Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 50: Sparks

"Heda," Anya says loudly from outside the tent. She used to enter without announcing herself first, but there was an incident yesterday that has stopped her from continuing that practice. Lexa has decided the incident was entirely Clarke's fault, as Anya never walked in on such things before Clarke entered her life.

"Come in, Anya," Lexa says.

"The gona from TonDC are here," Anya announces. "Including the Skaiskat who stayed with them. They have information about the Mountain. They believe they have found another way to enter."

Lexa stands up and goes to see. Indra waits outside with a dozen or so representatives – most are strong gona, but there is also John from the drop ship attack and a young Seken who looks scared just to be near his Heda. "What news do you have?" she asks, trying not to sound too eager. This information they badly need.

"At first there was not much movement," one of the gona says. "Then a day after you left, John kom Skaikru and Artigas saw something." He pushes the young Seken forward casually.

Artigas swallows hard. "We went closer than the others," he says in a rush. "John and I."

Clarke gives John a look. "I thought I told you to stay away from Mount Weather," she comments.

He gives her a rueful look, which looks strange on his thin and angry face. "Yeah. But I was a criminal, I'm not that great at following orders. And I did survive."

"And we found a door," Artigas says, his words still eager and quick. "The day after you left, Heda, they opened this small metal door at the top and pushed out a girl. We were as close as we could get without being taken and we could still barely see it. The door did not look very strong, or well-guarded."

"We lost five gona watching the place, but none from that area," another gona says. "Three from near the dam, and two from near the Ripa tunnels, both which seem to have many more Maunon and Ripa than is usual. We lost none from the front – they do not seem to guard the front door so heavily."

"They don't need to," Clarke says dryly. "When you have an impenetrable door, guards aren't really necessary."

"Two days after you left, ten men came out of the Mountain," the gona continues. "They went north. We attempted to use the radio to contact you, but could not make it work. We could not contact Polis either."

"Mount Weather was in the way," Clarke explains. "It wasn't a problem with the radio, it's just sometimes Mount Weather can block radio signals between places, and they must have boosted that to cover TonDC as well."

"Were the Maunon wearing suits?" Lexa asks, already sure of the answer.

"No, Heda," the gona says. "We attempted to send messengers to find you but none returned. Eventually the Maunon came back, then left again with many of their vehicles. We could not see what they contained. Moba, Heda, but we did not see them until they were already close enough to the Mountain that we could not have attacked in time." So that is how they brought the Skaikru back with them.

They might not have attacked anyway, Lexa thinks. Her people have feared the Mountain for so long that they flinch at the thought of fighting back. The Maunon take advantage of this when they roam the countryside. "And after that?" she asks, voice crisp.

"Lots more people came in and out of Mount Weather, all armed," John says. "They increased the number of guards around the place, too. I'm not sure why because it's pretty obvious they've already got a bunch of technological crap around to detect people, but they seem pretty freaked."

"Because we could knock out some of the 'technological crap' if we really wanted to, and they know it," Clarke says flatly, "Having a bunch of guards just standing around is their way of making it clear they won't hesitate to come out and kill us if we try that."