A Sickle In A Haystack

Chapter 4

"You realise we're probably running into a dead end Alex!?" Sam shouted over the wailing siren.

"Most likely!" Alex yelled back.
The boys continued running until they reached the end of the room, however, they were in luck, a doorway lead into another set of rooms, not wanting to waste time Alex kicked the wooden door down and ran through, Sam yelped as he heard the crackling of gunshots split the air as he was fired upon. He quickly ran through and followed after Alex. The corridor lead to a large spaced room, it seemed like a private bar. Unfortunately, there were patrons and guards.

"Well...uh...hey!" Sam sauntered into the bar as both he and Alex were glared at.

Down the corridor there came a shout. "AFTER THEM!"

"Sam, run!" Alex yanked Sam's wrist and practically dragged him through the bar as a commotion erupted into a cacophony of shouts, guns being grabbed and narrowly missing gunshots.

"We're certainly quite the party crashers aren't we?" Alex said as he pulled the other through into the main hallway, adorned with suits of armour, old-fashioned weapons and guns.

"Yeah, except I don't see our entry hole," Sam replied worriedly, looking around as he saw a lever mechanism on the wall. It seemed to be connected to another part of the wall. "Found something!" He said, pulling the wooden lever out towards himself.

The wall with the suit of armour seemed to turn, the two found themselves in an entirely different part of the mansion, this place seemed to be a lounge. Comfy chairs, a rug, a fireplace and a desk to one side. Once the wall finished positioning itself, Sam broke the handle on the other side, smashing it with his cane.

"Good find, hopefully that gives us some time," Alex said as he headed up to the desk, opening drawers and to find anything incriminating. Sam meanwhile proceeded to head to the doorway and peeked through the keyhole, he also checked the door. Locked. They seemed to have some time, for now.

"Well this is something." He said, hastily taking a handful of letters from the drawer as Sam looked around the room for means of escape. The only door lead back out into the main hallway. However, the windows did lead out into a field.

By now they could hear shouting as one of the henchmen began banging on the door

"Come on!" Sam said, smashing one of the windows open with his cane. The glass shattered fractionally, so he hit it again, this time a large hole greeted him, though glass still remained on the wooden frame. Without much caution he pushed himself out, cutting his hands on the remaining glass after throwing his cane out onto the field. He'd never been much of a runner, or a parkour type person. He was a much better speaker and analyser. He didn't know how he was of any use to RISC, but then he remembered. This was probably a mission that was intended to be his last. Admittedly this didn't fill him with so much hope.

Alex rather easily jumped through the window without such a scratch, only making Sam feel like he was showing off.

Before he could say anything, the door was bust open and the man, armed with a silver 9mm began firing shots. Sam ducked, taking off to the left and continuing through a field of thick grass and fences, towards a forest. Alex followed after him. They continued on until they were well into the forest. Sam tripped on a rock and ungracefully faceplanted, panting. Alex ran over and picked him up.

Both panting, they rest against a tree, Sam coughed and looked over at Alex who was quietly reading the notes he'd stolen from Charinov's desk.

"You alright?" He asked, not bothering to look up at Sam who didn't reply. Sam sighed and leaned back against the tree, holding his forehead in his hand, now marked with an ugly bruise.

"Hey, Fake Bond? Are you alright?" Alex asked again, finally looking up from the notes with a slight frown etched across his face.

"Yeah...I'm alright." Sam replied disgruntled, looking down at the diagonal bloody cut on his other hand.
"No...you're not. You're grumpy and have a bleeding cut. Here," he said, tossing Sam a roll of bandage from his backpack. "What's got you all worked up?" He asked.

Sam hissed in slight pain as he wrapped the bandage around his hand. "Nothing, I promise I'm fine!"

"Then stop being grumpy." Alex replied, before he went back to the notes.

Sam turned away from him and looked up at the sky, it was starting to get dark now. He was glad they had lost their pursuers. At least now he could breathe, come up with some sort of a plan...or just sit here and continue feeling sorry for himself. No, to hell with that. He started thinking. Could he contact RISC, or MI6 perhaps, get more help. They seemed to be in over their heads...or at least he was.

"Hey, Sam, you might want to look at this." Alex said, beckoning him over.
Broken from his self-reflection he shuffled next to Alex and began reading, his eyes widened as he read further down:

'I look forward to meeting with you, Mr. Charinov, and discussing further business. I have met with other associates to conclude our arrangement that we will meet on the 4th of November in order to arrange payment of six shipments of weapons, I will be arriving with payment in cash and hope that you may be satisfied.

Yours faithfully.

A friend.'
"Right, well we have a letter but who's the sender?" Sam said aloud to himself, Alex chuckled.

"Well I suppose we'll have to go back and find out, won't we?" Alex had a look of fire in his eyes.

"Oh...oh Alex no! We barely made it out of there alive and now you want to go back? Are you completely insane!?"

"No, I'm doing what I usually do." Alex replied. "Well, maybe more than I usually would." He sounded emotionless.

Sam frowned and looked over at him. "What on earth happened to you...?" He asked worriedly.

Alex looked down and sighed. "It's a long story."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, come on, we aren't going to get anything done just sitting around," Alex responded, cutting Sam off.

He walked off, leaving Sam there.