Agent on the Run (The Agents for Good)

by Stanton III, Guy

  I tugged on her shoulder and with an increase of tears slipping down her face she obediently turned, her head sinking down to her chest, as she pulled her hair around to her front over one shoulder.

  ‘Oh God have mercy!’ I thought, but I kept from saying it out loud just barely. It was already abundantly clear that she had a very low opinion of herself, which I wanted to break down instead of enforce.

  The firelight should’ve revealed the sensual arched plane of a female’s unblemished back, but instead it revealed an ugly interlaced patchwork of scars too numerous to even count. It was a horrendous butchery to behold, but it wasn’t what dominated her back the most in terms of shocking scenery.

  Her spine was literally encased in a steely matrix of alloy metal the same as her arms and legs. No thought had been given to the cosmetic appearance of the changeover by those who’d butchered her. Her back was literally torn apart.

  The steely casing that protected her spine tapered off into the small of her back and disappeared from view. My eyes drifted down to her toned and well proportioned rear, which appeared to have gone untouched from the butchery above. It gave me the opportunity to say something positive into this setting, when all she could think of would be a negative.

  “You’ve got one hot derrière girl!” What I’d said was the truth, but maybe I’d infused it with a little bit more enthusiasm than I would typically. I really wasn’t the kind of guy to comment on a woman’s assets whatever they may be.

  At my words her head had sharply turned to look at me over one shoulder. She stared at me in an incredulous fashion. I met her gaze honestly and responded, “What? It’s true!”

  I moved away from her then and picked up my extra shirt and the bar of soap, which I then gave to her. Hesitantly I offered, “If you leave-year-old clothes by the stream I’ll wash them for you after you’re done.”

  She had the look of a befuddled little kid and gently I pushed her toward the stream. She started to go, but then mumbled something.

  “What do you need?” I asked quickly.

  She turned her back to me and in lieu of an answer she gestured to the back clasp of her bra. My hands rose to unclasp the back of the bra, which I imagined was something else that was very hard for her to do. The deep red impressed lines that my action revealed echoed the fact that the bra hadn’t come off for a while.

  It was hard to ignore the ridge of cold metal that my fingers brushed against in the act of releasing her. How someone could survive such a procedure was a miracle in and of itself. The pain had to of been unfathomable. She stepped away from me into the darkness holding her bra in place with a metallic hand.

  Strangely it wasn’t the desecration of her back or the shifting metallic rhythm of her arms and legs that held my attention as she walked off into the dark. She really did have a perfect bottom.

  I looked up, as she stepped back into the firelight and swallowed. Her hair was all wet and well somehow she looked really good in my shapeless oversized shirt. She was tugging rather firmly on the hem of the shirt, which is when it dawned on me that my shirt was all that she was wearing.

  I had said I would wash her clothes hadn’t I. Quickly I left the fire and headed out into the darkness eager to escape our little campsite that had suddenly gotten much too hot to handle. There was still light overhead enough to see by and I found the little pile of clothes easy enough.

  I stared a moment at the little pile of clothes. I had done a lot of wild and promiscuous things throughout my teenage years, until God had gotten a hold of me in my early 20s and straightened me out. Of all the erotic experiences I had philandered my way into none of them were even half as erotic as what I was experiencing now with just the feel of so intimate an item of simple cloth and lace in relation to the woman that I wanted most of all the women the world had to offer.

  A profound truth occurred to me then and it was this, there is a lot to be said in involving asking God for help in the search for a lifelong mate with which to share your life, dreams, and passions with.

  I knew what it had been like without God and now I knew what it was like with God’s influence and blessing. Everything was more powerful in feeling, emotional intimacy, and pureness of spirit. How had I not waited to experience this the first time?

  All of my experiences up till now with love and passion seemed empty and tasteless in comparison to the bold richness that was unfolding in my life in the course of but a single day. Thankfully I truly was free of my past mistakes thanks to the atoning sacrificial blood of Jesus that had washed all my sins away.

  This time would be done the right way. This time I would focus on pleasing God before I pleased myself. A good place to start doing that was to pray, as I was but a weak man faced with a powerful temptation sitting by my fire awaiting my return.

  Flicker glanced up as Utah came back into the firelight. He still hadn’t put a shirt on and she let herself gaze in appreciation. She liked the sight of strength. It reminded her of her brothers and the few treasured memories she still had of her father.

  She tugged on the edge of the shirt, as he leaned down to her and said, “These are pretty much dry.”

  He laid her shorts down beside her before moving away to lay out her other close to dry by the fire. He then turned away with his back to her to wait and she quickly rose to step into her shorts.

  “Okay.” She said husky voiced and he turned back around and she sat back down by the fire quickly glancing away from him, only too aware of her bare thighs.

  Silence ensued and she reached up to get a tangle out of her hair. The tangle of hair was knotted up royally. It was impossible!

  One metallic finger shifted into the form of a blade and she sliced through the knotted up hair tangle. Several locks of hair fell to the ground and she jumped with surprise, as Utah called out gruffly, “Hey!”

  He sounded angry. Why was he angry?

  Flicker stuttered over her words, “I had a tangle and I don’t have a brush.”

  “Well that’s not the way to do it!”

  Before she could even respond he was up on his feet coming over to her to kneel down behind her. She was unprepared for the feel of his fingers combing through her long hair. Her long hair was one of the few vanities that she still had.

  Her hair really was more trouble than it was worth and she had debated more than one time about hacking it all off. She held still, as Utah worked the tangles out gently but firmly. She really appreciated what he was doing.

  “Don’t be cutting off your hair again like that!” Utah said reprovingly.

  “Okay.”

  Why was she listening to him?

  His fingers left off stroking through her hair to move down upon her scalp in a pressured massage. She almost groaned with the pleasure of his massaging touch. Back and forth all over her head, her ears, her temples, even her jawbone and face. His touch was absolutely divine.

  Sweat rolled off my face, as I worked back away from her face to her scalp again. I didn’t think she knew how much noise she was making. I was quite curious as to how she heard at all. Sometimes I caught her reading my lips, but other times she’d heard me without seeing my lips. It was a mystery.

  It was rewarding giving her a massage and yet very frustrating. Innocently meant or not the sounds she was making was like listening to an erotic soundtrack over and over. It was pretty hard to listen to and keep acting like a disinterested third party, but that was the sum total of the game for now.

  Cautiously I let my fingers work down the back of her scarred neck to either side of the exposed alloy metal that encased her spine. Her moans grew deeper, but I felt hesitation to continue given the sheer mass of scar tissue that I felt beneath my fingers.

  “I’m not hurting you am I?” I asked wanting to be sure.

  Her voice came back to me in a husky whisper, “Don’t stop! Oh please don’t stop!”

  I didn’t. As I worked away gently but firmly on
the healed over scar tissue she gradually crept over, until she was lying on her front. I massaged rhythmically across the roughed up terrain of her back. My thought was that surely I had to be hurting exposed nerves, but instead it seemed like I was relieving a great tension within her.

  She lay melted against the rocky ground beneath her in a deep sleep. I didn’t stop though, because she was asleep. Her moans and sighs told me that she was very much still enjoying the attention and I liked giving it to her. I doubted that she’d had any attention in a long time and it was good to give.

  I decided to stop because the urge to continue the massage on down to her bottom was becoming overwhelming. That would be more about me than of any benefit to her. What was the use of tormenting myself any further than I already had this night?

  I turned away from her and lay down to stare at the stars overhead. Patience it seems at times can be the hardest of all lessons to learn, often because it requires patience. She was dead to the world and I was very much throbbingly awake. It wasn’t fair.

  Chapter Six

  Partner?

  Flicker’s eyes blinked open. She took a moment to collect her thoughts and then smiled, as she remembered last night. The sound of heavy breathing with a hint of a snore to it had her turning her head to the other side. Utah was asleep on his side beside her and with a quirk of an eyebrow her eyes traced down his top arm to where his hand lay splayed across her bottom possessively.

  Well he’d been telling the truth about his fascination with that area of her body anyway, she thought to herself with a little grin. It was nice to know that even being half the woman that she was that she could still attract a man, a good man.

  Why he was so interested in her she couldn’t fathom, but he was and she certainly wasn’t going to dissuade him. This was a dream come true for her. She had wanted Utah ever since that night when the Code had fallen and she had regained her freedom.

  Something about the man, who her brother and several others had to restrain from returning to his fallen friend had called out to her in a deeply emotional way. Beyond that there had been a physical connection upon eyesight and now here he was and he thought that she was hot.

  The smile fell off her face. A bitter urge for the impossible rose up in her. She wished…….

  She wished she had a pair of toned calves and sweetly formed feet that she could have sashayed up to him in a pair of high heels with real fingers to have reached out and felt the texture and warmth of his skin. She wished that she was whole!

  A single bitter tear coursed down her cheek, as she lay watching him sleep. She had to get a grip on herself. Life wasn’t a fairytale, as well she knew and what she needed to do now was realize all the many ways that things could be worse than they were.

  She knew the truth of that, but still she wished she could have been more whole for this man than the odd collection of parts and scars that she was made up of. Surely it must almost be a sacrifice for a perfect man like him to be with a woman like her?

  He didn’t seem to think that way though. He had given so unselfishly of himself last night. She’d never felt so physically relaxed since the day she had awoken a monster. She wanted to give him something back in return, but what?

  “You gave him back his life did you not?”

  Yes, she had and how has she done that?

  Flicker’s eyes tracked over to the metallic combination of indestructible parts that served as her makeshift hand. First she had saved her brother and then perhaps the world, then Asia, then both of her brothers and now she could add her man to the growing list. There were certainly reasons to be grateful for her cursed state of being.

  Her recent successes did make it more bearable to be as she was. Bearable, as long as Utah wanted her anyway. If he rejected her she didn’t know what she’d do.

  Utah was starting to wake up and she watched the progression to conscious awareness completely fascinated. His hand shifted and squeezed one of her bottom cheeks firmly, which caused her smile to come back out. His eyes abruptly shot open and his hand quickly moved away, “Sorry about that!”

  Flicker almost told him to put his hand back, because she already missed the warmth of it and the sense of connection there had been between them, but “Good morning” was all she said.

  “Good morning.” I said in response feeling somewhat embarrassed of myself. She didn’t seem to mind where my hand had been, if her smile was anything to go by.

  We both quickly got ready and I watched with real fascination, as she stepped into the lose pile of body armor. She pressed two fingers together from opposite hands and an electric spark snapped visibly. Immediately the loose armor snaked up her body by passing over her lower legs to snugly enfold her in its protective shell.

  “Is that stuff bulletproof?” I asked curious to know.

  “For the most part.”

  “I bet its snake proof.” I said with envy to be heard in my voice.

  She just smiled and started out at a more relaxed pace than yesterday, which I was grateful for. We talked along the way and when we reached my concealed Jeep five hours later I was kind of hoping that we hadn’t, because it meant that we would part ways now.

  I stared at the jeep hating it in a way, “So like I was saying this was part one of a four-part process. I’ll be frank about it. I really need your help with this mission and beyond that I’d really like to spend more time with you.”

  I studied her, as she enigmatically gazed at me. I was unsure of what she would do and fully aware that I couldn’t make up her mind for her. She was free to do as she pleased.

  It was with relief that I saw her extend her hand out to me along with the words that she spoke, “I’d really like to spend more time with you too. What do you say to being partners?”

  I took her cool metallic grasp and shook it firmly, “Partners it is then!” I said, but we both knew that we were enacting something far more than just a working relationship.

  She didn’t let go of my hand and I saw her face darken from some source of self-doubt, as she asked hesitantly, “You’re sure you don’t mind?” Her alloyed fingers flexed slightly in a clear indication of what she was asking.

  “I don’t mind.” I said honestly, even as I was glad that we were getting out in the open this sudden attraction between the two of us.

  She gave me a look that said she still didn’t believe me. She let my hand go. Sometimes believing is feeling as well as seeing. I stepped close to her enfolding one hand around the back of her neck and pulled her into my kiss.

  Her eyes had flared wide in alarm, but I ignored her shocked gaze and closed mine, as I deepened the kiss. She could so rip me into little pieces right now, but instinct won out. She started responding to my kiss with an innocent fervor that was beautiful.

  I drew back from her lips and her beautifully expressive eyes blinked open with a dazed look of befuddled passion.

  I smiled richly, “Not a problem, understand?”

  She nodded affirmatively and I stepped back slightly.

  “Now for the next problem. How are we going to stay in touch so you know where to meet up with me to collect the other parts?” I asked hoping that she had an answer to my problem.

  Flicker turned from me then to unsling the little pack she wore and then she started rooting around in it in search for something. I took the opportunity to admire the way her very blonde hair fell across her face. There was something so very familiar about her. It hit me like a ton of bricks then.

  I about burst out with my revelation, but something made me hold back. The resemblance between her and what had to be her two brothers, Flint and John, was unmistakable and I couldn’t believe I had missed it up until now. Another thought came on the heels of that one.

  What would big brother think when he found out that I was dating his kid sister?

  Did her brothers know she was even alive?

  I doubted it from what little I knew of their
stories. Did she know who she was?

  Whether she did or didn’t it could wait for another day. She’d finally found what she had been looking for, two little black discs.

  “These are thought responders. I already have a pair wired into my head. If you wear these you’ll be able to communicate with me by thought.”

  I nodded and she stepped closer and started to place one in the area behind my left ear. I watched her pink lips move, as she spoke, “There will be a little sting as it connects to your resident electrical focus.”

  “My what?”

  Her lips split apart in a grin that showed her pearly white teeth, but she didn’t answer. There certainly was a sting to it, I acknowledged, as I winced against the pain of it adhering to the side of my head behind my ear.

  She went to work on my other side. She was tall standing perhaps only less than an inch off of my 6’4”. I liked that. Her tongue came out to lick her lips, as she concentrated on lining the disc up right. Her lips glistened in the sunlight, as I felt the sting of the second disc. She was saying something and I tried to focus to hear what it was past my fascination of watching her lips move.

  “Now I’ll be able to hear your thoughts.”

  I blinked hard, all of my focus suddenly on her, as my eyes darted to hers. ‘Don’t do it!’ I silently screamed.

  Oh rats! She did it.

  I inwardly cringed, as I watched her face blush with an intensity of color. Trying to ease out of a terrible social blunder I threw up a hastily contrived defense, “Boys will be boys.”

  She shot through that excuse with one disapproving look and I cringed visibly this time. Honestly I admitted, “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

  She looked down her face still the color of crimson and said, “You didn’t offend me. Just shocked me a bit is all.”