Operation 007 (SpyxFamily)

Ch. 26: Part Two

 Yor had met Loid on the road, the car hardly stopping for two minutes before they were on their way. Barely a word was exchanged, the plan earlier discussed needing no recap. The trunk was popped, the briefcase grabbed, and Yor's knives were stowed away in her clothing. She didn't have her Thorn Princess get-up, but she didn't need it. She was not acting as an assassin, she was acting as a mother. Her work clothes would be fine.

Loid on the other hand had prepped everything a spy might need. His gear, extra ammo, his supplies to make disguises. He had thought of everything as he always did and his face was stern in furious focus. He had steeled himself, and Yor could see the wheels turning in his head, simulating scenarios and contingency plans, though one never really knew what they might encounter. They could never be one hundred percent prepared and Loid hated it. She could see it in his face, all the plans he cooked up, that he would most likely never use.

Yor laid the heavy duty briefcase in her lap as soon as her door closed. A matte gray container, vertically ribbed. The outside was hard metal to protect the delicate instrument within.

She opened it and pushed a button. Blinking lights greeted her and the screen bleeped as the tracking device registered.

Yor had never been so glad Loid was a spy.

They followed the signal for hours, lost in their own heads, speaking only when something occurred to them that might be useful as they were in the midst of mentally preparing for anything and everything.

They were maybe twenty minutes behind the moving dot on the screen when it stopped. There was movement, but it went from the speed of a car, to walking pace.

Yor's foot had bounced on the floor on and off the whole trip, and her jitters spread to a hand that subtly twirled a blade by her lap as if she could kill all of Anya's enemies from here. She imagined it several times as she oversaw the spy equipment, like they were on a road trip and she was giving out directions from a map as her husband focused on the road.

As they approached closer to Anya's signal, Loid slowed and they both payed attention to their surroundings. They had reached forested land and the trees grew thicker the further they went. They were guessing where to make turns and had to turn around a couple times. Eventually they found it. They reached the end of a dirt route and the rain had made it easy to follow the tire tracks leading off into the woods. Not wanting to announce themselves, they continued on foot into the rain. They were soaked in less than a minute and the precipitation aided their stealth as they followed the tracks, though they stayed off of it.

Loid blended well with the darkening woods, his black clothes a good decision, he thought. Yor was more easily seen, but she made up for it with her noiseless movements, and how she used her surroundings, shadowed corners and high branches, to her advantage. Loid wouldn't know where she was most the time if she didn't signal it. They never strayed too far from the other, keeping tabs as they slowly combed their way down the tire tracks, wary for any hostiles.

Impeded by foliage, the deluge broke here and there. Beside the relentless downpour, was the steady stream of water off of branches and even with so little light, the leaves glinted sharply from the wetness. Twilight felt he was breathing the rain in directly with how damp the air was. He could hardly hear more than the droplets pounding the earth and dead leaves at his feet, it was so present.

Yor effortlessly jumped to another bough, her precision easily overcoming the slippery grip of the bark even with the briefcase in her hand. Down below, Loid was almost hidden from her view. His training was well equipped for sneaking around and she wouldn't have seen him if she didn't know where he was supposed to be. She let him take the lead, forging a path while she watched his back. There was no telling who was out here and one little misstep could ruin everything.

They trekked for several minutes, a painstaking process of listening through the roar of rain, and straining their sights into the ever blackening woods. The clouds were thick, dark gray, and the sun had no chance of giving the last of it's light as it set.

Loid crept up where the tracks ended and a clearing lay before them. Yor was somewhere overhead and he had never experienced such intrinsic trust before. He'd been on countless missions, countless life risking jobs, and on the rare joint assignment, he'd had to rely on his partner to do their part which he'd always hated.

But Yor.

Hiding here, studying this suspicious area where the tracks stopped, he felt. . . .covered. Like if he went out there right now to investigate, he could leave her to watch his back. To watch out for enemies. Or if he was compromised, to finish the mission on her own. He had to be careful of this. It would be the height of hubris to let down his guard. She was an incredible woman, but she was still human.

. . . He was pretty sure. . .

Loid circled the clearing twice, and in a forest plagued by night and resounding condensation, he didn't glean much. If anyone was hiding here, if traps were set, he couldn't tell.

Twilight didn't like this.

He returned to where he started, where Yor had come down from a tree, and considered. A car didn't just vanish in the middle of the woods with no more tracks to follow. Unless it learned to fly, there was only one option he came to.

It went underground.

He conferred with Yor and she agreed.

He'd be taking a chance. To investigate, he'd be putting himself in the open, disclosing himself from the cover of the woods where Loid and Yor had evaded detection. If enemies lurked in the area, they hadn't seen them yet, and stepping out would most assuredly change that. He didn't know how many there were and he had to be smart. Anya was in danger and he couldn't waste time, but they wouldn't get to her at all if they both ended up dead.

So Twilight came up with a plan.

It was fairly simple.

Yor situated herself, concealed thoroughly as she waited for Loid. It was so dark, she only knew his position because he told her where it was. It was impossible to distinguish his form from the trunk of his hiding place as he was perfectly still.

Twilight took stock of his environment once more before hefting a rock in his hand. How simple. And possibly a little amateur, but if something worked, why not use it?

He flung it sailing through the rain and heard a dull thunk and slight shaking from a tree's branches.

The reaction was instant. Almost imperceptible. Yor sensed the shift of movement in a tree, the smallest scuff against bark just metres away from where she hid. The unmistakable mechanisms of a gun readying.

He didn't see her coming.

Yor was upon him before he could blink, a knife to his throat promising death if he didn't stay quiet. She held him hostage in the tree until Loid came and they had the oddest placed interrogation she'd ever been in. They attracted less attention by staying put. Hauling their new captive quietly down the tree would certainly be difficult.

They were told at least five other agents were posted in these woods and the car had indeed gone underground. He, and none of the other lab agents, could open them however. When shifts changed, they opened for them.

It was hard to hear him in this weather and Loid couldn't read his lips in the dark. He had him repeat some of it and they got every bit of info they could out of him.

And then knocked him out.

Yor would've liked to kill him, but Loid advised her against this.

They were scheming how to get inside without being noticed, when a dull, blue light blinked on the man's wristband. Loid ran a hand over it and there were four buttons. It seemed to purely be a method of silent communication.

This was bad, he decided. There was no telling what that light meant and there was no telling what any of the buttons did. But it didn't matter because the light stopped a couple seconds later.

Yor and Loid couldn't see each other's faces, but they looked to one another.

And then they were shot at.