Cliff Ryder - The Finish Line

"I think you'll be okay, but we'd better get out of here — we've attracted enough attention as it is." Indeed, David realized, if it wasn't for those other two guys taking off down the platform toward the tracks, they'd probably be surrounded by police right now. "Come on, let's get you up and moving."

He bent down and slung Kanelo's arm around his shoulders, then pulled him to his feet. The taller man swayed a bit, and David steadied him with one hand while hitting his earpiece with the other. "M-One, this is M-Two, we are pulling out. Be advised, we did not recover the target, but ran into other interested parties. Have one injured, we're moving toward the exit now."

"Is target still in sight?"

David glanced over at the train pulling out of the station. "Negative, target is out of reach at the moment."

"Copy that. All teams, withdraw. Repeat, all teams withdraw."

David heard muttered cursing from Robert. "Not again! What happened, Two, she get a look at your face and run off screamin'?"

Cody's authoritative voice cut through the chatter. "That's enough. We'll debrief when we've regrouped. Do you know where she's headed?"

David and Kanelo had been on the move during the brief conversation, and were almost at the main doors. "Yeah, she's on the HS1 to Paris," David replied.

They were about to push through the exit when a voice called out behind him. "You there, at the door!"

Both men froze just inches away from the door. "Keep going?" David asked.

Kanelo sucked in a breath and winced before answering. "No — too suspicious. Let's see what they want. Let me stand."

David took his arm away and turned around to see a man who looked as if he worked for the railroad approaching them. "Gentlemen, there were reports of a man attacking you in front of witnesses. I'm afraid that I have to keep you here until the police can take your statement, and I'm sure you'll want to press charges…"

Kanelo interrupted him with a loud groan, and slumped against David, who ran with the improvisation. "I appreciate that, but as you can hear, my friend isn't feeling too well, and I'd like to get him to a hospital to get checked out."

"Sir, I'm sure an ambulance can be called for him, but you must remain…"

"Oh, God, my head — splitting open — everything going dark…" Kanelo clutched his temples and practically fell over on David, who held him up with both hands.

"Thanks for your offer, sir, but we really must get to a hospital right now!" David shoved his teammate at the door, wincing as the unprepared Kanelo's head smacked into the glass. Reaching around him, David pushed the door open and helped him through over the protests of the administrator.

"Good acting there, Kan." David ushered him down the steps toward the idling SUV.

"Ugh, it wasn't all acting — my head is pounding, and for a moment there I thought I was blacking out. Ribs hurt like hell. Is he still back there?"

"Don't know, and don't care." David yanked the front passenger's door open and hustled Kanelo inside, then jumped in the back, barely getting aboard before the vehicle was moving.

"We're picking up Team Two around back, so before they get here, why don't you fill me in on what happened?" Cody said.

"I think the same team we ran into last night was at the station." David related what had happened inside, leaving nothing out. "The plan had been to stop the man pursuing our target and flush her out for Kanelo to take into custody. I got a good look at one of them. However, he got a good look at me, too, I'm afraid."

"Unfortunately, their backup spotted me, as well, and intercepted." Kanelo rubbed the back of his neck. "He was pretty good, too, for a white boy."

"So while the four of you were beating on each other, she scooted between you all and got on her original train? Where was your second team?"

"Well, here they are, so you can ask them directly." David leaned back in his seat, and looked around for any nearby police presence.

Robert and Tara piled into the SUV, and moments later they were moving north on Pancras Road, away from the commotion. The two-tone wail of European sirens could be heard in the distance. David tuned back in to hear Team Two's report, and learned that they had been barred from coming onto the platform once all of the commotion had started.

"Then we got the call to leave, so we did." Tara slumped back in her seat. "At least tell me we know where she's going?"

"Yeah." Cory navigated while calling another number on his phone. "Primary, this is M-One. We sighted target at the station, but the other team was there, as well, and she escaped in the confusion…Yes, we do know where — Paris, on the Chunnel train…A helicopter would be best, but it'll be close…Very well, we'll meet you there…M-One out."

He turned and scrutinized everyone in the passenger compartment. "David and Kanelo, get online and go through Facemaker at Primary for your two hostiles. Maybe they can come up with a jacket on these guys. We're going to France."

Who is this woman?

For Kate, it was the million-dollar question. And how is she able to waltz out from under trained professionals not once, but twice in the past twenty-four hours?

She patched into the virtual HQ, ignoring the slight headache that came with spending too much time in virtual reality. "Do we have anything yet on our target?" she asked.

"Still searching, ma'am."

Kate tried not to clench her fists in frustration. She thought that she had long ago gotten used to the interminable waits while their personnel and massive computer systems searched for that piece of useful intel in a vast, ever-changing ocean of information. And so she was always annoyed when her temper got the better of her, and she felt like going to the nearest computer and wringing whatever she needed out of it. Even though they knew where their fleeing target was — indeed, one of the virtual screens had mapped out the Chunnel route, as well as the speed of the train that was a few minutes from entering the thirty-one-mile-long underwater passage, with an estimated time of arrival at its station in Paris — every second meant that she was getting farther away.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, since Kate had already scrambled agents from the French Room 59 Directorate to meet their target at the station. However, given her unusual ability to elude danger, Kate wouldn't have put it past her to manage to get by them, as well. And if she does, everyone goes back to shadowing and target-interception training.

A ping from her computer signaled incoming messages from the Midnight Team. Kate opened up two of them to reveal two faces, and a similar message on each one:

Primary:

Here's a picture of one of the men encountered in the St. Pancras Station. Hope it helps get a line on who we're up against. Good luck.

M-One

Kate studied both pictures as she uploaded them to their networked criminal-profiling program, which could draw on law-enforcement databases around the world for suspects, and got their man or woman more often than not. The full-frontal picture had been created with Room 59's imaging program called Facemaker, an advanced version of the computer programs used by police around the world to create pictures of suspected criminals. A witness selected the remembered features — eyes, nose, hair, distinguishing characteristics — and assembled a picture of their suspect. Facemaker then took the process a step further, and extrapolated a three-dimensional picture, with near photo quality, of the suspect's face. The result was a more recognizable picture, at least for computers, which made it easier for them to better match the points of recognition on a human face and get higher hit results on a jacket search.