[MD3, 1:46PM, World’s End]
>"You're accusing ME?" Flynn's eyes darkened.
>
>"You ~are~ pointing a gun at me."
>
>"Self-defense, Kate", Flynn took a step in her direction, "how
>do you know it's an informant? Maybe if you'd been a better
>Team Leader, and kept the info more hush hush, we wouldn't
>be in this mess. You forget, I was almost burnt to death. TWICE!"
"What? You figure you’re next in line? You can do a better job," Kate taunted, at the same time tightening her grip on the gun. Flynn knew the right buttons to push, she had to give him credit for that.
"I probably could. What have you accomplished but nearly getting us all killed every day."
Out of the corner of her eye, Kate could see Sharlyn inching toward her - toward Flynn, too, but the paranoia had too strong a grip on her to take that into consideration. In the opposite direction, Newt was still trying to get into the car, either unaware or just not caring about what was going on - in Kate’s mind, he was trying to distract her, to give the others an opening. So they were all in on it, she decided. Probably Dinah and September, too. Who knew what they were doing right now. Probably cleaning up some loose ends in town - which would mean that Josh had to be involved, too. After all, he was the one who’d sent her this group of traitors.
"Try it, Flynn. You’ll see how far you’ll get."
"Flynn… Kate…" Sharlyn said, sounding utterly confused.
"Back off!"
"It’s locked," Newt complained, trying the door handle for probably the tenth time.
"Shut up! Drop the gun, Flynn. Your last warning. I *will* shoot you," Kate yelled, waving the gun between Flynn and Sharlyn. Keeping an eye on Newt at the same time had become impossible.
Meanwhile, Newt had been puzzling over how to get into the locked car. Finally, an idea occurred to him. He drew his gun and aimed it at the window.
Kate heard the shot and two reflex actions occurred, fortunately for Flynn, simultaneously. She turned toward the sound and squeezed the trigger. The bullet lodged harmlessly in a tree. The last thing Kate was aware of was seeing Newt reach through the now missing front window of the car to open the door.
*****
[2:50PM, World’s End]
The damned alarm clock was going off. Except it didn’t really sound like any alarm clock Kate had ever heard. A few more rings and it finally registered as a cell phone. Reaching in the direction of the sound, she found the phone and tried to force her eyes open. Big mistake. The sun was glaring down directly into her eyes and it made the headache she was already mildly aware of a hundred times worse.
Kate retrieved the phone and forced herself to answer it. "Calloway."
[Kate, you'll never guess what happened to me.]
The voice sounded familiar, but it took a few seconds to place it. "September?" Kate sat up, another big mistake - the world was suddenly spinning out of control.
[Yes. Are you all right?]
"Just a minute." Kate set the phone aside and touched a very sore spot on the back of her head. The lump there was roughly the size of a baseball and hurt like nothing she’d experienced before. Slowly, everything started coming back to her. She was sitting on the ground near the cabins. Flynn and Sharlyn were no where in sight. Newt and the car were gone, too. She remembered the paranoia - it wasn’t completely gone, but had eased off enough for her to begin to understand what had happened. She brought the phone back to her ear. "All right would not be the most accurate assessment at the moment. How fast can you get back here?"
[I’ve got Agent Cohen with me.]
"Cohen? Well, he’ll just have to come along."
[What’s going on there?]
"I wish I knew. Cohen’s in better condition today, I assume?"
While September gave her a detailed account of her time in Scranton, Kate got to her feet and searched her immediate surroundings. No blood on the ground - a good sign. Only one bullet casing. That would be from the shot she’d fired, which she was sure hadn’t hit anyone. Her gun was missing, though. And where the hell had everyone else run off to? And who had hit her? Must have been Sharlyn.
"Well, at least someone’s had a productive day," Kate said when September finished her account. "I’m going to try to round up the rest of the team." Assuming they haven’t killed each other by now, she thought. "Where are you right now?"
[Just leaving Scranton. I can be there in an hour.]
"See if you can make it in forty-five minutes. Or less."
*****
[3:05PM, in the cabin]
Kate gave the aspirin ten minutes to work on her headache. That, combined with the ice pack she was holding to the lump on her head took the worst edge off the pain. She’d been out for at least an hour, which probably meant she had a concussion, but that was the least of her worries at the moment. Finally, she picked up the phone, thought for a few seconds about who she should try to contact first, then dialed Newt’s number. It rang several times before he answered.
[Um.. Prescott.] At least he sounded somewhat normal again.
"Where the hell are you," Kate asked. The strong note of resignation in her voice was due to the fact that she’d been trying to think of anyone at all she could blame for everything that had gone wrong, and she couldn’t come up with any option other than herself. Sure, she couldn’t be held responsible for the little adventure on the plane, but everything else.. She should have at least stopped Newt from opening the suitcase. Not that raking herself over the coals was accomplishing anything - her superiors back in DC would probably do a good enough job of that when - no, if they ever got back. Maybe Flynn had had a point. Or maybe it was just the gas wearing off.
[Good question,] Newt said. [I’m back at the Richardson’s cabin. I’m not sure why I came here, but.. Richardson is dead.]
Kate was silent for a full minute. "Who killed him?"
[I don’t know.]
"His wife?"
[Not home.]
"Okay. I don’t suppose you’ve seen Flynn or Sharlyn around, have you?"
[No. Not since, well, you know.]
Kate wasn’t entirely sure that she did know, or that she even wanted to at the moment. "Okay. Can you get back to the cabins to pick me up? Maybe we can still salvage something."
Back to mission logs.