Alex barely had time to take in the pale, unkempt face and the silver scorpion gleaming at the throat before he was knocked to the floor. Yassen, who was nearest, pinned the attacker against the wall. Alex realized – Scorpia operatives must have been sealed inside the vault to guard it in case MI6 or any intelligence agency decided to investigate. Zeljan Kurst had obviously had something important inside those cases. More Scorpia operatives rushed out of nowhere. Alex caught a glimpse of a door closing – how could that be? No tunnels had shown up in the SatInt image – and something sharp was suddenly lodged in the side of his neck. His hand automatically went up to it. A dart. Alexandra had gotten the same. He saw her collapsing to her knees before he did too and everything went black.
He woke chained to a cold metal plate. Turning his head, he saw Alexandra fastened to another just as securely as he was. K unit, Ben and Yassen were as well. He felt horribly vulnerable, defenseless, chest towards the ceiling. Abruptly, the metal plates began to shudder and Alex realized that they were in a massive truck. "Guys?" he called.
"We're awake," grunted Wolf. "What happened?"
"There were Scorpia agents in the vault. They had dart guns."
"Why didn't they just kill us outright?"
"We don't know, Wolf."
"What's more worrying," said Yassen. "Is how they got the vehicle. They must have had a communication device."
"So by now all of Scorpia will know about us," groaned Alexandra.
The truck stopped.
A Scorpia agent came in and unchained them, one at a time. The shackles were left on their wrists. Alex looked up and saw that they were outside Zagreb Cathedral, the most famous building in Zagreb. Scorpia operatives shoved them inside.
Jack Starbright was worried. She always was when Alex and Alexandra were away from home, but this was Alexandra's first official mission. Jack was worrying herself crazy. "Well, they have faced worse," she said to herself, skipping up and down the stairs in anxiety. "Alexandra has held off the entire task force of Scorpia for four hours straight. Alex has snowboarded down a mountain on an ironing board while being chased by machine gun maniacs. They have faced worse."
To take her mind off the twins, she flicked on the TV. The news was on.
"The euro has been rapidly deteriorating –"
Boring. Jack flicked to CNN.
"The multimillionaire Brendan Chase has just launched his Kaptol1 rocket in a generous donation to the Croatian government of a lunar satellite" – satellite? Now that was better. Jack relaxed into the sofa, some of her worry draining away.
Wait.
Croatia?
Does this count as a cliffie? Also, those who've read Scorpia Rising will know who Brendan Chase is. I hope I spelt his name right. Does any of this make sense?