Consuming Fire

Chapter 100

It was a little hard for Zac to believe that he was standing next to Mikayla in a Chinese body about to casually enter a military bunker to stop a terrorist attack and save the President.

I mean ... it's Mikayla.

Zac glanced at her hesitantly as they made the march toward the bunker door.

"What?" she hissed. "Stop looking at me like that."

"Do you speak Chinese?"

"Do I look like I speak Chinese?"

"I always thought you were part Asian."

"I'm Italian," she growled.

Zac rolled his eyes. "Let's just get this over with. You take out the Fearne clone and I'll handle the rest."

Mikayla didn't look like she trusted his plan-making skills, but it was too late to take it back.

A large part of Zac felt absolutely no fear at the thought of a murderous clan of Chinese and Korean assassins/soldiers waiting in the room ahead. While someone else would normally see the absurdity of what they were doing and otherwise run screaming for the hills, Zac couldn't contain his excitement.

When they came to the bunker door, they saw that their only way in was to crack the coded keypad filled with numbers and complicated algorithms that made Zac's head swirl. He really wasn't technical. At all.

"We didn't think this through," Mikayla muttered.

Suddenly, there was a whisper in Zac's ear and he jumped around to see the empty corridor behind him.

"Who's there?"

"It's me, dumbass," said Marcus's voice. He started tapping on the screen to force the door open. After a long moment, they started to grate apart.

Zac and Mikayla marched into the bunker. It was exactly as it seemed from the cameras, only smaller. There was a bank of computers against the far wall, something you'd imagine in an old-school call center. The equipment looked ancient. This was definitely not the President's first choice as a back-up safe house.

There were, in total, eleven Chinese soldiers – or Korean, he couldn't tell – including General Chang and his advisor. To their left were the hostages: three men in suits, a woman and the President himself. They were all sitting against the wall with their hands tied. Zac resisted the urge to salute him.

The General and all his men turned to the two of them looking confused, suspicious and ready to murder all at once. The bunker doors grinded shut behind them. Zac saw Korean-Mikayla put her hands behind her back and creep toward the creepy-looking girl in the white dress who stood beside the hostages. The General was on the lower level of the room at the head of the communications desk where he presumed the nerdy hacking was taking place. If it hadn't already. That was where Marcus, Koko and Imogen would be heading so that Marcus could stop the viral terrorist attack.

The General barked something in Chinese and the tension in the air was so thick, Zac felt breathless. But then he remembered what he'd always learnt whenever he became somebody else – if he didn't embrace his character and give it everything he had, they would never believe him. Confidence convinces people. It wasn't just about acting the person, it was about being the person.

Zac straightened his coat compulsively and – without speaking a single word – he strolled away from the bunker doors and down the steps to the power dashboard.

The soldiers raised their guns and pointed them at him.

Shit, thought Zac as he froze on the spot. They've got me.