In the silence of the vault, nothing could be heard but the thuds of our pounding hearts and the crackling of our comm frequencies. Despite it all, I heard the lock click.
Sophia, my newly wedded wife turned to look at me. "One more to go."
I nodded, urging her on as she set to break through the last defense of the safe.
Sophia and I were agents of the Department of State Security. And we were newly weds, very fresh from our honeymoon. And the first thing our superiors had done was to send us on a mission.
We were currently in a secret facility, somewhere in Kaduna, Nigeria. We had been sent along with our team to retrieve a certain flashdrive containing the different locations of illegal weapons smuggled into the country by terrorists. Enough weaponry to turn more than half of Nothern Nigeria to ashes.
Getting in had been difficult, we had to shoot our way through hordes of heavily armed terrorists. But we had been able to defeat them all. And now, my wife was on her knees, a stethoscope in her ears as she listened to the cold metal of the safe.
She stopped.
"It's time." She said without looking at me, "get the guys and leave."
I tapped my comm and spoke to the team, "clear out of the building now."
"What about you and Agent Sophia?" One of them asked.
"We'll be right behind you."
"You should go with them Samson, " Sophia muttered as I deactivated the comm. "We might not survive this."
This last phase of opening the safe was the most dangerous. This particular lock was linked to bombs placed all over the facility so that once it was opened without the key, the bombs would go off , destroying the building in thirty seconds. Anyone inside would either have a fiery death or be buried alive.
We didn't have the key. And our superiors needed the drive intact so they could access the information. This was risky, but it was in the job description.
"We will survive this." I assured her, there was absolutely no way I would let anything harm my wife.
She smiled as she began twisting the dial. Left, then right. Left again, right again.
"I do love you Samson." She said suddenly.
"I know." I replied, not liking her tone at all. Sweat broke out over my forehead as my heartbeat raced.
"You should say you love me too."
"Hell no!" I blurted, a bit irritated she was so calm in the face of such danger. "You're making it sound like a goodbye and I'm having none of that."
She didn't speak for a second, then she turned to face me once more, "that wasn't goodbye my love. It was a distraction."
She pulled the safe open. And suddenly, the room was flooded in red light, flashing in rhythm with the siren blowing through the facility.
"Building will self destruct in T minus thirty seconds." A computerized voice announced.
She pulled out the box containing the drive and stuck it into her pouch.
"Let's go!" I cried, grabbing her hand as we dashed towards the stairs.
The wailing of the siren was too high, almost piercing our ears. The flashing light was disorienting, but we forged on.
"Building will self destruct in T minus twenty seconds."
We raced down the stairs, letting go of each other so we could run faster. We leaped over dead terrorists, our path led by the flashing lights.
"Building will self destruct in T minus ten seconds."
Hearts pounding furiously, we tore into the lobby, our government issue boots squeaking over the tiled floor.
"Come on sir!" Our men on the outside urged us, "you're almost there!"
"Building will self destruct in T minus five seconds."
The doors swung into view, wide open and inviting. We raced towards it, because our lives depended on it.
"Four."
"Almost there sir!"
"Three."
We dashed through the doors at the same time. But we didn't stop.
"Two."
"Get back!" I screamed at the men, "stay back--"
The explosion shook the earth, lifting Sophia and I and tossing us like rag dolls. I sailed through the air and slammed into the door of one of our vehicles, the windows shattered upon impact.
The explosion seemed to go on forever. One after the other, different bombs in different parts of the facility until eventually the building collapsed and all that was left was fire and smoke over chunks of block.
Panting, I pushed myself to my feet, gasping out loud when a sharp pain zipped through my head. I looked around and saw my wife, lying prone on the ground.
"No." I gasped as I staggered towards her. I fell on my knees besides her, "Sophia."
No response.
"Sophia!" I shook her. "Wake up!"
She stirred and looked at me. I gasped out in relief as a tear dropped from my eye.
"Are you crying?" She asked, the ends of her lips rising in a smirk.
I laughs as I helped her sit up, "you're okay right?"
"Yeah, I think so. And so is the drive."
At the moment, I didn't care about the drive. I was just thankful my wife was safe. And we stayed like that, in each other's arms as our men gathered around us.
Ten minutes later, except for the smoldering building and the charred bodies, it was like we were never there.
The End.
While in search of content, I went through my old stories and i felt inspired to write some sequels. This is one of them.
This can serve as a sequel to Marry Me Sophia. But note that this story is not a continuation, instead they are independent stories about the same characters.
Thank you for reading.
