Time seemed to slow down for Sarah as it happened. She stood there watching Jack, staring at him with a frightened look in her eyes. Then she heard what sounded like a gunshot and in the next minute she felt herself on the floor with Lieto collapsed on top of her. She could feel blood trickling down on her, but she didn't feel like she'd been shot. Against her hand she felt something cold and metallic. Then reality struck her; Lieto had been shot.
Sarah didn't know what made her do it but she picked up Lieto's lighter and put it into one of her pockets. Then she felt Jack picking her up, she leant into him still too scared to know exactly what was going on. Jack led Sarah out of the warehouse, outside she could see a car parked nearby. Next to it was an ambulance with a couple of paramedics standing by. Jack took Sarah over to the car, he opened a door and sat her on the backseat.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
Meekly Sarah replied, "yes," It was all she could manage to say.
Jack left her there, She just sat there in shock. It was the first time she had ever seen anyone get killed. As she started to tune back into reality, she remembered that she had Lieto's lighter in her pocket. She took it out and looked at it. It was a Zippo lighter with 'Fuck democracy' written on one side. Sarah just sat there staring at it. Eventually, Jack came back over to her, she barely noticed that Cooper was with him.
"The mission was a complete failure. Pembleton and Pendrell were both killed, and someone killed Lieto," Cooper was saying.
"I'm going to take Sarah home, Cooper. I'll meet you over at the CIA buildings for the debrief in about half an hour."
"Okay, I'll see you later Jack," Cooper replied.
Jack got Sarah out of the car and she put the lighter back into her pocket as he led her over to her car. Jack sat her in the passenger seat and took the keys from her. Jack drove and they both remained in silence. Sarah was going over the moment of Lieto's death in her mind. Jack parked the car and took Sarah inside. He decided to put her to bed, it had been a long day. He watched her for a few minutes before Sarah fell to sleep. He really wanted to stay there and look after her, but he knew he had to go and sort out the mess that the mission had turned into.
As Jack drove back to the CIA building he was haunted by Lieto's words. Had it all been some elaborate set-up?
|