The Assassin - a Denied Spies Novel Book 1

Ava

Alex stood at door for a moment puzzled at what my mum had said before I tugged on his sleeve - bringing him back to the real world. He shook his head and we began to race through the basement towards the stairs. But it wasn't long before our path was blocked.

We were inches away from the stairs when Alex skidded to a halt, almost making me ram into him. I was about to talk when he held up his hand to stop me and pointed towards a big black blob. Standing at the bottom of the stairs was a bulky man probably in his late 30's; he was almost the size of a fully grown male elephant – bet his brain is smaller than a peanut though. 

I looked towards Alex who was looking at me then at the blob. I shrugged at him; no way could we take a guy that size, at least not without help. Alex gulped and looked at me, - the smallest hint of fear flashed across his face before vanishing – before moving out of the shadows and making his way towards the man. I was frozen in shock. 

What was he going to do? Ask the guy to let us past, the prisoner and her rescuer? All of a sudden a loud bang brought me out of my day dreams. I walked towards Alex and the crumpled heap on the floor at his feet surround by broken pieces of a vase.

"What factory is this, Homebase?" I asked making Alex laugh. Before heading up the stairs we moved the (extremely heavy) man away from the stairs and out of sight. When we finally reached the top of the stairs, we were greeted by a loud voice behind the door.

"There are people in here that shouldn't be, find them and kill them, remember either find somewhere to bury them or make it look like suicide, we don't want any more complaints about another body being found!" it boomed. I recognised it immediately, Ruth Everdeen.

I gripped Alex's arm as he slowly opened the door a crack to see if anyone was there, he looked at my hand on his arm and gently squeezed it, smiling. There was a crackle in our units before Charlie's voice came blearing in.

"OK guys, Jake and Kate are making their way towards the back exit, mostly everyone is at the front looking for, well, you. You two are too far away from the back to get there before they decide to check there too, your best bet is the side exit or the roof.

"Once Jake and Kate are out, one of them will wait at the side exit for you. I'll guide you near the exit before checking on the others. We have another thirty minutes before the cameras go back on line, for real." I looked at Alex, noticing the way he shifted when Charlie stopped talking, he was nervous, but I was worse.

"Are you ready?" Charlie asked. Alex replied and Charlie got to work giving us directions, telling us when to stop and go, when to hide, duck, jump and climb. "Night-vision cameras are amazing, Alex remind me to convince my dad to get them." She had said and Alex just smirked in reply.

She got us half way before leaving us to check with the others. I felt for Alex's hand and held it tight. He looked at me questionably but I just shook my head. "I don't think I can do this Alex," I whispered.

"Of course you can, just think of it as a practice, like the one we did ages ago before you decided it was too dangerous for us."

"How did you know that's why I stopped?" I asked, puzzled.

"Why else would someone stop training to stay alive except to keep her friends, people she cares for, out of danger?" I smiled and he raised my hand up to his mouth before gently kissing it. "I would do the same to keep you safe," he said, making me blush. Suddenly there was a crackle in our ears again, ruining the moment.

"Guys, Jake and Kate are out but you are getting crowded, people are coming from basically every direction and to top things off, I'm losing control. They're onto us! We've got to hurry!" Charlie shrieked. Alex looked at me and I nodded, we had to run, fast, which meant splitting up.

I was about to go when Alex pulled me towards him and wrapped me in a hug. "Be careful," he whispered in my ear before kissing me, deeply, not wanting it to end. "I'll meet you outside," and with that he slipped out of my arms and disappeared into the darkness.

I stood there for a while staring at where Alex had disappeared, hoping that what he said was true. This was it, I had to go, and I had to go now. It was only a test. This time though, I had help.

"Charlie, where's the closest exit?" I asked walking towards the other side of the room, keeping my eyes open for any kind of movement.

"A few feet to your left there are a set of stairs that should take you to the roof, get up there and either jump off or climb down the side, keep to walls. They're trying to get the lights up and working, if I give them that they might stop for a while, giving me time to upgrade their security without them knowing and change the password making it impossible for them to get anything else working. Stay close to the walls and in the shade, lights will be on shortly. Good luck!" and Charlie was gone.

After a couple of minutes the lights started to flicker and I started to count - four, five, I couldn't help but smile. As the lights flickered, I looked around the room searching for the stairs and for people in my way. By the third flicker I had found the stairs and that's not all I found... Standing at the bottom and the top of the stairs were two meaty guys, with massive machine guns. This was going to be fun. "Yeah guys, we're going to need back-up, they have machine guns." I whispered in my units. There was no reply.

Taking a deep breath before silently walking back the way I came and around a corner. I bumped into something squishy. There was a grunt and movement behind me before a large hand moving unsteadily towards my jaw. I ducked while thrusting the knife – which was still clutched in my hand since I left my mum – at the man twice my size. He crumpled the ground as the knife pierced his side.

 I felt his blood oozing onto my hand as I drove the knife in deeper until he was gasping for air. My blood ran cold through my body and my heart was beating slower than normal. Why didn't this gross me out or feel wrong? I stood up straight, leaving the knife in the now half dead guy's side and pulling out the pistol Alex gave me from the back of my jeans. I was ready for the stairs without back-up.

The lights flickered into life and I pressed my body against the wall, not daring to look at the probably dead man lying at my feet. I wasn't letting myself feel anything but anger and the need to survive.

There was no one near so I carefully made my way along the wall, looking out for anyone that wanted me dead. When I reached the corner, I glanced behind and round the corner before raising the gun and shooting two shots at the man at the top of the stairs. He then fell down the stairs, crushing the other one. As soon as I lowered the gun I knew I shouldn't have used it – it was too loud. 

Guys came from every direction wondering what the noise was. Once they saw two of their men dead, they grew angry and I heard someone shout, "I don't care if they're kids, I want the lot of them dead!" Then someone else shouted about the other man I killed and every one ran over to him. That's when one of them saw me. That's when he bellowed that I was there. That's when I knew was in trouble.