Running Away

Chapter 12

The wind was pushing through Sera's hair as she dashed through the streets of Italy. She could see the embassy gate and felt her heart racing within her chest. In the near distance, Sera could hear gunshots being fired.

As she ran, Sera considered the idea of it being Elias who was hurt. Her feet slowed to a stop as she leaned against the side of the building and threw up. Tears raced down her cheeks as the weight of grief overcame her. She didn't know if it was him, but at that moment she felt sure. She squatted down from the distress she felt, the urge to pass out now overwhelming her. "Not now, Sera, we got to go. Not now." She said to herself

Her mind was split between continuing into the embassy or going back for Elias. She knew what he would want her to do and she knew that it made sense, but her heart still felt torn. As she sat there and considered her choice, a man appeared in the alley and was running straight towards her.

She shot up from where she was and took off. She ran as fast as she could but it wasn't enough, within a few moments she was grabbed from behind and pulled backwards. He caused her to stumble backwards, but she managed to turn around in his grip. Sera clawed at and hit his face repeatedly, "LET GO OF ME!"

"Smettila di lottare, puttana!" He shouted back. (Translation: Stop struggling, you bitch!)

Sera was not prepared to go down without a fight. Despite her petite frame, Sera had learned a thing or two about self defense over the years. Elias would be away for work for months at a time, which is why he was always motivated to teach her how to defend herself. She let her fist crash into the side of his face as hard as she could. It caused him to stumble back, losing his grip of her.

Sera took the chance to take off again, beelining to the embassy. It felt like only seconds had gone by before she once again heard the fast footsteps of someone behind her. She gave it everything she had and sprinted as fast as she could.

When she got to the embassy gate, she rounded the corner as hot as she could and stumbled into the building. There were two men in navy suits and an American flag pin on their lapel. Still in a panic, Sera desperately tried to stand back to her feet. One of the men held on to her to help her up.

"Ma'am are you okay?" He asked repeatedly as Sera fumbled over her words and continuously looked back to see if she was still being pursued.

The other man could pick up that Sera was in trouble, he went outside and looked both ways to see if he could see whoever it was who had her in a pursuit. He turned his head to speak into the microphone that was in his pin, "Cerrano, this is Allen. Do you copy?"

Cerrano's sultry voice was heard in Allen's ear. "What can I do for you, love?"

"I need a description of the citizen we should be expecting." He looked back to Sera, "I think we have her."

Cerrano flipped through the pages on her desk until she came up on Sera's file that was sent in from Director Bodia. Anything from the Director's desk demanded utmost perfection in execution. "It looks like...AA female, mid twenties, dark brown skin and eyes...Uhm, Hair down to the low back and approximately 5'0. How does that sound?"

Allen clasped his hands together. "We got her."

"Oh! Goodness, is she hurt at all?"

"Not sure, but she's in a lot of distress."

"Get her to the red room stat, I'll meet her there. Orders are to have her on the first flight out of this country."