Evenfall (169 page)

They passed several open apartment doors but no one appeared to be in there. Several of the apartments seemed to have been left in a state of disarray and at first Boyd thought it was due to the situation; the bombs hit the building and probably knocked things down. It wasn't surprising that many apartments and floors appeared to be abandoned; given the state of the lower levels, there was no telling how stable anything above them actually was and the startled residents had most likely evacuated immediately, or tried to until they ran into the enemy.

He suspected that was partially the case but as they passed a few more open apartments, he noticed drawers that were left open, boxes strewn across the floor, and invaluable items scattered carelessly across tables and chairs. Although it was possible that the residents had been trying to grab all their valuables before running off, he highly doubted that anyone at the Agency would be that concerned about material things to put that above the alarming situation that was whirling around them.

The implication was clear; it seemed that someone had been in there afterwards, looting and the apartment doors that had been left open in each staff members rush to get out had given them the chance to do so. Boyd couldn't see Andrew's expression but he did notice that his shoulders seemed to tense the more he looked in the open apartments and his stride seemed to
lose
a sense of the casualness it held before.

Partially down the hallway there was another open door to an apartment; Boyd didn't hear any voices inside but there the distinct sound of things being shuffled around and fabric rustling. Andrew paused briefly on one side of the open door and peered in, then flattened himself against the wall again and waited a second before moving quickly to the other side. Boyd briefly looked into the room, noting that a masked man was facing away from them as he rifled through a hutch against the far wall. Boxes were strewn across the room, looking as though they'd been carelessly thrown to the side when they yielded nothing interesting.

He didn't appear to be armed but that didn't mean guns weren't hidden beneath his clothing. His pockets appeared to already be filled with items and as Boyd watched, he held up what appeared to be an old necklace that had been encased in wrapping to protect it. The man immediately shoved it in his pocket and let the case fall to the floor. He didn't seem aware of their presence and no one else could be seen or heard in the apartment.

Andrew jerked his head toward the door and the two of them silently slipped into the room. Boyd automatically assessed the layout; an open kitchenette sat to the left with an island counter in the center and a half wall that separated it from the living room. To the right of the door, an old heavy couch sat several feet in at an angle, facing the far wall where the television sat in the hutch the man was looking through. An inner hallway led further into apartment with what appeared to be at least three doors, all shut.

Boyd suspected that set up was similar to Ryan's place, which meant one was a closet, one the bathroom and one the bedroom. From the better vantage point, Boyd still didn't see anyone else in the apartment so he returned his attention to the man. It was obvious from the way the enemy had overtaken the Agency that these were professionals who had no qualms with killing people and would know better than to be alone without a weapon.

"Drop it!" Andrew yelled abruptly at the man, who was caught off guard with his hands still occupied, but almost simultaneously Boyd automatically shot the man in the head.

Andrew looked at Boyd in a manner that showed even without a visible expression that he was startled but before they could say anything, Boyd noticed movement in the hallway. He ducked just in time to avoid getting shot and saw Andrew drop behind the couch. Boyd was too far away and had to throw himself behind the counter; he was almost too slow and felt the bite of a bullet grazing his leg. He stayed crouched behind the island, hearing the gunfire between the man and Andrew like staccato thunder claps encased in the room.

Boyd started to look quickly around the side and almost got shot in the head; he had to jerk back behind the counter again and waited a few seconds then tried from the other side. He nearly got hit again and with narrowed eyes had to pull back. The man was a fast shot; he was able to hold Andrew off and yet each time Boyd tried to so much as peek around the edge he was able to almost kill him.

The cover Boyd had chosen put him at a disadvantage; both sides of the island were well within view of the inner hallway so he was caught there. He wouldn't be able to get to a new hiding place without running straight into the open, a perfect target for the enemy who he had no doubts would be able to kill him in the space of time it would take him to get to a new vantage point.

As for himself, he wasn't very well-versed with guns; although he'd had training with them, he could hit people when he aimed at them and he could shoot people in the head provided they weren't moving around too much, he was a relatively average shot. Truthfully, he didn't even feel completely comfortable with them, although he wasn't as uneasy about them as he was with knives; he preferred other weapons and improvisation. As a result, without a better vantage point, the ability to look long enough to be able to properly aim at the man or access any other weapons within reach, he was basically unable to do anything.

Andrew and the man continued to exchange gunfire; although Boyd couldn't see what was happening, he could tell from the sound of their fight that they each were very good at aiming and didn't need to waste extra bullets. He heard the man suddenly make a muffled noise of pain and he quickly glanced around the edge of the counter, noting that he appeared to be holding one hand against his lower leg.

Boyd fired at him but missed; he started to jerk back behind the counter and the man shot at him, missing Boyd but hitting the end of the side of his gun as it disappeared around the edge of the island. The sudden pressure jerked it abruptly to the side, causing it to fly out of Boyd's hand and skitter across the floor. It twisted against Boyd's finger violently in the process, causing him to hiss in pain. He moved his fingers to try to get the ringing sting to dissipate; as it was, he didn't feel like he'd be able to hold the gun properly or pull the trigger for a moment, even if he could reach it without putting himself in danger. He couldn't tell if that man had done it on purpose or not but whatever the case, for the moment he'd effectively cut the danger down from two people to one.

From what he'd seen, Andrew seemed to be aiming for non-vitals on the man. If he was able to hit the man's leg during that chaos, Boyd didn't doubt that he would have been able to get a lethal shot.

Boyd looked down at his hands; he couldn't see color properly with the night goggles on but he could tell that his fingers were a little darker, probably red from the abrupt pressure of the gun. He tried looking around for any other weapons in view but he was stuck; there was nothing within reach and the counter didn't even have any cupboards for him to search through.

He was just reaching for the gun again when the gunfire abruptly stopped and he heard the unmistakable sound of a body sliding to the floor. He stayed still for a moment, not knowing whether it had been Andrew or the man who had fallen, and he grabbed the gun and peered quickly around the corner. The man was slumped at the end of the hallway and at that same moment, Andrew appeared by the hallway with his gun drawn as he quickly checked the other rooms for any other enemies. While he did that, Boyd stopped to check the bodies for any identifying information that could give them an idea as to where they came from. There was nothing that stood out though; the only similarity between the two was that they were both men that wore all black and were masked.

Boyd was just standing from checking the second body as Andrew returned to the living room with a shake of his head to indicate no one else had been around.

"Are you okay?" Andrew asked as he drew closer to Boyd, sounded a little perturbed.

Boyd nodded, absently rubbing his fingers. They ached but he could move them; he was lucky he hadn't been any slower and the man hadn't shot him in the hand or fingers instead. "I'm fine." He looked toward the man then to Andrew. "You're a good shot."

Andrew lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Top of my class." Inclining his head in acknowledgment, Boyd started to pass by Andrew but was stopped by a hand on his arm. He looked back expectantly, noting that Andrew was frowning. "Why'd you kill him right away?"

"Because he would have killed us," Boyd said simply.

"He may have had information," Andrew pointed out.

"What good is information if we die before we can relay it?"

"It's worth it to try to take hostages, to try to flip people," Andrew insisted. "If we can get inside information now we could save lives. What if they have other devices planted somewhere that they plan to detonate sometime soon? What if they plan to attack again in the future? We need to know these things, to prepare for it, to protect ourselves. How many good people have already died or been severely injured because we were caught by surprise? If you just kill them without even asking anything, you'll never even know where they came from. It leaves you vulnerable to similar attacks in the future because you didn't stop to get any
Intel
."

Andrew's body language and tone was strong with determination. "There are a hell of a lot of bad guys that can be flipped to give up info on the higher-ups. They don't want to be caught or hurt
any more
than the next guy and some of them don't care about their cause or boss so much once their own life is in danger. It's worth it to try; if we don't, we're leaving a lot of peoples' lives up to chance. I don't know about you but I couldn't live with myself if I knew a lot of allies died just because I didn't want to take the time to ask the enemy a few questions ahead of time."

"I don't trust them," Boyd said seriously.  "You shouldn't either. Obviously they're our enemy so I know you're not about to invite them out to coffee but the more chances you give them the more time they have to figure out a way to take advantage of you, to catch you off guard and kill you. How would we have carried a hostile hostage around anyway? And if we left him here it's entirely possible he'd escape. Or what if we decided to drag him around with us and we ran into his comrades? They would simply have to free him and we'd have one more enemy, which is not even assuming by that point we've found allies we're trying to escape with and would be endangering with his presence."

Boyd raised an eyebrow although Andrew couldn't see it behind the night goggles.

"It's impractical in this situation. These people are professionals so a few light-hearted questions in this room wouldn't have gotten anything out of him. We wouldn't have had any way of transporting him to a more secure facility, not that one really exists in this situation except possibly the bunker and then we'd just be showing him exactly what our command post looks like inside including the number of generals and agents and camera angles we're privy to. He was trying to kill us and his comrade would have done the same if we'd given him the chance."

They stood there a moment facing each other, perfect examples of the different training their units had received, before Andrew looked away with a frown. "I don't agree." He didn't sound angry; he was stating a fact.

"That's fine," Boyd said, uncaring. "Right now I'm more concerned about Ryan." He turned toward the door again and started to head out.

Andrew let Boyd's arm slip from his grip, then sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, okay. Me too." He was only seconds behind Boyd and together they silently but quickly headed toward Ryan's apartment.

Although they didn't say anything, this time the same thing was on their minds; if the enemy was armed and still inside the building trying to loot the apartments, that posed a threat to Ryan if he hadn't left his apartment yet and his door was somehow open or damaged. There didn't appear to be any obvious damage in the hallway outside the apartment but that didn't mean there couldn't have been damage elsewhere or Ryan couldn't have been hurt in other ways. Or, worse, decided to leave his apartment and was caught by an enemy somewhere else in the complex.

For some reason, Boyd found himself growing more uneasy as they drew closer and it sounded so silent in the area. It wasn't that he expected Ryan to be watching anime with the sound blasted in the middle of a situation like this but the total silence was a little alarming.
He'd expected for there to be a sign that he was alive.

They paused at the door, one on either side, and looked toward each other for a moment although they couldn't read each other's expression with the night goggles on. Andrew tried the doorknob even though he didn't really believe it would open. With the power out, there was no way to unlock the door even if they'd had the keycard to get in unless Ryan opened it from the inside. "Ryan! It's Andrew and Boyd! You in there?"

There was no answer and once again, no sounds to indicate that anyone was actually inside the apartment.

Andrew's mouth tightened and he moved back to the side, looking toward Boyd then nodding at the door with his gun raised. Boyd shook his head and motioned for him to move away; Andrew tilted his head in silent question but stepped back and monitored the hallway, gun raised in case any enemies appeared.

Boyd crouched near the lock, then took the night goggles off and pulled the small detector he'd used at Hale's mansion out of his pocket. He hadn't bothered to grab a flashlight while he was in the bunker because night goggles were far better in the dark but in this instance he wanted to see what he was doing without the color deadening aspect of the goggles.