara?"

"I'm here."

Sasha almost sagged with relief. Although they hadn't been separated during the trip here, Sasha had been concerned that Kara would be taken to another room. Staying together meant that they could take any opportunity to escape. Cautiously, Sasha lifted her hand to the bag that covered her head, before pulling it off and spinning around. Thankfully, it appeared that she and Kara were alone, although Sasha wasn't stupid enough to ignore the likelihood of cameras watching their every move. She still found it puzzling that their guards had done no more than a cursory search of the two women, and never bothered tying their hands, although they did cover their heads for most of the trip. Apparently, Andrade's people didn't expect a scientist and her assistant to provide much resistance.

"You can take off your hood," Sasha said, turning in another circle, slower this time. No obvious cameras, but they were easy enough to hide. Even a quick glimpse revealed metal bars across the windows and only two doors in the chamber. The one that led to the hallway was clearly locked. Walking swiftly across the space to the second door, Sasha confirmed that it was a bathroom. She turned her attention back to Kara. "Might as well pee while we can."

Sasha studied Kara as she moved to the bathroom. Aside from the rings under her eyes and the knots in her hair, Kara looked generally the same as she had at the Superdome. Several minutes passed while the water ran and, when Kara reappeared, her face and neck were wet. Sasha switched places with Kara, taking advantage of the running water to clean up a bit. Unfortunately, between the Superdome and the trip, there was little Sasha could do about how she smelled unless she was willing to strip down and take a shower — something that she had no intention of doing — and which seemed pointless given that she would then put her dirty clothing back on.

Stepping back into the bedroom, Sasha saw Kara sitting on the edge of the bed, hand on her small bump. If she were here, Rachel would want to check the baby. Recalling her role, Sasha stepped closer, hand outstretched. "May I?"

Kara's eyes flickered and Sasha wondered what she was thinking. For all that Foster received emergency field training, it was unlikely that the woman ever left the ship on a typical mission. All of this must be pushing Kara to the edge but, so far at least, she had held it together remarkably well.

"Of course, Doctor Scott." Sasha nodded slightly, glad that Kara was also wary of hidden cameras. Then Kara continued. "I can't stop thinking about Danny." Sasha pursed her lips, trying to signal to Kara to stop talking in case she said something that gave them away, but Kara seemed oblivious, the word vomit continuing. "He must be so worried right now. He didn't want me at the stadium at all. He insisted that I wear this jacket in case I got cold. Can you imagine? A jacket? In that heat? Still, I'm glad that I had it on when we were taken. It's made me feel better, knowing that I had it, just in case of an emergency, you know."

As Sasha ran a hand over Kara's stomach, pretending that she was doing something, well, medical, the words began penetrating. Moving her right hand slightly, Sasha checked Kara's pocket, testing her theory. At the smile that appeared and then disappeared from Kara's face, Sasha knew that she was right. Danny gave Kara a weapon. The pockets a bust, Kara still chattering like crazy, Sasha managed to check Kara's zipper and then hit paydirt with Kara's collar. Pulling out the slim wire, Sasha quickly palmed it, hoping that nobody had realized what they were doing. Sasha would have preferred a blade, but beggars couldn't be choosers and between the lockpick and the two razors Sasha had hidden in her shoe, they weren't completely defenseless.

Recalling their charade, she gave Kara's belly a final pat. "No reason for concern."

For a moment, Kara's mask fell, and Sasha could see the fear in her eyes. Fear, Sasha suspected, that wasn't for herself so much as it was for her child. Because they both knew the moment was coming when their kidnappers realized that they had the wrong woman. But as quickly as the fear appeared, it was gone, and Kara's mask was back in place.

Sasha began an examination of the room, attempting to cover her efforts by pacing, but she knew almost immediately that they would not be able to escape from here. Even if they were able to bypass the bars on the windows or open the door without alerting the guards posted outside, they simply didn't have enough information about what other obstacles they were facing. No, the better option would be to gather as much intel as possible on their position before attempting to make a run for it. Of course, that meant continuing Sasha's charade of being Doctor Scott and, now that they were at their destination, that act was going to become significantly more difficult.

Sinking onto the bed, Sasha attempted to formulate a plan. Plan A was to get them out of here tonight. Plan B was to offer up the vaccine or cure, whichever the person asking wanted, something Sasha felt confident doing after days of stabbing people at stadiums. Unfortunately, Sasha doubted that either plan would buy enough time or give her the freedom to figure a way out of this place. No, she would likely be forced to bring out Plan C, which involved demands for a quarantined research space, where she would lock herself and Kara in until the cavalry arrived.

All she could do was hope that Tom was already here.

xxxxx

Sasha realized that she had an even bigger problem the moment that she walked into the extravagantly decorated dining room of the Presidential Palace. Until that moment, she had been confident of her ability to play Doctor Rachel Scott to a crowd of politicians or, frankly, even scientists. The dresses given to her and Kara to wear were far too fancy for anything except eating so, for tonight at least, there didn't seem to be any expectation that Sasha would be asked to do anything except talk. And that, Sasha could do. Although she and Rachel looked very different side-by-side, their faces were close enough to pass, especially as most publicly released pictures of Rachel showed her in her laboratory, conveniently wearing either a hazmat suit or a surgical mask. Sasha was good at impersonations and her flare with languages also helped with accents, enough to fool a non-native speaker anyway. Plus, Sasha had seen both Quincy and Milowsky stumped by Rachel more than once and, after months of listening to her speech and mannerisms, Sasha felt confident in spouting out a load of nonsense that would sound reasonable even if it was total nonsense. No, until she walked into that room, Sasha was confident that she could pull off this act for the length of a dinner and, even if some of the people here were suspicious, they were unlikely to say anything. After all, the idea that Andrade would accidentally kidnap the wrong person would be simply impossible.

Now, for the first time since she allowed herself to be taken in the Superdome, Sasha felt true dread. Because the man sitting at the dining room table next to El Chapo himself was President Imaz Gispert — the former head of the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia and a man Sasha worked with more times than she could count back in the days when she was handling DEA matters. There would be no fooling Gispert. Sasha felt a chill as she recalled how Pablo simply disappeared.

Was it possible that Gispert was in league with the cartel and Granderson?

Because the only thing that would be worse than El Chapo learning that Sasha was not Rachel Scott, was learning that she was part of the DEA team that sent him to prison.

El Chapo stood, his smile bright and yet taunting. "My dear Doctor Scott. And I understand that this is your lovely assistant?"

If Danny ever learned about the way El Chapo was eying Kara, he would slay the man alive. Sasha suppressed a shiver as his gaze returned to her. "Yes. This is Kara Foster."

Next to her, Kara hesitated for only the slightest moment before she nodded, but Sasha knew Gispert would have noticed. Sasha could only hope that he would chalk the moment up to fear, rather than confusion. Green might be a common enough name, but given that Danny was already connected to Rachel and the Nathan James, there was no reason to give Gispert any reason to make the connection between Danny and Kara as well.

"Please, please, be seated," El Chapo continued, pulling out the chair next to him. Sasha reluctantly sat, taking a moment to smooth out her dress before looking up — directly into Gispert's eyes. Yet instead of the triumph she expected to see, Gispert appeared confused. Not that the man was an easy read, but there was something about the way the corners of his eyes were puckered. Before she could begin to figure out what that meant, El Chapo was talking. "I understand that you speak Spanish quite fluently, my dear Rachel? I do hope that I can call you Rachel? After all, I can already tell that we are destined to become such good friends."

Sasha suppressed a shiver. "Of course you may call me Rachel. There is no need to stand on formalities. And while my Spanish is proficient, I am far from fluent and Kara only speaks English."

A flat-out lie, but Sasha was fairly certain that she couldn't manage Spanish with an English accent. As soup plates were placed before each of them, Sasha glanced around the room in what she hoped was a casual manner, only to blink in surprise at the heavily armed man standing by the door. Gispert must have been watching her every move, because he chuckled, the sound bringing Sasha's attention instantly back to him.

"No need to worry, Doctor Scott," Gispert drawled. "These men are here for your protection, as well as for mine."

Picking up her fork, Sasha hid her confusion. Gispert was trying to send her a message, Sasha was certain of it, but she had no idea what that message was. Yes, Gispert referred to her as Doctor Scott, but there was no way of knowing why he kept her secret, and whether he was playing a game of his own. Not that Sasha cared at the moment. The only thing that mattered was the fact that Tex was standing in this room.

Because if Tex was here, Tom wasn't far behind.