Chapter ten

The great escape

Tom looked up at the dark sky, trying to figure out why he felt useless and ashamed. His first answer would've been Angie, but he really wasn't that worked out by her super-agent powers. He was more intrigued about these foreign feelings because it was how Sam felt. After what seemed like forever, he could relate to Sam's mood again.

He wished the others would wake up faster so they could get on with it. Though, to be honest, he wasn't sure how much he could count on Jerry and Angie. And his mind drifted to this new, strange, brave Angie. It didn't feel like Angie was there, but as if he'd met someone new who looked just like Angie and shared the name. And he missed his girlfriend.

"Hey, what's up?" Angie whispered in his ear scaring him half to death.

He jumped into sitting position and glared at her, ready to tell her off for almost making him scream like a girl, but he stopped. The girl in front of him looking at him with innocent curiosity was really Angie, not some stranger.

He couldn't move while looking into those emerald green eyes. He wanted to kiss her so badly, his body ached. And now would be as good a time as any. He'd been an idiot before, not doing it, waiting for the perfect moment, a moment that had never come.

She leaned against him and the next thing he knew, she cuddled in his arms as if trying to hide from something. Heat rose inside him, boiling until he couldn't take it anymore.

He laid her on the ground and rolled over her, his brain foggy and unresponsive to the most basic common sense. Angie pushed him off her and got on top, leaning all her weight on him, taking his face in her hands. His brain was out of order and even if a small, sane part of him yelled that Jerry was less than six feet away, probably awake, he didn't care.

They rolled again, bringing Tom on top. He kissed her neck, drowning in her scent, in her soft skin. She let out a low moan and pulled him closer, kissing his neck, too; the feeling of her warm breath on his skin was driving him crazy. Much too crazy.

He rose to his hands to look at her. Had he ever truly appreciated how beautiful she was? He bent towards her and she put her hand on the back of his head to pull him closer faster. And someone cleared their throat loudly right next to them.

Angie and Tom jumped apart, Tom rolling away from her and sitting up instantly. Luckily, it was William staring them down, his arms crossed over his chest. Jerry sat up, looking at them confused. Heat rose to Tom's cheeks and he prayed to every known entity that he wasn't blushing. Angie's face was flaming.

"So, Jerry, how long have you been up?" he asked conversationally.

"Does it matter?" Jerry asked, watching Tom through narrowed eyes.

"No. Just wondering." Tom shrugged, but it came out as a twitch. He was still shaking all over.

"You are horrible agents," William said, making both Tom and Jerry jump.

"What are you on about?" Tom asked annoyed.

"You and the girl, you're terrible," William repeated. "Getting your personal lives involved."

"What exactly were 'you and the girl' doing?" Jerry asked, his eyes dark-brown slits.

Even if they'd gotten over the effects of the toxic water almost entirely, Jerry still reminded Tom of Kyle. Except Kyle would've probably cheered him on rather than tell him off.

"We weren't doing anything, Jerry," Angie said in a tired voice. "Not for lack of trying," she mumbled only for Tom to hear.

Tom suppressed a smile and turned to Jerry. "Now that we're all up and William is apparently intelligent, we should try and devise a plan to bust the merry group out."

Jerry looked at them suspiciously for a few more seconds, but finally decided to ignore what William had said. Angie and Tom exchanged another embarrassed look after which Angie seemed to turn into the stranger again.

"We should draw the guards away one by one and knock them out, then charge in as fast as we can and—" she started.

"No." Tom raised his hand to shut Angie up. "We can't rush in, we can't fail. You stay here while I go look around to see what's going on."

Without giving the others chance to argue, he headed for the fence. The compound was made of three rectangular one-story buildings and the one closest to the fence had two guards placed in front of the door. That was probably where the group was. At the corner of the building, there was a surveillance tower with a guard placed inside and another one in a tree next to the fence. Angie sneaked next to him.

"Have you—" she said, but Tom raised his hand again to silence her.

Von Crooken and Eye Patch had just come out of one of the other buildings and were heading for the fence. Tom quickly pulled Angie behind a tree.

"I don't get it, boss. What's going on?" Eye Patch asked frowning.

"You don't have to get it. No one's paying you to get it," Von Crooken barked annoyed. "Stop saying things like that in front of the other men. They don't need to hear your doubts."

"But why haven't we sent search parties after the other brats?" Eye Patch insisted.

"Because the boss ordered all the men we had to spare to return to the lab," Von Crooken said between his teeth. "And the others are looking for that girl. For whose escape I blame you entirely, by the way. The boss is very angry that she escaped! She was our perfect weapon against the brats."

Eye Patch frowned, but took the blame without arguing. "But wouldn't the boss want the other brats captured more than the girl?"

"Shut it! I know all this better than you, maggot. The boss trusted me enough to leave me in charge. You dare doubt his decision?" Von Crooken yelled and Eye Patch pulled back seeming genuinely scared. "Get out there and organize the patrols. Those brats mustn't escape!"

Tom and Angie came out from behind the tree once Von Crooken and Eye Patch had walked away. Tom frowned, trying to make sense of what he'd just heard, but it wasn't the time, so he stored the information away for later access and focused on the matter at hand.

He turned to Angie and his heart skipped a beat. The way she was looking at him, as if he were the most impressive thing she'd ever seen, sent shivers down his spine.

"Should we infiltrate now before Eye Patch gets the chance to organize the patrols?" she asked and the spell was broken.

"No, he'll do that very quickly. Apparently he gives us more credit than Von Crooken does."

"He gives you more credit, not me," Angie mumbled.

"Go get Jerry and William while he still has some brain left in him."

Angie left towards the clearing at once. Tom took out a pair of binoculars, switched them to night vision and surveyed the compound. He'd been right. Eye Patch organized the patrols with impressive speed, so Tom spent the time until Angie reappeared watching them and counting how long it took them to circle the building.

Of course, there was still the matter of the guards in the towers and the guards at the door. It took the patrol about five minutes to circle the building which meant they had four minutes to bring down the guards in the towers, take out the guards at the door and bust the others out. Which was impossible.

"We're here, what's the plan?" Jerry asked stopping next to Tom.

"It's going to be tough. I only came up with half a plan," Tom answered, shaking his head.

"Tell us that, then," Angie said, moving to his other side.

Tom told them what he had observed so far. "So we have to figure out a way to escape after the patrol passes the building again," he said.

"Before we get to that, how do we actually get in?" Jerry asked.

"I can pick locks pretty quickly, that shouldn't be a problem," Tom said waving him away.

"Ok, then..." Jerry said nervously.

"We need to take down the guards in the surveillance towers," William said.

"No problem." Angie glanced around for the patrol, then jumped on the fence and climbed it with starling agility towards the tower in the tree.

"Angie, wait," Tom said stepping towards the fence, but William stopped him.

"Get hold of yourself, boy! She's an agent, she can handle herself." He walked towards the fence and started cutting a hole in it using a pair of pliers.

Tom and Jerry looked at him raising their eyebrows, but said nothing. Angie returned shortly, looking extremely pleased with herself.

"Did he give you any trouble?" William asked, stashing the pair of pliers back into the backpack he had pulled them out of.

"No, not at all," Angie answered and turned to Tom. "What should we do now?"

"William, you stay here. Jerry...you'll look after Angie..."

"Excuse me?" William asked outraged.

"Tom!" Angie stomped her foot.

"Look after Angie? You're not going out there alone!" Jerry's tone was so determined that Tom, who had ignored William and Angie's protests, turned to him. This was maybe the first time he was aware Jerry was his older brother.

"No, I'm not going out there alone. I want you to look after Angie because she's too impulsive and might jump out for a fight. William, I want you to stay here because you might start singing 'Itsy bitsy spider' right in the middle of the operation," Tom answered, checking his watch.

"How dare you?" William demanded. "I have never been more offended in my life!"

"Yeah, sorry, still not taking any chances."

Silence fell and Tom continued counting the seconds. Angie still frowned while Jerry looked confused rather than nervous, which, in Tom's eyes, was a great improvement.

"So, tell me, strategic genius, how are you going to facilitate your brothers' escape since I am staying behind?" William asked.

"I'll figure something out, don't worry your pretty little head," Tom answered. "Let's head out!" He rushed through the hole in the fence before anyone could say another word.

Jerry and Angie followed and they piled behind a tree, next to the fence. Tom picked up a rock from the ground, loaded his slingshot, aimed at the guard in the surveillance tower at the corner of the building, and shot. The guard screamed in pain as the rock hit him. He came to the edge, looked left and right, then bent to retrieve something, probably his binoculars. Tom seized the moment and sprinted under the tower. Angie and Jerry followed. Angie grabbed the iron ladder that lead to the tower, but Jerry grasped her arm, stopping her.

"Tom said no," he whispered to her.

"No, we have to take that guy out, but I think I should..." Tom started.

Angie jerked her arm loose and scurried into the tower. A few seconds later, the guard fell to the ground with a loud thump. Angie jumped down a few seconds later.

"What'd you throw him down for?" Jerry hissed.

"It was an accident," Angie answered, seeming very upset with herself.

"We have to get him back up before the patrol turns the corner." Tom grabbed the body under the armpits and started dragging it up the ladder. Jerry picked up the other end and pushed. It took them a whole minute to put the body back. Angie scrambled up the ladder after them.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I promise I'll make it up by knocking the guards out efficiently."

"You're not knocking out the guards," Tom said looking down.

Since they were relatively safe, they might as well wait for the patrol to pass them.

"Then how do we get by them?" Angie asked.

"If we knock them out, the patrol will notice that something is not right, we have to do it some other way. How?" Jerry asked turning to Tom curiously, too.

"You'll see," Tom muttered, making sure the patrol was gone. He climbed down and hurried to the corner of the building, Angie and Jerry on his tail. He peaked around the corner. The guards looked bored, but alert enough.

Tom closed his eyes, concentrating hard on Eye Patch. Good thing he'd heard him talking just before they started this operation. His voice was still fresh in his mind. He then focused on the batch of trees next to the fence at a pretty decent distance.

"You two, near the door, come here!" he called out in Eye Patch's voice from the clump of trees. "They're breaking in."

The two guards looked at each other for a second then rushed away from the door. Tom shot around the corner and pulled out his lock-picking instruments.

"Oh, no, Eye Patch realized we're breaking in! How are we going to get out now?" Jerry said desperately. as Angie was trying the keys to find the right one.

"They have no idea we're braking in. That was me," Tom said, fitting the tools in the lock. "I tried to distract them, but they might come back any second now." The lock clicked satisfyingly loud and he pushed the door open.

The three stepped in and shut the door. They waited in silence and could soon hear the guards returning, wondering where Eye Patch had run off to. For a few seconds, they held their breaths for fear the guards might come in and check for intruders.

No one tried to get in. Tom sighed in relief and hurried deeper inside the room. He didn't make more than a few steps before he bumped his head into iron bars. Someone snorted with laughter.

"Kyle," Sam said reproachfully.

"I'm sorry, but it's not getting old. I know they do this every time they come in, but I can't help it. It's funny!" Kyle said still trying not to laugh, but doing a poor job at it.

"Oh, excuse us. How were we supposed to know the blasted cage is right in the middle of the room?" Tom answered rubbing his nose.

"Tom?" Jimmy asked as though he couldn't believe it.

"Yes, 'tis us, your saviors!" Jerry said theatrically.

"I so wanna see Jerry's face right now," Kyle said.

Tom started picking the lock to the cage. "There, done!" He opened the door.

"Are we ready to go, oh master?" Jerry asked.

"We'll have to check and see where the patrol is—" Tom froze. The door had opened. There were two loud thumps and he could see Angie's silhouette dragging a body inside. He rushed over to help her pull the other guard in then slammed the door shut. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"We need them out of the way. The patrol just went by, so we have the whole of four minutes to get out," Angie answered, pushing the door open to light up the room.

"Angie?" Sam asked confused.

Tom shook his head exasperated and sprinted out towards the safety of the trees. He was glad this was over.