The Widow's Daughter ✔︎

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Crap on a cracker.

The five men in black were moving slowly but surely towards us, their dark, sun-glassed eyes trained on our every move. Nat grabbed my arm and steered me towards an escalator, her pace fast and stressed. We went up the escalator, the men in black following us at the bottom, walking up the moving stairs. 

"Dammit," Peter muttered. "What do we do now? They've seen us!"

"Unfortunately, yes," replied Steve tersely. We walked quickly up the escalator and onto the next floor, where we ran towards a crowd, hoping to blend in, but the men in black didn't stop their chase; if anything, they quickened their pace. "We'll have to split up. Peter, you come with me; we'll head directly to the ice cream store; Nat, you go with Kira. Distract them somehow - they're after the kid and your hair is very iconic. We'll meet you in the ice cream store in five minutes." When neither of us moved, he said a little louder, "Go!"

Peter and Steve surreptitiously moved off down another escalator, blending into a crowd of loud men heading towards the ice cream shop. Me and Nat quickened our pace and walked towards a designer clothing store, keeping our heads down. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the men in black following us. 

Phewph, Steve and Peter were safe.

Now it was just a question of getting them off our tail.

"What should we do?" I hissed to Nat as she directed me into the clothing store, moving towards an aisle full of summery dresses, even though it was the middle of winter. "Steve and Peter will have made it to the ice cream shop by now. How do we get these thugs off our tail?"

Nat grinned a tiger-like grin, her green eyes sparkling. "Lesson one in espionage: keep your head down."

I did, pulling my hood over my head as we moved through the aisles. Out of the corner of my peripheral vision I could see the men in black surrounding all of the store's available exits. "We don't have a way out!" I was starting to panic but Nat looked perfectly calm. "Nat, we're trapped!" When she didn't answer, I grabbed her hand, forcing her to look at me. "Mum!"

"Kid, you're panicking," my mother said, squeezing my hand gently. "Don't worry. I have this under control." 

I noticed that she was leading us towards a set of change rooms. Expecting for her to pull me inside one and bar the door, I was caught completely off-guard when she yanked me through a door at the very end of the row of doors - one that led out onto the roof of the mall. A blast of icy air hit me square in the face, freezing the breath out of my lungs. The wind whistled and I could see how high up we were, the cars in the street below looking tiny, like little bugs. Thunder boomed and the heavens poured open, freezing rain tumbling from the sky. 

I shivered. "What now?"

My mother smirked, the cold and rain not appearing to be bothering her in any way. "Those agents will have figured out where we are by now. They weren't going to fight us in the mall for fear of the public endangering their operation, so we're taking the fight to them. Any second now, five highly-trained Russian operatives will burst through that door and onto this roof, aiming to kill us. We have to take them out first."

I swallowed nervously, my feet slipping on the wet ground. "You mean... we have to kill them?"

"Incapacitate them. Distract them." Nat pursed her lips. "Yeah, whatever. Killing works too."

I gulped, my sopping-wet hair hanging in dark red tendrils down my shoulders. "You," I said, "Are a terrible mother."

Nat snorted. "You know, this morning I was worrying about how much attention I had to give you before you threw a tantrum," she grinned. "And whether or not I had to feed you. You can feed yourself, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "This morning, I was lying on my bed, unconscious, because you beat me up the night before. That's some pretty bad parenting. You'll probably get sued by the High Council of Mothers. I'll put in an official complaint to the law."

Nat raised her eyebrows snarkily. "I am the law."

Before I was about to give a snide comeback, the doors to the mall flew open and the five men in black stormed out, guns held out in front of them, looking like an army of Russian James Bonds. "дайте нам девушку," one of them commanded. "и никто не пострадает." 

Give us the girl and nobody will get hurt. I shivered in the pouring rain and leapt into an attack position, my fists out in front of chest. 

"Not likely," Nat said, and we attacked.

Gunfire rained down upon us, bullets flying every possible direction from their guns. Nat retaliated with her own gun, but I didn't have one of my own, so I had to improvise. While my mother was locking one of the men in a death grip, I leapt onto the back of one of the men, flipping him over and under me. He landed with a wheeze on the slippery ground. 

I felt a muscled arm grab me from behind and I whipped around, blocking the man's punches with ones of my own. He was much bigger than me, at least three heads taller. Using my size to my advantage, I weaved in and out of his grip, knocking him unconscious with a sharp jab to his temple.

I was panting by the time I'd taken out those two men, and felt like I was going to fall asleep as the next one attacked. I was too slow and sleepy to fully protect myself and as a result of that, I found a hand wrapped firmly around my throat, choking me. I thrashed around, my face going purple. I couldn't breathe as I felt my windpipe being slowly crushed.

Well damn, I thought to myself, darkness swimming in the corners of my vision, threatening to blot out the world forever. I'm going to die.

Apparently I was mistaken, because just as I saw my entire life flash before my eyes (not a pretty sight, I'll give you that), the hand wrapped around my throat loosened. When I say loosened, I mean severed.

Yep. My mother had just cut off a man's arm.

The agent screamed in pain, even more as Nat pushed her boot into his chest and shoved him off the roof. I lay wheezing on the ground in a puddle of blood, my throat bruised and hurting even as I took in breaths. Nat ran up to me, rubbing my back soothingly, her green eyes concerned. "You okay, kid?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah," I croaked. "Are they..." I took a deep, shuddering breath - "...are they all gone?"

Nat looked around, and, when she was satisfied that nobody else was trying to kill us, she smoothed my hair and kissed my forehead. "Yes, маленькая птица. They're all gone. We can go back to Steve and Peter now."

The endearing name made tears spring to my eyes. I leaned forwards and hugged her, wrapping my arms tightly around her waist. "Can we not go just yet? Stay here for five more minutes?"

Nat didn't pull away as she said into my ear, "Kira, we can't just stay here..." She caught my pleading look and sighed, tightening her grip on me. "Okay. Five more minutes."