Operation 007 (SpyxFamily)

Chapter Twenty-Four

And they were leaving.

Where? Where were they going? Damian thought as she dragged them along at a brisk pace. He had settled in a state of stable panic. A constant rhythm of a pounding heart and beating feet against the well traveled path. The speed she marched them at made his nerves jump and the urgency sped them quickly along.

The path went on for a couple minutes and they turned a corner. Damian was too absorbed in his franticness to notice the subtle crunching of small pebbles and dirt, and apparently the woman hadn't noticed either, because she stopped abruptly at the man they came face to face with.

His green shirt was the first thing Damian saw.

"Oh! Children! Thank goodness! Your teachers are so worried." Mr. Gable said and Damian didn't know to be afraid for him, or happy that he was here.

Forger's horror was the second thing he saw. He could guess why.

"Why are you crying?" Mr. Gable asked them worriedly. "Are you okay? You're not hurt are you? I'm sorry, who are you?" He directed to the woman who had changed her disposition like a chameleon to that of someone friendly, and shifted her grip to the kids hands. Less suspicious. "Do you know why they're crying?" He asked and Damian was confronted with the fact that his own eyes were still leaking.

"Oh, no. I assume because they got lost. I found these two wandering around and recognized the uniforms from the group I saw earlier. I was trying to locate them and return them to their field trip."

"How good of you." He answered. "I can escort them from here, I know exactly where they are. Their teachers will be so relieved, I was just about to report their absence."

"Sure." She said. "Of course." She didn't let go of their hands.

The man tipped his head in confusion at her conflicting words. "What di—"

With speed Damian couldn't follow, Mr. Gable was interrupted by the gun suddenly in the lady's hands. The mask of cordiality, dropped, as she released Forger.

Damian didn't know how many times he had been frightened already and he flinched at the motion of the weapon being whisked out. He feared for Mr. Gable but to all of their shock, he acted accordingly. He moved not in the way a regular zoo worker would, but agilely and without a moments hesitation.

Damian had rarely seen bodyguards in action but he'd seen them move and the skills they possessed. This man was much quicker, more adept. If Damian had had the composure to question it, he would've been confused, but as it was, he was absorbed in the following moments.

Mr. Gable moved before the woman had the safety off, which was a feat in and of itself. She acted in breath-taking speed but her opponent was just as swift, if not more so. She only wielded the gun for half a second before Mr. Gable directed it towards the sky, a bullet shooting off surprisingly quiet as he did so. He couldn't wrest it from her hands however, and she easily manoeuvred it and herself away from him, gun on the man again. Still a hold on Damian.

"Watch him." The woman thrust him in Forger's general direction a second before she was once more engaged with Mr. Gable.

Damian and Forger edged back as the two grown-ups fought in a whirlwind of violent dancing. Their feet sent dry dirt flying as they twisted and jumped. Their limbs evaded and attacked in effortless proficiency and rarely collided in brutal contact for their mastery of martial arts. Suddenly Mr. Gable had a gun in his hands and Damian didn't know where it came from. Between the physical assaults, it went off, also suppressed, and the woman dodged with practiced ease. She wasn't able to get her own shot in, and it was difficult for Mr. Gable to find another opening. The woman was hard-pressed to keep up, and relied on her dodging as she reached for the walkie-talkie.