Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Twenty

After a ten hour flight, we finally landed at our drop zone. Grant and I were bundled in arctic parkas for the mile-long trek, but I was still confident that I was going to be freezing to death in a few minutes.

"Here you go!" yelled the pilot from the cockpit, opening the door for us. My face stung as I was hit with the arctic breeze.

"Alright, let's go!" Grant yelled over the wind, marching down the ramp. I followed close behind, already shivering from the cold. This was gonna be a long hike.

****************

After a silent march that felt like it took forever, the small shed of a building finally came into view.

"Thank God we're finally here," I sighed.

"Let's go," said Grant, "Approach with caution."

We slowly crept towards the shed, keeping an eye out for anything weird. All our clothes blended in with the landscape, so as long as we moved slowly we were pretty hard to see, but I still expected someone to jump out at us with guns as we approached the front door.

Thankfully, no one did.

As we got closer, I could see several cameras looking out at the landscape. Grant and I were careful to stay in the blindspots, hugging the wall of the building as we moved past the cameras to the front doors.

Grant knelt down and examined the lock on the door.

"It looks fine. Nothing special, no alarms, just a basic lock," he said.

"That seems extremely suspicious," I noted.

"Agreed. I hate being out in the open like this, especially on covert missions. In any other situation, we could find a hiding place and do a reconnaissance stakeout."

"Well, useless you brought some fake bushes for us to set up, that's not going to happen," I said.

"I know that. We're just going to have to risk it and break in now," he said.

"Go for it."

Grant rolled up his sleeves and cracked his neck (literally, like out of a movie-it was so hard not to laugh), then pulled out some complex-looking lock pick tools and set to work. After a few minutes of waiting, I got bored.

"Grant, let me do it," I said. Lock picking was one of the first skills I'd taught myself after getting obsessed with spy novels, so I'd had years of practice.

"Hold on. I've almost got it."

I sighed loudly and leaned against the side of the building, tapping my foot impatiently and taking exaggerated looks at my watch.

"Got it!" Grant finally announced. However, when he tried to turn the knob and push open the door, it didn't work. He ran smack into it.

I tried to contain my laughter, but I just couldn't. Unfortunately, it ended up coming out as a snort since I was trying so hard to keep quiet.

"What the hell was that?" asked Grant, mocking my snort-laughter.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, returning fire and pointing at the lock. He started it, so I didn't feel guilty.

"Lock picking isn't my strongest skill," he grumbled unhappily.

"I can see that. Personally, I think it's because the tools over-complicate things. But that's ok. That's why we work in pairs. Here," I said, moving to the lock and pulling a bobby pin out of my hair. I didn't have fancy tools when I was learning this skill, and I liked my home version better.

After a few seconds, the lock clicked open. I turned to Grant with a triumphant smile.

"How did you learn to do that?" he asked incredulously.

"Remember my obsession with spy novels? This was the easiest thing to learn at home," I answered proudly. Grant shook his head, but I could see him trying to hide a smile.

"Let's go," he said, moving towards the door. I could see he had gotten his gun ready, just in case, so I did the same.

Slowly, Grant turned the doorknob and creaked open the door. He looked through the crack and presumably didn't see anything suspicious, because he then pushed he door all the way open.

Grant moved right and I moved left, making it easier to clear the room. We were in a deserted entryway, with some ratty furniture pushed into one corner and an old coat rack standing at the door.

"We must have the wrong location," said Grant, relaxing again but looking frustrated.

"I can't believe it," I sighed, slowly walking forward into the room. Had this whole trip been for nothing?

I started picking up random objects and turning them over, hoping for something to tell us this wasn't a mistake. Grant reluctantly swept the other way, doing the same as me.

"There has to be something here," I said, totally exasperated. I'd checked almost everything in the room!

"Slater, we've checked everything but the coat closet!" exclaimed Grant.

I smiled to myself and walked towards the closet.

"Ever heard of Narnia?" I asked. I wasn't really all that hopeful, but I had to maintain my reputation as the optimistic one.

Grant snorted behind me, but I didn't care. I leaned into the closet and pushed back the clothes, hoping I'd get lucky. By some miracle, I did.

A hairline swam ran down the back of the closet. It was so small, I almost missed it, but it divided the wall into two parts, like doors. I was so excited I almost hit my head as I struggled out of the closet to tell Grant.

"I think there's a secret door!" I said excitedly, not caring that my hair looked like a bird had just slept in it. I had gotten caught on one of the hangers, but I had more important things to worry about.

"Ok crazy hair, sure," said Grant.

I narrowed my eyes at him, giving him my best death-glare. Grant just laughed and moved past me into the closet.

"Let's see this 'secret door'," he said, actually using air quotes. To my satisfaction, I heard him mumble "woah" as he found the same crack I did.

"I was right, wasn't I?" I asked.

Grant just grunted in response.

After another minute of me waiting and Grant shuffling around in the closet, I saw a light start to grow from the wall with the fake panels.

"What is that?" I asked.

"I found a secret switch to go with the secret door," answered Grant.

To my amazement, the doors slid open to reveal a high-tech looking elevator.

"I guess that explains why the only thing at ground level was a small shed," I said, "Everything else must be underground."

"C'mon. Let's see where his thing goes," said Grant, stepping into the elevator. I quickly joined him before the doors closed in front of us.

A sign over the doors on the inside of the elevator read:

Maw' Tej

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked.

"That's what we're here to find out." Grant pushed the only button in the elevator, labeled "Entrance." My stomach jolted as we started going down much faster than a normal elevator.

I was starting to get seriously nervous, but there was something I had to do before Grant and I were in the heat of the mission. I lunged over to him and chaotically ran my hands through his hair before he could stop me.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, shooing me away.

"Getting even crazy hair."

****************

A/N: here it is! Hope you guys like it and please vote and share! It helps keep me inspired 😝