I Defy (Sequel to 'I Spy')

Chapter 2

Opening my eyes had never before been so painful. Forcing them to open caused my head to throb so hard it was like my brain was trying to hammer its way outside. Eventually, after a great deal of pain, the room I was in came into focus.

It was dimly lit by a stream of early morning light entering the room through a half-closed blind. Through the gap at the bottom, I could see nothing but a tar road. The room was small, no larger than ten squared meters, and the roof was low. A single fan spun lazily above me, hardly affecting the stuffy air pushing against my damp skin. The floor was carpeted an ugly brown colour and had blotches of ugly yellow and black stain around one section. It was painted white and the paint was peeling away on the opposite side of the room to where the window was. To my right sat an old looking wooden door with a rusty copper doorknob and the only other furniture in the room was a table pushed against the peeling wall. That, and the two seats Ant and I were tied to.

My hands had started to get a rope burn from the rope that so tightly bound my wrists together. I dragged my eyes over to Ant to see his head was drooping forwards, his eyes were closed and a small trail of blood had dried along the side of his face.

"Ant!" I whispered loudly. Our chairs were placed far enough away from each other that any attempt I made to kick him would be useless. "Anthony, wake up!"

His eyes slowly blinked open, causing a groan to leave his mouth. He pulled his head up and took in the room. Then his eyes settled on me.

"Where are we?" He muttered. I could tell by the way his jaw clenched that he was in pain as well.

"I don't know," I replied. "Are you okay?"

"No," he mumbled, shutting his eyes. "What about you?"

"I'm fine," I lied quickly.

Ant opened his mouth to reply when the door was thrown open. A woman walked in, followed by two large men. She was tall and skinny and insanely beautiful with short, dark hair and bright red lips. She walked over to Ant first and leaned down to his level. She grabbed his chin with her graceful hand and turned his face left and right, ignoring his whines. Once she was done, she stalked over to me. Her long nails stabbed into my cheeks and the quick jerking movements left my head spinning. Her dark brown eyes bore into mine for several seconds before she nodded.

"It's them," she said in an Australian accent.

"Who are you?" I spat. Purposefully ignoring Ant's warning gaze, I looked at the women with narrowed eyes. "What do you want?"

She laughed. It was a bitter, empty laugh that left me feeling cold.

"As if you don't know," she said, frowning deeply. "I've been watching you, Marley, and I know you aren't an idiot."

I was about to honestly give her a piece of my mind when I heard a loud crash. The two men simultaneously turned their heads and looked at the door. The woman stood up straight and followed their gaze. As she did, someone yelled loudly. Then a boy ran into the room.

Before anyone could react, he kicked one of the men in the head and he fell to the ground. The second one lunged for him, but he jumped out of the way and elbowed him in the back. The man spun around and the boy ducked under his punch and kicked him in the gut, hard. While both men were still on the ground, he ran to Ant and untied his wrists.

"Look out!" I yelled as the lady took aim at his head with her heel. He spun around but the blow still hit him square on the forehead. He fell back, injured for a second, but recovered remarkably quickly and tackled her into a wall.

By that time, the one guy had recovered. He was going to his boss's aid when Ant appeared in front of me and started to untie my wrists. His forehead was sparkling with perspiration and his eyes had the glint of excitement mingled with fear that they always had when he was in the middle of a mission.

"Hurry up, God." Miraculously, the boy was at my feet untying the rope. Ant finished with my hands at the same time that he finished with my feet, and Ant pulled me to stand up. My head was still aching and judging by the boys' expressions, theirs were too.

"Let's go," the boy said in a heavy Australian accent.

Ant nodded and soon I was following the stranger out of the room and down a passageway. There were yells coming from somewhere to my left, so he turned right. In front of us stood a staircase leading downstairs which we ran towards. We were halfway down when two more men came sprinting up. The boy, who was leading Ant and me, jumped and grabbed onto a rafter that was built into the roof above the stairs. He swung his legs into the first guy and they both tumbled down the stairs and were left in a heap at the bottom.

He shot us a very charming smile before we continued to run through corridors. We stopped in one, the front door ahead of us, and he pointed to a room to the left.

"Are those yours?" I followed his finger to see our cases.

"Yes!" I yelled, reaching forward to grab one. Ant took it out of my hands and thrust a backpack in them instead. I turned around to see Ant was carrying my case and the boy was lugging Ant's case and a backpack.

We got out of the house and were in what seemed like a normal street. The sky was a very pale blue and the air smelt of roses and exhaust gasses. We walked down the three front steps and as we set foot on the pavement, a black SUV pulled up in front of us and the boot started opening. I chucked my bag on top of the cases before climbing into the backseat next to Ant. The boy sat in the passenger seat and another boy drove. All I could see was the back of his head and thick brown hair. In ten seconds we were zooming off down the street.

The boy turned back around and I looked at him properly for the first time. He looked like a typical Australian surfer, with very tan skin, bright blue eyes and hair that should be brown but had blonde highlights from the sun. He was dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of blue board shorts and I was certain he was wearing slip slops. He was cute, with big eyes and a strong jaw line. He also had a trail of blood coming down his forehead from the gash on his head.

"Hello, mates," he said with a screw grin.

"Um, hi," Ant said slowly. "I'm Anthony."

"Oh, I know who you are," he laughed a throaty chuckle. "It's a pleasure to meet you. You too, Marley."

"Who are you?" I asked in a rather hostile tone. I was sore and grumpy and tired and I didn't feel like having some stranger talk to me like I was a long lost pal.

"No need to snap at the guy who just saved your life." He raised an eyebrow.

"I have no idea who you are," I replied, my voice still cold.

"I'm Sam," he said. "And this is my mate Josh."

"Okay, so what?" Ant asked.

"So what? Okay I don't know how you do it in America, but generally anywhere else in the world you thank someone after they save you, not interrogate them like they're the one trying to kill you," Sam said, rolling his eyes.

"Sorry, it's been a long day," Ant mumbled.

"It's alright," Sam sighed. "But if you must know right now, I work for ASIS."

"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service?" I asked in awe.

"Yeah, it's not just Americans who hire people young," he laughed sarcastically. "So just know that we're he good guys."

"Then who were those people?" Ant asked, pointing behind him.

"The bad guys."