The Lab (Agent Six of Hearts)

by Jack Heath

“When I was fifteen I applied to join the security for the Lab. The physical tests were pretty rigorous, but they never tested my DNA. I figured that the last place they’d look for me would be within their own organization. So they took me in, of course, and I’ve been watching them ever since.

  “I figured that when I had enough evidence to know exactly what they were doing, I’d bring them down, but after a while I stumbled across the Deck. I’d thought that the City was completely lawless, you see—I’d heard the old stories about police and governments and so on, but I never really believed that they’d ever existed. The City had become so big by then that no one could possibly have been looking after it. It was already like one colossal machine that ran itself. But then I found this small, secretive, almost invisible organization trying to uphold the values that safeguard humanity’s survival, and I realized that there was someone in charge after all.”

  We’re not in charge, Six thought. ChaoSonic will never let us control the City.

  “So then I did some research, and dug up you. A boy with a hundred percent mission success rate, so whenever he’s around, everyone makes it through. A boy who does the impossible with ease, who works in silence, and has riches beyond the wildest dreams of any orphan like me. Once I discovered that you were the same age as me, it was obvious who you really were.”

  Not a boy at all, Six thought.

  “I decided the Lab might be too big for me to take on my own,” Kyntak continued. “I figured that the Deck would send a field agent, a Heart, to stop the Lab before the situation got out of hand again. And you, of course, would be the one. The Lab has a file on you, and you wouldn’t want the Deck to find it because the Spades would investigate. The City’s big, but you can’t hide from anyone forever—friend or foe.”

  Six felt a chill run down his spine. His glands pushed a little more adrenaline into his system, sensing his fear and preparing for danger. I’m inside the Lab, he thought. Why are we just sitting here?

  Kyntak sighed again. “If the Deck doesn’t get us, the Lab will. Lucky us, yeah? Oh well. Anyway, we’ll have a better chance if we stick together. I’m glad you’re finally here.”

  The story checked out with all the facts Six knew. If I hadn’t stumbled into King’s life, he thought as he watched Kyntak swallow the last of his sandwich, I might have ended up like him. Laughing and joking, like a parody of a human being. A wolf in sheep’s clothing—with the wool over his eyes.

  I’ll have to get rid of him soon, or he could get us caught. But he’s as strong, fast, and well trained as I am, so I can’t outfight him. I can’t try to ditch him immediately. Six gritted his teeth. He’s got me cornered—but with any luck, he doesn’t know it. I’ll cooperate—for the moment.

  “What happens now?” he asked.

  “Now?” Kyntak laughed mischievously. His piercing eyes twinkled. “I’ve been looking forward to this. I have a disk with all the information and photographs you need for your mission, about what the Lab is up to. Your work here is done. Good to have the pressure off, isn’t it? So now, we escape!”

  “Just don’t get in my way,” Six growled.

  Kyntak handed him a gun. “Ready?” he asked.

  “Yes. Count.”

  “Okay. Three…”

  Six crouched.

  “Two…”

  Kyntak copied Six’s stance. Six gripped his gun tightly.

  “One,” Kyntak said.

  “Go!”

  They burst out of the cell door together. Six slid out into the corridor firing, back-to-back with Kyntak. Almost simultaneously, seven video cameras on opposite sides of the hallway shattered as bullets tore through them. Not a single shot had missed its mark.

  Kyntak hefted his gun. “Not too shabby,” he said, spinning it on his finger.

  “With any luck they’ll think it was a power failure in this room,” Six said. “But they’ll figure it out soon.”

  Kyntak nodded. “Let’s get out of here. This way.”

  They started to run down the hallway. Like most of the hallways in the building, it was well lit but sparse and narrow. A murky-green tiled floor lay between wooden walls, below a cream ceiling. The corridor stretched endlessly into the distance, the four corners meeting at a point on the horizon.

  Six was very uncomfortable. This was an odd sensation for him. He had never seen someone match his running speed before. But there was Kyntak, flying alongside him without breaking a sweat. Six gritted his teeth and increased his pace.

  “You want to race, huh?” Kyntak laughed. “Let’s go!”

  Six glared as Kyntak reappeared beside him and then pulled ahead. Pumping his legs harder, Six caught up.

  He was channeling all his physical and mental strength into this. Glancing down, he saw that his legs were a grey blur. Right left right left right-left-right-left rightleftrightleftright…

  “Six!”

  He looked up again and saw the corner just in time—a very sharp, very sudden left turn in the corridor. Gripping the edge of the left wall with his hand, he swung around it, feet sliding across the tiles. With his heart thudding like a drum, he crouched midstride and slid for several meters before stopping.

  Wow, he thought, panting. I’ve never run that fast in all my life. Not like me to miss the corner, though…

  He looked around for Kyntak, but couldn’t see him. Maybe he slipped and broke his neck, Six thought, quite pleased at the prospect. He was about to go back to look for him when he heard the alarms and saw the wall near the corner torn up by gunfire. He jumped back as though stung, and slammed himself against the wood.

  There were guards in the corridor they had just run through—he could hear footsteps coming closer. Sounded like eight, maybe ten people (which still left three hundred ninety hanging around somewhere else, he reminded himself). Judging by the damage to the wall, these soldiers were armed with shotguns of some type. Probably pump-action Vulture GI446s.

  “Hey! Six!”

  Six looked around for the source of the voice. Then he saw it—directly above the corner was a metal trapdoor embedded in the cream ceiling. It had been opened just a crack, and he could see Kyntak’s eyes.

  The footsteps were getting nearer. The boom of the guns was deafening. Six steeled himself and sprinted towards the corner. Sneakers squeaking, legs flying, heart pumping, he headed straight for the wall. “Get out of the way!” he hissed at Kyntak.

  Six took a running jump and landed in a crouch on the wall. Then he pushed off again, jumping up through the trapdoor in the ceiling. Inside was an air vent, and he banged into the steel ceiling before clattering to the floor, landing on his back. A moment later, after figuring out which way was up, he rolled over onto his hands and knees.

  A hail of pellets crashed into the wall where he had been a split second before.

  “Hi, Six!” Kyntak grinned at him. “Who won the race?”

  “Shhh!”

  Kyntak raised his eyebrows. “Must’ve been me.”

  Six glared venomously at him. “Which way to the exit?”

  “Southeast. Follow me.” Kyntak scrambled off into the darkness, with Six right behind him.

  The air vent was slick, smooth, and dark, only about a meter square. Six hated vents with a logical kind of claustrophobia—there weren’t enough ways to escape them.

  “Here.” Kyntak had stopped. “There’s a way down onto a fire escape. We’ll climb down the side of the building, then we’re home free.”

  Before Six could answer, Kyntak had vanished. Six followed his lead.

  FLYING HIGH

  Six was on the fire escape. He could see the ocean in the distance. There’s much less fog when you’re out at sea, he thought.

  The air tasted of grease, ore, and salt. Kyntak was already climbing down the stairs, the rusted steps clanging under his boots. Six followed him reluctantly.

  Looking around, he could see that they were on the southern wall of the building. Six could hear a distant rumbling, but there did
n’t seem to be anyone around. Despite all the cars parked around it, the construction site was deserted. Evacuated when the Lab went to full alert, he guessed. Looking up, Six saw that they were near the top of the building, still beside the glass part of the tower. The bejeweled sword rising from the grey monster.

  The distant rumbling had suddenly become not so distant. Six glanced up. “Yes,” he muttered grimly. “I thought so.”

  A Twin-600 helicopter was descending from the sky, like a giant black insect blocking out the sun. Unlike their almost silent cousin, the Twin-900, Twin-600s emitted a booming, thumping rattle as their blades swirled. It must have taken off from the roof, Six thought, or he would’ve heard it approaching sooner. They’d never get away in time.

  He felt the chopped air press down against his skull. The pounding and whining of the turbines seemed to echo through his brain. The helicopter was huge, a massive mechanical beast with whirling flat blades. Standing in the open hatchway was a soldier wearing Kevlar armor and hefting a Condor 616 chain gun.

  “Jump!” Kyntak yelled.

  “What?” Six shouted incredulously. It was hundreds of meters to the concrete below.

  “Just jump!” Kyntak howled, and he leaped off the fire escape.

  With only a split second of hesitation, Six followed him. If all else fails, he thought, I can land on Kyntak to break my fall.

  The moment he looked down, the instant he faced the sickening drop to the construction site far below, the gunman in the chopper opened fire.

  As he plummeted through the air, Six saw the glass encasing the tower shatter. Thick lead bullets tore the smooth windows to brittle shreds. He looked up and saw the Condor pumping rapid rounds towards them. Six continued to fall.

  This was a familiar sensation—the wind tugging at his body, his guts squirming, throat dry, air slamming upward into his face. But though the feelings were familiar, he knew that he had never jumped this far before onto concrete. And there seemed to be no way of avoiding the ground this time.

  I’m going to die, Six thought. I’m falling hundreds of meters onto solid concrete. And a helicopter is shooting at me.

  Six’s heart rate increased. He was whipping downward at an incredible speed. Far below him, the concrete did not seem any closer yet. On his right, out of the corner of his eye, he could see the whirling blades of the Twin. On his left, there was a constant glittering storm of exploding glass. His ears ached from the chattering of gunfire, the acid splintering of glass, the pounding of the helicopter blades, and the wind screaming at him. It all mixed together to become white noise.

  Six could see Kyntak below him, falling at the same speed. Kyntak was squirming and flapping through the air, against a distant backdrop of steel, cars, and concrete. He was waving his arms around, and Six realized that he was probably doing the same. But Kyntak was looking up, not down. Now that he had Six’s attention, he smashed the window he was falling past with his fist, and grabbed the frame. He stopped falling and held on tight. Suddenly he was rushing up towards Six as Six shot straight down.

  Six felt himself yanked out of the air. He gasped as he stopped falling. Kyntak had grabbed his hand, and now they were both dangling from the window frame. Flight time: 3.1 seconds.

  “Gotcha!” Kyntak grunted, hauling them both up into the window. Quickly they ducked into the room as another burst of gunfire shattered the air around them. Six’s legs wobbled slightly, but he steeled himself and turned to Kyntak.

  “Where to now, genius?” he asked.

  Kyntak stared at him. “You know,” he said, wiping his bloody hand, “you sounded almost sarcastic just then. Didn’t that drop give you a rush?”

  Six wanted to strangle him. But he maintained an even tone. “What now?” he repeated.

  Kyntak crept over to the empty window frame, hiding near the wall. He pointed outside. “Do you see that crane?” he asked.

  Six edged over to the window and glanced out, then stepped back. One glance had been enough. There was a large grey crane in the construction site below. It looked pretty strong—reinforced steel, made of wide beams for heavy loads. The top of it was perhaps fifty meters below, the ground about a hundred fifty meters. Six nodded. “I see it.”

  The droning of the chopper grew nearer.

  “Well, if we jump down from here, shoot the gunman and the pilot on the way down, and grab the hook of the crane, then we should be able to make our way across to the control cabin and down the ladder. Then we steal a car and run off.”

  Six opened his mouth.

  “I know what you’re going to ask.” Kyntak smiled. “And, no, we can’t just go through the building to the ground floor. Security will be everywhere. I know these things. I’m supposed to work for them, remember?”

  “I’m going first,” Six said, and he dived out the window. Anything to get away from that lunatic, he told himself, as he plunged headfirst into the void.

  As soon as Six was out in the open, he began firing. The Hawk in his hands shuddered, but even while he was falling upside down, his accuracy was flawless. The gunman’s feet were knocked out from under him, and he fell silently from the helicopter. Six aimed at the cockpit. The pilot ducked behind his seat for cover.

  Six was dropping towards the crane. He could see the tip of the horizontal beam below him, so the hook was below that. He would have only a nanosecond after seeing the hook to grab it.

  Idly he noticed that below him a parachute had opened up, like a rippling white flower blossoming. Hopefully the soldier will be too shaken to join the ranks again, he thought.

  The tip of the crane had just swept past his face, and he lashed out with one arm. The hook was there, and he grabbed it. The sudden stop swung the hook crazily, and Six gripped the underside of the crane on the first swing. Flight time: 5.2 seconds. He climbed up.

  Once he reached the top of the structure, he looked up. Kyntak had leaped out of the window, arms spread like a bird, and had just begun to fall. Six stood back, making room on the loading beam for Kyntak.

  A straining whine alerted him. The helicopter was slowly tipping over in midair.

  He stared intensely, and as he tried to figure out what was happening, he saw the pilot jump out. Another parachute fanned out below him.

  Now the Twin was half upside down, and suddenly it was moving. Fast. The whirling of the blades added to gravity to push it down as well as forward, sending it into a tailspin. The motor screamed and then stalled as the helicopter spun out of the sky.

  It was heading for the base of the crane.

  Six looked up to see Kyntak’s falling silhouette. It would be seconds before Kyntak reached him. He wasn’t going to make it.

  The helicopter hit.

  The whole crane shuddered underneath Six’s feet. He wobbled at first, but then he ducked down and grabbed hold of the sides of the beam with his hands. The crane was tilting forward, and was slipping farther over every second.

  Kyntak’s going to miss, Six thought. I have a second to do something, or it’ll be too late.

  Six reached down and grabbed the chains attached to the tip. He pulled up the hook and gripped it tightly. Then he dived forward off the beam, clutching his lifeline with one hand and reaching out with the other. Just as Kyntak flew past, falling like a brick, Six grabbed his hand, and they both swung up onto the beam.

  “Thanks, Six!” Kyntak gasped, sprawled across the greasy steel. “I owe you one!”

  “Get up,” Six said. The crane was still tilting, and it felt as though it could fall any second. He looked down to where the chopper had crashed…

  …and recoiled as it exploded. The base of the crane was enveloped in a ball of roaring flames. It wasn’t the heat that Six felt first, it was the energy of the blast as it slammed into him. He was knocked down, and slid off the top of the beam.

  Six grabbed the edge as he went over, then dragged himself back up. He started to clamber onto his feet, the heat cooking his face.

  The explosion had
wiped out any strength left in the crane’s vertical support beams, and then had given it a push towards the building. The base creaked and strained. Six could feel the metal moving under his feet; the rumbling spread through his whole body.

  The crane began to fall. The world suddenly loomed towards Six, and he leaned back to remain vertical. The metal support struts moaned. Six could see that the crane was going to hit the building very soon.

  Simultaneously, he and Kyntak began running along the beam of the crane. Even as the slope became steeper they were sprinting up it—desperation hurling them along at breakneck speed.

  They had almost reached the top when the tip of the beam struck the building. The metal bent and the concrete crumbled. A grinding, squealing roar filled the air as the beam started to crumple. The crane was quaking and rumbling below them as it was scrunched against the concrete like a tin can.

  Six and Kyntak jumped up to the end of the beam.

  For a short second they were in the air, separated from all the movement and noise. And then they grabbed hold of the crane’s giant hinge, which had been hanging just above their heads a second before. Part of the building’s concrete wall crumbled, and the crane shuddered as it fell inward. They were dangling vertically along the beam as the building came closer and closer.

  The crane leaned crazily and began to collapse sideways. Most of the horizontal load-bearing beam had smashed into the building, pushing its way inside the tearing concrete. The main structure of the building had been crushed, and as the crane collapsed over to one side, it was tearing out more of its supports.

  Six and Kyntak were riding a huge grey monster as it tore a bigger one to pieces. It was still about fifty meters to the ground from where they hung.

  They clambered up until they were standing on the main support beam. It was horizontal, at least. But not for long. This beam was swinging down towards the ground, which was rising up to greet them.

  “Jump!” Kyntak screamed.

  They both leaped off the beam sideways as it fell out from underneath them. They fell down, past the flames, past the twisting metal, past the falling, crumbling concrete. They fell faster and faster, until they slammed into the dirt in the construction site.