Hunting Nora Stone

by Colin Weldon

  “Oh?” Royo said.

  “He said it was a highly classified matter for your ears only and hung up,” Kroch said.

  Royo didn’t like Wise. It was the arm of the government that had always troubled him. While he acknowledged that intelligence gathering was of the utmost importance to the security of the nation, some of the clandestine methods employed by “The company” were those that he had virulently opposed as a senator.

  “Get me a list of all current black ops operations will you?” Royo said.

  “Yes, sir,” Kroch said.

  “When will he be here?” Royo said.

  “Nine fifteen,” replied Kroch.

  The President looked briefly at the picture of his wife. She had warned him to rein in Wise from the get-go. They were barely out of Afghanistan when the reports of top-level assassinations of foreign dignitaries broke. The media had a feeding frenzy with it. Seven of the world’s highest ranking ambassadors, along with the Presidents of Sri Lanka, Panama and Columbia, had been taken out within months of each other. It had sparked a global emergency as fears of a new ISIS offensive swept the globe. Then they had stopped. No evidence of whoever had committed the assassinations had ever been discovered. They had all been killed in the middle of the night. All with their necks snapped and their heads completely turned around. Ginny had pressured him to look into Jaguar but her sickness had distracted Royo from pressing the matter. He was too busy battling the fires within his own party, not to mention the heartbreak of losing his wife, to focus on taking on Wise. In truth he did not have the energy for it.

  He looked back at Kroch.

  “Anything else?” Royo said.

  “Nothing to bother you with at the moment sir, no. I’ll go make some calls. I’ll be next door if you need me,” replied Kroch.

  Royo nodded as Kroch stood up and walked out of the side door to the Oval, which led to the office of the White House Chief of Staff. Royo looked over to the stack of papers, sighed and began opening them one by one.

  Jakarta

  “You all right?” asked Abigail as Eddie scrolled through his tablet computer looking for the most likely routes of escape. Hiran was working away in the other room. Eddie was lying on his bed resting his head. It still hurt. The memory of the iron fist still raw.

  Just my ego,” he said.

  “That’s not what I was referring to,” Abigail said sitting on the bed.

  Eddie placed the tablet on his thighs.

  “What do you mean?” he asked her.

  “You said Dylan Holt’s name when you were unconscious,” Abigail said.

  Eddie looked straight ahead at the small television set perched on a table at the foot of the bed. His reflection looked back at him. He sighed, placed the tablet on the bed and rubbed his face.

  “It’s been months. Maybe it’s being back in the field, I dunno,” Eddie said.

  “If you’re not up for this Eddie, I have the discretion to pull you off this mission. Nobody would blame you,” Abigail said.

  Eddie laughed.

  “Doc, the only way you’ll get me off a mission is if you put a gun to my head and pull the trigger,” Eddie said swinging his legs over the bed and pushing past her.

  “Eddie, I have to consider the agency’s interests as well as yours. If you’re relapsing…” she began.

  “Abigail, I am fine,” Eddie said raising his hand and making it clear to her that the conversation was over.

  “Ok Eddie.” She lowered her tone. “I’m on your side, I want you to know that.”

  “That’s why you’re here Doc,” Eddie replied. “Now come on, we have work to do.”

  Eddie headed into the living room where Hiran was working. He heard Abigail follow him.

  “What have you got, Hiran?” Eddie stood beside him and looked at the screen.

  Hiran shook his head.

  “Nada, zip, zero,” he replied, leaning back and squeezing his stress ball.

  The laptop was a frenzy of activity with cctv scans running on the top right hand corner and overhead street shots of cars and passers by on the bottom left.

  “What about the banks of the river?” Eddie replied.

  “Infra-red shows nothing coming out of the river up to five miles,” Hiran said looking back at him.

  Eddie shook his head and bit his lip.

  “She can’t have just vanished, she’s not a ghost,” he whispered looking at Abigail.

  “Eddie, these recruits are exactly that. The only reason we found her is because she wanted to be found. They’re trained to use every possible surrounding to disappear. And her implants will let her know that she’s being tracked,” Abigail said.

  “What? How?” Eddie said turning to face her.

  “She can track satellite orbits and can mask her bio signatures,” she paused.

  Hiran stared at her open-mouthed. Eddie was shocked.

  “What?” Eddie said, “and you were planning to tell me this when?”

  He was angry especially as he had suspected that she was privy to all the technical details of the implantation process. She’d lied to him.

  “Eddie, I was instructed to…” she began

  “I don’t give a shit what you were instructed to do,” Eddie snapped back. “What else are you not telling me Abigail? Jesus Christ, she’s a mortal threat, for god’s sake. Why have we been wasting precious time on this shit?” he said pointing to the laptop.

  Abigail looked at the ground. Eddie tried to calm himself down. He knew he should not have spoken to her like that. Not after everything she had done for him. He shook his head and walked towards a window which overlooked a busy intersection. There was a long silence in the room as Eddie tried to figure out what to do next.

  “I’m sorry Eddie,” Abigail said.

  Eddie didn’t respond. He was trying to figure out whether or not to just send her packing but he needed her on this. He was about to turn around when he felt Abigail’s hand on his shoulder. He turned to face her.

  “What I am about to tell you is treason. Simple as that. I’ll get the death penalty,” she said.

  Eddie looked at Hiran who had his mouth open.

  “Then don’t tell me, we’ll do this the old fashioned way,” Eddie said.

  Abigail shook her head.

  “The assassinations? That was her,” Abigail said

  Eddie looked at her.

  “The heads of state?” he said

  Abigail nodded.

  Eddie glanced out of the window.

  “Shit,” he said to out loud to himself, “Who else is Wise sending in?” Eddie said.

  “I don’t know,” Abigail replied.

  Eddie frowned and looked coldly into her eyes.

  “I really don’t Eddie. But you’re right; he will send others to kill her if she’s not salvageable,” Abigail replied, “If the agency find out I’ve told you that I’ll disappear, and so will you. I really think you ought to leave this one alone and declare yourself medically unfit. We’re not equipped to deal with this. It’s suicide.”

  Eddie was about to respond when there was a sudden bleeping noise from the laptop behind them.

  “Got something,” Hiran said.

  Eddie quickly moved over to Hiran and looked at the laptop. There was a face in the middle of the screen looking straight at the camera, smiling. It was emerging from a train.

  “Jesus, that’s her. Where the hell is this?” said Eddie.

  “Sudirman station, near the business centre,” Hiran replied.

  “Get a drone over that area now,” Eddie said him.

  Eddie looked back at Abigail.

  “Abigail, I don’t quit missions. Now you’re either with me on this or you can get the hell out of here now,” he said.

  There was a tense moment in the room befor
e Abigail nodded. Eddie turned to Hiran who looked uncomfortable.

  “Pack your shit up, we’re out of here,” Eddie said

  It was a dangerous game she was playing. Nora knew that. There was no way out of it now. The course she had set for herself was written in blood and nothing on this Earth was going to stop her. The city blurred past as her Ojek (motorbike taxi) weaved its way through an almost impassable section of traffic. She ignored the dizzying speeds and hard turns that her driver was taking.

  “Pull over at the next junction,” she shouted in fluent Bahasa Indonesia.

  The driver nodded and pulled a hard left, tilting the bike so much that Nora’s knees were nearly torn off by the road. She adjusted comfortably and let the driver manoeuvre his bike over the side of the road. She casually swung her leg over the seat and handed him some money without looking at him. He briskly took it and sped off, disappearing into the melée of cars and smoke. Nora looked around her and gathered as much data as she could about the passers-by and shopkeepers before ducking into the dark ally ahead of her. She listened intently to see if anyone was following her. She was definitely alone, for now. She looked up at the fire escape ladder above and leapt to reach it. She pulled herself up with ease and climbed onto the fire-escape platform. Hunkering down, she peered in both directions. Nothing. She turned around and climbed into the open window behind her, pushing a pair of torn drapes aside as she did so. The room inside was nothing special but it was at least clean. It had a single bed, which Nora moved towards while unhooking the concealed holster she had around her shoulder.

  She removed her black leather jacket and placed it and the holster carrying the Glock on the bed. She removed her black gloves and neatly placed them beside the weapon. She glanced over at the mirror on the bedside table. Her white tank top was cropped at the top, revealing her arms from the shoulder down. The only light in the room was currently being generated by a small table lamp on the other side of the bed. She looked at the arms they had given her. Little pulses of continuous light ran from her shoulders to her fingertips. She remembered thinking that it was actually quite beautiful, at first. She flexed her mechanical fingers and placed them on her legs. She could no longer feel the intricacies of touch. Sensation was a barrier they had not been able to breach yet. At least not with her. It didn’t matter.

  She bent over, reached under the bed and pulled out the laptop. She entered a fractal encryption code and opened it. She immediately entered the IP address for the main CIA server databases and began her hack. Her fingers moved with lightning precision as she typed every line of code. Within a minute she was in and scanning for the name Eddie Conrad. Up popped a photo with a full bio next to it. She took a breath and began reading:

  - Commander Edward James Conrad

  - 36

  - DOB: 1st August 1985

  - Place of Birth: Hartford Connecticut

  - Parents: Jodie and Mark Conrad (both deceased)

  - Navy Seal 2007- 2014 current status Inactive

  - Captured May 2011 - December 2011 in Aleppo. Rescued December 12th 2011 following operation Broken Bow. All other squad members KIA.

  She continued down the page:

  - Psychological profile, by Doctor Abigail Carroll.

  It is my opinion that Commander Conrad should be relieved of field duty pending full PTSD cognitive screening. He exhibits symptoms of hyper aggression, recurring nightmares, anxiety attacks, suicidal thoughts, decreased social engagement, memory loss. I believe that Commander Conrad should be admitted to Cedar Springs Military hospital as soon as possible for treatment.

  Skill Set:

  Exhibits high functioning and reasoning skills with specialties in tracking and military strategy. Recommend reassignment to drone tactical wing, Jaguar Division.

  Nora looked at Eddie’s photo. His short-cropped military crew cut looked nothing like his did at the shack.

  “Send a psycho to catch one eh, Wise?” she said to herself.

  She looked back at his photo.

  “You’re a handsome fella aren’t you, Eddie?” she said to the picture. “Now why would Wise send you to catch me? You’re no match for…” she began before stopping mid sentence.

  She looked up at the mirror and stared at her reflection, then turned back to the laptop and began typing again. The screen flashed up thousands of lines of code as she linked in to the central servers of Jaguar. It would take less than a minute for Jaguar to trace her hack, and her location, but it was more than enough time to confirm what she was looking for. The screen flickered suddenly as the directory was located.

  THE ACADEMY - TOP SECRET

  She accessed the file and quickly scanned through the young faces. She didn’t recognise any of them. A red light began blinking on the bottom left hand corner of her screen. She had less than twenty seconds.

  “Fuck,” she said to herself as she clicked out of the directory and typed in a new search term.

  PROJECT TARSIS - TOP SECRET

  She clicked into the directory and pulled her hair over her ear. She honed in on what she wanted to confirm.

  CURRENT STATIS - ACTIVE

  “Fuck,” she said again through gritted teeth.

  She looked up and slammed the laptop shut, throwing it on the bed as she grabbed her jacket and flung it around her shoulders, slinging a small shoulder bag over that. She moved quickly to the window and looked outside. She stepped onto the fire escape and looked up just in time to see a fast moving vapour trail speeding towards her from a small cloud overhead.

  “Shit,” she shouted as she gauged the distance to the ground. She grabbed the rail, bent her legs and threw her body over it. She looked briefly skyward and caught a glimpse of the missile as it ploughed into her room and exploded the world all around her. She felt her face burn as she descended towards the ground. The shock wave threw her body sideways into a fire-escape, sending her tumbling down the side of the wall. She was suddenly surrounded by rock and fire as the building began to collapse on top of her. Her right shoulder took the impact of the ground hard. It was lucky. Had it been a flesh and blood arm it would have been crushed instantly.

  She curled herself into a ball and rolled. She was sure she was on fire. Chunks of debris hit the alleyway turning it into a landslide. The noise was deafening as she clambered to her feet and began running, barely avoiding a large chunk of building as it landed next to her. She gritted her teeth and ran through the dust, feeling anger and a new sense of urgency. Drone missiles were the least of her worries. They were sending Tarsis. She was running out of time.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The White House

  Oval Office

  09:32

  President Royo picked up the black coffee he had just been served.. It burned his tongue slightly but that was the way he liked it. He looked up at Director Wise and waited for him to speak. General Hammond sat opposite Wise, on the sofa in the middle of the Oval office, looking pensive. He looked like he was always expecting to go into combat at a moment’s notice. At fifty-two, he kept his body in pristine condition. His greying hair was always neatly cut and his face cleanly shaven. He had a cold steely stare that even Royo felt was intimidating.

  “Well?” Royo said placing the blue cup with the white house emblem back on the coaster on the table.

  It was a habit that his wife had conditioned him to do. The last thing she had wanted was a coffee cup stain on the Resolute Desk. It was the little things about her he missed the most. Wise looked up at him.

  “We have an asset out of containment,” he said bluntly.

  “Meaning?” Hammond said.

  Wise ignored the General and continued to look at the president. He cleared his throat and continued.

  “We have a team commencing a containment as we speak,” Wise said.

  “So why are you here then?” Royo asked bluntly.

  Wise shifted uncomfort
ably in his seat and looked at Hammond.

  “Well, it may not be a straightforward exercise. The asset in question is part of the Jaguar augment programme,” Wise said looking at Hammond.

  “Christ,” Hammond cursed under his breath, folding his arms.

  Royo sat back in his chair and rubbed his cheek. Hammond had been a supporter of the program but wanted full military jurisdiction over its execution. CIA Jaguar had won out in the end.

  “Who is it?” Hammond said

  “Nora Stone, our first successful candidate who was deployed in the field six months ago,” Wise replied.

  “What are we looking at, Ben?” Royo asked directly.

  “We don’t know yet, sir, she may have just gone silent, but she is not responding to communications or regular check-ins from the safe house in Jakarta. I wouldn’t normally bring something like this to your attention sir, but seeing as her discovery or capture would potentially raise the issue to a political level, I felt it best that you were informed personally,” Wise said.

  Royo looked at Hammond who was still staring at Wise.

  “Who have you sent after her?” Hammond said.

  “We’ve sent in Eddie Conrad with a small tech team to try and make contact. He’s there now and making good progress,” Wise said.

  Hammond turned to Royo.

  “Conrad?” Hammond said sounding surprised. “He’s on desk duty isn’t he?”

  “He was, General, but I’ve given him this field commission. He’s the best person for the job,” Wise replied

  Hammond turned to Royo who was sitting back in his chair waiting for someone to explain.

  “Commander Conrad is a good man sir, went through hell in Syria, was a heck of a Navy Seal before he was captured,” Hammond said, “he was under the command of Dylan Holt’s insertion team that was captured. Went through hell sir. He was the only survivor of the team.”

  “Todd’s brother?” Royo asked.

  Hammond nodded.

  “I see,” Royo replied leaning back in his chair, “What sort of augmentation are we talking about?” Royo asked.