Every Time You Close Your Eyes, S5 (Queen of the South)

Part 6 - Crescendo

James checked his watch. He had waited for almost two hours for any movement around Kostya's office after he had seen Oksana being led in. The whole wing of the building was inexplicably quiet; he had only seen two staffers walk by since the morning. His gut told him something was wrong!

He checked his gun and his cell. Teresa had texted him! Fuck! How come he had not seen it? He had silenced his phone and now, after nervously tapping to open the message, he almost choked with the news that she was voluntarily going in to save Oksana and her daughter! Oksana had a daughter! Fuck! That was real bad in this biz!

He wondered if Medved and Kostya had gotten the details out of Oksana and were expecting him. Did they have backup? This was a guarded building, but they'd be dumb to not expect him to be armed. Hard as it was, he could not have the gun in a visible place, so he put it away in his leg holster.

Then he got startled. His cell phone rang. The caller ID showed him that it was Teresa's phone, and his blood froze as he said a tentative 'hello'.

"We know you are somewhere on premises," a thick Russian voice said. "You have thirty seconds to walk through the office door with your hands up or I shoot one of these fine ladies in the head. One, two..."

"I'm coming." James pressed the panic button on his cell phone, which would signal Finch to send the electrical guy, his contact who had left the hidden gun for him in the first place.

"Three, four..." The voice kept counting.

No choice!. James jumped up from his crouch and sprinted to the door. "Five, six, seven..."

"Don't hurt them. I'm almost there." Don't hurt them. Christ! But what else was there to say?

He turned the knob. The key pad was green, and the door was unlocked. He stepped inside.

The thick voice: "I said, hands up." James put his hands high in the air.

The man from the picture Finch had shown him stood across the room. He had a gun in his hand, and it was pointed at Teresa and Oksana, who were on their knees in front of him, hands behind their backs, facing the door. They both looked unharmed.

James glanced left and right. One more man, gun trained on his head.

He stayed perfectly still, hands up, trying to look as calm as possible. The Electrician had to be close by...all his brain could say was that he needed to stall.

He made eye contact with the man and keeping his tone even and controlled, said. "Look, let's talk, okay? There's no reason..."

Kostya put the gun against the back of Oksana head and pulled the trigger.

There was a deafening sound, a small spurt of red, wetness; a moment of suspended animation followed, and the body dropping to the floor like a marionette with her strings cut. Teresa screamed. Maybe he screamed too.

Kostya began to swing the gun toward Teresa.

OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod... "No!" James's mind screamed. Instinct took over and it was a mantra: Save Teresa!

He dived as though he was in a pool, toward them. Bullets from the other guy rang out, but he had made the common mistake of pointing his gun at James's head and his aim ended up being too high. Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Teresa rolling away as Kostya started training the gun on her.

Had to move faster!

He was trying to do several things at once: keep low, avoid bullets across the room, pull the gun from his leg holster, and kill the bastard!