sleeve of aluminium. I pulled it out, tore the top off and shook the pill into my left hand. I let myself have a moment; this is what I now survived on, pills. I brought my hand to my mouth and swallowed, letting the vile sensation follow down my throat, seeming to catch at the roof of my mouth and the back of my oesophagus. I let out a slight coughing fit before hearing something unnatural between breaths.
Creaking as someone opened the front door of my apartment. I got up and slowly opened my bedroom door, my mouth opening to speak but instantly shutting as, instead of my dozy, usually lost neighbour, there was a man, military outfitted, scanning my living room.
I slipped backward into my room and shut the door. I began pacing "Um, um, um, um...." everything started to bind, my synapses finally kicking over, "Ahh, I have to get out... Shit, I have to get out!" my hand shot to my mouth as I dropped down, immediately realising that I had probably been a bit too loud.
I rifled underneath my bed, reaching around in the darkness before finally gaining a firm grip on my emergency backpack. I jumped up, feeling prepared to run out but at the same time the feeling that something was missing. I looked down at my bare feet, "Shoes, shoes are good." I pulled on my socks and boots, hearing the man moving to my door.
I quickly tied my laces as I slipped myself into the gap where the door doesn't quite open against the wall. Inhaling deeply and quietly as the door slid across the carpet slowly, holding my breath and waiting for the perfect moment. The floor creaked, whoever was in the apartment was right next to me, I let out my breath and heard his feet shift.
“Boo.” I pushed the door with all my force into the home invader, creating a thick crack through the door followed by a thud as the unconscious body hit the floor. I jumped over him and made for the front door, where another masked soldier stood in front of me.
Black reflective glass showed my dishevelled self, causing a brief moment of ego declination. The moment was cut short as he brought his gun to his shoulder while bellowing in a deep Russian boom "Freeze!”
I rammed into his chest with my shoulder, sending him into the drywall behind him, "Come back later, I'm busy!" I slid left and ran clumsily to the stairwell. Taking a moment to try and catch my breath catching a glimpse of a shadow making its way up the stairs. Another one was coming, more probably following, I sighed.
“Up I go. Up is good." I began the three floor climb to the top of my twelve storey apartment block, pushing through the doors ungracefully in the hope of being able to look before my jump. But the heavy footfalls behind me prevented any such preparation. I maintained my clumsy pace and sort of hopped over the ledge, turning my run into a tumble as I fell through the sky. Getting brief glimpses of a pool beneath me, I attempted to position myself for a pencil dive just before I hit the water.
I went all ten metres down in a second and had my legs explode in pain as they ploughed into the cobblestone base. I saw the blood begin to billow around my legs as hands pulled me out of the salty water.
That was right around the time that I blacked out.
The Team
I woke up in a chair, one of those ones with the mini desk attached that could barely hold anything. On it sat a small notepad, a pen and a large yellow envelope.
Everything was fuzzy as I looked around, there were people all around me and I could feel my head swaying from side to side. A voice with a strong German accent rang through, "Hey, look, he's waking up, good morning mein freund!"
I felt dizzy, my whole body was swaying now, I was desperately trying to make words but nothing came out, I changed course and tried to find the source of the voice, “Oh wait, he's going back down.”
My head fell toward the desk and I blacked out half way. Suddenly I was far away, the haunting image of my turner, ‘They will be back.’
I was surrounded by fire, people screaming, ‘Where are they?’ His hand slowly pointed to the sky, my gaze followed his finger as my face hit the desk. I shot up, eyes wide, everything was clearer now.
“Nope, he's up now.” I found the face that belonged to the German, he had brown eyes and brown hair with a fifties style comb over. A faded scar ran from below his left ear, a brown leather jacket with an upturned collar prevented me from seeing where it ended. He smiled and gave a slight nod, “You alright there?”
I shook my head slightly to get rid of the last few spots in my vision and smiled weakly, “Yeah, yeah I'm good.” I looked around and saw three others in chairs and desks, the German occupying one of those.
Another person stood at the front, hands behind his back, standing with exceptional posture. I followed his body expecting a stern expression but what sat on his face was one of peace and happiness. He had blue eyes, a prominent nose and narrow features. This combined with his seemingly polished bald head made him almost impossible to not look at.
The two that weren’t already facing me turned. One, a strong faced man, pale skin, thick jaw, and long brown hair tied into a ponytail, "We've met."
I recognised his accent from somewhere, "Sorry..?"
He chuckled, "You threw me, through a dry wall." He used his hands to illustrate it.
"Oh, I'm so sorry..."
He wove me off, "Is good da, don't worry about it."
Then the final person began in a soft, sweet voice. "Hi, I'm the only member of the team you didn't beat the crap out of." She was the only female member of the people around me.
She had shoulder length brown hair, these amazing eyes that I couldn’t quite tell if they were green, grey or a light blue and beautifully soft skin, she smiled at me and I smiled back shyly.
The bald man cleared his throat and we all looked forward, "Hello Mr Prince, my name is Anton, I am your link to HQ. Basically I get the orders for your mission and I pass them on to you. The others you see around you are Wolfgang," The German gave me a light wave,
"Gregorvich," The Russian nodded politely.
"And Kate." The girl smiled at me.
"They are your squad. You, are their leader." My head was swimming, one minute I'm being dragged from my apartment block's swimming pool. The next I'm a commanding officer in some unknown military group, "I... I'm... What?"
Gregorvich turned to me, "I explain da? You are older than any of us, you kill a lot of hunters, you have natural skill, your experience in actual war zones is... extensive, plus, not many understand my accent so I can't be leader." Wolfgang looked to him "Ha-ha, don't kid yourself. That guy in catering with the lazy eye and the speech impediment would make a better leader than you.”
I was freaking out, and them joking around wasn't helping. How'd I get there? Why was I wearing jeans and a t-shirt? Where were my pyjamas? "Hey!" Everyone looked at me. Now I was going to get answers, "Gahflerpaala?"
Oh crap, now they were all looking at me but I wanted them to look away. The pretty girl was giggling, Wolfgang raised an eye brow, "...What?"
"Where am I?" Thank God, real words.
Anton piped up, "Just outside Hobart." My palms started to get sweaty.
“How long have I been out?” My eyes were having difficulty with darting to all the faces.
“Four days.” Anton took a more solemn tone, “Your legs, hips and spine were very badly damaged, we had no choice but to keep you under. You healed up within a six hour period, but we weren’t sure how you would react to the immense pain if we awoke you suddenly. Have you any further questions please don’t hesitate to ask at a later date, but unfortunately we are running on a very small clock,” He perked up again “So I shall begin.”
I still had many questions but I figured the trivial question of ‘where are my pyjamas?’ could wait.
I nodded to him, “Thank you. Now, as most of you know we have recently confirmed our suspicions that a group has designed and are currently building a WMD. The exact location of the weapon is still unknown, but we can say it is somewhere in Northern Mongolia.”
Wolfgang raised his hand and spoke, “So our job is to drop into M
ongolia, locate the weapon and deactivate it, sounds simple enough.”
Anton shook his head, “You’d think so, but no, we’ve already got a team on the ground hunting it down. No, your job is slightly more local.” He had the lights dimmed while he started tapping on a tablet. Several images of people and places appeared on the wall behind him. He pulled the first image up to the forefront, it was a middle aged Korean man in a suit.
“We have recently discovered there is a summit of seven of the wealthiest and dangerous weapons developers in the world,” the screen started scrolling through images of others, “and they have links to the weapon. Six of them will be meeting in Brisbane’s CBD.”
An image of a skyscraper appeared, “A thirty storey building currently being rented out as an office block, the other will be video calling them from his secluded beach-side condo on the Maroochydore coast.” The bird’s eye view of the condo showed,
“The envelopes on your desks will contain the addresses and targets. A small elite task-force has been assigned to you, as well as this you have full access to weapons and vehicles.” The screen went blank and the lights came back on. “Eliminate the targets in any way you see fit, try and nab the data, failing in that, destroy all evidence of your involvement. Other than those objectives the mission is yours.”
Anton looked directly at me and smiled lightly, “I hope you are as good a strategist as
The Mulligan Planet Page 3
