EAST

Chapter One

LOCATION: THE HIGHLANDS

Having finally traversed the painstakingly trying rocky terrain that was now made worse by the windy weather, Alex and Sherlock gave in to the elements and knelt down beside an especially large clutter of dead bushes, taking a moment to gather their thoughts.

"Do we have an angle on the entry point?" Alex tapped into her radio, awaiting instructions from Howard.

"Should be able to shoot the padlock to the front gate, as long as that gun is suppressed this time."

Alex begrudgingly nodded.

"And from there? I'm gathering most of them won't take kindly to hostage negotiation." Sherlock butted in, grabbing Alex's deagle to assure it was suppressed.

"I'm an electronics coordinator, and I have been told my social skills are lacking so it's probably best if you go with your intuition, Alex. For now, out."

The wind roared up again and Alex's trench coat flailed around, smacking Sherlocks arm somewhat aggressively.

"You think they have the gate lock alarmed?" Sherlock queried as Alex menacingly approached said lock, occasionally ducking behind rocks and other garden decorations.

"I think Morrison would rather spend her money on advertisements or garden gnomes," Alex grumbled as she picked the lock using a bunch of metal scraps she had cultivated during her many travels.

Once Sherlock heard the click he cautiously followed Alex, who was now flat against a wall with a knife in hand.

"Disguises?" Sherlock placed a hand on his harness that had a customised revolver in it after noticing that Alex had armed herself.

"No use, they're knitted together like an ugly Christmas sweater. I'm gonna demand the location and passcode to Morrisons safe room." Alex scaled across the wall some more before halting dead in her tracks as she heard trodding of boots approaching. She flung her arm out toward Sherlock to signal him to stop, which he awkwardly obliged to.

As the figure turned the corner, Alex's right hand was on the operatives' gun, holding it in place so it were unable to shoot. Her other hand was firmly gripped around arteries of the operatives neck, increasing pressure with the more that they resisted. Unsure of how much time she had to figuratively and literally squeeze the information out of the agent, she spoke,

"Your boss. Location and code. Now."

Sherlock turned away as if he were to be protecting Alex, but in reality wanted nothing to do with what Alex was doing.

"I don't know the code!"

"Location!"

"Up-upstairs! First room to the left, it's heavily encrypted!"

Alex released some of the pressure, allowing the operative to breathe slightly thanks to their conpliance.

"If you don't know the code then who will? Don't be shy, give me names." The more time Alex waited without an answer the more she began to lose her patience- she had to remind herself to breathe so she would not to pass out from the tension.

"Harris Eadleon- They're high clearance!" The operative began to squirm slightly.

"You're doing great, sweety. Now one more question..' Alex trailed off as she scoped her surroundings once more before hollering toward Sherlock, beckoning him closer.
"Your name."

The fingers around the neck were replaced with a golden plate of metal belonging to a gun to their forehead.

"Lilly."

Alex tilted her head, questioning if she should take a hostage, especially considering there was no severe vendetta against this agent, however against her better judgement she tapped into her radio and called for Jolt to arrive with a large body bag to transfer Lilly back to the base.

As Sherlock arrived, he grimaced at the sight of Alex neatly tucking the girl just behind a bush, enough so that Jolt would understand what to do but not enough for any operatives to detect.

"Hostage?" Sherlock yawned and leaned against the wall, starting to lose motivation to continue.

"Thought I'd bring you a new friend since your other ones seem to be tiring you." Alex nudged him with her elbow as she glided past, casually swiping the side door open with a scrambler made by Hard Times.

Like a sheep, Sherlock followed.

Alex immediately weaved her way through tables and walls as if it were her personalized labyrinth, causing Sherlock to act as if he were walking in eggshells for the next few moments.
Once the two had situated themselves so they were hiding just outside the large metal room, Alex did what had to be done to get into the room.

A few poorly concealed bodies later and the two of them were standing awkwardly at the door. One pass of the agents keycard and they'd be in.

...

Morrison didn't even say a word as she caught a glimpse of the two agents that had infiltrated her base.

There wasn't any reason to.

Hands flew from being otherwise occupied to weapons, from weapons to triggers and from triggers, nowhere.

They were thinking of reasons.

"Shouldn't you have shot me by now?" Alex queried, the dangerous atmosphere quickly losing its strength as she analysed the character of the mob boss Infront of herself.

"Because I'm not that nice."

"You're going to want to torture me first right?" Alex resisted rolling her eyes.

Alex's eyes instead widened when she moved her two red machine pistols toward Sherlock.

"No. Just that one."

Sherlock froze up. Morrison questioned how he ever became an agent.

"He's a bit busy right now." Alex tightened her grip on her gun.

"Doing what? Following you blindly like a dog?"

Alex's eyes twitched at the words.

"I wish." Was Alex's only response, to which Sherlock pursed his lips at in response.

"So, you came here to kill me. I presume everyone else is dead or something similar?"

"You won't get to find out."

"Hah. You got a monologue planned?"

"No. Not for you."

The hazel-green eyes that were more brown in the dark lighting stared into the maple-red coloured ones of her old friend.

If Alex shot first, Morrison died and Sherlock could go home safely, presuming Alex didn't get lost.

If Sushi shot first, Sherlock would die, and Morrison were the type to let Alex live with that.

Morrison really should have shot them the second she saw them

..

Would have been her last thought.

Dark crimson splashed a little bit onto Alex's arm, to which she rolled her sleeve up and tucked it neatly.

Alex picked up one of the guns from the folded pile of flesh and bones and admired it. Horribly bitchy person, horribly nice weapon.