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Episode 052 |
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“We’ve never lost an American in space, we’re sure as
hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.” Gene Kranz, Apollo 13 Assif’s door was thrown open as Alex rushed in. “The plane crashed,” he said quickly. Assif looked up from his desk, then
scrambled up and rushed out the door after Alex. They sprinted across the main room into the
meeting room where the others were gathered, watching a news feed on the
giant screen. “Reports are still sketchy at this moment,” said the
British reporter, standing against the backdrop of the Danish lake, “but we
do know that at some point, late last night, a UN supply plane on a routine
run crashed into the “Thank you, Barbara,” said the news anchor, coming back
onto the screen. “In other news…” The sound ended instantly as the words ‘mute’ appeared
at the bottom of the screen. Everyone turned
to Assif who stared at the screen, astonished. It took him a moment to compose
himself. He finally adjusted his tie
and looked to the group as a whole. “Alex,” he said, turning to his left to the field
commander, “you and Jin are to monitor any and all reports coming in or out
of the recovery effort. We should have
heard about this well before the evening news and I want to know why. I don’t care if it’s just lunch orders; I
want to know every detail that comes out of that lake.” “Emma and Eliot,” the chief went on, “I am afraid that
the news of informing Amy that Lisa was involved with this crash falls to you
two. Given her state in things, I
would rather her know about it from a senior member of the Responders than
from one of the support staff.” They
both nodded. “Til and Isaiah,” the chief finished, looking at the
two specialists, “you two are to head down to the armory and start working
with Adam. Get response kits
together.” “Response kits for what?” Isaiah asked. “The plane crashed.” “It was a military plane,” Assif explained. “Those don’t go down without
assistance. And the fact that it was a
black-op flying under the banner of the UN means that whoever did this, and I
assure you that it was a ‘who’ if not a ‘what’, had some substantial
resources with which to pull off this plan.” “You think we’re going fortress-storming?” Til asked. “I think we want to be ready for anything,” Assif said
coldly. “Whether it’s a rescue
operation, or revenge.” The Parisian nighttime was still. Behind a wall of clouds, the City of Alex sat back, holding a pair of headphones to his
head. He focused intently for a
moment, then closed his eyes and took the headphones off. Sitting with Jin, he glared at the
computer. “Nothing.” “Nothing?” Jin asked, turning around from a notepad to
Alex. “Nothing of note,” Alex corrected. “A plane crashes and there are still bodies
unaccounted for and they’re making jokes.” “They don’t know there are more bodies,” Jin pointed
out. “The UN has issued a statement
that only the pilot and co-pilot were onboard. If they were to come across Sarah or
Irene’s body, then it’d be kind of bad news.” Alex looked down and sighed. “Well, that complicates matters.” Jin nodded with sympathetic frustration,
turning back to his own research. The elevator’s metal hand slowly ticked off the numbers. In the tiny metal space, Eliot watched the
numbers descend as Emma stared off, hearing the sounds of the machines slowly
lower the elevator. With a gentle deceleration, the elevator came to a stop
and the doors opened. A long hallway
appeared with doors pairing off against each other. Emma took a deep breath and stepped out,
Eliot behind her. They walked quietly
down the hall, in step as neither of them spoke. They stopped before a door with two IDs on the
front. The top read ‘Lisa
Barton’. The bottom read ‘Amy Lin.” The two paused and waited. “You want me to start?” Eliot asked, not looking at
Emma. “Please,” the mage said quietly. Eliot took another deep breath and knocked on the door. “Just a minute,” came a pleasant voice. A second later, Amy opened the door, a
smile on her face. As soon as she saw
who was at the door, she stepped back nervously. “Hey,” she said, her cheeks blushing. “I don’t see you guys down here much? What’s going on?” “Amy,” Eliot said solemnly. “We need to talk.” Amy’s
smile wavered. “It’s about Lisa,” Emma
added. |
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