TWISTED ꜜ LOUIS PARTRIDGE

⟾ 26 | SKYFALL (Part 1)

LOUIS

Wednesday, 3:01pm

_

WE HAVE TWO HOURS LEFT NOW.

Not to mention that we've just climbed out of the sewers, probably (no, definitely) smell like absolute rubbish, and now we're trying not to get caught for trespassing into Parliament during the induction of a law.

Ash hasn't really spoken to me after I called her out an hour ago, but I keep catching her glances every now and then. She's thinking about something, I know. It involves me as well, I assume. I can only hope she's not planning on throwing me under the bus at one point.

After smuggling ourselves through the sewer hole at the bottom of Westminster's basement level, we managed to take out two security personnel, stealing their uniforms and scampering off towards a bathroom. We locked them in a storage closet to make sure they couldn't run after us—but we'd get them out once we were done saving the city, and whatever.

"Pass me the jumper?" Ash asked, rinsing her face off with water.

I nodded, tossing the black security vest in her direction.

"Thanks," she said.

God, it was awkward.

I'd already finished washing the muck out of my hair, so all I was doing was waiting impatiently. Every second that she spent rinsing the smell out of her own was every second the bomb would tick closer to doom. It was better than running around with a stench trail, however, so it was needed.

"So how are we doing this?" she asked, drying off her hands.

I cocked a brow. "Three bombs, three towers, three destinations to hit."

"And you know where the switches are, right?"

"Right."

Since you aren't a licensed agent (or criminal), I'll explain what we mean. A civilian like yourself might be familiar with the show Sherlock, with Benjamin Cucumber, or something, and might have heard them go over this exact situation. Any terrorist-level detonator would have a switch, because if anything went wrong for the other side, they'd also need to turn it off quickly.

So all we had to do was find the bombs, find the switches, and turn them off.

"I'll take the East tower," I said, striding towards the door of the bathroom, "you can take the West."

"We'll meet at South, then?"

"Mhm."

"Perfect," she nodded, "and remember to stay away from the Lord's Chamber, they'll be doing the vote in there."

"Got it."

Desperate to get this over with, I reached for the handle of the door, but I was stopped. Ash's hand was grasping my wrist, as if to will me to wait for another moment. I did. She had a hesitant look in her eyes—the same one she'd been glancing at me with for the past hour—and her mouth was gaped slightly open.

"Please be careful," she urged, "okay?"

I cocked a brow. "Worried about me?"

"Yes."

I wasn't sure why her answer surprised me, but I gave her a polite nod, resuming my path outside. I'd meet up with her later. I didn't want any of her confusing remarks to distract me from my line of work, because I knew I wouldn't be able to focus if I started believing she actually returned feelings for me.