A/N: Hey guys! (readers throw tomatoes) Gah! I know, I know! I'm sorry, I'm too lazy for my own good! I'm SORRY! Well, I promised action, and action's what you're gonna get! I hope… so… ENJOY!
Note: Oh, and there's minor swearing in this, sorry. If it's a problem, just replace every word with muffins or 'Fire truck' or something.
A red Peugeot 206 trundled along the winding mountain roads, skirting perhaps a little too close to the edge of a 100 meter drop-off while a bus passed. Yassen sat silently, patiently, waiting for the bus to pass before returning to full acceleration. He was thinking.
Had he really made the right decision? Bringing Alex into his world? He reminded himself that he hadn't, Alex's own family had. And once you were in the world of assassins, the only way out was death. There was no way Yassen was going to let that happen. Alex was safe, away from the ungrateful MI6, and the pay-high-enough-and-you-get-what-you-want-even-if-it-involves-the-death-of-our-own-people Scorpia. It was best that Alex was where he was.
Yassen turned down a hidden segment of road, which no one other than it's users knew the existence of. The road lead off to another secluded road, which lead further into the mountains and eventually into the EP base. It was late in the evening and the mountains were as quiet and tranquil as ever.
Yassen just stared at the road. The slug of grey that never seemed to end. It sprawled out all over the world, every single path seemed to connect to the others, uniting every corner or crag of a country yet still leaving it so bare and lonely. A road could lead you anywhere. A road could get you lost. A road, Yassen thought, was just as boring as life itself. Grey, bumpy, ongoing, twisted, only varying in size or shade of grey. A road was a road. A life was a life. A road was a life. A life was a road. Yassen mentally shot himself, deciding never again think of such ridiculous, depressing metaphoric theories. Maybe fatigue from driving for so long was getting to him after all. It didn't matter, the base was looming up towards them. Or at least, it was…
…
"Cedar-87, we have visualisation on the base, repeat: We have visualisation!" a voice crackled over a handheld transceiver.
"Affirmative. Ready to blow this nest?"
"Ready."
"Prepare to jump. Door is opening"
A team of highly experienced SAS soldiers readied themselves for one hell of a jump. The plan was to jump into the base, shoot everyone, grab the Rider kid, run their asses off to meet up with the other assisting squad, then leg it into the helicopter. And go home. In one piece preferably.
Icy mountain air rushed into their faces as the helicopter door opened, spitting SAS soldiers into the night. The helicopter rotors sliced through the air, the near-silent hiss of each blade in the breeze like a soundscape to ardor. To honour. Not a single man hesitated before throwing themselves out of the helicopter.
…
Jackal watched amusedly at the dark blotches of parachute that blossomed in the sky. And this is supposed to be stealthy? He thought, dropping his cigarette and grinding it into the floor. He looked briefly at the explosive charges he had planted on the large tanks of fuel the base used to power their organisation. Jackal walked away, in no particular hurry to get a safe distance from the explosive charges if they accidentally went off. Just a few more minutes… He said to himself. Wait for Gregorovich and Rider.
He saw dim headlights glare through trees. They were coming. The small road used to gain access to EP was disturbed by the rickety choke of a Peugeot 206 dragging itself into the mountains. As the engine slowly grew louder, gun shots started echoing around the base. A siren, blaring and unfamiliar sounded, triggering shouts of desperate confusion and fear. It's starting.
The car was visible now, details coming clearer every second. Closer, closer, Jackal could nearly make out the pale of Gregorovich's skin, the rust on the grill of the car. Now.
…
Alex was jolted from his sleep by an ear-splitting explosion. Fire and ash billowed up, engulfing half the base in one bite. Orange and red collided with black and white, dark stone obliterated by the sheer impact of the disaster, snow practically vaporised by the blistering heat. Alex stared, stunned, turning to Yassen.
"Something's not right." Yassen said, unfazed.
"No shit!" Alex shrieked, tightening his white-knuckle grip on his chair. Suddenly they were approached by a small team of around 7 SAS soldiers. Their numbers had obviously decreased in the explosion because the men didn't seem so sure of themselves, one was trembling with not what would be described as one off the happiest expressions on his face. Weapons were raised, half-heartedly to say the least, powered more by blind hurt for their lost comrades than confidence in their mission.
"Give us the boy! We will shoot you!" One said, stepping slightly closer. Yassen didn't respond. He was thinking.
"I doubt the SAS would have blown themselves up, and I didn't give the command… so who did?" Yassen wondered aloud.
The SAS guy fired a warning shot into the floor, chips of tarmac splintered into the air. Yassen still didn't respond.
"Yassen…?" Alex murmured, horribly aware of the guns trained on them. Yassen's eyes focused again, seemingly deciding on something. Yassen hammered the car into acceleration. He went straight into a row of SAS, knocking them down like green bottles sitting on a wall, a few quick-thinkers had dived over to the side, quickly regaining their footing and placing blind shots in the direction of Yassen. They must have guessed the windows were bullet-proof, otherwise taking the shots would have been too likely to come into contact with the boy they were unsuccessfully trying to rescue. Yassen opened his car door, using it to shield him as he placed a well-aimed shot straight through both wrists of a soldier, resulting in his machine-gun being dropped and his wrists half torn off his arms. He screamed, paralyzed with shock and pain. His comrades acted swiftly, two feeling especially brave went directly up to Yassen, though soon regretting it as Yassen pulled a biro out of his pocket and shot one man in the shoulder and stabbed the other with the biro. The man fell on the floor.
"How can a biro k-"
"He's not dead, the ink is a fast acting sedative." Yassen responded to Alex's question, simultaneously knocking out a soldier with a simple kick to the head.
Only one soldier remained, the one that stood trembling, clutching his gun to his chest. Yassen aimed his gun at him.
"What happened here?" he asked pointedly. The soldier slowly opened his mouth to respond before red blossomed from the back of his head. The man crumpled, his limbs going limp as he fell forwards. Dead, before he hit the floor. Behind him stood a man. A man with a vengeful glare in his dark eyes. A fiendish smirk plastered on his sharp face along with other menacing features.
"Jackal."
…
"Blunt! We've got an awful situation in the mountains. Our first squad has stopped responding, and according to our double agent, there was an explosion that caught members of both squads. The second squad is apparently-"
"This is Cedar! This is Cedar! We've found the target. The first squad is here, from the looks of things we have six casualties and a stiff. There's a guy, talkin' to the assassin, they're both pointing' guns at each other. He looks like our double agent." a voice shouted on a transceiver. Blunt shot up from his seat. A frown etched on his face.
"Oh bloody 'ell! What is he doin'?"
Blunt and Jones heard a muffled shout of: "Shoot him!" from the other end.
"He's not doin' it! Shoot! Shoot! Shoo-"
The soldier on the other side of the line was abruptly cut off by a spray of bullets.
"Cedar?" Jones questioned, a twist of concern creasing her brow.
Silence.
"Cedar-87? Speak to me Cedar!"
Silence.
"It's no use Jonesy. They're dead. I killed them. Now I'm going to get my revenge for when that bastard Rider betrayed us! And you can't stop me!"
Blunt snatched the phone from his subordinate. "Henderson, what the hell are you doing? You work for me! You're my double agent!"
"Ah, there you are wrong Mr Blunt. I'm not your double. I'm A triple. For the Mafia."
…
Jackal threw the transceiver onto the floor, the black frame clattering against the ash peppered ground.
"The Mafia. Hm. I suppose you've been feeding information from my organisation, to MI6, then from MI6 to your people. A bit like Ian Rider. Some people never change." Yassen said, his hand unwavering as the gun he had trained itself on the man before him.
"Don't you EVER, ever compare me to that man. He betrayed us. All of us! MI6 have taken their revenge by using that kid, but now, it's our turn. He will kill him!" Jackal snarled, eyes burning with a flame of intense hatred. Whatever Ian Rider had done, it sure did have an effect on him.
Yassen sighed, unfortunately, his gun was devoid of ammunition. He turned to a pale-faced Alex.
"Alex. Run."
Yassen lunged toward Jackal, fast-moving and fluid, closing the space between them. Jackal didn't even have time to react before he was thrown backwards by a solid punch in the face. Blood seeped from his nose, but he didn't reach up to wipe it away, instead using his hands to block this next attack. Out of the corner of his furious eyes he saw the that damn Rider sprinting for his life into the depths of the burning base. Idiot. Jackal tried to shove Gregorovich away, unsuccessfully. The assassin was cutting off his air supply with one hand pressed on his wind pipe, another disallowing him to move away. He used one of his arms to break the grip, then jerked back, away from Yassen's hand. The assassin noticed this, bringing his right leg forward to hook behind Jackal's in an Osoto Gari essentially tripping him, however, Jackal acted just as fast, sliding to the side and throwing the assassin over his shoulder. Ippon Seoinage. Yassen managed to flip onto his front at the last second before hitting the floor, using a front break-fall to save him from one hell of an impact.
Yassen sprang up, planting his fist in Jackals stomach. Jackal doubled over, winded as more and more bone breaking blows rained down on him. He grabbed Yassen's lapel, crossing his arms and strangling him.
The two struggled against each other, somehow falling into an arms room. Neither considered grabbing a gun, firing something in here would be devastating. Yassen was almost completely starved of oxygen, he attempted to break the grip but Jackal abruptly kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying into a wall of guns with enough force to break ribs. A few guns fell onto the assassin smacking him in the face. It didn't matter though as he was already unconscious. Jackal smirked before returning outside to hunt down his prize.
"That's going to hurt in the morning."
…
Alex was lost. He'd stupidly decided to head into the base, hoping to lose his enemy in the fires and rubble. Unfortunately, Alex hadn't had time to learn the layout of the base when it had been intact so he was completely lost in the ongoing depths of a burning world. It was hot and choking amidst the flames, he couldn't take much more. Buildings had fallen next to him and the fire was nearing him every minute, flames reaching out like arms, yearning to consume him. He fell to his knees, coughing on smoke and ash. He was sweating terribly.
I wonder if Yassen has killed that moron yet. What's his problem. So my Uncle apparently betrayed MI6 and the Mafia. So? It's not like he's innocent of such a thing. Alex thought bitterly. Although his uncle had been traitorous, and the only reason Alex was here was because of Family tradition and certain people's thirst for revenge, he couldn't hate his uncle. MI6 were morbid. They did evil things. Alex had learnt that a long time ago. But… isn't my uncle evil… for giving information to evil people. Isn't my father evil… for working for evil people. Aren't I evil?
Click-click.
Alex looked up, interrupted from his thoughts. Jackal was stood over him, gun in had, gleam in eye. "That was clumsy, leaving footprints in the ash like that. No matter. You have 20 seconds to live."
…
A/N: Well, there it is, chapter 9! Hope you liked it! As usual I'd like to say a MASSIVE thanks to all reviewers, especially masterjedispycornthecucumber (I hope that's right. Cheers! :D) Albany (Thanks! Though my Spanish isn't that good.) Shalimar (Thanks so much!) And 32-star (Thanks to you too!) Please review and I should update some when. Thanks for taking the time to read this, hope you like it.
Awesomehatyougotthere :D
(Ps: again, sorry for the late update.)
