Rogue Agent
Chapter Nineteen="LEFT">
Italy
Casear Faison scowled as he gracefully
got out of the Aston Martin after it had pulled
into the courtyard of his lavish and heavily
guarded villa. His meeting with his officers had
dragged on longer than expected and he found
himself anxious to get back to his beautiful
Anna.
He just hoped she wasn't anywhere near
that brat.
Damn the child. It had seemed like
perfect irony, his chance to get his revenge on
both the son and the father by taking their
Princess from them forever. At the same time,
he had earned Anna's gratitude and further
devotion by returning her "Robin" to her. The
brainwashing of the Spencer girl had been
subtle by need, he didn't want to cause any
undue stress to his beloved by having "Robin"
walk around like a zombie, like her brother had
before he had began to physically torture the
boy each..... he stopped himself. This wasn't the
time to indulge in pleasant memories. His cold
eyes scanned the walls of the villa checking on
his sharpshooters stationed throughout. Soon it
would be more than just a pleasant memory.
The boy would come for his sister. He was too
much like his father not to. And when he did,
Caesar smiled, when he did he would have his
favorite toy back to play with.
"Darling!" The lovely accented voice
shook him out of his euphoria and Faison
looked up as Anna crossed the courtyard. "I
was afraid that you were going to miss dinner
altogether."
He kissed her gently, savoring the feel
of her compliant in his arms. "I'm sorry
sweetheart but my meeting took much longer
than I expected it to."
"You poor thing," Anna admonished as
she led him into the interior of the house. "Why
don't you pour yourself a martini while I check
with cook on dinner?" She smiled a huge smile
as he went to the sidebar and poured himself a
drink, slipping in an olive to go along with it. "I
feel so guilty letting you take care of me while
Robin and I do nothing but play all day long. I
know that your business is complicated Cesar
but surely I could be of help somewhere."
"Just knowing that you and Robin are
healthy, happy, and waiting for me is all the
help I need." Faison smiled at her.
Anna was about to reply when one of
Faison's men entered.
"Sir."
Faison looked at the man for a minute
and then smiled at Anna. "Why don't you and
Robin begin while I take care of this. I'll be in
shortly, I promise."
Anna frowned and then smiled. "All
right, just don't take too long." She kissed him
on the cheek. "You know how much Robin
misses her daddy."
"Oh I know exactly how much Robin
misses her daddy," Faison deadpanned as he
watched Anna leave.
"It is amazing sir."
"What is Humphries?"
"Miss. Devane sir. I remember when she
first arrived and...."
"Yes it is amazing how successful a
little persuasion can be." He turned to his long
time employee. "You said there was a
problem?"
Faison stepped into his office, waited
for Humphries to follow, then locked the door,
moving to a panel in the back of the office, he
flipped it to reveal a hidden room filled with the
latest in technology and surveillance cameras. A
row of cameras along one side of the room
revealed every detail of the villa, interior and
exterior.
"As per your orders our men shot down
the Quartermaine jet fifteen minutes ago."
"Survivors?"
"Not likely. It went down in a remote
part of the Southern Italian Alps, just about five
hundred miles north of here."
Faison frowned. "That's too close."
"Agreed but considering that they are
probably all dead, I doubt if they will get any
closer."
"You've sent men to the crash site."
"Of course."
"And the Italian government?"
"Have no clue what happened."
"Good keep it that way." He punched a
few buttons on the console. "I want their bodies
brought back here."
"And if they're alive?"
"Kill them and then bring their bodies
back here."
"Even Miss. Scorpio?"
"Especially Miss. Scorpio. His fingers
tightened around the stem of the glass. "I won't
have her or anyone else taking Anna from me at
this point."
"Sir?"
"Yes Humphries?"
"Jones and Spencer?"
"Keep an eye on them, but from a
distance."
"Our men can easily..."
"NO!" Faison lowered his voice. "Jones
and Spencer are good, but neither has Miss.
Scorpio's instincts. Without her, they are
predictable and entertaining. We have set our
trap and they'll be caught as easily as mice."
"Understood sir. Still it seems safer to
merely eliminate them..."
"That is why you follow the orders and
I give them, Humphries. If you had any
imagination you would know that sometimes
the most satisfactory experiences have nothing
to do with safety. Don't worry, soon enough
Jones will be dead and young Mr. Spencer will
be back where he belongs, figuratively and
literally."
"Yes sir."
And as Humphries turned to leave he
could hear Faison's laughter echoing in the cold
room.
An Italian Mountainside
The smell of gasoline, acrid and strong,
was the first thing Emily was aware of as she
struggled back from the darkness. Opening her
eyes, she could barely make out the familiar
shapes in the dimly lit cabin, the small
emergency lights the only source of
illumination. She moved slightly and winced at
the pain that radiated down her arm.
She heard movement from the cockpit
and gingerly made her way to the cockpit and
dropped on her knees besides Robin, who was
coughing heavily but beginning to come around.
The windows were smashed to bits and pieces
of the trees and the mountain side were inside
the cockpit, tangled with metal pieces of the
luxury jet.
"Robin." Emily shook her lightly,
wishing that she had paid more attention during
those first aid classes AJ forced all ELQ
employees to take every other year. Not that
she thought they would cover what to do if
your plane was shot down by another plane, but
at least she wouldn't feel as completely helpless
as she did now.
God, this wasn't her forte. Give her a
negotiation to handle, a deal to make, a
reluctant businessman to charm those were her
strengths. Plane crashes, people shooting at
you, surviving in the middle of nowhere- those
were Lucky's strengths.
She stopped.
Lucky. She closed her eyes and
remembered why using the Quartermaine jet to
follow Lucky and Frisco to Italy had seemed
like a good idea. Lucky was going to confront
Faison. Lucky was going to walk into hell itself
to get his little sister back.
And she was going to be right there by
his side.
Which meant getting out of here.
Taking a deep breath, Emily let her
natural calm in a crisis take over. Labor strike
or plane crash, a crisis was a crisis and there
was a natural order of things you needed to do
and panic was nowhere near the top of the list.
"Robin." She shook her a little more
determinedly even as she pulled a small
flashlight out of an emergency compartment
and began looking for Taggert.
"Emily?" The voice was shaky at first
and then determined as Robin staggered into an
upright position. "Are you okay?"
"You mean besides bruised and
terrified? I'm fine but we need to locate
Taggert."
"I smell gas. We have to get out of
here."
"I was hoping that you wouldn't
mention that. It's hard enough to remember to
breath without thinking about going kaboom in
the next second." Emily muttered as she moved
a piece of tree a little. "Help me. Taggert's legs
are caught under this limb."
Robin nodded as she took in the
situation. The limb was more like a trunk and
she wasn't sure that even together they could
move it , much less move it and pull Taggert
out at the same time. Damn. She could smell
the gasoline. There wasn't much time. She
turned to Emily. "Get out of here."
"No way."
"Look there's no time to argue."
"Whose arguing? I'm just refusing to
go."
"Emily this whole plane could blow...."
"I know."
"You need to get out."
"I'm not leaving." Emily looked at
Robin for a long moment. "Even if I could
manage to get down this mountain on my own,
do you think I could stand to look at Lucky or
Frisco knowing that I left you to die."
"One of us needs to make it."
"No, both of us need to make it."
"I could order you..."
"You could but it won't do any good."
Robin nodded. "All right. Hand me that
branch over there. If I can lift this trunk just a
little, we should be able to place the branch
under the trunk and use it for a lever."
Robin grinned as Emily stuck the branch under
the trunk. "Good." She turned back to Emily.
"I'm going to use this limb as a lever to move
the trunk and I want you to pull him out."
Emily looked at the massive detective
and gritted her teeth. "Easier said than done.
Marcus this would be a pretty good time to
wake up." She grinned suddenly. "You wake up
now and I promise not to tell Lark what you
and Mac were doing at the Pink Poodle."
Dark eyes opened. "It was a stake out
and Lark knows all about it. "
"At a strip club."
Before Taggert could reply, Robin
pushed on the lever and with both a groan of
pain and a lot of help from Taggert, Emily
managed to pull the detective free.
As Robin helped Taggert out of the
plane, Emily grabbed a first aid kit from the
cabin and joined them.
The trio had barely made it a 100 yards
away from the state of the art plane when it
blew.
Emily winced as the explosion echoed
and sent a fireball into the sky.
"Emily, you okay?"
"Do you have any idea how much that
plane cost?" Emily shook her head. "How do I
explain this one to the ELQ board?"
Taggert looked up as Robin used two
branches and torn pieces from his shirt to make
a splint for his injured leg. "You're a
Quartermaine. Lie."
"Quartermaines don't lie."
"Of course not."
"They merely reinvent the truth."
"Shouldn't be a problem then." Taggert
grinned. "Of course how you plan on explaining
it to Lark....."
Emily froze when she thought of how
her assistant was going to handle having to deal
with the fall out. And when she added the
thought of what AJ's reaction would be... "Oh
hell." She muttered under her breath as she
followed Taggert and Robin as they made their
way away from the crash.
Robin looked around them as she
supported Taggert's weight and helped him
over the terrain that was ragged, uneven, and as
far as she could tell they must have landed in
the only part of Italy that wasn't inhabited.
She stopped and waited for Emily catch
up. "You okay?" she asked noting Taggert's
pale skin and bright eyes. She'd splinted his leg
the best she could, but he needed medical help
and they both knew. His jaw clenched.
"I'll make it."
She nodded.
"Can't we stop and rest?"
Robin and Taggert exchanged a look
that Emily caught.
"You think ...." Emily began and Robin
cut her off.
"What I think is that Faison is not going
to leave a job half done. He's going to send
some men out to make sure that the job is
finished."
"Or finish it themselves," Emily
concluded with a deep sigh. Her head hurt, her
arm was definitely sprained, and there wasn't a
part of her that wasn't bruised. Add to that the
fact that she was pretty much just out of the
hospital anyway and she knew that she was
physically exhausted. Taggert's leg was
probably broken and if the sweat breaking out
of his face was any indication every step was an
exercise in agony. Truth to tell, the only one of
them who looked even somewhat confident was
Robin. The WSB agent was alert and definitely
in her element. Emily sighed. She had trusted
Robin with her life once before, it was easy to
do so again. "Okay, what do you suggest."
"We need to get off this mountain fast.
My guess is they'll come with heat sensors
which means they'll be able to track us fairly
easy. But this terrain is going to be rougher
than they expected which means it will take
longer for them to get up here...."
"Which buys us a little longer time to
get down the mountain. Got it." Knowing that
Robin needed to be free to use her weapon if
she needed to, Emily grabbed the emergency
backpack and positioned herself so that she was
the one supporting Taggert's weight. "Okay,
lead on McDuff."
And a few minutes later, they were on
their way again.
Rome International Airport
The WSB jet arrived without incident at
the busy airport and Alex, after a brief
conversation with Frisco, went to check on the
car and equipment Donnelly had arranged for
them. As the other two men made their way
down the converse, Lucky Spencer turned to
his partner Frisco Jones and grinned. "How
long do you think they've been waiting for us?"
"What makes you think they've been
waiting?" Frisco responded. "My guess is that
they're already in a rental car halfway to the
rendezvous point for our meeting with
Corinthos."
Lucky shook his head. "Nope. Em's
probably going to be mad at both of us for
sending Taggert along and she'll make Robin
wait for us just so she can yell at me in person."
"You think?"
"I think." A smile lit Lucky's face as he
thought of the young woman he loved more
than anything or anyone else. He'd come so
close to losing her forever when Faison
kidnapped her and even though she had
escaped, he knew that the fact that she was
alive at all was some kind of miracle he wasn't
quite sure that he deserved but he was damned
sure he was going to accept. Emily was his. His
love. His life. Quite simply, his everything. It
had taken him long enough to admit it to
himself and to her. Nothing was going to stop
them. Of course knowing Em she was going to
be more than a little angry that he'd sent
Taggert, just the notion that she couldn't take
care of herself was going to send that
Quartermaine pride flying and.... he sighed.
"I'll let her yell at me for about five minutes or
so so she can get it out of her system and then
I'll tell her that I love her and everything I did
was because I wanted to keep her safe and
viola- reconciliation and passionate reunion."
He smiled hopefully at the older man.
Frisco gave his partner a long look.
"You know, it's times like this that I'm forced
to remember just how young you are."
The two men approached the gate
where private jets embarked from and saw Alex
coming down the concourse motioning to them.
Leaving Frisco to talk to the other agent, Lucky
walked up to the counter.
"Excuse me."
The young woman behind the counter
looked up and smiled at the handsome young
man.
"My name is Lucas Kincaid." He pulled
out a driver's license and an ELQ employee ID.
"I was told to meet the ELQ jet when it came it
in and give Ms. Quartermaine a ride to the
hotel. Unfortunately traffic was worse than it
usually is near the plaza and I was delayed."
The woman looked up, her eyes
reflecting her concern and alarm. "We were not
notified that Ms. Quartermaine was coming."
Her boss was not going to like this, Ms.
Quartermaine always received the VIP
treatment and if she hadn't....the woman smiled
as she checked her schedule of arrivals and
departures. "I'm sorry. There must have been a
confusion over the date or something.
According to our records and the tower, the
ELQ jet never arrived in Rome."
Lucky took a step back as if physically
struck. "Never arrived."
"That's right. Trust me, if the ELQ jet
had arrived you would know about it. She
waved her hand to indicate the quiet lounge and
private departure area surrounding them, this
place would be filled with paparazzi."
Training kicked in. "I must have had the
wrong date."
Lucky walked back over to where
Frisco and Alex stood.
"Their jet never arrived," he began and
stopped when he looked at the shocked look on
the other agent's faces. He closed his eyes for a
second and prepared himself for the words he
knew would come next.
"Lucky...." Frisco began uneasily,
stopped, and then tried again. "Lucky the WSB
satellite traced the plane just like we asked.
While still in international airspace it slipped
off the radar....."
"And...."
"A few minutes later it crashed in the
Italian Alps."
"No. No." The words wore torn from
him as Lucky felt his world slide away from
under him.
"Lucky. The plane exploded. Infrared
shots from the satellite indicate no survivors."
"She's not dead. They're not dead."
Lucky's voice was full of anguish as he grabbed
Frisco by the shirt. "We have to go after them."
Frisco's voice was cold and dead inside
as he scanned the light crowd moving around
them. He kept his voice low. "There's nothing
left to go after."
Something snapped inside Lucky, the
small thread of sanity that he had been holding
onto since all of this started broke and severed.
"Yeah there's something left to go after." He
snarled the words so softly Frisco could barely
here them. "We're going after Faison."
"Junior." Frisco grabbed his shoulder as
he started to take off.
Lucky's eyes were wild and grief
stricken. "Tell me you don't want to kill the
bastard."
"Oh I want the bastard dead as much as
you do. But going in to this half-cocked and
angry is going to do nothing but get us killed."
"Maybe I want to die." Lucky said
softly.
With a roar of anger, Frisco dragged
Lucky into the empty bathroom and pushed
him against the wall. "Don't ever talk like that
again. Never do you here me." Frisco's pain
filled eyes burned into Lucky's. "Don't you
have a clue about how important you are
...were to her. Don't you remember what she
gave up to save you? That damnable choice
Faison gave her."
"Her parents or me." Lucky choked the
words out softly.
"And she chose you and she never
regretted that decision, not once. God Spencer
she gave you your life back and I swear to God
if you throw it away now I'll kill you with my
bare hands myself."
Lucky stared at Frisco. "Did you just
threaten to strangle me if I killed myself."
A brief almost smile crossed Frisco's
face. "I think so."
"Right. Just checking." He looked up.
"This is where you give me the speech about
keeping it together for the sake of the
assignment."
"Pretty much."
Lucky took a deep breath, he'd
managed to survive his captivity in the first
place because by cutting off his emotions. This
time he would use that same ability to bring
down Faison and make sure his sister was safe.
When he knew for sure that those two
things had been done, then he would let himself
feel again.
Even if all he ever felt again was the
pain of losing her.
He still couldn't believe it was true.
"Frisco?"
"Yeah."
"Is there any kind of chance?"
"Just between the two of us. From what
Alex was telling me? No." Frisco stared off for
a moment. "But from what my heart is telling
me? Robin's alive. I'd know if she was dead."
"Then why?"
"Why aren't we going after her?
Because we have a mission and that mission
comes first. Always. That's what it means to do
what we do." A ghost of a smile played on his
lips. "Besides if I know Robin and if she
managed to get out of that plane, she'll find us.
"
"You're right." Lucky breathed again.
"All right. Mission first."
"Right. And Junior?"
"Yeah."
"If Faison thinks he succeeded in killing
them...."
"He'll leave them alone and come after
us." Lucky nodded. "So no letting on that we
think there's even a small chance that they
survived."
"You got it."
"Not even to Alex?"
Frisco paused. "I'd trust Alex with my
life. I wouldn't trust the Pope himself with
Robin's." He responded flatly as he and Lucky
left the bathroom together.
Faison's Villa
Sonny made his way carefully through
the main section of the villa, a large envelope
clutched in his hand. He knew that he wasn't
supposed to be in this section of the villa, which
was reserved for family, but he hoped the
excuse he came up with would be good enough
to allay any suspicion his presence might
arouse.
Besides the way he figured it, Lulu
didn't belong in this damned hellhole either.
He knocked at what he hoped was her
bedroom, he needed to see her and let her in on
their plan and hope somehow that even at eight
years old those Spencer genes would kick in
and she could carry out her role. Because if she
didn't, they were all as good as dead.
He knocked again and when there was
no response he opened the door gently.
"Miss. Robin?"
Blue eyes that were a mirror of her
mother's and her brother's stared at him from
her perch on the bay window. "I don't care
what you say or what you do to me. I'm not
Robin."
"I know. I know who you are, Lulu
Spencer." Sonny locked the door behind him.
Shock. Disbelief. Hope. Wariness.
Definitely a Spencer. "How do you know....."
He sighed. How did one explain his
convoluted relationship with the Spencer clan
to this child? Your father was my best friend
until I left the mob and he joined it? He looked
at the little girl who had spent the better part of
the last few years in Greece, a world away from
the confusion that was Port Charles. Or maybe
you just settle for an abridged version of the
truth.
"My name is Sonny but that has to be
our secret okay? I'm a friend of Emily's."
Lulu's eyes lit up. "Emmy? Is she ....."
Her lower lip trembled. "They took me and left
her there where it was dark and..."
"Emily's fine." He paused. "You're the
one I'm worried about."
A smile. "You don't have to worry
about me. Lucky is going to save me and Nik is
going to help him. Emmy said so. I just have to
wait for them to get here."
"You're brothers are pretty brave."
Lulu nodded. "Lucky's a spy and
Nikolas.... Nikolas is a Cassadine so he can do
anything."
"That's good." He leaned down in front
of the little girl. "Are you okay? Have they hurt
you."
Amazing how much she resembled her
brother when they both wore that guarded
statement. "Not much." Great, another
Spencer with a penchant for understatement
Sonny thought. "As long as I'm nice to that
lady and let her call me mother and all of that,
they don't hurt me too much." Big blue eyes
looked straight at him as Sonny processed what
she was saying. They don't hurt me as
much...he felt sick in his stomach at the thought
of anyone hurting this child at all.
So lost in thought was he, that it took a
second for it to register that she had asked him
a question. "You don't think my mom will be
mad at me for calling that other lady mom, do
you?"
"Sweetheart, I don't think your
mother's going to be mad at you for anything
for the next ten years or so once she gets you
back. I'm sure she misses you a lot."
"I know. Mom and Stefan love me a
lot." A pause. "Do you think Luke misses me
too?"
Luke. Not father. Not dad. Damn. "Of
course your dad misses you. You're very
important to him."
Lulu sighed. "I wasn't sure. He
....sometimes...I"
"Your father loves you."
Tears glistened in blue eyes and were
echoed in brown. "Most of the time I know
that."
There was silence for a moment.
"Remember what you said about your brother
rescuing you."
Lulu nodded.
"Tomorrow when we go to town for
church...."
"He'll be there."
"And you can't....if you see him or
anyone else you know, you can't let on. If
Faison knows that your brother is there...."
"He'll kill him."
"You are a Spencer, aren't you?"
Before Lulu could reply, the door was
unlocked and Anna swept in, her dark eyes
flashing angry.
"What are you doing in my daughter's
bedroom?"
"I..." Sonny found himself momentarily
lost in those eyes before he shook his head.
"Your daughter left this envelope in the car. I
was just going to drop it off before I made my
way to the servant's quarters for the night."
"You should have dropped it off and
left."
"He tried too Mama," Lulu walked up
to Anna. "It was my fault. I dropped a doll
under the bed and I couldn't reach it so he was
helping me and " She blinked her
water filled eyes. "I'm sorry."
"Robin?" Anna dropped besides her
daughter. "It's okay sweetheart, I'm not mad at
you."
"Don't be mad at him either. And don't
tell Papa he was here. Please."
Anna knew that she couldn't refuse her
daughter anything. "All right. I won't. But it's
late and you need to be in bed."
After Lulu had climbed into bed, Anna
tucked her in and then walked with Sonny into
the hall. The moment she shut the door, Anna
turned to Sonny. "The moment I find you alone
with my daughter again you are fired." With
those words, Anna turned and walked down the
hallway away from her chauffeur.
And as she did so, Sonny could see
quite clearly the scars that criss-crossed her
back. Scars that could only be left by a whip.
Next chapter: Sacrifices
