Be My Fool
Chapter Four
Disclaimer: I don't own Alex.
xxxx
After everybody had their turn, in which time I tried to kill Nate... uh... five times? Well, I did succeed in plaiting his hair – yes, I plaited his hair... Don't give me that look! It looked really bad on him and we all had a good laugh when he went up to Eagle and pretended to be gay. That was until Eagle started to flirt back and... Gah. Some people take it too far for my liking - even though Nate's face was priceless.
Anyway – they'd told us to bugger off to the kitchens while they went off to... well, we didn't know because Eagle didn't get a chance to finish his sentence.
'I'm dying,' Chloe moaned quietly as we started to jog back.
I smiled sympathetically at her and kept my smirk in check – she didn't need to be reminded of her fantabulous finish.
'Well, we better get over it 'cause this is probably too slow. C'mon.'
Surprisingly, this was Leah.
I nodded, 'Yeah, she's right – just look at Wolf's face.'
'Very pretty, isn't it?' Tulip said softly as if she meant it.
We snickered and started to jog a little faster.
'Two options for the wedding girls,' She continued, 'Does he look better in a peach or white dress?'
I smirked, shaking my head, 'Bad mental images, Tulip. Do please shut up.'
Chloe shuddered, 'I really don't want to think about Tulip and Wolf getting married; that is just scary.'
Tulip faked gasped and I started to drown out their bickering over a) if she'd old enough to marry b) if she's old enough to marry Wolf c) which sex position would suit them best.
God. I did not want to imagine this.
'Oh, God! Bad mental images!' Chloe said loudly, covering her ears.
Tulip and Leah smirked at her and I shook my head, some things would never change.
xxxx
We rounded the corner to the mess hall a few minutes later, after some embarrassing moments involving Fox and Eagle and a lot of explaining to do. We came face to face with sixteen teens covered head to toe in mud outside of the lunch hall. Yak and Leopard stood in front of them, glaring with their arms crossed – maybe it wasn't such a good thing to laugh.
I spotted Farah, which was harder than it sounds... she is covered in mud!, talking to Lottie and Ella from E Unit and grinned wolfishly at her. It was quite amusing.
She rolled her eyes, flipped me the bird and turned her back at me – but I could tell she was smiling.
'So... what do we do now?' Chloe asked, looking around perplexed.
Apparently, we needn't figure that out as Sam and Nate came bouncing up to us.
'We're waiting for the other groups, we got told,' Sam said, smiling.
Nate snorted, 'More like we had it yelled at us. I don't think my ear drums will ever be the same.'
He caught me looking and shot me a grin, I blushed and looked away. Tulip shot me a superior glance and was struggling not to laugh. Blech – leave me alone! Just because I want to-
Leah smirked, 'Sounds like fun.'
Sometimes, I also love them from saving my dignity though.
The back of my head prickled slightly and I turned around half-way, but shrugged it off when I saw nobody.
Probably cameras in the SAS, right? Stupid people...
I peeked out of the corner of my eye and, as per usual, there was nothing there.
Rolling my shoulders, I tuned back into the conversation with my friends. I was paranoid.
xxxx
The USS had congregated, in what appeared to be a run-down hotel at Sunderland, England. A small man, no bigger than five foot tall, entered in a shabby attire; a crinkled grey shirt, that was supposedly once white; a dark blue tie that was hung loosely around his neck and had multiple stains on; he had a putrid jacket the shade of burgundy that was fraying at the ends and matched his trousers, though without the mud splatters and water soaked edges; he also had on a pair of sandals that had duct-tape wound around them each to keep them on his feet; and, finally, a battered suitcase of a sandy-brown that had many leaflets peeping out of the edges and sheets nearly falling out at the close.
All in all, the usual type of man who would enter The Ryhnstone.
The stubby man ruffled his mop of dark hair before walking up to the counter, 'Is the McQueen in?'
Not one person in the bar understood his strange language, but [apparently] the bar tender Ted did as he nodded, 'Right up back, Jared.'
'Jared' nodded and shuffled along to the staircase, stumbling as he went up.
Eight people before him had said the exact same thing, exactly twenty eight minutes and thirteen second before each other – they were a force to be reckoned with.
The shifty man who had entered now could pass as a billionaire, though he was close to it, as the mask, hair and costume was taken off and he stood upright for the first time in three hours – he knocked on the door second from the back once and waited.
A few seconds later, the lock unlinked and he entered the room.
There were three women and six men altogether, including himself, sitting around a large oval wooden desk with papers in front of them.
Not all the world was involved with the United Secret Service, some decided to keep themselves to themselves.
A woman in her mid-thirties unwrapped a humbug and popped it into her mouth, her hair tied back from her face effectively making her look ten years older and her linen suit neither doing anything for her. This woman was known as Tulip Jones, Military Intelligence 6 Executive Head – and it wasn't Blunt they invited in the first place, since he barely understood the meaning of 'spy'. He'd rather thought of the word 'tool' or 'weapon'.
'We believe,' she started, 'that Yassen Gregorovitch may be working with a Snakehead group. They want something, but we don't know what it is yet. All we know is that it has something to do with this girl.'
She passed the photos down and each of the members nodded at the figure before placing the brunette on the desk in front of them.
'Her well-being has been promised by the SAS, but we need to figure this out fast. She goes home in two weeks and we need this solved and closed by that time.' She looked around at each of them, 'Take a file; we need this done as soon as possible.'
'Kattie' nodded, to her right, and said, 'Right you are Lauren...'
Yet, no matter how trained they were, none of them noticed the camera swivel and focus on the photo of the girl.
xxxx
Lunch was a rather pointless affair; well, other than the fact that George and Jake were dared to lap dance for Wolf and Oryx. Luckily for them, the bell had rung and we were ordered to clear off our food if we had any left, that was relevant to all of us, stack our 'plates' and then congregate outside the double doors. By 'plates', they mean those grey trays.
We were separated from J Unit and were assigned to work with D Unit – Panther, a member of D Unit, was looking rather flustered and uncomfortable. Grace was clinging onto his arm and batting her eyelids, practically draping herself over him.
Apparently, Addax [D Unit's leader – HAH! I remembered] had already yelled at her beyond measure and still hadn't gotten the message that they were Off Limits.
'Right, we're doing one small task before dinner.' Alligator smiled slowly, looking quite insane, 'We have partnered you up this time ourselves and you can't switch – we'll know and make you do it again. So,' he clapped his hands together and I saw a few people flinch, 'Any questions?'
'We'll be on our way then,' Shark said, smirking slightly, 'Your partners are shown on the board, then take a map and compass.'
The soldiers ran off, much like they did this morning, laughing and sniggering their way into the distance. They'd left us – again, however this time with partners rather than coloured pieces of cloth.
Chloe and I shared looks as we jogged over to the bulletin board, where a flyer had been stapled to it. It read:
UNIT K/UNIT D AFTER LUNCH LIST:
Parkinson, A Armstrong, G
Featherlite, T Glendenning, E
Steabler, L Mellett, J
Pickett, P Martin, E
Trudey, S Steel, L
Hourigan, C Taylor, J
Redman, L Thompson, D
Gray, J Luna, A
I spun and grinned at Ava. She returned the smile. As we grabbed a map, she said, 'Thank God, last time I was stuck with Grace.'
'Sounds like fun, c'mon,' I spotted a few people setting off, 'Let's try and get there first.'
She nodded and we looked at the map and, after a few seconds, started to jog off in an easterly direction. Also the area which was quite near the gorge we had crossed before... Uh, hope for the best and cross your fingers?
We're going to die!
'You know where we're heading for, don't you?' Ava said reluctantly as the sound of gallons of rushing water met our ears.
I nodded and she exclaimed, 'We're meant to be safe!'
'It is,' I said and she gave me a 'are-you-on-drugs' look, I added, 'We might just end up in hospital or paralyzed for the rest of our lives.'
She snorted, 'How... reassuring.'
I grinned but it immediately vanished as we stepped passed a large trunk and saw what we had to do.
There was a barrier at about ankle height and one at our head height to stop us from falling to our deaths, and a little past that were harnesses that looked around about eighty years old which were attached to a wire above that was connected to the other side.
It was quite simple really, hop from spot to spot to get from this side to the other. A bit like toadstools, except the small circular pads were connected to each other rather than individually to the floor... That would be a bit hard to do, considering the large river beneath us; I estimated about thirty foot down? So, yeah, simple task but did I mention my lack of balance?
Okay, so maybe it isn't that bad but this took skill! Speaking of, there goes Sam a little further upwards. His arms flailed a bit before he fell off the first plastic pad and started to dangle underneath.
Shaking my head, I stepped over the barrier and tied myself into the harness – Ava seemed to have frozen in her spot. Well, she at least she seemed to be standing up of her own accord. Slipping through the second fence, I held onto the wooden edge behind me as a gust of wind blew down the gorge.
That was most likely why Sam lost his- wait, where'd he go?
Looking towards his area, he was nowhere to be found... Lewis, his partner, was laughing. Quite obnoxiously, really, but I still couldn't figure to why he was laughing.
Oh.
Oh.
Right... okay. Sam had been dropped into the river, and was now currently screaming bloody murder. I guess that's what happened if you failed. Lewis however now understood the consequences of falling... yet there was no harness, so he couldn't.
Stupid SAS. I could have let Ava do it!
...Nevermind, I'll get on with it.
Grimacing, I paused before springing onto the first pad. Ouch. That would leave a bruise. I landed on my chest, which was currently stinging from the impact. Brushing my wildly flailing hair out of my face, I shakily got into a crouching position before flinging myself to the next one.
Grappling for the edge, I clung onto the flimsy plastic board that I had chosen to catapult onto and dangled above the raging river as it flipped over. Shit. Maybe the right fork wasn't the best one to try and jump onto. There was practically nothing I could do... besides from try and fling myself back on top, which ended quite badly.
Yes, quite badly.
Either way I ended up dangling below like a loser. Crack.
My stomach dropped and the wind whipped my face as I plummeted downwards.
xxxx
Not much has changed, but I liked most of this chapter :3 sorry to people who don't!
LoveYou
InsignificantBlimp
**[[24thJune2011]]**