The Retrieval... Ch. 02

"Enough chit-chat already," the voice of the first man they had met getting off the elevator sounded off. The same one who had been dressed in the uniform of a Security Officer. Leah had killed his partner. "Are we gonna ghost this bitch or what?"

"Shut the fuck up!" they could hear the man Leah had called Rackley viciously snarl. A heated exchange of muffled words followed that neither Leah nor Jules could quite make out. Then things grew quiet.

Jules jumped and Leah's head snapped up when the unmistakable echo of a gunshot broke the tense silence.

Leah snatched up Jules's purse and frantically dug through it until she started to produce the pieces of Jules's phone. She pressed the battery, sim card and phone into Jules's hand as she found each one and then mouthed the words "Call Atwood" at her. Jules nodded as Leah focused her attention back on her former team leader.

"Everything okay over there, Rack?" Leah called out.

There was another moment of silence until she suddenly heard that familiar chuckle of his. "Yeah, everything's just fine."

She glanced at Jules who was pulling her phone charger out of her purse. She watched the redhead unplug the coffee machine and plug her phone up. Of course the phone would be dead. Leah grimaced and hoped she could keep stalling.

"That didn't sound fine to me, but what do I know, right?"

"That?" the man she called Rack laughed again. "Aw hell, you know...just a little difference of opinion. You remember how important employee relations are to me."

"Is that what you're calling it now?" Leah asked and quietly ejected the magazine from her weapon.

She only had six rounds left and she knew that Jules wasn't carrying extra magazines. Leah closed her eyes for a moment and tried to remember exactly how far the first tango had been from their position when she dropped him. Ten feet? Twelve? Shit. She would have considered risking it and trying to retrieve the dead man's weapon, but that was before Rackley showed up. She knew that plan wouldn't work...Rack was one of the best marksmen she had ever been around.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Rackley called out. "Are you ready to talk or what, Leah?"

Leah glanced down at Jules who was concentrating on her phone as she tried to power it on. Fuck, this was taking too long. Leah shook her head. "I can hear you just fine."

"Leah," Rackley called out. "You know me. I prefer to look people in the eye when I talk to them. I guarantee your safety. Deal?"

Jules looked up as she held the phone to her ear and vehemently shook her head. She tried to catch Leah's eyes and when she did she exaggeratedly mouthed the word "NO" to her. Leah kept looking at Jules as the redhead's attention was suddenly drawn to the phone and she covered half of her face as she began urgently whispering. Leah stood up and tucked Jules's weapon in the back of her pants before taking two steps out into the hallway holding her hands up.

"Deal," she nodded and was suddenly looking down the hallway into the face of the man who had been her leader and her friend for the last six years of her career.

Rackley looked older. He still had the lean muscled physique of an athlete on his six foot frame, but the short cropped hair was more grey than brown. That and the pronounced crow's feet made him look ten years older than he actually was. He was dressed in a black turtleneck, dark grey cargo pants and black boots. If it wasn't for the tactical vest and MP5 slung over his shoulder, he could have passed for an executive on a weekend excursion.

"Man, are you sight for sore eyes or what," Rackley grinned. His eyes lit up with joy as he looked over his former protégé. His hand suddenly came up in a sharp chopping motion to his left as one of his men who was kneeling against the far wall adjusted his weapon. "I said hold your water, boys. The lady and I need to have a conversation."

"Copy that," the guy muttered and lowered his weapon.

Rackley turned his attention back to Leah and the smile popped right back up on his face.

"Your show," Leah said coolly and slowly lowered her arms. "Talk."

"Huh." Rackley frowned.

"What?"

"I just kind of thought you'd be," Rackley replied with a slight scowl of confusion. "I don't know, a little happier to see me or something."

"Seriously?" Leah asked and gestured around at the dead bodies with just the slightest turns of her head. She stole a quick glance at Jules as she did so. The redheaded Fed was still under the table whispering into her phone and nodding her head. Leah thought she heard Jules say 'I understand' but couldn't be sure.

"Look, I know..." Rackley began and his face clouded over for a second in what Leah thought was frustration. "The truth is I was left out of the loop on this. Otherwise, I would have handled it...differently."

"Do you even know how ridiculous that sounds?" Leah asked.

"What do you want me to say?" Rackley dipped his chin and held his arms up in a gesture of futility. "It is what it is, sweet cheeks."

"Bullshit," Leah almost spat. "That's the lamest cliché you can use to get away with something like this."

"Oh?" Rackley raised his head up. "And how's that?"

"Since when did the man I know and respect become the trigger boy for some DC blowhard?" Leah continued and crossed her arms. "Come on, how is targeting a woman for sleeping with the wrong person ever going to fall under National Security? I mean, what the hell, Rack? What kind of mickey mouse bullshit are you into?"

Rackley cocked his head a little the way a dog does when it isn't sure what its master wants. "What in the fuck are you saying?"

"Don't," Leah snapped and pointed her finger at him. "Do not talk to me like I'm stupid, Rack."

"Leah," Rackley softened his voice. "I literally have no idea what you're talking about."

"Whatever." Leah replied and then stuck her chin out defiantly, "I'm not going to let you kill her."

Rackley just raised both eyebrows.

"Go ahead and bring the rest of your team up here," Leah challenged. "Maybe you'll meet your objective or maybe you won't. Just so you understand that to get to her, y'all are going to have to go through me...you know me, Rack. I guarantee it's going to be long day."

"Okay," Rackley replied in that same softer tone of voice and took a step towards her. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"What exactly do you think the objective is here?"

Leah glared at him suspiciously. The Rackley she knew all too well wasn't above using psychological tactics and mind games to achieve mission success...but she also knew his demeanor and this seemed genuine. There was real confusion and dare she think it, concern on his face. She glanced around as if considering his question and saw that Jules was still whispering into her cell phone and nodding.

"You've been tasked to eliminate Jules Bradford," Leah finally replied, surprised that she so easily fell back into using the terminology and lingo from her old life.

Rackley pursed his lips and nodded thoughtfully. "And who assigned this tasking exactly?"

"Does it matter?" Leah retorted and then huffed a sigh while Rackley patiently waited for her response. It was the same look he used to give her in the field when he wanted her to figure out things for herself rather than being told what to do. "I don't know...some asshole from the Sec-Def's office."

Rackley nodded thoughtfully and then took another deliberate step towards her so that he had separated himself from the rest of his men. "Are you willing to just listen to me for a minute?"

Leah didn't say anything for several seconds and then lifted a hand towards him with her palm up as if to say, go ahead.

"I need you to understand that I was called into this cluster-fuck on the backside," Rackley explained and looked around trying to find the right words. "Obviously my employers thought there was a conflict of interest, so I wasn't privy to this Op or I would have squashed it from the jump and handled things my way."

Leah scowled in confusion. "I don't understand."

"Which I guess it's a good thing they sent the B Team," Rackley continued as if he hadn't heard her. "Otherwise, this thing could have gotten a lot uglier."

"So now I guess it's my turn," Leah shrugged. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"You," Rackley said simply and paused as he took a long look into Leah's eyes. "You're the Op, sweet cheeks. These boys were tasked to eliminate...you."

"Me?" Leah started to drop her arms but then winced and her hand automatically went to the wound in her side. "Why?"

"Because my employers don't know you like I do," Rackley clarified.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"They panicked, Leah," Rackley grimaced and shook his head. "Once they understood you were being subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee about...Andarab."

"Andarab?" Leah spoke the name of the city north of Kabul, Afghanistan for the first time in over a year and her stomach immediately knotted up.

"Yeah," Rackley sighed and ran a hand over his jaw. At just the mention of the location where their last Op together had taken place, Leah could see the same unease in his eyes that she knew was showing in her own.

"Why would I be a target about..." Leah started to ask, but couldn't bring herself to say it again, "Why would I be a target?"

"They couldn't risk the exposure."

"What exposure?"

"Your testimony...," Rackley said simply and there was real sympathy in his eyes, "...against me."

Leah blinked her eyes a few times. Her mind took one tiny, baby-step towards the memory of Andarab and then she stopped herself. She just couldn't do it...so instead, she rapidly went over the timeline of the past few days in her head. It suddenly dawned on her that in all of the confusion of being arrested, the car fire at the police station and getting caught up in the details of Jules's story and their assumptions about everything...she never did ask about the exact specifics of the subpoena or what she was being called to testify about. Leah turned her head and looked down at Jules who was still under the table holding her cell phone to her chest in both hands.

"Jules?"

"Leah," Jules said quietly and stood up. She looked at the woman who she considered her friend and her lover. The woman who now had tears in her eyes. "I don't know anything about Andarab."

"Did you know?" Leah asked quietly.

"Leah," Jules tried to reason with her quietly. "I told you I was supposed to escort you back to DC to testify."

Leah took a quivering breath. "Did you know I was supposed to testify against Rack?"

"It doesn't say that..." Jules started to explain, but just couldn't bring herself to lie. She closed her eyes for a moment. "Not the details or his name, but...yes. I knew. It was off the record, but...I knew."

Leah's face scrunched up in pain for the briefest of moments and then with a deep breath, she exhaled and her face took on an unreadable expression. A tear leaked out from the corner of her eye and ran down her cheek. She was still holding her side, so she brought her face down and shrugged her shoulder up to wipe the tear away on her blouse. She returned her gaze back to her former Team Leader.

"So...what now?"

"Well, I seems to have a position available," Rack offered her a tight grin and gestured the barrel of his weapon back towards the body of the man he'd shot earlier. "Need a job?"

Leah shook her head and rolled her eyes with a tired smile. She literally didn't know whether to laugh or cry right now. She was so tired. She turned her head as Jules came up beside her and put both of her hands on Leah's forearm.

"Leah," Jules said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"I don't think this is the best time," Leah told her and moved to push her back towards the alcove.

Jules wouldn't budge and gripped Leah's arm tighter. The redhead glanced up nervously at the emergency lighting unit over their heads and then back at Leah. "I know...but...Leah -"

"Not now, Jules," Leah hissed and cut her eyes towards Rack.

"Leah," Jules insisted. "Do you trust me?"

"Uh, excuse me...ladies?" Rack interrupted and held his arms out. "We're kind of in the middle of something, are we not?"

"Damn it, Leah," Jules whispered fiercely and gripped Leah's forearm even tighter to the point that it almost hurt the blonde. "I'm sorry. I...I don't...I'm...Leah, I love you."

Everything around her seemed to fade away as Leah gave Jules her full attention. "What did you just say?"

"I said I love you," Jules repeated with a scared look in her eyes. "So please, just trust me right now, okay?"

"You do?" Leah was dumbfounded.

"I do," Jules nodded and then took a deep breath and leaned her head in closer. "Please, Leah...if you care for me even just the tiniest little bit, please...close your eyes."

"What?"

"Close your eyes...Tight. Please?"

"Why?"

"Just trust me, okay?" Jules pleaded quietly. She gave Leah one last beseeching look and without letting go of Leah's arm, squeezed her eyes tightly shut and lowered her chin.

Leah hesitated as she looked at Jules for another moment. She glanced up at Rackley who had taken another step forward. He had his hands on his hips expectantly and was watching them with an amused expression on his face. She looked back down at Jules and with a small sigh Leah finally relented and closed her eyes.

A split second later the world beyond the shade of her eyelids lit up in a huge, dizzying purple flash.

Leah suddenly felt weightless like the laws of gravity had been temporarily suspended. At some point a part of her brain haphazardly clicked on the correct answer that yes, she was in fact falling...but it didn't feel like any falling she'd ever done before. It was softer than that. It almost felt like...Jules said she loved me...Leah felt her cheeks tighten as her face tried to smile. She wanted to reach out and grab that thought as it flickered across her mind.

She loves me.

Leah stretched out her hand. She could have sworn her fingers were just about to make contact with the thought when the black turbulence of unconsciousness came rushing in on her like a waterfall.

****