Dark Shadows

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Lauren's POV.

"So what, then, you're just going to walk straight over to them? Guys, they're armed!" Harry was having the littlest bit of more trouble with accepting our strategy than the rest. Scratch that, he was more or less making it impossible to proceed.

"Harry, do you want all of this to stop or not? Don't you want Lux to be found?" I knew it was low to pick up and use that card on him, but I was becoming desperate. This conversation was like talking to a brick wall at the moment.

"But you..." He trailed off, pointedly looking at us.

"Yeah, we might not look like typical MI5 agents, and we might even look vulnerable to some, but the idea of AFISA is to cultivate a new breed of undercover agents that doesn't cause suspicion amongst villains," Poppy explained.

"We started out when we were young teenagers, so trust me when I say that we are perfectly capable of and well prepared for this," I added. "People never doubt our abilities because most of our clients never gets to see us in person."

That threw them for a minute. An adorable frown formed on Harry's face, causing his eyebrows to pull together thoughtfully. He finally nodded, and I exhaled a breath I didn't know I was holding in relief of his agreement.

Obviously their consent with the case and whether they approved or not wouldn't have mattered and altered our actions at the end of the day, but it was nice to not be the reason for any ill feelings nevertheless.

"Good. But there's something we've gotta do before we leave."

~|±±±|**|±±±|~

I laughed as I witnessed Liam tumble to the grass covered dirt of the park we were currently in.

It had been Troy's idea to teach them some basic self defense, which we happily had agreed to. It would very much come in handy if something were to happen to them. Especially now that the U.L.C.A. had threatened them, too.

So James had all but dragged their cute little butts to this vast, almost completely empty park somewhere in the middle of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to do the teaching himself. He considered himself an honorary professor. Sigh.

The best thing was, we weren't that far from a remote MI6 HQ, much like the one we had interrogated that U.L.C.A. agent. So we could utilise their training facility later on as well.

I saw Poppy reach her hand out to help Liam up again, smirking as she did so. She loved playing the independent and dominant woman around men. I slowly shook my head, still amused.

"Oh, I can see that little smile of yours," Harry teased, poking me on my cheek. I turned to face him.

"What are you doing here, Styles? Aren't you supposed to be learning stuff?"

"And aren't you supposed to be teaching stuff?" He retaliated, without missing a beat.

"I'm more of the observer," I corrected him, moving my hand around to emphasise my words.

"Well, stop observing then. I want you to be my teacher."

His bold words caused my eyebrows to rise on my forehead.

"Is that so?" I asked, pretending to be surprised. He nodded.

"Alright then." I rose to my feet.

"Since you guys aren't, and never will be," I made that clear, "armed with weapons, we're teaching you the unarmed kind of self defense. Which also for the record goes by the name of Martial Arts." I began in the sturdy voice I used whenever I taught something out to someone. Autumn used to call it the 'grown-up voice'. I smiled at the memory.