by Brian Cotton
***
Harvey used the small mirror to get a peek inside the fifth floor computer room. Agents were spread all over the place inside. It was obvious, from the moment the resistance’s presence was felt, that this room was a priority for them to defend. Harvey wouldn’t have been shocked if someone told him that every available Agent in the building was sent in to defend this room. Harvey’s fear was not that they were outnumbered. He trusted his men to take care of that. What scared him was how Clarke would react.
Inside the computer lab sat a large computer with a 40” HD monitor with eight hard drives plugged into it. There were also desks around in three rows of five. The desks had computers of their own. The Agents inside, dressed in all black with black helmets, were armed with M4 Carbines and huddled together, waiting for the inevitable breach into the room. The LED lights illuminated the room from above and reflected off of their goggles.
After he put away the mirror, he looked over to his left to see all the men under his command leaned up against the wall. He reached into his flak jacket for a flash bang and then held up all five fingers. He dropped them one at a time and, when he reached the final finger, he pulled the pin and threw the grenade into the room. A few seconds later a bright flash filled the room as well as the deafening sound from the flash bang.
The Agents inside immediately started to backpedal and aimed their assault rifles towards the opening. There were scattered shots as they moved back which hit the walls all around the room. A couple of Agents stumbled into the desks behind them as they moved back and they fired their guns into the floor as they hit.
“MOVE IN!” Harvey cried.
The rebels moved into the room and took advantage of their brief moment of surprise. Harvey was in first and took out an Agent who hit one of the desks. He then moved his gun to the right and took another one out who scrambled for cover. The others moved in behind him and took positions around the room. Kaspar was in the room next to last and he had to almost drag Clarke into the room. As the hearing in his ears started to come back he could hear Clarke’s protests.
“Get in there!” Kaspar cried, ignoring them.
Kaspar pushed Clarke in front of him with his left hand. His right hand gripped the handle of the Kriss with the index finger on the trigger. As they moved forward into the opening, Kaspar raised the submachine gun, found a target, and held his finger down on the trigger. The gun fired on full auto and took out Kaspar’s target.
The depleted caps on the rounds arched into the air and a few landed on the back of Clarke’s neck. He winced in pain as Kaspar continued to guide him towards one of the desks for cover. He took another Agent out in the process. When they approached the desk, Kaspar gave the Wizard a hard shove to the back, which forced the leftover to go flying towards the cover spot. Kaspar, with his head still ducked low, sat down beside him.
“You okay?” Kaspar cried over the gunfire in the room.
“I…I’m fine. Just cover my…” Clarke started to say.
An Agent moved towards their position. He was over the side of the desk with his gun drawn at Clarke. Out of pure instinct, Kaspar aimed and fired. The rounds tore through the Agent as he fell to the ground. Had Clarke’s eyes not been covered Kaspar would have been able to see the wide eyed look on his face.
“Just stay down!” Kaspar ordered before he rose up to continue the fight.
On the other side of the room, Harvey had just taken out another Agent and bent down behind cover to reload. The silent rebel who was so nervous before became a war machine in the heat of battle. He emptied the last of his mag into an Agent, his fourth kill, and moved back down beside his leader.
Kaspar took aim at an Agent in front of him and fired. He had just enough time to see one of his comrades go down and then another. Kaspar aimed towards the direction of the second rebel’s killer and fired off several rounds on full auto. He then aimed left to take out another. A flurry of enemy rounds came flying in his direction from three Agents, so he moved back down to cover. He reloaded his Kriss and checked on the status of his friend. Clarke gave him a thumbs up.
The Agents’s numbers were starting to dwindle. Harvey popped up and took another one out. He managed to get a quick count on how many were left. There were four, maybe five if one was hiding somewhere. As he went down he heard the sound of automatic gunfire and the cries of a comrade. The man fell to the ground and Harvey wondered if it was another volunteer. If so, the silent man next to him was the last of them. What the hell did those leftovers give him? Even Clarke lasted longer than the supposed hardened soldiers. Harvey felt guilt for thinking that way, but he couldn’t help it. The mission now seemed to be going very bad.
Kaspar moved to the side of the desk. He placed his Kriss along the side of it and fired. The rounds chewed into the desk directly in front of him, causing the Agent using the desk for cover to expose himself. Before a flurry of rounds came Kaspar’s way he saw the Agents start to aim their weapons at the large computer hard drives. A moment of panic swept over him.
“They’re going for the computers!” Kaspar cried.
“You can’t let them…take them out!” Clarke added.
Harvey turned to his new partner. With a nod of his head the man seemed to understand what he was saying. They both moved up from behind the desk and fired away at the Agents. The Agents turned their attention to them and fired their way. Harvey kept his head low and moved forward as he took out one of the Agents in front of him. The rebel beside took another one out. Kaspar provided cover fire from his position at the front of the room.
A few stray rounds hit the computers but they remained intact. With his new silent partner beside him, Harvey scanned the room for targets. Kaspar kept his gun firing on full auto keeping the last three Agents in their hiding spots. Kaspar’s gun went dry and he moved back behind the desk to reload.
“You ready for this?” Harvey asked.
“You bet.” a familiar, albeit deeper, voice replied.
Harvey didn’t take the time to process the voice he heard. Instead, he focused his full attention to the hiding spot where the last Agents were. As predicted, they moved up from their cover spots when the gunfire ceased. When they did, the two rebels started to fire away at them. They instantly moved in different directions.
“Left!” Harvey cried.
His partner turned his attention to the left while Harvey took out the Agent to his right. The last Agent started to back pedal and fired his gun towards the computers. Harvey and his partner quickly took him out.
“Clear!” Harvey yelled.
.64
“Shit, this is not good.” Clarke said as he pulled up a chair, his damp, gray hair dripping from the back of his Balaclava.
“What the hell are you going to do?” Kaspar asked. He knew that something was off when Clarke used a swear word.
“I’m going to try.”
Harvey moved in behind them. “You going to be able to salvage anything?”
“We’ll see.”
“We’ve got to raise that flag, you two going to be okay by yourselves?”
“You serious?” Kaspar asked. “Not if there’s another hit squad like that coming for us.”
“I don’t think so. They’ve got enough problems outside. I’ve got to accomplish this mission.”
Clarke cleared his throat as he feverishly got his tech gear out of his bag. “This is a part of the mission.”
“I told you before, this is a secondary objective. Everything we’ve done so far will be in vain if that flag isn’t raised.” Harvey replied.
“Just go,” Kaspar said. “I’ll watch his back here. Just hurry the hell up.”
“Okay, if you get overrun, just call for us on the radio.” Harvey pointed to his partner. “You, come with me.”
His partner simply nodded.