Someone you might have been (part 28 of 39)
For those that might have missed it, I posted a small timestamp for the cross-dressing pies here.
Someone you might have been
Secret agent!Jared/Jensen
part twenty-seven
While agents may be expected to risk life and limb over and over again, to do things that classify as physically and mentally, not to mention morally, impossible for about ninety-nine percent of the rest of the population, there is one thing they are spared from: paperwork.
If Jared were given the choice between running through collapsing buildings that are on fire, while unfriendly types with guns chase him down, or the administrative workload of a handler, Jared would start running.
As it turns out, Chad isn't as much as a freak as Jensen, and feels about the same as Jared when it comes to bureaucracy.
The microchip needed to be taken to an ISA facility in Vienna and, while it fell to Jared to ensure it got there safely, Chad was the one who got it properly recorded and stored away. It's a routine assignment and Jared kind of hates it because it doesn't occupy his mind enough to stop him thinking about Jensen. Chad's more bearable regarding Jensen lately and has stopped finding opportunity to hate on him in increasingly unlikely sources, but Jared figures this is only a temporary fix. Give Chad time to get over the whole 'almost losing an agent' thing and he'll take up badmouthing Jensen as his favourite hobby again.
Having the chip handed over into ISA security is more of a relief than Jared was expecting. He just has to get through a single night in a hotel room with Chad, and then they can be on the plane tomorrow morning, back to the US and a new assignment. Preferably something with less involvement from Jensen.
Just one night, shut up in a room with Chad.
"Hookers and beer," says Chad, bouncing experimentally on his hotel bed. "Beer and hookers. Y'know, these Austrian chicks are like… God's gift to the straight man. Boobs and blonde hair and legs that go on and on and fucking on."
"No," says Jared.
"No to beer or no to hookers?"
Jared answers by pointedly chambering a bullet in his gun.
"Okay! Jesus, you're about as fun as syphilis."
"I'm guessing you have the first-hand experience to back that up."
Chad turns on the TV. "Screw you." He skips through several channels and settles for monster trucks with an enthusiastic commentary from some hairy German guy.
It's not a bad room they're set up in, not considering some of the holes ISA hides its people away in. Chad's already emptied the mini-bar and stunk up the bathroom, but Jared takes these things in his stride and is still reasonably content with the set-up. There's a new assignment waiting for him tomorrow and it's gonna be a vacation from worrying about what the hell he's going to do about Jensen.
His saving grace, the thing he hangs on to, is that it's not his decision to make. ISA is apparently still thinking that one over and Jared's grateful for any time he gets. And there's always that other thing: there's no guarantee Jared's the one they'll call. You want a guy taken out, maybe you're not gonna ask the guy he was sleeping with to do it.
It might not come to anything as bad as Jared's expecting.
"We could just get one hooker, y'know," Chad says, shoving a mouthful of nachos in. "And you could sleep on one of the couches in the lounge. C'mon, man, I think I deserve this after all the shit you and your boy put me through. I'm all tense and shit. One hooker? A hooker would totally help me unwind."
Then there's that too. It's not like Jared is coasting on some zen-like calm as it is, now he's gotta worry that Jensen and the Coalition know who Chad is. There's no way that can go good.
Jared glances over at him, unhappily thoughtful, and realises Chad is still waiting for an answer.
"No. No hookers. We're laying low, 'kay? Laying low, on our own."
The handful of nachos Chad flings in his direction doesn't even come close to hitting him. Jared watches them scatter over the floor and wonders if, maybe, just a little beer might help.
:::
Chad's been snoring and drooling over himself a little for the last forty minutes. There's boxing on the TV now and Jared watches it listlessly, lips pressed to the mouth of his empty beer bottle. Beer has not helped. Sure, it helped at first, while Chad was conscious, but now Jared is on his own, with a drunk handler and boxing in Vienna, and it all seems like shit.
He wonders if he's drunk enough to drunk-dial Jensen. Jensen won't still have his ISA cell and he probably wouldn't answer anyway, but Jared spends a good five minutes contemplating his cellphone anyway. He's about to throw it back down again when it flashes into life, and though Jared wasn't drunk enough to drunk-dial a number that doesn't exist anymore, he's drunk enough to hope, if only for a second, that Jensen's calling him.
It's not Jensen. It's O'Toole, and that sobers Jared up pretty damn fast.
"We have a situation," she says. "I've just received a message from a Coalition agent in your area. She wants to meet with you. I need you to go see her."
Jared pulls a face. "And we don't think that she's trying to kill me because?"
"She's given me a cellphone number, you can call her, arrange the meet. Her only demands are that it's tonight and that you come alone. I think she might want to come over. I know it's a risk, but anyone we can take from them, it's worth it."
Jared shifts the phone to his other ear and frowns as Chad snores particularly loudly. "Do we know who she is?"
"She gave me the name Elta," O'Toole says. "She says she met you on your last assignment and that she has information regarding who activated the self-destruct protocol."
"Yeah," says Jared. "I'll meet her. What's the number?"
:::
Elta is the hot redhead that Jared dosed with sedatives at the Red Moon Resort. She doesn't seem to hold it against him, judging by the smile she gives him, sharp but warmly amused.
Jared meets her in a small 24/7 café just off the main streets by the canal. There's a guy behind the counter and a couple of teenagers in the corner, and Jared's reasonably certain the scene's safe. If they're expecting to ambush him, they're gonna have to have something good planned.
"Elta?" he says, approaching her table.
"You can call me Danny," she says, and kicks the chair out opposite. "I hope you're gonna apologise for knocking me out back there. What kind of world is it we live in when a girl has to check her drink for sedatives?"
"I'd buy you coffee to make up for it but I figure you're too smart to drink it."
Danny smiles and inclines her head. "You've ruined me for the other boys, Jared. I'm never gonna trust a guy again."
"Glad I could help," says Jared, and sits down across from her. "So, not that I ever mind hanging out with a pretty girl, but… what are we doing here?"
"I'm here 'cause of Jen."
Jared stops smiling. "What about him?"
"Figured you should know some things," she says. "That self-destruct protocol that almost killed you? That was for Jensen. My handler was trying to kill Jensen, not you. And I figure that kind of disloyalty deserves some disloyalty right back. My handler's name is Riley Smith. I thought you should know, y'know, just in case you ever happen to run into him."
Jared blinks at the outright betrayal and thinks it over, looking for how she could be planning on turning this back against him. There's got to be an angle on this. Unless… Jared raises an eyebrow at her.
"So you're doing this for Jensen, why?"
Danny shrugs and stirs her coffee slowly, smoothing the bubbles out against the side of her cup. "I owe him a favour. He saved my life once, a few years back. He risked his whole cover to get me out. He didn't even know me." She smiles down at her coffee, fiddles with her watch. "I thought he was ISA at the time. Had his agent right in the next room and all. I thought I was dead for sure." She shrugs again, looking past Jared. "So, yeah, I don't like it when people try to blow Jensen up."
"And why does your handler want Jensen dead?" Knowing Jensen, Jared thinks there could be a long list of reasons someone might want him dead. Jared has a few himself. But that doesn't mean he's going to take it well when people try to kill him, especially not if they apparently don't mind catching Jared in the crossfire.
"Because Jensen works for Mike and Mike is one bad motherfucker. Plenty of people in the Coalition would rest a little easier without Mike and his extreme ways around. Everyone knows Mike just wants to blow shit up. He doesn't care what happens after the big political apocalypse, and he's not in it for the body-count. He just… gets off on the confusion and chaos and the people running around screaming."
"Nice guy," Jared says. He watches her closely, looking for a lie or simply something that's not exactly right. Because there's a quiet concern nagging at him that he can't totally get a hold of but which won't go away. He'd like to think that it's solely down to how people in his line of work aren’t usually so generous with information but there's more to it than that.
"He's kind of a sweetheart actually, if you can get past the severe psychopathic tendencies. Anyway, so long as he has Tom and Jensen in his corner, he looks like he gives a damn about the ideology. 'Cause Tom and Jen are poster boys for the revolution. They're what the Coalition looks like, God help us. "
"Tom?" Jared says.
"Our very own Superman," Danny says. She licks off her spoon and puts it down on the saucer. "Crazy crazy Tom. He's an assassin, plain and simple. And he's a true believer. Him, Mike and Jensen are the holy trinity of fucking your shit up, especially now Jensen's back home. You'd better believe people are feeling edgy about how popular Mike is, which puts Jensen and Tom right in the firing line."
"Lucky Jensen's so good at taking care of himself."
"Oh, don't be like that," she says. "He's good at fooling people, not his fault you fell for it so hard." She leans back in her chair, watching Jared. "Anything else you want? While I'm feeling generous?"
Jared ignores the undertone and says, "You know you've checked your watch four times since I got here?"
"I'm a busy girl."
"Is that what it is? How did you know I was here?"
Danny smiles at him, almost fondly. "How do you think? I've been right behind you all the way from the Red Moon."
"No," Jared says. "You haven't."
Her smile broadens. "Oh you're good, Jared, but you're not that good."
"Yeah," says Jared. "Yeah, I really am that good. How did you know I was here?"
She's quiet for a moment, smile frozen on her face as she studies him. "Yeah, okay, maybe you are that good. Doesn't matter now. It's too late."
"Imma ask you this nicely just the once," says Jared. "Why are you here?"
"I told you, I owe Jensen a favour. And seeing as he couldn't distract you from me last time, he thought maybe I could distract you from him, just long enough." Danny looks at her watch again and grins. "You know, I love a guy who's right as often as Jen is."
Acting on a horrible suspicion, Jared punches Chad's number into his phone, waits while it calls and calls.
"I think Mayhem's kinda busy right now," Danny says, while she gestures for the guy behind the counter to bring her another coffee.
In the time it takes for Jared to stand and make it out of the café, he's figured it out. Jensen knows ISA procedure well enough to figure out which facility was most likely to take receipt of the microchip, and Chad's the one whose biometrics locked it in. All he needed was Jared out of the way long enough to grab Chad. Jared would be impressed by how stubbornly Jensen is hanging onto the chip if it weren't for the fact Jared doesn't trust him not to do something unforgivable.
While he's quickly and unobtrusively breaking into a car, Jared calls the restricted ISA number on his cell and tells the bland, automated response to put him through to Tal or Tigerman.
"Hi, this is Tech support," Alona says cheerily. "You working on a Mac or a PC?"
"I'm Chad's co-worker," Jared says, not even bothering to play through the facade. "Do you remember me?"
"Oh! Oh, yeah, yeah I remember you - " More muffled, Jared can hear her hissing at Gabriel, telling him to quit fucking around with Guitar Hero and get his ass over here! "So, uh, what do you need from us?"
Jared props the cell between his shoulder and his ear as he hot-wires the car. "I need you to check with the logs in one of the ISA banks, designation VE92. I need you to tell me whether Chad was there in the last hour."
"That's, well, that's pretty classified stuff," Gabriel says uncertainly. "Do you have an authorisation code for-"
"Not yet. Do this for me, and I'll get you one, all properly signed and everything. I just need to make sure my handler isn't dead already, okay? Please, just work with me here."
Once he's got the engine going, Jared takes off fast, heading in the general direction of the ISA vaults. He can hear Alona and Gabriel having a quick, whispered conference. He needs them to help him because he needs to not let Chad die. Because if Chad dies because of Jensen, then there's going to be no avoiding that situation Jared doesn't want to be in. He can't let someone kill his handler without it becoming his own problem. Plus, Chad's all kinds of annoying, but that doesn't mean he deserves to die.
"Okay," says Gabriel finally. "We're checking the log. Okay, yeah, you both logged in at 11:17 this morning, but there's no Chad listed after that."
"Could he get in without being logged?"
"No," Alona cuts in. "The same system that reads and verifies his biometrics logs it. It's not unhackable but, y'know, it's as close as you're gonna get to secure."
So where the fuck has Jensen taken Chad? Jared sighs, drums his fingertips on the steering wheel as he drives, and tries to put himself in the head of a guy who's never been a textbook example of predictable.
"Hey, wait!" Alona says. "Look at that!"
"Wow," says Gabriel. "That's… that's cool. I would never have looked there. But… I don't get it. How can he have-? How does that work?"
"What is it?" Jared says. "Chad logged in after all?"
"No, no," says Alona, still sounding distracted. "He didn't enter the building, the log doesn't list him. But he entered one of the vaults ten minutes ago."
"How does he enter one of the vaults without entering the building?" Jared says.
"I'm checking the security videos," Gabriel says, "and… it looks like he didn't. Hey, pull up one of the plans. There's gotta be some…"
They fall silent and Jared tries to keep patient because he knows they're not field agents and they're doing the best they can and it's not their fault they don't understand how it feels to know someone could well be dying while you're waiting for an answer.
"That's something that's going to worry me for a while," Alona says finally. "Someone's altered the records we've got for the bank's blueprints. There's only one way that Chad could not have logged in at the entrance but have made it to one of the vaults. There's an escape tunnel, hasn't been used since the fifties, but someone's done a really good job of removing all trace of it from official records. I mean, this tunnel doesn't exist as far as our records go, except, see, we did a reorganization of the system a few months ago, and we've got this one little backup file hanging around... and the tunnel's marked on there."
"Hypothetically," Gabriel says, "someone could access the vaults without registering in the building by going through the tunnel. I guess. It's just… really really unlikely. The tunnel hasn't been in use for years, and it looks to feed into the water system, which is kind of dangerous."
"Look, who knows what state the tunnel's in? And even going through the tunnel, you've got to hack through some heavy-duty security to get into the vaults. It's not an easy option," says Alona. "But nobody's gonna be looking for a tunnel that doesn't exist, and data about who's entering the vault gets stored in a completely different place to data about who's entering the building, not somewhere you'd immediately look. In short, it's not exactly sane, but it's really really smart."
Not exactly sane, but really really smart: that would be Jensen.
:::
Jared's only able to locate the tunnel that doesn't exist with Gabe and Alona giving him very precise directions. It's dark and wet inside, and the deeper in he gets, the louder the sound of running water grows, until the little stream he's running alongside has become a goddamn full-blown river. It'd be really easy to get lost and Jared properly appreciates how insane it is to think your best option is navigating a system of tunnels that run below the city.
He strains for the first sound of Jensen and Chad, because whatever Jensen's plan is, it won't be to leave Chad inside the facility. Jensen's going to want time to make a good escape before people realize the microchip's even in danger.
Unless Danny's already warned him that she couldn't hang onto Jared. If she has, then all bets are off.
:::
It's been fourteen minutes since Jared entered the tunnel. It's too easy to lose track of time and losing track of time is the first step to getting disoriented. He has his flashlight, his gun and Gabe and Alona on the phone.
This is payback, Jared thinks. Not payback from Jensen, but for Jensen. He deserves this for being stupid enough to ignore all those common-sense rules and fall in love with his handler. He deserves this for thinking he was professional enough and capable enough to be able to cope with whatever consequences came from a relationship with Jensen.
If Chad dies, it's going to be Jared's fault.
:::
"He's gonna kick your ass, you know that, right?" Chad's voice floats towards Jared, and he feels the warm dizziness of relief, even as he tries to figure out which direction it's coming from. "I mean, he'll shoot you on fucking sight. Because there is no fucking way he can now fail to realize that you are one sonofabitch who needs to die."
"Oh, that hurts," Jensen says flatly. "And after I'd been nice enough to bring all of you along when I only needed your biometrics as well."
"Yeah, assclown, 'cause carving me up would'a totally made Jared forgive you," Chad sneers.
"I think that boat's sailed. Now shut up and move, before I do my headache a favor and leave you here to drown. I'm seriously doubting that anyone would miss you."
The voices are getting closer. Silently, Jared hangs up his cell, turns out his flashlight and readies his grip on his gun.
"Like the Coalition'd miss you, you mean?" Chad says. "Like fucking Rosenbaum would? He'd move right on to the next guy fucked-enough in the head to buy what he's fucking selling."
There's the sound of a scuffle, which cuts off sharply. Then Jensen, still flat and blank, says, "You should try to remember that it's pretty clear I don't care enough about Jared not to do things that would upset him, like kill you."
"Of course you don't fucking care. I see through you, Teague," Chad says. "I see right through you and the things you told Jared and I see what you fucking are. You're a fucking murderer."
Another scuffle then Chad curses, high and panicked. Jared tenses, ready to move.
"You aren't important, Chad," Jensen says. "The people I've killed, you think it'd give me a single sleepless night to kill you too? It wouldn't. And, sure, Jared would be real upset and blame himself and it'd all be really sad, but you think I couldn't work him through it? He wants to believe I'm not all bad. You can't compete with that. You don't matter."
"Anything matter beside you?" Chad chokes out.
And, damn him, Jensen doesn't answer that.
Then they're moving again, just around the corner from Jared. He can see the narrow beam of a flashlight, and then they're there, walking smack bang into the direct line of Jared's raised gun.
Chad doesn't look hurt, rumpled maybe but there's no visible damage to him. He looks pathetically grateful to see Jared. And Jensen, Jensen is gorgeous and even more so when he's cornered and scared and pissed. He's got the muzzle of a gun wedged firmly against Chad's throat and Jared dimly remembers thinking how weird it was to see Jensen assembling a sniper-rifle, and how crazy it seemed back then that Jensen might ever use a gun.
"Put the gun down, Jensen," Jared says.
"No," Jensen says.
"You think I won't shoot you?" Jared says. "Because I'm that desperate to believe you're 'not all bad'?"
"I think that if you shoot me I'm taking Chad with me."
There's a temporary stalemate, full of the rush of churning water in the carved out channel beside them.
"Danneel?" Jensen says.
Jared toys with the idea of telling Jensen he killed her, just to throw him. Then he shrugs and says, "Cute but not cute enough."
"Huh. I won't tell her you said that."
"You're not going to be telling her anything. You're not walking away from this. I want the microchip, I want Chad, and I want you face down on the ground, hands behind your back."
Jensen smiles, cocks his head at him. "Wow, that's kinkier than I was expecting from you. But I'm sorry, you can't have any of that. Now, get out of my way before I shoot him."
"Who do you think you're fooling? You're not gonna shoot-"
The sound of the gun cracks through the air, sharp even above the noise of the water. It's a flash of light and then Chad crumples and there's blood and a startled grunt. And then Jensen shoves Chad into the water with a loud splash, where he's instantly lost in the froth.
Jensen's face is white, mask-like as he looks straight back at Jared, the gun still tight in his hand, leveled at Jared now. His eyes are inhumanly bright.
"Think fast," Jensen says. "Try to shoot me or try to save him. Time's a'wasting. "
Instinctively, Jared's first thought is to cripple Jensen. To cause him pain. Because that's what Jensen deserves. Jared wants to hurt him.
But there's still a chance Chad's alive, and Jared knows it's his job to retrieve the microchip but everything has spun so far out of control that Jared can't leave Chad to bleed or drown to death when there's still a chance he could save him. He's not going to let Jensen involve him in any more murders.
He dives into the water and the last thing he hears as he plunges below the surface is the sound of Jensen running.
part twenty-nine
Someone you might have been
Secret agent!Jared/Jensen
part twenty-seven
While agents may be expected to risk life and limb over and over again, to do things that classify as physically and mentally, not to mention morally, impossible for about ninety-nine percent of the rest of the population, there is one thing they are spared from: paperwork.
If Jared were given the choice between running through collapsing buildings that are on fire, while unfriendly types with guns chase him down, or the administrative workload of a handler, Jared would start running.
As it turns out, Chad isn't as much as a freak as Jensen, and feels about the same as Jared when it comes to bureaucracy.
The microchip needed to be taken to an ISA facility in Vienna and, while it fell to Jared to ensure it got there safely, Chad was the one who got it properly recorded and stored away. It's a routine assignment and Jared kind of hates it because it doesn't occupy his mind enough to stop him thinking about Jensen. Chad's more bearable regarding Jensen lately and has stopped finding opportunity to hate on him in increasingly unlikely sources, but Jared figures this is only a temporary fix. Give Chad time to get over the whole 'almost losing an agent' thing and he'll take up badmouthing Jensen as his favourite hobby again.
Having the chip handed over into ISA security is more of a relief than Jared was expecting. He just has to get through a single night in a hotel room with Chad, and then they can be on the plane tomorrow morning, back to the US and a new assignment. Preferably something with less involvement from Jensen.
Just one night, shut up in a room with Chad.
"Hookers and beer," says Chad, bouncing experimentally on his hotel bed. "Beer and hookers. Y'know, these Austrian chicks are like… God's gift to the straight man. Boobs and blonde hair and legs that go on and on and fucking on."
"No," says Jared.
"No to beer or no to hookers?"
Jared answers by pointedly chambering a bullet in his gun.
"Okay! Jesus, you're about as fun as syphilis."
"I'm guessing you have the first-hand experience to back that up."
Chad turns on the TV. "Screw you." He skips through several channels and settles for monster trucks with an enthusiastic commentary from some hairy German guy.
It's not a bad room they're set up in, not considering some of the holes ISA hides its people away in. Chad's already emptied the mini-bar and stunk up the bathroom, but Jared takes these things in his stride and is still reasonably content with the set-up. There's a new assignment waiting for him tomorrow and it's gonna be a vacation from worrying about what the hell he's going to do about Jensen.
His saving grace, the thing he hangs on to, is that it's not his decision to make. ISA is apparently still thinking that one over and Jared's grateful for any time he gets. And there's always that other thing: there's no guarantee Jared's the one they'll call. You want a guy taken out, maybe you're not gonna ask the guy he was sleeping with to do it.
It might not come to anything as bad as Jared's expecting.
"We could just get one hooker, y'know," Chad says, shoving a mouthful of nachos in. "And you could sleep on one of the couches in the lounge. C'mon, man, I think I deserve this after all the shit you and your boy put me through. I'm all tense and shit. One hooker? A hooker would totally help me unwind."
Then there's that too. It's not like Jared is coasting on some zen-like calm as it is, now he's gotta worry that Jensen and the Coalition know who Chad is. There's no way that can go good.
Jared glances over at him, unhappily thoughtful, and realises Chad is still waiting for an answer.
"No. No hookers. We're laying low, 'kay? Laying low, on our own."
The handful of nachos Chad flings in his direction doesn't even come close to hitting him. Jared watches them scatter over the floor and wonders if, maybe, just a little beer might help.
:::
Chad's been snoring and drooling over himself a little for the last forty minutes. There's boxing on the TV now and Jared watches it listlessly, lips pressed to the mouth of his empty beer bottle. Beer has not helped. Sure, it helped at first, while Chad was conscious, but now Jared is on his own, with a drunk handler and boxing in Vienna, and it all seems like shit.
He wonders if he's drunk enough to drunk-dial Jensen. Jensen won't still have his ISA cell and he probably wouldn't answer anyway, but Jared spends a good five minutes contemplating his cellphone anyway. He's about to throw it back down again when it flashes into life, and though Jared wasn't drunk enough to drunk-dial a number that doesn't exist anymore, he's drunk enough to hope, if only for a second, that Jensen's calling him.
It's not Jensen. It's O'Toole, and that sobers Jared up pretty damn fast.
"We have a situation," she says. "I've just received a message from a Coalition agent in your area. She wants to meet with you. I need you to go see her."
Jared pulls a face. "And we don't think that she's trying to kill me because?"
"She's given me a cellphone number, you can call her, arrange the meet. Her only demands are that it's tonight and that you come alone. I think she might want to come over. I know it's a risk, but anyone we can take from them, it's worth it."
Jared shifts the phone to his other ear and frowns as Chad snores particularly loudly. "Do we know who she is?"
"She gave me the name Elta," O'Toole says. "She says she met you on your last assignment and that she has information regarding who activated the self-destruct protocol."
"Yeah," says Jared. "I'll meet her. What's the number?"
:::
Elta is the hot redhead that Jared dosed with sedatives at the Red Moon Resort. She doesn't seem to hold it against him, judging by the smile she gives him, sharp but warmly amused.
Jared meets her in a small 24/7 café just off the main streets by the canal. There's a guy behind the counter and a couple of teenagers in the corner, and Jared's reasonably certain the scene's safe. If they're expecting to ambush him, they're gonna have to have something good planned.
"Elta?" he says, approaching her table.
"You can call me Danny," she says, and kicks the chair out opposite. "I hope you're gonna apologise for knocking me out back there. What kind of world is it we live in when a girl has to check her drink for sedatives?"
"I'd buy you coffee to make up for it but I figure you're too smart to drink it."
Danny smiles and inclines her head. "You've ruined me for the other boys, Jared. I'm never gonna trust a guy again."
"Glad I could help," says Jared, and sits down across from her. "So, not that I ever mind hanging out with a pretty girl, but… what are we doing here?"
"I'm here 'cause of Jen."
Jared stops smiling. "What about him?"
"Figured you should know some things," she says. "That self-destruct protocol that almost killed you? That was for Jensen. My handler was trying to kill Jensen, not you. And I figure that kind of disloyalty deserves some disloyalty right back. My handler's name is Riley Smith. I thought you should know, y'know, just in case you ever happen to run into him."
Jared blinks at the outright betrayal and thinks it over, looking for how she could be planning on turning this back against him. There's got to be an angle on this. Unless… Jared raises an eyebrow at her.
"So you're doing this for Jensen, why?"
Danny shrugs and stirs her coffee slowly, smoothing the bubbles out against the side of her cup. "I owe him a favour. He saved my life once, a few years back. He risked his whole cover to get me out. He didn't even know me." She smiles down at her coffee, fiddles with her watch. "I thought he was ISA at the time. Had his agent right in the next room and all. I thought I was dead for sure." She shrugs again, looking past Jared. "So, yeah, I don't like it when people try to blow Jensen up."
"And why does your handler want Jensen dead?" Knowing Jensen, Jared thinks there could be a long list of reasons someone might want him dead. Jared has a few himself. But that doesn't mean he's going to take it well when people try to kill him, especially not if they apparently don't mind catching Jared in the crossfire.
"Because Jensen works for Mike and Mike is one bad motherfucker. Plenty of people in the Coalition would rest a little easier without Mike and his extreme ways around. Everyone knows Mike just wants to blow shit up. He doesn't care what happens after the big political apocalypse, and he's not in it for the body-count. He just… gets off on the confusion and chaos and the people running around screaming."
"Nice guy," Jared says. He watches her closely, looking for a lie or simply something that's not exactly right. Because there's a quiet concern nagging at him that he can't totally get a hold of but which won't go away. He'd like to think that it's solely down to how people in his line of work aren’t usually so generous with information but there's more to it than that.
"He's kind of a sweetheart actually, if you can get past the severe psychopathic tendencies. Anyway, so long as he has Tom and Jensen in his corner, he looks like he gives a damn about the ideology. 'Cause Tom and Jen are poster boys for the revolution. They're what the Coalition looks like, God help us. "
"Tom?" Jared says.
"Our very own Superman," Danny says. She licks off her spoon and puts it down on the saucer. "Crazy crazy Tom. He's an assassin, plain and simple. And he's a true believer. Him, Mike and Jensen are the holy trinity of fucking your shit up, especially now Jensen's back home. You'd better believe people are feeling edgy about how popular Mike is, which puts Jensen and Tom right in the firing line."
"Lucky Jensen's so good at taking care of himself."
"Oh, don't be like that," she says. "He's good at fooling people, not his fault you fell for it so hard." She leans back in her chair, watching Jared. "Anything else you want? While I'm feeling generous?"
Jared ignores the undertone and says, "You know you've checked your watch four times since I got here?"
"I'm a busy girl."
"Is that what it is? How did you know I was here?"
Danny smiles at him, almost fondly. "How do you think? I've been right behind you all the way from the Red Moon."
"No," Jared says. "You haven't."
Her smile broadens. "Oh you're good, Jared, but you're not that good."
"Yeah," says Jared. "Yeah, I really am that good. How did you know I was here?"
She's quiet for a moment, smile frozen on her face as she studies him. "Yeah, okay, maybe you are that good. Doesn't matter now. It's too late."
"Imma ask you this nicely just the once," says Jared. "Why are you here?"
"I told you, I owe Jensen a favour. And seeing as he couldn't distract you from me last time, he thought maybe I could distract you from him, just long enough." Danny looks at her watch again and grins. "You know, I love a guy who's right as often as Jen is."
Acting on a horrible suspicion, Jared punches Chad's number into his phone, waits while it calls and calls.
"I think Mayhem's kinda busy right now," Danny says, while she gestures for the guy behind the counter to bring her another coffee.
In the time it takes for Jared to stand and make it out of the café, he's figured it out. Jensen knows ISA procedure well enough to figure out which facility was most likely to take receipt of the microchip, and Chad's the one whose biometrics locked it in. All he needed was Jared out of the way long enough to grab Chad. Jared would be impressed by how stubbornly Jensen is hanging onto the chip if it weren't for the fact Jared doesn't trust him not to do something unforgivable.
While he's quickly and unobtrusively breaking into a car, Jared calls the restricted ISA number on his cell and tells the bland, automated response to put him through to Tal or Tigerman.
"Hi, this is Tech support," Alona says cheerily. "You working on a Mac or a PC?"
"I'm Chad's co-worker," Jared says, not even bothering to play through the facade. "Do you remember me?"
"Oh! Oh, yeah, yeah I remember you - " More muffled, Jared can hear her hissing at Gabriel, telling him to quit fucking around with Guitar Hero and get his ass over here! "So, uh, what do you need from us?"
Jared props the cell between his shoulder and his ear as he hot-wires the car. "I need you to check with the logs in one of the ISA banks, designation VE92. I need you to tell me whether Chad was there in the last hour."
"That's, well, that's pretty classified stuff," Gabriel says uncertainly. "Do you have an authorisation code for-"
"Not yet. Do this for me, and I'll get you one, all properly signed and everything. I just need to make sure my handler isn't dead already, okay? Please, just work with me here."
Once he's got the engine going, Jared takes off fast, heading in the general direction of the ISA vaults. He can hear Alona and Gabriel having a quick, whispered conference. He needs them to help him because he needs to not let Chad die. Because if Chad dies because of Jensen, then there's going to be no avoiding that situation Jared doesn't want to be in. He can't let someone kill his handler without it becoming his own problem. Plus, Chad's all kinds of annoying, but that doesn't mean he deserves to die.
"Okay," says Gabriel finally. "We're checking the log. Okay, yeah, you both logged in at 11:17 this morning, but there's no Chad listed after that."
"Could he get in without being logged?"
"No," Alona cuts in. "The same system that reads and verifies his biometrics logs it. It's not unhackable but, y'know, it's as close as you're gonna get to secure."
So where the fuck has Jensen taken Chad? Jared sighs, drums his fingertips on the steering wheel as he drives, and tries to put himself in the head of a guy who's never been a textbook example of predictable.
"Hey, wait!" Alona says. "Look at that!"
"Wow," says Gabriel. "That's… that's cool. I would never have looked there. But… I don't get it. How can he have-? How does that work?"
"What is it?" Jared says. "Chad logged in after all?"
"No, no," says Alona, still sounding distracted. "He didn't enter the building, the log doesn't list him. But he entered one of the vaults ten minutes ago."
"How does he enter one of the vaults without entering the building?" Jared says.
"I'm checking the security videos," Gabriel says, "and… it looks like he didn't. Hey, pull up one of the plans. There's gotta be some…"
They fall silent and Jared tries to keep patient because he knows they're not field agents and they're doing the best they can and it's not their fault they don't understand how it feels to know someone could well be dying while you're waiting for an answer.
"That's something that's going to worry me for a while," Alona says finally. "Someone's altered the records we've got for the bank's blueprints. There's only one way that Chad could not have logged in at the entrance but have made it to one of the vaults. There's an escape tunnel, hasn't been used since the fifties, but someone's done a really good job of removing all trace of it from official records. I mean, this tunnel doesn't exist as far as our records go, except, see, we did a reorganization of the system a few months ago, and we've got this one little backup file hanging around... and the tunnel's marked on there."
"Hypothetically," Gabriel says, "someone could access the vaults without registering in the building by going through the tunnel. I guess. It's just… really really unlikely. The tunnel hasn't been in use for years, and it looks to feed into the water system, which is kind of dangerous."
"Look, who knows what state the tunnel's in? And even going through the tunnel, you've got to hack through some heavy-duty security to get into the vaults. It's not an easy option," says Alona. "But nobody's gonna be looking for a tunnel that doesn't exist, and data about who's entering the vault gets stored in a completely different place to data about who's entering the building, not somewhere you'd immediately look. In short, it's not exactly sane, but it's really really smart."
Not exactly sane, but really really smart: that would be Jensen.
:::
Jared's only able to locate the tunnel that doesn't exist with Gabe and Alona giving him very precise directions. It's dark and wet inside, and the deeper in he gets, the louder the sound of running water grows, until the little stream he's running alongside has become a goddamn full-blown river. It'd be really easy to get lost and Jared properly appreciates how insane it is to think your best option is navigating a system of tunnels that run below the city.
He strains for the first sound of Jensen and Chad, because whatever Jensen's plan is, it won't be to leave Chad inside the facility. Jensen's going to want time to make a good escape before people realize the microchip's even in danger.
Unless Danny's already warned him that she couldn't hang onto Jared. If she has, then all bets are off.
:::
It's been fourteen minutes since Jared entered the tunnel. It's too easy to lose track of time and losing track of time is the first step to getting disoriented. He has his flashlight, his gun and Gabe and Alona on the phone.
This is payback, Jared thinks. Not payback from Jensen, but for Jensen. He deserves this for being stupid enough to ignore all those common-sense rules and fall in love with his handler. He deserves this for thinking he was professional enough and capable enough to be able to cope with whatever consequences came from a relationship with Jensen.
If Chad dies, it's going to be Jared's fault.
:::
"He's gonna kick your ass, you know that, right?" Chad's voice floats towards Jared, and he feels the warm dizziness of relief, even as he tries to figure out which direction it's coming from. "I mean, he'll shoot you on fucking sight. Because there is no fucking way he can now fail to realize that you are one sonofabitch who needs to die."
"Oh, that hurts," Jensen says flatly. "And after I'd been nice enough to bring all of you along when I only needed your biometrics as well."
"Yeah, assclown, 'cause carving me up would'a totally made Jared forgive you," Chad sneers.
"I think that boat's sailed. Now shut up and move, before I do my headache a favor and leave you here to drown. I'm seriously doubting that anyone would miss you."
The voices are getting closer. Silently, Jared hangs up his cell, turns out his flashlight and readies his grip on his gun.
"Like the Coalition'd miss you, you mean?" Chad says. "Like fucking Rosenbaum would? He'd move right on to the next guy fucked-enough in the head to buy what he's fucking selling."
There's the sound of a scuffle, which cuts off sharply. Then Jensen, still flat and blank, says, "You should try to remember that it's pretty clear I don't care enough about Jared not to do things that would upset him, like kill you."
"Of course you don't fucking care. I see through you, Teague," Chad says. "I see right through you and the things you told Jared and I see what you fucking are. You're a fucking murderer."
Another scuffle then Chad curses, high and panicked. Jared tenses, ready to move.
"You aren't important, Chad," Jensen says. "The people I've killed, you think it'd give me a single sleepless night to kill you too? It wouldn't. And, sure, Jared would be real upset and blame himself and it'd all be really sad, but you think I couldn't work him through it? He wants to believe I'm not all bad. You can't compete with that. You don't matter."
"Anything matter beside you?" Chad chokes out.
And, damn him, Jensen doesn't answer that.
Then they're moving again, just around the corner from Jared. He can see the narrow beam of a flashlight, and then they're there, walking smack bang into the direct line of Jared's raised gun.
Chad doesn't look hurt, rumpled maybe but there's no visible damage to him. He looks pathetically grateful to see Jared. And Jensen, Jensen is gorgeous and even more so when he's cornered and scared and pissed. He's got the muzzle of a gun wedged firmly against Chad's throat and Jared dimly remembers thinking how weird it was to see Jensen assembling a sniper-rifle, and how crazy it seemed back then that Jensen might ever use a gun.
"Put the gun down, Jensen," Jared says.
"No," Jensen says.
"You think I won't shoot you?" Jared says. "Because I'm that desperate to believe you're 'not all bad'?"
"I think that if you shoot me I'm taking Chad with me."
There's a temporary stalemate, full of the rush of churning water in the carved out channel beside them.
"Danneel?" Jensen says.
Jared toys with the idea of telling Jensen he killed her, just to throw him. Then he shrugs and says, "Cute but not cute enough."
"Huh. I won't tell her you said that."
"You're not going to be telling her anything. You're not walking away from this. I want the microchip, I want Chad, and I want you face down on the ground, hands behind your back."
Jensen smiles, cocks his head at him. "Wow, that's kinkier than I was expecting from you. But I'm sorry, you can't have any of that. Now, get out of my way before I shoot him."
"Who do you think you're fooling? You're not gonna shoot-"
The sound of the gun cracks through the air, sharp even above the noise of the water. It's a flash of light and then Chad crumples and there's blood and a startled grunt. And then Jensen shoves Chad into the water with a loud splash, where he's instantly lost in the froth.
Jensen's face is white, mask-like as he looks straight back at Jared, the gun still tight in his hand, leveled at Jared now. His eyes are inhumanly bright.
"Think fast," Jensen says. "Try to shoot me or try to save him. Time's a'wasting. "
Instinctively, Jared's first thought is to cripple Jensen. To cause him pain. Because that's what Jensen deserves. Jared wants to hurt him.
But there's still a chance Chad's alive, and Jared knows it's his job to retrieve the microchip but everything has spun so far out of control that Jared can't leave Chad to bleed or drown to death when there's still a chance he could save him. He's not going to let Jensen involve him in any more murders.
He dives into the water and the last thing he hears as he plunges below the surface is the sound of Jensen running.
part twenty-nine