Operation 9: Sink or Swim
"Hm, that's problematic!" Skipper frowned lightly.
"You think!" I scowled, taking my eyes away from the silver roadblocks to shoot the man a look.
Sirens blared in the background, quickly growing louder and soon followed by the flash of red and blue. "The police are here!" I chirped, calming down somewhat as I spotted the two squad cars as they braked harshly to a stop.
"They won't help us," Skipper stated as he walked the length of the truck's trailer and jumped down behind the cab where the trailer was attached to the heavy-duty vehicle.
"No, you're right, they've probably just managed to track down you for your insane driving!" I called after him.
"Can you fight?" Skipper called slowly as he finally jumped onto the tarmac road and strode back along the side of the truck, throwing his eyes up to where I still sat on top of it.
"Fight as in actual technique and skill? No…Fight as in throw what ever you got? Yes," I blinked down at him as he folded his arms.
"You stay up there then!" He rolled his eyes before looking back at the two roadblocks.
"I'm planning too!" I huffed.
"Make your self useful and kick the driver out the cab and start this hunk of junk back up!" He pointed towards me before letting his arms fall to his sides.
"Excuse me!?" I frowned.
"And trust no one!" then that was it, he was instantly jumping into his fighting stance as the first person came at him.
"This is insane!" I squeaked to myself as I slowly stood and shuffled along the top of the long trailer. "I can't kick a truck driver out of his truck!" I frowned lightly as the cab of the truck came into view.
The engine revved lightly as a small space cleared in front of the truck allowing it to move forwards and causing me to stumble lightly, but I luckily managed to recover quite quickly. That was until the truck put the brakes back on which sent me crashing forwards. I fell over the gap between the truck and trailer and smacked down on the roof of the cab with a slightly more audible bang, only to be finish of by slipping head first down in front of the windscreen and clambering to a stop on the large nose on the vehicle.
"Ow…" I mumbled rubbing my head before slowly pushing myself up onto my hands and knees and taking a quick look around. My eyes met with the driver of the truck. His face pulled into an open gawk of confusion as he slowly pulled a hand away form the large steering wheel to adjust the cap on his head. "Um…Hi?" I spoke quietly, lifting a hand with a smile and gave a small wave.
The driver just blinked and returned my small wave before shaking his head and rubbing his arm over his eyes.
I screeched in surprise as my wrist was caught and I was pulled, far from carefully, off the truck. The person that had pulled me off failed to catch me properly, as did the person with them. They had both managed to grab my torso in time, which only left my legs to hit the hard unforgiving road surface and my knees took the worst of it.
"Do you work with that man?" One questioned as they both pulled me up.
"What?" I frowned lightly, looking between the two uniformed cops.
The one that had spoken held and arm out, pointing past the back of the truck where Skipper succeeded in dropping into a low sweep and taking out some poor man's legs. "I have never seen him in my life!" I blurted, only to receive a raised brow. I cast the copper that was holding me a quick look and gave a light shrug before turning back to the first man. "What!? I was happily enjoying some lunch with a very nice man I had just met then he shows up out of the blue and kidnaps me!" I frowned.
Once again he raised a brow at me and the other cop holding onto my upper arm turned me and started to drag me along. "You're coming with us!" He stated and I looked between the two of them.
This was not good, or was it? I felt slightly lost on what to do, do I trust my insane boss and stick with him, or trust these law-enforcing officers?
"Trust no one," I mumbled to my self, my chest deflating with dread.
Taking a deep breath I put a stop to my walking and yanked my arm back to me in hopes of freeing my arm. "Oh shit..." I whispered as my stunt flopped as the cop was simply forced to turn. Thinking fast I clenched my fist and shot a low blow to the crotch, successfully freeing my other arm as he crumpled.
Spinning on my small heels I made a hasty run back to towards the truck, leaving the cop to lower himself to the floor while the other took in the situation in confusion before getting his wits about him and making chase.
He was fast and quiet easily caught up to me, causing me to scream and duck under the truck as I got to the middle of the trailer. I had almost made it out the other side when my ankle was caught, tripping me. I quickly gripped at the under side of the trailer to prevent my self from hitting the ground. "What is it with you people and my ankles!" I yelled, kicking my free foot back furiously at the police man earning a few shouted yelps before he let go.
My feet roughly found the floor as I ducked out from under the truck, looking back to it quickly and not seeing as I bumped into someone. I spun quickly, screaming to high heaven and ducked down at the fist that came hurtling towards me. I stayed in my crouch, eyes pinched shut and hands over my head as the sound of fist hitting face cracked out. I slowly peeked out of my obvious hiding spot before jumping into an angry stance. "You almost punched me!" I shouted.
"No I didn't!" Skipper chirped.
"Yes you did! I bumped into you and you turned to punch me!" I frowned.
"I was taking out your pursuer!" He pointed behind me.
I turned quickly and raised a brow at the cop that had grabbed my ankle, he lay splayed out on his back, one lens of his polarised sun glasses missing.
"That was a lucky shot!" I spat pointing at him and jabbing my finger in to his chest.
"It's a good thing your reflexes where fast then!" He stated with a raised brow.
"So you would have hit me!" I squeaked, completely outraged.
"Not that you'd remember when you came round," He answered smugly, throwing me a smirk.
I couldn't believe it; he would have actually landed that punch on me if I hadn't ducked?
I chirped a shout of surprise as I was pushed forwards, stumbling into the barrier that separated the road and the footpath. "Move!" Skipper called as he grabbed my arm and pulled me around him before kicking his leg out side ways at where I had just been standing, throwing the unknown man to the ground.
I blinked and quickly stepped over the barrier onto the path, followed by the fighting frenzy himself.
"Lola, go now," He ordered.
"Lola?" I mumbled my own name stupidly before shaking my head. "Go? Where… there is nowhere to go!" I frowned as Skipper backed up towards me. Twelve men were closing in on us. My back hit the wall of the bridge, the only thing stopping us from falling into the water.
"Over the edge!" He frowned shooting me a quick look before turning back to swing a flattened hand into the side of a man's neck.
I turned slowly and leaded over the edge of the bridge, peering down into the murky black/brown water of the river below.
"Umm…I'm not going in there," I frowned, pulling a face at the dirty polluted water when my legs where suddenly grasped and pulled up. My eyes opened wide as my body slipped forwards. "SKIPPER!" I shrieked highly, as he pushed my legs over, effectively pushing me off the bridge and letting me drop.
I hit the water at an awkward angle, making me disorientated as I kicked back to the surface. I splashed and struggled to keep my head above the boggy water. The freezing temperature shocked my body and I gasped for air desperately as if it would recover my body. The river had already starting to pull me along as it took me under the bridge slowly, my hair now filthy and clinging to my face.
I coughed and sputtered as another splash sounded and water sprayed over me. I struggled at turning in the water but saw as Skipper surfaced, flicking his wet hair from his face and seeming less affected by the cold water compared to myself.
"You!" I wailed trying to swim against the current as he swam with it, quickly meeting me. "You…you!" I had to pause so the dirty water wouldn't go in my mouth and kicked harder to keep my head up. "You threw me off a bridge!" I yelled, as he grabbed my arm and caught onto one of the bridge's stilts, keeping us in the shade, but the current was also stronger from where the water was forced to divide around the supporting structure. "What are you doing?" I frowned, finding a handhold to keep me in place as Skipper peeled his wet jacket off awkwardly. "Skipper!" I frowned growing impatient when he failed to answer me quick enough.
"Camouflage," He barked, lifting the jacket out of the water and sticking it on my head.
"What?" I asked flatly, giving him a blank look.
"This water is dark enough to hide anything under the surface," He began.
"That's because it's filthy," I mumbled.
"Still! Two heads are easy to spot when there is half a mob group looking!" He shot, grabbing hold of a large empty coke bottle as it floated past and I clamped my mouth shut, but not for long.
"What are you doing!" I squeaked instantly averting my gaze as his white shirt was the next item to come off his body.
"Did you not understand the part that there is half a mob group looking for us?" He frowned lightly. "Wait here," I just nodded and watched as he swam diagonally to the next leg of the bridge, keeping against the current to prevent himself from being taken from out under the bridge. Once he reached his destination, he took the cap off the bottle and filled it with some water before rested his shirt over the large bottle and letting it go before swimming back to me.
I watched as the current took the bottle, which tugged his shirt out from under the bridge. The amount of water Skipper had filled the bottle with caused it to sink just under the surface and the white shirt was still visible, making it look as if someone was drifting down stream under the water.
"When I say, let the current take you, don't kick!" Skipper's eyes where up at the bridge above us as a few shouts sounded.
"But I…" I started only to have him put a hand over my mouth and place part of his jacket over his head too.
"Tread water…very slowly," He mumbled, pulling me away from the bridge and the water took us.
The ends of his jacket sunk under, the fabric weighted with water, the same filthy water that kept lapping up into my face because we couldn't swim, just bob along.
I could only breath through my nose seeing as the water was covering my chin and I feared to even think of opening my mouth.
"Never, and I mean never, come looking for me again when I don't return within the hour!" I shouted at Skipper's bare back as he walked up the shallow embankment. I chirped out a small squeal as my heel hit a dip in the already cobbled cement slope. I veered off to the side and splashed back down into the dirty water, blinded by my own hair and the sleeve of Skipper's jacket that still clung to my head.
"If you had followed the orders given to you I wouldn't have had to!" He barked back as the shallow waters pulled me along while I stumbled to get back on my feet.
"That's not the point! You don't give people hour dead lines when you send them off to places they haven't been! And you come search for some one when they've been missing for twenty-four hours… not twenty bloody minutes!" I yelled, still trying to stumble out of the water and throwing my arms out as I tipped off balance again due to the uneven slope.
My arm was caught in a firm grip, stopping me from falling back. "It was planned," He stated calmly, the firm look still on his face as he pulled me from the water and up on to the flat.
"What was?" I panted, holding to his arm for support.
"Everything!" He barked. "The folder was being tracked by Kowalski back at HQ and by the mob through other means, we placed a tracker in it to follow the movements after it had been delivered," He frowned.
"I fail to see how me being late is relevant." I shrugged lightly.
"The security cameras from the address we gave that idiot was hacked by us, we had control of the whole block so we could easily remove you from the area with out the mob noticing, or being able to track you!" He frowned down at me before pushing a hand through his wet hair, stopping it from clinging to his face. "We only had control for an hour to prevent any suspicion raising that could track the hack back to us, but you went over the dead line and the whole operation was shut down, we couldn't tell if you where being tailed or had be taken instead of the file. If you had done as asked this wouldn't have happened," With that he turned and walked off.
I was stunned. "Are you serious!" I called after him. "Why didn't you just tell me instead of being so blunt and vague!" I frowned.
"Why didn't you just follow orders!" He shouted back.
"I am a receptionist! I do the filing, answer the phone and make tea or coffee! I don't go on mission bloody impossible!" I screamed after him, pulling his wet jacket from my head and throwing it at him. It hit the back of his head with a loud slap and instantly stopped his walk.
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