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[talien]

Jim-Bean put the phone down. "That should get them away from the door."

Hammer zip-tied Lillian's wrists. "Stay here."

Caprice looked out the window and swore. "That reporter's coming back here with a camera."

"I thought you shorted out their cameras!" Hammer shouted at Archive over his cell phone.

"Just their transmitting equipment." Archive was walking quickly to intercept her. "I'll take care of this."

"You, sir!" shouted Nina. The camera crew turned to focus on Archive. "Are you affiliated with this—"

He held up one hand, palm open. There was a symbol scrawled on it.

Nina turned and fled, stumbling in her high heels. The cameraman dropped his camera. The boom mic operator just dropped the boom. He struggled for a second as it unplugged from its power source on his backpack, and then he too fled. Archive kneeled down and ejected the tape from the camera.

Archive sauntered into the lobby with a big smile on his face. He handed the tape to Hammer.

Hammer didn't have time to congratulate Archive on his ability to strike fear into GNN reporters. "Stay here, watch the door, make sure the secretary doesn't do anything stupid."

Archive nodded and took a seat.

Hammer, Caprice, and Jim-Bean were doing a silent count to bust in the door when tear gas billowed around the door frame.

Jim-Bean shook his head and put on his gas mask.

"How did you know there was another raid going on?" asked Caprice.

"He's psychic," said Hammer.

"Actually," said Jim-Bean through his gas mask. "I was bluffing." Hammer kicked open the door and let Jim-Bean go first.

Two thugs were on the floor, eyes tearing. Guppy was slumped over a desk. A female agent in full riot gear had a pistol pointed at the back of Grant's head.

"Larry?" asked Jim-Bean. "What are you doing here?"

"Warner's orders," said Larry, his voice muffled by his gas mask. He turned to point his pistol at Hammer. "This is our collar."

"Guppy’s our team member," said Hammer, stepping out from behind Jim-Bean to train his Glocks on Larry. "We'll take it from here."

Keeping his pistol trained on Hammer, Larry called into his walkie-talkie. "Bill! Bill get in here!"

Bill didn't respond.

Caprice added his pistol to the mix of weapons pointed at the two agents. "You're outnumbered. Why don't you just take these two thugs here and call it a day? Little fish are better than no fish."

Bill shook his head. "These are rubber bullets, but they'll still hurt. Now I'm going to take Guppy—"

Bill swore as his pistol was shot out of his hand. "Damn it!"

"You were saying?" asked Hammer.

Bill clutched his weapon hand. "Fine, fine. But officially you got here before we did."

Hammer smirked. "Sure."

Jim-Bean grabbed Guppy by the leg and dragged him out of the room. Caprice zip-tied Grant's wrists behind his back. Then Hammer roughly shoved Grant along behind Jim-Bean and Guppy.

They passed Agent Bill, who was frozen with his pistol aimed at some invisible foe.

Hammer knew it had to be Archive's doing. "What did you do to him?"

Archive shrugged. "I stopped him."

Jim-Bean and Hammer marched Guppy and Grant to their car. Caprice shoved Lillian in the direction of Morgana, who stopped her advance to deal with the new collar.

That left Caprice alone with Bill.

Caprice smiled wickedly at Bill. "Bill! Old buddy, old pal! Remember me?"

Bill's eyes widened in alarm. He couldn't move at all, but their last encounter hadn't gone well.

Caprice stepped up to Bill so they were face to face. "Tell Warner Sprague's team says hello."

Then he yanked Bill's pants down to his ankles and ran out to join the other agents.