XXX: Operation XO

Chapter 2 – The Meet Up

The coffee here is terrible.

Whatever they’re using is clearly not the brand that’s stated on the label in the slightest and it’s too vile a taste to even consider trying to drink the stuff. Good thing I’m just sitting here as recon whilst Cage talks to the informant. It’s still just a little on the strange side to think that whoever sent me that e-mail already knew about the fact that he would receive intel on such a matter, unless it was deliberately set up that way of course.

Which now that I think about it, is one hundred percent exactly what’s going on so maybe I should be a little more on my guard.

“Hey good looking,” a voice startles me out of my visual and I turn to find a stunning hot blond in a pair of hot pants that leave nothing to the imagination in the slightest, coupled with a chemise top and a demin jacket that I swear I have seen somewhere before. Her brown eyes sparkle with interest and mischief as she just invites herself to sit at my table but without blocking my view of Cage and the other guy he is talking too. “Your girlfriend ditch you or something?” she continues on with a sweet smile, “Cause if you were mine I’d never let you out of my sight, even for a second.”

I know there’s some rather clingy types in this world but this girl is laying it on way too thick. I mean I get this sort of chat up line in a club when I’m DJing away but this isn’t exactly the sort of place for that. Plus, my eyes have fallen on a curious choker that she’s wearing. It’s just a plain black styled one of course but there’s a flat metal disc that is resting against the skin of rather than looking like a pendant and it just has me wondering something.

Especially since there’s a certain sharpness to the jawline that doesn’t quite look feminine and despite a clever application of makeup, the slight yellow tone is showing through the roughly applied fake tan.

“Sure, you wouldn’t,” I comment dryly to give the impression that I’m not interested in her, well I am but not in that way, “But no offence, you’re pretty and all that but you’re not my style.”

The smile on the pretty face would normally fall straight off the face of any girl who heard that comment but this one just keeps smiling away and flicks her fingers in such a way that I know she’s signaling to someone on her own team but it looks perfectly innocent enough. As the old saying goes, it takes one to know one and either this girl is another part of the now defunked Triple X program or some other group.

I can hear Alex mumbling in my ear but I choose to ignore her for now because if this is indeed a set up in order to get my attention then whoever this girl is she’s got it.

“Why? Would you rather have some dashing, tanned hot kung-fu chick to entertain you?” she asked, a tiny touch of jealousy in her voice that betrays a masculine edge to her words. Clearly the voice changer only has a limited local range which most wouldn’t care to notice. My mind starts to tick because I’m getting the feeling that this chick is deliberately trying to rile me up.

“Nah, you don’t find those every day and quite frankly, you’re more than enough for me to handle,” I smirk and lean forward, “Especially when you’re deliberately not trying to cover up the fact that you’re not what you appear to be in the slightest.” Hooking my foot around the leg of the chair that the girl has sat on, I pull her sharply forward, hand grabbing the back of her neck in order to bring her as close to my body as I can.

“Whoa, easy there Tiger. Don’t want you to get nicked now do we” Alex berates tidily in my ear but I once again ignore her because I want to get to the bottom of this.

I stare straight into this lady-boy’s eyes, expression deadly and fingers just resting on the gun that I keep hidden in a shoulder holster. “Who the hell do you think you are?” I whisper threateningly, “Tell your little friend with the sniper rifle on the roof top to back down as well because someone a hell of a lot better has her sights trained on them as well.”

For a second the figure in front looks a little bewildered but then deflates, “You going to run again, ge?”

I frown and release the figure who leans back and removed the voice changer before taking a moment or two in order to collect his thoughts. “How the hell did you figure it out so quick?” a now male voice speaks out of the hot blond and a shiver runs down my spine.

“No way...” I whisper, almost immediately wanting to swat at the annoyance that is Alex who is talking in my ear yet again.

The chick in front of me raises an eyebrow, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

I don’t believe that I’m actually sitting here with this person right now, I don’t know whether to get extremely angry, upset or just turn and walk away. My thoughts and emotions are just so muddled up right now that instead I resort to the only thing that I know how to do best. Distraction techniques.

A waitress comes over, takes a double order for the coffee and the guy has the cheek to look surprised at the fact that I order the coffee exactly the way he has always drank it. Like I would forget. I even order him a cake cause good god he looks like a freaking stick insect right now.

“Don’t you even think of moving from that chair until I get some answers, Sehun,” I practically snarl towards him and he looks even more surprised than before and I’m tempted to just outright punch him because seriously he thought he could confuse me in that get up? Though now I look a little closer I realize it’s the exact same outfit that I last saw him in, well minus the hair which I think Luhan was actually donning at the time.

For a second there is silence and then Sehun bursts out into a fit of giggles, “Yehet. Benben finally got some brains at long last.”

I kick the chair leg again, not in the mood for his antics at this very moment. Thankfully he gets the message and recognizes the seriousness of the situation. Slowly he lets out a sigh as the coffee and the cake are delivered but makes no move in order to touch them. “I can’t tell you much here, too open,” he states after some moments deliberate thinking about what he is going to say.

“So why meet me here in the open?” I growl out towards him.

Sehun shrugs, “Best idea at the time, makes it easier to handle and reduces the risk.”

“To me or you?” I state bluntly towards him.

He glares back, equally not impressed by the way I’m treating him but I’ve got every right to be annoyed. As far as I’m aware they started that fire and left me in it and it was only through a miracle that I got out of that alive.

“Probably to the both of us,” he states bluntly back after a moment, picking up his cake because he might as well get something out of this little encounter, “Things have really gone to hell since you and your friends managed to get us all...”

Whatever his ending line would have been I don’t hear as my eyes pick up on a small red dot that has just appeared on the top of the cake as it rises towards his lips and instincts kick in. Without evening yelling I reach across, grab hold of Sehun but the arm and haul him forward just as the seat where he was sitting not a moment before explodes in a shower of debris, dust and heat. Before we even have the chance to think, more high impact short range explosives land in the cafe sidewalk and send people screaming right left and center. Me and Sehun take cover behind a corner next to some rather smelly bins but it’s better than having no cover at all.

I lean around the corner, spotting Xander rushing towards the same spot but I can see a figure on the roof of the building opposite loading up another hot explosive round. “Cage, duck!” I yell, taking some measly shots towards the figure because anything is worth a shot at this moment in time and quickly pull back around, shoving Sehun closer to the bins to allow Xander to have some room as well.

“Alex, bogie on the roof of the video game store,” I yell towards her, hoping that she can actually hear me given all the noise that’s going on.

Sehun turns to me as another explosion rocks the concrete, “Who the heck did you manage to p*** off so that they fire salvo rounds at you?”

“Only the Government due to a lost satellite crashing device. Alex, do me a favour and deal with that guy, will you?” Xander says calmly before rounding on me. “Who’s the chick?”

I roll my eyes, “A sort of friend.”

“Hey,” he complains but then ducks down as shots explode above our heads, “One of yours?” Sehun asks, looking more ashen now that he has bits of concrete splattering his form.

“Hell no,” I reply as Xander takes a shot, relaying a message back to Alex and hopefully calling my old buddy Tray to get us out of here. “What about yours?” I ask, wondering who he dragged along with him for this little meet up.

Sehun shook his head, “He’ll meet us once we’re in a safe spot. He hates gunfights with a passion.”

I frown about to ask who the heck that could relate to when there’s a screech of tires and all three of us are bundling into the van. Alex eyes the new girl warily but Sehun just smiles, “Don’t worry, not going to try and steal Ge. He’s not my style after all.”

I clip him around the back of the head, just as the van lurches over something sending us flying through the air until we crash down and start speeding along the road. “Tray! You can add to your crash record once we’re safe and not in the back of this thing!” I yell towards him, trying to scramble to the front to calm him down just a little as the last thing we need is to crash as we’re escaping but I end up yelling in fear when someone steps out onto the road in front of us barely fifty yards away.

It’s Joonmyeon.

authors babbling: Very roughly edited as I've got ten ton of stuff on the go but hopefully this. Will correct names for the X3 characters later cause one I know is wrong. Hope you enjoy all the same