by CW Browning
“She's getting her ass kicked,” Michael muttered, trying to start forward again. Once again, Hawk stopped him.
Michael looked at him and saw a smile on Damon's face in the darkness.
“No,” Hawk disagreed softly. “She's making Regina feel superior. She wants information.”
Michael looked back at the woman on the ground with a frown, but he stood still beside Hawk, watching.
“I heard you were a hell of an assassin,” Regina's taunting voice carried across the night. “Is that all you've got?”
Alina's answer was muffled and unintelligible, but she rolled out of Regina's way when she would have landed another kick. With one motion, Alina was back on her feet and she blocked a blow from Regina, landing one of her own on Regina's neck, bringing the woman to her knees.
“You remember what happened last time you tried to fight me, don't you?” Viper's voice wasn't loud by any means, yet all four people watching from the trees heard her clearly.
“I've learned a lot since then,” Regina retorted, twisting and tackling Alina at her knees.
Viper allowed herself to be wrestled to the ground and blocked two blows to her head before rolling out of the way and jumping to her feet again. Regina followed and they circled each other warily. Viper noted the tear in Regina's shirt and gash on her forehead, both a result of the crash. Blood was oozing from a split in her bottom lip, courtesy of Viper's fist, and Alina smiled faintly. She could feel blood dripping down her own face from a cut under her eye and her abdomen was starting to throb from the several hits she had allowed Regina to land, but the look on Regina's face made it all worth it. She looked smug, and Alina knew she was feeling confident.
“Why did Ludmere meet with Johann in Cairo?” Alina asked, ducking as Regina tried to land a punch to her face. She grunted when Regina's elbow slammed into her shoulder instead.
“You mean the all-knowing Viper, Mistress of All Intelligence, hasn't figured that one out yet?” Regina mocked, striking out and landing another solid hit to Alina's midsection. “Really, I'm disappointed.”
“I didn't get that far,” Alina retorted, blocking another hit and landing a blow to Regina's shoulder that pushed her back a few feet.
“Alex was arranging for Johann to hire the Engineer on our behalf,” Regina informed her. “The plan was for The Engineer to kill the President-elect after the Electoral College voted him in in December, but before the Inauguration.”
“That would have made Ludmere President!” Viper exclaimed.
Regina smiled a feline smile and nodded, pausing to catch her breath and brush her hair out of her eyes.
“Yes,” she agreed, “and Johann would have had an ally in the White House. It would have been perfect for everyone, except you showed up and ruined everything. Johann didn't trust Alex after you appeared and botched up your attempt to assassinate him, so no more Engineer and we had to settle for the Vice Presidency.”
“But Johann trusted him enough to come back three months ago,” Viper pointed out, wincing as Regina caught her jaw with her elbow and snapped her head back. Pain shot through Alina's temple, but she ignored it, blocking a follow-up blow.
“Johann didn't know who was paying him,” Regina answered. “I made sure of that. Johann thought he was doing it to pave the way for a homegrown jihadist group.”
Alina digested that nugget of information while she swept her leg up and landed a solid blow with her heel on Regina's gut. Regina stumbled backwards but remained standing.
“The funding was drying up on Ludmere's pet terrorist project, wasn't it?” Alina asked, following up with a punch to Regina's jaw. “He made Mossavid his personal vendetta when Johann refused to hire the Engineer after Cairo. When the funding started to dry up, he decided to kick-start it again by running a fear-mongering fundraiser.”
“Again, it would have worked if the Engineer had been able to handle you,” Regina snarled, coming back at Viper with a sharp kick to her abdomen that made Alina lose her breath and double over. Stars appeared in her peripheral vision and she sucked in air, trying to force them back. “Instead, Johann is killed, months of planning goes down the drain, and then you cause added complications by disappearing!”
Regina kicked out again and her foot caught Alina under her chin. The stars exploded in her eyes and Alina felt herself falling backward again, nothing but emptiness behind her until she hit the ground with a thud. The wind knocked out of her chest with a rush and Alina fought to stay conscious as she tried to get enough air into her lungs to stop herself from choking.
Pain shot through her body and Viper knew she had to end this soon. She couldn't take another hit to her head.
“And the DHS agent who went over the ravine?” Viper choked out, rolling out of the way of Regina's foot, aimed for her middle.
“That was all Alex.” Regina sounded disgusted. “I was stupid enough to tell him that I recognized Damon when we got the surveillance photos from the Engineer, and he panicked when she started asking questions about him. In retrospect, I should have kept that observation to myself. Alex took matters into his own hands and ordered Billy to take care of her. That was a huge mess I had to clean up.”
“And then Stephanie Walker came down here anyway.” Alina struggled to her feet, drawing strength from somewhere deep inside her. “Guess you didn't clean it up as well as you thought you did.”
“It was clean!” Regina screamed. “You people just don't know when to let it go!”
“So you had Billy try to run Stephanie down. When that didn't work, you had him plant a bomb in her car,” Alina continued, ignoring the outburst.
“She had to be silenced,” Regina replied with a shrug. “If she had stayed in New Jersey and minded her own business, I wouldn't have touched her. But she didn't. She came down here and tried to get involved again, playing avenging angel after some worthless DHS agent.”
“And Michael O'Reilly?” Alina asked. “Was he asking too many questions too? Getting too close to the truth about the Engineer?”
“Mike should have stayed away from you!” Regina screamed and Viper raised an eyebrow slightly. “It's all your fault! You told him about the Engineer! It had to be you. You're the only other person who knew about him. If you hadn't told him, I wouldn't have had to send those men to his house to get his laptop.”
“Just to get his laptop?” Alina sneered, watching as Regina came toward her again. She side-stepped swiftly as Regina tried to lunge toward her. “I heard you wanted to teach him a lesson.”
“He was mine! MINE!” Regina yelled, swinging around and confronting Alina furiously. “Then you came along and he started sniffing after you like a junkyard dog, just like Damon did in boot camp!”
“Is that why you put out the hit on Hawk?” Viper demanded incredulously, her eyes narrowed. “Payback for an imagined slight ten years ago?”
“It wasn't imagined! He would have wanted me if it wasn't for you!”
Regina was screeching now, her face pale in the moonlight. She rushed at her and Alina side-stepped again, reaching out and clamping her hand on Regina's shoulder at the base of her neck. Spinning her around, Viper tossed Regina to the ground as effortlessly as if she were a rag doll. Regina landed on her stomach, stunned at the speed with which she hit the ground. Viper shook her head to clear the remaining fog in her vision and watched as Regina struggled to her knees.
“You really are insane, aren't you?” she asked her conversationally. “Tell me, why did you think I was dead?”
“Your file.” Regina turned her head to look Viper malevolently, hatred dripping from her lips. “It listed all your safe houses. You weren't in Raleigh, so that only left Baltimore. When my employee told me someone was living there, I assumed it was you.”
Alina stared at Regina, watching as she got slowly to her feet, her back to her. Shock washed over her and Alina felt as if Regina just landed another physical blow to her gut, followed immediately by the bubbling eruption of white hot ange
r.
Stephanie!
“That idiot obviously didn't bother to confirm that it was you before he told me you were dead,” Regina continued, oblivious to the pressure valve of fury she had just released behind her. “That's not a mistake I'll make.”
Regina swung around, a knife in her hand. Viper saw the blade a second before it left Regina's hand, hurled with the full force of her arm. She moved swiftly to the right and the blade embedded itself to the hilt into the front of her shoulder, rather than the center of her chest where it had been aimed. Regina's smug smile of satisfaction froze on her face as Viper smiled slowly.
It was the most frightening thing she had ever seen.
Regina started to back up instinctively as Viper moved toward her, a look of cold, deadly intent on her face. In an instant, the woman Regina had been fighting for the past ten minutes had disappeared. In her place was a chilling killer.
Reaching up with her right hand, Viper pulled the six inch blade out of her shoulder without breaking stride and threw it away into the trees. Any pain that she might have felt at the wound was blocked by her own anger, and Alina was blind to anything other than Regina's smug and evil face.
Sensing that something had tipped the scales out of her favor, and suddenly terrified of the stranger advancing upon her, Regina turned to run. She hadn't gone two steps before Alina's hand clamped down on her wrist, jerking her backwards sharply. Viper twisted her wrist, forcing Regina to turn and face those blazing dark eyes or risk a broken wrist. As she turned, Viper's right hook drove into her jaw and Regina's head snapped back. The force of the blow would have thrown her off her feet if Viper's hand wasn't still clamped to her wrist. Through the stars and ringing in her head, Regina realized that none of Viper's punches had been full-force.
Until now.
Viper released her wrist and followed up with two jabs, one to her abdomen that doubled her over and another to her chin, throwing her upright again. Regina swayed on her feet, dazed by both the swiftness and the strength behind the hits. Without pausing, Viper landed a strong kick to Regina's chest, throwing her backward with such force that her feet left the ground and she traveled a good four or five feet before landing flat on her back. Regina was just opening her stunned eyes when Viper came down on top of her, her knees pinning her arms to the ground and preventing any movement at all. She gazed up at Alina with loathing.
“No jury will ever convict the Vice President's cousin,” Regina gasped out.
Viper's lips curved coldly as she met Regina's defiant glare.
“Oh, I know they won't,” she answered softly.
Stephanie flinched when Alina reached down and gripped Regina's head, twisting it swiftly. They all heard her neck crack sickeningly, and her body went limp. Stephanie stared in stunned silence as Alina slowly rose to her feet, staring down at the dead body of Regina Cummings.
They heard every word that had been said between the two women and Stephanie realized, even as she watched the terrible transformation from her friend to a killer, that Alina had been confirming Regina's guilt. She hadn't known she had an audience of witnesses. Viper had been getting the answers she needed, absorbing blow after blow in the process, in order to justify killing a traitor. Stephanie was rooted to the spot, shocked and stunned, still reeling from the confession...and the sound of that horrible crack.
Viper rose to her feet and stepped away from Regina's lifeless body, feeling suddenly hollow and drained. Coldness embraced her as she realized that it was over.
She raised her eyes at movement in the trees and felt her heart surge into her throat as Hawk materialized from the shadows, moving with that jungle cat stealth she knew so well. She blinked, staring at him blankly as he moved towards her, and Alina wondered briefly if she was hallucinating.
“Viper.”
The word whispered on the breeze and Alina knew that she wasn't seeing things. Hawk was coming towards her, solid and real, with a grim look on his face. He reached her and, instead of looking at her face, focused on her shoulder. Without saying a word, he pulled his shirt over his head and starting ripping it into strips. It was only then that Alina realized the entire front of her tank top was saturated with something wet and sticky.
“You just can't help getting yourself hurt when I'm not around, can you?” Hawk demanded gently, folding one of the strips of t-shirt into a square and pressing it against her shoulder.
He took her right hand, pressing it firmly against the fabric to hold it there, and Alina's lips curved on their own. Burning pain suddenly seared through her as her mind finally acknowledged the fact that she had been stabbed with a six-inch long blade through her shoulder. She gasped softly as Hawk took a longer strip of t-shirt and wrapped it over her shoulder and under her arm, pulling it firmly into a knot over the makeshift bandage.
“You're supposed to be in Peru,” Alina finally murmured, trying to focus on Damon's face and not the pain coursing through her body.
“Funny how that worked out,” Hawk retorted, finally bringing his blue eyes to hers. “I brought your gunny back with me.”
“She sent him after you?” Alina asked, her lips curving.
Damon nodded slowly before turning his attention back to her shoulder. He wrapped another strip of fabric around it tightly, tying it off. Alina lifted her eyes at more movement in the shadows and raised an eyebrow as Michael, John and Stephanie all emerged from the trees.
“Did you guys get a group rate?” she murmured, drawing a laugh from Hawk. He turned to glance at the others.
“As you can see, Stephanie is fine,” he told her, bringing his eyes back to hers. He smiled slightly. “I'm the one that sent the text to Regina. I intercepted her hit man and...had a little chat with him.”
“Is he still alive?” Alina asked.
“Everyone keeps asking that,” he murmured, his eyes glinting. Alina grinned.
“Please tell me that you have proof of everything she just confessed to,” Michael called before she could answer.
Alina reached around to her back with her right hand and slid her hand up under her tank top. Her fingers closed around the wire that was taped there and she pulled it off, holding it up to show Michael.
“Every word,” she answered. “I also have pictures, documents, emails, videos, audio clips, bank statements, you name it.”
“Thank God!” Michael exclaimed, his face breaking into a grin. “Well done, you!”
Alina smiled, and then laughed as Stephanie unceremoniously pushed Damon out of the way. Throwing her arms around Alina, she hugged her tightly. Alina grit her teeth in pain, but raised her arms to hug Stephanie back.
“I thought you were dead,” she murmured in her ear.
“He didn't have a chance,” Stephanie whispered back. “I was surrounded by the three gorillas here.”
Alina started laughing again, and then laughed harder as John wrapped his arms around both her and Stephanie.
“If you ever put us through anything like this again, I'll kill you myself,” he informed her gruffly.
“Awww, how cute!” Michael exclaimed. “Group hug!”
“It won't be cute when she collapses,” Damon snapped and Stephanie and John both fell away, looking at Alina's roughly bandaged shoulder guiltily.
“Oh my God, I'm sorry!” Stephanie exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth. “Are you ok?”
“I'm fine,” Alina replied.
Nevertheless, she was grateful when Hawk moved back to her side and slid a supporting arm around her waist.
“That needs to be stitched,” he informed her briskly. “You've lost a fair amount of blood already. Where's your transport?”
“In the woods,” Alina answered.
Damon nodded and tossed his keys to Michael.
“I'll take her,” he told him. “You take them.”
Michael caught the keys with one hand and nodded. He turned to head into the trees, then stopped and looked back at Alina.
“Where's the receiver
for the wire?” he asked.
Alina smiled slowly.
“Somewhere safe,” she answered.
“Fair enough,” Michael said with a grin and turned to head back into the woods with Stephanie and John. Alina glanced up at Hawk's profile.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked. Damon glanced down at her and she read the answer in his eyes. Oh, he was mad alright. “It was the best thing I could think of at the time. In retrospect, maybe it wasn't the most tactful response to the threat against you.”
“You think?” Damon muttered, guiding her into the woods. “We'll discuss it later. Where's your transport?”
“This way,” Alina motioned with her right arm and he steered her in that direction. “There's still just one question I want answered, and I'll probably never get it answered,” she said tiredly.
Hawk glanced down at her in the darkness.
“What's that?”
“How the hell did Jason Rogers know who I was?” Alina demanded, stopping and looking up at him. Her eyes narrowed at the guilty look on Damon's face. “What?” she asked with misgiving.
“That was my fault,” Hawk told her grimly. She stared at him.
“Your fault??”
“Yes.” Damon looked uncomfortable and Alina raised an eyebrow, waiting. “When we were in Afghanistan, I carried a picture of you,” Hawk admitted. “Jason saw it more than once.”
Alina stared at him, dumbfounded, and he stared back, his eyes glinting in amusement.
“You don't have to look so shocked,” he muttered, getting them moving again. “I didn't know we'd end up as two government assassins, relying on our invisibility.”
“Why?” Alina finally got out.
Hawk debated telling her the truth, then decided against it. Something told him she wasn't quite ready for that yet.
