Chapter 15: Elevator

In the morning Grace came down for breakfast, with Mia, having talked it over and cooled down a bit. Her mum shouldn’t have to have her permission to start dating again, should she? It was understandable she was nervous about telling her and had put it off. And she herself liked Claude too, so it was quite natural from that point of view and it wasn’t for her to be jealous and spoil it. She’d ask her mum about it and her mum would explain and it would all be okay. And having a dad again could be nice, as well.

So it was all good as she tucked into her strawberry pancakes with juice and coffee, apart from still not having heard back from her mum; and apart from the Striteracians possibly being able to follow the old beam, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that.

“Okay,” Claude said as they finished, “I can’t get hold of Cyan or Zara for some reason, anyway it’s time to fly home. I’ll book the next flight, looks like three o’clock, so let’s get basically packed and then you can decide what to do for the rest of the morning.”

They did some packing, hung around, and once breakfast had gone down they all went down to the gym to do a nice long session, with a swim and a soak in the hot tub.

Grace still hadn’t had a reply from her mum, as they waited for the elevator to go back up, in their white hotel robes. The elevator dinged, the doors slid open in that purposeful American way and she smiled at the two men already inside. They didn’t smile back at all, which was a bit off-putting.

In fact the atmosphere was a bit strained as the lift went up. They were big men, with short hair. Just standing, in a corner each. Why hadn’t they got out on the ground floor? Ding! “Floor three” said the speaker. The doors opened. There were their cases on the carpet in the corridor! And two more men. Big men. They held their arms out to stop Grace and the others getting out.

“You need to come with us,” said the man behind her.

Next thing their luggage was in the middle and they were squashed round the edge, with a huge threatening guy in each corner. Mia and Claude were against one wall and Grace, Mo and Paul were against the other, leaving the doors clear as one of the men turned a key in the panel and pressed a button. The doors closed and the lift - no, elevator - accelerated upwards.

Grace tried to think. She needed a movie mode, so her mind didn’t just freeze with fear! The men were calm, not saying anything. Trained and professional, all in smart jackets and open shirts. Obviously they had to be agents of some sinister government agency, who were after the aliens and their massive secret! Even the smallest was a good six foot, and big with it. They must have guns too - this was America.

Claude cursed to himself. The messages between himself and Cyan must have been picked up. Of course! Merde. Had he mentioned the ageing? Or the spaceship? Well the DDOS and Tor had probably tripped all kinds of automatic alarms, and then there were the message trails right to the spaceship. He was supposed to have looked after the kids, and now look.

“Oh well, at least we got to do the Del Monte,” said Mia to Grace.

It was so irrelevant Grace knew it was a message. But what? If this was a movie there’d be a helicopter on the roof, ready to spirit them away without anybody knowing. Perhaps there really was. It was a great big hotel and this was America for that too.

What did Mia have in mind? Oh, she supposed it had to be being a decoy or honey trap thing, like at the restaurant? But what could Mia do? It all looked hopeless. Anyway, anything was better than just waiting to be herded about and locked up somewhere...

Mia watched as Grace’s quick mind got it. The little left hand drifted to her belt and casually eased the bow undone. The guy in the opposite corner noticed.

The other agents followed their partner’s gaze to see the belt come undone and the robe start to open, revealing a youthful, feminine little body in a workout bikini.

“Do that up,” said the guy on Mia’s left, his eyes nevertheless riveted on Grace. But Grace slid the robe off her shoulders and let it fall. In the elevator she looked almost undressed. The agent next to her automatically reached down for the robe to cover her up again.

Claude felt Mia start to move. The plan was obvious but the agents weren’t seeing a threat. He didn’t have any idea what to expect either, except that she’d built so much cohesion into her group and she was so confident. It wouldn’t surprise him if she’d done some martial arts. And she had more aggression in her makeup than most women. Maybe she also knew that in a kidnap situation the best chance to escape is often at the start. He got himself ready to join in, hopeless though he’d be.

Mia subtly braced her right foot, dropped onto her right leg and twisted clockwise to wind up. It had been a while since she’d practiced her taekwondo, and she was a bit tired from the workout and softened from the hot tub. It wasn’t ideal. But at the top of the lift there could be more agents and probably handcuffs or zip ties, so it was now or never. The guy was still looking at Grace, arms by his side. Mia jumped a bit to clear his shoulder and launched her left elbow at his throat. Three things mattered at this moment: elbow speed, elbow speed and elbow speed...

Her elbow connected, just as in the sparring, but this time there was the sensation of contact, resistance, and yielding.

It felt good but now she needed a kick for the guy on the other side of the door. He had to be six foot four. She continued with the rotation, got her right hand on the frame of the door, spotted the floor between the cases, landed her right foot, and kicked her left leg open as the spin brought her round facing into the lift again. The guy was starting to reach for her as she straightened her leg, hard, and her left heel connected with his left knee.

At the other end of the lift Claude went to punch the agent next to him in the gut. Not that he had a gut. Before he could land it the agent punched him in the side of the head, and Claude’s world went dizzy. Next moment there was another blow and Claude knew no more.

Grace had jumped on her bent-over agent, but he just stood up as though she didn’t weigh anything and she slid off in a heap in front of the doors. Sensing Mo and Paul trying to do something she flung herself across the suitcases towards the opposite corner - almost across Claude who’d been knocked down already! She scrambled to the agent who was writhing about with his hands to his throat. It sounded like he could hardly breathe, so it must be swelling inside.