Chapter 4
Tom and Aneisha hurried down the main road heading away from St Hearts. Tom kept glancing down at his spy-pod, following a flashing red dot on a street-plan; he was tracing the tracking device in Dan's communicator.
"So Stella really did sack Taya then?" Aneisha asked.
"Looks like it," Tom replied distractedly, still concentrating on following the little red dot.
Aneisha did a double-take.
"Don't you care?" She asked indignantly.
Tom turned to her. "Of course I care! But we need to find Dan. If they got Taya then we're getting her back but we're going to need to do this as a team."
"Sorry," Aneisha apologised. "I just can't believe that Stella could be so harsh. I mean, imagine if that had been one of us."
"I know." Tom sighed. "But for now, we just need to find her. C'mon, Dan's just round this corner."
The black cloth over her head made it impossible to see. Her wrists were tied but her feet left free as she was led along, someone's hands firmly gripped on her shoulders, steering her from behind. Taya felt claustrophobia overwhelming her as she struggled to keep her bearings; her breathing seemed abnormally loud and she could feel her heart pumping blood around her body. She fought to put a lid on her panic as she tried to remember what had happened. She remembered the white van squealing up beside her; black suited figures jumping out and grabbing her, pulling her towards the van; struggling but unable to throw them off; the sight of Dan chasing after them just before one of them clamped something over her mouth and she started to lose consciousnesses; waking up on the juddering floor of the van, her wrists bound and a black cloth bag over her head. And now they were in some building - she had no idea where, but the bright yellow lights flashed through the material covering her vision as she was led briskly down a corridor.
There was a creak as a door opened and they went through, stopping a few steps in. The bag was pulled off and Taya blinked, wincing in the bright light. She'd thought she had got a hold on her fear but when she saw what was in front of her, she felt the panic rising up again, and with it, memories of that last, fateful mission…
"Is this it then?" Taya asked, examining the ordinary looking chest in front of her. It was a half a meter wide, a couple of feet deep and the same again high.
"Must be…" Nick replied. "Careful with it, though! We don't want to damage that thing!"
"Well we can't move the whole thing, it's much too heavy and bulky," Jessie said. "The virus must be in a smaller container inside, right? If we can open the case, that would be more moveable."
"On it," Taya said, crouching down to study the green-lit screen on the side of the box. As her team mates went through the computer, looking for any incriminating documents and saving them onto a memory stick, Taya examined the screen and keypad in front of her. She tapped some code into the keypad and it came up with some error readings. Tutting, she reached into her black backpack and pulled a miniature laptop from it. Yanking the keypad off the side of the box to reveal the wires behind, she cut a couple of them and twisted the copper with some more wires leading to her laptop. Tapping the keys briskly, she typed code into the laptop, trying to hack the system that locked the chest. She worked for a couple of minutes, frowning in concentration.
"You getting anywhere with that thing?" Nick said from behind her, making her jump.
"Give me a sec," she said. Then, "aha!"
"Aha?" Jessie asked, coming over having finished transferring files.
The words OVERWRITE? Y/N came up on the LCD screen. Taya glanced at her friends and shrugged, pressing Y. More words appeared. PLACE HAND ON SCREEN. Hesitantly, Taya did.
A green light scanned her hand, like a photocopier.
OVERWRITE APPROVED.
OPEN? Y/N
She pressed Y.
With a click, the box unlocked itself.
A second later, there was an explosion of noise around them.
Taya jumped up, shocked. Sirens wailed deafeningly. Warning lights flashed.
"Alarm system," Jessie said, raising her voice over the noise. "That thing must've had a trigger built in. We've gotta go."
"But the virus -" said Taya.
"Grab it and let's go," Nick said. "We've got to get out before these goons get backup." He glanced back towards the place the guards they had knocked out earlier were. They were gone.
He swore.
"Don't worry about them," Jessie said, pulling open the lid of the box.
She and Taya froze. The vial was in box alright, but it was held in place with two metal brackets fastened tightly with screws.
"We need a screwdriver," Taya said, looking up at her teammates.
Nick shook his head. "Taya, we don't have time, we need to go."
"But our mission was to get the virus-"
"If we could. Our priority is to get out without being apprehended. We can always come back with backup now we know it's here."
"Fine," Taya agreed reluctantly, closing the lid on the box and standing. She felt slightly flustered: her heart was beating fast, still in shock from the sudden burst of noise, and her mind was racing. Had she accidentally set the alarms off?
Taya met her Jessie's eyes and the other girl seemed to read her mind. She smiled at Taya. "Don't worry, we'll get through it," she said, ever the optimist. Taya smiled back, gratefully. We'll get through this, she thought. Like we always do.
Slinging bags on their backs, they swirled out of the room.
"Wonderful!" Maria Constantala said, clapping her hands together. "Simply wonderful." She sighed contentedly, contemplating Taya thoughtfully. "You know, I've been planning this for quite a while, and yet I couldn't quite decide on what I should say. I thought I should come up with something, you know, something … dramatic."
Taya didn't say anything. She stood where she had been left. There might have been a time when she would have fought back, or come up with some witty comeback, but not anymore. Now she just felt fear and helplessness. And anger at herself for feeling so scared. She could feel the terror rushing through her veins though she tried to keep calm.
"But anyway," The woman continued, "I can't be bothered with that kind of theatricals. So if it's alright by you, I'd like to borrow your hand."
Before she could say anything, Taya was grabbed from behind by one of the blank-faced guards that had brought her here and dragged towards the white box. He yanked her hand up and forced it on to the green screen, pressing it down with unnecessary force. Helpless, Taya could only watch as the light scanned across her palm, reading her unique print. The box clicked open. Taya was dragged away again as Constantala eagerly leant forward, opening the case to reveal the treasure within.
Cradling it as though it were a new-born baby, Constantala held the deadly vial aloft. She gazed at it with a dreamy smile on her face.
"Finally," she murmured to herself. "Time for revenge." She smiled at Taya. "And I couldn't have done it without you, my dear."
Taya swallowed and licked her dry lips. "W-what are you going to do with it?" she managed to ask.
"Hmmm," Constantala contemplated her prisoner for a moment or two. "Well I suppose there's no harm in telling you, especially as you've been so helpful." She laid the flask carefully back down. "Besides, I can't resist a captive audience."
She thought for a couple of seconds before speaking. "I used to be a scientist. Did you know that? I studied Biomolecular Medicine at university and did a PhD. But then, nobody seems to care about that. They just focus on the model thing. I gave up my life to follow my modelling career but after 5 and a half years, they dropped me." She rolled up her sleeve to reveal her forearm. Angry red marks laced up her skin like some kind of burn. "I had a bad reaction to a moisturizer I was advertising. The company paid for treatment to cover it up but it didn't work as well as they wanted and suddenly I wasn't deemed pretty enough to model. So they dumped me. First I was mocked because I was too pretty to be smart then they rejected me because I wasn't pretty enough.
"So I started my own business – Delicious cosmetics. I admit I didn't plan anything in the way of revenge to begin with, but it was always at the back of my mind. And you hear stuff, you know, about other ways cosmetic companies have ruined other people's lives. But it wasn't until my brother first stole the virus that I started to think about some kind of revenge. I thought up a plan but my brother wouldn't even listen to it. He's not one for big or original plans; he just wanted to sell it to the highest bidder. But after that failed and my brother went to prison, I couldn't just let the opportunity pass. So I managed to procure the virus again. Of course, I couldn't hack into the in-built security system on the box and my employees aren't quiet as competent in that area," she threw her thugs a reproachful glare. "Which is why I needed to borrow you," she smiled sweetly at Taya. "But now I have it, next comes the best part. Within the week, I plan to release a brand new perfume but this one has an added surprise. This perfume … well," she smirked, "it's to die for. The virus will be safe until the products are opened and then, well, it's hard to say exactly how quickly the virus will spread. They'll work out what happened soon enough but the damage will be done. I'll be long gone. And I'll have had my revenge," she smiled looking fondly down at the deadly vial. "Combining all my careers and expertise," she murmured. "It's a deadly kind of beauty."
Taya stood in shock. She couldn't believe the insanity she was hearing. Part of her thought to reason with the woman but she was struggling to take it in, let alone think of what to say.
Maria Constantala pulled herself out of her reverie and looked back at Taya.
"Thank you for your help, my dear," she said. With a wave of her hand, she instructed her guards to take the girl away. As if in a dream, or perhaps a nightmare, Taya allowed herself to be led out of the room.
A/N: This took longer to sort than I thought so sorry for the wait...! Next chapter should be up sooner... (and also slightly longer). Thank you for reading and please review.
Thank you to J.4.5.M.1.N.3 for the review!