Something Tired

Ed stared blankly at the camera, and got up from the chair. He had been in no mood talk to an inanimate object tonight, and even less in the mood to delve into the past -- he had enough of that to deal with at present. Ed switched the light off as he walked out the door, and shut it behind him. He could hear the VTOL take off, and Ian talking to Jacks downstairs. Elizabeth was at her own house taking care of a few things, and she would be another hour or so, not what he had expected when he prepared a small table-for-two in the room they had shared the night before but such is life.

            "It's looking more grim by the day," Jacks said solemnly, his arms folded and his head down. He didn't want to look Ian in the eye because his mentor would see the pain in his own.

            "Can't we get CNet to intervene?" Ed asked as he walked down the stairs, then flexed his right hand in order for the other two to know what he was talking about.

            Ian put his hand to his chin in thought. Jacks looked up at Ed and a bit of hope flickered in his eyes. "I can not," answered CNet through the hidden intercoms. Even though he was away from Prime and supposedly with Ashra, he could still monitor the building. "Even if I could, operative De Beer's body has been too broken -- augmentation would only cause him more pain and stress. Even then, my abilities are only on surgery-level, unlike the nano-molecular-level of the augmented societies Commander Swardt had searched for in the North."

            "Shit," Ed cursed, now standing next to Ian. Jacks nodded, shook their hands, and stalked off toward the door where he would probably be heading back to the hospital. Ian was still in thought, it was clear that he hadn't had a decent night's rest in a few days. "You look like shit," Ed then said.

            "Yeah? Well what can we do."

            "How's Danny?"

            "Doing good. Apart from De Beer, she hasn't been having too much trouble at work. Still doesn't get her to take some time to herself."

            Ed nodded and turned away.

            "Connor told me there's another bomb. You should see what you can come up with."

            Ed nodded and continued upstairs, back to the room with the camera. He hadn't bothered to ask Ian why he should be the only one to find a lead, since he knew Ian had probably tried, and exhausted his long before even asking.

JR walked by Ian, who was still standing at the base of the stairs, still in thought. He didn't bother to look at the man as he skulked up and headed down the hall toward his room.

            He shut his door and brushed his hands over the throwing knives Ed had given him to study, then walked toward his bed. Just as he turned around to sit, a shadowy thing came out of the darkness and grabbed him by the throat. JR struggled, but the thing lifted him off the ground and slammed him up against the wall. A snarling laugh could be heard coming from where the thing's facial features were supposed to be.

            "What do you want?" JR breathed while trying to loosen the shadow's cold, hard grip around his neck.

Five guys lay on the floor in pools of their own saliva and spattered blood. It had been the second time Ed had interrogated a high-priority target, and the third time he had killed the target without a say-so from higher command. In the long run it would do the Agency more good than bad, however. Others had never been ones to divulge in the secrets of their inner workings. Not that it had mattered much anyway. Get in, get the info, and get out. Simple enough. Until things had gone terribly bad, and Ian got knocked out by a stray-fucking-axe to the head.

            'Interrogation' was only interrogation in the sense that they had received information. Other than that, it was more like a quick slip of the hand for the three of them, and a bitch-slap to the face of Others HQ. In the end it hadn't brought them any closer to finding the location, and it never would.

            The Others had their grimy paws all over First National Bank, and they knew it would be one hell of a struggle to get down to the first floor. Fortunately Dev had a virus knock out their internal security systems when he posed as one of the techies. Gunfire sounded as they rounded a corner. It was strange -- no one had been near them at the time.

            They reached the stairs next to the elevators and started descending when more gunfire sounded, yet again nowhere near them. A few floors down, a couple of stray Others agents were found dead in the staircase, and the lower they went, the more bodies they found. It soon became clear that someone was clearing their path for them.

Ed smiled as he thought about it for a while. He then looked up at the camera, still smiling, and ran his fingers through his hair.

            "We got to the third floor and made our way across and through the cubicles, back to the fire escape. Dev had just passed through the window when she called our last names..." Ed trailed off. He then jumped up from the chair and hurried out of the room without switching the camera off.

Ian heard something upstairs, but his mind was elsewhere. He was leaning against one of the many book cases that lined the main hall, his mind somewhere between lost thoughts, and nothingness. It was mostly due to the lack of sleep Ed had sensed on him, but he couldn't help but feel as if something was just wrong. Connor had come to him earlier and told him that he could not find Abigail. De Beer's condition seemed to worsen, and two of his best agents had just gone out of country. All of that, and no rest. Ed was right in telling him he must have been looking like shit. He felt like it, too.

            "CNet."

            "Commander, I am picking up signals of distress. I advise you give it priority."

            "CNet, handle all reports from Romulus for me for tonight, and forward important things to Ed."

            "Yes sir. May I advise you hurry upstairs."

            It was only then that he refocused his attention and heard a gunshot. Reflex took over, and Ian felt fully energized again. He sprinted through to the sparing room and grabbed his nearest sword, then headed back out and upstairs.

It had thrown JR against his built-in cupboards, effectively breaking his impact, as well as the wooden doors. JR was able to get up, and with the extra breath, dived toward his bed, stuck his hand underneath, and retrieved a pistol that De Beer had given him. He managed to get one shot off before the shadow hit it out of his hand and tackled him into the wall next to his cupboards. His bullet had hit the door.

            The thing made its way over to JR, then picked him up again by the throat. A few moments passed and his feet had started to hang and his strength had dwindled greatly. It was only when Ed barged into the room when the thing dropped JR.

            Ed didn't have to look around to know that the knives he had given JR was still pegged into the wall. In quick succession, he pulled two out of the wall and threw them in the Shadow thing's direction as it swirled and shot out the window, disappearing into the darkness.

            Ian ran into the room then, with one of his swords drawn. "What was it?" He asked as he saw that they were safe again.

            Ed looked at Ian and sighed, then blinked and looked back out the window. A wry smile formed on his face and vengeance flared in his eyes. "They're back."