Evenfall (125 page)

Kassian raised an eyebrow. "While I have to admit that your method is clever, let's take the facts into consideration. It is highly doubtful that the perpetrators thought to remove his earrings because the idea of hiding a transmitter in an earring is not one that would normally spring to mind, but I want to understand your reasoning behind obviously thinking that this means Vega is still alive. It is entirely possible that we could follow this tracker and find nothing but a decayed corpse with an earring still in." He paused and looked at the GPS again.

"I don't care," Boyd said firmly. "He's my partner. I want to find him or his corpse. I need to know what happened. You need to confirm it for your mission as well, right? I'd rather we followed all the leads and just found whatever is at the end, regardless of what is there. If he's dead then I can't do anything about it, but if he's still alive then hurrying could save his life."

After a moment Kassian slipped the GPS into his pocket. "I didn't say I wasn't going to look into it. I just want you to be aware of the possible outcome."

He turned away from Boyd and called out to the rest of the team. "We have a new objective. It appears that Agent Beaulieu and Vega set up a tracking system. We're to follow the signal as it very well may lead us to the rebel base." He made no mentions of saving Sin's life and it clearly was not the motivating factor in his decision.
Boyd followed behind the others as they returned to the van. Kassian drove, letting Blair navigate with the GPS while Boyd sat in the back and tried not to let his worry spiral out of control. He concentrated on the parts of the mission that he could affect.

From what he'd seen of where Sin's transmitter was located, he was in a particularly rundown district, one of the original neighborhoods of Monterrey that had never been restored and never been properly taken care of.

He'd heard Jorge refer to it simply as 'the place of bad omens,' the sort of area of a city that Americans would darkly refer to as a graveyard. It wasn't that there were a lot of dangerous people there; it was that anyone who stayed in the neighborhood had no hope, no ambition.

They were like ghosts to this life; barely touching it; barely alive. Although Boyd had been there several times to determine if there were any places he would be able to hide, he hadn't felt comfortable. He'd only seen two people when he was there, and both of them had peered out of broken windows from upper floors of nearby buildings, their faces skewed by the dirty glass and their hands leaving dusty imprints on the pane.
It had been more than a little disturbing, making him feel like he was back in his house, with the half-seen and half-heard memories gliding in and out of his perception.

It wasn't until he happened to see out the window what street Kassian planned to take that he realized the GPS wasn't giving them the fastest directions.

"Wait," Boyd said suddenly, "go straight and take a right on the third street down instead." He saw Kassian's blue eyes turn to survey him through the rear view mirror but he just shook his head. "I know where we're going, and the GPS would be correct but they started construction down there last month. Even at this time we'll get stuck in traffic. If we go straight, we can bypass it and get on one of the quicker side streets."

There was a moment when he thought Kassian may ask him more or just ignore him but instead he followed his directions. Boyd relaxed against the seat and watched the windows more closely from that point to navigate them as quickly as he could to the correct area.
As they were drawing closer to their destination, he thought it would be in the best interest of their mission as well as his peace of mind to explain what he knew of the area so they could more quickly locate Sin.

"The tracker is civilian grade so it won't pinpoint him specifically but it should be within a one or two block area," Boyd said, watching out the window as they rolled through the desolate streets to finally stop, hidden by a building where they could see the area ahead of them that the GPS pointed to. Several buildings crowded against each other like dirty, desolate children; most of them long ago partially collapsed. There was the stench of hopelessness and death in the air. A dog lay in the middle of the street, the carcass half-eaten by insects and probably other dogs.

Boyd glanced quickly at the street to get his bearings, then leaned toward Kassian so he could point things out without being obvious.

"There are really only five buildings they'd even consider using here; the rest would collapse if anyone stepped inside or are already occupied by people who I guarantee would not give it up. The most likely choices would be 1635, 1639, 1739, 1741, and 1747, all depending on their intentions. 1635 is a rarity and has a deep lower level that would be good for security but it doesn't have many exits and its backyard is tiny and runs right against a building, which would make it difficult to escape. 1639 has a very good view of the street around it and the upper floor is well-fortified, providing multiple escape routes as well as a good vantage point."

He paused and gestured down the block. "The 1700 block has buildings that are falling apart more. 1741 has electricity hooked up by previous squatters who leeched it from a few blocks away, but they've since died, possibly of electrocution. Their corpses were still inside as of a few weeks ago and are unlikely to have been moved. 1739 has heavy-duty locks on all its doors, including one room in the far back in the downstairs that seems as though it would make a good holding cell. 1747 has running water and one of the rooms upstairs was covered in some sort of material that seemed to me it would make it more soundproof."

Kassian absorbed the information before dispatching the agents into groups of two. Just before they split up, Blair stopped Boyd with a hand on his upper arm. Boyd looked over at him questioningly, his mind already several steps ahead as he tried to pre-plan every move, but Blair just gave him an intense, solemn look before he pressed a gun into his hands.

Boyd looked down at the semi-automatic in mild surprise before looking back up, but Blair just said, "What if Kassian needs backup?" before he disappeared out the back door.

Boyd checked the magazine; it was full. Good. At least he would have some sense of protection now in case they were attacked. He jumped out the door and followed behind Kassian as they headed toward 1639.

The house was exactly as he remembered it; abandoned, forlorn, filled with dust and the haunted memories of those who had passed through before. They secured the perimeter first, entering the building in much the same way they had the clinic. Kassian went first, his gun drawn as he slipped through the house, with Boyd following behind.

They checked the house and then walked quietly up a set of stairs. They were slow, methodical, and it made Boyd's heart just beat faster and his worry grow. It was agonizing, going so slowly when he didn't know what would be around the corner. When he didn't know what he'd find or if they'd even find anything at all.

At the top of the stairs, Kassian kicked the door open and entered in a quick, well-practiced manner with Boyd right behind him as cover. The room was empty, unused, and Boyd felt shaky as the adrenaline continued to pump through him but he had nothing to spend it on. He wanted the wait to be over, the torture of imagining every possibility and yet not having anything to focus on in front of him.

He moved to a window to peer out sidelong, trying to determine if he could see anything from that vantage point. There was nothing outside; abandoned toys from years ago, overgrown vegetation mixed with broken concrete. The place was desolate and showed no sign of recent use. It didn't seem as though anyone had touched it for years.
He was just walking to the next window when Kassian's radio made a noise. Boyd's heart leaped and his gaze snapped over immediately.

Within a breath Michael's voice suddenly came over the radio:
"We found the body." Kassian didn't look away from Boyd's widened eyes as he raised the radio to his mouth.
"Copy."

Chapter 38

Heart thundering, Boyd was immediately behind Kassian as they ran to 1741 where Michael had been assigned. Like Boyd had said, the stench of death was powerful in the home; the two corpses remained in the middle of the living room, their bodies decaying and half-rotten. It was a staggering smell that made their eyes water. Even Kassian automatically covered his nose and mouth as they passed by to where Blair motioned them down to the lower level.

Cords hung from the ceiling, in some places with the rubber entirely peeled away, exposing the filaments beneath. The lower level was small, dark, dank, and the electricity that came into the room shone from flickering bulbs strung along the ceiling. They made buzzing noises, like insects being killed by bug-zappers, and the inconsistent light kept throwing the house into darkness that seemed only enhanced by the smell of decay from a floor above them.

Kassian nodded toward Blair as he passed him by, but Boyd was barely paying attention. He followed Kassian immediately to the downstairs hallway and was headed toward the room when he felt arms pull him back. The suddenness made his heart leap and for a moment, in the alternating darkness with his fears staining reality around him, he almost yelled out, as if he was in a different time of his life. But then he heard Blair's voice right behind him, saying that he should wait a minute. Even though Blair held him firmly he wasn't hurting him; he was only keeping him still. Boyd only stopped himself from struggling away because at that moment he could see Kassian entering the room down the hallway ahead of him.

He couldn't see into the room; he could only see the door angled open and a patch of flickering darkness beyond. But he could see Kassian's face, thrown in relief from the light ahead of him, and when he saw his expression turn aghast, he couldn't stay still any longer. He grit his teeth and fought Blair suddenly, violently, hitting him hard enough that Blair stumbled back a step with a pained release of breath. Boyd ran forward, feeling like he wasn't quite in reality, that this wasn't quite right, because the sounds around him were muffled and on the other side of cotton. The light was inconsistent; ghostly, pale yellow lines spreading across darkness that wanted to eat the building alive. He felt like he was in slow motion, moving past Kassian in time that crawled, stretched thin like a rubber band that refused to break.

And when he broke into the room, he barely saw Michael standing to the side and looking over at him in surprise, he barely even saw the blood that stained the walls and concrete like paint. He couldn't interpret any of the sounds that were coming around him, that may have been voices but were too far away to understand.

All he saw was Sin, lying on a surgeon's table like before, strapped down.

Not moving.

It took a portion of forever to get to him. Even though Boyd was running, his steps were too slow and his breath was too fast. He almost fell into the table, not thinking to stop in time, and it was only by dropping his hands onto the metal to brace himself that he didn't fall over.

Something slid beneath his palms, cool and thick and coagulated, and when he looked down he realized it was blood, Sin's blood, and when he stared with widening eyes at Sin he saw his eyes were closed, his skin pale white in a way that shouldn't be possible with his olive skin tone, and his lips, those full lips Boyd had kissed and laughed against and drew into his mouth, were a pale blue. He looked down at the rest of him, a shocked sort of desperation as he tried to understand what was happening, but he could barely see anything beneath all the blood. It was like a second skin; dark, rusty and dried, and even though he could tell there were any number of wounds beneath, he couldn't actually see what they were or where they existed. Stitches were roughly sewn into the side of Sin's neck where the GPS chip must have been taken out, dried blood coating the entire side of his throat where he must have bled profusely.

Boyd brought a shaking hand up, muscles stiff and difficult to move as he touched Sin's cheek. Sin's skin was cold even through the coating of his blood on Boyd's palm, on Sin's body, and Boyd felt the world starting to tilt around him as he looked down at Sin's chest. It wasn't moving. He wasn't fucking moving, his chest didn't look like it was moving, his skin was cold and Sin wasn't fucking breathing, he was dead, he was dead--

There was confusion of sound behind him that Boyd didn't understand but suddenly he was roughly yanked back, the movement causing his fingers to slide along Sin's cheek and pass over his cold lips where the lip ring used to lie. Where Sin used to smirk and smile and sometimes even laugh.

"Wait!" Boyd said desperately and lunged forward as if to reach Sin, but another hand came and held him tightly. Dragged him away while he struggled increasingly violently to get away.

"Wait, no! Let me go,
let me fucking go!
" Boyd shouted louder, trying to get out of the hold. Trying to break free so he could get close again so he could at least touch Sin's body one more time. So they couldn't pull him away before they just left Sin there to rot like the bodies upstairs and oh God, oh God, he was really dead, he was actually dead, Kassian was right, the earring was there but it didn't mean his heart was beating, it didn't mean he could be saved.

It didn't mean Boyd hadn't let him be killed.

Archer held him tight against his chest, completely overpowering him and trapping him there as the others stared at Sin's body with various expressions ranging from alarm to dismay. Although they'd all seemed so sure, although they'd been so matter-of-fact about his death, it seemed that none of them had actually expected to find his body in the state that it was in. None of them appeared to have actually expected Sin, invincible, indestructible Sin, to have been tortured to death on a makeshift table inside an abandoned, filthy house.

"Check his pulse," Kassian barked suddenly, seeming to snap out of the momentary reverie he'd fallen into.

Nobody moved and he sent an annoyed glare at Harriet, who jumped and hurried over to Sin's side. She hesitated before actually putting her hands on him, eyes focused on his face, on the undeniably striking features that were pale and covered in blood. Then finally she touched him, fingers groping through the stiff layer of blood at his neck as she searched for a sign of life. But after a moment she shook her head and looked at Kassian.

"I can't find--"

Kassian grunted impatiently and stepped forward, pushing Harriet out of the way unceremoniously as he grabbed Sin's hair and yanked his head back. Sin didn't so much as twitch and Boyd's eyes widened and breath caught at the sight. He froze for just half a second before he suddenly surged against Archer's hold, struggling even more viciously to break away. Archer didn't even budge; his arms were like vices around him and no matter how hard Boyd tried to get closer to Sin, he was stuck.

Kassian's brow furrowed as he worked, as he listened for breath and pawed at Sin's neck, his wrist, before finally...

He looked up and met Boyd's eyes. "He's alive."

The words filtered through Boyd's frantic mind inefficiently, taking a few seconds to register. When he realized what Kassian said, he abruptly stopped struggling. He sagged in Archer's arms, breathing heavier from exertion, and stared at Kassian with a mixture of relief, fear and hope that struck him silent.

"Barely alive," Kassian amended and finally looked away from Boyd as he began barking orders. "We need to get him out of here now or he won't be for long. Get the gurney." When nobody moved, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Now!"

Everyone sprang into action at the same time but in the end, it was Michael and Blair who rushed up the stairs and out to the van.

Kassian looked down at Sin again and turned his face to the side gingerly as he examined the sloppy stitches in his neck. Despite the fact that he was apparently trying to appear calm and in control, he seemed visibly taken aback by the fact that Sin was allowing him to touch him. "It seems that they operated on his neck to remove the transmitter; they probably did a scan and found it there. The trauma of their hack job and loss of blood probably caused him to temporarily flat-line before they crushed the chip."

Harriet nodded and slipped on a pair of gloves before she began doing a quick examination of the rest of Sin's body. He was naked save for a pair of black shorts and she ghosted her hands over his torso, arms and legs. Most wounds had long ago crusted over with dried blood but there were some that were still bleeding. She ripped strips of cloth from her own shirt and tied off the open wounds as Kassian began unstrapping his limbs. Despite the fact that Kassian claimed to have found a pulse, Sin didn't look anything close to living. His eyes remained closed, eyelashes not giving the barest of flutters as they moved him around. When he was finally unstrapped his limbs hung off the table awkwardly.

Boyd couldn't stop staring at Sin, at his arms hanging strangely, at the way he was being moved about. "Fuck," he whispered to himself, disturbed by the sight. The relief of Sin being alive, of there still being a chance, was so strong that it made him feel lightheaded.

But his adrenaline was still high and his heart was still racing. Even if Kassian said he was alive they still had to get him help. All that blood, the way Sin was laying, the fact he was letting Kassian touch him-- Boyd couldn't look away. His fingers twitched and he wanted desperately to get closer, to touch Sin and tell him that it was alright, that he was there now and he'd help him, protect him. That Sin was going to be okay.

But when he tried to move forward again, Archer kept him absolutely still. He tried again, a little more viciously, but he couldn't even move. The fact that Sin was right there in front of him but they wouldn't even let him fucking touch him caused Boyd to snap loudly, furiously, "What the fuck! Just fucking let me go!"

But Archer just crushed him against his chest with unrelenting pressure. "Stop moving," he ordered harshly from behind him. "I told you to stay out of the fucking way but that's all you're trying to do. Let Senior Agent Trovosky do his job. If you keep this shit up I'll fucking hog tie you and throw you in the corner."

It was hard to breathe between Archer's hold and he was still upset enough that his breath was still coming quick, inconsistent. After a moment, Boyd grit his teeth, his body tense but going still. He knew he wouldn't be able to get away from Archer without a lot more effort and he didn't want to waste his energy or risk being detained before he could get closer to Sin. So, instead, he focused on watching what was happening.

"His arms and legs are broken," Harriet said. "His shoulders also appear to be dislocated and I believe his left hip. We'll need splints. We don't know how long he's been here and if they heal improperly, he's fucked if he actually survives."

Michael and Blair came charging back down the stairs and immediately began assembling the gurney. Kassian grabbed one of the duffel bags that Michael had brought down and yanked it open, pulling out various medical supplies and kits. "It seems as though they left him here to die. Which either means they got the information they needed out of him or they couldn't get any at all. Knowing Vega, I'd guess it was the latter."

He pulled out the necessary equipment as Harriet poured generous amounts of water on Sin's face and chest so that she could properly locate the worst of his wounds. His entire body appeared to be covered in bruises, burns and gashes and still, he barely seemed to be breathing at all.

"I don't think we have much time."

They began working quickly, nobody speaking as the four of them hovered around Sin's prone form and began setting his bones and attaching the splints.

The knowledge of what had been done to Sin made Boyd feel at once deeply sickened and angry. Janus had somehow, he couldn't even fucking figure out how, managed to compromise Sin enough to get him strapped down. They'd managed to incapacitate him to the point that he stayed that way. But even if they were trying to force information out of Sin, how could they do that to another human being? How could they hurt him like that?

Sin must have felt so hopeless. He must have been in agony, and they still kept going. The thought gave Boyd the image of Sin gritting his teeth, a sheen of sweat appearing on his skin as he stayed silent despite what they were doing. As he refused to show how much it hurt, just as he always used to back at the Agency.

What had he been thinking while they did that? What if he'd been hoping for Boyd to come, what if he'd been expecting him to rescue him or help him? But, and the thought hit Boyd hard enough that he felt nauseated, why would Sin think he even cared? He told him he deserved to get caught. He told him...

Staring at the evidence of the torture-- the blood, the bruises, the limp, awkward tilt of his limbs, imagining the agony Sin must have been in-- He felt sick. He hadn't meant it. He hadn't really meant it, Sin didn't deserve it at all. Had he been thinking during that time that Boyd would have welcomed this? That the person he'd trusted enough to tell about his past would have stood to the side and said he was getting exactly what he should? All because he'd been so angry about a stupid woman that he'd betrayed all the trust Sin had given him?

"Oh God," he whispered to himself, feeling guilt rush in with the anger and anxiety.

By the time they had Sin on the gurney only a few moments had passed but it seemed like an eternity. Michael and Blair immediately carted him out of the room while Harriet moved ahead to clear the doors and Kassian went ahead to get the van ready.