I'm back!
Thank you everyone who read/reviewed on my last chapter! I haven't been around in a long time and it's great to know that people still remember this story :P
I know I promised this update sooner... :P So here's chapter 7!
CHAPTER 7
NINE
I've been camped out near the location mentioned in the file -an abandoned warehouse in West Virginia- for hours now, waiting for someone to show up so I can figure out what the hell is going on, but I suppose the agency might have messed up their whole plan of everyone ending up here.
It's been four bloody hours, and there's no sign of anyone.
But on the other hand, the people who are expected to turn up are just like me, agents trained to remain unnoticed when they need to, so for all I know, the others could be here already.
To say the thought is extremely frustrating would be an understatement and clearly patience isn't -and probably never will be- my strong suit.
I resist the urge to send a fist flying into the dashboard, knowing that it really wouldn't change anything about my situation, and also that Sandor would probably kill me if something happened to one of his precious cars.
Like the dude couldn't buy himself twenty more of these on one month's salary and still have enough to eat out in fancy restaurants every other day.
I check my new phone –having ditched my agency handset before leaving Chicago- which is currently connected to the dashboard computer; still no message from Sandor. He said he'd contact me as soon as he was sure of what was going on and from the fact that he hasn't checked in on me yet, I can only hope that he's okay.
After all, he's done practically everything in his power to make sure I'm not going into this mission unprepared and I owe it to him to make sure I get the job done right.
Speaking of the job...
I look at the small sensor kit I managed to grab from the penthouse that now lies on the seat beside me and decide it's about time to do another scan of the warehouse. I've been taking thermal scans several times an hour since I got here, and up until now I haven't seen any suspicious heat signatures.
I set up the thin screen against the window of my car, tapping it twice to activate it and am immediately rewarded with a thermal scan of the warehouse, and a single heat signature inside.
Well it's about time.
Adrenaline courses through my system and I know that I can't spend a minute longer in the car without punching something to release my pent up energy. So I grab what I can hold and start walking towards the warehouse, keeping an eye out for anyone or anything that appears threatening or out of place.
I enter through one of the side loading bays and very nearly jump as I see a tall girl with dark hair leaning against one of the barrels to my left.
"Are you here to kill me?", she asks giving me a once over, "because if you were you're doing a horrible job, barging in like that and making more noise than a drunk elephant".
"And by the fact that you haven't moved I take that you already know I'm not here to kill you, so either you're just stupid or you find it amusing to ask redundant questions", I retort, already a little pissed off and she smirks.
"I take that you know why we're here", she says and I nod, scanning the warehouse once before turning to her.
"Do you think the others know?", I ask and she shrugs.
"Maybe they do, maybe they don't. It really doesn't change the situation in any way", she says before extending her hand, "I'm Six".
"Nine", I say taking it as a metallic click sounds from one corner of the warehouse.
We freeze, our training kicking in as we slowly sink to the ground and out of sight behind a wall of crates. A few seconds later we hear the creaking of a door pushed open and then, footsteps, someone walking carefully and cautiously towards our general direction.
"What do you think?", I mouth to Six and she motions that she's gonna try and take a look.
She slowly raises herself off the ground into a squatting position and takes a quick look over our cover before sitting back down.
"Female, my height, brown hair", she mouths and I nod.
"Killer?", I ask and she shakes her head.
"Doubt it", she replies and I'm about to stand up and make my presence known when I feel something cold press into the base of my neck.
"Who are you?", a soft voice says, and from the angle of the gun and Six's wide eyes I can make out that this is the same girl we just spied on.
"Are you here to kill us?", I ask and the corner of Six's mouth twitches. By the fact that she hasn't already sprung into action and disarmed this girl I'm sure she's not the person we're looking for, but all the same, there's no harm in asking.
"I don't plan to, unless that's what you have planned for me. Now turn around slowly, and we're just gonna have a little chat", she says as the cold metal leaves my neck, allowing me to turn around and have my first look at the newcomer.
She has European features, and from the mild accent in her voice I would guess Spanish or Italian origins. Her face reflects conflicted emotions, she's probably confused as to what we're doing here, but her arm is steady as she points the gun straight between my eyes as I stand up.
"Who are you?", she asks again and Six answers for me.
"We work for the agency, I'm sure you know what that is", she says, stepping forward cautiously and the girls eyes dart between me and her.
"Why are you here, and where is he?", she asks and her second question leaves me confused.
"He as in?", I ask and she turns to me, her uncertain eyes now filled with a cold fury.
"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. You're here to take me in, aren't you? Well if it wasn't for the agency's unwillingness to actually look for him, I wouldn't be doing any of this, and so if you think I'm coming quietly, or even at all, you're sorely mistaken", she says, taking a few steps back and I can tell that we don't have an option to mess around.
"Okay look lady", I say, trying to get to the point, "we aren't here to bring you in or any of that stuff. We're here because the frikkin sissies who sit behind desks all day want us dead, and know that us includes you too".
"What are you saying?", she asks us, slowly lowering her gun and Six decides to explain.
"We found a locked mission file on the database, and from what I can tell we both somehow managed to hack into it", she pauses, looking at me for confirmation and I nod as she starts to speak again.
"We found that the agency has sent out a kill order for us and a couple of other high ranking agents", she says and hands over the file to the new girl, who takes a minute to go through it before looking up her eyes now serious.
"Do the others on this list know?", she asks as she hands back the file, open to the list of names and Six shrugs.
"I don't know, all I'm sure of is that they'll be here, since the file says the targets will be lead to this location", she replies and the girl nods.
"I'm Seven, but I prefer Marina", she says and nods politely at us as we introduce ourselves.
"So what do we do now?", she asks and I glance down at the list in my hands, only to find that it's different from the one I read, except for my name, Six's and Seven's there's no other name on here that's common to my list.
"Guys, there's something up with this list", I say and proceed to explain what I've found when we suddenly hear running footsteps.
"Definitely not", Six says to our unspoken question as a dude runs in clutching a briefcase in one hand and a gun in another.
"Get out! It's a trap", he shouts and we step out from behind the crates to look at him.
From his polished shoes and suit, he's clearly one of the desk job idiots, but his physique says otherwise. He's a little too fit to be sitting behind a plank all day, and that gets the alarm bells ringing.
"Okay hold up, who the hell are you", I ask, stepping forward and he raises his hands in surrender, recognizing my defensive stance to mean trouble.
For a guy who's stupid enough to run screaming into a supposed death trap, this guy isn't all that dumb.
"My name is John, and I'm part of assignments", he says and Six raises her eyebrows, giving him a once over.
"Desk job?", she asks and he sighs.
"Since less than a month", he says and she nods indicating that he should continue.
So this guy is some chicken who backed out of field work, I can't help but smirk at his discomfort.
"Someone used my access portal to approve and send out this mission. I had to make sure that nothing happened to anyone, I had to warn you", he says and Six shakes her head.
"By running in and screaming your head off instead of attempting to contact us discretely?", she asks and he opens his mouth to answer, but I cut him off.
"How do we know that you're telling the truth?", I ask him and he raises his hand, asking us for a moment to speak and I nod.
"Look, I know I could have found another way to warn you but when I got here a thermal scan showed me that there were already four heat signatures in the building, and so I assumed it was you guys and the person sent to kill you, but judging by how you guys were just waiting around I guess since whoever it is has apparently not shown up yet, you can ask your friend in the rafters to come down", he says and I tense up, feeling Marina and Six do the same beside me.
"Johnny boy, none of us brought anyone along with us", I say and look up just in time to see a long black rope drop a few feet to my right and a figure with red hair leaps off the nearest beam and slides down it.
At the bottom of the rope, the person turns around and we get a look at her face. Blue eyes, red hair and pale skin stand out as her most distinguishing features as she smirks at how she's caught us off guard,
"Now that you're all done introducing yourselves", she says with a hint of an English accent as she walks towards us, "why don't you tell me why the agency wants you all dead?".
Well... I'm so excited to write the next chapter now! :P
Anyway, thanks for reading and be sure to check out my main story, the Destiny of Seven, if you haven't already :P
Leave me a review to let me know what you think!
Until next time
thesecondgarde