Chapter 6 : Journey to Mumbai
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Nikola was suddenly awakened by frantic hits on the door of his bedroom. He looked at his watch laid on his nigh table, it was 9am. He couldn't remember when he felt asleep this past night, but was sure it wasn't a long time ago. He spent hours rolling over and over in his bed, not able to stop thinking about what happened and what didn't the past evening in Helen's company.
"Tesla! Could you please respond?" Henry's voice came from behind his door. "We're leaving in twenty minutes, please be ready." He added when he got no response from the scientist.
"Leaving? Where are we going, kid?" Nikola suddenly exclaimed quickly sitting in his bed.
"Mumbai, remember? …You have kinda a date with a very tall eight-legged lady."
"Helen isn't losing time!"
"Actually… this night we learned that hundreds peoples died because of Big B." The youngest man replied after a moment. "Meet us at the doc's office as soon as you're ready, dude."
He hated when people were calling him a 'dude', but Nikola was simply too shocked to reply anything this time someone did.
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When they all arrived to the airport, a private jet was waiting for them. Declan MacRae was already inside, welcoming them as they entered the plane. Will, Kate and Henry, sat together, all seam being impressed by the elegance of the jet. As Helen joined the cockpit, Nikola reached alone a seat in the opposite side from the 'children', in order to get some more sleep after this short night.
"Magnus, we're not taking off?" Will asked when Helen quitted the cockpit.
"We have to wait until Sally is comfortably installed in the store room. She asked me to put her on sleep for the travel." Magnus calmly explained. "We should taking off in a short moment." She added with a light smile.
"Doc, how many we will be?" Kate asked after a short silence.
"In an actual fact… well… the five of ours, and Declan's men."
"Wait a minute, are you kidding?" Kate suddenly exclaimed. "We will fight the powerful abnormal ever alone?"
"Wexford would have disapproved, but every attacked he tries on her just make her more angry she already were… we had to do something."
"…and when did you plan to tell us this little point?" Nikola spoke for the first time, keeping his eyes closed.
"Well now it's done, right?" Helen replied with an annoyed tone. She took a deep breath and looked out from the still opened door. "f someone want to leave… he should do it while he can."
"Don't even consider it from me." Nikola whispered.
"We're a team, we're all staying…" Kate added and the two men sat next to her nodded.
A light smile appeared on Helen's lips and she whimpers a little 'thank you', touched by the devotion of the younger people. She, then, leaved her coat and returned to see the pilot.
Two hours they were in the plane which was now highly flying in the sky, Nikola was asleep, Kate, Henry and Will was talking, sometime laughing despite the palpable tension surrounding them. Helen had finally decided to leave the cockpit to take the seat next to Nikola's. Hence, the Serbian was surprised to find he was no longer alone when he finally woke up. He blinked the time his eyes to accustom to the luminosity. Nikola was sure that Helen didn't noticed he wasn't sleeping anymore, dived into her thick book. Nevertheless she turned her head and offered him a warm smile.
"Hi… slept well?" She softly asked closing her book.
"Still better than this night." Nikola replied straightening himself up more properly. "Why didn't you told me Big Bertha was such dangerous?"
"I though you knew."
"You don't really want to kill her for the Sanctuary right? …But mostly because she's responsible of the death of hundreds people?"
"Her death could resolve such things… When I learned I could have the network head back if I stop her, I knew it was… like a sign… telling me I have to kill her… and that I should have many years ago." Helen responded honestly. "…and why did you badly sleep this night?"
Nikola understood she wanted to change the subject of conversation, but he minded she wanted to talk about the reason of his insomnia.
"I was just dreading about today…" He lied, hopping she would believe him.
"Oh." She just said, re-opening her book. Nikola understood in her body language she was clearly not so naïve, the disappointment in her voice, the way she stared at him a few second before looking at her book, whishing he would correct himself…
Nikola dropped a small sigh and glance through the little round window. He heard Helen closed her book again and move closer to him.
"When this will all be done… will you leave again?"
Nikola looked at her not understanding what she was talking about. Seeing his confusion, she added: "When all will be done with Big Bertha… if we win or not… will you leave?"
"I-I don't know…" Nikola stuttered lost with what he should reply.
A shadow of sadness appeared in her eyes, she was going to say more when Declan walked to their seats. Helen stood up to meet him.
"Doctor Magnus, we'll have everything you required for the offensive." He announced proudly with his British accent.
"Good job, Declan." Helen replied, clearly happy about this new.
"What did you required?" Will asked intrigued.
"A weapon..." She simply answered.
"Yeah children, the mermaid and I will destabilize the spider so she'll lose her force shield and be vulnerable." Nikola said.
"…vulnerable to what exactly?" Kate questioned at her turn.
"A 90 tons bomb." Declan replied. "That's means we'll not be here when it'll explode."
"Is it safe?" Henry talked for the first time. "The shock wave will not touch the coasts?"
"I don't think so Henry, but we need something big to kill Big Bertha." Helen explained. "I know she's hard to stop."
"Okay… is there anything else we need to know, Magnus?" Will asked worried.
"The bomb is equipped with a time-switch, once we'll have reach Big Bertha and once she'll be without her force shield, we'll set the bomb close to her. This done, we'll have five minutes to get the furthest we can."
"That is very dangerous..."
"…and that's the reason why I'll be the only one to bring the bomb to Big Bertha."
TBC
