(Ailith): Ransom

Suddenly, a swarm of people dressed in black entered the cart. They were all carrying guns and brandishing numerous weapons. Some yelps and screams could be heard from the neighboring carts.

The foreign man spoke, "No-one try anything. We will not hesitate to shoot."

'Oh shit.'

"Everyone sit down with your hands in the air."

The man was addressing all the passengers but kept his gun trained on her.

"Move it." he said, shoving her back to her seat.

There was a gun trained on Alex as well however, he remained just as calm as he was before.

'Psycho.'

"You are all our hostages now. One wrong move and the bomb we have installed in this train will blow up."

Some of the passengers started bawling their eyes when he said this while others just looked petrified.

Ailith did as the man ordered. She herself had no weapons on her. They were all in the bag Alex had taken from her before.

Everyone sat in silence for what felt like hours before Ailith finally heard sirens blaring through the walls of the train.

"Exit with your hands in the air. You are surrounded."

The doors opened and several men stepped out before it closed again. From inside, she could hear the authorities and men negotiating. After several minutes they returned.

"Who's Alexander?" he said, his eyes roaming the train.

Alex stood.

The man's eyes narrowed. "You, follow me."

Without looking, Alex said to Ailith, "Get up."

She stood.

The man whipped himself around. "Just you. Not the girl."

Alex glared. "She's coming with me."

The man started to tread towards them but before he could get within a foot of them, Alex took out a gun from one of his pockets and pointed it at the man's head.

She heard the whips of guns as the other people dressed in black aimed their weapons at Alex.

The passengers were all staring now, their attention directed at them.

Alex said more sternly this time. "She's coming with me."

The man let out an annoyed breath. "Fine. Both of you follow me."

Alex kept his pistol trained on him.

Warily looking around at all their attackers, Ailith followed Alex. Outside, the man handed them over to some officers who immediately led them away. She saw the authorities hand over what could only be bags of money to the scums. Upon closer inspection, she found that one of the officers was the man she had met during her first visit to Dorrance.

Two of the officers ushered Alex and Ailith into a car and drove away from the site with several cars on their sides. "Wait, what's going to happen to the other people on the train?" she asked.

There was no reply.

"Alex?"

He ignored her.

Just then, she heard a loud *BOOM* in the distance. Ailith spun around to look through the back window. Sure enough, smoke was rising from the direction they had come from. Ailith gasped in horror.

"There's nothing you could have done. Our lives are more important."

"What do you mean? The authorities obviously could have saved the others. They had the train surrounded. Why didn't they?"

Alex kept his mouth shut for longer this time before answering, "If I were you I would worry about your own future. Do you realize what you've done? Clarice will be furious."

"Why do you care?"

They traveled in silence the rest of the way.

As soon as they arrived at the building Alex took her straight to Clarice's office. Clarice sat at her desk infuriated. "Ailith, do you realize what the penalty for treason in our country is?"

"Death by shooting."

"Yes, exactly. What were you thinking?" she asked standing from her desk.

She was going to die anyways. Might as well piss Clarice off one more time. "There's something wrong with your heads. Who in their right mind would kill innocent civilians? They didn't do anything!"

"If you're talking about the train incident you were involved in today, need I remind you it was not the government holding the passengers captive as hostages. You should be grateful Alex had enough mercy to drag you out with him."

Ailith was furious. "But you could've done something. You had them surrounded."

"It was too much of a risk. We can't have our officers getting injured."

"But it's okay to hurt civilians on the way?"

"They were all low tiers."

Ailith scoffed in disbelief. This woman was a psycho.

"Now, back to your case.You are too much of a valuable resource for us to kill. We have no use for you dead so I will spare you this time. I will provide you with one more chance to redeem yourself."

"What do you want me to do?"

Clarice smiled wickedly, pleased to have caught her attention. "Your first mission will be to assassinate the royal family of Orbournth."