Zoe watched, biting her lip to hold in her sneeze, as who she assumed was Samantha Stiletto, parachuted down. She watched as Samantha shrugged off her parachute and looked around, pushing her ridiculously bright red hair out of her face as the wind whipped it every possible way. Samantha walked a few metres towards Dan and Tom's hiding spot and Zoe, hoping that she was out of earshot now, finally let herself sneeze. Immediately, Samantha turned around to face the hay bales, scowling.
"Screw it." Zoe muttered, getting up and launching herself over the hay bales towards Samantha. Samantha kicked out and Zoe grunted as she fell back against the bales, watching woman warily as Aneisha appeared beside her.
"Watch out." Zoe said. "Spectre's got some deadly moves."
"You don't say." Aneisha replied wryly.
From the boys' hiding spot, Dan's muscles ached to go and join the fight, to haul this Samantha away from Zoe before she hurt her even more. As it was, he started to jump up as Aneisha and Zoe circled Samantha, but Tom pulled him back down again.
"Wait." Tom hissed. "The girls can handle themselves for another few minutes."
"But – " Dan swallowed whatever argument he was going to make as he watched The Spectre kick Aneisha backwards before turning to Zoe.
"Now." Tom said, dragging Dan to his feet by tugging on his jacket. Together, they moved up behind The Spectre, Dan fighting to keep a grin off his face as he watched Zoe work to keep her expression neutral at the sight of them. Tom squeezed the pressure point at the junction of Samantha's shoulder and her neck and he heard her sigh before she fell backwards and Dan caught her.
"Okay, hands up. Who forgot to mention they get hay fever?" Tom asked in annoyance.
Instead of answering, Zoe pulled out her pencil communicator and yelled, "Damn it!"
"What?" Aneisha asked.
Zoe held up her communicator, now in two pieces. Samantha must have broken it when she kicked her. Aneisha cast Zoe a sympathetic smile and Dan grinned at the redhead over the top of Samantha's head. As Dan and Tom gathered Samantha between the two of them, Aneisha said, "Cheer up, Zo. We just caught one of the best assassins in the world."
"It's nothing to sneeze about." Tom said, grinning. Aneisha turned and slammed the toe of her shoe into Tom's leg.
"OW!" Tom yelled, turning and glaring at her. He let go of Samantha and Dan grunted as Samantha suddenly fell against him.
"Do that again and I'll kick you." Tom said. Aneisha pulled her leg back as if she was going to kick him again and Tom shrieked loudly, jumping away from her, practically into Dan's arms. Aneisha grinned and Dan started laughing and despite her sour mood, Zoe couldn't help smiling.
"Come on." Dan said, shifting Samantha's weight. "We'd better get her to her new cell before she wakes up."
"I'll go roll up the parachute. Might be evidence." Zoe said, walking off. Aneisha struggled to find something to say to her, but she was out of earshot before she could think of anything. Giving up, Aneisha turned to follow Dan and tom as they dragged Samantha to the van. They hauled her in and as Dan pulled the door shut behind her, he leant against the side of the vehicle beside Aneisha.
"Do you know what's up with Zoe?" Aneisha asked quietly.
Dan sighed, running a hand through his hair and said quietly, so that Tom wouldn't hear, "Yeah. I do. Stella's noticed that Zoe's distracted and she's kind of freaking out about it."
"Hey, where is Zoe?" Tom asked, looking up from his 3DS.
Dan rolled his eyes. "She stayed back to roll up the parachute. For God's sake, pay attention, Tom."
"Don't you think we should be going, though?" Tom asked.
"Yeah." Dan replied. "I'll go get her."
He walked off, back down the ridge to the paddock where Samantha had parachuted in, but he saw no Zoe.
"Zo?" Dan asked, looking around. "Zoe, come on. Stop messing about."
When she didn't appear, he could feel worry creeping up his chest. "Babe, if you're here, get here now. We need to go."
Even as he spoke, he noticed Samantha's parachute still lying on the ground. He walked over to it and looked down. He fiddled with his mask and then let gravity pull it to the ground as he noticed the spy pod sitting on top of the parachute.
"Oh, God. Zoe, no." Dan breathed as he bent to pick it up, praying to whoever cared that it wasn't Zoe's. Almost immediately, he recognised the spy pod as Zoe's. His had a massive scratch on the side, the black of Aneisha's was faded and Tom's had a big dent on the top. Zoe, however, treasured hers like it was worth more than gold and as a result; it was still in mint condition.
His heart aching as it pounded against his ribcage, Dan shoved the spy pod into his pocket and sprinted back up the ridge.
"Dan?" Aneisha asked as he approached. "Where's Zoe? What's . . . Oh no. Oh, no. No, no, no, no! She's not!"
"Neish?" Tom asked worriedly, glancing between Dan and Aneisha. "What's wrong?"
"Zoe's been taken." Dan said, clarifying Aneisha's fear.
"In the van." Tom said, pulling out his pencil communicator. "Frank, we've got a problem . . ."