Crossfire

Chapter 11

A/N What, I decided to be nice and post twice in one day. I can tell you for a fact, by the way, that there are only 7 chapters left in this story. Are you sad? Don't be! I'm working on a sequel. Why am I not posting this story all right here, right now? Well, because that would be too nice of me, dear readers. So, you shall continue to get an update (or two) a day until it's finished. I'm doing this so that I can get the second one out as soon as this one is finished. Isn't that nice of me? Anyway, enjoy Chapter 11

I changed into a dark shirt and a neat pair of pants, along with an old pair of hiking boots. Before I had done that, I had slit two large holes in the back of the new shirt for my wings. I made sure that they were large enough. I was again glad for their dark colour. That would help if we had to sneak around. I would blend in more. I shouldered on a dark leather coat as Erik knocked on my door. He was in his usual dark turtleneck and brown leather jacket. He looked very handsome.

"Are you ready? The plane is leaving soon." He said.

"Yeah. Let's go." I turned and started to walk with him.

Ever since the CIA had become involved in my life, I had been spending far more time in planes than I liked. In Russia, it was early morning. The plane landed far away from the site. Charles, Erik, and I, along with half a dozen soldiers, were put into the back of a truck. I was anxious about confronting Shaw. Just seeing him on that dock had nearly petrified me. Facing him... who knew what that would do to me? I couldn't, no, I wouldn't let myself get worried about that now. I had to focus on getting to him first. The truck hit more than it's fair share of bumps as we drove on. I had one arm braced against the roof of the truck to keep from flying out of my seat.

I was glad that Charles had come to his sense regarding the young mutants. Granted, it had been because they were foolish children, like Erik and I had said from the beginning. I just hoped that we were strong enough to do this ourselves. There were no guarantees in this world. We would have to do our best to face Shaw. We had had so few opportunities like this. We had to take this element of surprise for what it was. No more wasted opportunities.

Another bump sent me leaning into Erik. He gently pushed my waist so I was back in my own seat. I smiled appreciatively. The little window opened and Moira looked back at all of us. She didn't look exactly happy. That wasn't a good sign for us. I had a bad feeling about this.

"We have a problem." She said.

"What?" Charles looked more alarmed than any of us.

Maybe he knew something we didn't.

"I'm so sorry, this wasn't on the map."

I looked through the window. There was a roadblock. Damn. Damn! What were we going to do? Moira closed the window. Charles had a plan. I could see it. He was a brilliant strategist, after all.

"All right, no matter what happens, act normally. I'll take care of this, all right? Now, listen to me, I'm going to get inside his head to hide all of us from view. You have to stay very still and silent. Understand?"

We all nodded. I heard one of the Russian soldiers talk to Levene up front. Levene responded in perfect Russian. Thank god the CIA had them learn so many different languages. There were footsteps along the outside of the truck. It was like everyone stopped breathing in that moment. It was just waiting to see what would happen. To see if Charles' plan would work. And I hoped more than anything that it would. I involuntarily took Erik's hand and started to squeeze. He said nothing. We both stayed stiff in our seats while Charles took a step forward.

"Easy, easy." Charles said as the soldiers started to instinctively raise their guns. "Take it easy, chaps."

It seemed like it was a lifetime before the doors opened. My heart must have stopped in that moment I saw the soldier looking in at us. Charles looked like he was struggling to keep up whatever he was doing. The soldier looked around the truck. He had no idea that we were here. The doors were closed again and Charles was able to relax. Erik and I kept him from slamming back against the truck. He looked exhausted, but soon got his strength back.