Disclaimer: I don't own any HB characters and I'm not making any
money anyway.
*Note: A couple of curses scattered at the end.
Categories: Action, V
Author: Michelle aka Bryne
Missions
Jessica Bannon looked warily down the corridor of
the abandoned factory. All seemed quiet, too quiet. Holstering her knife
she slipped her gun to her left hand and brought up the small radio transmitter
she was wearing. Pulling it close to her mouth, she spoke softly into it,
radioing the others.
“What’s up guys?” she asked almost silently. There
was no response, signaling that the others were just as lonely as she was.
Jessica pushed the device back into place and rechecked her cartridges.
In all the years she had been doing this, she could
never stop being paranoid that the minute the fighting started she’d find
her barrel empty. It was full, just as it had been three minutes ago. Shoving
the barrel back in, she ran through the plan in her head once more. She
was to lead the Alphas in, secure the warehouse to the best of her ability,
then sneak out the “packages”. Everything had been going just as it had
been planned, and that, more than anything else, worried her.
She knew she had to stay calm, worrying in situations
like this never did any good and besides, it would panic the others. She
had to be a good example and keep everything running smoothly. That was
her job, to lead the best that I-1 had into the unknown…and to bring them
back again. There had been more close calls than she would like to remember
but so far, she was living up to her job. Not once had she lost a member
of her six person team, and she most certainly didn’t plan on starting
now.
Breathing deeply to reach her center, Jessica closed
her eyes briefly before giving the go ahead to the others. Silently she
slipped around the corner and through the hallway, the silence echoing
off the walls louder than anything. With a cat like grace she made her
way through the seemingly empty building, keeping to the shadows.
A slight noise startled her and she jumped, her hands catching the
ceiling and grabbing the air vent. In a single, smooth motion, Jessica
pushed the gate closing it back, hauled herself up, and in, replacing the
gate as quietly as she had removed it. Safely in the smallish air vent,
she sat, straining to catch the noise again. A pittering sound grew steadily
stronger as soldiers approached. Jessica smiled in the dark, unworried
by their arrival. She could take care of them all before they knew anything
was happening.
*****
Cautiously, Jessica peered through the gate blocking
the tight vent even as she pushed back a wave of claustrophobia. It was
to tight in there, her mind screamed at her to get out, into the open.
Fiercely she pushed it down, fighting the instincts that told her to run.
She had work to do, she couldn’t be bothered by a stupid thing like fear.
Opening the vent she expertly dropped down, landing
in a crouched position, her head up, ears perked, and right hand on the
floor to balance her. Her left still held the gun. Hearing nothing, she
rose in one fluid motion and began walking, still keeping her ears trained
to detect any slight sounds. As of yet, no one knew that the building had
been infiltrated and after the way she had dealt with the patrollers, no
one was going to find out either.
Quickening her pace, she reached an ordinary side
room in record time. Cocking her gun, she let it in first, following closely
behind. The room was empty and she hurried in, shutting the door behind
her. Keeping up the pace, she went over to the wall and tapped three times.
The wall slid open, revealing a hidden passageway and Jessica stepped through.
Traveling down the tunnel like entrance was almost
as bad as crawling through the vents because of the narrow twists and turns.
Eager to reach the team Jessica pushed on. Eventually, the path led to
a single opening. There, she hesitated. If they had been found out she
would be blasted the moment she stepped through the door, but there was
only one other way to go, and that was back through yards of confining
space. Jessica opted to deal with the bullets.
*****
She had been lucky, they all had. The men whose
building they had infiltrated hadn’t found them, the “packages” were safely
stored, and in a few seconds they would all be out of there. It had been
too easy, much too easy. Looking over her checklist one last time Jessica
wasn’t aware Tracker had approached until he was at her side.
“Is it just me, or did this whole thing go over
just a bit to well?” he signed, anxious to get out. Jessica didn’t answer,
she wasn’t expected to. The question had been rhetorical, asked to keep
her on guard.
“Keep your eyes open,” she signed back, her face
dark with suspicion. Motioning the rest of group, Jessica grabbed the nearest
box and began to load up. The others followed suite and moved the “packages”
into place and disconnected the equipment in the room, shutting off computers
and monitoring systems as they went. Finished with that, the group broke
in two with four of the agents going with the confiscated goods and the
other two serving as both a backup and a distraction.
Jessica grabbed Tracker’s arm as she headed out
the door, leaving the others behind.
*****
The four were in the clear, safe from harm and relatively
far away from the warehouse. The hardest part of the mission was over.
Jessica had just to get herself and Tracker out and it would be over.
Slinking down the halls the two moved without moving,
undetected, one with the darkness that hid them. BANG! A bullet whizzed
past Jessica’s head, just missing her. Instantly, she dove for cover behind
a turn in the hall. From her side, Jessica could hear Tracker firing at
the attackers, protecting both their backs. Signing over to him she gave
the signal to back off and try to get out. He acknowledged, leaving her
to take care of the dopes with the guns.
Making sure he was safely away, Jessica holstered
her gun. Then, she closed her eyes, letting her mind relax and slip, clearing
all thoughts. For what she had to do next, thinking would only hurt her.
She didn’t need to think right now, just act. She had been trained to do
this, born and bred into this line of work, created for this. Her nerves
tingled in anticipation even as she felt her whole body unwind, eager for
battle.
“AAHH!!” Jessica roared, emitting a blood-curdling
war cry as she charged forward and around the corner, right at the attackers.
*****
There were four of them, just sitting there in a
row, almost like ducks. They were holding their guns, a blank statement
covering every one of their stupid faces as she came at them. Headless
of the danger to herself, Jessica charged on, barreling on them. For a
moment they were so bewildered they couldn’t move, couldn’t blink or look
away. So captivated were they, they could barely breathe for fear of missing
something. It was the man on the far side who snapped out of it first,
waking enough to bring his gun around, down to bear on her. Unfortunately
for him he was to slow, he had waited to long to react.
Before he could get the first shot off, Jessica
dove to the ground in front of them, her hands catching the impact as she
made a ball and rolled across the floor. Continuing
on to the side she sprang out of the ball up into the air. Coming back
down, she hit the ground solidly. In response her legs coiled under her
like springs and in a second she was bouncing back up in again, her body
rolling into a ball even as she shot like a bullet into the air, creating
a graceful ark over all their heads.
Coming out of the front tuck, she landed on her feet and kicked out
using a roundhouse to smack into her nearest attacker. It caught him squarely
in his chest and knocked the wind out of him, sending him into the wall
where he smacked his head and fell, sprawling to the ground.
Seeing this, one of his companions rushed at her
in a full hurl, his arms swinging wildly to get momentum and his head bent
downward. Neatly, Jessica sidestepped the rush and caught his right arm
in a single movement. Taking it, she twirled it in a wind mill motion back
behind his ear so fast it caused a sick snapping sound from the bone. The
man howled angrily as he pulled the injured limb away and came at her for
another round. This time she grabbed the other arm and swung him off the
ground, sending him into the wall where the other man had crashed.
Heedless of the abuse his friends had taken, another
one came at her and grabbed her by the shoulders, gripping her painfully.
Jessica swung her neck back and jerked it forward, catching him in the
face and smashing his nose in with her forehead. The man staggered but
shook off the pain and, with the fourth man coming around her other side,
went for her. Just as they reached her, Jessica jumped up and over, allowing
the two to bump into each other. They fell onto the others, the one holding
his bleeding nose and the other looking dazed.
Jessica bent down and picked them up by their heads,
slamming them together and knocking them out. Letting go, she watched as
they fell onto their unconscious partners, out cold. Jessica stepped back
to admire her handy work and make sure they were really out. From their
belts, she stole their guns and relieved them of any other weaponry they
were carrying. Not one to take chances, Jessica stripped the four down
to their underwear and tied their legs and arms together using shreds of
their clothing. Not many men felt comfortable about running around in their
boxers in the middle of a military base.
Grabbing her small ‘munitions cartel Jessica headed
off to rendezvous with the others.
*****
Traveling along through the building, Jessica saw
that the team had also encountered some minor interferences. From surveying
the piles of limp bodies that represented what passed for security in the
building strategically placed in a path, she surmised they hadn’t had too
much of a problem dealing with them. It was funny, seeing them all there
playing the part of breadcrumbs in case the team got lost. For a moment
Jessica felt a twinge of pity, the men were young and hadn’t deserved to
die like this, but it had been their own fault. Jessica shook her head
sadly and said a small prayer for the men.
Jessica was about to continue on when something
caught her eye. A control box of some sort was located in the room on the
far wall. Deciding to investigate, Jessica trotted over and, breaking the
lock, opened it. Peering in, she felt a smile twinge her lips. This was
just what she needed to wrap things up.
*****
“Oh, man I need a vacation,” Jessica said, rubbing
her sore right shoulder as she walked next to one of the most handsome
men in the agency.
Tom chuckled softly as he looped his arm around
her. “You’re just lucky you made it out of there in one piece. From what
I heard, if you’d been one minute slower getting out, you would have gotten
blasted when those Thunderbirds ripped through and detonated the place.”
The two were at HQ, resting after the stressful and tiring mission. The
corridors were spacious and well lit, a comforting atmosphere and much
more pleasant than the dank hiding spaces the agents usually found themselves
in.
“I know,” she said as a chill ran up her spin causing
her to shiver slightly. It was scary to think of how close she had come
to death. Scarier still to think that if it had come down to it, she wouldn’t
have been able to save herself or her friends. There was nothing she could
have done.
“So,” Tom said sensing her discomfort and trying
to change the topic, “what’s our little Ivy going to do now? I mean, now
that this is over?”
Jessica allowed a smile to form on her face. “It’s
far from over, Tom. Just because we’ve got the proof we need to stop all
of this, doesn’t mean our job is over. In fact, now that we’ve got the
information to bring this slavery cartel the government’s got going with
kids to light, our work is just starting. It’s going to take a lot of work
on our part if we’re going to save all those kids, the sons and daughters
of the I-1 agents, from turning into government puppets before puberty.”
“And what about us? Who’s going to save us? Those
bureaucratic assholes took away our childhoods when they brought us here.
It’s too much sometimes. I’m eighteen and my future is me staring down
a gun barrel, just waiting for some crack pot terrorist to blow my brains
out the back of my head,” Tom’s voice had become bitter as he thought of
what life held for him and the others. Jessica had no reply.
It was times like these when she wished her father
was more cautious about things. If he had only read the contract he had
signed, binding both him and his first born child to the service of the
government, like so many other agents. One clause had changed the course
of her life, enslaving her during the prime of her life after stealing
her childhood from her.
To make sure they would get their free agent, the
government had ruined her parents’ marriage, intentionally sabotaging their
relationship and causing them to divorce. If they had stayed married, there
would have been no way for them to occasionally “borrow” Jessica for her
specialized training, or then posts and sample missions, and finally field
assignments. It was so easy for a government worker to send a message to
both her parents, saying she was with the other. They never even knew the
difference.
And it wasn’t just her. There were so many of them,
all stolen from their parents to serve and protect. Or at least there had
been at one time. The rigorous training had killed several, the test missions
had killed more, and the government just kept going. It hadn’t mattered
to them that only three fourths of the “recruits” remained, if anything
it had encouraged them. That was before the first actual field assignment.
The whole thing had been a trap, a slaughterhouse for the agents, most
just reaching sixteen. Of the dozen squads that had gone in, two had come
out. Before that day the dozen squads, small family units composed of six
members, each so close they should have been siblings, had been highly
competitive. They fought with other squads, challenging one another to
all kinds of contests. They were like rival lion prides, each self-contained
with little thought of the others save condescension.
That assignment, though, had changed everything. What had been left
of them had warily teamed up, at first not trusting each other but eventually
becoming a family. Following orders while at the same time disobeying in
any way they could they prepared for the time when they would put an end
to the government’s child slave labor.
“I don’t know what you want me to say Tom,” she
replied finally. “I’m just doing the best I can to keep everyone alive
until everything’s ready and we can get the hell out of here. We just have
to take it one day at a time.” Jessica squeezed Tom gently, comforting
the both of them. They stood there for a while, holding each other.
*****
A sudden tap on her shoulder brought Jessie back
to reality. Jessica snapped her head up, not knowing how long she had been
standing there with Tom. Sighing, she and Tom broke away from each other
as she rotated her head to face the person who had tapped her.
“It’s time,” Tracker signed. Jessica nodded and
turned back to Tom. She looked up at him, trying to block out the anger
and hurt in his eyes.
“Guess you’d better be leaving or you’ll be late
getting home. We wouldn’t want that father of yours to worry about his
little girl,” he said angrily. Jessica’s eyes clouded over with pain, she
hated it when people made her father out to be a bad guy. It hurt her as
much as if they had said it about her. Seeing her change, Tom’s face softened.
Gently, he leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. “You’re the most important
thing in my life, Ivy, and that uncle of mine had better take good care
of you. If he doesn’t, he’ll have to answer to me. Now,” he said whispered
as he pushed her away, “get lost brat.”
*****
“Well, well, would you look who’s still sleeping
after her trip home from her mother’s,” Jonny Quest called out mockingly
from the foot of Jessie’s warm, comfortable, welcoming bed. “Hey, Hadj,
what’s the penalty for sleeping in on the weekends?” Jess ignored the loud
blond, snuggling deeper into the cocoon of her blankets.
“I am not sure,” Hadji answered his brother, stepping
up to the bed where Jessie was trying to sleep. “I do believe that the
water torture could be applied in this particular instance.” His eyes shone
almost as brightly as Jonny’s as he hoisted the large bucket of ice water
up over Jessie. Jonny brought up his own and using a free hand counted
to three.
“AAAAHHHHH!” Jessie shrieked as the freezing water
cascaded down, drenching the bed her covers, and especially her. She jumped
up, off the bed and went rolling onto the floor.
“Yeah. Mission accomplished man!” Jonny yelled triumphantly
as he and Hadji took off, getting out of the room and away from Jessie
as fast as they could. From the ground Jessie could hear their cries of
victory as they flew down the hallway, making a beeline for the front door
and freedom.
Jessie grimaced as she moved to get up, the wet
pajamas sticking to her bare skin. There were times when she almost missed
the field assignments.
*****
Comments, questions, raven haired men? Send all to curtin@fcc.net
