Portal

The blonde woman opens her arms in question. "Who are you talking to? Or are you just a little insane?"

I've blown my cover. That's why dad is getting stressed. "Shit." I feel my blood run cold. This has never happened to me before. And I mean never. My heart hammers heavily in my chest. "Shit." I have to get out of here like ten minutes ago. "Shit."

Ignore the cute blonde and get out. How am I doing that again? I'm jumping. I reach back into the lining of the bag and pull out a small amount of plastic explosives and push them tight to the glass of the window. My gaze fixes back onto the very distracting blonde girl. "I'd get down if I were you."

Hers eyes open wide, and in a very comic style, she dives behind the desk. I run at the desk and slide over the polished wooden surface, my fingers latching onto the bag as I go. My thumb depresses the detonator and the explosives blast the large window clean open.

Glass flies all around us and I pull my weapon from its holster and check the ammunition. We're good to go. It slides back and I pull back the slider readying the weapon for action.

Not a moment too soon as a guard armed with an AK47 comes into view at Mr. Yasmerik's glass office door. Finally my training kicks in and I point and shoot on instinct. He goes down like a lead balloon with a bullet wedged firmly between his eyes. "We've got company, boys!"

"Get out of there!"

"Roger that!" I want out right now! I pull my bag back into my lap pulling out a small harpoon mounted onto a crossbow. "See you on the ground. Over and out." I need to concentrate. He knows he can't be in my ear for this.

"Bring the girl." His voice books no argument.

"What?!" Doesn't mean I'm not going to argue with him. "I can't bring her."

I hear his frustrated sigh. "You have been compromised. You need to take her with you."

I resist the urge to growl. "Roger." I push through gritted teeth. "Over and out." I turn back to the blonde at my side who is pointing at the dead guard on the floor. Her mouth is wide open like she wants to say something, but can't quite get the words out. What the fuck is her problem now? "Looks like you're coming with me."

"You shot..." Her arm begins to shake.

I have to sigh; dead bodies not such a big deal any more. "It's happens."

All she can do is look at me horrified. "but you shot..."

I cut her off already, bored with the turn in our conversation. "It's happens we've been over this." I turn, steadying my aim on the desk, and aiming at the building across the street. Pulling on the trigger, the force of the shot pushes against my shoulder. The harpoon sails through the air and imbeds itself into the concrete of the far building. "Get over it, Blondie." I tug as hard as I can against the rope. Hope to hell that this is going to support the both of us.

Pulling myself to my feet and prepare for my leap of faith. My firearm goes back into its holster; my gloves are pulled onto my hands and the portable modem slides easily into my inside pocket. I pull my earphone from beneath my blouse and push it into my ear. Need to be in my zone. "You're going to have to hold onto me," I tell the blonde who is still sitting against the desk staring at the dead guard; I snap my fingers in front of her eyes to gain her attention.

She comes out of her daze quickly and brings her full attention to me. "Yeah?"

"I don't have a harness; you're going to have to hold onto me." I see her gulp down her fear before she nods. She stands and I position her arms around me. She clings to me, both of her arms over my shoulders. She grips one of her wrists with her other hand so tight I see her skin turn white. I bend a little and coax her into jumping up onto my back and hooking her legs around my middle. Kinda don't want her to strangle me. "Ready?"

There's a short pause as she takes in a shaky breath. "I think so."

A smile pulls itself across my face. "Good enough." I push the play button on my MP3 player and my left ear is filled with heavy metal. "Here goes nothing."

My grip on the rope tightens and I run towards the window, and without giving myself time to rethink this plan, I dive.

We freefall through the air for several feet before the rope pulls taught and our decent is pulled into a rapid arch. We pendulum though the air and head to the building across the street with rapidly increasing speed. This is going to hurt.

I try to turn us both so I take most of the impact, but the best I can manage is to turn us both onto our side. My shoulder collides with the concrete building, forcing all of the air out of my lungs. We bounce from the impact and all I can do is hold on for dear life until we stop. We bounce a couple more times before coming to a relative stop. "You okay back there?"

"Think I might lose my lunch." At least she's honest. But damn I think she's going to break my hip if she doesn't let up with them legs.

"Wanna loosen your grip a little?" She quietly apologies and loosens the grip her legs have on me. Now I have room to move. I wrap my left hand more securely around the rope, winding it around my palm. My right hand releases the rope and reaches out to the wall at our side. Immediately those legs are threatening to break bones again. I have to grit my teeth and take the pain for now. My right palm pushes against concrete to push us both away from the wall so I can turn us, planting the soles of my boots against the wall.

My right hand comes up and pulls my earphone from my ear. It hangs against my chest, still blaring heavy metal rock music. I don't need it anymore. The whole point of it being there is it stops me thinking of what I'm about to do. Right now I don't have a lot of choice. I lean over and see how far away the ground is. Still too far to just fall. Way too far.

"Gonna have to loosen up again, girlfriend." Her grip tightens still further. Want did I say? She begins to relax against me giving me space to do what I need to do. I secure both of my hands around the rope and make sure I'm happy with my grip. "Ready?"

"What for?"

"I'm goanna have to take that as a yes." Both of my legs push us out from the wall, my grip releasing on the rope, and we descend. A high-pitched scream rings through my left ear the whole way down until my feet plant once again onto the wall, my grip on the rope tightening to halt our decent. "My God you can scream." I have to physically force myself not to rub my almost bleeding ear. I should have left my earphone in.

"You should have heard her when you jumped." Johnny says through the com link.

I feel myself chuckle as I push off from the wall and descend further. Her scream rings through my ear again. I'm not going to have any eardrums left after this.

When my feet finally hit the ground she scrambles off me to the pavement and once again she's stroking the floor. "Ground, solid earth. I'm never going to leave you again." Weird chick.

My ears are ringing and I have to bring the heel of my palm up to double check that I haven't actually started to bleed. No blood that's good. My dad jumps out of the black SUV and spares a glance at the blonde woman on the floor. He turns his gaze back to me, throwing the keys in my direction. I catch them on instinct.

He's saying something. His lips are moving but I can't hear him over the intense ringing in my ears. I smack the heel of my palm into my left ear trying to dislodge whatever is causing the constant ringing. "What?"

He raises his voice and that vein is back in his neck. "I said you drive."

I blink a couple of times. "Check."

He swoops down and collects the blonde woman from the floor throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. All she can do is complain that she can't touch the `solid ground' any more.

I slide into the driver seat as Pop slides open the side door and pushes the blonde woman into the vehicle. The door closes securely behind him just as armed guards come rushing out of the building. "We've got company," I tell the boys in the back before turning the key and pulling the van into a dangerous U-turn across heavy traffic and speed down the street.

All my Dad can say is "Lose them." Already on that, Pop.

I place the butt of my palm against the steering wheel so I can make these turns faster and shift up a gear, weaving in and out of traffic. There are two black sedans tailing me. Keeping up as well.

The blonde woman in the back pipes up again. "I'm really gonna ralph."

I shift the wheel to the left and pull into oncoming traffic, trying to lose my two new best friends. "Fine by me, just don't scream at me any more. Kay?"

My dad's large voice filters through from the back of the van, as Johnny squeals as I shift the vehicle violently to the left back onto the right side of the road. "Who are you?"

"Buffy Summers," she says instantly.

I let out a short laugh. "No really."

Her voice takes on a very defensive tone. "Really, that's my name. Buffy Anne Summers." She must release where she is at that moment because her tone goes from defensive to fearful in an instant. "Who are you people?"

"Spooks." I say, trying to put as much mystery in my voice as I can. My cover is already blown so why not? My foot slams down on the clutch as I change down into second gear to turn across traffic down a narrow side street.

The radio springs to life in the centre consol. "This is Momma Bear calling Tabby Cat, how do you read?"

Hey, Ma. You didn't think my dad would be getting all the fun being my handler did you? Just in case you're wondering, his radio call sign is Papa Bear. Uninventive I'll grant you, but he's my Pop... and he's built like a bear. I snatch up the transmitter and press the button. "Reading you, Five by Five, Momma bear."

"Stop doing that," is all I hear from behind me.

My head turns so I can get a better view of the back of the van. A frustrated blonde is looking back at me. Seriously what have I said now? "Stop doing what, B?"

Her eyes go wide and her mouth does that hanging open thing again where she's trying to say something, but doesn't quite know how to word it. I raise my eyebrows in question as she settles on what she wants to say. She sharply points to the windscreen and screams, "Eyes on the road!"

My eyes snap back round immediately. Forgot I was driving there for just a moment. "I thought we agreed on no more screaming!" I'm quickly approaching the end of the narrow street. In my side mirrors I can still she the two sedans following us, gaining ground on us.

The radio jumps to life again. "Tabby Cat, what is your twenty?"

The van clears the walls on either side of us and pulls across the busy highway. My palm closes over the hand break and pulls it sharply upwards as I turn the wheel quickly to the left. The wheels squeal against the tarmac. The van turns ninety degrees and I push the parking break back down slamming my booted foot heavily into the accelerator.

The wheels turn uselessly with the sudden change in direction before finally gaining grip, and we launch forward as the two sedans leave the narrow street turning to follow us.

My dads voice booms through from the back, I hear as he un-holsters his firearm and pulls the slider back. "Dana, answer your Mother."

"Yes, Dad." The side door slides open and he stands, bracing himself against the frame. I pull the transmitter back to my lips, pressing the button. "Current twenty is travelling west down Nanpa Sutorд"to. Currently being pursued by two, repeat, two black Subaru Legacy's." I flinch as my dad discharges his firearm towards the Subaru's. As an afterthought I add down the radio communication, "Shots fired." Throwing the transmitter back down onto the passenger seat, I have to concentrate on weaving through the heavy Tokyo traffic without throwing my dad out of the side of the van.

I follow the path of least resistance, keeping the van in a relatively straight line so I'm not jolting my dad's aim too much. Out of the corner of my eye I see a mass of blonde hair as the small woman clambers into the passenger seat. She quickly pulls the seatbelt around herself and shakily pushes it into the clasp. I laugh at her behaviour. "That's right, Beautiful. You come and sit up front with me." Her terrified green eyes land on me and I bring my gaze back to the road before she screams at me.

"Does he have to do that?" Looks like keeping my eyes on the road isn't so high on her priority list any more.

I look over and she's staring unblinking toward my dad as he discharges another round at our pursuers, pulling himself back into the van to reload. "Dad just likes to shoot things." I hope that's reassuring.

Out of the corner of my eye I see her look sharply at me. "That's your dad?" There's a lot of emphasis on the word `that.' As if it's an unbelievable thing.

"Yep, that's the old man." I pull a dimpled smile across my face and spot a potential escape route. "Sharp left coming up, Pop."

He pulls himself back into the van without a word and forcefully closes the sliding door. My foot slams on the break and I throw the wheel over to the left, using my shoulders to push the large, heavy vehicle round into the small opening.

The right side of the van scrapes against the red brick of the buildings on either side of us. Sparks fly and my side mirror is torn off. Could have judged that turn a little better. I pull the wheel round and the van pulls into the middle of the opening. With my one mirror I watch as the Subaru's turn into the side street. The rear end of the first vehicle flicks out with the momentum, the back wing catching on the wall as he enters the opening. His back wing flies off the car and hits the windshield of the car behind him.

I take a sharp right turn, and they disappear from sight. My eyes scan around me looking for more sharp turns trying to lose them.

The street winds around to the left and I have no choice but to go in that direction. As soon as the van clears the tight turn, all I can see ahead is a T-junction. I need to pick a direction and fast; at this speed, it wont be long till I slam into the wall.

Flipping a coin in my head, I pick left. My rear end flicks out and bounces off the red brick wall and I have to jolt the wheel around so the van travels in the straight line.

"Shit!" My feet land heavily on both the foot break and the clutch to stop the van from ploughing head-on into a set of thick steel doors. We all jolt forward in the vehicle and Johnny ends up with his ass on the floor and my front bumper just touches the loading-bay doors. That's right; I managed to turn myself right into a loading bay. Looking in my mirror I notice that if I'd turned right I would have been back out on a highway. From now on I'm never flipping a coin for these things. Next time I draw straws.