Ahmed is here. He’s the left Tango. Get ready to snipe the sucker. He doesn’t leave this place alive if we can help it, understood? I ask Eleanor.
Eleanor clicks her comm mentally twice to acknowledge.
Whatever Rasul has in his hand Ahmed must not get his hands on, no matter what, I add.
You call it, Cole, said Eleanor.
I wait until both men are only a few yards away from Rasul to activate my cloak and start moving towards Rasul, making sure I make absolutely no noise. The lights of a vehicle passing outside at a high speed blind me for half a second and when I regain my sight I see Ahmed twitching.
Now! I say mentally.
Eleanor doesn’t hesitate and takes the shot. The moment I hear the gun fire, I run with my super speed to grab the data chip from Rasul’s hand. Everything goes to hell real fast. Eleanor’s shot is a bullseye but it’s absorbed by Ahmed’s personal shield. The second man accompanying him raises his hand, a robotic one, and launches a rocket towards Eleanor’s position, who’s now unleashing a flurry of shots all around both men. Some find their targets but are stopped by their shields.
I am only a few inches away from Rasul when Ahmed throws a powerful shockwave towards us, knocking and throwing both me and Rasul into the air. He screams from the bottom of his lungs and I see him release the data chip. It’s spinning in the air but I am a few inches too far to grasp it.
I summersault in the air and land on flexed knees. I push forward with all my might and catapult forward towards the chip, still spinning in the air. For a fraction of a second I know I’ll have it and could take care of Ahmed next. But just as I begin to close my fist around it a small tractor beam snatches it away. Ahmed catches the chip and smiles at me.
Can he see me in stealth mode? That makes no sense. But he could very well have tech that allows him to detect my electromagnetic signal even if he can’t see me. He raises a blaster but instead of shooting towards me he lodges a perfect centered eye shot at Rasul who is just getting back up. He falls to his knees, an expression of shock ablaze on his face, and collapses to his death with a mild thud.
“So long, Agent Seeker, I have what I came for,” says Ahmed as he turns his back on me and starts running the way he’d come.
“Not so fast, you son of a bitch!” I say out loud, dropping my stealth augment and redistributing the full power to my super speed. But before I can travel half the distance separating us, a metallic arm smashes across my sternum, taking the wind out of me. I get catapulted backwards and I smash back first into the concrete floor of the building, a thick cloud of dust rising around me.
“Ouch,” says Tanya.
I want to reply to that derogatory comment and ask why she didn’t see the man take a swing at me, but now is not the time to argue with my AI.
“Eleanor, please respond?”
“Go ahead, Cole. I’m sorry I couldn’t bring Ahmed down.”
“That’s okay. You did what you could, but you need to pursue him with the fighter. I’ve been delayed. I will take care of his goon and join you in thirty seconds or so, but we can’t afford to lose Ahmed. Take drone two with you.”
“On it. See you soon.”
With that I hear the engine of the short-range fighter hum to life. With Eleanor on Ahmed’s tail, I can take a few seconds to deal with the asshole who has taken that lucky pot shot at me. I move my hands over the back of my shoulders and flip back to the upward position. By the time I’m up, Ahmed’s goon is already upon me, swinging his metallic arm towards my face.
I tilt my head and grab his arm, then pull it towards me further, something he’s not prepared for. I land my knee in his stomach as I feel Tanya readjust my super strength and speed on the fly to deliver maximum impact. I hear the satisfying crack of breaking bones, no doubt ribs too, as the man spits blood.
Next, I spin his arm around his back and hear yet another set of bones crack, accompanied by a scream of agony. He clearly fights through the pain as he manages to unlock his metal arm from his body. In a split second I am holding a detached arm as he spins on himself, something I wasn’t prepared for, and his other elbow impacts with my jaw and sends me spinning on the side before crashing to the ground. I drop the goon’s metallic arm to the ground.
Son of a bitch!
I get back up just in time to see him aiming a blaster at me and taking a shot. I roll to the side multiple times, avoiding his shots only by inches until I manage to get behind a crate for cover.
I don’t have time for this shit.
I activate my repulsor weapons, my nanites pushing through the thin skin layer of the palm of my hands, accompanied by the usual burning sensation. I charge a super-powered shot on my right arm while using my super strength augment to take a vertical leap into the air. But I am still facing away from my target, so I use my other repulsor to quickly spin around in the air. I lock my shot with my mental HUD to the dead center of the man’s head. He is already aiming upwards, trying to shoot me in the air. But I am faster. The super-charged shot packs quite the recoil but I hold as steady as I possibly can. It takes my target’s head clean off. I then spin off in the air and land with one knee and one hand touching the ground, my gaze still locked on my target. He is still standing, even with his missing head. A geyser of blood is shooting up at the rhythm of his last heartbeats.
I rise to my feet and get a glimpse at the dead goon’s metallic arm I dropped earlier. I don’t know if it is the adrenaline or just one of these days.
“Cole,” says Tanya.
I decide not to answer and kick the arm towards the dead man still standing.
“I think this belongs to you,” I crack out loud as the arm reunites with its owner, knocking him backwards where he crashes against the ground to the sound of a loud metallic thud.
“You do realize he was dead the second you shot his head off a few seconds ago?”
“Tanya, if you have a point to make, I suggest you make it.”
“No point. Just that you seem quite on edge today.”
“You can say that again.”
I call my jet bike remotely and order it to fly itself to the entrance of the building as I am running towards the exit. I also decide to bring up the camera of Drone Two inside my HUD and see Eleanor in pursuit of Ahmed, who has boarded a transport of his own, one with automated turrets that relentlessly fire upon her fighter. It’s forcing her to engage evasive patterns and not giving her many occasions to take shots of her own. Drone Two was having better luck with its automatic firing pattern.
“Maybe you should take control of Drone Two for her. We can’t let Ahmed leave with the chip,” I ask Tanya.
“Sure thing, but I will have to divert from helping you here.”
“I’m done here. Just help her.”
“Understood, Cole.”
I am only ten yards from the exit when both large windows on each side of the main entrance explode and two jet bikes fly in, guns blazing.
“Or not,” I say to myself.
C H A P T E R
XII
Mission completion time: T minus 202 minutes.
I manage to dodge most of the incoming fire from the couple of impromptu jet bikes that blast their way inside the abandoned factory as I’m about to leave. But one shot still manages to hit me in the shoulder. Fortunately my armor takes the brunt of the hit. The jet bikes have finished their first pass and I have to act fast before they maneuver back for a second pass.
I swing about, take one of my smart blasters and activate a rocket round. Both jet bikes are doing a reverse maneuver and cross their path in an X shape. That’s when I lock onto the one that’s slightly ahead of the other just about to finish its reverse maneuver.
“That’s not the most efficient way of dealing with this situation,” says Tanya.
“Just make sure to deal with Ahmed, and let me deal with this, will ya?”
“Snappy,” she replies.
I start running at super speed towards the jet
bike I’ve locked into. I hear the mental alarm of a missile locking acquisition ring inside my head but I fire at the jet bike before it can lock onto me. The explosive rocket round impacts with its shield, which lights up brightly orange for a brief instant before dying down.
By now I’m jumping in the air, right in its trajectory. I only have a second before its shields turn back on. I land with my left foot onto the bike’s windshield and use my right one to kick the pilot off of his bike. He flies backwards in the air and I jump towards him.
While in the air I use my neuronal hacking programs to take control of the pilotless bike and I send it flying towards the second one, just in time before it can open fire on me. The first bike explodes and takes out the other bike’s shielding, sending it spinning on its axis, while hurling towards us at high speed.
I need to be fast. I catch the ejected pilot and grab him by the neck, snapping it with a swift and deadly motion. Without losing a beat I grab his lifeless shoulders and bury my feet into his back so I can catapult myself away from him. I activate my repulsors in thruster mode to get higher and make sure the incoming bike still on a spin won’t hit me.
I grab my nano-blade and activate it. That’s a risky move with the bike spinning but I know I can make that move. Just to make sure I’ll have a place to land I call upon my own jet bike mentally.
“You’re insane,” says Tanya.
“Déjà vu,” I answer as I spin myself into position and swing my nano-blade at the exact moment the jet bike flies under me. My blade cuts through the pilot like he was made of paper, taking one of his shoulders and his entire neck and head with it. My blade encounters a slight resistance when it cuts through some of the bike’s armor at the end of my swing.
I must have hit a vital system there because the next thing I know, the bike explodes and I am thrust backwards with extreme force. My current trajectory sends me directly into a large pile of barrels that have symbols of explosives on them.
Not good. But just before I crash into the explosive barrels, my jet bike flies in position and swoops me into the air.
I let out a big sigh and take manual control of the bike. Half a second later I am riding through one of the broken windows through which my enemies busted a few seconds earlier. And in due time as well, as the explosion erupts when the enemy jet bike creates secondary explosions inside the abandoned building. Soon it bursts into flames, but my bike’s shield allows me to fly out of the fiery inferno unscathed.
I take some altitude, check my radar to see how far Eleanor and Drone Two are and vector towards their position, activating my bike’s afterburners. I need to get there fast. But then a flurry of red laser shots grazes my position and I have to go evasive. I end up in the middle of city traffic, except I am going the wrong way. Flying cars shoot past me at incredible speeds, rocking my bike as they do, and some explode from the unceasing blaster fire that’s meant to bring me down. Another target acquires me from behind and starts firing at my bike.
Flying in reverse traffic is like threading the thinnest of needles, but I don’t have a choice at the moment. Unless I activate bullet-time, something I can't afford to do if I want to have it ready when I face Ahmed, I’ll have to solely rely on my reflexes and whatever support Tanya can give me.
The fighter on my tail is heavily armored; I activate my turret and it starts scoring one hit after another but it doesn’t manage to make much of a dent in its heavy shields.
Feck! I don’t have time for this!
I use my brain augment to scan the incoming vehicles for a convertible and, sure enough, a nice latest model Mercedes SJ-75 is approaching right on my path. I raise my jet bike atop the flow of incoming cars and send it on autopilot as I jump out of it. Three laser blasts hit too close for comfort as I start free falling back towards the incoming traffic, my eyes locked onto the approaching convertible Mercedes. I hack its operating system and simulate an inflight collision. This forces the car to eject its pilot into the air, but not before enveloping him in a protective foam capsule a moment before deploying a chute.
I land in his stead on the now free pilot seat and take manual control of the flying car. I am less than a second away from the incoming fighter still shooting at me. I have to go evasive and spin wildly; this proves to be a much simpler move than the previous one, now that I am on the right side of the traffic. I recall my jet bike mentally as I’ll need it soon; that is, if I survive my next move.
I don’t really have a choice; it’s a case of do or die and I have zero tolerance for me dying in this instant, so I keep avoiding incoming fire until the last second, playing a game of chicken with my foe, who doesn’t seem too worried about it. After all, his heavy shield can protect him from impact with the Mercedes. Or so he thinks. When I am absolutely sure that I’ll hit my target, I use my super strength to jump outside of the convertible, aided by my repulsors at full power. When I am high enough I switch to blaster mode, shoot the power cell of my improvised rental and overload it.
Hope you’re insured.
The Mercedes catches fire and impacts with the fighter that is still firing at it. The explosion is massive and damages a multitude of cars; some explode as well and others spin out of control before eventually managing to regain their trajectories.
The fighter’s passed through the explosion and its shield has protected it from the impact as expected. My HUD informs me that the fighter has elevated its nose to catch up on my position. I line up my next repulsor shot and blast through the fighter’s canopy, hitting the pilot in the torso. This saves me from being cut in half by one of the fighter’s wings, the way it was heading towards me. Thanks to my repulsors, I land on the back of the fighter, but because of its high velocity I lose my balance. I magnetize my boots and forearms and manage to stick to the ship’s metallic armor.
I get back up on my feet and hurry towards the cockpit a couple of yards away. I don’t know if my shot was lethal or if the pilot’s armor, if he had some, could have saved his life. I don’t intend to find out one way or the other. I grab a sonic grenade from my belt and activate it. As I pass near the canopy I throw it in the hole I had punched earlier with my repulsor as I demagnetize my boots and push away in the opposite direction, while missing getting cut in half by the wing of the plane by just a few inches.
I dive downwards, letting gravity do its thing when I hear the ship explode. In the midst of the action I hadn’t seen the skyscraper coming right at me before now. But my jet bike is still vectoring on my position and it swoops just before I impact with the building. The plexiglass windows of the building wobble but don’t break.
“Do you actually take pleasure in taking the most dangerous path in accomplishing your goals? There were at least ten other strategies that could have achieved what you have just done with half or less of the danger,” says Tanya.
“What’s the fun in that? I got to go with my guts, dear.”
“Obviously, but I’m just worried that one day it’ll get us both killed.”
“Today is not that day.”
“I hope you’re right, Cole. We still have a date, you and I.”
I smile as I set the bike’s trajectory back towards Eleanor and Drone Two and hit the afterburners.
C H A P T E R
XIII
Mission completion time: T minus 182 minutes.
I am only a few seconds from catching up with Eleanor’s fighter. She is still pounding Ahmed’s ship but he manages to keep his shields up with some fancy flying maneuvers and by throwing her curve balls in the form of sonic mines, smoking her, so she has trouble maintaining a lock on him.
He is one crafty bastard, that’s for sure. The drone is still scoring hits here and there but Ahmed’s turret is also giving it, and Tanya currently flying it, a hard time. She knows I’ll probably need its help later, so sacrificing it is only a last resort measure. And since I am almost there, I ask her to make sure drone two survives the engagement.
My heart is pounding hea
vily in my chest. My previous encounters were filled with adrenaline and all I want now is to deal with Ahmed once and for all, and to change the course of history. This day cannot end up with a mushroom cloud over New Geneva, but that’s not all. I will go the extra mile to rid planet Earth of Ahmed Al’Hasi in the process.
“I’m almost there,” I tell Eleanor.
“I can’t seem to make enough damage to his fighter. His shields are incredibly strong!” she barks back with the evident weight of frustration on her part.
“We’ll find a way.”
I’m not surprised Ahmed is protecting himself so well. He is a master at acquiring the latest high-end technologies, which always helped him stay one step ahead of us in our many past encounters. In fact, some of the tech we faced seemed better than our own, a fact that always bewildered me, since I thought Rewind was using the most advanced tech on the planet. I always wondered from where terrorists could acquire better ones.
I am only a few seconds away and now have a visual on the craft trio. Eleanor’s short-range fighter, drone two on its wing and farther down my line of sight, and Ahmed’s getaway medium-sized cargo fighter. Some of its lost turret blaster fire is passing me by, now that I’m within its firing range.
My jet bike onboard computer alarm wails to signal a missile lock. A second later two rockets fly from Ahmed’s ship as I am gaining on the trio and lock onto it. I go evasive as the missile lock alarm grows louder and with shorter intervals. When it’s almost a solid tone I release countermeasures and dive my jet bike into a near free-fall vector. When the rockets find the decoys and explode overhead I adjust my angle backwards and vector back on target.
That was clearly a message from Ahmed, letting me know he saw me coming. I open a channel to his craft.
“You’re a very persistent cockroach, Agent Seeker,” he says preemptively.
Rewind 717: The Adventures of Time Traveler Anti-Terrorist Agent Cole Seeker Page 12