The Awkward and Terrifying Explosive Adventures of the Recreaze-Vallia Family

Chapter Ten

Adelia (Del)

She was rather annoying, to say the absolute least. But she did handle the situation I threw at her fairly well. It was possible she wouldn't die, as long as she did what I said. However, that implied she would do as I said. Which was doubtful, given the circumstances.

It was extremely quiet in the car as I drove to one of my hideouts closest to where I wanted to be. There was no way I was taking her to my home... but she still needed some semblance of a weapon. Besides, I needed my climbing gear. It figured that the only lead was some energy signature somewhat matching Fieris. Although it wasn't exact. it was the best lead to start with... besides, it just so happened I knew there was a Halyix agent nearby. What better way to hide something than in plain sight?

My hideout was nothing more than a smallish room in a rundown building that was positioned just right to where I could monitor multiple buildings, whichever my job happened to require, at the same time. This particular job was the Jensen and Jensen building, directly across from the south window. Thankfully, Suzy didn't ask too many questions as we entered the room, until I opened the case of weapons I kept underneath the bed.

"Do I get to use one of those?"

Resisting the urge to laugh, I pulled out an AS Val and checked to make sure it was unloaded. "Do you know how to use it?"

"Yeah..?" her tone indicated she thought I was stupid. Well, I might have been crazy, but stupid was out of the question. Without saying a word, I tossed the gun to her, hearing the weapon give a small beep.

"Go on then."

"But..."

"Just pull the trigger," I crossed my arms, somewhat amused as she did so. The weapon didn't even click. Frowning, she tried again, getting the same result. "Lesson one, check for biometrical locking systems before using someone else's gun. Don't wanna get shot, do you?"

"No..." she grumbled. Taking the gun from her, I finished checking the weapon for any sort of defect that I thought might be a problem if I took it with me. "What are you doing?" Her attitude was back.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Wasting time... what are we doing here?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Lesson two, don't rush into something you might not be prepared for, otherwise you'll never get home because you're dead. Comprendes?" Looking as though she were about to respond with another retort, I interrupted. "We're investigating a lead. What do you think we're doing, getting cupcakes?" Finished checking my weapon, I rummaged around in the closet to see if I could find the rookie a gun she could use. As most of mine were biometric as a precaution, it was not an easy task.

"Well, that's better than what I was thinking..."

"Shut up and try this out," I handed her my old Heckler and Koch USP. It had a safety on it, something I hoped wouldn't be a problem. Then again, my knowledge of her training only extended as far as how she was holding the AS; and that wasn't exactly promising. Additionally, the USP had one more feature I quite liked as opposed to some of the other guns I had. It wouldn't fire at me, even with the safety off.

She handled the pistol far better. Without waiting to hear what she had to say about it, I went back into the closet to find the necessary bullets. Finding and handing her the box, I grabbed the climbing gear and started checking it for any frays. "Soooo what exactly is the plan here..?" she interrupted my thoughts as I checked both the harnesses I owned.

"The plan is you follow my lead and don't get shot."

"So you have no plan?"

"I always have a plan."

"Then what is it?"

Ignoring her, I stuffed the gear into a pack along with the AS and my staff.

"Since you're not saying what the plan is, you don't have one..."

"What gives you the idea that just because I don't tell you my plan, that I don't have one? That's a juvenile way to find out what it is."

"So I don't get to know anything?!"

"You get to know that you'll need that," I pointed at the gun, "and you also get to know that if you shoot that, you'd better be getting shot at, since yours doesn't have a silencer like mine. Now put the gun in your pocket and let's go." Hoisting the bag up on my shoulders, I walked past her, hearing her stumble slightly while trying to fit the gun in her jeans. Finally, she followed, allowing the door to swing shut on its own. We'd have to work on her subtlety.

Ten minutes later, after walking the entire four blocks to the building in question, as well as successfully destroying any attempt at conversation, I was setting everything up on the only side of the building that didn't have cameras. Somewhat of a design flaw, especially as there weren't any even on close inspection. But that was their problem.

"Here, put this on," I handed the kid a harness, noting how two and two seemed to be put together. Looking between the rooftop and the harness, she finally looked back at me.

"We're climbing up there?"

"No, we're walking in through the entrance like a couple of idiots, then gunfighting our way to the top." I pulled on my harness, but didn't tighten anything. Thanks to a previous mission, I had already outfitted the building to where I could just clip the rope into place as we were going up. Finished getting the ropes all ready, I checked her harness and made sure it sat securely around her waist, then tightened my own. "Alright, what's going to happen is I'm going to go up first and you follow. We'll be on the same line, so if you fall I'll catch you. All you gotta do is unhook yourself as you climb past the anchors, got it?" She nodded, slightly more pale than usual. I ignored that, hooking the lines to both harnesses and starting the climb up. As I had found before, the wall of the building was actually very good for climbing, as it had plenty of handholds in the brick to hold onto. Clipping onto the first anchor, I motioned for Suzy to start up as well. Which she did, unwillingly. Oh well.

The climb was going fairly well, until about halfway when Suzy started talking again. "I don't like this..."

"Well that's too bad, cause we're not going back down," I clipped into another anchor. 

"But what if I slip..?"

"The harness will keep you from falling too far. And if you keep thinking about slipping, you will slip..."

"But it's really high up... I dunno if I can do this..."

"Stop looking down."

"I can't..."

"Yes you can."

"But, what if-"

"JUST DO WHAT I SAY AND SHUT UP," I hissed, getting the desired effect: silence.

Thankfully, I didn't hear anything from her until we reached the top of the building, and even then it wasn't much. I noticed she looked more pale than before. Well, good for her we were done with that part... Now she'd better snap out of it, because we were just getting started.