She was tired, dead tired in fact. She had been on the verge of passing out onto her bed clothes and all when the phone rang.
"Hello."
"Kaelah? God girl you sound dead! How late were you up last night?"
"Last night?" Shit! It was already 8:00 am and she was late. "Um…pretty late I guess." Truth was she hadn't even made it to bed yet.
"Well you'd better hurry your ass up and get here."
Kaelah didn't bother responding, she hung up with a click and stumbled in the direction of her kitchen. "Thank God for instant coffee!" she mumbled as she set water to boil. Twenty minutes later she was on her way out the door.
"Hello?" Kaelah called as she steeped into the abandoned factory in which she and her friends had been meeting for a year now. No one in sight, strange. Where was everyone? Glancing around, she noticed other strange things; boxes over turned, broken. Something had happened here, there had been a struggle. "Hello?"
"Over here Kaelah…" came an excited voice from the depths of the shadowed room.
"Kati? Where are you?" Silence. "Kati?" Cautiously Kaelah began making her way through the mess to the back room of the dark factory. Stepping through the door and into the dimly lit room she was greeted by an unusual sight. People. "What the hell!"
"Um…surprise?" Kati shrugged, giggling at her friend's face, shock was written all over it..
"Who the hell are they?" Kaelah gestured wildly at the men tied to the steel chairs in the middle of the room. "And why are they tied up?"
"Um…well, we kind of found them like this when we got here." Kati hurried to explain, she looked over her shoulder at the other three girls in the room, her giggles nervous now.
"I see." Well that explained the mess. She had been right, there had been a fight or some sort. One of the girls let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
"Do you want to tell me what's going on Natalie? And how the hell you failed to mention this on the phone?"
"Um, no not really thanks." The small dark haired girl answered amused.
"You?" Kaelah asked turning to the straight faced girl standing beside her.
"Nope."
Sighing Kaelah turned to the last of her friends, a serious looking girl of Chinese heritage.
"Ari?" The girl just shook her head.
"I guess it up to them to explain then isn't it." Sighing once more she moved towards one of the men. "Hold still," she warned. She reached into her pocket retrieving her pocket knife and with a flick opened it. "You move and it's your mistake."
"Hnn." The man grunted glaring at her.
Within seconds Kaelah had the gag off and had backed up a step. "Who are you?" The man continued to glare steadily. Now she was starting to get annoyed. Who could blame her she hadn't got any sleep.
"Look, I just want to know if I can safely untie with out getting jumped." No answer. Damn it. "Just answer the damn question, then we can all go home and forget any of this ever happened."
One of the other men began to squirm. "You got something to say?" Kaelah asked turning her attention to him.
A mistake, a big mistake. Within seconds the first man had somehow managed to release himself and now had her pocket knife that had been dangling loosely in her hand just minutes ago forgotten. And not only did he have the weapon but he had it at her throat. Shit.
"Girls!" It was too late. Moments after the first man had made his move his friends began to make theirs. All four of the other girls had their hands full struggling against their own captors. Crap. And to make matters worse the idiot holding her captive had the nerve to smirk at her, "Who the hell are you!"
"I'll be asking the questions." The man stated calmly.
"The hell you…" Kaelah trailed off as she felt the edge of the knife dig into her skin, blood welled in the shallow cut.
"Tie them up." The men began to move instantaneously, following the monotonous command without thought. Kaelah watching helplessly as her friends were dragged to the chairs that moments before had been occupied by these men themselves.
"As for you…" the man unceremoniously pushed her hard against the wall, "who are you."
It sounded more like a command then a question to Kaelah, she had never really liked being given orders. So she let him know in no uncertain terms, she spit in his eye.
He didn't even blink. Bashing her against the wall once more he asked again his voice low, deadly. "Who are you."
She heard a stifled exclamation of shock as Natalie bit the hand of the man who was currently try to gag her. It would have been funny, she would have laughed…if she hadn't been scared shitless.
The mans attention never left her. Digging the knife into her neck even more her glared, not bothering to ask again.
"Kaelah."
"Hnn." Was his only response.
"Well you asked."
"Who do you work for."
Kaelah gave him her best smile given the circumstances, "Self employed.. We all are."
" Hmph." Smirked an ebony eyed Chinese man.
One of the other men tried unsuccessfully to control is laughter, "I wouldn't talk Wu-man."
"Wu-man?" Asked the similarly ebony eyed girl, an eyebrow arched gracefully. 'Wu-man' was at the moment tying to her chair.
He growled, "Shut up Maxwell, it Wufei not..."
"Enough." Snapped the man still holding Kaelah captive. The other men immediately quieted down and continued the hard job of securely tying down their prospective girls to their chairs.
Kaelah tired of having a knife to her throat took this moment of distraction to reach for her own weapon, a nicely concealed dagger. Pulling it from it harness on her lower back was not an easy job when she was pushed up against a cement wall not to gently. Finally she managed to get it lose, after some wriggling that caused her captor to raise his eyebrows at her. She poked the tall man in the ribs with it, careful to aim on an angle that would allow her to miss his ribs while hitting his heart.
"I think we've answered enough questions for today. How about you and your boys take a turn." All eyes turned towards her.
"Hnn." He back away, not much mind you, but he did back away.
Taking a step to the side Kaelah turned towards they others and motioned for the men to step away from her friends. They just stared. Glancing back at her previous captor she only had enough time to swear before his wait hit her. With a grunt they both hit the floor rolling.
"What the...' Kaelah grunted as she hit the ground and she found herself plastered into it none too pleasantly by a heavy weight. He was sitting on her, arms pinning hers to the ground. "Get the fuck off of me!"
"I don't think so."
One of the men could be heard laughing behind them.
"Who are you people?" Asked Kati in a surprised voice, and slightly awed voice to the annoyance of Kaelah.
"Um, sorry miss, we can't tell you that…" apologized the blond man beside her, she turned to look at him.
"Miss? Jesus! This one's polite! Now I've seen it all!" The young man blushed, he actually blushed.
"Stop flirting Kati and start helping us get out of this mess." Now it was Kati's turn to blush.
"I wasn't…"
"No one's going anywhere until I say so." The man currently on top of Kaelah stated in that same monotone he seemed to say everything in.
"Oh really!" Raged the furious Kaelah struggling underneath him.
"Hnn." the man just pushed her further into the hard concert floor.
"So this is what we get for try to help is it?" asked a quiet voice. Heads turned in the brunet's direction.
"Help! You were standing around us staring!" Exclaimed a furious Wufei.
"Yes well there wasn't much we could do until Kaelah…" she coughed"…until we knew for certain you weren't dangerous now was there."
Once again the attention was back on the struggling women on the floor.
"So you're in charge."
"Um, no that's not…" the brunet was cut off.
"I am." Kaelah answered quietly.
"Kaelah…" growled Lynn.
"And what exactly are you in charge of."
Why was it that this infuriating man never seemed to ask questions but demand answers instead, "A special op. of assassins, mercenary's if you will. Happy?"
"I see."
"I'm sure you do, now get off." Her last words had worked into a growl. "Now."
Standing up the man pulled her to her feet but kept her in his grip and her arms pined. "Bring them with us." And with that he made his way to the door dragging a squirming Kaelah with him.
The men exchanged glances but picked up their charges similarly.