OOM: Sky of memory and shadow
May. 13th, 2007 02:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geeky_agentJuly, 15, 2012
4:32pm
"Our intel on Hassan was wrong. He's wasn't in the building," Milo tells her as walks past to his station.
Chris glances up from her screen, narrowing her eyes. "What? Who was there?"
"Don't know," he says with a shrug, not looking at her, only at his computer. "The field teams just pulled up to the location in Valencia. If you have that new security packet, send it over to my screen."
"Yeah, all right," is the murmured reply. A few taps and it's done. Looking up over her screen, Chris has a clear into the conference room where Nadia and Bill are talking. From this distance, she can't hear anything and from their body language, it's hard to say what's happening. Chris focuses on her screen, frowning as she waits for the satellite to update with new images for their site in Valencia. Finally, it updates to the teams approaching the building but she knows this isn't real time, the lag is usually about 30 seconds.
After a week of consecutive attacks, there'd been nothing. Palmer's assassination didn't appear to be connected and even though they had leads on the groups involved, they hadn't made any headway. There was no reason for this calm, even if everyone wanted to believe it was over now.
The satellite images were updated, now she was looking at the empty CTU cars outside the building, the teams already inside.
Caiti had been too quiet these past few days. It was like before, after their father -- died, when she didn't talk and moved around the house like a ghost. Unlike last time, though, she was anxious to get back to her normal routine, wanting to go back home to DC as soon as possible. This time it was Chris who didn't want to let go.
She blinked at her screen, wondering if the lag was longer than usual or if --
It went blank. No image. From the mumblings around her, she wasn't the only one having problems.
"Is the network down?" Chris asks Milo and he just shakes his head in confusion.
Standing up from her desk, she walks over to the conference room where Nadia and Bill are standing silently, their backs turned to her. "Hey, I think there's a problem..."
The rest of the sentence is forgotten as she looks at the mushroom cloud filling the screen. She notices the words 'Valencia, California' at the bottom but refuses to believe them or the image. "What is that? Where is it from? When is it from?"
Nadia turns around, looking at her with shock and before she can answer Chris is heading back towards her station. She looks at the television screens in the bullpen, all turned to FoxNews, all showing the same image of a mushroom cloud, all saying the same thing. Forcing herself to move forward, she collapses clumsily into her chair, banging her elbow. Before she can even think about it, Chris is picking up the phone and dialing the numbers to her apartment.
"We're sorry, all circuits are busy right now. Please hang up and try again."
So she does. Twice more to the apartment, once more to Caiti's cell phone and always getting the same response. Slamming the phone down, she hears Milo's voice and she realizes he's probably talking to her but she keeps moving, out of her seat and she's not even sure where she's going to go. The only thing that keeps her from heading out that door and trying to get to Valencia is Milo telling her that someone is on the phone for her.
Turning back, she grabs the phone from him, "Caiti?"
4:32pm
"Our intel on Hassan was wrong. He's wasn't in the building," Milo tells her as walks past to his station.
Chris glances up from her screen, narrowing her eyes. "What? Who was there?"
"Don't know," he says with a shrug, not looking at her, only at his computer. "The field teams just pulled up to the location in Valencia. If you have that new security packet, send it over to my screen."
"Yeah, all right," is the murmured reply. A few taps and it's done. Looking up over her screen, Chris has a clear into the conference room where Nadia and Bill are talking. From this distance, she can't hear anything and from their body language, it's hard to say what's happening. Chris focuses on her screen, frowning as she waits for the satellite to update with new images for their site in Valencia. Finally, it updates to the teams approaching the building but she knows this isn't real time, the lag is usually about 30 seconds.
After a week of consecutive attacks, there'd been nothing. Palmer's assassination didn't appear to be connected and even though they had leads on the groups involved, they hadn't made any headway. There was no reason for this calm, even if everyone wanted to believe it was over now.
The satellite images were updated, now she was looking at the empty CTU cars outside the building, the teams already inside.
Caiti had been too quiet these past few days. It was like before, after their father -- died, when she didn't talk and moved around the house like a ghost. Unlike last time, though, she was anxious to get back to her normal routine, wanting to go back home to DC as soon as possible. This time it was Chris who didn't want to let go.
She blinked at her screen, wondering if the lag was longer than usual or if --
It went blank. No image. From the mumblings around her, she wasn't the only one having problems.
"Is the network down?" Chris asks Milo and he just shakes his head in confusion.
Standing up from her desk, she walks over to the conference room where Nadia and Bill are standing silently, their backs turned to her. "Hey, I think there's a problem..."
The rest of the sentence is forgotten as she looks at the mushroom cloud filling the screen. She notices the words 'Valencia, California' at the bottom but refuses to believe them or the image. "What is that? Where is it from? When is it from?"
Nadia turns around, looking at her with shock and before she can answer Chris is heading back towards her station. She looks at the television screens in the bullpen, all turned to FoxNews, all showing the same image of a mushroom cloud, all saying the same thing. Forcing herself to move forward, she collapses clumsily into her chair, banging her elbow. Before she can even think about it, Chris is picking up the phone and dialing the numbers to her apartment.
"We're sorry, all circuits are busy right now. Please hang up and try again."
So she does. Twice more to the apartment, once more to Caiti's cell phone and always getting the same response. Slamming the phone down, she hears Milo's voice and she realizes he's probably talking to her but she keeps moving, out of her seat and she's not even sure where she's going to go. The only thing that keeps her from heading out that door and trying to get to Valencia is Milo telling her that someone is on the phone for her.
Turning back, she grabs the phone from him, "Caiti?"
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-14 01:01 am (UTC)There's no answer, and he walks further into the room, listening for anything above the hum of the servers. "Chris?" he says again, closing the door behind him, and he can hear a hitched breath behind one of the stacks. Moving around it, he can see her, her back turned toward him, and he reaches out, gently touching her shoulder. "Sweetheart?"
no subject
Date: 2007-05-14 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-14 01:03 am (UTC)"Have you heard from Caiti?" he asks, stroking her hair gently, though her emotional state is really all the answer he needs. Even as he asks, as he tries to think of where Caiti could be and how they could find out if she's all right, part of him still can't believe it's actually happened. That a nuclear bomb has gone off, and they're suddenly facing the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-14 01:04 am (UTC)And a part of her hates him for asking and would hated it if he didn't. Chris didn't want to hope that Caiti was still alive, still okay but she didn't want to believe that her sister was dead either. If she was then she'd have to tell Ryan, then she'd have to go back to Milliways and tell her father and everytime she tries to imagine that, she starts crying.
If she was alive, it might not matter. Chris knew enough to know what the chances of survival would be that close to the blast, even with a smaller bomb. It could take weeks to find her in the hospitals, among the thousands who were slowly dying of radiation sickness. She spent the past hour trying to think of ways she could find her quickly, anything to speed up the process and comes back to same horrible thought that even if Caiti survived she could be dead by the time Chris found her.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-14 01:06 am (UTC)He stands there for another minute, just holding her in silence. More than anything he wants to take this pain away from her, to do something to make everything all right. But he knows that isn't possible, and so he has to focus on what he can do, even if it doesn't feel like nearly enough.
His eyes are stinging, and he blinks, quickly, trying to keep his composure. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," he whispers.