Thomas looked me right in the eye. "For now, rule one, is cut the fuse wire. Got it?"
"No," I said.
"You'll do fine."
He hit the button for the danger room, and we raced through a mission. We came upon a virtual pile of C-4 bricks with a box on top. The box had a timer with three buttons, and the timer was counting down. Four screws held the top of the box in place. I fished in the bag for the screwdriver, but it had no bit in it. I fumbled with the right bit. The screws came out easily enough. The timer read 1:40. Inside the box there was a block of 9-volt batteries taped together. Thin little wires running from those batteries to the timer mechanism in the lid, then a bigger wire from the timer to a cylinder of some kind, that in turn had a wire going to some kind of stick in the explosive.
The timer read 0:36.
Thomas spoke in our comm gear. "The fuse wire."
I had no clue what that meant. None. "Do something!" RedCat complained.
I snipped the wire running from the cylinder shape to the stick in the explosive. The timer on the device counted down. The computer spoke, "Simulation complete." The danger room morphed back to its off position.
As we stepped out of the facility, Thomas said, "I knew you could do it."
"I don't even know what I did," I said.
"Follow your gut. The fuse wire is almost always the priority. In today's lesson, you could have disconnected the battery too, or really any of the wires, but sometimes there are fake mechanisms and booby trapped wires."
"Booby trapped wires, in a bomb?" Zen asked. "Surely you jest."
Thomas cleared his throat. "Keep in mind, in the movies the bomb is always programmed to explode when the counter reaches zero. Centurian doesn't always program them that way, sometimes it's one minute, two minutes, then boom."
I wondered what kind of effect disarming bombs in a virtual environment would have on my dreams. Likely not improve them. If I screwed up in the field, it wouldn't matter after that.
Training and everything began to blend into weeks. In our classes, we discussed more problems with Razdorans, and how they consumed resources from inhabited worlds. Essentially strip mining them. It made sense because they needed an Oxygen rich atmosphere to breathe, and most mineral planets were not very Oxygen rich, so worlds like Earth were high on their list.
Our crew, meaning me, RedCat, Zen, and Archangel were having breakfast. A young woman I knew was a year behind us approached our table. Straight black hair sat on top of her head. Brown eyes burrowed into mine. She sat down. "I'm Enigma."
"Shouldn't you be eating with the other pups?" Archangel asked.
"I'm on your team now. Didn't they tell you?"
"They never tell us shit," RedCat said.
"You've done missions?" Enigma asked.
Zen said, "That's right."
"With no medic?"
"Medic?"
"We shoot first," I said.
Enigma started eating her food. "I'm trained to shoot first, but I also carry a medic pack with an assortment of smart bandages."
Archangel let out a little groan. "Smart bandages are great. They really helped Mathew."
"Shut up," Zen said.
Nancy approached our table. "You've met Enigma."
"She seems kind of young," I said.
"She isn't young. She's as old as you, Bear."
I had seen combat though. On multiple occasions. She just fell off the turnip wagon. Ultimately, she proved herself in the danger room to be capable. She ate with us.
One night, Ussilla was spending the night in my room. She didn't most nights, but some she did. I had the dream where I clutched at somebody's hand, and I held on tight. The hand never went slack, and the dream drifted off to nothingness. In the morning, Ussilla said, "In the middle of the night, you grabbed my hand and squeezed. Like you were having a nightmare."
"I have nightmares sometimes."
"Medicines and therapy, Bear. You don't need to live with nightmares."
I was interested in neither medicine nor therapy. The bombs in the danger room got progressively more complex. Thomas started running the simulations with us. Hell, he charged in first with us blazing away in his wake. Disarming the bombs became part of my dreams, and I played along.
Nancy approached our table one morning. She sat down very quietly and ate muffins. "The fight in Asia is going well. Sphinx's team has been making big progress there. There's an upside to the MindBender drug."
"Do tell," I said.
"Sometimes the addict will know they're doomed and act as a double agent, feeding us information."
"New mission?" Enigma asked.
Nancy took a drink of coffee. "We're not sure. We're waiting on Centurian to make the next move."
My eyes narrowed into tiny beads. "We should be the ones moving."
"Our intel is still limited. We think Centurian is going to do a big kidnapping, but we don't know the target yet."
"It'll be our job to pull off a rescue?"
Nancy nodded her head a bit.
Chapter Nineteen
Two days passed. Nancy approached our table and sat down. Thomas wasn't with us. He ate with the other teachers. Nancy said, "Eat, eat."
We ate quickly. Thomas joined. Nancy stood up and turned to leave. The lot of us dropped our trays off and hurried to follow her. She led us to a conference room and pushed some buttons to start the recorders. My compatriots and I were standing at attention in a row with our guts sucked in and chest puffed out, which wasn't a bad look for Enigma at all.
"One of our top diplomats has been kidnapped. We believe we know where he is being kept." Nancy hit a button, and a 3D holographic image of a five story building appeared. It was surrounded by a wooded section of green, and a parking lot. "We're not sure how many of them there are, but we're fairly certain the basement of this building is loaded with stockpiles of explosives. Bear, we believe these explosives are wired to a timing mechanism."
I wanted to cry, or moan, or groan, or something, but the last thing I wanted was to be called a bitch again. "The basement is mine!"
Thomas said, "Good."
Nancy continued, "Archangel will be stationed outside, making sure nobody escapes."
"I want to go inside with the others," Archangel said.
"Too bad."
"Life isn't fair," Thomas said.
"When you make it to the building, split up," Nancy said. "Half of you head upstairs and clear out each floor, and the other half head into the basement. If our reports are right, that basement is packed. One stray bullet with kill you all. You'll be carrying knives in addition to your sidearms."
"Now I definitely want to go in," Archangel said.
"Quiet, you."
"The clock is ticking," Thomas said. "To the garage. Weapons will be available on the plane."
We ran. We were fast runners. Thomas kept the throttle down on our truck on the way to the airport. We drove into the bowels of a plane and took off. I used a phone on board to send a quick message to Ussilla. "On a mission. Love you. Wish me luck."
She promptly messaged me back. "Luck."
I put the phone away. Thomas said, "Get some rest."
The others played cards, but I rarely had an opportunity to nap, so I did. No dreams invaded my solace.
We drove fast to the building and stepped out of our truck. We walked in a straight line. Gunfire pops erupted from the roof of the building. A bullet hit me right on the chest, but it hardly hurt and bounced off my jacket. All of us dove for cover. Archangel had his rifle out, and it started to bark.
"We need to run for it!" I shouted. Everybody nodded.
Archangel held his ground, but the rest of us ran for the building. Bullets landed all around us. I got hit on the chest again, but I didn't even miss a step. Enigma fell. We kept running. Enigma said, "They got me! Right on the leg."
"Can you bandage it?" I asked.
"Yes."
Then a big crack noise sounded, and I knew so
mebody on the roof had gotten out a big gun. Archangel screamed across the comm gear. RedCat, Zen, Thomas, and myself were at the front door of the building. Enigma said, "I'll see to Archangel. Go."
The four of us stepped into the building and fired our sidearms at a half dozen or so people in the building. They were all armed, so I didn't feel bad. We were quick to shoot them. They seemed to be untrained and confused.
Thomas pointed to the stairs. Then damn if he didn't holster his pistol and draw a blade in each hand. I didn't even bring two blades. My pistol went in its holster, and I pulled a 20cm, razor sharp knife out. Thomas went in first, but I was only a step or two behind him. RedCat and Zen headed up the stairs. Enigma spoke across the comm, "Archangel is secure. The gunfire has stopped. I called in for an emergency pickup. They said thirty minutes."
It was dark in the basement, but we had our helmets on, and I toggled the infrared sensors on. A red screen filled my view. Stacks upon stacks of explosives surrounded me. All marked Mexican Army, C-4. I didn't want to breathe too hard for fear of setting them off. Thomas pushed a door open, and three bright red figures jumped at us. Thomas killed two of them, and I sliced the third one open at the throat. They made horrible noises when they died, and surely my dream mind would add their screams to its arsenal of nasties it throws at me.
The room had two doors. Thomas pointed at the right one. He went left. Alone, I stepped into a new room. A man was waiting inside the door, and he grabbed my knife wrist and pulled. I slammed my left elbow into his jaw, but he didn't go down. I pulled back and hit him hard this time. His jaw crunched, and he dropped my knife wrist. The blade plunged into his chest. There was yet another door. I kicked it in.
The lights were on in this room. There was a control panel, with a timer counting down, showing 3:50. But that timer could be anything. I pulled my backpack off and quickly used the wrench to undo the top of the panel. Inside were things I expected. A big car battery. A capacitor almost the size of a pineapple. A backup timer. Three wires leading away from the capacitor farther down into the table.
Thomas spoke across the comm, "Find anything?"
"A timer with 2:30 left on it," I said.
"Cut the damn fuse wire!"
One by one, I snipped the three wires leading away from the pineapple into the bottom of the device.
Chapter Twenty
The timer counted down, and no boom. Slight pops of gunfire echoed from above. The wire cutters went back in the bag, and my hand squeezed my knife handle tight. I moved to the next door in the line. It opened, and in stepped Thomas. "This floor is clear," he said.
I put my knife away and drew my pistol. We started climbing stairs. RedCat radioed, "We're pinned down on the third floor. Go up the east stairs and get behind them. They've got a .50 cal."
Thomas and I raced through the second floor to the east stairs. We ascended a flight, pushed the door open, and four men with heavy weapons opened their eyes wide. Thomas cut down the two on the left with clean shots to the head. I noticed body armor, and shot for the head on the other two. Splat! Splat!
Zen let out a low sigh. Thomas shouted, "Take the west stairs, let's clear the fourth floor!"
RedCat and Zen took off in a run. We ran, too. The fourth floor was empty. Thomas looked mad. "Up the stairs, slow," he said in a whisper. We inched up the stairs to the fifth floor. The stairs opened into a hallway, and RedCat and Zen were at the other end. Two parallel halls led into the floor, and there were a ton of doors, each marked with a suite number. There were dozens: 501, 503, 505, etc..
"Listen at the door first, then kick it in," Thomas said.
We didn't find any people on that floor, and it took us nearly an hour to sweep it. A long, tense hour. We didn't find any diplomat either.
Thomas paused. He looked off in the distance and tapped a button on his helmet. Then he tapped it again. "Locals have been notified. We need to get to the safe house."
We ran for the stairs, descending them two at a time. We drove away as the first siren blaring police cars and ambulance sped past us. The job was in Colorado Springs, and Thomas drove us a ways into the mountains. He turned down a dirt road dotted on the sides with pine trees. A walled gate faced us, and Thomas typed a ten digit security code into a panel. The gate slid out of the way. A big house stood at the top of an incline. Thomas pulled into the garage, again after entering a code.
He took off his weapons and jacket and stowed them in the truck. The rest of us did not. Thomas said, "It's safe here."
"I'll take off the gun when I go to sleep," Zen said.
RedCat nodded.
I planned to sleep with mine under my pillow.
"Who's cooking?" Thomas asked.
Zen said, "Bear."
RedCat pointed at me.
"Bear it is," Thomas said.
I went to look for the kitchen. I cooked those bitches beans and rice. No, actually I found a package of bratwurst and an indoor grill. I prepared the bratwurst and served the beans and rice on the side. We ate. Thomas said, "We're going to appoint you the cook from now on."
Zen said, "Yes."
I would complain, but after being shot at all day, cooking was relaxing.
Thomas put his plate and fork in the dishwasher. "We need to talk." And he was looking at me.
I said, "OK."
"Out back, so I can smoke."
"You smoke!"
"It's medicinal," he said.
We went out back. Thomas pulled a hand rolled cigarette out of a pouch and lit it, puffing away. I began to wonder if a skunk hadn't died nearby recently. The smell of skunk filled the air.
I said, "Eww."
Thomas laughed a happy little chuckle. "I'm not smoking tobacco, you idiot. I have a prescription. I have trouble relaxing at night, and the marijuana helps me calm down and sleep."
I didn't like being around all the smoke he was producing, and I asked, "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Sometimes the fuse wire is rigged with a trigger wire, and if you cut the fuse wire, you also cut the trigger wire and boom."
"How can I tell?"
"The trigger wire will almost always be a thinner filament kind of wire that is hidden behind the fuse wire. You won't notice it, and you'll cut both, and you'll be dead."
I didn't want to be dead. I wanted to do my missions and retire. My brain pondered this new piece of information. Thomas continued, "What you need to do is touch the fuse wire very gently, feel around it, feel for a filament."
"What if the fuse wire is bare?"
"Carry a mirror on a stick, and look at the back of it."
"Sometimes in the danger room it's just a big mess of wires."
Thomas took a final puff of smoke and put the roach out. "If the counter is almost down to zero, and it's just a mess of wires. Pray and start cutting."
"I don't like praying."
Thomas laughed long and hard, but I wasn't sure if he was laughing at me or because of the toxic smoke he'd been inhaling. "What you need, Bear, is a human girlfriend. Chor'Tan females don't know love for their males. You're just an animal to her."
"I'm just using her for the sex anyhow. I don't use my hand."
Thomas clapped me on the back. "You're madly in love with her."
"It's just… I know she's always thinking of me. She does so many little things for me. Too many to list or count. She's as affectionate as any human female."
"Perhaps you haven't met the right human."
"You're stoned."
"Because of that remark," Thomas said, "I'm going to smoke another. Keep in mind, I got more kills than you today, and I'm more than twenty years your senior."
I did think about that, but I went inside. RedCat and Zen were watching a movie. I picked out a bedroom and stripped to my boxers. My 9mm went under my pillow, and I slept like the dead. No dreams.
Chapter Twenty-One
I woke up, showered, dressed, my usual thing. Finding myself in the kitchen, I looked at three idi
ots holding coffee cups. Hazelnut filled my nostrils. I poured myself a cup with a dash of cream.
"There are three kinds of cereal in the cupboard, almond milk in the fridge, and frozen sausage links in the icebox," Thomas said. "Bear?"
"I cooked last time."
"I'll do it," RedCat said.
Zen grabbed bowls and spoons for each of us, and we selected cereals, etc. Way too soon, three light grey links were dropped on a plate in front of me. I cut into one with my spoon. Red and white on the inside. Gross.
"Fucking raw as hell," Thomas said.
"I thought I just had to heat them up," RedCat said.
Thomas went around the table, grabbed all the sausages, and put them back in the pan. A solid fifteen minutes of sizzling passed. Thomas redistributed the cooked sausages.
"What's the plan?" Zen asked.
Thomas drank the leftover milk out of his bowl. "No plan. We wait. We think the diplomat was escorted out the back while we went in the front. It was just a wooded lot back there, but it makes sense."
"I'm going for a run," I said.
Thomas stood up and filled the dishwasher. "I'll join you. We stay on our property."
We left the house. Running in trousers wasn't the best thing ever, but I didn't have any shorts, and I wasn't going to run in my boxers. Thomas said, "Try and keep up."
I kind of looked at him like, huh? A leisurely run? He took off in a sprint. I raced after him. We were running on dirt and pine needles. I kept up. Bastard was not going to run me into the ground. We looped the property easily a dozen times. Thomas stopped first. He was sweating bad.
"You run good," he said.
"Better than you!" I said.
"Why was I setting the pace the whole time? You never once passed me."
I didn't have an answer for that. Maybe I wasn't trying to compete. Perhaps a certain lack of competitive spirit plagued me. A new attitude might be in order.
Codename: Bear: Secret Agent (Codename Universe Book 1) Page 7
