Eminent Silence

by Tristan Carey

  The momentum of the shield spun me on my heel. As I recovered, I faced Skye and Fitz. He had taken cover behind Skye, who went ramrod straight. Their eyes followed the shield warily, before throwing me disapproving looks.

  I gave them a sheepish grin. 'I'll, uh, I'll get the hang of it, I swear.' Then, to change the subject, I added, 'Right now, we're on the fifth floor. The twins will be in a lab on the second floor. We can access the security system from the computers there. Agents Ward and Simmons will probably be somewhere nearby.'

  'And how do we get to the second floor?' Fitz asked, pulling out from behind Skye, drone controller in hand.

  'Stairs,' I said immediately, pointing as I started to jog. 'This way. We should hurry, it won't take them long to notice something's up.'

  The boy was fast. He shouted in a language I didn't understand. The Crucible spoke Russian; they taught me, but not the siblings.

  I knew they were brother and sister, when the brother strikes a blow across my jaw — retaliation for throwing his sister against a wall. They're protective of each other, but the brother was more aggressive when provoked, didn't let his sister get too close to me.

  It reminded me of someone. A smile, a laugh. Brown eyes behind glasses.

  This other boy's face comes out of nowhere in my head. I knew him. I struggled to remember his name. I couldn't. It's distracting.

  Distracting enough for the brother to land a punch.

  He was fast. Faster than anything I've seen, anything else here.

  But he was sloppy. They didn't train him to fight. Not like me. His blow knocked me down, but I take him with me. I land on top, pin him to the ground.

  He's only fast when he ran.

  We make it to the stairwell unhindered. I disabled two more cameras along the way. Fitz leaves behind a drone in the hallway, a 'breadcrumb' of sorts to make sure the way was clear when we came back through.

  I peered up the stairwell. I could see shadows, hear bootsteps, but nothing rushed. No one knew we were here yet. Giving the signal to Skye and Fitz, I started up the steps, keeping to a crouch to soften my steps.

  Another guard on the fourth floor landing. His back was to me. He turned just as I reached him. His mouth goes open for a shout just as I clamp my hand over it. I grabbed his weapon, jerked it out of his grip before he could fire, and kick out his legs from beneath him. I finished by delivering the butt of his rifle to his face.

  The guard goes from standing to unconscious in less than two seconds. It's done entirely in silence. I want to maintain our stealth for as long as possible.

  Skye and Fitz just reach the landing to watch me finish him off. I tried to ignore their gaping looks as I started up the next flight of stairs.

  They were huddled in a corner again. The room was large, empty, like a gym, but no windows. The scientists were testing the brother's speed - bringing the sister along to keep him complacent.

  The boy was now out of breath, exhausted after what seemed like hours of running laps on the track. There are scorch march on the tarmac, friction burns from his speed. There was a faint smell of ozone in the air. The scientists handed out rations. They don't feed him enough.

  The sister was sullen, quiet. She wore a collar, a dog on her leash. I watched as the boy already rail-thin, giving her half of his bread.

  She tried to give it back. He insisted with a smile. I look down at my own piece of bread. I lost my appetite a long time ago.

  Two guards were making their way down the second floor landing. They didn't see me, only saw the silver shield and red star as it came charging up the steps. I slammed into both of them at the same time, using the shield to absorb the blow.

  Both guards, male and female, hit the steps hard. One tumbled down the steps. The other tried to pick herself back up. I swung my arm. The shield bounced off her head, which hits the wall, and she slumped, unconscious.

  'Hey!'

  Surprised, I looked up to see two more Crucible agents coming down from the first floor. They gape at me, and for a second we stare at each other, frozen in shock. I wondered what they thought when they saw me, dressed as I was.

  My hand was already going for the pistol. It was too far to engage in physical combat, and I didn't like the angles to try throwing my shield again.

  At same time, they reached for their weapons.

  I was faster.

  A quickdraw. The Night-Night gun fired off two rounds before either agent could bring their weapon to bear. Both drop like a bucket of rocks, crashing down the steps in a clatter of flesh and metal, before landing at a heap in front of the second floor door.

  The scientists was distracted with their work — data, calculators, animated debate with jargon I didn't understand. I wasn't supposed to. I shouldn't be listening.

  They didn't even acknowledge me now. They already knew that the assimilation was successful. I was there as a guard. Watching the siblings. Learning the smaller facets of the Crucible's operation.

  They didn't even notice when I step away.

  When I approached them, the brother and sister shrink away. The brother placed himself between me and the girl. I saw it in his eyes. The fear. He thought I was ordered to hurt them again.

  Instead, I stopped, a safe distance. Back stiff, bootsteps heavy. I couldn't look at them directly. It was hard to focus on their faces. Looking too hard reminded me of something I used to be.

  The brother stares when I extend my hand, the bread between my fingers.

  The girl whispered something in his ear. After a moment of hesitation, the boy took my bread. A slight nod was all the thanks I got.

  It's enough. I didn't say anything to them the entire time. I turn on my heel and return to my post as if nothing happened.

  Fitz' drones scouted ahead into the lab. He left two more behind. We hunkered down around his screen. It's nighttime so there are less personnel about. Our presence was still unknown here. It would've been a completely different story had we come during the daytime.

  'There seems to be three scientists,' Fitz squinted at his screen, his fingers working the controls. 'And six guards. And those look like cages —'

  A gunshot rang out, then a shout.

  Fitz cursed, banged the screen against his knee. 'Damn! They took out Sleepy!'

  'Let's go!' Skye took us by the shoulders, lifted us up. 'Before they see the others and figure out what's going on.'

  I didn't have to be told twice. Running ahead, I brought up the Night-Night gun, swung around the corner.

  A suspicious guard had just stepped out of the lab, alerted by the presence of the drone. He had his gun aloft, but was unconscious before he could fire. I leapt over his body and slid into the lab, ducking under the first counter I saw.

  I thought for sure my cover was blown. I kept my shield up, just in case, but no gunfire went off. But nothing happened. I looked up as Skye and Fitz skidded in beside me, keeping low.

  Then, from somewhere in the room, a shaky voice called out. 'Dave? Is that you? Is everything all right?'

  Dave, who I assumed to be the guard I just shot, didn't respond. Slowly, I peered out over the counter, then pulled my head back sharply. One of the scientists had stood up, was peering over the exit we just came through. If he stepped any closer, he'd see the body.

  But that wasn't what concerned me.

  'The cages are empty,' I whispered.

  'What?' Fitz demanded, confused.

  'The cages,' I repeated, trying to level my breathing. Was it just me, or was it getting hot in here? 'They're empty. The twins aren't here.'

  Then a bullet ricochets next to my shoulder.

  One day I wake up behind a glass wall. The Baron has placed me in a cell next to the siblings. He was conducting a study on our respective physiologies.

  The two eye me warily. They remain mute.

  I see it in their faces, though. The girl hates me. The boy is conflicted. I didn't flinch when the girl thre
atened me, angry words I didn't know.

  Then Savin passed by outside, and slammed the glass with his fist. I jumped, and he walked away, cackling. The girl stopped abruptly at that. I followed her gaze to my arms. I was dressed in thin cotton, most of my arms and legs exposed. The burns stand out, angry red sores and blisters, against my skin. I'd forgotten them until now. Her brows pinch, her anger replaced by something else.

  It was then we first speak.

  She said something then. It was difficult to understand them. They could barely understand me. But I learned their names: Pietro and Wanda. They tell me they're twins.

  I'd never met fraternal twins before.

  Skye let off a stream of creative swear words as I raised my shield to block the fire coming from a semi-automatic on the other side of the room. She and Fitz crushed themselves against my back, seeking shelter behind me and the shield.

  Up until this point, I had no idea if this shield was really as bullet-proof as Fitz claimed. Real vibranium. But as it shook in my hands, and flattened bullets piled at my feet, I realized just how thankful I was to have it. Without this shield, all three of us would be Swiss cheese.

  There were two exits in the lab. The one we just came from, and the one directly opposite us on the other wall. There, a guard had appeared with his AK-12.I hadn't seen him because I had been distracted with the empty cages. He took one look at us and started firing.

  That alerted everyone else in the lab, and suddenly we were trapped. I could hear bullets hitting the other side of the counter I was hiding behind.

  'We just lost Happy and Sneezy!' Fitz cried over the hail of gunfire, covering his head with the controller and trying to turn himself into a ball. 'What do we do? We're sitting ducks!'

  'I'm thinking!' I said, trying to push against the force of the bullets hitting the shield. The guard with the AK was stepping closer, confident that he had us , he'd be right on top of us.

  'Wait, I got something!' Skye shouted, and before I could glance over to see what she was doing, something went flying over my head from behind me.

  It bounced off the guard's head. He let out a grunt, stumbled back. His stream of gunfire went way over our heads. I ducked, bring up the shield over me and Skye as her grenade dropped to the floor.

  Bam!

  Noxious black smoke filled the air and the first guard dropped, the AK-12 cracking against the concrete floor. More shouts filled the room as the gas spread. Fitz, Skye, and I covered our faces as we came up from our crouch, darted further into the room.

  Not everyone had fallen. There were four more guards standing and one scientist — who had just turned tail to run, only to get an electric cartridge in his back. He went down with a yelp.

  I took aim at the closest guard, but he ducked just in time. The cartridge whizzed past uselessly and I cursed, ducking back under my new cover, one of the desks in the room. Fitz and Skye were across the aisle, Fitz desperately trying to man what was left of his drone force while Skye dragged him into safer cover.

  'Skye!' I called as another spatter of bullets flattened against my shield. 'Get on the mainframe and shut everything down before the entire complex knows we're here!'

  'On it!' Skye reached up and pulled a keyboard off the desk overhead, along with a monitor. 'I'm going to need five minutes!'

  'You have three!' I said, as I reloaded my Night-Night gun, then fired off two more rounds. The first one missed, but the second one caught a guard standing in the far back of the lab. He went down with a shout.

  I was placed in that glass box frequently. I didn't fight or struggle when the scientists stick electrodes all over my face and body, when they shock me, when they test my muscles reflexes.

  But I spoke to the twins. After being deprived of my voice for so long, only obeying orders, it feels good to hear an echo of my distant, smothered thoughts.

  I learned more about the twins. They have lived here for many, many years. They are not ashamed of what they are. Pietro likes music. The scientists sometimes give him an old Walkman when he did well. It only played 80's music, but Pietro knew all the words by heart. It helped keep track of time when he perceived the world faster than everyone else.

  Wanda daydreamed, made up stories, better worlds to slip into when this world was too much. She was surrounded by old children toys. The dolls had names, the friends of her past.

  She had an old locket. Pietro had an old Polaroid. They kept them hidden, but once they showed me the pictures of their families. How much they loved and missed them.

  I wondered, vaguely, if I ever had a family.

  Speaking to them pulls up that brown-eyed boy's face, anchored deep in my subconscious. I still couldn't remember his name, but his face bring me happiness. I knew he was from some old life that the Crucible erased. He was joy, kindness, belonging.

  Speaking to the twins, fractured memories resurfacing, I almost feel real again.

  After a while, I realize I like it. Being studied alongside the twins. I start looking forward to it, only so I can talk to them.

  Tired of being pinned down for so long, I decided to take the game to the Crucible's agents.

  With three left to go, I liked my chances.

  'What the hell are you doing?' Fitz shouted as I suddenly stood, leaping over the desk had previously been my cover.

  Using it as a launchpad, I vaulted clear over the next two desks, landing directly on top of the closet Crucible agent. I came down hard, shield first.

  It struck him across the shoulder. He fell back, and my boots landed on his chest. His head cracked against the ground. The combined blows, along with my weight, knocked him out. I shot him with my weapon, just to be sure.

  Not pausing to give the other KGB agents a chance to respond, I straightened again. One was to my left, by the cages. The other two were to my right, closer to Fitz and Skye. I couldn't get to one without opening my back to the other.

  I thought fast.

  Threw the shield at the floor.

  It hit at an angle, before streaking off at the lone guard on my left. It nailed him directly in the face, slammed off the wall and cages behind him, before coming back around and knocking the last two in the ear, knocking them over like bowling pins. The shield kept going, hitting the far wall behind me.

  I leapt up from my cover again, catching the shield just in time. In one swift move, I cleared the room.

  Admiring the shield, I said to myself, 'Huh, I could get used to this.'

  'Got it!' Skye cried, and for two seconds the lights went out.

  When they came back on, another Crucible agent had entered the room. I didn't see him in time.

  'Look out!' Fitz cried. I didn't even turn my head, just dropped to one knee and raised the shield.

  Just in time. Two bullets meant for my chest hit the vibranium. Then a shot behind me. I whirled around, watching the guard drop, only to see Fitz rising to his feet, the Night-Night gun shaking in his hands.

  'Nice shot,' I said, smiling at him.

  'Oh, yeah,' Fitz huffed, a little out of breath as he glanced about the room, at the half dozen agents I'd already taken out. He waved a dismissive hand. 'Just doin' my part. I'm sure you would've been lost without me. Did you just get lucky with that last throw?'

  ''Course not,' I said with a smile, adjusting the shield on my arm. 'I took Advanced Trig last semester.'

  'Ah!' Fitz' expression lit up, delighted. 'A practical application of mathematics! I knew it! Ward owes me twenty dollars —'

  'I know where they are!' Skye scrambled to her feet. 'Ward and Simmons! I checked the security feeds, they're directly below us.'

  'What about the twins?' I asked, all too hopeful. I had no idea where they would be now. Where would the Chairman take them, if not to be locked up here? I wasn't aware of any other containments he had.

  'Sorry, didn't see them,' Skye could only shrug helplessly. 'I didn't have a lot of time. On the bright side, though, all
their cameras and communication feeds are down. They still don't know we're here.'

  'They probably already do,' I said under my breath, then pointed back the way we came. 'Go find your friends, I'll keep looking for mine. There's something not right about this…'

  'What do you mean?' Fitz asked, his eyebrows rising. The last drone he had hovered around his head, buzzing forlornly. 'I'd say this is going pretty well, all things considered.'

  'Yeah, that's the point. This place is almost completely empty,' I said, gesturing to the lab. 'Usually, this place is packing, even at night. And the security force is lacking. Where are all the extremis soldiers? They used to have a dozen or more. And I know I didn't take care of all of them getting to London. Where did they go? Why aren't they here?'