I had been in Agency safe houses before. A gas station with a large convenience store loomed in the distance, and I said, "Stop at that gas station."
"The safe house will have everything we need."
"But not everything we want."
Sphinx nodded.
I ran inside the store and looked at their condom selection. It lacked in that they didn't carry my favorite brand, so I picked up an assortment and purchased them.
We pulled to a stop in a nice neighborhood, and Sphinx hit the horn. An automatic gate slid open, and we drove inside the fenced in fort. We pulled up to the garage. Sphinx stepped out of the car and punched a numeric sequence into a control panel. The garage door inched open. She drove the car in, and we went inside. I grabbed her in a hug and pulled her in close staring into her eyes.
"Not tonight, Bear," she said. "I've hardly slept in three days. I need a hot bath, a hot meal, and a warm bed. Go and start dinner."
I knew better than to disobey, so I went in the kitchen. The cupboards were stocked. I found USDA Prime steaks sealed in plastic in the deep freeze, and I picked out two thick-cut ribeyes and stuffed them in the microwave and typed in low-defrost. A box of long grain and wild rice was in a cupboard, and I found a pan. Two twice-baked potatoes came out of the freezer, and I stashed them in the convection oven. I opened a can of mixed tropical fruit: the good kind with pineapple, papaya, mango, and coconut. The microwave went ping, and I pulled the ribeyes out and dusted them with meat tenderizer and black pepper. I knew how Sphinx liked her steak, and a few minutes before they were ready, I hit the house intercom and called out, "Dinner in five minutes!"
Sphinx joined me, and we ate like savages out of a cartoon with bits and pieces of debris flying to the left and right.
I didn't argue, but it seemed like ages since I'd been laid. I looked at Sphinx as she took a bite of steak. I said, "Surely you'll sleep better with some company."
"You're just going to have to do it by yourself. I'm sleeping alone."
My mind flashed back to the three years I spent at the Agency. Every event shined through me.
Chapter One
"You haven't told me anything," I said.
"The aspirin is done working?"
"Give me the facts."
Sphinx paused and took a bite of steak, like she planned to talk with her mouth full. She swallowed it before speaking, thankfully. "The database that contained retirement information got stolen. Centurian has encrypted files that contain all of our retired agents' locations."
The real reason they brought me back. "What about Zen? Enigma? Archangel? Jet?"
"Archangel will never retire. He's too diehard. Jet has been reactivated. Enigma and Zen are still out there, and we're running out of time."
"For all we know, those files are encrypted so strongly nobody can get into them."
"We have a contact on the inside. She has hacked the entire file, but she's a MindBender addict. She's slowly giving information to Centurian."
"Where are they?"
"Zen is here in Phoenix. Enigma is in Minnesota. She loves the snow."
I started eating very quickly. "We get Zen tonight."
Sphinx shook her head. "We have sent two agents to wake up Zen. They came back bruised and bloody. I haven't slept in days. It's going to be you going to Zen, not me."
Between bites, I said, "Give me the address."
She pulled an index card out of her purse and set it on the table. I don't know if I've ever eaten a meal faster in my life, but my tummy was full, and it was time to go. I ran to the car and plugged the address into the vehicle's computer. The car rocketed out of that garage and onto the street. The sun set in the distance, and it was the most beautiful thing I'd seen in ages. My life spent after the retirement was all just a blur like I was doped up the entire time.
The address turned out to be a nicer house in an old neighborhood. I had my 9mm in my armpit under my jacket, plus the two grenades in my pockets. Two extra clips in the holster for the pistol.
I rang the doorbell. The door opened just a bit, to the end of a chain. Zen was there in all her glory. Firm body, red hair, and blood red lipstick. "Another Agency man?"
"I'm your friend, Zen."
"My name is not Zen," she said as she slammed the door closed.
I rang the buzzer again. The door opened all the way, and Zen's right cross was aimed at my face. I blocked it at the wrist. Her left foot danced upward towards my right cheek. I let it connect. She wanted to hit me, so be it.
"Your life is in danger," I said.
She threw her elbow at my nose, and I grabbed her by the arm and pushed her. She didn't fall. She jumped into the air throwing a front kick at my forehead.
I grabbed her foot mid-air and lifted. She fell on her butt.
"You've got to take the aspirin," I shouted.
We were in the house at this point, and I slammed the door shut. She reached behind her back, and I knew from her eyes that she was reaching for a gun. I grabbed it before she could aim at me. We wrestled on the floor for a moment, and I found myself on top of her, holding her wrists down with my hands and her midsection down with my stomach. Wanted to kiss her. I did kiss her.
She kissed me back, too. Our tongues played for a moment.
"I always loved you, baby," I said.
"Are we gonna do it right here? The floor is kinda hard."
I was hard. I leaned in close and kissed her on the neck. I let go of her hands and moved my hands to her breasts. I wanted to undo my pants in the worst way when a great crashing banged on the front door.
"You're expecting company?" I asked.
"No."
She leveled her sidearm at the door. I rolled off her and stood up. The door came crashing down. A man with a pistol, taking aim, and another man with raised fists were outside the door.
Zen fired three rounds into the guy with the gun. I shot the other man once in the heart.
"Now will you take the aspirin?" I asked.
"Did you bring some?"
No. "We'll get some later. We've got to get out of here."
Bullets started to dance through the windows in the room. A couple hit me on my jacket. Zen was still on the ground, and I dove down. "Backdoor?" I shouted.
She crawled back through a kitchen to a door into a garage. She climbed into the driver's side of a modern four-door sedan, and I got in the passenger side. She hit the garage door, and when it was halfway up, she punched the gas down hard.
Bullets riddled the car, but it did not stop. I squeezed off rounds out of the passenger window and got two gunmen. Zen drove fast. We stopped at a gas station for aspirin.
Chapter Two
I gave Zen directions, and we headed right for our main Agency base in the desert on the outskirts of Phoenix. We pulled into the parking garage. Zen went to take the aspirin. I said, "Stop."
"What?"
"You'll go into convulsions. We need to get you to medical."
We exited the vehicle, and I turned on a terminal and requested a medic.
A short, balding man showed up with the medic. He was dressed in a three-piece suit that should have been retired in the 70s. "You had a gun battle in public!"
Didn't have much choice. "Who are you?"
"I'm your boss. I'm Ralan, the new regional director. You should have simply fled instead of engaging them. It's all over the news."
"Us or them," Zen said.
Wait. New regional director? "What about Nancy?"
Ralan grinned a kind of grin you'd expect from a dirty old man who just found a cache of photos of teens "Retired."
Damn.
The medic convinced Zen that the gurney was the best place for her. They started to leave, and I followed. They gave her the aspirin.
She went into convulsions and spasms. I stayed by her side the whole time. After what seemed like forever, she came out of it. She said, "Bear."
I smiled at her.
Her face twisted into a vi
cious grimace. "You kissed me. You said you loved me. You called me baby."
I didn't know what to say. She continued. "I don't know when, and I don't know how, but you're going to pay, big time."
The aspirin had definitely worked. The medic that was there said, "It'll be hours before everything really comes back."
I realized it would be dawn soon, and I needed quarters and sleep. I paged Nancy from a terminal. The computer called me an idiot. Nancy was no more. I looked up Ralan. He was asleep. I asked around in medical, and they put me in a room.
Ralan's shrill voice woke me up just after dawn with the words, "I need a detailed report on the gun battle you caused yesterday."
I did not cause anything, and Enigma was still out there. "Centurian's men caused it. And one of my friends is still in danger."
"I'm giving you a direct order."
Damn. He left. I secured a shower and food. I found a computer terminal and typed a report. I got an email from Sphinx before I finished. "Where are you? Did you get Zen?"
"Zen's fine. I'm typing a report. Where's Enigma?"
I finished the report. Sphinx paged me. "Meet me in garage A."
I ran there. Sphinx had a frown plastered all over her face. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Our own records are encrypted. We don't know where Enigma is until we can break the encryption."
"Doesn't our contact in Centurian's group know the location?"
"That's true," Sphinx said. "Good point."
"How do we contact her?"
"Secure text messaging."
I still hadn't been laid in ages, and Sphinx was so close. She could see it in my eyes.
"Do you want more Chor'Tan Ale?" She asked.
Hell no. "Can't we just do it like normal people?"
"I'm going to message our contact."
It dawned on me. Is there a text messaging system that is truly secure? Would we be walking into a trap? I had to trust Sphinx. She typed and typed.
"There's a coffee shop," she said. "The contact will meet us there tonight at six pm."
"We're going in armed to the teeth, right? Jet, Zen, you, me, and Archangel stationed outside."
"We have to get approval from Ralan."
We went to Ralan's office and knocked. We explained to him what we wanted to do.
He shook his head. "That's way too many resources for simply talking to a contact. One of you go alone."
Piss on that. "Archangel, Jet, and Zen are likely bored anyhow. Bringing them does not raise the cost at all."
"This time I'll allow it, but you must limit how many resources you use. Our budget is tight, and we're counting every bullet."
"I need quarters, too," I said.
"Go through the requisition office."
I hadn't thought of that. Walked down there and took care of it. Set an alarm to wake me for lunch and napped.
Walking through the food line, I couldn't help but notice Archangel, Jet, Zen, and Sphinx sitting at a table. Archangel appeared bigger than I remembered him. Jet may have bulked up a little too. Archangel saw me and grabbed me in a giant hug. Jet offered his hand to shake.
"It's good to be back," I said.
"When they came for me, I was sleeping on the beach in California," Jet said. "I had enough money for a house, but I would rather sleep on the beach. It was no life."
I looked at Archangel. "When did Nancy retire? What's up with Ralan?"
The big beast of a man shrugged. "Nancy quit after our team retired. Statistically, ours was very successful. Ralan is just Ralan. Cares more about penny-pinching than anything else."
I let all that sink in.
"You know I'm part time agent and part time teacher now," Archangel said. "I teach the Gremlin classes."
"My life wasn't bad after retirement," Zen said. "None of the boys stacked up to the man of my dreams, and I dreamed about RedCat almost every night. But they were beautiful dreams of love and sex, not blood and gore."
"Retirement is no good," Sphinx said. "Better to die on your feet."
Chapter Three
The coffee place was inside a local shopping mall, and the plan was to pick up our contact at about six pm. Ralan in all his brilliance ordered stunners only to avoid civilian casualties. And honestly, that made sense. It was going to be crowded, but our stunners were maybe good up to about fifteen meters. We should at least have pistols with us.
We set up in the mall around four pm with Sphinx and me inside the coffee shop. Zen and Jet were pacing back and forth in the hallway, and Thomas and Archangel were separately guarding the two closest exits.
The thing that sucks is you can't tell a MindBender addict from a regular person, except the addict is generally unkempt. The coffee shop filled up, and I was watching for a woman in her twenties with shoulder-length blond hair and a green dress.
I grabbed a coffee and proceeded to wait while it cooled. Sphinx leaned in close and kissed me on the cheek. "Don't drink that."
"Why not?"
"The guy put something in it."
Huge fucking trap. That's all this was. My hand moved into my jacket pocket and grabbed my stunner, but I did not draw. I stepped up to the counter. The guy who filled my cup was long gone.
A young man walked up behind Sphinx and jabbed her with something. She collapsed.
I fired my stunner, and a web of electrostatic discharge embraced the guy, but the crowd started running and screaming. I pushed forward to get to my stunned target, and somebody jerked the stunner out of my hands. I hit that guy as hard as I could along the jawline. He fell. I pushed through the crowd to Sphinx and checked her pulse. She was still breathing. I put zip ties on the guy I stunned. A guy on my left pulled a knife. I growled.
The knife aimed for my gut, and I sent my right hand in a spear at the guy's throat. He was ugly as Hell too like he was scarred with acid. His shirt had dandruff on it from a scruffy beard, and he smelled bad. He lowered his chin far enough to block my hand, and the knife didn't cut through my jacket.
The knife aimed for my throat, and I ducked low and punched the guy in the groin. He doubled over, and I floored him with a solid right uppercut. Somebody hit me with something on the back of my head, and stars danced in my vision. I leaped forward to avoid the next swing and spun around as I landed.
A guy stood there in blue jeans and a white shirt with an iron rod in his hand. Where the Hell were Jet and Zen! The man with the rod started to advance on me. I popped him in the nose three times quick like, right-left-right. He fell. The coffee shop was empty, and I retrieved my stunner first. Then I got zip ties on all the baddies. I grabbed my radio and shouted, "Anybody?"
"Locals are on the way," Thomas replied. "Zen and Jet are down."
Down? Down how?
I grabbed Sphinx in a fireman's carry and hauled her out of the coffee shop. I was not interested in dealing with any locals. I found Jet and Zen unconscious, and no way could I carry all three of them. Where was our contact?
The clock on the wall said 5:30.
Local police showed up with guns drawn. Paramedics hauled off Sphinx, Zen, and Jet. I walked out of that mall, and Thomas and Archangel were waiting for me.
I spit on the ground. "How can our files be encrypted so heavily that we can't access them, but one of Centurian's addicts can hack them?"
"I don't know," Thomas said.
"I didn't even get to use my stunner," Archangel said.
"Neither did I."
I looked off into the distance. "I got hit pretty hard with an iron rod, and I almost got cut open."
"You get to have all the fun," Thomas said.
"Yes," Archangel said, "I'm totally jealous."
We climbed into the van, and Thomas drove us back to base. Ralan was waiting on us in the parking garage.
"Six civilians were injured in the stampede out of the coffee shop," Ralan said. "Explain."
"It was all a trap," I said. "Three of our people got drugged with who knows what, and you're worried a
bout a few minor injuries?"
"We can't have civilian casualties. You need to do a better job controlling the situation."
I wanted to hit him. He was a slight man, no more than 180cm tall and likely under 85 kilos. If he lifted, he didn't do it enough. He was wearing a three-piece suit with a sky blue tie. He had a gut. I walked right past him. I wanted dinner, and maybe some down time.
I went to my quarters and contacted the local paramedics. Sphinx, Zen, and Jet were stable but still unconscious. The blood samples they took wouldn't be processed for at least twelve hours. I had dinner and went swimming. Watched a movie. Contacted the local hospital again. No change in my comrades.
Chapter Four
On waking, I called the local hospital. Zen, Sphinx, and Jet were up and moving, but they had no idea what they'd been given.
I sent Ralan a text, "How is the decryption coming on the retirement database?"
He didn't reply. I did all my morning stuff. Ate breakfast with Archangel and Thomas. Ralan came through the food line and sat by himself. I stopped mid-bite and approached his table.
"What is it, Bear?" He asked.
"How is the decryption coming?"
"Yes, I got your text. We're dedicating computer resources to beating it, but it could be a long wait."
How much computer resources? "Dedicate more."
"There are three 128-core servers working 24/7 on it. More than enough."
I went and sat back down with Thomas and Archangel.
"What's wrong?" Archangel asked.
I took a final drink from my coffee. "Three whole servers are being dedicated to cracking the encryption on the retirement database."
"Three?"
Thomas shrugged. "They're big servers, 128-core beasts."
"Why not more?" I asked.
"The database is classified, it's not like we can replicate it across the entire Agency network."
I think we can. Stood up and left. Headed right to the main server room where I killed Henry. I typed my keycode into the door, and it slid out of the way.
A fat man in a black t-shirt and blue jeans looked up from a video game. "Hello."
Codename: Bear II: Secret Agent (Codename Universe Book 2) Page 2
