Present

"There's only two guards..." I trailed off as we monitored the safe house through the trees. It was a simple building, constructed within the last year for the exact purpose of cramming people inside to keep them 'safe'. It was easy to spot the guards dressed in black, contrasting against the stark white of the freezing snow around us.

"Heat signatures say there's another four inside. Two seem to be sleeping, two are wandering through the building." Esmond replied, his voice coming through an earpiece. We had decided it would be best to split up to investigate.

"So we need to be quiet, is what you're saying." I pulled the binoculars away from my eyes and looked over the excessively lit yard. It looked like a sporting field.

"We also need to be unseen, which is going to be difficult with the fucking stadium lighting on the snow."

"Ideas?" I asked, letting out a slow breath.

"We need to place the explosives and get to a safe distance within twenty minutes. How do you propose we do that?"

"Un-split up." I said. I heard a slow breath from his end.

"Okay, stay where you are and I'll come to you."

"Waiting. If we go in together, we can take out all six of them within five minutes and place the explosives without needing to worry about creeping around." I said.

"Smart." His voice was next to me this time, so I took out the earpiece. "If we shoot these two from the tree line, then the others won't know our exact location. None of them are monitoring the security screens. It's not something they're supposed to worry about until after the virus goes live." He said. I nodded, picking the bag up that was full of explosives and throwing it over my shoulder.

"Off you go then, do your thing."

"You aren't going to-"

"We both know I can't aim a gun properly to save my life... literally to save my life. And you can shoot six people, Mr MI6 Agent."

He shook his head and let out a slow, annoyed breath. "Okay, but you're going to make this up to me later." He said, looking at me with a stupid, smug look plastered on his face. God damn, I wanted to wipe it off of his face.

"I'll do anything you want if you only use one clip of your handgun for all six." I thought my words might make his smug look disappear, but it grew into something even more pretentious.

"You think I need twelve bullets for six people?"

"Esmond-"

"I'll do it with six. And that means you have to do everything I want until you win the next idiotic bet like this." He replied.

"Are you confident you can do it with only six? Because if that's what you're going with, you don't get my offer as back up. You do it in six or less or you lose."

"Darling, I have never been more confident in my life."

"Bet is on then." I said, gesturing towards the building. He smiled, raising his gun as he took a few steps forward, his breath turning into condensation in the freezing air.

"You are going to regret this." He said before he squeezed the trigger and shot the first guard. Within a second he had shot the second, he hit both clean through the skull. "That's two for two." He said, that stupid smile on his face growing larger as he looked back at me.

There would be no dealing with his ego after this.

"Stop playing around and hurry up. We have sixteen minutes until we need to blow this place to smithereens." I said as we walked past the tree line.

"Patience, darling. I know how much you like it when I take things slow." He said as walked towards the front door of the building. Or the only door, really. I think the point of only having one entrance and exit point was to make guarding it easier. But lacking windows... it wasn't best for fighting people who hadn't become zombies yet.

The door opened and two guards sprinted out. Esmond shot them both in the open before they could even raise their guns. This man would not be easy to live with at all.

"Four for four." He counted for me as if he thought I wasn't keeping track.

"Focus, please." I said as I walked up to the building wall and sat the bag on the ground, pulling out some of the small explosive devices. Handful would go out here and the rest would go inside, to make absolutely sure that this place would be unsalvageable.

"I am..." He trailed off, tucking around the wall from the doorway, closing his eyes to listen for movement.

He heard it.

He popped around the corner and shot the last two, or at least that's what I assumed from his next words.

"That was six people, with only five bullets. Idiots lined up for me to take the shot." He said, looking down at me with a smile while I placed the first device.

"Great, now let's get these devices ready. We need to leave in twelve minutes." I said, shoving a handful towards him. "You do the outside and I'll find the structural walls inside. Meet at the door in ten minutes so we can run like all hell. These are all on a timer to go off at the exact right time." I said, giving him a few extra before picking up the bag and running into the building.

I sprinted through the ground floor, finding any walls that I knew to be structural from the blueprints that Jacques had sent me. When I had all the devices placed, I ran back out and met Esmond at the front before we both ran towards our rented snowmobiles just beyond the tree line and climbed on, tearing through the terrain as quickly as we could to make it a safe distance.

"You know, I think I know what I should get you to do." He said.

"Oh really, what would that be?" Before he could answer, there was an almighty boom behind us. I stopped my snowmobile to look up at the sky and feel the sound wave hit me from the explosion, seeing the trees move around us from the force. "Fuck, Jacques got us the good stuff." If we had been in the vicinity that there would be no chance of survival.

"She fucking did, yeah." We both sat there for a moment, hearing the debris falling near us.

"Anyway, you were saying?" I turned to him, he looked me in the eye.

"I know what you're going to do." He said. I nodded with a smirk on my face. Even though he is in control, I knew it would benefit me more than him. As per normal. "It'll start in the sauna, to warm you up from being out in the snow. It ends with us fucking outside under the heat lamps and a blanket or two without a single shit given whether people can hear you scream for me."

"That's all? I thought you would go harder than that." I said with a smirk.

"Did I say what goes on between those things?"

"I guess you didn't, did you?"