Just a quick 'hello' to all those who are reading this, and a question: Should I shift the focus more on Amy, Dan, Ian, Nellie, Elias, Matt, and Alistair, or more on Natalie and Zai?
...
Why am I always wearing something nice when I have to crawl in the dirt?
Natalie was irritated about the stains the dirty tunnel-which had opened enough to allow her to walk in a crouched position-was putting on her dress. She was also pretty certain that she wouldn't have the opportunity to go shopping in the foreseeable future, so she was stuck with whatever she had on her back. Wait...why did that something feel tickly and scratchy-?
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!" Natalie shrieked and jumped upward, banging her head on the roof of the tunnel. The rat, which was about six inches long, not including the tail, leaped off and scurried away.
"Watch it!" Shadows danced as Julian dropped the flashlight he was holding, startled by the rodent. 'Watch it' were the only two words he'd uttered since they'd entered the tunnel, so it was hard to determine his accent. Natalie was detecting a slight trace of Middle Eastern, perhaps Egyptian. Zai rolled his eyes from the front of the line.
"Do you want to attract the attention of whoever's after us?" Zai asked, shaking dust out of his hair. "Because I certainly don't." He was still in his jacket, and somehow looked immaculate.
"Well, excuse me for being startled by a foot-long, disease infested, filthy RAT-"
"The shadow." Julian said suddenly. Natalie and Zai both stopped moving and turned around.
"The what?" Natalie asked. Julian shook his head.
"Now a 'what', a 'who'. The Shadow is a specialised Vesper agent, trained and assigned to trail, track, and hunt a chosen Cahill target." Julian told them. There was absolute silence when he stopped talking; Natalie and Zai were both unconsciously holding their breaths.
"Do they kill their targets?" Zai asked after a moment. The shadows in the tunnel seemed to writhe more menacingly at his words.
"Sometimes." Julian responded. "Or they could be sent to lure their target into traps, gather intelligence, or even simply to stir up confusion, chaos, and fear."
Natalie and Zai gulped. It was bad enough that the Vespers were after the Cahills, but a specialized agent sent specifically to hunt them?
"Could our Shadow be following us right now?"
"Doubtful." Julian looked around. "I sealed the entrance to this tunnel, and it needs fingerprint, iris, and voice identification to open. It's also made of five hundred pounds of reinforced titanium. And if it was somehow opened, the alarm system would alert us."
"So the outside is completely sealed out?" Natalie asked. Julian nodded. She pursed her lips.
"Wait." Natalie spoke slowly as she turned to face Julian. "How do we know you're not the Shadow?" Zai stopped moving, annoyed that that thought hadn't crossed his mind. Julian's face, half hidden by shadows, suddenly looked very ominous.
Julian held the teenagers' gazes for a tense moment, both of their breathing increasing in frequency. Then, a look of amusement spread across his face, immediately lessening any suspicions Natalie and Zai might have had.
"Zai, you won't be needing your gun," he nodded at Zai, who's hand had unconsciously gone to his hip. "I am definitely not your Shadow."
Zai, his eyes unblinking, kept his hand on his hip. Julian sighed.
"Do you want me to prove it?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he pulled out a card from a pocket on the side of his jumpsuit. He tossed it to Natalie, who caught it and held it up to show Zai.
'Mahmound El-Sharkawi' it read, and under it, 'Authorised Madrigal Agent'. Next to the text was a clear picture of Julian and a signature.
"That's William McIntyre's signature." Zai recognized it. He looked at Natalie, and they both nodded. Natalie tossed the card back to Julian.
"Satisfied?" he asked, pocketing the card.
"Almost. Is your real name Mahmoud?" Natalie asked. Julian chuckled.
"'Julian' is my disguise." Mahmoud began. "Fooling you was necessary in the beginning, especially since your Shadow was right behind us the whole time." By this point, the trio had started moving down the tunnel again.
"Can you tell us what our Shadow looks like?" Zai asked, though he already knew the answer. Mahmoud shrugged.
"Sorry, can't help you there. I don't even know if your Shadow is a male or female. But I do know that when you are in the open, your Shadow is never outside of a ten-yard range of you."
There was silence as the group moved through the dark cave. It had opened up more, allowing the three of them to walk upright. The tunnel was gently sloping downward, and the air took on a sudden chill.
"Where is this leading us anyway?" Natalie inquired. Instead of answering, Mahmoud simply led them a few more steps onward. The floor shifted from being dusty earth to shiny metal. After a moment, they came to a door. Mahmoud scanned his iris in the identification scanner, then led Zai and Natalie into one of the most amazing secret hangars either of them had ever seen.
...
Elias stared out the window as the plane descended into Kathmandu. Although he had never been there before, it was everything he'd expected: Loud, colorful, and confusing.
In other words, the perfect place for Vespers to hide.
Inside, Elias was starting to have serious doubts about this whole escapade. So far, it had been far too easy. Elias had experience with the Vespers, and he knew from that time that the Vespers didn't make anything easy for the Cahills. And since they'd set out looking for Mr. Cahill, they'd only encountered one Vesper ambush, and it wasn't even with real agents. It seemed almost like the Vespers were trying to draw the Cahills into Nepal by advertising their sudden increase in numbers.
"Attention, ladies and gentlemen," Matt's voice rang out over the speaker system in a parody of an airliner pilot's message, "We are beginning our descent into Kathmandu. We will be landing in approximately ten minutes. Please fasten your seat belts, keep your tray tables and seats in the upright locked position, and if you feel nervous, then you shouldn't have come in the first place. Thank you for flying Crazy Cahill airways, and we hope to see you again should you survive Kathmandu."
The speaker clicked off, and everyone sat still for a moment.
"He's right, you know." Alistair broke the silence. "We are entering the lion's lair."
"I think they're expecting us." Elias said quietly. "The Vespers, I mean." He turned to fact the others. Amy turned a couple shades paler, and Nellie had removed her earbuds.
"Why would you say that?" Ian asked. "We've-"
Elias glared at him and put a finger to his lips. Ian looked at him questioningly.
"These walls have ears." Elias hissed. He nodded discreetly toward the cockpit, where Matt was piloting the plane. Ian, who knew of Matt's disputable reputation, nodded. They both settled back in their seats, niether of them noticint the hungry look Dan was giving Alistair's cane.
...
"I can't fly a plane. No matter how much you wish I could, I can't." Zai folded his arms across his chest and frowned at Natalie. She scowled back.
"Really?" she asked in a mock surprise tone. "I was starting to think there was nothing you can't do, Zai!"
"Well, stop thinking." He muttered, frowning. He glanced at a clock on the hangar wall.
Blast! I have about ten seconds.
"You will not need to fly." Mahmoud interjected. "Not that I would let you, anyway." Zai glared at him, counting the seconds in his head.
Four...Five...Six...
"The plane has a programmable navagation system." Mahmoud continues, gesturing toward a sleek, black plane. It was about twenty feet long, and it's wings were a curved triangular shape. The whole plane was rounded, with a circular nose and tail. "You must simply-"
At that second, Zai dropped to his knee, muttering about brushing dust off his shoe. The instant his face was hidden from view, the pain struck. Zai's face twisted in a tortured grimace, and resisted the urge to scream. The pounding lasted for about five seconds, during which he kept his hand stiffly brushing his shoe. Then, the pain subsided as soon as it had started. Zai took a deep breath and stood up.
"-The plane will recognize the destination's flight tower, and will land accordingly." Mahmoud finished his explanation. "Simple."
"Before we go, can you do us a favor?" Natalie asked. Mahmoud raised his eyebrows.
"Can you contact the Lucian stronghold and tell them we're alive?" Natalie's face became pained. "I'm sure they think I'm dead. And Ian..."
"Of course." Mahmoud's face softened. "I'll contact them as I get back to my vehicle. The Shadow is in the area, and will intercept the message. My care has a scrambling program built into the communications link, so it will be safe there."
"Can we contact them from the plane?" Natalie asked. Mahmoud nodded.
"Absolutely. The plane also has scrambling technology, so anything you send will be hidden from the Shadow." Mahmoud led them up to the plane. The door, invisible against the background, slid open silently, and the plane's interior lit up.
"Well," Mahmoud began, "This is where we must part. Farewell, and good luck to you both."
"Thank you." Natalie and Zai said in unison. Well, Natalie said it, Zai mumbled it, his head still spinning from the flash. Mahmoud offered them one last small smile, then turned and disappeared into the darkness.
Natalie turned to her travelling companion. "Next stop: Nepal."
...
The Shadow, crouched in the darkness under the plane, narrowed the eyes trained on the targets. Those Cahill fools didn't honestly think that a hangar this big could be hidden from the most widespread organisation in the world?
The Shadow squinted, watching the adult Cahill walk away. As soon as he was out of eyesight, the Shadow raised a small, thin silver tube to the shadowed lips beneath the hood and exhaled hard, once. A small, silver dart, barely one centimeter long, streaked toward the target and struck on the neck. What was his name-Mahmoud?-sunk to his knees, then fell to the floor with a thud.
The lips, which had just delivered the incapacitating blow, curled into a smile. People like him, who were former Vespers and left the group to sell secrets to those stupid Cahills, deserved to be taken out. The Shadow's superiors were on his trail for years now, and the Shadow just took him out while trailing the Cahill brats. It was killing two birds with one stone.
Or one dart, the Shadow mused, grinning again.
...
Elizabeth was pleased with the progress her protege was making. First, the Shadow had found the Cahill children, and had tailed them undected for days. The Shadow also sniffed out Mahmoud, an old agent who betrayed the Vespers for the Cahills. She suspected Cora Wizard and her notorious bribery. The Shadow had dealt with him nicely: A tiny drop of Elizabeth's special brew, which contained stonefish venom, blue-ringed octopus venom and was stolen from her sister years ago, was one of her favorite weapons.
Elizabeth leaned back in her reclining chair, glancing appreciatively at a painting she had been working on. She grinned. That was another of the Shadow's accomplishments: Fetching her part of the precious Cahill serum from Hong Kong. Elizabeth pursed her lips, considering what the Shadow's reward should be. Maybe her protege could be the first Shadow to be included in the Vesper circle of leaders.
But that could come later.
...