Spy (S1E14): Missing Scenes

Disclaimer:  I do not own either of the Mission: Impossible series or any of the characters therein.  I receive no compensation or any other tangible benefit from this story.  I am just a fan who enjoys taking the team out for an adventure every now and then.  🙂

*****

“I have no idea where to find a doctor,” Shannon admitted tensely.

“Just get me…back to the tent,” Jim panted weakly, as he closed his eyes.  “Maybe Doctor Nikolai can help.”

Nicholas’ mind snapped back to what he’d been told about the mission in Vienna, which had taken place before he’d joined the IMF full time.  He knew that Nikolai had been on the side of the enemy then, and that he had nearly lost his life at Jim’s hands.  Surely, the Russian remembered too.

“Jim,” the dark-haired agent protested, “are you sure we can trust him?”

The team leader opened his eyes again and gazed at his teammate.  “Ten years ago, he was our enemy,” he answered, “but today we are on the same side.”

A few moments later, Shannon jerked the truck into park and rushed to the rear doors, where Nicholas was carefully helping Jim.  The bright red circle on the right shoulder of his white suit coat was twice as large as it had been ten minutes before, and the elder agent left a large pool of blood behind him as he exited.

“Hurry,” Nicholas urged, once again lifting Jim’s uninjured left arm across his shoulders, and they shuffled toward the tent.  “He’s losing lots of blood.”

Inside, Doctor Yuri Nikolai was putting some chemicals into a test tube when Nicholas’ voice drifted into earshot.  He put his equipment down and moved quickly to the other side of the shelter just as Jim appeared, with Nicholas at his side. 

“Christie?” Nikolai asked, already knowing the answer, as he grasped Jim’s left shoulder firmly.

“Yeah,” came the reply.  “Should’ve listened to you.”

“On the cot,” Nikolai commanded, while Nicholas and Shannon looked on.

“Nicholas, you got to let Max and Grant know the mission’s been blown,” Jim urged.  He lay back on the cot, with Nikolai and Shannon flanking either side.

“Right away, Jim,” the dark-haired agent responded.  He removed the wig, hair cap, and false beard, and sat down at the Morse Code communicator.

Nikolai examined the wound carefully.  Although the bullet had passed through Jim’s shoulder and out the other side, it had nicked a large artery in the process.  The elder agent’s sickly pallor told the former physician that Jim was in grave danger if it wasn’t repaired quickly.

“Christie’s still alive?” 

“Unfortunately,” Shannon replied bitterly.

The Russian met Shannon’s eyes briefly.  “Then he’s even more dangerous.”  He turned back to Jim.  “I need to do a little cutting, James,” he advised somberly, “or I’m afraid you have a good chance of bleeding to death.”

Jim raised up slightly from his prone position and looked at Nikolai, his expression uncertain.  Then he looked down at the scalpel that the doctor was holding in his hand.

Shannon, too, glanced first at the knife, then the Russian, then over at Nicholas — who was also eyeing Doctor Nikolai with skepticism.

“Let’s just say I’m paying a bill for Vienna.”

Jim smiled weakly and lay back on the cot.  “You better get to work.”

*****

As the doctor set about his task, Shannon rose from Jim’s side and moved closer to Nicholas.  As soon as the dark-haired agent finished his message to Max and Grant, he looked up at his teammate.  She was staring back at Jim, her chin in her hand, and her eyes were moist.

Nicholas stood up and reached for her.  “Shannon,” he whispered, pulling her close in a sideways hug, “Jim’s going to be all right.”

“Are you sure?”

Nicholas shrugged.  “Nikolai knows what he’s doing.  And Jim trusts him.”

“What did he mean by, ‘paying a bill for Vienna’?”

Nicholas nodded quickly toward the tent’s entrance, and the two agents stepped outside.

“Ten years ago, Jim and Nikolai were on opposite sides of a mission,” Nicholas answered.  “Jim passed up the chance to kill him.”

“Why?” asked Shannon.

“I don’t know,” her teammate responded honestly.  “I’m not even sure Jim knows.  But right now, I’m grateful that he did."

Shannon nodded, then smiled slightly as she squeezed Nicholas’ arm.  Then the two agents went back inside the tent to watch over their team leader.

*****

Nicholas and Shannon drove the team’s black sedan to a small embankment a half mile from the Elephant House.  Shannon was surprised to see the team’s white truck lying on its left side, the drive shaft and luggage rack broken, and the windshield busted in several places.  She looked at Nicholas, open-mouthed.

“How?” she managed to ask.

Nicholas chuckled softly.  “You were asleep when Grant got in last night,” he advised her.  “He and I came out here and parked the truck with the left side tires on the edge of the road.  One little tap in the side with this car and it fell right over.  A couple of hammers finished things off.”

“Thank goodness nobody was in it at the time,” Shannon sighed, and Nicholas smiled at her as he reached for his makeup kit.

Shannon turned to face him, closing her eyes as Nicholas gently brushed back her hair and applied a smear of red makeup across her forehead.  When he was finished, the pretty female was adorned with the appearance of an ugly wound.

“There we go.”  Then the two agents exited the car and Nicholas carefully helped Shannon descend the embankment.  They entered the truck through the back doors.  Nicholas took the briefcase containing the diamonds and laid it down gently on the truck’s metal frame.

When he looked up again, Shannon was gazing thoughtfully at the front seats, absently rubbing the sealed vial that Nikolai had given her.

“Are you nervous, Shannon?” the dark-haired agent asked softly.

“A little,” she replied honestly, her cheeks flushing.  “I mean, I’ve certainly played dead before, but I’ve never tranquilized myself.”

“But this is what it’s going to take to fool Christie,” Nicholas observed.

“I know,” Shannon agreed.  “I’m just not quite sure what to expect.”  She looked up at her teammate, her eyes liquid.  “Would you think I’m a baby if I asked you to stay with me for a minute?”

“Of course not,” Nicholas smiled reassuringly.  “First, let’s get you buckled in.”

The truck’s bench seat was split in the middle, with the left side slightly wider than the right.  Nicholas pulled the latch and bent the left side down, just enough for Shannon to climb over it.  She held herself up against the right side door with both hands until Nicholas fastened the seat belt around her.  Then she smeared a streak of reddish makeup on the cracked windshield to match the smear on her forehead, before handing the brush back to her teammate.

Holding the vial of chemicals in her right hand, Shannon sighed heavily.  “Here goes nothing,” she said, trying to sound cheerful, as she broke the seal with her left hand.  She brought the vial to her nose while simultaneously reaching for Nicholas’ hand.

The dark-haired agent grabbed it and squeezed tightly.  “I’m right here, Shannon,” he said soothingly.

At first, he felt her squeezing back, but within a few seconds he saw Shannon’s head loll loosely to one side and felt her hand grow limp and cold in his.  Though he was expecting it, he was still quite unnerved by how quickly things changed.

“Shannon?” he called out to her.  There was no response.  He released her hand and laid two fingers on her wrist.  He could not feel a pulse.

For a second, Nicholas’ heart came up in his throat, but then he quickly reminded himself that this was exactly what Doctor Nikolai said would happen.

Nicholas was reluctant to leave her, but he knew that he had to.  He exited the truck’s rear doors and jogged across the street to the village where he, as the priest, had met several young children.  One of the boys came running to meet him.

“There’s been a crash!”  Nicholas said in French, pointing toward the white truck.  “Someone should tell Mister Christie.”

“I’ll do it!” the boy replied, in the same language, and he took off running toward the Elephant House.  Nicholas hurried back to the sedan to await Christie’s arrival.

A few moments later, John Christie arrived in his zebra-striped pickup truck, parking alongside the wreck.  He jumped out, skipped quickly down the embankment, and entered the truck through the rear doors.

Shannon was on her side, hanging by her seatbelt, with her left arm dangling.  Christie grasped it and felt for a pulse.  Finding none, he turned his attention to the briefcase lying close by.  He opened it up and verified that the diamonds were in it.  Then he made a hasty exit.

Through the listening device hidden inside the briefcase, Nicholas heard the pickup truck travel a short distance then come to a stop.  He listened as Christie discussed his recent reacquisition with two men with distinctively Arabic accents, and they settled on a price.  Then he heard Christie promise to start production the following day.

Nicholas had heard enough.  He glanced at his watch.  Seventeen minutes had passed since Shannon had opened the vial.  He knew the effects would be wearing off soon.  Swiftly, he made his way back to the white truck.

Shannon was still in the same position she’d been in when Nicholas had left her.  He reached out to take her hand once again.  In just a few moments, he felt the warmth seeping back into her fingers.

Presently, she moved her head slightly.

“Shannon,” Nicholas said in a half-whisper, “can you hear me?”

Shannon nodded her head slightly but did not speak at first.

“Just take it easy,” he urged, “and let me know when you’re ready to get out of here.”

“Can you…help me?”  Shannon asked weakly, her voice barely audible.

Nicholas pulled the latch and bent down the left side of the bench seat.  He leaned forward and looped Shannon’s left arm around his shoulders.  Then he reached for the seat belt buckle.

“Here we go.”

He unfastened the buckle, and all of Shannon’s weight came spilling into Nicholas’ arms, nearly knocking him off his feet.

“I’ve got you,” he said, quickly righting himself.  He adjusted his footing and lowered Shannon carefully onto the truck’s metal frame.

“Just rest here for a bit,” he soothed.  “I’m going to need your help getting up the bank.”

Shannon remained there, in a half-sitting position with her eyes closed, while Nicholas held her hand and gently stroked her hair.  

After about five minutes, Shannon suddenly opened her eyes and sat bolt upright.

Nicholas was alarmed.  “Are you all right?” he asked quickly.

Shannon smiled at him.  “I’m fine, Nicholas,” she answered.

“Are you sure?”

Shannon nodded.  “It’s like someone flipped a switch,” she explained, “and everything was just gone.  I feel perfectly fine now.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “Though I’m not anxious to go through that again.”

“I’d say not,” Nicholas agreed.  And neither am I, he added to himself.

“Let’s get back to the tent,” Shannon urged.

Nicholas exited the back of the truck and helped Shannon do the same.  Then the two agents scrambled up the small embankment, with Nicholas keeping one hand on Shannon’s waist for support, climbed into the black sedan, and headed for the command post.

“Did Christie get the diamonds?” Shannon suddenly remembered.

“He got them, and already sold them,” Nicholas confirmed.  “And he told his buyers that he would start production in the morning.”

Shannon grinned.  As horrible as the last half hour had been, they had been successful, and she couldn’t wait to tell Jim and the others.

Then her expression sobered once again as she looked at her teammate and friend, recalling how gentle he had been with her during these last few moments.  “Nicholas,” she said quietly, reaching over to lay a hand on his shoulder, “thank you for taking care of me.”

“You’re welcome, Shannon,” he said warmly, and then the two agents were silent as they returned to the tent.