Garrison and Adrienne - European Escapades 2 (Backdated)

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

After the Versace show, Garrison and Adrienne go to the basilica where the Last Supper is on display but their tour is derailed when a bomb goes off.

"I've had my ass grabbed twice by guys at this Versace show. Is that the norm?" Kane said, not hiding his leering at Adrienne's tight, tiny Fashion week dress.

"It is when you look like you do," Adrienne responded with a shrug. She was trying to flag down a cab, along with many of the other show patrons, to take them far away from the fashion show and on to a touristy thing Garrison would enjoy more- although he hadn't complained about seeing pretty girls in skimpy clothes. "You wanna go see the Last Supper at the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie? Or maybe do the Bulgari Spa?"

"I should pretend to be cultured first. What don't we see the Last Supper before sneaking off to get pedicures?" Kane said, loosening his tie a little. The nice thing about Fashion Week was that with all the events going on, you could walk around as fancy as you wanted without drawing a single glance.

"I can get behind that idea." Succeeding in flagging down a cab, Adrienne asked that they be taken to the basilica in Italian. She was by no means fluent, but since the cabbie wasn't yet taking them on the tourist 'short cut' she figured her Italian had gotten pretty good after all these years. "Can I have your suitjacket?" she asked Kane as they drove, this time speaking English but with an Australian accent, since she'd decided to pretend to be different people from different countries throughout this trip. "They won't let me in if I don't cover up my super skanky bare shoulders. Damn Catholics."

"Shoulders can be skanky? Have I been doing it wrong all these years?" Kane handed over his jacket, sliding it off over his shoulder and slipping it around her.

"Obviously," Australian Adrienne responded. "Knees, too. And midriffs." Wow, he really hadn't done the European Tourist thing before, had he? She'd never come across a Catholic church in Europe that hadn't had the modesty 'guidelines' in place. "But that's okay. We'll make up for having to be all covered up later, at Bulgari. Oi!" she shouted suddenly to the cabbie, who had taken a turn down a side street. She yelled the Italian equivalent of 'don't jerk us around on the fare' at him and glared until he maintained the correct course. "Did we wanna stay in the Bulgari hotel tonight, or just do the spa thing?" she asked Garrison in the Australian accent again.

"That is your choice. It can be our big expensive hotel expense for the trip if you want." He said, sitting back. He'd been getting by on his French and Italian had enough elements to seem similar. But Adri seemed perfectly at home not only with the language but melding into the entire fashion week elements as if she'd been born to it. Which, he mused, she kind of had.

"Hmm. Tough choice. What with this whole 'seat of our pants' thing," Adrienne mused thoughtfully, "I don't know if I should use up my expensive hotel expense now or save it for a City to be Named Later." The cab pulled up outside the gorgeous basilica and Adrienne climbed out, handing the driver the fare but not tipping. "We lucked out. Not much of a line. I guess because it's late in the day," she commented. Only a few tourists were hanging around waiting for the next fifteen-at-a-time entry.

"Wow, quite a church." Kane whistled appreciatively as he stepped out of the cab. "You been here before?"

Adrienne snorted at him. "Are you kidding? This place is as tourist-trappy as they come. You have to get tickets like a month in advance to see the painting or you have to join a group tour when you get here." Which was what they would have to do. "Back in the day, when I had so much trouble with my powers, I avoided crowds like the plague. And this place is usually lousy with crowds on account of the fact that they only let you see the painting fifteen at a time for fifteen minutes."

"Wow, so it's your first time too..." Kane paused. "Huh. Never thought I'd say that to you." He grinned as she thwapped him with the tickets.

"Yes indeed," she announced proudly. "We're actually on even footing for once. I can only imagine what a momentous occasion this must be for you," she teased. "So, how many minutes do you think it'll take them to evict us after I touch the mural?"

"I think you'll be too overwhelmed trying to process five hundred years of history." Kane said, grinning as their group was waved in.

***

The Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie. Perfect. Nick Chalker got out of the cab and paid the driver. Before his disappearance, his brother Vic had sent him the images of the mutants that he'd discovered at the airport. It had taken him several days to finally track them down and now they had just conveniently walked into a place with only one public exit. It was the perfect trap.

Nick reached the doorway and looked at the small alcove there. There was enough room to slip the backpack there. The blast would easily kill anyone who was standing in the doorway. When the mutants came back out, he'd catch them both in the blast radius.

He pulled off his knapsack and opened it up. The bomb had been carefully wired and set up so he could trigger it remotely through his cell phone. There was always the danger of a cross frequency so he had chosen a North American number in order to avoid any risks.

***
"Well, if I ever needed concrete proof that The Da Vinci Code was complete and utter bullshit, here it is," Adrienne muttered as she squinted at the mural. "That is not a chick." She had her hands behind her back so she would be less tempted to sneak over the velvet rope to touch it. Now that Garrison had put the idea of being overwhelmed by the history into her head, she was starting to think he was right. Particularly now that her mutation was not public knowledge. Was it really worth the headaches the thing would give her when couldn't even go around telling people she had been witness to the entire history of The Last Supper?

She jumped when her phone rang, startled out of her contemplation. "Sorry," she said loudly to the rest of the group. "I thought I turned that off." She looked at the display and turned to Kane. "Rogue. What time is it back home?" She would let it go to voicemail if it was a social call, but if it might be work related she'd answer it.

"Um... I think it's around nine or ten in the morning right now." Kane said absently, still peering forward at the painting. It was different than he expected. Larger. Duller. He supposed the dimmer lighting was to help preserve the colours or something.

"Alrighty." Adrienne shrugged and pressed the answer button on her cell. "What's up, Swan?"

***

Nick just set the backpack down when he heard the bomb suddenly beep. He only had a moment to try and figure out how the trigger had been set off when his phone was still in his jacket before the world went white.

***

A boom like thunder shook the basilica and Adrienne's eyes went wide as she looked over at Garrison. "Something happened, I'll call you back," she said hastily into the phone and hung it up. "What the fuck was that?" she asked Garrison, swallowing the sudden lump of terror that had risen in her throat.

"Stay here!" Kane said, running towards the sound of the explosion. The door of the basilica was hanging off its hinges and dust was swirling around the area. He went through the doorway and saw the damage to the stone edifice, with long black scorch marks climbing up towards the roof. The square had scattered people either running in the opposite direction or staring shocked at the church.

He could see one victim. He must have been right next to the blast, making him either extremely unlucky or the poor bastard who was trying to plant it. A Polizia came up to Kane and he handed the man his passport that identified him as an RCMP officer. The man didn't speak English, but they were able to get through in French as Kane explained what he'd witnessed. Other officers started to appear and a pair of them escorted the tourists from the church, including Adrienne.

"What the hell's going on?" Adrienne asked when she was outside and had spotted Garrison. "And is it going to require you to stay here and be all Official Mounted Police Officer Guy for hours on end because it's the beginning of some sort of terror plot that ruins this, like every, vacation we take?"

"No, no. The local police have this in hand." They were starting to rope off the area. "Looks like the victim was trying to set a bomb when it triggered accidentally. The officer said that it's a problem here with people targeting churches and works of art, trying to make some kind of point. I didn't actually witness the explosion, so there's no need for me to stay for them to interview."

"Eew. Accidental explosion." Adrienne wrinkled her nose and was still for a moment, before taking Kane's hand. "We could have died. Let's go have sex. I need to feel alive."