Vanquish (Camren)

Chapter 1

I stared at those droplets of rain that were running on the car window. Some of them were fast and the rest were not. They reminded me of a Python's life, which I had experience before when I first entered the agency.

You had to run and act fast. A second of delay could cause one thing; death. Pythons were the lowest rank in the agency, which was why Pythons were the ones they put on the front line during missions. Because some of them would die in every mission, they were sacrificed, exactly like soldiers.

"Lauren?" Ally's voice dragged me out from my own thoughts. "...are you alright?"

I looked at her and smiled reluctantly. "Yes, I'm fine"

"Do you need anything?" She sounded worried.

"Not at the moment but I might need some sleep later," I answered while I stroke my left wrist, which had the bruise from the handcuff. That gesture pulled Ally's attention on my hand.

She sighed. "They really tortured you there,"

"I have been through worse, Al. You know that" I laughed a little. The smile on my face grew bigger, and it was genuine. I was really flattered by her concern.

"What did they want from you?"

"As usual, they want to know which side the terrorist came from"

Ally didn't respond to me. She looked like she was thinking about something else, which was far more important than the CIA. I knew what she had in her mind at that time. I really wanted to be frank and talk about it but that wasn't a good time.

"What is it Al?" I asked.

"You already know what I'm going to ask you, right?"

I brought my head back to the window, looking at those pedestrians.

"I think I know,"

"Lauren, this is not a game"

"I never said it is"

"The ISS wants to know everything,"

"But I don't have the answer"

"What do you have then? Tell me..."

I looked back at her. She seemed serious this time. Even though she was more like a friend, well, to me she was more like a friend. But she was a Cobra. She was my superior and I had to respect that.

The conversation that I was about to have with her was pretty much expected. She was a Cobra in the management department; she collected information because she wasn't a field agent like me. She had her own place in the HQ and I knew she would ask something like what the CIA had.

"Come on, Lauren. Tell me anything you have,"

I sighed.

"I entered the tube and went straight to the exact point you guys told me to. I was attacked as soon as I entered the third car"

"So you did have the view of the terrorist?!" Ally exclaimed and positioned her sitting. I thought I got her attention even more.

"Of course I did, he attacked me"

"But how did you lose the fight?" She started to have doubt and questioned my abilities.

"Can't I? I'm a human, Al, I have weaknesses too," I answered calmly. "You guys can do full checks on me later, I was injected by a venom that paralysed me within five seconds"

"You what?!"

She was so surprised by what I just told her.

"I'm really sure it will come out in my blood test, after that you will know what kind of venom he used against me"