Hello! I am planned on making this chapter longer than usual because I feel bad about the very short chapter from last weeks posting. ;) I'm so grateful for all the comments I have gotten since the last chapter! The short chapter must have been magical. ;) Anyway, I have decided to do the "Thank You's" at the end of the stories now for those of you who want to read the story first. Alright then! Now where did we leave off...
"Half a mile left." Strize says to Michael, as he grips the wheel. Michael slightly nods, still worried. He tries to shake off the feeling that something bad has happened, but it keeps coming back. Just as he gets the feeling again, Strize stops the car abruptly.
"We're here!" He yells. Michael jumps out of the car and he can hear the operatives in the back of the van hop out too.
"Okay everyone! We have to find these terrorists. There is no time to make a plan, and even if we did have a plan, these guys are too smart. So try to stay quiet, all we have on our side is the element of surprise. If you find anything, anything at all, you have your earpieces. Split yourselves into three groups, and then Strize and I will go together. Each of us will enter through one side of the building. Okay lets go!" Michael shouts, and the CIA operatives run past through the gate with Michael and Strize on their heels.
Fiona sits in a wooden chair, her hands tied behind it. Her mouth is duck taped shut, and her hair is in a mess. After the terrorists had caught them, they took the other operatives away. Then the man had dragged Fiona to another empty room and tied her up. The man had left but Fiona knew he was going to be back very soon. If she was going to escape, she would have to act fast. Fiona surveys the room with her eyes, searching for an escape. But she finds nothing but bare concrete ground and distorted walls, full of chipped paint. Getting the rope off won't be the problem. The problem will be getting out without being caught, She thinks. Her eyes flicker to the door, but she knows very well that she will not be able to get out that way, at least not without her explosives kit. There is no handle on the inside of the door, so there would be no possible way to break through it. Here eyes search the walls again, hunting for a some sort of vent, anything. But she finds nothing.
"Michael! Look at this! Our operative that was guarding this exit! He's unconscious." Strize says to Michael. Michael starts to walk towards the unconscious CIA operative. While he is walking, he notices size 8 woman's bootprints in the dirt. He grits his teeth and quickly steps over the prints. The steps are smaller than he usually takes, and he hopes Strize doesn't notice. Michael reaches the unconscious man and kneels down. He notices that pressure was put on the mans neck area, and that he was probably grabbed from behind him. This means that who would not have seen Fiona choke him. Michael sighs with releif, and Strize looks at him, confused.
"Ah, sorry." Michael says. "Just glad he's not dead."
Strize shrugs. "We should go in now. We're wasting time. We will pick him up later." Strize says, pointing to the unconscious operative.
Michael nods and he walks past Strize to the door. The first thing he notices is that the lock was picked, probably by some sort of hair bobby pin. The second thing he notices is that the person that was picking the lock must have been in a hurry, because they left the door a tad bit open. Michael quickly closes the door fully before Strize can notice. Then pulls out a piece of wire from his pocket and pretends to try to unlock the door, even though it is already unlocked. He plays around with it for a moment or so, and then he pretends that the door has opened. Strize walks into the building and Michael follows.
"You'd think they would have a better security around here." Strize mumbles, and for a second Michael thinks he has been caught. But even if he has, Strize shows no signs of it. And as they had taught Michael awhile back, even if you think or you know you have been caught, play along and pretend nothing is wrong.
"Yeah," Michael replies. "Funny. Now lets go check this place out."
Fiona can hear his footsteps coming down the hall. She knows he is coming for her, and she is slightly scared of what he will do to her. But she knows the best way to make the enemy intimidated is to act fearless. So she does just that. She tilts her chin up, crosses her legs in her chair, straightens her shoulders out, and tries to have a defiant look her eyes. She even tries to smile a bit under the duct tape, but it hurts her mouth so she stops. At least my mouth will get a free lip waxing job out of this, She thinks jokingly to always found that sometimes saying a joke to herself helps her to calm down relax. By now, she can hear that the man is right outside the door. She holds her breath, waiting for what will come next. She can see him hover outside as he unlocks the door with the key. The door creeps open and he steps inside. Fiona remembers her defiant pose and she slowly lets out her breath, hoping that he will not notice. He stares hard at her for a few seconds, and even though her head is telling her desperately to look away, she stares back at him fearlessly.
"So..." The man says smiling cruelly with his heavy Russian accent. "You came to kill me?"
Fiona opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out. She can't decide whether to tell him that they were actually going to capture him, or just play along. Either way she dies. She decides on playing along and saying as little as possible. So she just stares back at him, expressionless.
This obviously was not the best strategy, because the next thing she knows he slaps her.
"ANSWER ME!" He yells, striking his hand for a second time across her cheek. Her head whips instantly to the side, the impact of strike slapping against her soft cheek.
"I...Yes," She replies, spitting out the first thing that came to her mind. No mercy now. Before her strategy was to stay quiet and keep calm, but no, now its fair game.
"Good." He says, smiling as he pulls a knife from his pocket. Fiona struggles to keep her eyes from widening with fright. She had hoped it would be a quick death, bullet straight to the heart. But it seems like the man had different plans.
"Where I come from, a man who tries to kill one, must be killed. It is for the safety of the world, to kill those who have tried to cause harm. If you have done your research, then you know that the CIA, the US government, the UNACT, and all those organizations have never found a reason for why we kill. But now, I am telling you this, for you will have no one to tell it too after I am done with you today." He says, smiling a toothy grin. "We kill those who have done wrong. We do not kill for pleasure, but we kill for the feeling of security that one less person in the world has paid the price for their terrible act. So now my dear, I must do to you what I have done to so many over the years, I must kill you."
Michael runs up a flight of stairs with Strize on his heels.
Fiona has to be here somewhere! He thinks.
He runs down a hallway opening doors as he goes. Then at the end of the hall they reach an intersection. Michael is about to turn to Strize asking him if they should split up, but then he notices something. He bends down, running his fingers across the old rotten blue carpet. There are light scuff marks on the floor, in the direction of the left hallway. It seems as if someone was being dragged, and they were putting up a fight. Michael stands up and glances over at Strize who has just finished double checking the doors that Michael opened.
Good, Michael thinks. He hasn't noticed.
Then Strize catches his eye and nods.
"Thinking about which way we should go, huh?" Strize asks.
Michael nods. "I think we should each go a different way, so we can cover more ground. I'll go left, you go right. Sounds good?" Michael says, praying silently in his head that Strize doesn't ask any questions. God must be on his side today, because Strize just nods silently and and heads to the right hallway. Michael nods back and heads into the direction of the left hallway. Once he is sure that Strize is out of sight, Michael takes off down the hall, peeking in the doorways trying to find Fiona.
I know those were her boot marks, I just know it, Michael thinks to himself.
He checks every door throughly, making sure he does not miss any hollow walls, hidden closets, or unrecognizable doorways. He reaches the end of the hall which he realizes comes to another intersection. He almost groans aloud, but then he remembers the scuff marks, and he kneels down, tracing his fingers across the carpet. Sure enough, the light scuff marks are there. They follow the intersection to the left, so Michael stands up and cautiously starts to walk in that direction. Abruptly, the scuff marks stop, but Michael notices that it was not like they stopped to enter a room, but as if instead of dragging her they picked her up to stop her from struggling. Michael starts swear , but stops himself remembering that he has to be as silent. He'll just have to check the doors now, since he has no path.
He starts by opening the nearest door. Nope, just another closet. He opens the next one, which consists of a table and a few chairs. He walks farther down the hall, checking all the doors, making sure to make no noise. He is about the give up when he hears a sound. He sounds like someone shouted, but it was a muffled shout, and you would only have been able to hear it if you listened very carefully. He silently walks down the hall again, his eyes darting back and forth between the two walls, searching for something, anything. And then he finds it. It seems as if it is built into the concrete wall, and there is the tiniest little nob on the front that you would pull to open it.
How could I have missed this?! Michael thinks.
He presses his ear to the hidden door and he can hear very quiet muffled talking. He knows this is where Fiona is, and he knows what he has to do.
Fiona sits in the chair, as the Russian man lectures on about why he kills people. She wants to spit at his feet, glare at him harshly, yell at him all the most awful words she can think of. But she doesn't. She stays silent, hoping, wishing, waiting, for someone to come find her. The Russian is getting to the end of his lecture, and Fiona knows her fate is near. But then Fiona hears this tapping, and she realizes it is coming from the door. She listens intently, trying to make out the message. Then she understands, and she knows what she must do. But Fiona does not know if it will save her in time. Immediatly after she has this thought, the Russian ends his lecture.
"Now," He says. "I must kill you. I am sorry, young woman. But i must do this, for you, and for me. On the count of three." He twirls his knife in his hand, then points it toward her heart.
Fiona stares at him desperately, trying to think of a way to stall him. But she can't. There is no way.
"ONE!" He shouts, slowly moving the knife closer to her heart.
Surely the person on the other side of the door, whoever it is, can hear him? Surely they know that I am going to die, Fiona thinks, trying to reassure herself.
"TWO!"
The knife is even closer than before to her heart she knows she is going to die. But then, milliseconds before she knows he is going to stab her in the heart, she hears a beeping noise.
"THREE!"
His hand stabs in her direction, but he doesn't hit her. She tips her chair to the side, tilting her hide to the right so that her head does not hit the hard concrete floor. Fiona can see the confusion for a second on his face, but then the door explodes open and the Russian is knocked to the floor, not having enough time to put his hands out to save himself.
Fiona looks up, searching for the face of her rescuer in the doorway. The person is Michael.
"Michael!" She yells, with relief, crying with tears of joy.
"Fiona!" He replies, running toward her. He quickly unties her rope and gently rips off the duct tape on her mouth. She sits up, facing him.
"I can't believe you found me," Fiona says.
"Me neither." Michael replies. Neither feels like talking, so Fiona leans into Michael, her lips touching his. They kiss for what seems like forever, and they finally break apart. Michael stands up, and then reaches his hand out for Fiona. She takes it gently, putting her feet on the ground. At first she wobbles slightly, the shock from the blast still with her. But Michael takes her other hand, steadying her. He puts his hands on her hips, and she wraps her arms around his neck. He presses his lips to her forehead, as she closes her eyes, her eyelashes touching her soft skin. They stand there, in the middle of the room, not letting go, wanting to stay this way forever.
Thank You's:
Thank you CONFUSOUL for adding my story to your Story Alerts and Author Alerts! I really do appreciate it. I checked out your stories and I personally love the story called A Westen Glenanne Special. Funny how children can be nothing like their parents...
Thanks Angela for commenting! I know, sorry! I hope this chapter was long enough for you. ;) Haha yeah, seems like I never get enough time for all my priorities. It sure is tough keeping up a story when you have people waiting on you! :) But its fun and I do enjoy it very much. Thanks for reading!
Thank you Terry for commenting! I know, I am very sorry about there being no romance in the last chapter. I will try to have more romance in my chapters from now on. :) Thanks again!
And again, a big thank you to all of you guys who read the story!
-Pointshoe11