RUSTY | frank castle

TWENTY NINE

As the doors of the lift closed, the Anvil workers suddenly charged at Rusty and Frank. They started shooting, all three at once. 

Falling behind a corner, Rusty groaned as she felt the impact of the bullets on her bulletproof vest. She rolled on the floor, meeting her dogs and ran down the corridor. She shouted to her dogs, "Get us out!"

Frank and Rusty followed the two working dogs, but soon the fire followed them. Frank grabbed the body of the dead agent on his back to use as a shield for the bullets. Rusty knew what she was doing, so she ran in front of him and followed her dogs. 

Rusty heard Frank yelling out from the force he was using to push himself to run. Rusty turned a corner, following Lexi and her nose, she let Frank past her (with the body far behind) and shot at the workers who chased them. She managed to kill one and injure a second. 

But she had to run again. 

9:54 AM

Rusty walked back to the main area of the hotel, taking a seat on the opposite side of the area of the lobby where Madani was sitting, opening her newspaper again. She looked at Madani, who was still sitting in that goddamn armchair. Rusty sighed, getting comfortable. 

The woman looked around, Fender under her seat while Lexi sat by her legs. Rusty's breath seemed to catch at her throat as she sat up straight, lowering her head as she pulled her cap lower over her face. 

"Frank?"

"What?"

"Billy's in the lobby."

"We know he's in the building."

"No, you don't get it." Rusty looked on as Madani stood up to meet Billy. "He's seeing Madani."

There was silence over Frank's comm. " . . . What do you mean?" He whispered. 

"I mean they look like the happy fucking couple, Frank!" Rusty whispered harshly back.

"Shit."

Rusty saw Madani take a brown paper folder out of her bag. Both her and Billy looked unhappy about the content. There seemed to be tension between the two.

"Don't let them recognise you."

"That's kind of the point of going undercover, Frank."

Rusty watched on as Billy and Madani continued their talking, though it was closer to arguing, to be honest. She wondered what they were talking about.

Her dog's stature made her re-focus.

Lexi had her paw up, her ears pointed at the ceiling. Rusty looked from her dog and to the staircase. "Frank, there's been another explosion."  

10:18 AM

Rusty threw open the door to the staircase which Lexi had indicated to. She ran first, jumping down the stairs with her gun in her hand. Lexi and Fender were now following her and Frank. 

The fiery-haired woman was panting as she continued making her way down the stairs. Flight after flight after flight of stairs, the four ran down, spiralling in circles. 

Before she could pass it, a door opened right in front of Rusty's face. She halted, pulling Frank close to her body behind the door as the Anvil agent looked down the staircase. He didn't see the dogs, and walked back, saying, "Stairwell A, clear."

As Frank slowly pushed the door to slowly close, Rusty panted into his shoulder; she had a gun in her hand, ready to shoot anyone that got in their way. Frank nodded, telling her silently to run again as they heard the door close completely.