Chapter 29: Last Mission (I)

"Boss, the girl had escaped."

Boris was sitting in Lee Chow's study in the Windstorm resort, listening to his bodyguard's report from the speaker phone.

"That is alright. We have the brother and soon the sister will come," Boris answered.

"Umm," Spencer's voice seemed hesitant.

"What is it, Spencer?" Boris asked impatiently.

"Tala Ivanov was with her, Boss," he finally said.

"Tala? How interesting!" Boris smiled, thinking about the traitor. "Come back here at once. We must prepare to receive him."

"Yes, Boss."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Boris called "Enter" and in came an important looking man of sixty. He had long grey hair with a feather poking from his head (sorry, I don't know how to describe it…). He was followed by a couple of bodyguards. Boris stood up to welcome him.

"Ah, Voltaire. How was the flight?"

The elder man cast a look at the screens on the wall of the room, showing the prisoners in their rooms.

"You said my grandson has betrayed you," the old man said quietly.

"Ah, it's the most embarrassing affair but do sit down."

Boris ushered him to a chair facing the desk before sitting down himself.

"You see, the work on him was not complete. We found him…er, kissing a young girl who happens to be Tornatore's young niece."

As he said this, he observed Voltaire's face carefully. The man remained immovable by the news but Boris saw him blink at the word 'kissing'.

"It is an up most horror. The boy is following his father's example by mingling with the enemy," Voltaire muttered under his breath. "I thought you've trained him out of this." He suddenly raised his voice as he looked at Boris into the eyes.

Boris, however, was not the least intimate.

"Somehow there was a flaw in the training," he said with a smile. "Sometimes true love cannot be stopped."

"What do you mean true love? My grandson cannot-."

"Calm yourself, dear friend," Boris said calmly. "I have another surprise for you."

"What is it?" Voltaire asked impatiently.

"I think that you might like to hear that your granddaughter is also in the show," he said. "She's working for Tornatore of course but no need to worry. I think she too will be coming."

Voltaire stared at Boris as if he couldn't believe him.

"That rascal? The shame of our family? Don't you dare call her my granddaughter!"

"If you insist," Boris shrugged.

There was a small silence during which the two men sat absorbed in their thoughts.

"About our business," Voltaire started. "Where is Mac Gregor? I believe that we will take it tonight?"

Boris nodded.

"He will be arriving shortly. The boy is putting in the last touches to our plan."

"So, Washington first?"

Boris nodded again.

"Then Europe and Asia will be ours as well."


The sun was setting as the ninjas reached the island. Zeo had located a desert area to land.

"May I recapitulate the plan," Kenny said looking up his computer. "We would be divided in two groups. One will save our friends and the other will look for the scientists."

Everyone nodded.

"The first group will be Zeo, Hilary, Tyson and Miss Chow, on her request. The second one will be Tala, Salima, Garland and…that's all. Miss Watson and myself will be in the jet and… and wait for your return."

The teenagers nodded. They all had changed into a black combination said to be bullet-proofed and camouflage that Zeo had brought with him. They were also given small gadgets and weapons. The two groups parted, one to the resort and the other to the mountain. Hilary looked through the trees with determination written on her face. Their mission almost seemed hopeless but it was all there was to do.

They arrived at the resort shortly afterwards but remained hidden in the trees. Strangely enough the guards at the doors were not present. Zeo went forward hen signaled for them to follow. As they were crossing from the forest to the resort, Hilary saw why the guards weren't there. They were busily welcoming a newcomer who was coming down from a jet. He must be very important because he was surrounded by bodyguards. Before Hilary could see his face, Tyson pulled her arm, urging her to run. When they reached the resort, the ninjas glued to the wall. Zeo took out a map of the resort and pointed at a room facing east, sixth room from where the staircase was.

"From what I've learnt, your friends and relatives are locked up in this room. The door is of course guarded and the windows had metal bars in them (they were put in for the occasion, of course. But," he pointed to another room, "We can enter by the roof since it has a door there. I suppose it's locked butt that's not a problem for us."

"How do you know about all this?" Mariah wondered out loud.

Zeo just winked and tapped underneath his eye.

"That Zeo is really strange," Hilary whispered to Tyson as their put on sticky pads in order to climb on walls.

"We don't really have a choice but to trust him," he replied.

They started climbing. To Hilary's surprise Miss Chow was very skillful at this. At first, she thought that the girl would be like those princesses who could just sit and commands, but Mariah seemed capable of defending herself.


Tala, Salima and Garland all made way to the mountain. Garland was in the lead since he knew and had been in the hidden cave before. The plan was simple: Garland would pretend to be on Boris's side and they, his prisoners. If only they would let hem in, seeing that Boris might not be in the mountain cave. Tala was hoping that no one would recognize him; he had enough of being affronted by his former partners. The forest was rather hard to walk through since there was a lot of crawling plants, trapping their ankles. But fortunately they soon came upon a track which was used, according to Garland, by Boris's men to come to the mountain. No one was talking, except when they thought they heard something. The last rays of the sun lighted their way.

Suddenly they heard a truck coming up.

"Duck!"

The three agents darted into a bush. As the truck was nearing, Salima could see the driver and two more men. They all we wearing the same uniform. She had a sudden idea. Before the others could stop her, Salima jumped onto the truck, holding herself to the driver's open window.

"What the-?"

Salima punched the guy and took over the truck. His companions were in a total shock but when they realized what had just happened, they took out their guns. Only the shot never came. At least, not from them. Salima had stopped the truck. The two men fell head down on the dashboard (is that it?). Salima looked sideways and saw Tala and Garland with their guns out.

"Perfect!" she said.

"What were you thinking when-."

The driver was regaining consciousness so Salima gave him another punch before answering Garland.

"I have a better idea," she simply replied with a sly smile.

The truck approached the mountain cave. The guards could see it. So when it parked in front of the mountain, they opened the door for them. Once inside the cave, a man showed the truck where to park and out came two men and a girl.

"I donn't remember seeing those faces," the man scratched his head as the three newcomers walked into the lab, holding a suitcase each.

Salima, Garland and Tala passed into the lab without being identified. Salima was about to breathe with relief when she spotted the scientists. They were about twenty of them all wearing a metal collar. Salima also spotted Max's mother, she grabbed Tala's arm and was about to point her out to him when he pushed her away roughly, whispering, "Don't throw off our cover."

She nodded and tried to get a grip of herself. Garland led them up into the control room, saying to the guard that he was there on orders.

"Okay, this is what we're gonna do," Garland whispered hastily when they were alone. "I'll try to unlock the guys' collars and when that's done, you throw a gas bomb down there and lead the scientists out. Here, don't forget the masks."

Salima and Tala nodded then went out. The control room had a giant glass window that opened to the floor where the scientists were being kept. They looked much like trapped animals. Salima pursed her lips. The Elixir must have been finished that was why they were no longer working or anything. She hoped that Garland would do it soon.

Suddenly, two men came over to them.

"Hey, we've asked the Headquarters about sending men here on duty and they said that they didn't," one of them said.

"So, we're guessing that you're spying rats," the other completed his sentence.

"Oh yeah? Then what do you say to this?"

Salima turned and saw that Tala had taken his cap off. The men stared at his face with unbelieving eyes.

"You- you, traitor!"

"Yes and so are you."

At that two gun shots were heard and the two men fell down.

"Shit!"

Before both of them could move, the rest of the men surrounded them with their guns.

"Nice playing, Tala," Salima hissed to him.

"Just wait and see," the cold voice replied.

Tala jumped up and threw a gas bomb smashing on the ground.

But that's too soon, Salima thought as she fumbled for her mask. Suddenly a strong hand caught her wrist. She looked up and saw a form of red hair.

"Tala?"

Without replying, he pulled her forth and before she knew it, they were among the scientists who had been freed.

"Follow us," Tala cried. "Hold on to each others' hands!"

Salima felt a hand catching another of her arm. She didn't need to see but she was sure that it was Garland.

"Come on, we have no time!"


Hilary, Tyson, and Mariah led by Zeo crawled through the resort's pipes with great difficulty. They were smaller than the ones at Kevin's restaurant and they had to be careful not to make a sound. Zeo was looking through the metal slates with his laser eyes. The others were still pretty amazed by the fact that their companion was a robot. Yes, a robot. Zeo himself told them that that was why he was able to detect certain things such as human aura.

"Here we are," he whispered.

Hilary's heart was banging as Zeo lifted the metal slate off. They all jumped down one by one. Hilary could hear gasps. Finally she found herself in a room full of people. Lee Chow, Ray Kong and Prima were discussing in one corner while Miriam, max, Kevin Chow and what seemed like Mariam's own brother, Joseph were sitting on the bed. They all looked surprised and thrilled to see them there. Mariah didn't waste time to run into her brother's arms and Prima came over to talk to Zeo.

"You shouldn't come here!" she said.

"So much for gratitude," the robot mumbled.

"Listen, Boris has video cameras all over the place, soon they'll be coming and we'll be doomed!"

"Enough of pessimism, we've got nothing to lose," Mariam intervened. Hilary had informed her and the others of their plan.

"But-."

"Prima, your uncle is coming with reinforcements, there is nothing to worry about," Zeo interrupted.

Surprisingly, it shut Prima up.

"Okay folks, here's what we'll do," Zeo began.

The guards guarding the room in which the ninjas were kept prisoners heard loud noises, as if inside there was a party. They nodded at each other before deciding to open the door. All they saw was their prisoners, all unconscious on the floor.

"What the hell?" one of them exclaimed.

When they came closer however, Lee Chow opened his eye, and in one blink the guard was knocked down on the floor. The other guards were about to take their guns out when something crashed on them, forcing them to fall.

"Now!"

Everyone ran out of the room. Zeo threw them each a weapon: simple twin guns. Prima came out last.

"Wait!"

But she wasn't really waiting for a reply. She immediately charged into the door next to the room where she was kept prisoner. A bewildered Kai greeted her.

"Come quick, we're going to escape!" she shouted through the doorway.

"I'm not going," he said.

Prima looked at him disbelieved.

"What?"

"I've betrayed my own master, I am not worthy of living."

Prima marched up to him and hit him with her gun. He looked at her as if nothing had happened but his right cheek was red.

"Are you a dog or what?" she shouted in fury. "Can't you decide for yourself?"

"I just did and I'll remain here."

Suddenly there was a noise behind her. Prima swiveled around and saw Hilary lingering at the doorway. She was staring at Kai with an expression of half fear. Prima stared from Hilary to Kai and suddenly realized something.

"Are you- are you…"

Hilary walked towards the boy sitting on the room floor and sat down beside him. Kai looked at her with his emotionless eyes. Then, as if a miracle had occurred, a flame sparkled in his eyes, rendering life to him. What happened within the two people was unknown to the outside but before they knew it, Hilary, Kai and Prima were rejoining each other outside.

"Well, well what do we have here?"

They all froze. They were out at the open and no guards were pointing their guns at them but the only voice had made their hair stood on their skin.