A/N: Almost a month since I last updated. So sorry but real life caught up with me. I hate when that happens.
I hope you enjoy chapter 12! Reviews are appreciated!
+Zuko+
A close call well evaded, Zuko tried not to feel too relieved. He remembered another one of his uncle's advices warning against being blinded by one's own luck in a time when vigil is most required. As the current Fire Lord was snooping around with intentions less honorable than one might expect from royalty, he considered the close encounter to fit precisely under the category of "dumb luck during a reckless and dangerous mission" and was determined not to lose focus. At any minute, someone else might spot him as an intruder, a spy. The consequences of being caught was something Zuko cared little to know about.
From outside, building had seemed thin, jaggedly rising toward the heavens like an overgrown thorn and constructed of some shiny black stone that acted quite reliably as a substitute mirror. However, the interior contrasted so much with the outside that Zuko was silently reminded of a spiderbeatle back home, an eight-legged creature that sported a hard, soot-black shell which, when crushed to be used for medicine, oozed a shiny white substance so unlike the surface. Just like the spiderbeatle, the inside of the building was completely white; the floors; the walls; the décor; the elevator. In fact, the only non-white things in the entire place appeared to be either transparent or grey. From the elevator down the hall, the left seemed to be open space as the entire wall was fit floor to ceiling with thick, bullet-proof glass that nonetheless showed every tiny car and citizen moving below as though the city had been miniaturized and turned into a highly detailed model toy set. The amazing view of the city below stretched onward until stopping just short of the end of the hall. Zuko felt incredibly exposed while walking beside this stretch of seemingly open space and stuck to the right wall as much as possible.
At long last, Zuko located a men's restroom to hide in. Even here, the bathrooms were as white as any town buried in an avalanche. Checking to see that the lavatory was quite empty of anyone else, Zuko surreptitiously scanned the ceiling for cameras. As expected, there were none. Not even the sadistic and cruel masterminds of Microbe were likely to allow their superiors to spy on them here. Zuko stuck the mop he had brought in the farthest cubicle from the door.
It was show time.
+Clivian+
Clivian was busy viewing the latest job applicants in ways that most people would argue was downright privacy invasion when a loud bell blared across his vast office. It was a second or two before he realized that it was the fire alarm. The bloody fire alarm.
As predicted, his secretary burst in with the polite but urgent message that the building needed to be evacuated at once due to a fire. Clivian nodded and told her to flee ahead of him. As soon as she left, Clivian pocketed his cellphone and pocket laptop. You could never be too prepared. Upon exiting his office, he was almost overtaken by a stampede of frantic workers trying to outrun an invisible fire. Really. This unprofessional sight of selfish pricks almost provoked him a mass firing of idiots. When they had all sprinted past him, intent on being the first down the stairs, Clivian followed them with resentment. The complete moron who had set off the alarm was sure to get a sacking, no doubt about it.
Clivian was just two steps down the stairs when his cellphone vibrated. Clambering down the stairs as quickly as possible, he answered the call.
"Mr. Beckett." The gruff voice of Salwink spoke on the other end. "We've located the girl."
Despite himself, Clivian's heart leapt. "Good, good. I've got a bit of a problem on my end I've got to clear up before-"
"That's precisely the problem, sir. That fire at your end has caused quite a commotion outside and kidnapping at this point might be impossible."
"Do you mean to say that the girl is right outside this building?"
"Affirmative, sir. My men are watching her as we speak but we might lose her. There are a lot of people evacuating."
Clivian cursed inwardly. Of all the days for some wretched dope to set fire to the whole building was the day when-
Clivian stopped halfway down the seventeenth floor. Even as the thunder of fleeing feet grew fainter with every floor they stampeded down, there wasn't the faintest scent of smoke. Of course, it could have been a harmless flame which had already been sufficiently doused by the sprinklers but by the sound of things, the whole building was evacuating. Yet Clivian did not remember hearing any explosions and idiots though they were, the employees knew how to extinguish their own small mishaps, surely. Yet the fire alarms had gone off, not just in one area but apparently the entire building.
And then it clicked. Someone had tampered with the fire alarms. It was outrageous that someone would go around unseen pulling all the fire alarms manually. Setting them off simultaneously could only be achieved if there had been a ludicrous conspiracy where his employees had all plotted to have a day off by standing underneath a smoke detector and waiting for the cue to strike a match underneath it. Then could it be the working of a business spy?
These thoughts flashed through Clivian's head in barely 5 seconds but it was 5 seconds wasted in his opinion because the answer eluded him and Salwink had noticed his thoughtful silence.
"Sir? Sir?"
"Salwink, get the girl." Clivian said hurriedly, turning back up the steps as he said it. "Grab her now! Grab her before she gets away!"
And then, Salwink spoke again, this time with a mixture of uncertainty and wariness. "Sir, my men have just reported that the girl has entered the building."
"Entered what building?" Clivian gasped as he scrambled up the stairs. His life's work. His office. His laboratory. His life's work…
"Sir, it's been confirmed that the subject has entered the Microbe building, the one you're in right now."
"Where… is… the fire… deparment?" Clivian was almost there. Just a couple more steps. He wouldn't let some filthy thief take it away. He was so close.
"Sir, they're almost here."
"Stop them." Clivian burst through the doors, back into the hall. "I'll call the police. Do not let them into-"
Somewhere along the hall, there was an audible explosion. Clivian terminated the call, alarmed. Had he been wrong? Had instinct and paranoia wronged him at last? Was there really a fire here in which case he would die before getting out?
But then he was saved from the shame of having to admit his miscalculations by the grunt of a human, the spy who had stayed behind to take what hoard of top secret research he could lay his hand on. With the cover of the clever fire drill, he was free to blast his way into any office he chose and it would hardly matter when the authorities found out because he would be long gone to whatever despicable country he came from. But unfortunately for that bastard, Clivian would break his neck in two, right then and there. It would be a wonderful experience killing some worthless washout again after all these years. As he approached his office, his office which the sneak thief had chosen, he withdrew from the inner pocket of his suit a pair of old reading glasses. He carefully unscrewed the left leg. The leg came apart at the middle and he withdrew the slender leg in his right hand. At the tip of the part he was holding was a tiny needle. Clivian intended on injecting the 150 micrograms of batrachotoxin it contained into the neck of the spy, thus ridding the world forever of yet another useless specimen. Never having tested the weapon, Clivian nevertheless knew enough of the toxin to make an educated guess of the results. It wouldn't be a pleasant one for the victim but for Clivian, just thinking about it made his lips curl.
Upon reaching his private office, he was infuriated by what he saw. The thief had blown apart the door and had wrenched it out. The remains of the door lay twisted and discarded in front of the doorway, serving as a doormat now instead of a security feature.
Clivian carefully slipped inside his office, hoping that the fool hadn't already blown down the door to the lab. Instead he faced the tiny cramped office just as he had last left it. Apart from the missing door lying feet behind him, the office appeared to have been untouched. There was no sign of another soul.
"Surprise."
The voice caught him off guard and Clivian did not have enough time to even whip around let alone administer the deadly dose of toxin before he was knocked into his own desk by a blow to the small of his back.
With the impact of body to desk, the short leg of the glasses flew out of his hand, over the desk edge and out of sight. Seething with rage at this sudden turn of tables, Clivian slowly turned to face the spy.
He had seen this boy before but the overwhelming shock was a different kind this time. Zuko, the firebending alien from another universe stood before him, scar still taut and grotesque upon his face but made more unbearable by the triumphant smile that adorned his lips.
A/N: Thanks again for reading.