I shake his grip from my hand and I scurry over to the pile of bags we left on the floor to unpack later. I search for his backpack first and toss it to him. He catches it with ease and slings it over his shoulder. I get to mine and take my gun out. I put it into the waist band of my jeans and re zipper the pack. I throw it onto my back, grab Theo's hand again and pull him out the door. I push him out in front of me first, then I flip the light switch and close the door quietly.
"When we get out there," I start loading my gun, "stay back up against the wall of the building. Don't start moving until I get out in front of you. We're coming out of the north side of the apartment, so we won't be seen until we walk around to the opposite side." I pop in the final bullet and put it back at my belt.
"What's the plan going to be if there are people in there?" Theo asks. He reaches around him and pulls out his own gun, along with the bullets. I watch him as he loads it. He puts it at his own belt, waiting for me to respond.
"I'm not sure yet. Remember that being an assassin is a lot of on the spot thinking. Getting in is the first step, and if we can't do that much, it doesn't pay to think ahead. Hopefully there's a door that we can sneak into on this side." I take a deep breath, realizing that I sound nervous. I'm never nervous for these kinds of things. This is a pretty minor task to accomplish. Unless of course there are people there... "Ready?"
"Always," he says winking at me. He pushes open the door, going out before me and I smile to myself. My smile slowly fades as I remember that this is our first mission as a couple. Not that it really matters. I mean, I've talked to him about it time and time again whenever it comes up. I shouldn't be worried. He'll be fine and so will I. I close the door behind me, making sure it's latched and I grab Theo's arm before he can walk around the corner.
"Wait," I say quickly, "remember that we are just partners right now. There's no romance in the air until we're done with this. Please keep that in mind." He nods with a little... disappointment? in is eyes. I move to the space out in front of him and carefully observe any entrances that we could both go through. I don't see a doorway of any kind, but there's a window leading to what I assume is a basement. The camera that was pointed in at us is scanning around constantly, detecting movements.
"There's no way that we can get in without the camera seeing us," Theo whispers.
"Take out your gun," I whisper at him. "You're going to shoot at the camera to disable it. Plus it's good target practice."
"I had enough target practice. Don't even call it that," he jokes with me. He does as I say and he draws his gun up. His arms are raised above my head and I plug my ears. He fires twice at the swiveling camera, hitting it both times. I watch as it gets blown to pieces, sending bits of metal and plastic flying everywhere.
"There's a window over there," I point out as he puts his gun back. The window isn't very big, but I'm almost positive that both of us can squeeze through. There's no light coming from it, so it's safe to assume no one is in there. I feel my hands shaking against the side of the building and Theo sees it too.
"Are you okay, love?" His hand finds mine before I can turn around to answer him. My hands are trembling even more now that he's holding it. I feel every shake against his skin, making me wonder what's wrong with me. "Are you nervous or something?"
"No, no," I shake my head and see a little fear in his eyes, "I'm not nervous. I just... I don't know. I'm never nervous for this kind of thing."
"Are you worried about me?" I start to shake my head as a natural reflex and I realize he's right. I'm not just responsible for my own life now. I have myself and Theo to try and protect. Only worrying about my own life was nothing. I know my limitations and when to back away. I know when I need to leave. But I don't know if Theo's knows his own yet. I need to know when he needs to stop and get away before he knows, otherwise he's going to get himself in trouble. And I can't lose him too.
"I have two people that I need to watch out for to stay safe now. Not just one. That's all it is, now we need to get going-" I start moving away from him to go to the window and he holds onto my hand, holding me back. "Theo come on-"
"I have your back just like you have mine. You don't need to be afraid. We'll be okay," he assures me. He kisses my cheek and starts running a step ahead of me, racing to the window. I crouch down and try popping the glass out. The frame around the window is loose, but not loose enough apparently. I try one last time, jiggling it every way I could. I unintentionally shatter the glass, sending shards flying around us.
"Shit," I hiss, jerking my hand off of the frame. A larger, sharp piece of the glass lodged itself into my palm, my skin becoming slick with blood. I casually wipe the blood onto my thigh, staining the denim instantly. I start easing my way into the hole, feet first. I can see the concrete floor at the bottom and I push myself off the ground the rest of the way. I land on my feet, the floor closer than I originally thought. The cool air makes me shiver a little. "Okay, Theo," I call quietly. I get out of the way so he doesn't land on me. I take a few steps and inspect the glass in my hand. His feet land heavily next to me.
"You good?" he asks in a whisper. I try pulling the shard out and I end up only pushing it in farther. I wince as it begins to sting. I continue messing with it and also getting my fingers all bloody.
"Yeah I'm fine," I smear my hands across my legs again. I scan around the room looking for a doorway or any kind of exit. There's a heavy soundproof door across from us about 75 feet or so. Through the little window I can see a stairway. "Over there," I say as I jog toward it. Theo follows close at my feet, staying behind me. I feel a dripping going down my hand. I clench my fist to keep it from getting on the floor, my hand feeling warmer and warmer. We arrive at the door and I notice that it's not latched all the way. I slowly push it open, looking up the stairway. I slowly close it, not all the way, and sit down on the cold ground to dig in by backpack.
"What's wrong?" Theo questions me as I sit. He squats next to me as I rummage through the bag.
"I need to do something about my hand before I leave a trail," I whisper. "Keep an eye on the door, it sounds like someone may be on the other side." I find a roll of gauze at the bottom of the bag and unroll some of it. I don't have anything to get the shard out, so I start wrapping over it. Theo is also watching as I do this, studying me.
"Don't you think you should take it out first?" He raises an eyebrow at me.
"I'll do it later. Time isn't always on our side," I say securing the wrap. I jump up off of the floor and push the door open again. "There's two shadows blocking the light at the bottom of the doorway. How much you want to bet that it's someone's feet?" I whisper. Theo rolls his eyes and follows me up the steps. Lucky for us, they're also concrete, so they won't creak underneath us. We get to the top and I slowly try and turn the knob. "It's unlocked," I mouth to Theo. The feet on the other side shift back and forth. I hold my breath. The knob turns slowly and I stand ready behind the door. Theo straightens his posture and looks over at me, ready to take on the challenge. The door moves only an inch, then stops. I look down and see the feet that were in front of the door are no longer there.
"What?" Theo asks me, keeping his voice down.
"Who ever was there isn't anymore. We need to find a hiding spot, and quickly." I shove the door open the rest of the way and pull him behind me. Once we're through the door I look around and see no one. No trace that any one has been here. It's pretty much an open concept style, so there's no walls for us to hide behind. I spot a door to my right and Theo spots a door directly in front of us.
"You go to that one," he nods his head to my right, "and I'll go to this one."
"No, Theo we shouldn't split up..." I bite my lip and see that they're not very far from each other. "Something could go wrong. And if they're behind your door and not mine-"
"Aph I've had plenty of training to protect myself. I'll still be able to see you from where I am," he rests his hands on my arms.
"But I can't see you from where I am. Let's go to one and then the other-" He looks at me like I'm not speaking English. Like he doesn't understand what's wrong with splitting up. "No," I reply firmly. "We aren't leaving each other's sight. Not yet at least. You haven't been out enough yet-" The sound of men arguing comes from the door to the right. I turn my head to see what's going on. I dash over to the door and press my ear up against it.
"You opened the door?! Are you a fucking IDIOT?! Go lock the door before they come in!" Lionel. Theo grasps my hand and pulls me into a small kitchen and we duck behind an island counter.
"I let them in on purpose! It was clearly that girl assassin, the one we encountered before. The little prick thought that shooting the camera would prevent us from seeing her." My blood starts to boil. Little prick?! I wasn't even the one who shot the damn camera! "She had a boy with her. They broke the window in the basement."
"Well now that's their only way out. Go down to the basement while I try and chase them out." The door slams shut and two different sets of footsteps begin stomping around. One of them goes to the basement stairway and the other begins walking around.
"Playing hide and seek, are you, bitch?" Lionel begins to taunt me. I fill with rage, my face feeling hot. Theo can see I'm getting angry. His footsteps get farther away, but still are relatively close to us. "You know, it was really stupid for you to come in here. The first day you're here in Austria? You think it's a good idea for you come in here? We've been here for weeks! Months, if not more! And the best part is that we've had eyes on you the whole time! You never knew it, did you?"
"He's only doing this to get to you," Theo says inaudibly. I read his lips to fully understand what he's saying. I nod. "There's no way he's been watching the whole time." I take my gun from my hip and peek around the corner of the island. I see him standing guard at the door the two of them came out of. I aim at the door knob and slide my finger over the trigger.
"Come on sweetheart! I'm waiting for you! You can only leave a man waiting so long before he comes looking for you on his own." He puts his hand on the door knob like he's going to go back in. The glass in my palm only digs its way in deeper as I clutch the gun tightly. There's so much adrenaline running through me, it doesn't even hurt. I take a breath and pull the trigger. The bullet sails through his hand and into the knob; jamming the lock. "Fuck! You bitch!" Lionel immediately takes his hand off the door knob, a nice red streak across it. I watch him as he stumbles around, not reaching for any kind of weapon. I jump out from behind the counter, my gun still up in position.
"You can only leave a woman waiting so long before she makes a move herself," I say to him calmly. He simply laughs at me, an evil grin comes across his face. The pain from his hand doesn't seem to bother him much, as I'm sure he's had worse. Theo stands up too, his gun pointed to Lionel.
"Got yourself a new partner, have you?" Lionel takes out a gun from the back of his jeans and points it straight on, directly at me.