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South Africa was just a few miles ahead. Alex was on the deck, surveying the ocean sunrise. Under any other circumstances, it would've been beautiful. Now, it only was a looming reminder of the danger that was approaching.
Kristen was in front of him, leaning on the handrail. The wind kept blowing her shoulder length hair in her face, resulting in a few curses that punctured the still air.
Alex turned away to hide a grin and saw Shen appear, yawning.
"Ten minutes to Cape Town," he announced.
Kristen turned. "Then what's the plan?"
"The crew is going to refuel; all of the ones going are doing that so they'll be faster. Us three are going grocery shopping."
Kristen rolled her eyes. "Do we have money?"
"Yeah, 200£. We have to spend all of it in an hour."
Her eyes twinkled. "That'll be easy."
Alex gave her a look.
"Hey, just because I'm in this underground spy world doesn't mean I don't like to shop anymore."
"Don't call her out on it…last time I lost a bet with her I had to let her use my credit card for an hour; she maxed it out in forty-five minutes," Shen sighed. "Took me forever to pay it all back without the Triads knowing."
"You were the one who bet on those loser Chicago Bears," Kristen stuck her tongue out childishly. "Even though they're my home team, I know they suck."
"At least I have loyalty," Shen grumbled.
Alex grinned, shaking his head. They were so…different to what he was used to. If they had each other, they were perfectly fine in this underground world.
Minutes later, they were landing. Half of the crew remained on the ship for repairs and lookout.
"Alright, the crew told me there's a grocery store straight ahead and turn right from the pier. The list is…about a page long. Here—," Shen neatly folded and split the paper three ways. "After we finish our pages meet in front of the cash register, we'll pay together."
"I suppose we'll have to be quick about it?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, forty-five minutes tops,' Shen answered and handed out the slips of paper.
"Let's go!" Kristen bounded off the deck and was half-way off the gangplank when they caught up to her.
"Wow, you're a little excited aren't you?" Alex muttered.
"I haven't been shopping in months; even if it's for groceries I'm fine!"
Alex glanced at Shen, eyebrows raised. The taller boy shrugged.
When they reached the entrance, they split up.
Kristen had all the fruits and vegetables. Probably a good thing that they weren't fragile, Shen thought as he watched her careen crazily through the crowd.
"Freak," he muttered to himself, shaking his head as he headed towards the meats and processed food section.
Alex was assigned milk and fruit juice. He meticulously picked out several cartons and gallons of the stuff, carefully setting them into his cart. Ahead of him, he saw Kristen throwing what looked like spinach haphazardly into her own cart. Alex grinned and shook his head yet again. It seemed like a lot of head shaking was going on when it came to her.
Shen, on the other hand, was piling towers of canned food (baby corn and Progresso soup being some of them) into his own shopping cart.
When they met at the register, Shen pulled out the pound notes and paid quickly. Kristen grinned at the sight of everyone's round eyes as they took in how much they bought.
The three of them were halfway to the ship before shots rang out.
Shen swore. "I should've known they wouldn't give up so easily." He turned his head to check where the bullets were coming from.
"Yeah, why can't they for once," Kristen pushed the cart faster and started running. Alex followed, back to her to watch for other intruders.
"No cover…can't be there or there…fuck, east, east, east!" Shen darted forward onto the gangplank.
Bullets suddenly sprayed into the air. Shen threw himself to the ground and shouting out frantically, "Get down!!"
Only Alex heard him he could only watch while Kristen turned, eyes widening.
Alex tackled her and pulled her legs to the ground. He landed on top of her, yet again, as a bullet landed just above them.
"Fuck,' she breathed, craning her head to look at the bullet.
Then the cart went rolling down the gangway. Alex pushed off the ground and caught the handle while racing forward. Behind him, Shen yanked Kristen up off the wood and pulled her with him.
Kristen was going backwards and could see a few black-clothed lean men roll out from their hiding places, wielding slim black guns. She scrambled up and pulled herself up the gangway where the crew was frantically casting off.
Two of the Triad members latched onto the rail of the ship as Kristen rolled away. Shen flipped out; out a petite gun came and he pulled the trigger.
But, as Kristen knew, Shen wouldn't kill anyone unless he absolutely HAD to. He'd only shot so near them that they'd rolled backwards—resulting in two rather nasty falls to the cement deck below.
Which still meant they were dead.
Kristen rolled her eyes and headed towards the inside room, wobbling slightly as the ship steered away. Everyone was crammed in the crew room, connected to the captain's room of control. They were silent, watching the outside. And suddenly, glass shattered and a dark blur smashed into the room. Almost instantly, the crew and Shen had guns out, Alex settling for china plates.
It was a man, late 20s Kristen estimated, wearing the trademark uniform black with a single red band around the right wrist of the Triads. His eyes took in the various weapons around him, and he dropped his own, hands up.
"Why are you here?" Kristen asked, not seeming to notice she was the closest one to the man while the rest were edging away.
He shrugged. "Because my commander told me to infiltrate the ship."
The captain entered from the adjourning room and motioned for another crew member to take the wheel. "Who, incidentally, is your commander?"
The man answered, "I don't know his name; he is shrouded in secrecy."
Kristen grew bored soon, not even halfway through the interrogation and got up to sit near the other two, eyes closing. Her head slipped onto Shen's shoulder. Alex raised an eyebrow; how could she sleep at a time like this?
However, a few hours later, she was rather rudely awakened when the room emptied out and the man bound and taken to a room under deck.
"What do we do now?" Alex asked as they watched the sun set again on the waves.
"We wait until we get to Britain," Shen said, eyeing the door in which behind the prisoner lay.
--
Mrs. Tulip Jones and Mr. Alan Blunt were seated in front of each other, each with the same paper in their hands; the transcript of the message from ship SH-623.
"When are they due to land?" Mrs. Jones asked.
"On Tuesday, four days from now, noon," Alan Blunt answered.
"For this…Triad leader, what do you make of him?"
Blunt considered this question. The man had sounded impatient and worried on the phone—no hardened leader would let such feelings across to what potentially could be an enemy. Was he young, then? The Triads were shrouded in shadows.
"I do not know. Perhaps he is confusing us. We know not much about the Triads, except that they operate in an older-brother younger-brother style. Lack of respect could kill you there."
"How is the Kristen girl doing?"
"Well, considering the dangers. She and Alex have been working quickly. I am amazed that the Triads kept a full list of who is in their gang. I've also faxed copies to the CIA, ASIS, MSS(China), CSIS(Canada), BND(Germany), DGSE(France's external intelligence agency), AISE(Italy's external intelligence agency), and DHI(Japan) for arrest. It'll take some persuading however; Walker and his diplomatic team are already on it."
"And what of the Triad's next mission? Kroll obviously contacted them for something."
Alan Blunt looked up grimly. "Levi Kroll is in charge of the next Scorpia project. They plan to lead a coup of Chad and take command of its oil. You know what that means."
Her eyes cleared as she realized. "We'd be funding them directly from buying the oil."
"And not just us…the world."
--
Feng's face was darkened when he was told that a man was killed and another gone missing in the failed abduction attempt on the former leader of the Triads and his friends.
"Why is it that the men under my control are utterly incompetent failures?" he mused quietly. "It seems that when the traitor leader left, all obedience and ability also left. Why is that?"
The men standing around him didn't dare say anything. However, the women on his lap, Angelica, purred softly.
"Dispatch a ship to go after them. Send a crew of two hundred. Stock the ship with fifty machine guns, three barrels of ammunition and make sure everyone has a weapon. Now."
Four men quickly left to give orders and oversee them.
Feng motioned for the others to leave and he turned to Angelica.
"Now, where were we?" he asked with a dirty smile.
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Dear god it's been long! I admit I was getting rather slow at the end and decided you all would probably like a faster update then a couple more paragraphs longer?
PLEASE REVIEW! Also, I've got a question, would any of you like me to add romance into this fic? If so, which pairings?
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SheWeapon1: thanks!! I hope you liked this chapter!