Chapter 6: The Mission Starts

Outside was complete blackness with the exception of the city in the distance which could be seen as a mere outline. Alexis had to grip the steering wheel more tightly as the archaic automobile trundled down the deserted highway and her head was busy trying to imagine the mission. Kayden sat next to her without speaking a word and looking at the sceneries change with his blue eyes that were sharply alert to any possible threats.

For the last few hours, they had been like mutes, mute because they could not trust each other with words having realized how serious this matter was. The location of the covert facility was outlined in one of the signals they had managed to decode and now they were heading for what was likely their last shot at the technology before the hosts of this facility got to it.

Even so did Alexis still feel like they were being haunted.

"Something's not right," she heard her voice coming through the silence of the room and her shoulders slumped as she spoke. "It's almost as if I can grasp the situation."

Kayden looked at her, solemn yet composed. “I understand. We are not the only inhabitants in this wilderness.”

Her eyes shifted to him. They widened, her heartbeat faltering at the depth of emotion lurking in his eyes. “Who’s tailing us?”

"I'm not sure just yet," Kayden spoke after a few seconds, his voice normal and even. "But I definitely sense them. They've been stalking us for the time we abandoned the city."

The realization was enough to send shivers down the spine of Alexis. She had anticipated guard - which was understandable considering the value of the kind of information that they were after - but the fact that they had been observed all this time sent a wave of discomfort through her.

"So, what is the way to counter them?" She spoke excitedly, every word seeming to chomp at the bit of her racing thoughts.

”We don’t,” Kayden said, diverting his eyes back to the road. “Not yet. We have to draw them out first.”

Alexis frowned, tightening her hold on the steering. “Draw them out? What are we supposed to do to achieve this?”

Kayden had briefly twitched with some dark menacing intention which flashed behind his eye. “By making them think we have been caught.”

For a moment, she couldn’t understand what he had meant, but as soon as she did, her heart was racing. “Okay, so you plan to make us bait?”

“It's the only way,” Kayden said in a matter of fact way. “There is no way we can defeat an enemy whose sight we can’t see. If we make them think we’re trapped and they’ve cornered us, then they will show themselves.”

”I’m not buying that,” Alexis said. The concept of purposely stepping into a trap, they, unlike any other persons, do not have a lot of practicality seemed really bad. If any of those was tapped, it meant the other side was always at least one step ahead and they were running out of time.

“In the end,” she said after the brief pause, “there has to be organization. We can’t just rush over there without thinking things through.”

Kayden did not speak but grimaced and sat up straight. “We’re going to be there in no time. It’s a facility but submerged and clever as it is, it possesses tight security. When we’re almost there, we are going to pause. Posing as if we are injured.” Wynne consoled them. “They will try to attack at that point.”

“And once they do?”

Kyoden’s eyes took on a steely glare that promised violence. “We fight.”

There was a tension in the calm that existed after I said what I said; every muscle in Alexis’ body felt in excess a mix of fear and something she guessed was called adrenaline. No, she was not a soldier, she was indeed a scientist who liked to solve problems reasonably and never got into fights. But now, with Kayden alongside her and the two worlds at stake, she had no choice, but to leap into the threat.

Looking at him once more and back on the road for the umpteenth time, she saw the features on his face such as his cheek and jaw bones and nose getting this side light from the dashboard. There was something about him – something she could not quite put the finger on despite other factors such as the location and the situation swinging towards its full throttle of precinct – and that was that. The force embedded in the impression, the resolution, was raw and easy before them. Although they had just met, although they simply existed together, Alexis realized she was inclining her faith in Kayden more than she had anyone else through all her life.

Which was too naïve although.

Her affections for him it would seem had been kindled all the more with time until it reached a climax without her knowing. It had begun as an inquisitiveness, an interest about him and his background, where he came from. But now that they were in danger, she was reluctant to fight the chemistry between them which made her heart race when he was around and sometimes seemed to complete the empty parts of her life.

For some reason though, she questioned if those feelings were enough for her to be able to make a move. Not in the state of things being so unclear, not in the state of them having a very risky operation.

“I think we’re getting close,” Kayden broke the ice and made her focus on him instead of the many thoughts running in her mind.

Alexis’s heart raced as she saw in the horizon a faint shape of a mountain with its rough edges silhouetted against the night sky which made it easy to guess the location of the facility. But the real obstacle would be getting to it still because it was somewhere deep inside that mountain if these coordinates were anything to go by.

She started to ease up on the gas pedal just the way Kayden had forewarned her about doing, making them appear to have been at loss about where to head to next as though they were looking for the entrance. The stretch of roadway that lay ahead was so narrow with many twists and turns and quite rocky and with every second that ticked by the atmosphere became more and more suffocating.

“Yada, I do not like this,” she mumbled letting her hands whip the steering wheel on the frame in fury.

“I know,” Kayden replied, his voice low. “But it’s the only way.”

A bend in the road was just about rounding, and an open, almost barren landscape appeared in front of them somewhat less than a deserted stretch of wasteland, only a mountain could be seen in the distance. But something in that void felt odd. ‘This is a set up. I can feel it,’ Alexis’s instincts warned.

And then, out of nowhere, a sharp burst of light came in front of them.

"Look out!" Kayden yelled out warning throwing both hands away from the steering wheel since his right wrist was already tugging the mouse to the right.

The machine made an aggressive swerve skidding into bushes as the light became brighter. Gritting her to tighten her grip missed its mark, Alexis’s heart quickened as she struggled to steer back into the machine. Crunch came as the machine collided head-on into a strokes on rocks forming outliers whiplashing her body and shooting agony waves all over her sides.

Ohh my…gosh what the-f, dazed and disoriented were her best choices in that moment as she let dust settle it in shaking her head. Kayden had other ideas; Yanked her VNS from inside the ruins in no time like a pro.

“Are you alright?” he asked worriedly.

“I'm fine,” said Alexis with a wince as soon as she rose up. “What was that?”

“They’ve found us,” Kayden said with his eyes shivering left and right searching the horizon. “Get ready.”

An answer would have to wait till the last minute because another flare erupted in the heavens, which was quickly followed by low and sinister drone. And then she saw them—dark shapes, almost blending in with the sky, hurrying towards them.

The adrenaline in her body began to rise as the reality of the situation began to manifest in its true form. They were surrounded and there was no option to bail out.

“Kayden,” she said, shaking. “We can’t fight them, we are outnumbered.”

“We don’t need to fight all these guys,” Kayden replied in a reasonable, but somewhat nauseating tone. “We just need to buy us some time before moving inside the facility.”

Alexis nodded but as she herself had spoken those word, her thoughts were racing as she tried to think of a way out of this. But even as she formulated steps to be taken, even before any began to take, one of the figures lunged towards them with what appeared to be a gun.

But even that wasn’t a cool down rest period. In two movements short enough to be timeless, Kayden came into action, pinning the attacking force in agonizing arrest and inhuman precision to blend with the tank’s gun. They were at it with both of them so far managing to crank out a few huffers and two benders cracking out and kneeing.

A greater number of dangers encroached upon them. Because of the vantage point they could see the shapes moving in the shadows, and even more troops are coming from all sides.

"Go!" Kayden screamed, urgency glaring out of his eyes. "I will take care of them."

“No!” Alexis protested, her heart racing. “I won’t let you go!”

Kayden swept around to her, his face close and fierce. “Let me do this. The both of you get to the facility. You are the only one who has access to their technology.”

Her mind reeled with the weight of his words,, knowing even as she did so as more than a man such an act would never elision the universe with such dramatic force. If they did not get the device, then everything that they had so far toiled for would be useless.

Underneath his ultimatum responsibly, it was clear that she was not about to leave him all that easily.

"You do not have to worry. It is better than that, OK? I'll be moving right in your back, yeah?" Kayden promised about his whereabouts, his voice calmer this time. “I will locate you. I always do.”

Her throat constricted at the emotion in his words and as she analyses the moment she felt, the sparkle of connection has been ignited. There was in his eyes a brief, flickering hesitance that was not about their task, but something more primitive, almost dangerous.

"I will hold you to that," Alexis said, barely above a whisper.

Then, one last look, she turned and started moving toward the facility, her heart racing and pacing in the process as she knew that, that was not the end but the beginning of the real fight.

Still, despite the peril being imminent, their chemistry managed to hold, alive and intense.