The Algorithm

Chapter ten - Thunder in the Desert

As soon as she disappeared into the formerly dark hallway, Marinette and Adrien bolted to the counter of buttons. Adrien watched as Marinette flipped a few switches and turned a few knobs, he guessed that she had used technology similar to this before and was familiar with it.

"We don't have long." She said with a sense of urgency. "Akuma will realize we're gone sooner or later and they will lock the place down." She continued to mess with the counter of controls until she got the right radio frequency.

"Hello?" Marinette asked. There was a brief second of static before they got a response.

"You are on a restricted radio wave." Said the same phantom voice from the park with an aggressive tone to scare off people who used the radio signal.

"No, no, no It's me." Marinette explained. "It's me, agent 1492058." There was a moment of silence.

"Siren?" The woman said.

"Yeah it's me Trixx." At least now Adrien had a name for the voice. Trixx spoke softly to someone at her side, telling them to get the founders before returning her attention to them.

"Thank goodness you're alive. We're trying to get a lock on your signal. Is the target with you?" Adrien had a sneaking suspicion he was the target.

"Yeah Adrien is here with me." Marinette said, confirming Adrien's theory.

"Are either of you injured?" Marinette thought for a second, then it finally dawned on her that neither of them were, their hunger was beginning to rise again but the bruises and cuts had healed over.

"No, we're fine, how long have we been gone?" Marinette questioned.

"Four days." Trixx answered.

Marinette and Adrien looked at each other worried, they couldn't see each other through the thick helmets but Adrien was sure she was just as frightened as him. He had a family who would be worried sick about him, a mother and father who would be scared for his safety. Of course they lived in Italy while Adrien went to school in Paris and would not notice his absence right away but sooner or later they would grow worried.

Suddenly an alarm started blaring and red lights swirled around in the air. "They know we're gone." Adrien stated, his ears ringing from the rhythmic blaring of the alarm.

"Si-... wai-... we-... min-... Si-Siren... ah-..." Trixx words were interrupted by crackling static.

"Trixx?" Marinette asked, trying to get the signal back. "Ugh!" She slammed her first onto the counter in frustration. "They're jamming the signal." Adrien gently grabbed her army through the thick fabric of the stolen uniforms.

"We have to go." He stated, in a calm tone despite his growing anxiety. His words seemed to help her rein in her anger and focus on their survival. She sighed and shook off her annoyance.

"Okay, Trixx will get a lock on the communication tower signal and find us. But we need to leave this place before we're trapped here forever." She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the hallway once again. Now that the helmets allowed them to see, Marinette had no problem entering the corridor. They bolted down the tunnel and bumped into a group of Akuma soldiers running at them in two rows side by side.

Marinette and Adrien moved to their right and as the group passed, Marinette grabbed the blonde's arm and pulled him to the back of the two rows. They were now running with the small herd of soldiers, Marinette guessed that it would look less suspicious to be in a group then just the two of them running around mindlessly. There were about thirty troops jogging at a steady pace, weapons in hand, weapons that Marinette and Adrien were lacking. The rows of soldiers moved swiftly through the maze of twists and turns and after ten minutes or so of running they made it to their destination.