Chapter 23

Approximately third or fourth last update before I take a break. Enjoy.

Chapter 23

The agent ducked and rolled, coming up with his assault rifle trained on the barricade. He fired, once, twice, and two of the shooters dropped. Then he was rolling again, ending behind cover with Thomas, Gina and Katrina.

Lori sprayed one more time, forcing the shooters to duck down before leaping off the car and running for the wall to join them. The other seven had ended up on the other side of the hallway.

“What the hell is going on?” Kral’s voice buzzed through the agent’s earbud. It was faintly grainy from the interference of the explosions and gunfire “Did you set us up?”

“Don’t question me agent. And what would I gain by setting you up? No, this is a trap likely set for us by the Butcher” mentally he swore at Lian. So much for trusting her. But it was not the time to berate himself for that. He popped out from the cover and fired another few rounds at the barricade.

“I want ideas for solutions. Everyone give the suggestions to one person on each side, and then the two of us will confer. I’m putting Cassy in charge of collecting these plans for your side. Go”

The agent turned to the other four.

“Well? I want plans”

“If we can hold them off long enough for me to get to the groundcar and switch the turret into ordnance mode I can blast the barricade out of the way. Then we can pile in the groundcar and go from there”

“A sound plan, but it needs work. Such as how we are going to hold them off that long. Gina?”

“Don’t look at me for this. I’m no good at fighting”

“You’re an agent. Don’t give me that”

“Well, I did have one idea. If we can get someone to cause a distraction, such as Lori and someone else running for the turret then maybe someone can sneak around behind the barricade and take them out that way”

“But we might lose the people who are creating the distraction”

She shrugged “We run that risk every time we get out of bed in the morning. If need be I will volunteer to do that myself” she leaned out from behind cover and snapped off a single shot with her pistol.

Thomas looked between Gina and Lori, then at the agent.

“I have an idea, but if you didn’t like their ideas you definitely won’t like mine. We should get people into the groundcar. Then drive the groundcar right over the top of the barricade, with the people inside shooting from the sides. I know the groundcars. It’ll be hard to get it up the side, but once it is elevated it can climb that”

“And how do we elevate it?”

“Thats the part you won’t like. Someone needs to strap sonic grenades to the underside of the front bumper”

Gina took a break from shooting to look back at Thomas, a smile on her face “And then we can detonate them when its almost there. The blast will lift it enough to get it up there”

“Exactly. But there is the risk of them being shot while the plant the grenades”

Lori was smiling too “Yes, but the vehicle can survive the blast while maybe the barricade can’t”

The agent shook his his though “It’ll be vulnerable while its tipping. If they catch on to what we are doing enough force, including another grenade or a rocket launcher, or even a bunch of trash will tip the groundcar all the way over. Then whoever got inside will be trapped and we won’t be able to get anywhere with them. They’ll be stuck, and we’ll be down our groundcar and as many members as we had inside”

Lori and Gina grew grimmer and went back to shooting.

“I told you you wouldn’t like it” Thomas said with a shrug.

Katrina turned around long enough to tell him that she had no better ideas before going back to shooting.

“Well, those are ideas. Lets see what the other side has come up with” he flicked his earbud and it hissed to life again.

“Well? Gimme some ideas Cassy”

He fitted a grenade to the end of his assault rifle and leaned out from the wall enough to freeze the picture of where everything was in his mind. Then he swung his rifle out and fired after taking a moment to aim. He heard the whump of the grenade launching, depressed the trigger as he swung it back and forth, and had it torn from his hands in a spray of bullets.

He fell back further behind the wall again and drew his submachine guns as Cassy began to speak.

“Our best idea was that we could let them take the groundcar. Retreat enough so that they feel safe enough to come take it. Then, we blow it up. That’ll kill whoever is inside it, and also destroy the barricade. We can’t do it now though because we are too close”

The agent nodded. It was a sound plan. He knew that he could trust Cassy to come up with a good one.

“This is what we came up with. Create a diversion of running for the groundcar, allowing some of us to slip behind their lines. Those behind the lines can try and take them out that way while the rest of us affix sonic grenades to the underside of the front bumper. We gun the groundcar, detonate the grenades, and let the lift carry us onto the barricade. Then we can drive over it while those in the back spray fire out the sides. Once we get past Lori can switch the turret to heavy ordnance, and we can blast a hole in the barricade”

“That seems like a sound plan. Lets relay them to our respective groups”

The agent turned and told the four about Cassy’s plan.

Katrina shook her head immediately.

“It’ll deny us our greatest asset. If we do this then we have no heavy weapons and no mobile armour. Further all our extra gear is in there, all our ammo, all our other weapons”

Thomas winced as he looked down at his pistol “Yah, I didn’t get a chance to grab my RPG before I left”

“No” the agent shook his head “You are wrong about that Katrina. The groundcar is not our greatest asset. That is our minds, our determination, our will to win, and our knowledge that what we do is right. That is our greatest asset”

“Well, thats a fancy speech sir, but it won’t help us kill those shooters”

“No Thomas, it won’t. But I think that the plans are sound. Lets see what the other group has come up with” he flicked his earbud again.

“Cassy?”

“Everyone over here agrees with your plan sir. It seems to be the best solution that we can think of at the time”

“It wasn’t my plan. Make sure that Lori, Gina and Thomas get the credit”

“Of course sir”

The agent turned back to the three before him and nodded.

“You listening Cassy?”

“Yes sir”

“Tell everyone to get on the channel. I’m only going to say this once. We’re going with our plan. Lori, I want you to run for the groundcar. We’ll cover you. You’ll meet up with Alexander, Cassy and Kral inside. You take the turret as soon as you can. Alexander and Kral are to fire out the sides as soon as you get over. I want Lin to get to the front and place the grenades. Everyone else will stay at the sides and cover them.

“As soon as the shooters seem to be distracted Samuel and I are going to run for the back. Try and get over or around it, and start to take them out from behind. Don’t wait on us, don’t worry about our safety; thats our concern. As soon as you guys are ready, go. I want Lin to retreat back behind cover. I don’t want any mistakes here”

He waited for acknowledges all around, waited another few moments for Kral’s inevitable question, and blinked in surprise when it didn’t come.

“Ok. We go in three…two…one. Go go go!”

Lori leapt from behind cover as the other four leaned out to spray as many bullets at the enemy as possible. The agent tossed his submachine guns to Thomas and drew his pistol. As Thomas sprayed fire he picked off anyone who poked their head above the barricade.

He glanced to the side for a moment and saw that everyone had made it into the groundcar. Lin was crouched at the front attaching the grenades.

She gave him the thumbs up and turned to run. As he turned his attention back to the barricade and shot at a man poking up he saw the rifle recoil.

He spun back towards Lin as the man’s head snapped backwards from his bullet in time to see her fall forwards shoulders back as a spray of red mist.

He didn’t have time to mourn her death. It was his fault, but he couldn’t take any time. He hadn’t even found out whose side she was on.

He turned back and as the groundcar began to drive forwards he dashed out from behind the wall. The others behind him were still laying down a cover fire, so the shooters were all ducked down. He ran, shot the one who did poke his head up, and vaulted onto the top of the barricade.

Behind him he heard the sonic grenades detonate, and he knew that the groundcar would either flip, or the plan would work. He kept running, shooting at a woman with an RPG as he went. She would not be flipping the groundcar. Nor would the man with the grenade in his hand. The agent leapt, and brought his foot up into the man’s face. He felt the nose crack, saw blood spray as he continued his momentum up and around, landing on the man’s shoulders.

He aimed one pistol down and fired a single shot even as the man was collapsing from his weight, and pumped the trigger of the other as fast as he could, sweeping the area to the left of him. Then he tensed his legs and leapt into the air again, jumping for closer to the middle. He had seconds to help clear the area before the groundcar made it over.

He ran along the metal platform, feet drumming, heart calm as it always was when he fought, and smashed his pistol into the head of the first man. The woman behind him got a bullet in each shoulder and then he dove, sliding under her, tripping her up and ending up past her. The two shooters behind her had not expected him to come in low so he had enough time to shoot them each once before they even fired. But by then he was jumping back up again, and they were collapsing from the bullet through their necks. He started to take another step forwards when he heard a gun cocking behind him.

He knew that he couldn’t turn or drop in time. But he didn’t need to as Samuel’s bullet whizzed past his shoulder, dropping the woman. He looked. Between them they had cleared the walkway.

“Down!”

They both dropped as the groundcar flew through the air over them. It crashed to the ground and rolled before landing upright again. The top hatch opened and Lori climbed out, already flipping switches on the turret as Kral and Alexander jumped out the sides.

The agent took a second to look down at the woman. His bullets should have destroyed the muscles in her shoulders making it impossible for her to carry a gun. But while there were rips in her jacket in the right places he could see signs of body armour beneath.

These shooter were better equipped than he had originally thought. To have body armour they needed to be from the Earth Council. They needed to finish this quickly before their numbers turned the tide. He spun back to the battle and dropped the two soldiers approaching him.

“Shoot for the head and the limbs!” he shouted, hoping that his team could hear. He ran further down the walkway, hoping to get out of the way so that Lori could blow a hole in the barricade without hurting him. He ducked under a stream of bullets and leapt into the air again. He spun, coming around to face the three shooters below him. His eyes widened as he saw a woman with one of the new explosive round shotguns. She fired.

He felt himself flying backwards across the hall. He slammed into a body and they both went down. He threw himself back to his feet at the same time as Samuel did. They stood back to back and opened fire.

The agent was glad of his body armour now. If he hadn’t been wearing it he would have been dead.

But why would soldiers shoot for someone’s chest? They would have to expect that some of them at least would be wearing body armour.

“Something isn’t right here” he shouted to Samuel over the roar of the battle. He couldn’t elaborate as the woman who had shot him was coming towards him again, and had just finished reloading the shotgun. He was trapped. He couldn’t shoot her in time, and couldn’t duck aside because Samuel would be killed then. He couldn;t take a shot like that to the face, which was where she was aiming it.

His deliberation was ended as the barricade disappeared behind a cloud of smoke and flame. The entire structure shook and he almost fell off. The second time it shook he did fall off, accompanied by a second explosion.

He tried to turn in the air, but slammed down hard. He raised himself onto one arm and looked up at the shadow that fell over him. He was dead now.

But he didn’t die. He rolled to his feet, shaking his head to clear his vision and saw Kral pumping fire in both directions down the barricade.

“Lori got the ordnance gun working. I suggest that we get to the barricade and then be ready to provide cover fire for our friends to get through” Kral shouted at his as he moved over to cover Samuel too.

The agent nodded and ran to the clearing area of smoke. He shot a thumbs up towards Lori then ran into the gap, Samuel and Kral joining him.

“What were you saying about this not being right?” Samuel asked as he ran up.

“I was saying that the woman shot me in the chest. She should have expected me to have battle armour on. But she didn’t. Why would a trained soldier shoot for the chest?”

“You’re right” Kral turned looking a bit disturbed “They are too well equipped and trained to be militia; they need to be true soldiers, but no true soldier would make that mistake of another soldier”

“Unless they thought that we weren’t soldiers…”

“Huh?”

“I said that they must have thought that-”

The agent’s response was cut off by the roar of a propeller vehicle and the boom of an explosion. The agent spun to see Lori and Alexander flying through the air, and the groundcar spinning to rest upside down, flames pouring from it.

Lori and Alexander landed, and rolled, limbs at wrong angles, and blood started to pool around them.

“Medic!” Kral roared, his voice shattering the stunned silence.

“Already on it” Thomas tore past them, medical kit dangling from one hand. He dropped to one knee between the two. A moment later a Dragon swung around the corner, circular lift turbines spinning.

It was one of the newer models. Sleek and gray it had gatling cannons mounted on the nose, one for each side, and larger ordnance turrets mounted on both the belly and the top. These turrets swung from side to side, the domes covering the gunners swivelling with them. They gunners wore the odd targeting helmets that fused their nervous systems with the sensors and turret. The turret would react to their thoughts.

The domes for the twin pilots were also visible. They sat, again with the cognition hoods on, hands playing over the controls before them. The agent knew that the controls were mostly for reassurance and show; so long as the cognition hood was on and the pilots alive they did nothing.

The sleek beauty of the killing machine, the lines, the weapons, the fear inducing presence was too much. If the agent had been on his own he would have faced it and maybe even won, but he could not win now, not with the lives of a team to look after, not after fighting a long hard battle with the rebels.

The downdraft from the turbines whipped his coat about him and flung stinging debris at them. Kral swore softly.

“Surrender traitors!” an artificially magnified voice boomed from the Dragon as the beats swung to aim the gatling guns at the hole in the barricade and at the three of them.

The agent turned to look at Samuel and Kral. Samuel clenched his fists while Kral took a moment to change the cartridges on his guns.

“Its your lead”

The agent looked back up at the Dragon and down at his team. The groundcar was burning, Thomas was scrambling between Lori and Alexander trying to patch their wounds, and the rest of the team looked in no condition to take on an aircraft.

He dropped his weapons.

“We surrender”

Chapter 22

Since I am very very happy to be done NaNoWriMo I decided to post an extra chapter today. So, here is chapter 22

Chapter 22

The agent stood and watched the team. They all sat at terminals, typing, decoding, trying to find some of the evidence that he had lied about. But it would be there, soon enough. He trusted Lian.

“Sir!” one of the women shouted from further down the car.

“Yes?” he walked over to stand behind her, a woman of average height, brown hair in a braid. It had red highlights, and things hung from it, woven in, feathers, symbols, religious totems.

“Someone is trying to cover this up. I’m losing it as fast as I can find it. Whoever is hiding it is very good”

The agent leaned down and watched the screen over her shoulder. She had a bunch of datapoints plotted, but she was right, they were being altered or just disappearing before she could react, before she could find any kind of pattern.

“Do you think its her sir?”

“Maybe. What do you think? And whats your name?”

“Cassy sir. And I think that this is a very sophisticated red herring”

“Why do you think that Cassy?”

“Because this data doesn’t pertain to anyone. Its data about different people, being altered to look like even more different people. I think that the real data exists somewhere else and they are doing all this work to alter this data so as to lead us on a false trail”

That was actually brilliant. The agent must remember to complement Lian on that the next time he saw her. If he ever saw her again.

“Excellent job Cassy. Flag it, and make sure that nobody else ends up on this trail. I want you to keep following this though. See if you can trace the source. It may lead you to somewhere interesting”

“Yes sir”

The agent moved off, proud of Lian and Cassy both. Hopefully this team would prove to have more people like her than like Kral. It gave him hope. It looked like Callion had not given only plants, only killers, but also some good people like Cassy.

He walked off down the rows, checking over the shoulders of the team. They did seem to be doing good work. Hopefully it was good work that would save lives.

He knew that that was ironic. He was misleading them so that Sho would have a chance to live. And who knew how many lives she would take in that time? But it was his choice. It had been made.

“Sir?”

He turned and saw Kral looking at him.

“Yes agent?”

“I found something”

“What is it?”

“A flight. Unauthorized docking and departure of a small system jumper. Docking port 943”

“943? Isn’t that close by?”

“It is sir. I believe that it was the Butcher’s rebel friends, if what you say is true”

There was still distrust and anger in his voice, but it was tempered by professionalism. He would do for now. And if he got out of hand the agent would kill him.

“Then lets go”

Lian sat back, relaxing. The watchdog she had set told her that the railcar was no longer using as much of its connection as it had been. She checked the camera screen and found what she had thought it would show at such an alert.

Jor led his team out the main doors, all of them armed to the teeth. Another door at the rear opened, and an armoured groundcar with a roof mounted turret drove out. The team piled in, Jor sitting in the cab, a redheaded woman taking the turret. They headed off.

Lian was certain that they would be heading for docking port 943, and the traitorous dockmaster that had set up his base there.

The best deceptions were the ones with truth in them. And this one had much truth. A small system jumper had just landed there. Then rebel elements had loaded, and the traitorous dockmaster had sent them on their way. It was just his misfortune that she had undone the hacking that he had done, and revealed the orders that he had falsified as indeed being spurious.

Oh well. He was a traitor to the Arc. She turned back and frowned. Now the system was telling her that three jumpers had docked there, not two. That couldn’t be right. She checked the flight logs and saw that there were two clearly falsified landing reports.

“Oh god” she breathed “I’ve sent them into a trap”

The agent sat in the cab of the armoured groundcar. The team was silent behind him asides from the occasional cough. Cassy sat beside him in the drivers seat. The hatch to the roof was open, and the wind whistled through. He could see the red haired woman at the turret looking in all directions, tracking targets as they passed now and again.

“Agent Cassy”

She didn’t take her eyes off the road ahead of them “Yes sir?”

“What is your specialty?”

“I am a specialized computer analyst and cryptographer. I am the also the vehicle specialist assigned to this group”

“Ok. Good to know”

He turned his seat and looked at everyone in the back.

“What about the rest of you? I want you to list your name and specialty, starting with you” he pointed to the man on the left closest to him “And going in clockwise order”

The man he had pointed at was handsome. He had piercing blue eyes and pale blonde hair. He had well defined cheekbones and spoke with a faintly eastern European accent, something not often heard off of Earth.

“I am Alexander. I was trained with everything. I can do any of their jobs. Just tell me when”

The next person was a woman with curly brown hair that she had cut short, just above her shoulders. She had light brown almond eyes, and a soft face. She looked sweet, like a little girl.

“I am Francesca. I have trained with heavy weapons, and am an interrogator. I am supposed to interrogate any prisoners we take to extract the necessary information by any means possible. I’d like to discuss later how you got the rebels in the tunnels to talk. You may have been able to get more out of them if you had known proper techniques”

The next one was another woman. She looked very plain, with mousy brown hair and nothing to really make her stand out.

“I am Katrina. I am a marksman and general combatant, trained with firearms, explosives, and melee weapons”

“Same” said the man next to her. He was also very plain, but had short black hair and grey eyes “The name’s Stan by the way”

Kral was next.

“You know who I am sir”

“These others may not”

“Well then I’m Kral. I was trained with my knives and my pistols. Very much like your training sir”

The next woman was a knockout. A stunning blonde with wavy hair she sat with a small smile on her face.

“My name is Gina Inviere. I am trained at seduction and infiltration. I will be useful to you on any ‘soft’ missions, and maybe outside of missions entirely” she winked at him and her smile widened.

“I would love it if you helped me outside of missions” The man next to her said with a smile on his face. He had smile lines around his green eyes, and the agent could tell that he often told jokes.

“I’m Thomas. I guess I’m the team’s medic. I also like telling jokes, walks in the park, and am looking for a girl who is as sentimental as I am. I’m a crack shot with an RPG as well”

“Well thats good to hear. Someone who will lighten the atmosphere” the woman next to him rolled her eyes. She looked Asian, one of two among them with a clearly defined nationality. The rest were that general blend race that years and years had produced in the Solar System

“I am Lin. I’m trained as a demolitions expert. You want something gone, get me”

“And I am Samuel” the man next to her was the other one who was clearly defined racially. He was black, shaved bald, and had dark brown eyes.

“I am specialized in hand to hand combat and political systems. I was selected in case we should need to deal with the political systems of wherever we may go, and as the Butcher is reputed to be an excellent melee combatist. I’m looking forwards to trying my skills against her”

“What about the woman at the turret? Does anyone know what she is specialized in?”

“Lori, heavy weapons” she called down “And I was told that I am to be the secondary pilot on this mission should Cassy be incapacitated. Right now I think you should cut the chatter and look out the window. I think we may have company”

The agent spun his chair around and looked out the window. It appeared that she was right. There was a blockade in the road ahead, one that should not have been there. And there were quite a few angry looking people with guns behind it.

Cassy looked at him “Should we get out?” She flipped a switch on the dash and looked back out the window. The people on the barricade started shooting.

“Stop the vehicle!”

He grabbed his assault rifle and leapt from his chair.

“Pop the hatches! I want you all deployed and behind cover in ten seconds. Go!”

The team scrambled, releasing safety belts, grabbing weapons, and leaping out of their seats. They ran for the hatches, switching safeties off, swinging out into the street, and running for the nearest places of cover. Lori swept the turret back and forth, the barrels making a rhythmic chum-chum-chum sound as she laid down cover fire for the team.

Chapters 20+21

Sorry about the lack of update yesterday. Doctor who Fiftieth in the theater was fantastic!

Chapter 20

Jor sat up.

No. He wasn't Jor, he was the sniper. That part of his life was over. Callion had won and he had lost. He had lost.

He rolled out of his bed and stood up, stretching. He looked over. Lian was still there.

He rubbed a hand through his hair and walked over to the washroom. He needed to clean himself up so as to make a good impression on the team.

Lian woke up. Her muscles ached from sleeping strapped to the chair. But it was not the worst. She could have been dead.

The nightmares had come again last night. They always did. Always. But usually they weren’t that bad. Usually they weren’t the beginning. Usually they weren’t about the very very start.

Maybe Jor, Sho, all this was bringing things back. Maybe it was making her relive it. Maybe.

She stretched as much as she could and looked around. Jor was not in his bed. She listened and could hear the telltale whistle of an operating steamer. Yes, he was cleaning himself before the team arrived.

She didn’t have long now to plan. Soon the team would get here, and look for her. And Jor would either have to kill her, or kill them if they didn’t have a plan.

She had a plan, but how could she convince him to let her go? He didn’t trust her, that was clear. But how could she get him to trust her?

The artist stood up and stretched. Her leg was feeling better already, as was her arm. But she was ravenously hungry. As she pulled on the dead woman’s clothes she thought about her dream. That man had been one of the last times that she had done things correctly. After that she had killed more for fun, for the thrill, for the look in their eyes than for art.

That was when she had stopped being selective, when she had started killing anyone who got in her way.

That was when she had begun to lose herself. She had lost herself in truth. When the Arc had caught her a week ago there had been nothing left. There had been only an empty shell that lived for the kill, for the look in the eyes of the victim. She had had to kill more and more often at the end there, to the point where she was killing every single day.

That was how they had caught her. She strapped her knives to her arms and holstered her pistols.

That was how they had found her, trapped her, almost killed her. But in doing so they had freed her. Freed her from the cycle, from the lust to kill.

The artist smiled. She was free now. Free to go back to the art or do as she pleased. She stretched again and began to search the room for anything. Finally she found a couple of premades stashed underneath a ledger. She was pleased. She could save the rations that Lian had packed for when she really needed them. She put two into the bag and tore the last open.

It was slightly stale tasting, but it would fill her. These things never expired.

As she chewed the bars she opened the door and stood out on the railing. The water rushed by below with the sound of a thousand thunders. This was a peaceful place. Maybe she could stay here. Just for a while. Just while she healed.

She nodded. She had made her decision. There was food and water here, as well as some other supplies. She could stay a while. Enjoy the water, the peace of this place.

He stood in the steamer and thought. He did some of his best thinking in the steamer, the mist settling on his body, washing the dirt away. It was symbolic in a way.

It freed him from the past, absolved him of his crimes, washed the sins away. He was not religious, did not buy in to any one of the thousands of religions that were to be had in the Solar System, but if he was he would be because of the idea of absolution. Here he could repent and be freed from the weight of his sins. Here he could be born anew.

And as he was born anew he had a decision to make. Callion’s team was coming. And he could no longer do things his way, could no longer avoid the weight of what he had done.

The water one his body was joined by tears. He had killed, again and again, dozens and dozens of people. He had killed them all, for often no reason. Some he had killed for his misguided ‘art’. Others he had killed because they got in his way. But most of them he had killed because Callion told him to. Because Callion had decided that they no longer deserved to live, and the sniper had been his instrument of that punishment.

But he would not punish himself for what he had done. he had made a choice long ago, to serve rather to let another suffer. To serve and hopefully do some good, have a set of morals, keep some light in Callion’s organization. Somehow. But he had been lost, weighed down by the years by the ages going by.

He had been lost in his own hatred and pain.

But here he found himself again. And as he would be shackled by Callion’s team, maybe he could be free of another set of shackles. He had to do what was right not what was just or what was ordered or what was convenient but what was really truly right. He had no other choice. This was what he had to do.

The sniper finished in the washroom, and stepped out. Lian sat there in her chair. She looked ready for whatever he decided.

“You can go now Lian”

She looked at him in surprise.

“Yes. You can go. You do not deserve to die despite holding back information about the Butcher. You are trying to redeem her, to make her a better person, to save her from herself. I know what it is to try and save someone, to try and change who you are. You are doing a good thing”

He stepped forwards and unlocked her restraints, then helped her to her feet.

“You should get going. The team will be coming soon”

“But why?”

“Because as I said I was there once. I tried to change who I was, to redeem myself. Callion would not let me. But if you can save the Butcher from that fate then I commend you. Go. Bring her back from the edge, from murder, from darkness. I will buy the two of you as much time as I can”

Lian looked at this man. This odd wonderful, honourable man. But there was one problem with his plan.

“I don’t know how to find her”

“I don’t think that that is as big of a problem as you think. You know who she is better than anyone alive. You have been her companion for years. You grew up with her if I am to believe you. You can find her Lian. But first, will you do something for me?”

Lian looked at Jor, again surprised by his words. Not by his words, but more by his tone. Something had changed in him.

“It depends”

“Slice into the Arc system. Plant a trail that can be hidden but unearthed. One that says that the Butcher has left the Arc. make it look like she was picked up by Old Earth Loyalists. That will give us a reason to leave here, and also to fight in the war”

“A sound plan”

“It is. Hopefully it will get some of the other agents killed”

“Jor…”

“Not Jor” Oh no. He was still clinging to his grim monicker. He was not death, but that was how he saw himself. As not a person but a force for destruction. She would be leaving him to sink, to fall lower, to become like Sho if she left to help Sho.

She opened her mouth to say as much but Jor continued.

“No, I would rather you call me Agent”

“But I thought you wanted to be called the sniper?”

“The sniper means only death. I am better than death. I can do so much more, be so much more than a force for death. I can, hopefully, be a force for peace, for redemption, for life as well. Agent suits me much better now”

“What made you change your mind?”

“Time. Circumstances. You and your dedication to healing the Butcher”

“Sho” she corrected absentmindedly.

“Yes, you are right. Sho. For she is a person, and deserves a name”

“So do you you know…”

“Not yet. I have a long way to go before I deserve to be called a person”

“Agent…” to hear him say that made her sad. He needed to have more confidence in himself.

“No time Lian. The team could arrive any minute now. Go. Find Sho. Save her, bring her back to the light. Do this now”

With that Jor threw a backpack full of her gear to her and opened the door of the railcar. He left it open as he opened the closet and armoury and began to dress himself.

“Goodbye Agent. Good luck in whatever you do”

“The same to you Lian”

Lian walked out the door amazed by the change in the Agent, in this man who had been so intent on killing her and Sho just a day before.

Chapter 21

The agent prepared for the arrival of the team. He had work to do.

He buckled on his armour and strapped his weapons in place around himself. His armoury had been restocked last night when he returned. After putting his customary gear on he pulled out two submachine guns and an assault rifle. The sub machine guns he slung from his shoulders, and the assault rifle he clutched in his hands. If this came to the worst he wanted to be ready to take down the entire team.

He stepped outside of his railcar and waited. He did not have to wait long. They arrived on another railcar, this one larger, and longer. The barracks style model complete with a full kitchen and armoury, training room, and labs. They would likely expect him to move into their barracks. He would just hook his railcar up to theirs with a few failsafes instead. Safer for both groups.

The railcar arrived with a woosh, catching his long jacket and flapping it around him. He stood, immobile, unmoving. Let them come to him. Let them see him as a rock, a mountain, an unstoppable force and an unmovable object rolled into one. He was the best that the Arc had to offer. He was likely the best that the Solar System had to offer, asides from the artist, no, Sho, and maybe a few others like the two of them.

He was the best, and they would not defeat him. They would not bend him, would not break him. He was the Agent, and he did what was needed, what was right.

The wind died and his coat fell still as the doors hissed open before him. They walked out, so cocky. When they saw him some of that swagger died. Different heights different builds, different looks, they all walked with the same dangerous sway, the walk of one who knew violence, who had known violence, who was not afraid of what they might have to face. The agent knew that he was beyond that himself. He had heard himself described as a coiled spring, as a weapon, as flowing water, as all of these things and more. He knew that he surpassed these men and women, and that was not arrogance. It was simple fact.

“You are here for me I presume?”

They exchanged looks before the nominal leader stepped forwards. He was tall, taller than the agent, and had several weapons about his person. The agent could pick out three concealed knives at least, as well as four holsters, two for pistols and two for one shot grenade launchers. The man wore dart launchers on his wrists.

“That is correct Agent. The Director instructed us to pick up where you left off and follow the trail of the Butcher. We will succeed where you have failed. I am-”

“You are unimportant. All of you are. As is my failure. What is important is that we will succeed”

The man’s eyebrows lowered. He did not like being challenged. The Agent could smell the anger coming off of him in waves. For him to be able to smell the emotion the man must have been fuming.

“I am Agent Kral. You will report to me, as I am-”

“No. It is my mission, and I am in charge. I have the seniority, and I have discovered evidence of a conspiracy within the ranks of the Director’s agents. I am the only one that I can trust. Until the point where I am sure that you are not a member of the conspiracy or a point where I have rooted out the entire conspiracy I will not take orders from you or any other. You will either have to live with it, or I will exclude you from the planning and actions, and likely shoot you for being a traitor to the Arc”

Kral fumed silently, but he did not say anything. He gave a terse nod and turned away.

“Does anyone else have any questions? No? Good. I want you all back into your railcar. Start searching the system for any hint of suspicious activity, any hint of the Butcher. Her real name is Sho. I learned that much. I was given cause to believe that she will try and flee the Arc along with a group of Old Earth loyalists. If you check the logs I was called aside for a report of treason. Several minutes after I arrived there was a detonation at the location. I followed the perpetrators, a group of loyalists as it turned out, into the sewers, eventually capturing one. I executed her after extracting that information”

The group looked at him suspiciously, but there was nothing that they could say. They couldn’t deny the fact as they had no proof. And they couldn’t challenge him, not after what he had just said. So they turned and tramped back into the railcar, sullen and disappointed. Their leader had been shut down, dismissed like a child, and they now had to take orders from someone who they did not know, a freak.

But that was fine. They would learn to deal with it. And everyone was a freak in this system anyways.