Forever Fighting | ✔️ | [previously Espionage: double-cross]

Chapter 63

Alex trudged down the stairs, grumpy from lack of sleep. The bags under her eyes had become more prominent over the last week, making her look like a panda - - something which James just loved to tease her about.

Literally the day after her father had come back, they had started planning. It helped that Alex had wiped all of the files (electronic and hard copies) so Potentia was in a state of chaos. It was the chaos that made everything so much easier to sneak through, to cause problems. 

Despite everything Potentia had been working on being erased, sending them back to square one on all of their 'projects', there was still a large amount of whatever this virus was in varying warehouses all over the country. Not to mention the boss was still alive and kicking. It like her dad said, 'to kill the snake, you need to cut off its head'. But sometimes that wasn't enough. Alex's more accurate version was, 'to kill a cockroach, you need to cut off its head. And if it's still running around, you get the biggest show you can find and squash it into a paste'. 

In other words, even with the boss gone, there will always be other's who will take up the mantle. The other thing was, how would they completely destroy Potentia without killing every one of their hundreds of members. Alex knew sometimes death was necessary but she wasn't ready to commit mass genocide.

She wasn't that unhinged, yet.

Recently, she had been plagued with nightmares, sudden possibilities of every moment in her life most recently taking a darker turn. She had seen everyone she cared about murdered in front of her and the images wouldn't go away. Every night it was someone else.

She rubbed her eyes, hoping the wipe away the images but in doing so, lost her eyesight and felt herself slipping, the stair beneath her foot slipping away as she fell forwards. She covered her head with her arms, bracing for impact but the hard crash on the ground never came. Instead she found herself hovering inches above the ground. 

Well, I'm pretty sure I didn't develop super powers in the last 10 seconds so... 

She looked up to see and annoying face above hers, an infuriating smirk plastered on it. She inwardly groaned, readying herself for the teasing.

"It's okay, walking down stairs can be difficult. Don't worry, I'll help you next time," then he winked. So Alex did the only reasonable thing. She flipped him off.

He laughed, a deep tone that rumbled through his chest that she was currently pressed against. That sound sent a shock through her chest, though she didn't know why.

"Hardy har har. Can you put me down now?"

"Hmmm. I dunno. I quite like this position." She narrowed his eyes at him before swinging her legs up and then down, hard. The force broke his hold on her and sent her tumbling to the ground though she had the reflexes to at least land upright.

"Ha." He just laughed at her before grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the kitchen. She tried to ignore the way her hand fit perfectly in his as they made their way towards the clattering sounds of her father's abysmal cooking.

"So are you going to tell me about your apparent lack of sleep?" He whispered as they made their way to breakfast.

She bit her lip and shook her head, afraid if she even opened her mouth everything would come spilling out and she couldn't have that. She needed to be put together and in control when they finally faced Potentia and allowing her teammates to find out what was going on inside of her head wouldn't do anything to help. And she knew they would try to help. All she could do now was work hard and prepare enough so that all of her fears would be inconsequential.

James raised her eyebrow at her. Alex returned the gesture.

"Argh, you're so stubborn, you know that?" He said it with an irritated undertone but the smile on his face told a different story, eyes lighting up at a quality he found more endearing. Unless it was being stubborn about agent work or something regarding her safety in which case he wanted to lock her up in a room.

Alex grinned, something she had been doing a lot more recently. "Why thank you!"

She thought it was because of her dad's lively presence.

Laughing they both entered the kitchen where Grayson had attempted omelettes but they came out more scrambled.

"Honestly, at least we ended up with something edible."

He held up the spatula and placed it over his heart in mock hurt. "Excuse me! Where do you think you get your amazing cooking skills from!"

Alex smirked. "You of course. There is a reason all of the takeaway places knew us by name you know."

He grumbled. "Well then its good you had the foresight to learn to make soupy noodles then huh." He turned to James. "What about you, can you cook?"

"Who do you think's been making the food we've been eating the past week?"

Gray's eyes widened in realisation. "Oh! I thought you got deliveroo or something."

"Out here? You mad old man." The spatula was now pointed in Alex's direction.

"You're lucky I'm a cool parent and don't redact your mobile privileges for disrespecting this amazing person right here." Alex had missed their crazy bantering, the awful jokes but not the stupid dances. "Anyway, at least one of you can cook."

"What does that mean?" Alex had a feeling there was something more behind her father's comment.

"Oh nothing. Now, get your eggs and eat your toast." He rubbed his hand together like an evil villain. "We've got some planning to do."

Both of them groaned.

"Yay!"

They sat, huddled around pages of information, data, scribbling, and neat bullet pointed lists courtesy of James. His planning methods were much more organised than both of the Pierce's. They kinda scribbled something down and claimed to remember it for when it was needed.

The planning for phases 1 through 4 were already complete, some already in motion. Phase 5 was where it got interesting. Phase 6, well that was Alex's little secret.

"The final takedown needs to cripple Potentia, every branch so there is no chance of it reforming." The teenagers nodded, knowing this already.

"So how are we going to do it?"

Grayson smiled a sinister smile. "You see, the thing about humans is they're herd animals, they love to engage in activities that bring them closer and that they enjoy." He received blank looks so took that as 'carry on'. "Well, everyone loves to gossip."

"Oh no. Please tell me you aren't going to start rumours and hope they make people lose trust in the agency." Grayson was getting some very skeptical looks at this point.

"Yes and no. Some rumours will be necessary but sometimes all people need to know is the truth. Almost everyone that still works for Potentia either doesn't know what they really do, what their plans are. We're the government, we're supposed to. Be the good guys. We need to expose everything."

Alex cringed. "Ha ha, well that may be a bit difficult seen as I've wiped all of the data, digitally and any hard copies as well."

"Ah, there will be a problem getting evidence then."

"So what?"

"We'll go to the source and show everyone the truth. Even those who understand the nefarious purposes of the agency won't even be seen working with them once we're done."

"Everyone?" James' voice was low with disbelief.

"Everyone in the agency, everyone who has heard of the agency and anyone who works with the agency will know."

"Do you have any idea how childish this sounds?"

"Oh yeah but it'll work. You say enough dramatic crap and people will start to believe it, especially when it comes from some of the most well known and respected people. Turn the people against the head and then," Grayson slammed his hand on the table, making the pair jump. "No more Potentia. Though we'll have to get some pretty concrete proof to do this. Now, let's start phase 1." Grayson turned to Alex. "You're going to have to get those friends of yours involved." Then he looked at James. "You're going to need to get your girlfriend on board too."