Apologies for taking so long to upload Chapter 12. I've had a lot going on so things have been a bit hectic. I've postponed my Saints Row fic and cancelled my GTA fic in order to put as much effort and quality into this story as possible.
I gave chase after Troy and the police, taking the steps two at a time. The chaos below continued, but I focused on capturing Troy and finding the bomb. People jumped out of my way as I sprinted through hallways and corridors, they're walls decorated with portraits of people I didn't stop to wonder about.
Tracking them down was easy. The shouts of the police and unexpecting workers gave me a clear idea of their location. I turned a corner and saw the backs of the police officers.
BANG.
I was thrown backwards against the wall. Paper flew into my face, blocking my view. Debris landed around me, and I instinctively brought up my arms to shield my face. Good thing I did, because I felt splinters sting my arms. Pushing away the paper, I looked around.
The hallway where the police were was gone. Replacing it was a wall of debris with a small gap to look through. On the other side, fire ate away at the remains of the walls, showing the interiors of damaged buildings. Smoke drifted up and out of the building through a large hole in the roof. And worst of all, bodies lay pinned beneath desks and furniture, covered in blood and dirt. Still as a statue.
"Ryan!"
The team had arrived. Ethan knelt down.
"What the hell happened?" he asked.
"Troy must have set a bomb off," I replied, pulling myself onto my feet, "Where's Troy?"
"He's still in the building somewhere," Charlie informed me, "The place is coming apart. Fire's are burning through the floors faster than the emergency services can put them out."
"What about the bomb?" I asked.
"We still have to disarm it," Dave said, "It's in the building, and it's more powerful than we thought. It's slightly less destructive than a nuke. If that thing goes off, kiss Canberra goodbye."
We split into groups of two. My father and I searched the South side, including the Cabinet room and Minister's offices. Angela and Vince searched the House of Representatives and Member's offices, while Dave and Ethan searched the West side. As we searched, small explosions caused the wall to shake, and a thought occurred to me.
"What if Troy's only got smaller bombs littering the building." I asked as we checked another empty office. We were searching for anything that looked out of ordinary in a government building. We used small metal detectors to search for any kind of strong metal that could be part of the bomb. A search through the Minister's officers yielded nothing. I checked how much time we had; only half an hour remaining.
My radio crackled. "Ryan? We've found the bomb in the House of Reps chamber," Vince's voice was faint, but the message was clear.
"We're on our way," I replied before replacing the radio, "Dad, Vince's found the bomb," I told Charlie.
"Where?"
"House of Reps."
We raced towards the chamber, staying low to avoid the smoke. I wondered how the fire could still be burning.
The doors were open as we ran inside. The House of Representatives chamber was a large room decorated in pale green. Opposite us was the Speaker's chair, partially obscured by the desk mounted in front of it. In front of that was a table with two microphones on each side; the despatch boxes where frontbenchers spooke from. Behind the frontbenches on each side of the table, raised seats were mounted into the floor, each with a microphone. At the end closest to us, curved benches left a row for members to walk through. Above us were four galleries, two of them with soundproof glass.
"Vince?" Charlie called out, only to be met with silence, "Search the place, be on your guard."
We searched opposite sides of the chamber, but found nothing. Everything was exactly as it should be, except for that odd feeling I couldn't shake. As if we weren't alone.
"Anything?" I asked.
"Nothing." I sighed. Where could it be? What was happening.
"Vince?" I said into my radio, "We're at the House of Reps. The bomb isn't here."
"I know that," Vince said, irritated, "We checked there already. Why are you on that end?"
"You said you'd found the bomb here."
"What?"
CRACK.
My father went down, screaming, a bullet hole in his right shoulder- his blade arm. I looked around, startled. then dropped to the floor as another shot rang out and buried itself in the table. The shots echoed around the chamber, making it impossible to locate the gunman. Charlie was still groaning, but the shot didn't seem to be life-threatening and he'd had the good sense to roll under the table and likely out of site of the shooter.
I heard footsteps make their way towards us, and I looked at Charlie. He simply stared back and made a shushing gesture.
"Stop hiding, Assassins," a familiar voice called, "You may as well face you fate."
"Troy, you fucking pig!" my father growled, holding a hand over his wound.
"Troy, put the gun down and I'll make this easy on you," I advised, hoping I'd guessed where he was.
"Good one," Troy said sarcastically, "I have a gun, and all you have is a bla-"
I jumped up, propelling myself across the table, hoping that he was on the other side.
I guessed right.
Ejecting my blade, I pounced on the bastard, pinning him to the floor, ready to end his pathetic life with a single jab.
No luck. Troy grabbed my blade arm, stopping my attack, then headbutted me. I stumbled back, stunned by the blow. Troy tackled me, sending me sprawling next to the speaker's chair. Aiming a handgun at me, he asked "Any last words?"
I spat in his face. Seeing that he was blind, I threw the hardest punch of my life and sent him hurtling backwards into the Prime Minister's chair. He sprawled in a heap, face down, vulnerabled.
Deciding that the time for playing fair was over, I pulled out my own gun, aiming it at Troy's head, not sparing a second to give him last words.
The gun jammed, and I swore. In those few seconds, Troy recovered, and fired a shot at me. I ducked, and the shot brushed my hair. Charlie had gotten back to his feat, and Troy turned towards him. Big mistake, because Charlie then gave him a good kick to the crotch. Troy went down, groaning comically, and dropping the gun. I ran and pulled him up to his knees, and pulled his arms behind him to put him in handcuffs.
But what I didn't see, foolish old me, was that Troy hadn't discarded the hidden blade that belonged to a loyal Assassin. Ejecting it, he opened a small cut on my arm. Not fatal, but it stung, and I released him. My father, defenceless, copped a knee to the ribs, and went down. Troy raised his blade to end my father's life, and I lunged at him. We both flew over Charlie, and landed next to the frontbench where I'd hidden earlier. Troy kicked me away and retreated up the Opposition's side of the chamber. I followed while my father recovered, and engaged in a one-on-one slugfest with him. Back and forth, punch after punch, until I managed to duck one of Troy's badly-timed attacks and delivered an uppercut to the ribs. This time it wasn't enough though, because Troy recovered and kicked me, sending me tumbled back down the steps. I regained my balance at the bottom just in time to see Troy holding a flaming bottle with a piece of cloth. A molotov.
Troy threw it down at us, and we both made a run for it. The bottle shattered below, engulfing the table in flames. The leg of my pants caught fire, and I rolled around to put it fire spread fast, engulfing the rows of seats on each side of it, climbing up the walls, and rushing towards us.
"RUN!" I shouted. We bolted as fast as we could for the doors, the fire chasing us. The hallway beyond was so close. We were almost there...
We jumped forward, and the fire didn't follow. Nothing to feed it. Panting I pulled myself up.
"Jesus, I though we were-"
About a dozen rifles were pointed at us. Each gunman wore the black and green uniform of Templar military. THey surrounded us. Nowhere to go.
"Ahh Ryan," said Troy in mock sadness, "Did you think I didn't have a backup plan?"