NEW FLESH

CHAPTER NINETEEN: MONSTROUS MINDS

BACK at the safe house, Mitch was seated at a table with Josh and Josi, they had been discussing Annikas betrayal and how she had turned out to be Iranian intelligence, it had been both a surprise and a disappointment.

"Do you think Ghost took Stan?" Mitch nodded his head in response to Josi's question, it was the only answer that seemed to make sense, "I'll bet he's with Margo too." he leaned his head into his hand, "shouldn't we go after him?" Josh questioned sitting up slightly, the other man shook his head glancing over his shoulder in Irene's direction, "we're not, we're supposed to write him off just like Margo and Victor." he grumbled.

Josh shook his head, "we're going after them." he spoke with more force this time, making it seem as if they had no choice and it was definite.

Mitch leaned forward, "what's the plan?" Josh smiled happy he had their attention, "I'll distract Irene, you and Josi get Annika's phone and go rescue them, okay?" the two nodded their heads slowly standing up as Josh slid out of his seat and made way for Irene, making sure she had her back turned to them, the two discreetly snatched up the phone and quietly exited the building.

It would be ten minutes later that Irene would realize they were gone and see what they were up to in the city.

Mitch and Josi climbed into a car parked outside- Mitch had snatched the keys from inside the safe house- before taking off to where they knew the car transporting Annika would be passing through, avoiding the brake pedal as they got closer the two cars collided with a loud cracking noise, Mitch and Josi worked as quickly as possible ridding the other car of the two men in the front seat, while Mitch started up the car again Josi worked to untie Annika the process taking but a few minutes.

"Why are you helping me?" Annika's voice was less optimistic now that her cover had been exposed, she knew, either way, she was no longer to be trusted by the CIA, lowering her from her rank in the government agency, "your handler, Ashani, was killed." she seemed somewhat shocked at the statement as Josi continued to work away at her handcuffs, "Hurley was with him. Something happened, we're going after him." he held the door open with his foot gesturing to Josi.

"We need your help." removing her phone from his pocket he held it out to her, "we gotta go." he stated, she stared at the device before quickly snatching it from him, climbing out of the car the three of them began walking down the cobblestone road their pace picking up when they heard sirens getting closer.

"Ashani had their people tracking Minister Behruz's secure cell phone." she scrolled away at her phone screen briefly glancing to look at Josi walking beside Mitch, "so, we find Behruz, we find Hurley." the three of them approached an opening to a larger road the sound of sirens drawing nearer, they could tell they were coming for them, and they knew they had no time to waste.

Mitch, giving no warning before doing so, threw himself in front of an oncoming car toppling to the ground once it hit him, the driver braked quickly jumping out of the car, "Mitch!" Annika exclaimed furrowing her eyebrows, she watched as the driver climbed out speaking in the foreign language to check if he was alright.

Pretending as if he needed help, the man helped Mitch to his feet surprised when he bolted past him into the driver's seat slamming the door closed behind him while Josi and Annika raced to climb into the back, the man pulled on the handle of the door trying to open in yelling in Italian as Mitch stole the car he'd been driving moments ago.

Unable to open the car they stepped away from it as Mitch sped off kicking up dirt and rocks from below the tires, winding through the traffic- a few horns being honked in their direction several times- Annika carefully swung her legs over the middle console slipping into the passenger's seat with ease her phone in hand the entire time.

Irene, however, was back at the safe house her headset positioned over her ears as she watched the footage being played on the screen in front of her.

Five minutes ago, Mitch and Josi had crashed into the operatives car taking it as their own before speeding away with Annika and her phone in tow.

"Stan, I've looked forward to this." his voice was close to a low whisper as he spoke, "I'm sure you have Ronnie." he retorted tilting his head upwards to meet his gaze, Margo watched from the corner her eyes flickering between her brother and her once superior to the bomb that was currently being built, he'd found a new physicist, this one making it past the CIA's operatives eyes unlike the last.

She watched the man- he was dressed in a protective white suit that covered him from head to toe- she wondered just how stressful the job was, knowing that the bomb he was building could blow up if he made even the smallest of miscalculations.

"I wanna show you something." Ronnie stated offering no context with said statement, even Margo was intrigued as to what he meant, "all right." Stan nodded his head patient enough to play into whatever game he was trying to enact, he took a few long strides away from him first removing his jacket and then pulling his shirt over his head, he removed the guns he'd had along his beltline keeping one in his right hand before quickly returning to stand in front of Stan with his arms in the air.

"Savages. Right, Stan?" he paused allowing Stan to get a good look at the scars covering his torso "but you know something? I don't blame them." Margo leaned forward slightly her arms crossed over her chest as she listened in, "I blame you." he added gesturing to the man tied up in front of him. 

"Never would've happened if you would have followed orders, Ronnie." he replied, "you go down out there, you're a ghost." he began his tone resembling that of mockery, "you're a John Doe, you get captured..." he paused placing the head of his gun into his mouth to demonstrate, "oh, you remember. That's very gratifying." Stan praised somewhat happy that despite the fact he'd created a monster, his monster still remembered one of the most important things he'd worked so hard to teach him.

"Thank you."

"You made me proud today, Ron." he spoke his face remaining deadpan, Ronnies face visibly fell when he realized he was getting nowhere with Stan, "you should've come for me." he spoke his tone somewhat calmer, "ten men would've died, you put ten men's lives in danger, 'cause you couldn't follow a fucking order."

"Fuck you." he added feeling as if the boy wasn't understanding the severity of the situation and what it would've cost them in casualties. "Fuck orders." Ronnie snipped his voice only rising in volume by a little, he thought it was funny- the entire thing- he thought of it as a game, "Fuck the mission." he added, "Fuck you." 

He ignored Stans response instead continuing on with his small pity party, "This was me. I was your boy, I believe that." he tucked his gun back into the waistband of his pants, "you made me believe that." he leaned forward grabbing onto Stan, unchaining his arm from the chair he pulled it up to chain to the ceiling.

"Raven?" she cringed at the name once again peeking out from the corner she'd been watching from, "that's not her name Ronnie and you know it." he gave Stan a half-hearted grin shaking his head, "it is her name, not that you would really seem to care." "Raven!" he called out again, she watched as he turned to look in her direction gesturing for her to come over, knowing she couldn't exactly retreat now that he'd seen her, she appeared from the darkness her frame becoming visible as she moved into the light.

"Anything you wanna ask him?" she slowed stopping beside Ronnie, she could tell Stan wouldn't be answering any of her questions anytime soon, he'd said all he had to offer at the moment, shaking her head she glanced up at her brother watching as his eyes flicked over Stan's face.

He'd once been like a father to him- just as he had been to her- and now just like him, she was watching that facade crumble away the structure of lies and distrust being the entire reason it had begun to crumble in the first place.

"What's the plan, once the bomb is finished?" Ronnies eyes moved to meet hers before glancing to the tarps surrounding the area where the bomb was currently being assembled, "you'll see soon enough." he offered a playful smile making it seem as if they were playing a child-friendly game when in reality they were playing with life and death.

The lives and deaths of many Americans, and she could only assume her brother was content with that idea as he showed no desire to reassure her that they would be fine.

He pulled her off to the side, out of Stans range of hearing before resting a hand on her shoulder, "don't worry, as long as they stay out of the way, your little friends will be fine." she frowned at him, gently rubbing her shoulder he turned away returning to stand in front of Stan.

She let out a sigh quietly walking away, she paused in front of the tarps carefully peeking through the slits, inside, she could see distinct pieces of metal laid out in a specific pattern the man arranging them and picking up certain pieces as he went, using the layout he had created on the table he was transferring them to the physical bomb. She continued down the narrow hall venturing further than Ronnie had let her the night before.

At the end of the tunnel bright light seeped in from outside, she could smell the saltwater floating along the wind the smell itching at her nose- in a comforting way- she leaned against the wall of the tunnel looking out at the sparkling blue water that laid out beneath the docks that began a few dozen feet away.

She knew they wouldn't stay here for long, soon enough their location would be discovered and they would have to move the bomb, whether they would detonate it after that was unknown to her, she hoped it wouldn't be. While she felt sorry for Ronnie, she knew it wasn't right to try and punish so many innocent people for the decisions of one lone individual.

It was cruel and selfish.

And along with that, there seemed to be several faults in the man's plan, how was he to use said bomb if the Iranians were going to use it to wage war against the Jews? It didn't make sense to her, she pushed off of the wall of the tunnel slowly heading back in the direction of the bomb and her brother.

Approaching the small area he'd declared as Stans prison, she could tell Ronnie wasn't too worried about Stan's snarky replies as he continued to carry out the torture he'd planned for Stan, he'd started with beatings, and when that didn't work he'd pulled out a large tool kit displaying it to Stan as he picked the instrument he wanted to use.

"Oh, yeah, look at that." Stan breathed out, "did you learn that in Aleppo?" Ronnie smiled, "no, you always told us what to expect, Stan." grabbing his hand, he attached the ends of the pliers to the nail of his index finger before speaking, "now, where's the rest of your team?"

NEW FLESH

CHAPTER NINETEEN: MONSTROUS MINDS