And When The Walls Come Down

Your Problem

"He's out of control." Nairobi hissed angrily. I narrowed my eyes, considering the situation at hand. "He did what he thought was best. Rio will be fine, won't he?" The older woman nodded reluctantly, looking annoyed.

"What do you want me to do Nairobi?" I asked her tiredly. Why did everyone around here seem to think that I had any control, or say over what Berlin did or didn't do? If anything, I had less of a voice in here than any of them did.

"I think you need to calm him down, make him see reason. You're the one he'll listen to." She sounded so sure of that. How could I tell her that Andrés had never listened to anyone but himself?

So he'd drugged Rio, it had been necessary of course, after everything that had happened with Tokyo. However, I knew this wasn't going to be the end of it. Rio would retaliate, and Berlin would lose his patience with the boy just as he'd done with Tokyo. I could only hope that the fallout wouldn't be too explosive. For all of our sakes.

///

Rio wouldn't shut his mouth, he was telling all the hostages just what had been done to those who'd chosen freedom over the money. Luckily, Helsinki came up behind him, knocking him out with a well placed blow to the back of the head.

Rio fell to his knees in front of Berlin, whose placid expression did nothing to hide the anger burning in his eyes. I looked up at Nairobi, who was staring back at me with a "See what I mean?" look in her expression. I bit my lip, slinking in the shadows as I followed Berlin and Helsinki to where they took Rio.

"What are you going to do? Huh?" Rio challenged, trying to put on a brave face. I could see just how badly his hands were shaking, from where they were, tied behind his back.

"Oh, just what you've been asking for." Berlin murmured softly, taking his gun out and pointing it straight at the boy. I looked at Helsinki, who subtly shook his head, telling me not to intervene.

I wasn't going to.

I hadn't forgotten that Rio had been partly to blame for my swollen face and for Berlin's brief kidnapping. He needed to learn his lesson, and after what he'd just said to the hostages, I knew Berlin needed to put a stop to his actions before he did something even more drastic.

"Execution."

Like always, he was all theatrics, from the way he was pacing the room, to the way he was holding his gun. I stayed out of sight, letting him put on the show he wanted, watching as he scared Rio more and more with every word that escaped from his mouth.

His hand was shaking.

The sight of it made the bile rise in my throat. Tokyo's words were ringing in my ears again.

Dying. He was dying. Andrés was dying, and here was the proof. His eyes met mine briefly, before I fled the room, not wanting to see anything else.

I took a deep breath as I sat against the wall, placing my hands against the floor to cool my sweaty palms. I don't know how long I stayed there, my thoughts racing as I tried to calm myself down.

The sound of the phone ringing shocked me out of my stupor.

My heart leapt into overdrive as I stumbled up to my feet, making my way to the office. Our Professor, it had to be him!

"Professor?" I answered breathlessly.

It was silent for a moment, before I heard my name over the speaker, "Lux." I let out a sigh of relief. So he hadn't been caught. My anger came back in full force, "Why didn't you tell me he was sick?" I hated the way my voice trembled, and I heard Sergio's sharp intake of breath over the line. "Lux. I apologize, but now isn't the time for us to have this conversation. You need to talk to him."