The Red widow

Part 35: jump

I quickly shut the book, trying to push the feeling of sinking despair from my mind. I keep my hand on the gun tucked in my waistband, my palms going white with how tightly I am clutching it. The lights spark and flicker casting shadows on the wall, ghosts of black dancing on the floral wallpaper.

One word still rings in my head, shadowing my thoughts. Hydra. The word itself makes my skin crawl. My mind swirling into a sinkhole of memories, too bright and fast to properly distinguish.

I grab the edge of the table to steady myself as I hear footsteps. My attention snaps to the door, my heart thudding in my throat. I reach into my waistband and hold the gun a little away from my chest as i start to walk behind the door frame trying not to cast a shadow as I duck behind the whitewashed wood. I press my body against it trying to remain as unseen as possible.

From the heaviness of the footsteps I know it is not a child.

My breaths form dizzying gasps and my hands start to shake as I steady the gun trying to throw my shaken mind back into auto pilot, but it's like fear has taken control of the plane and has sent it crashing into the sea of thoughts.

The footsteps stop for a second a little outside the landing. For a second I thought maybe they had left. That I was safe. But the cock of the gun suggested something different. Sucking in air through my gritted teeth I aim the gun out of the crack in the door frame and fire.

A groan fills the silence.

I hear their body fall heavily to the ground. And the buzz of a radio. I fire again and the line goes silent. The sound of metal crashing to the ground stunts my thoughts back to me. Glancing above my head I see alexi clinging from the vent. I watch as he jumps effortlessly to the ground brushing pieces of cement and dust from his hair he rushes over to me. His eyes are wild with panic but his body shows no indication of it.

"Someone is here, we have to leave now"

"Who, who is here alexi please enlighten me" i mutter as i help him reattach the vent. As we clamber down a piece of paper flutters down from it.

I reach for it before alexi can get his fingerprints all over it.

It is a number sequence. 0604 with a small symbol drawn on it. A clock. I glance back at the grand clock which stands stoically in the corner of the room.

I trace my fingers over the hard splintering wood trying to find any weak spots.

A bump.

Using my bitten nails I manage to claw the edge of the wood, tilting it up just enough to find a silver key. I glance back over to Alexi who is standing at the doorway. His gun aimed into the hall. "Two more down but  one had emps, we have to get out of here, for all we know this whole place could be rigged to blow." he hisses as I walk past him to the fireplace under the bookshelf. I shift the key into the lock.

Relife floods my body so much I feel as if  I might crumple as the lock falls into my hand. I rummage around the base of the fireplace, my finger turning black from soot as I reach my arm up the chimney. I feel my hands touch a metal box. Tugging the book tumbles out of the chimney and I quickly scrabble for the box as Alexi grabs me harshly by the shoulder. I wince as his nails dig into my arm.

"We have to go, this place is swarming with emps," he hisses as I tuck the box into my pocket. He pushes me against a wall as a sweeping yellow light floods the walls. " This is the police, please stand down." I hear a booming voice through a radio crackle. The voice is thick with an accent. One I had grown up learning to perfection not to have. One that haunted my nightmares.

"No '' I say with a smile spreading across my lips as I aim my gun and fire it right as the officer steps into the room.

Alexi's face is ashen.

"We have to leave now" his voice almost pleading as he grabs my arm and yanks me into another hallway leading out of the room. We sprint, our arms pumping by our sides, our breathing as rhythmic as the sweat dripping down our backs as we reach the end of the corridor.

Facing us is a row of officers, guns as big as them slung over their chests, some already aimed at our heads. My head has started to pound with anxiety. This is not a time to die. Not when I may have the answers I have been looking for in my hand. Alexi clearly had thought quicker than I had. I watched as he pulled the gun out of his waistband and laid it on the ground, trading his security to raise his hands in the air. "Kill me then" he shouts in russian as a bullet flies towards us. In a split second he has me by the arm and we are falling two stories from the building, glass shattering around us.