"These two are mine," Archangel said.
"We run after he shoots," Sphinx said.
Archangel knelt down and fired two quick rounds. All of us ran towards the open gate. Three men stepped into the breach. I fired at the center one. Zen got the one on the left. Sphinx did the right one.
We ran into the courtyard. Two men came out of the mansion and fired at us with Uzis. I shot both of them because I was good like that. We walked into the main entrance of the mansion. It was empty. Archangel raced up the stairs. I ran down the center hallway. A door went off to the left, and Sphinx went that way.
A man came through the door in front of us and bowled into me. My gun fell out of my hand, and he grabbed me by the midsection. He was strong and squeezing me. I punched him in the skull with my right hand. I hit him again and again. Pretty soon, I was staring at pieces of broken skull and brains. Zen pushed through the door into a giant kitchen. Three women in aprons were huddled in a corner, praying.
Archangel's rifle rang out. Even through the walls of the mansion, if you were listening, the vibration carried through. I shouted, "Where is Juan?"
Juan was our target.
One of the woman said something in Spanish.
Zen said, "Upstairs!"
There were stairs in the back of the kitchen. We started climbing and reached a door. Zen kicked it open with her foot. I dodged into the room. Bullets hit my chest as guns barked. I returned fire. Zen returned fire. We cut down five of them. Juan was sitting behind a desk, with a 9mm pistol on it.
Zen and I approached him.
"I'm not even going to reach for it," Juan said.
I raised my pistol.
He leaned back in his chair. "I have information you may find useful, but in trade, I want a pardon."
My finger tightened on the trigger, but I didn't pull it all the way.
"What kind of information?" Zen asked.
"Centurian is going to be at a meeting of the minds in two weeks. I know the exact location and timing of the meeting."
"That seems like a good reason to keep him alive," I said.
"I have been in the wrong business for years," Juan said. "It wears heavily on my soul. I want to retire. I want a pardon. I want to hand you Centurian on a silver platter."
Sphinx burst into the room and raised her gun.
"Wait!" I shouted.
"What?" Sphinx said.
"He has information. He says he can give us Centurian."
"Interesting." Sphinx lowered her pistol and pulled out a zip tie.
We bound Juan's hands around his front. We ran down the stairs to the kitchen. I radioed to Archangel, "We've got Juan. Time to go."
Archangel's footsteps carried down the stairs. We stepped out of the front door into the courtyard, and a hail of bullets greeted us. Zen pulled Juan back into the house, and Archangel, Sphinx, and I returned fire. There were six of them in total. For some reason, they were barefooted and shirtless. All six has ropes tied at their waists to hold up their raggedy pants. It wasn't long before they were dying. Why they were willing to die for Juan was anybody's guess. Likely so wasted on MindBender that they had no choice left in their actions. Juan was too fat to run back to our truck, so I took off in a run towards it. A few trucks came down the road in the direction I was going in, and I dodged off the side of the road. I made it back to our vehicle.
It was a burned out husk of metal now. No way we'd be driving that. Bastards.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
I sprinted back to the others. After a fair distance, the radio in my helmet chirped, "You passed us up. We had to leave the road." So I turned around and scanned the side of the road with my infrared. The four of them stood out like red silhouettes. I ran up to them.
"Our truck is toast," I said.
Zen kicked our captive on the shin. "Juan here has a hard time running, too."
"And kicking me is going to help, how?" He asked.
"We need a plan," Sphinx said.
Archangel slung his rifle over his shoulder. "Radio for help. Call in reinforcements."
"Cell phone was in the truck."
"Mine, too," I said.
Zen snapped her fingers. "There's a town a couple of kilometers down the road. We could buy a cell phone, call HQ."
I had a couple hundred bucks American in my pocket for just such an emergency.
"A couple of kilometers?" Juan asked. "That town is 10km. Just leave me here."
"We're not leaving you without putting a bullet in your brain," Sphinx said.
"I can walk."
I paced out a little circle. "I've got cash. Zen speaks Spanish. The two of us could go for help."
"And leave us to camp with no tents in a desert, thanks," Archangel said.
"If we build a fire, snakes will come," Sphinx said. "We need to stay mobile. You two run ahead to the town, the rest of us will walk."
I nodded. Zen took off in a run, and I chased after her. We didn't run the whole 10km, jogged more so. We ditched our helmets on the edge of town. Our helmets scared me when I looked at them, and an inn keep or a shop keep would freak out. There was a cell phone place, but it was closed for the night. The town was big enough to support a hotel, and we got a room. Zen took a shower, while I changed channels on the TV. Everything was in Spanish. There were a couple of nude channels, but they looked mostly like cooking shows.
Zen emerged stark naked from the shower. She had a couple of bullet hole scars, but was otherwise whole. Perfect was perhaps a better word than whole. Muscular, strong, but still feminine. I realized I was staring. She smiled at me. "Don't even think about it, Bear. I value you as a friend. I just wanted to see if I could still catch a man's eyes."
"I have a girlfriend anyhow," I said.
"You have a fat girlfriend."
"She's not fat."
"She's not lean either."
Medium. She was medium for sure. I didn't need for the girl to be super thin. "She's just right."
Zen got dressed in three-day-old clothes. "We should wait outside for the rest of the guys."
I looked back at the TV. A totally naked woman was making tortillas. She was very efficient at it, too.
"We wait outside," Zen said.
We went and sat on a park bench. "You might as well go inside, Zen," I said, "and get some rest. Juan and the others are hours away."
"You go and rest. I'm not a pussy."
I wasn't about to argue with a beautiful woman. "If you say so."
"Bastard, if either of us are going to sleep, it's me."
"But you just said…"
She punched me on the arm. We sat quietly and waited. Every so often an old pick-up truck or a sedan would drive past. Archangel, Sphinx, and Juan turned a corner. We zip tied Juan to some pipes in the bathroom. He bitched about it, and Sphinx reminded him he was lucky to still be alive.
"This is not what I meant by pardon!" He said.
"Quiet, you," Zen said, "or it'll be gag time."
I curled up in a ball on the floor with a pillow and slept. In the morning, I paid the hotel for another night. I asked the guy at the hotel desk about making a call, and he said their phone only accepted incoming calls. Zen took $50 from me and went for a cell phone. Archangel went with her. Not that the streets might be less than safe in Mexico for a beautiful white woman, but it made more sense to send a pair of people.
They came back with a brand new phone. Zen asked, "What's the number?"
We looked at each other. I didn't know the number. Sphinx laughed. "You're all idiots."
Then she started rattling off an 800 number. Zen just handed the phone over to her.
Sphinx dialed. "Nancy please."
Pause.
"We captured him. He claims he can give us Centurian."
Pause.
"Yes, send a truck. That would be great."
Sphinx hung up the phone and looked at us. "Two hours."
I shouted, "Dibs on a bed!"
The others glare
d at me. I jumped on one of the beds, and it was lights out for me. I need at least six hours a day, and it was quite necessary. I dreamed of running through a desert chased by three meter tall snake men.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
After an hour or so, those bastards made me wake up. We waited outside for the Agency vehicle. A half dozen or so well-tanned men with black hair and clean clothes approached us from the other side of the street. We weren't wearing helmets, but our jackets were zipped up.
The lead man said something in Spanish. I leaned in and whispered to Zen, "What did they say?"
"They said it must be warm in our jackets. They were also a little curious why we are kidnapping Juan."
"Juan's a wanted criminal," Archangel said. "We're taking him to face justice."
"You're taking me to get a pardon!" Juan said.
Sphinx said, "Yes, that's it, a pardon."
The lead Mexican said, "We can't let you take him. He belongs here, with us."
"He's ours. We're taking him."
I reached my hand inside my jacket and fingered the butt end of my 9mm.
"Maybe another day," the Mexican said. He and his friends turned and walked away. I breathed a sigh of relief.
A Mexican police car pulled up next. The officer pointed at Archangel's rifle and spoke in English. "No weapons in plain view."
"The gremlins got the case," Archangel said.
The officer smiled wide. "In that case, I totally understand. You folks have ID? Is there a reason you're kidnapping Juan?"
Sphinx took a step towards the officer. "We don't have ID, but we're government agents. Capturing Juan is part of a secret multi-national operation."
"You're Agency?"
"That's right."
The officer frowned. "I wish they'd make you guys carry ID. Anybody could say they're Agency and kidnapping our Juan."
"Do you see that streetlamp about thirty meters away?" Sphinx asked.
"I see it."
In one smooth motion, Sphinx drew her 9mm and put a bullet in that street lamp. The Mexicans across the street jumped and reached for the pistols, but none drew.
The police officer laughed. "You're Agency. No doubt. My adopted brother is in the Mexico branch."
"That's great," Sphinx said.
"He's due to retire in two more missions. They say he won't remember me after the mind-wipe."
Our van pulled up. We stuck Juan in the back. The drive to the airport was uneventful. The flight back to Phoenix began. Once we were home, safe, and sound, I paged Luc. I needed some affection. She did not answer the page. I checked for an email. One sentence. One damn sentence. "We will meet again."
I called Nancy on the video phone. "What happened to Luc?"
"That's a long story, Bear. It was important that you loved her. Did you?"
"I love her, yes, and now she's gone!"
Nancy rubbed at her eyes. "You'll meet her again."
"What does that mean?"
"After you retire, to solidify the process, you'll need people in your life. Luc will be your sister and help you after the process. It was important for you to love her. It'll help you believe the mind-wipe."
"I had sex with my sister?!" I asked.
"She won't be your sister until after the process. You'll love her as a sister."
"Why can't she be my girlfriend after the process?"
Nancy let out a little chuckle. "That would be altogether too easy for you."
I wanted to cry. It did make me happy that I would meet Luc again, but to not remember the good times, to not love her in a sexual way. It was all just so strange.
"Let's have a debriefing," Nancy said. "Conference room, right now."
She started paging other members of the team, and I said, "I need a hot shower and fresh clothes."
"Good idea. One hour."
I showered and shaved. Put on fresh clothes. Made my way to the conference room. There was a woman there that I never met. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. Luc was gone.
This new woman spoke. "You seem like a healthy young man."
I was healthy, too. This woman reminded me of Luc. Good sized breasts. Wide hips. She walked up to me and smelled of wild flowers and honey.
"I'm supposed to be meeting some people here," I said.
"Have you had dinner? My name is Penny."
"I haven't had dinner."
"I'm going to be your other sister after the retirement. We need to get to know each other."
My mind snarled. This was wrong. "I'm not sleeping with you."
"Good! But we should spend some time together anyhow."
Dinner maybe? What harm could come of it?
"What's in all this for you?" I asked.
She sat down in one of the chairs. "I don't have a family of my own, and I'm barren. You will be my brother. Luc will be my sister. We'll have money in the bank. For me it'll be like the family I never had."
There had to be more. And I said as much.
"Agency men saved my life. I was sold to a brothel at a young age. I owe the Agency my life."
That story made more sense. "I'm supposed to be at a debriefing."
"I'm the debriefing, Bear. Spend some time with me. We're going to be family after all. The more I'm imprinted on your mind between now and the process, the better the process will work."
She was fine, too. Curled black hair. Brown eyes. Tan skin. Curves. Curves that could go on forever.
"Let's have dinner," I said.
Chapter Seventy
Penny and I walked through the chow lines together. Thomas smiled a knowing smile. Jet looked up. "Where's Luc?"
"That's a really fucking good question," I said.
Penny touched my forearm. "Hush."
"Retirement," Thomas said. "It's set up differently for everyone."
We sat down. Penny was a very careful eater, never spilling even a crumb. The rest of the gang were pigs, flinging debris left and right. Whole chicken bones went flying at times.
Zen pushed herself up from our table. "I'm sick of this."
She walked over to a table of new recruits. Clearing her throat, she pointed at a young man who just finished his dinner. He was fit and trim with wavy brown hair and blue eyes. "Are you single? Hetro?" She asked.
He pointed at himself, then smiled. "Name's Ben. Single, hetro, and horny as hell."
"Good, come with me."
He got up, and they left together.
Jet stood up with his tray. "I have everything I need in Ussilla."
Sphinx looked from me to Thomas. Then she caught Archangel's eyes. He waved his hands palm out in front of himself. Enigma shook her head. Sphinx said, "Shit."
"What the fuck am I?" Thomas asked.
"I feel the same way," Enigma said. "She didn't even look at me twice."
Sphinx got up and walked away.
Penny asked, "Anybody up for watching a movie?"
Thomas stood up. "I've got dope to smoke."
"I'm taking an extra night class," Enigma said.
Penny and I went to one of the rec rooms. They had movies I hadn't seen. I sat on one end of the couch. She sat on the other end. Before I knew it, she was leaned up against me. She grabbed my hand and held on. I decided I liked Penny. I wasn't really over Luc, but damn if there wasn't a fine female practically on top of me, holding my hand, and a certain tightness in my pants. She's going to be my sister!
She wasn't my sister tonight. The movie ended, and we disentangled our bodies. Being the complete gentleman I was, I said, "Good night."
"One more movie," she said.
My boner couldn't take another movie. "I have an early day tomorrow."
"You don't find me attractive? I find you attractive."
"You're going to be my sister after the mind-wipe."
She reached up and unbuttoned the first button on her shirt. I did not get undressed. I did not have sex with the beautiful woman. "I need more emotional commitment from a woman in order to enjoy se
x."
"I don't believe you. I think you're making that up."
Was I? I loved Luc. My dick might want to screw, but my emotions were a mess. "I'm a mess, Penny. Not tonight. I'm still getting a handle on everything. This is all so strange."
She leaned in and pecked me on the lips. "I'll see you at breakfast."
I went to my room and slept on my back. That woman was fine, but I just met her yesterday. Could I fall in love that easily? Was I truly an animal that a nice set of breasts and wide hips was all it would take for me to fall in love. Perhaps I was because I dreamed about Penny and Luc together. First time I had a dream about doing it with two women. Well, maybe not the first time.
In the morning, I made my way to breakfast. Penny was sitting at our table with some of the gang. She winked at me. "Have you thought about your mistake last night?"
"What mistake?" I asked.
"Not sleeping with me."
The table fell silent. I felt like I was being punished.
"I need to be emotionally committed to a woman to enjoy the sex," I said. It felt like a lie, but I knew in my heart it was truth. "Plus you said when we met you didn't even want to have sex with me."
"Of course that's what I said." Penny grabbed a sausage link and took a bite.
"Maybe you guys could discuss this in private," Jet said.
Enigma rolled her eyes. "I agree, one hundred and ten percent."
Nancy approached our table. "I have news. But we need to wait for the rest of your team."
Thomas, Zen, and Sphinx came through the chow line. Zen was smiling wide. "That young man I acquired yesterday was truly brilliant. Hard as a rock, over and over. I think I might have a new lover."
Thomas let out a little hiss. "Experience is an undervalued commodity."
Some of us were finished eating, but nobody got up to leave. Nancy started talking, and we listened. "Juan tells us that every Friday Centurian makes a video broadcast from a penthouse apartment in downtown Phoenix. Right under our noses this whole time."
Jet asked, "What is today?"
"Monday. And we're going after him this Friday. We'll seal off the building when the broadcast is supposed to start. Zen, Enigma, and Archangel will go after Centurian. Jet and Thomas will be stationed in the lobby. Sphinx and Bear will be stationed in the parking garage with the vehicles."
Codename: Bear: Secret Agent (Codename Universe Book 1) Page 22