Mission 5: Payback part 9

Continued from last week...

“You let them what?” the emperor screamed, spittle flying from his mouth.
Chuck might have flinched; it was hard to tell with the huge bandage over his face. He mumbled something in response, but his words were so muffled that the emperor couldn’t understand.
“What?” the emperor asked, making face. “I can’t understand a word you just said behind that stupid bandage.
Chuck roared and ripped the bandage from his face. His skin was puffy and bright red; burns covered the right side and his left side looked slightly scorched.
The emperor gave a look of horror and turned away. “What in the world happened to your face?”
“Ryan Cruise happened,” Chuck growled, giving a menacing look that was amplified by his highly disfigured face.
“Well, what do expect? Marching your troops into hell like that wasn’t the smartest thing in the world. Did you really think he would just sit there and watch you kill him? He’s a trained IMF agent, remember that.”
“Well maybe you trained him too well,” Chuck mumbled.
“Excuse me, are we questioning my judgment?” the emperor’s hand hovered over the same button that had sent Michael down a trap door earlier.
Chuck stared at him. “Of course not, emperor.”
“Good,” the emperor put his hands back down on the desk. “Now look, if you’re having so much trouble with Cruise,” he paused, enjoying the increasing redness in Chuck’s face. “If you’re having so much trouble with Cruise then you should just… readjust your approach to capturing him.”
“How?” Chuck asked.
“You really are all brawn aren’t you?” the emperor said, rolling his eyes. “Use some bait, to lure him in.”
Chuck nodded. “What kind of bait?”
The emperor gave an annoyed laugh. “Are you really that stupid, Chuck? Lure him with a girl, Chuck, lure him with a girl. Every last agent has fallen for that trick, even his father,” the emperor cackled. “His father fell for it to the very end.”

When Jordan landed his helicopter on the Rebel airstrip, there was quite a commotion. The first one to meet them as they landed was Derek.
“Cruise, Laz, its good to see you again guys!” he exclaimed hugging them and slapping them high fives. “And who’s this?” he asked, pointing to Tim.
“This is--” Ryan started to say, but he was interrupted by a chorus of screams coming from a crowd of girls rushing towards them.
“Tim! Ryan! Laz!” they screamed. It was Cathy, Kayla, Emmy, and Katie, of course, all rushing towards them.
“I can’t believe you’re still alive!” Kayla said. “I haven’t seen you guys in forever! Where’ve you been?”
“To hell and back, Kayla, but I’m definitely glad to be back,” Tim replied.
“Well, enough of the chit chat,” Ryan said, breaking into the excited chatter as the girls giggled and wondered at their reappearance.
Just then, crushing arms wrapped around Tim, Ryan, and Laz and squeezed them together until their lungs were nearly suffocated. It was Chris, of course. “Ryan, Tim, Laz! Buddies, how you doing? Its good to see you again!”
“Its good to see you to,” Ryan gasped.
“Yeah, how about letting go now, so we don’t die from lack of air?” Laz wheezed. Chris let go and they fell in a heap. Ryan instantly popped to his feet, pretending that never happened.
Emmy hugged Ryan. “I’m glad your back, big brother,” she grinned at him.
“Yeah, so am I,” Ryan said. He glanced around. “Where’s Sarah?” he asked.
“Right here,” someone tapped him on the shoulder. Ryan turned around, and there was Sarah standing behind him.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Sarah smiled.
Ryan just blinked. “Wait, that’s it, I’ve been gone all this time and all I get is ‘we’ve got a lot of work to do’?”
“Well we do,” Sarah defended herself.
“I was expecting something a little more… I don’t know… exciting?”
“What do you want me to do, Ryan?” Sarah frowned. “Run up and hug you and give you a big kiss?”
Ryan shrugged. “Well, that would definitely be better…”
Sarah smacked him on the head and stormed off.
“Hey, I was just kidding!” Ryan said, jogging after her.
Sarah spun around to face him. “You’re always kidding, it’s irritating!”
“My foster parents used to say that.”
“There you go again,” Sarah said, throwing up her hands.
“You’re just saying that because you’re trying to find something wrong with me,” Ryan shot back.
“Well, that’s not to hard, and why would I want to do that anyways?”
“Because you like me, admit it,” Ryan grinned.
“Me? Like You?” Sarah laughed spitefully. “You’ve got to be joking.”
This didn’t faze Ryan however, “Deep down inside, you know you’re captivated by me,” he insisted.
“You really need to bring that ego of yours down a notch, Cruise,” Sarah said shortly, and then she walked away.
Ryan shook his head. “Women,” he muttered.
“What about them?” Katie spoke up from behind him.
“Nothing,” Ryan waved her off.
“Having some personal problems with your friend there?” Katie asked, smugly.
“No, thank you very much.”
“You really think she likes you?” Katie pressed, not willing to back down.
Ryan sighed. “I’m not sure if I like her. Sometimes I just want to strangle her, and other times I want to ask her to marry me,” he paused. “Well, maybe not marry me.”
“Girls are pretty hard for guys to figure out, I’ll give you that one,” Katie admitted. “Tell you what, do you want me to try and find out how she feels about you?”
Ryan grinned. “That would be awesome, thanks. By the way, I’m really sorry about your car, we’ll scrape some money together to buy you a new one when this is all over.”
“Wait,” Katie frowned. “What about my car?”
“Oh,” Ryan tried to stop the mischievous smile from spreading across his face. “Tim didn’t tell you?”
“Ryan Cruise, what happened to my car?” Katie shouted.
“Never mind, I didn’t say anything,” Ryan started to walk away.
“Did you wreck it?”
Ryan thought for a minute. “I wouldn’t exactly put it that way.”
“What way would you put it?”
“Well, how about this? Your car’s a lot hotter now, literally.”
“You blew it up, didn’t you?”
“Not quite in those terms, but yeah, pretty much.”
“I can’t believe this!” Katie pulled her hair. “My car!”
“I can,” said Kayla, who had just walked in on their conversation. “Leave it to Ryan to bring about plenty of explosive results.” She waved for Ryan to follow her, “Cathy wants to speak to you Ryan.”
Ryan glanced back at a seething Katie. “Don’t worry I’m coming,” he said.
“TIM!!!” Katie screamed. “You’re gonna pay for this!”
Tim was talking to Emmy and Laz when he heard his sister’s scream. “Oh crap,” he groaned. “Ryan told her about the car.” Then he took off sprinting in the opposite direction, with Laz close on his heels.

Later, Ryan and the rest of his team were gathered in Cathy’s office. “…Pat claims that an imperial strike is imminent,” Cathy was saying. “The question is, whether or not to believe him.”
“With all due respect, ma’am,” Jordan spoke up. “I don’t think we can afford not to. When I was flying towards Imperial Bridge I saw quite an army being amassed near the Imperial Palace. I’m not sure what they were gathering for, but I can only guess.”
Cruise nodded. “Jordan’s right, we have to assume that the emperor’s going to strike, and possibly even consider a preemptive strike.”
Everyone in the room appeared stunned by this suggestion.
“What are you saying, Cruise?” Cathy asked.
“What I just said,” Ryan replied, casually slipping on his shades. “We strike before the empire can strike us,” he leaned back in his chair and grinned.
“Are you crazy?” Kayla blurted.
Ryan just lowered his sunglasses and raised his eyebrows.
“We’ve already established that,” Chris said, rolling his eyes.
“I think he’s right, though,” Tim spoke up.
“You do?” everyone in the room spoke at once, even Ryan.
“Yeah, a preemptive strike would have tactical surprise. Thus, catching the empire completely off-guard, perhaps enough to give us a steady victory.”
“Perhaps?” Emmy questioned. “Frankly, it doesn’t seem like anyone has any answers.”
“I’ll bet my life it will work,” Ryan challenged.
“In the end, that may be what it comes down to,” Cathy pointed out.
“Besides, you’ve bet your life before and lost,” Laz said.
“Not my life,” Ryan shot back.
“Yeah, but you lost the bet,” Laz retorted.
“All right, all right, you all have valid points,” Cathy raised her hands in order to stop an argument from forming. “Sarah, you’ve been quiet, what do you have to say?”
Sarah sighed. “I agree with Ryan,” she said.
Once again, this was received with a shocked expression from everyone in the room.
“You do know that April Fool’s was a few weeks ago, right?” Laz asked.
“Yes, Laz, I know,” Sarah said with an irritated edge in her voice, as if she were upset with herself for agreeing with Ryan. “I just think it’s actually a good, strategically surprising idea. Let’s do it.”
Just then, there was a loud beep from Cathy’s desk. Cathy hit a button and Clarence’s voice came through the intercom. “Cathy, milady? You’re going to want to see this message I’m dispatching to you.”
“Can it wait, Clarence?”
“Trust me, milady, it pertains to your meeting.”
Just then, a large screen TV lowered from the ceiling. Ryan whistled. “That’s nice,” he commented.
“The emperor’s was better, though,” Laz said.
“True, true,” Ryan nodded in agreement.
All of the sudden, the emperor himself popped onto the screen. “Greetings, you despicable rebels,” he began. “I’m sure by now that you’ve gotten wind of an imminent invasion on your pitiful rebel base. As your emperor, and since I’m such a forgiving leader, I’m giving you exactly ten minutes to get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness. Otherwise, I will be forced to wipe your poor excuse for a rebellion from the face of this earth,” the emperor paused. “Is that it? How do you turn this thing off?” then the screen went blank.
After a long silence, Cathy finally spoke up. “That does it, Cruise, gather together the troops and prepare for a preemptive strike.”
Cruise grinned. “Right away, ma’am.”

Later that evening, as Ryan was gathering together the rebel forces and giving commands, Sarah came up to him.
“Ryan,” she said in a soft, smooth voice. “How are you?”
Ryan looked surprised at her friendly tone. “Fine, and you?”
Sarah smiled. “I’m doing fine, even better now. I want to ask you something.”
“What?” Ryan asked.
“Well, let’s go somewhere private, where we can talk alone,” Sarah whispered.
Ryan grinned. “I knew you’d warm up to me.” He followed Sarah to a deserted sector of the rebel base. “What is it you wanted to ask?”
Sarah pushed him into a corner of a building. “Something important,” she said. Then she shoved him against the wall.
“What the heck is your problem, Sarah?” Ryan asked, suddenly realizing that Sarah was not acting at all like her normal self.
“You are my problem,” Sarah hissed, pressing up against him and drawing a Glock from her side and pointing it to his head. “But I’ll be sure to end that problem real quick.”

To be continued...