The Code

Chapter One

“A group of men, 40 of them; dressed identically. Each with a suitcase, sent off in groups of seven to get here in different ways, and one goes missing; the only one that has something in their suitcase. How the hell did that happen, Alexis?” The man shouted, slamming his hands on the table. I shivered as they shook the table, causing a high-pitched ringing in my ears.

“How am I supposed to know?” I shouted back at him. He sighed and turned away, wiping his hand over his pale, bald head. “Max, I don’t have a clue about what happened to him, but if you let me know what was in the suitcase; I’d be able to help.”

“I’m not risking that just yet, Alex,” he told me.

I stood up and went over to him. “Why not?”

“Because we don’t know whether we can trust you yet,” he replied. “Code is here to protect the world; not accept members from a criminal organisation and tell them everything that’s happening.”

“Can you at least tell me what code stands for then?” I asked.

“Ask Nathan,” he replied, walking out of the dark room. I rolled my eyes and followed him.

“Fine; I will ask Nathan!” I shouted after his retreating figure. He simply stuck his finger up at me.

“Ask Nathan what?” A young voice asked. I turned into the chest of the man standing behind me. He stepped backwards and lifted my chin to look at him.

I brushed his hand away and looked into his green eyes. “First, don’t touch me Nathan. And secondly, why the hell are you down here?”

“I can touch whatever I want. I’m Nathan Sykes babe. Yeah, and I can go wherever I want. The answer to your first statement should tell you that. Now what did you really want?” He asked.

I stuck my tongue out at him and started walking towards the stairs. I heard his footsteps following me. “Max won’t tell me what code stands for, so he told me to ask you.”

“Oh okay,” he replied.

I stopped and turned to him. “So are you going to tell me?” I asked.

“No,” he grinned. I rolled my eyes and strode away. “Alright, Alex, come back,” he called. I stopped and let him catch up to me. “You want to know what code stands for.” He said; I nodded. “Criminal Organisation, Detection and Elimination, uh, System, but there’s no S so, yeah,”

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” I giggled and ran off. His footsteps came after me, so I turned down a corner and hid in a doorway. His figure ran past, so I stepped out of the doorway and looked at where I was. Kaneswaran Flesch. I frowned at the name. The door opened and a tall, tanned man with a chiselled jaw stood looking at me. “Sorry, I was,” I started, gesturing to the hall, “I don’t know what I was doing,” I laughed. He stood with a stern expression. I stopped laughing and tried to look behind him. “Anyway, where am I?” I asked.

“Somewhere over Manhattan,” he replied. I frowned. “You’re in a plane,” he rolled his eyes. I frowned at him again. He stepped backwards into the room he had come from. “Code has a plane as its office, and currently you are on the second level, standing outside my laboratory. What do you want?”

A short, blonde woman appeared from behind him. “Siva, shush; she doesn’t understand you,” she laughed. “Excuse him, he’s a bit, robot-like,” she stuck her hand out, “names Samantha Flesch, that’s Siva Kaneswaran, you are?”

I shook her hand. “Alexis Greene.”

“Oh, you’re the girl who was hacking us! Nathan and Max brought you in, didn’t they?” Siva laughed. Samantha turned round and hit him across the chest. “I was just saying,” he grumbled.