The Watchmen Files // File One // Chapter Twenty // Liberation at Last

Hey everyone!

It's D again :)

   Whew, it sure has been a busy week! Well, technically, last week was the busy one, with drama practice all day. But it was super fun! I loved it :) I wasn't scared at all when I said my lines, which was a major relief!

   Though I am sorry I didn't finish my chapter last week. It had to be perfect!

   I gotta rush to post this thing because Willow is getting her braces in today! If you would please pray for it to go well, I know she would be very appreciative :)

   Well, here we go!

   Conner stepped forward into a dimly light hallway of the fifteen story Hydra building, stun-gun in hand and nerves on edge. There were no agents patrolling at the moment, which calmed Conner's nervous enough to signal Mason to follow him.
   The cement floor and black metal walls gave a menacing feel to the dark and seemingly endless hall. There were columns sticking halfway out of both walls, which he assumed was to hold the structure's weight. They also arched over the path, though high enough up that no one would bump their heads on them.
    Finally, the two of them reached the end of the hallway and found a staircase and a branch off hall. Mason gave a nod at Conner, who did the same and started to climb the stairs as his partner slipped down the corridor, with his crossbow-like weapon that he had grown so fond of at the ready.
   Silently, Conner ascended two flights of stairs, careful to not let his footfalls be very loud. He was almost to floor three when suddenly, a door slammed a flight above him and lots of scuffling feet could be heard.
   "Schnell!" A deep voice commanded as Conner flattened himself to the wall as so not to be spotted.     Thankfully, the Watchmen had been commissioned a new tech earpiece that translated foreign languages to English for whoever was wearing it, which happened to be Conner.
   Thanks to the earpiece, he understood the voice repeat harshly, "Hurry, we do not have much time!"
   "But sir, he is too strong!" another more raspy voice countered quickly as the struggle continued above.
   "Give him another dose!"

   There was a shout of pain, then a clump and more scuffling as the German shouted for them to continue up the staircase.

   Conner stood frozen, his back to the cold hard wall inn fear of being found. He didn't know what was going on, but he had to hurry and freeze the cameras and sensors so the Watchmen forces could get in and take the building. He cautiously climbed another flight and entered the door, then found the security room.

   The room was dark except for a low red lighting that shown on computers, keyboards, and flashing buttons in black cubicles that filled the room from wall to wall. Surprisingly, there was no one in the cubicles, but there were three men sitting wearing Hydra uniforms in chairs in front of a wall of security screens.

   After breathing in deeply, Conner held his breath and carefully navigated through the cubicles. After getting within ten feet of the Hydra, he quietly took out a hand held device and looked about for the main computer grid.

   Finding it near the floor, he army-crawled silently on his stomach so as not to be seen up to the grid and carefully inserted it into the drive. A minute later, the security screens flashed and then continued as normal, though in reality, they were just re-running some old tape so the agents wouldn't know that the Watchmen were sneaking in. The stage was set for the oncoming attack.

   "Sir!" A Watchman dressed in black armor whispered through the cold night air at the commanding officer of the mission, M.B.G. "I have news."

   Graham didn't take his eyes off of the gate protecting the Hydra base from them as he nodded for the young man to continue.

   "C.J.M. signaled that he's finished, they can't see us now."

   The Sargent too a deep breath, but still sat and watched. He remembered past battles that turned out a win or lose like this one would be, full of the counter-attacks of the enemy. It was war, but it needed to be fought. Hydra was growing stronger every day. He couldn't pass-up the opportunity to slow their growth by such a large blow, and quite possibly capture their second-in-command, Dominik Kruger. It was now or never.

   "Give the order."


   "Thanks guys," Mason whispered to himself as he heard the guards shout in rapid German at each other in confusion. There was an all-out battle going on in the ground bellow, with Watchmen and their stun-guns and the Hydra who had been caught completely off guard and were now scrambling for orders.

   That was his cue. The Hydra agents had run down to the chaos bellow, and that meant clear hallways leading to where they were keeping Ava, five stories up.

   He had to click through files upon files on Dominik's computer, hack into more accounts than he cared to remember and had finally found the one telling exactly where she was being held. Now all that had to be done was to free her and high-tail it out of there.

   Sticking his head out of Dominik's office door, Mason looked right and left for any wandering Hydra. All clear. Okay, it's time to move.

   He went from long strides to a full out dash as he navigated the halls and climbed the staircases until he found himself on the sixth floor. Luckily, he had grabbed a clearance card from his cousin's office, so he easily got passed the locked doors with a swipe of the card.

   The hallway was long and dark. It's walls were not like those of the rest of the building, but the light colored paint was peeling off of the walls. The floor was dirty, with cracks and even a few scattered gravel pieces over it. Mason guessed the radical change of decor was because they didn't want their prisoners to know where they were when they were brought to their cells.

   He didn't see any doors, which was odd. This is suppose to be a cell-block..? he wondered to himself. It was kind of suspicious. Wouldn't they have guards to protect their most prized prisoner?

   He moved slowly down the passage, pulled his stun-crossbow weapon, watching for even the slightest movement.

   The silence was deafening, and the only sound to be heard was the gravel crunching under his boots. Mason was listening intently, but his heartbeat was pounding in his ears as well. He could feel his heart-rate go up by the second. Okay Mase, keep it cool, he mentally coached himself.

   Then, in the seemingly endless hallway, he saw a door opened into the hall from the right wall. The door itself must have been at least three inches thick. Suspiciously, he peered in the dark lighting to see the words 'Der Verräter' carved in red on the door.

   With his weapon raised, Mason turned the corner and stepped into the cell. No one.
   There was a switch on the wall, for a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling of the cell. He switched it on and found only two beds on opposite sides of the tiny room.

   He breathed a sigh of relief. But if not there, then where was Ava?

   Suddenly he heard the door scraping across the floor as someone on the other side tried to slam it shut.

   Mason's lighting instincts kicked in and he shoved his leg through the door, painfully stopping it from closing.

   Shoving it open again, he came face-to-face with Sven Kruger, who held little teary and gagged Ava under one arm like a football and with the other hand a gun pointed at Mason.

   Her eyes were pleading, and streams of tears ran down her cheeks. Her muffled shrieks broke Mason's heart.
   "Setzdass nach unten!"

   Mason's heart was pounding, bu there was no red or blue glow this time. He was afraid, but he wouldn't let it show.

   Sven himself looked pale, his eyes wild, and there was even a sense of fear in them. His voice was hoarse as he shouted, "Setzdass nach unten!!"

   "Let her go!" Mason insisted, not knowing what his cousin was saying but keeping his eyes fixed on Ava.

   "Put it down!" Sven shouted, keeping the gun pointed at Mason.

   "Just let her go, man-"
   "Später!!" He shouted louder and squeezed Ava tighter to him, who whimpered under the pressure.

   Mason knew enough German that he understood the command. He held the crossbow by its handle, and dropped it onto the ground in front of him.

   Sven watched carefully, then pointed the gun behind Mason. "Zurück!"

   Mason didn't move. Sven waved the gun again, and repeated, "Zurück!!"

   He stepped back, one foot behind the other as he moved slowly backwards and away from Sven.

   "Okay, let her go now. I'm disarmed," he held his hands up as proof.

   Sven watched suspiciously, then finally (without lowering his gun) leaned to one side and let Ava down to the ground. Immediately, she raced away from him and ran into Mason's embrace.

   He got down on his knees, tears spilling out of his dark eyes and a joyous smile on his face. Immediately, he yanked the gag off of her mouth and kissed her cheek. "Ava!" He could hardly breath, his chest was heaving with sobs of joy. "I've got you now, I got you... you're safe..."

   She wrapped her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder. "I love you," she sputtered in between sobs.

   Finally, he had been fighting to find her for so long, and now here she was, in his arms at last. It felt like heaven to hold her again, her hair tickling his neck, her tears rolled off of his chest armor as she hugged him tightly. "I'll never put you in harms way again, Av... I promise..."

   Ava couldn't answer. She shed many tears, and they were happy tears.

   It felt like this moment would last forever, frozen in time: Mason on his knees with Ava as they embraced and cried, reunited at last.

   But then he heard a click.

   Mason's head rose slowly, and his tears stopped flowing immediately.

   The light from the single lightbulb in the cell illuminated the figure of Sven, who was standing and holding his gun with both hands to steady it. But his hands were still shaking noticeably as he put his finger on the trigger.

   It all happened in an instant.

   Mason moved protectively over Ava and tensed up, preparing for the bullet.

   As Sven straightened his aim, Mason spotted movement in the shadows near Sven. His eyes widened with a mixture of terror and fear as the gunshot rang out and he yelled with his voice cracking, "Conner! Noooooo!!"

   Bang!

 Aaaaannnnddd there we have it! Chapter twenty :) You'll have to wait till next week for the little mini cliff hanger in this one.

Announcements...

Yay! Ammelia Gabriella has a new chapter up of Without Cause! Which is very exciting :)

Willow might not have time (or feel good enough, with the braces in and all) to do a chapter this week, sorry 'bout that :(

Well, I hope everyone has a good day! Don't be too mad at me for the cliff hanger here :) I (or Will herself) will give you guys an update about her braces, hopefully.

Laterz!

Always Watching,

Darrion