Chapter 25: Fall

“I hear something.” Alin said suddenly as Dora pressed record on the camera.

“What?” Victor asked, pausing in the act of slicing open Brooklyn's shirt.

She was crying and shaking. In a moment, she would be begging.

“It sounds like an engine.” he continued, tilting his head as if to get a better listen.

“I don't hear anything.” Dora shrugged.

“Go check.” Victor ordered her, his eyes narrowing.

Just as Dora turned from the camera to obey the command, Brooklyn heard her name being shouted from upstairs.

“Warren!” she screamed back eagerly.

“Damn.” Victor cursed under his breath. “Alin, Dora, deal with him.”

Dora was already running up the stairs but Alin waited until given the order before calmly following her.

“Let me go, Victor!” Brooklyn demanded, pulling on the restraints. “You can't escape this!”

“Can't I?” Victor asked with a grin as he lifted the scalpel so that she could clearly see it.

The slice was so quick, Brooklyn barely registered the movement. But the pain that erupted in her arm from the slash was impossible to miss and so quick she couldn't stop the yell that escaped her throat.

Victor moved the scalpel back to the wound and pushed the blade into the torn flesh. He twisted it cruelly and Brooklyn screamed.

XXXXXXXXXX

“Brook!” Warren yelled as he heard her screech echo through the shack. He sensed rather than saw Jack and Crispin behind him.

“How convenient.” a woman said as she pushed open the door that led to the basement. “All of them gathered in one place.”

“Stop talking.” the man behind her ordered. “Kill them.”

Warren didn't care about them so he didn't bother with them. Ignoring the woman's cry of protest, he rushed past her, pushed the man aside, and followed the sound of Brooklyn's cries.

“You take the siren.” the man ordered. “He's your failure anyway.”

“Shut up, Alin.” Dora growled at him as she looked Crispin over. The last time she encountered him was still fresh on her mind. He had overpowered her so easily even with a shock collar around his neck. Even now, she could still remember the false memory of slitting his throat he had put in her mind which made looking at him a bit disorienting. But she forced the feeling away. She had a job to do and her dragul meu wouldn't forgive her another mistake like last time.

“I'm leaving them to you, Crispin.” Jack told him his eyes looking past the pair to the room that Warren had vanished inside. “I'll follow Warren.”

Crispin nodded pleasantly his agreement and turned his gaze to Dora and Alin both.

“Kind of cocky, don't you think?” Dora asked him as Jack walked past both of them. Neither bothered to try to stop him. It would be easier to take him and Warren on if they were both trapped in the basement and Crispin, after all, was just one man.

“You had me at a disadvantage before.” Crispin signed. “And I've received a bit of training since we last met.”

Alin hung back, more cautious than Dora who leapt forward recklessly to attack Crispin.

Her first wild strike was easy for Crispin to dodge, the second fared no better. He smiled silently, unable to keep himself from taunting her. He supposed he could have used his voice to disable her instantly, but it would have taken away from this moment where he could get his own back for the last time they met.

XXXXXXXXXX

Warren was frozen on the bottom step of the basement. His eyes were staring at the point of the scalpel which Victor was pressing into Brooklyn's skin. Blood was running down her arm, pooling on the table scenting the air with its rusty smell. Warren was more transfixed on the blood than he was on the fact that it was Victor who was holding the weapon.

Jack, however, who was standing just behind him, was just the opposite.

“Ozera...” he whispered in disbelief.

Victor grinned at the pair of them. It was the same charming, sweet grin Warren was so used to seeing in his face yet it looked somehow unfamiliar.

“Warren.” Brooklyn sobbed sadly from the table. She wasn't screaming anymore but the pain was written clearly across her face infuriating Warren.

“Hello, Jack.” Victor said to him like they were talking over tea. “I assume Crispin is upstairs with Dora and Alin?”

“Why?” Jack ignored the question.

Brooklyn looked over boss's face and what she saw there drove her own pain from her mind. Jack wasn't just shocked, his face was devastated. Seeing Victor there, knowing what he must have done, was horrifying to Jack. For the first time, Brooklyn was seeing Jack completely at a loss and unable to deal with the information in front of him.

“Then it seems we are at an impasse.” Victor continued as if Jack hadn't spoken. “Dora can't defeat Crispin, Alin might be able to hold his own but it would still be him against the two of you. However, I have Brook.”

To punctuate the sentence, he twisted the scalpel in Brooklyn's arm and she barely suppressed a squeak from the pain that shot down her limb.

Warren took an automatic step forward but forced himself to stop. Everything in him wanted to wrap his hands around Victor's neck but he knew better than to take those steps that would bring him in reach. The scalpel on Brooklyn's arm was close enough to her neck that Victor would be able to slice up and hit a major artery before Warren reached him.

Warren was so focused on Brooklyn, he didn't even care that it was Victor Ozera, his ultimate boss, that was holding the blade. That was information to deal with later, for now all that mattered was Brooklyn.

“I see no reason why we all can't get out of here alive and well.” Victor said to them calmly. “Provided you do exactly as I say.”

“You aren't getting out of here, Ozera.” Jack told him. Warren couldn't help but glance behind at him. Jack's words had been forceful but, even in the haze of fury he was in, Warren could still see the hurt in Jack's eyes. Victor's betrayal against him, against MCRC, was a tough pill for Jack to swallow.

“You are hardly one to tell me what to do.” Victor reminded him by tapping against Brooklyn's skin with the flat side of the scalpel. Each hit made Brooklyn cringe. Warren felt his knuckles clenching so hard it was a wonder he wasn't breaking his own flesh with his nails.

“This is what's going to happen now.” Victor told them. His sentence was punctuated with a large thud from above. None of them paid it any mind. “I am going to take Brooklyn, Alin, and Dora with me in your car. We are going to drive away. In about three hours, I will call you to tell you where you can find Brooklyn. In the meantime, you will stay here.”

“No.” Warren snapped immediately. He didn't need to see the cold, heartlessness in Victor's eyes to know that Brooklyn wouldn't be alive when they 'found' her. If he let Brooklyn leave with him, she was as good as dead.

A second, louder, thud echoed from above. They had no way of knowing who was the cause or why but it really didn't matter at the moment.

“You have no choice.” Victor told him. “If you want her to live.”

“I'm not stupid.” Warren sneered angrily. Part of him wondered why Jack wasn't doing this, a bigger part didn't care.

Victor grinned. “I suppose I could just kill her now.”

Warren took another involuntary step forward when Victor moved the blade over Brooklyn's neck. It was a stalemate.

“I'll go.”

Warren and Jack's gaze snapped to Brooklyn not really believing the softly spoken sentence she had uttered.

“No, you're not.” Warren told her, his voice hard. “He'll kill you.”

“He'll kill me if I don't.” Brooklyn reminded him shooting a quick glance at the silver of the scalpel. “It's in everyone's best interest if I go.”

“See?” Victor nodded as if pleased with her. “I love Brook, I don't want to hurt her.”

Warren was about to tell Victor where he could shove that scalpel. He almost pointed out that if Victor didn't want to hurt her, she wouldn't be tied to an eerily familiar examination table with a slice down her arm that was oozing blood steadily.

But a look from Brooklyn stilled him. Her eyes were hard, resolute. She knew that Victor would continue his little 'experiment' the moment he was away from Warren and Jack. However, she was just as determined as he was that she lived. It wasn't just her life she was fighting for after all.

“Fine.” Warren nodded placing his trust in her because he had no other choice.

“Good.” Victor beamed happily. “You and Jack get off the stairs and go stand on that far wall. Move slowly, I don't want to hurt Brooklyn.”

Warren stepped off the stairs and followed the order, his stomach in knots and his fists shaking in helplessness. Jack followed him without question which disturbed Warren more. Jack wasn't the type to follow, that he was doing so now made Warren nervous. He had to trust Brooklyn though.

“Alin!” Victor yelled up the stairs, his eyes still on Warren and Jack. “Crispin! We've come to an agreement! Get down here!”

The silence following that statement strung out for a moment. Then a third and final thud came from the ceiling. A moment later, Crispin was walking down the stairs with Alin just behind him. Dora stayed at the top of the steps, glaring at Crispin and nursing her right arm.

Crispin looked at Victor as he, without being told, went to stand with Jack and Warren. If he was shocked or disturbed at seeing their leader holding Brooklyn hostage, he didn't show it.

“Alin, keep an eye on them.” Victor ordered as he began unstrapping Brooklyn from the table.

“We're letting them live?” Dora asked unhappily from the top of the stairs.

“We can't really kill them, now can we?” Victor asked her with a smile that made her step back. “We are evenly numbered by far outmatched with Crispin here.”

“What's to stop the siren from talking?” she asked, her voice quivering at the anger Victor was directing at her.

“He can try.” Victor looked over at Crispin as if daring him to do it.

“I know when I've come against a will I can't match.” Crispin signed. If he couldn't overpower Jack, he doubted highly he could overpower Victor. He could get Dora and Alin, he was sure, but neither of them held a blade to Brooklyn's throat. Any command he voiced that held enough power to enthrall Victor would also hit Warren and Brooklyn, it was too great a risk.

Brooklyn said nothing as she was freed from the last strap. She offered no resistance when Victor helped her sit up from the table nor when he helped her to her feet.

“Up the stairs, if you please.” Victor said pleasantly. “Alin, stay here. When we're far enough away, I'll call you.”

Alin nodded once.

Victor grabbed Brooklyn's uninjured arm and led her to the stairs. He looked up at Dora and said, “We'll be taking the car they came in. You're driving.”

Dora nodded, sparing a glance for her injured arm, before turning and leaving the room.

Victor marched Brooklyn upstairs and walked her through the shack.

“I imagine I'll have just a moment to get away.” he said like he was thinking out loud. “They won't sit there quietly. Alin will escape on his own, he always does, we'll just have to go ahead without him.”

Brooklyn stayed quiet. From outside, she heard something heavy fall onto the ground. Through the open door, she could see Kieth's lifeless form sprawled out on the ground where Dora had thrown him.

Victor guided her outside as Dora climbed into the driver's seat.

It was the only chance she would have.

She spun around and aimed her fingers for Victor's eyes. His instinctive reflex to protect them had his grasp loosening on her.

Brooklyn heard Dora cry out as she turned from Victor and ran back into the shack.

“Leave her!” she heard Victor shout as she ran through the run down room, out the back door, and threw herself against the wall beside the doorway.

A moment later, she heard the telltale sound of car tires peeling from the driveway. Victor had chosen to flee rather than attempt to recapture her and risk capture himself.

“Stop!”

Brooklyn turned back to the room just as Alin raced from the front door and was swallowed up by the darkness. Warren was just a step behind him, Crispin behind him.

“We need-”

“Warren!” Brooklyn ran back into the house and threw herself into her lover's arms.

XXXXXXXXXX

Many things happened in the days following Victor Ozera's disappearance.

Rachel Cohen and Lester Fontane were both found dead in one of Ozera's properties. Their throats had been cut. Though everyone knew who did it, nothing could be done about it.

Victor Ozera vanished without a trace responsible for, not just the deaths of three MCRC heads, but for the murder of 58 others.

Shortly after his and the other head's dealings became known, it didn't take long for people to turn against the once trusted MCRC. The government quickly put a stop to all MCRC workings as a result of the outrage and many of its former employees found themselves without work while all of its properties and assets were seized.

The biggest change, at least as far as Brooklyn cold discern, was the one that had come over Jack.

Jack Cross, the only head not connected to the now infamous Intrebari, collapsed.

MCRC had been everything to the man and, with its loss and the betrayal of his comrades, he reached his limit. The once unconquerable Jack Cross had fallen.

“Don't worry about Jack.” Crispin told her when she brought food to Jack's house. Being the only innocent head didn't spare him from being thoroughly investigated. A storm was falling on the man that he, with the loss of what he held so dear, just couldn't handle. Crispin, ever loyal, stayed to help take care of him.

“How can I not?” she asked as she ran her hand absently across the bandage on her arm. The stitches, she had been told, would be removed in a week.

“Jack's strong.” Warren had answered for the siren. “And, in the meantime, we're going to be there for him.”

“I suppose that's true.” Brooklyn had agreed as she snuggled into his arms.

Life didn't stop just because it felt like her world was crashing down around her, she thought as she and Warren returned to his house that night to finish packing.

Her house was still under construction but Warren wanted to move in as soon as possible. Their baby, he told her, needed a safe, stable home and her cottage was exactly that. They both had enough money saved up that they didn't need to worry for a while even while preparing for their child.

“I just can't imagine life without MCRC.” she lamented that night as they lay together in bed.

“There was a time before MCRC,” Warren shrugged philosophically, “there will be a time after it.”

“I'm serious.” Brooklyn ran her hands through her love's hair. He was laying against her stomach, stroking their child. A child, they had both been assured, that was still healthy and normal despite her ordeal. “And are we just supposed to let Victor go? That seems...wrong.”

“We can't do anything about it.” Warren reminded her again. MCRC was no longer his vaki, but that didn't mean its fall hadn't left its mark on him. Still, as long as Brooklyn was alright, Warren would survive.

“Warren?” Brooklyn said softly.

“Yes?” he answered.

“This isn't the end of this, is it?”

“Of course not.” Warren smiled reassuringly at her. “Just today, I saw Crispin plotting ways to chase down Ozera. Everything is going to be fine, Brook. I don't want you to think about it any more.”

“How can I not?” she mumbled.

“Because we have other things to worry about.” Warren stroked her belly as he spoke and pulled himself up along her body so he was looking directly into her eyes. “I want you to focus on our baby. I don't want anything else to happen to you.”

“I'm going to be fine.” Brooklyn smiled at him as she pressed her forehead against his. “We're all going to be fine.”

MCRC had fallen but life continued on.

To be concluded in Silent Voice...