A word from Scoop: I'm sorry this has taken so long, but I've been busy. Anywho, down to business...

Scoop
AIM: The Skoop
ICQ: 27497085

"Wil, get up. Time to get moving."

I sat up quickly in bed at the sound of Jeff's call. The adrenaline immediately started to flow and I became fully awake and alert within a few seconds, despite how sore my body was from the amazing sex we had just had the night before. "What's going on?"

Jeff was fully dressed, holding a black mug in his left hand and a piece of paper in his right.. "The Avengers have taken hostages at the old White House."

"The museum? Why?"

Jeff shrugged and took a sip of something out of his mug. His face scrunched up: whatever he was drinking, sucked. "Who knows. They went in this morning disguised as a group of tourists and took everyone in the building hostage. Most of the people there were only staff, but there were a few tours already going through the building."

"How many people?"

"Eighty four."

"Damn." I considered that number for a few seconds before I continued. "They stated their demands to the security force yet?"

"Yeah, but they would only have direct communications with Ottawa HQ for some reason."

I was now out of bed and pulling on a pair of pants that I had taken out of my suitcase. "Surprise, surprise. How much are they asking for?"

"Actually, they only have a single demand."

"Bet it's outlandish," I said, pulling a shirt on over my shoulders.

"Actually Pat Blake has agreed to it already."

"Excellent! So why is it that I needed to get up so quickly?"

"Because we're going to try and convince her to change her mind."

I stopped buttoning my shirt and looked closely at Jeff. "We are?"

"Yep." Jeff took a drink from the mug. "This coffee sucks. They should never have gotten rid of Molique, she use to make amazing coffee."

"Jeff, enough about the coffee. Why are we going to try to change her mind?"

"Because... well... Here, read it for yourself."

Jeff handed me the piece of paper he was holding in his right hand. There wasn't much written on it, so it didn't take long to read. The change in my expression was a clear indication that I had finished.

"They can't be fucking serious!"

"Oh yeah," responded Jeff, "they're serious. And she has agreed to it."

I crumpled the piece of paper in my hand, closing my fist tightly around it. "Not a chance in hell!"

"Mrs. Blake!"

Patricia Blake turned her attention away from the two architects with whom she was discussing building repairs and looked at Jeff and I as we walked into her office.

"Ah, William. About time you got up." She had a light smile on her face which faded when she saw our expressions. "By your expression I assume Jeff has brought you up to speed?"

"You're damned right he has you cold-hearted bitch!"

"Wil!" Jeff barked at me quickly. I stopped my rapid approach and stood beside Jeff across the desk from Patricia.

"That was rather rude Mr. Littrell. I didn't appreciate it at all." If I didn't know any better, I would have thought her nose just went up in the air a few more inches. Come to think of it... who says I know better?

"I don't care if it got you wet, bitch. You have another thing coming to you if you think - "

"YOU have no right to enter my office and treat my like this!"

"And you have no right to give us up to the Avengers!"

Patricia straightened a little more, if that was even possible. I was starting to wonder if she had been using some of that new artificial skeletal technology that was starting to get heavy use in the medical field. "Maybe not. But I don't see it as me giving you up to them."

"Exactly how do you see it?"

She took a deep breath then looked from me, to Jeff, then back to me again. "I guess Jeffrey hasn't brought you entirely up to speed after all. I expected more from you, Mr. Taylor."

"You don't want to start with me yet, Patricia." Jeff practically spit her name out of his mouth. She looked at him, but couldn't meet his fiery gaze.

"I see it as saving the lives of eighty-four people by sacrificing two. I think that's fair don't you?"

I had to admit, it was fair. I calmed down considerably at this point. Perhaps realizing she was right. "There has to be a different way. We don't need to sacrifice anyone."

"Id like to think that way myself Wil, but I don't see how it's possible."

"Something tells me you haven't looked at all. I honestly can't believe you're that shortsighted Pat."

"Jeffrey, I've gone over this. Nothing else can be done."

"Let me go over the situation with Captain Richards, maybe we - "

"Jeffrey, no!" I looked over at Jeff to see his reaction. When someone talks to him like that he usually gets rather upset. What I saw surprised the hell out of me. His jaw had clenched, as had his hands, but for some reason, he stayed quiet.

Patricia Blake took a deep breath and continued on. "You will be transported to Washington at noon for exchange. That gives you roughly four hours. I suggest you take the opportunity to have breakfast and prepare yourselves however you need." She began to walk out of the room. Just before she walked out through the doorway, she turned and looked at us. "And shower. You both smell like sex."

Jeff and I just stood there looking at each other. Neither of us said a word, yet we were both asking ourselves the same thing: have we finally been beaten?

"Uh, excuse us, gentlemen? Maybe one of you could help us?"

I turned and saw that the architects were still there. Their presence in the room had gone completely unnoticed during our little altercation with the queen bitch. They seemed very hesitant to talk to us. Although, come to think of it, I would be to if I was standing in a room with two people who had little over four hours to live.

"How so," asked Jeff.

"Well, seeing as how you two were in this place for quite some time, maybe you could help us with these design issues that we're caught up on."

"We can try I guess." That's my Jeff. Even in his worst moments, he's always thinking of someone else. He is just too damned sweet sometimes!

We walked over to the large table that was against the far right wall of the office. The architects were looking at some blueprints laid out on the table. The first thing I noticed when I looked at the blueprints was the size of the section that had to be rebuilt.

"Whoa, that's a big project. The Avengers did a lot of damage"

The guy on my left snorted and rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh yeah. This job is bigger than the renovations we did here two years ago. And that was a nasty job."

"You were part of the redesign team?'

"Yes sir, Mr. Taylor."

"Call me Jeff."

"OK, Jeff."

"Better. Maybe you can answer a few questions for us about the redesign of this place."

"Shoot."

"Well, first, why was our bedroom not touched?"

"Oh that room? Ms. Blake wouldn't let us do anything with that room. We were going to remove it at first to make the living area larger that is on the left. She wouldn't hear of it. Then we wanted to move the room. Rebuild it in another part of the wing, but that was out of the question as well. We ended up redrawing all of our plans to work around that one room."

"Interesting. Was there any other area?"

"Well this office couldn't be touched, but that was just normal I guess. Other than that... actually, yeah. One part of the service corridors had to be kept the same as well. Out in the East wing where the old staff kitchen used to be. Right now it's just a big block that is not being used. Would make a great storage space what with that little access hatch. Weirdest thing."

"You know where that was don't you Wil?"

"Unfortunately, I do. That's where you were shot."

Jeff nodded his head a few times, his arms folded across his chest, before he spoke. "Thank you gentlemen, you've been most helpful."

He turned to walk out the door, and I followed quickly behind. I knew where he was going: he wanted to find Patricia, and so did I.

"Wait a minute," said the the older of the two engineers as he scratched the back of his head through his gray hair, "didn't we ask for their help?"

"Yeah. But you know how these world leader types are, they always managed to turn things to their own advantage."

"So what do we do about these design problems?"

"I don't think we should even worry about them?"

The older engineer turned to his younger companion, "Say what?"

"I say we do what we can, and stop. The way I see it, those two will be back in power before this is all over. And there's no way they can be as demanding or meticulous with wall designs as she is."

"You really think they'll be back?"

"I hope so. They did a better job than she is doing."

"True."

Jeff walked quickly down the hallway with determination. He had an idea as to what was going on here, and so did I. I just hoped it wasn't such a petty and small thing as what I thought it was.

"Jeff, you're not going to go ape shit on her are you?"

He chuckled a little, then stopped to wait for me to catch up to him. When we were walking side by side he answered my question.

"No, I'm not concerned about that at all. I figure if she wants to turn this place into a working museum, so be it."

Working museum? Whoa, that's not what I was thinking. I figured it was jealous obsession. Go figure, my ego got the better of me. Oh well, that aside.

"So why are you hurrying down the corridor?"

"I still want to talk to her Wil, just not about that. I think I have an idea as to how to solve this situation. And it won't cost us our lives."

"I'm game, and I haven't even heard the idea."

Jeff looked at me and smiled. "I thought you would."

"It's a very well thought out plan Jeffrey, as always."

"Thank you."

"Unfortunately, it won't work. Somehow the terrorists managed to obtain the blueprints to the building. This set of blueprints was made after the final renovations made by President Smith. Meaning they know of all the passage ways you want to use."

My heart sank as I thought of what that meant. "So it even includes Will's own secret passage ways?"

"It does, as well as the ones that Jada had added."

"Jada had her own set of passage ways?" Jeff was shocked.

"Indeed. You know how the two of them were on security and defenses. It's the only reason the old Unites States survived as long as it did. They overplanned everything."

"Wait, how do you know they have that set of blueprints?"

"We used our heat scanners to see where they were on patrol. There is a guard posted at the entrance to each of the passage ways. We too obtained those blueprints."

The three of us fell silent. It was becoming more and more apparent that we weren't going to win this one without giving ourselves up. I didn't like the fact that we were going to lose. Not in the least. At least I could take some small comfort in the fact that I would be with Jeff for the last moments of my life. Although I thought I had accepted what was to happen, Jeff's next comment made me realize that I was more scared now than I had ever been before.

"Well, give us a few of those removable subdermal explosive devices. If we have to go, at least we can take some of them with us."

Our transport landed at the far end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Jeff and I stepped out, followed by Captain Richards and Mrs. Blake. The entire area was blocked off, security officers stationed every 15 feet exactly. Needless to say, it brought back some very unwanted memories.

The walk up to 900 Pennsylvania Avenue (yes, 900. Most of Washington was wiped out during the last great war.) was a long and quiet one. Jeff and I walked together, holding hands, two security officers in front of us, Captain Richards and Mrs. Blake behind us, followed up by two more security officers at the rear. No one spoke: there was nothing left to be said.

Once we arrived in front of the museum, the officer in charge walked up and handed Mrs. Blake another data pad. She read in silence, but from the way her expression changed, I knew it wasn't good news.

"It appears gentlemen, the Avengers have another demand. They want me to join you. They promise to release all hostages as soon as we are secured inside the building."

"Right."

Patricia looked at Jeff with what seemed like a look of amusement on her face. "They also claim they won't cause anymore problems. That they will disappear."

"I don't believe that for one second."

"Neither do I, Mr. Littrell, but what can we do? There are eighty-four hostages in there. We can't just sacrifice their lives for the sake of saving ours. If this has a chance of working, I say we go for it."

"I'm with her, Wil."

Jeff?!"

"Wil, all the years we were in her position we knew we could be called upon to sacrifice ourselves for the good of the world. This is the same thing, just on a smaller scale. Just because there aren't as many people, doesn't make them less important. You know that."

I looked at Jeff hard for a few seconds, then let out a loud sigh. "I know." Why is he always right? "Let's do this."

Patricia nodded slightly then turned to Captain Richards. "Captain, inform the Avengers that we are ready for the exchange as soon as they are."

Captain Richards nodded and went over to the command post to perform his duty. Patricia turned back and looked at us again.

"Gentleman, may whatever god you believe in, have mercy on your souls."

"I hope the same for you as well Patricia."

"Thank you Jeffrey."

I took a deep breath and looked at the White House. Jeff squeezed my hand tightly and I looked into his eyes. It was there that I saw the truth that I was hiding from myself: we're going to die.

I am Scoop, hear me type. That's chapter 6... Is there more? I don't know. I'm content to let it end here. But, who knows that the future may hold.

Peace!