Hunting Nora Stone

by Colin Weldon

  “Tarsis, this is Wise, report,” he said.

  “The Jaguar team has just gained access to the scene now, Director. Would you like me to get in closer?” replied Tarsis in a calm polite voice.

  “Negative Tarsis, hold your position, do not make contact and do not break cover. Observe and report only, is that understood?” Wise replied.

  “Affirmative,” Tarsis replied without hesitation.

  “Maintain an open channel and report the instant you have anything,” Wise said.

  “Affirmative,” Tarsis replied.

  Wise watched as Tarsis increased the magnification of his sight. He sat back in his chair and reached over to a cup of hot coffee sitting on a small side table. He sipped it slowly as Tarsis moved closer to the area of destruction presumably to get a better view of the chaos. The fires in the building looked to have been extinguished. There were several ground crews bringing out what looked like bodies covered in white sheets on flat beds. He watched as Eddie stopped one of them and lifted one side of the sheet, clearly to look at the arms. He nodded and replaced the sheet and began climbing over the rubble. Tarsis moved in closer.

  * * *

  Jakarta

  Eddie ducked under what was left of a support beam, stepping over a severed human arm as he did so. He had seen body parts in the field, lots of them. Some had belonged to friends. Some had been hacked off while they had still been alive. And he had been made to watch. There was no off-switch for how he felt, seeing bodies. But he ignored the trigger and moved on, pointing his torch along the support beam as he ran his hand over the scorched areas on the concrete.

  “What do you have?” he heard Abigail say from behind him.

  Eddie looked at his fingertips and up at the night sky.

  “Probably an AGM-114 hellfire, standard drone issue laser guided missile,” he said looking back at her. “What was she doing here?”

  “Standard isolation protocol,” Abigail replied. “They are trained to go dark, sometimes for months, should their location be compromised. There is no way a drone would have been able to find out that she was in this building, Eddie. The locations of safe houses are kept strictly classified. The augments are trained to pick a location without informing the agency in case of a data hack. It’s meant as a contingency against a foreign first strike event. That way, the enemy have no way of finding them.”

  Eddie shook his head. None of this made any sense.

  “She could be twenty feet under the rubble and we wouldn’t know for a month,” he said to her.

  Abigail shook her head.

  “I don’t think so Eddie,” Abigail said.

  “What make you so damn sure?” he asked her.

  “Because I’ve seen her. I know how she thinks. She’s a survivor,” Abigail replied.

  Eddie moved his torch around the rubble. There were rescue workers climbing around under a fallen wall. His torch bounced off their yellow helmets. They ignored him and continued to work.

  “Ok it’s activated,” said Hiran suddenly from a few feet away.

  He was holding something in his hand and moving it in circles over the ground. Eddie moved towards him.

  “What is?” Eddie shouted at him, illuminating him with his torch.

  Hiran looked up as Eddie met him on top of a pile of broken concrete.

  “Ground penetrating metallurgic scan,” Hiran said.

  Eddie glared at him.

  “Sorry, this device can detect the compounds that are unique to her robotic elements, her graphene-based joints for example. I’ve scanned the whole area down to eighty five feet. There’s nothing. She’s not here Eddie,” Hiran said.

  Eddie nodded and looked around the area. Something moving caught his eye on the roof of the adjacent building. He flashed his torch up to it in time to see the shape of a figure disappear behind a wall. He instinctively rested his hand on his side arm and unclipped the small strap holding it in place.

  “Now what?” Hiran said.

  “I need to see what happened here, you got that uplink yet?” Eddie said not taking his eyes off the far building.

  “I’ll have it in two minutes,” Hiran said.

  “Ok let’s get out of here, I think we’ve got company,” Eddie said.

  Abigail flashed her torch on the building. It looked deserted. Eddie paused for a moment. Maybe it was his imagination but he swore he could have seen someone looking at him. He told himself to relax. The carnage was making him jumpy. He turned his torch towards Abigail.

  “What’s her next move?” he asked her as he began moving across the rubble towards the ground level.

  Abigail sighed.

  “With this much heat on her, she’s gone. It’s time to check the airports,” she replied.

  “She’s not headed for an airport,” he said to her.

  The trio clambered their way over the debris until they reached the cordoned off perimeter. Eddie showed his credentials, which read US Secret Service, to the officer on the ground who waved them across the police ribbon.

  “Did we check the ports?” Hiran suddenly said from behind him.

  Eddie stopped and looked back at the young man. Why had he not thought of that? He gave Hiran a slight smile.

  “Get on it,” Eddie said as they made their way to the car.

  Hiran nodded as he put his scanning device back in his backpack, looking back at the destruction of the fallen building as he did so.

  “Let’s go, eyes front,” Eddie said looking back up at the building next to it.

  It was impossible to see inside the blackened windows, most of which had been blown out in the explosion. His instinct continued to tell him he was being watched. He reached up to his earpiece and activated it.

  “Jaguar three seven requesting air transport,” he said as he reached the car.

  “Jaguar three seven acknowledged. Proceed to rendezvous alpha nine one, there is a Chinook at your disposal,” came the instant reply.

  “Roger that,” Eddie replied lifting the door handle and getting into the car.

  He fired up the engine and waited until his team was on board before carefully driving off taking one last glance in the rear view mirror. Again, he could have sworn he saw a dark figure looking in their direction as they pulled away. He hit the gas and took off at speed away from the scene.

  Academy training facility A17

  Nevada

  The instructor looked at the two children surrounded by the other students. They faced each other calmly. Both had just turned eleven within a few days of each other. He lifted up the data pad and checked the biometric readouts of their robotic limbs. He made a visual inspection of their cybernetic implants. Their arms appeared to be working perfectly. The boy was due to have both legs replaced once a minor blood infection had cleared up. Today’s fitness test was to determine his strength for the procedure. The twenty-three students ranging in age from nine to seventeen sat silently watching the pair. They were dressed identically in black jumpsuits. Their complexions appeared white in the harsh fluorescent lighting. The instructor checked the heart rates of the two standing students and made some last minute adjustments to his readouts before stepping out of the circle. He was in little doubt as to how the fight would go. He had nicknamed the girl Artemis- after the Greek goddess of hunting and daughter of Zeus: the boy, Apollo.

  While not biologically related, the children were so close in age and ability the names seemed appropriate. They had trained and conditioned together, even had their procedures completed on their respective tenth birthdays. The instructor considered them a formidable and valuable team. He had objected to this test but his superiors demanded evidence. Any sign of weakness was to be exposed quickly due to the investment required in each of the trainees. He looked up at the pair and placed a silver whistle in his mouth. He glanced at the two way mirror and nodde
d at those viewing behind it. He paused for a moment before blowing his whistle.

  The two children quickly adopted defensive postures, picked up two sharpened metal staffs that were on the ground and waited. The instructor looked at the two of them carefully, then blew his whistle for a second time. The two immediately lunged at each other spinning their staffs around with blinding speed, and the dexterity and skill of master martial artists. The two weapons made contact. The sound of metal on metal reverberated around the room. The instructor checked his data pad for feedback from the arm implants. Artemis sank quickly to her knees and spun around attempting to make contact with Apollo’s legs. He reacted quickly and leaped over her strike countering by plunging his iron staff downwards towards her back.

  Within a split second, she rolled out of the way, narrowly missing the attack. The staff struck the concrete floor causing an explosion of sparks. The instructor watched their blank expressions as they continued to spar. Artemis, with her shaved head, looked more like a graceful Shaolin monk. Her movements were smooth, controlled. She moved her staff around her body with strength and precision. With a swift kick she made contact with Apollo’s mid section sending him tumbling onto his side. She jumped into the air and thrust her staff towards his fallen body. Apollo reacted quickly by raising his staff with both arms and blocking her attack. He let out a growl as he used the full strength of his arms to hold her back. The instructor now saw something else in Artemis’s eyes. Ferocity. Apollo brought his knee up, planting it straight into her mid-section and flung her over his head. She hit the ground hard but flipped herself to one side, getting to her feet again and back into an attacking position. Apollo raised his legs back and flipped himself onto his feet, turning to face her. He spun his staff quickly and swung neatly at the right side of her head. She blocked and countered it by lifting her staff sharply, connecting with his chin. She immediately spun, leaving Apollo off balance, and landed a full force blow to the side of his head. Apollo tumbled to the floor, losing the grip on his staff. It fell on the ground. Artemis took advantage of the disorientated Apollo and landed two more blows onto his body. One on his back and one on his side.

  Apollo collapsed onto the ground. Blood began to slide down the side of his face. Artemis walked slowly over to the fallen boy and placed her bare foot on his neck, raising the sharpened steel staff over his neck. The instructor watched her as she paused looking down at the young face. He thought he saw sadness in her eyes. He frowned at her hesitation. While he had no wish to lose another trainee, Apollo was clearly too weak to continue the program.

  “Finish it,” The instructor said.

  The instructor looked into the young boy’s eyes and recognised the expression instantly. He was afraid.

  “Finish it,” The instructor said again, taking a step towards her.

  Artemis looked down at Apollo and took a breath. She brought the iron staff above her head and in one swift motion brought it down onto the young boy’s chest. There was a sharp clinking sound as the staff penetrated the body and made contact with the ground underneath his fallen body. The young boy lay there, a pool of blood now forming under the lethal wound. There was silence in the hall. Artemis continued to stare at her prey. The instructor thought he heard her whisper something under her breath. The others looked on in silence. He blew his whistle again and Artemis stepped off Apollo’s body, took a step back and placed her robotic hands behind her back. The instructor looked up at the two-way mirror. He looked back at his trainees.

  “Class dismissed,” he said to the group.

  The others stood and formed a neat line, one behind the other. Artemis placed the bloodied staff on the ground and joined the line, following her peers as they made their way out of the hall in perfect unison. The instructor waited until they were gone and looked back up at the mirror.

  “Extract the tech and dispose of that,” came the sound of a male voice over an intercom.

  The instructor nodded and looked back at the bloodied body of the young boy. He raised his hand and saluted him.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The Grand Elder took the cutter off the oak table and snipped the end of his Arturo Fuente cigar. He placed it in his mouth and lit the last match he had before crumbling the box in his hand and throwing it in the trash. He let the flame penetrate the rolled tobacco as he pulled in the smooth smoke while delicately rolling it between his fingers. He let the smoke linger in his mouth before gently blowing it out. Settling back into the large leather chair in the centre of his private library, he gazed at the large screens overhead and checked that the latest planned movements on the stock exchange were taking effect. They were. He switched his attention to the screen next to it. It showed the camera link up to the main robotics lab. He took another puff of his cigar and watched as Shaw tinkered away at his latest creation. He heard the creak of the door and turned to see Number Three walk in. The overhead light bounced off his bald head. His wooden cane clunked off the wooden floor as he approached. The Grand Elder waited until he had lowered his overweight body into a leather chair opposite him, then turned back to the screens.

  “We should have terminated her sooner,” said Number Three.

  The Grand Elder ignored him, his eyes shifting from one screen to the next. He glanced at the overhead shot of the Oval Office. It was currently vacated..

  “It does not matter,” said The Grand Elder, “What these people do is no concern of ours.”

  “Maybe so, but it disrupts the elegant flow of our structure,” said Number Three as he coughed.

  “The flow naturally wavers now and again, but only within a given number of conceived outcomes. Any one will do,” said The Grand Elder. “Summon Wise.”

  “Yes sir,” said Number Three.

  “Stone is proving to be quite resourceful,” said The Grand Elder.

  “Yes she is,” said Number Three.

  “It should at least prove to be entertaining,” said The Grand Elder.

  “Yes sir, that it should,” said Number Three.

  The Grand Elder lifted the ash-laden cigar up to his mouth and inhaled deeply. Smoke billowed into the dark room.

  02:33

  The Chinook helicopter lifted off from Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport and soared into the sky. Eddie took great comfort in the fact that after fifty years, it was still one of the most powerful aircraft in the military. With its twin Honeywell engines producing 4,733 horsepower apiece, it was incredibly stable, especially when flying over the ocean in rough winds. Hiran was strapped tightly into his seat, immersed in his computer. Abigail was sitting beside him looking over his shoulder. The helicopter dipped suddenly, entering a pocket of low air pressure, causing Hiran to grip onto his harness. He turned a shade paler. Eddie smiled at him. The last time he was in this particular type of aircraft, it had been hit with an RPG ripping a hole in the tail section. The resulting crash had led to six months of hell. He tapped his headset, activating the comm link.

  “You got a link up to our birds?” he asked Hiran partly to distract the young man.

  Hiran looked like he was about to be sick.

  “Yeah we got it, I’ve access to all naval and shipping routes that have left and are leaving in the next twenty four hours.” Hiran swallowed hard.

  “Nothing at the airports?” Eddie asked.

  “Nothing on the facial recognition anywhere,” Hiran replied.

  “Get me every ship that’s left in the last six hours,” Eddie asked.

  Hiran went back to his laptop.

  “Get me a link up to central, I want to talk to Miller,” he added.

  Hiran nodded. Within a few seconds his earpiece chirped.

  “This is Jaguar central,” came Miller’s voice.

  “We’re not alone out here, sir,” Eddie said cutting to the chase, “I think we’ve got a tail. Is there anyone else assigned to this operation?”

/>   Abigail frowned at him looking confused.

  “Negative, we have no other operatives in the field on this one,” Miller responded. “What did you see?”

  Eddie thought about giving him a report but suddenly realised that he would sound ridiculous. Calling in hunches was not something a field op did.

  “It’s probably nothing,” Eddie said rubbing his brow. He was getting tired. What time was it?

  “Have you gotten a location on the target?” Miller asked.

  Eddie regretted calling in.

  “Not yet. We think she may have left the country,” Eddie said.

  “Goddam it,” Miller said, “Eddie, get a grip on this thing quickly. This has been run up the flag pole to the very top; we’re getting serious heat over here, you copy?”

  Eddie gritted his teeth.

  “I’ll get her. I’ll report back in shortly, I need analysis on all sea-bound craft and dock yards, and you need to alert local military assets that we’re about to cross into restricted airspace,” Eddie said.