There was a strange moment of tension in the room as Julia stared at Francesca, a look of pure admiration on her face. Then, seemingly, she snapped out of it, and returned to putting her camera back in its case.
“The guards switch places periodically,” Francesca explained as they walked down the hall. Where Julia would have gone straight, she felt herself being yanked sharply to the right. Francesca showed her the map and she looked at the changes Francesca had made to it. “But… at this rate…!”
“Yes. We cannot get to the exit.”
“When does the next shift start?”
“Another two hours.”
Julia sighed. Far too long. “…So what do we do?”
Francesca smiled. “You have not forgotten my words about action, have you? I trust you can defend yourself properly.”
Slowly, Julia turned to look at her, and then she nodded with a smile. “Sounds like a plan.”
The guard wasn’t looking at them when Julia jumped at him. He fell to the floor full force. Julia held his head down and took the gun from its holster on his belt. Francesca kicked his foot lightly and he didn’t move. “You knocked him out,” she observed plainly.
“Was it too harsh?”
“Not at all.”
They turned the corner on two more guards, but this time they were looking at them, so Julia raised the gun she was holding. “Don’t move, any of you! Against the wall! Now!”
They all started to obey her orders, and for a couple seconds she began to relax.
And then they stopped.
Julia had just a moment to stare at them with confusion and a little bit of fear before Francesca pulled her out of the way as the men started to shoot… The sound was loud and she held her head, but Francesca pulled her down the other hall around the corner. Finally Julia stood up and they ran together, managing to go fast enough that the guards lost sight of them.
Umbry and Clay sat in silence on the roof waiting for Julia. It was taking a lot longer than it should have. Umbry was clearly anxious, but Clay just watched her – for more than one reason. He tried not to think about that now, to concentrate on the thing in his hand, twisting and turning small wires.
“What are you doing?” Came a whisper. Umbry’s bright eye was fixated on the object in his hands.
“Getting the signal on this walkie-talkie to communicate with the one the guards are hearing. It should help us.”
“Oh.” She seemed a bit skeptical, but any doubtful look she was giving was stopped dead in its tracks when he got a signal. Clay smiled triumphantly they both moved in closer to the very quiet walkie-talkie. The signal was very faint, so they found themselves cheek-to-cheek as they tried to hone their ears into the sound.
“Don’t listen to her.”
It was a soft voice, clear in its conviction but smooth and young-sounding. A young man, it seemed.
“She’s lying. She’s a weak person who won’t shoot. And she’s afraid of death. So why not give her something to fear?”
There were a couple seconds of silence, and then they heard gunshots come from inside the building. Umbry covered her mouth, and Clay whipped around, trying futilely to see through the walls. He couldn’t hear anything. Finally, he turned to Umbry. “What should we do…? Do you think she’s… do you think they…?”
Umbry didn’t answer. Her face had contorted into some wrinkled mess of horror and fear and nausea, and she was holding her mouth so tightly it looked like she might rip it off.
“Umbry, what should we do?”
“I’m afraid you can’t do anything, Clay.”
He turned to look at her, but she was still frozen in fear. Which meant that the only one who could have said that was…
“You see, Clay,” the voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie said, “Despite your idea that you can calm poor Umbry down, and despite your belief that she is emotionally stable, she won’t listen to you anymore now that she’s heard me. Now that she knows exactly how frightened I can make her other half…”
“Who are you?” Clay asked. “You can obviously hear us. So what do you want?”
“You wouldn’t understand. Perhaps, though, your Umbry would. So then, Umbry, isn’t it time you freed yourself of this high place? It might buy your poor dear Julia a little more time. And it’s not that high a fall, is it? Do the calculations if you need to.”
Clay watched helplessly while Umbry made the calculations. She gave him one last look – defeated, shocked and confused – and then he lunged at her and everything went blurry.
But he wasn’t fast enough. She slipped off the edge of the roof, and fell with her feet down. She landed in a small heap on the ground below him, in front of the guards.
Clay ducked away hesitantly, and watched from the shadows as the men noticed her and surrounded her. He flinched.
“And what will you do, Clay? Try to help her? Or find me? I can’t wait to meet you. Have no doubts, we will meet.”
Clay paused for a second, and then his hand balled up into a fist. “I’ll see you,” he growled.
He didn’t even skip a beat.
“In hell.”
Julia and Francesca were still running through the maze of the building when Julia suddenly fell. Francesca ran to her side. “Are you okay, dear?”
But Julia wasn’t okay. There was a look of terror on her face. She paused for a second, holding her head, and then looked up at Francesca. “They have Umbry.”
“What?”
“I’m going to get her back.” She stood up and turned the corner so that they were out of sight. Then she checked to see that her gun was loaded and handed it to Francesca. “You know how to use this, right? And take the camera too. I’ll see you in a couple of days, maybe sooner, depending on whether I’m lucky or not.”
“Julia, I do not follow.” She took the gun and camera, but didn’t take her eyes off of Julia. “You say that they have taken Umbry? What gives you that idea?”
Julia paused. “She’s my partner, after all. I just know these things. Now run. Figure out that puzzle with Clay, and then come find us.”
“Julia, please, think this through–”
“Think?” Julia smiled. “Thinking is what Umbry’s good at. I just make the espressos.” She needed a way to shut Francesca up, and honestly, she’d been wanting to do this for a while. So she kissed her. It felt pretty damn good.
Before Francesca could react, Julia ran out the other way and threw her hands up, yelling out at the guards that she knew that they had her partner and that she wanted to negotiate. Francesca darted into the shadows, not hesitating – she knew she wouldn’t be able to fight Julia’s decision once it had been made. She listened, though, and relaxed when she didn’t hear gunshots.
All the guards were gone from the hallways after that — escape was easy. Still, Francesca worried that Sun and Moon had fallen straight into their enemy’s trap. She and Clay would need to solve the puzzle quickly — there would be time later to think — to think about the kiss.