Kristy runs through the streets of Paris, desperately looking for a way, any way, out of the noose closing in around her. She knows it has to be Paris - she can occasionally see the Eiffel Tower through gaps in the surrounding buildings. But how had she got here? And who was hunting her?
Loud shouts from behind catch her attention. Sharp reports follow, bolts whizzing by her, knocking fragments of brick and plaster from the walls nearby. She flinches reflexively away from the impacts, her pulse starting to pound as she realises her pursuers have caught up to her. Looking up, she sees more white-armoured figures appear at the other end of the street. Her blood runs cold. Stormtroopers. She keeps running, but now the fire is coming from in front of her as well as from behind.
She ducks sideways, slipping into an alleyway, away from the troops chasing her. She sprints along it, moving faster than she had thought she was capable. Slowing slightly, she tries to get her bearings, to figure out which way to run that won't lead her straight back into the arms of her pursuers. An archway up ahead looks promising. Just as she reaches it, a voice seems to come from the shadows - "Kristy?". She whirls, and almost falls as momentum tries to keep her moving. "Kristy?". As she searches frantically for the source of that voice, she sees those ominous figures again, blocking both ends of the alleyway. As the blasterfire rains down, her eyes close and she slips into oblivion.
"Kristy?"
Nick said her name again. An expression of concern made its way across his face, displacing the hard-edged anger which had existed there moments before. Almost involuntarily, his hand rose, as if to brush the cheek of the sleeping woman on the screen in front of him. Still rousing herself from sleep, it was clear to Nick that she had been crying, and that her rest hadn't been particularly peaceful, either.
"Hnh. Huhh. Nick?"
Kristy opened her eyes slowly, a shudder going through her as she remembered the dream, or rather, nightmare, that had been tormenting her sleep. Now she looked into the concerned eyes of one of her Australian teammates. God, I must look a fright if he's that worried by the sight of me. The idle thought almost brought a smile to her face, but then it skittered through her brain and was gone. Close on its heels though, came something not so easily dislodged. Josh. Kristy closed her eyes again, refusing to start crying once more over what had happened to one of her other Australian teammates.
"Kristy, what's wrong?"
From what Nick could see, whatever had been upsetting Kristy was still upsetting her. She'd almost smiled when she glanced at him, but then had suddenly looked for all the world like someone had just run over her pet kitten. Unable to do anything more tangible, he tried to inject his concern for her into his voice and into his expression.
Nick's voice brought Kristy's attention back to the present. She opened her eyes once more, seeing him staring out of the screen at her, his bluish grey eyes intense as he waited for her response. It took a moment for the significance of that to hit her. He doesn't know. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again as sobs tried to take the opportunity to seize control of her throat. He doesn't know Josh is dead. Kristy took a deep steadying breath. She focused on Nick's eyes, trying not to let what she was saying touch her.
"The Paris team ran into trouble. There was an explosion, and they needed a diversion to get out of the area. Josh provided it, and everyone got clear. The French thought he was a terrorist and chased him down. They reported him dead last night."
There, she'd said it. And she hadn't started crying again either. Now it was her turn to wait for a response. She searched his face, looking for some sign of his reaction. Beyond a slight tightening around his eyes, she didn't see much.
"Ahh, it starts to make a bit more sense, now."
Nick wasn't sure what reaction he'd expected to that. In truth, it had been more a matter of thinking out loud than an intentional comment. Regardless, it soon became clear that Kristy had been expecting something more of him.
"It what?! I tell you your best friend is dead, and all you can say is 'It makes sense'?!"
Now Kristy got to see a bit more of an emotional response from the Australian. His eyes widened, and he seemed to take a step back from the comm unit at his end. She glared at him, incensed by his cavalier attitude, pouring all of the grief she had been feeling over Josh's death into a single expression of fury. Then Nick moved forward again, once more assuming that earnest, intense expression he'd worn when she first woke up.
"Wait, Kristy, it isn't like that. Josh isn't dead. Vickie sent me some stuff about it, stuff that fit in with things I'd already found, but she forgot to fill in some of the context. Like why anyone, you included, would have reason to think he was dead. That's what makes more sense now. I don't know what body the French found, but it isn't Josh's."
The fire that Nick's original response had triggered in Kristy's eyes seemed to flicker a bit. He watched as it dimmed and Kristy looked down and away, as if staring at something in her hand. As she brought her hand briefly up to her lips, he caught a glimpse of bronze between her fingers, and thought he saw her mouth the words "Thank you." When she looked at him again, her eyes held a hint of the sparkle he was accustomed to seeing there.
"He isn't dead?"
The sheer impossibility of it almost took Kristy's breath away. Even as the question left her lips, she looked down again at the St Michael's medallion in her fist. To lose one of her own, someone she would trust her life to, only to have him given back. It was like some kind of miracle.
"He isn't dead. Vickie believes it, and the evidence she sent my way is enough to convince me too."
Now that Kristy was starting to look a bit more like herself, the anger Nick had been feeling started to edge its way back into his consciousness. Vickie's evidence had been quite convincing, as had the charming tidbits that had turned up in Bill Skywalker's file. Combined with the warning Kaerb had brought, Nick thought he had a fair idea of the parties involved in Josh's disappearance. When he found them, he had every intention of making them wish they'd never even heard of Terra.
"Yes, as I said, he isn't dead. But he has been captured, and almost certainly by people who will try to use him to get to me. I don't appreciate that. I don't appreciate it at all. I need you to help me find them, so I can convey my feelings in person."
As he spoke, Nick's eyes started glittering ominously. As she contrasted his cold, even, tones with the way he had spoken to her just moments before, she felt a shiver run up and down her spine. She'd never seen the way Nick looked at someone he deemed an enemy. Now, as he looked through her at some unseen foe, she had to resist the urge to step away from the icy fury of that gaze. Kristy's own mouth tightened into a grim line.
"If they've got Josh, we'll find them all right. But, before we do anything else,"
Nick waited as Kristy paused. If he didn't miss his guess, he was pretty certain as to what her condition was going to be. It didn't take long for his suspicions to be confirmed. As she resumed speaking, Kristy pointed an accusing finger at him and pronounced each word clearly and distinctly. She clearly had no intentions of letting him weasel his way out with half an explanation this time.
"You. Are going to sit there. And tell me just what. In the bloody hell. Is going on."
"Kristy, we really don't have-"
"Now."