Once Upon an Us

Knock Knock. Who’s There? The Secret Nazi Spy

Thea was pressed against the corner of the building, Marie standing behind her and checking her gun over.  Tony and Pengin were further down the street in the basement of an abandoned apartment building. According to Pengin, Carol, Jude, and Fritz had all been taken to the same place on the far side of town.  Tony had double-checked security and traffic cameras to make sure he was right--much to Pengin’s chagrin--and confirmed the three were all inside the building. Not only did they have video footage of the three being escorted into cells at different times, but Tony had found something on his secure channel pop up about Hoffman making three arrests.  Whether it was luck or a trap, they weren’t sure. Nonetheless, Thea and Marie discreetly made their way toward the building.

While Thea picked through the security, Marie kept her gun up and watched for any officers or people that might be around.  It didn’t take more than half a minute before Thea was pushing open the door and they were stepping inside. Over their comms, Tony told them to go right down the hall, watching them from the security footage on his laptop.  The actual security guards were stuck watching looped footage while Tony got the live feed directly to his laptop.

“When you’re coming out, the best exit is to your left,”  Tony said. Thea glanced over her shoulder and stored away the image for later.  She couldn’t be sure they’d be able to sneak out or if they’d be outrunning bullets.  “Take a left here and go down two flights of stairs.”

Thea and Marie did as he instructed then stopped.  Thea frowned and pressed her ear against the door, pausing before pulling open the door.  Tony informed them it was all clear on his cameras, but Thea was pretty sure she’d just heard multiple sets of boots pounding on the floor opposite the door they were against.

“Tony, are you absolutely certain?”  Thea asked, leaning away from the door and getting ready to pull it open.  Tony didn’t immediately respond and Thea tapped her comm to make sure it was on.  “Tony?”

“Yeah, give me a minute,”  he muttered, flipping through the security channels.  Everything appeared normal, but something felt off. The halls were empty, but he knew there was a reason Thea had hesitated.  “It all seems normal. I’m not watching looped footage and there’s no sign we’ve been discovered yet.”

Thea took a deep breath and yanked open the door, ducking behind it in case bullets flew at them.  Nothing happened, though, and she carefully peered around the corner. Just like Tony had said, the hall was completely empty.  She hurried through the door with Marie close behind. They closed the door quietly and looked up to see two patrol officers in front of them.  Thea barely blinked before they were shot and crumpling to the ground. She glanced back at Marie who shrugged.

“Still worried about my backup?”  Thea asked Tony, smiling as they continued down the halls.

“Yeah, yeah,”  Tony replied, waving her off.  He flipped to the next camera and watched as they appeared on the screen.  “Heads up. Five guards coming from the right hall.”

Thea and Marie pressed against the wall, waiting for the guards to pass them.  They turned the corner and were dead before they could even register the fact that Marie and Thea were in front of them.  Thea pulled them around the corner then followed Marie further into the building. The deeper they got, the more often they ran into guards.  None of them pulled any alarms, though, and they were able to get to the bottom floor without much of a problem.

“It seems pretty empty considering Hoffman’s probably expecting us,”  Marie mumbled, following Thea down more stairs. Thea glanced back at her, silently agreeing with her.  They came to the bottom of the stairs and waited for Tony’s go ahead, but the comms remained silent.

“Tony?  We clear?”  Thea asked. There was no response and Thea frowned, tapping her comm.  She pulled it out of her ear and double-checked to make sure it hadn’t died.  It still had half its battery life left, but Tony wasn’t saying anything. There wasn’t even static to tell them they’d gone out of range, a nearly impossible feat but not unheard of.

“Rossi, come in,”  Marie demanded. Still nothing.  She tried Pengin, but he didn’t respond either.  The two women shared a look only to jump in surprise at the sound of the loud alarms overhead.  Marie cursed and Thea pulled open the door in front of them. She raised her gun around the door and shot twice before peering around the corner.  One guard laid dead on the ground while another ran down the hall. Thea stepped through the door and shot the rogue guard through the chest. He dropped to the ground as Marie slipped through the door behind her, gun up in case they came across more guards.

With Tony and Pengin offline, they were left to their own guessing as to which direction to go.  Thea had glanced at the floor plans before they left, but she wasn’t one hundred percent sure when she turned a corner.  She stopped short as they came face to face with a dozen guards. She pulled Marie back around the corner as bullets rained down on them, embedding themselves in the walls and bouncing off the floor.  Thea reached around the corner and shot blindly, listening to bodies hit the ground with each shot. It took her eight bullets before they were all down thanks to Marie’s assistance.

“Grab a gun,”  Thea told her, yanking an assault rifle off a dead guard.  She grabbed his pistol as well, stuffing her own in her waistband and checking to make sure both new guns were full of ammo.  She didn’t have more for her own gun and was running low. Now that the alarms had been activated, they were more likely to run into SS agents and guards.

“Which way?”  Marie asked, raising her voice above the alarm.  Thea shrugged and dropped to the floor. Marie followed suit, covering her head as Thea raised her pistol and shot their attacker.  He slumped to the floor and they sprang up to their feet.

“Wherever the guards come from,”  Thea answered, running down the hallway the dozen guards had come from.  Marie pursed her lips but didn’t argue as she followed Thea down the hall.  They came to the end of the hall and turned right only to find two dozen guards in front of them.  Thea glanced to her left to see if they could run that direction, but there were another dozen guards there.

“Well this is nice,”  Marie said, glancing back the way they had come.  Before either of them could run back, the hallway they were standing in filled with guards as well.  Marie glanced at Thea. The redhead did not look happy at being cornered as she threw the rifle she had to the ground and dropped the pistol.  Marie followed suit as the guards closed in, rifles still aimed at them as they surrounded the two.

As a few guards handcuffed their wrists and searched them for more weapons, the rest kept their guns trained on them in case they tried to run free.  Thea frowned as a guard pulled out her personal gun and tossed it to the floor. They continued to grope and prod at her until they were confident they’d taken all her knives, tasers, and guns off her person.  Marie stared down at the pile in front of them then looked up at Thea.

“You really thought you’d need all that?”  she asked. Thea shrugged, letting a guard push her down the hall.  Marie followed and the small army of officers escorted them through the large complex down to their cells.

Tony tapped his comm, calling out for Thea.  He could see them on the monitor, could watch as they hurried down some stairs, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying.  In hopes they could still hear him, he checked the next screen to see if they were clear to go through the door. He frowned at the sight of two guards walking past the door, telling the girls to wait.  Instead of waiting, they yanked open the door and shot around the corner. One guard slumped to the ground, but the other ran down the hallway. Before he could get very far, he crumpled to the ground with a bullet wound in his chest.

“Thea, can you hear me?”  Tony asked. She didn’t respond, either ignoring or not able to hear Tony’s warnings about the dozen or so guards down the next hall.  Tony yelled in frustration when they turned toward the guards and were immediately shot at.

“What’s going on?”  Pengin demanded, peering over Tony’s shoulder at the screen.  Tony shook his head, frantically rebooting their comm system in hopes they would be able to reconnect.  “Rossi, get me back in contact with my agents.”

“I’m working on it,”  Tony snapped. He watched as Thea and Marie ran down another hallway and were immediately surrounded by guards, giving them no choice but to surrender.  Tony cursed, standing up from his chair and kicking the wall. He paused then turned back to his computer and began typing furiously.

“What are you doing?”  Pengin asked, watching Tony work.

“Crashing their system,”  Tony answered vaguely. He minimized the security footage feed and opened a new program.  “I should be able to lock down the whole place from out here. Thea will know what’s going on, but no one else will.  They’ll be able to get out without much suspicion, I just need to--” Tony was interrupted by the c*****g of a gun behind him and cold metal being pressed against his head.

“You’ve done enough,”  Pengin said coolly. Tony slowly raised his hands away from his keyboard as Pengin pressed the gun harder against his head.  “It’s time for you to join the rest of them.”