Deep Down Under

Chapter 40

Gas station off Enilaweg Road, Vienna, 2:50 pm

Lucia choked on herself when she saw the news on the gas station's television. The hospital had been attacked, and Jerome's chances of survival had just reduced.

Sadowsky could tell the empty feeling within her heart. He too had similar experiences, recalling them wasn't going to make the situation any better. He placed his palm on her shoulder, "He ain't dead until we know, right?"

Lucia nodded slowly, "L-let's go,"

Giggs motioned them into a taxi, "They probably know we're here. We have to leave as fast as possible."

As they sat inside the taxi, a doubt came to Sadowsky's mind, "How on earth do they know where we are?"

Giggs replied with a sigh, "I designed a program that could hack into the server showing all CCTV cameras of any city. They're using it to track us down."

"Dammit!" cursed Sadowsky under his breath.

"Did you see the contents of that pen drive?" asked Giggs, pointing towards the device in Lucia's firm grip. Her head shot up the moment the words escaped Giggs' mouth, "No, not really. We were about to when an assassin attacked us."

His eye's got bigger, "You survived that?"

Both Lucia and Sadowsky nodded their heads.

"Wow."

The next fifteen minutes were silent, no one spoke. The sounds were only of the engine purring, the breathing, or the shouts from outside.

Lucia spoke some words to break the silence, "What is the secret? What is so dangerous that my father had to be killed?"

"Now's not the time. We can't trust the people around us," he warned, eying the oblivious driver.

She raised her arms in protest, "Why?! The Nine already know the secret, so why bother if they're spying?!"

Giggs just shook his head, "There is much you need to know. You'll understand when you do."

He leaned towards Sadowsky and whispered into his ear, his eyes widened. He turned his head towards Lucia and whispered into her ear, "The car plate number has been removed by him, to cover our tracks. The moment any cops stops the driver, we sneak out."

Lucia nodded her head as acknowledgement. "Okay."

The police halted the taxi a minute later. The driver and the officer were speaking for a while, and then the driver burst out in astonishment. Sadowsky figured that that was when the officer told him of the missing number plate. Giggs had already clicked the door open while the conversation was going on, allowing them to sneak through less conspicuously while the driver was scratching his head, wondering about the whereabouts of his number plate.

* * *

Breiteneckergasse Road, Vienna, 3:24 pm

Maslov decided to spare the unexpected driver of his to-be demise. Unlike The Assassin, Maslov and his men did not care about precision; they favoured what they loved most.

Damage. And lot's of it.

One of the organisation's own had turned his back on them. Maslov didn't wonder what they were after. So far, he and his men had never worked for men as secretive as them. Maslov never questioned his hirers' motives. What he did, he did for money. That was his only objective.

His men were scattered all over the intersection. Their heads focussed on their target, the ones who had left the taxi with the missing number plate.

Maslov hated it whenever his target played games with him. It made him feel like an insignificant pawn. And being insignificant wasn't something his expected calibre was of.

He clenched his teeth in frustration when he found out that Sadowsky had not been found yet, nor Giggs or the other woman.

How hard can it be?!

All his men needed to look for was a trio of Sadowsky, Giggs and a woman. He failed to see how his men hadn't been successful yet.

* * *

Above Salzkammergut Mountains, Austria 3:31 pm

Sophia eyed the mountain range below. They were only a half-an-hour from Vienna. A half-an-hour from potential doom. And the potential was high.

Sophia talked the pilot out of jumping off a parachute, they were going to land in the airport and act as if Vienna was the closest airport to them, and they had to land there due to low fuel.

The pilot calculated how much fuel would go in the deliberate detours he would make. So that just in case the airport officials decided to check the fuel level, they wouldn't be suspected of foul play.

The sound of an Austrian airspace official crackled in the pilot's mike. "Afternoon, may I know which location you are intended to land in?"

He faked his best possible anxious tone, "I-I was supposed to land in Warsaw, b-but somehow my fuel leaked and I need to land in a nearby airport ASAP."

"The closest airport is Vienna, and I can't allow you to land there." the airspace official said in a dead serious tone.

"B-but there's nowhere else!" cried the pilot.

"I'm sorry, but due-" the pilot cut him off, "Do you want to be responsible for the death of innocent lives?!" he barked.

There was a long pause.

"Let me check in with the Vienna Air Traffic Control and I'll get back to you."

After over ten minutes of silence from the other end the airspace official came back. "You can land in Vienna."

The pilot waived a huge sigh of relief, "Thank you for saving our lives!"

He turned around to Sophia and her grandfather, and gave a thumbs up. "We're in."

* * *