Forever Fighting | ✔️ | [previously Espionage: double-cross]

Chapter 17

Alex stood up suddenly, just after she checked her watch. Her mother's keyring swayed little from its place clipped onto the back of her jeans. She had decided to keep it closer, it not seeing the light of day in her safe seeming unnecessary for a keyring. "I've gotta go." She closed her book - The codebreakers. "Cryptography starts in a couple of minutes." Ava stood up too.

"Yeah, I've got to go. I have surveillance now." She started packing up, a little more hurriedly than usual. "Good luck!"

Ava looked giddy, something else that puzzled Alex further.

"Thanks, I guess? You too but for surveillance then."

She shook her head as Ava bounded off. 

Crazy human being.

They often went to the library to study for upcoming exams and practicals. Those who did the best in class will be the first to go on missions, naturally. 

The promise of her first mission pushed Alex to her limits since she felt as though she was dying from the monotony of regular lessons. 

Any free time was spent practicing her martial arts or code breaking skills, which, to be honest, is what she would do in her free time anyway. She had started to go to the gym, her training her allowing her to beat everyone on fitness runs. Alex had even heard rumours of betting against the outcomes of the friendly sessions that had turned, well, unfriendly between her and some of the other agents.

She felt as though she was at the peak of physical fitness. But she needed to be mentally fit as well. Hours of research had been done on any type of code that was still used today. Different inks and how to read them, codes and how to break them, encoding, learning morse code off by heart, all of this was tucked inside her brain to be used at moments notice in any situation.

On the way to cryptography, she noticed the usually bustling corridors barely had a soul in sight. Anyone she did see would nod at her and make a motion with their hands she didn't understand. 

The lights above her flickered, the now silent corridors paired with the interrupted buzzing of electricity making her hair stand on end. Something was wrong, she knew it.

She started moving irregularly, checking behind her, using the gleaming surfaces around her as mirrors. In her haste to get somewhere with more people, she recklessly lost control of where she was going, leading her to find herself in a corridor that lead to a dead end. 

Alex cursed under her breath, grip tightening around the book she was holding. She turned around to leave but was blocked by a man in a black suit with a not so subtle Glock 21 hidden on his hip. When he's spoke, the walls and floors seemed to rumble with his deep, baritone voice. "You part of, what's this place called, 'Auxilium'?" 

Alex was silent for a moment, biting back the sarcastic retort already lined up on her tongue. She doubted answering 'No, I just stumbled my way through all of the high tech, well-hidden security in this. I'm really the donut delivery girl who decided walking into some warehouses as a short cut would be fun' would help her much in this situation 

"I asked you a question." His voice boomed again. "Are you part of Auxilium?" 

Now was the time to answer. Short and sweet won the contest. "Yeah."

"Name?"

"Alice Samuel." The man put his finger to his ear, listening to some other voice. "I don't have that name on the list." He stepped forward. "I think you're lying to me." His voice wasn't just deep anymore. There was a threatening quality that coated it, one Alex didn't really want to keep listening to.

"I don't know why my name isn't on there," she furrowed her brow and then continued, voice higher than usual and eyes wide with innocence, "but I've only been her for a couple of days, I joined yesterday so they might not have put me on the system yet." She dearly hoped that she sounded convincing, that the few acting classes she had taken in her youth before growing bored of them had in some way helped. 

The man hesitated for a second, put his finger to his ear and listened. This second was all that she needed. While he was occupied, she ran up to him and with the speed and aggression of a jaguar, she side kicked him in the stomach, swept his legs as he was doubling over, making him crash to the ground and then kicked his head, knocking him to the ground. His eyes were still open and blinking blearily so she took the book in her hands and smacked his across the head, hard.

He didn't even have time to pull out his gun. 

She grabbed the earpiece and listened to what was going on.

"This is Kappa to Iota 1, do you read me Iota 1? Back-up is on its way, have you got the girl, I repeat, have you got the girl?" She noticed they didn't use the fake name given to her.

Alex wondered why they needed her to begin with but didn't dare ponder on it when she heard footsteps in the distance. A lot of them. 

After moving the man into a storage closet close by, she clasped the comms unit and sprinted to the atrium.

She got to there unharmed but could hear voices hot on her heels. She spun round, thinking judiciously which room would be best to hide it out and contact someone. Her gaze fell upon the meeting rooms. 

Bulletproof glass, technology. Yeah, I can work with that. 

She ran up to the wall and it slid open willingly fo her. Alex dashed inside and ran down the hall to the last room - number 15. If they were looking, this would be the last room they'd search, but that was only if they got past the walls. 

'Only someone certified and in the agency can open the doors' Julie's words echoed around her head. 

She didn't know if she wanted them to be from the agency or not.

As soon as she was in the last room, she grabbed a laptop from the surface top and slid under the table. Flicking open the screen, she used her finger ID to try to open the laptop. Denied. The red word flashed on the screen. She frowned at the computer that had always accepted her fingerprint before. She tried again. Denied. Again and again she tried and failed. Something wasn't right. It was as if everything was purposefully against her. 

Just then she heard the wall slide open  with a deafening clunk. 

Now Alex started to panic. 

They must be from the agency so why the hell are they looking for me? She knew she didn't have long until they found her. She then remembered the emergency exit door teacher's had pointed out like air stewardesses before every meeting. Their preparedness was paying on

If she was quick, she could make it. The men in suits were only at the second door. 

She crept out silently, making sure the door didn't make a sound behind her. Today, she was lucky with her choice of outfit, the dark blue jeans and her leather jacket allowing her to blend into the shadows. The stone floor meant that there was less chance of her making a noise and her trainer's soft soles didn't squeak as she moved. 

She reached the exit just as the men searched room nine. She slipped inside and barred the door with a pipe she pulled of the wall. Now she had a good look around. The door had lead her into a small room with another door at the end of it. There was a finger pad. She pressed her thumb up against it, the finger that was in the agency's database. 

Again, it flashed Denied. She tried every other finger but each time, she was denied. Again and again her new most hated word would flash.

After her tenth finger, a new panel slid out that said manual override. On it was a code, a very simple code. Morse code, hah. Glad I learnt it off by heart. 

She made a mental note to tell Ava to suck it when she next saw her.

Using the more code keypad, she typed in her agent number she was given on the first day. 3-5-7-4-5-9-0-1-2-2. The pad flashed green and the door clicked. 

Alex pushed it open to reveal the bruised face of Iota 1, the man in the suit. "Hello, Alice," he put more emphasis on this name, "Fancy seeing you here."