MAIZE

The two of them were dead still.

Silence hung in the air between them as Maize froze every part of her body. She didn't make a sound, didn't dare breathe, because she was sure, she was sure she had heard something. The muffled steps were unmistakable now. And they were moving in different directions around the perimeter of the house. Maize managed to send one quick look of warning to Alec, but that was all the time they had to react.

The door exploded open, forcefully kicked in by a pair of heavy boots. Three men, each carrying firearms stood in the entrance. Maize and Alec barely managed to jump over and duck behind the counter before the men opened fire on the spot they had been mere seconds before.

"Shit..." Alec cursed from her side as they both crouched against the counter, "I left my gun in my fucking room."

Maize didn't answer. She rattled her brain, desperately to trying and think of a way out, and quick. Neither of them heard the footsteps come up behind them until the click of a gun was upon them and the detective's body went tense.

Their assaulter smirked as he held the pistol to the side of Alec's head. "Oh don't worry, you won't be needing it."

American accent, Maize recognized. These guys weren't just local house breakers.

"Now, I suggest that we all play nice from here on out, yeah?" The same man with the dark features said. Maize glared blazingly at him but didn't move.

When she shifted her gaze briefly to Alec, she found that his eyes were staring straight up at the man with the gun to his head, cold look in his eyes.

"Took you guys long enough to catch up," he said calmly, though his tone remained hard. "I figured after the first few attempts, you guys would have been quicker to figure us out. But then again, maybe the gang of yours isn't all it's cracked up to be...that's a little disappointing."

He knows too.

The man with the gun's eyes flashed with anger at Alec's provoking, but he didn't respond. To everyone in that room, it was no secret who the men were and who had sent them. Maize knew Alec would have caught onto that as soon as she did. And now he was trying to buy time, buy her time, to think of a way out of this.

"So, how did you find us anyway?" Alec asked, unnervingly relaxed looking, despite the barrel staring him down through the side. He seemed confident that the men wouldn't shoot. At least, not yet.

The man snarled as the other two's footsteps moved around somewhere behind them where they couldn't see. Maize could sense that there were more outside as well, surrounding them, caging them in.

Worry about that later. These three take current priority.

The dark man glowered down at Alec and shoved the gun roughly into his skull to the point where Alec had to grit his teeth. "You don't ask the questions here," he stated threateningly, before taking a slow step back so he stood at his full height, keeping his gun trained on the both of them.

He was a large man, Maize noted. Brute force might not work in this situation, especially not with his two back up behind them.

"Now stand up," he ordered. "Try anything funny and we'll shoot one of you straight through the head. Clear?" he demanded, zeroing a look specifically at Alec, who merely glared back.

"Crystal."

"Hands up and behind your head, if you don't want a bullet in your skull..."

"What? Are we under arrest or something?" Maize smiled innocently. She received a snarl in return.

"Keep your mouth shut, woman, and put your hands behind your damn head!"

Maize complied. As did Alec.

They shared a glance, and Maize took this as an opportunity to assess their opposers. The one ordering them around was a large man, 6'4, definitely American from his way speech alone. She guessed the others were the same. She could feel the presence of a second at their back, though she couldn't see him. However, she couldn't detect anything of the third. He wasn't there anymore.

Shit.

She tended as a pair of boots came running back into the room from behind, and his breath sounded frantic. It didn't sound like he had brought anyone with him.

"He ain't here," the third said, huffing.

Maize and Alec shared another look as the man in front of them gritted his teeth.

"Check the place again you dolt—"

"I'm tellin' ya! He ain't here!" The third cut him off to argue. "Why don't ya ask them what they did with him?"

The man in front focused back on them again, clenching his jaw as he trailed over them with an accusing glare, as if they knew something he didn't. He tightened his grip on his firearm and raised it higher to make a point. "Alright, I'm going to give you two one chance to answer my question, and to answer right. Lie to me and I kill ya both...now, where is Kishan Karan?"

The two stilled.

"I thought you wanted us to keep our mouths shut..." Maize said. The man trained his gun on her in a flash, seething and ready to pull the trigger, before he was stopped by his companion.

"Hey man, cool it! We were told to keep her and Karan alive."

The man curled his lip in anger and for a moment he didn't move. His companion warned him again, and a second later, the man in front of them pulled back, only to shove the barrel of his gun against Alec's forehead again instead. He glared at Maize.

"Tell me, woman, you still feel like smart talking to me?" He seethed.

Alec sighed. "You really don't want an answer to that question..." he said, even with the gun at his skull.

"You shut it!" The man roared. Glaring at both of them. "Now you've gone and tested my patience, ya only got five seconds to give me the answer I want, ya hear? Starting now."

Maize threw a sharp look over at Alec. As their eyes met this time, a silent message of agreement passed between them from his look. She understood. And she smirked.

"Five..."

Maize braced.

"Four..."

Her hands tightened readily behind her head.

"Three..."

The adrenaline pumping in her veins itched to let loose, until she thought one more second and she wouldn't be able to hold back any longer.

"Two..."

Here goes nothing...

She glanced once last time at Alec.

"One."

And then everything erupted into chaos.

The man was about to shoot, his finger tightening on the trigger when suddenly Alec ducked under the shot and sprang forward, catching the guy off balance and shoving him down. Maize went for the two behind them.

Bullets struck the ground and the counter where she dodged and rolled across the ground, swiftly unsheathing the blade that had been hidden under her sweater the whole time. They weren't aiming to kill her, for whatever reason that she would think about later, but it gave her an advantage over them to know. She lunged forward towards the closer of the two, and seeing her opening in his moment of hesitation she struck, cutting his hand enough so that he'd drop his gun and then spinning around to deliver a high heel to the side of his temple. He collapsed to the ground as the other tried to come at her, but he too was knocked out after a few seconds.

Maize stood and brushed the hair from her face, turning to look back in Alec's direction to see the last man down and knocked out on the ground as well.

"Not bad, Maizey," Alec commented.

She smirked. "Not so bad yourself."

Running footsteps outside, and shouting voices.

"Shit there's more of them!" Alec cursed.

"I know."

"What? Then why didn't you say anything sooner?!"

"We were preoccupied!"

The window to their left shattered from a gunshot as the backup troop of men began storming in from the front door. There were too many flashes of movement in the dark for Maize to count exactly how many were coming at them, but even so, she knew it would be too many to handle all at once. The first of the armed men ran in and aimed their guns at her and Alec, when all of a sudden, amid the chaos, a familiar voice shouted something at them.

"You guys, duck!"

Maize didn't have time to process the words until a hand grabbed hold of her shoulder and pushed her down.

"Incoming!" The other voice warned, right before something was thrown in their direction and rolled across the ground.

"Don't breath it in," Alec managed to warn her. Before a flood of white smoke erupted from the skidding silver canister. Maize through a sleeve over her mouth, trying to peer in the mist, but she couldn't see a thing.

"Maize! Alec! Hurry your asses up!" The voice urged.

Kishan.

While the men were distracted trying to see through the smoke—some making the mistake of inhaling it and falling unconscious, Maize and Alec followed the direction of Kishan's voice. Maize caught sight of him, as he began to run with them away from the centre of the gas.

"To the Batcave!" Kishan said as they headed for the basement, the only place in the house that had yet to be stormed.

They flew down the stairs and Alec and Kishan shut the heavy door behind them as Maize whirled on the room, eyes searching around frantically.

"Ok, this place has got to have some sort of secret exit right?!" Maize questioned out loud as she ran to the opposite side of the room.

"Well I figured, that's why we came here!" Kishan exclaimed.

"You two clearly watch too many movies!" Alec argued.

Maize ignored him and searched the wall until she found it again, and then she slammed her fist into the metal impression in the concrete. Then she nearly jumped back as the wall shuddered and pulled back to reveal a tunnel, a way out.

Maize couldn't help sending a pointed look at Alec as he stood, blinking in surprise.

"Ok, I stand corrected."

Shouting overhead.

"So what're you two waiting for? A written invitation?" Maize questioned. "Grab shoes from that box and let's go."

They did as she said while she quickly moved to the other side and snatched the black pack that had been resting there—for just such an occasion. She slung it over her shoulder just as the door to the basement began banging from the other side.

"Yeah, time to go," Kishan yelped. The three then took off into the tunnel, sealing the door behind them.

"What did you grab just now?" Alec asked her.

Maize tightened her grip on the backpack over her shoulder. "Doesn't matter at the moment, we need to get out of the area before they find a way to catch up."

"Are we even sure this is an exit?!" Alec questioned.

"It's a secret tunnel in the basement of a safehouse, why wouldn't it be?" She responded incredulously.

"Point taken."

Maize smirked as they kept moving. The tunnel stretched out for about ten minutes, until Maize noticed the ground change underfoot, from concrete to cobblestone. All of a sudden the three found themselves thrust into the middle of a busy street. They were back in the centre of town.

"What the...what's going on here?" Kishan questioned with confusion as he looked around.

They appeared to have walked right in the middle of a festival. Definitely not what Maize had been expecting to see. Hundreds of the town locals—dressed in bright orange and yellow colours—were gathered in the street, singing and dancing along to music that played from a trio of large trucks as they paraded down the main road.

"Carnival," Alec answered as he checked behind them.

Maize smirked. "I'd like to see those guys try and catch up to us it this," she said just as she caught sight of a few men dressed similarly from back in the house and she swore. More of Zmeya's men.

"No time like the present to find out," Alec suggested, and then without a moment's more of hesitation, they darted into the cover of the crowd before they could be seen. Maize dodged around the dancing locals and did her best to keep track of the others. Getting separated was not an option right now.

If only she could see anything through all the bright lights.

She weaved quickly through the flood of people—not that any of them stopped to take note of her or her companions as they rushed through. The backpack jostled uncomfortably against her back as she ran, but she would not let go of it. And she never lost sight of Kishan's back as they sprinted, following Alec's lead.

They turned down a narrower street, escaping the sea of yellow and orange. And Maize felt eyes watching her from her back.

She stopped and turned. But there was nothing there. She searched the crowd of locals, but none of them seemed to be paying her any attention. So why did she feel such a cold chill?

"Maize!" Alec called her name and snapped her attention back to the present. "What are you waiting for?!"

Nothing.

There was nothing there, she told herself as she turned away and ran to catch up with the others.

But still, even as their distance from the rest of the festival increased, that uneasy feeling she had gotten did not leave her.