Syndicate of tyranny

Chapter 23

~The true manipulator never has a reputation for manipulating~ 

Stace's POV

Previously on Dax and Stace...
[FROM DAX'S POV]

They arrived at their temporary home...
We were in Switzerland. It was quite cold at the time we arrived, but I slept most of the way anyway. We were on a huge, deserted estate, a small-ish house squatting in the middle of the estate which was bordered by gates and guards

Stace found out Dax's Secret...
I washed my mouth to rid me of the foul taste lingering on my tongue, a cold metallic taste that haunted my senses for years. "Dax?" I heard a meek voice mumble, "yes?" I peeked my head around to find Stace sitting upright, "did you just throw up?" She asked, worry plaguing her face.

Whoever was looking found them...
"What was that?" Stace mumbled, frozen in fear. I went to the window to peer outside, but what I witnessed sent my stomach doing somersaults. There was a mini war happening outside, yet our side was losing horribly.

And with nowhere to run their chances of survival are low...
As I entered, we heard glass shattering from downstairs, they're here...

We stumbled out the window and helped each other down. Scurrying frantically as we tried to escape. "How did they find us?" I yelled as we ran for our lives, where to? No one knows, yet we still ran as fast as our legs would carry us. "Stop! They have is surrounded" I whisper-yelled to Dax as we panted for breath. But I got an idea. "Follow my lead", we walk forwards casually as we pretend not to notice the agents hiding in the tree. "Come on Dax there is no possible way for us to escape, they're just too good" I mumble with a fake sob as Dax tries to comfort me, I know he can tell I'm pretending yet he still plays along, "there has to be a way!" He declares and paces about. "How about we go to the car we hid in the south side of the town" he grins at me; he knew we were at the north side meaning some secret agents following us right now would go check it out, meaning less of them to deal with. "What about the west side one though we can go travel to Austria or something" I ranted, he nodded, and we started walking west. We noticed more secret agents leaving to go get to our "car" before us. After a few minutes when I knew there was only a few agents left I called out, "come out, come out wherever you are". I noticed something moving in the bushes, so I shot it with a tranquilliser Amo gave me. "It was an agent" Dax revealed after inspecting what I'd shot. "Let's run!". Scurrying breathless towards the border, the estate was at the edge of the country - lucky us.

"Where are we going?" I pant, hyperventilating as air refuses to enter my deprived lungs, "Uh, I don't know. But I can find out where we are if we are able to make a makeshift compass. When I was a science experiment, they used to see how well I do in unknown environment, so I got pretty good at navigation" Dax explains and goes towards a tree, walking round it a few times. "That way is north, he points to the direction we have been heading in, "If we continue north, we will make it to the German borders in no time at all" he excitedly informs, I sigh at the sliver of hope I had been instilled with.

We walked, quickening our pace whenever we heard the slightest sound, the paranoia was too overwhelming and I felt as though I would crumble under the weight of it, how did my life go from being normal-ish to this, praying for my life whilst I'm on the lam (A/N: definition of 'on the lam' is when someone is running away or trying to escape from an enemy). Salty tears stung my eyes as the lactic acid building in my muscles had me on the verge of collapsing. "Please Stace, it's only a little further" Dax plead as he observed my weary state. I nodded and shook out my limbs, then started to catch up again – I will not be a weak link. "How are we going to contact the rest of our team?" I asked Dax, his eyes turned cloudy for a moment as I he began thinking about my question, "I brought my laptop so I can find a way to contact the rest without HQ finding out, they can see everything we do on our watches, so I have to find a better way to contact them" he muttered, I wanted to ask more but then realised we had arrived at somewhere. It looked like a small village but on the sign, it read 'Welcome to Basel'. "Hey, I read about this in history, this is the border of the Rhineland (A/N: After WW1, in the reparations, Germany lost the ability to place their military or army of any kind in the Rhineland, but during Hitler's rule he broke that rule and a few other's thus the start of WW2)" I excitedly exclaimed, "So? How does that help us?" Dax quizzed, I rolled my eyes at him and clicked my tongue, "We are very close to Germany and I know someone who can help us. They live close to here, fair warning: Don't talk or say something even borderline rude" I stated as I held his hand and pulled him along.