One more OC introduced in this chapter; she will most likely be the last one. I know some people (me) sometimes get confused with a high number of OCs ;P
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Agent Ten was the second female agent of BOWCA, behind Esther van Dyke, specialising in communications and analysis, specifically generating options in various field situations.
However, the only analysis running through her mind as she sheltered by the window outside her office was where the hell is this wind coming from?!
The windows at BOWCA were large single panes of glass, not easily shattered. That was why Robin was hiding by them; she was confident that she would be in no danger.
That would turn out to be a mistake.
Someone came running up to her. She could hear the footsteps. "Are you okay?" shouted a familiar man's voice over the wind.
She turned her head and saw the familiar man in a grey suit. As she turned, he saw her face. "Robin! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Stephen."
"You don't need help?"
"Stephen, there are probably other people who need your help more than me."
"If-if you're sure."
"I am." She gave a smile. "I'll be fine."
He also smiled briefly. "Stay safe, Robin."
"You too, Stephen."
He left. Immediately after that, the wind increased in strength. Robin pressed herself against the side pane of the window with her legs stretched out to the other side pane, her arms held tightly against her chest and her eyes tightly shut. Her face was turned away from the wind.
She heard a crash and turned her head back. It was lucky she did; she screamed as she saw a desk come flying towards her. She barely reacted in time; she threw herself to the side. The desk just missed her. It smashed the glass window and was flung out of sight. Robin found herself slipping out the window after it. Her legs and pelvis were hanging out the smashed window while her torso was on the carpet. Her hands reached out and clutched onto the scratchy beige carpet. It wasn't much of a handhold but it was enough to stop herself from falling.
However, the wind was blowing as hard as ever. Robin tightly closed her eyes again and turned her head to the side to prevent the gale from blowing in her face. She could feel her fingernails slipping. She tried to get a better handhold but every time she let go with one hand, she would immediately panic that she was about to fall, so she stopped and hung on. Every attempt to push herself back in using her feet and/or hands failed; the wind kept pushing her back. So she just hung on as hard as she could, pressing herself as low to the ground as possible. She desperately hoped someone would come and help her soon; she didn't know how long she would be able to hang on like this for.
…
Ruth staggered around in search of the exit. How hard can it be to label your fire exits clearly? she thought, annoyed.
Then she accidentally bumped into a man coming from the other direction. He looked both distressed and determined. "Do you know where the exit is?" Ruth asked him.
The man looked at her. "I'm sorry, but I need your help. Is that okay?"
"Um…" Ruth knew she would rather get out of there but this man needed her help and if she wanted to call herself a BOWCA agent, she would have to help him. "Sure."
"Good."
The man took her wrist and pulled her in the direction he had just come from. "Where are we going?"
For some reason, the man answered a completely different question: "I'm Stephen Bush. Agent Two."
"Um, I'm Ruth Summers. I haven't been assigned a title yet."
"Oh, you're the trainee Esther is supposed to train."
Ruth wasn't sure she liked being called a trainee; after all, as Gretchen had pointed out, technically Ruth was an agent of BOWCA, she was just on probation.
Instead of saying any of this aloud, however, she asked her question again: "Where are we going?"
This time, Stephen answered her question. "I think I've found what's causing the wind. If we can shut it off-."
He broke off and leapt to the ground. As Ruth had still been holding his hand, she tumbled with him. No sooner had they fallen than the wind picked back up, blowing hard just above them. Ruth and Stephen screwed their eyes shut against the hard gale. Both were finding it hard to breathe, since they were both facing the way the wind was coming.
"If we can shut it off, we can stop the wind from causing any more damage and let someone find what's causing the tremors!" Stephen shouted into the wind.
"The rescue teams need more time to do their stuff too!" added Ruth.
"I think I've found it. It's in the air vents somewhere!"
Ruth squinted upwards. She could just about see the barred vent above their heads. She looked across at Stephen, who pointed through the wind at the vent that Ruth had spotted earlier. He yelled something to Ruth but the wind had grown even stronger and his words were lost. However, Ruth was fairly good at lip reading, and she was sure he had said, that one!
Ruth began crawling until she was directly under the vent in the ceiling. Then she crawled a little further and stood up. The lack of wind behind the vent confirmed Stephen's theory: the wind was indeed coming from this vent. Now all Ruth had to do was find the machine, or whatever it was, and shut it down.
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So we have Robin, in a state of peril; and Ruth, who may be able to save the day! Go ladies! Oh, wait...
