"Are you okay?" he asked, softly, she barely heard him. She shook her head violently. She felt the warm tears in her eyes. Damian sighed, he looked around the room, it was cool and dark, a door to his right was shut. He closed his eyes when he heard his mother scream.
"You son of a bitch, leave her alone!" Brenna screamed rattling her cuffs as she tried to wriggle them free, trying not to cry. Damian looked at her sharply.
"That wasn’t wise." he hissed as he heard the door open and the man walked back in.
"What did you say?" the man asked, his tone threatening, his eyes like pools of jet black oil. Brenna could feel them on her and she glared at him.
"I said leave her alone, she didn’t do anything to you. Torture me instead." Brenna replied, her voice shaky with emotion, she felt Damian’s eyes on her.
The man walked up to her, part of his face showing in the dim light of his cigarette lighter as he lit a cigar. He blew the smoke in to Brenna’s face and walked around her. Damian followed him with his eyes, scared for his sister.
"Your father screwed up my mission. He will pay the price. " the man said slowly, bitterly, Brenna could feel the hate in his voice. She glanced through the door, only to see her mother’s frail body, sitting
limply in the chair, a small light shining in the room. She rested her head against her arms. She felt like she was trapped in a horror movie or a nightmare, she wished she would wake up and make it all go away.
"Game." the word was chilling as the man said it slowly.
"What does that have to do with my mother?" Brenna replied, trying to regain her strength but feeling exhausted. Damian glared at her, trying to shut her up with a look. It failed.
"A man’s family is his greatest weakness, your father’s weakness anyway. As long as I have you, your father will attempt a rescue and I can exact my revenge." the man stopped in front of Brenna.
"Sir!" a young man with blonde hair walked in through another door, a door Brenna hadn’t even seen.
"What is it?" the man hissed, staring at Brenna.
"He’s here with a 6 man team, they are on the perimeter of the compound." The young man replied, hesitantly.
"Set." the man said dropping his cigar and putting it out with his heel, he looked at Brenna one last time then followed the man out the door. Brenna tried to rattle the chains loose.
"There’s nothing we can do." Damian said, his voice soft. His eyes stared at the ground. He felt defeated, like someone had beaten his will to live right out of him.
"Help me get out of here will you? Damnit!" Brenna cursed as she missed unhooking her cuffs by a millimeter. Damian looked at her with sad eyes.
"Don’t give up on me! Damnit! Look I’ll help you out of these things so you can help Mum, maybe I can figure a way out of here." Brenna grabbed her chains and spun around to face the wall behind her, she jumped up and planted her feet on the wall, walking up it. She stopped to take a breath. Realizing her plan sounded better in her head.
"Duck brother." Brenna called as she inched closer to his chains. Damian ducked after passing her a wild look. She kicked his chains with her left foot. The chain jiggled but went no where.
"Help me damnit! Wiggle the chain." Brenna yelled helplessly, feeling herself loose grip on the wall, her hands were red and cut, her left hand bleeding worse than the right. She gave one last kick, as Damian wiggled the chain it came free. Brenna’s legs fell to he ground, she let her hands drop free, she winced as the realized how much they hurt. Damian looked at her, Brenna glared back and looked at her hands.
"Sorry." Damian replied to her look as he helped her out of the cuffs. Brenna carefully slid her hands out of the cuffs ignoring the pain, Damian pulled off his flannel shirt and wrapped it gently around her
hands.
"Check Mum, see if she’s okay." Brenna instructed, Surprised her plan had worked, surprised that her brother hadn’t tried to play hero and was ready to give up on their survival so soon. Weren’t the men supposed to be the heroes?
"Mum? Are you okay?" Damian called gently as he pushed the door open, looking around for guards. No one insight, the lifeless looking body stirred. Damian rushed to her and untied her hands. Her dark brown hair covered her face, he pushed it back gently to see her closed eyes. A bruised face and a swollen lip, cuts and bruises were all over her legs and arms. He cursed silently, helping her up.
Brenna searched like crazy, looking for a way out. She stopped when she saw a vent.
"Damian!" she called quietly, he worked his way over to her.
"You and Mum take the vent, stay up there and just try to stay alive. Hopefully Dad or one of his team will get you." Brenna replied, she held her hands out, ready to help him hoist their mother up in to the vent. Brenna silently thanked herself for hanging around her father’s office so much, hours where she would watch him work and try to help him solve cases, listening to him when he told old war stories.
The man returned just as Damian and Brenna had figured out how to get their mother in to the vent. The man smiled a wicked smile and Brenna felt her heart sink.
"Clever, I see your trying to escape. I have news for you, you’ll die here." the man looked at Brenna menacingly.
"Jonathan!" the man yelled suddenly, Brenna felt her heart race as she clung to her mother. The young blonde haired man returned, a gun in his hand as he looked expectantly at his leader.
"Kill them, one by one, start with the mother. I want to see this one watch her family die." the man hissed as he touched Brenna’s cheek. Brenna threw his hand away and glared at him.
Jonathan raised his gun and aimed, Brenna lunged at the gunmen fighting to keep her family alive. The gunman hit her head and Brenna fell. She fought to keep the darkness from taking her. Jonathon held her arms behind her back while the other man took the gun. Brenna felt herself jerk as her mother’s body fell to the ground. She stared at the man, her feeling of hatred grew as she stared in to the eyes of death, the man aimed and pulled the trigger and Brenna felt the tears in her eyes as her brother’s body fell to the ground with a gasp. She stood there unable to move, her captor threw her to the ground. Brenna stood up in defiance. The man raised the gun and aimed.
Brenna suddenly fell to the floor when a black figure flew out of the vent above her, the figure shot Jonathan and kept a gun trained on Dunn. Brenna slipped in to unconsciousness.
"What do we do with her?" the black figure with green eyes asked, she pulled her black mask off to reveal long pale blonde hair, she turned to the team leader.
"You two cuff him." the leader said, two people dressed in similar fashion cuffed the man and led him off. The leader looked at the unconscious body on the floor, the dark brown hair sprawled over the floor. The team leader turned to the blonde.
"Take her in, Cherokee will tell us what to do." the team leader replied and followed the others out the door, Layne picked up Brenna as she was instructed and followed the team leader.
*********************************
"We pulled her profile, her father worked for the CIA apparently he commanded the team that saved those people from the hostage situation a few weeks ago in Seattle. Dunn was the guy who orchestrated the whole thing. He went on the belief that it was her father’s fault that the mission went haywire because he rescued the hostages, so he kidnapped her family, mother and brother. We found the father and his 6 man team, on the perimeter of the property, all dead." Layne paused and continued on.
"When we got there her brother and mother were both dead. Dunn was about to kill Brenna when I made my entrance killing Jonathon as he reached for his gun then move to cover Dunn while two others cuffed him. Brenna fell unconscious and when we got here she started to wake up, She was sedated. Due to some severe cuts to her hands and wrists, she is being held in Med-lab."
Cherokee looked over the report in her hand, Layne stopped pacing and sat down.
"All her family is dead?" Cherokee asked.
"Yes, all dead." Layne replied, Cherokee nodded and rubbed her chin.
"What do you think we should do with her?" Cherokee asked.
"Me?" Layne replied, raising her right eyebrow of her now Violet eyes.
"Yes, you." Cherokee replied, she leaned back in her chair, twisting a
pen in her hand. She waited for Layne’s response.
"The humane thing to do would probably be cancel her. From what we got out of Dunn while he was under sedation, she watched while her brother and mother were killed, Dunn also tortured her mother. She’s got nothing left, family wise." Layne paused, Cherokee searched her face.
"But?" Cherokee asked, she tilted her head to the right slightly and watched as Layne continued.
"I think she would make a good operative, her psyche reports suggest that she would be very loyal to the Section. She would see us as her savior, we saved her from death. She was headed for a career in law
enforcement already, if we explain that we are here to protect people.....she’d be a great operative." Layne spoke slowly, softly as Cherokee nodded her head slowly.
"Put her in to training, you train her." Cherokee pointed her pen in Layne’s direction briefly before turning to her computer.
"Me? I’m not a trainer." Layne replied, she looked at Cherokee.
"You train her or I cancel her. Make up your mind by the morning." Cherokee started typing, a sign for Layne to leave.
Layne stood in the white room watching Brenna sleep, she leaned against the wall, one hand clutched her elbow as she rubbed the scar that ran from her under her chin down her neck to her collar bone with the other hand, deep in thought. A nurse walked in and checked Brenna’s vital signs and IV’s, she nodded and smiled at Layne, then exited quietly. Layne went over Brenna’s profile in her head, and found herself coming to the same conclusion. Brenna stirred, and Layne jolted out of her thoughts.
Brenna opened her eyes slowly, the bright light harsh on her eyes after being in the dark for so long. She reached for her head as she felt a throbbing headache rear it’s ugly head, her restraints stopped
her, she looked up to see a young woman. Brenna studied her, quickly putting together her major features. 22, 23 years old, pale blonde hair in a thick braid, with tendrils of curls framing her face. Her eyes were a pale violet, she was wearing little make-up. Her slender 5’5" frame was accentuated by a Tailored black silk pant-suit. The only pieces of jewelry were a silver Celtic cross on a black choker necklace and a long silver chain necklace with a key.
"Good morning, Brenna." Layne said softly, she walked closer and stood by Brenna’s bed. "My name is Layne."
She pulled the key that hung around her neck on the silver chain and unlocked Brenna’s restraints. Brenna pulled herself up slowly and looked at her bandaged wrists, she was confused but not scared. The girl that stood by her bed didn’t look like a threat and even if she was, she couldn’t do any thing worse than the man who had killed her family. The thought brought tears to her eyes, Layne saw Brenna’s tears well up and decided to start talking.
"I’m with Section Two, I was with the team who saved you." Layne paused, when she continued, she started pacing. "Your mother and brother are dead and we found your father’s body on the perimeter of the compound in which Dunn was holding you. You have a choice, you can work with us or you can die." Layne stopped her pacing and looked at Brenna. A solitary tear slid down Brenna’s cheek as she looked up at Layne.
"What is Section Two?" she asked, half of her curious the other half wary.
"We are one of a few anti-terrorist agencies. We are dedicated to bringing down the criminals no one else can catch, we also watch other agencies." Layne quoted the speech her trainer had given her when she was recruited. Brenna looked at her bandaged hands and sighed.
"Where do I start?" Brenna replied, Layne smiled, and nodded slowly.
"Welcome to Section Two, your codename is.......... Raine."
End part one…….