Chapter 5 – Impromptu Rescue

Just like the day before Alex and Nikita walked down the steps of MI6 headquarters, once again they paused once they reached the pavement. Nikita started to walk along the street when Alex grabbed her arm.

'We can't go on this mission like this, we've got to work together' Alex said; Nikita turned and glared at him.

'You just want me to speak to you so we can get this mission done faster?' she smiled sourly, 'Great line, Alex. I can see why none of the girls want you.'

Alex scowled, 'Fine. But when you need help at this school you can ask someone else; I'm not gonna put myself out to help someone who can't accept help when it smacks her in the face.'

Nikita turned to face him, 'You really think I can't look after myself? You know sod all about me so go crawl back up your ass!'

Alex tightened his grip on her arm, he saw her wince slightly.

'Who helped you on your first mission, Alex? Was there anyone there to hold your hand through that? Or did you do it by yourself with no help at all?'

Alex's face went impassive and he grabbed her other arm, 'Don't talk about that. You know nothing about how I got into this and why I'm a spy' he hissed.

Nikita broke his grip and started to walk towards the park.

'Running back home because you can't win an argument?' Alex snapped; Nikita turned back to him.

'Trust me when I say there is no way in hell I am going from an argument to a screaming match; I've got a enough souvenirs thanks' she indicated her black eye, cut cheek and split lip. Alex watched her walk off; he knew he had three options. Option one: follow her and try to talk to her; option two: follow her and stay out of sight; or option three: go home and forget about what had happened. Alex chose option two. He set off along the street, keeping Nikita in sight. He followed her until she turned to enter a housing estate; frowning slightly, he kept a little further behind so as not to attract her attention. Nikita carried on through the housing estate until she'd walked through to the other side; obviously she was taking a shortcut to somewhere. Wondering where she could be going, Alex saw her turn and walk into an abandoned building; even more confused than he had been before he stopped for a few minutes and looked at the building.

It had once been a block of flats; now it was unoccupied with a fence around the edge of the lot, one part of the fence slightly pulled away from the others to allow people to get in and out of the plot. A sign on the side said it was to be pulled down; Alex felt a shiver run through him when he remembered the time he'd been held hostage in a building site by a group of terrorists led by Casper. He'd later found out they'd be working for Nikolei Drevin in an attempt to drop a space hotel onto Washington. He saw a group of three boys, all fairly large, sneak into the building. Alex walked forwards into the plot and walked around to the back of the building; finding a door that was partly coming off its hinges he crept in. He waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the slightly darker atmosphere inside the site before listening out for any noise that would tell him where Nikita had gone. A few soft voices from upstairs caught his attention as he saw the three boys from outside walk up the main staircase, following the sound of the voices. Seeing another staircase to the side Alex crept silently up them until he reached the third floor. Here the floor had planks of wood missing, with a few building materials spaced out around the area; the walls had been knocked down creating a large open space for the builders to take up the rest of the floor. Alex walked along one plank and looked through a hole into a room where a group of people were gathered, Nikita was amongst them, knelt next to one boy who was lying on his back on an old mattress. He couldn't hear much of their conversation but movement from another hole caught his eye and he looked across to see the boys from outside creeping towards the room; what made him look closer was the bit of light that was reflected off something one of them was holding. Alex looked around for something he could use to distract them with and his eyes landed on a pile of sandbags that had been left by the builders that had long since left the site. He side stepped across the hole to the room where Nikita was with the people he presumed were the group of friends Alan Blunt had mentioned, and knelt next to the sand bags; he found a few coils of rope as well as a few bricks, building tools, and three torches. The door opened to the room below him and he saw Nikita stand up quickly.

'What the hell are you doing here?' he heard her say angrily to the three boys.

'Ah shut up, Kitty, you know fuck all about this fight' one of them said.

'Really? I seem to recall last time you picked a fight I managed to kick your sorry ass halfway across town' Nikita snapped; the boy bristled and raised the knife in his hand.

'Got a weapon this time, love. Come to get my money. Where is it, Peters?' he demanded, looking at one of the boys; a girl stood up next to Nikita.

'We already gave it to you' she said, 'Fuck off and leave us alone.'

'We added interest' one of the others said. Nikita slapped one of them round the face.

'You arrogant, self centred bastards' she snapped; the one she'd slapped grabbed her arm and spun her round, holding the knife to her neck. The other people in the room froze. Suddenly a cascade of sand fell into the room, knocking over both Nikita and the boy who was holding her; she managed to get away and stood up just as a rope fell down next to her, she looked up and saw Alex.

'Get up here' he called down to her. Nikita motioned for the others to get up; the girl who'd stood next to her ran over and grabbed hold of the rope, starting to try and climb up. Alex guessed they weren't as good gymnasts as Nikita was so he started to pull on the rope he'd wrapped around one of the sturdier beams; slowly she was pulled up and was able to crawl onto the planks next to Alex.

'Get one of the sand bags and take it over to that hole over there' he pointed to the one that led to the hallway outside the room, 'If they try and escape send it onto their heads.'

The girl nodded and dragged one of the sand bags over to where he'd indicated as Alex threw the rope down again; the only other girl in the room, aside from Nikita, grabbed the rope and Alex started to pull again as she tried to climb up; he felt his shoulder starting to complain as she managed to crawl up next to him. She saw the pile of broken bricks and picked up one small one and threw it at one of the boys who'd attacked them; he was still trying to clear sand out of his eyes and it hit him on the chest. He yelped in pain and the girl Alex had first pulled up emptied her sand bag into the room again, successfully blinding everyone. Nikita and the only other member of the small group left tied the rope around the boy who was lying on the mattress and the second girl helped Alex to pull him up. The two girls worked quickly to untie him and started to pull him away as Alex sent the rope down again. The last member grabbed hold and started to shin up, he was better than the others and so it took less time for him to get up.

'We need to get him out of here' he said to Alex, indicating the boy who'd had to be pulled up the whole way, 'Can you get Kita out?'

Alex nodded. 'Go. Take the stairs and go out the back door' he said; the boy smiled and nodded appreciatively.

'Thanks. We owe you big time' he said as he and the two girls part carried, part dragged, and part helped the other boy to walk. By this time the three boys had gotten over most of their blindness; Alex managed to throw the rope down to Nikita just as one of them lunged at her, she managed to dodge him and grabbed hold of the rope, starting to shin up it immediately. As Alex started to pull on the rope one of the boys grabbed the end and tried to pull it down to bring Nikita back into reach; Alex gasped in pain as his shoulder complained yet again of the hard treatment. Nikita managed to grab hold of the end of one of the planks and Alex let the rope fall into the room; he grabbed Nikita's arm and helped her up onto the main floor.

'Come on' he said, grabbing her arm and dragging her down the stairs and out the door. They carried on running until they'd left the housing estate and were half way back to Brooklands; finally they slowed to a walk, both panting heavily. They carried on walking, neither saying anything, until they reached the place where Michael Cook had tried to threaten Nikita.

'I'll see you on Sunday' Alex said, turning to walk back to his house.

'Yeah' Nikita said quietly, as he started to walk away she called him back.

'Alex? Thanks, for helping us' she said; he looked back.

'Don't mention it' he said and started to walk again.

'Alex?'

He looked back again.

'Call me Kita; it's what all my friends call me' she said before smiling, turning and walking away. Alex smiled slightly to himself as he walked back to his house; he knew Jack would yell at him when he got back for being covered in dirt and sand but just smiled wider when he knew she'd just end up muttering about MI6 and finding a way to blame them for everything that went wrong in the house when he was on a mission. He had to hand it to Jack; she really knew how to make him smile at times. Plus he and Kita were now on talking terms again, it seemed; hopefully this mission wouldn't be as bad as the others.

A/N: I am so sorry about the long wait for the update, I feel so bad I'm actually writing this in my study period at school. The teachers'll probably kill me if they catch me… oh well makes it all the more interesting. Thank you to my wonderful reviewers I love you all throws out chocolate cookies for all the reviewers and thank you to all my wonderful lovely readers throws out cookies for all the readers

You know I think I might have to change the type of cookies everyone gets… it's getting a bit repetitive. I'll see what I can come up with.

Ciao for now, hopefully the next update won't be too long in coming.

Starsword