The Edge of Honour

Chapter 31

Morgan's POV:

Glancing towards Gorran as we exited the car at the back of the warehouse, I could see the fear inside of him. He was riddled with signs of it- his body was rigid, now that he had stopped shaking, his eyes were filled with tears as they stared fixated at the building which most likely held his little sister. I could see the small patches of sweat underneath his arm growing larger as we quickened our pace.

Graffiti stained the walls of the warehouse and shattered glass lay underneath where it had once stood. I felt a slight shiver down my spine as I surveyed the dilapidated building before me. A small grey mouse scurried in front of us, in search of his next meal. The entrance to the warehouse where the door must have been had been boarded up, preventing us from entering.

I nodded to Gorran, as I pointed towards the broken window. He didn't speak as he edged closer to examine it, he was careful not to make any noise. We knew that we were in huge danger here. This was not a training exercise and the kidnappers weren't going to be happy that we were about to disturb them. This was our first real test, and if we failed, Gorran could easily lose his sister. Life or death was not something either of us took lightly, especially if it was someone close to us.

Knowing that I would find it more difficult to enter the window, which was high off the ground, Gorran held out his hands for me. He supported my weight as I squirmed through the gap in the window, careful to avoid the sharp-edged shards of glass that still remained. I crouched down on the ground beneath us, as Gorran entered the building behind me. Thankfully, a series of tall boxes blocked both us and the window from anyone's view. The warehouse was much bigger than I had expected and I knew that the huge rows of boxes which were stored there would make it difficult for us to instantly locate Alma.

The timber floorboards were cracked and missing in places, exposing the concrete beneath. Layers of dust and insects reduced the noise we caused as we traversed the boards, meticulously placed our steps. The warehouse was silent, causing me doubt that anybody else was in the warehouse. Maybe it was a dead end, I though, it could even be a trap and we were about to walk straight into.

Suddenly there was movement at the opposite end of the hall, a high-pitched, pained scream echoed around the dark warehouse.

"Was that your sister?" I asked. I could tell the answer just by looking at his face.

"We need to get her now," he whispered urgently. I placed my hand in front of him, preventing him from moving.

"It won't help if we just run over there, we need to have a clear strategy, if we want to prevent anyone getting hurt," he nodded reluctantly back at me. In hushed voices we began to plot our attack. I could tell that waiting was driving Gorran mad, the screams died down suddenly and were replaced by soft crying. From what we could hear, we were able to ascertain that there was at least one guard with her.

It was time for us to act. Before we made our move, I said a silent prayer. It was something which I rarely relied on, but I knew how precarious this situation was. It was a ticking bomb which could explode at any moment with disastrous consequences and our actions were the trigger.

As we approached I could see the single guard walking slowly away from Alma. Her hands were bound to a chair and a piece of cloth acted as a gag in her mouth. There was a slight cut along her cheek, but that was the only visible sign that she had been harmed in anyway during her ordeal.

Gorran ran at him at full speed, determination etched on his face. The man turned to see where the sound was coming from, just as Gorran performed a flying kick and hit him directly in the face. The man fell to the ground, but before he did, he let out a shout of pain. It must have alerted his comrades, because suddenly two other men ran towards us from behind some boxes, there must have been an entrance nearby.

One of them paused to look at his friend who lay unconscious on the ground. I took this as my opportunity to help as Gorran engaged in a fist fight with the other man who appeared to much taller and stronger than the others. He was likely the boss and from the way he shouted commands at the man I was fighting, my judgment appeared to be correct. I knew that I had not had enough training in hand-to-hand combat to beat him so I decided to use what I knew best.

I grabbed his right and dug my nails into the pressure point near his elbow, he screamed at the unexpected pain. When I couldn't sleep at night, I had been practicing a new way to use my super speed power and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. I began to spin in a tight circle as I pushed my fingers tighter into his pressure point. As the spinning got faster, his legs lifted slowly off the ground, the energy generated was so great that I could barely feel his weight as he body flew in tight circles around me. I increased the speed, concentrating with all the energy I could muster. Finally, once I knew that I had reached the optimum speed, I flicked my wrist and released him. The world record holder for the hammer throw would have been suitably impressed, I believe. The air whistled as he flew through it, a mere blur against the peeling warehouse walls. His body hit one of those walls with a resounding echo.

Now there was only one person standing between Gorran and his sister. I could taste the feeling of my first successful mission, it was so close. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins, preventing me from tiring.

I swiftly took over from Gorran who was obviously eager to check on his sister. Throughout his fight, he had been keeping an eye on her leading to the bruise that was beginning to form around his left eye socket. Alma kept quite throughout all, she had no idea that her brother was capable of this, from what Gorran had told me she knew nothing of his powers.

Gorran ran in her direction and spoke softly to her, reassuring her as he undid the cloths that bound her ankles and wrists. The man continued to try and win against me using a series of well aimed punched which I expertly dodged.

A split second later, the team of soldiers who had accompanied us on the helicopter entered.

"We can take it from here," one shouted as I ran towards Gorran and his sister.

"We did it!" I exclaimed.

"You saved my sister's life," he whispered between the tears which had finally won the battle with him. Her head was on his shoulder and the sheer relief and joy was evident in both of their faces.

"Let's get out of here," I said, helping the two of them to stand up.

As we left the warehouse, I wondered how many more kidnapped people were around the world. They could have a brother just like Gorran, a sister, a parent. For each missing person, there was a family left in complete turmoil without them, their lives were incomplete, but yet they were expected to carry on as normal.

At the moment, I realised that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Yes, I was in danger at every moment, and I was going to have to put myself into near-death situations on an almost daily basis, but if I could save people it was worth it.

My arms embraced the small innocent girl as she hugged me around my waist.

She leaned in and whispered softly into my ear, "thank you."