Broken | Lucas North - Spooks/MI5 Story [Featured]

Chapter 36

“How long are we staying here, mummy?” Liam asked as he scraped the leftover food from his plate into the trash and placed it onto the counter.  “I miss our house, my toys.  Even dad won’t drive me there to pick up my books.”

“Dad has his reasons for not doing that,” she said, ruffling his hair. “Just a few more weeks and we should be back home again.”  

In the living room, Lucas was on the phone, and wanting more privacy, had stepped into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

“You’re in trouble, mum, aren’t you?”

Alexa frowned. “What makes you think that?”

“This is a safe house, isn’t it?  And I know that van that’s always parked outside have people inside watching us.”

Alexa laughed.  “You watch too many spy movies, Liam.”  She opened the dishwasher door and began loading the dishes in.  “Would you like to help me?”

As Liam helped her load up the dishwasher, Alexa looked towards the bedroom where the door remained shut.  She sighed.  Of course, Liam was right.  She was in trouble, and she was tired of it all.  

She felt like a prisoner inside the safe house, no matter how beautifully or richly it was furnished.  Harry had forbidden her from going out without a surveillance team in tow and while she’d argued with him that the money spent could better benefit someone else, Harry was adamant.  

He’d heard whispers about operatives still loyal to Jools and he didn’t want to take any chances.  After having seen all the footage in the thumb drives that Alexa had handed over to him, Harry knew now how Jools worked.  He always knew that Jools practiced unconventional methods in his acquisition of assets and even dispensing of them once their use to him was no more.  He remembered how Jools had once told him that Alexa was his asset, and now Harry found himself fearing for her life once again.  

What would matter to Jools now was revenge.

It wouldn’t have mattered to Jools if the documents that outlined his treachery had Mikhael’s fingerprints all over it.  What would matter to him was that he’d have his vengeance on the one person Mikhael had entrusted Nephthys to.  

Jools was facing the tribunal within the next week, and Harry could not help but feel that something was going on with Jools behind the scenes.  He was under 24-hour surveillance inside his cell but not all of Jools’ communications could completely be monitored.  He could not even guarantee that every person assigned to watching Jools could be trusted at all.  

And so Harry was left fearing for Alexa’s life, and doing whatever he could to keep her safe.  But even after it would be all over, was there really a guarantee that Alexa would be safe?

Alexa shut the dishwasher door as Liam returned to the living room to sit before the television.  He crossed his legs and turned on his handheld game console, losing himself in the building of a civilization of his own.

Alexa walked towards the bedroom door, her hand touching the doorknob but not turning it.  She could hear Lucas speaking in Russian, hearing the mention of her name, but she did not listen, instead sitting next to Liam to watch him build a granary on the civilization that he had just started.  

Alexa wanted nothing more than to run off with Lucas and Liam where it was warm, and live by the sea.  Maybe even on a mountain, she thought.  There was always America or even Argentina where she could locate her mother’s family and live with them.  Who knows?  The three of them could even travel like nomads for a while and see the world together.