The Crazy Idea [Russ]

[Jude Dorrian]

Well, it’d taken a lot of planning, a lot of lying and just a touch of thievery- but at least they were there.
Granted, the idea had seemed crazy at first. In fact, frankly, it had sounded suicidal. No, okay, wait, it was suicidal. Jude was actually just pretty thankful he hadn’t been laughed down when he initially suggested it.
In a weird way, he felt guilty. He hadn’t told Ailith about this, and it felt odd to be doing something like this without her. As one of Kira’s favourite go-to tag teams, Jude and Ailith were frequently paired up together- whether in Training or on a mission. He’d grown to used to her presence; grown accustomed to her guidance, her logical way of thinking things through on the spot and her fast pace of moving through a mission.
Tag-teaming with Russ was one hell of a different experience.
For starters, Russ was no Spy. Russ was a Warrior. And that made more difference than many Warriors would care to believe. Warriors may be tough but they… weren’t exactly the lightest on their feet. And Russ, skilled in combat as he was, was nonetheless a pretty big guy with some, well, pretty big feet. Not to mention Russ was much more impulsive than Ailith and Jude- and much, much more prone to getting mad. Jude had earlier wondered whether or not if Russ would be too badly emotionally effected during this mission to be able to keep himself in check. Well, it would be unreasonable for him not to be effected in some way, considering his relationship with Maddox. But after quick consideration, he’d decided to give Russ the benefit of the doubt. After all, Russ was probably the closest person at Orchid to Maddox aside from Lee, and the difference in their two reactions to the kidnapping was… nothing short of extreme. It just showed how well Russ could cope with the pressure of the situation- and Jude knew Russ also had the added pressure of attempting to reassure Maddox’s distraught parents at home, which must be no easy feat.
Besides, although he could be rash, Russ was no fool. He understood the risks. Neither had discussed them much, but both knew that they weighed heavily on the others’ mind. Especially now, where they crouched and waited, and silence was their only company.
Russ was growing impatient. Jude could feel it in the air. Russ’ body was beginning to grow tense, and he was beginning to shift restlessly. They’d been waiting- invisible- for nearly five hours now. It was a slow start to the mission. Jude was forcing himself to ignore the irritating voice in his head which kept reminding him how quickly Russ could blow up that barrier that was keeping them out of the camps.
Everything always seemed much more exciting in theory.
After discussing it hastily in school, both had gone their separate ways immediately. Jude had sweet-talked his way around a couple of girls, and left the Spy Training Room about half an hour later clutching several plans of the enemy camps. On the maps, he was able to mark and recognize the place where he knew they’d kept Macy when she was kidnapped- a bunker area; separate from the rest of the enemy base. If Maddox was there, that would make their job easier. They didn’t need to infiltrate any enemy HQ. Always a bonus.
After making off with a couple of weapons (illegally acquired, but a necessity- once inside the bunker area where Maddox was being kept, they knew they would lose their powers), Jude had re-met with Russ in the Dorms to go over the maps with him. It was easy to figure out a route. The enemy base was high security- but it sure wasn’t what y’all could call a maze. The layout was pretty basic- much more so than Orchid Hill- and the entrance was marked clearly.
So that part was easy.
Then there was the getting there. Russ… may or may not have stolen that car. Jude wasn’t quite sure how he’d gotten it, ‘cause he knew Russ didn’t actually have one of his own. Still, having witnessed no crime, Jude could accuse him of nothing. So instead, he sat in the passenger seat praying Russ realized that if that was a stolen vehicle they were riding in, it would mean someone trying to follow them up. The last thing they wanted was to leave a trail, or gain a tracker.
Jude’s invisibility had been extended to cover the car and any dust the tyres kicked out, so he kept them out of sight. After a long drive, Russ had gone to find a safe place to park, and Jude had scouted on ahead to see if he could find a good vantage point.
No Man’s Land was full of trash. And full of barren trees and boulders. Lots of rubble. Every so often, the ground was stained with what looked like a combination of dried blood and alcohol. It was ugly- and it was difficult to tread quietly across the land. Jude picked his way as delicately as he could across it, before finally finding what he was looking for.
The entrance.
Now, Jude and Russ had no hope of just walking right in. They’d security. They’d sensors. Y’all couldn’t just break open or blow up that barrier without causing an alert (and almost certainly, their deaths). If someone was going in or out of the camps, they had to be let in.
And that was Jude and Russ’ best bet.
Clearly, the enemy wasn’t about to let the two wander right on in. Nah, they were waiting until someone new arrived- and planned to shadow that person on their way in. It sounded easy in theory- although there was one, slight problem-
Invisibility sensors.
And there would go their great disguise.
Luckily, Russ’ electromagnetism would be able to serve the purpose of throwing off the sensors and allowing their safe passage through.
Finding a snug area behind a boulder and a particularly ugly tree, Jude had marked out their vantage point, and moved back as quickly as he could to bring Russ around.
And so they’d sat.
And so they’d waited.
And were still waiting.
Four hours, thirty-nine minutes and twenty-two seconds later.
Maddox sure as hell better appreciate this, was all Jude could really say.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Four hours, thirty-nine minutes and twenty-three seconds.
Twenty-four. Twenty-five.
Russ didn’t understand how Jude could just sit there without showing the slightest hint of impatience. He was perfectly disaffected, cool and calm; standing there like a bloody statue – whatever Kira was doing to make them like this, she was doing it well. Jude was calm, but Russ was quickly starting to get more and more agitated with the waiting, and the silence that meant he couldn’t even make the biting comment that was rising in his throat. There was also resisting the temptation to just jump the gun and get this over and done with by blowing up the dámn sensors. It’d sure as hell be quicker, but there was also the fact it’d probably get them shot.
So waiting was definitely the safest option, even if it was slowly driving Russ insane. He wasn’t born to sit still, and staying like a sculpture for nearly five hours was really beginning to agitate him. He shifted restlessly, glancing at Jude, who of course was still staying completely bloody still, the bástard. He didn’t look fazed at all; you’d think he did this every day. Jude just wasn’t worried at all, but Russ was starting to worry now about just how long this was going to take.
And now he had the car to worry about too. It was parked safely outside a beaten-up 24/7 petrol station that lay not far from here, but he did have to get it back to its owner without a scratch. Jude had kept oddly quiet about the car on the drive down, and Russ had a suspicion that Jude was worrying that he’d stolen it. Well, he could relax – it hadn’t been stolen, just “borrowed”. Russ didn’t own a car, but Toby Sinclair did. Now, Russ didn’t know Toby especially well, but they’d been in Cardsdale for a couple of drinks and he figured that he wouldn’t be too pissed if he borrowed the car for a good cause. Besides, he was planning to sell the car on soon, anyway. He’d left a note, saying that he’d have it back in the condition he got it, and he’d explain later.
Hopefully he’d get back before Toby did, though, just in case.
It was an irritating thing, because under any other circumstance, Russ would have really enjoyed driving the car – for being as old as it was, it drove like a dream. It just so happened that as he borrowed the beaten up fourth-generation Chevy Impala, he was about to do probably the most ridiculously reckless thing he’d ever done in his life, and it was probably fair to say that he’d done more than his fair share of those.
There wasn’t much of a plan, to be honest. It wasn’t exactly fool-proof, but then again, neither Russ nor Jude were fools. However, nor were the people they were dealing with.
It was pretty basic. They’d wait until someone was let in through the gates, then they’d go through under the guise of Jude’s invisibility, and distract the invisibility sensor with Russ’s electromagnetism. Same with the CCTV cameras before they got to the deprivation room and the invisibility failed. Thank Christ for the simplicity of technology.
And of course, the whole thing relied on whether or not they’d gotten the right place. The building that Jude had marked out was where Macy Deltine had been kept, apparently, and it was also a deprivation area, which made sense because Madeleine’s shapeshifting was a power that could get her out of an ordinary holding cell with ridiculous ease. It was also slightly out of the way. But… they weren’t sure, and they couldn’t be sure. Which was the problem. They were stabbing in the dark, but it was the only shot they could get, so he’d shut up and went with Jude’s instincts. Jude was the Spy here, after all, and Russ was completely new to this, so he was happy to go along with what Jude wanted because it meant it was less likely they’d get killed.
The whole thing was simple – so simple that Russ couldn’t believe no one had tried it before. Then again, it took a hell of a lot of recklessness to do it and Russ was pretty sure that he and Jude were a small minority that would do it. After all, neither were known for their brilliance at following orders: Russ, who challenged Madeleine’s orders at every opportunity, and Jude, who was famous for deliberately defying her and joining the Warriors on the front line – and for being banned from future training. So there was always a punishment, but it wasn’t like either of them gave a crap – they’d get Madeleine out and if they were given hell for it, they’d be given hell for it, but at least she was safe and they’d actually done something instead of sitting on their asses doing bugger all. Sure it was dangerous, and sure it was defying orders, but the consequences were worth it.
Well, if they got out of this one alive. Neither of them had talked about it much, but they knew the risks of this; they just weren’t really going to think about them.
Because if they did, they’d be thinking about them for a long time. For Christ’s sake, were the forces this low in numbers that no one came to and from the barracks for five fúcking hours?!
And the waiting time was only going to get longer. Russ settled back and set himself up for another while.
And another.
And another.
But eventually, five hours, twenty-seven minutes and forty-three seconds into the wait, Russ could hear the sound of a car engine approaching the area in the silence of No Man’s Land. The car had to be heading there, right? No one approached with an engine that close unless they meant to go in.
Jude would know, it was Jude’s lead.

[Jude Dorrian]

ooc: OMG. Guess who's just realised she's been forgetting about one of Jude's enhanced senses for the longest of times...? xD

Five hours, twenty-seven minutes and forty-three seconds later, the waiting finally, finally paid off.
Jude was relieved. He’d been beginning to think this was gonna stretch on for so long they’d need to call it off, go back to school and re-plot. The problem was, Jude and Russ had told no-one where they were going. If they were gone too long, they would be missed, questions would be asked, and soon, they’d start to be tracked. And Jude really, really, really wanted to avoid any kinda fuss- especially since it would almost definitely end in expulsion for the pair.
And Jude wasn’t ready to give up his place at Orchid Hill just yet.
He heard their ticket inside coming long before Russ did, his enhanced ears picking it up a long way off. Still, unwilling to give Russ any false hope, he’d waited until it’d pulled into view and he was sure of its direction before making any move.
It was a long, black car- modest in make and plain in paintwork. Its black-tinted windows told Jude that whoever was riding in the car did not want to be seen- and the slightly smaller black cars that slinked along behind it told Jude that whoever this visitor was had also brought back-up.
Smoothly crunching over the uneven landscape that led up to the tall iron gates, the car pulled sharply to a halt; its two lackeys pulling in slightly behind it. There was a sudden, shrill noise and a low whirring as the iron gates slowly began to part, and create an entrance for the three cars. Jude breathed an inward sigh of relief when he heard the noise it made. That would easily drown out any approaching footsteps- no matter how loud or heavy those footsteps happened to be.
A tall pale man in a dusty suit stood in the opening gap, a small, sly pair of eyes rolling suspiciously over his visitors, and then, their darkened background. For once heart-stopping moment, his eyes seemed to lock on Jude’s.
Slowly, Jude sucked in a long, dry breath.
And the man looked away. They were okay.
The pale man, ghostly in the moonlight, approached the black car. A window slid down, and the man bent down, conversing in a low, hoarse voice.
Jude nudged Russ gently, and rose to his feet.
He surveyed the scene before him. The trick here was for Russ to only hold the gates open for a few seconds longer than they usually would be- as though they’d only stuck accidentally. If they were open too long- even just a fraction too long- someone, somewhere down the line would figure out something was wrong, and the whole camp would go on red alert.
They had a similar problem with the invisibility sensors. Russ could knock them off- but their being knocked off would only going unnoticed for so long before someone realized they were being interfered with. All of this served to cut down the amount of time they had to search for Maddox in.
So Jude was praying that his hunch about the deprivation cell was right.
Once inside the camps, however, Jude was certain he could smell her out. From the outside, too much blood- too much alcohol- too much dust scratched at his nostrils for him to smell anything beyond that. But once inside, he could lock onto Maddox’s scent and track her.
Tommy, when he hadn’t referred to him as, ‘Cowboy’, or by his first name, had sometimes referred to Jude as, ‘Bloodhound’, because along with every one of his other four senses, Jude’s sense of smell was second to none. He could track anybody, easily, once he’d locked onto their smell. An invisible break-in to Maddox’s dorm had found Jude one of her tops, which he’d left in the backseat of the car Russ had parked.
Jude could only pray that Russ would never find out Jude had stolen Maddox’s clothes to acquire her scent. He could only imagine what kind of comments Russ was likely to make about it.
But before he got too ahead of himself, Jude’s first and only concern was this:
Get in.
The gate was a blessing. The sound of it whenever it got stuck would be even worse. Jude knew he and Russ could get in quickly and easily- though they wanted to avoid as much contact with that man in the suit as possible.
And those black cars.
Lightly, breathlessly, the pair approached the trio of black cars; Jude slightly ahead of his Warrior companion.
This was a matter of very, very delicate timing. Russ knew this. They’d been over it a few times together by now. The whole mission rode on this one transaction- outside to inside.
Stopping just short of the furthest back car, Jude held out an invisible arm, and caught Russ.
They waited.
The pale man was the first to move. Straightening up from the car and stepping back, his sly eyes rolled once more back over to the tree behind which Russ and Jude had been squatting mere moments before. Apparently satisfied, he nodded curtly to the upwards rolling window, and scurried back inside.
The three cars revved up and smoothly slid forwards and through the entrance. The gates groaned and- achingly slowly- began to close.
“Okay,” his whisper was barely audible over the noise of the gate. The only reason he knew Russ could even hear it was because Jude was right at his ear. “Now, Russ.”
Now.