“I have been hearing the rumours for some time now. The Brass are getting ready to push me out, they think that it is time for me to retire, give the floor to younger blood,” Darien scoffed. “I know that once I am retired and gone, people will quickly move on from Parabellum. So, I needed to give them a farewell they will never be able to forget. As long as the NIA exists, they will talk about the man who wiped out half of the agency in one fell stroke. I have been planning this a long time, Agent Hawkins. It meant I had to sacrifice some of my usual pleasures, but I think that it was worth it, don’t you? The thing I was going to miss the most was the personal interaction with my opponent. I mean of course, Ethan Cross will still suffer terribly, both mentally and physically, as he dies slowly from the anthrax infection and tries to grapple with the fact that it was his actions that destroyed everyone. That’s good, but it isn’t as much fun without the personal touch. And it just doesn’t feel like a real win unless someone else knows you won, you know what I mean? Fortunately, it didn’t end up being a problem after all, because of you. You are awfully thoughtful.”

Darien walked over to her and stroked her cheek gently.

“Now, are you ready to tell me what I want to hear?”

“That depends, what do you want to hear?” Hawkins asked, feigning ignorance.

“You know,” Darien whispered. “I want you to admit it, admit that you’ve lost. If you beg me to spare your life, maybe I will.”

Hawkins spit in his face.

“Fuck you,” she snarled.

Darien wiped his face with his sleeve. Then he reached down and closed his hands around her throat. Hawkins struggled, gasping for breath as he closed off her airway. He regarded her coldly as she thrashed in his grip,

“I guess I’ll just have to try harder to convince you, then.”

Just as she thought she was going to black out, he eased the pressure, watching her as she struggled to pull air into her burning lungs.

“Do whatever you like to me. I’ll never give you what you want,” she rasped.

Darien knelt next to her, putting all of his weight onto her broken left arm. Hawkins yelped as the fragments of her bones ground together; she tried to twist away, but he had her pinned.

“Of course you will,” Darien purred, twisting his knee harder into her arm. “You have stood up very well so far, but everyone breaks eventually, and I am growing tired of playing with you. I think it is high time for me to finish this, so I can get on with my day. I do have other things on my schedule,” Darien reached into his belt and pulled out a hunting knife. “I am going to start by removing each of your fingers. And I will keep removing body parts until you say it. How does that sound?”

Hawkins bit the inside of her lip, but held his gaze, determined not to show any fear. Darien caressed her face with the flat of the blade, running it down her cheek and across her chin. He grabbed her hand and pressed it down flat on the floor, stepping on her palm to hold it in place.

“Do you have a preference?” Darien asked, gently stroking each of her fingers in turn.

Hawkins looked away and closed her eyes.

“Alright, let’s start with the pinky, then,” Darien decided cheerfully.

Hawkins tried to pull her hand away, but she was weak from blood loss, and he had her firmly in his grip. Darien grabbed her little finger and pulled it out, away from the others, he lined up the knife, moving slowly to build the anticipation and fear. Sweat beaded on her lip and forehead. The room was painfully silent, except for the sound of her own ragged breathing, but suddenly the quiet was disrupted by a short burst of static. Darien froze; his eyes darted around, searching for the source of the sound. Hawkins held her breath and waited. The crackle of static came again and went silent just as quickly. Darien looked at her sharply,

“What is that…”

He was interrupted by a third burst of radio static, but this time, the crackle was followed by a voice. Ryan Stone’s voice.

“Hey, Hawkins, Hawkins. Damn it this thing is a piece of…” the sound cut out for a moment. “… that you can hear this. It’s done. I repeat, it’s done. Let’s wrap this up. God, I hope she got that.”

Darien’s eyes widened with sudden alarm.

“Who was that? What did they mean ‘it’s done’?” he demanded.

Hawkins grinned triumphantly, a somewhat gruesome sight, given that her mouth was full of blood.

“It means exactly what you think it means,” she coughed.

“No, NO!” Darien shouted, jumping to his feet. “It’s not possible, you said he was dead.”

Now it was finally her turn to laugh,

“Well, technically I just said he wasn’t here. Don’t blame me for your assumptions.”

Darien spun instinctively to the security monitors behind him, to confirm his worst fears. Hawkins was too weak to even stand by now, but she could not just let him go, not when she was so close. She had just one shot, while he was distracted, to take him down. Fingering the switches on her dark gloves, she rolled onto her stomach, reached out her hand and grabbed Darien’s ankle, pushing up the pant cuff so that she was touching bare skin. There was a sudden crackle of electricity. Darien yelped, his leg spasmed and he collapsed to the ground. Now that he was within reach, she pressed her other hand into the soft flesh of his neck. There was another crackle and his body arched and contorted. Hawkins held her hands in place for a moment longer, before pulling them away.

“What do you know?” she muttered to herself. “These actually work pretty well. I’ll have to tell them that the field testing was successful.”

Darien lay still, but she had no idea how long that would last. Crawling over to retrieve his bloody hand cuffs, she fastened his wrists as best she could with her one working arm. Satisfied that she had done all she was able to do, Hawkins collapsed to the floor, and everything went dark.

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It was the heavy, coppery smell of blood that he noticed first. Holding his gun out at arm’s length, Ryan scanned the room quickly. The walls and floor looked as if they had been painted crimson, it seemed like there was more blood than he had ever seen in his life, including the day he found his father’s body. As he swept his gaze over to the left, he finally found what he was looking for. Taylor Hawkins lay sprawled on the floor next to the prostrate form of James Darien. Ryan ran across the room. His training required that he check on the threat first, so he knelt immediately next to Darien. He was cuffed loosely, so Ryan tightened them and kicked the hunting knife lying near his body across the floor, out of reach. He removed the detonator from his hand too, just in case. Satisfied that it was now safe to turn his back on the prolific killer, Ryan went to his partner. Hawkins was deathly pale and judging from the state of the room, she had lost quite a lot of blood. He was worried that it was already too late. Reaching out, he took her wrist in his hand, and felt for a pulse.

“You can’t check for a pulse with your thumb, Stone. Didn’t you pay attention in first aid class?” she murmured faintly.

“My God, Hawkins,” he gasped. “Are you alright?”

Hawkins opened one eye slightly and looked up at him, the other eye appeared to be swollen shut.

“Did you honestly just ask me that?”

“Sorry, stupid question,” Ryan replied sheepishly.

As she looked him over, her eye widened,

“What happened to you?”

Ryan looked down at the blood-soaked towel he had pressed to his waist. He had almost forgotten the gunshot wound, with so many other things to worry about.

“Are you al…” Hawkins started to ask, but he cut her off.

“Please,” he winced. “Do not ask if I am alright when you look like that. My ego can’t take it Hawkins. This is just a scratch, honestly.”

“Good,” she whispered, closing her eye again.

“Hey, stay with me, alright?” Ryan said urgently. “I am going to take you out to the paramedics now.”

“No, wait” she protested, opening her eye again. “Is Darien alive?”

Ryan leaned over and checked the man for a pulse, using his fingers this time.

“Yes, he’s still alive.”

“I can fix that.”

Ryan spun towards the voice. Ethan Cross stood in the doorway, his gun drawn.

He advanced on the unconscious form of James Darien.

“How are you doing, Taylor?” he asked, eyes on Darien the entire time.

“I’ve been better, Ethan” she laughed weakly. “Did you shoot my partner?”

“Yeah, a little,” Cross sounded a bit embarrassed. “Sorry about that.”

“What are you doing here?” Ryan interrupted. “I thought that you were taking Amanda out to the paramedics.”

“I did that already. She’s on her way to the hospital now,” Cross’s eyes never left Darien. “They said she was going to be alright. So, I came back here to take care of loose ends.”

“Thank God,” Ryan felt relief flood over him. Amanda would live.

“This is Parabellum?” Cross asked coolly.

“Yes, Ethan” Hawkins murmured. “I even recorded my little chat with him, if you don’t believe me. The cell phone in my pocket has a record of everything.”

“I believe you,” he replied tersely.

Ryan could hear the anger and the hatred in his voice. Cross looked down at Darien with such loathing in his eyes, that Ryan knew that he was going to kill him, and frankly, he didn’t know if he could bring himself to stop him. Cross moved closer.

“Don’t you dare, Ethan,” Hawkins’s voice broke in weakly.

“Don’t what?” Cross growled.

“Do not kill him,” despite the obvious weakness, there was steely determination in her voice.

“Why the hell not, Taylor?” Cross cried. “Do you think that this maggot deserves to live?”

“Not my call, not yours either,” she replied sternly. “But I do know that he isn’t worth it. You aren’t a murderer, and you don’t want to become one. Besides, if he’s dead, no one gets any answers. And there are people out there that deserve some, wouldn’t you agree? Myself included.”

“He killed my agents! He tried to kill me, my sister, hell everyone in this Agency!”

“Well, then you’d better make sure he doesn’t get away,” Hawkins said. “Can you get my phone from my pocket, Stone?”

Ryan retrieved it from the front pocket of her jeans.

“Give it to Ethan,” she instructed. “You play that to anyone who doubts that he is Parabellum, and do not let them release him from custody for any reason. When I get back, I want to find him alive and in prison. Understood, Agent Cross?”

Cross was silent for a moment, then he took a deep breath and shook himself.

“Leave it to me,” he said at last. “I’ll take care of everything.”

“I knew I could count on you,” she smiled faintly.

“Alright, now that that is out of the way, I am taking you to a hospital. Immediately,” Ryan said firmly. “No buts this time, ok?”

Hawkins nodded obediently. Ryan lifted her gently in her arms, and headed for the door.

“Wait,” Cross called him back.

Ryan paused and turned back,

“She really needs medical attention, Cross. Anything you need to ask can wait until later, ok?”

“This can’t, I’m sorry but I need her help before you go,” Cross replied. “I just thought of this now, the building is still in lockdown, and I have no idea how get everyone out of here.”

“I am sure you can figure something…” Ryan began.

“Fire override,” Hawkins interrupted.

“What?” Ryan asked.

“Use the fire override protocol,” she repeated, trying to speak up this time. “Just pull the fire alarm on the wall. Then that computer console over there,” Hawkins nodded her head in the direction of the main security panel, “will activate the override mode. Just press ‘accept override’ on the console and enter in your badge number and security code. That will bypass the security lockdown and open all of the doors.”

“I’ve got it,” Cross headed to the fire alarm even he spoke.

“Wait, don’t do that now,” Ryan interjected. “I need to get her out of the building before you trigger a mass exodus. Give me 5 minutes, then do it.”

“Ok,” Cross agreed. “You two go. Leave the rest to me.”

“Thank you,” Ryan replied.

Ryan carried Hawkins quickly out of the building. She was not looking good, and every step he took, no matter how gentle he tried to be, caused her to cringe in pain. As he stepped outside, he could see that the parking lot was already a hive of activity, filled with ambulances and fire trucks. He headed for the ambulances.

“Hey, Stone?” Hawkins whispered.

“Yes?” Stone leaned closer to her, so he could hear.

“I just want you to know, no matter what happens, you did a great job. I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you.”

“Hey, I don’t know what you think is going to happen, but we can talk about this later, alright? You better not be thinking about leaving me to explain this whole mess to the director alone, because you definitely aren’t getting off that easy.”

Hawkins chuckled weakly,

“Yeah, you’re right, what was I thinking? We can talk in a couple of days.”

Ryan smiled,

“I’m going to hold you to that,” Ryan warned.

He had reached the nearest ambulance by then and the paramedics, seeing his injured companion, rushed forward.

“She needs to get to a hospital,” he wasn’t sure what else to say, how could he possibly hope to explain everything that had happened?

“Leave it to us, we’ll take care of her,” the man took her from his arms and laid her on a gurney, then pushed it quickly towards the waiting ambulance. Ryan went to follow, but he was intercepted by a second paramedic.

“Sir, are you injured?”

“I’m fine,” he replied absently, trying to wave the man away.

“Can you move the towel, sir?”

Ryan sighed deeply, but complied, revealing the gunshot wound in his side.

“Ok sir, we are going to take you to the hospital, too. Please, lie down.”

Suddenly too exhausted to fight, Ryan sank onto the gurney and let the medics strap him in and lift him into the second ambulance. They were very efficient; the whole process took only a moment. As the ambulance doors slammed shut, he heard the peel of the fire alarm from the building and people began streaming into the parking lot. Then, the wail of the siren drowned out everything else as they sped away from the building.