Alex was helpless as the man with the shotgun dragged him down a flight of stairs from the second floor, who was followed by another man. The man held a pistol in his left hand and had hold of Tamara's arm, who was now conscious. Alex had not seen anybody else as they left the hallway and made their way through the building, and supposed that the second floor of the art gallery restricted anyone from being there. He doubted this though, because he had not seen any guards or signs prohibiting visitors from entering the second floor.

He glanced over at Tamara, who was seemingly studying him. Her face was fixed into an expression of reassurance towards him, but Alex also sensed a hint of fear coming from her. He allowed himself to be pulled by the man who still held him at gunpoint. Tamara wasn't putting up a fight with the other man, either.

Alex suddenly tumbled and fell onto the ground. Tamara's eyes widened as he lay on the ground, only getting up after the man had pressed the barrel of the shotgun to his back. Alex continued walking, and out of the corner of her eye, Tamara saw him fiddle with something in his hand. She looked back at his face, which was full of determination. She felt the other man behind her jab his pistol into her back, and she picked up her pace.

They were now in a different part of the ground floor of the gallery. The room that they were currently in was rather spacious, but it was divided up by three plaster walls, which divided the room into four parts. In the part of the room that they were now in, Alex saw various paintings hanging from the walls. He quickly glanced around him, and speedily made his move.

Without warning, he chucked a small, gray cube-like object out from his clenched fist, and dove to his right as the object exploded. Tamara took her chance and lashed out backwards with her foot towards the man with the pistol. Her foot caught him in the groin and sent him down.

-

When he had pretended to fall on accident, Alex had grabbed one of the explosives out of his shoe and had armed it when he stood back up. He had it primed it and silently counted down the ten seconds until the detonation would commence.

-

Alex also attacked the man behind him with the shotgun. He rose from the ground and charged at the overweight man, who was about to take aim at him when Alex leapt from the ground and tackled the man to the ground. Alex slammed his fist into the man's gut, causing the man to suddenly start wheezing for air. He dropped the shotgun, which Alex picked up. Tamara picked up the pistol that was laying on the ground next to her and nodded over at Alex.

"Good thinking," she said. "Now let's get out of here!"

Alex couldn't agree more. He swung the shotgun at the large man, which hit him on the side of his head. He was knocked out on impact, and Alex turned back to Tamara.


"Which way do we go?" he asked.

Instead of answering him, she grabbed his arm and dragged him with her behind the plaster wall. Alex suddenly heard the ricochet of bullets smack into the wall where he was just standing. He quickly swung up the shotgun and held it at his side, afraid that he'd have to use it. Tamara, however, shouted to him over the gunfire and told him otherwise.

"Alex, come on!" she shouted at him. "Follow me!"

Alex looked back at her, watching her bend around the wall to return fire at the other gunmen. He heard one of them fall to the ground. He looked behind her and watched as the wall started to splinter due to the bullets whipping into it.

She shot a few more rounds towards the gunmen then sprinted forward, with Alex quickly following her. He tossed the shotgun aside, and let it slide across the marble flooring into the corner. He could feel the aim of the men's weapons on him, but he and Tamara quickly ran through a set of oak wooded double-doors and were making their way down a long staircase.

They made their way into the lobby, which was still very busy. Tamara quickly raised the gun and let out a warning shot into the air, which triggered numerous screams from around the room. Alex started to make his way through the now-chaotic crowd, with Tamara right at his side. It was smart of her to cause a panic here, because it would give them a better chance of escaping unharmed.

They finally reached the glass doors and rammed their way through them, ending up on the street. Tamara quickly glanced in both directions down the road for some sort of transportation, and saw a taxi coming towards them. She quickly ran out onto the street and aimed her weapon at the driver, but with no intention to kill him. The driver suddenly slammed on his brakes and opened his door. He fell out of the car, but quickly scrambled up and ran in the opposite direction. Alex felt a pang of guilt for the man, but knew that the sooner he and Tamara had gone, the sooner they'd be safe.

Tamara ran over to the driver's side of the taxi and got in it, closing the door behind her. Alex got into the passenger seat beside her, closing his door as well. Before Tamara had gotten the chance to accelerate forward, a sudden burst of gunfire was heard, and Alex ducked his head in horror as the passenger seat window was blown out, as well as half of the windshield.

Slamming her foot onto the gas pedal, Tamara shot the taxi forward. Alex dared a look behind him, and saw a black jeep speeding towards them, a mounted machinegun resting on the top of it. The man who had shot at them with it was kneeling behind it, taking aim again.

Tamara must have noticed this, as well, for she started to swerve in and out of the busy afternoon traffic. Alex opened the passenger door window, and slightly leaned out of it. Tamara reached over to him with one hand and put her hand on his back to keep him from tumbling out of the car. Alex extended his hand with the watch on it and quickly pressed one of the buttons on it, and once again, the blue beam of energy was shot from it, hitting the car's hood. Alex struggled to keep his aim at the car, 

and attempted to cut through the car's drunk and disable their engine. He found that it took several seconds to burn through a single part of the hood, and Alex decided against taking all that time to do it. Instead, he switched the laser off, and pressed another button, which shot the intense beam of light out of it. Alex brought his aim up towards the driver, but found that the light simply bounced off of the windshield, obviously having no effect. Alex brought himself back into the car, hatching another idea.

He quickly bent down to his right shoe and unclipped another explosive from it. He activated the timer, and leaned out the window once more, taking careful aim. He let eight seconds tick by until he finally dropped the explosive on the ground, making sure that no pedestrians were nearby who could get caught in the radius of the explosion.

The explosion, Alex knew, would be enormous.

And it was. Alex had timed it precisely, and had dropped the explosive at just the right moment for it to cause the most damage. It was directly underneath the back end of the jeep when it detonated, and Alex had to pull his head into the car to protect his face from the debris that had been blown out by the explosion.

Tamara started to slow the taxi down a bit after she witnessed the explosion. She looked over at Alex, bewildered.

Alex shrugged. "Smithers hasn't let me down yet," he said simply.