Chapter 7 - I Hate Mako
AVALANCHE rode the buggy through the temporary road Shin-ra had set up through the ruins of Midgar, each of them looking warily out into the destruction around them. Tifa shuddered slightly when they past a familiar location, now totally decimated, and Cloud's arm slipped around her shoulders tenderly. Even nearly toppled, the Shin-ra building loomed in front of them as they approached it.
"That place looks pretty deserted, man." Cid leaned forward to speak with Cloud. "I don't think they're here." Cloud looked back at the pilot over his shoulder.
"Well, we've come this far already. I don't think it will hurt to check and be certain." Cid sat back in his seat, grumbling to himself about the uselessness of it all. Cloud looked at the Shin-ra soldier driving. "How much longer do you think we'll be?"
"About another 10 minutes. Maybe. Sir." The sir was added onto the gruff answer with disgust and Cloud pulled back, a little surprised at the venom directed at him. 'Well, I guess he was in the army when Shin-ra was in its glory days. Poor guy probably blames us.'
"Alright guys" Cloud addressed his team. "We're going to be at the Shin-ra building in around 10 minutes. From the looks of things, we won't have much to do." He looked out of the window at the tower in the center of Midgar. "But, just in case, start getting yourselves ready now. You never know what's." Cloud stopped as the entire Shin-ra building came to life, lights within the windows of the darkened building slamming on. The shrieks of pain from monsters unaccustomed to the unnatural light reached even the group of adventurers that journeyed toward them. "Going to happen." Cloud finished lamely. He turned towards the driver and nodded. The buggy accelerated and Cloud began slotting materia into the buster sword. _________________________________________________________________________
As soon as the lights turned on, Reno was on his feet and heading for the door, Rude few steps behind him. The screams around them were deafening, but Reno could deal with it, as long it gave them the few moments' distraction they needed. As the Turks rounded a corner, Rude taking the lead, the screams of the mako monsters within the lower floors of the Shin-ra building died away into snarls and growls of anger. Pushing through a door Rude came face to face with a giant rat monster. He wasted no time putting two bullets into its head. As the beast collapsed onto the tiled floor, the rest of its pack burst out and charged. Rude deftly leapt to the side, and fired into the crowd. The rats turned toward Rude, bearing their teeth, and didn't notice Reno enter the room firing away with his handgun quickly, until three of them were left dead with their brethren. What remained of the pack was scattered by shots fired over Reno's shoulder as Rude cleared a path for them to the stairs. One final rat jumped out at the Turks, and had its skull caved in by Rude's gloved fist. Now in a full sprint, the Turks entered the last stretch of basement before the stairs and found it filled with monsters of all types, attacking each other ferociously in sheer rage. Reno stopped dead in his tracks beside Rude and looked up at the taller man.
"Is there another way around, man?" Reno asked. Rude simply shook his head and pulled a grenade off the bandoleer around his waist.
"Oh." Reno trailed off. Then setting his mouth into a smirk, he reloaded his gun and brought his EMR up to power. "That's fucking awesome."
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"Davis, why can't I see where the blond Turk and her little friend are?" Corin stared at the monitor displaying the now illuminated remains of Hojo's upper lab.
"I believe they have found an alternate route to access the information, sir." Davis answered quickly.
"Very well." Corin turned his head toward the basement monitor. On it, Reno and Rude jumped into the battle. "At least these two should provide some pre-game entertainment."
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The moment the power had turned on, Elena had her computer up and running again. Working quickly, she fired through the directory of files contained within. Yuffie began to get nervous as the screams died away.
"How long is this gonna take, Elena?"
"I have to break into Hojo's files, find what we're looking for, copy it twice, and then I'll be done." She answered. Yuffie looked over at her
"Yeah, but how long is this gonna take?" Yuffie asked again. Elena paused momentarily, thinking about it.
"I really have no idea."
"Well, that's just great." Yuffie stepped up to the doorway she was carefully guarding and peered out. While she could hear that were angry, angry monsters on the floor with them, none had yet entered the adjoining hallway. Behind her, Yuffie heard Elena give her an update.
"Alright, I'm into Hojo's personal files. It shouldn't be too hard to find it now." While Elena had been speaking, Yuffie watched a spider crawl into her line of vision. The girl eased herself out of sight slowly. "Yuffie?" Elena questioned and looked over at her companion. Yuffie raised a finger to her lips and slid the Conformer off her back.
Propped up against the wall beside the door, Yuffie could hear the spider's thin legs tapping along in the hall. The clicking ceased, and silence once again ruled as Yuffie assumed the beast had stopped where she could only guess the discarded corpse of the rat lay. Again, the tapping continued, this time furiously retreating the way it came. Yuffie allowed herself a sigh of relief and looked over at Elena.
"Everything alright?" The blond asked quietly. Yuffie nodded, and was reaching behind to secure her weapon once again when she froze. Again signaling for Elena to be silent, she listened as the frantic approach of the spider was heard again. Only something seemed different. 'It's not alone?' Yuffie wondered to herself. 'It didn't actually go get help did it?' The ninja pulled out the viewing mirror she had held onto after Elena gave it to her earlier, and risked a look out in the hall. Sure enough, the one spider had brought back four of its species to the body of the rat. The monsters moved slowly around the hall, none emitting a single noise. Even the tapping that Yuffie had become so accustomed to was eliminated. The spiders appeared to be, 'Searching? Are they looking for what killed the rat? Gawd, they just had to be smart.' Yuffie pushed herself away from the wall and moved towards Elena as fast as possible while remained silent. 'I hate mako.'
"What is it?" Elena whispered as the girl reached her.
"Nothing. Just some spiders." The Turk stiffened at Yuffie's answer. "Something wrong?"
"I don't like spiders." Elena concentrated harder on the computer, pushing her fears to the back of her mind. A smirk, eerily reminiscent of a red head she'd clearly been spending too much time with, crossed Yuffie's features. Whispering, she leaned down to Elena's shoulder.
"I guess it wouldn't help if I told you they seemed really smart. As in smart enough to be searching for us." Yuffie paused. "Oh, and they seem extra icky."
Elena involuntarily shuddered and gave Yuffie a withering look. "How could that possibly help?"
"It made me feel better. How far done are you?"
"First copy is ninety-five percent completed." Elena gestured the bar on the screen in front of her.
"So what are these files about anyway."
"I don't know. I'm not about to take the time to read it in this hellhole though. Besides, that's why we're making two copies." Elena trailed off as one of the spider-creatures entered the room. The Turk visibly paled, causing Yuffie to turn and look, just as the beast let loose a threatening hiss, that was quickly followed by a nearby computer being thrown aside, likely to alert its brethren. Elena swore under her breath, and ejected the now completed first copy. Yuffie had already thrown the Conformer when Elena placed the second disk in and began copying. With the computer uploading, Elena pulled her pistol out of her holster and readied her Fire materia. The other spiders entered the room, and as Elena took aim, she heard Yuffie beside her.
"This is fantastic. Fan-fu."
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"cking-tastic." Reno called out, laughing as he battled alongside Rude. The two Turks pushed their way through the crowd of battling monsters, killing anything that got in their way. They reached near the middle of the room when they found themselves surrounding by a pack of wolves and dogs that had decided the two humans were the biggest threat.
"Interesting." Rude said as he dropped a clip from his gun, and reloaded with a fresh one. Reno turned to look at his partner, while wiping the sweat that had begun to form on his brow.
"Yeah, you're telling me. I haven't been in a brawl like this since Tseng tried to pick up that one Wutain chick, right in front of her husband. And all his friends in the Wutai Dragons." Reno kicked across hard in front of him and pulled his pistol out of his jacket. "You remember that? Man, we put down that entire gang in 15 minutes." Three shots later and a dead wolf lay at his feet.
"I remember. Though, I also remember you flirting with the woman. Not Tseng." Rude's giant fist crashed down hard, shattering the skull of a nearby dog. Reno looked as thoughtful as possible for someone in such a dangerous situation.
"But." The EMR flashed. "He was there. Right?"
"Yeah, he was the one that knocked you out."
"Oh right. Hey dude?" Another dog and wolf fall side by side to the remainder of Reno's clip.
"What?" Rude cracked the ribs of the dog currently assaulting him
"I miss that guy."
"." If there hadn't been the sounds of mako enhanced monsters trying to kill each other around them, Reno would have been met with silence. "Yeah. Me too"
"I." Reno seemed lost for words, the smirk wiped from his mouth. "I think we should go get the girls." A blast erupted from the EMR as Reno kicked out to his side, dropping a dog monster to the ground. He pivoted quickly and applied the electricity directly to the animal. Beside him, the muzzle of Rude's pistol flashed, and so did he as lightning tore through the room directly in front of them, clearing a path straight to the stairwell.
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Yuffie realized quickly that the danger of this fight was not in the spiders themselves, but in just how much attention they would bring down on her and Elena. Easy enough to handle, Elena had returned to the computer while Yuffie held the last two at bay. The conformer flew from her hand and severed the right legs of one, while the other charged. Yuffie dove out of the way and caught the Conformer, before once again scrambling to avoid the sprayed web of the injured one. With another throw of her shuriken, the mako monster stopped moving altogether. A spindly leg slammed across Yuffie's back and she was tossed towards the nearest wall. Twisting while in midair, Yuffie tucked her head, and took the impact fully on her back. Slumping to the floor, she shook her head to clear it, and watched the final beast loom ahead of her. Gripping the Conformer tightly, Yuffie watched a green glow illuminate the room as the spider ignited in flames and thrashed about in its death throes. The power from Elena's fire spell faded and she waved a pair of small disks at Yuffie. The young ninja pulled herself to her feet, and met up with Elena by the door. Making a quick check, the blond Turk waved Yuffie ahead, and they began their descent. Worried of what may have been alerted to their location by the recent fight, speed was determined to be more important than stealth and the two women raced down the 19 flights of stairs to their destination. Reaching the lower levels, they found Reno and Rude standing back to back, guarding their escape route from any monsters that may have followed the group. Around them lay the corpses of monsters already foolish enough to attack them. Reno was the first to see Yuffie and Elena.
"Did you get it all?" He asked. Rude turned around and Elena smiled at him.
"Are you ok?" The stoic Turk asked, pointing to a rip in Elena's jacket that she hadn't noticed.
"We're fine." She answered, as she inspected the tear. Then, holding up the twin disks with a bright smile, she turned to Reno. "And, yes I have it all. Let's get the hell out of here."
The Turks and Yuffie moved quickly through the lobby, and Reno dropped back to run alongside Yuffie. In a low voice he asked "What about you? You alright?"
"Yeah." Yuffie was more than a little surprised. "I'm good."
"Good." Came the reply and once again, Reno was up alongside of Rude, keeping a sharp eye out for any threats.
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The buggy hit a pothole in the path cleared ahead of it, and bounced one last time before screeching to a halt in front of the Shin-ra building. Cloud had the door open before the vehicle had stopped and was already staring towards the tower, sword in hand. The rest of the group poured out and stepped up to meet their leader. Red grimaced as he sniffed the air.
"There has been mako enhanced blood spilt within the building. Large amounts I should say." Cid looked down at him.
"Well that's a good thing, ain't it?" The pilot asked.
"It could go either way I think." Tifa replied, and Red stepped up ahead of her and Cloud, sniffing the ground. Surprised the fire-beast lifted his head up, before slowly sinking back down and sniffing more carefully. Hesitantly, he turned back towards the group.
"I'm fairly certain the Turks are here, if I remember their scents correctly." He looked to Cloud for a moment.
"Well, that's not entirely unexpected. Let's end this." The blonde leader took a step forward.
"Wait." Red spoke up again, and once more the group's attention was on him. "There's one other thing." Red turned away and smelt the ground once more, as if to reassure himself. Cloud looked at him expectantly. "Yuffie's with them."
"Mother fucker."
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"President Alexander, sir. The Turks are in the lobby and Avalanche is on the doorstep. Shall I alert Kassidy?"
"Go ahead Davis." He took a drink from the glass that sat beside him. "And please. Call me Corin." Again another sip. "Provided this plan works of course."
Davis nodded once before picking up the nearby radio and getting in touch with Kassidy's teams. "This is Davis. Avalanche and the Turks are about to meet. Get your men in position."
AVALANCHE rode the buggy through the temporary road Shin-ra had set up through the ruins of Midgar, each of them looking warily out into the destruction around them. Tifa shuddered slightly when they past a familiar location, now totally decimated, and Cloud's arm slipped around her shoulders tenderly. Even nearly toppled, the Shin-ra building loomed in front of them as they approached it.
"That place looks pretty deserted, man." Cid leaned forward to speak with Cloud. "I don't think they're here." Cloud looked back at the pilot over his shoulder.
"Well, we've come this far already. I don't think it will hurt to check and be certain." Cid sat back in his seat, grumbling to himself about the uselessness of it all. Cloud looked at the Shin-ra soldier driving. "How much longer do you think we'll be?"
"About another 10 minutes. Maybe. Sir." The sir was added onto the gruff answer with disgust and Cloud pulled back, a little surprised at the venom directed at him. 'Well, I guess he was in the army when Shin-ra was in its glory days. Poor guy probably blames us.'
"Alright guys" Cloud addressed his team. "We're going to be at the Shin-ra building in around 10 minutes. From the looks of things, we won't have much to do." He looked out of the window at the tower in the center of Midgar. "But, just in case, start getting yourselves ready now. You never know what's." Cloud stopped as the entire Shin-ra building came to life, lights within the windows of the darkened building slamming on. The shrieks of pain from monsters unaccustomed to the unnatural light reached even the group of adventurers that journeyed toward them. "Going to happen." Cloud finished lamely. He turned towards the driver and nodded. The buggy accelerated and Cloud began slotting materia into the buster sword. _________________________________________________________________________
As soon as the lights turned on, Reno was on his feet and heading for the door, Rude few steps behind him. The screams around them were deafening, but Reno could deal with it, as long it gave them the few moments' distraction they needed. As the Turks rounded a corner, Rude taking the lead, the screams of the mako monsters within the lower floors of the Shin-ra building died away into snarls and growls of anger. Pushing through a door Rude came face to face with a giant rat monster. He wasted no time putting two bullets into its head. As the beast collapsed onto the tiled floor, the rest of its pack burst out and charged. Rude deftly leapt to the side, and fired into the crowd. The rats turned toward Rude, bearing their teeth, and didn't notice Reno enter the room firing away with his handgun quickly, until three of them were left dead with their brethren. What remained of the pack was scattered by shots fired over Reno's shoulder as Rude cleared a path for them to the stairs. One final rat jumped out at the Turks, and had its skull caved in by Rude's gloved fist. Now in a full sprint, the Turks entered the last stretch of basement before the stairs and found it filled with monsters of all types, attacking each other ferociously in sheer rage. Reno stopped dead in his tracks beside Rude and looked up at the taller man.
"Is there another way around, man?" Reno asked. Rude simply shook his head and pulled a grenade off the bandoleer around his waist.
"Oh." Reno trailed off. Then setting his mouth into a smirk, he reloaded his gun and brought his EMR up to power. "That's fucking awesome."
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"Davis, why can't I see where the blond Turk and her little friend are?" Corin stared at the monitor displaying the now illuminated remains of Hojo's upper lab.
"I believe they have found an alternate route to access the information, sir." Davis answered quickly.
"Very well." Corin turned his head toward the basement monitor. On it, Reno and Rude jumped into the battle. "At least these two should provide some pre-game entertainment."
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The moment the power had turned on, Elena had her computer up and running again. Working quickly, she fired through the directory of files contained within. Yuffie began to get nervous as the screams died away.
"How long is this gonna take, Elena?"
"I have to break into Hojo's files, find what we're looking for, copy it twice, and then I'll be done." She answered. Yuffie looked over at her
"Yeah, but how long is this gonna take?" Yuffie asked again. Elena paused momentarily, thinking about it.
"I really have no idea."
"Well, that's just great." Yuffie stepped up to the doorway she was carefully guarding and peered out. While she could hear that were angry, angry monsters on the floor with them, none had yet entered the adjoining hallway. Behind her, Yuffie heard Elena give her an update.
"Alright, I'm into Hojo's personal files. It shouldn't be too hard to find it now." While Elena had been speaking, Yuffie watched a spider crawl into her line of vision. The girl eased herself out of sight slowly. "Yuffie?" Elena questioned and looked over at her companion. Yuffie raised a finger to her lips and slid the Conformer off her back.
Propped up against the wall beside the door, Yuffie could hear the spider's thin legs tapping along in the hall. The clicking ceased, and silence once again ruled as Yuffie assumed the beast had stopped where she could only guess the discarded corpse of the rat lay. Again, the tapping continued, this time furiously retreating the way it came. Yuffie allowed herself a sigh of relief and looked over at Elena.
"Everything alright?" The blond asked quietly. Yuffie nodded, and was reaching behind to secure her weapon once again when she froze. Again signaling for Elena to be silent, she listened as the frantic approach of the spider was heard again. Only something seemed different. 'It's not alone?' Yuffie wondered to herself. 'It didn't actually go get help did it?' The ninja pulled out the viewing mirror she had held onto after Elena gave it to her earlier, and risked a look out in the hall. Sure enough, the one spider had brought back four of its species to the body of the rat. The monsters moved slowly around the hall, none emitting a single noise. Even the tapping that Yuffie had become so accustomed to was eliminated. The spiders appeared to be, 'Searching? Are they looking for what killed the rat? Gawd, they just had to be smart.' Yuffie pushed herself away from the wall and moved towards Elena as fast as possible while remained silent. 'I hate mako.'
"What is it?" Elena whispered as the girl reached her.
"Nothing. Just some spiders." The Turk stiffened at Yuffie's answer. "Something wrong?"
"I don't like spiders." Elena concentrated harder on the computer, pushing her fears to the back of her mind. A smirk, eerily reminiscent of a red head she'd clearly been spending too much time with, crossed Yuffie's features. Whispering, she leaned down to Elena's shoulder.
"I guess it wouldn't help if I told you they seemed really smart. As in smart enough to be searching for us." Yuffie paused. "Oh, and they seem extra icky."
Elena involuntarily shuddered and gave Yuffie a withering look. "How could that possibly help?"
"It made me feel better. How far done are you?"
"First copy is ninety-five percent completed." Elena gestured the bar on the screen in front of her.
"So what are these files about anyway."
"I don't know. I'm not about to take the time to read it in this hellhole though. Besides, that's why we're making two copies." Elena trailed off as one of the spider-creatures entered the room. The Turk visibly paled, causing Yuffie to turn and look, just as the beast let loose a threatening hiss, that was quickly followed by a nearby computer being thrown aside, likely to alert its brethren. Elena swore under her breath, and ejected the now completed first copy. Yuffie had already thrown the Conformer when Elena placed the second disk in and began copying. With the computer uploading, Elena pulled her pistol out of her holster and readied her Fire materia. The other spiders entered the room, and as Elena took aim, she heard Yuffie beside her.
"This is fantastic. Fan-fu."
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"cking-tastic." Reno called out, laughing as he battled alongside Rude. The two Turks pushed their way through the crowd of battling monsters, killing anything that got in their way. They reached near the middle of the room when they found themselves surrounding by a pack of wolves and dogs that had decided the two humans were the biggest threat.
"Interesting." Rude said as he dropped a clip from his gun, and reloaded with a fresh one. Reno turned to look at his partner, while wiping the sweat that had begun to form on his brow.
"Yeah, you're telling me. I haven't been in a brawl like this since Tseng tried to pick up that one Wutain chick, right in front of her husband. And all his friends in the Wutai Dragons." Reno kicked across hard in front of him and pulled his pistol out of his jacket. "You remember that? Man, we put down that entire gang in 15 minutes." Three shots later and a dead wolf lay at his feet.
"I remember. Though, I also remember you flirting with the woman. Not Tseng." Rude's giant fist crashed down hard, shattering the skull of a nearby dog. Reno looked as thoughtful as possible for someone in such a dangerous situation.
"But." The EMR flashed. "He was there. Right?"
"Yeah, he was the one that knocked you out."
"Oh right. Hey dude?" Another dog and wolf fall side by side to the remainder of Reno's clip.
"What?" Rude cracked the ribs of the dog currently assaulting him
"I miss that guy."
"." If there hadn't been the sounds of mako enhanced monsters trying to kill each other around them, Reno would have been met with silence. "Yeah. Me too"
"I." Reno seemed lost for words, the smirk wiped from his mouth. "I think we should go get the girls." A blast erupted from the EMR as Reno kicked out to his side, dropping a dog monster to the ground. He pivoted quickly and applied the electricity directly to the animal. Beside him, the muzzle of Rude's pistol flashed, and so did he as lightning tore through the room directly in front of them, clearing a path straight to the stairwell.
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Yuffie realized quickly that the danger of this fight was not in the spiders themselves, but in just how much attention they would bring down on her and Elena. Easy enough to handle, Elena had returned to the computer while Yuffie held the last two at bay. The conformer flew from her hand and severed the right legs of one, while the other charged. Yuffie dove out of the way and caught the Conformer, before once again scrambling to avoid the sprayed web of the injured one. With another throw of her shuriken, the mako monster stopped moving altogether. A spindly leg slammed across Yuffie's back and she was tossed towards the nearest wall. Twisting while in midair, Yuffie tucked her head, and took the impact fully on her back. Slumping to the floor, she shook her head to clear it, and watched the final beast loom ahead of her. Gripping the Conformer tightly, Yuffie watched a green glow illuminate the room as the spider ignited in flames and thrashed about in its death throes. The power from Elena's fire spell faded and she waved a pair of small disks at Yuffie. The young ninja pulled herself to her feet, and met up with Elena by the door. Making a quick check, the blond Turk waved Yuffie ahead, and they began their descent. Worried of what may have been alerted to their location by the recent fight, speed was determined to be more important than stealth and the two women raced down the 19 flights of stairs to their destination. Reaching the lower levels, they found Reno and Rude standing back to back, guarding their escape route from any monsters that may have followed the group. Around them lay the corpses of monsters already foolish enough to attack them. Reno was the first to see Yuffie and Elena.
"Did you get it all?" He asked. Rude turned around and Elena smiled at him.
"Are you ok?" The stoic Turk asked, pointing to a rip in Elena's jacket that she hadn't noticed.
"We're fine." She answered, as she inspected the tear. Then, holding up the twin disks with a bright smile, she turned to Reno. "And, yes I have it all. Let's get the hell out of here."
The Turks and Yuffie moved quickly through the lobby, and Reno dropped back to run alongside Yuffie. In a low voice he asked "What about you? You alright?"
"Yeah." Yuffie was more than a little surprised. "I'm good."
"Good." Came the reply and once again, Reno was up alongside of Rude, keeping a sharp eye out for any threats.
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The buggy hit a pothole in the path cleared ahead of it, and bounced one last time before screeching to a halt in front of the Shin-ra building. Cloud had the door open before the vehicle had stopped and was already staring towards the tower, sword in hand. The rest of the group poured out and stepped up to meet their leader. Red grimaced as he sniffed the air.
"There has been mako enhanced blood spilt within the building. Large amounts I should say." Cid looked down at him.
"Well that's a good thing, ain't it?" The pilot asked.
"It could go either way I think." Tifa replied, and Red stepped up ahead of her and Cloud, sniffing the ground. Surprised the fire-beast lifted his head up, before slowly sinking back down and sniffing more carefully. Hesitantly, he turned back towards the group.
"I'm fairly certain the Turks are here, if I remember their scents correctly." He looked to Cloud for a moment.
"Well, that's not entirely unexpected. Let's end this." The blonde leader took a step forward.
"Wait." Red spoke up again, and once more the group's attention was on him. "There's one other thing." Red turned away and smelt the ground once more, as if to reassure himself. Cloud looked at him expectantly. "Yuffie's with them."
"Mother fucker."
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"President Alexander, sir. The Turks are in the lobby and Avalanche is on the doorstep. Shall I alert Kassidy?"
"Go ahead Davis." He took a drink from the glass that sat beside him. "And please. Call me Corin." Again another sip. "Provided this plan works of course."
Davis nodded once before picking up the nearby radio and getting in touch with Kassidy's teams. "This is Davis. Avalanche and the Turks are about to meet. Get your men in position."