Killer Empire

Chapter 29

HER LOWER BACK was itching insanely but she didn't even dare to breathe, much less reach back to relieve herself. They were in the middle of an important assignment and even a single breath could compromise her position. Currently set in yet another deserted warehouse, this mission marked the fourth she had been on with Nathan and hopefully, not the first unsuccessful one.

It had been nearly two weeks since Nathan had bared his heart and spilled his secrets. Even now, it still sickened Devora to her guts whenever she thought about what Nathan had told her. The vile and disgusting threats from Julius Cain had temporarily ceased after that, the situation somewhat solved, but the warning was still ever-present. Between them, there was a form of silent mutual agreement about never bringing up that topic so Devora hadn't asked.

Sometimes, both the past and present could be too bitter and painful to even touch.

They had been training together ever since. Gone were the cold wars and in came a constant routined fight for the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning just before dawn broke. Breakfast at the canteen would be filled with laughter again, occasionally accompanied by the rest of their friends, other times with just the two of them. After that, they would be off to the gym to train, building up their set of skills.

A schedule had been created for efficiency: Monday to Wednesday was on precision, Thursday to Saturday was on strength and stamina, and Sunday was exclusively for combat training. Devora couldn't help but smile in memory of their score. Out of the last two Sundays, Devora's score to Nathan's was twelve to eight. However, she was sure that he had let her win on purpose.

The arena events had yet again been postponed, pushed back to the next month to continue which will from then on run on the old schedule it had in place of once every month. That was because the entire organization had been busy recently, with too many tasks on hand for almost every agent to make time for their internally-sourced entertainment.

That was a relief, though. Fighting in the arena would be having an entire company's eyes and pressure on your shoulders. Devora had wondered how Leah handled it so well as a newcomer and had recovered so quickly from the tragic events.

A distance away, Nathan waved frantically in the dark, his eyes wide as he signaled instructions to Devora. Night had fallen and although that meant that security should not be as tight as day — or at least that was what they were told —, she was proven wrong once more. The entire building was crawling with guards with rifles in their arms and they had to deal with multiple of them on their route in.

After Nathan was done with giving out his silent orders, Devora nodded once before slipping out of the corner they had been hiding behind. She rolled swiftly on the ground, kicking out her legs to trip one of the patrolling guards while keeping herself out of view. This action caught him off guard as he yelped out in shock, falling to the ground just as Devora reached for him. She made sure that his landing wouldn't generate more sound than necessary, hitting a pressure point on his neck to knock him out before placing his unconscious body gently on the ground.

She moved to the next guard after that but soon found out she had to expend more effort. He had come over to check out the noise, not yet noticing his colleague nor Devora until she exposed herself with an attack. She kicked out and the guard dodged just in the nick of time as if he had sensed her killer instincts. However, he couldn't recover that quickly and failed to evade the punch she threw out right after. It clipped him on the nose, sending his hands flying to the bleeding nostrils as he groaned in pain. Straddling his neck with a grin, she quickly brought him down to the floor as well before knocking him out cold, his unconscious body laid there with the first man. A moment of folly was enough to bring that giant of a man down to his knees.