by Chad Kunego
“Do we even know who he was? Is?”
“Not yet, but we’re running the name through missing persons. We’re also running the names Inanna, Iškur, Enki, and Nabu through the databases. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find something that sheds some light on this mystery.”
“Add the name Nanshe to the list.”
“Why? Where’d you get that name?”
“It’s not important. Let’s just say I have a suspicion it’s all related.”
He paused for a moment, dreading the question he knew he had to ask now.
“So where does that leave us?” he asked, not sure if he really wanted to hear the answer or not.
“That’s up to you, honestly. For some reason, Zarina has taken a real shine to you, and if we can get you over this reckless, gung-ho, ‘I can do it all myself’ attitude and actually mesh as a team, I still feel you’d be a significant asset to our organization. Honestly though, I’m not going to try talking you into it again. You need to want it this time.”
“I’m still not sure, but if I do, it’s going to be on one condition.”
“Which is?”
“You need to stop treating me like a cross between my mother and a newly promoted manager that’s letting the power go to their head. Seriously. I’ve been alive a lot longer than you. I’ve also gone on a shit-ton more missions than probably any two people on base. I was your job while you were still in high school.”
She stared at him with a stunned look on her face. A moment later, she chuckled slightly.
“Maybe I deserve that. To be honest, and if you repeat this to anyone, I’ll deny it, this is my first real command. The team I was leading when we first crossed paths? You were my first field mission leading a team. This is really the first time the buck ever really stopped at me, so maybe I was overdoing the whole tough-ass routine. You kinda bring it out in me…”
Before he could respond, Kaitlyn’s phone rang. Holding up a finger, she answered it, talking softly. While he waited, he waved down a waitress and ordered a double rye, neat with just a splash of water. A few minutes later, the waitress dropped off his order just as Kaitlyn was finishing up her call. She now stared at him with a puzzled look on her face.
“What?”
“None of this makes any sense, really. The hit they got was for two missing person reports from Mexico, from someplace called Ceballos.…”
Something about the name of the town tickled the back of his mind, something familiar. Shrugging, he took a sip of his drink before replying.
“And? That doesn’t sound all that strange. His name was Juan, and he had Hispanic features. It’s not that far of a stretch really.”
She paused for a second to collect her thoughts.
“His friend Miguel also went missing at the same time, but that not the strange part. Those other names, Inanna, Iškur, Enki, and Nabu? They all refer to—”
He flinched slightly at the loud, sudden bang behind him.
“Now what the fuck’s going on?”
Chapter 34
“NOBODY MOVE AND NOBODY GETS HURT!”
“Seriously? You’ve gotta be shitting me.”
A quick scan with his senses confirmed his suspicions. It was the group from the alley. Turning slightly, he started taking in details of the five men. Two of them were big, almost as big as Thunderclap but with a meaner looking disposition. The third guy kept shifting from foot to foot, rapidly tapped his fingers on the side of his legs. The one he took for the leader held his hands before him in a gesture that he suspected meant nobody should move.
The last guy was the odd man out. Unlike the others, he actually looked like a walking heart attack waiting to happen. His best guesstimate put him at around five foot six and somewhere north of four hundred pounds. A stroke was probably on the horizon for him if things got ugly.
Before he had a chance to move, he felt a hand touch his arm lightly. Looking back, Kaitlyn shook her head slightly.
“We can’t expose ourselves to the public like this. Just relax. If you hadn’t noticed, we’re surrounded by a bunch of hard-chargin’ operators with excess testosterone. As that commercial likes to say, ‘wrong bar.’”
Rick tensed slightly before relaxing again. Kaitlyn was right. This was probably going to be a massacre. He took a sip of his drink before a memory tugged at the back of his mind. Concentrating, it took a moment before he remembered what it was. A quick mental scan confirmed his suspicions.
“Something not right about this Kat,” he whispered, “None of them are carrying weapons.”
He saw her eyes widen as the ramifications of that statement slowly sunk in.
“Then how—”
Sudden movement registered on his senses as several things happened nearly simultaneously. A few of the bar patrons pulled out concealed guns, pointing them toward the two big guys while a couple men by the door lunged at the jittery one in an attempt to tackle him. Before either of them had gotten more than a couple steps, the obese man swung his arms around, elongating them and slamming the two guys into the floor hard enough to crack the wood.
A shot rang out, hitting the obese man in the forehead, snapping his head back before he looked forward again, the bullet slowly sliding back out of the rolls of fat before falling to the ground. A split-second later, several screams rang out as the ones who had pulled weapons went flying through the air, the jittery man smiling an evil grin as he dropped the guns on the floor in front of him.
Rick instinctively switched into high speed, noticing the airborne men each had assorted broken bones jutting out of their arms. Reflexively, he created a kinetic shield around them, cushioning their impact. Bouncing off the wall harmlessly, Rick gently dropped them to the floor, wincing internally as they writhed in pain. To their credit though, after the initial screams, they remained quiet, staring daggers at the intruders. Rick felt the anger slowly build, like a barely contained reactor. His fingers started digging into the surface of the table, causing it to pop slightly. Kaitlyn’s grip tightened slightly at the sound.
“Any other heroes wanna get fucked up?” the leader yelled, looking around the bar angrily.
He felt Kaitlyn grip start heating up, the scent of smoldering fabric starting to build in the air. Ignoring the heat, he used his power to cause her hand to slide off his arm.
“Rick…”
“Fuck this. Look around, the cat’s already out of the bag.”
Grabbing his drink, he stood up. Everyone stared at him as he turned toward the five men. Draining his drink in one gulp, he slammed his glass back down on the table.
“Guys, listen. I’ve had a really shitty week. All I want to do is drink in peace.”
Slowly approaching them, he gestured around the bar.
“I’ll tell ya what. If you leave now, I might be able to convince these fine young group of hard chargers to forget about this little misunderstand. So whatcha say? Can we call it a day?”
The leader looked around before looking back at his group, gesturing toward him.
“Can you believe this asshole? Who the fuck does he think he is? Maul. Rock. Show this jackass the error of his ways.”
“With pleasure boss.”
Cracking their knuckles, they purposefully strode toward him, rolled their shoulders to loosen up.
“Any last words, shit fer brains?”
“Yeah, when this is over, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance to end this peacefully.”
Growling, the closer of the two reared back, launching a hay-maker at his face. Instead of ducking, Rick swung his head forward, hardening the air an instant before head-butting the giant man’s fist.
The sound of all the bones in his opponent’s fist shattering echoed around the bar, reminding Rick of a grenade going off. Reaching up, he grabbed his opponent around the wrist before swinging him around and over in a tight arc like a human wrecking ball, slamming him down on the other giant. The impact drove the second man into the floor like a tent stake. Raising his other hand u
p, Rick slammed it into the temple of his first opponent, driving his head into the hardwood planks far enough that he resembled the stereotypical image of an ostrich hiding.
“Last chance,” he said, using his power to make the room shake with his voice.
“What the f—? Turbo, take him down!”
Switching into hyper-speed, the world froze around him. Extending his senses, he felt the jittery guy begin accelerating toward him. Subjectively, it felt like he waited a good thirty seconds before the speedster got within range, when in actuality, it was less than a second.
Snapping his arm up, he allowed his opponent’s momentum to drive him into Rick’s fist, shattering several ribs in the process. Using his power, he stopped his opponent’s forward motion, keeping him from actually punching a hole completely through the speedster. Slipping back toward normal speed, he heard all the wind blast out of the other man’s lungs, leaving him unable to scream.
“That,” he said, holding his opponent in the air, “was for them.”
Rick absently flung the speedster over his shoulder, allowing him to slam into the wall behind them with enough force to knock him out without killing him.
“So who’s next?” he asked, glancing between the remaining combatants.
The leader started swearing loudly.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Putty, do something!”
He noticed the obese man hesitate, looking back and forth between him and his comrades.
“I, uh, don’t think that’s a good idea Flechette…”
“You should probably listen to your partner.”
The leader ignored him, continuing to yell at the other man.
“Get him! Now! Or so help me God, I’m going to turn you into a f’n pincushion.”
“Putty, was it? Tell you what. Sit this one out, I promise to take it easy on you, deal?”
Before he had a chance to answer, Flechette screamed in rage.
“You motherfuc—”
Lifting his hands up, thousands of needle-like projectiles shot out of the Flechette’s palms, streaking toward Rick at nearly hypersonic speeds. Crossing his arms in front of himself, he allowed the projectiles to approach to within inches before grabbing them with his power, causing them to swirling around him in a random orbit. He allowed them to undulate and weave around him like a hovering python as he continued to absorb the onslaught. After about twenty seconds, the stream of needles slowed to a trickle before stopping, his opponent left gasping for air.
“They should have called you porcupine, you realize that, don’t you?” he asked, accelerating the needles surrounding him to a blinding speed
Sending out a tendril of his power, he slapped the other man down like a giant flyswatter. Satisfied his opponent was out of the fight, Rick launched the needle-like projectiles, outlining all of his unconscious opponents like a chalk drawing. Staring at Putty, he cocked his head slightly.
“We done?”
In response, the fat man fainted. Turning, he strolled back to the booth. Sliding into the seat, he noticed Kaitlyn was left speechless. She just kept glancing around the bar at the controlled destruction. Finally, her jaw started moving, unreadable emotions flowing across her face.
“Goddammit Newton!” she hissed, “What the fuck have you done?”
“What needed to be done. I stopped other civilians from getting hurt or killed by rogue mutants. End of story.”
Staring at his empty glass, he debated whether to order another one. Then he remembered what they were talking about before the attempted robbery.
“That reminds me, what were you saying before this happened? Something about what the tech guys found?”
He watched her clench her jaw for a moment before reaching for her cell again.
“Yeah, those names, they belong to ancient Sumerian Gods. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to call base and get a containment crew out here to see if we can contain this mess.”
Rick nodded absently, turning the new info around in his head. On a whim, he switched over to his indigo aura. A few seconds later, he realized why he recognized the name of the town she mentioned and how Sumerian deities tied into it. He tapped on Kaitlyn’s shoulder, earning him another venomous look.
“What! Can’t you see I’m busy trying to figure out how to clean up the disaster you just caused?”
“I know how they’re all related. We need to go to Zona Del Silencio.”
“Who? What? Where’s that and why the fuck do we need to go?”
Rick felt a pit open in his gut, the trepidation growing in the back of his mind.
“It’s a place in Mexico where strange things happen.”
“So…?”
“So,” he said, forcing the words out, “it’s also the place where Skywatch had a research base. The same base where they were creating super-soldiers, Where Reaper and I developed our powers.”
Epilogue
“Shar, please hold all my calls until I say otherwise? I don’t want to be disturbed unless it’s an absolute emergency.”
“Sure thing Colonel. Mind if I ask a favor of you, sir?”
“What’s on your mind?”
“I was just wondering. Since it sounds like you’re going to be busy for the rest of the day, would you mind terribly much if I left early? I have family I haven’t seen in awhile coming into town this evening. Just wanted to spend some extra time with them, assuming it’s alright with you that is.”
“That’d be fine. In fact, take something out the petty cash fund and take ’em all out to a nice dinner.”
There was a pause on the line before she responded.
“Thank you sir. That’s extremely generous of you.”
“Don’t mention it. If you could though, on your way out, would you hit the lights and lock the door for me?”
“Sure thing. Anything else then before I take off?”
“Nope, I’m good.”
He started to reach for the disconnect button, but paused for a second.
“Actually, there is one more thing. Could you toss on a pot of coffee for me before you head out?”
“You got it sir. Have a good one.”
“You too Shar. Have fun with your family.”
He reached forward again, disconnecting the call. Leaning back in his chair, he thought about the report from the bar fight HellKat and Newton had been involved in.
Sighing, he got up, stepping out into the other room to retrieve a steaming cup of coffee before returning to his office, locking the door behind him. Taking a sip, he pressed a button next to the door, engaging the security and encryption fields built into the walls of his entire office. While not as mechanically isolated as the secure rooms downstairs, all the technology used more than made up for that one shortfall.
Satisfied, he headed back toward his desk. Passing by it, he stopped in front of what appeared to be a nondescript portion of wall. Three feet to the right of it was a wall safe that had both a keypad, fingerprint scanner, and voice recognition. Even with all that security, the item he was after was too important to leave stored in it. Instead, he reached out, pressing his hand flat on the smooth surface. An instant later, he felt the slight pinprick, followed by slight burning sensation. As the sensation traveled up his arm, a light flashed out from a concealed hole in the ceiling. It passed over him several times, then faded, followed by a small section of the wall sliding upward. Another beam of light shot out, striking him in the eye for several seconds before shutting off as well.
By that time, the burning sensation had reached his heart, causing it to skip a beat. An instant later, his heart stabilize as nanobots poured into his system, carrying the antidote to the poison coursing through his veins. Without that antidote, death would have claimed him before he reached the office door. Leaning heavily against the wall, he allowed his body to recover from the ordeal. If at any time during the DNA test, body and palm scan, or any of the other hidden protocols verifying his identity had failed, the wall in front of him would
have detonated, completely destroying the office and any intruders trying to access the contents of this safe.
A few seconds later, he heard a click before the section of wall under his hand depressed slightly. Satisfied that the security was fully deactivated, he dropped his hand, allowing the section of wall to slide down and reveal another safe containing several objects. Reaching in, he grabbed the folder lying on top of the small stack before turning around and dropping it on his desk.
He studied it, thinking about how long the contents of the folder had existed without anything new being added. Tattered around the edges, stained, and with at least one tear patched with invisible tape, it’d seen better days. By outward appearances, it didn’t look like much, but it contained information found nowhere else. Until now, it’d been deemed too dangerous by the previous commander to ever be entered into any database. It only existed as this one hard copy.
Opening it, he reviewed the content again. Over the past eight years, he’d only had reason to review it once before securing it away in the hidden safe in his wall. A gift from the base commander he was replacing, who also happened to be a longtime friend. It had been a bittersweet moment at the time, his friend being forced to retire due to complications from injuries suffered during a mission they shared a long time ago, but at the same time, it allowed him to continue pursuing a mission the two of them had started all those years ago, shortly after they’d recovered from the failed mission.
He knew his friend had never pulled the folder out during the entire time he’d been the commander of this base. So all in all, it hadn’t seen the light of day in nearly sixteen years. Now, he’d had to pull it out of it’s hidden compartment twice in just the past few months. With how valuable he considered the contents of the folder were, there was surprisingly little in it. A few after action reports, an encrypted thumb drive, and some still photos. Taking the thumb drive out, he plugged it into his secure computer before firing up the decryption software that only existed on this one system.
After a few second delay, the drive opened up, revealing a single file. Moving the pointer over it, he paused, allowing his finger to hover over the button. Taking a deep breath, he let it out before opening the file. A few seconds later, a video popped up on his screen, frozen on an image of his face. It was a video from a covert op conducted under the auspices of a new department the government had formed. It’s primary mission was to identify and shut down rogue black ops organizations in the government, ones that were suspected of either being corrupt or compromised. The mission that they’d been tasked with that day was to raid a department running questionable ops that could compromise the government if it was ever discovered.