Evenfall (153 page)

Sin rubbed the back of his head with his hand as he stared at Boyd in silent dismay for a moment. He wanted to argue his point some more but he decided there really wasn't much of a point with Boyd being so stubborn about it. In all honesty, he really didn't have a valid point of reason until they went on a mission together and the whole theory was proved wrong. So instead he just shrugged finally and gave Boyd a mildly exasperated look.

"Whatever you say. I obviously have more faith in you than you do in yourself, so we'll just see what happens."

Boyd gave him a scrutinizing look but after a moment he seemed satisfied by Sin's expression and he just nodded, mollified. "We should get ready soon. Do you need anything in particular? I'm about to make a few stops after this."

"Not much. Weapons. I lost my guns in Monterrey," His tone of voice made it obvious that he wasn't pleased about that. He'd been fond of his weapons; for the longest time they'd been the only things he could count on. "Some explosives would be nice," he added after a moment. "Low grade of course, don't want to draw too much attention or the authorities might get themselves involved. And smoke grenades. Or tear gas, for crowd control. And a bungee cord. And a glass cutter."

Sin tapped a finger against his mouth, noting that his list had suddenly become very long. For all that he'd enjoyed the almost dreamlike haze that had drifted through that summer in Monterrey, he had to admit that there was something about getting ready for a mission that had always appealed to him. "Maybe I'll just go take a tour of the supply room."

"I was going to head there first then stop by the medic unit," Boyd replied. "We could go together."

Sin nodded but as soon as Boyd started to get up, he leaned forward and wrapped one hand around the other man's wrist. Boyd looked down in mild surprise and for a moment Sin didn't speak, just staring up into the depths of his partner's honey brown eyes. "Are you sure you're fine? With doing this, with being back..."

A mildly uncomfortable expression crossed Boyd's face and for a moment he wanted to look away but he didn't; he kept eye contact with Sin and said honestly, "I don't know. For part of me, this is the last thing I want to do. But I don't have anywhere else to be, and it's better if I'm here than if I'm alone. I would have preferred that the first mission had nothing to do with Mexico, though." He paused and then smiled slightly. "Besides, doing this and being back means I'm around you. And since I'd prefer that above anything else, I think it works out in the end. I just don't want anything to go wrong."

A shadow of a smile ghosted across Sin's face but it was gone before Boyd was even sure he'd seen it. He pursed his lips and stared at Boyd silently before finally loosening his grip. "I just wanted to tell you before we go..." He trailed off for a moment, eyes narrowing slightly, picking his words carefully. "I don't know what's going to happen in Mexico but I'm more concerned with what's going to happen when we come back, once this whole Thierry and Monterrey fiasco is finally cleared up for good. I don't-- I can't say for certain, it's just a feeling I have mostly but--"

Sin stopped short again, gaze breaking away to flick around the room as if paranoid that somehow they were being overheard. "Things are different here now. Connors is different now. I don't know what's going to happen with you, with both of us, once he finally finds suitable replacements who are entirely brainwashed. Maybe even before that, maybe as soon as we have all of the JKS loose ends tied up. But I want you to know that it's the same for me-- if it comes between you and an assignment, loyalty to this place and their orders, I'd pick you with no hesitation."

Boyd was mildly startled by the statement. "Thank you," he said quietly. "It seems that everyone's behavior has been affected by Connors since we left, even Ryan. Until we have more information though, we won't be able to know exactly what is going to happen. For now, all we can do is concentrate on recovering Thierry and take things one step at a time."

Sin nodded in agreement and after a moment of them looking at each other, he headed toward the door with Boyd not far behind him. Together, they left to prepare for the mission, their first in
a while
and possibly their last depending on what happened when they returned.

====

Despite whatever feelings the owner of the property may have inspired in Boyd and Sin, it would be difficult not to admit that the place was amazing.

There was the mansion itself and an additional building which was actually larger and appeared to be intended for entertaining purposes. Both structures were built on the side of and on top of a hill, which gave the impression that they had a layered architecture on the interior. The actual design was impressive and it seemed that the buildings had been specially designed to wrap around the hill. The actual buildings took up well over an acre of land by themselves, with the pool, gazebo and garages consuming an additional twenty thousand square feet. The outer land was well manicured and landscaped but considering the fact that it was located close to several recreational and tourist locations, it was no wonder why the forceful nature of the compound’s guards had inspired several complaints.

Tall gates and trees surrounded Hale Clemons’ property, making it difficult to see inside but that did little to hide the intimidating air that the guards exuded to passersby. The security was almost as tight as the security at the JKS, if not tighter considering the fact that it was only a tenth of the size of the property the convention center was sprawled upon. That weighed in with the amount of watchdogs which roamed the five acre lot made it an extremely annoying place to infiltrate and subtlety had never been Sin’s specialty.

If he could have his way about it he’d much rather go in with guns blazing and peripheral bombs going off but he knew that in this situation it would never work.  The likely outcome of that scenario would be them getting overpowered and overwhelmed far too quickly and that Janus would most likely kill Thierry, if he was still alive, before they could extract him.

So with that in mind, he clung to the ledge of a window in the south side of the guest house as they’d come to call it, and used his glass cutter to slice a small hole into it noiselessly. For all of the manpower that Clemons had on the property, they’d figured out earlier on in their surveillance that there weren’t very many bells and whistles as far as an actual security system. They had two theories regarding that knowledge; the first being that the presence of so many armed men gave Clemons a large sense of security that outweighed the presence of technology and the second being that he hadn’t wanted to bring strangers into his property to install such an extensive system which would secure the entire property without having to expose anything he may be trying to hide.

There were, however, several cameras around the outer gates but they’d managed to avoid those easily enough; the real trick would be getting in without being seen and getting out with Thierry without being killed by the guards.

He slid his hand into the hole and felt around until he found a latch for the window. He’d been pleasantly surprised to find that not all of the windows in the building were fixed as they’d previously thought from preliminary casings of the grounds. Many of them were operable and that provided them with a more convenient way of sneaking in. It’d taken him longer to find an access area than Boyd had at the main house, most likely because the purpose of the guest home was to be attractive and not to be functional, and thus many of the picture windows were immobile.

Sin pushed the window up quietly, pulled his hand out of the hole and slipped into the building. He’d picked a location that had appeared to be in a shadowed corner behind a column and while that was helpful because he immediately ducked down and out of anyone’s range of vision, as soon as he peered around and at the layout of the building he realized that any prior knowledge of the blueprints no longer existed in his brain.

Idly touching the transmitter he muttered a soft ‘what the fuck’ to Boyd and made a face at the design. He was on what appeared to be the second floor balcony that overlooked the entire ground floor, or at least the ridiculously large foyer area. The entire space was extravagant right down to the serpentine design of the winding staircase; the balcony area wound around in a circle which overlooked the bottom floor and the enormous chandelier that dangled from the ceiling.

He wasn’t even sure if foyer was an apt description of what he could see at the bottom; the entrance area and what appeared to be an entertainment or some kind of show room for instruments and artwork was spread out below. There were several doors which he imagined branched out to other wings of the large house but he had no idea where they went and as much as he racked his brain for what Boyd had tried to tell him to study; he could remember none of it.

"What exactly am I looking for again?"

"The northeast rooms that we discussed; the ones that seemed to possibly lead to an extra wing." Boyd's voice came across sounding long-suffering and mildly annoyed. "I don't know why I even bother showing you blueprints or telling you repeatedly what to look for, you never pay attention. Where are you now? I can tell you where to go."

Sin rolled his eyes and made a face even though Boyd couldn't see him. "I don't need you to tell me where to go," he muttered in a stage whisper. "I asked a question, you answered, the end." He rested on the balls of his feet and looked around the column again. "Besides," he added in a droll voice. "Not like you're even
sure
it's that area. You're just assuming it
might
be."

"Of course I'm not certain," Boyd replied after a moment, his voice quiet. "If I was, I wouldn't be looking in another building as well, and one would have to wonder why I have exact information on our enemy's complex. That area just seemed the most suspicious in the guest house."

"No unnecessary noise on the radio," Sin said as a response and stopped transmitting, smirking to himself. It was fun to annoy Boyd on assignments. He could just picture the irritated look in his eyes now, glaring into space while indignantly wondering why his partner was such a failure of an agent but Sin didn't mind. He'd been taught by his father to be a killer, not an agent, and even then his father had never been one for following rules.

With that in mind, he studied the layout below him and tried to figure out the best way of getting to where he needed to be without being noticed. Considering the fact that it was just one large open space, he was left with very little options.

There were not as many guards inside as there were on the outside, at least not in the area below him. However, he did see a man standing just outside the glass doors that led to the pool area towards the northern end of the space and through an arch that led to a kitchen area, another man standing near a set of double doors in the northeast corner of that particular room. He was watching a soccer game on a plasma television although the sound appeared to be off. He didn't seem particularly concerned with his surroundings and it gave the impression that he'd probably been doing the same job, probably since the JKS had gone down, for months and that so little that had happened that he doubted anything ever would. He was tall, appeared to be Caucasian and wearing casual clothing although he was making no attempt at hiding the fact that he was armed.

Considering the fact that those doors were the only ones being guarded on that floor, it was easy to assume that that was the area he was looking for but something about it seemed too easy. It was in the correct area though and it was a better shot than searching every other part of the building so it still seemed like the best bet. He half stood, half crouched and moved quietly across the balcony, eyes scanning everything below him as he listened for any sign of doors opening or closing around him. For the most part he heard nothing except for the distant rumble of thunder from an incoming storm; the house seemed silent, empty, and that made sense since Clemons' only guest at the moment was most likely Thierry.

Sin waited until he was above the guard and hopped onto the serpentine railing, walking along it and following the slight curve in the design so that he was directly above and slightly behind where the man was standing. Without hesitating, he dropped down silently behind the guard and broke his neck in two quick motions. It would have been perfect if it weren't for the coffee cup the man managed to knock over; it went skittering across the counter and even though Sin managed to catch it before it shattered to the floor, it caught the attention of the guard outside the glass door.

He froze, crouched down and used his back to keep the man upright as he hid behind the counter. From the angle the other guard was at there was no way he could see that the man was dead, only that he was slightly leaning against the counter and appeared very intently focused on the game. Sin continued to support the man, listening intently for any sounds of the door sliding open, but when it didn't happen he peeked around and saw that the guard had turned away and was even walking slowly towards the pool, idly playing with a hand held game. Hale obviously had some stellar guys stationed here; but then again Sin doubted they saw very much action and probably expected nothing to ever happen.

He moved away, letting the dead guy drop down and looked around quickly. There was a huge walk in cabinet in the corner of the kitchen and he dragged the body towards it, pushing it inside. He searched the man's clothing and found a radio, a wallet with three nudie pictures and a
key ring
. Sin stuffed the items into his pocket and shut the cabinet doors behind him.

The game continued to play out on the silent television as Sin studied the double doors that the man had been guarding. They were heavy, wooden, and locked. He glanced dubiously at the lock before crouching down once again to examine the set of keys. The door opened after three tries with different keys and the click of the lock seemed to echo loudly in the quiet house. He paused, waited, and when he heard nothing he slowly pushed the door open and slipped inside. It didn't exactly lead directly to some hidden holding area, but he knew it wasn't going to be that easy.

A corridor with thick burgundy carpet and artwork with gilded frames on the walls seemed to spread out to a vast amount of rooms and passages. He tried to remember what had been on the blueprints, failed, but common sense told him that those double doors weren't the suspicious area Boyd had noted; not when they had been so close to the entrance of the building. The corridor led to passages that wound to doors leading to different parts of the mansion; it was entirely possible that this was an area that was generally left open during parties but locked when the house was empty for any other number of reasons. It was even possible that it was locked to keep the majority of the guards out to prevent theft. However it still led to the northeast and that was his target area, so he continued on his way.

The entire layout of the ground floor appeared to be designed specifically for guest activities, which likely meant that the rooms on the second floor were likely spare bedrooms and rest areas. Most areas were empty and seemed as though they'd been untouched for quite some time; it didn't even seem as though cleaning people had been present recently if one went by the light layer of dust which covered statues and other furniture. Not all of the doors in the corridor were locked or even closed; arched doorways led to large lounge areas, game and entertainment rooms, a home theater and more than one bathroom that was most likely intended for the large number of guests that were usually on scene at a time. However as he moved closer to the northeast corner of the house, he realized that there were more closed doors the farther away he got from what had appeared to be the hub of activity.

His feet moved silently across the carpet as he crouched down, moving in the darkened shadows of the wall and being incredibly thankful that they'd planned this for the middle of the night. The entire house was built around aesthetics and he had no doubts that the windows would flood every hallway and room with light during the day, leaving him with very little cover of darkness. Even now he had to be wary of the occasional flash of lightning that illuminated the hallway as the rain finally began to fall.

He paused briefly before turning a corner and tried to figure out where he should go, which room he should investigate, and knew that even if he had paid attention to the blueprints they wouldn't even be helpful at this point since they hadn't really narrowed it down to any specific room and construction had likely changed the architecture dramatically to conceal whatever it was Hale was hiding. Whatever he was looking for had to be somewhere in this area though; he was as far northeast as he could get so one of these rooms had to lead somewhere or else he was likely not in the right building at all and it would be up to Boyd.

But before he could move toward any particular area, there was the sound of a door opening and voices speaking. He pressed himself against the wall, partially in the nook under the window and narrowed his eyes as he waited for them to either pass or go somewhere else. Neither happened and they stood around the corner, talking in low tones.

"--two weeks now," One voice was saying in mild irritation.

"It's not as easy as you'd think. We're not the only ones who know how to hide and cover our tracks. Things take time and this is a sensitive situation. Do you know how useful he could be? Things could change a lot," A woman replied shortly, seeming annoyed with the man's lack of grasp on the situation.

Sin's eyes narrowed slightly as he let that comment absorb; could Thierry have really sold them out? Was Janus going on a lead from him to find out more about the Agency? He stayed in the shadows as they began walking again, intending to be silent and listen for any clues as to where he should go but just as they passed his hiding place, the radio he'd swiped from the soccer watching guard crackled to life and a man's voice demanded for someone named Peters to copy. The pair in the hallway froze, looked around in confusion and Sin made a face at the situation. So much for stealth.