"A motorbike?!" I exclaimed, standing by the gleaming black bike Razi had led me out to after training. I was glad everyone else had already left, I would have been getting some right old stares if I was seen racing out of here on the back of a bike with Razi. "You ride a motorbike?"
"No I ride a tricycle – of course I ride a motorcycle Soraya, is that a problem?" Razi sighed, exasperated.
"No I just presumed you drove a car." I said a bit taken aback.
"Well. Presumptions, aren't always accurate Miss Abdali." Razi smirked as he fastened a helmet onto my head, checking the strap carefully.
"And you just happen to carry a spare helmet around all time do you?"
"Actually no, I keep one here at the centre. Just in case."
"In case you have to rescue damsels in distress?" I asked sarcastically.
"Something like that." Razi replied with a somewhat amused expression. He had donned a stereotypical leather jacket and gracefully swung his leg over the bike to sit on the saddle. I clambered slightly less gracefully on behind him, gripping his shoulders to steady myself as I slid forward to fit myself comfortably on the seat behind him. He squeezed my knee reassuringly, as he revved the throttle and pulled onto the road speeding towards home.
Razi and I settled into a routine of sorts, starting with our morning run, then heading into training on his bike with the others. Occasionally I was left on my own for the run, as Razi had to take classes at the centre. I befriended Kat and Lucy, and Kat's soulfinder Jay. The two had joined the program together, both sharing the same desire to increase the worlds savant domination seemingly. I paired up with all of them durning training, so we constantly tested each other. Jay was strong, and built for it so was the obvious participant. Kat I had known from day one was to be watched – she was impossibly fast and her ability to temporarily paralyse her opponents By immobilising their motor functions made her particularly dangerous, but she hadn't demonstrated her ability on me thankfully. But it was Lucy who was the real danger, as Razi said it was the quiet ones you had to watch. Her gift was somewhat rebuked by her, but it was a vital part of her life. She was only still walking and talking because of it – her life force was sustained by feeding on someone or something's own life. She absorbed life from things around her, usually her friends who have no qualms about sacrificing a small proportion of their life force so she could live. It could have disastrous effects though. If Lucy wanted she could completely drain someone, leaving them dead which made her more powerful if she did. But she wasn't sadistic about it. Her gift was more a curse in her eyes as she often lost control and could hurt people she didn't intend to on occasion. It didn't scare me, we were on the same side after all and she never gave me any reason not to trust her during training.
The friendship between Razi and I deepened with every minute we spent together, which added up to a lot of minutes. We laughed 90% of the time we were together, minus training when we all took everything seriously. But Razi became my constant, the one who was always there to talk to, laugh with, or take out my feelings on. He became the one to fill the very large Victor shaped hole in my life that I had spent the past months ignoring. We never strayed beyond the friends category, although it would have been so easy to I wouldn't let myself think of him like that. We were defiantly, friends.
As Razi and I worked with the rest of the team, we knew the day the news came with a date for our op couldn't be far away. When it did come, Haseem merely told Razi and I over dinner, and it wasn't as celebratory as we'd all imagined it to be. There was no big announcement or gathering, it was simply slipped into conversation. A sort of finality settled over us – we had been given our time frame and it was going to happen, soon. Training stepped up in intensity for the days running up to our op, there were a lot of people counting on us to get this intel so we had to be perfect.
I wasn't involved much in the organisation, I'd done my bit with the Net profiles. We knew what we'd be up against, we knew who worked at the HQ in New York, the one we were hitting. It was one of the bigger Net bases, but they didn't hold any of the rogue savants there they'd arrested which made it low priority in terms of danger from attack. The HQs with holding cells were often targeted by allies trying to break people out. Therefore the level of security, both traditional and savant security was relatively low. I knew all this information from my time in the Net, so again my inside knowledge was valuable.
In the end though, all I had to do was turn up at the airstrip with clothes for the trip. Haseem and I rode in one of his cars to the plane, where the rest of the team were piling bags into the hold. Razi saw us as we arrived, and came over to open my door. He offered me his hand, helping me out of the car along with one of his smiles.
"All ready to go Razi?" Haseem, asked as he joined us around our side of the car.
"Yes, just finishing loading, if you want to board we've got it under control." Razi replied, nodding to the last few bags Kat and Jay were lugging onto the plane.
"Wait, you're coming with us?!" I asked Haseem, shocked.
"Why wouldn't I be, Soraya?" He replied with an amused expression. "Someones got to keep an eye on you on your first op." He smirked.
"I just thought… What if we get captured or something?"
"We won't Soraya. We've got it all planned, it'll all be fine." He called over his shoulder as he walked towards the planes steps. I looked on in bewilderment, not for a second thinking my uncle would be coming. Still, and extra man. Our numbers were now 16 – we were going the stealth method rather than the full frontal all guns blazing attack.
"Shall we?" A grinning Razi asked. Nodding, I lead the way onto the plane as the hold door clunked shut.
I settled down opposite my uncle, and next to Razi. The others chose seats at other tables, for which I was thankful. I intended on sleeping as much as could, and I wouldn't manage much of that with Kat chattering in my ear the entire journey. I closed my eyes soon after take off, and ma aged to sleep most of the way. I woke up several hours later to the sound of Kat's voice bouncing around the small cabin. I had my head resting on Razi's shoulder, as he lolled against the window sleeping himself. I rose off him carefully so as not to disturb him, praying I hadn't been drooling. My uncle was awake, and smiling kindly at me.
"How are you feeling Soraya, you look a bit nervous?" He asked quietly, also not wanting to disturb anyone.
"I'm am a bit yeh. I was always kinda, back stage on the ops with the Net. I'd be lying if i said I wasn't a bit scared." I said trying to smile and make light of the situation.
"It's alright to be scared, Soraya. We all get scared, and that's not necessarily a bad thing."
"Why?" I asked.
"Well being scared means you'll be more cautious, less likely to make mistakes which could be life costing." It made a kind of sense. "Besides, Razi won't let anything happen to you. He's to watch you, make sure you're ok because I might not always be there. So just, try and stay near to him, ok?"
I nodded, solemnly promising my uncle without words.
"Good. We'll be landing in about half an hour, best wake the others." I nodded again, gently shaking the slumbering Razi. He mumbled and groaned making a fuss before I eventually trusted his eyes not to fold back over and fall asleep again.
"I was having a good dream." He mumbled grumpily.
"Well there's an even better real life waiting for you, I'm here!" I said half sarcastically. He stared at me for a moment, with a look of confusion, before breaking out into one of his dazzling smiles.
"Well with you here, how could anyone ever sleep again?" He laughed, going along with my joke.
Razi and I kept up our bantering until we landed, both agreeing to try and keep the atmosphere light by some unspoken arrangement, for everyone's sake. Once back on American soil, I felt a distinctive draw from the tips of my toes right through to the top of my head, a draw for my soulfinder. The distance between us had been sliced in half drastically and I could feel Victor's presence, even though he was hundreds of miles away. Compared to Afghanistan, he might as well have only been a few miles away.
Pushing it to the back of my mind, I was in a somewhat soberer mood when we got off the plane. Razi was to drive our car, and I was disgusted to see Miles waiting in the driving seat of one of the others. He smiled sickeningly at me when he leered at me as I passed, to which I replied with some choice words.
"What do the guy ever do to you?" Razi asked, bemused as we carried bags and gear from the plane to load into the cars.
"Oh not much. Just held me at gunpoint as he kidnapped me, and drove me hundreds of miles across the country against my will. And he owes me a new car, mines abandoned somewhere in the back end of Montana." I said bitterly. Razi knew better than to let me see him laughing.
"Oh. Well when you put it like that your greeting was tame sweetheart." He said nervously.
"If he comes near me again I'll be anything but tame, especially now I'm not a defenceless little girl." I said through gritted teeth as I dumped the bag I was carrying into the car boot with more force than I intended.
"Remind me never to hold you at gunpoint and kidnap you." Razi said trying to joke.
"Trust me Raz, I don't think you'll be holding me at gunpoint anytime soon." I said wryly, going around to get in the car.
We were heading to one of my uncles safe houses just outside the city to regroup and finalise the plans, to ensure everyone knew their part and the entry and exit strategies. It was simple really. The Net building was designed to look like any other office block in central New York, and so had minimal security at reception so as not to draw attention to itself. One of our tech guys had used my swipe card from the Net to create fully functioning replicas, so we were simply walking in the front door. And even if we were found out, due to the building keeping up its façade, they probably wouldn't put up much of a resistance to stop us, and we'd most likely be able to take them anyway. Our op would have failed, but at least we'd get out. Worst case scenario was we got captured, and in that case it was every man for themselves. It was better a few were caught than all of us, at least some might be able to get away. I couldn't help feeling the Net would be more prepared than they thought – I had tried to voice this but everyone thought it was my nerves talking. In the end I gave up.
We didn't stay long at Haseem's house, we were all too anxious to get on with the job. Before I knew it, I found myself stood in an alley beside the building with Razi as calm and collected as always next to me. He turned to stand infront of me where I stood leaning against the wall. We were dressed like respectable businessmen, not very practical for an op but we needed to blend.
"Whatever happens stay near me, I'll look after you." Razi murmured, with one of his arms raised above my head resting on the wall. To anyone passing the alley we would look like a young couple messing about. He pressed a cold metal gun into my hand. "Shoot to kill, Soraya."