I hope you liked the last chapter. I got this one up a quickly as possible. A few people asked me about the new character Nyla, and I will just tell you that you will learn what you want to know eventually. Read, re-read, and review!
"We'll be landing in ten minutes!" Julian shouted to Zai and Natalie over the sound of the engines, twisting back in his seat. Below them, the night lights of Paris winked at them; a welcome beckoning after their nightmares in Cherbourg.
"Have you got your gun?" Natalie whispered. Zai held it up without looking at her. Natalie pushed his hand down.
"Keep that thing down! What if Julian sees it?"
"I'll shoot him." Zai answered. Natalie bristled.
"Don't say that! Don't say you'll shoot an innocent person! Do you know what it's like to be shot?"
"...Never mind." Zai mumbled. Natalie was obviously shaken by her mother shooting her a year and a half ago. But it wasn't as bad a some things. She didn't know the half of it.
"Have you ever seen someone get shot?" he asked quietly. "With real bullets, not darts." Natalie looked at him in surprise.
"Have you heard their screams as they realize they're going to die?" Zai went one. "The look in their eyes as they know you can't save them-"
"Stop." Natalie told him, her voice wavering. Zai could see she was shaking in her seat. He took a breath.
"Their blood on the ground once they're dead? The numbness, chewing a hole in you from the inside when you see the bodies and realise that they're gone forever? And then, the pain comes, filling the vacuum along with anger and hate? Have you ever felt the pain of losing someone, Natalie?" Zai stopped again. Natalie looked horrified, her gaze fixed straight ahead as she rocked back and forth. Zai continued.
"Have you truly experienced pain, Natalie? I have. Four times in one night. It's the only thing I see when I sleep. And your aunt deserves everything she did to cause me pain." Zai closed his eyes and raised his gun, suppressing the overwhelming memories building up inside his heart. He stole a glance at Natalie. She looked hypnotized; Her eyes wide with fear and horror, her breathing rapid. Zai turned away again and swallowed his rage, hiding behind an emotionless mask that spread into a smirk.
Oh, I think I'm going to enjoy this.
...
Eilzabeth Vesper-Hollingsworth tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear and yawned. At the moment, the Cahills were all on planes; she needed to wait until they were on the ground to continue with her plan.
"Coxley! Report!" She orders a scurrying agent. He stopped and bowed.
"The Madrigals and their group are currently on a reinforced Lucian plane bound for Kazakhstan, Madame." he started, "And the other two children are going to land in Paris in ten minutes. We just received notification form our operative following them."
"And how are they doing psychologically?" Elizabeth asked. She was annoyed that this agent hadn't said anything annoying; she liked having reasons to hate people.
"The girl is growing stronger, while the boy seems to be breaking down." Coxley informed her. "He has been having fits of anger and ruthlessness, and seems to be merely tolerating the girl. He recently scared her with an account of your extermination of his family four years ago."
"Wonderful." Elizabeth mused. "He will certainly be easier to manipulate now. He is, after all, playing right into our hand." She paused. Coxley turned to leave, but Elizabeth snapped her perfectly manicured fingers at him. Finally, something to be angry at him about.
"You're not excused until I say so. I'm not done." she said. He nodded, a nervous smile plastered on his lips. Elizabeth decided not to kill him. "How is the Raven coming along?"
"Marvelous, Madame. She really is a work of genius; I wish I'd thought it up."
"Don't even dream of it; you'll only disappoint yourself. Now be on your way." Elizabeth dismissed him with a flick of her hand. Coxley scampered away, and Elizabeth took a sip of champagne. Oh, glory.
...
Nyla Zaviera pulled her hair back into a long horsetail and turned on her phone. There were three new messages from Daniel Cahill, showing her pictures of various parts of his collection: swords, knives, daggers, and various other weapons, some authentic and some not. She was surprised by the quality of some of his pieces. But that was beside the point.
She plugged her phone into her laptop, and pulled up his latest message, which was sent three hours ago.
"Perfect." she muttered. She transferred the message to one of her programs. It took the phone number and checked it against cell service providers worldwide. A map view of the world appeared, and within seconds, a detailed trail of everywhere the phone had made a call appeared on the map. Nyla traced the track to it's most recent stop: Paris.
Next, she hacked into the Paris air trafficking records and checked the time of the last message on her phone. 6:43 P.M. She cross-referenced this with flights that had left Paris in the last three hours. There were hundreds of flights, including eight privately chartered flights, which was what she was interested in. Three were to other French cities, so she ruled those out. The other five were headed to Cairo, London, Nicosia, Almaty, and Rio de Janeiro via Rekjavik, Philadelphia, and Panama City. She then accessed the flight information for each plane. Two were Cessna 400s, and one was a Challenger 604. The last one was of unidentified manufacturing; it was privately made. Definitively a Cahill creation. It's destination: Almaty.
Found you, Daniel Cahill.
...
"Thank you for flying with Julian." Julian thanked Zai and Natalie as they disembarked from his plane at Orly International Airport. "May you have a happy day and fly again with Julian sometime in the near future."
"We'll keep you in mind." Zai said curtly. He smiled and nodded to Julian before following Natalie down the steps and being led into the airport.
After passing through security, Natalie and Zai conversed in a corridor near the main entrance.
"We have to go to the Lucian stronghold. They can help us find the others; they're sure to have gone there." Natalie informed her companion. Who disagreed right away.
"The Vespers are definitely going to be looking for us." Zai argued. "It's the first place they'll expect us to go."
"Are you mad?" Natalie seethed. "If we go to the stronghold, we'll be reunited with Ian in no time."
"Fine." Zai snapped. Stupid stronghold. "But don't blame me if we get chased or captured or killed."
"Alright. Now we need to hire a taxi."
"Bad idea." Zai countered. "Need I explain why?"
"Well, do you have any better options?" Natalie shot back. "Unless you want to take a nice, long walk." Zai narrowed his eyes at her, then nodded.
"It always pays to have skills you're really too young to have." he said, and turned toward the car rental counter.
...
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