[Fic] The Agency: Troubles Compounded
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Dancing The Night Away
Rating: M
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Pairing: Adama/Roslin
Author's Note: For summary, category, disclaimer and warnings, see Chapter One. You all can thank obsessive_a101 for this chapter being posted now. I wasn't going to give it to you for at least another day, but apparently I'm horribly corrupt because I was very easily bribed with recs to awesome BSG zombie crack.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Dancing The Night Away
Laura had wanted nothing more than to say no when Richard Adar asked her to dance, but one simply does not turn down the President, especially at his own ball. He’d practically ignored Bill as he’d slipped away from the ever present group surrounding him, interrupted an important conversation and requested the next dance.
Bill, in that mulish way of his, had simply held out his hand to take her wine glass, transferring his glower from the President, to her and then to his whiskey.
“Everything seems to be going smoothly,” Richard commented as they danced, far too smugly for Laura’s frayed nerves.
She absently wondered how long she would get before his security detail shot her dead if she cold clocked him. An outwardly pleasant smile was plastered on her face as she replied, “It always seems to go smoothly, Richard. That’s why everyone is always surprised by the death toll.”
He ignored the comment. One of the sticking points in their relationship years before had been his remarkable gift of selective hearing. Richard was a man who only ever heard what he wanted to hear.
Instead of responding, he completely changed tracks. “You left the other night before I could ask you if you were seeing anybody?”
“Are you?” she parried, throwing a pointed look at where his wife was chatting with several dignitaries.
He laughed. “Point. The thing is, you’ve piqued my interest, Laura. I’ve always been interested in you, truth be told, but now decades have passed and you’re a woman full of warnings and secrets with the ability to sneak into the President’s Mansion without anybody ever knowing you were there.”
“I’ve always been full of secrets, Richard, and you’d do well to remember that secrets are usually just that because they shouldn’t be shared.”
The song ended, another beginning, but before she could move away, he was adapting to the new beat and pulling her closer. “I’m the President of the Colonies.”
“I know, Richard. I voted for you.”
That seemed to pull him up short. “You did?” Then he smiled. “You did. Well, then you were one of the millions who decided I was the best person to govern the Colonies. So why don’t you trust me with the things you’re hiding?”
“Because it’s my job to doubt you.”
And then, mercifully, Bill was there, his hand coming to rest on her back below the President’s in a clear territorial gesture as he asked, “Mind if I cut in, Mister President?”
A moment in which she knew that he wanted to deny the request before appearances kicked in and he graciously stepped back. “Not at all.” Then he leaned in close to Laura and said, “Just remember, Laura, the cubit stops with me. I’m in charge of the Colonies and when I want to find out something, I do.”
“I’d like you to remember something too, Richard. You have already realized that I’m no school teacher. What I am is far more powerful than you can imagine. If you want to stay in charge, you’ll back off.”
“Is that a threat?”
“You bet your ass it is.”
She didn’t wait to see his reaction as she stepped into Bill’s arms, but she did see her Chief’s satisfied smirk. He couldn’t wipe it off his face as he led her across the dance floor, as far away from the President’s wandering hands as he could.
“You’re a terrifying woman, Laura Roslin,” he commented, meeting her eyes and grinning. “Unarmed and in that dress and all. That’s kinda sexy.”
“Kind of?”
Bill just smiled wider and it was distracting. Too distracting. He smelt good, he felt good and his eyes were locked on hers and it was enough to make the entire ballroom fade away. Had they not been jostled by another couple, she might have thrown caution to the wind right there and then.
As it was, she was brought back to reality and forcefully reminded of where they were, and why. Her eyes scanned the room, as they’d been doing all night, but there was nothing and it was starting to drive her crazy.
“I shouldn’t have gone to see him the other night. I’ve only made him curious and if he starts digging, it could endanger the secrecy of the Agency.”
Bill shrugged. “You didn’t have a choice. You had to at least try. Now if this place does blow up, at least we’ll know we did everything we could.”
“Hopefully Kara and Lee will call in soon to say they have our targets and their weapon.”
Even as she said it, she felt him tense up and knew that they wouldn’t be so lucky. “Look,” he whispered in her ear and then spun her around.
A brief scan, and she knew. “Frak. Looks like we’ve found another model.”
Because, even though he was in a holding cell underneath the city, Leoben Conoy was on the other side of the room, dressed in an expensive tuxedo, smiling widely and shaking hands with the Quorum member from Aerilon.
~~~~~~~~~~
Kara and Lee checked their weapons at the end of the hall and using nothing more than eye contact to communicate, agreed they were ready. A hand gesture and their back-up (they were going with the adage, less is more, due to the single entry point), Jammer, shuffled forward as quietly as possible, taking up a position at the other end of the hall.
They’d arrived at a rundown dive of an apartment building a few minutes before, flashing badges at the two uniformed police officers and getting their story.
They’d been getting coffee a few blocks away when she’d walked past the shop. Of course, being hot blooded men, they’d noticed her straight away and had both eyed her legs for several long moments before one had said to the other, “Hey, doesn’t she look familiar?”
“Oh yeah,” the other one had responded. “She looks like that woman on the bulletin.”
They’d gotten back in their patrol car, where they’d discreetly tailed her and checked said bulletin. Extremely dangerous, do not approach.
So they called it in. The Agency had arrived in force shortly after, several heavily armed agents in the region being diverted. They’d set up barriers on every entrance into the building, pinned down the room they were looking for, and waited for Agents Adama and Thrace to arrive, per their orders.
It wasn’t long before elevators had been disabled, snipers were in position, and Lee and Kara, with only Jammer to watch their backs, were lone wolfing it into the building.
Outside the door, they met eyes and simultaneously nodded. Kara dropped to her knee while Lee stepped back and aimed his weapon right at eye level in case the door were to open. With a flick of her wrist, Kara held a thin, long mirror, which she slid beneath the door.
A second later she withdrew it and let them know what she saw: Two targets, one near, one far, neither armed. Another hand signal, and Jammer was attaching a small block of explosives to the lock.
They backed off and the former marine waited for the order from Apollo. Three, two, one, Boom! The door was barely off its hinges before they were breaching the room and all hell was breaking loose.
~~~~~~~~~~
Bill and Laura took up positions on opposite sides of the room so they could discreetly watch the Leoben Cylon wherever he went. He didn’t seem to be going anywhere, though. For a good twenty minutes, he talked his way around the room like a suave politician, only stopping by the bar once to get a refill on his drink.
They were hoping for at least a bathroom break to take him down. With no word from Lee or Kara, both of them were getting antsy. Bill, who couldn’t seem to stop patting the bulge beneath his jacket, didn’t see the problem with simply walking up to him, introducing himself, and then shooting him. But Laura had vetoed the suggestion.
Something about exposing themselves, causing a scene, risking their own lives when the room’s security started shooting at whoever had the gun. Oh and that little part about them still having no idea where the bomb was and if they let him lead them to it, or took him alive and got the information from him, they could maybe neutralize the threat to the government.
It was sound logic, but Bill still wanted to shoot him. He’d had enough of the Cylons when he’d been young and energetic enough to fight them in the war. All these years later, wearing human faces and no longer honorable enough to just fight out in the open, they made him sick.
Finally, the bastard made a move towards the exit. Bill met Laura’s eyes and they followed. They met up with each other at the massive grand doors to the ballroom in time to see him casually strolling out the front door.
“Where’s he going?” Bill muttered rhetorically.
A tap of an earpiece and Laura was questioning, “Highriser One, do you have a visual?”
A tinny voice came back over the comm. line, “I have a clear shot of the target, Ma’am.”
“Hold your fire,” she ordered as they kept on his tail, across the driveway and into the car park.
He headed into the city, crossing a busy street. They almost lost him when a bus stopped right in from of them, but were quick enough to see him enter the Coliseum, an upscale hotel in the center of town.
“Lost line of sight. Highriser One no longer has the shot.”
Bill and Laura went inside. The lobby was decadent, expensive flowers adorning every surface, antique furniture and gold trimming everywhere. People bustled by and they lost sight of him until Laura caught a glimpse as one of the elevator doors closed.
She strode to the main desk, pulled a badge out of Bill didn’t know where, and asked the clerk in an undeniably authoritive manner, “The gentleman in the tuxedo who just passed through here, which room?”
“I’m sorry?” the young man stammered, looking from her badge, to her dress, to Bill’s suit and back.
“Which room is he staying in?”
Another agent - Bill was slowly learning their names, but he didn’t recognize this one - strode in behind them, decked out in full assault gear. Many of the well off who stayed in the hotel eyed him with fright before hurrying out into the city night.
The clerk’s eyes widened when he saw the young man’s crew cut and assault rifle. He flicked his gaze back to Laura, “Um, Mr. Delany?”
“The guy who just walked through here in the tux,” Bill reiterated. “About this tall, clean shaven, short blonde hair.”
“Nice smile,” Laura added and Bill shot her a glare, which she blatantly ignored.
“Yes, Mr. Delany. He’s in the VIP suite. Top floor.”
“Stay with him and make sure he doesn’t get word off to Mister Delany,” Laura instructed the agent and she and Bill hurried to the lift.
Once inside and on the way up, she said, “We should have gotten more back up.”
“We can take him,” he offered as he removed his pistol from its holster.
“And if he has the bomb with him? This hotel is only a block away from Aphrodite Hall, if it blows here it will still take it out. Along with another two blocks.”
Bill shrugged, distracted by her hefting her dress to show a vast expanse of upper leg and a black garter which, he noted as he managed to remove his eyes from her skin for a second, wasn’t so much a garter as a holster.
“The bomb tech can be here in less than five minutes if need be,” he stated as she pulled her gun out of it. “How the frak did you walk with that thing there?”
“Practice,” she responded absently as she flicked off the safety.
He was sure he’d never been so happy to be in a tux. His thoughts snapped back to the mission when the door to the elevator pinged open. Only one room on the top floor, as there was a short hall and then a single door.
Laura tapped her earpiece again. “Shut down all power to the building.”
Several seconds later and the hall went black. The flashlights on the end of their guns were flicked on and side by side, they moved towards the door.
She glanced at him and he frowned in response. No way in hell was he kicking the frakking thing in. Did she not know just how sore his knee would be in the morning if he did that?
She sighed, rolled her eyes and reached up into the bun on her head. A moment later and she held not just a hair pin, but a small flat blade as well. Bill just shook his head at her and then watched in interest as she bent down to the lock.
One of those ones that take a card, but apparently Laura could handle those just as well as she could the crappy key locks like that on his front door. She slipped the pin into the card slot, jamming it in there, then pried open the mechanism with the blade. That done, she reached into her bra this time (Bill did not at all avert his eyes) and withdrew a tiny, thin metal rod.
“You got an assault rifle in there somewhere, too?” he whispered.
A dark look in his direction, before she started poking around inside the locking mechanism. He was positively amazed when it clicked unlocked.
She dropped her tools, picked her gun back up and then nodded at him. This time, he was happy to kick the door open. It smashed loudly against the wall as they hurried inside, only to stop short just a few feet in.
There, in the middle of a fancy sitting room, was a pleasantly smiling Leoben, standing beside several kiloton’s of explosive device. It only took a second in the darkness for the two of them to see that the lights on the screen atop it were flashing.
“You’re too late,” the Cylon stated calmly, a sense of satisfaction about him, the lights from the ends of their guns giving his face an eerie glow.
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Rating: M
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Pairing: Adama/Roslin
Author's Note: For summary, category, disclaimer and warnings, see Chapter One. You all can thank obsessive_a101 for this chapter being posted now. I wasn't going to give it to you for at least another day, but apparently I'm horribly corrupt because I was very easily bribed with recs to awesome BSG zombie crack.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Dancing The Night Away
Laura had wanted nothing more than to say no when Richard Adar asked her to dance, but one simply does not turn down the President, especially at his own ball. He’d practically ignored Bill as he’d slipped away from the ever present group surrounding him, interrupted an important conversation and requested the next dance.
Bill, in that mulish way of his, had simply held out his hand to take her wine glass, transferring his glower from the President, to her and then to his whiskey.
“Everything seems to be going smoothly,” Richard commented as they danced, far too smugly for Laura’s frayed nerves.
She absently wondered how long she would get before his security detail shot her dead if she cold clocked him. An outwardly pleasant smile was plastered on her face as she replied, “It always seems to go smoothly, Richard. That’s why everyone is always surprised by the death toll.”
He ignored the comment. One of the sticking points in their relationship years before had been his remarkable gift of selective hearing. Richard was a man who only ever heard what he wanted to hear.
Instead of responding, he completely changed tracks. “You left the other night before I could ask you if you were seeing anybody?”
“Are you?” she parried, throwing a pointed look at where his wife was chatting with several dignitaries.
He laughed. “Point. The thing is, you’ve piqued my interest, Laura. I’ve always been interested in you, truth be told, but now decades have passed and you’re a woman full of warnings and secrets with the ability to sneak into the President’s Mansion without anybody ever knowing you were there.”
“I’ve always been full of secrets, Richard, and you’d do well to remember that secrets are usually just that because they shouldn’t be shared.”
The song ended, another beginning, but before she could move away, he was adapting to the new beat and pulling her closer. “I’m the President of the Colonies.”
“I know, Richard. I voted for you.”
That seemed to pull him up short. “You did?” Then he smiled. “You did. Well, then you were one of the millions who decided I was the best person to govern the Colonies. So why don’t you trust me with the things you’re hiding?”
“Because it’s my job to doubt you.”
And then, mercifully, Bill was there, his hand coming to rest on her back below the President’s in a clear territorial gesture as he asked, “Mind if I cut in, Mister President?”
A moment in which she knew that he wanted to deny the request before appearances kicked in and he graciously stepped back. “Not at all.” Then he leaned in close to Laura and said, “Just remember, Laura, the cubit stops with me. I’m in charge of the Colonies and when I want to find out something, I do.”
“I’d like you to remember something too, Richard. You have already realized that I’m no school teacher. What I am is far more powerful than you can imagine. If you want to stay in charge, you’ll back off.”
“Is that a threat?”
“You bet your ass it is.”
She didn’t wait to see his reaction as she stepped into Bill’s arms, but she did see her Chief’s satisfied smirk. He couldn’t wipe it off his face as he led her across the dance floor, as far away from the President’s wandering hands as he could.
“You’re a terrifying woman, Laura Roslin,” he commented, meeting her eyes and grinning. “Unarmed and in that dress and all. That’s kinda sexy.”
“Kind of?”
Bill just smiled wider and it was distracting. Too distracting. He smelt good, he felt good and his eyes were locked on hers and it was enough to make the entire ballroom fade away. Had they not been jostled by another couple, she might have thrown caution to the wind right there and then.
As it was, she was brought back to reality and forcefully reminded of where they were, and why. Her eyes scanned the room, as they’d been doing all night, but there was nothing and it was starting to drive her crazy.
“I shouldn’t have gone to see him the other night. I’ve only made him curious and if he starts digging, it could endanger the secrecy of the Agency.”
Bill shrugged. “You didn’t have a choice. You had to at least try. Now if this place does blow up, at least we’ll know we did everything we could.”
“Hopefully Kara and Lee will call in soon to say they have our targets and their weapon.”
Even as she said it, she felt him tense up and knew that they wouldn’t be so lucky. “Look,” he whispered in her ear and then spun her around.
A brief scan, and she knew. “Frak. Looks like we’ve found another model.”
Because, even though he was in a holding cell underneath the city, Leoben Conoy was on the other side of the room, dressed in an expensive tuxedo, smiling widely and shaking hands with the Quorum member from Aerilon.
~~~~~~~~~~
Kara and Lee checked their weapons at the end of the hall and using nothing more than eye contact to communicate, agreed they were ready. A hand gesture and their back-up (they were going with the adage, less is more, due to the single entry point), Jammer, shuffled forward as quietly as possible, taking up a position at the other end of the hall.
They’d arrived at a rundown dive of an apartment building a few minutes before, flashing badges at the two uniformed police officers and getting their story.
They’d been getting coffee a few blocks away when she’d walked past the shop. Of course, being hot blooded men, they’d noticed her straight away and had both eyed her legs for several long moments before one had said to the other, “Hey, doesn’t she look familiar?”
“Oh yeah,” the other one had responded. “She looks like that woman on the bulletin.”
They’d gotten back in their patrol car, where they’d discreetly tailed her and checked said bulletin. Extremely dangerous, do not approach.
So they called it in. The Agency had arrived in force shortly after, several heavily armed agents in the region being diverted. They’d set up barriers on every entrance into the building, pinned down the room they were looking for, and waited for Agents Adama and Thrace to arrive, per their orders.
It wasn’t long before elevators had been disabled, snipers were in position, and Lee and Kara, with only Jammer to watch their backs, were lone wolfing it into the building.
Outside the door, they met eyes and simultaneously nodded. Kara dropped to her knee while Lee stepped back and aimed his weapon right at eye level in case the door were to open. With a flick of her wrist, Kara held a thin, long mirror, which she slid beneath the door.
A second later she withdrew it and let them know what she saw: Two targets, one near, one far, neither armed. Another hand signal, and Jammer was attaching a small block of explosives to the lock.
They backed off and the former marine waited for the order from Apollo. Three, two, one, Boom! The door was barely off its hinges before they were breaching the room and all hell was breaking loose.
~~~~~~~~~~
Bill and Laura took up positions on opposite sides of the room so they could discreetly watch the Leoben Cylon wherever he went. He didn’t seem to be going anywhere, though. For a good twenty minutes, he talked his way around the room like a suave politician, only stopping by the bar once to get a refill on his drink.
They were hoping for at least a bathroom break to take him down. With no word from Lee or Kara, both of them were getting antsy. Bill, who couldn’t seem to stop patting the bulge beneath his jacket, didn’t see the problem with simply walking up to him, introducing himself, and then shooting him. But Laura had vetoed the suggestion.
Something about exposing themselves, causing a scene, risking their own lives when the room’s security started shooting at whoever had the gun. Oh and that little part about them still having no idea where the bomb was and if they let him lead them to it, or took him alive and got the information from him, they could maybe neutralize the threat to the government.
It was sound logic, but Bill still wanted to shoot him. He’d had enough of the Cylons when he’d been young and energetic enough to fight them in the war. All these years later, wearing human faces and no longer honorable enough to just fight out in the open, they made him sick.
Finally, the bastard made a move towards the exit. Bill met Laura’s eyes and they followed. They met up with each other at the massive grand doors to the ballroom in time to see him casually strolling out the front door.
“Where’s he going?” Bill muttered rhetorically.
A tap of an earpiece and Laura was questioning, “Highriser One, do you have a visual?”
A tinny voice came back over the comm. line, “I have a clear shot of the target, Ma’am.”
“Hold your fire,” she ordered as they kept on his tail, across the driveway and into the car park.
He headed into the city, crossing a busy street. They almost lost him when a bus stopped right in from of them, but were quick enough to see him enter the Coliseum, an upscale hotel in the center of town.
“Lost line of sight. Highriser One no longer has the shot.”
Bill and Laura went inside. The lobby was decadent, expensive flowers adorning every surface, antique furniture and gold trimming everywhere. People bustled by and they lost sight of him until Laura caught a glimpse as one of the elevator doors closed.
She strode to the main desk, pulled a badge out of Bill didn’t know where, and asked the clerk in an undeniably authoritive manner, “The gentleman in the tuxedo who just passed through here, which room?”
“I’m sorry?” the young man stammered, looking from her badge, to her dress, to Bill’s suit and back.
“Which room is he staying in?”
Another agent - Bill was slowly learning their names, but he didn’t recognize this one - strode in behind them, decked out in full assault gear. Many of the well off who stayed in the hotel eyed him with fright before hurrying out into the city night.
The clerk’s eyes widened when he saw the young man’s crew cut and assault rifle. He flicked his gaze back to Laura, “Um, Mr. Delany?”
“The guy who just walked through here in the tux,” Bill reiterated. “About this tall, clean shaven, short blonde hair.”
“Nice smile,” Laura added and Bill shot her a glare, which she blatantly ignored.
“Yes, Mr. Delany. He’s in the VIP suite. Top floor.”
“Stay with him and make sure he doesn’t get word off to Mister Delany,” Laura instructed the agent and she and Bill hurried to the lift.
Once inside and on the way up, she said, “We should have gotten more back up.”
“We can take him,” he offered as he removed his pistol from its holster.
“And if he has the bomb with him? This hotel is only a block away from Aphrodite Hall, if it blows here it will still take it out. Along with another two blocks.”
Bill shrugged, distracted by her hefting her dress to show a vast expanse of upper leg and a black garter which, he noted as he managed to remove his eyes from her skin for a second, wasn’t so much a garter as a holster.
“The bomb tech can be here in less than five minutes if need be,” he stated as she pulled her gun out of it. “How the frak did you walk with that thing there?”
“Practice,” she responded absently as she flicked off the safety.
He was sure he’d never been so happy to be in a tux. His thoughts snapped back to the mission when the door to the elevator pinged open. Only one room on the top floor, as there was a short hall and then a single door.
Laura tapped her earpiece again. “Shut down all power to the building.”
Several seconds later and the hall went black. The flashlights on the end of their guns were flicked on and side by side, they moved towards the door.
She glanced at him and he frowned in response. No way in hell was he kicking the frakking thing in. Did she not know just how sore his knee would be in the morning if he did that?
She sighed, rolled her eyes and reached up into the bun on her head. A moment later and she held not just a hair pin, but a small flat blade as well. Bill just shook his head at her and then watched in interest as she bent down to the lock.
One of those ones that take a card, but apparently Laura could handle those just as well as she could the crappy key locks like that on his front door. She slipped the pin into the card slot, jamming it in there, then pried open the mechanism with the blade. That done, she reached into her bra this time (Bill did not at all avert his eyes) and withdrew a tiny, thin metal rod.
“You got an assault rifle in there somewhere, too?” he whispered.
A dark look in his direction, before she started poking around inside the locking mechanism. He was positively amazed when it clicked unlocked.
She dropped her tools, picked her gun back up and then nodded at him. This time, he was happy to kick the door open. It smashed loudly against the wall as they hurried inside, only to stop short just a few feet in.
There, in the middle of a fancy sitting room, was a pleasantly smiling Leoben, standing beside several kiloton’s of explosive device. It only took a second in the darkness for the two of them to see that the lights on the screen atop it were flashing.
“You’re too late,” the Cylon stated calmly, a sense of satisfaction about him, the lights from the ends of their guns giving his face an eerie glow.
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