Authors: Palladian
Lex traveled along with the momentum of the group a few minutes later, getting into the van, surveying the grey day that passed by the windows with some trepidation, and getting out when the van stopped a short while later. Once she stepped outside, however, Lex had her second shock of the day, along with a cold blast of wind. They hadn't left the city, but had arrived in a neighborhood totally different from the warehouse district they lived in. She could see the lower parking lot of what looked like a rich person's estate as she looked around. There appeared to be acres of grounds and she saw a sprawling house at the top of a hill.
Looking up at Casey in confusion, Lex asked, “Where are we?”
“These are the Alpha headquarters. Swanky, eh?”
Casey's sour look seemed to describe her actual opinion better than she probably could have explained it, and something about the honesty of it made Lex smile. Riss had begun to set up some of her laptops inside the van, handing each of them a communication earpiece out the door. Serena mumbled something about investigating the kitchen before disappearing. Since Joan hadn't been there that morning and was reputed to be out of town, that left Casey and Lex.
Turning towards the larger woman, Lex asked, “Do you want to, um, examine the grounds?”
Casey winked at her. “Good idea. Clara,” she said, raising her voice to carry the few feet to where Clara stood in conversation with someone who appeared to have come from the house, “Lex and I are going to have a look around.”
They picked a direction that would eventually get them to the house and began walking. Once out of sight of the rest of their group, Lex very showily put her communicator in a pocket, and Casey quickly followed, lowering her head to Lex's.
“What's all this about?” Lex murmured.
Casey took a quick look around them, and then ducked into a nearby stand of exotic trees. When Lex followed Casey and leaned against a tree nearby, her friend bent down to speak quietly into her ear.
“I don't know exactly, but they aren't the first people to run off, and I bet they won't be the last.”
“Why?” Lex's whisper felt painful in her own throat, since she had to try to be louder than the wind rattling the remainder of the dried leaves on the trees surrounding them.
“They must have had their reasons. You've read the contract, right? Aside from becoming sick and leaving or sometimes retiring, I've never heard of anyone getting out of one of these teams any other way.”
“What?”
Casey shrugged, looking into Lex's incredulous face.
“Yeah, that's definitely not one of the things they tell you when you sign on. Mostly what we do is try hard not to find them. That 'secret information' they talked about is probably just a BS excuse to get them back.”
Lex looked up at Casey again, glumly now, and nodded. Casey straightened up and looked down at Lex, moving to put her communicator back on, her look asking if it was OK. Lex sighed and nodded, pulling out her own and fitting it to her ear.
“Nothing so far,” Casey reported, and then turned to Lex to ask, “Do you want to keep going through the grounds?”
Lex shrugged. “How about we go in different directions? That way we can cover the area more quickly and then meet up again in the middle.”
Casey nodded and pointed behind the house. “OK, how about I take this direction, and you take the other?”
Lex nodded in agreement, turning towards the front of the house. “See you on the other side.”
Since she stood near to the house, Lex slowly climbed the hill towards it. When she reached a spot a couple of yards from the building, she examined the front of the extensive house, seeing only closed blinds and no activity. With a sigh, Lex turned her back to the house and surveyed the rest of the grounds, finding mostly a lot of lawn and the parking lot where the van she'd arrived in had been parked. Idly, Lex tried to think like Kate, to identify any features on the grounds she might have been interested in. With that, Lex's eyes went almost automatically to a grove of tall trees and plantings set at a low point in the swell of the land, about halfway between the house and the wrought-iron fence that marked the edge of the property. Her feet began moving in that direction as if by themselves, as she occasionally looked up at the light grey sky and wished for more warmth or at least a little less wind.
Lex looked around once she entered the grove, glad that it cut the wind to nearly nothing. She saw a set of metal chairs surrounding a similar table near the center of the grove, all painted white, and sat for a moment at one that had been pulled out. From there, Lex had a good view of the remainder of the lawn flowing down to the street and of the sidewalk through the iron rungs of the fence. After a moment, however, something else caught her attention. She noted a large storm drain inflow a few feet away from where she sat, and that the concrete over it had a manhole cover on top. Lex looked at it as closely as she could from her chair, and then craned her neck in the direction of the house. The trees and smaller plantings seemed like they would effectively screen anyone sitting in the little grove from being seen back at the main structure.
Raising an eyebrow, Lex considered for a moment, mostly dismissing the idea as too obvious, but unable to stop thinking about it. Eventually the fact that her stomach had been churning with worry since hearing the news won Lex over. She told herself she'd just look around for a few minutes and then be back before anyone realized she'd gone. After looking in all directions for a moment, Lex took off her communicator and put it carefully under the chair she'd been sitting on, hoping it would look as if it had accidentally fallen there. Then she put her gloves on, slid the manhole cover over as quietly as she could manage, and pulled it back shut after she'd climbed partway into the rain sewer.
The smell of mildew and stale water grew in intensity the further down she ventured. Upon reaching the bottom of the ladder, Lex realized she hadn't considered how dark it would be. In the dim light cast by the grey day and filtered through the sewer drains above, Lex fumbled, feeling through the pockets she'd just remembered on her jumpsuit. Eventually she came up with a small flashlight, and smiled when she figured out a way to attach it through the loops on her collar. She surveyed what she could see for a few seconds and then began walking at a fast pace, not worrying about slipping, due to her new boots.
She followed a narrow walkway alongside the rainwater that flowed through the sewer, and noted a matching walkway on the other side. Lex decided to go the way where she could feel fresh air blowing in her face, reasoning that there might be exits in that direction or maybe a connection with the metro. That took her across the water at one intersection, and Lex carefully used her boots and gloves to climb up one wall and down the other, feeling lucky that there had been a peak at the top that allowed her to switch sides more easily.
After continuing for a while in a mostly straightforward path and seeing only darkness and fast-flowing water, Lex started thinking she might be getting near the half-hour mark and that perhaps she should start back. She turned a corner at that moment, however, and saw something white as the circle of light from her flashlight bobbed further up along the wall. Lex approached more closely and saw a crack in the wall where water had been dripping into the sewer. Apparently, it had been happening for a long time since a small stalactite had formed from hard water deposits. As she watched, a drop of milky water formed at the stalactite's tip and got ready to fall. At that same moment, Lex felt a shift in the air that meant something coming her way out of the shadow, and it seemed all her hair stood on end.
Reflexively, she raised her forearm to block the blow she knew must be coming, but cried out at the sharp pain as the block was successful and the force knocked her into the wall, pushing most of the breath from her lungs. She straightened up quickly, tasting the tang of blood where she'd bitten her tongue as her head had been thrown back. Lex's bobbing flashlight picked out the drop of water separating from the stalactite as her mind raced, realizing she could not allow herself to be punched in the head by this person and that getting hit directly anymore would be a bad idea.
In response, Lex moved close to the person attacking her to work on deflecting and redirecting blows and dodging. She didn't attack, however, because she thought it might be Kate and because she remained uncertain of the other person's speed. Lex couldn't get a good look at her opponent, but some things felt familiar, including the fighting style. Moving her arms as quickly as she could, Lex began practicing her sticking hands, redirecting the force of the blow aiming for her throat as she dodged and turned. As her breathing sped up, Lex felt a bolt of anxiety as the light at her throat bobbed at her movement and she saw the water drop suspended in midair just below the stalactite, a perfect, round pearl. She'd experienced this feeling before, when time seemed to slow down, but before her own movements seemed to be progressing at normal speed while everyone around her looked to be moving as if stuck in molasses. In this case, though, Lex's opponent moved at equal speed with her, if not faster. Lex swallowed, knowing she would be unlikely to be able to attack and would be lucky if she could block all the blows aimed at her.
As quickly as she could, Lex brought her legs into play to avoid a crushing blow aimed at her knee. She stepped to the side as she redirected, causing her opponent's foot to connect with the wall nearby. A shower of powdered stone resulted, and Lex moved away from the next blow to her ribs, pushing at the arm and stepping to the side to dodge the strike.
Lex focused on keeping up with the blows coming at her and trying to dodge and redirect them: head, shin, stomach, knee, and head again. She seemed to be on the edge of disaster the entire time, not used to being the one a split second behind, almost too slow. But her eyes began to be able to resolve her opponent, even as her flashlight swung wildly around the inside of the rain sewer, highlighting random things, now showing the falling drop of water just over their heads, a rippling sphere. The person opposite her was definitely a woman, and had the same hair style that she remembered on Kate. Trying to focus on each blow and keep up, Lex realized with a sinking feeling that the heavy punches were moving up her body now.
Dodging another blow to the ribs, Lex twisted to the side, barely deflecting a blow that would have hit her squarely in the sternum. Lex didn't have time to take another breath before turning away from a punch to her throat that she felt the breeze from as it moved by her, and the sick feeling in her stomach told her that she felt she wouldn't be quite quick enough to completely dodge the blow now coming for her jaw.
But Lex did have a break as the flashlight at her throat bobbed crazily again and suddenly illuminated her opponent's face. She watched Kate's good pupil contract at the light, and tried as hard as she could to move out of the path of the fist currently speeding towards her face. Lex managed to avoid the worst of it, but the blow that barely grazed her jaw sent her flying a couple of feet and then shoved her into the wall. As quickly as she could, Lex twisted to pull her hand and foot up along the wall, biting in with her glove and shoe, trying to get some purchase before she got thrown backwards into the fast-flowing sewer water.
The force of the blow kept her sliding for a little distance, and she heard a loud scraping sound as she drew furrows in the wall with the movement. Lex felt highly conscious of Kate stepping quickly up to her, preparing a finishing blow to drive her fist up under Lex's chin.
“Kate,” Lex called out in a near shout, holding her free hand out in front of her and hoping she could get her words out before the other woman pummeled her some more.
To Lex’s relief, Kate stopped, tilting her head to look at her friend. A momentary silence fell, broken shortly by the pebbles Kate had dislodged falling to the ground, then closely followed by a distinct liquid plop. Lex smiled as she realized the last had probably been the water droplet she'd been watching earlier, and it almost seemed she could feel time start up along its normal groove again.
“Lex?” Kate finally asked, and Lex sighed with relief at the confused note in Kate's voice. As Kate stepped forward, she raised a hand to Lex's jaw without touching it, wincing, then mouthed, “I'm sorry,” as she reached into the bag Lex now noticed her carrying. As Kate took a pad of paper out and began to scribble furiously on it, she continued.
“Why did you come?”
Kate had delivered the sentence in a harsh tone of voice, but she softened it by rolling her eyes and then gesturing to Lex to speak. Lex had been so happy to see Kate she'd almost forgotten why she'd come, but it suddenly came crashing over her. She could hear her own voice quivering as her eyes pricked with threatening tears.
“I was so worried about you, Kate. What's happening?”
Kate thrust the pad at Lex then, and continued speaking in a tone of voice that said she was angry.
“That's a lie. I know you're just following orders.”
As she half-listened to Kate, who continued along those lines, Lex read:
You're bugged.
You're being followed; I can hear them in the distance.
My life is in danger and I have to go. If we ever meet again, I'll explain everything.
Her head reeled as she looked back up at Kate saying something that didn't match the look on her face. Kate gazed at Lex with sorrow and apology as she reached out and took the pad of paper, squeezing Lex's fingers for a moment before she stowed the pad away. Lex stared into her eyes for a second and read there that Kate had relayed the truth as she understood it. She'd paused speaking for a few seconds, so Lex threw something in the breach.
“Are you sure we can't just work everything out?”
“I knew you were just doing what they told you! I'll make it so that you can't follow me,” Kate growled out her threat, bringing an open hand up near the uninjured side of Lex's face, looking at her carefully.