Agent Jones- Book One

| Chapter Twenty-Four |

The SSR cars screeched to a hard stop as a plane started to take off in front of us. Peggy and Mr. Jarvis burst out from the car in front of ours with Peggy yelling at Howard in the plane. It was no use for the plane was already taking off and flying away.

Daniel, Jack, and I got out of our car to watch. My heart plummeted down into my stomach and I thought it was over- that we were too late. Peggy shook her head and hurried to the trunk of the SSR car she rode in. We all followed and watched as she opened the trunk to reveal shotguns. With those, we already had radios in case we got separated. Well, for when we get separated.

As she handed them out to us, she asked, "How long until he reaches New York?"

"Twelve minutes, maybe less," Daniel answered.

Jack shrugged beside me. "Maybe we can talk him down?" he offered. "Chief listened, he might, too."

I nodded and Peggy slammed the trunk shut. She looked over from Jack, Daniel, and I to Mr. Jarvis. "Radio room?" she asked him.

"Second floor of the hangar," he answered quickly.

She nodded. "Tiffany, you come with me. I need someone to take one of those planes up as well," she said.

Jack stopped and looked at Peggy. "Why?" he asked. We all knew what she was getting at, but none of us liked the thought.

Peggy held a stare with Jack, and all of our thoughts were confirmed. "Shoot him down?" Daniel asked, causing Peggy to look at him. "With a plane full of poisonous gas?"

"You'd have to do it over the water- before he reaches land," Jack added on. I nodded and looked at Peggy to see so many thoughts and emotions flitting around in her mind. She was in a somewhat similar situation not that long ago with someone else she cared about.

Daniel shook his head suddenly. "I'm not your guy; I've never flown a plane before," he said, and Jack said the same. I shook my head as well. Peggy had already expressed that she wanted me up in the radio room with her, and I've only flown two planes and I didn't even stay in the air for longer than a half hour with how terrible I was.

We were out of options until Mr. Jarvis said, "I have." We looked over at him and I was saddened at his grief-filled expression.

"Mr. Jarvis, I cannot ask this of you," Peggy said as she took a step to him.

He lightly shook his head. "Mr. Stark would want to be stopped by any means possible," he said. "We have little time."

Rather than arguing any longer, Peggy and Mr. Jarvis just looked at each other. I knew Peggy really didn't want to send him up there like that but she knew that he was our only choice. I saw her take in a small, shaky breath before she said, "Help him get off the ground."

Jack and Daniel set their guns down and started the process of getting Mr. Jarvis up in the air. I followed after Peggy with my own gun as she started to run towards the stairs to the second floor. I turned my head to look behind me and made eye contact with Jack. We didn't mouth any words or anything, just nodded our heads once at each other to pass along a silent message: Don't die.

Peggy and I quickly and quietly made our way up and down a hallway. She led with her shotgun up and aiming at a door where noise and words were coming from. A figured, Dottie, passed in front of the partially open door and we paused for a second to ensure we were still 'invisible,' and then continued on.

When we got close enough, we could hear Howard over the radio talking back to Doctor Fennhoff. Neither of the Russians were focusing on us, so the advantage was ours. Peggy very quietly pushed the door open and we both stepped in with her slightly more in front.

"Hands up." The two stopped and slowly moved their hands up in the air. Dottie started moving her right one but Peggy noticed. "Ah ah ah. Lose the gun." The doctor nodded lightly and Dottie very carefully pulled the gun out and dropped it on the floor.

"Move away from the radio. Slowly," Peggy said next.

While Doctor Fennhoff slowly rolled away in his chair, Dottie looked over at the two of us. "Peggy, Tiffany," she said in her stupid cheery voice. As she spoke, she slowly turned to face us. My gun remained trained on her while I glanced at the doctor from the corner of my eye. "It is so good to see you guys."

Dottie barely finished her sentence when she slapped at the barrel of Peggy's gun, Peggy fired, the doctor kicked my left foot out from under me, and I went down. Peggy and Dottie got into a fist fight quickly and Doctor Fennhoff rolled back over to the radio.

Peggy was handling herself well enough, so I focused on the doc. I ran over and tried to push the man away. "Stark! Howard it's not real! Don't listen to him!" I shouted into the radio as I awkwardly fought Fennhoff's efforts to get back in control.

Suddenly, I was pulled back and pushed into a table where I slammed into it and went down. Dottie gave me one of her stupid, sweet smiles, and grabbed a baseball bat.

She looked at Fennhoff and said, "Go." He got up quickly and ran out of the room. I stayed down on the ground long enough for Peggy to get back in gear and distract Dottie. Once they were fighting again, I rolled away from where I had been towards the door, then stood up and started running after him.

When I got down the stairs, I lost him. My breathing was heavy but I quieted the breaths in order to try and sneak around to find out where he went. I could see shadows all around me. None of them looked like him though, so I kept moving.

"Fennhoff's escaped the radio room," Peggy's voice crackled over the radio. It was loud and screechy while I was trying to not spook Fennhoff too much, so I shut it off. There was a rustling noise down to my right, so I turned and tip-toed down in that direction. He obviously heard that, so he'd be moving away from me now.

As I was rounding a corner, a person slammed into me and started to run. I barely caught myself on some metal fencing, and looked up to see it was Doctor Fennhoff running. "Son of a bitch!" I yelled in frustration and sprinted after him. Though he wasn't that fast, he got a head-start on me. And he wasn't wearing heels- just because I can run in them doesn't mean it's the fastest sprint in the world.

Finally I got close enough to where I could grab his arm and yank him back. He fell back and into me, and we both went tumbling. My shotgun went sliding under a car. "Damn..." I mumbled, but got back on my feet and tried to grab a pistol off my leg.

On the ground next to me, Fennhoff was sprawled out. He looked down, but his eyes flitted around him to find a weapon. As I grabbed the pistol, he grabbed a crowbar and slammed in into my left knee cap.

I went back down, but held onto my weapon this time. He was starting to stand up slightly, and swung the crowbar around to hit me. It was easy to dodge. I rolled to my right and then kicked Fennhoff in the side to bring him down at least enough to where I could kick the crowbar out of his hands. He leaned over to recover from my kick, so I got rid of the crowbar and let it clang to the ground.

He was on the ground in pain, so I felt good enough to get up and aimed my pistol at him. "Freeze!" I turned to see who yelled that and saw Jack standing with his shotgun up. When he registered it was me standing there the shotgun went down and he smiled. Then, he looked panicked. "Get down!"

The words barely registered when I got smack in the back of the head with something hard and something painful. Everything in my body went numb and I went down to the ground. This time, however, I wasn't completely knocked out. Just really disoriented.

Voices swam around in my head, and I recognized Jack's first. But then I could hear Fennhoff's voice followed by Daniel's. They were getting louder, and I felt a mean headache coming on. I let out a grown and started to open my eyes and focus on things. When I sat up and focused on the people in front of me, I gasped.

A/n: I should give Tiffany a break...

Nah!