A/N: I have a confession to make. I've run out of completed chapters. Or at least, Chapter 11 is only half done. It's why I didn't update last week. When I get a day to myself I'll finish it and I WILL post next Wednesday, I promise! But if I don't... don't be too annoyed? I'm not good at writing to a deadline – normally the chapter is finished before I've even set a deadline.
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me.
***
Emily dismissed her men. Alex got the impression that, while they were fantastic at following orders, they had never really been called upon to help with the planning.
Davies had stayed for a bit, before Emily instructed him to go and oversee the men. Alex was relieved. Personally, he couldn't stand the man - he was too argumentative – but he wasn't the one who had to put up with him twenty-four seven, so he kept his mouth shut.
"So," said Wolf, turning to study the maps, the rest of K-Unit peering over his shoulders. "How are we going to do this?"
"All the entrances have been blocked," said Emily, frowning. "I was hoping that the explosives you brought would be able to blast through it."
"Not a chance," said Eagle, firmly. "It will be four feet of concrete reinforced with steel girders."
"Oh," said Emily, deflating. "So we can't go through the subway?"
"Now hang on a second," said Eagle. "They may have blocked off the stations and the breaks in the tube, but I bet they haven't thought about the emergency hatches."
"Emergency hatches?" asked Graham, frowning.
"Yeah," said Eagle. "They look like manholes, but instead of leading to the sewers they lead to the subway – they were put in, in case there was an accident on the line and the passengers couldn't get out. There's normally on about every two hundred metres of track. They're rarely – if ever – used because normally it's easier to either wait, or to walk to the nearest station. I'm willing to bet that only the people who designed the system remember about them."
Alex was staring at Eagle in shock. "How on earth do you know that?" he asked.
"Hey, I'm not just a pretty face, you know!" said Eagle and Wolf snorted.
"Eagle, there is no way that your face would ever be described as pretty. Sorry."
"No, seriously," said Alex, "How do you know it?"
Eagle shrugged. "I'm the mechanics expert of the team," he said. "I did engineering and architecture at university."
"Architecture?" asked Graham, smothering a smirk. "And you became a soldier?"
"Engineering," said Eagle, pouting. "It's useful!"
"Leave Eagle alone," smiled Fox, "It actually has been useful... once or twice, anyway."
Alex laughed and moved closer to the maps, deftly extracting one with the subway system marked on it and laying it on top.
"Where's the building on this one?" he murmured to Emily.
She studied the map for a moment, then placed her finger on a thick black line. "Here," she said. "The subway passes right underneath it."
"How deep underground is the subway?" he asked, turning towards Eagle, who frowned momentarily in thought.
"Anywhere between twenty and sixty metres in England," he said, finally. "I think it is generally around forty in the US."
"So we have about forty metres of foundation to blast through?" said Alex, dismayed.
"No, it's got three levels of basement," said Emily. "Our information suggests that prisoners are kept on the lowest level, anyway."
"So averaging the basement levels being about seven metres each, including crawl space, we would have about nineteen metres."
"We could shape the charge," said Panther. "We can bulk out our explosives with some of the homemade variety."
"We can drill through about fifteen metres, first," said Alex, "Then insert the charge. If we shape it right, it should knock out the remaining four metres and knock the rubble out beneath."
"Yeah, on our heads!" exclaimed Tom.
Panther shook his head. "We can fashion a fuse easily enough. I'm impressed you thought of that, though, Cub. Where'd you hear of it?"
"History of Warfare 2.0," said Alex. "They used it in the French revolution to blow up the mansions of nobility."
"Where on earth did you learn History of Warfare?" asked Wolf, incredulously. Alex just shrugged uncomfortably. He never had told Wolf about Scorpia, and he didn't plan on telling them now.
"Can't tell you, sorry," he said.
Wolf frowned slightly, but let it go.
"You've too many secrets, kid," he muttered, turning back to the maps.
Alex didn't reply. Part of him knew Wolf was right, but he'd never admit it.
Shortly after, Emily showed them up to the attic. The floor was scattered with large mattresses and there was a pile of bedding in the corner. They paused only to grab a blanket a piece before falling down onto the mattresses, exhausted.
***
Alex woke to find himself sandwiched between Yassen and Wolf, with Eagle and Tom on the slightly smaller mattress to the side and the others scattered around them. The other mattresses in the room were crammed with soldiers. Alex briefly remembered them coming in, but after registering that they weren't a threat, he hadn't really taken any notice of them, preferring to sleep.
He noticed Yassen looking at him and raised an eyebrow. The assassin jerked his head towards the door where, Alex now noticed, a small scuffling noise was coming from. It must have been what had woken him.
He tried to sit up, only to realise that his arm was trapped under Wolf's bulky form.
Scowling in annoyance, he rolled his eyes at Yassen then kicked Wolf sharply in the shin, covering the soldier's mouth with his free hand.
Wolf started and woke up, glaring at Alex until the teen gestured to his pinned arm. Wolf levered himself gracelessly up and Alex slipped his arm free.
Agilely, he pulled himself into a crouch and saw Yassen pick his way silently to stand on the far side of the door. Alex rose to mirror him.
The handle jiggled.
The hinges creaked.
Emily poked her head around the door and both Alex and Yassen relaxed.
"Emily," said Alex, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Morning," she said, coming around the door. She was holding a large tray and Yassen stepped forward to relieve her of the weight.
"I thought you might want to eat something," she said. "My men ate before they came up, but you went up before them."
"Thanks," said Alex as Wolf, seeing food, quickly began to wake up the rest of them.
"You'll have to stay up here until it goes dark and we have an excuse to close the curtains," said Emily. "All men have been sent to the front line and any remaining here will get sent if they get found."
"And what about you, when do you sleep?" asked Alex, frowning, noting the bags under her eyes for the first time in the cold morning light.
"When I can," said Emily, coldly.
"'When I can' doesn't work," said Alex. "You'll be no good to us if you fall over from exhausted."
"I don't have time right now," said Emily. "I've got women out looking out for manholes and ironing out flaws in the plan. I'll sleep when we have Matt back."
"Then you can stay here when we go to break him out," said Alex, frowning.
"No!"
"You don't have a choice," said Yassen, from behind her and Emily frowned.
"We'll talk about it later," she said. "Right now, I want to talk about the plan."
"Problems?" asked Alex, leading her over to their corner of the room and sitting down on the mattress. A moment later Graham passed him a bowl of porridge and he nodded his thanks.
"Yes," said Emily. "One in particular: how will we know when we are under the building? There will be no markers in the underground, no way of knowing where we are."
"A tracker and communication device could solve that," said Fox, digging into his porridge with the eagerness that could only come from someone who had tasted the food at Brecon Beacons.
"Yes, but we don't have one of them, do we?" said Tom.
"Actually..." said Yassen and Alex rounded on him.
"Actually what?" he asked suspiciously.
"Actually... there's a tracking device in the necklace me and Amethyst gave you for your seventeenth birthday," he said, ducking his head guiltily.
"There's WHAT?!" yelled Alex. "WHY?!"
"Amethyst was worried. You kept disappearing with no explanation."
"You... You followed me?" yelped Alex, paling dramatically.
"Yes," said Yassen. "I have to admit I wasn't expecting that, though the girl was pretty. What was her name?"
"Fleur-Louise," muttered Alex, blushing. "I can't believe you followed me!"
He glared around the circle of men, most of who were trying to hide smiles or – in the case of Tom and Fox – laughing outright.
"Can we get back to the mission?" he said, plaintively.
"Of course," said Emily. "How difficult would it be to wire a transmitter to locate the signal? And find a way to communicate?"
"Shouldn't be too difficult," frowned Panther.
"No, we should only need a normal radio, a bit of wire and a screwdriver," said Eagle. "Normal SAS radios should work for normal communication."
"I'll bring you the things up and you can start on it now," said Emily. "Oh, and try not to wake my men. They can get cranky."
***
A/N: So, tell me what you think – and any suggestions! I know what is going to happen in basic terms, but still have to write it so all comments are welcome and will actually have an effect!