The minute they stepped out, both Frank and Nancy were the epitome of cool efficiency as they silently made their way through the mansion. Frank seemed to have memorised the layout of the building and Nancy was quite content following his lead as he ducked down corridors and through hidden staircases to avoid the general mayhem around them. Nancy had worn a cap to hide her long blond hair and a sports jacket to hide her gender.
No one paid any attention to the two of them as they saw people running around frantically both to get away from, and get to the bottom of the explosions occurring periodically throughout the house When Nancy caught Frank's eye and raised her brow at the sheer number of 'distractions', Frank merely winked and stated "You know that explosives were always a specialty of mine!"
They passed through what Nancy recognized as the cell block she was kept in earlier and headed further down into the cellars. As Frank reached the end of the corridor, he slowed down completely before coming to a stop before a partially opened door. He cautiously peered through the crack before he backed away. At the question in Nancy's eyes "There is a passage to the river from the next room so we have to go through it. We do have company though two, at the most three armed goons, but we can't afford to attract attention with gunshots. Want to get in a little roughhousing, get some of your own back, Drew?" He murmured with a grin. His reply was a look that clearly said what are we waiting for?
The three men inside the room snapped to attention with their guns cocked at the knock on the door, before it swung open. Their eyes widened as they saw the escaped prisoner, looking barely conscious and much worse for the wear, held captive by a dark haired man with a gun to her head. They lowered their weapons as the man came further into the room.
"What are you waiting for? Giovanni wants her taken to the dock immediately!" Saying which, he thrust her at the nearest man who, when he reached out to catch her found himself with a fist in his face and a knee in his groin as the half dead woman made a surprising recovery. Before the other men could recover from their shock, the dark haired man was bringing around the butt of his gun on the temple of one of the men. As he crashed to the ground unconscious, his other hand was already swinging around to grab the gun the other man was in the process of raising. A blow to the solar plexus and a jab to the back of his neck and that was the second man taken care of too. Frank turned around at that moment to see that Nancy had knocked the third man out.
He raised a brow at the sly smile on her face. "Nothing," she replied with a twinkle. "What, a girl can't look and admire when a guy takes out two other guys with so few moves? Impressive work there, Hardy, very sexy!" She nearly crowed with delight when she saw a faint red tinge appear on his cheeks. So, Mr. Hotshot Agent still knew how to blush after all! However, he recovered quickly.
"Right back at you, Drew! And we still do make a great team after all these years. By the way, nice acting there Drew, if I didn't know any better I would have thought you were as fragile as you look," Frank said with a smirk. Nancy narrowed her eyes at him. I think I preferred it when any compliment or innuendo left him speechless for a while, she thought with a rueful grin. I'm running out of snappy comebacks to this new Frank! After dumping the three unconscious men in corner they swept out through the doorway into the passage beyond.
Soon the stone of the house gave way to hewn rock and Nancy realized that they were in a tunnel beneath the house and heading further down. After nearly fifteen minutes of walking they heard the faint sound of flowing water and came out into a huge cavern. The main part of it was filled with machinery, mainly of the lifting kind, and a large docking station which currently held a small ship. At the far end, near the gated entrance to the cave from the river, was a smaller dock that held a bunch of small boats. The wooden doors of the entrance were currently half open, but it was still hidden from the outside by a curtain of hanging ivy. In spite of herself, Nancy had to take a moment to admire the clever setup. There was a hive of activity near the ship with a number of men working frantically on loading it. No doubt to get the incriminating evidence away, Nancy thought with narrowed eyes.
She turned to Frank. "We have to stop them Frank! We finally have evidence to put Giovanni away, we cannot let this opportunity go to waste." When Frank hesitated she continued, "I don't know from what angle you were investigating Giovanni, but mine was to nab him for arms and drug trafficking. After all this effort, and especially now that we finally have something to pin on him, I can't afford to just let this go, Frank. Even if Giovanni himself gets away we will have enough evidence left behind to at least shut down all his operations and lock him up when we do nab him."
Frank considered the scene with a frown. The team of agents he had contacted would be arriving very soon if they had not already reached. Once his cover had been compromised, he'd barely had time to sneak into the communications room and send off a message bearing the co-ordinates of Giovanni's hideout, but he'd also discovered something with shocking implications which was driving his need to get away unnoticed. However, he could also see the merit in Nancy's argument and he acknowledged that there was a chance that Giovanni could get away with it before the agents arrived.
After another quick look between the smaller dock and the main dock, Frank nodded decisively. They had to go through the main part of the cavern to get to the dock on the other side and would need a distraction anyway to make an unseen getaway. He could afford to make it a bigger distraction than he had planned. As he started rummaging in his pack, he looked at Nancy and said, "Alright, we will slow them down until the others get here. I already took care of most the aerial escape routes, so chances are that Giovanni will come down here to get away by boat. Plus we need to get to the smaller dock, so we might as well give them something else to worry about than noticing two people making away with one of their boats. I just hope that I don't bring the whole cave on our heads!"
Frank was already pulling out his hand as he finished speaking and showed Nancy around the tiny octagonal shaped explosives in his hand which Nancy recognised as highly sophisticated charges ideal for localized high intensity explosions. She ducked behind a crate and watched as Frank casually inserted himself into the flow of people. She admired the way he simply melted into the crowd as if he belonged and the way no one seemed to give him a second look.
However, she was distracted by loud voices and footsteps coming from the tunnel to the cave and made her way further behind the crates as Giovanni burst out of the tunnel followed by some of his guards. Nancy recognized the one who was cradling a bloody nose and cursed as she realized that their handiwork had been discovered.
When Giovanni started having a heated discussion with a man who was presumably the captain of the ship Nancy looked around anxiously for Frank, who she had lost sight of in the melee. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the scuffle of a boot and a soft cough behind her. She whirled around and almost took off the person's heard before she recognized Frank's voice.
"Don't sneak up on me!" She hissed, annoyed and reluctantly impressed that he had managed to, in the first place. Frank merely shrugged apologetically and started making his way around the back of the cavern towards the smaller dock. Nancy followed him, keeping a sharp eye on Giovanni and his thugs to make sure they weren't discovered. They were halfway there when the main dock was rocked by a series of short sharp explosions. At the same time a number of armed black clad figures streamed through the tunnel into the cavern, letting off a number of warning shots into the air. In the ensuing confusion and panic, no one noticed a small boat quietly slipping off its moorings and out of the cavern.
Author's Note :
And, I'm back! My schedule has cleared up somewhat, so I should hopefully be able to post more regularly. My muse is still being a bit uncooperative, though, so we'll just have to see. I hope this chapter was worth the long long wait, and I want to give my sincerest thanks to everyone who is still sticking with me on this. And last, but not the least, a very Happy New year to all of you and hope you have a great 2012!