A Job to Do
Posted on Sat Jul 20th, 2019 @ 1:50am by Lieutenant Jéanne-Thérèse Marsol & Commander Logan Vance
Edited on on Sat Aug 3rd, 2019 @ 3:57am
Mission:
Preludes
Location: France, Earth
Timeline: 1940 - five hours later
Tags: Prelude
She woke first when a rooster in the distance. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she somehow through the night ended up nestled in the space between his right arm and his chest. Her arm was up and over his stomach. As much as it was comfortable, this was a pleasantry and there was no room in war for. She slipped out from his embrace to go and get them ready to go.
Entering the barn, she grabbed the small box flashlight and shined it towards the motorbike in the darkened barn. She smiled and went and checked the petrol. Everything was good. She then rolled it out to the entrance of the farmhouse and went inside and got her bag ready. She figured they would leave as soon as he woke on his own volition.
Logan awoke on his side with his arm stretched out as if he'd been snuggling someone. He looked around to the rest of the room until he spotted Jéanne-Thérèse. "Morning," he smiled at her. He sat up and rubbed his leg. It still felt like shit but he didn't have anymore time to waste. "I guess you were right, I needed some rest."
She had been sitting in the chair in a corner, drinking a small cup of coffee. "It's packed until your artery tear is healed so I can remove the stitches holding it together. Coffee and a farm fresh scramble warming in the kitchen for you. You need protein before we get going."
He pulled himself out of bed and stood up. He was unsteady but upright. He walked over and took a few bites of the food and a sip of the coffee. "Thanks but I really need to get going. And by that, I mean just me. So if you can mark on the map where I'm going and some transportation, I'll be on my way."
Her face blushed with anger when she realized he meant to leave her behind. "I can take care of myself. You won't survive if you can't speak to the locals. You aren't around from here; they will do more than just shooting you in leg." She handed him a small plate with food on it. "Eat."
"I never said you couldn't take care of yourself but we're talking about heavily armed and trained agents. And they're going to be a lot more of them then they are of us. If you want to make it home, stay here and wait for me to get back." He took out the communicator she'd given him last night. "In fact, if I'm not back in three days, this is keyed to my runabout. You can use it to get home."
She took her communicator and looked at him seriously. "And go where? I barely know how to fly. How am I supposed to even time travel home?" Shaking her head, she put the communicator back in his hand. "No. Two of us is better than one of you. So, eat."
"This is my mission, not yours. You've already been through five years of hell. You've already done more than enough. The trajectory to travel back to the twenty-fourth century is still programmed in the computer. It's your time to go home."
"Connard impoli. Je t'ai sauvé la vie et maintenant tu vas partir?" She threw her hands up in the air frustrated and then looked at him. "No, I'm not letting you out of my sight. So if you don't want to eat, then we should just leave now."
Logan rolled his eyes. He knew his share of strong, stubborn women but this one was one cut above. "Fine, then let's go and get this over with. Just keep your head down and do as I tell you."
"Bien. After you," she said as she finished her coffee and grabbed her bag. As they got outside, she helped him down a couple of stairs. "1933 Automoto A30. It's not much but better than horseback; still better than horseback…".
"It'll work," he agreed and waved her over to help him up so they could get going. Logan wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chest on her shoulder. Despite it being 1940s France, she still smelled great, he thought to himself.
She helped him up on the bike and straddled it, and lifted herself gingerly on his lap, her bag now in front of her. "No ideas." She started the loud bike and maneuvered them towards the drive. "Hold on!" she called back at him.
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Time: About an hour later
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As the motorcycle approached the château, Logan noticed a lack of people outside the building. "Pull over up ahead. Something's wrong."
When she did so, the two got off the bike and approached the château. Everything seemed quiet and there didn't appear to be anyone around. "Something's not right. The code breakers are still supposed to be here. There would at least be some people in disguise watching the perimeter. They aren't supposed to leave for another four days."
He hobbled closer, trying to make sense of it when he saw someone dump something out one of the windows. He had the faces of the men he was after burned into his memory. "Shit, they're already here."
"Sacré bleu," she murmured under her breath.
They still needed to get inside, see what the damage was and what they had been doing. "Look, I have an idea to get us inside, but it means you have to make my leg look really bad. Can you do that?"
She looked at him with wide eyes until she realized what he was asking her to do. She knew that she was going to need in there anyways in a couple of days to remove the stitches along the artery. The stitch she had put through the hole was just to keep the area from getting too dirty. Kneeling down, she opened her bag that she had ridden with on her chest and pulled out a small scissors and put the hand between her teeth. Her number fingers rolled the wrapped bandage inside out allowing her access to the hole in the leg. "This will hurt," she warned and snipped the sutures and started to pull out the bits of metallic thread. "And this next part will really hurt. I'm sorry…" she said. "Hold onto my shoulders." As soon as his hands rested on her shoulders she inserted her pinky and stretched against the edge of the wound opening up the capillaries allowing the wound to look worse. She closed her eyes and grimaced as her one hand held his leg steady. He squeezed her shoulders as the pain continued through the leg. "Almost done…" she whispered.
Logan grimaced when she started to dig in. He signaled for something to bite on when she get really deep and opened things back up. She handed him a bit that would normally be used for a horse. It muffled his screams but the tears flowed freely. He stomped the ground and clamped down on her shoulder, waiting for it to be over but didn't once signal for her to stop.
Her finger rotated around the hole and it was over. She tugged the inside out bandage up. The blood that was on the outside would match the inside if they were to peak. "It'll seap for about ten minutes. It'll look worse than it really is. Maybe we will get lucky and they have some morphine I can give you." She rubbed the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand catching the couple of tears that she had from doing that. Him clamping down on her shoulders with his hands wasn't as painful as it was to her to have to stretch a bullet hole.
"Let's just make it worth it," he handed her one of the phasers he had on him. He tucked his phaser he kept in the sleeve of the arm he wrapped around her shoulder. He hobbled along with her helping him while she called out for help. Someone peered out the window to see what all the commotion was all about but no one actually opened the door or came out. "Well, that's just rude," Logan said sarcastically. Once they were at the door, Logan beat on it with his free hand.
She screamed at the top of her lungs. “Aidez nous! Aidez nous! S'il vous plaît! Aidez nous! Il a été abattu!” When they got to the door, she pounded on it hard. “S'il vous plaît!” Finally someone came to the door and opened it.
Instead of help, they were met with the barrel of a gun and a demand that they leave immediately or be shot. With the door open and the agent feeling he had the upper hand, Logan didn't hesitate. He slid the phaser out of his sleeve and fired, dropping the agent at the door.
Jéanne saw the agent coming down the stairs at the end of the great hall, she took phaser and fired at the agent hitting him true. "That's one way in…"
"Careful. There's likely more here," he warned. He let her keep the phaser she took and took out the one he'd originally brought. "We need to clear the house and find out what they are doing here and how badly they've screwed up the timeline. Follow my lead." He was still in a lot of pain but they could handle that later.
He hobbled along downstairs as quietly as he could. Two more agents were in the basement, destroying equipment and documents. One of the agents spotted Logan and fired to keep him at bay. If he kept shuffling, he was dead meat. So he did the only thing he could do. He took a deep breath, tucked and rolled down, down the stairs. As expected, he surprised the shit out of the agent and kept him off guard long enough to get a shot off. It missed but drove the agent into cover, clearing the way for him and Marsol to take up positions. "Keep an eye on him. When he pops his head out, make it count," he said quietly. He popped his shoulder back into place with a grimace and shuffled deeper into the room.
She stood with shock and amazement at his foolishness down the stairs. "Es-tu sérieux?" Horror then took over as he motioned for her to follow and to hold the position. She nodded at him before she left waiting for the man to reappear. He did and as he took aim at the man she had saved, she fired knocking him dead. When her savior from the past turned, she gave a thumbs up and moved deeper into the room. There were empty desks and shelves scattered throughout and a few bits of paper that she collected as she went. When she caught up to him, he had cornered the fourth Section 31 when in a small back corner on the cellar.
The entire area had been ransacked. The German Enigma machine they would have been using to decode messages was gone and none of PC Bruno renamed. From the look of things, they had just missed them and this group had stayed behind for cleanup.
The agent had been wounded in the leg and his dropped his phaser when hit. Logan kicked it away. "Where did they go?" he demanded to know. "And where is the Enigma!"
The agent grimaced and was breathing heavy. "It's already gone. And you won't catch up to it or them," he taunted.
Logan could see the man's tongue moving in his cheek and he reached out to stop the agent but Logan didn't make it in time. The agent bit through the capsule and the poison was already taking effect.
Ensign Jéanne-Thérèse Marsol
Nurse, USS Coleman
Agent Logan Vance
Intelligence
