This was written very fast-paced...

MAIZE

No sooner than the words escaped her lips she grabbed hold of Alec's collar and yanked him to the ground just as multiple bullets pierced the air.

The guard fell to the floor. The sound of two more hit the ground by the doors around the corner.

The red laser moved across the ground seeking another target.

Kishan was caught off guard and Maize quickly turned on him and kicked him in the chest which sent him back a few steps before she spun and the heel of her boot smashed into his nose.

"Dammit—bitch that hurt!" He exclaimed as he clutched his nose, blood pooling beneath his hand. He didn't have time to say anything else before Alec's fist smashed into the side of his head and left him on the ground cold.

They then threw themselves to the side just as gunshots headed for them, a bullet just nearly whizzing past her head.

Azeal had taken cover behind one of the iron over-bearings and was now firing both towards them and the metal beams up at the ceiling, while his men from different parts of the building were flooding in from all sides in response to the gunfire.

She cursed him out as she and Alec rolled for cover behind a corner stack of large crates. She tossed him the gun in her hand.

"Take it," she said quickly.

His eyes tightened for a split moment as he looked at it, but the moment of whatever hesitation he had was quickly gone once he took it from her hand and held it at the ready as they both crouched with their backs to the crates.

"Who the hell was that?" he questioned as his eyes darted up to the ceiling where some of the gang members were still aiming fire, seemingly in an unchosen direction.

"The guy who's getting tired of saving your asses."

Ryder suddenly appeared by their side from one of the metal balconies overhead and dropped down before them with a narrow-eyed, impatient look. He had his snipper rifle slung over his back, usual black decked-out look, and two loaded gun holsters strapped to each thigh.

Maize had known since she first saw the red flashing signal of his snipper eye. That was his warning sign. An alert to tell her that it would be a good time to get ready to duck once he saw his opening.

And she gave it to him. Playing the act, and holding the gun to Alec's chest with the illusion that she was prepared pull the trigger. She was only able to complete the action knowing she wouldn't actually have to.

But the look Alec had had in his eyes...

She shook the vision away painfully.

All she could remember thinking at the moment for Ryder was; goddamn him and his last minute perfect timing.

She shot their saviour a wry look, speaking over the gunfire, she scolded, "Dammit I thought I told you not to get anymore involved!" She had never been so happy to see him.

He rolled his eyes and handed her a roll of knives from his back pocket. "What, no 'thanks Ryder'? No 'you just saved our asses, Ryder'? Nothing?" he questioned exasperatedly. "You ungrateful assholes."

"I thought you left," she retorted, ignoring his comment as he and Alec began retuning gunfire.

Ryder spoke back at her as he fired, his tone was agitated but he there was a faint smirk pulled back across his face. "I could have...but hell—maybe I happened to grow a conscience too. And leaving you two like that would have made me one hell of a shitty guy, wouldn't you say?"

"Never thought I would ever find myself saying this—but I have never been more glad to see you, Riley," Alec grinned as he and Ryder shot down gang members.

Ryder's left eyes twitched. "On second thought—screw my conscience, I'm leaving him to die."

Oh give me a break— She could barely finish the thought before she cut herself off with another mental curse. The gunfire was laying on them heavily now and it felt like they were being pressed into a very tight corner.

Still, apart of her had bother things on her mind. While the guys were keeping the gang members busy, her eyes were scouring the room—looking for Azeal. Rage was bubbling beneath her skin, and she swore; she would make him pay when she found him.

Once we get the blazing fuck out of here.

"We still might—if we don't get out of here. What's your plan?" she asked, the question directed at Ryder. Who spared a split second to turn back to blink at her.

That's not good.

"You assume I had a plan?" Ryder relayed slowly, almost dumbfounded.

"You came in here and started a shooting match without an actual plan?" she hissed, furrowing her eyes at him.

Fantastic. They were saved—only to be killed because none of them had an exit strategy.

Still, she knew this was better than what could of happened. Azeal would not get away with it.

Her thoughts were cut short as a dark metal can rolled across the ground with a scratching sound against the concrete.

"I have a plan," Alec cut between the two of them with a serious look as he spotted the canister roll to a stop directly beside their place of cover. "Run!"

The three of them bolted away and shielded their eyes as not one, but several light grenades went off in the room, incapacitating the couple dozen gang members in the fleet as well as them.

Maize heard curses from both Alec and Ryder as they ducked behind a high stack of rolled up steel poles, and she blinked her eyes rapidly in attempts to make the white spots at the edge of her vision disappear quickly.

"Now who the hell was that from?" Alec exclaimed with bewilderment before he stiffened. They all paused at the sound they heard coming from outside.

Flying over head and reverberating through the building, was the sound of helicopter turbines.

What the hell?

And suddenly she realized what was about to happen.

If she thought things had been chaotic before, it was nothing that compared to what erupted around them.

Johnson and Monroe led the assault on the factory building as they stormed in and swarmed the place with over a dozen tactical armed troops decked out in navy and black.

Gone were their regular civilian clothes, replaced now by tactical navy blue windbreakers with four letters printed across the back in large embolden white font.

They flashed their badges and yelled over the mess of startled faces.

"RCMP! Don't move!"

Maize watched in shock as the police flooded in and took out the gang members, taking them down before placing metal cuffs around their wrists. Those that tried to shoot back were stunned or taken out by shields.

"Holy shit—"Alec muttered under his breath as he too watched in both confusion and relief as dozens of law enforcement swarm the area.

The three of the stayed out of the way by their spot, watching, stunned, until a pair of armed uniformed officers came up behind them and ordered for them to drop their weapons and put their hands in the air immediately. They did as they were told—though Ryder looked agitated having to lower his riffle.

"Now who are you three?" one of the officer's demanded, serious looks on their faces as they recognized the fact that they weren't members of the gang and were not resisting.

Maize was sure one of them was about to answer, when suddenly one of the men she had seen at the head of the charge, with the navy blue windbreaker on and a badge hanging around his neck, put a hand of the speaking officer's shoulder and gave them a steadying look.

"They're on our side," he said to assure his officers, who quickly nodded and left him with her, Alec and Ryder.

Alec was looking at him with wide eyes and when he removed the sunglasses from his face, he flashed each of them a slight smile.

"How are you doing, I'm agent David Monroe with the RCMP, and I have a lot of questions for you three."

* * *

Every accountable gang member was arrested and taken into custody by the police force to their already awaiting lockup trucks outside. People were jogging back and forth relaying messages to each other and making calls, while the police helicopter circled overhead keeping an eye on the scene below.

The pair of agents—as Maize had come to know after a quick introduction as agent Monroe and agent Johnson—stayed back to talk with them.

At first both Maize and Alec had insisted they find Hill first—since they hadn't seen her after they had been captured, but Johnson and Monroe calmly explained to them that a few of their officers had found the woman matching her description locked in one of the rooms, unconscious, but breathing. The medics had gone straight to tending to her wounds—a sever concussion being the worst of her injuries. But they assured that when she woke up, with a few days at the hospital in bed rest, she would be just fine.

Having that assurance, Maize was more at ease. She felt raw guilt at the fact that all of them had believed she had been the one who double crossed them—granted that everything did seem to lead to her, as they had never thought Kishan himself would have been the traitor. Everything about Maria Hill's story had been the truth, if anything she was the only one, meanwhile, Kishan and their entire mission had been nothing but lies.

Lies to get to her, she reminded herself.

She didn't have much time to scramble through her thoughts.

They stood outside the building, around the front where there wasn't as much commotion going on to distract them.

All of them were in the mood for a few explanations.

"You guys have some timing," Ryder started by saying to the RCMP officers, not looking very pleased to be in the presence of law agents, since he wasn't allowed to just leave—but at least he didn't sound bitter about them showing up. It had saved their damn lives.

Johnson was the one who smiled ever so slightly and closed his eyes for a brief moment. "We're just sorry it wasn't soon enough."

"How did you know to come in the first place?" Alec asked them, eyeing the two with a particular expression.

"Simple; this was no quick minute thing," Monroe responded smoothly. "We've actually been working this case for several weeks now."

"Case?"

"Yes. We're an undercover working team that normally tracks travel criminal activity—but that was before the fellows over at the FBI rung our people up and told us about one of their open cases. They've been onto Ex-agent Karan's case since the beginning. Though, we were informed you all were under the impression that their pursuit of him was under false pretences?"

"Well we don't think so anymore." Her tone was borderline sarcastic—and bitter. "Also, how did you know that?"

"Riggis Norman. Her got in touch with someone from the FBI's team a few days ago and they forwarded it to us," Johnson replied evenly. "He's your precinct's captain if I'm made to believe correctly?"

"He sure is," Alec replied with a breathy laugh.

Despite everything—despite the revelry of this mission, despite the cross of the entire thing, despite the lies that had only ever been a game to a psychopathic killer, the captain had still had their back. He may as well have saved their lives.

"Last we were informed he had been trying to figure out what was going on with the FBI and their on the run agents," Johnson explained thoughtfully, "but I doubt he was able to get any information until only recently."

"Let me take a guess—" Ryder muttered, "the bureau guys were trying to keep the whole situation hush-hush? Didn't want word that they had corrupt agents running loose?" He input dryly.

Monroe smiled wryly. "I won't claim to know their motives, out of my field—but I'm sure your not too far off the mark with that one."

"Damn assholes," Ryder muttered under his breath.

Maize and Alec flashed each other a quick look. It would have probably been one of their shared looks of agitation and humour at the knowingness of the bureau—but Maize couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes for more than a second.

He showed nothing that would indicate any off emotions. She had no idea what he knew—how much he knew, other than the fact that their whole mission had been a scheme to get revenge on her from a figure form her past. And she wouldn't know. They didn't have time to talk now.

But she would be lying to say that it wasn't bothering her.

Her expression gave nothing away.

"Nevertheless," Johnson cleared his throat and carried on, "We've been watching out for you guys since you had a run in with a some members of the gang on the road—"

"Pair of assassins actually," Maize corrected him, at half attention—though it suddenly occurred to her to wonder what had happened to the two of them.

Johnson blinked and the continued. "I see...In any case, we tracked you down, up until you ditched your car...then we lost the trail."

"Thank god," Ryder sighed lowly with a flash of relief.

"Pardon?" Johnson asked with a confused look but Alec interjected quickly.

"Ignore him. Anyway, why did you have to stalk us? If you were RCMP you should have just come out and said so," Alec said.

"We had no idea if you happened to be one of the bad guys..." Johnson started.

"And you couldn't afford to tip him off in case we were," Maize concluded with mild comprehension of their actions. "Still—it would have been easier if one of you tried talking with us."

"We tried. Somebody didn't give us a chance," Monroe responded with a half accusing glance at Alec, who grimaced ever so slightly.

"And we couldn't exactly blurt it out while you had a barrel to one of our heads," Johnson added more practically.

Maize involuntarily felt herself stiffen and then relax just as quickly.

"And why not?" Alec ran a hand through his hair, seemingly unbothered, and gave a shrug of his shoulders defensively, "I would have dropped it."

"Well we didn't know that. And it was a bit too much of a risk to gamble on," Monroe stated matter of factly.

"Fair enough."

Johnson gave a small chuckle in spite of his partner's unamused expression. "Apologies for the misunderstandings."

"Sorry for hitting you in the face," Alec replied in return as he pulled something from his pocket, seeming a tad bit surprised he even still had it after all the chaos, and handed it to Monroe. "Here's your knife back."

Monroe smirked and took it. "Thank you. And if you noticed, our car's not here because it's still getting it's tires replaced."

Alec gave a sideways grin and shrugged. "Hey, I had no idea you guys weren't more hitmen, and, like you said; it was too big of a risk to gamble on."

His eyes then lost their humour and his smile fell. "Your men have Kishan?"

"They do. He's in our custody."

The question had been pressing heavily on her mind this entire time. "What about Az—" she caught herself, "a guy with a scar on his face?" she asked. "Did you apprehend him too?"

She waited for the confirmation. He would be getting a visit from her as soon as she was allowed—and even if she wasn't.

But the confirmation didn't come. Monroe squinted his eyes while Johnson looked concerned. "Scar on his face?"

"Across the eye," Maize supplied with a growing feeling of anxiety. "Light hair, pale eyes—was carrying a gun just like the rest of the guys you nabbed."

They caught him. Dammit—tell me they caught him!

Johnson was slow to answer. "A few of the men we arrested could fit that description...but we did a check, and I don't recall any of them with a scar. Are you sure about that? It wasn't a trick of the light?"

She had been face to face with him. She had seen the long slash that marred across his blinded eye.

Not a trick of the light.

"Yes, I'm sure," she replied tersely, trying to keep herself calm in the face of the RCMP officers.

"Then I'm afraid not—but we'll inform our officers checking out the perimeter and tell them to be on the lookout. If anyone slipped through our raid, we'll be sure to find them before they can get too far."

Maize had to catch herself before her mental response nearly slipped. It was already too late. You won't find him.

The rest of the conversation that passed between them faded into the distance for her, she found herself no longer able to pay attention or listen to anything else around her.

They wouldn't find Azeal. He wouldn't allow himself to get caught like that. If they hadn't already arrested him with the others, then that meant he was gone. The bastard slipped away.

Dammit!

She had let him slip away.

He was gone. Worse, he was still out there.

They were all alive, she told herself. All the gang members in the building had been arrested. The impossible had happened and because of it both she and Alec had made it out alive.

But the one person, even above Kishan, that they should have caught, cuffed, and locked down before he could go or say anything was free. And Maize felt only bile churning frigidness as she thought about what he could—and what he would—do next. Even after nearly losing their lives and being trapped at the mercy of his cruel hand, she had never felt more unguarded before now. This moment. This feeling.

Because now they had undoubtedly pissed him off.