Reno stood behind Tseng,
watching as he carefully opened up the door to the shack. After he'd calmly
searched the area, Tseng entered.
"The headquarters is underground...the entrance should be on the floor, right?"
Reno questioned.
"That would make the most sense...ah!" Tseng flung a small rug aside with the
tip of his shoe, revealing a circular, metal hatch with an impressive looking
lock. Kneeling on the floor, Tseng studied the combination lock carefully,
listening to the different sounds in made as he twisted the dial. After a few
tries, his trained ear deciphered the combination, and unlocked the hatch.
As
silently as he could, he lifted the metal door open and peered down. "I don't
see anyone so far...let's go."
Reno followed Tseng down the ladder and took in
the surroundings. "I feel like I'm in an ant farm...split up?"
Tseng thought for a moment and nodded. "I'll head up this way. Try to take
anyone out as quietly as you can. Once we have Elena, Rude, and the president's
niece, we're done."
'Like I couldn't have figured out that one,' thought Reno. "Yes,
sir."
Reno's hand grasped the electro-mag rod as he quietly made his way down one of the tunnels.
Further down, the tunnel branched into three different directions. 'Eenie, meanie, miney, mo...'
He chose the left path and continued walking, checking over his shoulder every
so often. At the end, there was one door. Deciding the gun was a better
surprise attack weapon, he holstered the rod and
gripped the handle of his gun.
He
pressed his ear against the door, straining to hear if there were people in the
room. After a few seconds, he figured either the door was too thick to hear
anything, or there was no one in the room. He hoped for the latter. He twisted
the door handle gently, testing to see if it was locked. It was, and to Reno's dismay, someone was
in the room.
"Who's there?" asked a male voice from inside the room.
Reno mentally cursed; he was too far inside the
tunnel to make a break for it. Instead, the trained his weapon in the middle of
the door, and smiled as he called in his best falsetto, "It's just me!"
A few seconds later, the door opened. In a flash, Reno squeezed the trigger
on the gun, and a body fell to the floor with a dull thud. After quickly
checking behind his back, Reno pulled the body back
into the room and shut the door behind him.
Patting
down the corpse, Reno went through all the
contents in the pockets. 'Bingo!' he thought, finding a large set of keys. He
put them in his own pocket and continued looking. There was nothing else,
except for a piece of paper. Reno unfolded it and
started to read, his eyes growing wide as he quickly recognized it as the note
he had left for Elena.
"Oh, no..."
Elena woke up. 'What happened?' she thought.
As she went to sit up, a sharp pain spread throughout her neck. Elena winced,
realizing she was feeling the bruising where Roth had tortured her with his taser. Lying back down, she rolled her eyes around the
room. It wasn't the same one she had been interrogated in. Someone had moved
her. As she began to wonder if Rude was enduring what she had, she heard a
voice. Using every ounce of strength and willpower she had left, she leaned up
on her elbows and tried to determine where she had heard the voice from. There
was a small beaded curtain separating the room she was in and another one.
'Probably the room Roth interrogated me...' she thought.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard a silenced gun going off.
Unconsciously, Elena blanched in fear as she sat as still as she possibly
could. Listening, she thought she made out a set of keys jingling and then a
few more scuffling sounds. It went quiet again until she heard someone softly
moan "Oh, no..."
'That voice...Reno?' Elena's mind was a
blur. She was unsure if she should remain still, feigning unconsciousness in
case it was just another AGP member, or call out. In the end, her curiosity got
the best of her. "...R- Reno?"
Tseng dashed quickly through the tunnels, making almost no noise. He reached a
corner and stopped. Tightening his grip on the gun, he cautiously peeked around
the corner. Another empty tunnel with a large metal door.
Tseng sighed, wondering if he should try and get through the door or continue
on down the tunnel. In the back of his mind, he thought it best to try and
scope out the area before making any rash moves. Sneaking quietly past the
door, he made his way further into the web of tunnels.
"They aren't planning on tearing down the reactor, are they?" asked Rene.
Rude shifted uncomfortably. "I dunno." He lied.
Rene sighed. "I try so hard to please my uncle. I try to do things they way I
think he would do them, say things I think he would say...do you think they
would tear it down if it were Rufus instead of me?"
Rude kept his mouth shut. 'What on earth do I say to that?' he thought.
Rene turned away. "No answer is just as good as a 'yes'."
"I really can't say for sure what your uncle would do if it was Rufus instead
of you, but I'd be willing to make a safe bet he still wouldn't tear down the
reactor."
Rene chewed her thumbnail. "Yeah, you're probably right," she whispered softly.
Rude stared at her. "Knowing that, you still try as hard as you can to act like
him?"
"Why shouldn't I? Look at him! He has everything! He's got more money just
lying around his office then you'll probably ever see in your lifetime..."
"I'd quote the old saying 'money isn't everything'…"
"You know what? Forget I ever brought it up! It's bad enough being stuck in
here with one of my uncle's stupid Turks...I don't need a lecture on top of
that."
With that, Rene flounced over to the opposite corner of the cell and sat down.
Rude shook his head and sighed before falling asleep against the wall.
