The Lost Twins 13. A narrow escape

Athena never made the impact against the destroyed wall, a fist of steel caught the back of her jacket, quickly pulling her out of danger and down on the floor instead and she fell hard, instinctively rolling to the side while seeing Felix as he let go of her. He was now armed as well, holding a sharp needle-like dagger in his left hand, with which he attacked the Minotaur. Swiftly, he slid her weapon across the skin of the neck of his opponent, pushing deep as she did. The Minotaur began choking and gurgling loudly while blood poured from its throat.

Felix kept on pushing the dagger deeper into the neck of the beast. At the same time he pressed his free hand firmly over the beast's mouth and nose, forcing it to lose air, and silencing the ungodly noises it made. The Minotaur struggled desperately in Felix' grasp, but he didn't let go. Then, all of a sudden, the being went limp and as Felix loosened his grip the huge thing dropped to its knees, slid out of Felix' embrace of malice and down on the floor where it fell upon its back with a deep resounding thud. Felix came forward and looked into the monster's eyes, as life deserted them. Then he smiled and straightened up and turned to face Athena, who was now standing up, brushing dust from all over her body.

"That went fast, what did you really do?" she asked.
"I put it out of its misery," Felix replied. "The poor thing, it's better off dead than locked up and tortured by those who kept it here. You saw the room with the pool, Athena. The things in there, that wicked water, I'll tell you later what it all was for. Ain't no nursery rhyme, trust me on that."
"Yes, but I'm both impressed and surprised with how quick that kill went, what did you just use?"
"Poison, as I realized it was the only way to put this thing out of action. It's a neurotoxin which is able to paralyze all nerve transmissions to the muscles and while the Minotaur fought for breath it paralyzed the muscles involved in swallowing and breathing."
"So you usually carry things like that around?" she asked mistrusting. "Just in case?"

Before Felix could reply, they suddenly heard the blaringly deafening noise of an alarm going off. The lights in the ceiling, turned on abruptly, and the entire room went blindingly bright. Athena squinted to see while her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in contrast. Felix had the same problem, holding his hand in front of his face.
"Shit." he cursed. "Now, they know we're here. We have to get out. Now. Follow me!"

For the second time that night he grabbed her hand, however this time she had no problem with it. They dashed out of the small room with the dead Minotaur and back into the hallway, which was now also lit up. Running as fast as possible down the long corridors, they began retracing the route Athena had taken earlier. Meanwhile the alarm continued to resound and they were also hearing distant yelling in Japanese coming from somewhere not too far off in the factory.

Abruptly they came to a halt by the first T split. It didn't look like either ones Athena had passed before; both halls went farther down, and neither one was blocked off with those jars and crates she remembered from earlier. Were they now lost in this damn Knossos because they were without a thread of Ariadne?
"Which way?" she asked frantically above the sound of the klaxons. She just knew that security was on its way, and that they were closing in. The two of them looked down both halls once more, before Felix started off to the left and Athena had no choice but to follow.

A few more times they reached another split off, where Felix seemed to be trusting some kind of instinct and turned now left then right. Eventually they returned to a forking which was familiar to Athena, she recognized it as the first one she had passed on her way into the labyrinthine structure. This time she let go of Felix and took the lead, and they ran down the left hallway until they came to the open door that lead into the storage room in which Athena had entered the building. Purposefully she strode across the floor until she reached the far wall, where she looked up to see the hole which she had dropped through earlier.
"Here we are now," she turned to her companion.

"You first." Felix said gallantly. Humming in reply, Athena pulled a small crate into position under the hole and jumped up to grab the edge of the hole. Then she swiftly climbed up onto the roof and Felix followed with the same fleet movements as she remembered from their first encounter. It was still raining, however none of them could care less at the moment. Once they were both up there, they resumed their escape at full speed, careful to not lose their footing on the wet surfaces. The voices of guards were louder now and Athena noted the flickering light of dancing flashlights, but thankfully, the guards couldn't see the duo but were apparently preoccupied with searching the ground. Otherwise, Athena was sure, they'd be shooting.

The next moment a sudden floodlight flashed up and started to swing across the area, its beam dancing across the structure, creating dancing shadows and lighting up the raindrops like so many glittering falling confetti.
"Duck," Athena hissed and grabbed Felix, forcing them behind an air condition vent and they were making themselves as small as possible as the huge, blinding light passed them by. As it moved on, they were up and running again, ready to duck the very next moment the light came their way once more. But when it turned and doubled back, they had nowhere to hide, but suddenly found themselves in the limelight, like two actors on a stage.  

The next second a torrent of bullets came their way and they threw themselves to the ground, rolling to the side and out of the searchlight, then they dived back the way they had come from, luring the light – which naturally continued on its intended trajectory, the large thing's inertia giving it a certain disadvantage against the two quick intruders. Athena and Felix doubled back once more and dashed forwards as the light spun back again in its try at finding them, but they were now off the roof and jumping down on a lower structure, from which they went on in a quick rush, dodging behind a large pipe running on top of the roof and thus narrowly avoiding discovery again.

The two of them glided down all the ladders, jumped off the rooftops whenever it wasn't too high, and eventually they made it back to Building no 1. Athena peered over the edge, looking for the first pipe she had climbed up. Then she knelt down and backed up off the ledge, getting a grip on the pipe. Not bothering with descending carefully, she just loosened her grasp and slid all the way down until she hit the ground. And once again, Felix was close behind her. Finally, they were on the other side of the barbed fence that enclosed the entire base. Athena was now completely out of breath. So was Felix.

"Well," he said, panting. "That was fun, wasn't it?" Athena tried not to laugh at that, she was still bemused at whether she wanted to trust this man or not. But then she couldn't help herself but busted out in a giggle when facing him.
"You look like crap, you know."
"Do I?" Felix asked rhetorically while smirking. "Well, I sure hate to admit it, Athena, but after that entire ordeal, you really don't look half bad."

She blushed, recognizing the compliment. To avoid him from seeing her face, she turned away quickly and looked back up at the factories. Then she felt across the front of her jacket, it was sticky with the Minotaur's blood, and she guessed that it unfortunately went beyond laundering off. Hopefully the wetting of the rain would hide most of it from prying eyes, even down in the underground.
"We should get away from here before they come through the gate." she suggested, turning back to her re-found companion.
"Probably a good idea," Felix replied. "Where are you staying?"

"At the Himawari Ryokan. It's in..."
"I know the place, I've stayed there earlier when in Tokyo. I can follow you there, it's not far from where I'm staying."
"You don't have to," she tried politely, knowing it was no use. Not with Felix, he was one who made up his mind and then went for it. And true, he just laughed at her awkward way of telling him off and insisted upon keeping her company.

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It didn't take them long to get through the underground and back to the Himawari Ryokan, and they both said very little during the ride. They were more or less fatigued and it was as if they knew that the time window was too short for them to even begin to straighten out all the questions lingering between them. So they made a silent agreement about waiting with those until later.

Upon their return, Athena found that Tomoko was still managing the main desk. If Athena hadn't been mistaken, she noticed the Japanese woman's eyes taking a quick glimpse at Felix, clearly lingering over his handsome features, although he didn't seem to notice that. Then she quickly returned her gaze to Athena with her wise, welcoming eyes and pulled off a warm smile.
"Good evening Athena-san!"
"Good evening, Tomoko-san!" Athena greeted her in return. "May I ask for a favor?"
"Yes, anything for you."

"This is my," she looked at Felix for a moment to find the right words to label him with. She wasn't really sure if it was correct to call him a companion, after all she hadn't seen him in almost three years. But what else could she say? "My friend Felix Polonius," she finally settled for. "Felix, this is Tomoko." They greeted each other before Athena continued. "Would you mind renting him a room for the night?"
"No, Athena, it's okay. I'll get back to my own place, it's not far from here," Felix modestly tried to object, holding up his hands. But she could see right through him, finding that he was beyond exhausted.

"No, no it's fine, it's fine. I'll give him the room next door, it's fortunately unoccupied," the Japanese woman butted in, still smiling. Athena couldn't help but beaming in response, addressed to no one in particular. Tomoko was so nice and caring, she didn't seem to bother with letting it show what she was obviously making of Felix' arrival, and Athena was heartily grateful for that. Instead she just handed the room keys to Felix. He wasn't up for an argument, so he just took the keys and thanked her, his Japanese being flawless as well.

After having wished Tomoko a good night, they crossed the lobby to the elevators. It was nearly two in the night, and thankfully there wasn't anyone else around. Athena pushed the button that brought them to the third floor.
"You know you really didn't have to do that, Athena." Felix said once the elevator doors closed behind them and the journey upwards started.
"Of course I had," Athena answered. "I owe you one. For saving my life. Again."
"Fair enough." Felix gave in after a moment and shrugged. Then silence descended upon the compartment for the last brief seconds before the elevator came to a halt on the third floor with a soft chime.

They entered the silent, anonymously cream-coloured hallway and walked the few steps over to their rooms and Felix opened his door.
"Good night, Athena," he smiled gently, hand on the knob.
"Good night, Felix. And thanks."