Codename: Bear: Secret Agent (Codename Universe Book 1)

by Geoffrey C Porter

  Some of us started to clap a bit.

  Nancy pointed at me. "This is Bear's last mission, so don't screw it up. Everybody is counting on your team. This is the most critical mission you've been assigned, and it's of paramount importance."

  Chapter Seventy-One

  I headed to the track after breakfast. Penny followed. I ran. Penny shouted, "Slow down."

  I looked back at her. She may have been a little chubby, but her boobs were bouncing as she jogged, and I waited for her. We jogged the track a couple of times, and she said she was beat. I had not had a good workout. I said, "I'll catch you later. I'm going to run."

  "But, Bear!"

  I dashed away down the track. She wandered off. After the run, I found my way to the pool, which was my habit.

  I went through the chow line. Penny was sitting at our table with Zen and her new boyfriend, Ben. Nobody else from the team was around. Penny gave me a hate filled glare. "You're supposed to be spending time with me."

  Perhaps she was already emotionally attached to me? Maybe she took her job too seriously. I didn't know, but I could tell I hurt her feelings. "Sorry."

  "This afternoon, we're watching another movie, and I get to pick."

  "I have class."

  Penny shook her head. "You're retiring in a week. You need to take another class like I need two boyfriends."

  Zen's eyes opened wide. "That's not a bad idea. What do you think, Ben?"

  "If I'm not good enough for you, dump me, but I have no need for a second male in the bedroom."

  Zen patted his hand, leaned in, and bit him on the earlobe. "Oww," he cried.

  I went with Penny to the rec room. Somehow, she was able to find a romantic musical, and she put that in. Now, my taste in music may be obscure, and it may be eclectic, but I need music with a beat. A fast pace. Ups and downs. The movie we were watching did not have this. The movie in fact reminded me of pre-pubescent gorillas that had been gorging on rotten fruit. I would have preferred a documentary about gorillas.

  I wanted ear plugs. Penny held me tight and laughed at all the right places in the movie. Credits started to roll, and I let out an epic sigh.

  "You didn't like it?" She asked.

  I felt like I was just handed a puzzle box that would open a portal to some Hellish nether region, allowing all manner of demon and spirit to pass through. I said the words slow and calm. "I did not enjoy it."

  "I hated it, too, but I needed to punish you somehow."

  This should not be about crime and punishment. "Relationships should never involve punishing each other."

  Maybe she was just getting into her groove for when we were siblings.

  "Let's watch something good!" I said.

  "You want to pick?"

  "Yes."

  She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. "You want to watch a movie with me?" She said it all bubbly.

  We were alone in the rec room. Everybody should be in class. My boner wanted me to. I leaned in and kissed her on the neck. My right hand reached up to her breast and fondled it. Pretty soon her hands were undoing my pants. We weren't interrupted. Of course, everywhere in the complex except private rooms had cameras. Hell, it wasn't the first time I'd been on those.

  Afterward, she said, "You know I'm not on birth control."

  D'oh! "Next time I'll wear a condom."

  "I guess I'll go get a morning after pill, just to be sure."

  Damn. But a pregnancy would throw everything for a loop. She would end up having to raise it single, and I'd be the uncle, and that would be no good. She got dressed and wandered off. I sat there naked for a moment. It dawned on me, public place. I put my pants on.

  The lot of us were having dinner, including Penny and Ben.

  "I saw one," Archangel said. "I was on the heavy weapons range, firing grenades."

  "Saw what?" Ben asked.

  "A gremlin. Ugly bastard, too."

  "Did you kill it?" Sphinx asked.

  "I fired a grenade at it, but my hands were trembling so bad. I'm not sure."

  "What the fuck is a gremlin?" Ben asked.

  "It's classified," Archangel said with a massive shrug. "They're only interested in heavy weapons. Live off explosives and gunpowder. Sometimes they go for 9mm or 5.56mm ammo or such, but usually it's the heavy weapons." He looked around to see if anybody overheard. "I've said too much."

  Sphinx spoke in a soft voice. "It's ok, Archangel. It's important to talk about our problems together."

  Silence, other than people eating, filled the hall for a few moments.

  "Bear tried to get me pregnant," Penny said. "Didn't seemed concerned about it either."

  "Dear God, woman!" I shouted.

  "Ussilla wants me to get her pregnant," Jet said. "Expects me to plant my seed every time."

  "Chor'Tan only care about humans for our male DNA," Sphinx said. "The whole reason they're even helping us. New breed of Chor'Tan they say."

  Thomas stabbed a piece of ribeye and started speaking without finishing chewing. "Chor'Tan females are fertile what, once every Earth year? And they have no warning, no indicators, so they must have an almost constant supply of male seed to get pregnant."

  "Chor'Tan males have it made," Jet said. "Eat, sleep, and fuck."

  "They're kept in cages in most places. Chor'Tan male will rip your arm off and swallow it whole."

  I leaned in close to Penny. "Did you get birth control, or just the morning after thing?"

  "Just the morning after. You can wear a condom."

  "Yes, condoms are awesome."

  "Better than not getting any," Thomas said.

  I nodded over and over. "I couldn't agree more."

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  The next couple of days were bliss. Penny was fun. I enjoyed her company even if she did treat me like an animal.

  Centurian's broadcast was supposed to happen at one o'clock. We parked around then, and the others set up. I tapped into the broadcast while sitting in our car. For fun I ran a trace on the signal. It beeped up to the penthouse above, and a man wearing a mask showed on my video window. He started talking about profit distribution.

  Then the trace program beeped again, but it showed a signal coming from a site across town. My mind raced for a moment then I started the car. I shouted to Sphinx. "It's a trap! Call off the assault! He's across town!"

  I punched the gas on the car, and left behind two trails of rubber. Sphinx shouted, "Wait!" I was already too far gone.

  I kept the car in second gear through downtown and hit the speakerphone on the radio. "Centurian isn't in that penthouse!"

  "How do you know?" Nancy's voice asked.

  "I did a high level trace on the video signal. I think it only worked because we were in that building's wifi range. If you traced it from somewhere else, the trace would stop in that penthouse."

  "Interesting…"

  "I'm on it, Nancy!"

  "Drive safe, Bear. I'm sending backup."

  In the distance, the building with the video signal sat on a corner. The man in the video ran off camera, and he appeared coming out of that building. Same hoodie, same mask. He climbed in a beat up old Ford and took off. I punched the gas down intent on ramming, but the Ford was too fast. That was not a beat up old Ford. It sounded more like a turbine engine, just like my car.

  The Ford started to out distance me. He turned left all of a sudden. I slid into the oncoming traffic lane and begged the car to go faster. Turned left where he had turned. His car was gone. I took a quick right out of sheer hopelessness. There he was in the distance. I down shifted, and the engine screamed. If she was going to give up on me, now would be a good time.

  Centurian hit the freeway, and I followed. Straight road, no way could he beat me. I dropped it into third, then fourth, and I started to close on him. He took the exit for the airport and used an emergency lane to slide past some cars sitting at a light. He could definitely outmaneuver me. I dodged through an intersection on a red light. People h
onked their horns and slammed on their brakes, but nobody died.

  At least to my knowledge, nobody died. Possible there was a heart attack or something. Centurian pulled up to a chainlink fence and hit some buttons on a security panel. The gate moved out of his way, and he bulleted inside the fence. The barrier closed behind him. He was a good distance away, and I aimed right for that gate. It came crashing down.

  The man I was chasing stopped his car next to an airplane and hopped out. I had every intention of running him down, but the plane started moving, and Centurian climbed up the stairs.

  He turned to wave at me from behind the mask. Then the wind grabbed a hold of the mask and pulled it off his face. He reached up to his mouth and kind of frowned. I got a really good look at his features. The thing was though, he looked like a damn horse. Not with fur, but an elongated face that clearly reminded me of a horse.

  I radioed Nancy and told her to track the plane. She said she'd try.

  I drove slow and careful back to base. Nancy ran up to me. "You saw his face?"

  "I did, but the thing is… He had the face of a horse, and I've never seen an alien species like that."

  "Neither have I. You're going to spend some time with our sketch artists."

  "Of course."

  They did a sensor scan of the penthouse that we almost assaulted. It was rigged with explosives. Enough to wipe out the top few floors of that building. I worked with sketch artists to get an image of Centurian. I was sure of what I saw, but they questioned and poked and prodded me. Penny believed me, and that's what mattered.

  Nancy did not in fact pardon Juan, but she decided she would keep him alive for a while. Retirement loomed heavy on my conscience. I had so many questions. Did I even want to retire? Live a normal life? I did. Knew in my heart I did. Doing work for the Agency had its up sides, but running from a bullet all the time was getting old.

  I was having dinner with the gang. A guy from the kitchen wheeled out a cart full of beer and tequila.

  Thomas said, "The tequila will help with your transition."

  "What's the beer for?" Jet asked.

  "The rest of us," Sphinx said.

  I was going to miss the gang, and I started doing shots of Tequila. The salt and lemon were perfect. The tequila made me happy. I was the only one who got drunk. Everybody else had one or two token beers and quit. I leaned on Penny on the way to my quarters. It wasn't a very happy goodbye.

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  The door buzzer woke me at an ungodly hour. I wanted to puke. Tequila was not my friend. Penny answered the door. Nancy was there. Penny left. There was a wheelchair in the hallway. I put on a pair of pants and a shirt quick like. Nancy offered me hangover medicine and a bottle of water. I took the little white pills. Then she handed me three really big red pills. "Take all three."

  I swallowed them. She motioned towards the wheelchair. "Sit."

  "I can walk."

  "The red pills will hit you quickly, better if you're sitting down."

  I sat in the wheelchair. Thomas was there, too. He said, "I'm going to be your friend in your new future. I bring the weed."

  "I don't smoke," I said.

  Nancy patted me on the shoulder. "You will after the mind-wipe."

  I shrugged. My understanding was it's harmless.

  Nancy started some speech. "You have been an invaluable asset to your team. You're going to be missed."

  "I want to have a normal life again," I said. "Or at least try it out for a while."

  I looked back at Nancy, and she seemed so far away, but she had a great big smile like a bear who just found a beehive. Then I was glad I was sitting down. Darkness overtook me.

  I woke up in my own bed. Home. The house I grew up in with Penny and Luc. I stuffed a little bud of marijuana into a water pipe and puffed. I showered and looked in the mirror. Sported a decent beard, and I didn't even think to shave. Didn't even see a razor. I went downstairs.

  Penny was finishing up breakfast. Eggs with cheese and ham, plus thick cut bacon. I knew Luc would cook lunch. And dinner was my responsibility. Most nights I ordered wings or pizza. Breakfast was over. I checked the weather. Sunny skies. I jogged down to the gym and lifted weights. Something strange passed through my mind, but I couldn't place it.

  Likely just jitters with summer session starting in school. The girls had convinced me to study engineering to get me out of the house. Maybe I could meet a woman. Penny and Luc were great sisters, but I had no interest in sleeping with them. After I lifted weights, I jogged home. I had enough money that I didn't need a job, ever, but it would be cool to be an engineer. Figured people got a lot more respect as engineers than dope heads with an inheritance.

  Something was odd though. I couldn't place it. Eh, jitters from school starting. Maybe I needed to smoke a joint.

  Links to other Books:

  Codename: Bear II

  Juxta, Magi (Epic Fantasy)

  Winter's Line (Fantasy Adventure)

  R.A.E.C.E. Genesis (Military Sci-Fi)

  Zombie Flick, Horror Comedy

  Evelyn's Book (Fantasy Adventure)

  Author Bio

  Geoff spent hundreds of afternoons during his formative years dueling over a hot box of dice playing tabletop wargames such as Titan and Axis&Allies, games with strong military components and fantasy elements.

  He taught himself to program computers as a young pup. The first software Geoff developed professionally was a Chemical Weapons Attack Simulator for the USAF. He did it in Visual Basic 3.0 in Win3.11, on a 386SX16 processor. Since then he has built websites professionally and browser based multiplayer kingdom games.

  Geoff started writing Thanksgiving of 2003. He penned his first novel between Thanksgiving and Christmas that year. He had high hopes for it of course, but errors plagued his first draft. He wrote an epic fantasy next, Juxta, Magi. Then he crafted a military sci-fi, R.A.E.C.E. Genesis.

  He had no clue how to get published. He didn't know how to fix all the errors in his manuscripts. It kind of hit him like lightning one day. Sinclair Community College might have an English class he could take.

  He discovered English Composition I&II, Fiction Writing, Advanced Fiction Writing, Novel Writing, Horror Fiction, and the most awesome class ever, Text Editing. Geoff took classes with Ed Davis and Tim Waggoner. He'd still be taking classes if Ed had not retired. He may take more classes.

  Geoff has written eight full length novels and a novella. Most of them were self published. They were largely never sent to publishers, and he's hoping to change his methods. He penned over fifty short stories. Fifteen of his shorts have been published.

  For five years Geoff ran an eZine, Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, and being an editor, having a slush pile to go through, has helped him grow as a writer. Possibly as much or more than all the classes he took. He quit mostly because he read one too many Man-Eats-Own-Leg stories.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter Zero

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter T
hirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Chapter Seventy-Three