Hi, everybody.
Check the note below afterwards. I'm glad to have so peaceful readers accepting that I didn't have much time last week (and won't have this one either). Thanks for waiting, I hope it won't be a disappointment.
As always, thanks for my reviewers. All the others: feel ashamed.
Chapter 12 - Chase
Alex watched Leonore free from the soldiers' grab and drive away. The two looked around disoriented and dazed. Alex let out an annoyed sigh. Backup, my arse! A handful stupid soldier, he thought as he ran for it. He must thank Abdul someday for teaching him how to steal a car so quick. Without him, he would have been truly screwed now. Backup…
Of course, it was typical. He needed to thank the success a poor Israeli boy who made his living by stealing, cars amongst others. Soldiers have one advantage, the intimidating appearance, nothing else, he pondered as he followed the black vehicle ghost in the night.
Leonore could not escape; they couldn't afford such a loss. He hoped Rose was taking care of Paige and would manage to eliminate him without much matter. His foot was stiff on the gas pedal, but the distance between him and Leonore seemed to stay the same, if not increasing. The bad dirt road shook him inside the car which was designed for city-driving. Like using a racing bicycle to challenge a mountain bike – in the latter's territory, of course. He cursed briefly and tried to find out where they were heading towards.
The minor road leading to Paige's weekend-house soon left behind them, and he turned the car onto the main road without slowing down after a short pray. The woman was however too used to the rules of the continent and Israel; she almost finished her dramatic escapade with a bad turning into the lane of a red camion. The vehicle-beast rushed away by them with loud honking. Oh yeah, maybe you should go on the left side of the road – if you wanna live at least.
How crazy, Alex thought, switching the lanes and keeping overtaking the cars here and there, just like in a bad action movie. Black cars, escaping sexy blonde criminal and life-danger. Fucking fantastic. There's nothing I would rather do on Friday night.
They swept towards London with insane speed, but he was desperate enough not to let the woman escape. Alex trusted his reflexes, but he hadn't had too much practice with driving to rely on. If they crushed something with this speed, everything was over instantly. A thin brook of sweat running down on his temple. Use your brain, he commanded himself. Where is she possibly heading to? What is she hoping to happen?
In his rear-view mirror, he saw the military jeep the soldiers tried to follow them with. They were rather unsuccessful, not keeping up with them. Alex shook his head disdaining. Christmas-guys,(i) he thought wryly, using Rose's word she had for soldiers who were able to spend Christmas with their family, whose work was bordered to a place – the camp, the military area, the war terrain, the office –, and not the whole world on every day of their lives. Like spies did. Like they did.
They can't even stand some speed… his gaze wandered at the speedometer and instantly he felt nauseous. Was he crazy? He must have been. No normal, sane person would rush so much on a main road full of cars. No wonder the soldiers kept behind. They sure had families. And no intention to die.
He focused back onto the road. He tried to remember the route they had come to the castle only hours ago. The M4 motorway was just ahead of them, a minute and they would reach it. The motorway would have more space to move round; it was Friday night, no reason to be a big traffic. Separated sides and lay-by – a perfect opportunity to get rid of him, turn onto the other side or take another road back and melt into the crowd. He would never again find her.
He took a deep breath as the yellow board indicated the approach of the motorway. He would stay in the lay-by, he planned, but suddenly he had more problems to deal with than planning. Just as he turned on the U turn leading onto the motorway, a red Ford in front of him wanted to turn as well. Leonore was cars ahead, her advantage increasing quickly as she reached the free way while Alex was still on the one-sided slip-road twisting towards the direction of the motorway. He wasn't able to move out from the trap, he had to go on with the slow, overcautious driver in front of him.
He gritted his teeth. Time seemed to slow down until finally the red Ford managed to reach the turn and get on the motorway and so did Alex. He struggled to reduce back the distance between them. Much for his relief, the massive black car whose type Alex couldn't recognise slowly started to come closer to his as they rushed down the motorway. His own was way quicker on the high-quality tarmac of the motorway than on the bumpy dirt road.
He sighed, exhaling the breath he hadn't known he had been keeping. It was going to be alright from now on, as long as they were still on the motorway.
Relaxing a little from his stiff posture, he caught a glimpse of a yellow board(ii) hanging above the road.
London, 45 miles
***
She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, cuddling up to her knees, tuning the outside world out. The world had all seemed a blur as she had stumbled out of the study, leaving the beheaded body behind. She had got down from the tower, almost falling down from the stairs. She had seen spots of shapes and she had known somebody had been talking to her, but she hadn't cared.
Escaping the castle, she had collapsed to the ground, her back against the cold wall, her arms embracing her legs, her chin laid at her knees. People had come and talked to her, but she had tuned them all out, not wanting to hear what they had said, not wanting to hear what they had accused her to have done.
If Alex had his own assassin-mode, she had a rage-mode. No one ever considered her dangerous, no one ever thought her to be an opponent worth enough. And she liked it that way. She preferred not to fight, not to do that part. Because then, she always killed.
**
When she returned from the dazed state she had escaped into from reality, the first she realized was the cold. She was cold, she acknowledged numbly. This simple feeling helped her to regain her consciousness. She was leaning against the cold wall, her clothes ripped off, the chilly wind biting into her naked skin.
She looked around slowly, not quite sure how long she had been away inside the safety of her mind. The two units – hers and Alex's, she remembered herself – were watching her uncertainly and worriedly, their gazes kept on her face with Herculean efforts. The shadow of a smile appeared on his lips – they were only man at last while she half-naked in a pole dancer's clothes. It was comfortably natural of a reaction.
The five men – three of them were missing, she realized – were talking in quiet voices, apparently not noticing her return back to life. Wolf was arguing about something rather nervously with the Scottish man – Snake. She stopped tuning them out.
"-can't know what quite happened and she might have been raped or something and then obviously not ready to even just stand the touch of another man so soon and-" Snake was saying, but Wolf interrupted, all the others flinching as his voice rose louder from hushing.
"- and so she needs medical help, she's still bleeding and the blood covering her-"
"-is not all her own, so we can't really know how serious her injuries are-" Snake tried to prove his right.
"-but then she may be dying and we wouldn't know until it's late and-"
"-but maybe they aren't, but she sure as hell has serious damage in her psyche and-" Before the two could kill each other, the nurse they were waiting for arrived at last with Goat, S Unit's leader. They motioned towards the girl cuddled up to the wall some meters farther, glad to have the responsibility of her possible death off their shoulders.
The nurse had large innocent blue eyes, her cheeks rosy from the cold air. She leant closer to the "sick" and greeted her in a voice thick of self-importance and certainty with fake joy. Rose watched numbly as the woman reached out for her, then just a moment before their skin would have connected, whispered, "I wouldn't touch myself if I were you."
She flashed a sweet smile at her; Rose shuddered at the falseness of it and said, "I won't hurt you, honey, there's nothing you should be afraid for now, I'm here! I'll help you! I know what that bad man have done to you, but I'm here to help you! You don't need to be afraid of me…" She continued in a willingly soothing voice as if talking to a five-year-old. At the "bad man" part she almost shrieked in terror, but decided to just frown in her obtuseness.
Her gaze wandered at the group of men watching her soundless fight with the nurse and she decided it was enough. With a snore, she stood up, so suddenly the crouching nurse fell onto her butt and gracefully walked over to the males.
"You are the medic, aren't you?" She fixated her gaze upon Snake. The man swallowed and nodded, desperately trying to keep his eyes on her face. Rose saw the efforts, but didn't comment it, just sat down onto the low stone-wall separating the garden from the path and spread her legs so that the still bleeding wound in her thigh became visible. She looked down at it emotionlessly, sensing the throbbing pain the first time through the thick mist of numbness around her brain.
"Six or seven stitches, not more. You can do that, can't you?" The man nodded wordlessly, pulling the first aid kit he was holding closer. His face was all a redness as he sprayed the disinfectant onto the skin and cleared the wound with trembling hands.
Too bad her panties were still up in the study of the western tower, on the ground where Paige had thrown it, right before pulling out the little pocket knife…
She numbly watched him work then glanced over to the other soldiers who seemed to share Snake's blush. "You know, you guys could have gotten some clothes if I was so disturbing." She raised an eyebrow at them. They just blushed even more and Wolf cleared his throat.
"We, er, have tried it, but…" He waved helplessly towards Chamois, "you, er, were not in the… er, state to…"
She closed her eyes tiredly, with a suspicion in her heart seeing the bandage around his hand. "What have I done to him?" she whispered.
"You, er… well… er..." he jabbered the end so she could barely understand it, "sprained his wrist."
"Ah." So she had been totally out of control then… It sounded right; when she had been out in her happy place, the only one who could sooth his nerves enough and calm her down, was… She looked around warily.
"Where is he?"
***
He cursed loudly and long in a various choice of languages as he caught the glimpse of the flashing red and blue lights in front of them. Alex had guessed the down-turn from the motorway would be just as hard as the on-turn had been and he had worked until he was right behind Leonore when it came to the direction-change. Now he wished he wouldn't have.
The end of the road was closed by the police. Leonore was not far ahead of him. The city whirled around them, there was no way they could pick another road or just leave the road – the police chose the point to stop them carefully.
They had just turned downwards from the motorway to the one-lane road connecting it to another one heading deep inside the capital, the road hanging in the air over the crowded road towards Heathrow and the airport coming from the north, only thick concrete pillars keeping their road up above. Nowhere to go and the city yet far away. They either crushed against one of the police cars turned across at the end of the turn or stopped. Alex was quite sure about Leonore's decision.
***
Wolf sighed half-contently, the tenseness of adrenaline beginning to wear off. "We need to go back to London for the debriefing, the Colonel requires us to notify him as soon as we finished the assignment."
Goat nodded, his gaze far away in the distance. "As soon as Monkey and the other guy get back from wherever they have gone." Both leaders glanced back at Rose who was still patiently waiting for Snake to finish. The medic still worked a lot slower with his slightly trembling hands, although one of the men had got her trousers and a jacket with a T-shirt. Not too warm for the chilly night but definitely better than the torn rags and tatters she had had.
"They will be back to the time she has taken a shower." The two males nodded contently; their plan was brilliant and satisfying. …If it was not that damn woman, who said however:
"The assignment is not over until Leonore is in our hands, interrogated and safely guarded somewhere deep below the ground for the rest of her life." She almost whispered, still her hoarse voice was clear in the dark night. Wolf wished he could ignore the irritating female, bind her up and just toss the woman into the boot of a jeep then driving away into the sunrise…
Life was not a fairy tale.
"Leonore?" Goat tasted the fancy name(iii). "Is she the shrieking crazy blonde almost breaking her neck while stumbling on high heels?" he added rising a brow.
"Yeah, the same I guess. It sounds like her – although during the time I've been pretty occupied in the opposite part of the castle," she replied sourly. The unit leader swallowed and apparently wanted to slap himself for voicing his thoughts. Nonetheless he continued, wanting to get some answers from the woman even if she was injured both physically and mentally. "Why is she so important?"
"You don't need to know," answered the both physically and mentally injured woman. "And besides, it's classified." The man growled, something he must have picked up from Wolf.
"But why is it classified?" The woman just glanced at him in disbelief and a hint of disdain.
"It is classified to hide the information from those who don't need to know it, just like you."
"Because risking our lives is not enough of a reason," Snake said silently.
She sighed tiredly and closed her eyes for a moment. "You're involved with this assignment already only because of us, you don't need to have further connections to MI6."
"And what about you?" The fourth member of K Unit, Tiger opened his mouth for the first time. "What do you have to do with MI6? You cannot be much more than eighteen, maybe nineteen. Why do you let them ruin your lives?"
She stared deep into his eyes, her heart giving a painful pang at the serious expression of the soldier. He did care about their lives and was concerned what would happen to them.
"Far too late for grieving about mistakes, innocence is left in another life, erased from our souls long ago, never to regain it again… Sometimes lives go wrong without anybody to be responsible for the damage, and sometimes they do not care what's left behind… But time is passing, not stopping to mourn for anybody and we need to fight and live – while knowing fate's never far away… and our destinies have been written long ago."(iv)
The soldiers stared at her blankly, their expressions frozen into one of disbelief and she was too late realizing she had said her thoughts out loud. She wondered where this had come from – she hadn't known she had felt the emotion these philosophical thoughts described. They must have been whirling around in her head for a time…
…And she no longer saw the soldiers or the cold September night, but the memory surfacing from her mind from just three weeks ago… She was still dazed as a man handed her the mobile, Alex's voice cutting into the silence around her unceremonially(v).
"I've lost her." (vi)
To be continued…
(i) Don't freak out, he's worried about his wife and envying them at the same time. No flames for this, people!
(ii) No idea what colour they have or what sort of information–holder materials are used in the UK. I don't even live in an English speaking country, so don't blame me.
(iii) No offence meant here… If somebody knows for sure if such a name actually exists, tell me. Microsoft O. Word states it doesn't.
(iv)Carried a bit far away. Next chappie's going to be a bit… weird. I know.
(v) No need to tell me there's no such word existing. I already know from the freakin' red underline.
(vi) What a cliffy! :D For those who may misunderstand it, she's not dead. Yet.
I have another offer for youas nobody really worked to find out the last one. The first reviewer (or you can pm me… whichever) who comes near the truth gets two cookies(yay!) and can make a wish, just like the previous time. The winner gets half a chapter, if finding out something really good, maybe a whole. But anyway, you can either ask a scene or something more major (like the death of Mrs Jones or something… be creative). I promise to write it, as far as it doesn't screw up the main plot lines.
If nobody's interested, I'll freak out. (Again.)
Oh, yeah, the questions (both counts a whole as the next chapter won't have any).
Question A: Why is/was Leonore so desperate to get to London? (wild imagination required to find out my version)
Question B: What happened after Alex noticed the police, how did Leonore managed to escape at last?(don't forget she's crazy + desperate)
Deadline: next week (18th January) or until Chapter 13's up (the later of the two).
Task: Use your imagination, keep my email box full of letters and make me pleased.
PS A big sorry for AR-bookworm who did find out my last question (and so can wish something... I mean... have to wish something :D). I confess I forgot about it as the time I read the review I... fine. I didn't have my dictionary in available reach. Apologies, honestly. And wish your wish. :)