“I just thought it would be fun. Perhaps I would meet a charming young man,” she said.
“Perhaps you have,” I said.
“Okay, stop,” she said, breaking the scene. “Not bad, but you still seem a little tense.”
“What do you suggest?” I asked.
Sarah paused for a moment.
“Let me put it this way. When you’re in a war or whatever, you have objectives, right?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Look at it this way. Just focus on the mission. Don’t worry about anything else other than the mission, which is to act out the scene,” she said.
“Okay,” I replied.
So, we redid the scene, except this time, I tried what she had taught me. My goal was to simply act out the scene.
“Why, hello there. Are you alone?” she said.
“Yes, I just returned home from the war. It was brutal and many people died,” I said.
“Oh my, that’s terrible.”
“I know. I have returned to relax and to meet a nice lady such as yourself.”
“Well, it looks like you came to the right place,” she said as she moved closer to me.
As she leaned in toward me, my heart skipped a beat.
“Do you have any plans later?” I asked.
“No. Why don’t you join me for a drink tonight?”
“I would love to.”
“Okay, stop. That was much better,” Sarah said.
We practiced acting some more. She was better at acting than I was. As we did the improv, I started to feel looser and more fluid in my actions. I didn’t feel so stiff and strict like I was. I felt like a part of my human side was waking up from a long slumber.
“You’re really good at this. What’s your secret?” I asked.
“Just loosen up, and have fun with the role,” she replied. “If you need any help, just let me know.”
“Thanks for all the lessons. Maybe now I can pass drama with a C-average,” I said as we both laughed.
“No problem. It just takes practice and loosening up a bit. You’ll get it,” she said.
“If there’s anything I can do in return, let me know,” I said.
“Show me something.”
“Like what?”
“Well, what are some of the things that you were trained in?”
“A variety of things. Hand-to-hand combat, tactics, weapon handling. The list goes on. Most generals don’t know some of the stuff I know,” I said.
“What about how to stand up to someone that is bothering you?” she asked.
“I could. Is this about Emily by any chance?”
Sarah sighed.
“Yes. Ever since seventh grade, she’s always given me problems. She would always make fun of me, put me down, and just treat me like shit.”
“Have you ever tried to stand up to her?”
“No. She kind of scares me.”
“What does she do to scare you?”
“It feels like she always knows what to say, and that she is seemingly one step ahead of me.”
“People like her are manipulative, mostly to cover up the fact that they’re highly insecure. The best thing you can do is use her insecurities to your advantage. For example, she always wears the best-looking clothes to look good. Use that.”
“But, how do you just stand up to a person like that?” she asked.
“Let’s try this. Think of it as a small play. Just pretend like it’s a performance,” I said.
“Makes sense. Did they teach you how to deal with mean girls in your training as well?”
“No. But they did teach us how to read our enemies and how to exploit their weakness in order to beat them.”
“That’s good to know,” she said.
I showed her what I knew, and we had a great time. I taught her some other self-defense techniques and some survival techniques as well. She also showed me some more acting techniques. We must have spent hours there.
I met with my therapist the next day to talk about what has happened lately. I walked in and sat on the faux-leather couch while she sat at her desk with a pad of paper in her lap.
“So, Alex, how are you?” she asked.
“Not doing so well,” I said.
“What’s the matter?” she said.
“Over the past month, a lot has happened. For example, during a pep rally, I had to go to the bathroom, only to be attacked by assassins. I had to kill them, and to this day it haunts me. Every time I hear a loud noise, I get reminded of the attack and it can’t make it stop,” I said.
“It sounds like you’re suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s common for people who have been in those situations. Why were those people trying to kill you?” she asked.
“They were actually some kind of test, to see if I was still an effective killing machine, sent by a terrorist organization called the Union. The next time they attacked, they unleashed a series of bio-weapons or mutants onto the town, causing damage and killing people,” I said.
“Why does this Union want to test you?”
“Because they wanted me to join them. During the night of the attack with the mutants, I went in with two other special agents to kill the bio-weapons. It turns out, they were former Omega Project kids that were experimented on and turned into mutants. I was then forced to kill all of them, one I had to fight hand to hand.”
“I see. What happened afterwards?” she asked.
“Another organization, called the STR, asked me to join them to go after the Union,” I said.
“Did you accept?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“And how do you think that will affect you?”
“To be honest, I really don’t know.”
“Well, let’s think about this. You spoke of a small group of assassins trying to kill you right?”
“Yes.”
“How do you think that has affected you?”
“Every time I walk near that bathroom, it is all I can think about. That’s not the only time I get the flashbacks. Every time I hear a loud noise, it feels like I’m surrounded, and I can’t get out.”
“That sounds like PTSD all right. One thing we can work on for now is breathing techniques. If at any time you’re reminded of the attacks, I want you to just stop and take a deep breath and keep breathing until you calm down. Another thing that I recommend you do is to spend more time with positive people in your life. It will help you to keep your mind off of the events. Later on, we will work on more techniques.”
“Why don’t we talk about school life? How’s school coming?”
“Fine. I have good friends. I’m getting good grades. I even joined the school academic team with my friend, Max.”
“Excellent. How do you like it?”
“Great. Other than the PTSD, school life is fine.”
“That’s good. Our time is up. Just remember to do your breathing if the flashbacks return, and we will work some more on it some other time.”
Chapter Seventeen
When I got home after my appointment, I went up to my bedroom, and laid down for a bit. A few seconds later, I got a call from the STR.
“Mathis here. Good news. We’ve got your first assignment. We need you to come in ASAP,” Mathis said.
“All right. I’m on my way,” I replied.
I sat in the living room, anxiously looking through the front window, waiting for the STR to send someone to pick me up. When my ride came, I made up an excuse to leave the house.
“Hey, I’m going to spend the night at a friend’s house,” I said as I went out the door.
“Okay,” Mom said as she was in the kitchen preparing dinner.
On my way to the base, I called Max.
“Hey, Max. It’s Alex. I got an assignment. I need you to cover for me, got it?” I asked.
“Sure thing,” Max replied.
I arrived at the STR base and met up with Mathis, who waited for me in his office along with Jack.
“Good to have you join us. We have been doing some searching on the whereabouts of Jackson, and we believe that we found something,” Mathis said.
“What did you find?” I asked.
“It appears that that Jackson had a connection with the Taliban, named Abdul Mikhail. He’s one of the Taliban’s leaders, and we believe that he may be the only lead we have on finding him,” he said.
He showed a picture of him on the big screen. He wore a green shirt, green pants, and boots. He also wore a green cap, sunglasses, and had a beard.
“Right, so what do we do?” I asked.
“We found a compound outside of Herat, Afghanistan, and we believe that he has been using it to sell the Type-1 serum on the black market. I’m sending you and Jack in to investigate the compound, to secure the area, and to find any evidence confirming that Mikhail was there,” he said.
“Were you guys able to get anything else? Preferably anything on the Type-2 serum?” I asked.
“Not much other than it was highly experimental and still in the early prototype stages, but we believe that some of the serum might be at this compound,” he replied.
“So, is this a stealth mission or can we go in guns blazing?” Jack asked.
“Whatever turns you on, Jack. Infiltrate or fuck up the place. I don’t care, just get the mission done,” John replied.
Once the briefing ended, we were sent in.
I went to the armory and suited up. I wore a black camouflage shirt and pants, steel-toed boots, knee and elbow pads, hard-knuckled gloves, and a tactical vest. For weapons, I grabbed the assault rifle that I got from the attack with the grenade launcher attached underneath the barrel, a pistol with laser sighting attached underneath to help improve accuracy, and, for melee, a karambit, a knife designed for underhand combat with a ring on the end and a curved blade.
We arrived at the compound by helicopter. I sat there thinking about the mission with my foot shaking up and down, waiting to arrive. Jack sat across from me with a light machine gun as his main weapon.
“So, Alex, how do you feel about your first mission?” Jack asked.
“A little nervous, but then again, I have been trained to carry out a laundry list of missions from basic sweeps to counterinsurgency,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. The first mission is always the hardest. Just remember to stay focused,” Jack said.
When we arrived, we got off the chopper by roping down. When we got down, Jack took the lead while I covered from behind. We moved from cover to cover quickly and quietly. We stopped just outside the compound and took out our binoculars to see what was going on in the facility.
The compound was an old shipping facility that was repurposed to sell the serum. There were trucks driving in and out of the facility, probably delivering supplies and picking up processed serum to sell on the black market. The facility had a good amount of guards protecting the area as well, all of them were well armed.
We split up. I went to the north entrance while he took the south entrance. I pressed on to the target area as I cleared the area of enemy soldiers. I started by shooting the two guards in front of the south entrance. I entered and took out four more guards quickly by shooting them, their blood splattering all over. I proceeded forward into the compound. There were two guards in front of me, standing side by side, both facing away from me. I took out my karambit and knifed one in the neck.
The other guard pointed his gun at me, but I blocked it by quickly grabbing the gun and knifing him in the neck. Blood poured out of his neck as he grabbed his neck. When we arrived at the target area, Jack and I found nothing.
“There’s nothing here,” I said.
“It doesn’t make sense. This compound is huge. There has got to be other places were the serum is,” Jack said.
“Maybe we should search the compound a little more,” I said.
We continued to search the compound. After some thorough searching, I found a clipboard containing shipment information, and Mikhail’s name was listed as the buyer. The clipboard also listed how much he bought and where it was being shipped to. It didn’t say anything on where it came from, or the name of the seller.
“This shows us all the places where Mikhail had shipped the serum,” I said.
“Right. Let’s get out of here, and make sure nothing happens to that list,” Jack said.
We called in the chopper for exfiltration. I saw TV screens showing surveillance footage of more soldiers arriving at the compound.
“Shit, there's more of them,” I said.
“They must have known we were coming,” Jack said.
“We have to push through them. It’s the only way,” I replied.
Soldiers began storming into the room, shooting at us nonstop, tearing the room up, and leaving nothing but smoke and bits of debris. Jack and I took cover and shot back. I shot two soldiers while Jack took out the other three. We then went to the hallway and encountered more soldiers. We stood side by side as we walked and shot more soldiers, tearing the hall into bits and pieces. I killed three more on the right while Jack took out the last four. I reloaded my gun, and Jack killed three more coming in as well as two more from the rear, shattering the glass on the door. We then arrived at the front of the warehouse. Two soldiers came in through the door, and I shot them. Three soldiers came from the hall to the left, and Jack killed them.
Jack and I stopped at the front door. I took cover on the right while Jack took cover on the left. I opened the door, and Jack threw a flashbang, stunning the soldiers outside, and we moved toward some boxes. I shot some more soldiers and killed two shooting at Jack, while he shot at the remaining soldiers. A truck came in through the front gate with more soldiers. I took out my grenade launcher, and quickly blew it up. The truck erupted into a ball of flames that sent debris and soldiers flying through the air. Once we secured the area, we quickly pushed toward the gate.
The remaining soldiers chased after us, and we sprinted to the extraction zone. The extraction zone was an open field with some gigantic rocks lying about. When we got there, the chopper had not arrived yet.
“Where is it?” I asked.
Jack spoke to the pilot on his radio and informed him it would take some time before it arrived.
“The chopper is on its way; we need to hold here for as long as we can,” Jack said.
“How long will it take?” I asked.
“ETA ten minutes,” Jack replied.
We took up defensive positions and prepared for the attack. We took some claymore mines and planted them in strategic locations to fend off any soldiers. Jack and I took cover behind some rocks.
Soldiers stormed us, and we fought them off. There were so many of them, gunfire erupted in all directions. The entire area became chaotic and loud, and I felt like I was playing a game of whack-a-mole because of all of the gunfire. I just sprayed my rifle toward them, killing as many soldiers as I could.
Some of the soldiers tripped the mines, killing a number of them, but they still kept coming. One of the soldiers shot a rocket launcher at us and hit a rock not too far from where we were. After he shot the rocket toward us, I immediately killed him before he could reload. We were almost out of ammo and heavily outnumbered. Finally, the chopper arrived. We got on and got the hell out of there.
When we got back to base, we reported to Mathis about what we found.
“Here’s all the data we could find. They must have moved all the serum out before we got there,” I said.
I handed the clipboard to Mathis.
“Not bad, not good either. The good news is that this is all we need to tie him to selling the serum,” he said as he looked it over.
“It’s a start. We will keep an eye out and inform you if anything comes up,” he said.
After the debriefing, I went back home. Max came over to do some research with me. We were in my bedroom looking things up on my computer.
“Okay, Abdul Mikhail. I found mostly the same stuff you
were told but more. He was linked to tons of bombings and has sold millions on the black market with the Type-1 and Type-2 serum,” Max said.
“Wow, where did you find all this?” I asked.
“I have a cousin who has a PhD in computer sciences, and he showed me all this deep web stuff where I could find all kinds of classified information on the world’s terrorists. He also works for the NSA,” Max said.
“Nice. So, now all we have to do is to find him and capture him. The question is how?” I asked.
We continued to do more research on Mikhail’s operations.
Chapter Eighteen
The next day, I went to class as usual. Sometimes I just kept thinking about the fighting. The more fighting I did, the more I craved it. That day, we got our first book report; it was The Odyssey. The assignment was to do a two-page paper on the book.
I read the book during lunch, but mostly I just stared at the pages, pretending to read. I mostly thought about all the fighting I did lately, while my friends talked about other things. I really wasn’t paying attention to what they were saying, and I practically drowned out almost everything else I heard. I was still pretending to read when Melissa touched my arm.
“Alex. Can I talk to you for a second?” she asked.
I immediately snapped out of it and put my book down.
“Sure, what’s up?” I replied as we left the table.
“Nothing. It’s just that the fight we had a couple weeks ago is kind of bothering me,” she replied.
“You mean in the hallway where I almost choked out Derek?” I asked.
“Yeah, that time,” she replied.
“Is there anything I can do about it?” I asked.
“Could you come over to my house tomorrow night?” she asked.
“Sure. What time?” I asked.
She told me the details of when and where. I wasn’t quite sure what else wanted other than to talk about the fight.
Later after school, I met up with the academic team after class in the library. We warmed up with one of the members quizzing us like we usually did. Soon, Mr. Hiller came in.
“Okay, guys. Around April, we have our academic decathlon. We will be competing with another high school in California, and the winner will receive ten thousand dollars for their school,” Mr. Hiller said.
The Omega Archives Page 11