| Subject: Sleight of Hand, Part 14 |
Author:
Incatnito
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Date Posted: 23:06:26 08/09/02 Fri
In reply to:
Incatnito
's message, "Sleight of Hand, Part 1" on 23:35:30 07/28/02 Sun
Vietnam Memorial
Washington, DC
1500 Local
Harm and Sturgis sat on a bench overlooking the Wall. Dressed in sweatshirts and jogging shorts, they were just two of a virtual army of fitness-minded DC residents. In spite of his relaxed outward appearance, Sturgis could tell Harm was tightly wound. The Admiral had pulled him aside earlier and told him to make sure Rabb made no attempt to approach Mac. She didn't need the attention or the distraction. Their job was protection.
He felt Harm go tense and followed his gaze towards the memorial. It took him a moment to pick her out among the clusters of people. She was walking slowly, apparently scanning through the names. Sturgis smiled in appreciation, for all intents and purposes - Mac was only one more visitor to the Wall. He turned his attention to the people in the area. Webb and the Gunny had prepped everyone on what to look for if someone was shadowing Mac.
Harm stared as Mac slowly approached the panel containing his father's name. He wasn't happy with the plan they'd eventually settled on, but couldn't think of anything better in the time they had. It had its good points: Mac would and did grasp immediately the reference to his father's place - not many would. And they did need to have some way to communicate with her without bringing Archangel down on her head. The biggest flaw, and as far as he was concerned it was a major one, was that by now Archangel was well aware of who Mac's friends were. He was worried that the network would use them to find her. The only comfort was that they had a joker in the deck: Emma's son had joined in at the last minute. No one would know who he was.
Mac reached Harm, Sr.'s panel and cautiously glanced from side to side. There was a large, black man in a faded fatigue jacket kneeling at the next panel. He paid no attention to her. Carefully, she knelt down. Mac wasn't happy about this part, she still had trouble getting up and down. She didn't like being so vulnerable. There was a bundle of flowers tied with a ribbon at the base of the Wall. She reached over and picked them up, there was a small package underneath.
A deep voice startled her, it was all she could do to keep from jerking her head towards the sound, "I understand you were drafted into the Orphan Brigade."
Eyes wide, she risked a quick glance at the man. He was looking at the Wall with a small smile on his face, "I'm James. Momma's been worried."
A sudden commotion made them both turn...
Harm felt Sturgis' hand on his shoulder, he looked over and saw him sitting upright, looking intently to the left of the Wall. "What's wrong?"
Sturgis pointed down the slope, "Those three men... Damn!" He was on his feet and running, Harm close behind. They pounded down the hill together on an intercept course.
For a big man, James was surprisingly agile. He was on his feet and turning towards Mac while she was still struggling, cursing her inability to rise quickly. Placing a large hand under each elbow, James lifted Mac to her feet. She staggered for a moment. "Do you have the package?" he asked quickly. When she nodded, he placed a hand on her back, "Let's go."
AJ saw Harm and Sturgis running towards the memorial as Mac and James hurried away, "Son of a bitch!" He started in that direction when he heard the Gunny exclaim, "Sir!" He turned to see Walters pointing towards a different area, two more men were walking quickly towards Mac in an attempt to cut her off. The Gunny was already heading for them, AJ hurried to catch up.
Harm and Sturgis careened into the three men, taking everyone down like ninepins. There was a tangle of arms and legs. The men struggling to get up, Harm and Sturgis working equally hard to keep that from happening. Sturgis was yelling, "What's the matter with you?! Don't you pay attention to where you're going?" One man scrambled away and rolled to his feet, intent on Mac. Harm lunged and missed. Pushing himself up, he saw the man reach inside his jacket. Harm took a deep breath and yelled as loud as he could, "GUN!"
The effect was immediate. Everywhere, people screamed and ran or dove for cover. The man turned back towards Harm, anger evident on his face, pistol in hand. Harm froze, the man looked at him for a long moment and then spun and took off after Mac. Harm scrambled up only to be tackled from behind, it was turning into a brawl.
Mac and James were almost to the end of the memorial when they saw the other two men. Mac turned left, "Head for the trees."
Gunny appeared in front of the two men and stopped, arms outstretched, effectively blocking their path. AJ arrived a moment later. "Gentlemen, I need to see some ID."
"Get out of the way!"
The men tried to go around. Gunny and AJ moved to intercept. "Certainly, as soon as I know who you are."
Mac and James had just entered the treeline when they were bowled over from the side. Mac hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her. There was a sharp tearing pain in her side. Keeping a hand clamped there, she braced against a tree and struggled to her feet. James was rolling around on the ground, trying to keep the two men occupied. He yelled, "Run!" She ran.
As she cleared the trees, Mac risked a look backwards. She could see another man running towards her, gun in hand. She tried to pick up the pace. When Mac saw the mounted policeman emerge on the bridle path, she veered towards him.
Officer Ken Hoskins was scanning the area, when he felt his horse tense. Turning to see what had attracted Pascal's attention, he saw a disheveled woman stagger up to him. There were bits of leaves and twigs stuck to her clothes and she was holding her side. The woman leaned on Pascal's shoulder, looked up at him and panted, "Help me officer! There's a man back there, he tried to kill me. He's got a gun." Hoskins looked down at her, he could see blood starting to ooze from between her fingers. They both looked down the slope, a man was running towards them. He was holding a gun.
"Get behind the horse, Ma'am." Haskell activated his radio and called for backup, then dismounted, drawing his service weapon. He wasn't sure what was going on - criminals seldom ran TO the police - but the first order of business was disarming this guy. He leveled his weapon and barked, "Freeze! Drop the gun!"
Mac backed around to the far side of the horse and took off.
The man came to an abrupt halt, both hands in the air. "I'm a Federal agent," he said angrily.
Hoskins looked at him, "I don't care if you're Mickey Mouse, drop the gun and get down on the ground." The man glared at him. Hoskins looked back unflinching.
Slowly the man put the gun down and dropped to his knees, "I'll have your badge for this."
Hoskins ignored him, "All the way down and spread-eagle." When the man complied, Hoskins circled towards him, kicking the gun away. He put a knee on the man's back and said, "Put your hands behind your back." After he was cuffed, Hoskins holstered his weapon and picked up the gun. He hauled the man to his feet, "Where do you keep your ID?"
Mac finally reached the street and stopped for a moment , undecided. A dark blue sedan screeched to a halt in front of her, she took an involuntary step backwards. The tinted window rolled down, revealing Clayton Webb. He gestured with his head towards the back door, "For God's sake, Mac, get in!"
Vietnam Memorial
Washington, DC
1535 Local
Captain Wendell looked up at the sky for a moment. As soon as he had spilled coffee on himself this morning, he knew it was going to be one of those days. He looked back at the two groups. The Feds (actually a joint task force of FBI and the NIS) were by far the more annoying of the two. They were milling around, alternately complaining and threatening the officers watching them. The other group stood quietly together, if he didn't know better, he'd swear they were feeling smug. The Captain had been a little surprised, they were mostly military (that didn't surprise him: in Washington, the majority of residents tended to be Federal employees or military) but they were fairly high-ranking. He had an admiral - and not just any admiral, but the Judge Advocate General himself - as well as two full commanders, a Marine Gunnery Sergeant... and a DC police lieutenant.
Captain Wendell walked over to the military group. Indicating the admiral and the police lieutenant, he gestured for them to follow him. Walking to a spot where they wouldn't be overheard, he turned and faced the two men. "I've heard from Officer Hoskins and the federal agents. Now I'd like to hear your story."
The two men looked at each other, then the admiral spoke, "May I ask what the Feds had to say?"
Wendell looked at him for a long moment, considering the request, finally he said, "According to them, you aided and abetted in the escape of an officer from your command who is wanted for espionage and treason."
"Well, they almost got it right," the admiral said. "She has been accused of espionage and treason. I suspect they forgot to mention that someone came damn close to killing her last Friday night?"
Wendell's eyebrows rose in surprise, he shook his head. The admiral continued, "She was in the hospital, someone or something frightened her and she took off. This morning, I was finally able to make contact with her and convinced her to surrender to Lt. Fine." The admiral glanced at Fine, who nodded. "She was too scared to come to JAG headquarters, so we agreed to meet here. I asked some of her colleagues to run interference to make her feel safer. Everything was going smoothly, Lt . Fine had her in custody, when all these men showed up." He jerked a thumb at the Feds. "They didn't identify themselves and then they started waving guns around. We didn't know if these were the people that tried to kill her earlier, so we did our best to stop them while Lt. Fine got my officer to safety."
Lt. Fine picked up the tale, "I'd almost gotten her clear, when two of them jumped us in the trees. She managed to get clear of the melee and bolted. I couldn't get free of those two to stop her. Apparently, that's when she ran into Officer Hoskins."
"So now we're back to square one," the admiral stated bitterly, Captain Wendell could see he was becoming angry. "I don't know if she'll contact me again, and if she does, it's going to be damn hard convincing her to trust me a second time."
The Captain grunted and then gestured for them to return to the group. Of the two, their story sounded much more plausible. It was hard to believe that the Judge Advocate General would be so blatant in breaking the law or be able talk a police lieutenant into doing the same. Eye witnesses had corroborated key points of their story. The Feds hadn't identified themselves and they had pulled their guns. That in itself really ticked him off. You don't do that in a crowd of civilians unless it's a last resort, this wasn't TV. He came to a decision, 'Screw the Feds. They'd messed up and they'd just have to live with it.' He motioned an officer over, "Tell the military boys and Lt. Fine they can go." The Feds were going to stay right here until he could talk with their superiors.
Washington, DC
1520 Local
Clay glanced in the rearview mirror at Mac. She was partially collapsed across the backseat, ashen-faced. "Stay down, Mac. I have to make sure we're not being followed."
"Not a problem." was the rather terse reply.
There was a brief silence, while Clay weaved quickly and efficiently through the DC traffic. Mac spoke again, "Where are we going?"
"To an unused safe house. I'll be the only one who knows you're there."
"You know I can't stop?"
"Yeah, I know. Take a break, we'll talk about it after we get to the house."
Vietnam Memorial
Washington, DC
1542 Local
Harm watched the Admiral and Lt. Fine talk to the police captain. With all the bumps and bruises, he was feeling better than he had in days. He'd spotted Bud and Harriet in the crowd of onlookers, they'd smiled and given him a thumbs-up. It meant Clay had gotten to Mac. She would be safe, at least for a while. With a little luck, maybe he could persuade Webb to let him visit her. Harm glanced over at Sturgis, who was standing at his shoulder. He was staring at the other group. "What?" Harm asked.
Sturgis inclined his head towards the Feds, "I was wondering if any of them are our X-men?" He and Harm had begun referring to the Archangel operatives that way as they struggled to identify as much of the network as possible.
Harm shrugged, "I'd give odds at least one is. Their names will be on the police report. James could probably get us a copy without attracting too much attention." He looked at Sturgis, "You realize there's a X-man at JAG?"
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