A/N: Hey guys I finally updated! I'm really sorry about leaving it for so long, there's been a tonne of things happening—including my computer breaking (twice), anyway, enjoy!
Alex woke up early, he didn't want to, but he did. Wearily he opened his eyes as he yawned and stretched. Looking over at the clock on the bedside locker, he realised that it was about eight in the morning. The events from last night came back to him like a train crash; it was fast and devastating. He groaned as he remembered the problems that had arose from last night. What would happen to him now?
His stomach, however, had different worries and it put everything else second. It growled at that moment, loudly. Telling him less than politely that he really should get out of bed and do something—eat, preferably.
So, listening to the absolute word of his stomach, Alex slowly crawled out of bed and got dressed. Outside he heard the clicking of Red's nails as he trotted down the hall, past his door. Absently, he wondered what would happen to the wolf now. Hawk would probably take him in. Hawk seemed to be the only person that Red liked other than Grey Fox.
Finally, Alex was ready to go. He opened the door to his room and walked out. He walked down the hall to the sitting room that adjoined with the kitchen. Initially, all he saw was Red by his food bowl, eating his breakfast. That in its self surprised Alex. Cane was the only other person in the apartment and he rarely got up before ten in the morning. Next Alex saw who really looked after Red. He stopped and stared.
Grey Fox looked up and grinned. "Hey," She said happily, "Miss me?"
Alex managed half a grin, "I'm still not sure you're here." He frowned, "Were you even ever gone? For all I know you might have just come home early and gone to bed."
Grey Fox laughed. "Nope. Got arrested and all. Hope I didn't worry you." She said merrily as she dug into her bowl of cereal.
Alex sat down at the table across from her. "How come you're here? You were arrested. They don't let people out like that."
"I'm here because this is my home. Yes, I was arrested. And no they don't let people out 'like that'."
Alex half scowled. "Seriously, what's going on?"
Grey Fox sobered up a little, turning serious. "Well, I have some acquaintances that were in a position to help and they did not want to see me…Out of action." She chose her words carefully and her words were guarded. Alex was well aware of this, but decided to keep quiet about it. Maybe some day she'd tell him what she had meant. Probably not though, Grey Fox kept information as close to her chest as a poker player with their cards.
Just then Cane stumbled through the kitchen, blurry eyed and his hair in a mess. By then, Grey Fox had trained him to wear suitable clothing when leaving his room. He stopped as he saw her and laughed. "You're home!" He exclaimed happily. "You got out, I knew you would."
Grey Fox nodded, her mood hadn't quite elevated back up to its previous height. "Yes, but I don't like owing favours." She said with a deep scowl.
Cane wiped the smile off of his face. "I'm sorry." He mumbled, shamed that it was still his fault that she had gotten arrested. Grey Fox seemed to be appeased by her comrade's guilt and she just nodded.
"What was so important that you had to get caught for?" Alex asked suddenly. Grey Fox reached under the table to the attaché case. She put it on the table and opened it. A grin appeared on her lips for a moment. She turned it around so that it was facing Alex.
His eyes widened. " Diamonds?" He said in disbelief as his hands hovered over the plum sized glittering jewels.
"Actually, no." Grey Fox corrected him, "I mean, yeah, most of them are, but one of them is only glass—and that's the important one."
"Glass? Why would you want that?" He asked in confusion, looking up to meet Grey Fox's eyes.
"Because, what's inside of it, is much more valuable than any silly little rock." She explained as her nimble fingers fished through her cash. Eventually, she found it and held it up to the light. "Here it is! See this?" She asked. Alex did see it. Inside of the fake diamond was a small black object. Alex couldn't tell what it was.
"What is that? It looks like plastic…"
Grey Fox shook her head. "Yeah, it's covered in plastic. I did that to protect it so that it didn't get damaged when I melded it into the diamond. It's actually a computer chip though."
"A computer chip? What would you want one of those for?"
Grey Fox grinned. "This computer chip," She told him, leaning forward, "Could control the world. It's the single most dangerous weapon in the world—not even nuclear weapons could make the world tremble like this."
"What does it do?"
"It's a programme, made years ago by one of the most talented scientist of our time. Once the chip is installed in a computer—any computer—it overwrites the system and sends out signals used to control satellites. It can hack into any network of computers, or indeed any stand-alone computer once the machine has picked up signals from a satellite. Essentially, with this tiny little chip, I could sit down at my computer, and hack into every confidential file in every country. I could bring up your file and your details as easily as I could take America's nuclear missiles hostage and threaten to fire them at any country I wanted. Basically, I could start the third world war, sitting in my kitchen."
"This chip sounds very dangerous. Why not just get rid of it, destroy it, the damage it could do in the wrong hands could send the world into complete chaos."
"It's not that simple."
"Why? How could you have a problem with possibly saving millions of lives?"
Grey Fox shook her head; she opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again. With a sigh, she finally spoke. "Never mind, Alex, you're right; no one should risk peoples lives." She left the sentence hanging in the air.
Since normal conversation seemed not to be forthcoming, Alex cleared his throat. "So where did you get all of those diamonds?" He asked, trying to sound as if they had been just exchanging small talk.
Grey Fox perked up, now that they had continued on. She began rummaging through the contents of the case again. "I was in Africa a few years back, nicked it off one of those 'freedom fighters'. You know, the thugs that go around killing people—I figured it was fair game."
Alex frowned. "What were you doing in Africa? And how did you get close enough to steal from one of those guys?"
Grey Fox didn't reply, instead she exclaimed, "There it is," And she held up a ring.
"What's that?"
"Proof of identification."
Alex looked at the ring. It looked like just a plain silver band, but on closer inspection, Alex saw that it was actually in the shape of a snake eating it's own tail. He knew what it was; he had heard it somewhere before, and though he couldn't remember where, the information about the symbol burned brightly in his memory. It was called the Ouroboros and it was the sign for infinity. A very odd symbol to carry on a ring. Grey Fox put it in her trouser pocket and when Alex asked, she just shook her head and said she'd explain it later. By this time, Cane had begun to study the diamonds, and valued them, exclaiming that they were worth a fortune and that he had forgotten about them. It struck Alex as an odd thing to say; he hadn't realised that Cane had known about them, and had certainly not indicated that he was aware of their presence in the bank. Yet he spoke as if he was somewhat familiar to them. Still, Alex knew better by now than to ask, he knew he wouldn't get a straight answer from either of them; Grey Fox rarely gave out information willingly, if asked and Cane was always terrified that Grey Fox wouldn't approve of him speaking either. So Alex was often left out of the loop when it came to their mysterious in-jokes and private histories.
Time passed. It was about mid-day when the knock on the door came. Alex was helping Cane with some sort of documentation. Cane had explained it to him, and he hadn't tried to hide them when Alex was reading them, but they were so boring that both attempts to further Alex's knowledge on the subject failed miserably. Grey Fox called that she would answer the door and continued to do it. She spent a few seconds standing there with someone else on the other side, but neither of them spoke. Then, the strange person walked away and Grey Fox shut the door behind him. She came into the sitting room. Cane looked up.
"Who was that?"
"You're going to be the death of me." She told him.
"Huh?" Cane said in confusion, his features twisting comically. Grey Fox gave him that 'unpleased' look she was very good at and threw a piece of paper onto the table, on top of the painfully drawn out documents. Cane cursed which was enough for Alex to take sudden interest in whatever was there. He looked down and studied the offensive item. He was wrong, it wasn't paper; it was more like a playing card. On it, was the King of Clubs with a deep scratch across the middle.
"King wants to see us." She said angrily.
Cane cringed at her voice, "Ah hell, I'm sorry, Fox."
The female mercenary just shook her head with agitated resignation. "Don't worry about it, just take care of yourself and Alex. I presume we should go at nine tonight?"
Cane nodded. "That's probably for the best."
"Fine, get what you need, I'll see you later." Grey Fox said, turning and leaving the house.
Cane turned to Alex. "It looks like we're going shopping."
Walking through probably the hundredth shop of the day, Alex groaned. Cane turned, looking concerned.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He lied. Actually, he had lost the will to live some time ago; he might have even died and gone to hell. But whatever the case, he was sure that this was not heaven anyway.
"Hey, I know this is tough, but this is the last stop."
It was a tailoring shop. Cane spoke to the shop assistant and pulled out a suit he had bough earlier. He spoke to the man a moment and pointed at Alex. The man nodded and motioned for Alex to follow him. By the end of their time in the shop, both Cane and he were equipped with sleek looking, perfectly fitting, tailored suits.
"It was a calling card." Cane explained on the way out, after Alex inquired. "The King sent it, he's obviously having a little soiree tonight and he probably wants to discuss the bank job."
"Who is he?"
"He's the head of the guild of mercenaries. All the top members have names from a deck of cards, you know, like King, Queen, Ace and Joker. They are the top in their respective fields usually and they have to be elected to the spot by their predecessor. It's quite an honour actually."
"Grey Fox never mentioned the guild of mercenaries."
"Yeah, no kidding; she hates them like you wouldn't believe."
"So what do they do then? Is it like an agency or something?"
Cane thought about it for a second. "Yeah, kinda. It's more like an organisation. Basically, if you want to do a job, you have to go to the person in charge of the jurisdiction and clear it with them."
"Why is that?"
"Well, for a lot of reasons. One reason is so that you don't get people doing stupid things, you know, doing anything dangerous or that could cause a lot of unwanted publicity. Also it means that you don't get two groups doing the same job at the same time and it also means that new up and comers get a foot into the business. They run it like a proper business."
"It sounds like a good idea, I suppose."
"Yeah, it is. It's quite new actually. I think it was founded only about thirty years ago. Before that, mercenaries were all out for themselves, it really was a revelation."
"Oh." Alex nodded. He knew he didn't need to contribute to the conversation; Cane was in a rhythm of his own and would ramble on without aid.
"Yeah, actually, Grey Fox's Dad was one of the founders—he first thought of it. He's practically idolised nowadays. Its part of the reason Grey Fox dislikes it so much, they expect her to act the same as he did—and she doesn't want to be forced to act like anyone else. Also, she's kind of funny about her dad, don't talk about him unless she starts the conversation."
Alex was quiet for a moment. It was strange to think that Grey Fox had parents. Yeah, he knew that his father and her's knew each other, but it was odd to hear about him. It made him wonder about her Mother.
"What were her parents like?"
Cane looked away and whistled. "Listen man, you do not want to go there. Especially about her mother—I mean, if your suicidal yeah, go ahead but otherwise leave it alone."
Alex shrugged but his thoughts still began to wonder. Clearly, Grey Fox wasn't as solitary as she appeared to be. After all, she had friends and allies and apparently family all over the place.
"Did you two go out?" He blurted out suddenly.
Cane stiffened momentarily and then snorted. "Yeah, once, for like a month. She, ah… 'Broke up' with her boyfriend and I finally convinced her to go out." He said in a strange voice.
"Boyfriend? Alex asked, intrigued. Grey Fox just didn't look like the type who would seek companionship.
Cane huffed. "The guy's been gone for ages and she still pines over him like a school girl." Cane bit his lip. "Don't tell Fox I said that, she'd kill me."
"You think you stand a chance with her? Is that why you're always hanging around?" Alex asked with a mischievous grin.
Cane bristled and he stuck his nose up. "What would you know? You're just a kid."
Alex looked away to hide a smirk. Clearly, he was right.
They got back to the apartment block and walked in. Grey Fox met them in the foyer, she had been talking to the receptionist when they arrived and went up with them. They exchanged small talk and when they got back in the apartment Grey Fox told them that they should get changed and she opened a plastic bag from the butcher and poured the meat into Red's food bowl. She herself then proceeded to get dressed.
Half an hour later, Cane and Alex were standing in the kitchen, dressed in their tuxedos, waiting for Grey Fox to reappear.
"Fox." Cane called out, "You ready yet? We're going to be late!"
They could hear Grey Fox sigh. "Yeah, yeah, give me a moment." Seconds later she came out, looking less than pleased with herself. She was in a long black dress, which framed her shape beautifully. She had her hair done up and she was wearing make up. For the first time since he had met her, Alex realised that she was more than just pretty, she was very beautiful—she just hid it well.
Cane whistled and grinned stupidly.
"Come on." She said rolling her eyes with annoyance. "Let's get this over with."
A/N: By the way, for those that are wondering; either the next chapter, or the one after it (depending how long it is), will be a biggie. I mean, major plot bunnies! They're like were-bunnies they're so big.