Chapter 32 - 6th September 2010 - Washington DC.

BPOV

Clasping the necklace Edward had given me I closed the basement door as he strode out confidently, I pushed the deadbolt across as I heard the sound of the front door closing from above me and the engine of the SUV rumble to life. "Please be safe."

Filled with concern and apprehension I headed back to my place at the bank of terminals, fixing my headset over my ears and jacking in to the comm. channel as I logged in to the SOCOM network. I called in to let the guys know I was in play.

"Little Bird calling in, all pieces in play," I announced clearly.

I scanned each of the screens set out in front of me, each of them with a different purpose. Three had live play by play video feeds from the various teams, the others had current intel scanning through and secure access to the Smithsonian's security control, the last continued to flash through background checks on all major players. I watched and listened intently as the clear to go was called and my guys shot into action clearing the upper levels and working their way towards the basement and likely locations of explosives.

Em broke in stating he had found something and gave instructions on shutting them down to the guys, before Edward cut in instructing me to shut the fire alarms down via security, I was so on it. All the while this was happening, I watched as the other teams worked seamlessly to clear the building with as little fuss as possible. Everything seemed to be going as planned and the Volturi didn't look to be making a play, that didn't mean we could be complacent.

I was jarred from my observation by the sound of breaking glass above, I froze, wondering what the hell it was, there was no one here but me and the only people that knew I was here were on the other end of the comm. I was torn, do I stay where I am, do I check it out, do I hide? The sound of splintering wood caught my attention once more and the comm. exploded into life, Jazz demanding everyone call in, I was frozen in terror as I watched the old wooden door of the basement fly down the steps in pieces. A shadow bloomed across the steps and slowly moved into the room, I had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide and my gun was on the other side of the room. So stupid!

I was bought back to the present by a hand slapping my face, I screamed out as pain spread across my cheek, the only thing that would let them know the danger was here with me was the fully open comm.

"Miss Swan, I think you should come with me," Phil Dwyer sneered.

"Like hell I will," I yelled. "They trusted you, you traitor! They trusted you and yet here you stand working for that... that SCUM!" I stood with my fists tight against my sides; I need to get to my gun.

"I don't want to hurt you Miss Swan, but I must insist you come with me," he said grabbing for me.

I twisted out of his reach and dashed across the room, vaulting the coffee table in order to reach my gun, before turning and aiming at him as he charged after me.

"Get away from me Dwyer," I growled, tensing my finger on the trigger.

"You wouldn't shoot me Bella, you're too good for that," he said, trying to coax me to give up my weapon.

"Try me asshole," I said glaring at him.

A hand appeared in my peripheral vision as it clasped the gun in my hand, reflexively I pulled the trigger and I watched as Phil Dwyer dropped to the floor in a heap. The gun was yanked from my grasp and I was grabbed from behind, the last thing I heard as the dark sack covered my eyes and I was bundled from the room was Edwards’ voice calling my name over the comm.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

JASPOV

"Ed man, go, we've got it covered here," I said calmly over the comm, we'd all heard Bella being assaulted over the comm, we'd heard her give as good as she got, we heard her name Phil Dwyer as her assailant and we'd heard the gunfire and then silence. We couldn't dwell though, we had a job to do and the only person that could do anything was Edward. He would never leave his post without me forcing his hand and making him. I quickly came to the conclusion that wherever Bella was, the nuke would be too, these assholes seemed to follow every fucking cliché and it would be nothing but apt for them to put her with their bomb in some twisted version of revenge.

"Okay," he called back, "I'm out, I'll be in touch soon," he continued before the sound of the SUV rumbling to life could be heard and his comm went silent.

"Good luck bro," I said quietly to the air.

I scanned the dank basement room Em and I were in as Em disabled the liquid bomb we found, the room was empty, it’s off white walls stained with rising damp, it smelled musty and dank and just gave me chills the longer we remained here.

"All clear bro," Em called quietly to me as he removed a canister of liquid from the device, rendering it useless. I nodded in response and moved towards the door, Em fell in behind me, alert to all movement within our area. The sound of gunfire in the distance told us that we would soon have company.  The comm came to life soon after.

"We have multiple contacts on the basement level, they're pouring in through a subway entrance," Jake called in from the south side.

"Same over here on the north side," Sam added as the sounds of bullets hitting plaster were heard.

"The creep twins are in the building," Seth growled as more gunfire was heard.

"Lock and load bro," Em patted my shoulder as we moved into the corridor.

The basement was well lit, the fluorescent lights flickered casting a yellow hue about the area, leaving us open to be seen. "Team 10 we need the grid shut down, bleep to confirm that this is a go," I called over the comm.

Two bleeps returned in quick succession as the lights went out and all out chaos erupted around us. Em and I dove for cover as a hail of bullets spread across the large room, plaster falling from the walls around us. I pulled down my NVG's and blinked as the world turned an eerie green hue. Using hand signals I directed Em to the left as I moved right, pulling my knife from my arm I approached the first gunman from behind and with one hand grasping his chin I drew the other across his throat dragging my knife across his jugular. As I released my grip, he fell to the ground with a thud and I stepped away from the body quietly. We would check them over once we were done.

We continued on through the basement, the bodies mounting the further we moved. Before long we met up with Seth and Embry, both were looking a little worse for wear, but not so much that they couldn't continue. We continued on our path through the corridor, killing any opposition we found. Two more devices were deactivated as we pushed on in silence. Sam and Quil met with us near to the stairs that led up to the Rotunda. Jake and Peter were missing, they should've joined up with us by now.

"Jake, Peter, check in," I called.

"We're in the south side of the atrium, we're pinned and can't move from cover, Peter has taken a shot," Jake responded breathlessly.

"Watch the north, we're coming up," I called back.

"We have multiple contacts on the north side, suggest you use flash bangs," Jake answered.

"Hold your ears bro,"

I nodded to Em gesturing with hand signals for the guys to take various positions as we moved to enter the atrium. I grabbed two flash bangs from my vest and prepared to throw them in. Raising my hands I counted, "1, 2, 3," flicked the pins with my fingers and tossed them over the balustrade that separated the staircase from the atrium before ducking back down and raising my gun as flashes and bangs reverberated throughout the room. "GO!" I called over the comm and we rushed out into the room dropping men as we moved and separated. As the dust settled around us a round of "Clear," echoed from each of us.

"Jake, where you at bro?" Em called switching to medic mode.

A hand shot up from behind the remains of what looked like a desk of some sort, "Here," he called.

Em rushed forwards as we scanned the area for any more of those bastards, there were bodies everywhere. "Shit!" Em called as he bent over Jake and Peter. I moved to join them, Jake and Em were working hard to resuscitate Peter, but it looked like a losing battle. The more they pumped his chest the more blood poured out of him.

"What the hell happened?" I asked.

"That crazy bitch," Jake nodded behind him as he continued pumping Peter’s chest. Em grabbed his arm shaking his head. "Stop, he's gone dude, he's gone."

Jake dropped back on his ass and scrubbed his face, his hands were covered in blood and he looked exhausted. Em patted his shoulder as he pulled a foil blanket from his pack and draped it over Peter’s body.

"Crazy bitch, just came at us out of nowhere, Pete thought he could stop her, but she was possessed or something, had a fucking cattle prod, shocked the hell out of Pete, soon as he hit the ground bitch was on him and had this fucking knife in her hand and was stabbing the fuck out of anything she touched. I shot her soon as I could get free from the other assholes drawing in from all sides, took five damn bullets to slow her the hell down, thought she would never die, crazy fucking shrew," Jake finished grasping at his hair.

"Okay bro, just rest easy, we'll get in team 10 to clear up and do a final sweep," I said patting his shoulder.

"This is Alpha team, we have the Atrium in our control, all remaining teams to converge on us and clear any stragglers," I called over the comm.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I sat on the steps looking out on to Constitution avenue, the night sky above us was awash with stars, I glanced down at my watch, 10.45pm, we'd been out of the Smithsonian for barely twenty minutes, and we still hadn't heard anything from Edward. I checked in with SOCOM moments ago, but they had nothing to tell us, he was out of contact since he left us earlier. We had discovered the bodies of the creep twins on the walk through once the building had been cleared, but Demetri and Felix were not amongst the dead. The left a bad feeling in my gut, we were missing important players and there was still no sign of a nuke. I knew for certain that Aro wouldn't be anywhere near this, he would be too busy amassing his troops to invade the Balkans, expecting this great plan of his to be successful. Little did he know that while we were here shattering that plan, he should be receiving visitors in his home in Volterra. Right now a team of Special Ops from Nato should be calling in for a chat, I could only hope that those other two assholes were there with him, but due to Edward and Bella being off the grid again, I was certain that at least one of them was involved.

SOCOM called in to inform me that the President was safe and that the civilians were also, well at least there were no blue on blue casualties. Em sat down beside me, soon followed by the rest of the guys. We chatted quietly while we waited for any news or more orders should the need arise. For over an hour we waited until the comm sprung to life.

"Alpha team, we have a situation over at Andrews, we have a C-130 coming in hot, Cullen's at the controls," the voice said.

"Shit! We're on it, mark us as en-route," I returned, springing to my feet and running for the first available vehicle with the team on my heels.

I jumped into the black SUV that was sat idling beside the entry to the Smithsonian, red and blue lights flashing on the dash, I noted that it probably belonged to the FBI or one of the other agencies present. I would worry about that later. Em dived into the front passenger seat, while the rest of the team bundled into the back, a mass of limbs and guns protruded from the tangle of bodies as I slammed my door shut and gunned the engine and sped off.

"What's going on bro?" Em asked, a little concerned at my new penchant for grand theft auto.

"Edward, he's on a plane heading for Andrews, it's coming in hot, something is seriously wrong don't you think," I responded pushing my foot into the accelerator.

"Shit, what about Bella?"

"I'm guessing she's with him," I replied gruffly.

I was thankful that I had chosen this vehicle, with the lights flashing nothing got in our way and it wasn't long before we were on the approach to Andrews.

"SOCOM, do we have an update on the situation," I called as we screeched onto the tarmac beside the tower.

"We've just had a transmission from Andrews Tower, Cullen called in moments ago," they started.

"Well, don't leave us hanging!" I shouted.

"The transmission was, "MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, We're going down, we're going down, we're going down," they've had nothing more, the tower is tracking them, they should be in sight any minute now," came the response.

"Fuck me, look!" Jake called over the head rest.

The C-130 could be clearly seen as it approached too fast, a stream of smoke billowed from the cockpit; the tarmac next to the tower was awash with emergency vehicles, their lights flashing in unison as the airplane dropped from the sky. My breath caught as the rear tyres hit the ground swiftly followed by the nose, the plane continued along the runway at speed, before the front landing gear collapsed under the weight and the aircraft spun. Sparks issued as the metal scraped along the ground and the tail burst into flames as three emergency chutes burst out of the rear hatch in order to slow the plane down.

The emergency vehicles sprang into action and raced behind the downed plane as it careened out of control along the runway, quickly it was running out of space and only the large ditch at the end could halt its progress. An almighty explosion shook the ground as it crashed to a stop, still the emergency vehicles headed in, in a vain hope they could pull someone from the wreckage. I knew in my gut they would be too late this time.