Continuum Fic: The Other Way [PG | WIP 1/2]
Title: The Other Way
Rating PG
Characters: Kiera Cameron, Matthew Kellog, Carlos Fonnegra, Sonya Valentine, ensemble.
Fandom: Continuum
Wordcount: 3,800 (Part one of two)
Spoilers: All of season 1.
Archived:: On AO3
Summary: It's a week after the bombing and Sonya Valentine decides she needs some answers...
_______________________________________
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
The day started with a bomb threat. Two months ago, that fact alone would have thrown the precinct into a loud cacophony of noise; today, there was just a quiet resignation. It had been a week since the downtown bombing and the body count had been high, both for the police force and the ordinary people of Vancouver.
“Have the bomb squad been alerted?” Dillon asked as he looked at the incident board.
Betty nodded. “They’re ready and waiting,” she said.
“And we still don’t have a location for the bomb?” he said, turning to Carlos. “It could be a hoax.”
“It could be,” Carlos said, “But Kiera’s intel is usually good.” He glanced across the room to where she was pacing the floor and talking urgently into her phone. She looked up and smiled as she approached them but she had changed since the bombing; she had always been secretive, but the slow and easy humour she'd displayed before the bombing had now all but disappeared.
“I've got a lead,” she said.
“Good, let’s go,” he said, reaching for his coat. The wound pulled slightly, but the pain wasn’t too bad.
“Hey, you’re still on desk duty, remember, Ferraro?” Dillon reminded him dryly. “You’ve already had to redo your stitches once, thanks to the bombing - Betty, sign yourself out a piece and go with Agent Cameron.”
Betty blinked, but stood all the same. “Uh, yes sir.”
Carlos opened his mouth to protest but Dillon cut him off. “I let you come back to work early, despite my reservations, don’t make me regret it,” he warned.
Carlos subsided but nodded wearily. “Watch your backs,” he said to Kiera and Betty.
“Don’t worry. Dad,” Betty teased. “We’ll be back before curfew.”
~~*~*~*~~
Trust the tech, not your gut.
It was lesson driven home to Kiera on countless occasions during her time with the CPS, but she still couldn’t ignore the gnawing doubt she felt as she came to the mouth of the alley. In her time, they would have never approached such an easily defendable position without aerial back up, but Vancouver PD didn’t exactly have that kind of budget - or tech.
“I don’t like this,” Betty said, giving voice to her doubts.
“I’m with you,” she said flatly. “Maybe we should wait until-”
A bullet zipped past her ear and the time for talking was over. They fled the alley, pulling out their weapons as they ran for the car. At least her suit gave her an amount of protection, but Betty was vulnerable. Kiera shuddered, remembering the moment Carlos took the bullet. She’d never forgive herself if the same thing happened to Betty. Reaching into her coat, she pulled out the car keys and threw them to Betty.
“Get the engine running,” she said. “I’ll cover us.”
She turned, her CMR feeding her real time analysis. Two on the second floor of the old redbrick warehouse and one on the roof. Deciding the one on the roof was the sniper, she started firing. He couldn’t aim if he was too busy ducking.
The car engine revved behind her and she backed up, hoping she wasn’t going to run out of bullets before she reached it. She heard the passenger door open and Betty calling out.
And then something stung her neck and she felt her legs buckling beneath her. Startled she pulled the dart out of her neck. They’d tranked her? What the... “Alec, Alec, are you there?”
“Kiera? What the hell is going on? Your stats are all over the place - Kiera?”
The world faded to black.
~~*~*~*~~
Uniforms were the first on the scene and the tape was already up when Carlos arrived. Betty was sitting on the back step of an ambulance, a blanket pulled over her shoulders, and he made a beeline for her.
“Are you injured?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No, I’m fine, he just won’t leave me alone,” she rolled her eyes at the ambulance medic.
“You could be in shock,” the medic said.
Betty pulled a face before asking: “Any word yet?”
“No,” Carlos said. “Can you run through what happened with me?”
“Sure,” Betty said. “Although there’s not much to say - we knew something was hinky when we arrived, so we decided to call for back up, but the moment we turned to leave, they started firing. Kiera threw her keys at me and told me to start the car.” She hesitated. “And then that’s when things got weird,” she admitted. “They hit her in the neck with some sort of dart and she went down pretty quickly. I tried to get out of the car but these new guys that I’ve never seen before came out of nowhere and surrounded us. A van pulled up and they threw Kiera into it. I called it in the moment they pulled away and that’s it. The van was a white Nissan but they had their plates blacked out. New tires, no stickers in the window. It’s going to be bitch to track down.”
Carlos rubbed his eyes. “You recognised no one?”
Betty shook her head. “And they were all pretty young, Carlos,” she said softly.
“Hey, we found a phone,” one of the uniforms called out. “It looks like Agent Cameron’s”
“And that’s my cue, they probably threw it away because they were afraid we'd hack her GPS, ” Betty said, standing up.
“Hey, where the hell do you think you’re going,” the medic protested.
“To work, what does it look like I’m doing,” Betty snapped, shrugging off the blanket. “Hey, you, give me that damned phone!”
“Bossy, isn’t she?” the medic observed, as she walked off.
“She has her moments,” Carlos said.
~~*~*~*~~Alec stared at the CMR’s feed. This was all his fault. He should have seen the information trail was false, should have known that liber8 would try something like this, but he’d been overconfident and too sure of the data. Damn it!
Alec didn’t know what to do. Kiera’s stats said she was still alive but unconscious. Her CMR also told him she was still on the move. They were going west along the highway. There had to be something he could do, but who should he call - Carlos? Yeah, that would go down great. Hey, remember me, the guy whose stepbrother shot you and then helped blow up a building of innocent people? Well, guess what, your partner has been kidnapped and I know where she is....what do you mean, am I a terrorist?
There was an alternative, of course, but Matthew Kellog was definitely a last resort. He and Kiera seemed very friendly of late, and Kiera had admitted she’d told him of his involvement but he still didn’t trust the guy.
“C’mon, Kiera, wake up,” he muttered. “Tell me what to do.”
~~*~*~*~~
The precinct was jumping when Carlos arrived. With the double whammy of a bomb alert and a kidnapped agent, everyone was on high alert. He spotted Betty waving him over.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“I hacked her phone,” Betty said, without preamble. “It took me a while, Kiera has some serious encryption on this thing and she seems to have this very clever automatic wipe app for her phone history that I’ve never seen before - but I got into her contacts and it’s kinda weird. She’s got less than a dozen numbers in it, and one of them is Alec Sadler-”
“The kid from the farm,” Carlos said. “I think Kiera felt bad for him.”
“-and Matthew Kellog,” Betty finished.
“The guy from Liber8?” Carlos asked, his mind turning.
“Unless there is another Matthew Kellog we don’t know about,” Betty said wryly.
Apart from the little intel Kiera had given them in the first week of the taskforce, little was known of Matthew Kellog - they didn’t even have a picture. Now that he thought about it, Kiera hadn’t mentioned him since that first week, which was strange in itself. Kiera was usually like a dog with a bone when it came to loose ends... a certainty settled in Carlos’ gut as a few more pieces fell into place, but there was only one way to be certain.
He reached for Kiera's phone. “Trace this call.”
Betty looked at him worriedly. “Carlos-”
“Just trust me,” he said. “I've got a hunch.”
~~*~*~*~~
Kellog smiled as he saw the number pop up on his phone. To be honest, he didn’t think he’d hear from her this soon. Kiera had a pretty predictable pattern when she felt she had something to feel feel guilty about, and Kellog wasn’t fooling himself, she felt extremely guilty at the moment.
“Let me guess, you’ve changed your mind about dinner,” he teased as he answered the phone. “I know this fabulous-”
“Hey, remember me?” said a distinctly male voice that was most definitely not Kiera. He sat up straight. The voice seemed familiar. Where had he heard it before...ah.
“Detective Fonnegra,” he said. “This is not your phone.” Quickly, he tapped his tablet and checked his security perimeter. Wherever he was, he wasn’t nearby. He wondered how efficient the local constabulary were at triangulating from cell towers. Note to self, invest in a satellite phone.
“Kiera has been taken by Liber8, do you know where they took her?”
Well that was unexpected. “They took her alive?” Kellog asked, eyeing the time on the wall clock. He’d give Fonnegra another fifteen seconds before he hung up.
“You sound surprised,” he said.
“That's because Liber8 wants her dead,” he said, coming to a decision. “Meet me in that little cafe Kiera is so fond of in twenty minutes.” He hung up, and debated whether he should take the battery and sim card out of the phone for good measure. He decided against it. The advantages of keeping an open channel of communication outweighed the risks. He grabbed a jacket, one that he could hide a gun underneath without being obvious; he had a funny feeling he was going to need it before the day was out.
~~~*~*~*~~~
“I can't believe you're doing this,” said Betty said, looking to Dillon for agreement as Carlos made to leave. “Don't you remember what Kiera said about this guy? ”If his lips are moving, chances are he's lying.”
“I don't think Kiera told us the whole truth,” Carlos said stubbornly. “You weren't there, Betty, the guy saved my life. There's more to this than we know.”
“Either way, I want you to call in within thirty minutes. If we don't hear from you, we're going to assume he's hostile and take appropriate action,” Dillon warned.
“Hey, no argument from me,” Carlos said. “Keep me updated on the situation.” He left the precinct without a backwards glance and Betty sighed.
“This is such a bad idea,” she muttered.
~~*~*~*~~
His main monitor chirped and Alec sat up, his eyes taking in the data. Kiera had stopped moving. He did a quick search on her GPS location and frowned. Liber8 had moved location again, another fairly upscale address in a leafy neighbourhood. They were definitely not short of funds, thats for sure.
Kiera’s vital statistics spiked and Alec waited worriedly, what the hell was going on?
“Good day, Kiera, I don’t believe we’ve ever been formally introduced,” said a familiar sounding voice. It was a woman’s.
The video feed came to life and Alec felt a stab of relief when Kiera’s voice answered, shaky but audible. “What do you want, Valentine?”
“Can’t you guess?” Valentine asked wryly. She was sitting in a chair in front of her, legs crossed. Behind her was a simple white wall.
“I gave up trying to second guess you a long time ago,” Kiera said.
“Oh, I’m sure you have,” Valentine drawled, “Let me keep this simple. I want Alec Sadler and it has come to my attention that you know where he is.”
“Excuse me?” Kiera said, sounding genuinely puzzled.
Kagame smiled humourlessly. “I wouldn’t bother attempting subterfuge. I’m afraid Mr Sadler gave himself away during that episode with your chip. He was a little too good, you see, a little too quick to circumvent our efforts.” Valentine leaned forward, and stared straight into Kiera’s eyes. Alec felt his mouth go dry. “As you can see, Alec, Kiera isn’t about to give you up - but I’m going to kill her very soon if you don’t-”
“No!” Kiera said harshly, and the feed went dead - she’d cut him off! Alec scowled and fired off the relevent coding, the videofeed came back on.
He wished he hadn’t. Garza filled the screen, her fist was raised and there was blood on her knuckles. He guessed Kiera hadn’t told her she was pretty.
“Kiera, are you okay?” he muttered into his mike, she didn’t answer. “Kiera, if you can’t speak just nod.” The moment stretched out and then the videofeed quivered as Kiera nodded. His relief was short lived, however, as Garza struck her again. The videofeed blinked out once more and this time Alec didn’t turn it back on.
It was either the cops or Kellog but it wasn't really a choice... Kellog it was.
~~*~*~*~~~
Kellog tapped the table impatiently as he waited for Fonnegra to arrive. It seemed strange not to be meeting Kiera here but he didn’t want to dwell on that thought too closely. Sometimes he wondered at how quickly he’d become attached to her, she was supposed to be a means to an end - a Protector, practically not human at all.
Except she was human, more so than he’d ever expected and, like an idiot, he'd dived straight in, ignoring the complications and Kiera’s guilty conscience The fact she was one of the Protectors involved in his first arrest and Laura’s death had thrown him; he hadn’t remembered her face. To him, they had all been faceless automatons.
For a moment, when she told him, the rage ran through him like a fire... and then it stopped as soon as the expression on her face registered. Kiera Cameron had changed a lot over the last few months. He doubted she’d ever questioned their actions or orders back in their own time or, if she did, she kept it to herself.
So he forgave her, it was surprisingly easy.
“Matthew Kellog?” Fonnegra’s voices broke through his thoughts and Kellog kicked himself. This was not the time to let his guard down.
“Sit,” he said, he nodded at the coffee on the table. “I ordered.”
Fonnegra sat across from him, eyeing him intently. “So you’re Kellog, Section Six’s guy on the inside,” he said. “I guess that’s why we’ve never had a picture of you.” Kellog quirked an eyebrow at that. Had Kiera been covering for him? This day was getting stranger and stranger.
He smiled. “What can I do for you, Detective Fonnegra?”
“Do I have to spell it out for you?” Carlos asked. “You can help me find Kiera. I figured Section Six must be keeping tabs on the prominent Liber8 members - especially with you on the inside.”
“Mmm, might be a bit more difficult than that,” Kellog said. “Haven’t you heard? Decentralisation is the key to a well organised revolution. Liber8 operates in cells in order to prevent this kind of infiltration, and even if we did know where Valentine was laying her head, it still wouldn’t help you locate Kiera. She’ll be somewhere secure in a well populated area, probably in some sleepy suburb that nobody would even look twice at.”
“Valentine? Not Travis?” Carlos asked sharply.
Shit! Kiera hadn’t told them? Kellog sighed; great, that’s all he needed. “Travis is dead, Valentine is in charge. Welcome to the new world order,” he said.
“Huh,” Carlos said. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter, all that matters is we find where they’re keeping her.”
Kellog smiled wryly, Don Quixote tilting at windmillls. “The days when you could take Liber8 down with a couple of squad cars from the VPD are long gone. They’re already too entrenched and too organised, plus they’ve got numbers on their side and one hell of a defence perimeter. All you and your team would accomplish is getting dead. Something Kiera would be very pissed about, trust me.”
Carlos gave him stubborn look. “But you how to find her, don’t you?”
"I know where to start,” Kellog admitted. “But who knows what will happen if we pick up their trail again.”
“You’re putting Section Six before Kiera,” Carlos said flatly.
Kellog almost laughed. “Trust me,” he said. “Kiera wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“I want Escher’s number,” Carlos said. “if you’re not going to help me, then I guess I’m just going to have to go over your head.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Kellog said, and that was true, just not for the reasons Carlos thought. His phone rang and he glanced down at the text that popped up on his screen, ‘unknown number ’.
Carlos eyed him. “Are you going to answer that?”
Kellog turned down the call. “Unknown number,” he explained. The phone rang again.
“Could be news,” Carlos said
“Let’s hope not,” Kellog said. “I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve got all the news I can handle.” He answered the phone. “Yeah?”
“This is Alec. Kiera told you about me.
Kellog blinked. “She mentioned you.”
“And as you’re having coffee with Carlos at this moment, I’m guessing you already know Kiera is in trouble.”
How did he-
“GPS on your phone, traffic camera on the street,” he said, as if reading Kellog’s mind. “But that’s not the issue - I have access to Kiera’s liquid chip and her co-ordinates.”
“Is she okay?” Kellog asked.
“She’s awake and aware,” Alec said tentatively. “But they’re working her over pretty badly.”
“What are they looking for?” Kellog asked.
There was a pause. “Me.”
Of course they were. Because nothing was ever simple. “I’m guessing Kiera isn’t willing to give you up?” Kellog asked.
There was another pause on the phone. “Do you think they want to kill me?” He sounded so young - probably because he was young. he’d be a kid in 2012.
“I don’t think it’s on the cards,” Kellog said. “From what Kiera told me, your continued life is in their interests.”
“Maybe I should give myself up, then,” Alec suggested. “If they won’t kill me, there’s nothing to lose.”
Actually, there was quite a lot to lose, but he guessed Alec already knew that. The kid had guts, he’d give him that. “I think we’ll try a less drastic option first,” he said. “Use a different kind of leverage.” His mind flashed to the time travel segment in his yacht. Valentine was off the table; she was Kagame’s chosen successor and a true believer, she would follow Kagame’s instructions until her dying breath. Garza was a follower, she'd take Valentine's lead... but Lucas was an option. Without Kagame’s driving vision or fear of Travis’s brute force, it may be possible to convince him that returning to their own time was the more attractive option. He always had the shakiest motive amongst them for joining the movement - guilt.
“Valentine doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who strikes bargains,” Alec said, interrupting his flow of thought.
“Who said anything about Valentine? I’ll be in touch.” He hung up and the looked at the Detective across the table. He had an expectant look on his face.
“Well?” he asked.
“I have her location,” he admitted. “But that is only part of the problem. If we go in there with guns blazing, she’s going to be dead before we make it though the door.”
“But you have a plan,” Carlos said. It wasn’t a question.
“I think I may be able to sneak in when they’re not expecting it,” Kellog allowed. “But this isn’t a team effort.”
“I’m going with you,” Carlos said stubbornly.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Your face is known to them,” Kellog reminded him. “I’m going to have to set up a meet with one of them to negotiate.”
“So I’ll wait outside,” Carlos said. “You can wear a wire.”
“That’s not the way I work-”
“I don’t give a damn about the way you work,” Carlos cut in. “Those bastards kidnapped my partner! I’ll keep the department off your back and make sure nobody calls in the Calvary at the wrong moment, but I’m going with you!”
Kellog knew a losing battle when he saw one. “Nix the wire, and you can come along,” he said.
“Deal,” Carlos said.
“Well, alright then,” Kellog said, smiling easily as he wondered how he could ditch the Detective if he needed to.
~~*~*~*~~
The Protector wasn’t talking and Sonya had the feeling this wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Not for the first time, she wished Kagame had left more guidance for her. His letter had been brief, explaining that their return to 2012 had not been an accident and that he’s done a deal with the devil in order to save the future.
Alec Sadler had sprung them from jail and sent them to 2012 to change history - why? What was in it for him? She was determined to find out and getting her hands on the younger Alec Sadler was her first step - because there was no way that the Alec Sadler from her future sent them back to 2012 without a game plan for himself.
She made her way to the back bedroom that Lucas had turned into a clean room, and went inside, Lucas was on the other side of the clear plastic curtain.
“Any luck?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “The suits are hardwired to the Protector’s DNA and specifically designed to be tamper proof. Without her in it, it’s just a useless piece of nano-fabric.”
“Keep trying,” Sonya said. They had suspected the Protector would be wearing the suit under her clothing, which is why they’d aimed the dart at her neck. If they could hack it, it could give them some amazing advantages.
“If we could access her chip, it might give us a back door into her suit,” Lucas suggested.
“I thought you couldn’t get through her chip’s firewalls anymore,” she said.
“Not remotely, no,” Lucas said. “But pretty much any firewall will eventually crumble if you attack it through a hardwire connection.” He held up a lead.
Sonya quirked an eyebrow. “If you break through her firewalls, can we backtrack Alec Sadler’s position through his connection?,” she asked.
“It’s possible,” Lucas said.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Sonya said. “Do we need to bring her up here?”
“No,” he said. “Just give me a few minutes to collect what I need and then we'll be in business.”
Valentine graced him with a smile. Something was going their way at last.
PART TWO
Rating PG
Characters: Kiera Cameron, Matthew Kellog, Carlos Fonnegra, Sonya Valentine, ensemble.
Fandom: Continuum
Wordcount: 3,800 (Part one of two)
Spoilers: All of season 1.
Archived:: On AO3
Summary: It's a week after the bombing and Sonya Valentine decides she needs some answers...
_______________________________________
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
The day started with a bomb threat. Two months ago, that fact alone would have thrown the precinct into a loud cacophony of noise; today, there was just a quiet resignation. It had been a week since the downtown bombing and the body count had been high, both for the police force and the ordinary people of Vancouver.
“Have the bomb squad been alerted?” Dillon asked as he looked at the incident board.
Betty nodded. “They’re ready and waiting,” she said.
“And we still don’t have a location for the bomb?” he said, turning to Carlos. “It could be a hoax.”
“It could be,” Carlos said, “But Kiera’s intel is usually good.” He glanced across the room to where she was pacing the floor and talking urgently into her phone. She looked up and smiled as she approached them but she had changed since the bombing; she had always been secretive, but the slow and easy humour she'd displayed before the bombing had now all but disappeared.
“I've got a lead,” she said.
“Good, let’s go,” he said, reaching for his coat. The wound pulled slightly, but the pain wasn’t too bad.
“Hey, you’re still on desk duty, remember, Ferraro?” Dillon reminded him dryly. “You’ve already had to redo your stitches once, thanks to the bombing - Betty, sign yourself out a piece and go with Agent Cameron.”
Betty blinked, but stood all the same. “Uh, yes sir.”
Carlos opened his mouth to protest but Dillon cut him off. “I let you come back to work early, despite my reservations, don’t make me regret it,” he warned.
Carlos subsided but nodded wearily. “Watch your backs,” he said to Kiera and Betty.
“Don’t worry. Dad,” Betty teased. “We’ll be back before curfew.”
~~*~*~*~~
Trust the tech, not your gut.
It was lesson driven home to Kiera on countless occasions during her time with the CPS, but she still couldn’t ignore the gnawing doubt she felt as she came to the mouth of the alley. In her time, they would have never approached such an easily defendable position without aerial back up, but Vancouver PD didn’t exactly have that kind of budget - or tech.
“I don’t like this,” Betty said, giving voice to her doubts.
“I’m with you,” she said flatly. “Maybe we should wait until-”
A bullet zipped past her ear and the time for talking was over. They fled the alley, pulling out their weapons as they ran for the car. At least her suit gave her an amount of protection, but Betty was vulnerable. Kiera shuddered, remembering the moment Carlos took the bullet. She’d never forgive herself if the same thing happened to Betty. Reaching into her coat, she pulled out the car keys and threw them to Betty.
“Get the engine running,” she said. “I’ll cover us.”
She turned, her CMR feeding her real time analysis. Two on the second floor of the old redbrick warehouse and one on the roof. Deciding the one on the roof was the sniper, she started firing. He couldn’t aim if he was too busy ducking.
The car engine revved behind her and she backed up, hoping she wasn’t going to run out of bullets before she reached it. She heard the passenger door open and Betty calling out.
And then something stung her neck and she felt her legs buckling beneath her. Startled she pulled the dart out of her neck. They’d tranked her? What the... “Alec, Alec, are you there?”
“Kiera? What the hell is going on? Your stats are all over the place - Kiera?”
The world faded to black.
~~*~*~*~~
Uniforms were the first on the scene and the tape was already up when Carlos arrived. Betty was sitting on the back step of an ambulance, a blanket pulled over her shoulders, and he made a beeline for her.
“Are you injured?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No, I’m fine, he just won’t leave me alone,” she rolled her eyes at the ambulance medic.
“You could be in shock,” the medic said.
Betty pulled a face before asking: “Any word yet?”
“No,” Carlos said. “Can you run through what happened with me?”
“Sure,” Betty said. “Although there’s not much to say - we knew something was hinky when we arrived, so we decided to call for back up, but the moment we turned to leave, they started firing. Kiera threw her keys at me and told me to start the car.” She hesitated. “And then that’s when things got weird,” she admitted. “They hit her in the neck with some sort of dart and she went down pretty quickly. I tried to get out of the car but these new guys that I’ve never seen before came out of nowhere and surrounded us. A van pulled up and they threw Kiera into it. I called it in the moment they pulled away and that’s it. The van was a white Nissan but they had their plates blacked out. New tires, no stickers in the window. It’s going to be bitch to track down.”
Carlos rubbed his eyes. “You recognised no one?”
Betty shook her head. “And they were all pretty young, Carlos,” she said softly.
“Hey, we found a phone,” one of the uniforms called out. “It looks like Agent Cameron’s”
“And that’s my cue, they probably threw it away because they were afraid we'd hack her GPS, ” Betty said, standing up.
“Hey, where the hell do you think you’re going,” the medic protested.
“To work, what does it look like I’m doing,” Betty snapped, shrugging off the blanket. “Hey, you, give me that damned phone!”
“Bossy, isn’t she?” the medic observed, as she walked off.
“She has her moments,” Carlos said.
~~*~*~*~~Alec stared at the CMR’s feed. This was all his fault. He should have seen the information trail was false, should have known that liber8 would try something like this, but he’d been overconfident and too sure of the data. Damn it!
Alec didn’t know what to do. Kiera’s stats said she was still alive but unconscious. Her CMR also told him she was still on the move. They were going west along the highway. There had to be something he could do, but who should he call - Carlos? Yeah, that would go down great. Hey, remember me, the guy whose stepbrother shot you and then helped blow up a building of innocent people? Well, guess what, your partner has been kidnapped and I know where she is....what do you mean, am I a terrorist?
There was an alternative, of course, but Matthew Kellog was definitely a last resort. He and Kiera seemed very friendly of late, and Kiera had admitted she’d told him of his involvement but he still didn’t trust the guy.
“C’mon, Kiera, wake up,” he muttered. “Tell me what to do.”
~~*~*~*~~
The precinct was jumping when Carlos arrived. With the double whammy of a bomb alert and a kidnapped agent, everyone was on high alert. He spotted Betty waving him over.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“I hacked her phone,” Betty said, without preamble. “It took me a while, Kiera has some serious encryption on this thing and she seems to have this very clever automatic wipe app for her phone history that I’ve never seen before - but I got into her contacts and it’s kinda weird. She’s got less than a dozen numbers in it, and one of them is Alec Sadler-”
“The kid from the farm,” Carlos said. “I think Kiera felt bad for him.”
“-and Matthew Kellog,” Betty finished.
“The guy from Liber8?” Carlos asked, his mind turning.
“Unless there is another Matthew Kellog we don’t know about,” Betty said wryly.
Apart from the little intel Kiera had given them in the first week of the taskforce, little was known of Matthew Kellog - they didn’t even have a picture. Now that he thought about it, Kiera hadn’t mentioned him since that first week, which was strange in itself. Kiera was usually like a dog with a bone when it came to loose ends... a certainty settled in Carlos’ gut as a few more pieces fell into place, but there was only one way to be certain.
He reached for Kiera's phone. “Trace this call.”
Betty looked at him worriedly. “Carlos-”
“Just trust me,” he said. “I've got a hunch.”
~~*~*~*~~
Kellog smiled as he saw the number pop up on his phone. To be honest, he didn’t think he’d hear from her this soon. Kiera had a pretty predictable pattern when she felt she had something to feel feel guilty about, and Kellog wasn’t fooling himself, she felt extremely guilty at the moment.
“Let me guess, you’ve changed your mind about dinner,” he teased as he answered the phone. “I know this fabulous-”
“Hey, remember me?” said a distinctly male voice that was most definitely not Kiera. He sat up straight. The voice seemed familiar. Where had he heard it before...ah.
“Detective Fonnegra,” he said. “This is not your phone.” Quickly, he tapped his tablet and checked his security perimeter. Wherever he was, he wasn’t nearby. He wondered how efficient the local constabulary were at triangulating from cell towers. Note to self, invest in a satellite phone.
“Kiera has been taken by Liber8, do you know where they took her?”
Well that was unexpected. “They took her alive?” Kellog asked, eyeing the time on the wall clock. He’d give Fonnegra another fifteen seconds before he hung up.
“You sound surprised,” he said.
“That's because Liber8 wants her dead,” he said, coming to a decision. “Meet me in that little cafe Kiera is so fond of in twenty minutes.” He hung up, and debated whether he should take the battery and sim card out of the phone for good measure. He decided against it. The advantages of keeping an open channel of communication outweighed the risks. He grabbed a jacket, one that he could hide a gun underneath without being obvious; he had a funny feeling he was going to need it before the day was out.
~~~*~*~*~~~
“I can't believe you're doing this,” said Betty said, looking to Dillon for agreement as Carlos made to leave. “Don't you remember what Kiera said about this guy? ”If his lips are moving, chances are he's lying.”
“I don't think Kiera told us the whole truth,” Carlos said stubbornly. “You weren't there, Betty, the guy saved my life. There's more to this than we know.”
“Either way, I want you to call in within thirty minutes. If we don't hear from you, we're going to assume he's hostile and take appropriate action,” Dillon warned.
“Hey, no argument from me,” Carlos said. “Keep me updated on the situation.” He left the precinct without a backwards glance and Betty sighed.
“This is such a bad idea,” she muttered.
~~*~*~*~~
His main monitor chirped and Alec sat up, his eyes taking in the data. Kiera had stopped moving. He did a quick search on her GPS location and frowned. Liber8 had moved location again, another fairly upscale address in a leafy neighbourhood. They were definitely not short of funds, thats for sure.
Kiera’s vital statistics spiked and Alec waited worriedly, what the hell was going on?
“Good day, Kiera, I don’t believe we’ve ever been formally introduced,” said a familiar sounding voice. It was a woman’s.
The video feed came to life and Alec felt a stab of relief when Kiera’s voice answered, shaky but audible. “What do you want, Valentine?”
“Can’t you guess?” Valentine asked wryly. She was sitting in a chair in front of her, legs crossed. Behind her was a simple white wall.
“I gave up trying to second guess you a long time ago,” Kiera said.
“Oh, I’m sure you have,” Valentine drawled, “Let me keep this simple. I want Alec Sadler and it has come to my attention that you know where he is.”
“Excuse me?” Kiera said, sounding genuinely puzzled.
Kagame smiled humourlessly. “I wouldn’t bother attempting subterfuge. I’m afraid Mr Sadler gave himself away during that episode with your chip. He was a little too good, you see, a little too quick to circumvent our efforts.” Valentine leaned forward, and stared straight into Kiera’s eyes. Alec felt his mouth go dry. “As you can see, Alec, Kiera isn’t about to give you up - but I’m going to kill her very soon if you don’t-”
“No!” Kiera said harshly, and the feed went dead - she’d cut him off! Alec scowled and fired off the relevent coding, the videofeed came back on.
He wished he hadn’t. Garza filled the screen, her fist was raised and there was blood on her knuckles. He guessed Kiera hadn’t told her she was pretty.
“Kiera, are you okay?” he muttered into his mike, she didn’t answer. “Kiera, if you can’t speak just nod.” The moment stretched out and then the videofeed quivered as Kiera nodded. His relief was short lived, however, as Garza struck her again. The videofeed blinked out once more and this time Alec didn’t turn it back on.
It was either the cops or Kellog but it wasn't really a choice... Kellog it was.
~~*~*~*~~~
Kellog tapped the table impatiently as he waited for Fonnegra to arrive. It seemed strange not to be meeting Kiera here but he didn’t want to dwell on that thought too closely. Sometimes he wondered at how quickly he’d become attached to her, she was supposed to be a means to an end - a Protector, practically not human at all.
Except she was human, more so than he’d ever expected and, like an idiot, he'd dived straight in, ignoring the complications and Kiera’s guilty conscience The fact she was one of the Protectors involved in his first arrest and Laura’s death had thrown him; he hadn’t remembered her face. To him, they had all been faceless automatons.
For a moment, when she told him, the rage ran through him like a fire... and then it stopped as soon as the expression on her face registered. Kiera Cameron had changed a lot over the last few months. He doubted she’d ever questioned their actions or orders back in their own time or, if she did, she kept it to herself.
So he forgave her, it was surprisingly easy.
“Matthew Kellog?” Fonnegra’s voices broke through his thoughts and Kellog kicked himself. This was not the time to let his guard down.
“Sit,” he said, he nodded at the coffee on the table. “I ordered.”
Fonnegra sat across from him, eyeing him intently. “So you’re Kellog, Section Six’s guy on the inside,” he said. “I guess that’s why we’ve never had a picture of you.” Kellog quirked an eyebrow at that. Had Kiera been covering for him? This day was getting stranger and stranger.
He smiled. “What can I do for you, Detective Fonnegra?”
“Do I have to spell it out for you?” Carlos asked. “You can help me find Kiera. I figured Section Six must be keeping tabs on the prominent Liber8 members - especially with you on the inside.”
“Mmm, might be a bit more difficult than that,” Kellog said. “Haven’t you heard? Decentralisation is the key to a well organised revolution. Liber8 operates in cells in order to prevent this kind of infiltration, and even if we did know where Valentine was laying her head, it still wouldn’t help you locate Kiera. She’ll be somewhere secure in a well populated area, probably in some sleepy suburb that nobody would even look twice at.”
“Valentine? Not Travis?” Carlos asked sharply.
Shit! Kiera hadn’t told them? Kellog sighed; great, that’s all he needed. “Travis is dead, Valentine is in charge. Welcome to the new world order,” he said.
“Huh,” Carlos said. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter, all that matters is we find where they’re keeping her.”
Kellog smiled wryly, Don Quixote tilting at windmillls. “The days when you could take Liber8 down with a couple of squad cars from the VPD are long gone. They’re already too entrenched and too organised, plus they’ve got numbers on their side and one hell of a defence perimeter. All you and your team would accomplish is getting dead. Something Kiera would be very pissed about, trust me.”
Carlos gave him stubborn look. “But you how to find her, don’t you?”
"I know where to start,” Kellog admitted. “But who knows what will happen if we pick up their trail again.”
“You’re putting Section Six before Kiera,” Carlos said flatly.
Kellog almost laughed. “Trust me,” he said. “Kiera wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“I want Escher’s number,” Carlos said. “if you’re not going to help me, then I guess I’m just going to have to go over your head.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Kellog said, and that was true, just not for the reasons Carlos thought. His phone rang and he glanced down at the text that popped up on his screen, ‘unknown number ’.
Carlos eyed him. “Are you going to answer that?”
Kellog turned down the call. “Unknown number,” he explained. The phone rang again.
“Could be news,” Carlos said
“Let’s hope not,” Kellog said. “I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve got all the news I can handle.” He answered the phone. “Yeah?”
“This is Alec. Kiera told you about me.
Kellog blinked. “She mentioned you.”
“And as you’re having coffee with Carlos at this moment, I’m guessing you already know Kiera is in trouble.”
How did he-
“GPS on your phone, traffic camera on the street,” he said, as if reading Kellog’s mind. “But that’s not the issue - I have access to Kiera’s liquid chip and her co-ordinates.”
“Is she okay?” Kellog asked.
“She’s awake and aware,” Alec said tentatively. “But they’re working her over pretty badly.”
“What are they looking for?” Kellog asked.
There was a pause. “Me.”
Of course they were. Because nothing was ever simple. “I’m guessing Kiera isn’t willing to give you up?” Kellog asked.
There was another pause on the phone. “Do you think they want to kill me?” He sounded so young - probably because he was young. he’d be a kid in 2012.
“I don’t think it’s on the cards,” Kellog said. “From what Kiera told me, your continued life is in their interests.”
“Maybe I should give myself up, then,” Alec suggested. “If they won’t kill me, there’s nothing to lose.”
Actually, there was quite a lot to lose, but he guessed Alec already knew that. The kid had guts, he’d give him that. “I think we’ll try a less drastic option first,” he said. “Use a different kind of leverage.” His mind flashed to the time travel segment in his yacht. Valentine was off the table; she was Kagame’s chosen successor and a true believer, she would follow Kagame’s instructions until her dying breath. Garza was a follower, she'd take Valentine's lead... but Lucas was an option. Without Kagame’s driving vision or fear of Travis’s brute force, it may be possible to convince him that returning to their own time was the more attractive option. He always had the shakiest motive amongst them for joining the movement - guilt.
“Valentine doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who strikes bargains,” Alec said, interrupting his flow of thought.
“Who said anything about Valentine? I’ll be in touch.” He hung up and the looked at the Detective across the table. He had an expectant look on his face.
“Well?” he asked.
“I have her location,” he admitted. “But that is only part of the problem. If we go in there with guns blazing, she’s going to be dead before we make it though the door.”
“But you have a plan,” Carlos said. It wasn’t a question.
“I think I may be able to sneak in when they’re not expecting it,” Kellog allowed. “But this isn’t a team effort.”
“I’m going with you,” Carlos said stubbornly.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Your face is known to them,” Kellog reminded him. “I’m going to have to set up a meet with one of them to negotiate.”
“So I’ll wait outside,” Carlos said. “You can wear a wire.”
“That’s not the way I work-”
“I don’t give a damn about the way you work,” Carlos cut in. “Those bastards kidnapped my partner! I’ll keep the department off your back and make sure nobody calls in the Calvary at the wrong moment, but I’m going with you!”
Kellog knew a losing battle when he saw one. “Nix the wire, and you can come along,” he said.
“Deal,” Carlos said.
“Well, alright then,” Kellog said, smiling easily as he wondered how he could ditch the Detective if he needed to.
~~*~*~*~~
The Protector wasn’t talking and Sonya had the feeling this wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Not for the first time, she wished Kagame had left more guidance for her. His letter had been brief, explaining that their return to 2012 had not been an accident and that he’s done a deal with the devil in order to save the future.
Alec Sadler had sprung them from jail and sent them to 2012 to change history - why? What was in it for him? She was determined to find out and getting her hands on the younger Alec Sadler was her first step - because there was no way that the Alec Sadler from her future sent them back to 2012 without a game plan for himself.
She made her way to the back bedroom that Lucas had turned into a clean room, and went inside, Lucas was on the other side of the clear plastic curtain.
“Any luck?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “The suits are hardwired to the Protector’s DNA and specifically designed to be tamper proof. Without her in it, it’s just a useless piece of nano-fabric.”
“Keep trying,” Sonya said. They had suspected the Protector would be wearing the suit under her clothing, which is why they’d aimed the dart at her neck. If they could hack it, it could give them some amazing advantages.
“If we could access her chip, it might give us a back door into her suit,” Lucas suggested.
“I thought you couldn’t get through her chip’s firewalls anymore,” she said.
“Not remotely, no,” Lucas said. “But pretty much any firewall will eventually crumble if you attack it through a hardwire connection.” He held up a lead.
Sonya quirked an eyebrow. “If you break through her firewalls, can we backtrack Alec Sadler’s position through his connection?,” she asked.
“It’s possible,” Lucas said.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Sonya said. “Do we need to bring her up here?”
“No,” he said. “Just give me a few minutes to collect what I need and then we'll be in business.”
Valentine graced him with a smile. Something was going their way at last.
PART TWO