Caught in the Spider's Web Part 2 - Short Affair 18th October

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Part 1

Prompt word - lacerate
Prompt colour - forest green
Wordcount - just over a thousand.

Blood runs down his back and legs and he watches the stain spread across the concrete floor below, cut off, somehow, from his self. He isn't sure how much more he can take. The lucky shot that let them catch him has left an ugly, throbbing pain just above his hip, and that's just as distant now as the fire in his back. Just because he's never gone through with it doesn't mean he doesn't know what dying feels like.

He has to hold out as long as possible. This affair is already a failure, not just because it has left Napoleon dead and Illya likely to follow. Their assignment had been to retrieve a copy of the decryption reel without THRUSH being any the wiser. A simple plan that came crashing down around their ears, thanks to Angelique.

And now Napoleon is dead...

No. He cannot allow himself to focus on that. Guilt and grief and rage can break him far easier than Fuller's haphazard brutality. For the moment the only card in his hand is the fact that Fuller has not yet reported that the code machine may be compromised. Understandably, he does not wish to admit his own failure unless he has to. He wishes to force Illya to tell him, and if he learns that the decryption reel is indeed already  safely in UNCLE's hands, then all of this, all of their sacrifice will be for nothing. The inconvenience THRUSH will suffer in changing all their codes is nothing compared to the advantage UNCLE will win if they can read all their communications.

In other circumstances he would be tempted to simply give Fuller the lie he longs to hear; that the codes are still secure. But Angelique is sitting right there, and she does not trust a word that comes out of his mouth, and he doubts she would believe he would break so easily.

It will not be long now. Fuller cannot risk delaying much longer. Soon he will have to give up on Illya and confess, and Illya cannot allow that to happen. Somehow he must stop that report being sent, but he cannot see how.

They leave him a few hours after it gets dark, after a muttered conversation he cannot follow. He is afraid it is too late.

Angelique lingers out of Fuller's earshot and looks at him, her face twisted with all the guilt and grief and rage he does not allow himself. “You were supposed to watch his back. He trusted you,” she hisses, and he wants to point out that she is the one who told Fuller exactly who Napoleon was when she saw him at the ball, and she stood and watched and did nothing, but his throat is cracked and dry and he can say nothing.

Still, her words lacerate his soul, a cut far deeper than Fuller can hope to inflict. He should have done something more. He should have abandoned the code machine the moment he had known Napoleon had been captured.

The scene plays in his head again as she leaves. He cannot stop it.

He is on the second floor when he hears the noise. The decryption reel is already in his pocket and he is waiting for an opportunity to slip downstairs and out of the house to hide the reel before he returns to rescue Napoleon, but there is shouting outside and when he goes to the window he sees Fuller standing out on the driveway, his hand tight on Angelique's arm, as two of his men haul Napoleon's limp body along the gravel and throw him into the trunk of the sedan.

He had assumed Fuller had planned to keep Napoleon here, at least for a while. Cursing, he gives up on caution, seizing the slightest gap in patrols to sprint downstairs and out to where they left their car. It is late and there are few cars around, and that means it's easy enough to follow Fuller's limousine which is, in turn, following the sedan, but it also means that he dare not drive too close. And that means that he arrives just in time to watch Fuller's men push the sedan off the cliff and down into the dark lake below.

He dives, but the lake is deep and the car sinks fast. The first time he can see it, though his lungs are burning and his head is full of mist, and it is almost in reach before he is forced to surface for air. The second time it is far below him, even at the deepest he can dive. The thirdfourthsixth time, he cannot see it at all.

And just like that, Napoleon is gone.

Ignoring the pain, he tries any way he can to get free, tries to force his body around, to pull his hands through the chains – anything and everything and all he accomplishes is to push himself until he is a shaking mess of pain and exhaustion, each breath shallow and rattling.

“Well, well.” Angelique's voice rings out behind him, cold and clear. “Aren't we quite the pathetic specimen tonight?”

*

There is an ocean of green hovering over Napoleon's head. He squints, trying to make sense of it. It is soft – floating? - a kind of forest green, or maybe mint? Does that matter? He can't...doesn't....

Someone is shaking him. Annoying, and insistent.

“....sir? Sir, can you hear me? If you can hear me, squeeze my hand.”

Hmm? He tries to focus, tries to decide what is real and what is important. There is a cold hand holding his, and he squeezes it, taking in the heavy smell of antiseptic in the air, the pain in his chest and head. The green hanging over him resolves itself into curtains hanging around a narrow bed. Hospital. He is in hospital, and...and he is alone. There is no sign of Illya.

He forces his eyes to open completely, forces himself to be awake and real and here.

Alright. He has woken up in hospital and his partner is missing. He knows what this means. He's going to need to get out of here and go find him..

Comments

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

It's like you gripped hold of my heart, and squeezed. That's a compliment by the way :-) I can't get enough of angst, so keep going. I need to know what comes nest.

[pactnmmt.livejournal.com]

Wow, another spine tingling gripping chapter! Your descriptions make me feel as if the story is taking place in the room I'm in and I need to reach out and help IK NOW. Nicely written, looking forward to more.

[rosywonder.livejournal.com]

Great second chapter. Angelique becomes a real character and I almost believed Napoleon had really gone... You inspire me to start writing again!

[lindafishes8.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness you didn't leave us hanging as far as Napoleon is concerned.

"Just because he's never gone through with it doesn't mean he doesn't know what dying feels like." - So true for both of them.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I did take it as a compliment, don't worry.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Thank you - so glad that the descriptions struck you that way, I was trying to make it seem as immediate as possible.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's wonderful to hear - and I look forward to reading what you write. Glad you liked Angelique here as well, I thought it might be something interesting to explore.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know I wanted to have Napoleon definitely alive in this chapter, which was quite tricky with the word limit. Oh, and I'm glad you like that line, I thought it rang true.