AN: So sorry for the wait! This chapter was a little hard to figure out but I finally did. Enjoy!
Harry said his goodbyes to Merlin before getting dressed, gathered all needed items, and finally joined both Cartwright and Gawain. Gawain and Harry were going to drop down near the end of the plane ride and then Cartwright was going to continue on to a base. The Kingsman agents would receive all information from Cartwright, working from the outside as she explored from within, and would hopefully find Carlstedt in the end.
The trip was rather uneventful and before they reached their destination, the agents made their jump. It had been some time since Harry had skydived but he remembered the procedure perfectly. He was able to feel unconnected and free. And then he opened up the parachute, landed, and had to bring himself back to reality.
"The safe house is about half a mile that way," Harry said as he quickly packed the parachute back up. "Hopefully Cartwright will be able to receive some type of information or else all we'll be able to do is wait."
"She'll dredge up something. Believe me when I say she never leaves any stone unturned," Gawain responded.
The way he said it had Harry looking over at the other curiously. "She thought you were cheating on her."
Gawain rolled his eyes and let out a tired sigh as they began trekking across the environment. "Yep, and it was the most painful three months of my life. Granted, it was in the beginning of the relationship and thankfully MI-6 and Kingsman had that joint mission which explained a lot of things on both ends," Gawain said with a small chuckle. "In the end I didn't mind it that much. She made up for the accusations pretty well."
Harry rolled his eyes at Gawain's tone and simply continued walking. From behind, Gawain suddenly asked, "Once we find Carlstedt the goal is to kill her, right?"
"Of course. Why even ask that?" Harry questioned.
"I don't know. Just was wondering if you wanted to question her or anything before eliminating her."
Letting out a tired sigh, Harry responded, "I would prefer it if my fellow agents didn't lie to me."
"It wasn't a lie sir."
"Oh it was a lie but it must have been a damn good one if it's fooled the liar as well."
For a moment, silence filled the space between the two Kingsman until finally Gawain gave and he said, "I'd simply like to know if there's another agenda you plan on carrying out. Lotta Carlstedt has put plenty of people through hell, especially yourself and Merlin, and I wouldn't think of you any less if you had your own plans. I would simply like to know if we're not simply eliminating her."
"You see her in your sights at any point and you kill her," Harry replied evenly. "I promise you there is no other agenda than that."
"Understood, I just needed to make sure."
"And I recognize that. But hopefully this will be the last place Carlstedt will ever breath," Harry replied.
They continued their trek until they finally arrived at their safe house. Setting everything up, they waited for word from Cartwright. Three hours passed and nothing. It was painful waiting and Harry took to cleaning the weapons over and over again. The little toys had been left behind and what he looked over were sniper rifles and machine guns, grenade launchers and explosives. They were prepared for a five second battle or a week event. It was impossible to know if they'd get a clear shot of Carlstedt first or if chaos would ensue beforehand. Even if they did succeed in killing Carlstedt it was impossible to tell if they'd get out of the situation immediately, or even at all.
After five hours, the first transmission from Cartwright came in.
"I'll have to make this quick but those sold over by Carlstedt basically plan to overthrow me tomorrow. The first attack is supposed to be by noon tomorrow and Carlstedt will be here though through what channel she's coming through I don't know. I had to find all this out by listening in. If I forced someone to tell me all of this I'd have to kill them, and then she may become to suspicious and back off, or let them go but they'd probably just run off to her. The main attack will be happening in the town's square. We have a warehouse there which they'll probably blow up and then proceed to kill all soldiers and probably quite a few civilians as well. Most likely they'll head to the base I'm at after that but there was no word of certainty on it."
"Then Carlstedt must be waiting to arrive to give any more orders," Harry responded, "in the off chance that someone has been compromised. Get your men ready and try to clear as many civilians from that area without making her suspicious. We'll station ourselves in the surrounding buildings. Did you get any word on where Carlstedt may locate herself specifically?"
"I'm sorry Harry but no. I'd guess she'll stick around the perimeter until she knows the compound has definitely been taken over. She's not one to put herself in the line of firing if it's not necessary," replied Cartwright. "But she'll also be close to make sure no one in particular screws the whole thing up."
"Thank you Cartwright. Hopefully this entire event will be over with by tomorrow. Until next time."
Cartwright nodded, gave one last quick smile to Gawain, and then ended the transmission.
Immediately, Harry was pulling up a satellite image of the town and planning out the best areas to lay low and wait. There were only two security cameras so other than that, Harry's and Gawain's own eyes would be all they had.
The night flew by quickly and the few dreams that flitted through his head was mostly filled with images of Carlstedt's brain's splattering out like a Pollock painting. Each time he woke up in a cold sweat, chest heaving and skin wet. But his hands remained still and firm, never shaking or wavering from their movement.
Gawain and Harry split up the next day, situating themselves on separate roofs with a clear view of the square. Harry was closer to the building, meaning more danger if it blew up, but he also had a clear view of four of the five street entrances into the square. Harry evenly and effectively set up his sniper rifle and double checked all other equipment as he watched the people moving about.
His eyes flitted to the children, the men and women that didn't carry weapons or wear armor. He looked at the ones that would immediately die if a bomb went off now …. or now …. or now. But if they had completely evacuated the city then Lotta would certainly not show and knowing her rage, she probably would have burned the entire town to the ground even if it meant a loss of goods. At least this way a few lives would be saved and once the first shot or explosion went off, most of the civilians would scatter anyways.
As Harry looked through the crowd and allowed such thoughts to filter through his head, he finally caught sight of someone interesting but his vision was averted as an explosion rocked the building he was on. Covering himself from debris, he checked the time and saw that it was only just then eleven. They had struck early.
Moving back to his former position, Harry rapidly moved his scope around the square, the place quickly dissolving into chaos. People ran and screamed while others removed cloth and revealed guns of all sorts, firing them left and right. More soldiers pushed pass the civilians and into the square, pushing the Simba Tano back into the building that was already decimated on one side.
Harry turned to look at the running civilians, firing twice as separate soldiers attempted to kill a civilian and most likely steal what little they had on them. Then he saw a figure, the one he'd seen before. He'd passed them off as a civilian as they had moved back with the rest of them but now they stood on the side of the street. The hood they had worn around their face was pulled down and the first thing to catch Harry's eyes was the bandage over the nose.
Immediately he had the gun trained on her head but he hesitated, ideas swirling through his head.
"Arthur, I still haven't found her! Do you have a better view? Any sign of her!?"
It was Gawain. He couldn't see any of her. He had seconds to make a decision. What to say, what to do. Finally, he moved the scope so that it saw a different target.
In a calm, authoritative voice he replied, "No."
He fired.
