Chapter Text
Their mission was simple enough but there was a lot at stake. It was imperative that they succeeded, or a lot of innocent people would be hurt. Due to an anonymous tip, the IMF had grimly discovered that some of the last remaining members The Syndicate had were on track to carrying out yet another plan to commit mass murder. These remaining members, of which Benji described as “a pack of scavenging hyenas that simply won’t give up”, had planted a bomb inside The Shard, London’s tallest building. Their aim was to cause as much merciless killing without regard for who would get caught in the blast. Although they couldn’t get their hands on any nuclear weapons, the bomb they had planted was large enough and placed in just the right place that the whole building would be brought down. The Syndicate knew a disaster like that would cause chaos, shaking people from every corner of the earth to their very cores. So, the IMF knew the bomb must not be detonated under any circumstances.
Working, hunched over his laptop in their safe house with fingers dancing over keys at such a pace the sound became a continuous buzz, it hadn’t taken long for Benji to work out how to deactivate the bomb. The technician had also discovered that it could only be deactivated from an abandoned soap factory, a few miles south of where him and Ethan were situated. Ethan’s heart swelled with pride when Benji disclosed this information to him of which had taken a remarkably short amount of time for the dedicated younger agent to uncover. Within minutes of knowing this information, the duo were on their way.
Outside the eerily quiet building they stood for a moment. Listening. knowing full well they would have to approach quietly as it was almost inevitable that they wouldn’t be alone. With trembling white knuckles, Benji gripped his handgun tightly, flashing a look back to the car. Ethan could sense his reluctance and showed him a reassuring smile. There was only one way into the building, any other windows or doors had been firmly boarded off to deter adventurous kids and drug dealers from taking advantage of the place. Ethan took the lead, Benji behind him, prepared to protect him if anybody appeared from behind them. Deep within the old building and up a flight of stairs in a room Ethan assumed to be a control room were the only active pieces of tech in the building. On one side of the room was a large window, overseeing the factory floor below. The door was locked but they could see inside the room through a small window upon it. Benji used his phone to wirelessly unlock the door, the same technique he used in the opera house, when he first encountered The Syndicate. In the room, Ethan noted that there were footprints in the dusty floor but none leading to the neighbouring rooms, only footprints going back the way they came. Something wasn’t quite right… surely The Syndicate wouldn’t leave the only piece of tech that could prevent their plan from being thwarted unguarded. Choosing to remain on guard but not to dwell on the lack of… anything from preventing them from deactivating the bomb, Ethan nodded to Benji who got to work, with limited time trickling away, what else could they do?
Flinching suddenly away from his work, Benji looked to Ethan mouthing “Did you hear that?” Ethan cocked his head slightly, furrowing his brow. He couldn’t hear anything. “It was back where we came from” Benji whispered. Ethan nodded, trusting what Benji had heard and retreated back out of the room. With bated breath and wide eyes, Benji stared at Ethan’s back as he disappeared from the room. Once he was outside the room and far enough away from the door Benji leapt up, nearly slipping over in his rush and yanked the door closed, hearing it lock with a click. Ethan snapped around and tried to open the door, rattling the handle manically. From the other side of the glass Benji glared at him, sadness evident in his eyes. “What’s going on, Benji!?” Ethan’s piercing eyes searched the agent’s face.
“Ethan, there’s another bomb, it’s programmed to go off if the one in The Shard gets deactivated… it’s… in this room” Benji swallowed, offering a sad smile that came across as more of a grimace. “Can you deactivate it?” Ethan already thought he knew the answer to his question. “No. The bomb in here can only be deactivated by whoever has the controls, god knows where, even if there was some miraculous way of deactivating it, they can reactivate it in seconds.” Benji stepped closer to the door “In London, that bomb will go off, If I leave here, people will die, Ethan. Lots of people. I can’t let that happen.” “Then tell me what to do, Benji” Ethan’s hands balled into fists. “Ethan, I can’t lose you either, so go. Get to safety, please”.
Ethan gritted his teeth, banging his fists on the door, causing Benji to flinch away slightly. “No, Benji, you knew this was going to happen, you should have told me, it should be me in there!” he spat out, backing up and running into the door, trying to break it down. He retreated back and tried again, and again, only stopping when he felt someplace in his shoulder protest painfully. Benji smiled and choked back a tear, placing his hand on the small window. Shakily, Ethan mirrored his action, pressing his palm to the glass, the only thing separating them from touching. Benji opened his mouth to tell Ethan something he had been meaning to say for a long time but stopped himself, not wanting to make it any harder for his partner. “Go” He whispered instead. “I’ve got a small plan, increases the chance I might survive, so, come back for me when the dust has cleared, yeah? But there’s not long now so please, go.”
Benji turned back to the computers, wires and other complex devices in the room. There were two minutes to go. He didn’t think that he could survive but telling Ethan a white lie like that convinced him to leave so that was okay. He finished the necessary computer work, all was left to do now was to cut a wire and it would be all over. Shakily, he held a pair of pliers open over the wire scrunching his nose and narrowing his eyes. Benji glanced quickly at the chair he was using earlier in his peripheral vision then back again. There were 30 seconds remaining. “I’m an agent, it’s my duty” he thought to himself “I will save countless lives and most of all Ethan will be safe” he tried to reassure himself. Benji didn’t want to die.
Hissing a curse under his breath the tech quickly scrambled to the chair, gripping the back of it unnecessarily tightly, hoping the grip would help to ground him, alleviating some stress. It didn’t. He picked it up, quickly turning to the large window overseeing the factory floor and hurled it through with all his strength. The whole window shattered but he didn’t wait to see, he just snapped back to the control panel and cut the wire.