Where Worlds Collide (Primeval/Spooks)
Sarah’s hands were trembling slightly in her lap. There was barely any light in the bare, windowless room, not that there would have been much to look at; apart from the two chairs on the opposite sides of a simple table there was absolutely nothing in there. Sarah fought hard against the fear coiling in the pit of her stomach that threatened to take over. She had no idea why she’d been brought here or who her kidnappers were and she was quickly losing her sense of time too.
Becker would be missing her soon. She’d only left to have a shower and get changed, she’d promised to be back as soon as possible at the warehouse where they’d been camping for almost a week now ever since Abby, Connor and Lyle had not come back following Helen. Lester was getting impatient but so far he hadn’t declared them officially lost and Sarah had spent every spare minute at the site with a mysteriously guilt-ridden Becker. She’d only left for one or two hours at a time at most and even though she had no idea how long she’d been locked up in this desolate room Sarah was pretty sure Becker must have noticed her disappearance by now. The idea was at least slightly reassuring but not nearly enough.
Suddenly bright light flooded the room, burning Sarah’s eyes, making her squint. The door opened and closed again before her eyes could get used to the brightness and by the time she looked up there were two people, a black haired, handsome man and a blonde woman standing in front of her. Sarah shivered slightly as she saw the blonde woman and her icy, intense look; she didn’t really want to remember a car pulling up next to her in a crowded street (a public place for god’s sake!) and the blonde appearing suddenly out of nowhere, pressing a gun to Sarah’s waist to make her get in the car.
Such things simply didn’t happen in the middle of bloody London.
“Hello, Sarah,” the woman’s lips twitched in what might have been a smile and it sent chills down Sarah’s back.
“What do you want from me?” she was quite proud that her voice sounded more defiant than frightened but her captors didn’t show any reaction.
“We believe you have information we need.” This time it was the dark haired man who spoke. “You will be released as soon as you are willing to cooperate.”
His voice was much gentler than the woman’s, almost kind, and the fleeting smile he gave Sarah lit up his handsome face but his eyes frightened her. There was some kind of hardness around the edges that she had seen in some of the soldiers at the ARC. His easy charm was of a too perfect artificiality that repelled Sarah more than the blonde woman’s cut diamond features.
“I don’t understand…” she said slightly breathlessly, though she had a pretty good idea what they were going to ask her about.
“Tell us about the anomalies,” the man said.
Sarah gulped and tried to look mildly confused. She had no idea who these people were and what they would do with the information so she decided to lie.
“Anomalies? What are you talking about.”
“Don’t play stupid, Sarah,” the blonde warned, not raising her voice in the least, as if she was simply making small talk.
“I really don’t-“
Suddenly the woman tangled her fingers in Sarah’s long black hair, pulling painfully, making Sarah moan in discomfort. She leaned closer, her lips brushing against Sarah’s skin as she whispered in her ear.
“I’m not known for my patience, Sarah.”
Sarah shivered in anticipation and tried to free herself from the iron grasp. The woman let her squirm a few more seconds before she finally let go, moving behind Sarah’s chair, walking up and down in a manner that seemed almost casual but to Sarah felt frighteningly threatening. One of the first things she’d learned at the ARC had been never to turn her back on predators.
“We’re not trying to intimidate you,” the man said soothingly. He sat down in the chair across Sarah, leaning on the table, cocking his head slightly with a no doubt well-rehearsed look of understanding on his face. “We are on the same side, you know.”
“How does kidnapping fit in the picture, I wonder,” Sarah muttered, all the while painfully conscious of the blonde woman’s presence behind her back, but the man ignored her remark.
“What do you know about Claudia Brown?” he asked.
Sarah’s eyes widened instinctively but she set her jaw and remained silent. She tried not to think of Jenny, how much she was missing her still, this was not the time and place to reminisce the past.
“Would you rather we ask Jenny Lewis about her?”
“Don’t you dare,” Sarah cried out despite herself. As soon as the words were out she knew she’d just given them proof that they were on the right track.
“This isn’t a threat,” the man said, sounding uncomfortably truthful and convincing. “You know things aren’t going well on the project. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of the deaths and near misses of the past. And now half your research team seems to be missing. How many more have to die for you to realize this is getting out of control, Sarah? We can help.”
He was right, of course he was, Sarah knew perfectly well that both Stephen’s and Cutter’s death could have been prevented.
“This is getting nowhere,” the blonde woman’s cold voice from behind her back made Sarah jump slightly. The man didn’t react in any way, he just kept looking at Sarah sympathetically and it was increasingly difficult for her to consider him as much of a threat as she probably should have, which was probably the point, a voice in her head said, but she was fighting a losing battle with her own frantic need to simply get out of here as soon as possible. Where the bloody hell was Becker when he was needed? He must have figured out something was wrong. But how would he find her, she didn’t even know where she was being held.
“Fine,” the woman said, moving back into Sarah’s field of vision, half-sitting on the table, one foot casually resting on Sarah’s chair. “Let’s start with something simple then. Where’s Helen Cutter?”
“I don’t know,” Sarah said. “I really don’t know. She went through an anomaly to the future but that’s really all I know,” she added hastily when the woman’s eyes hardened.
“The place where the artefact and the future predators come from,” the man said and Sarah couldn’t quite decide if it was a question or just a statement of fact.
“How do you know about that?” she asked despite herself but when they didn’t answer she just nodded in defeat.
“Did you know she was having an affair with Becker?”
“What are you talking about?”
Sarah was staring at the woman as if she’d just grown a second head.
“Has he been feeding her information?”
“What-“
“Has he helped her get into the ARC?”
“I have no-“
“How long have they been involved?”
“I don’t know anything, why don’t you ask him, for fuck’s sake!” Sarah cried out losing her composure in the downpour of questions and it took her a few seconds to realize what she had just said. The icy cold smile on the woman’s face sent chills down Sarah’s spine and she pressed her hands between her knees to stop them from trembling.
“He’s being interrogated as we speak.”
Sarah’s heart missed a beat at the words. Fuck.
***
“She knows nothing,” Ros said outside the interrogation room, voice neutral but Lucas had learned to spot the hint of irritation behind each syllable.
“She might still be useful in cracking Becker,” he said leaning against the wall of the corridor.
“I wouldn’t bet on his chivalry. He’s a trained soldier.”
Lucas shrugged. Of course he knew it wasn’t likely at all. If they had Helen Cutter, maybe then they could get to Becker, but the whole point of getting him to talk in the first place was to get to that insane woman.
“Tell Zaf to get in touch with Lorraine.”
“She won’t listen.”
“Make her,” Ros said with a sharp look. “James Lester will be madly barking on our doorstep within a few hours if she can’t convince him we’re not the enemy.”
“We’re not?” he let a small casual smile slip on his face but then simply added: “I’ll send Tariq in with some food. He might remind her of Temple.”
Ros nodded and started walking away to update Harry, the determined tap tap tap of her heels echoing in the empty corridor.
“Ros,” Lucas called after her. She stopped for a second but didn’t look back at him.
“I’m fine.”
He didn’t say anything. He knew all about fine.