Betrayed...but by who

[Animegurl5]

"Yeah that's McCreepy. You said Ex-boyfriend? How did that one happen, they were inseperable the last time I saw them." She looked around, getting a little more nervous with each passing minute. "If either of them saw me, we are in trouble. Even more so if he saw me... I have to say I was never his favorite, always tormenting me..." She trailed off for a moment before snapping back to reality. "Nevermind that, I need to go."

[Lady Jenn]

Izzy's cellphone suddenly buzzed into life, surprise crossing her face when she realised it was Tom on the other end.

"Tom, long time no speak," she said, laughing. "I'm probably better off not asking how you got my cellphone number, what are you calling about?"

"You need to get out of that building asap," Tom replied. "Whoever told you Firebrand was out of the country lied, he's on his way back to the building now. You need to get you, Yuchi and the others out of their now. I've managed to get the cars to the underground carpark so you can pick them up from there."

"Okay, see you later," she said, ending the call. "Right, we need to go now. We'll have to use the lifts to get down to the car park." She dialled Yuchi's phone. "Yuchi we need to go, it doesn't matter if you don't have everything just get to the lifts and get to a lift to the underground car park, we'll meet you there."

[Animegurl5]

"They hell is going on now?" Skylar stood up and turned to go but the minute she put her weight down her leg gave out from underneath her. Grabbing on to the chair she pulled herself up. "Why does life have to be so difficult? I forget to change the stupid bandage once and suddenly I can't walk. They hell is wrong with me." She growled and grimacing as she moved. "It would be suspicious if I walked out of here with the support I need but we would get caught if I walked the speed that would prevent this issue. What are we supposed to do now?"

[Lady Jenn]

"Morrison, carry her," Izzy said, no longer joking about them but looking serious. "It might raise suspicions but right now we don't have another option." She walked over to the desk, taking two guns out of her desk and throwing one to Petra who caught it easily. "I know I said no weapons but I think it just stopped mattering whether they notice we're armed." She led them to the lifts, glad to see the corridor was empty. The escape was fine until they got within sight of the car when a shot pinged past Izzy's ear. At that moment a figure stood up from behind the car carrying two pistols.

"Get in the cars," the man said. "Tom sent me, I don't have time to explain."

"Petra, get in my car," Izzy said. "Morrison, you go with Yuchi, make sure Skylar is alright." She heard Morrison yelped as he stumbled, a bullet had hit his shoulder but he had stayed upright and maintained his grip on her.

"Get us the hell out of here," he said to Yuchi as he got her into the back of the car, shots still going off around them as they pulled away following the Ferrari. "In case we don't make it out of this I have to do this," he said, putting an arm round her and kissing her again, but more passionately, Yuchi smiling but keeping his attention on the road ahead.

[Animegurl5]

When the shots started firing she cringed closer to Morrison and yelped when she felt the shot hit him. "My god you would have thought I'd be used to this by now!" She complained, clinging to Morrison as they got in the car. She was definately taken by surprise when Morrison kissed her, again. But this time she was sort of glad he did and she kissed him back before pushing him away and looking at his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, if you hadn't been carrying me you could have dodged... Here." She tore the sleeve of her shirt off and climbed over to look at the gun shot wound. "Did the bullet pass through?" She asked trying to look at the other side of his shoulder.

[Lady Jenn]

"No," he said, biting his lip as he felt the pain in his shoulder. "Its lodged near my shoulderblade though so as you can imagine it hurts like hell. I don't mind taking a bullet for you though," he said, blushing slightly.

"I've just had a call from Tom," Izzy said via Petra's walkie-talkie. "There's a plane waiting for us at the airport you guys landed at, he's making sure we aren't followed. Hang in there Rick, we both know you've been through worse than this."

[Animegurl5]

"Oh save it." She smiled and then wrapped the wound to stop the bleeding some. "Ya I would consider taking one for you too.... But it might hurt. However, I'll leave you with this instead." She leaned over and kissed him lightly and sat back in her seat. She looked out the window, keeping an eye out for any cars following them. The only one that she noticed was a single black motorcycle.

[Lady Jenn]

He reached over and held her hand, glad to see when they finally reached the airfield were a large transport plane, painted in the same pattern as the helicopter that had saved them earlier, was waiting. The motorcycle stopped just as they got out, the rider taking his helmet off to reveal the man who had helped them earlier.

"Turk, is there a med crew on the plane?" Izzy asked the man who nodded in response. "C'mon guys, we can't hang around," she said, helping Tom to guide Skylar to the plane where a small unit of soldiers and a handful of medics were waiting. "Go," she said once they were all on board. "We can't afford to hang around here." The medics set to work doing what they could to help Skylar and Morrison as much as they could.

[Animegurl5]

"I'm fine, it's just a scratch... You need to be helping him more." She growled slapping the medic's hand away again. She sulked in the corner thinking how such a simple plan could have gone so wrong. "Yuchi, talk to me. What did we get?" She hissed at the medic again, irritated in general at the whole situation.

[Lady Jenn]

"I didn't get more than a glance at any of it," he said. "I couldn't risk wasting any time. However if I'm right I know what Project Shadowdancer is, and what really happened to Keeley and my brother." He shivered slightly at the thought of what he had just read. "I think I've figured out who the other two members of the Inner Circle really are too."

[Animegurl5]

"Well, that's good news isn't it? Who are they?" She kept glaring at the one medic that hovered nearby but kept her voice clear to the conversation.

[Lady Jenn]

"Well, that's where its not so good," Petra, who had been looking at the files, said as she handed them to to Skylar. "One is an advisor to the US defence secretary whose name is Lara Thornton, had her claws in the current administration for a while it seems. The other is Sam O'Shaugnessy, ex-IRA, recruited by Snake because he needed someone to make sure his bombs reached their destinations. If we're right he had access to your hangar bay just before your helicopter took off."

[Animegurl5]

"Oh... that's fantastic." She scanned over the file and growled. "You have got to be kidding me... And nobody ever notices this stuff? Ever?"

[Lady Jenn]

"These guys have made a career out of covering their tracks," Izzy said. "My sister joined Firebrand because she thought they were an IT company. My theory is that the reason she and Yuchi's brother vanished was because they discovered what Firebrand were really doing, complained, threatened to tip the authorities off and so they became suprlus to requirements. I spent a week convincing them they could trust me, its a good thing they didn't see the one difference between me and my sister." She pulled up the sleeve of her top, revealing a faint but just visible scar running from just below her elbow to just above her wrist. "Had a run in with a knife, spent 3 weeks in hospital because of it."

[Animegurl5]

"Interesting... Makes me wonder what Maya thought she was getting into... I just hope that she isn't too involved with anything dangerous." She sighed and sat back. "So, the only question that really comes to mind now is how the hell did things go so wrong? Izzy? You asked if Firebrand was in the building and the contact said no... What purpose was there in lying to us? What was to gain?"

[Lady Jenn]

"I'm sorry Morrison," Turk said in reply. "When we discovered who your contact was it took us a while to discover there was a problem. Milo Caramaggio, CIA and MI6 contact who's absolutely trustworthy but..." He handed him a file with the word "DECEASED" printed across it. "I don't know who you were talking to but it wasn't Milo, he's been dead at least three years following an...'accident'."

[Animegurl5]

"You didn't tell him who you really were did you Morrison? If it wasn't Milo, and it obviously wasn't, then do you think it was just someone mislead or someone purposely trying to sabatoge us?" Skylar questioned, thinking over every possibility and none with happy endings.

[Lady Jenn]

"He guessed who I was when I started talking," Morrison replied. "They must have known I'd try to call Milo, but how would they..."

"Fuck," Izzy said, burying her head in her hands. "He was at the party. Linklater was at the party, I only just realised it. One of the waiters bringing drinks round, you'd have had to be looking straight at him to realise who he was. The minute he saw Morrison he must have figured out what was going on. I'm sorry, if I'd..."

"You'd never met the guy in person Izzy," Morrison said. "Besides, the guy is Inner Circle, the last place you'd expect to see him is handing drinks out as a waiter. You can't blame yourself. I guess he or Snake organised 'Milo' for me to contact, we walked straight into a trap without realising it."

[Animegurl5]

"Damn... That means neither of you are any help when it comes to sneaking in. No offense or anything, but now they know that you are working with us now. This totally sucks." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in a pissed off pout.

[Lady Jenn]

"They'd work it out eventually," Turk said. "Whether they'd realised who you were or not we'd have to extract Izzy, the minute she'd helped you her life would've been in danger. At least we got out of there largely unharmed and with all the data we needed, ultimately we have the advantage here."

[Animegurl5]

"Yeah.... Advantage. We will see how long that lasts." She mumbled looking at the ground, a worried expression crossing her features.

[Lady Jenn]

"Against these guys any kind of advantage is a good thing," Turk replied. "Besides, they aren't the only people with a secret network of contacts, you guys would be dead by now if they were."

"Are you alright?" Morrison asked her as he came over and sat next to her, holding her hand and kissing her cheek.

[Animegurl5]

"I wish that I could say that I was alright, but I'm not. Not one bit. Turk, they have my sister... My older sister is within their grasp, and now that they know we are alive, they might try to use her against me. I don't want her to end up hurt because of something I did... We have no advantage, don't you see that?"

[Lady Jenn]

"We'll sort it," Turk replied, "but right now we can't afford to make another move until we've checked the intel we've just received. We can't risk walking into another trap, we may not be so lucky next time."

"We'll find her, Morrison said. "I promise you that."

[Animegurl5]

"Thanks." She mumbled, pulling her knees close to her chest and burying her head into her knees. "How long until we get back to base?"