War of Elysium

Chapter Nine: Targets and Reunions.

        The lift was slow. It was always so fucking slow. How do they have the tech to fly around the world in a couple of hours but they can't make a lift that rises faster than an arthritic erection. Reese needed her. He had the spy cornered, she would help flush them out.
"Was somebody with him?" Lara asked the soldier beside her. 
"A soldier." She answered. She was far from chatty. 
"And he asked you to come get me?" Lara continued. 
"Yes." 
"Did he describe the spy?" 
"No."
"Did he say how he found them? If it was who he thought it was?"
"We did not chat. He ordered me and I left." 
"What's your name?"
"Lynn."
"Lynn what?" Lara asked. This soldier lacked the respect for command that most within Elysium had learnt from their first days. 
"Lynn Stun. Corporal." Her accent was heavy. Lara assumed English to be a new language to her, she wrote her attitude off as unintentional miscommunication. 
"Well then, Lynn. You ready for a fight?" Lara joked.
"What?" Lynn shifted away from Lara and took a less relaxed stance.
"With... The spy?" Lara explained. 
"Oh, yes. I am ready." The woman responded. The lift reached the checkpoint and the door slid open. Light flooded in and Lara winced. The corporal had began marching forwards by the time Lara's eyes could adjust. There was something strange about her. Lara had never seen her before and Reese would have sent some kind of confirmation. Besides, there's no way Reese would have asked Lara away from Iris and Ade. 

Lara took a step out of the lift. The power had only gone down in the research lab, in Raptor's deck. It had to be done intentionally. Lara looked a guard in the eyes and shrugged him over to her. 
"Get some men behind me." She whispered to him before following Lynn forward. 

They walked the halls together in awkward silence, a group of marines trailing behind them. Tension rose between Lara and Lynn. The strange woman walked with her head down and face obscured. She walked a full pace ahead of Lara. Her short black hair was tightly held in a ponytail. Her uniform was dirtied and scuffed. She wore it awkwardly but correctly, as if she wore it straight from a catalogue. It had clearly never seen combat sharpening despite how dirtied it was. Her boots were the biggest giveaway. They were the same kind Reese wore. Stealth soles, nearly silent. Not the kind of boots given to a corporal. Lara knew that this was the spy. She could stop her here but she wouldn't win. If Reese was right, if this was Akemi... She had no chance. She needed an opportunity. Iris knew that she was heading to the hangar, she would tell Reese and he would head there. 

Akemi would have traps. That would be the priority. Lara was fast, probably faster than Reese. She could dodge attacks for a while, wait till Reese arrived. The traps would get her though. She would need more men to buy her time to disarm the traps. Five marines behind her. Hundreds of infantrymen would pass her by en route. She needed to signal them. She looked at Lynn who didn't look back. She just kept marching. 
"We need more men." Lara whispered to the soldier behind her. He nodded and whispered for his men to gather their forces. 

By the time they arrived at the hangar, they had gathered at least twenty-five men. Mostly infantry and marines. Lynn waited, facing the door, as Lara caught up. 
"Shall we begin?" Lynn asked.
"Dropping the act?" Lara laughed as she raised her rifle. All of the men around her did the same.
"I'm not great at the chatting part of spying. I'm much better at the assassination bit." The woman said, still facing the door.

The emergency shutters dropped behind them, trapping Lara and her soldiers in the airlock between the hangar and tower.
"I always heard you could do it all, Ms. Ito; I guess Reese just thinks too highly of you." Lara mocked.
"You know me?" The spy asked, still not turning to face her.
"Look me in the eyes and you might recognise me, babes." 
The woman turned and for the first time, Lara could see her. Where she expected to see a grizzled old woman, she instead saw a young woman. Maybe a year or two younger than herself.
"You're not Akemi." Lara said in mumbled surprise. 
"No." The girl responded. "You knew Ito Akemi?" 
"Not really. I met her only once. I thought I'd have to fight her. Lucky me, all I need to beat is the off brand." Lara said with a laugh. "Now, hands in the air."