Okay I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and the next, it took a little figuring out but I put my best Anthony-Horowitz-Thinking-Cap on and tried to make it wound like him.
The last chapter is the next one you guys, thanks for sticking it out this long with me =D Xoxo, Millie
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Why had it ended like this?
Betrayed, tortured, lied to.
Alex would've given his world for Carter, he would've died for her. But as he sat there in the reeking little cell of a dungeon he knew he had been a fool.
He had been too stupid to notice the obvious, to note the things that had practically slapped him in the face.
Alex pulled his legs up to his chest and rested his chin on them. His hands were chained to the floor with rusty clamps that were cutting into his wrists and making them sting like heck. The cold floor he was sitting on didn't bother him though. It wouldn't have made a difference. He was numb as is--not counting his wrists--the cold, wetness, and stench didn't affect him. At the moment nothing had.
"How could I be so stupid!" he whispered sharply to himself, putting his head against the wall hard, "How could I have trusted her?"
The cell he was in was at least ten stories below Geiger's office. It was built of salt rotted bricks with a grate that hung twelve feet above him. Beside him there was a curving stair that had no railing and led back to the plantation, at least back up to three floors below Geiger. There was some type of plant growing inside the cell. A vine entwined around the grate and was coming through the walls. Alex could tell it was alive and had shifted in the two hours he had been down there because a brick had fallen from where the plant had pushed it.
There was absolutely no light in the cell, despite a small moon beam that came through the grate, from the sewer drain. It shined on the plant and Alex was finally able to figure out what plant it was that was growing inside.
Roses…
But how was it possible? There was no light, barely any air, definitely no water. Where did it get the strength to grow.
But of course from what he had just witnessed earlier, what wasn't possible?
The roses were a deep rich crimson that resembled black in the darkness. They weren't like the ones that had been in the back yard of the Jousts. Rich blue. Alex had thought of Carter as a blue rose. She was different, gorgeous, but also he realized that a blue rose is made artificially. It's real but it's not natural, it's fake. That fit her also.
Alex sighed as he counted the minutes that were passing by. In an hour it would be three fifteen. In forty-five minutes it would all be over. It would be over for nothing!
Scorpia had finally won. They'd beaten him. And how? They'd gotten him in his weak spot, they'd set out for his heart. And they had succeeded. They had him now, why not finish it?
He sighed as he remembered the final moments that he was in Geiger's office. He remembered the pain they'd put him through. The scars, wound and bruises were still battering him like a cannon. The wound Carter had made on him the most.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Carter shoved off Geiger's hand and began to walk out.
Alex was still in the guard's tight grasps, but he wasn't looking at Carter anymore. He couldn't. He was just staring at the ground. His pain was pulsating like a drum, but he didn't seem to notice it too much.
Geiger's assassin? His personal assassin?
"Ah, ah, ah, Cassandra," Geiger twirled his cane and Solomon shut the door right before she walked out, "You mustn't leave when we have a guest."
Solomon turned her by her shoulders and she bit down on her lip. The remorse in her eyes was throbbing as bad as Alex's pain.
"What're you waiting for, Geiger!" Alex finally yelled, his arms tightening in the guards grasp, "You're freakin' Black Magic saw me already! Get it over with!"
He didn't know what had given him the power in his voice to say that, he didn't even know he could say something that sounded that harsh to Carter.
Carter looked at him and then at the floor. Geiger took her by the arm and led her beside his desk. The guards took Alex and shoved him into the chair again. His hands were still tied and his wrists were feeling bruised.
Carter stood by Geiger with her hands at her sides. That was when Geiger grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her. She gave a quiet yelp of surprise as he did.
"Did you really not suspect of her, Alex?" he asked his hand went to the bottom of her shirt, "All the signs were there--including this one." His fingers grabbed the bottom of her black shirt and pulled it up to her shoulder blades.
Alex stared at her back.
At the lower region near her kidney was a silver scorpion, the mark of Scorpia. He remembered the first time when they had scouted the warehouses and her shirt had rolled up. He had seen something dark on her back but had chosen to ignore it.
He realized then that all the signs had been there.
Carter shoved him off and she pulled her shirt back down.
"You want to know how you were caught tonight, Rider?"
Alex looked at Carter. She was staring at him with her remorse-filled eyes.
Stop it. he was sure his own eyes were saying that.
"You want to know how you were lead this way into my grasp…into the spider's parlor little fly?"
Alex tightened his hands into fists.
"We knew everything, little bug. We knew where you slept, we knew where you ate, we knew where you went, who you fought, what you touched…who you touched."
Carter looked at Geiger and then closed her eyes.
"It was all because of a little magic," he waved his fingers as if sprinkling something, "sprinkled onto your devil's luck.
"She told us everything.
"the first time you came to scout us, Solomon here shot a bullet at you two. But if you had paid close attention you would've realized it was only a blank.
"That night Black Magician came in and left your first note. When you saw her at the window you should have recognized her when you saw Cassandra in the shadows.
"When she passed you the notes in school during class you should've recognized the handwriting.
"When she knew her ways around the tunnels…" Geiger put his hands on Carter's shoulders and went down her arms, her eyes were still closed as she jerked in his grasp, "you should've known."
Alex knew he should've known. He had seen all the signs. More than twice she had tried to tell him who she was but he had interrupted her with his own desires.
"It was all a lie…" Geiger said, his voice velvety darkness.
That's when Carter came to, she snapped open her eyes and seemed to try to go toward Alex.
"No!" she said to him, "It wasn't. Alex, it wasn't all a lie. I swear to you. The ball--"
"Hush Cassandra," Geiger put his finger on her lips, "hush."
Alex was looking at her now with an anger that was burning inside him.
"You were the one that killed all those men?" Alex said, his voice was quiet but he was sure Carter could hear them loud and clear, "Who else did you--"
"Remember those two agents MI6 talked about? The ones that had gotten killed by Snakehead? Ash didn't kill them, she did."
"Alex--" she tried to talk again but Geiger kept on.
"And you remember her past? The one she was so embarrassed of because of its darkness? It's halfway true. But not all of it.
"Sammy, her friend--her only friend at CIA--when he was shot he was shot by Black Eclipse, but she was the one holding the gun."
"Stop it.." Carter said softly.
"Your godfather Ash and she have been our most affective spies yet. You know why? Because they've been able to lie to you in front of your face."
Alex looked down at the ground. He couldn't believe it. It was her. All her. She had betrayed him so much, she had lied, killed. She wasn't Carter…who was she?
"Alex, it wasn't a lie!" she finally yelled, "It wasn't I swear, I--"
Geiger lashed out his hand and struck her across the face. She didn't let out a sound as she stumbled into the bookshelf behind the desk. She let her hair fall in her face and Alex couldn't tell if her cheek was bruising or smarting.
"Stop it," Alex said sharply. That's when both Carter and Geiger looked at him, he could see the surprise in Geiger's face and something that was mixed between surprise and betrayal in Carter's, "It doesn't matter what she's done, she's still a person."
Somehow he knew that wasn't what Carter was expecting, when her head tilted to a side and she turned he knew all too well.
"She's a murderer." Geiger sat on the edge of his desk, "And you still have compassion?"
Alex stared at Geiger with eyes that held rage. He could feel his cheeks flaring with the anger that was boiling inside him. Because of everything. Everything that was happening.
"Hmm, you are a person I will never understand, Rider."
"I don't expect you to." Alex tried to wiggle his wrists in the cuffs but found that they were starting to cut them.
"What's your hurry, Rider?" Geiger sounded like he was asking a wealthy good friend to stay for dinner, "You haven't heard my little concoction."
"I'd rather have my heart--"
"Broken? Betrayed? That's already happened, might as well listen."
Alex tightened his jaw and looked at the desk, not wanting to look at the filthy well-groomed scum that Scorpia was making now.
"Hmmm, well." Geiger was sitting on the edge of his desk with one hand clutching a dampening silk handkerchief. His voice was as nonchalant as if he were speaking to an old friend about a simple error in his plans for the day's plans. "Have you heard of that war that is happening between Germany and Afghanistan, Alex?"
"I don't watch the news." Alex snapped. He didn't. Too depressing, it always reminded him that eventually MI6 would call him on another mission to go into something difficult and non-death-defying.
"Well you should pay attention to what is happening around the world much more."
"Sure." Alex made his voice as sarcastic as possible, not trying to hide the fact that he was pretty pissed off at that moment. At everything. "I'll be sure to do that when I get home and eat my bowl of Captain Crunch." he made his face as taut as possible. The entire time he had been mouthing Geiger he hadn't looked at him once, he stared at the painting behind Geiger and Carter. He knew if he even glared at Carter his feelings would whiplash him and make his fierce stance die down.
"Well, then allow me to explain. These two countries are fighting because of God-knows what. We never really went into specifics with the details. But the ambassador in Afghan somehow discovered our unique scientists and their labs."--Alex felt that if his usage of "Unique" was a touchable item he would've spit on it and sent it to hell--"And well, when he came to us he made us an offer we couldn't refuse."
"What crap did you accept from this idiot?" Alex snapped.
"Carter," Geiger dabbed at his eyes, "would you please tell him what our reward is?"
Carter stayed her ground away from Geiger, her tanned cheek was flaring red strips from where he had lashed out at her, his finger imprints were embedding in like a scar. She looked at Geiger and then at Alex. At first Alex thought she was going to refuse, she was going to say something smart like she had at Power Point…but when she bean speaking he realized that here Scorpia had broken her. Her spirit. She killed with a blank expression, her finger would pull the trigger without hesitation, she would act as the guinea pig they had made her.
"Talroz is paying us eight hundred, fifty million dollars. One-fourth in diamonds, one-fourth in weaponry, one-fourth in gold, and the last fourth in silver." her voice has been icy steel that sounded like it could break into a million small shards of ice. But when she straightened and looked Alex straight in the eye he realized that she had already broke. The guilt was gone, in its place was the bland expression of someone whose mind and free will was dead.
"And what the heck is he paying you for?" Alex pursued the questions for one reason, they involved Carter, and what he had said was true. She was murderer, but she was still a person.
"Their soldiers are dying." Geiger said in a matter-of-fact tone that annoyed the crap out of Alex, "The living conditions in which they reside is too…infected. They were plagued with the Black Fever a few months back and haven't been able to get any of the country quarantined of it. Because of that their soldiers are weak and unable to go into the battlefield.
"They are hunting their enemies but by the Black Fever they are practically being hunted.
"When they found us they asked us to do one thing for them: to make an invincible soldier."
"There's no such thing." Alex stated, "Everything dies. That's it. No matter what you do we all get weak and die. Sickness or no sickness. Young or old." as he said his words he vaguely remembered when he had been sent on his first mission in March, when Sayle had gotten him tied to a chair and had told him, "You're never too young to die." Funny how he was practically quoting his old enemy. He realized then that that had been his first mission. Sayle was his first enemy. That one choice he had made so many months ago had led to his clone disaster in Point Blanc, that strange issue with the Russian General Alexei Sarov in Kayo Esceleto, Sabina's move and Gregorovich's death when he had been dealing with the operation Eagle Strike, the first time he had met Scorpia, the battle in space near the first Spatial Hotel Ark Angel…Ash's death with the Snakeheads…and finally this. Another betrayal.
"You speak the truth, Alex," Geiger agreed. He slowly picked up Carter's knife that had been given to her by MI6 and twirled it in his hands, placing the handkerchief on his lap, "nothing on earth can stop the process of aging, or the fact of how we get sick. Everyone knows that.
"We didn't make an immortal, Alex. We made a special liquid though that we have been trying to complete for years that allows the skin to be…immune to damage."
Alex stopped shifting in his chair then. He remembered when Carter had cut herself on the bar grate when they had gone to lunch and she had fainted, her wound had healed without hesitation. But hadn't it been CIA? The pills? It couldn't be true.
"You're bluffing." Alex accused, "Scorpia doesn't have enough brain cells to make Kool-Aid."
Geiger chuckled let out a huff that showed he was laughing quietly. He bounced the dagger in his hand, holding onto the silver, black-lace wrapped hilt tightly. He held still for a moment but then threw the knife.
It flew in midair, seemingly towards the bookshelf; it glinted in the lights of the room and made it shine like a mirror.
But suddenly there was a meaty thwack! and Carter fell to the ground on her knees. Geiger's handkerchief had left his lap from his movement and as it landed by Carter it was forced down by a spatter of blood that darkened it instantly.
Alex tried to leap from his seat to only have the two guards grab his shoulders and shove him down further into the wooden chair although he had reached the limit. His face was flaring with the rage he felt for Geiger at the moment. He wanted to grab him by the collar and hurl him and his expensive suit out the window that was beside him. The idiot had stabbed his own assassin! He had stabbed Carter!
He was breathing hard from where he attempted to struggle out of the seats and he could feel his wrists burn as they twisted and turned in the ropes.
Carter was bending so far down that her forehead was touching the ground, her arms were wrapped around her tightly, her back heaving from where she was trying to catch her breath. Blood was beginning to pool around her like a dark crimson pond, it was going through her fingers rapidly and sending its salty smell up into Alex.
She moved her hands around and Alex heard a moist pulling and a soft clatter as she pulled out the dagger and dropped it beside her bent legs.
"Carter…" Alex breathed the name. He began to yell, "What's the freak is the matter with you??"
Geiger smiled cockily and got off the desk's edge. He walked over to Carter, stepping in her blood casually, and grabbed her arm. He jerked her up and her head flew back. Her hair went to behind her ears and Alex could see the gash all too well.
The knife had left a wound three inches long and definitely more than five inches deep, her blood wasn't the bright red most scars usually bleed it was dark crimson that looked purplish instead of red.
Carter put her fingers at her shirt's hem and shakily pulled it up. She closed her eyes as she shifted her waist and pain lulled into her abs.
Alex almost gasped as he saw what happened.
The wound was sealing up, slowly the fibers of her skin were reattaching themselves like putty to its can. It reminded him of a zipper and how it slowly went up finally closing as it reached the top. In less than two minutes the wound was sealed and all that was left was the thin layer of blood on her abs.
"Do you still believe I am bluffing?" Geiger asked, his hand still grasping Carter's forearm.
When Alex stared at him with utter rage Carter snatched her hand away and pulled her shirt down.
Geiger smiled that cocky smile and began to walk over to him, "Cassandra was our first test subject. Once her heart stopped and we almost didn't get her back. But when she was revived we tested on her thirteen more times and finally the antidote was successful.
"All those people you saw coming in, they weren't tests. They were the actual thing. They were embodied in the liquid until it fused in their veins and took over their body. Their skin isn't quiet as soft as Cassandra's"--he brushed his fingers on her cheek, but all she did was slowly turn her head--"she was made special. The other's are made with skin that can be as taut as marble. It's cold, slick and ice-like. It can still be penetrated but it's difficult. Since you will die in possibly less than an hour I will tell you all their weakness.
"Metal. Swords, daggers, knives. Anything that is metallic can go through them, but still with difficulty beyond reason."
AS Geiger spoke Alex remembered when he and Carter had been down below the sewers, how that one guard with red hair and brown eyes that flashed green had attacked them and how Carter had grabbed her dagger and jutted it in him. Her plunge had been jagged and somehow reluctant, but as she knifed it further it seemed to grow easier. He kept the weakness as a mental note, one of the many he was gathering.
"So you're little toys aren't invincible." Alex stated, "They're crap. They can be destroyed and recycled--we can go green with them!" Alex added a sneer at the end of his sarcastic retort.
Geiger's lips formed a straight line when Alex had talked, his fingers had reached into his breast pocket on the suit and pulled out yet another handkerchief to dab his eyes with.
"Just like your Godfather." he said quietly, but whenever someone spoke of Ash it seemed to always echo around like a roar of a lion in a cave, "He was as smart-aleck as you. Unfortunately like you he couldn't sense the point of danger. He was killed and we will do what you're little MI6 did to him."
When the two buff guards and Tourniquet came over to him they grabbed him by the shoulders. Tourniquet had taken out his gun and pushed the barrel into the bottom of Alex's jaw.
"Sorry but this time there isn't a tranquilizer." he said. His voice was raspy and slick. He reminded Alex of a snake.
Suddenly a loud ringing was echoing around the room, flashing lights streaked the windows and mirrors.
"What in blasted--" Geiger got off the desk as five soldiers burst through the door, they were dressed in camouflage with rifles thrown across their shoulder.
"What's going on?" Geiger demanded. He hadn't said anything to Tourniquet about the angel pistol that was digging into Alex's skin.
"Sir," the closest soldier took three steps toward him, "The Ambassador is here, sir. He has requested to see you at this moment."
"What's with the blasted lights?!" Geiger snapped.
Alex turned his eyes back toward his desk and saw Carter popping her neck, her hand was twitching by her side. Her other had just slipped out from under the book shelf.
She huffed out a single airy chuckle.
They all turned to look at her.
Carter leaned against the shelf with her arms crossed. She put a hand to her lips and made her eyes large, "Oops." she made her voice sound like she was two years old, "My bad. I guess I hit the emergency button." she smiled wickedly at them then sneered.
Geiger reached her in three long strides and grabbed her by the back of her neck. She grabbed at his fingers as he wrenched her to Tourniquet's and Alex's side. She looked at Alex with solemn eyes then jerked her stare at Tourniquet.
"Once you've finished with him," Geiger held Carter tightly. The lights and sirens went off as he spoke, "this one needs to be taught who it is that she follows orders from."
Tourniquet grabbed Carter by the arm and jerked her to him, making her body press against his and making her hair swipe Alex on the cheek.
"My pleasure," Tourniquet put his face near hers and ran his hand down her lower back.
She jutted out her palms and shoved him back hard. She gritted her teeth as she wiped her shirt down.
"Basta--"
"Well, the ambassador's here, Rider," Geiger straightened his suit, smoothed back his white hair and took up his cane from hook beside the chair Alex had knocked over, "Unfortunately I won't be able to witness your end. This matter is very important. Tourniquet will make sure that you disappear without a trace. A trace that you were here, not pain." he jabbed the end of the cane into Alex's side, "Good-bye, Alex."
The soldiers filed into a line and Geiger passed them, leaning on his cane as he walked out.
Tourniquet kept his gun in Alex's jaw and grasped his arm from Embry.
"Come on," he commanded, "Scorpia doesn't want you to die quickly. You've caused too much to go peacefully."
He began to wrench him towards the door. The soldiers had filed out and it was only Tourniquet, the two guards, Carter and Alex.
Alex began to wrench his hand away and kicked at Tourniquet's stomach. Of course Tourniquet didn't miss the blow, it hit him square in the gut and his gun flew upward. His finger had hit the trigger and the bullet flew out with incredible speed, smashing into the large chandelier that Alex hadn't noticed was in the room. Glass rained down on them and Alex thought of it as a way to escape. He hadn't taken a step forward when a sharp kick got him in the knees and he was falling. He sprung out his hands to catch his fall but something on the ground came flying at him and it cut both his arms, causing them to double and him to slid on his chest.
His side was burning now, the pain beating into him. He grasped at his side and bit his tongue to hold back the curses that were building up in him.
Tourniquet rolled him over and Alex had suspected that it was him that had kicked him to the floor. But instead he found Carter standing beside him, her hair shining with shards of glass and her high-heeled stiletto boot near his heaving side. She just stood there as Tourniquet snatched him up and slammed him into the wall.
"That was a stupid move for a smart-ass kid," he said as he grabbed at Alex's throat, "Next time plan your escape when someone that's better than you at your own game isn't here."
Alex looked from Tourniquet to Carter. She was looking at him with a cringed face that could only mean she was ashamed.
"But there won't be a next time, will there?" Tourniquet slammed the gun's handle into Alex's stomach and he doubled over coughing. He could feel the blood that was speckling his lips again.
"Get him in Sub Level one," Tourniquet commanded, "That's where Geiger commanded he be."
Embry and the other guard grabbed Alex's arms and straightened him forcefully. Alex's vision was beginning to blur again as the spots came back into view. His body felt bruised and battled, his chest and sides were beginning to burn with pain.
As the men began to drag him out, Carter went running towards him.
"Alex!" she put her hands on his shoulder and looked at him guiltily, "Alex…I'm sorry." she put her other hand on the side of his face, "It wasn't a lie. It was true. What I said about my feelings were true. I love you."
Alex jerked his face out of her palm and stared at her with rage.
She recoiled like a hurt snake.
"Pick a freaking side, Carter." he snapped, "You're not doing anyone a favor by sitting on the fence. You can't kill the enemy then apologize to him for it."
When Carter took a step back her hand knocked over a book near the desk and several of her gadgets, her face was in a cringe that made it look like she had just been slapped--which ironically considering the bruises that were beginning to fade wasn't a lie.
Alex turned his face away from her before she could tell him anything and before he could say anything else to her. His lips burned with what he just told her and inside he had more that he wanted to snap.
"Move, lard!" Embry shoved him in his lower back and Alex stumbled out, the other guard's hand still twisted over his arm.
He tried to straighten when they left and had no problem when Tourniquet came over to him and grasped him by his hair. He twisted the locks to where Alex had to look at him, no matter what.
"Black." Tourniquet sneered, "Thought that we couldn't see through MI6's little disguises, did you?"
"I could've come in nothing but underwear and you wouldn't have noticed me." Alex retorted, "You're grasping me this time 'cause you actually have someone with a brain on your side."
Tourniquet twisted his hair harder and Alex held back the scream he wanted to let out.
"You would do well to keep that trap hole of yours shut--"
"And you'd do well with you're head in water for twenty minutes."
Tourniquet yanked down his hair and threw him onto the floor. Alex rolled until he came to a skidded stop near some steps, her wrapped his arm around his waist and found that the bandage was in pure strips that were about to come off. He pulled a strand and found it led to two more and a strip dissolved in front of him.
Darn.
For the last time the two guards grabbed his arms and began to lead him down the stairs.
Alex didn't walk down but rather trip over the stairs, the guards were at the least six foot eight and Alex was almost a foot shorter than them. Tourniquet rammed his gun into his back and Alex winced.
He looked back and saw only Geiger's assistant and not Carter. She was still at the top of the gray staircase with a hand on the rail and another behind her back, grasping something.
He took his eyes off her as they turned a corner and began going down another series of stairs.
They passed dozens of soldiers on their way down the labyrinth of stairs and each of them had the expression that made them look dumbfounded.
A kid? Is that why the sirens had gone off? A kid?
One soldier turned and stared at the black haired, bloody boy that was being dragged by Geiger's men brutally. He seemed no older than fourteen, no older than a youngling. Surely it was a mistake. As they disappeared into the shadows of yet another staircase the soldier was tempted to follow them, he knew what reward would happen if he did. He would be put in the Sub Level Negative 3. One of the worst places to live or breathe in. But it seemed to escape his mind as a young girl in all black came walking down the stairs with her shoulders thrown back and her face taut.
He recognized her at once. Geiger's assistant Black Magician. No one knew her name, no one knew who she was or anything about her. Except she killed so quickly and left such little evidence that it seemed like magic. Another was that she wasn't American, although she looked it. She was something from Central America or maybe even Middle Eastern.
Her black hair was billowing around in the air as she walked down furiously and her jaw tightened as she commanded through gritted teeth, "What the heck are you all doing?! Get up there! The ambassador if Afghanistan is up there with Geiger speaking of what to do with you." she grabbed one soldier by the arm and shoved him quicker up the stairs, "I suggest you get up there now."
One of the soldiers turned and stopped in front of her. He wouldn't take orders from a woman.
"Who are you to speak to us in that tone?" he questioned stupidly. The first soldier, Justin, knew it wouldn't end well.
Black Magician cocked her head sideways, her shiny black locks bouncing in mock defiance. "Excuse me?" she asked in the lightest tone ever that it seemed to hang in the air.
"You're what, thirteen? Welch, you ought to be upstairs being Geiger's little toy!"
Justin turned his head away from the scene that was happening between his comrade, Brett, and Magician.
She straightened her head and whispered, her voice like a snake, "Actually. I'm fifteen.
"And I'm demanding because…" her hand flew out so quickly it was a blur, "I have the magic stick."
She fired a silent shot at his chest quickly and Brett went flying across the room. He hit the cement wall behind him and grasped at his chest. He lay there with his fingers clutching at the blood that was pouring out of him.
"Anyone else wish to insult me?" she pointed the gun upward and kept it near her head.
No one moved, no one breathed.
"Then I suggest you begin moving UPWARD!" Carter threw off the silencer that was on the barrel of the angel pistol and fired another shot that hit Brett in the head and killed him instantly. The shot seemed to bounce off the walls like a warning echo. It had resonated in the soldiers head loudly and they began to practically run up the stairs as she stood there with her gun loaded, her finger itching at the trigger.
As Justin went upwards, he looked behind and saw that Magician had turned around and her hand was shaking with the gun.
Eight stories below, Alex had heard the second shot that had been fired and didn't want to think of what it had been for.
Instead he focused on exactly where they were going. He realized then that Sub Level 1 was possibly what it sounded like, sub-like. His ears were popping as they continued downwards, plummeting into the earth. He had counted the staircases they had gone down and as they descended another found the total was eighteen. The wound and wound like a spiral and as they continued he began feeling a pressure around his head and less oxygen down here. He noticed Tourniquet's cigarette had gone out.
"Sub Level Zero, sir." the second guard said roughly.
Tourniquet whispered into Alex's ear and he could've sworn it sounded like Voldemort from Harry Potter, "One more and it's all over."
Alex continued to trip over every step, but finally he could feel the step and discovered it was slick but rough, like salt on silk.
Two minutes passed by and finally Embry said, "Sub…" he coughed and gasped for air for a second, "Sub Level One, sir."
Alex could feel his own lungs tightening and found it harder to breathe down here.
"Get him in there and let's leave." Tourniquet stepped away from them and stood on the staircase.
After that they had shoved him in and pushed him to the ground. Alex almost yelled as his back had rasped across the salt-laced stone walls and possibly opened another wound on him.
They jerked his hands about and pushed them to the floor, cold metal clamps were placed on his wrist and locked.
They close the gate that stood as a door and locked it. Tourniquet took the key and placed it on the floor, took out his gun and shot it. The brass skeleton key shattered into fifteen pieces.
"Oops." he said, "My bad."
They turned their backs on him and left with out a second glance.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Two hours had passed since then. Alex's wrists were bleeding tremendously now and burned with a fire he thought was real. His legs hurt from not being able to walk. He didn't have the privilege of pacing or even bouncing his legs. His head felt foggy and painful, like someone had their hands on the sides and was pressing in really hard. His breaths were as shallow as possible but even so he felt like he was going to suffocate.
Two hours. What time was it? Two? Three? It was well after midnight.
He tried to see the Pros and Cons of this situation--if there were any, which he highly doubted.
Pro: Scorpia hadn't killed him.
Con: He knew why.
Pro: He had admitted his feelings to Carter just six hours ago.
Con: She had betrayed him four hours ago.
Con: the shipment was probably out already.
Con: Scorpia hadn't killed him with a gun but he was pretty sure that he was going to die in this stupid cell that could've belonged in a Grimm Brother's fairytale.
He put his head against the wall.
Two soft bangs sounded from upstairs, it was loud at the top but as it reached Alex, Seventy feet below Geiger's office, it was soft as a whisper.
Gun shots. he had heard one when they were bringing him below, two more forty-five minutes later, and now he heard two more.
Were the soldiers rejecting the Change? Were they turning back into their normal selves again?
Alex shifted his left leg to lay on the ground and the other was still tucked to his chest. It was as much movement as he was guaranteed.
He closed his eyes and tried to not think, he just wanted his mind to be as numb as his back, legs, and side. He didn't want to think about anything. Just absolute nothingness.
…but he wouldn't get his desires.
every time he closed his eyes he kept seeing Carter, bending over with the dagger stuck in her stomach. He kept seeing her eyes when she had walked in and seen him, when her betrayal was announced. Her eyes were the most gorgeous things about her…they had never seemed so dark, so dead.
Stop it, he told himself, stop thinking about her. She betrayed you. She isn't who she said she is. She isn't the girl CIA hired! She's not! No, no, no.
But then he felt his cheeks burn from where she had touched him, where she had held his face and told him, "…It wasn't a lie…I love you…"
How could she love me? How can I believe her? She's the one who turned me, she almost got me killed and now she's the reason I'm going to die here.
She had to be lying. She couldn't have been telling the truth.
He sighed quietly as he sat there, chained to the cold slick floor.
MI6 and CIA had gotten betrayed too. They had put their confidence in her and she had practically thrown it back in their faces. They had been looking for the Black Magician, they never knew that the Magician had been right there--in their office, in their presence.
They would probably never know. He knew what she was going to do. IF she had truly betrayed him and the government then she would return to CIA, she would tell them that the mission had gone wrong, he had been killed and she had barely escaped with her life. She would keep feeding Scorpia their information, she would get other agents killed, she would kill innocent people with a sullen look that held nothing but blankness. If she had truly betrayed them.
But…but what if she hadn't? He had seen the look of remorse tinting her eyes like a slick ice layer. It had thinned but it was still there. She had screamed for them to stop hurting him, she had cried when she saw him…she had held his face and said that it wasn't a lie.
He squeezed his eyes as he felt a thick wet feeling in them. When he opened them his vision was blurry. So he stared up at the ceiling and refused to let the tears that were about to spill over not.
There was a soft rumbling that vibrated the little cell and caused the loose pieces of thin rock from the ceiling to fall and hit him. The dust from the walls began falling and Alex accidentally inhaled some.
Darn! he thought. He shook his head and tried to get the stones off of his head and coughed as he tried to empty the dust from his mouth.
That had happened twice in the past hour. This marked the third time. He didn't know what it was, an explosion? Something falling?
He shifted his other leg to take the same position he had except reverse way.
For those past two hours that he had thought of everything that happened, he had also thought of a way to escape. But he couldn't find a single way! If he had his gadgets he'd be out of there quickly, but he didn't. If he could wriggle out of the chains he was in he could attempt to break down the door, but he couldn't.
With a futile third attempt he moved his arms up, his wrists and chains leaving the floor by an inch. He pulled hard to get out of the rusted blasted until he felt a sharp pain near the top of his hands and felt the trickle of blood down his fingers.
Blast! he had cut himself again. He remembered how MI6 had placed fake scars across his wrists that looked very real. They would need no need of that ever again. But he wouldn't see them ever again. Because for once he had failed. Scorpia had beaten him.
Don't stop climbing until you've run out of rope. Don't give up until you know that everything that you've worked for is no more. But even then you don't give up! No blood member of mine is going to give up.
Alex remembered his uncle's words clearly. His mind was fuzzy though and he couldn't remember when he had told him that. He only remembered Ian's expression of bravery and how Alex's tired hands were pulling up a rope, his knees were banging on rock and his palms were scraped. Rock climbing? Mountain climbing?
But he knew that Ian's words were true this time. He shouldn't give up until he knew everything that could help was out of reach….it was. His only ally wasn't an ally, she was the enemy. His weapons were gone, his rope had reached its end.
I'm sorry, Uncle.
He closed his eyes again.
He just wanted to sleep. He felt so blasted tired. His limbs were begging for rest and his eyes felt heavy.
He would just sleep for a minute or two. Yeah his vision was blurry, his breathing was feeling weak and he could feel his pulse radiating throughout him. Bup…bup…bup…bup. It was weak and very…what was that word? Dangerous? Fatal?
He couldn't even think.
He wanted sleep…precious sleep…he didn't care whether he woke up again. He wanted to run away from everything that was going on now. Every pain, every hurting moment. If he could just sleep…it would leave for a moment…Just sleep…rest…sleep…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Geiger stood at the window of his clattered office, he looked out at his "concoction" proudly…arrogantly.
It was all ready. The shipment was ready to go.
"Geiger!" a rough foreign voice echoed into the room.
Geiger turned around slowly, a smile spreading on his old, wrinkled, pale face.
"Yes, Ambassador Talroz?"
The ambassador walked into the office but stopped midway as he stepped in broken glass that crunched under his soft shoes.
Talroz was dressed in dark blue silk robes that wrapped around him gracefully. It was woven of pure rare silk that grew in the fields of the king of Afghanistan. The king had been so gracious as to have his beautiful maidens weave the robe especially for him. At his waist he had a thick belt that was made of the same silk but was instead gold and black, it wrapped around him once and allowed all the simple insignias on it to shine in the light when it was near any.
Talroz's hair was pure black, but no one could tell because of the black turban over it. His face was clean shaved other than the small goatee he had under his chin, his dark eyes scanned the room edgily and he almost seemed to blend in with his dark ebony skin.
Geiger walked over to him, stepping casually over the glass as if it had always been there.
"Forgive me Ambassador," he said, "my assistants had some difficulties with one of our enemies in here and I suppose it got out of hand."
Talroz snapped his fingers and a short man in a silver robe and white turban came to his side.
Talroz began telling him something in his native tongue then the short man straightened and said, "He says that it is quiet understandable but does this enemy have anything that would stray the shipment of soldiers to Afghanistan?"
"Of course not." Geiger chimed, "My assistant Cassandra has been working with him for the past month and unfortunately we have had to dispose of him."
The little man spoke quietly to Talroz, translating everything that Geiger had just told him.
"The shipment will be out in the hour." Geiger announced, glancing at the clock on the wall. It was two forty-five.
The man continued translating and Talroz straightened. He held his head high as he spoke foreign words and then continued to look at Geiger as his translator spoke, "He said that we will not be here to see the shipment leave himself for he is returning to his country this very moment. But by the morning he is expecting to see the shipment march out into the land and destroy the German's that have been infesting Afghanistan."
Geiger nodded, "Powerful words that will be fulfilled. I give you my word that they will be there." Geiger fisted his hand and put it across his chest.
Talroz nodded and did the same. They both have a slight bow and soon Talroz, his translator and the six Afghan soldiers that had come with him left. Their feet crunching the glass as they left the room and descended on the stairs.
Geiger kicked at a piece of glass and huffed.
"Cassandra," he called loudly.
At first there was nothing but then he heard the soft clicking of heels on the floor.
Carter came to the door and leaned against its frame.
"What?" she snapped.
Geiger tsked his tongue, "Now, Cassandra, are you still upset over what happened with that boy?" he walked towards her.
Her eyes went like ice, they went as hard as steel.
"His name's Alex," she said through gritted teeth.
"I told you to not get attached to your partners." he stood in front of as she slouched against the frame.
"I didn't." she cocked her head, "I just think you should respect the dead."
He lifted his eyebrows, "Do I? So he is dead?"
Carter straightened and put her head straight, "That Travis person was in Sub Level negative 2, he died after thirty minutes. Rider is in 1..." her voice took a soft tone, "it's been two hours."
Geiger smiled, "Yes. I forgot. Very well." he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dark golden skeleton key, "Have the guard Da'ae go with you down into the cell and take out the body.
"MI6 will be receiving a gift of appreciation from us." he tossed the key to her and she caught it with a swift movement of her hand.
"I'll get Tourniquet to go with Da'ae." she turned around to walk away when he said, "No. You and Da'ae will go."
Carter stopped, "Why can't Tourniquet--"
"Because I need proof."
"That he's dead??"
"That you aren't attached."
"Why do you care?"
"I can't afford to have my assassins broken."
She scoffed, her eyes were shining with a layer of wetness, "You broke me when I shot Sam with Black Eclipse."
She walked away before he could say anything to her.
Geiger smiled and turned back to the window.
It was almost done.
And Rider was dead.
He smiled as he poured some scotch into a small wide glass of ice.
He could see the large metal container that was being lowered from the helicopter above onto the gravel-filled ground.
Three files of soldiers began walking in percussion then stopped as the containers doors were opened.
One hundred and twenty-five soldiers marched into the container and turned to face the door. Then it was closed and specially qualified technicians came and began welding the sides, the metal glowed a fiery orange as it was heated.
One by one the containers were being lowered and slowly filled.
All two thousand soldiers would be in those containers, they would all be sent at the same time and soon Scorpia would be given their reward.
Geiger's teeth gleamed white in the light as he smiled yet again.
Perfect.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alex's eyes flashed open as he heard two pairs of footsteps coming down the ever-long winding stone stairs that led to the inside of this pit. He had fallen asleep for what seemed five minutes. His eyelids felt heavy and he couldn't breathe too well now.
He had fallen asleep in a slumped position that had made his hair come to the front and dangle in front of his eyes like a veil, he could see the bottom of the gate that let him see some of the staircase.
He didn't move as the footsteps came closer. They sounded maybe ten feet up.
Finally the two people reached the bottom of the stairs and Alex imagined them belonging to a large burly man.
"Ma'am, if you don't mind my asking," his accent sounded foreign to Alex somewhat country but still somewhat upper class, "why'd you bring the extra clothes? I don't believe that the boy's alive…"
So they thought he was dead now? What were they bringing him clothes to dress him for his funeral? Scorpia wasn't that caring, a bat had more caring senses than they could ever have.
"Just open the door, Da'ae,"
The velvet voice hit Alex's mind like a wrecking ball, a battering ram. It was like cold water being thrown onto him, it knocked his senses haywire and more than ever he wanted to look up. But when he heard it everything rushed to his head so fast it made him dizzy and made his stomach churn.
He heard a faint clinking sound that sounded like a lock springing--but Tourniquet had gotten rid of the key right?--and then the door creaking open.
"There you go miss--Aah!"
Da'ae's voice was cut off by a loud electric zap that pulsated throughout the air. It seemed to hiss strongly then died down.
Da'ae fell to the ground, but not before Carter's shoe kicked his head and turned him over, knocking him unconscious.
The door flew open and she ran inside. She threw herself onto the ground in front of Alex and shook his shoulders.
"Alex! Come on! Wake up!" her voice was filled with something of hope.
The dizzy feeling in his head was stronger than ever now and it took him what seemed like all his strength to look up at her.
"Carter?" his vision was blurry for a moment, but when her ebony face with gray eyes and crimson lips came into view it seemed to clear up almost instantly.
But even then the name seemed to have a strange taste in his mouth, it was sweet but also bitter.
"I'm so sorry, Alex," she flipped the key downward and reached for the lock on the chain, "I never thought--never meant for this to happen! I thought--" the lock sprang.
"What're you doing, Carter?" Alex stared into her face through the veil of thin hair that still laced his face.
He knew that he was supposed to feel angry, in parts of his mind he wanted to curse at Carter and tell her that she wasn't what he wanted that she should die. She had betrayed MI6 and CIA, she'd killed so many innocent men and that she should be in prison…but he couldn't. He couldn't find the will in him to let it out, he couldn't find the will in him to find that part of him that thought that.
She's still Carter.
Carter unlocked the other chain. She slowly opened it and slid them off, her eyes cringed at the sight of his raw wrists. Alex barely glanced at them as she did but couldn't look at them, he couldn't help but stare at Carter.
Like a band there was a thick part of his skin missing on his wrists. The place where the chains had been had rubbed it raw and had even cut one of his veins. They stung as the air hit them and seemed to pulsate with the blood that was still coming out of them.
She grabbed the squares of clothing that she'd placed beside them, dug out a thick roll of gauze and what seemed like ointment and placed them by her knees.
She rubbed the ointment onto her fingertips and gently rubbed it into the wound.
Alex tried to avoid all of crying out, the pain was lancing into him like a thousand daggers. It burned like lava, he practically felt his skin melting at her fingertips.
"I'm sorry…" she whispered.
Once the ointment was off her fingertips she grabbed the gauze, unrolled it, and began wrapping it tightly around his wrist. Going from the wound to under his knuckles.
She did the same to his other wrist and he felt like he was taking a thousand wounds at once.
Once she finished she began wrapping up the rest of the gauze and topped the ointment.
"What're you doing?" he asked.
"Putting up this stuff, what'd you--"
"What're you doing, Carter?" he repeated the question.
She looked up from her hands and stared into his eyes. Her gray eyes looked like glass that was about to break from the pressure of ice and all the remorse that was in them seemed to be filled with something he couldn't recognize.
"Picking a side," she finally said, her voice cracking.
She dropped the things and placed her hands in the back of his neck, her hands warm on his cold neck. She breathed hard as she put her face to his but finally she kissed him…
…and Alex couldn't hold back anymore.
Stinging and as painful as they were he raised his hands to her face, putting them at her temples and returned the kiss.
At first they didn't move, their lips barely moved. But soon his hands went down her neck and to her shoulders. Her lips seemed harder at the movement and she tangled her fingers into his locks.
He ran his hand down her back and passed her bottom, sliding his fingers down her thigh and passing up to the front of her small waist. A moan escaped the back of his throat as he slid his hand under her shirt and rubbed the soft skin of her back. He moved his hand from her face to the back of her neck and she leaned backwards as he moved his lips from hers and went down her neck, biting of the skin and feeling her moan as she did. Her hands tangled harder and then they passed from his hair to his shoulder, down his chest and onto his ribs. Her legs began to tangle around him bring her to sit directly on his thighs. He moved his hand from her shirt and traveled down her side, to her hip and underneath her leg.
Carter pushed him forward and turned his face upward and began kissing him with such a force on his neck he struggled to keep his grip on her. But he closed his eyes as thoughts rushed to his head. He gripped harder onto her as she bit his neck but it wasn't with anger, it was with passion.
The passion had exploded from where his false hope had turned to hope, she hadn't truly betrayed him, she was here, she was in his arms.
Her hands traveled down his naked chest as she kissed his lips once more but then she shifted her left leg and ended up stoking his wound.
Alex's scream was gurgled against her lips but when she retracted it came out clear.
"Oh Alex," she put her hands on his face again, "oh baby, I'm sorry! I forgot about your side!"
He chuckled, "So had I…" he looked down. There was a thin piece of the white bandage directly on the wound but nothing else, it was sticking to him by the wetness of the wound and by the blood that was still coming out.
"Here," she reached for the gauze and ointment again, "let me redress it."
She slowly got off his lap and shifted to sit beside him, she made him scoot up from sitting against the wall and began to pour the ointment into her hands, "This'll hurt a little bit." she told him softly, "But it'll help a lot."
Pricking off the piece of dirty bandage, Alex could feel the small layer of skin separate from the wound and make a stinging sensation erupt in his body that he wanted desperately to scratch.
She peeled it away and then began to smooth the ointment onto it, her fingers gentle like she were sculpting something.
"What made you change your mind?" Alex asked quietly, his hands balling into fists at the stinging that was in his side.
He smoothed over the ointment and began to grab the gauze, there wasn't much left but it would provide at least three layers that could go around his waist.
"Everything." she said, "You. Geiger. You. Tourniquet. Everything.
"I just figured out that, well, I've always been like this. I figured out that they broke me two years ago"--she began unrolling the gauze and wrapping it across his waist--"but…they didn't shatter me enough to not let me get pieced together again."
"What pieced you together?"
"You…in this mission you made me realize that I didn't have to follow their petty wishes. They may 'legally' own me but they'll never own my spirit. I guess you can say that…you set me free."
She wrapped it around him tightly three times and then tied it securely.
"Thanks." he told her placing his hand on hers.
She smiled and brought it up to her face, she was shaking as she said, "I'm sorry, Alex. I'm so sorry. I didn't know he was going to do all this to you…I didn't think he was going to torture you and I thought that when he said he was going to kill you that he was bluffing…I thought that maybe he'd spare you…" tears began brimming her gray eyes, making them appear bright with grief, "When I saw you against that wall in his office I-I just, I couldn't make myself say anything. I knew I had been the blame for all of this happening to you. I should've stopped it, I should've just killed him before any of this happened, I-I…" her words faded as Alex took her face in his hands and looked at her softly.
"There was nothing you could do, Carter." he told her, "You couldn't have avoided these"--he motioned at the scars, the wound, the bruises, his wrists--"he still would've found a way to lure me here. If you hadn't done what you did he would've killed you--"
"And maybe he should've. I almost got one of MI6's best agents killed, and already I've let one of the worst destructions let loose…"
Alex looked down at her more seriously, "What're you talking about?"
"Geiger. He has all two thousand soldiers ready. They're all being filed into metal containers that are gonna be sent to Afghanistan sometime."
"But they're being filled up right now?"
"Yeah, they're not gone. But there's no way we can get them to stay down here."
Alex looked over at the clothes then thought about how he and Carter had planted the bombs, but wait. Had she planted the bombs? He asked her.
"Yeah," she responded, "I just went along with it and placed them near the foundation. If they had been set off it would've shaken the foundation and caused the whole place to just go straight down."
He smiled.
"I've got an idea."
He quickly kissed her one more time and smiled.
Things or finally looking up…or rather down.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
No one seemed to notice the Black Magician come up from Sub Level One with the soldier that had gone down with her. She held her head high and let arrogance lace it, the soldier behind her--Da'ae--kept his head down as he followed her.
They came out into the open and turned the corner. Traveling down a labyrinth of hallways and staircases that led them upward out of the Sub Levels.
People were scattering in all directions, men and women in laboratory coats and charts were frantically scurrying out of the way as the Black Magician strode the floors with an air of authority that surrounded her and awed others. She turned the corner and went past a door.
They went to a wall and she placed her hand on what seemed to be the painting of The Mistress of Shakespeare. Her hand went directly of the tresses of the red-haired lady and suddenly a green light pulsated three times. When she moved her hand her handprint stayed on the tresses then faded as a computerized voice announced, "Print recognized: Cassandra Luving. Assistant to Executive Chief of Boards Max Geiger."
The elevator doors hissed as they opened and the inside gleamed white, Magician and Da'ae stepped in and she pressed down on the button that said 28.
They felt the lurch of the elevator as they went up and in less than three seconds they doors opened again and they were in a bright yellow floor. The walls were cream and the floor were tiled yellow and brown.
They walked out and Magician didn't bother asking for clearance as they descended the stairs that led to an office in the center of the walls.
Once up the stairs and at the door of Geiger's office, Magician turned and looked at Da'ae .
"Wait here," she told him sternly. The soldier planted his feet and stood by the door steadily, appearing like a statue.
Magician didn't bother knocking, she opened the door and walked in.
Swallowing the lump in her throat she said, "We got it done."
Geiger was standing by his desk once again with a glass of scotch in his hand.
"Where was the body sent to?" he asked coolly.
"We sent it the laboratories. They said that they would take care of…" her voice quivered and she didn't finish her sentence.
Geiger smiled.
"You've been trained well, Cassandra. You didn't get too attached this time. But I need you to do one more thing."
"And that is?" she snapped her usual smart-aleck attitude returning.
"I need you to make sure each of these soldiers are being placed in the containers securely. Any foul up that these technicians do could cause us the eight million dollar mistake."
Carter rolled her eyes, "Can't Tourniquet do it? I have more important things." she went by the bookcase and leaned again it.
Geiger was nervous, she could tell. Her "master" had a way about him that let others know he was weak in certain areas. All of the executives in Scorpia did. Geiger held his glass cup firmly and had she not been trained to notice the simple things that mattered most she wouldn't have noticed the small vibration that was sending the ice clinking from his shaking.
"You do?"
"Yes,"
"Please do explain your 'important things'."
"Well I need to change because obviously his blood got on me, I need a bath and--"
"Tourniquet will not be doing this.
"But--"
"No, buts. You are in charge of this and you would do well to remember who tells whom what to do."
Carter moved from the case and leaned against the wall, inspecting her nails, "Done with the lecture?"
"Very much so. Go down there and make sure what I have asked is being done."
"Whatever." she turned around quickly and slammed the door shut.
Outside Da'ae stood in the exact position she left him.
"To the back of the warehouses," she told him, "Geiger needs us to scout and make sure the stupid employees are actually working."
She walked down the staircase and they both went back into the elevator.
It hissed open again and she pressed two buttons, one said and the other said W.H.
"What's W.H.?" Da'ae asked. He flipped off his cap and wrapped his arms around Magician.
No one in the right mind would attempt to do this, it was Magician. Everyone would've said Da'ae had lost his mind…had he not been downstairs in Sub Level One unconscious. No one had noticed Alex walk behind Carter as they went in the curves and turns of Scorpia.
The extra clothes that Carter had brought was a uniform that fit Alex perfectly. It consisted of black cargo pants, a cap, and a black button shirt that had a name tag and picture of Da'ae. Had anyone actually paid attention they would've noticed that the thirty-nine year-old face in the picture did not match the fourteen year-old face on the guard. But that's what Carter and he were counting on. Everyone was worried and nervous about the departure of the Soldiers, they were finalizing the charts and making sure no harm would come to the containers that they were being delivered in. Even Geiger was nervous.
"Warehouse," Carter said, holding his hands in hers which were at her abs.
Instead of up the elevator lurched forward, making them stumble straight two steps.
"It has to go under a couple of stuff to go back up," she explained and then it lurched up.
He smelled her hair, "You smell good."
"Thanks. I may be an assassin but that's no reason to forget hygiene."
"Of course," he kissed her temple then went down the side of her neck, "Did you get them?" he asked, his face in her hair.
"Of course." she moved her hand and reached into her shirt. Out she pulled two iPod--one black one purple--a brass ring, two pairs of sunshades, and two small camera spheres.
"I knew I loved you for a reason." he teased.
Carter smiled and held his hands tighter.
When she had stood by the bookcase and Geiger had looked down to drink his scotch, she had moved everyone of the gadgets into her hands, and when she stamped away she had shoved them down her blouse quickly. On the sides of her belt, were four wrapped objects that no one could see but only she and Alex knew. The detonators.
"Here," she turned in his arms and handed him his gadgets, "we're almost up there."
Alex put the camera sphere and sunshades in his pockets, slipped the brass knuckle on and bounced the iPod in his hand.
"Ready?" he asked, smiling a cocky grin that made him look like a total bad boy.
"Always." she put her iPod and camera sphere in her shirt and hung the sunshades on the side of her pants.
Alex nodded and pressed down on the skip button for ten seconds.
At first nothing happened but then the screen flashed blue, red, then green. Suddenly a face appeared on the screen and Alex breathed a sigh of relief. The transmission actually worked this time.
Mrs. Jones was slipping a peppermint into her mouth when she saw that Alex's image had flashed on her computer.
"Alex?" she said, her black hair bouncing oddly as her features scrunched.
"Mrs. Jones," he said, "we need MI6 here now."
"But Alex--"
"Yo, lady," Carter took the iPod, "listen we ignored your 'Find evidence' blah-crap and decided to look further into this Scorpia thing and figured out that there's no way in heck that we can get out of here." Alex loved the sarcasm Carter was putting in her voice, "Well I mean there is one way but it requires us to be"--she pointed her index finger to her head and lifted her thumb upward--"you know--pow!"
"Mrs. Jones," Alex took back the iPod, "we need you to send as many of MI6 down here as possible. Scorpia isn't dealing with drugs--they made a new experiment named Invincible Soldier and they're shipping it out tonight."
"Do you know what--?" Mrs. Jones tried to speak again but Carter interrupted again.
"Lady, it's us. We know. Pretty much Geiger said that he sending the can't-get-hurt-because-their-skin-heals-really-quickly-soldiers to Afghanistan at the request of the ambassador. He's sending them out tonight and it's happening right now."
Mrs. Jones was silent for a moment but then said, "I'm sending twenty men you're way--"
"Nu-uh," Carter shook her, "nope. That won't do. Send at the least a hundred."
"Cass--"
"Just do it!" she snapped, "I know what they're planning and I'm telling you that you're gonna need a hundred men down here."
"How do you--?"
"We'll explain later." Carter and Alex said in unison. They looked at each other and smiled quickly.
"Fine. We'll be there in the hour." Mrs. Jones was obviously not amused by Carter's bossing her around.
"Please be quick, Mrs. Jones," Alex asked, "I'm afraid an hour is too long."
Mrs. Jones was already shuffling around her office and pressing buttons that sent a siren yelling "CODE BLUE, CODE BLUE".
"Please be careful, Alex," she pleaded.
"We'll distract them until you get here." he told her, "You guys just need to make sure that those soldiers don't get shipped."
He pressed the button again and the screen flashed black.
Just then the doors began hissing open.
"Put on your cap," Carter said, straightening herself.
He slipped it on and pulled her face quickly to his. "I love you, you know that?" he kissed her.
"I love you more," she said against his lips.
The doors opened.
Carter walked out first and into the warehouse plateau.
Alex looked behind him and saw that the elevator was actually one of the warehouses that had no doors. The elevator's doors closed again and camouflaged itself with the lines of the walls.
"Do we separate?" Carter asked under her breath.
"Yeah," Alex replied in the same low tone, "get all the containers at the left, I'll get the ones at the right."
"You still have the cherries right?" she asked.
"Yeah," he patted his pockets.
"I'll see when this is all over." she gripped his hand and then left to the left, where three containers were slowly being lowered onto the ground, yelling out, "Hey! What the heck do you think you're doing!? No, no, no I don't want to hear the stupid-butt excuses! Just get those freakin containers over there--NO OVER THERE! NO!! RIGHT! THE OTHER WAY!!!"
Alex turned and began jogging over to the right containers. They had been lowered successfully and were being opened slowly. Three helicopters flew steadily above him, had he not put his hand on his cap it would've flown off.
"Hey!" he called to the nearest guard that wore the same uniform as he. The guard was holding a chart and looked back at him, a question mark writhing on his face.
"Geiger instructed me and a few o'er men to check those hooks that're holdin' da' containers. Jus' to make sure they're not gon' fall'."
"who are--?"
"Da'ae. Guard Da'ae."
The man checked his list and was aboutto say something but Alex cut him off, "It's a last minute check just to make sure--"
"That they won't fall off, yeah, yeah." the man squinted at him, "Aren't you a little young to work here?"
"Surgery." Alex lied, "Let me get on those real quick, 'kay."
"Well, I don't--"
"It's Geiger's orders."
"JUST LET ME GET ON THE STUPID THINGS!"
Carter's loud voice echoed all the way towards them, the guard turned and saw her climbing the container. She examined the hook and then jumped down.
When the guard saw that Magician had done what Alex was asking to do he immediately nodded and said, "Fine. Get on up there."
Alex nodded and went to the ladder on the side of the container.
He took the bar two by two and was up in four pulls and a high jump.
He ran to the middle of the container to the large metal hook that was holding it. The hook was at least three feet wide and no telling how thick, there was no way it was going to bust.
He pretended to check it, keeping his head down the entire time.
Geiger's office was in the tallest warehouse building and unfortunately the building was directly behind him.
Alex reached into his pocket quickly and then skimmed his hands on the metal. On it he left what he had pulled out of his pocket--a cherry bomb. It was as big as a half-dollar and it stuck on the metal perfectly. He pressed the center button twice. Twenty minutes, then pressed the side quickly. The numbers began blinking. 19:59, 19:58, 19:57...
He kicked the bottom of the hook and then went back to the ladder, sliding down the rails instead of climbing.
"Secure," he said then ran to the next container.
They had less than twenty minutes to get the containers bombed. Each bomb was at least ten seconds behind the other one, so technically they had fifteen minutes.
Alex didn't waste time telling the other four guards what he was doing, they seemed to get the picture with the first one and they let him climb up, "check the hooks" and come down quickly.
Alex was sweating when he reached the seventh container--he couldn't understand how all these helicopters could be so close together and not collide. Carter had given him a watch before they left and he checked it quickly, having to flip it over because it had turned upside down--he didn't tighten it 'cause of his wrists, they still burned and stung with every movement he let them make. He could already feel a wetness over them from where he was climbing and sliding.
Already twelve minutes had passed. Three minutes.
He clambered onto the next container and went to the hook. As he slapped the bomb down and set the timer, he looked past the warehouses and saw something that filled him with dread.
More helicopters came, ten were already coming toward the warehouses, each with a container.
Dang. he thought. He stared past them and saw that cars were beginning to pull in and some were even leaving. He looked past the cars, the helicopters and saw what he was looking for.
It was three miles away but it seemed to flicker like a fading candle. Power Point. The lights were dim and it wasn't anything but a dot now. A dot that glowed. He wondered what Tyler and Ed and Jay were doing? He bet they were looking for him and Carter frantically maybe they--
"Alex!"
Carter's shriek sprang his mind out of his daze and suddenly he felt a heat flush the back of his neck and shoulders.
The blast of the first and second cherry bomb was so strong that it made him slid down the container and he ended up having to jump.
When he landed he leapt up and grabbed Carter's hand, pressing the side buttons of the bombs and throwing them out at the containers and helicopters.
The bombs were exploding like fireworks, one after another. They filled the warehouses with a bright light and then Alex heard the sound of planes exploding.
The pilots had gotten startled from the sudden blasts underneath them and as the containers fell to the ground--toppling over to their sides--and wrenched their gears causing them to collide as they did.
Each plane engulfed in flames as it landed on the containers and joined the exploding hooks.
The bombs that were just thrown were going off and suddenly there was a fire everywhere.
Alex and Carter could hear the mechanics and technicians and guards screaming as the explosions went off around them, the hiss of wind as the helicopters and containers fell, and finally the gunshots that were going off from accidentally triggered guns.
"Come on!" Carter yelled, she dragged him to the side of warehouse near the fence, but when they reached there a helicopter came tumbling down and crushing the warehouses.
"SHI--"
"Over here!" Alex dragged her back to the place where the elevator had been, it was across from the sewer.
Alex crouched down beneath the sparking flames that were dancing around them and licking at them and unlatched the sewage top. He jumped in and grabbed Carter, making her tumble after him and land in his arms.
They didn't stop, they ran down the drains and down every series of stairs they could find.
Guards ran past them in a frenzy and yelled at others to find another route out.
Alex shoved one aside as they ran and finally came to the elevator Carter had shown him a few hours ago.
She shoved the button to the elevator and the doors hissed open.
Before it was fully opened they scrambled in and pressed 26.
As the elevator descended, there was a quake that shook Alex and Carter vigorously, making them topple onto the floor.
"Think they're distracted enough?" Carter asked with a smile.
"If they're not--oh boy."
Finally the elevator stopped and the doors opened, they stepped out and found the halls flooding with people.
"Get this settled!" a man cried, "Find out who did this! Now!" it was Tourniquet, his face was twisted in anger and his voice contorted.
Alex and Carter went with the group that passed them to avoid anyone really paying attention to them, but somehow Tourniquet caught them in his sight.
He cocked his head at them curiously and Alex made the mistake of looking back at him.
Tourniquet straightened and yelled, "CODE BLACK! CODE BLACK!"
Carter grabbed Alex and they ran down a hallway that seemed to pop out of nowhere.
They ran down the hall and slammed open a door.
"He figured it out," Alex said loudly as they went into a dank place that had nothing but wires and sparking electricity .
"What?" Carter slid under a rail as Alex jumped over it and they were into another room that was deeper but leading to the same place.
The laboratory that Geiger had had his soldiers "born" at.
"Tourniquet saw us and he figured it out!"
"How--?"
"He yelled code black."
"DARN IT!" Carter yelled.
She found another door and kicked it open, "He'll have told Geiger already and now they're looking for us!"
"How much farther?" Alex asked, going down another series of steps.
"One more minute,"
Suddenly he heard a muffled voice and realized it was from his pocket.
He picked up the iPod and saw Mrs. Jones face.
But she wasn't in her office, she seemed to be in the back of a helicopter.
"Alex!" she yelled, "Alex, we're here! Where in blazes are you and Cassandra?"
"Carter!" she yelled.
"Underground." he told her.
"Where exactly?" she asked, her eyes suddenly seemed distant to his and she was moving things around the screen that he couldn't see, "We're getting a scan of the building."
"About twenty seven floors down." he told her.
"Tell Cass--Carter to turn on her iPod. They each have trackers and we can find you easier like that."
He didn't even tell her because Carter had already gotten her iPod out and was drilling the laser into a wall they had come to.
"I see you," Mrs. Jones said, "We're coming down."
"You're coming down?" Alex knew that in all that was happening, surprised was probably the last feeling he should be experiencing.
"I work in the field every once and a while, Alex." she said with a wink, "We're coming. Keep traveling, we'll catch up."
"Got it!" Carter kicked in what she had been working on and they went through the hole.
Inside all the pipes and liquids were being jangled; Alex was more than relieved to see that Geiger and them hadn't cleared any of the bombs.
All his relief was gone when suddenly there was a small explosion and Tourniquet was standing by the metal door, two files of soldiers behind him.
His blonde hair was in a frenzy and his voice echoed in the air as he said two words, "Kill them."
"Oh, crap." Alex and Carter said in unison.