“I’ll have the gnocci quattro formaggi, please,” Terri said, smiling after.

“And for sir?”

“The Chilean sea bass for me, please,” Ferris said. Their waitress wrote it down and looked back at them before walking away.

“This is nice, isn’t it?” Ferris asked, taking Terri’s hands from across the table.

They were spending quality time together after both recognising they weren’t seeing much of each other. Now that Ferris had a team mate partner, he was busier than ever. Not just on the technical stuff, but on the practicalities of working with someone and getting to know them well enough to be able to trust each other in the field.

That, and Terri was doing her best to avoid Ferris. Out of guilt and of fear that she would let slip about terminating her pregnancy without saying anything to him. But the date was her idea and she was happy to be spending the day with him.

“We really needed this, didn’t we? It just feels like work work work, keeping-” She was interrupted by both their G7 buzzers going off. “…us apart, I was going to say.”

“Well at least we’re working together on this one,” Ferris said. “I’ve never been to Norway.”

They both got up, Ferris laying some folded dollar notes to cover the meal they never got to eat.

“We’ll be back tomorrow night for it, sorry!” he called out to the waitress as they left.

***

The couple landed in Norway at the rendezvous point for this latest call out. Being closer to Norway, their European counterparts had arrived a lot sooner.

Even Ose had managed to arrive before Terri and Ferris. His jet, aptly named The Bullet Bird, did what it was built to do.

“Sorry we’re late,” Terri said.

“Don’t be, you have the furthest to travel,” Ose said. “Oh no wait... I have the furthest to travel!” he said laughing.

Terri was relieved that no one made a fuss about her being there. Yes, they all knew each other but this was normally Brad’s gig and she was feeling imposter syndrome a little bit.

“Hello, I’m Prince Ernst Johan Lillegard II,” greeted a striking handsome young man from behind the G7 members. He had tussled blonde hair and perfect skin.

“The Heir, it’s an honor to meet you,” Ferris said with surprise in his tone, extending his hand.

Ernst was a prince of the Norwegian royal family. Just. He was known to be quite rebellious and was known for using his enhancements against the wishes of the family elders- the King and Queen.

It was rumoured that other members of the family also had enhancements but never used them, not through shame, self loathing or any shared Purist ideology, but more to make them more relatable.

Ernst didn’t care for that approach very much.

“Thank you for coming. But please, just call me Ernst whilst we are here in this informality.”

“So what do we have here?” Terri asked, eager to get stuck in.

“Over there set in that mountain is the Stjørdalsverg International Seed Archive,” Isaac explained.

Terri nodded. “I think I’ve heard of this place,” she said.

“You might have done. It’s a secure storage facility for every kind of seed possible. If it comes from a seed, you’ll find it here,” Isaac continued.

Ernst nodded in agreement. “It stores them to safeguard the food supply against complete destruction of crops through climate change or wars, economic crashes… and any zombie apocalypses.” He had a twinkle in his eye at the last one.

“And it’s under attack,” Tank said impatiently, not needing the lesson again.

“Do we know who by?” Ferris asked.

“Sandrine’s making contact with them, finding out if they have any demands, what they’re after etcetera,” Isaac said.

“One thing for certain is that they cannot leave with anything from within the vault,” Ernst said gravely serious, which took Terri by surprised as he was often portrayed as a reckless party animal type in the media.

“Well if we go in like I say, then we would make sure they don’t leave with seeds,” Tank huffed. “Sitting around will not save seeds.”

“And going in all guns blazing through the front door could get us all killed,” Isaac said as if this was something he had already said a few times.

“Maybe Tank has a point,” Terri said. “I mean, let’s not all go in guns blazing, but if some of us do go in-”

“But there’s one way in, one way out. Tactically we won’t have the advantage,” Ose interrupted.

Terri smiled as the cogs turned in her mind. “No, but they’re not expecting me to be here. They'd have known there was a high chance the G7 would come, but they’re probably thinking Brad would be here. So they won't expect us to come in another way. That I can do...”

“...Through the mountain,” Isaac said connecting the dots. “We heist their heist! Damn I hate that I didn’t think of that myself. It could work, but what about the concrete?”

“Norway has earthquakes, right?” Terri asked.

“Not really,” Ernst said wearily. “Plus the vault inside has been built to withstand being compromised.”

“Well it’s a good job I’m good at what I’m doing. Find me the safest point to get into it.”

Sandrine entered the makeshift command centre. She smiled enthusiastically upon seeing Terri. “Ok, so good news. They don’t want to destroy the whole place. They’re looking just for a few particular seeds. They didn’t say what or why.”

“Did they say who?” Ose asked.

She looked at her notebook. “They are the Order of The Unseen Eternal,” she answered.

Isaac pulled a questioning face. “They’re a Thai terrorist group. They've come a long way. Do they have any demands?”

Sandrine shook her head. “Only that they leave with what they’re after.”

“In that case,” Terri suggested, “here’s the plan.”

***

Terri and Tank scaled down the mountainside together whilst the others approached at the front door.

Ferris’ job was two-fold. One, to cancel out any sound they made breaking in through the front and getting as far in as they could undetected, and two, then causing a distraction for Terri and Tank to be able to do what they did.

Terri put her hands on the rock and instantly she felt the earth move. It began churning in a circling, whirling motion, generating a hole in the centre where Terri and Tank were stood.

Gradually, the hole and circling motion of rock increased in size, going round and round like a portal was opening. This portal was opening, taking them through into the mountainside.

The hole was no bigger than a house and was tunnelling down. As Terri moved further in, the deeper the tunnel got.

“Do you think I would get to use my TNT when we get to the concrete?” Tank asked.

Terri remained focused on moving the rock, but managed to let Tank down gently with a look.

After churning the earth away for a few more moments, Sediment Terri came to concrete and she and Tank gave the go ahead to the other group to breach.

Sediment Terri focused her energy now on the earth, pushing it against the concrete, applying immense force to split it open.

“You look constipated,” Tank mumbled. “I’ve not really noticed how weird you all look when using your enhancements.”

“Not now, Tank,” Terri puffed through a clenched jaw.

The earth could be felt pushing up against the concrete shell which in turn was shaking until… CRACK!

The concrete began to shift and fall in on itself, revealing a hole that they could get through.

Once the pair dropped down through it into the seed archive, Terri manipulated the earth outside to back fill over the crack in the concrete.

The doors at the far end of the room they found themselves in suddenly burst open and three terrorists came through to see what the seismic activity was all about. Tank instinctively fired her gun, taking them out before they registered what was happening.

“I guess we go that way,” Tank said, heading off towards the three bodies. She picked up their guns one by one and proceeded to bend them slightly in the middle, rendering them useless.

“Hmm, they’re Russian,” Tank stated.

“And?” Terri asked, stepping over the last body and into the corridor.

“No reason. Just interesting. Not many countries export Russian guns anymore.”

“The vault’s this way,” Terri said. They couldn’t hear anything that gave them a clue as to how the assault was going at the front due to her husband’s sound cancelling, which also rendered their ability to speak through their communicators to Terri and Tank.

It was just down to the German and the American.

“Arkiv,” Tank read out loud. “Hopefully that means ‘Archive’.”

“I’m willing to bet it does.”

The corridor was quiet as they ran along it, following the signs. There wasn’t much of a presence of Thai terrorists lying in wait. They were hopefully either busy at the front or in the archive frantically searching for what they had come for.

What was left of the doors for the archive were just ahead. They had clearly been breached with explosives but the coast looked clear now.

That was until they stepped in.

From against the wall, a dozen fighters sprung out, weapons raised. They were expecting them.

But Terri wasn’t too worried, and she knew Tank wouldn’t have been either. They were both unaffected by bullets.

“Drop your weapon,” a female voice instructed strictly, appearing from behind the crowd of her fighters.

She was a tall, slim woman of Thai heritage in skinny orange pants, black boots and a turquoise leather biker jacket that was done up to the top.

“Lower your weapon,” she repeated, "because otherwise I’ll activate this device.” She waved a little remote control in her hand. “We’ve rigged the place with an incinerator device.”

Terri knew better to gamble on a bluff that could potentially result in such a loss for mankind. She raised her hands and nodded at Tank to tell her to do the same.

Tank kicked her trusty gun away. “I want her back,” she growled.

“Don’t worry, you will. On your knees.”

“I usually know a girl’s name before I get on my knees for her,” Tank drawled dryly.

The woman laughed. She seemed to enjoy that quip. “I’m Mukda Bunnag, the leader of the Order of The Unseen Eternal. Now, get on your knees.”

Terri and Tank followed the instructions. As soon as they were, both enhanced women had collars attached to their necks from behind them.

“Wha- what have you put on us? Tell me now! What is round my fucking neck?!” Terri yelled, reaching for it and standing up.

“It’s an insurance policy. And our way out. See, I know your friends are out the front, and that’s our only way out. You’re going to walk us out unharmed. And if you try anything, or even leave the Archive within thirty minutes of us leaving, we’ll destroy all the seeds. So you have a choice. Let us leave with just what we need or fight us and risk the entire seed stock.”

“How do we know you’re not lying?” Terri demanded to know.

“You don’t I guess, but can you afford to bluff me?” Mukda asked, smiling.

Terri couldn’t take the risk. She shook her head in frustration. “Fine. But nothing happens to the rest of the seeds,” Terri said.

“Have you not listened to a word I said? My English is perfect, is it not? Nothing will happen if you do what you’re told!”

“Have you got what you need?” Terri asked impatiently.

Mukda looked for a response from one of her crew. “Yes, we have. Looks like we're all packed up. Are you ready to take us out there?”

Terri and Tank reluctantly got to their feet and they were jostled forward.

Mukda came up to Terri's side as they walked through the corridors. “I must admit you were not who I was expecting to see, Terri,” Mukda said. “But it makes a nice change. Glad to see they didn’t just replace Brad with another man.”

“We’re all just as capable as each other.”

“Yes, I guess any one of you arrogant Americans would have found themselves in this unfortunate position.”

“Shut up will you, and get the hell out of here,” Tank snapped.

Mukda shot Tank a look but returned her attention to Sediment Terri. “But before I do. Terri, I have a message I need you to give to someone. Tell Pan, he'll soon have one more thing in common with his big sister. Except that I don’t need Daddy to give me the gift of eternal youth. I'll do it myself.”

“Wait… so you’re… Pan’s big sister?” Terri asked. "He's never said."

“He wouldn't. He doesn't know I exist." Mukda smiled in a way that unsettled Terri more than the peril they were in currently. "And I will look forward to meeting him for the first time. I just so wish I could see his face when he finds out.”