"I said you would get us killed," Alex Rider grumbled, glaring daggers in the direction of his partner. Or rather, in what he thought was her general direction. The thugs who locked them in the tiny room hadn't bothered leaving the lights on and he only had a vague idea of where she was.
The girl he was talking to didn't answer. For once, she was stuck for a quick and biting comeback. She covered in a corner, grasping her right arm in pain, still shaking. If the bullet had hit just inches to the left, she would have been dead.
This wasn't what she had in mind when she started her training. It was too real.
The footsteps of the three men who had caught them, faded out on the other side of the closed door. Alex shot up from the floor, searching for the exit. Though he knew it was locked, he still had to check.
Realising the only way out was indeed locked, he sighed. Leaning onto the door, he slid down on the floor again, feeling his body ache. The rumour of a teenage boy working for MI6 was making its way around the world, and whoever these guys were working for must have known who Alex was. The thugs hadn't let the fact that he and Zoe were mere teenagers stop them from using extreme force.
Think, he told himself. There was a way out - they just needed to open the damned door.
"Any ideas on how we can get out?" he asked. The men had been smart enough to strip them of every possible gadget. Watches, shoes, jewellery, iPods and their backpacks - they had even taken their pocket litter.
"They took everything," she answered, gasping at every word. Alex noticed that something was wrong. Shock, perhaps. She had been shot hadn't she? He seemed to recall her screaming out in pain during the chase.
Keeping a clear head was the most important override, and by the looks of it, he would have to do it. It was up to him to get them out of this scrape. Even though he had spent most of the last week complaining about Zoe, the last thing he wanted was a useless partner. She had proved to be useful at times.
Trouble. They were both familiar with it, despite their young age. But Alex was more acquainted with the shady world of espionage and intelligence. Zoe on the other hand had been picked up from the streets just a few months ago. She was a superb pickpocket and thief but a lousy spy.
Sorrowfully her skills were needed on this mission. Alex was convinced he could have broken into the building on his own. Blunt was of another opinion and he called the shots.
Loud, clumsy and bitchy, that was how he would describe her. She was also unable to keep her mouth shut for more than five minutes running, and was at least partly responsible of the situation they were in. He had only known her for three days, and hoped he'd never have to work with her again. Screw that, he was never going to work for MI6 again. This time he was serious about it. Next time they approached him, he was gonna tell them where to go.
Zoe was finally able to calm down. The pair had been detected, pursued and shot at. This wasn't what she had signed up for. But now the high adrenaline levels in her blood finally started to dull the pain. After a while, all she felt was tingling where the bullet had entered and exited her upper arm.
She sniffled, drying her tears. She was tougher than this.
"Are you hurt?" Alex's voice rang out with worry. Zoe blinked, wondering if her ears deceived her. She and Alex had been at each other's throats ever since they walked out of Blunt's office where they had been briefed about the mission. Was he actually worried about her? Then again there was always a chance she was delirious from the pain.
"One of the bullets grazed my shoulder," she explained, still grasping the wounded arm tight. Even though the red-hot bullet had only torn its way through the upper layers of the skin and muscle tissue, it still hurt like a bitch.
Alex almost gave a sigh of relief. She was going to be alright. That was one less thing to worry about. He moved closer to her, navigating by the sound of her ragged breaths.
"Put pressure on it," he instructed, aiming to stop the bleeding.
She snorted. "What do you think I'm doing?"
Instead of answering with a nasty remark, Alex was glad to hear she was back to normal. If she could come up with clever remarks, she obviously wasn't about to drop dead anytime soon. He smiled to himself.
"Good," he replied.
The next few minutes were spent in silence. Each was preoccupied with their own thoughts. Alex was dead tired but eerily calm. Zoe however, would have been freaking out if she hadn't been injured. This was her first mission. She didn't want it to be her last.
At last she couldn't take it anymore. The urge to fill the void surrounding them with something, anything, grew too big. "What are they going to do with us?" she blurted out.
Alex opened his eyes. It was easy to decipher the fear in her words. Their eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness and he could see her outline.
"I don't know," he said truthfully.
She looked down towards the floor and let her breath out. Alex heard her sigh and wondered whether she was crying.
It was a spur of the moment. He reached out for the hand he assumed wasn't injured and let his fingers rest on hers a moment. "Zoe?"
She looked up in direction of his shadow. Tears were rolling down her face but he couldn't see them, which she was grateful for. He would never let her hear the end of it, and she had spent the last three days insisting she was just as tough as him even though she happened to be a girl.
"We're not dead yet," he continued.
She wasn't completely reassured things were going to be okay, but his words gave her hope. They were still alive. That was all that mattered.