AN: Bit late for this but hopefully it turns out to be what everyone was hoping for. Enjoy!
Harry had sent out agents to all bases. He'd wanted to go to one himself but as Roxy and Eggsy pointed out, if he was wrong, walked into a trap, couldn't get out, then Kingsman would be without an Arthur and a Merlin. As much as he needed to find Merlin, he knew he had to think of Kingsman as well and what he had done made more sense.
And then the explosion occurred. They caught it on the satellite and it had Harry double checking where every agent was.
"It's one of the ones we're not at. I'm trying to get any camera feeds around the area," Roxy said hurriedly. Pulling up a news reel, the woman had apparently been performing a report on a traffic accident when the explosion blew up behind her.
"We can't see anything," said Harry. "I don't have any agents there so who the hell is doing this?" He looked to Julia who he had made sure was with him constantly. Despite her earnest words, he wouldn't allow himself to be tricked. So far she hadn't done anything that might suggest she was a double agent, all her information so far checking out. Now, he hoped for something more and prayed that Merlin wasn't in the collapsing compound.
"Mom has plenty of enemies but so few know about where she is. I mean, she did cut off all ties with her business partners," Julia said hurriedly. "And there's nothing overly important or interesting about that place that I know of."
"But what about new connections?" questioned Roxy.
"The Simba Tano!" Harry quickly called the phone that Margaret Cartwright had asked them to contact her with after Gawain left. It took several calls until she finally picked up.
"Kingsman, nice to hear from you again. Who am I talking to?"
"Arthur. I need to know if you have any men in France right now."
"Well yeah but how did you know?" she asked, confusion clear in her voice.
"We have Carlstedt's daughter. We've begun monitoring the bases that she knew of when explosions started occurring at one of the buildings. What do you know about it?"
"After you gave me the information you got from Merlin, I've been weeding through the higher people and finding those that had been bought over by her. A lot didn't actually know anything though until I found someone with knowledge of one of her compounds. After killing him, I loaded up the men under him and sent them to attack. I've made sure they can't be traced back to me afterwards. Why the sudden need to know?"
"Because Merlin is at one of the bases. I need to make sure your men do not kill him on sight if he's there."
"How many bases are there?"
"Six. I have men at four of them right now."
"Send me the information and I'll send more covert teams over to the other two. I'll help you find him Arthur," replied Cartwright. "I'll get back in touch with you if any of my teams find anything."
"Thank you," Harry responded with a sigh. Ending the call and turning to Roxy, he added, "I want eyes in that area. I want to see exactly what the hell is happening."
It was all wrong! How the hell had she miscalculated. What had gone wrong? Lotta was so enraged that when one of the men asked an idiotic question she grabbed the nearest gun and shot him on the spot.
"Who the hell is firing at us!" she screamed.
No one had any answers so Lotta suddenly decided to concentrate on Merlin. "Don't let him get out! We need him if—"
The explosion rocked the ground and blew the feeds in a whole block, the same block Merlin was at.
"Get everyone and everything out! Eliminate anyone on sight except for Merlin. I want him back immediately!" screeched Lotta. Checking the clip of the gun she had just fired, she loaded it back up and quickly headed out on her own. Despite what she had ordered, she doubted any of the halfwits she had would actually succeed in finding him. That was the problem with foot soldiers. They couldn't be smart enough to question you but that occasionally hurt the moments when she needed intelligent thinkers the most.
There was a time when she had intelligent people and foot soldiers but no more. She would have to build all of that up once this was over.
She moved into the block and quickly went to Merlin's cell. Upon seeing the damage to the floor, she slid down the rubble and gave a quick look through to make sure he hadn't died in the blast. However, due to the way the bomb had gone off, it was doubtful he would have landed under the rubble.
Moving through the halls, she headed towards the nearest exit. Though it was risky that Merlin might have been headed towards the exact same door, the noise of fighting did decrease suggesting a closer proximity to the edge of the building as the attackers moved farther in.
Finally coming to the exit after only coming across bodies, she pushed open the door carefully just in case more men were out there. However, the only ones there were a few civilians, a police car that had just arrived and—
Merlin! There he was! Immediately Lotta stepped out from her cover and fired twice at the two officers. Civilians screamed and scattered but Merlin dived for the car, moving around to the driver's side and hobbling in.
Lotta had clearly seen the broken leg and it pleased her greatly. If she could make the car inoperable then overtaking Merlin would be simple.
As Merlin whipped the police car around and out, Lotta jumped in front of a moving car. It swerved but the one behind it slammed on their breaks. Killing the driver, she pulled her out and jumped in, quickly speeding through traffic to get to Merlin.
His driving skills were impeccable yet there was something he had that Lotta didn't, compassion. He dodged civilians as best he could where as Lotta plowed through the first one in her path. As the man's body broke the windshield and flew over the top, Lotta fired through it, shattering it completely, and aimed for the tires of Merlin's car.
She was on her last round when the bullet hit its target and Merlin's car went careening to the left. However, he leveled it out and continued onward, his speed somewhat slowed now.
Pushing forward, Lotta got close enough to bump the police car. She knew that damaging the car would be difficult and would more likely ruin the front of hers but as she could see Merlin jerk forward she realized if she could just hit it hard enough then Merlin might lose control long enough to crash the car.
She hit the back again, harder this time, and then attempted to speed up on his side. However, Merlin slammed on his breaks and took a sharp corner. Lotta turned at the next corner, speeding through the streets to catch up with him. Suddenly she saw him drive in front of her and she turned onto the street, just barely clipping his end.
In front of them was a bridge but one only for pedestrians. Knowing that Merlin would try to turn onto a different street, Lotta floored it and when she hit Merlin, she kept going. She got what she wanted and the momentum caused Merlin to lose control. Letting off the gas slightly, she slammed her foot back down as the police car turned slightly and hit him directly on the side.
If there had been enough room, they would have skidded to a stop but instead they slammed into the concrete polls that blocked cars from going across the bridge. The airbag in Lotta's car didn't go off, causing her head to fling forward and for her to break her nose. Nevertheless, despite her head spinning and pounding, she clambered out and rushed forward.
In spite of the position he'd been hit, Merlin had been more protected by the crash and was attempting to climb out the other side. Thanks to the prior injuries though, he'd only just fallen from the window when Lotta rounded on him.
"You're not going anywhere!" she screeched, immediately going for the broken leg. The pressure she put on it had Merlin howling yet he pushed her over and tried to stand up and hobble away.
Merlin fell forward once more as Lotta grabbed onto one of his legs and pulled him down. However, he kicked at her and managed to get to the edge of the bridge and was halfway over the railing when she grabbed onto him again.
"No! You can't get away!" She almost managed in pulling Merlin back over when he did something that she hadn't expected at all.
Thrusting his head forward, he latched his teeth onto her nose and bit through the flesh. The sudden pain had her screaming and Lotta let go. Merlin could have done the same but instead he only bit harder until his teeth went right through, only then pushing away and falling back into the water as Lotta shrieked from above.