A/N: Sorry for the long delay since the last update. My laptop decided it didn't like the hard drive anymore. I'm also fixing to move and that has been a significant distraction. I will say that there is officially 2 chapters left after this and I'm currently editing the last chapter. I will not say I am never going to write another Brave fanfiction, because originally there was short story sequel planned for this, but I'm not promising it any time soon.
Chapter 19:
Andy was tied to a chair and she was not happy about it. They were in Adrian's office and his mother stood over her like a malevolent bird. Adrian was leaning on his desk looking annoyed. His father was notably absent. She studied them as Adrian clearly looked like he didn't see the need for his presence and his mother looked calculating as she moved to sit behind the desk.
"What do you want?" Andy demanded as she resisted the urge to tug at her restraints. Each hand was tied to an arm as well as each ankle to the chair legs. The rope was rough and quaint in their antiquity. What frustrated her was the fact that the static in her ears told her the room was either lined with lead or they had a jammer in place. Her guess was the jammer. Either way, it meant until they figured out where she was, she was on her own.
"You my dear, are a liar and a spy. We don't take kindly to spies in our family," Ivana stated folding her fingers together on the surface of the desk.
"I am not a spy," Andy stated sounding confused. Internally she tried to determine what could have set them off.
"That is not what my friend Dimitri tells me," Ivana answered clicking a button under the desk and releasing the door that hid another entrance to the catacombs.
Now Andy did feel the slight beginnings of panic. She caught his eye and cursed herself for believing his sob story as well as not just killing him when her gut had told her that something was off. She also now worried that her brother's team were now in the trap.
"I see you recognize Dimitri," she taunted as she stood again and moved to stand beside the man. "So, you may as well drop the charade. We know you are not who you pretend to be and that your brother is also not who he pretends to be."
Andy took a deep breath and stared defiantly up at Ivana. She would not say another thing until they told her what they were going to do. Silence was sometimes the best weapon when you were caught by surprise by an enemy. Calming her nerves took priority, when a spy panics, they die. It was one of the first things she had been taught. Breathe and stay alive.
Amir concluded they had to be in Adrian's office, it was the last place anyone had seen her and there were two guards outside the doors. He spotted Jaz and Top coming in from the kitchen and saw Maximillian's eyes go straight to Jaz. This time though, instead of the sick predatory look that he expected, it was cold and calculating. Adrian's father knew who they were.
"Top, you've been made," Amir stated calmly as he feigned drinking a glass of champagne. Top tugged his ear in acknowledgment. "Andy is being held in Adrian's office," he added. Top briefly glanced in that direction as Max approached them.
"Have you seen my sister?" Adam questioned Maximillian as he approached.
"She is in with Adrian signing her pre-nup. She should be out soon," he answered smoothly handing each of them a glass of champagne. "Why don't you come in and play witness?" he offered motioning towards the door.
Adam glanced at the two guards and down to Jaz. She nodded and slipped her arm through his again. Strength in numbers was their thinking. They followed Maximillian into the office and Adam schooled his features to hide his surprise seeing Dimitri standing over his sister with a gun pointed at her head.
"What is this?" Adam demanded to keep up appearances, he would not be the first to flinch.
"Cut the crap, we know you are a spy," Adrian snapped, and Adam saw that he was still high. Adam remained silent.
"You are all going on a little trip. Dimitri, restrain them, they are going to the holding cells downstairs," Ivana ordered as Maximillian and Adrian stood beside her. She clearly ruled her family with an iron fist. "Adrian, go dismiss your guests. Tell them Andy has taken ill," she ordered, and they watched Adrian head out of the room and Dimitri approached them with plastic zip ties. Adam contemplated putting up a fight, but they needed Ivana and Adrian's handprints to release the girls.
Andy hid her surprise that Adam didn't put up a fight and knew there had to be a reason. He willingly held out his hands as he captured Andy's eye. She saw the calculation and dipped her chin pretending to feel defeated when she confirmed there was a plan. Taking a deep breath, she prepared to be cut loose so they could move her. Every fiber of her wanted to fight as Maximillian untied her and ran his hands up her legs.
Jaz too, had to resist the urge to fight back as Dimitri tied her hands in front of her. She knew that if Top hadn't resisted that she should not resist. She had faith that he had a plan and would take his lead. She glanced towards Andy and saw her barely containing her cringe as Maximillian ran his hand up her thigh. Andy caught her eye and Jaz could see that if she had her way, Andy would end his life. Her eyes returned to Dimitri and she flinched as he tightened the zip ties around her wrists painfully.
"So, I guess the story about your wife was bullshit?" she demanded angrily. Dimitri remained silent. He pushed her and Top towards the door they hadn't seen. They were directed down a set of stairs they had not had seen because they were in the heavily guarded area of the compound. Andy and Ivana were ahead of them making their way down slowly.
"Andrea, it seems your brother and his friends have been freeing our merchandise and we will be issuing demands for restitution. We have been working for a year to gather those girls. Our family has been in the trade business since the days of slavery. We traded slaves to the Americas and as it slowly became illegal to deal in humans, we have had to move our operation underground, but we have nonetheless been quite active. Governments have tried to take us down, but we have always persevered. Don't think you will succeed," Ivana monologed as they separated her from her brother and Jaz as they walked down a corridor
She glanced behind her to see Adam and Jaz staring at Ivana with disgust. Andy's stomach was rolling at the idea of the atrocity that this family had managed to inflict over the centuries and felt a certainty that tonight would be the end of the line for them.
"You know, eventually your family will die out. When you do, this little venture will end, and I will drink champagne over your grave," Andy stated quietly as she continued to walk calmly. She could see the holding cells ahead of her and she knew that Ivana was leading her towards the ones that Preach had been trying unsuccessfully to breach. She also knew that meant they were nearby. She just had to time it right. This had been Adam's plan.
Adam glanced at Jaz and she realized they were going to let Ivana and the family do the hard work for them. He nodded at her to confirm her suspicions. He had seen the slight shift in Andy's shoulders as she realized the plan as well. He was proud of how calm she appeared; how effortlessly she understood the plan, but he also knew that she would improvise to get his team out unharmed. The problem was that they didn't know what Adrian would do once he returned. His team knew that Adrian needed to be in the same space to open those doors.
As if Adam had conjured him from his own mind, Adrian appeared and joined his mother and father at the console they had stopped in front of. Each of them placed their thumb on the scanner and the doors in front of the opened revealing a dark room with three girls under the age of seven as well as two young boys around the same age. They looked terrified and he dug his fingers into the palms of his hands to avoid reacting and scaring them.
Andy looked at the terrified eyes looking up at her and she slid the knives at her wrists free from their guards carefully. She used the sharpened edges to cut the plastic zip ties quickly. She had seen enough and now that the doors were open, she hoped Adam was ready to move quickly. She glanced out of the corner of her eye and spotted Amir with a gun leveled at Maximillian's head. She shook her head slightly and stepped back slightly so that she could slip a knife to Jaz.
Jaz felt the weight of the knife in the pocked of her dress. Dimitri was too busy looking at the kids to notice the movements of the women as Jaz reached in the pocket and Andy glanced at Adam with a cheeky grin.
It was all about to step off and she was warning him that she was going to do something. He watched her look at those kids and looked to Jaz who also had her eyes on them. He felt when Jaz had managed to cut her restraints and slipped him the knife. He felt her move her arm up and watched as she pulled the comb from her hair. The sharpened tines glinted in the overhead lighting and caught Dimitri's attention.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" he demanded swinging a gun in her direction. Adam's first instinct had been to step in front of her as a knife landed in Dimitri's chest. He glanced at Andy and saw that she had beaten him to it. She had thrown another knife with precision towards Dimitri and buried it with accuracy.
From there the room descended into chaos as the three Dimakos turned and went to fight back. Maximillian started for Andy, but Amir's well-placed aim took him down before he had a chance to take another step. Adrian was dropped by Preach as he too entered from his hidden location. Ivana was the only one left standing as Andy pulled the knife from Dimitri's chest. She made her way towards the children huddled and screaming in terror at the violence in front of them.
Adam watched as Ivana pulled a gun from her purse and aimed it at his sister. He took his cue from his sister and buried the knife in the woman's back as the gun went off with a bang that echoed in the cavern. He watched as Andy staggered but kept going towards the kids.
"Can you walk?" Andy questioned as she looked at the young kids. They were the ages of her students and her heart ached seeing their terrified faces. They stared up at her uncomprehending. She tried for the same question in Greek and watched as their heads bobbed up and down. She went on to explain they were Americans and were there to rescue them. Their eyes immediately went to the men behind her and she smiled over her shoulder at them.
They stood behind her in a semi-circle having confirmed that the threat had been neutralized. Preach and McG armed with a med bag moved towards the kids carefully and started to help the kids up. Jaz joined them and Adam looked towards his sister looking for where she had been hit by the bullet. Amir was standing guard as they worked calm the terrified children.
"Andy," Adam called and watched as she stood and immediately saw the problem. The bullet had not gone through. Her face was pale, and he could see the blood seeping out the wound in her side. He moved to her quickly and caught her as she swayed. "Damn it, McG, she's hit," he called over his shoulder lowering her towards the ground.
"I'm fine," she answered trying to sit back up. "You worry too much," she added for good measure.
"Jaz, Preach, get those kids out of here," he ordered as McG knelt beside them and Amir moved towards them as well.
"Amir hold her shoulders," McG ordered knowing that his patient had a tendency to fight him as much as her brother.
Andy felt the pressure on her shoulders as Amir knelt by her head. She looked up into those warm brown eyes she had missed so much over the years and felt tears prick her eyes. "Andy, talk to me," McG ordered drawing her attention back to him.
"Lower right side of my back." She winced when he found the spot.
"Pain scale?" he demanded, and she gave him a glare.
"Joe, I'm fine, I can make it to hospital," she answered hating the attention. She wanted out of this space and away from the smell of blood that was clogging her nose and bringing back painful memories of the last time she had been shot.
"That isn't what I asked you," he answered as he packed the wound with gauze.
"More than I will admit," she answered in return.
"Andy, answer the damn question," Amir ordered in frustration. She looked up at him again and Adam could see her anger.
"Andy, tell us," Adam ordered softly. He was edging towards panic seeing his sister's blood on the ground again.
"Six," she answered with annoyance. "I can walk, at least let me get out of this damn cave," she muttered trying once again to sit up. Adam looked to McG before nodding to Amir to let her up. Amir helped her into a sitting position.
Amir felt the blood soaking his pant leg as he had held her, and it made his stomach turn in fear, but her stubbornness had assured him that she would be fine as she was helped into a standing position by her brother and McG. Someone called to Adam as they made their way through the cave entrance that they had used to exfil the kids and he turned to look back at Amir. Amir stepped up and wrapped his arm securely around Andy's waist and placed her arm over his shoulder.
"Why is it when you two are together, she gets shot?" McG questioned teasingly. Andy glanced to Amir and saw the look of anguish briefly cross his face.
"Because I have a tendency to run in without looking," she answered looking at Amir and not McG. "Besides, can't have my brother's medic getting shot, defeats the purpose of keeping you around," she teased back looking over at the other man.
She had lied when she said she was fine, she was pretty sure she had internal bleeding going on, but there wasn't really anything they could do until she was out of the cave. Her eyes remained focused on the light from flashlights dancing around ahead of her so that she wouldn't think about the burning sensation in her side. When that became too hard, she focused on Amir's arm around her waist. She could never admit how much she had missed him and not feel like she was giving him back the few pieces of her heart she had managed to win back over the years.
The smell of the ocean, the breeze off the water, along with the noises of controlled chaos gave Andy the reassurance she needed that the good guys had won. She saw her brother's team standing safely on the beach talking to the local authorities as ambulances stood on the bluff with their lights flashing. Medics were tending to the kids and teens that looked terrified and lost.
"Amir, I lied," she whispered and when he glanced over, he watched as she passed out and gripped tighter as she became dead weight.
"Hey, I need a gurney over here!" McG shouted towards the medics. "Amir hold her," he ordered as turned Andy so that Amir could hold her upright and he could look at the wound. "Damn it, Andy," he muttered knowing instantly that she was bleeding internally and had lied about how much pain she was actually in.
Adam heard McG's shout and turned to see his sister passed out in Amir's arms. He felt the blood drain from his head and fear gripped him as hard as it had the day he'd watched Jaz get captured and been helpless to do anything. Before he could make it to his sister's side, she was on a backboard and being carried towards the top of the bluff. Amir was following and as much as Adam wanted to follow, he had to trust his team to take care of her as he wrapped things up.