MED: Minor Extremely Dangerous (The Stone Chronicles: Book 2)

Chapter 18

MI6 Headquarters. August 6th, 2015. 0806 Hours.

Emily

"Follow me." I said quietly as we stepped cautiously out of M's office and into the still deserted office space.

Alex closed the door behind him slowly and whispered, "How many plans did you and Moses make, exactly?"

"Four." I answered honestly, "Hopefully we don't get to that point."

"We're totally gonna get to that point." Alex stated rather unhelpfully, then added, "Damn you, Murphy's law!"

I stopped suddenly and held my hand up to hush Alex before he could start complaining (see what this partnership has come to?). I strained my ears and nearly jumped as I heard footsteps approaching us from across the hall.

"Get down." I commanded.

"Huh?"

I recognized him as he came around the corner; John Henderson, 005, was dressed in all black, including a black helmet and gigantic goggles that nearly made him unrecognizable, and was armed with a large, menacing rifle (he'd obviously been on guard). When he noticed us, his gun lifted and aimed at Alex's head with so much speed, I almost didn't react fast enough.

As the gun fired, my arm shot up with a force I wasn't aware I even possessed. I yanked Alex down as fast as I could, and I swear I could see the bullet race in slow motion just over his chest. I raised my pistol and let off one shot.

I think it hit him in the jaw; I'm not quite sure. He fell back and slammed into the ground, his rifle clattering a few feet away from him. Alex turned and glared angrily at me, "Was that really necessary?"

"Are you bloody kidding me? He shot at you!" I countered.

"That doesn't mean you had to kill him!"

"I didn't." I explained, holding the gun up matter-of-factly, "Tranq gun. Good one too. Apparently a couple of Max's people engineered the bullets. Top of the line."

Henderson. I heard the static of a comm come from his belt. Henderson, come in.

"Well that's not good." Alex commented.

"On to Plan B." I decided quickly.

"How did Plan A already fail?!"

"Plan A depended on us running into literally nobody. That obviously didn't work."

Alex nodded frustratedly, "Plan B it is, then."

"This way."

Alex followed me past Henderson and down the hall toward the closest stairwell. I was sure to remind him to step quietly, alarmingly aware of the echoes our steps could cause in the still HQ. Perhaps it was the lack of footsteps sounding from us that alerted my ears to a newcomer. Alex seemed to have heard it too when he said, "Stairwell. One man."

We drew our guns simultaneously and aimed towards the door of the stairwell as it flew off its hinges with a loud bang. A man stepped out of the doorway, gun raised, wearing little to no protection. When he saw us, however, his grip on the gun loosened and fell just slightly.

"Ems? Alex?" He questioned incredulously.

"Stand down, Tanner." I said, "Please, just stand down."

"You're the threat that took out Henderson?!"

"He's fine. Tanner, please don't make me do this."

From the expression on his face, he seemed to had just noticed that I was still aiming at him and hadn't wavered. He looked up at me, then I saw something flash across his eyes: the same thing that flashed across M's. Pain?

He lowered his gun completely and threw it to the side, "What started all of this?"

"I'm fifteen. I've got a life I'd like to live, and I'm not keen on people trying to take it away from me."

His eyes widened slightly, and suddenly he let out a saddened sigh, "I made a promise a long time ago that I'd protect you. Obviously I've failed at that, but maybe I can make up for it now."

Huh? Wait, is he letting us go?

"Just do me a favor and do the same, please."

"Wha-" Suddenly, I figured out what his request really was: one I wasn't sure I could fulfill. I felt my stomach drop, "Tan-"

"Ems, please." He begged, "Please."

When I looked straight into his eyes, I was convinced. Pain. He wasn't lying. I was running out of time.

I tightened my grip and shot Tanner in the chest twice.

He dropped softer than Henderson had. Alex looked from Tanner's motionless body to me with utter confusion, "Is it bad that I'm lost?"

I trudged over to Tanner without answering. Quickly, I pulled one of the gas masks out of my bag and strapped it to his face. Once I was done, I smiled and softly kissed his forehead before whispering, "Thanks, old friend. Good luck."

"Heels." Alex exclaimed suddenly, "I hear heels."

Just as he finished, a pair of three inch black heels made their way around the corner from the opposite direction. Suddenly, I found myself aiming my gun at my own handler.

Ruby Williams was in her late 20's and already finding strands of gray in her sleek black hair after taking over Minor Operations after 7/7 when she was 18. Her light green eyes used to be full of light and life (or, at least, that's what I was told), but nowadays they seemed to be tainted with unhealable sorrow. They widened as she found two guns aimed at her from in front of an unconscious agent in a gas mask.

"Emily?!" She exclaimed incredulously, "What- What are you doing?!"

"I think you know."

When she stared down at Tanner, her features softened, "This is because of M, isn't it? He's targeting you, isn't he?"

I nodded slowly, frankly shocked at how quickly she'd read the situation, "I don't have a choice here, Ruby."

She looked at me worriedly, "How long?"

I checked my watch, "10 minutes, 30 seconds. Ruby, you don't want to be in here when the time runs out."

She looked down at Tanner again, then back at me with jawline set, "I can give you two minutes before the troops call in." She nodded toward Tanner, "Use them wisely."

Author's Note

So here's the scoop everyone: I'm back in the U.S.! London, Paris, and Barcelona were absolutely amazing. I highly recommend you all find some time and save up to visit at least one (if you don't live in one). Anyways, I learned two very important things in the past week: [1] Tour groups love to get you back to the hotels late and tired so that you literally can't do anything but sleep, and [2] European cities provide tourists with a SUPREME lack of wifi outside hotels. So those two things were the main reasons why there were no updates last week (I was too tired to finish it and when I had enough energy to try, I couldn't because no wifi). But I'm back now, so updates should continue as normal (knock on wood...).

Thank you for being so patient! We are nearing the end of book two! Only a few chapters left! DUN DUN DUN!

Votes, comments, and follows are greatly appreciated and excellent motivation for sad, unpaid, workless teenage fanfic writers like yours truly, so y'all should totally do those and make my day/week/life. 😉

Have a good week, lovelies! See y'all on Friday! 😘

XOXO ~ Maddie 💞