Codename: Bear: Secret Agent (Codename Universe Book 1)

by Geoffrey C Porter

  "Because slow like is so useful."

  "You're supposed to be helping."

  Thomas looked away. "Yes, try it slow like."

  I pulled my pistol, took aim, and fired. Right on the money.

  "Now do it fast," Thomas said.

  I did it as fast as I could. I fumbled the weapon onto the floor.

  Thomas went over to the pistol and examined it for defects. "It's your first day. We do it slow. Slow and steady wins the race."

  Fast and furious wins the race, but after dropping my gun twice, I was in no mood to argue about anything.

  I did it slow for a few hours. We had a quiet lunch. "Danger room," Thomas said.

  We went into the danger room. Walls materialized around me. The go light turned green. I ran. Then I fell. Ten fucking steps, and I fell. It hurt, too. I got up and walked through the danger room shooting opponents. They swarmed me as they always did, and my inability to move quickly sealed my fate.

  Thomas clapped. I said, "What?!"

  "You're not giving up, that's what matters. We keep at it, all afternoon."

  We kept at it for an hour or two. He said, "Let's jog for a while, maybe a swim."

  A swim sounded nice. We did laps for a good hour. It seemed like the swimming helped. We climbed out of the pool and found our way to the whirlpool. I was relaxing.

  "You'll be like the Phoenix," he said. "You'll work and work, and someday you'll rise from the ashes and be stronger than ever before."

  Being all burnt and crispy while waiting to rise sucks. But the Phoenix? Could I do that? Could I rise from the ashes? It's either that or early retirement. I wasn't ready to retire. I would rise.

  Thomas climbed out of the whirlpool. "I'm off to the smoking lounge!"

  Of course he was. The chow hall was just opening, and I took a quick shower and got dressed. I was grabbing a tray when somebody sneaked behind me. "Phoenix." Was whispered in my ear. I didn't even see who it was. I grabbed a baked potato and some butter, and it happened again. "Phoenix." I don't know who said it. A couple of pork chops ended up on my plate, too. "Phoenix," said ever so quietly by a passerby.

  As I walked to our usual table, the whispering became a great chorus. "Phoenix. Phoenix. Phoenix."

  Nancy walked over to my table, and I smiled wide, aglow with energy from the support of my comrades. "We're not changing your name," she said.

  I laughed loud. Nancy went back to her table. The room quieted down. I would beat this.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  A few days passed, and I was making progress every day. I played on the martial arts bot, ran, and did the danger room. Drove the car simulation.

  The whole gang was having breakfast: Archangel, RedCat, Zen, Enigma, Thomas, and me. RedCat and Zen were free of bandages and had showed everybody their scars, like they were proud. I didn't have scars thanks to the procedure.

  Nancy approached our table. "I've noticed your progress, Bear, congratulations."

  "He's not done," Thomas said.

  "I want you to take things to the next level, Thomas."

  "You're sure?"

  "Sure as the beauty of rain."

  "I hate the rain," Zen said. "It's ugly."

  Nancy squinted her eyes at the younger woman.

  "She's lying," RedCat said. "She dances naked in the rain all the time."

  "I do that to try and make the rain stop."

  Archangel set a half-eaten piece of turkey sausage down. "Right."

  "You've seen her dance naked in the rain?" I asked.

  "You haven't?"

  "No."

  Archangel finished his turkey sausage.

  "Do it today," Nancy said. "The next level, not the naked dancing."

  "I want to know more about this dancing business?" I said.

  "Ussilla doesn't dance for you?" RedCat asked.

  She could dance a hell of a lot more often. Nancy left. Thomas stood up. "All of you. Report to the danger room."

  We finished our food and walked. Archangel said, "You've been making progress?"

  I knew he meant me. "I haven't fallen in two days. My quickdraw is almost as fast as before."

  We arrived at our destination and armed ourselves with pistols and fake grenades.

  Thomas was punching something into a terminal. He turned to face us. "Take the lead, Bear. The rest of you back him up. You have five minutes from when the light turns green."

  "How big is the course?" I asked.

  "A half kilometer."

  "No problem," Archangel said.

  "You need your disarm kit, Bear."

  I grabbed it and strapped it to my back. Thomas pushed a button, and the go light turned green. I jumped into a run, down a hallway. Two figures stepped in front of me. I drew and fired two bullets. Both men dropped. The hallway turned to the right, and my fragmentation grenade ended up in my right hand. Three opponents, and I threw that grenade at them as hard as I could. I had to stop and wait for the shrapnel to land, barely an instant. A door opened behind me, and RedCat cut a woman with a machine gun down. Sprinting forward, my legs pushed against the ground harder than before. I refused to let my team down. Five minutes, and plenty of bullets.

  I moved into a fresh room. There was a box full of C-4 explosive bricks with a timer going. There wasn't any kind of control panel, just a few batteries, wires, capacitors, and a timer. I had 27 seconds, but two fuse wires glared out at me. I checked for trigger wires, and then snip snip. I didn't wait for the timer to count down. My feet were already propelling me into a new room. Three guys rushed me with knives, and my pistol jammed. RedCat shot the one on the left, and Zen got the right one, but they couldn't shoot through me.

  My right hand formed into a wrecking ball and plowed into that computer simulation of a bad guy. It shattered to dust and pixels. I ran faster. Faster than ever before. My senses were alive. Blood was flowing like never, and I plugged two more targets. I stepped through a doorway, and computer sounded, "Simulation complete."

  I laughed. My team laughed. When did they become my team? The team laughed.

  Thomas spoke across the intercom, "We have more simulations to run, ladies and germs."

  We jogged back to the entranceway.

  "Fifteen minutes, one kilometer," Thomas said.

  The missions became harder and harder throughout the day. I never fell. Thomas put me in the lead each time. I did die a few times. We all did.

  I met up with Ussilla at dinner. I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "You never dance for me."

  She leaned away from me. "We dance for rain. We dance for peace during war. Dance for many things, but we never dance for our men."

  "You'll dance for me."

  She ate her dinner and leaned into my ear. "I lied anyway. If we find a truly savage male, we dance to make them grow hard."

  "I thought you might be," I said.

  "Are you a savage?"

  "I can try."

  Nancy cleared her throat. Old hag snuck up on us. "Make it count. You're going on assignment tomorrow."

  Then she turned and walked away.

  "Dance for me in the rain," I said.

  "You've become quite demanding," Ussilla said.

  "I don't think I'm asking for much."

  "I can lock us in the shower. It'll be like our first time."

  We went to the men's shower. Ussilla used her teacher credentials to lock us in. Somehow, and I didn't know how, this thumping beat began to fill the showers. We stripped naked. Ussilla began to twist and turn to the drums carried through the room. She moved to and fro, swaying her hips and shoulders in perfect synchronicity. My tool got hard, but she didn't stop moving.

  She gyrated her hips back and forth to the beat. My heart raced. I needed her. My hands wrapped around her hips, and I thrust into her. The music didn't stop thumping. She danced right on my member until we were swimming in our own juices, and of course, the water from the showers.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I got an ema
il overnight. "My office, nine am, Nancy."

  I ran into Thomas, Enigma, and Archangel on my way there. We walked in together. Nancy hit some buttons. Machines purred to life.

  "We're going to retrieve our informant," Nancy said. "We meet him and exchange money for a flash drive at the airport. Bear, you're doing the retrieval. You'll be equipped with a stunner. You'll have to go through security, then to terminal B. There's a utility closet there where you'll meet our contact."

  Archangel whispered, "What of us?"

  "After Bear stuns the contact, he will carry him towards the exit. Enigma and Archangel will be dressed as paramedics, and pick him up. They'll strap him to a gurney and wheel him out of the airport. Simple operation. Thomas will be in the airport security main office watching."

  "What could possibly go wrong?" Thomas asked.

  "Our diplomat is still being held captive. The governments involved are getting tired. The press is starting to smell something is amiss. This may be our only chance at resolving this issue."

  "When is the meeting?" I asked.

  Nancy checked something on her computer. "One o'clock. You have time."

  A rare luxury.

  "We should get to the airport," Thomas said.

  We went there. I waited in line to get through security. Enigma and Archangel were ahead of me. Thomas was already in place. The machine scanning me beeped like all Hell was breaking loose, but the security guy waved me through. I found my way to the terminal and the open utility closet. It was only noon, and I thought to grab a sandwich. Then it dawned on me, no money. At least I didn't embarrass myself by ordering. I began to wonder about money. Did agents get paid? Technically, I was a student, but perhaps carrying cash would be a benefit on these missions.

  My stomach growled. I said, "Quiet, you."

  A tall, well-built man with blue jeans and a green polo shirt was closing in on the utility closet. I got up and joined him. He said, "You the new guy?"

  "Yeah."

  "Where's my money?"

  I drew my stunner. The guy smacked it out of my hand and grabbed me by the throat. I aimed my right fist at his rib cage. Moving as viciously as I could with a hand on my throat, my fist connected with his ribs. He grunted and let go of me. I hit him again with my right, on his jaw line. It made a satisfactory crunch. He tried to kick me in the groin, but I twisted my knee into his way. My left was moving of its own will aimed at his nose. Again there was a nice crunch. I put all my weight behind a solid right hook that caught him on the cheekbone. He went down. I grabbed my stunner and zapped him twice for good measure.

  I hoisted him up on my shoulder and stumbled for a moment. He was heavy. I stepped out of the utility room with him. Two men approached me. One was wearing a black suit and tie, the other a white shirt and tan slacks. They pulled out ceramic knives. Easing the dead weight onto the floor, my hand grabbed for my stunner, but these two new men were close. I fired the stunner at the left one, and a bolt of static discharge danced across his chest, but the right one cut on my hand with the knife. The metal showed through my skin, and I dropped the stunner.

  Ok, now I was a little pissed by all this, and I reached out and clobbered the conscious man in the face. He didn't last long. Security was running my way. I left the stunner on the ground and assumed security was coming to help me, so I picked up the contact and started walking again. Enigma and Archangel were running towards me with a gurney. A flood of security personnel were behind them and more paramedics. I dumped my heavy cargo on the gurney, and a security office pointed a pistol at me.

  "I'm one of the good guys," I said.

  "Prove it!" The security guard said.

  "Radio your higher ups."

  Enigma and Archangel were already gone, wheeling off our contact.

  The guard spoke into his radio for a minute. Paramedics ran past with the other two assailants. The guard said, "You're cool." I went and retrieved my stunner. I walked out of the airport, and Thomas met me.

  "You did good," Thomas said.

  The bleeding had stopped on my hands. But the cut hurt. I looked at it. Metal still showed through. Thomas said, "You need to get that cut cleaned up. Maybe stitches."

  There were paramedics nearby, but we needed Agency medics. We left. They cleaned the wounds with alcohol when we made it back to the complex. Then they bandaged them pretty tight. The cut wasn't that deep, and it wouldn't scar too bad, but they didn't bother with stitches.

  I walked up to Nancy's table at dinner. "Do we get paid?" I asked.

  Nancy looked up from her food. "Students don't, but you're a special case, Bear."

  "I wanted to buy a burger today at the airport, and I had no money."

  "That's an excellent point."

  Ussilla came running up. She kissed me hard. "You did it!"

  "It wasn't that difficult," I said.

  "No, you idiot. My eggs, they're growing."

  "How many!"

  "Eight, but we shouldn't count them yet. It's possible they won't survive."

  Nancy said, "Congratulations."

  Ussilla kissed me again. "You know I have to go back to Chor'Tan now? It's time for me to retire from the Agency."

  "What?" I asked.

  "Chor'Tan young must be raised on Chor'Tan, for them to be properly socialized."

  She could leave me so easily? Would I even get to meet my offspring? She leaned in close to me, and I hugged her tight, but I was mad.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I whispered in Ussilla's ear, "Can we talk about this in private?"

  She gave me a little squeeze. "Ok."

  We walked back to my room and went inside. "My shuttle leaves tomorrow," she said.

  "I want to talk."

  "Talk quickly, because my car to the shuttle platform is waiting."

  I thought for a second or two. "I want to know these children."

  "I'll send videos."

  "Don't go."

  Ussilla quickly began counting off on her fingers. "They must be nested in fertile Chor'Tan soil. They must hunt and run and grow strong in the marshlands of my family."

  "They need to know their father," I said. Maybe I was getting worked up over nothing. Maybe I was still a little mad at Melissa.

  "No, they don't."

  "I have rights."

  She shook her head. "What you have, is my sister. She needs your seed, too."

  "Piss on that! Join a sperm bank."

  "It is against our religion to do things… Artificially," she said.

  I did my best, I hate you, glare. "Find somebody else."

  "If that's how you want it."

  "I'd rather find a human woman. A woman who cares about me."

  She left. I didn't follow her. Didn't cry. There were a couple of other women I knew around school. Maybe this would be for the best. Yes. I dreamed that night of clutching somebody's hand, then the hand went slack. I woke up with a groan and went for a long run.

  My email pinged. "After breakfast, my office. Nancy."

  I was on time. The whole gang was there: Thomas, RedCat, Zen, Enigma, and Archangel. Nancy started:

  "We have interrogated the men captured yesterday. They know of one Centurian base in our area. It's heavily fortified. We're expecting significant resistance. We don't know what we'll find."

  Archangel said, "Heavy weapons?"

  "You'll have a grenade launcher. Enigma and Thomas will have submachine guns. RedCat, Zen, and Bear will have sidearms."

  "I want a submachine gun, too," I said.

  Nancy let out a little mouse's sigh. "You haven't been trained on one. You need to hit this base today. It's about an hour away by car. Drive the speed limit."

  We stopped at the armory. Thomas drove. "Satellite maps indicate there are four structures. One appears to be a barn, we'll hit that last. Bear and RedCat will hit one. Archangel and Enigma a second one. Zen and I will do the last building."

  We wore our helmets and approached the place on foot. Four building
s were perched in the distance. Somebody in one of the windows started firing rounds at us. Archangel fired a grenade into that window, and it made a pleasing boom sound.

  I shouted, "We run!"

  Listening to my own order, I ran. Two men stepped out of the building on the left, mine and RedCat's building. I gunned down the one on my side, and RedCat finished the other one. The building we quickly approached could have three or four rooms to it. We stepped inside. A shotgun blast hit RedCat in the gut, and I plugged the bad guy. RedCat pulled himself up, and we looked around. Meth lab. We moved into the next room. Stacks upon stacks of white powder filled bags. RedCat got ahead of me and stepped through the next doorway. A huge boom sounded, and he went flying.

  He landed right next to me and was covered in burns and blood. I started applying bandages as quickly as I could. I hit my radio button, "I need you, Enigma!"

  "Be there in a minute."

  I applied the last bandage I had. I thought I stopped the bleeding, but internal bleeding was another matter. RedCat looked up into my eyes. "You're going to be ok," I said.

  RedCat grabbed my hand in his and held it tight. I squeezed back as hard as I could. I was also watching the room for incoming targets. There were none. Just me and my dying friend. And I knew he was dying. He began to twitch and spasm. "Tell Zen I love her."

  "No, damn you, hold on!" I said with a snarl.

  Then he stopped moving. His hand went slack. Enigma ran into the room with me. "It's too late," I said.

  "We found a hostage," Enigma said.

  Good, but at that point, I didn't care. I just wondered if there was anybody still needing a good killing. I pushed myself off the floor and advanced through the charred doorway that had exploded. Enigma backed me up. We found a few destroyed computer terminals. I kicked open the door at the other end of the room. A person was on the ground with bound hands. It looked like a makeshift kitchen, with a table, mini fridge, sink, and hot plates. I used my knife to cut through the bindings on the prisoner's wrists. In a terribly hoarse voice, the man said, "Thank you."

  He cost the life of RedCat. Was he worth it? I guess RedCat would have said he was.