I debated whether or not I should send a message to Em and Ria, but I decided that sending a message now and not being able to respond in the near future would probably only worry them more… But on the other hand… I should probably tell Em about Helen.

“Aaargh.” I grunted and put my phone in the bag with my other clothes. My head was completely all over the place. At least I hadn’t taken the watch Ria gave to me with me…

“That might be for the best.” Aileen nodded, seemingly knowing what I was so torn up about. She then reached in her pocket and handed something to me. It was an earpiece. “Here, that way we can communicate.”

“Thanks.” Aileen’s chilly down to business attitude at the moment was helping me a bit. At least I could attempt to mirror her a little.

Aileen turned into the industrial area. The lights here hadn’t been swapped over to LED’s, so they still had their typical orange glow. An orange glow that eerily lit up the white abandoned streets. Although it was obvious from the tracks in the snow that cars had in fact been passing through here, albeit not that many.

She pulled into a parking lot belonging to a big white warehouse. Parking the car close to the wall and turning off the engine.

“Is this the place? I don’t see any cars here.”

“No, they are in the building behind this one, it’s better to park here though. Wouldn’t want them to see us approaching in the car.” The car’s internal lights dimmed, leaving us in darkness, not that that mattered to us. “Are you ready?” Aileen gave me a quick look over.

“I think I am… as ready as I’m going to be anyway.” Adrenaline was already pumping through me like crazy. My eyes were probably bright red by now. Aileen’s eyes, however, looked as green as they normally were.

“Okay, let’s go.” Aileen opened her door and got out, though she did make sure to make the closing of the door rather quiet. I quickly followed, practicing the same care not to make too much noise. The snow crunched beneath my boots as I followed her to the back of the car.

She opened the trunk and pulled at the black lining. It was a false bottom which revealed a small arsenal of weapons, both swords, knives and guns. She also took that out, placing it besides us in the snow. The bottom layer looked like a ballistic shield from those SWAT movies I’d seen a couple of times on television, although this one looked approximately thrice as thick.

“This should keep Helen safe from pretty much everything. The first layer of reactive shielding should even stop anti-material rounds, although it will give you quite the punch when you are holding it.”

“Why do you have this?”

Aileen shrugged. “Just in case it could come in handy and here we are.” She then tapped her foot against the weapons rack that was on the ground. “Take whatever you need, although with your current skill set, I’d mainly recommend knives.”

“Uh sure…” I took out two combat knives and put them on my belt while Aileen took a silenced submachine gun which I really didn’t know the name of, it looked pretty darn modern though, together with a couple of magazines for the gun and then a knife for good measure. Although I suspected she’d also be taking her sword with her. With her opening the back door of the car, that confirmed my suspicion.

With her sword stored in a leather scabbard strapped to her back, Aileen put the weapon rack back in the trunk and locked her car.

“Okay.” She pulled a balaclava over her head and rubbed her hands. “I’ll be going on top of the roof to take out any guards that are on overwatch duty on the surrounding area. I’ll tell you when it’s clear so you can move around the corner.”

“Shouldn’t I come with you?”

“Have you ever trained in climbing a roof without handholds?”

“No.”

“That’s your answer. You would make too much noise. Better to just wait on me. Okay?” She lifted the ballistic shield and handed it to me. It was indeed quite heavy. A regular human being definitely wouldn't be able to lift this. Luckily, or should I say unfortunately, there was nothing regular about me anymore. “Just keep yourself in between the criminals and your friend. And if you need to, if you kick the lower part of the shield, a stand pops out so you can put it in place. If that doesn’t work, just ram it into the concrete.”

“Alright.” I nodded.

Aileen nodded back and then turned around to look at the wall of the warehouse. It was at least eight meters high, so I did wonder how she would get up there. “Walk up to the corner. I’ll give you the go-ahead shortly.” Aileen gave me a wink, her eyes turned bright red and she then sprinted full speed at the wall. A couple of meters away from the walll, she jumped off, already gaining four meters just by jumping. She did a horizontal handstand against the wall, used her momentum backflip and grab the edge of the rooftop and with a roll over her left shoulder she was on top of the roof. Having made barely any noise while doing so.

She made no effort to wait as she disappeared over the edge where I couldn’t see her anymore, meaning I should probably go and take my position around the corner.

With the shield in my hands, I waited and looked at the street behind. I didn’t dare to peak the corner, just in case there was someone there, but the street did make me somewhat nervous. We were parked far enough away from it and in a dark enough spot that I wouldn’t be easily visible by someone just driving along. But that didn’t make it feel any less risky to me. I wondered if Aileen had really done these kinds of things that often. From what it looked like, I would say this was pretty regular business for her.

“Aurora, you can move up.” Aileen’s voice whispered through my earpiece.

“Okay.” I silently turned the corner into the even darker space in between the warehouse and another industrial building. I reached a fenceless intersection where it crossed over to two other industrial buildings, the one in front and to my left was probably the building we were aiming for.

“Just go straight.” Aileen guided me along in a whisper. “Watch your step, though.”

A bit after the back alley intersection, a man, clothed in black, lay face down into the snow. A patch of red slowly expanded from the man’s neck. I took a deep breath and hopped over him as I walked over to the next corner. From what I could tell this building looked bigger than the warehouse we were parked in front of, at least when it came to dimensions it was quite a bit deeper.

“You can go to the front of the building. Everything is clear.” Aileen reported.

I did what was asked of me and finally turned the corner. There was a double door on the front flanked by two windows, together with some of those truck docking points a bit further down. There was one truck parked on the far end and apart from that a couple of vans and some cars too.

“Alright, that door leads to a small reception area, as far as I can tell there’s noone inside. Give me a second to double-check, I just need to wiggle this rooftop window open if I can.” A couple of seconds passed in silence until Aileen spoke again. “Okay, got it.”

I waited for further instructions. Aileen hadn’t told me to move up further so I just stayed in my position.

“Aurora, can you go and tap the window please.” Aileen whispered very softly. “Stay crouched so no one can see you.”

I nodded, I don’t know to whom, and put my shield down for a second so I could crawl over. When I was beneath the window, I just quickly tapped the bottom left corner twice.

Two seconds later, Aileen replied. “Thanks.” I could barely hear a gasp come through the headpiece, it certainly wasn’t Aileen’s.

I hurried back to grab my shield, and when I turned back around again, the front door opened for me. Aileen was looking straight at me and beckoned me over without saying anything.

She didn’t need to tell me twice as I moved up. Trying to keep my steps light.

Aileen guided me inside, the blade of the knife she was holding was drenched in blood. “I’ll go up on the catwalk, flip the lights off and start shooting. The moment the lights go out, you dash towards Helen, she’s in the far right corner, next to the truck loading dock.”

“That’s a long sprint.” I replied.

“You’ll make it. You are fast as fuck.” She assured me and put her knife away, swapping over to her gun. “I’ll take out the people closest to Helen, and if you can wallop someone on your way to her, go ahead.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “And once I get to her?”

“Just keep her safe. Get her back against a wall or make your way out if you see the opportunity too, I’ll do the rest.” Aileen put her left hand on my shoulder and gave me a squeeze.

I took another deep breath. Shit was about to get very real.

-Just keep her safe… just got to keep her safe…-