“Then someone in Central is a goddamned traitor,” Chloe spat. “Because Gabriella de la Mancha is in Chicago. You idiot.”
“De la Mancha, like Don Quixote?” I asked, trying desperately to ignore how angry Chloe seemed to be. She was simmering with rage, the likes of which I had never seen before. I didn’t believe in auras or anything, but I almost felt suffocated under the hatred that was peeling off of her as she charged past us, Glock 9mm in hand. Though don’t quote me on that, a Glock 9mm was the first gun that popped into my head when I saw the one she was holding, and I don’t think I’d even seen one before.
“No, not like Don Quixote,” she snarled, and it made me shiver.
“No. What the delightful Chloe Devereux is trying to tell us is that your mother is in Chicago, so essentially, I’ve brought you to the one place I shouldn’t have brought you,” Stephen said, glancing back at me.
“Pretty much. You’d be safer free-climbing inside an active volcano,” Chloe replied.
The gunfire started so suddenly that I was already on the ground with both Chloe and Stephen using their bodies to shield me before I realized we were being shot at. Chloe swung her arm over the railing and fired back. Her weapon boomed like thunder and a section of the wall directly behind where she’d fired fell to the ground. Sunlight streamed in through the hole, marring the soft light of the boutique with its harsh glare.
“Abby, I’m going to need you to follow me. We’re going to crawl forward, there’s an exit on the left.” Chloe’s voice was no nonsense as she started moving forward on her hands and knees.
I started to follow her and something stuck the wall just above my head. I guess I’d inadvertently straightened into viewing position while moving. I hit the floor as bits of plaster rained down on me. My heart started to pound in my chest as I lay there unmoving, trying to catch my breath. I’d nearly died.
“What in god’s name are you doing?” Chloe screamed, glancing back at me, rage painted across her features. “Hurry up!” Chloe snapped and her face reminded me of movie drill sergeants. Which, I guess made sense. I mean we were being shot at. People all around us were dead. People she probably knew pretty well. All of this, somehow, was my fault, and instead of putting a bullet in the back of my head, she was trying to get us out alive.
“Sorry,” I muttered and ducked my head a little lower trying to hide my face from her gaze.
“Chloe, you don’t need to be so hard on her,” Stephen said from behind me.
“Look, idiot,” Chloe snarled. “When I want your goddamned opinion, I’ll give it to you. Now shut up and shoot the bad guys before they kill us.”
We were nearly to the spot Chloe had indicated earlier when she pulled out a small compact. She angled the mirror so she could see around the bend toward the stairs of the first floor. I could almost make out what looked like a hundred men with guns crammed together in the small landing below.
“I really hope we’re not going down there,” I mumbled.
“Why? They won’t murder you. Probably.” Chloe’s face was wearing a weird expression. One that I took to mean she was considering just cutting me loose and letting me fend for herself. She sighed and threw up her hands. “I guess that’s why I’m a good guy.”
Stephen snickered behind me. “Yeah, I’m sure all those people who nicknamed you the Praying Mantis totally think you’re a ‘good guy.’”
“It’s a very noble bug,” Chloe said and lurched sideways through the wall. I don’t know exactly what happened, but one second she was in front of me, and the next she’d disappeared.
A hand darted out of the wall and grabbed me by the arm and tugged me forward. I screamed and threw my hands out as I tumbled forward through the wall and onto Chloe. We wound up in a heap with her tiny body trapped under mine. Her skirt had ridden up her thighs, revealing the edges of her panties to my view.
“Is it good for you?” Chloe asked as she tried to push me off of her. “Or do you want to keep laying here until those men figure out what happened and come to kill me?”
Before I could respond, Stephen burst through the wall, the twin guns in his hands still firing as he landed on his back next to us. He rolled and came to his feet, holstering one of the weapons. He held a hand out to me, and I reached out to take it. His touch sent a warm tingle running down my spine.
Chloe threw herself to her feet and charged past us, gun held in a two-handed grip. We were in a long, steel tunnel. Bright LEDs lit it up as far as I could see. Chloe tapped one of her hands against a section in the wall, and a giant metal door slid shut behind us.
“How long will that hold them?” I asked, staring awkwardly at the space.
Chloe shrugged. “Way less time than we need to get out of here.”
Stephen tugged on my hand, pulling me forward along with him while Chloe took up the rear. I was sandwiched between them as we made our way down the mile-long corridor. Which was probably the idea, now that I thought about it.
“So, you two know each other?” I asked.
“No,” they both answered in unison.
“So how… um…”
“This is one of our depots. It functions as a normal store as well, but it’s mostly here as a supply run. Mr. Franco is the code name we use for identification.” Stephen’s voice was warm, but strained as though he wasn’t paying that much attention to what he was saying. I guess that was somewhat reasonable because he was trying to keep me alive. I liked being alive, and I liked that he was trying to keep me that way.
“And you knew who she was because of her pendant? Is that why you called her the Praying Mantis?” I asked.
“Well, it was a guess,” Stephen said with a shrug.
Behind me, I heard Chloe bristle. “And what if I’d been a decoy?” Her shrill voice cut through me like an icepick.
“No one would dare impersonate the Praying Mantis, and we both know it,” Stephen said and his voice made a shiver scamper down my back.
7
The metal chair flew across the room and slammed into the wall next to us with a metallic clang that made my teeth chatter. A squeak of surprise escaped my throat moments before Stephen tackled me to the ground, covering my body with his and blocking most of the room from view.
“You pull something like this again, and I’ll clip your wings, Praying Mantis or not,” the man in the center of the room snarled. His voice was ragged and tired sounding, and if he hadn’t flung his chair at us the moment we’d entered the room, I’d have assumed we’d woken him from a long overdue nap.
“Marco,” Chloe rasped as she put one hand out toward us as if signaling for us to let her handle this. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better? Is that supposed to make up for the fact that you don’t call, that you don’t write?” There was a crash a few feet away and Stephen shifted on top of me.
“Can you stop throwing things for one damn—” A loud bang cut off Chloe in mid-sentence as what sounded like a trashcan smacked into the spot she’d been occupying just a moment before. Empty soda cans spilled into my field of vision, clattering across the floor.
“Chloe…” Stephen said and his voice had that “you better do something right now” tone to it. I was in agreement. If Stephen kept shielding me with his body, I was going to lose circulation in my legs. Already those weird little pinpricks that meant your foot was falling asleep were starting to nip at me. Besides wasn’t Marco a good guy? I was assuming he was since Chloe hadn’t shot him, so why was he throwing things at us?
“If you throw one more thing I am going to shoot you,” Chloe said, and her voice was empty and emotionless. I swallowed. I didn’t want anyone using that voice on me. It made me think of a tornado ripping apart homes and not giving a damn about it. Not at all.
“Fine,” the man I presumed was Marco said. “But if you shoot me, I won’t be able to help you with whatever it is you want.”
“What I want is to get o
ut of here with the package intact. There’s an entire army trying to get in here right now. I need you to do something to ensure they—” Chloe’s voice was suddenly drowned out by the sound of an explosion.
It was so loud that it left my ears ringing. The room shook, walls swaying as bits of plaster fell from the ceiling. Stephen tensed before throwing himself further on top of me in an attempt to better shield me from whatever was coming.
“That should buy us a few minutes,” Marco said.
“Did you really just blow up the store?” Chloe asked.
“Yes.”
“You what?” I yelled, pushing Stephen off of me with both hands. He glanced at me before very slowly moving off of me and helping me to my feet.
“The delightful Ms. Devereux said we were being invaded by an army. There’s only one army in town, and they are after a young girl. You are a young girl. Ipso facto, I blew up the store.” Marco glanced at me in a way that said ‘deal with it’ and crossed his arms over his sky-blue sweater.
“Do you have a way out of here?” Stephen asked, glancing at the only door in the room. We had come straight down a hallway that led only to this room. If Marco had really blown up the store, there was no way we could go back the way we came. Even if there wasn’t an army of mercenaries out there waiting to gut me like a trout.
“Do I have a way out?” Marco exclaimed, flinging his arms out in front of himself in exasperation. “Do I have a way out of my own super-secret bunker when there’s only one obvious entrance inside? When I just blew up that entrance?” Marco narrowed his dark brown eyes at Stephen and raised his left hand to point at him. “Where did they find you? Did you just fall off the turnip truck? Of course, I have a way out.”
Marco turned toward the large stainless steel desk behind him and snatched the laptop off its surface. He spun back around, holding the laptop in one hand and gesturing at its screen with his other hand. “You see this red dot. That’s the package,” he pointed at me, then back at the screen. “These two blue dots are Chloe and you,” he added, spitting the last word out like a piece of sour candy. “See anything else interesting?”
The screen itself was an overview that reminded me of those maps you see at the mall. There was a small rectangle in the center with two blue dots, a red dot, and a green dot. But, from the looks of the screen, there was another passageway directly behind Marco.
“So there’s a trap door behind you?” I blurted out.
Marco glanced at me once more before narrowing his eyes at Stephen. “Which one of you is the secret agent? Because it sure seems like the package is the brains of the operation.” He threw his hands up in the air, flinging the laptop back on the desk as he did so. “Why that idiot son of mine sent you to protect the package is beyond me.”
“Wait… are you saying what I think you’re saying?” I asked, looking over at Stephen.
“Yeah, he is,” Stephen said through clenched teeth. “That’s Donovan’s dad.”
“I’ll thank you to not compare me to my son,” Marco said as he punched a command into his keyboard. “If you’re the kind of person he sends to thwart Gabriella de la Mancha, then I never should have gotten him that job as handler.”
“Look, sir. You don’t have to like me, but I’m very good at what I do. I’ve never failed a case before,” Stephen said, moving just a little closer to Marco.
“You’re, like, twelve. You’ve had all of one other case. You couldn’t even save one girl without falling in love, and after months of therapy, my idiot son decides your first case back should be to guard another young girl.” Marco pounded his fist on the keyboard, and a door opened up in front of him with a whoosh.
Stephen turned bright red and a tremor ran down his spine, visibly shaking him. If I hadn’t been staring at him, I probably wouldn’t have seen it. That meant it was probably true. Not only had Stephen only had one case before, but he’d fallen in love with the girl. Wasn’t that one of those cardinal rules of spy club? Don’t fall in love with the girl?
Oh my god. I was the rebound girl.
“I’m sure he’ll do fine Marco,” Chloe said, and her voice made me jump. I’d totally forgotten she was there.
“Of course he will,” Marco snarled, shoving us through the door. “Because you’re going with him.”
“This was not how I expected my day to be going,” Chloe said as I followed along behind her in the dimly lit underground passageway. Red lights lit up the sections as we moved so that about ten feet on either side of us was illuminated and the rest of it was dark. It made me glad that Stephen was behind me. If something came to kill us, it’d either get him or Chloe first, which, I suspected, was why I was sandwiched in the middle.
“You didn’t expect the store to get blown up? Shocking,” Stephen mumbled under his breath.
Chloe wheeled on him, fixing him with a gaze that made my blood run cold, and it wasn’t even directed at me. Stephen stopped, his left foot moving slightly in front of him so he was poised on his feet. His hands moved just a fraction of an inch, edging upward into some kind of fighting position.
“No. I hadn’t expected that either,” Chloe spat, her eyes running up and down his body. Taking the entirety of him in. “But I, especially, hadn’t expected to be carting around you and her,” she jerked a thumb at me, “through a sewer all day.”
“Sorry,” I said with a nervous glance back down the corridor. I wasn’t sure how far we’d come or where we were exactly, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t far enough away from the bad guys. “Maybe we should keep walking anyway though.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, package!” Chloe snarled, her eyes narrowing into slits.
“Fine,” I said, putting my hands up in front of me in a conciliatory gesture. “What do you suggest we do?”
Chloe sighed and hung her head before turning back down the corridor. “We keep going,” she droned. She trudged forward, shoes scraping on the rough concrete of the tunnel.
“Maybe we could play a game?” I offered, unsure of what to do. Chloe’s attitude was getting me a little upset. I mean, she was supposed to be protecting me so she was doing her job. But, I mean, I don’t know, wasn’t this supposed to be fun? Everything I knew about spies told me that their jobs were fun. At least they seemed fun in the books I’d read.
“Like what?” Stephen asked from behind me. “It’s not like we can play I Spy.”
“I spy with my little eye, something red,” I said with a smirk.
“Is it a light?” Stephen asked.
“It is. Your turn,” I said.
“Oh. My. God. Will the two of you just shut the hell up?” Chloe screamed, putting her hands on her temples and rubbing. “Always yapping and talking. Just shut up before I tear out your skulls with my bare hands and leave your bodies in a dumpster.”
“That’s against protocol,” Stephen said.
“I’m going to ‘against protocol’ your face if you don’t shut the hell up!” Chloe yelled so loudly the sound echoed in the tiny tunnel.
“Uh… guys?” I asked cautiously.
“What?” Chloe whirled around to look at me with narrowed eyes, her pink lips twisted in rage.
“What are those?” I pointed at the ceiling behind us where a gaggle of dark creatures scurried toward us.
“Run!” Stephen screamed, grabbing my hand and taking off down the tunnel like a bat out of hell.
That was pretty much when the explosions started. Fire leapt down the tunnel behind us, superheating the air and making it impossible to breathe. Stephen glanced over his shoulder, face stricken in fear, and swept me into his arms. He pressed my body close to his, and I felt the heat of the blaze rush through me as he sprinted past Chloe.
She was facing us, a peculiar device in her hand that sort of reminded me of a remote control only it had one large green button in the center. She was pressing it as hard as she could, and I wondered if it was like a video game controller. You know, the ones when you press the buttons harde
r, they do more damage to the enemy?
Every single time she hit the button, a piece of the tunnel would explode in a flurry of flame and rock. Unfortunately, the black creatures dodged nimbly by the explosions. If this kept up, booby-trapped tunnel or not, we were going to get overrun.
“Chloe, do we have a way out of here?” Stephen yelled over the din, and I could barely hear him over the ringing in my ears.
“What, do I have to think of everything?” she screamed back at him, now hot on his heels. “Aren’t you some kind of secret agent? Do something.”
“It’s your tunnel,” he said as he flung me over his shoulder, and the breath whooshed out of me. He grabbed something out of his pocket with his now free hand. It was all shiny and silver with lots of flashing lights.
He flung the thing in front of us as far as he could. It sailed through the air, landing several feet away. Stephen dove to the floor, and my breath exploded out of me in a rush as he pulled his body on top of mine. “Down!” he screamed.
Chloe hit the floor in front of us and rolled into a ball with her hands covering her head and neck like one of those duck and cover drills.
The device began to flash with angry red light and started chirping in an angry machine sort of way. Stephen’s hand covered my face, shielding my eyes as he started counting softly. When he reached six, it felt like the world ended. I’d never really given much thought as to what I’d do if the world actually ended, but the wave of heat and smoke that exploded through the tunnel when he counted ‘six’ made me wish I had a backpack full of MREs and an underground bunker in the woods.
A sharp ringing filled my ears making it impossible to think as Stephen pulled me to my feet and dragged me toward the wreckage. I opened my eyes. Through the haze of smoke and rubble, I saw sunlight. Real, live, honest to god sunlight filtered through the hole in the tunnel ceiling.
“I tell you to do something so you blow a hole in the tunnel? Because that’s not going to attract anyone,” Chloe snarled as she scampered over the debris like she was some kind of goat.
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