Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

 

Irin’s heart raced at the revelation.  It was no coincidence that in this crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, the Stealers were headed straight for three Weavers.  She wanted nothing more than to flash Weave to her brother and friends to warn them, but that was the absolute last thing she could do in a crowd of this many people. 

 

“I’m going to take this guy,” she yelled back to Chris.  “Get to the others and warn them as fast as you can.”  She took off running, no longer trying to avoid the notice of her quarry.  She turned and dodged, darting quickly between the unsuspecting revelers until she was only few feet from her goal.  Luckily, he was so intent on his own target that he never saw her coming.  Unluckily, she hadn’t thought to pack for a mission and was virtually weaponless.  Still, the element of surprise was on her side as she threw caution to the wind, tore off her useless heels and launched into an all-out tackle that would have made any linebacker proud.  Her forward momentum caused both of them to go down in a tangled heap that knocked into numerous people along the way. 

 

Several disgruntled protests filled the air around them as she worked to keep the Stealer from trapping her.  However, size was not in her favor, especially in such cramped quarters, so she began to squirm very convincingly and cried out at the top of her lungs, “Ajuda-me! Por favor, ajuda-me!”  She was hoping the crowd around her would think she was being assaulted by a far larger man and their protective instincts would kick in.  She couldn’t have been more right.  Within seconds three Brazilian men had come to her rescue and hoisted the Stealer off of her.  He struggled in vain to escape their grasp, but one of her saviors was having none of it and summarily clocked him over the head, knocking him out cold. 

 

“Obrigado, senhores, obrigado,” she said in a breathy rush as they all tried to ask if she was ok.  Rather than sticking around to answer their questions, she turned and disappeared in the crowd in the direction she has seen Chris run.  A commotion to her left caught her eye, and she began to make her way toward it to see if one of her friends needed help.  When she broke through the wall of people surrounding the spectacle, she was relieved to see that Jace and Scotty had made it and were taking down one of the other hostiles.  During a brief moment where their opponent was focused on Scotty, Irin called out, “Jace, one’s already down!  I’m heading to find Lance and the others!”

 

“Go!” was all he replied as he blocked a punch from the Stealer at hand.  She could only hope they could keep him busy long enough that he never could draw his weapon.  With that thought in mind, she pushed back into the crowd and kept moving. 

 

The farther she wove through the people, the more anxious the chatter around her became, leading her straight to the source of their focus.  She pushed through the edge of the crowd staring in concerned fascination as Tom, Hans and Lance battled two Stealers with swords.  Well, seeing as the cat was out of the bag on the medieval weapons, she reached under her skirt to remove a knife from a sheath on her thigh.  It wouldn’t prove very effective against the much larger blades of their opponents, but it felt better to have something at her disposal.  Without a second thought, she jumped into the fray. 

 

Tom and Lance seemed to be handling one of the hostiles on their own, so she turned her attention to Hans and his Stealer.  With surprise on her side, she flitted through the chaos to throw a kick into the back of the hostile’s knee.  Unbalanced from the attack, he went down, but he managed to keep ahold of his sword and use it to keep them from getting too close.  He swung wildly, causing both her and Hans to jump back, giving him time to get back to his feet. 

 

Irin and Hans knew they could keep this up for only so long when they had no way of defending themselves against the Stealer’s weapon.  Frantically glancing around for something they could use to their advantage, she noticed Hans was trying to edge toward a broken table as they both dodged the hostile’s attacks.  It only took a moment for Irin to understand what Hans intended.  She dove at their attacker, catching his sword with her puny knife in a valiant attempt to give Hans enough time to get where he was going.  The blow from her opponent’s weapon sent horrible shudders through her arms, and it was all she could do to deflect the blow and prepare for the next one. 

 

The hostile sneered at her as he raised his sword, knowing she could fend him off for only so long.  Her arms buckled as she forced his latest blow to the side, stumbling backward as she did so.  She was working to regain her footing before his next attack when there was a horrible crack!  The hostile’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as his body slumped to the ground, giving Irin a clear view of Hans holding a wooden leg from the broken table somewhere behind him. 

 

“Thank you,” she said, stepping over the body so she could be heard. 

 

“No, thank you,” he responded quickly before turning to see how Lance and Tom were fairing.  They spotted them just in time to see Lance break through the hostile’s defenses and land a quelling blow to his left temple.  The Stealer stumbled to his knees, giving Lance enough time to deliver a second hit and render the hostile unconscious.  Lance and Tom stood there for a moment, chests heaving, as they surveyed their work.  Finally, they turned to see Irin and Hans making their way towards them. 

 

“Irin!  Lance!” a voice called out from behind them, and she turned to see Jace and Scotty pushing their way through the crowd.

 

“We’re over here!” Irin yelled back as Lance and Tom continued to make their way over. 

 

“Oh, thank goodness,” Jace breathed as he finally caught sight of his siblings and friends.  “Are you all ok?” he asked as he made his way closer.

 

“I think we’re fine,” Irin replied, glancing over her shoulder to check on Lance and Tom.  She was turning back to Jace when movement on the ground caught her eye.  As if in slow motion, she saw Lance’s hostile sit up and pull a gun from inside his jacket, leveling it at Lance’s retreating figure.  “Lance, move!” she bellowed, and without thinking, her hand flew out, sending her still clenched knife straight into the Stealer’s chest.  The entire crowd gasped as the man recoiled and let off a wild shot over the heads of the bystanders before dropping the gun with an ominous clatter.  He sneered one last time and shuddered, falling to his back.  Lance cursed as he ran over to kick both the gun and sword far from the hostile’s reach. 

 

“We are in so much trouble,” Scotty groaned as Lance jogged back over to them.  Irin had to focus on listening to him over the rush of adrenaline in her ears.  When she did, she realized the sound of sirens was fast approaching. 

 

“We have to get out of here,” Tom warned, glancing at the agitated onlookers who were rapidly taking video and pictures of the scene on their phones. 

 

“Where are the others?” Lance asked once he’d done a quick head count. 

 

“Jared and Xandra are back by that vendor, and Chris took down the fourth hostile not too far from here.” 

 

At that moment Chris pushed through crowd not too far from them.  “There you guys are!” he exclaimed in relief and made his way over to them. 

 

“Is everything ok?” Irin asked Chris.

 

“Yeah, he went down pretty easily once I surprised him.  I take it thing went fine over here?” he asked, glancing at the prone forms of the two hostiles.

 

“Yeah, we’re all good, but we need to find a way out of here,” Lance replied, noting the flashing lights of police cars on the edge of the crowd. 

 

“Go, we’ll take care of things here,” an unfamiliar voice ordered from behind them, and they turned to find a man coming toward them with a Company scanner in his hand. 

 

“There’s no way we can make it all the way back to the pet store without drawing attention,” Jace warned, but the man shook his head.

 

“Not the store, it may have been compromised. There’s a van parked around the corner.  You can Weave out from there.”  They nodded curtly and began to make their way in the direction he had indicated as more and more Company officials began to flood the scene and work to calm the crowd. 

 

Irin slipped out her cell and called Jared.

 

“Irin, is everything ok?” his frantic voice greeted her from the other end.

 

“We’re all fine, but we have to get out of here,” she warned and quickly told him how to find the Company van they were using as an escape. 

 

“Alright, we’ll see you there.”  Jared hung up, and Irin could only hope he and Xandra would make it to the van without incident. 

 

Once she and the others had made it out of the immediate vicinity of their fight, the crowd became more pliable, and they made good time getting to the appropriate intersection and locating the large, windowless van parked on a side street.  One of the back doors opened as they approached, exposing a man with a scanner, presumably verifying they were, in fact, Weavers.  When the scanner emitted a familiar beep of recognition, the man waved them all inside. 

 

“Were you followed?” 

 

“I don’t think so, but we need to wait for two others,” Jace replied quickly, and the man nodded in reply. 

 

“Go on ahead.  We’ll stay here until they make it.  You’re to go to the Weave Bay at the Sao Paolo office immediately.  We need to get this situation under control.  Here are the coordinates,” he said, holding up his scanner screen so they could all see the illuminated numbers. 

 

Jace clasped the man’s forearm in gratitude.  “Thanks for all your help.”  The rest of his group murmured their thanks as well before lifting their hands to Weave away.

 

Cracks rang out one after another as the seven friends appeared in a very familiar looking Bay.  The only thing separating this from their usual one was the unfamiliar face that appeared on the screen, asking them to recite their identification codes.  They did so distractedly, wondering when the last two of their group would appear.  As each number was confirmed, they placed their hands on the gel scanner, and the large metal door of the Bay began to slide open. 

 

“Incoming Weave!” the tech in the observation room called out, pressing a button that caused the door to reverse course and slam closed once more.  They shielded their eyes against the two bright flashes of light, and were glad to see Jared and Xandra had arrived. 

 

“You made it,” Lance joked, but they could all hear the relief behind it.

 

“Everything go ok?” Irin wondered as they came to stand by the scanner with everyone else.

 

“Yeah, it was fine.  There were just a lot of people to get through,” Xandra replied as the tech asked them for identification, and the scanner let them all through the door.  On the other side they were greeted with what appeared to be this office’s version of the Commander, followed by an entire team of people. 

 

“Follow me,” this Commander ordered curtly before turning on his heel and leading them to the elevator on the far side of the room.  When the doors opened, he stepped aside so his team could file in and be transported downstairs.  While they waited for the conveyance to return, he turned to them and said, “Members from your office should be joining us shortly.” 

 

Silence descended as they rode down to the eleventh floor and entered a large conference room off the hallway.  “Be seated,” the Commander instructed, and they wasted no time claiming chairs along one side of the mahogany table that was the centerpiece of the room.  Minutes began to tick by, filled only with the rustling of papers as the team members pulled out files and tablet and arranged them on the table.  Irin and her friends were beginning to fidget in anticipation when a knock came from outside the door.

 

“Enter,” this Commander barked, and the door swung wide to reveal their Commander and a pair of technicians from their own office. 

 

Irin, Jace, Lance, Tom and Hans jumped to their feet, reciting, “Sir,” in the appropriate address of superior officer, well aware of how it would look to neglect protocol in front of another officer.  Xandra, Scotty and Chris, unaccustomed to this military-like procedure, were slower to rise. 

 

The Commander nodded at them once in greeting before instructing the two technicians with him to take up seats.  He motioned for their group to make room so he could sit in the center of the table, opposite his Brazilian counterpart.   “How bad is it, Marco?” he addressed the man across from him with brusque familiarity.

 

“Preliminary reports show four hostiles were incapacitated in the middle of a crowded street in Rio de Janeiro.  Three of them were knocked out, but one of them was stabbed in the chest, nicking his heart.  He died at the scene.  The police there are in an uproar looking for answers, but they found none of your people present.  Hundreds of images and videos of the events have hit the internet, and we have people working now to clean them.” 

 

“Good,” the Commander replied.  “Do we have any intel on how they were discovered?”

 

“None yet.  It’s possible their point of arrival was compromised.  I have people looking into it now.” 

 

The Commander nodded curtly as he made a note on the pad in front of him.  “I want to take their statements now.”

 

Commander Marco agreed.  “I think we’d all like to hear what they have to say.” 

 

Irin clenched her hand involuntarily at the accusation in his tone.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could tell she wasn’t the only one of her group to hear it. 

 

“Agent Jace,” the Commander turned to his left, “start at the beginning.” 

 

Jace cleared his throat before he began the long, sordid tale.  It was interesting to hear his perspective as he detailed getting Irin’s call, making his way over and taking out one of the hostiles with Scotty.  The Commander raised an eyebrow at that revelation, probably intrigued that Scotty had been in the thick of things.  Jace drew on information from the others throughout his recounting to make sure the Commanders knew everything.  Jared told them how he had called the Company a second time to request help from the closest office when he realized the Stealers were attacking, and Chris, Tom and Lance told them how they incapacitated their hostiles.

 

When it came to Irin, she explained how she had taken one of the hostiles out and then killed another.  Her eyes were trained on the table the entire time as she tried to deal with the fact he was actually dead by her hand.  He wasn’t the first Stealer she’d had to kill, and he probably wasn’t the last, but that didn’t making killing another person any easier.  Seeing the look on her face, Jace rested a comforting hand on her knee.

 

Commander Marco was scribbling away as they all spoke, and when Irin had finished, he tutted to himself.  “So you thought stabbing a man in the middle of an onlooking crowd was the best solution?” he demanded, giving Irin a hard look. 

 

Bracing herself, she lifted her head to meet his gaze squarely.  “No, sir, I did not think it was the best solution.  I thought it was the only solution.” 

 

“Well, your solution has left my office with one hell of a mess to clean up, young lady,” he sneered at her, and she recoiled at the malice.

 

“Commander Marco,” their Commander barked, “I think you will find there is sufficient evidence to support not only Agent Irin’s actions, but the actions of all of my people.  If you need help handling the situation, my office would be more than happy to assist you.”  The offer may have been genuine, but the insult behind it was clear: no office wanted to admit it couldn’t manage its situations in house. 

 

“Thank you,” Commander Marco replied tersely, “but we will be fine.  I simply meant it would be better if another situation like this were avoided.” 

 

“You can rest assured we all hope there isn’t another situation like this.  Now, if there is nothing else, I will be taking my people home.”  The Commander rose from his chair, and the rest of his side of the table followed suit. 

 

Commander Marco and his team rose as well.  “We will contact you if we need anything else.” 

 

The Commander nodded once before leading his people out of the conference room and back up to the top floor.  One by one, they scanned into the Weave Bay, and the Commander turned to them.  “Head to the War Room to be debriefed when you arrive,” he instructed before they Wove away one at a time. 

 

Irin arrived in the Weave Bay just after the Commander, and they scanned out one after the other.  As they walked across the floor, the Commander muttered, “And here I thought another team was going to be my problem team tonight.”

 

“Sir?” Irin looked at him questioningly. 

 

“There was an incident on a mission earlier tonight.  I was debriefing them when I was called away to Sao Paolo.” 

 

“What happened?” she asked as he held open the glass door and gestured for her to enter. 

 

“The rogue Weaver was spotted again.”

 

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