Chapter 20

"The drone located the truck," Strong's voice came over the laptop speakers, "It's approximately ten miles north of your location. Good luck."

Carlos grinned as he gave a slow nod of respect to their Commander from behind Marc. He turned and shared a look with Twitch who was as equally impressed with their leader's disregard of orders.

"Thank you sir," Marc nodded, closing the laptop down when the connection was severed.

"We're gonna have to get moving," Jules told them, "That Truro bloke will be sending a task force to that location and God knows what will happen when they get there."

"I agree. Hasan, Kazeem?" Marc looked to them in the corner, "You go back and get the vehicles."

"Got it," Kazeem turned, grabbed Hasan's sleeve and dragged him out of the building as he began to protest at being ordered about.

"Hey Marc," Carlos purred casually, "They have some pretty sweet weapons here that they just left behind. It would be a shame if some kids stumbled across it."

Julia looked at Carlos from the corner of her eye, her lips twitching into a smile.

Carlos gave her a wink whilst internally he felt a deep sigh of relief to see her smile again, even if it was only for a few moments.

But then he remembered what he was keeping from her and what she was going through so he looked back to Marc abruptly, "What'd you say?"

"Go for it," Marc nodded, "I think we're gonna need everything we can get our hands on."

"I have an idea for that," Jules chuckled darkly.

Carlos, Twitch and Marc all shared a worried look between themselves before Marc reluctantly agreed.

"Give me ten minutes," Julia held her hands up, her fingers spread wide so that each digit indicated a minute before she turned around and high-tailed it out of the building.

Carlos arched an eyebrow at Marc.

"I don't wanna know," Marc sighed, "I've learnt it's easier that way."

Carlos chuckled, "I'm gonna go and round up those weapons."

Marc followed Carlos towards the door when he realised that Twitch wasn't following.

Hanging back, Marc waited until Carlos was outside before he turned to Twitch, "Everything alright?"

Twitch was stood beside the laptop, running his fingers over the documents which lay beside it, "Hmm?"

Marc frowned a little, "You okay?"

"Oh, yeah," Twitch nodded, "I was just gonna check through these one last time to make sure we didn't miss anything."

"Okay," Marc nodded slowly, watching him closely. Nothing in what Twitch said made him nervous but as he took a step back he saw the extra twitch in his jaw making the corner of his lips quiver.

After their years together he had gotten to know Twitch and the cause of his nickname very well and as he spied that small change in his face a small amount of concern grew inside Marc's chest.

Not pressing him on it, Marc turned and left. They didn't have long to linger so he made a mental note to ask him about it later.

Pretending to shift through pieces of paper, Twitch waited until Marc had left before he laid the papers down and hurried to the other side of the room.

He had found it earlier just before the laptop had connected and the others came pouring inside. He'd had to hide it quickly before Marc saw it.

Sifting through the pile of papers and a few photographs of various bomb components, Twitch found what he was looking for.

Six inches by four and barely a few millimetres thick the photograph should have weighed no more than a feather but it felt like a brick as he picked it up.

Twitch's throat became dry and an array of emotions built up inside him. It was mostly anger but there was also concern, for Marc.

He couldn't see this, Twitch thought. If Marc saw this and he knew . . . If he knew then Twitch was worried about what he would happen and yet it was valuable intel which could help lead them to the children.

Making up his mind, Twitch folded the photograph over, reached down and slipped it into the side pocket of his trousers. If they needed it later then it was there, if not then Marc would never know.

Tapping the pocket after he buttoned it shut, Twitch turned and left.

Ten minutes later and they were stood waiting for Kazeem and Hasan to arrive with the trucks when Carlos spotted Jules walking towards them carrying a large black duffel bag over her left shoulder whilst her rifle dangled from the other.

Her dusty, blonde hair had been re-tied into a sleek ponytail exposing the dried blood at her temple but despite her injuries she was wearing a wide, secretive grin.

Carlos, Marc and Twitch shared a sideways glance with each other as she finally came to a stop in front of them and let out a loud sigh. Her eyes were looking between them, waiting for one of them to ask.

When none of them stepped forward Jules looked a little hurt.

"Aren't any of you gonna ask me what's inside?" She turned a little to the side so that they could see the bag clearer, although it wasn't very hard to miss the bulky sack which weighed her down.

"Okay, fine," Carlos crossed his arms over his chest, "What's in the bag then?"

"C4 explosives," Julia smiled, her eyes lighting up with mischief as she said it.

Before any of them could respond she slipped the strap off her shoulder and threw the bag on the ground by their feet.

The three of them jumped back simultaneously, the soles of their boots barely touching the ground when they realised that there was no explosion.

"It's unarmed," Julia rolled her eyes as she crouched, unzipped the bag and showed them the pile of separate blocks of C4.

Coughing, Carlos pulled at the bottom of his jacket as he, Marcus and Twitch stole awkward glances with each other as they slowly walked back towards the bag.

"This was your idea?" Twitch's voice squeaked a few octaves higher than normal. When she arched an eyebrow at his voice range, Twitch placed his fist against his chest and coughed, "I've been battling this chest cough . . . anyway, your idea?" Twitch shifted on the spot.

"Yeah, this was my idea. I disarmed it and took it from the walls in the building they were meant to blow up but failed."

"Thought it might come in handy," Jules shrugged as she zipped the bag back up and stood, pulling her rifle back up her shoulder as it threatened to fall off.

"Did you remember the fuses and detonator?" Marc asked.

Julia gave him a look as if to say 'Oh, please' and tapped the separate front pocket of the bag.

Marc stared at her with a hooded gaze as he remembered what it was that had first attracted him to her and as she stood there he could see as she was once then when he met her on that tarmac and she'd punched him in the face. Not much had changed since.

"Kazeem and Hasan are here," Twitch called and Marc looked up to see the two vehicles approaching at speed, the tyres blowing up a sand storm behind them.

"Alright, let's mount up," Marc reached down and picked up the duffle bag of C4 as they hurried towards the cars.

* * *

Sam was going to kill Michael for this. Unzipping her skirt in her office, Sam let it drop to the floor before she stepped out and kicked it to one side.

It wasn't the fact that he had ordered- okay, maybe it was that a little bit, but he was her boss. He was ranked higher than her and she was used to taking orders from those above her on the food chain but it was the way he had ordered her, as if this was some sort of punishment.

What had she done to him?

Unclipping her stockings, Sam stepped out of her heels and slid the tights down her legs.

It wasn't as if she couldn't handle herself. She had been to Iraq and Afghanistan before but she would rather be here where the threat was. There was a highly probable terrorist attack about to happen in London and he was shipping her off, and with Ridgeway no less.

Holding the bottom of her shirt she pulled it up over her head and threw it into the corner with her skirt and tights. Reaching for the black combat trousers that were resting on the back of her chair, Sam had placed one leg in when there was a knock on her office door.

"Who is it?" Sam shouted as she stepped her other leg in.

"Ridgeway," Came the indignant reply.

Just for his tone of voice, Sam wanted to make him wait but then she considered the situation they were dealing with.

"Come in," She called as she slipped the trousers up her legs and buttoned them.

"Miss McAndrew-" Ridgeway began to speak, stepping into her office when he stopped short at her half-naked form, his eyes flashing across her flat abdomen.

Samantha was glad she wore her good lingerie this morning.

"Yes, General?" Samantha arched an eyebrow, pleased to find that she had shocked him after his behaviour in Michael's office.

"I- Um-" Ridgeway cleared his throat before he turned and closed the door behind him for privacy, "There is something we must discuss."

"Oh really, and what is that?" Sam asked as she stuck her arms into the plain black t-shirt and pulled it on over her head.

"I need you to sign this," Ridgeway marched forward and placed a document upon her desk, laying a pen parallel to it.

Pulling her hair out from the back of the t-shirt, Sam stepped forward and raked her eyes over the top few lines of the document.

"State secrets?" Sam raised her head to look at Ridgeway.

"My task force is of high importance and its high success rate can be partially attributed to its secrecy."

"Can't you just take my word?" Sam joked.

"No," Ridgeway told her curtly.

"Tell me, is this the same task force that Reynolds and the others were a part of?" Sam looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"Sign the document and I can tell you." Ridgeway gave her a small, unpleasant smile.

Picking up the pen, Sam signed her name on the bottom line.

"So?" Sam looked at Ridgeway, "Is it the same task force that Reynolds was in?"

Ridgeway reached over and picked up the document, examining her signature closely. Sam wanted to let out a loud sigh of frustration but instead she settled for a silent eye roll. He had seen her sign it before his very eyes, it couldn't very well be a forgery.

"Well?" Sam asked, getting annoyed.

"I said I can tell you," the corner of Ridgeway's wrinkled lips pulled up in a smirk, "I never said I would."

Sam opened her mouth to object when he cut in again.

"I'll see you at the front desk in ten minutes."

Sam watched the door close behind him with frustration but he had simply raised her resolution tenfold, because now she was determined to find out the truth.