[NRPG : Sorry folks, I was inspired. This is a hell of a long post, I hope no one minds too much. I got Rebecca and Amanda out of D.C. for now, Cliff is gone also. I guess now the healing starts.]
[Amanda Ericsson's Car, Washington D.C.]
As she made her way towards downtown D.C., Amanda kept glancing into her rear- view mirror, just to make sure that Jordan and Zenya were keeping up with her. After all, she didn't want them to know where Rebecca and Cliff would be heading off to. While she drove through the stop and go traffic, she hit her speaker phone and dialed the Monte Carlo's phone number. After a few rings, Rebecca's hesitant voice came through over the line.
[Hello?]
"Becca, it's Amanda. What's wrong?"
[Leo laid down a trap for us, blew up his own car in order to get to us.]
"Are you okay? How's Cliff and how's the baby?"
[I think I'm fine, Cliff's all cut up but okay. I'm not sure about the baby, I think it's still okay.]
"My god, becca. Where are you headed?"
[We've just crossed the Key bridge heading towards the heliport. We're gonna take a chopper towards Hyde Field and leave. Where are you?]
"I'm in midtown D.C. I have Agents Stern and Gorky on my tail, the same way that you've probably have that Leo Jones on yours. Listen to me, don't go to the heliport, go straight to Hyde Field and jet out of there. I'll call ahead to have the jet fired up and ready to go."
[What about you, Manda?]
"Don't worry about me. If I'm not there when you get there, just leave. The child is too important."
[Ok. We'll see you there.]
As soon as they were off the phone, Amanda made two more calls, one to Hyde Field and their waiting jet, another to an old friend that might be able to get Stern and Gorky off her case. Time was now of the essence, and Amanda knew it. Something sounded wrong with Rebecca, and Amanda had a very bad feeling about what it could be. "Could things get any worse?", she thought to herself.
[Key Bridge, Cliff and Rebecca Ericsson's car]
When Rebecca rang off, a searing pain tore its way through her midsection. It was as if the baby had decided that it wanted out now. Grimacing through the pain, Rebecca gripped her car seat tightly until the pain subsided. Cliff didn't notice anything as he maneuvered his way off the bridge, trying to think of how he was going to make his way back to Hyde Field.
"Cliff, go towards Dulles, make a round into their parking structure and then head back out towards Hyde." Rebecca said, her grip lessening on the seat as the pain passed. "Maybe we can lose Jones at the airport."
Cliff just nodded as he drove towards Dulles.
[Key Bridge, Leo Jones' car]
As Leo drove on, he could see Jim's car winding its way through the Bridge traffic a few car lengths behind him.
"Hey Jim, could you drive any faster on this bridge?"
[Ha! You call this traffic? I've sped through worse. Where are you?]
"I'm in the Black thunderbird, a couple of cars ahead of you. Rebecca and her brother are in the Monte Carlo two cars ahead of me, pulling off towards Dulles International."
Vanessa's voice came over the speaker phone, sounding slightly exasperated. [Well, I'm stuck behind this Chaco Chicken truck and a semi. It's going to take me a while to get off of this bridge.]
"Ok. Vanessa, as soon as you get off of this bridge, head off towards Hyde Field Airport. I'll also be heading there while Jim keeps an eye on Rebecca. I have a feeling that they'll be heading there also."
Leo saw Jim pass by him, waving as he did and pulling off towards Dulles in pursuit of the Ericssons. "Keep in touch, Jim. In case they manage to shake you."
[Will do, Leo.]
"Vanessa, I'll meet you somewhere outside of Hyde Field. I have a feeling that the security there around the Crosstech plane might be hostile, if not beefed up a lot."
[I'll meet you there, Leo. As soon as these damned trucks get out of my way.]
Leo smiled a little as he hung up and made his way towards Hyde Field, where he could plan a little parting gift for Rebecca and her brother.
[Alexandria Marriott, Room 1202. Ten minutes later]
Once he got the cardkey from the Front Desk, Martin made his way up to the 12th floor to see what the Ericsson's had in store for him in room 1202. With his gun drawn, he cautiously walked down the hall towards the room. Seeing that no one was there in the hall to ambush him, he stopped beside the door of room 1202. He knocked on the door a couple of times, addressing whoever might be inside as to who he was. Since he wasn't receiving any response from inside, he decided to try the keycard.
Martin slipped the keycard into the slot and withdrew it. As he saw the light go from red to green, he turned the handle slowly and pushed the door in. When he did this, he heard something drop with a dull thud on the other side of the door. When he looked down, he saw what looked like a grenade pin sticking out from under the door. Using every ounce of adrenaline that infused his body, Martin leapt down the hall to safety as the grenade went off from within the room, blowing the door into a million pieces into the hall. The floor shuddered beneath Martin as he covered his head from the debris that flew into the hall. As soon as everything settled around him, Martin got up and walked into the room where he saw a handmade sign showing the word "BOOM" was left on the bed. Seeing as there was nothing else to be found there, Martin called Jordan to report what he found.
[New Jersey Avenue, Washington D.C.]
"Just where IS she going?" Zenya asked after riding around the D.C. area for the past 20 minutes.
Jordan chuckled and said, "I don't think she's going anywhere. I think she's probably keeping us busy as Rebecca and her brother gets away."
Zenya frowned. "Wouldn't she want to join them?"
Jordan nodded, "That's what worries me. If she's going to join them, she's going to have to lose us one way or another."
After he said this, his cell phone began to ring. After transferring the call to his car phone, he put it on speaker.
"Stern"
[Jordan, this is Martin. The only thing that was waiting for me at the Alexandria Marriott was a grenade that did a number on the room.]
"Are you alright?"
[I'm fine, but the room's a mess.]
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a Caravan shot out of an alley and broadsided Jordan with a deafening crunch. Jordan's car spun out of control as Jordan hit the brakes, trying to keep the car from flipping. Zenya was thrown forward as the airbags deployed. Thanks to their seatbelts, neither of them sustained any serious injuries. Meanwhile, the Caravan sat in the middle of the road, its driver side door open, with no one in the driver's seat.
[Jordan? Zenya? Are you there? Is everything alright?]
Shaking the cobwebs from his mind, Jordan looked to see if Zenya was alright in the passenger seat. After she nodded a quick yes, she opened her door to see the extent of the damage done to Jordan's car.
"We're okay, Martin. Someone came out of nowhere to broadside us. We've just lost Amanda Ericsson."
[Where are you? I'll be right there to pick you up.]
[Washington Executive Hyde Field Airport]
Leo had waited for as long as he could for Vanessa to join him outside the fenced off area at Hyde Field. He could see the Crosstech jet sitting on the tarmac idling, waiting for its passengers to arrive. Scrambling up the adjoining hillside, he picked an area of densely covered bushes that had a tree for shade. Laying down on the ground, Leo brought out his high-powered rifle with scope and checked out the layout before him. No sooner had he gotten himself into position, he saw Rebecca's Monte Carlo cross the tarmac toward the waiting plane. He watched as it parked several yards away from the plane and Rebecca and Cliff got out. As they made their way toward the plane, Leo slowly squeezed the trigger, aiming the gun towards its intended target.
[Washington Executive Hyde Field Airport, tarmac]
Rebecca looked around nervously, having this nagging feeling that she was being watched. If there was anything that she hated more than anything, it's not being in control of any situation she was in. The trouble is, she knew that the control in this situation was out of her hands and in Leo's. Suffice it to say, she didn't like it one bit.
"Come on, Rebecca. We're almost home." Cliff said, as they walked toward the waiting jet.
As they got to the steps waiting to get them into the jet, Rebecca heard a shot ring out. All of a sudden, her weight seemed to shift to her back foot that was still on the tarmac as she tried to step onto the steps. With the back heel of her shoe now missing, all weight carried her backwards instead of forward onto the steps and she fell hard towards the tarmac. Trying to cushion her fall, Rebecca twisted to get her hands under her. Unfortunately, her agility and speed were greatly diminished due to her pregnancy and she hit the ground with her hip and distended stomach, sending another shockwave of pain through her body. Cliff, seeing what happened, dashed into the plane and grabbed the Uzi that was kept for attacks such as this. Returning to the door of the plane, he started to return fire to where he thought Leo was.
[Washington Executive Hyde Field Airport, surrounding hillside]
Leo ducked behind the tree before Cliff had a chance to return the fire that Leo anticipated. He saw through his scope that Rebecca was trying to pull herself into the plane and that she was in great pain. Cliff's fire was getting closer to where Leo was, so he was about to just duck behind the tree and wait it out. Before he knew it, he heard a fresh volley of shots echoing out from somewhere below him. Looking through the scope, he saw that Cliff was being driven back, fresh blossoms of red suddenly appearing on his chest, arms, legs, and head. He looked like a badly used ragged doll being tossed around by the various shots that were landing on him by the unknown shooter below.
By this time, Rebecca had managed to make it into the plane and took cover in the cockpit. Leo then turned his rifle down towards the fence area to see who this new shooter was. To his surprise, he saw that it was Vanessa, her face a mixture of hatred and rage, as she squeezed the last round out of her gun and into Cliff Ericsson. Leo got out from behind the tree and made his way down to where Vanessa was as another car came to a stop before the Monte Carlo that was already parked there.
[Washington Executive Hyde Field Airport, tarmac]
Amanda's worst nightmare seemed to be coming true before her very eyes as she drove across the tarmac to the waiting Crosstech jet. Her twin brother, the only sibling she had ever known before meeting Rebecca, was doing a grotesque dance of death as bullets were impacting his body everywhere. She watched as he dropped his Uzi and disappeared to the interior of the plane. As she pulled up next to the Monte Carlo, she pulled out her own automatic and scanned the area where the bullets were being shot from. Getting out of her car, she saw a man leaping towards someone standing behind some brush near the fence area. She squeezed the trigger towards that someone as she rushed towards the waiting plane.
[Washington Executive Hyde Field Airport, fenceline]
Leo was afraid that he had gotten down towards the fenceline too late as he saw the muzzle flash of the gun that the strange female from the second car had fired. He dove towards Vanessa, who seemed to be in a trance, still squeezing off shots from her emptied gun, and tackled her to the ground as he felt the bullet hit his right shoulder. More shots rang out from the tarmac as the woman ran towards the jet, who started to rev up its engines, getting ready to hightail it out of there. The bullets fired seemed to land around Leo and Vanessa who lay there, some sort of divine protection seemed to be shielding them.
Fresh shots rang out from about 20 yards ahead of Leo and Vanessa as Jim, who had just gotten there, returned fire towards the figure retreating into the plane. One of his shots hit the figure's leg as she made her way into the jet. As the figure closed the door to the jet, Jim came closer and saw Vanessa and Leo laying on the ground, tears coming forth from Vanessa's eyes.
Jim went by Leo and Vanessa and sat down as Leo held Vanessa to his bloody shoulder, letting her cry out her frustration and anger of the past few days. A few minutes later, they heard the Crosstech jet take off from a nearby runway.