Mandatory Refusal 1/3+
Author: insane_songbird
Pairing: J2
Rating: R
Words: 4.979
Warnings: AU, Violence, Language, maybe a little sexual innuendo (or a little more), blood, minor character death, Agent!Jared, Agent!Jensen
Disclaimer: Slavery is bad... I do not own other human beings and I don’t think special agents would work for a TV show. That would be bad for their undercover thingy.
The title is actually a La Femme Nikita episode on which this fic and its setting is based to a certain degree, knowledge of the show is completely not necessary though. I just took its feeling.
Summary: Jared and Jensen are not in a relationship. People like them don’t do relationships, especially not with colleagues. As operative Jensen Ackles is forced to finish a job he started all by himself out of the fear of being sold out by an unknown traitor the only person who is on his side as things change is his fellow agent, Jared. As a manhunt for the good guy ensues, can Jared make Jensen see reason and stop him from going through with long overrun orders or does Jensen’s inability to trust anyone get him killed?
A/N: Betaed by the lovely Mangacat201, who took up with my awful typos and the completely awesome candygramme, who makes the expressions sound English after all! You guys are the BEST!
Mandatory Refusal
Part One
Jared heaved a sigh as he turned over to find the bed empty, save for his own body tangled in the white sheets. He felt around with his hands, sliding them over the soft cotton and feeling the warm patch next to him. Opening his eyes to look at the half lit room, he couldn’t help a smile tugging at the sides of his mouth.
“You know, for a guy who doesn’t exist, you’re pretty pathetic at sneaking off in the middle of the night, Jensen.”
He watched the muscles ripple under the freckled skin of a broad back as the man standing in his bedroom stooped down to pick up the black shirt he had lost halfway to the bed the night before. When he turned, his green eyes fixed on Jared’s with a seductive grin that went right to his groin.
“I didn’t try, and it isn’t the middle of the night any more.”
That made Jared’s smile widen a little. Jensen hardly ever stayed over. It was not like they were in a relationship or, god forbid, ‘in love’. They were colleagues after all, and it was not an option for them to start something with a coworker. That could get them killed. Literally.
The fact that they were both men was the least of their worries. Jensen did play both teams. Hell, he probably played more than just two teams, and Operations made good use of someone who could charm his way into every bed - or bank account or safe for that matter. Jared had always found Valentine-ops highly distasteful. But he still liked to taste Jensen whenever the mood hit them. The man just had a way that made him one of the sexiest things Jared had ever seen. He was tall and built, with broad shoulders and lots of lean muscle. Jared had seen him in action, and that had made him want the blond devil even more. Jensen could really use his body. He could kill a grown man in a second, and he knew how to use those muscles in bed as well... or against a wall or on a desk.
“What time is it?”
“Early.”
Jensen had gathered his clothes in a pile by then but did not bother to hide his nudity.
“We need to be in in an hour. Want to join me in the shower?”
A dark blond eyebrow was raised at him in a challenging gesture, and Jared felt his eyes grow heated - not to mention his other body parts. He swung his long legs out of bed. Moments later he found himself crowded into the shower with Jensen pressing him against the tiles as they shared long, languid kisses. They did not have time for much, because they had to be in soon and getting to the substation was a time-consuming thing. So he took everything he could get. Who knew when there would be a next time - or if - considering their line of work?
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jensen snapped the magazine into his sidearm with a click, loading the first bullet into the chamber before switching on the safety and sliding the pistol into the holster that was strapped around his right ankle. He repeated the process with the gun’s twin and set it on the table in front of him.
A tiny woman with long brown hair walked over to hand him a Kevlar vest and helped him fasten the side straps that made it sit snug on his body.
“Thanks Sandy.”
The other operative flashed him a radiant smile and turned to hand out the other vests.
His vest was the ultra light version. It would not hold off any high-caliber rifle ammunition, but it would not be visible beneath his clothes either. He pulled a black T-shirt over his head and tucked the second gun into a holster he attached to his belt at the back of his jeans, covering it with his shirt. Those two guns were his reserve. He made sure to take along some extra clips and pulled on his shoulder holster. Preparing two more handguns, he loaded them with hollow point bullets that would blow up on impact, guaranteeing the maximum damage for any wound and screwed a silencer on the two half automatics that would be his work tools for the day. One shot should be enough. It was an easy enough profile. Get close. Find an opening. Get a clean shot. Get out. Easy as that. He had reviewed the mission profile three times, and it seemed to be flawless. Still, there would be bodyguards there, armed men with big guns, hence the extra firepower and the Kevlar. But the usual half automatics should suffice, no need to slow himself down with heavy artillery. There would be back-up. Two vans with four operatives each. They would bring up the full automatic rifles if someone tried to start a war. Which he highly doubted. According to plan the shooting would only start after he was already half-way out of there.
He didn’t kid himself, of course there would be shooting. Terrorists were not a bunch of nice, civilized persons who would take a loss easily and fade away without attracting too much attention. They would start shooting as soon as they noticed one of their people falling. Considering the person Jensen was being sent to kill, it might even get nasty enough for them to mount a revenge attack. Best not to give them anyone to try their revenge on. Let them chase the phantom of an enemy they didn’t know.
He shrugged his leather jacket on, hiding his weaponry, and attached his communications system to his right ear, switching to channel two. He checked his panel for last minute alterations to the profile, but there were no changes. Good. As he looked up he could see Jared watching him from the Operations platform in Com. Jensen was used to being the head strategist on his own missions. If he planned them, and he executed them, he knew there would be no fuck ups. He had set up Jared to run Com for him at the scene. The other agent would be only half a block away in an intelligence truck, watching his every move, coordinating his back-up and staying alert of the overall situation. Jensen trusted Jared to do that job well. The young man had been in the department for a few years now and he'd done well - apart from that conscience and morality thing he had running. Jared was a man of faith. Faith in the righteousness of their mission. Faith in the good outcome of their actions and the well meaning of his decisions. Whenever civilians got involved, Jared grew morals. It was a good trade. It showed that Jay - Jensen only called him that when they were alone - did have more of a heart than all the other operatives together, Jensen included. Jay was one of the few who could do this job, kill people, lie and cheat and yet still keep his humanity in one piece.
It was risky, dangerous especially for Jared himself, and Jensen was afraid that one day the young man would refuse to act at completely the wrong moment and get himself or others killed. But at the same time he knew that his heart made him the right person to have Jensen’s back in situations like this. He knew that Jared would never forgive himself if something happened to Jensen on his watch. He’d do anything to keep Jensen’s head out of the firing line. The two of them had a connection - a friendship maybe - and Jensen would never say it out loud, but he cared for the other man. Jared was one of their best, and Jensen knew that Jay cared about him as well, maybe even more. That’s why he had set Jared up for Com. It was selfish, and Jensen knew that, but Jared was also highly qualified for the position, so nobody questioned his decision.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jared’s eyes were fixed on the screens that were screwed to the inside of the truck. Each of them showed a different spot in their hot zone plus the security perimeter they had set up so they would be notified about any unwanted guests early enough to give the operatives the heads up. He stood rigid, all senses alert, looking over Mike’s shoulder as the technician overlooked the intel via computer. The Satellite feed showed no hostile convoys or anything else unfriendly approaching.
“Okay Jensen, take position.”
He watched as the GPS-dot indicating Jensen in the mass of people moved towards a building at the far end of the square. Before his inner eye he could see Jensen’s languid stroll, see him looking slightly bored as he made his way purposefully through the buzz of people. Finally one of their camera’s caught a glimpse of him again as he separated from the crowd, turning around once, pretending to be smiling at a child in a buggy. Jared saw his eyes dart to the sides checking for unwanted movement.
“I reached the first mark.”
Jensen’s voice sounded loud and metallic in Jared’s headphones because of the amplification that made his whisper audible.
“Check.”
Jared nodded to Mike, and the technician switched on the heat-sensitive cameras they had positioned around the building.
“Go on.”
Mike’s fingers ghosted over the keyboard as he rattled off the information he could read from the heat cameras.
“One at the entrance, two at the elevators. There is a hot spot on the second floor. Might be them, but I can’t say how many. They are too far inside the building.”
Jensen disappeared from view, and Jared watched the red dot as it moved across the schematic map of the house. He listened carefully as the first muffled ‘flop’ indicated a shot from one of Jensen's silenced guns. A ‘flop-flop’ led him to believe that Jensen had secured the elevator.
“I’m in the elevator.”
The red dot moved upwards to the second floor, and Jared felt his heart beating in his chest. This was the hard part. This was where they could not control variables, and this was where Jensen would have to hold out for at least ninety seconds before backup would arrive. It was not a long time for your average Joe. When it rained lead it was an eternity.
“I’m there.”
Jensen’s voice was hardly audible even with technical assistance. The silence that followed made Jared hold his breath. If he could only hear a couple more of those ‘flops’ he would know that Jensen had succeeded. Then a “Motherfucker!” made his heart skid to a halt. There was a loud scrambling, and a beep like from an electrical device.
“Jensen?”
He needed to stay in the loop, whatever happened was bad enough to have Jensen break protocol. A loud bang made Jared wince, hands against his headset. The van shook beneath his feet, and he looked up to see the screens showing the building at the far end of the square smoldering as flames and smoke ascended from a hole that had once been the north corner of the second floor.
“JENSEN!”
Mike looked at the screen for a moment, transfixed in horror but then started hitting the keys ferociously again.
“All teams secure the site! Now!”
Jared yelled into his headset, expecting an immediate answer, but there was none.
“All teams…”
He looked at Mike questioningly, and the bald technician only shrugged. Then the Com-system clicked, and Jared heard gunfire.
“Team two is under attack, the team leader is dead.”
“Who is there?”
It was a woman, but over the battle sounds Jared couldn’t make out which of their female operatives was reporting.
“Bush.”
“Sophia, fall back and regroup.”
“There is nothing left to regroup, Jared.”
“Abort mission! Everyone, abort mission! Get out of there, NOW!”
This was a nightmare. What had happened?
“Mission has been compromised, someone sold us out.”
It took him a while to register the voice he'd just heard over the scratchy com-signal as Jensen’s.
“Jensen? Are you alright?”
A screech made Jared pull off his headset, and he saw Mike flinch as well while typing viciously on the keys.
“Jensen killed the channel with a Level 4 protocol. Switch to the emergency channel.”
Jared switched channels and pulled his headset back on.
“Jensen? Why would he do that? Can you find his signal? We need to get him out.”
He opened the supply boxes that were used for stowing everything one might need for emergency measures, pulling out a gun and a vest.
Mike shook his head.
“There is no signal, Jared, he ditched the GPS and his Com.”
“Why would he do that?”
He slipped the vest on, fastening it, and loaded the gun.
“Mandatory Refusal.”
“What?”
He didn’t understand what Mike was saying, but he didn’t have time either. He grabbed a field communications system and sprinted out of the van towards the square where he could still hear shots raining down. People were running and crying, and he heard sirens closing in. This was a disaster.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jensen’s ears rang, and his eyes were burning. He had hardly managed to get into the elevator, before the bomb had wrecked the whole second floor. The metal cabin had saved him from the blast, but he had had to crawl out through the emergency door in the ceiling while the elevator shaft slowly filled with smoke and heat.
He had crossed the third floor to the southern staircase where his chances of running into flames and wreckage were the smallest and made his way down. He hadn’t reached the ground floor though, because he'd heard shouts from the landing below, and a salvo of bullets had buried themselves in the concrete wall to his left. He stormed back up the stairs to the first floor, looking for a way out. The whole building sported ceiling to floor windows, and as Jensen ran along the line of windows he raised one of his sidearms, firing a few bullets to crack the glass in the right place, before throwing a pot-plant at the now marred window. The loud crash of shattering glass nearly drowned the excited shouting behind him. He saw a group of men exiting the staircase, running towards him, guns raised and decided that it was now or never. He jumped, hoping that the bushes beneath the window would be enough to soften the twenty foot drop. The impact was hard and unpleasant, leaves and branches whipping against his back and arms, but despite the promise of some future bruises he was glad that he did not seem to have broken any important bones. He rolled out of the brush and started racing over the patch of greenery, trying to cover as much ground as his lungs and legs permitted. He heard shots and tried to keep his head down. A stray bullet tore at the sleeve of his shirt, grazing his biceps in passing. The faster he ran, the harder he would be to hit, so he struggled on, not looking back. Two hard blows made him stumble on his last five feet to the safety of a little walkway at the end of the grass. He fell forwards panting. The shots had hit the Kevlar, but if he had to guess then there was a big chance they had cracked at least one rib.
He regained his footing. The adrenaline from being hunted within an inch of his life helped him ignore the pain as he sprinted down the walkway. They had known he was coming. Someone had given their mission away. He checked his Com and found the channel still open with Jared yelling orders. He knew that he probably should just leave now and let them find out that he was not dead later and draw their own conclusions, but he didn’t want to do that to Jared. It wasn’t his fault, and Jensen could at least let him know that he was still alive.
“Mission has been compromised, someone sold us out.”
With that he pulled his Com-system away from his ear and attached it to the GPS tracking system and the small embedded computer. He hacked in the code sequence before dumping the whole bunch into the next sewer. He had never stopped walking. He needed a car or some means of transportation; he needed a computer, and he needed to finish this job.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
“I want to know what the FUCK happened out there to let this hell rain down on my operatives!… And where the HELL is Jensen?”
Morgan, head of Operations - some just called him ‘Operations’ because everything that happened there went though him, meaning that he alone was responsible for everything going on in their agency - was anything but pleased, and Jared knew exactly why.
“They knew we were coming. It was a trap,” Jared offered.
Morgan studied him with a hard gaze that spoke of unbelievable horrors. He knew how to make recruits tremble with fear with merely a sideways glance.
“I won’t repeat myself…”
Mike spoke up, standing beside Jared looking smaller then usual.
“We don’t know where Jensen is. He sent us a message via Com after the explosion, saying that the Mission had been compromised. He went down completely afterwards. The codes he used to kill his signal were Level 4 protocol… As far as we know he’s gone into Mandatory Refusal.”
Surprisingly Morgan’s anger seemed to ease a little.
“Good. Clean up that mess and draw in all available agents. We need to be ready, before the shit hits the fan. Jensen won’t take long to finish this one.”
The older man waited for Mike to nod and scramble away to his coordinating workspace in Systems before stalking off to his office.
Jared followed the young man and leaned against his desk. It was cluttered with electronic equipment of all shapes and sizes. Mike began the orders that would serve as a domino line to call in all hands currently outside the substation. They would all be kept on standby.
“Would you mind explaining that Mandatory Refusal thing to me, Mike?”
The bald technician gave him a quick sideways glance before refocusing his eyes on the screens.
“You are not aware of the protocol?”
“Obviously not.”
It was annoying not to know what was going on, especially after seeing a building blow up around a friend. Jared had security clearance for all the information and protocols up to Level 3, so there were obviously some things he didn’t know. The highest clearance was 6. Only Morgan had that much power.
“Mandatory Refusal comes into effect when it’s clear that a mission profile has been compromised by leaking into the enemy’s hands. If you will, it is the default mechanism for dealing with treachery of unknown extent and/or source. The protocol demands that the operative cuts off communication and back-up completely to circumvent any further sabotage. He will stay off radar, until the required aim of the mission has been fulfilled.”
Jared stared at him for a moment.
“So Jensen is flying blind and completely without help, until we find him?”
Mike shook his head.
“Until his mark is dead. Before the mission has successfully ended every intervention on our part will be seen as possible sabotage. Everyone is the enemy, until Jensen comes out of the Mandatory Refusal. All we can do is wait and see.”
“But what if we try to get to him and help…”
“We won’t. He will kill every agent on sight, because we have obviously been compromised. Jensen can’t trust us now.”
Mike gave Jared a grave look, and the young agent swallowed hard.
“He would kill his own people because of a possible doubt?”
Mike raised his eyebrows.
“You know Jensen. Do you really question his ability to do it?”
Jared thought for a moment. He had first met Jensen a few years ago on a job. He had thought the man was an ice cold monster then. He had corrected the monster factor by now. But he knew that Jensen was not a soft hearted person. Jensen would do anything on a job, anything. Jared shook his head, his mouth set in a stern line.
“No I don’t.”
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jensen walked into the little bathroom at the side of the old gas station, careful to keep his face covered by the ugly blue and yellow ball cap that would pull people’s attention away from his face and keep him off the security tapes. He had ditched his leather jacket, knowing that the bullet holes in the back would only invite unasked attention, and he had changed into a green sports jacket which clashed nicely with the cap. This wasn’t a beauty contest after all. The more people thought how ugly his clothes were, the less they concentrated on him. Hiding out in plain sight was the order of the day.
The men’s room was anything but clean, and the neon lights flickered in the eerie silence of the slowly mouldering concrete walls. A tap dripped, giving the place the feeling of a Chinese prison cell, the tap dripping on purpose just to slowly torture the prisoners out of their minds. Only the electrocution equipment was missing. Jensen shook his head to get rid of those delightful thoughts. Sometimes he wondered if he'd done this job a little too long.
He shrugged his jacket off, looking around to check that none of the clerks was enough of a pervert to have installed a camera in the bathroom stalls. Well you never know, right? Finding himself unwatched, he let the water run for a while, trying to get rid of the stale brown fluid that was trickling from the rusty pipes, until the water ran as clear as it ever would. He pushed up the sleeve of his t-shirt and checked the little red line of now coagulated blood, where the first bullet of the day had grazed his biceps. Grabbing some paper towels, actually surprised to see that the bathroom was stocked up, he started wiping away the now brownish blood. Once he was done he pulled out a small roll of tape he had saved from his jacket before disposing of it. He might not be McGuyver, (though his explosives were rather impressive.) but tape was something you could always use, if only to dress a bullet wound so the new jacket wouldn’t get soaked with blood as he went on. After taping a little dressing of paper towels over the cut he pulled his sleeve down again. He then rolled up the hem of his shirt to expose his vest and reached to his sides to loosen the straps a little. His back hurt, and the battered ribs were grateful for the lessened pressure. Breathing came a little easier, and he didn’t need to see his back to know that he would have fist sized bruises where the bullets had hit the Kevlar. He was only glad that it had been small calibered handguns. Anything Magnum-sized would probably have knocked him unconscious long enough to be killed for good, and a rifle would have penetrated the vest’s material and ripped a hole in his lung among other things.
Once he'd covered the vest with his shirt again, he took a few seconds to breathe, before he pulled out his guns and checked the clips. He had used only three shots so far, good. That left him with a good working base.
He stowed them out of sight, zipping up his jacket and looked at himself in the mirror, cataloguing what he knew about the target from the profile he had read over and over, looking for a place to start. As he left the bathroom again he walked away from the area that would be caught on the security cameras. He needed a ride. Around the corner there was a shady bar with half a dozen bikes standing out front. Perfect.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jared lay on his bunk in the substation. All agents were on stand-by waiting for the shit to hit the fan as Morgan had put it so eloquently. The station had enough bunks for all agents to stay when necessary, and they were supposed to get some rest and wait like good soldiers, until they were told to “go get ‘em”. No wonder Jared felt like a dog sitting in its transportation box, waiting to be thrown into the fighting ring to face a big, mean bull terrier.
Jared was not the most patient person in the world. If he had wanted to sit and wait for the clock to call it an evening, he would have become an accountant not a special agent. Jared was bad at waiting. Unlike Jensen, who could sit and wait without blinking twice for days like some fucking Zen-master driving Jared nuts with his stoic ‘the time will come, kiddo’. Jensen, who was the only person who was not sitting and waiting right now, but who was doing god knows what out there - probably dodging bullets and killing people. It made the wait even harder to know that he should be backing the man up. Should do something, anything, to make Jensen succeed. Not that he doubted the other’s ability. But it would be better for Jared’s mental state to know that someone had Jen’s back. Even better to know that HE had Jen’s back. Of course Jensen would roll his eyes at Jared, saying he was a big boy not some damsel in distress, but he would take the back-up nonetheless. He might be a reckless bastard, but he was not stupid. Jensen would also give a small smile at Jared calling him Jen.
His train of thoughts was cut short as the Com unit beeped next to his head. He reached up hoping for good news. It was Mike’s voice greeting him.
“Jared I need you to go down to the archive on level four and retrieve some files. Details are on your panel.”
Jared frowned but gave his affirmation to Mike, getting up and leaving the room. He never got to the archive as he saw Mike giving him a long look though the open door of a small service room. Jared slid inside and closed the door. The hallways were on camera, but not all of the rooms, and Mike knew exactly where there would be no supervision. Jared frowned at him, dread bubbling up inside him.
“What’s going on, Mike?”
The smaller man rubbed his closely shaved head with an uneasy expression.
“A situation arose that I thought you should be aware of. We’ve got a serious problem… Or rather Jensen’s got a serious problem.”
Jared’s breath hitched in his throat.
“Is he…?”
“Not yet.”
Mike gave him a grave look. Usually the young technician-slash-hacker had anything but a grave persona, and Jared felt more uneasy with every minute.
“But he soon will be if Operations has any say in it.”
Jared’s eyes grew wide, and he didn’t care right there and then.
“What? But Morgan approved of that Mandatory Refusal shit!”
“Yeah well he did… but just a few minutes ago he got a video message on an open channel, saying that Black Cell had obtained a CIA-field agent who had a hard drive copy of eyes-only data on the missions of the last six months.”
“They got the mission-report of the last HALF A YEAR?”
“Yes… and they will broadcast it to CNN if we don’t stop pursuing them.”
Mike took a deep breath a crease forming between his eyebrows.
“But we don’t exist… No one will know that it’s legit.”
“Probably not, but you know as well as I do that the reason we don’t exist is that we do our job in a way that breaks nearly every charter of international law that has ever been established. We could probably stop the whole thing from going to the media, but it is a huge security breach, and Operations will get his ass whipped really hard for having hard drives full of highly sensitive information circulating outside this station. It would leave him wide open to having his position ripped right out of his hands. He won’t let that happen.”
Jared’s ears started to ring as he felt his pulse getting faster, more erratic.
“What will he do?”
Mike took a deep breath and looked up into Jared’s eyes. “You mean ‘what has he done?’ He's already mobilized all agents to stop the hit.”
“But you said there is no way to stop the hit as soon as Mandatory Refusal is in effect…”
“There is a way, and that’s why I called you.”
Jared stood rigid for a long moment as realization hit him - fast and hard as a freight train. “They’re going to kill Jensen.”
Mike nodded solemnly.
“Operations probably tried to keep you out of the loop as long as possible, because Jensen is a friend of yours, and we all know that you are the only person left in this little rat-shop that still has a conscience as huge as a zeppelin…”
Jared shook his head.
“Obviously not, or you would not have cared to call me up. Morgan would have your head if he knew.”
Mike screwed up his face in distaste.
“Make sure he doesn’t, okay? Jensen might be a dick most of the time but he is the best damn agent I’ve ever seen. He’s saved my ass once already, and I know that you really care for him, so…”
Jared nodded trying to stop himself from hyperventilating at the prospect of Jensen’s early demise.
“So what do we do now?”
Next Chapter
A/N: There are three parts (+Epilogue) and part two will come soon, promised.
I love comments and I NEED them PLEASE! I am not above begging for them! It might make the updates faster as well *g*
Thanks to my kitty for betaing *hugs*
Pairing: J2
Rating: R
Words: 4.979
Warnings: AU, Violence, Language, maybe a little sexual innuendo (or a little more), blood, minor character death, Agent!Jared, Agent!Jensen
Disclaimer: Slavery is bad... I do not own other human beings and I don’t think special agents would work for a TV show. That would be bad for their undercover thingy.
The title is actually a La Femme Nikita episode on which this fic and its setting is based to a certain degree, knowledge of the show is completely not necessary though. I just took its feeling.
Summary: Jared and Jensen are not in a relationship. People like them don’t do relationships, especially not with colleagues. As operative Jensen Ackles is forced to finish a job he started all by himself out of the fear of being sold out by an unknown traitor the only person who is on his side as things change is his fellow agent, Jared. As a manhunt for the good guy ensues, can Jared make Jensen see reason and stop him from going through with long overrun orders or does Jensen’s inability to trust anyone get him killed?
A/N: Betaed by the lovely Mangacat201, who took up with my awful typos and the completely awesome candygramme, who makes the expressions sound English after all! You guys are the BEST!
Mandatory Refusal
Part One
Jared heaved a sigh as he turned over to find the bed empty, save for his own body tangled in the white sheets. He felt around with his hands, sliding them over the soft cotton and feeling the warm patch next to him. Opening his eyes to look at the half lit room, he couldn’t help a smile tugging at the sides of his mouth.
“You know, for a guy who doesn’t exist, you’re pretty pathetic at sneaking off in the middle of the night, Jensen.”
He watched the muscles ripple under the freckled skin of a broad back as the man standing in his bedroom stooped down to pick up the black shirt he had lost halfway to the bed the night before. When he turned, his green eyes fixed on Jared’s with a seductive grin that went right to his groin.
“I didn’t try, and it isn’t the middle of the night any more.”
That made Jared’s smile widen a little. Jensen hardly ever stayed over. It was not like they were in a relationship or, god forbid, ‘in love’. They were colleagues after all, and it was not an option for them to start something with a coworker. That could get them killed. Literally.
The fact that they were both men was the least of their worries. Jensen did play both teams. Hell, he probably played more than just two teams, and Operations made good use of someone who could charm his way into every bed - or bank account or safe for that matter. Jared had always found Valentine-ops highly distasteful. But he still liked to taste Jensen whenever the mood hit them. The man just had a way that made him one of the sexiest things Jared had ever seen. He was tall and built, with broad shoulders and lots of lean muscle. Jared had seen him in action, and that had made him want the blond devil even more. Jensen could really use his body. He could kill a grown man in a second, and he knew how to use those muscles in bed as well... or against a wall or on a desk.
“What time is it?”
“Early.”
Jensen had gathered his clothes in a pile by then but did not bother to hide his nudity.
“We need to be in in an hour. Want to join me in the shower?”
A dark blond eyebrow was raised at him in a challenging gesture, and Jared felt his eyes grow heated - not to mention his other body parts. He swung his long legs out of bed. Moments later he found himself crowded into the shower with Jensen pressing him against the tiles as they shared long, languid kisses. They did not have time for much, because they had to be in soon and getting to the substation was a time-consuming thing. So he took everything he could get. Who knew when there would be a next time - or if - considering their line of work?
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jensen snapped the magazine into his sidearm with a click, loading the first bullet into the chamber before switching on the safety and sliding the pistol into the holster that was strapped around his right ankle. He repeated the process with the gun’s twin and set it on the table in front of him.
A tiny woman with long brown hair walked over to hand him a Kevlar vest and helped him fasten the side straps that made it sit snug on his body.
“Thanks Sandy.”
The other operative flashed him a radiant smile and turned to hand out the other vests.
His vest was the ultra light version. It would not hold off any high-caliber rifle ammunition, but it would not be visible beneath his clothes either. He pulled a black T-shirt over his head and tucked the second gun into a holster he attached to his belt at the back of his jeans, covering it with his shirt. Those two guns were his reserve. He made sure to take along some extra clips and pulled on his shoulder holster. Preparing two more handguns, he loaded them with hollow point bullets that would blow up on impact, guaranteeing the maximum damage for any wound and screwed a silencer on the two half automatics that would be his work tools for the day. One shot should be enough. It was an easy enough profile. Get close. Find an opening. Get a clean shot. Get out. Easy as that. He had reviewed the mission profile three times, and it seemed to be flawless. Still, there would be bodyguards there, armed men with big guns, hence the extra firepower and the Kevlar. But the usual half automatics should suffice, no need to slow himself down with heavy artillery. There would be back-up. Two vans with four operatives each. They would bring up the full automatic rifles if someone tried to start a war. Which he highly doubted. According to plan the shooting would only start after he was already half-way out of there.
He didn’t kid himself, of course there would be shooting. Terrorists were not a bunch of nice, civilized persons who would take a loss easily and fade away without attracting too much attention. They would start shooting as soon as they noticed one of their people falling. Considering the person Jensen was being sent to kill, it might even get nasty enough for them to mount a revenge attack. Best not to give them anyone to try their revenge on. Let them chase the phantom of an enemy they didn’t know.
He shrugged his leather jacket on, hiding his weaponry, and attached his communications system to his right ear, switching to channel two. He checked his panel for last minute alterations to the profile, but there were no changes. Good. As he looked up he could see Jared watching him from the Operations platform in Com. Jensen was used to being the head strategist on his own missions. If he planned them, and he executed them, he knew there would be no fuck ups. He had set up Jared to run Com for him at the scene. The other agent would be only half a block away in an intelligence truck, watching his every move, coordinating his back-up and staying alert of the overall situation. Jensen trusted Jared to do that job well. The young man had been in the department for a few years now and he'd done well - apart from that conscience and morality thing he had running. Jared was a man of faith. Faith in the righteousness of their mission. Faith in the good outcome of their actions and the well meaning of his decisions. Whenever civilians got involved, Jared grew morals. It was a good trade. It showed that Jay - Jensen only called him that when they were alone - did have more of a heart than all the other operatives together, Jensen included. Jay was one of the few who could do this job, kill people, lie and cheat and yet still keep his humanity in one piece.
It was risky, dangerous especially for Jared himself, and Jensen was afraid that one day the young man would refuse to act at completely the wrong moment and get himself or others killed. But at the same time he knew that his heart made him the right person to have Jensen’s back in situations like this. He knew that Jared would never forgive himself if something happened to Jensen on his watch. He’d do anything to keep Jensen’s head out of the firing line. The two of them had a connection - a friendship maybe - and Jensen would never say it out loud, but he cared for the other man. Jared was one of their best, and Jensen knew that Jay cared about him as well, maybe even more. That’s why he had set Jared up for Com. It was selfish, and Jensen knew that, but Jared was also highly qualified for the position, so nobody questioned his decision.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jared’s eyes were fixed on the screens that were screwed to the inside of the truck. Each of them showed a different spot in their hot zone plus the security perimeter they had set up so they would be notified about any unwanted guests early enough to give the operatives the heads up. He stood rigid, all senses alert, looking over Mike’s shoulder as the technician overlooked the intel via computer. The Satellite feed showed no hostile convoys or anything else unfriendly approaching.
“Okay Jensen, take position.”
He watched as the GPS-dot indicating Jensen in the mass of people moved towards a building at the far end of the square. Before his inner eye he could see Jensen’s languid stroll, see him looking slightly bored as he made his way purposefully through the buzz of people. Finally one of their camera’s caught a glimpse of him again as he separated from the crowd, turning around once, pretending to be smiling at a child in a buggy. Jared saw his eyes dart to the sides checking for unwanted movement.
“I reached the first mark.”
Jensen’s voice sounded loud and metallic in Jared’s headphones because of the amplification that made his whisper audible.
“Check.”
Jared nodded to Mike, and the technician switched on the heat-sensitive cameras they had positioned around the building.
“Go on.”
Mike’s fingers ghosted over the keyboard as he rattled off the information he could read from the heat cameras.
“One at the entrance, two at the elevators. There is a hot spot on the second floor. Might be them, but I can’t say how many. They are too far inside the building.”
Jensen disappeared from view, and Jared watched the red dot as it moved across the schematic map of the house. He listened carefully as the first muffled ‘flop’ indicated a shot from one of Jensen's silenced guns. A ‘flop-flop’ led him to believe that Jensen had secured the elevator.
“I’m in the elevator.”
The red dot moved upwards to the second floor, and Jared felt his heart beating in his chest. This was the hard part. This was where they could not control variables, and this was where Jensen would have to hold out for at least ninety seconds before backup would arrive. It was not a long time for your average Joe. When it rained lead it was an eternity.
“I’m there.”
Jensen’s voice was hardly audible even with technical assistance. The silence that followed made Jared hold his breath. If he could only hear a couple more of those ‘flops’ he would know that Jensen had succeeded. Then a “Motherfucker!” made his heart skid to a halt. There was a loud scrambling, and a beep like from an electrical device.
“Jensen?”
He needed to stay in the loop, whatever happened was bad enough to have Jensen break protocol. A loud bang made Jared wince, hands against his headset. The van shook beneath his feet, and he looked up to see the screens showing the building at the far end of the square smoldering as flames and smoke ascended from a hole that had once been the north corner of the second floor.
“JENSEN!”
Mike looked at the screen for a moment, transfixed in horror but then started hitting the keys ferociously again.
“All teams secure the site! Now!”
Jared yelled into his headset, expecting an immediate answer, but there was none.
“All teams…”
He looked at Mike questioningly, and the bald technician only shrugged. Then the Com-system clicked, and Jared heard gunfire.
“Team two is under attack, the team leader is dead.”
“Who is there?”
It was a woman, but over the battle sounds Jared couldn’t make out which of their female operatives was reporting.
“Bush.”
“Sophia, fall back and regroup.”
“There is nothing left to regroup, Jared.”
“Abort mission! Everyone, abort mission! Get out of there, NOW!”
This was a nightmare. What had happened?
“Mission has been compromised, someone sold us out.”
It took him a while to register the voice he'd just heard over the scratchy com-signal as Jensen’s.
“Jensen? Are you alright?”
A screech made Jared pull off his headset, and he saw Mike flinch as well while typing viciously on the keys.
“Jensen killed the channel with a Level 4 protocol. Switch to the emergency channel.”
Jared switched channels and pulled his headset back on.
“Jensen? Why would he do that? Can you find his signal? We need to get him out.”
He opened the supply boxes that were used for stowing everything one might need for emergency measures, pulling out a gun and a vest.
Mike shook his head.
“There is no signal, Jared, he ditched the GPS and his Com.”
“Why would he do that?”
He slipped the vest on, fastening it, and loaded the gun.
“Mandatory Refusal.”
“What?”
He didn’t understand what Mike was saying, but he didn’t have time either. He grabbed a field communications system and sprinted out of the van towards the square where he could still hear shots raining down. People were running and crying, and he heard sirens closing in. This was a disaster.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jensen’s ears rang, and his eyes were burning. He had hardly managed to get into the elevator, before the bomb had wrecked the whole second floor. The metal cabin had saved him from the blast, but he had had to crawl out through the emergency door in the ceiling while the elevator shaft slowly filled with smoke and heat.
He had crossed the third floor to the southern staircase where his chances of running into flames and wreckage were the smallest and made his way down. He hadn’t reached the ground floor though, because he'd heard shouts from the landing below, and a salvo of bullets had buried themselves in the concrete wall to his left. He stormed back up the stairs to the first floor, looking for a way out. The whole building sported ceiling to floor windows, and as Jensen ran along the line of windows he raised one of his sidearms, firing a few bullets to crack the glass in the right place, before throwing a pot-plant at the now marred window. The loud crash of shattering glass nearly drowned the excited shouting behind him. He saw a group of men exiting the staircase, running towards him, guns raised and decided that it was now or never. He jumped, hoping that the bushes beneath the window would be enough to soften the twenty foot drop. The impact was hard and unpleasant, leaves and branches whipping against his back and arms, but despite the promise of some future bruises he was glad that he did not seem to have broken any important bones. He rolled out of the brush and started racing over the patch of greenery, trying to cover as much ground as his lungs and legs permitted. He heard shots and tried to keep his head down. A stray bullet tore at the sleeve of his shirt, grazing his biceps in passing. The faster he ran, the harder he would be to hit, so he struggled on, not looking back. Two hard blows made him stumble on his last five feet to the safety of a little walkway at the end of the grass. He fell forwards panting. The shots had hit the Kevlar, but if he had to guess then there was a big chance they had cracked at least one rib.
He regained his footing. The adrenaline from being hunted within an inch of his life helped him ignore the pain as he sprinted down the walkway. They had known he was coming. Someone had given their mission away. He checked his Com and found the channel still open with Jared yelling orders. He knew that he probably should just leave now and let them find out that he was not dead later and draw their own conclusions, but he didn’t want to do that to Jared. It wasn’t his fault, and Jensen could at least let him know that he was still alive.
“Mission has been compromised, someone sold us out.”
With that he pulled his Com-system away from his ear and attached it to the GPS tracking system and the small embedded computer. He hacked in the code sequence before dumping the whole bunch into the next sewer. He had never stopped walking. He needed a car or some means of transportation; he needed a computer, and he needed to finish this job.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
“I want to know what the FUCK happened out there to let this hell rain down on my operatives!… And where the HELL is Jensen?”
Morgan, head of Operations - some just called him ‘Operations’ because everything that happened there went though him, meaning that he alone was responsible for everything going on in their agency - was anything but pleased, and Jared knew exactly why.
“They knew we were coming. It was a trap,” Jared offered.
Morgan studied him with a hard gaze that spoke of unbelievable horrors. He knew how to make recruits tremble with fear with merely a sideways glance.
“I won’t repeat myself…”
Mike spoke up, standing beside Jared looking smaller then usual.
“We don’t know where Jensen is. He sent us a message via Com after the explosion, saying that the Mission had been compromised. He went down completely afterwards. The codes he used to kill his signal were Level 4 protocol… As far as we know he’s gone into Mandatory Refusal.”
Surprisingly Morgan’s anger seemed to ease a little.
“Good. Clean up that mess and draw in all available agents. We need to be ready, before the shit hits the fan. Jensen won’t take long to finish this one.”
The older man waited for Mike to nod and scramble away to his coordinating workspace in Systems before stalking off to his office.
Jared followed the young man and leaned against his desk. It was cluttered with electronic equipment of all shapes and sizes. Mike began the orders that would serve as a domino line to call in all hands currently outside the substation. They would all be kept on standby.
“Would you mind explaining that Mandatory Refusal thing to me, Mike?”
The bald technician gave him a quick sideways glance before refocusing his eyes on the screens.
“You are not aware of the protocol?”
“Obviously not.”
It was annoying not to know what was going on, especially after seeing a building blow up around a friend. Jared had security clearance for all the information and protocols up to Level 3, so there were obviously some things he didn’t know. The highest clearance was 6. Only Morgan had that much power.
“Mandatory Refusal comes into effect when it’s clear that a mission profile has been compromised by leaking into the enemy’s hands. If you will, it is the default mechanism for dealing with treachery of unknown extent and/or source. The protocol demands that the operative cuts off communication and back-up completely to circumvent any further sabotage. He will stay off radar, until the required aim of the mission has been fulfilled.”
Jared stared at him for a moment.
“So Jensen is flying blind and completely without help, until we find him?”
Mike shook his head.
“Until his mark is dead. Before the mission has successfully ended every intervention on our part will be seen as possible sabotage. Everyone is the enemy, until Jensen comes out of the Mandatory Refusal. All we can do is wait and see.”
“But what if we try to get to him and help…”
“We won’t. He will kill every agent on sight, because we have obviously been compromised. Jensen can’t trust us now.”
Mike gave Jared a grave look, and the young agent swallowed hard.
“He would kill his own people because of a possible doubt?”
Mike raised his eyebrows.
“You know Jensen. Do you really question his ability to do it?”
Jared thought for a moment. He had first met Jensen a few years ago on a job. He had thought the man was an ice cold monster then. He had corrected the monster factor by now. But he knew that Jensen was not a soft hearted person. Jensen would do anything on a job, anything. Jared shook his head, his mouth set in a stern line.
“No I don’t.”
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jensen walked into the little bathroom at the side of the old gas station, careful to keep his face covered by the ugly blue and yellow ball cap that would pull people’s attention away from his face and keep him off the security tapes. He had ditched his leather jacket, knowing that the bullet holes in the back would only invite unasked attention, and he had changed into a green sports jacket which clashed nicely with the cap. This wasn’t a beauty contest after all. The more people thought how ugly his clothes were, the less they concentrated on him. Hiding out in plain sight was the order of the day.
The men’s room was anything but clean, and the neon lights flickered in the eerie silence of the slowly mouldering concrete walls. A tap dripped, giving the place the feeling of a Chinese prison cell, the tap dripping on purpose just to slowly torture the prisoners out of their minds. Only the electrocution equipment was missing. Jensen shook his head to get rid of those delightful thoughts. Sometimes he wondered if he'd done this job a little too long.
He shrugged his jacket off, looking around to check that none of the clerks was enough of a pervert to have installed a camera in the bathroom stalls. Well you never know, right? Finding himself unwatched, he let the water run for a while, trying to get rid of the stale brown fluid that was trickling from the rusty pipes, until the water ran as clear as it ever would. He pushed up the sleeve of his t-shirt and checked the little red line of now coagulated blood, where the first bullet of the day had grazed his biceps. Grabbing some paper towels, actually surprised to see that the bathroom was stocked up, he started wiping away the now brownish blood. Once he was done he pulled out a small roll of tape he had saved from his jacket before disposing of it. He might not be McGuyver, (though his explosives were rather impressive.) but tape was something you could always use, if only to dress a bullet wound so the new jacket wouldn’t get soaked with blood as he went on. After taping a little dressing of paper towels over the cut he pulled his sleeve down again. He then rolled up the hem of his shirt to expose his vest and reached to his sides to loosen the straps a little. His back hurt, and the battered ribs were grateful for the lessened pressure. Breathing came a little easier, and he didn’t need to see his back to know that he would have fist sized bruises where the bullets had hit the Kevlar. He was only glad that it had been small calibered handguns. Anything Magnum-sized would probably have knocked him unconscious long enough to be killed for good, and a rifle would have penetrated the vest’s material and ripped a hole in his lung among other things.
Once he'd covered the vest with his shirt again, he took a few seconds to breathe, before he pulled out his guns and checked the clips. He had used only three shots so far, good. That left him with a good working base.
He stowed them out of sight, zipping up his jacket and looked at himself in the mirror, cataloguing what he knew about the target from the profile he had read over and over, looking for a place to start. As he left the bathroom again he walked away from the area that would be caught on the security cameras. He needed a ride. Around the corner there was a shady bar with half a dozen bikes standing out front. Perfect.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Jared lay on his bunk in the substation. All agents were on stand-by waiting for the shit to hit the fan as Morgan had put it so eloquently. The station had enough bunks for all agents to stay when necessary, and they were supposed to get some rest and wait like good soldiers, until they were told to “go get ‘em”. No wonder Jared felt like a dog sitting in its transportation box, waiting to be thrown into the fighting ring to face a big, mean bull terrier.
Jared was not the most patient person in the world. If he had wanted to sit and wait for the clock to call it an evening, he would have become an accountant not a special agent. Jared was bad at waiting. Unlike Jensen, who could sit and wait without blinking twice for days like some fucking Zen-master driving Jared nuts with his stoic ‘the time will come, kiddo’. Jensen, who was the only person who was not sitting and waiting right now, but who was doing god knows what out there - probably dodging bullets and killing people. It made the wait even harder to know that he should be backing the man up. Should do something, anything, to make Jensen succeed. Not that he doubted the other’s ability. But it would be better for Jared’s mental state to know that someone had Jen’s back. Even better to know that HE had Jen’s back. Of course Jensen would roll his eyes at Jared, saying he was a big boy not some damsel in distress, but he would take the back-up nonetheless. He might be a reckless bastard, but he was not stupid. Jensen would also give a small smile at Jared calling him Jen.
His train of thoughts was cut short as the Com unit beeped next to his head. He reached up hoping for good news. It was Mike’s voice greeting him.
“Jared I need you to go down to the archive on level four and retrieve some files. Details are on your panel.”
Jared frowned but gave his affirmation to Mike, getting up and leaving the room. He never got to the archive as he saw Mike giving him a long look though the open door of a small service room. Jared slid inside and closed the door. The hallways were on camera, but not all of the rooms, and Mike knew exactly where there would be no supervision. Jared frowned at him, dread bubbling up inside him.
“What’s going on, Mike?”
The smaller man rubbed his closely shaved head with an uneasy expression.
“A situation arose that I thought you should be aware of. We’ve got a serious problem… Or rather Jensen’s got a serious problem.”
Jared’s breath hitched in his throat.
“Is he…?”
“Not yet.”
Mike gave him a grave look. Usually the young technician-slash-hacker had anything but a grave persona, and Jared felt more uneasy with every minute.
“But he soon will be if Operations has any say in it.”
Jared’s eyes grew wide, and he didn’t care right there and then.
“What? But Morgan approved of that Mandatory Refusal shit!”
“Yeah well he did… but just a few minutes ago he got a video message on an open channel, saying that Black Cell had obtained a CIA-field agent who had a hard drive copy of eyes-only data on the missions of the last six months.”
“They got the mission-report of the last HALF A YEAR?”
“Yes… and they will broadcast it to CNN if we don’t stop pursuing them.”
Mike took a deep breath a crease forming between his eyebrows.
“But we don’t exist… No one will know that it’s legit.”
“Probably not, but you know as well as I do that the reason we don’t exist is that we do our job in a way that breaks nearly every charter of international law that has ever been established. We could probably stop the whole thing from going to the media, but it is a huge security breach, and Operations will get his ass whipped really hard for having hard drives full of highly sensitive information circulating outside this station. It would leave him wide open to having his position ripped right out of his hands. He won’t let that happen.”
Jared’s ears started to ring as he felt his pulse getting faster, more erratic.
“What will he do?”
Mike took a deep breath and looked up into Jared’s eyes. “You mean ‘what has he done?’ He's already mobilized all agents to stop the hit.”
“But you said there is no way to stop the hit as soon as Mandatory Refusal is in effect…”
“There is a way, and that’s why I called you.”
Jared stood rigid for a long moment as realization hit him - fast and hard as a freight train. “They’re going to kill Jensen.”
Mike nodded solemnly.
“Operations probably tried to keep you out of the loop as long as possible, because Jensen is a friend of yours, and we all know that you are the only person left in this little rat-shop that still has a conscience as huge as a zeppelin…”
Jared shook his head.
“Obviously not, or you would not have cared to call me up. Morgan would have your head if he knew.”
Mike screwed up his face in distaste.
“Make sure he doesn’t, okay? Jensen might be a dick most of the time but he is the best damn agent I’ve ever seen. He’s saved my ass once already, and I know that you really care for him, so…”
Jared nodded trying to stop himself from hyperventilating at the prospect of Jensen’s early demise.
“So what do we do now?”
Next Chapter
A/N: There are three parts (+Epilogue) and part two will come soon, promised.
I love comments and I NEED them PLEASE! I am not above begging for them! It might make the updates faster as well *g*
Thanks to my kitty for betaing *hugs*