Girl on Fire

Chapter 13

Jemma and I stepped back into the corridor and looked at each other worriedly, the balance of power had shifted very suddenly.

The woman was staring at us through the doorway in confusion. Still holding the gun, she picked up the phone on her desk and dialled a different number.

"Professor Ginner here," she said. "We've had a break in over here... Yes another one... but they're just kids... yeah, like the other girl... what do you want me to-" she was cut short as Kathryn barrelled into her and knocked her to the ground.

She flailed around and one of her arms caught Kathryn in the stomach, winding her. But Kathryn's training had seen worse situations and she was back to normal within a second. She threw a lightning fast punch into her face and twisted her arm behind her back in a painful armlock, wrenching the taser out of her hand.

"If you don't move, this will hurt a lot less." she said darkly. The woman moaned in pain but held still.

"Now," Kathryn said, gesturing to me. "My friend here would like to ask you a few questions."

"I would?" I said, surprised. "Like what?"

Kathryn shrugged, "Whatever you want! You need practice in this."

The woman rolled her eyes, "Just a bit unprofessional." she said in a sarcastic tone.

Kathryn pulled her arm up just a little bit higher up her back and she cried out.

"Any more of that and this arm will be broken in a second." she snarled.

I tried to hide the surprised look on my face at Kathryn's violence and I racked my brains for a good question.

"So..." I said, feeling awkward, "what is this place?"

"Why should I tell you?" she snapped.

Kathryn twisted her arm viscously and the woman let out a howl of pain.

"Where is this place?" Kathryn repeated.

"What did you DO?" The woman sobbed.

"I dislocated it," Kathryn said, "and I'll sort it out once we're done here,"

"Fine, it's a secret communications centre." The woman sobbed. "If you really need to know that bad! And I think it's sick that the government is using kids to do their dirty work, just sick!"

"Kathryn," I said warningly, as I saw her about to move again. Kathryn stopped and looked down at the crying woman in her arms.

She let out a gigantic sob and let go of the woman.

"I'm a monster!" she said.

"Look, just sort her out and we'll leave." I said, worried about what Kathryn had done.

Kathryn bent down and took the woman's arm gently.

"Please don't scream..." she begged. She shoved the bone back into place and at the same time put her hand over the woman's mouth. Tears rolled down Kathryn face as the woman yelled behind the hand and writhed in pain.

She stood up and got a rope out of her bag, furiously rubbing the tears off her face and tied the woman up gently.

"Shall we go now?" she said,

We both nodded and ran out of the room, now equipped with three taser guns.

When we got to the end of corridor, we heard a huge crash that must have come from the other end of the facility. We all looked at each other and moved on, if not faster.

"What the hell is she doing over there?" I whispered.

They shrugged,

"Who knows?" Jemma said bitterly, "after all, Tefia is the one with the real instructions."