A/N: As promised, the first chapter of the sequal :)
Alexa POV
"How's that sisterly bonding going?" A deep and amused voice crackled in from over the headset I was wearing.
"Screw you!" I yelled back into it, the wind buffeting into me so hard I almost lost my grip on the mountain side I was clinging to. One foot at a time, it was simple. Or so I thought.
I pried my left hand off of the rock I was gripping and reached up for the next hand hold, moving my left foot as I did too. My hand found a strong support and I was able to attempt to pull myself up, that is, until my foot slipped on the mountain side. I swore colourfully, catching myself rapidly and holding on to my hand holds for dear life.
"Are you okay?!" Cammie called against the noise of the gale force winds, she came scaling up beside me, the straps on her back pack swinging wildly behind her. I could only nod slightly as I tried to regain my balance and begin climbing again. I did after a few attempts and we were off, the top of the mountain clearly visible above us, as long as we didn't look down.
"Remind me again why we're the ones that had to do this?!" I asked angrily with my numb lips, squinting to see through the endless amounts of snow falling on my face as I looked to the sky. I wagered it would take about 6 minutes and 45 seconds to reach the peak, where we'd find the man we were looking for.
"Because karma's a bitch." My sister said aggressively, swinging to one side as a rock fell from above. I flattened by body to the surface and waited for more to fall, Cammie's words ringing in my ears. Part of me knew this was just what we deserved for screwing up our last mission in North Carolina. But the other part of me wished Townsend had died when we accidentally allowed him to get hit by a get away car instead.
When it was safe to start climbing again we did, only this time in silence, we were too focused on not dying. Townsend had told us that we didn't need harnesses really, just ones attached to each other. Cammie was my rock and I was hers, we were keeping each other alive. I could practically hear the smug prick laughing from his comfy chair at Gallagher Academy. The memory of him rolling over the hood of the black jaguar and smashing the front window with the impact gave me the strength the persevere.
The top was getting closer and closer and it almost made me smile. Cammie was a few paces below me now and I allowed myself a brief second to look down at her and now, and then I nearly fainted. I couldn't see all the way down from how high up we were, the thick white fog and clouds obscured the view any lower than a fair few dozen feet, I felt like I was going to be sick.
"Just a little further." Cammie told me through the coms, I swallowed and breathed, moving again. We were neck and neck now as we both put our hands on the ledge and swung ourselves over, lying on our backs and breathing heavily. "Oh my god." My sister said first as she regained her breath.
"I can't feel my legs or arms anymore. Can we just stay here for a while?" I laughed shakily to Cammie, licking my cracked lips and wiggling my aching fingers through the mountain climbing gloves I was wearing. Cammie hoisted herself slowly to her feet and shuffled away from the cliff edge, smiling as she dragged my with her. I folded my arms and pouted jokingly to her.
"We have to go, if Sean Wilcox gets away before we can catch him then not only will we have lost our only asset but we won't get to fly his jet back to the academy, we'll have to climb." She argued. At the thought of climbing back down the cliff face I got to my feet, possibly too quickly as I staggered a little before regaining my balance and giving her a thumbs up.
"Then let's catch him." She nodded and we went.
About 10 minutes walk from where we reached the top we found a trodden path that started on the outskirts of a small patch of forest. With a shrug I went first, thankful to be out of the main bit of the wind beneath the dense gathering of greenery. It didn't take us long till we reached the other side of the trees, where we could see the large expensive house Sean spent most of his time in that doubled as a bed and breakfast. It hadn't been easy to find the location, damn near impossible actually, but dad pulled a few strings with former Circle members he knew and Zach uncovered intel from one of the other Circle leaders him and Townsend had picked up the previous month that enabled us to pin point this household in the North East of Switzerland.
We spotted a fairly large shed a little bit off the property line that looked uninhabited so we quickly and quietly crept inside from the cold. There was no light on and we couldn't waste time finding one so Cammie hurriedly turn on her powerfully bright torch so that we could see. I pried my pack off of my back and removed my warm thick layers till I was in a pair of black leggings and a dark green tank top. It was satisfying to finally remove my goggles and big hat from my head. From inside my bag I pulled out a dry, slightly lighter green, fluffy winter coat and a pair of light brown mountain boots that easily zipped up my leg to just below my knees. The next things out my bag were insulated green gloves with a matching scarf and ear muffs with a built in headset. Then it was the two small knives that slipped discretely into the pockets built in to my boots and lastly it was my gun that was easy to hide in the folds of my huge coat without being obvious.
It was the same gun I had used a few months previous to stop Circle of Cavan members from running me and my friends off the road when we were trying to reach our safe house. Oh the memories holding it again brought back.
"You good?" Cammie asked, clicking her gun into place and sliding it into the back pocket of the blue jeggings she had put on.
"Ready as I'll ever be." I replied, testing out the built in coms that Liz had tricked us out with a few days before. We ditched our bags and gear under some tarps in the back of the shed and went back out into the freezing cold, making our way to the welcoming lights of the bed and breakfast.