A world full of darkness

Chapter 53 "Always behave like a duck."

After her video had finished Alex turned towards the others. James was looking at Connor with such hatred Alex thought that Connor would burst into flames at any moment. Connor on the other hand was staring at his feet fiddling with  the band around his wrist. "You didn't come to the hotel that night to kill me did you Connor." Alex stated. Connor shook his head. "No." Alex sunk against the wall, her head in her hands. "Kai Malum has always hated me..." She whispered to herself. Connor started to walk over to comfort her but James got up and pushed him back onto the couch roughly. Alex saw Connor grit his teeth and James' eyes were full of hatred. "Sit. Down." He hissed. James gave Alex one look before he stormed off most likely to his room. Laurel got up and walked towards Alex, grabbing her arm she wrenched her up. "Come on you need to come with me." She dragged Alex out the door with her. "Put this on." Laurel said as she threw a black hoodie at her. Alex slipped it over her head and pulled the hood up. The weather had been getting warmer lately as England moved into spring, but the air still had a bight to it. Alex may have been raised in the UK but the Australian blood in her still told her that this weather was cold. "Alex you just need to give James some room for a bit, he can't help it. He loves you too much and he's just upset about Connor.  He doesn't understand that you're going through a lot too, okay?" Laurel spoke softly, her hand on her swollen belly. "I can't believe I've known Kai before he kidnapped me..." Alex whispered. Laurel started rubbing slow circles on Alex's back and grabbing her shoulders pulled her down to sit on a park bench. The birds darted around the trees chirping, butterfly's and bumblebees flew around the flowers. Alex remembered when she was younger and had just arrived in London, Connor had taken her outside on her birthday and Alex had screamed when she saw a bumblebee. They were different to the Australian bees, they were massive and fluffy. Alex smiled at the thought as she recalled how panicked Connor was when she screamed, he'd immediately gone into defence mode. She was six and Connor was seven. "Alex? Alex are you alright?" Laurel asked sounding concerned. Alex cleared her head. "Yeah sorry was thinking about something else." Laurel nodded. "Okay so we need a plan of action. And I think I may have one!" Laurel cracked an evil smile as she finished. "Of course I can't go in to kill people because of the baby but if Jacob goes with you to help Hudson out then there's an extra member for you." Alex nodded in agreement. "You could stay here and be our eyes and ears." Alex stated. Laurel nodded as she pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Yeah that was what I was thinking, I mean it's really hard for me to stay out of a fight. Anyway so I've come up with this rough draft, hopefully it will end Kai forever. But there is this one person that threatens the whole plan, I know Hudson and Jacob are particularly worried about him. His name is Achilles, ever heard of him?" Alex nodded. "Yeah he came after us, that's the reason why we are here in Oxford." Laurels eyes widened. "Don't tell Jacob that." Alex agreed not to. "Okay so this is the plan." Laurel flattened the paper against her thigh and began. "In five days we will make our move, you, Connor and James will travel by car to Greenwich to a safe house I will direct you to. Hudson and Jacob will travel by tube so they have time to disable the security and so their thing. When they get there I will guide them to this point over here." Laurel pointed to a small red dot on the map, it was at the very right hand corner of the base. "They will only engage in combat if it is completely necessary. But they will sort majority of the guards and all of the locks and security blah blah blah for you. Now you, Connor and James will get there before them. I want you all to analyse the building, find weaknesses come up with a plan to get in and a plan to get out of something goes wrong. Once Hudson and Jacob have cleared the way I will alert you and you can move in. The only guards you have to get rid of on your way in are the two on top of the entrance, on the roof. You will have to get them Alex, it will need to be silent if we want to keep our element of surprise. So arrows, not bullets. Once you're in the corridor kill everything that isn't already dead, because trust me they will kill you. I will direct you to Kai Malum's office, the only problem with this is that if Achilles is in the building he will know that Hudson and Jacob have hacked him and he will not be happy. He will make it almost impossible to get to Kai, he will try and kill you, but luckily you are all smart so try not to die on the way. When you get to Kai's office you three will have to figure out how to kill him. If everything goes according to plan then Kai will die before he has a chance to press the alert button. If he presses that button then you will all be screwed. Masses of guards and all of them trained killers or assassins will surround you and I'll leave it to your imagination to think of what would happen to you all. I don't know where this button is, that's the problem. You will have to find it first or cut his hand off or something. Now after Kai is dead Hudson and Jacob will attempt to hold off Achilles and his minions, because let's face it by this point Achilles will have every single hacker in AHKTEM trying to fight Hudson and Jacob. This bit is the most crucial part of the whole plan, because I need you all to get out of there alive. If Hudson and Jacob succeed in keeping Achilles at bay then you three will have to run like your life depends on it, which it does. You will have approximately fifty six seconds from when Jacob and Hudson start against Achilles. There will be more guards and traps in the hallway so you will have to be careful. Now if Hudson and Jacob fail you will have to get out ten times faster. Because now that Achilles can see you he will send extra guards and extra traps, you most likely wouldn't get out of there alive. I suggest window jumping by this point. Now once you are out of the building all of you get back into the Aston Martin and drive like hell, the thing is you can't come back to Oxford right away, because AHKTEM may be tracking or following you. So drive around for a little bit. Sound good?" Laurel finished with a flourish of her hands. Alex sat there gaping like a fish in horror. "There is a lot of 'if's' there Laurel..." "Have you got a better plan then?" Laurel asked as she got up off the bench and stretched. Alex shook her head. "No, I'm just worried that if something goes really wrong. I know Connor and I will be fine, but what about James, Hudson and Jacob? They are not trained assassins they barely know how to kill." "They have a few more days training they're doing really well already, they'll be fine Alex." Laurel said as she began walking off. Alex got up slowly and followed her along the park path. The sun was gleaming up ahead it was late afternoon, walking past a pond Laurel stopped and stared off into the distance. The ducks paddled around quacking and eating the crusts of bread children were throwing them. "Do you know what my mother used to tell me when we were in Alias?" Laurel asked. Alex shook her head. "No what did she say?" Laurel fiddled with her braid as she recited. "Always behave like a duck. Keep calm and unruffled on the surface, but paddle like hell underwater." Alex smiled at that, she liked it. "Your mother was a smart woman to say that." Laurel smiled sadly. "I know." "Come, let's go explain to the boys this plan of yours." Alex said as she grabbed Laurel's wrist and pulled her along the path. "You know what Laurel I didn't know your mum but I'm pretty sure she would be super proud of you now. You've got an amazing soon to be husband, a beautiful house, a steady income, a baby on the way and you're the most amazing friend. She's be proud of you." Laurel nodded and gave Alex a hug, Alex allowed it and even hugged her back. "Come on, I think there's a storm coming." Alex said, and Laurel knew she meant both physically and metaphorically.