Chapter 17, Ivana
Once again, Alex was left alone with Yassen. However, the man stood quickly.
"I also have things to do, I'm sure you can occupy yourself." The Russian gestured to another door.
"Follow the hallway, there's plenty of rooms to sleep in."
Shrugging in response, Alex headed out into the manor. It didn't take him long to realize he was lost. Seriously annoyed, he climbed a likely looking staircase. The hallway at the top led to only one room that has a large glass window by its door. Curiously, Alex looked through the glass. With a jolt, he realized that inside was the very gym that he'd been warned to avoid. In the room, Ivana was spurring, the punch bag swinging wildly. Her savage blows matched the look of rage on her face. As quietly as possible, Alex entered the gym watching her. He noted that her balance and form was amazing, she looked very skilled. Ivana then started on the bag with her blades, working herself to the point where she collapsed into a crouch, panting heavily. Alex stretched out for the doorknob, figuring now would be a good time to leave. However, somehow he managed to knock over a display of free weights. Ivana's head whipped around, teeth bared and gleaming slightly in the half light. Standing furiously, Ivana stepped forward shakily with her blades still extended.
Shit! Don't they say female criminals are the most vicious?' Alex's thoughts raced as he struggled to think of something to say.
"What are you doing up here?" Ivana's voice was icy, more frightening (if possible) then the display of rage he'd witnessed moments before. Backing up to the door, Alex swallowed.
"I…got lost and..."
He didn't get time to complete his answer. Ivana swung at him, blades glinting. With a startled yelp, he ducked and scrambled out of the way. Ivana whirled around, ripping her blades out from the door where they'd gotten embedded due to the force of her blow. Again, she slashed at him. This time, Alex felt pain as she scored a set of parallel cat-scratches across his face. Incredulously, he put his hand up to his face. Whilst the grazes were undoubtedly deep, they didn't bleed excessively. Ducking as Ivana swung; Alex grabbed an unused weights bar. Using it as a weapon, Alex went on the offensive, attacking strongly. Even with this though, Ivana was too fast. Gathering up his dwindling strength, Alex swung out for one last time. Before he even came near though, Alex heard a pained cry. Dropping the bar, he realized that Ivana was leaning against the wall weakly, her chest red. Blood dripped from her fingers where she'd touched the wound.
"B-burst a couple…of stitches." She panted. Aggression forgotten, Alex hurried over just as she slid down the wall into a sitting position. Slowly regaining her breath and composure, she pulled a bandage out of her pocket. Cautiously, Alex sat down next to her. Glancing at him, Ivana moved her left hand closer for Alex to examine. Each knuckle on her hand except for the thumb was marked by what was similar to a puncture wound. Alex could see that each blade protruded from this 'hole'. He put her hand down again and ran both of his through his hair. One of them ran over his face, smearing the blood from the cuts further.
"Sorry about that, most people don't lose their tempers so badly…" Ivana muttered awkwardly.
"Well, most people don't have three inch blades sticking out of their knuckles." Alex noted carefully. With a sharp snick the blades were gone; visible only as raised ridges along her hands.
"I suppose Yassen explained…" Ivana sighed, looking at him. A little uncomfortably, Alex shook his head.
"No… Yassen said it wasn't his question to answer. He said I should ask you myself."
Ivana snorted.
"Typical…make the kiddies bond through Ivana's sob story."
Looking up, she faced Alex directly.
"I will tell you my history on one condition."
Trying not to jump ahead blindly, Alex let out a noncommittal grunt.
Ivana's face was told Alex she was serious about this.
"No matter what, you can't change how you feel about me. If you hate me now, keep on hating me after if tell you all this."
Doing his best to meet Ivana's gaze, Alex nodded.
"Alright, I promise. Tell me, what happened to you?"
Ivana's gaze fixed on something Alex couldn't see, memories perhaps.
"When I was thirteen, I moved to England. I was an orphan, so I joined up with a street gang. At fourteen, I was dared to break into a bank. I got caught going up the stairs from the lobby. For some odd reason, the President of the bank decided not to press charges."
An odd swooping sensation shook Alex.
"Bank…not…?" he whispered.
Grim faced, Ivana nodded.
"Yeah, the Royal and General. MI6."
Alex stared at her in shock.
"But…I…I never even suspected…" he stammered. Ivana snorted sarcastically.
"For some odd reason, they always thought we'd give each other 'ideas' if we were aware of one another."
A spilt-second's amusement flickered through Alex.
"Go on…?"
"Well, after awhile, I got called in for a 'special' appointment with Blunt and Jones."
Ivana took a breath and continued.
"Once I was there, they described Operation Deadpoint. They picked me because I was the best at stealth and definitely the fastest…or so they said."
Alex stretched uneasily. Ivana went on after a pause.
"Operation Deadpoint should have been easy, sabotage some machinery and steal some data. Then waltz home to be rewarded."
Alex noted that Ivana's voice shook slightly.
"It should've been easy, only they forgot to mention one thing…"
For a moment, she visibly struggled. Then she spoke in a dead, emotionless voice.
"It was a suicide mission."
Alex stared at Ivana and swallowed hard. He tried to imagine it; somehow, knowing Blunt, it wasn't hard. Nodding as if she knew what was going through his head, Ivana continued.
"As soon as I sabotaged the machinery, a silent alarm went off. Security arrived in seconds. During the gunfight, some bullets hit a reactor and set off an explosion."
Alex shook his head, horrified.
"Reactor…Nuclear?"
Ivana answered in a hoarse voice that barely hid her distress.
"No, not nuclear. I don't know what it was. I do know I was still in the building when it exploded though."
Alex's paled face seemed to encourage Ivana.
"I was on the roof at the time; the explosion caused it to cave in with me on top. A top storey catwalk broke my floor, but I was pretty much dead anyway."
Breathing out, Alex asked,
"What saved you?"
With empty eyes and a hollow voice, Ivana answered in a whisper.
"I don't know… I think I was in a coma but I remember waking a few times and I was in a clinic or a lab. I was delusional, but I know I saw some guy from MI6 headquarters there…"
Gulping, Ivana stared at her hands again.
"All I know is when I finally woke up properly; I was laying in the mud sorely injured. It had been a week, and I had…"
She clenched her fists and bit her lip hard enough for it to bleed before finishing.
"I had…the blades you see now."
Quietly, she went on still.
"Barely alive, I was stupid enough to believe that there'd been some mistake and all of it was a terrible accident. Slowly, I made my way back to London…To the Royal and General."
Mesmerised, Alex asked her,
"What happened there?"
Ivana smiled humourlessly as she answered.
"I snuck in feeling like something was wrong…they say your instincts are never wrong, so I listened to mine and hid by Jones' door without going in. in the office, she and a few others were being briefed by Blunt. Listening, I realized I'd been fooled, they all knew it was a suicide mission."
Glancing at Alex's horror-struck face, Ivana suddenly lost control. She began to yell.
"They all knew Alex! All except me!"
Trying desperately to console her, Alex murmured,
"How could you have known…?"
Ivana cut across him, voice savage
"I should have known! There were so many signs that something was up. They all treated me differently, kinder. Even that asshole Fox or coyote or…"
"Wolf?" Alex asked quietly.
"Yeah…even he treated me half ways decent and he always hated me!"
Suddenly growing quiet, Ivana looked up from her feet and turned to face Alex. Her eyes blazed with an icy blue fire that made the hairs on the back of Alex's neck stand up.
"After that, I knew exactly what I had to do. I went to the MI6 vault and stole any files I could get my hands on."
Alex didn't say anything, knowing there was more to come.
"Skimming the files quickly, I realized there was someone like me. Someone supposedly dead; I knew an opportunity for revenge when I saw it." Ivana said.
"You're talking about Yassen aren't you?" Alex asked. Ivana nodded and answered.
"Yes. On the way out, I ran into a guard. He was so shocked to see me alive, he didn't even attack. It was easy to take his gun and kill him. After, I ran, heading to Russia."
Alex's head spun. He'd always known that Alan Blunt cared little for the welfare of his agents, but he'd never realized just how cold the man was. Ivana interrupted Alex's thoughts.
"It took a long time, but eventually I found Yassen and talked to him."
Alex felt a spurt of curiosity.
"You just went up to a proven killer and demanded he take you in?" he asked incredulously.
"Not exactly… I put my skills to use and broke in. I confronted him and sort of payed with the files I got from MI6." Ivana breathed out, she looked much less stressed then before.
"So that pretty much brings me up to date?" Alex asked.
"Yup, that's my life in a nutshell." Ivana answered displaying a hidden sense of humour. Alex shook his head and wondered if things could get any weirder.