Chapter 11~Determined to Succeed
Natalie and George arrived at the safe house in twenty minutes, seeing as they had been going at ninety miles an hour for most of it. They found Jess bored stiff and almost regretting her decision to stay behind, and she immediately busied herself by making dinner out of the supplies Seb and Connor had bought on the way in. Half an hour later, Seb, Lou, Connor, Lester and Burton arrived, much to Jess's delight, and she tipped the rest of the packet of pasta into the saucepan she was heating up. They all sat down to eat and discuss what to do next, and it came to their attention that Burton carried a secured phone around with him that was linked up to his offices at Prospero, with which he could bring all this to the attention of the Minister and have the British Army brought down on Wilder in less than a day. Lester glared at him, demanding why he hadn't thought to use it before, to which Burton replied that there was no point, seeing as they were two levels underground. The two men were evidently about to start yet another argument over which of them was more important, and, sensing this, Jess intervened with desert. George giggled into his Ribena at the looks Lester and Burton kept shooting each other. It wasn't until after dinner and Burton was about to make his phone call that Connor pointed out a very important fact:
"Uh, guys, has anyone else noticed that Danny and his lot haven't come back yet?" Everyone stopped. It had been nearly two hours since everyone else had arrived, and there was still no sign of them. And, to be honest, no one else had noticed until now. Seb broke the silence by swearing. Loudly. Lou and Natalie shared a look.
"My guess is that they were captured," Lou decided, not liking the idea himself. Natalie nodded in agreement. It did seem the most likely outcome.
"So now what?" Jess asked.
"Now, we go and get them," Lester said, without hesitation.
"No," Burton voiced, "There's still the possibility that they are coming, so going to look for them would be a waste of time. I say we get some rest and, if they're still not back by morning, go to find them then." This suggestion seemed to be the best, although no one was sure if they could get any sleep now that they knew something bad had to have happened. On the other hand, it was nearly midnight. George yawned loudly and moved past Burton and into the living area of the cottage, where he plonked himself on the sofa and went to sleep in about ten seconds. Natalie would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so heavy.
About a minute later, the sound of a car engine came into earshot and headlights glared into the windows. Before the engine had even cut out, Maria sprinted inside and went straight to the cupboards above the sink. She grabbed a small packet and ran out again, only to reappear ten seconds later. She was followed by Becker, who, much to everyone's dismay, was carrying a very pale Danny. He put him down on the kitchen table and Maria set about unwinding the bandage she had just found in the cupboard. Lou silently handed her some absorbent padding and she rolled up Danny's blood-stained shirt, revealing a bullet wound the size of a tennis ball. Nobody spoke or even moved as she secured the padding with the bandage and pressed down gently on it, trying to stop the bleeding. For about ten minutes, the only sound in the room was Danny's erratic breathing. Then, after what seemed like forever, Danny coughed, making about three people jump, and a grin spread across Maria's face. She unwound the bandage and replaced it and the padding just as Danny's eyes flickered open and he squinted around the room, trying to figure out where he was.
"I feel like I've been run over by a lawnmower," he announced. Everyone around the table laughed, albeit somewhat shakily. Danny was ok. Maria went over to the sink and washed her hands, before sitting down heavily in a chair, still grinning broadly.
"Do I want to know what happened, or is that information something that is going to endanger my already teetering sanity?" Lester appeared in the doorway.
"I got shot," Danny declared, giving Lester reason to glower once again.
"I meant specifically, Danny, not stating the obvious,"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Danny tried to sit up only to be pushed back down again by Maria. He immediately propped himself up on his elbows instead, winning one of Maria's "fine but it's your life" looks.
"Specifically, we turned up, had a nice little chat with Sarah regarding her own plans to make the ARC public knowledge, were refused the presence of young George, as expected, and then got trapped in the Operations Room by the fine men you employ to keep us safe around there. Thankfully they were on our side and let us go, earning me this lovely parting gift from Wilder on the way out. That's pretty much what happened." Lester nodded thoughtfully, as did Burton, which was rather amusing, actually, considering how much the two of them disliked each other.
"Well at least now we know what they are trying to do," Burton mused.
"No, we know what Sarah is trying to do," Becker pointed out. "We still have no idea what Wilder wants."
"Actually, we do," Lester announced, much to everyone's surprise. "Johnson was trying to create Predators and have her own little army of them, which, we think, is what Helen Cutter was trying to prevent, she just thought it was us that was doing it. If Wilder's aim is to continue her work, then that's what he's doing."
"I still fail to see how taking over the ARC and then sitting around doing nothing is going to accomplish that," Maria said.
"This leads us to assume that he is actually doing something, he's just doing it quietly so as not to alert us to what he's doing." Burton said. He and Lester had evidently had a long time to talk about this.
"I think," Natalie said slowly, getting everyone's attention, "that you should make your magic phone call, get Wilder arrested and us back in the ARC, and then if there are any speed bumps along the way over Wilder's scheming, then we deal with them as and when. Which seems to be what you guys are good at," It was a good idea. The only major pitfall was that Natalie had used the word 'We' in the whole thing.
"Who, may i ask, is 'We'?" Seb demanded. Natalie gave him a blank look, forcing him to elaborate. She knew exactly what he meant, she just wanted him to say it out loud.
"You are going straight home with your brother as soon as you can," Seb said, leaving, he thought, no room for further discussion.
"For the umpteenth time, Dad, I can do what I want, whether you are happy with it or not. I'm eighteen, legally an adult, therefore able to make my own decisions,"
"No. You are NOT getting any more involved with this. Ok?"
"No, not ok. I want to at least see this through to the end, and then, I dunno, start working at the ARC. As in properly," Natalie's voice trailed off slightly towards the end of her speech as she saw the look on Seb's face. It was the same face Maria's dad had had on when she had announced she was leaving home to go to Military medical school, and everyone knew how THAT had turned out. Seb whirled around and confronted Lester, looking for something to use against Natalie's plan. Lester only shrugged.
"She's proven herself to be useful and can hold out in tough situations. If she asks nicely then i have no problem with it," he said, the biggest look of innocence on his face anyone had ever seen. That wasn't the response Seb had been wanting. He turned back to Natalie.
"You're not going through with this," he said, flatly.
"Give me one good reason."
"Because...Because i said so!" Seb yelled, unable to come up with another reason. Natalie looked him straight in the face, giving him a no-nonsense stare that she had copied perfectly from Maria's collection of expressions.
"That isn't a good enough reason anymore," she said. She pushed past her father and through the cottage door with more force than was necessary, leaving a heavy silence inside. Maria stood up.
"Well that was nicely handled," she directed at Seb before following her niece outside, trying to catch up with her before she went too far away. Seb tried to follow, only to be blocked by Becker, who hadn't moved from the doorway the entire time.
"I think you should just let her go," he said. Seb looked tempted to shoot him with his own pistol.
"Don't you dare tell me what i can and can't do regarding my own daughter," he said quietly. Becker's only movement was raising an eyebrow and putting his free hand on his gun, to stop Seb using it on him rather than anything else. Seb got another message.
"What? Are you going to shoot me now?" Before Becker could reply, a voice rang out from the other side of the room.
"Seb!" Lou barked, his eyes blazing. "Calm down." Seb turned, beyond ready to hit something, and locked gazes with Lou. For a minute, no one breathed. After a painful silence, Seb shook his head and traipsed through the cottage. The back door slammed shut.
"Well that was...Fun..." Connor voiced, in attempt to lighten the mood slightly. He shrugged at the glares people shot him, and attempted to hit Abby back but missed. Burton pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning on.
"Now that all the drama's over, I'm going to make a call. I suggest we all try to get as much rest as we can," he left the room, delving into one of his pockets. Everyone else made noises of agreement before finding somewhere to settle down for the night; Abby, Jess and Connor went through to the living room to occupy the chairs in there, Lou made himself comfortable in the chair he had previously been sitting in, Danny had already fallen asleep on the table and Becker plonked himself down in the chair by the window. He planned on staying awake until Maria and Natalie came back in, just to know where they were, but never got that far. They crept inside almost half an hour later, making sure as not to disturb anyone.
The following morning, once amends had been made and Seb had left to get more supplies, Burton announced the results of his phone call.
"The Minister expects us at the ARC at ten this morning. He, somehow, has arranged a take-over of the ARC. My plan is that Lester, Jess and I go to the ARC, make sure everything goes according to plan, and then we'll come get the rest of you when it's clear. Danny, you're coming with us too. We can get you to a proper hospital." He dodged the wounded look Maria shot him as a joke and looked around, judging responses. No one else had a different plan, so they agreed to just go with it. "In that case, we'd better be going," he strode out of the cottage, glad to be doing something rather than sitting around watching Maria's family shout at each other, followed by Lester and Jess, who was supporting Danny. Once the sound of the car they had taken could no longer be heard, Maria leaned back in her chair.
"Well, that is quite enough excitement for now, thank you very much," she declared, closing her eyes.
"It can't be over that easily," George said quietly. Maria opened one eye and raised the same eyebrow. "I mean, think about it, in every video game, even the really bad ones, the characters always get to a certain point, usually about three-quarters of the way through, and everyone thinks it's going to be fine blah blah blah, and then something really, really bad happens. It does that in movies too." Natalie rolled her eyes.
"The key difference, Georgie, is that this isn't a video game or a movie," she said in the sort of voice most people use when talking to a four-year-old.
"And anyway, it doesn't do that in Halo: Reach," Maria announced, both eyes closed once again.
"How do you know what happens in Halo?" George asked, surprised. Maria only grinned.
"Actually," Connor spoke up, "he's got a point. Not about the video game thing but think about it. Wilder has done all this to stop us from being in the ARC, something tells me it's going to take more than Burton's magic phone to stop him."
"I think you're all being overly pessimistic," Lou decided. "I for one am not going to get all worked up over something that hasn't happened yet and probably won't anyway."
"Amen to that," Maria said, still grinning. "Ryan, for the umpteenth time, they don't know we're here," she shouted over at Becker, who was pacing between all the windows in the cottage, and had been since he'd woken up that morning.
"So?"
"So stop prowling. Seriously, you remind me of that lizard," Maria grinned again as Lou collapsed in giggles at the other side of the table. Abby waited until he'd calmed down a bit before asking the most obvious question:
"What lizard?"
"The lizard that..." Maria was interrupted by a large explosion coming from round the back of the cottage. She was out of her chair in a flash and ran through to the back room. She held up a finger for silence as the others followed after her, listening for any sounds of either another explosion or the cause of it. All she heard was the first tentative bird beginning to chirp in the tree next to the outbuilding.
"Maybe it was just an animal or something," Abby offered. Maria threw her a 'don't be ridiculous' look. "Well there is a minefield out there," Abby said in her defence.
"I thought you said that Lester had had that cleared up," Maria said, making her way to the window that overlooked the field.
"Maybe they missed one," Connor suggested.
"Somehow," Maria said cautiously, "I don't think that small critters carry steel flight cases with them," she pointed out the window to the remains of what clearly had once been just that.
"And you said they had no idea we were here," Becker gave Maria an accusing look. Before she could shrug and come back at him with some witty remark about how she's not THAT much of a genius, the air around them opened up with gunfire. Lou flinched as something whistled past his ear and went through the wall behind him, leaving a splintered hole in the side of the cottage.
"Run?" he asked, looking for confirmation.
"Run," Maria confirmed. "Everyone through the outbuilding and into the trees," she yelled above the noise. In reality, she had no idea where the gunfire was coming from, and actually, by taking everyone into the trees was probably as likely of a suicide mission as staying inside was, but she could see no other choice. Abby and Connor went first, followed by George and Natalie. Maria went next, with Lou and Becker bringing up the rear. Lou had left his pistol in the car the day before, so Becker was the only one with any means of fighting back. At first, it looked as if no one was following them, until the seemingly impossible happened. An anomaly sprang open just next to the cottage and Wilder stepped out of it, raised a gun at the retreating group and fired before disappearing again. The anomaly disappeared with him. Time itself seemed to slow down for Maria at that point. She saw Wilder fire and then vanish, and saw Lou drop. Natalie screamed his name and started to sprint towards him, and just as she passed Maria, another anomaly opened, halfway between the cottage and where they were standing. Maria slammed into Natalie, knocking them both to the floor as another bulled whizzed past where their heads had just been. Natalie was up first, but Maria grabbed her sleeve.
"Get off me!" The shout was unnaturally loud in Maria's ear as she grabbed Natalie's arm properly and, catching the urgent look Becker shot at her, stared her in the face. They were too far away from Lou to help him without getting shot themselves, and there was a good chance he was already dead.
"Nat, if we go back we will get killed. We have to keep going," Natalie rounded on Maria, tears streaming down her face.
"We can't leave him there!" she cried.
"We have to. Damn it Natalie, we have to go. Now!" Natalie was about to shove Maria away and try and help Lou anyway, scream at her for not even trying to help, accuse her of not caring, anything to be able to get to Lou. But the look in her aunt's eyes told her that telling her all this was just as painful as it was for her to hear it. Maria and Lou had been friends for... Well, forever, and the force of what Maria was telling her finally sunk in; they couldn't help Lou. As much as either of them wanted to, they couldn't. All of this took place within the space of about five seconds, and, with one last glance at Lou lying in the grass, they both sprinted for the tree line, Becker right behind them firing shots at the anomalies that opened alarmingly quickly at various places in the field. Once they reached Abby and Connor in the trees they kept on running, trying to get as far away from the cottage as they could. Only once the sounds of gunfire were a long way behind them and Becker had stopped returning shots did they stop, more because they couldn't run any further than anything else. Natalie threw her arms around Maria and cried, loud sobs making her entire body shake. Abby, Connor, George and Becker watched in silence as tears ran down Maria's face too. The sight of Maria crying unnerved Becker. He had only seen her cry once before, but not for very long. This was different. It was as if part of Maria, the part that laughed in the face of danger and refused to be intimidated by anything at all, had died with Lou in the field outside the cottage. Almost five minutes later, when Natalie had stopped crying, the two of them joined the rest of the group. Maria stared at each of them in turn, knowing that she would need to rely on them for what she was about to suggest.
"This ends," She announced, her voice reflecting the anger and determination that blazed in her emerald green eyes. "Now."
