ELBINA 3

Chapter 15

"Anything?" I searched the area, looking for anything or any person that looked remotely suspicious.
"Nothing yet." Nero responded from beside me, his own eyes trained around him too. It'd been that way since we got here four hours ago when the first of the protesters started to arrive.
Now the entire place was flooded with hundreds of them, climbing over each other and chatting animatedly. It was almost impossible for either Nero and I to see anything, which only made the pit in my stomach bigger.
The whole purpose of us being here was to stop them even getting into the building, and with the huge numbers that did arrive it made it virtually impossible.
"There's too many of them." I said, Nero groans in agreement.
I pull my hood up further over my head, feeling exposed under so many eyes. Nero readjusts his sunglasses over his nose, resting his hands up against the wall behind him trying to seem more relaxed when really he's analysing the crowd with a deep frown on his face.
My eyes falter over some of the signs, brightly coloured as they wave them above their heads with shouts of anger.
Fund to Educate, NOT to decimate.
Cut war not Welfare
There were some good ones. It's certainly something I believed in and it also didn't surprise me why they would choose this day to do it.
It certainly sent the message.
By scaring people into believing that we did need more funding for the army, killing a bunch of the people protesting against it does the trick. Given Arden was the head of a private firearms unit and produced weapons for the british army, it's no wonder why she's so intent on keeping the funding going.
From what Nero and I gathered, the attack on the London eye was also around the time when people started to become riled up about further spending on more weapons. After the attack, the budget for the military and defense went up by 5%.
So she got her wish.
I'd thought we'd have seen something by now, so what was happening? What if we'd missed it?
"Hey, look." I glance up, Nero jolting a head in the direction of the building ahead of us.
"What are you looking at?" I said, eyeing up any of the people coming in and out of the building. My eyes strained against the distance, moving my head side to side to keep a consistent focus on the entrance.
"Right there, woman in the black jeans and a purple jumper." I lean closer to him, his entire body stiff keeping an eye on them. "Do you see her?" I nod.
She's stopped right at the entrance of the building having just exited it, looking around and tapping a foot. It's a nervous tapping that I can see even from here. Her hair is pulled back into a tight bun, fair skin that is mostly covered by clothes but is pale in comparison to the bright red lipstick sleekly applied. A phone sits in the palms of her hand, her neck twisting side to side and barely glancing at any of the protestors around her. It isn't until she suddenly drops her head down to the phone that she quickly lifts it up to her ear.
She maybe utters one singular word responses to another person on the other side of the call, serious the entire time by the looks of her expressions. After a minute or so, she ends the call and pockets the phone.
Both Nero and I stand up fully when we see her walk away from the entrance with vigor, we glance at each other and somehow we just know it's her. We don't waste a second before pushing off the wall and sprinting through the crowd, angered voices echoing behind me as I slam my shoulders into many of them.
"I can't see her!" Nero's voice is a little faint, he's somewhere in the crowd having separated from me to hopefully cut her off.
I can't see her either but I still head in the direction she was heading and hope to god that she didn't change her path. All of a sudden, I can see her. She flits in and out of my vision through the bodies that still block my way to her, strides long and urgent.
"Over here!" I shout in hopes that Nero might hear me and come running my way too. I can't let her get away, I just can't.
I can't see Nero around, but I can hear people shouting out in anger somewhere off to my right still. Either way, it doesn't distract me from the woman right in plane view of me now. I lengthen my stride, bounding along the pavement until she's within reach.
She doesn't see it coming, I slam her to the ground with as much force as I can muster. The air in her lungs leaves her in a breathy grunt below me but I don't let up.
I'm breathing heavy too, twisting her onto her back as she struggles against me in shock. I really hope I have the right person otherwise this would be horrendous.
But the minute she saw me, I knew I had the right person. A glare forms before it quickly transforms into a smile. 
No.
Not another goddamn smile!
"Elbina. You're here to save them, aren't you?" The words as they leave her lips cause a shudder to run down my spine, my hands feeling fuzzy as I grip onto her wrists pinned to the ground.
"How can I stop it!?" I hiss at her, ignoring the sounds of people shouting to get off of her.
"You can't." NO!
"I know I can! So tell me!" She only shakes her head. No matter how much I dig my nails into her wrist and watch her wince below me, It doesn't change her answer.
"You're too late, it's already done."
"What do you mean it's already done!" I shout now, lifting my head when I see Nero step up this time having finally found us.
"It was set up a week ago Elbina, I'm only here to finalise it. And that's done." I look back at Nero, he lifts his sunglasses off from his face. A grimace of an expression when he follows my gaze back to the entrance of the building.
I should have known.
I should have bloody known this would happen.
"I wonder Elbina, can you save these people in just ten minutes? Actually," She thinks for a second, "Probably seven minutes, or even less than that now. If I were you, I'd start running." She smiles a crooked smile, my own glare forming intensely in hopes it might shut her stupid mouth.
Without a warning, she bucks her hips. Throwing me off her and before I can get a grasp back onto her, Nero grabs my shoulder from behind me and stops me going for her again.
"Nero! What the fuck!?" I hissed, watching the woman run off.
"We don't have time."He fiddles with the watch on his wrist quickly before looking around again with a bite of his lip.
It hit me like a tonne of bricks, looking around at the hundreds of people that moved around in the square.
Completely unaware and all at risk at this very moment.
"How the hell do we move this many people that quickly?" It seems like an impossible task, but in the corner of my eye... I can see Nero pulling up his jacket.
The cold metallic gun peeking into view from my angle on the ground.
Before I can stop him or tell him otherwise, he pulls it completely out and into view. It looks like he's trying to keep it relatively concealed from onlookers, I stand up knowing that whatever he was about to do, I had no say in whatsoever.
And I'd just have to work with whatever he had, because I didn't know how much longer we had to get as many people away from here as possible.
He flicks off the safety, giving me a wry smile. "I think I have an idea."