I live for you.

Chapter 16- No way back

Within three days of getting our new recruits we had a plan. Parker and Jigsaw had retrieved the blue prints for Stark Industries head quarters in California. We would invade there first, and then we would get Stark Tower. We barely slept yet I had never felt more energized. 

On the third day they all climbed into their gear while I simply tied my mask on my face again.  Holstering more weapons than usual. We all met in the bright sitting room at the middle of the house. The house had been modeled after a house they dug up in Pompeii. The sitting room had a square hole in the roof that allowed rain to leak into a square pool in the middle. 

I sat down on one of the lounge chairs surrounding the pool, dipping my hand. Aware of how strange I would look; such a rustic picture with me stuck in the middle of it. Wearing modern casual clothes, the same as the ones I had worn the day we left the island. Hard to believe it was barely a week ago. It felt like months since I had been on that little forbidden patch of land in the bermuda triangle.

I picked at one of the many plates that were constantly full of food. Eating cheese and drinking a glass of the red wine while the rest of "the troop" gathered in the living room. Mulling around and pouring themselves glasses of wine as well. 

Parker; the last of our company strode into the room. His intense eyes filled with excitement. Glancing around the room at the anxious faces around me, I refilled my glass of wine. Thrusting it into the air in a toast. They followed suit and took tiny sips, giving away how nervous they were.

"Shall we?" I asked looking at Justine.

She nodded shortly to me and her cloak twitched at her feet. In a sudden movement there was a curtain of red around us.

I opened my eyes and took a drink from my glass of wine. Scanning the the room I was now in, I was in the front lobby of Stark Industries. I smiled around at the people in the lobby staring at me, dumbstruck. 

I heaved my Tommy gun into the air and squeezed the trigger, letting down a rain of bullets. That peirced the glass above me and the air around me. The people around me dropped to the ground covering their heads as glass rained down around them. I looked up to stare at the glass ceiling, smiling. How ironic. 

"I'd ask you all to keep calm," I projected across the lobby "but I'll be reasonable. We both know thats not going to happen. So I'll make it simple. Say nothing, do nothing, and shoot nothing. If you do I'll paint the walls with your brains."

I moved my shoulders in circles relaxing them, and continued walking through the lobby. Halting at the receptionists desk. She was wimpering as she hid underneath it. It was a large, grey, curved, bar like style desk. I leaned over it and made eye contact with her. 

"S'cuse me miss," I said "But I'll need you to step into the lobby with the rest. Thank you for your co-operation."

She scurried out from under the desk around the corner of it. She flopped onto her belly and skidded to the ground covering her head. I shook my head laughing. Stepping behind the desk, I logged into the computer. Slightly surprised my account was still valid. I began taking down the security. Shutting down cameras and other security systems. Making sure nothing technological would stand in our way. 

I stood up straight and walked away from the desk. Crossed to the stairs and trotted up the first couple of steps. I turned around and surveyed the people looking wearily up at me from the ground of the lobby. I saw several people bleeding. I made eye contact with a man sitting up not too far from me. I fished my cell phone from my pocket and threw it to him.

"Call up the paramedics for the injured," I said 

He caught it and nodded his head giving me a funny look. I turned and ran up the rest of the stairs. Walking casually through the building, sticking my head into rooms and telling people to get down. I had disconnected the phone lines and communication systems. Now I just needed people to hide under their desks and be good children.