I look around and see three more people standing. One grabs my attention immediately. It’s Eleanor. She is being used as a human shield by none other than Ahmed himself. For now he seems content to let his last goon try to take me out.
The guy is mountain tall, and he equips himself with knuckle dusters. This should be fun. He’s nearly upon me when he starts doing some sort of martial art kata in front of me. I open my right palm, aim it at his chest and incinerate him with the thruster mode of my repulsor weapon. When I turn off the blast, he has a basketball-size hole in his chest and a look of surprise on his dying face.
He’s still smoking from his wound when I decide to blow some air towards him. I don’t know if that has any effect at all, but he falls backwards and hits the concrete ground like a plank of dead wood. His head cracks upon impact but he’s already dead anyway.
Another text message. “You’re back!”
I crack my neck bones once more. Now for the pièce de résistance. I shoot Ahmed a lightning gaze.
“Let her go.”
My voice is as cold as steel.
“Not a chance, Cole.”
“I didn’t realize we are on a first name basis now. What happened to ‘Agent Seeker?’”
“Stop moving or I’ll slit her throat.”
I humor him and stop walking towards them. I look at Eleanor’s eyes. I know that look. She is frightened but her eyes are also screaming at me to take a shot.
“Now let’s see if we can come to an arrangement,” says Ahmed. “You let me go, and I let your friend live. How does that sound?”
An old memory shot past my conscious mind. That time in a previous mission in New Paris where she’d carried me away after I got most of my leg blown up. She carried me for more than ten klicks, and we took three patrols out before our Exfil came to get us out of the hot zone. That’s not the only time she saved my hide, but that’s the one I remember the most vividly. Vassiliki was still alive back then, and all I could think about the entire time was how much I wanted to see her eyes, hold her and kiss her again.
I start to feel my hand twitch and slightly move on its own.
“I thought we’d agree you’d cancel that order, Tanya.”
“Still trying to hack my own security protocols but without success.” Tanya’s words appear on my still jittery HUD.
Great, that’s just great. But then I get an idea.
“Tanya, reboot now.”
“Good thinking, Cole. Initiating reboot.”
Tanya will be offline for at least sixty seconds, which hopefully will be all I need to deal with the situation here.
“So? Do we have a deal?” Ahmed pushes on.
“What guarantee do I have that you’ll let her go unharmed?”
“I give you my word.”
“We both know that’s not worth a monkey’s ass.”
He spits on the ground and presses the knife against Eleanor’s throat deeply enough that it makes a small incision. Blood runs down her bruised neck.
Shooting Ahmed shouldn’t be too difficult. Even if he’s using Eleanor as a shield, I’ve taken more difficult shots than this one before. My only worry is whether or not his augments have been disabled by the blast. Logic would dictate that they have been, but then again he’s always had the edge over me tech-wise.
I have to make a decision though; soon Tanya will reboot and she might decide for me. I’d rather be the one responsible for whatever the result of this standoff may be.
I can see Eleanor staring at me, imploring me with her eyes to take the shot. But if I do and Ahmed is shielded, she’s dead and there’s nothing I can do.
I could try to use my liquid metal augments and I’m tempted to do so. But I have no idea how they will react with my systems being partially compromised. I could end up killing her myself by accident.
“Okay, Ahmed,” I say to buy some time.
Eleanor’s look is loaded with disappointment.
I have to do something and I have to do it now. I remember an old duress code we had devised on previous missions together. I hope she remembers it. I slide my hand on the left side of my face, pretending to feel my day-and-a-half stubble. That’s our code prompting her to make her move before I open fire.
I see a twinkle in her eyes. I’m hoping that means she remembers. But I prepare myself anyway. I engage the shockwave blast firing mode of my repulsors. It’s the only weapon at my disposal that has a chance to make this work if Ahmed’s systems are still up.
She flings into action and throws her head back into Ahmed’s face. That’s my cue. I aim at his shoulder and fire my repulsor. It sparks.
Feck!
Ahmed recovers from the shock of Eleanor’s strike and moves to cut her throat. I react instinctively. I shoot my other repulsor at Eleanor’s stomach. It fires without incident and the shockwave throws her away from Ahmed’s reach even though he manages to slice part of her neck. Still, the wound doesn’t look too deep.
Eleanor tumbles on the ground and rolls a few times before hitting a concrete wall nearby. I hope she’s not badly hurt but, right now, I can’t think about that. I have to finish off Ahmed. I change my firing method to plasma and fire from both repulsors. They fire and Ahmed gets hit, but his personal shield ignites and absorbs the blasts.
I knew it! This asshole is shielded. That’s not good.
“That’s not very nice, Cole. I give you a way out of this situation, and this is how you repay me?”
“It’s Agent Seeker to you, asshole.”
I can tell he’s mad from the way he grinds his teeth at my remark. Good; he’s more likely to make a mistake if he’s pissed off.
His reaction is almost immediate though, and he fires with his own repulsor weapons towards me. I erect my forearm and activate my shield. It absorbs the three shots but it blinks madly. I’m relieved it works but don’t think it can take much more than that in its current state.
If I was hoping for a fair fight. I now know it won’t happen. My augments are more compromised that I initially thought but his seem to work just fine. But knowing I’m going to die for sure makes my options more open. Without hesitation, I start running towards Ahmed with one thought alone in my head. Now he dies!
C H A P T E R
XX
Mission time elapsed.
Primary objective completed.
Time to death of agent’s body: approx. 255 min.
Ahmed greets me with three shots of his repulsors. Two of them graze my shoulder and neck and the third one impacts on my lower left abdomen. My armor takes the brunt of the blast.
I’m upon him and clock him in the face with my elbow. He stumbles backward but doesn’t lose his balance. I don’t wait for him to recover. I grab my last sonic grenade and plant it on his chest. He looks down at it, clearly not expecting that move from me. I activate it, knowing full well I’m gonna get more hurt than him, but I have to do something to bring his shields down. Just before activating the detonator, I open my palm and use the shockwave firing mode of my repulsor.
The grenade explodes and I get catapulted backwards. The shock of the impact cracks my armor in multiple places, and I feel two of my ribs crack on the right side of my torso. I crash onto the concrete ground yards away.
The frustration of my hellish day mushrooms within me. I feel like I’m not the same man I was when I woke up this morning. I ache pretty much everywhere, not that I care about the pain.
Something deep has changed; a major shift of perspective towards the world and the illusion of freedom that I once perceived from it.
I only have a little more than a couple hundred minutes to live, but I am determined to right some wrongs during that limited window of time. Once I’m done here I’ll need to get back to Rewind to save my consciousness and make sure no one there ever plays me like a puppet again. Rewind is shielded and deep underground so I’m sure it hasn’t been affected by the EMP. It won’t be a cake walk though. I’m sure they know everything I’ve
done up till the EMP blast, so they’ll be on their toes. But I’m determined to make them pay for manipulating me.
But first I have a terrorist to kill. When I get back up, I see Ahmed getting back on his feet as well. I throw a knife at him. He puts his forearm in front of his face, and the blade plunges into his muscles, confirming his shields are down.
My HUD is blinking with multiple warnings and error messages. I have damaged many of my internal systems with the sonic blast. But now that his shields are down, this can finally be a fair fight. I channel my anger and walk towards him. He removes the blade from his arm and throws it back at me. I kick it out of the way.
When he fires another salvo of blaster fire, I bring my shield back up. It keeps blinking but stops the shots nonetheless. I’m running low on power, so I must make sure this fight doesn’t last too long. As much as I would revel taking my time killing him, I will have to make this swift. There’s nothing I hate more than a traitor. Of course I realize the irony here; up until I was told the truth and my eyes were opened, I’d been a traitor as well, albeit an unwilling and unknowing one. Which is why I feel so enraged right now; and that’s also why Ahmed is going to be the recipient of that rage.
He fires another shot from his repulsor and I roll to the side, aim and shoot his hand with my own repulsor. His weapon overloads, which causes his hand to explode. He screams in pain and falls to his knees, holding his severed arm, blood shooting from where his hand used to be. Now is the time to press my advantage. I fire four successive precise shots; two at his legs and two at his arms, making sure he can’t use them anymore.
As I walk the rest of the way towards him, I check upon Eleanor. She is unconscious, and she’s losing some blood from her neck wound, but it doesn’t look too serious. I scan her vitals best I can with the state of my internal systems. She does require medical attention but it’s not critical.
When I near Ahmed he is still holding his arm with the missing hand, and I can tell he is deeply in pain. He tries to shoot me with his other hand, but I deflect its trajectory with ease. The previous wound I’d inflicted on him has seriously hindered his speed. The fire blast hits a wall far behind me. I grab his remaining hand, something he doesn’t expect, and activate the thruster firing mode. His own repulsor liquefies inside his hand as the rest of the arm is burned slowly. I haven’t pushed my weapon to its maximum setting on purpose, so at least that part takes a little time. He’s screaming from the pain. Now that he no longer has any hands, it’s time to end this.
“I told you I’d kill you today. I like to keep my promises,” I say.
He can barely speak from the pain.
“You think Vassiliki is better than the megacorporations? You’re in for a surprise,” he mumbles.
“I thought I’d told you never to utter her name; you’re not worthy,” I say as I take a blade from my reserve around my thigh and plant it in between his neck and right shoulder.
He grits his teeth as small rivers of blood flow down his torso. He doesn’t scream this time around.
“I don’t care what you think or what you say, Ahmed. You’re a fanatic. Whether your cause is just or not matters not to me. All that matters is your methods. And killing innocents by the millions, no matter the reason or cause, is wrong. You want to hurt the megacorporations or the government? Attack them directly; don’t be a coward that preys upon innocents to make his point.”
“Look who’s talking; the company boy. You’ve been their puppet for as long as you can remember. They kill you with every mission and still you work for them, like the good dumb jarhead that you are.”
That stings. Not only because it is the truth, but also because I’m angry at myself for not having felt it any sooner. I haven’t really been happy with my situation, but I never tried to dig deep enough and find the root cause for my inner discomfort. I’m a proud person so it’s difficult for me to admit when I’m wrong.
“I’ve been used yes, even if I didn’t know about it. But that stops today. When I’m done with you, Rewind is my next stop. And everyone standing in my way will regret ever being born.”
“You think you can just do a good deed and be forgiven?” he says as blood bubbles from his mouth.
“I don’t ask to be forgiven. I just want to know why I was used this way. And if I don’t get answers from the people at Rewind, then I’ll go higher up the chain.”
“You do realize you’ll be dead soon.”
“I’m not the only me as you know. Once my consciousness is transferred, I’ll continue this insurrection of mine.”
“They’ll blast you to kingdom come. They have all the power, so you can’t hope to ever go against them and win. They’ll send another time agent to kill you and prevent even what you’ve achieved today. It’s a vicious circle, one they control and that you can only temporarily escape from. I know. I’ve been hunted by you, and look at the irony: now that you’ve caught me, another time agent will hunt you down as a terrorist.”
“I’m no terrorist!”
“Oh really? Keep telling yourself that.”
Time is not a commodity I have in spades at the moment. I have to end this fast if I am to transfer my consciousness to the other me. Not to mention I’m getting tired listening to this asshole.
I grab Ahmed’s head with both my hands, my repulsors lined up with his ears.
“So long. Say hello to Allah for me . . .” I say as I activate my repulsors at a near minimum thruster setting.
What happens next is probably unnecessary, but it helps me unload an unhealthy dose of bottled up rage and anger from my soul.
His skull gets hot really fast, his eyes melt and lose their color, before bubbling and soon being replaced by light and flames escaping through his hot skull. His mouth is wide open and a ray of yellow light shoots from it as well as some amber and burning flesh bits.
He’s long dead before I turn my repulsors off. His skull deformed, melted and burnt to a crisp. By some miracle he still stands straight on his knees, the wind blowing smoke off of his head like it would an extinguished torch.
A gust of wind blows his head’s ashy remains little by little, and they dissipate in the atmosphere. There’s still anger in my soul, but there’s also satisfaction to have done something that, at the very least, feels right today.
Tomorrow we may be nuked for this insurrection. Or like Ahmed said, maybe another time agent will rewrite time like I used to. Who knows? I may end up taking Ahmed’s place, after all. I won’t be threatening and killing innocents, though. That’s not who I am. But I have little doubt I will now be seen as a threat to be eliminated. They can come, though, because I’ve realized something today: I have nothing to lose.
I walk away, pick up Eleanor and cradle her in my arms. I take her pulse. It’s a little erratic but it’s beating strong. I kiss her on the forehead. She is still unconscious. I take nano-gel from my belt and apply a little on her neck wound to stop the bleeding. The nanites are fast at closing the wound and repairing her tissues.
I take a few more steps with Eleanor in my arms and look at the city below. The electro-magnetic dome protecting us from radiation is providing a slight greenish illumination to the otherwise dead-looking city. There are fires burning in the streets and inside the buildings where the flying vehicles have crashed. At this height, people look like ants, an army of insects in a panic running all over the place without purpose or order. It’s chaos alright, but maybe that’s what we need right now.
I hear a cracking noise in my head and then garbled words. I recognize Tanya’s scrambled voice. She keeps talking and I try to make out a few words, but they don’t make much sense; plus I’m taken by the view.
“That’s it. I think I’ve managed to repair my vocal circuitry,” says Tanya.
“Welcome back.”
“It’s good to be back, Cole. How is Eleanor?”
“She’ll live. I can’t say the same about myself.”
“About that, Cole . . . While
hacking my own systems’ subroutines, I found data leakage from a hidden partition within my neuronal net. I’ve managed to access its data and I saw every one of Vassiliki’s apparitions. Now, I understand better what has caused you to act the way you did.”
“I just did what needed to be done; that much I know in my bones.”
“Do you think Vassiliki can be trusted? I mean, it’s kind of fecked up when you think about it. She’s your wife but she lets you die every time you time travel. If she was once part of Rewind, why did she leave you there?”
“I wish I could tell you. We’ll have to ask her if we ever meet her. She might have had her reasons. For all we know it was my idea to stay on the inside until it was time to strike. I know that sounds crazy. I think it matters not for the time being. If we need to get these answers, they’ll be revealed to us in due time.”
“That doesn’t sound like you, Cole.”
“I’m not myself anymore, Tanya. I’ve been living a lie for as long as I can remember. I can’t even trust my own memories. And right now I don’t dare contemplate the how or why of it all. I’m just happy to have finally awakened.”
“Do you think we’ll stay together, you and I?”
“I don’t know, Tanya, I sure hope so. If I have anything to say about it, I’ll make it happen.”
“Thank you, Cole.”
“No, thank you, Tanya. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”
“That’s sweet of you to say, but somehow I doubt it’s true.”
I don’t answer her, since an answer is not needed. My mind is somewhere else right now. After a while I decide to speak.
“I sometimes wonder if humans actually need to be controlled. I question whether or not we’re capable of standing on our own. With our minds the way they are, formatted with this illusion of freedom, perhaps it’s the only sustainable life we know until it’s time for the human race to take a final bow. We’re so used to doing as we are told that I’m afraid some of us actually need oppression to survive.”
Rewind 717: The Adventures of Time Traveler Anti-Terrorist Agent Cole Seeker Page 20
