GodMode

by O. K. Mills

Jaw completely agape, Winter marveled at Brynn healing a wound that Spade made in his palm using a letter opener from her own desk.

  Spade, oddly enough, had reached the point where seeing Brynn heal something was almost underwhelming. Fortunately for them, the person they needed to convince was extremely impressed.

  “How did she do that? What did I just see?”

  “I’m honestly shocked you don’t already know, Mrs. Harlin,” Bear stated, “Your security clearance is higher than mine. Are you not familiar with codename: God Mode?”

  “That nonsense? I round filed that the minute it came across my desk, especially once Aaron Powers died. This is that?”

  “This is that,” Bear replied smugly.

  “Well … sugar, honey ice and herbal tea,” Winter exclaimed with a hearty chuckle, “can she turn water into wine too?”

  “Not that we’re aware of, though much like the man who actually could perform said miracles, she has her fair share of enemies.”

  “That’s why this precious child is on the news? Because that nut job Damien Silas actually figured out how to genetically farm super powers?” asked Winter.

  “Kind of, sort of. He needs Brynn’s ability so that he doesn’t kill himself in the process,” Bear said.

  Winter sighed and walked around to the front of her desk, kneeling down to Brynn’s eye level.

  “I am not going to let anything happen to you, okay, darlin’?”

  Brynn smiled and nodded her head.

  “It may not be that simple, Mrs. Harlin,” Bear announced.

  “Boy, if you don’t stop calling me ‘Missus Harlin,’ I will put you over my knee. Missus Harlin is my mother-in-law,” Winter laughed, “Now what’s not simple? We put her in protective custody and call it a day.”

  “All due respect, ma’am, but she was in protective custody when she was attacked. I’m going to need you to do a little better than that,” Spade said with apologetic eyes to Bear, whose own eyes grew very wide after Spade finished his statement.

  “Fair enough,” Winter replied with the casual cool of a professional in complete emotional control.

  “Damien Silas is not going to stop until he has Brynn, ma’am. Putting her back in a cage solves nothing. We have to take the fight to Silas. Someone in the government has to be willing to call him out on his activities, someone willing to risk the billions of dollars he spends on America’s private wars.”

  “If you would have had this kind of brass years ago, you might have actually finished BUD/S Mr. Spade,” Winter grinned.

  Spade shot Bear a glare.

  Heather snickered.

  “Oh, don’t get mad at Bear; he never said anything. Information is my profession, Mr. Spade. You don’t think my office wouldn’t know about a BUD/S class, do you? Particularly one with a candidate who earned a Medal of Honor for saving the life of Bear Bowden, the man I hand selected for intelligence work.”

  Spade nodded sheepishly.

  “Damien Silas is worthless piece of nothing, but he has money, and money makes the world go ’round, I’m afraid. One little Jesus child—even one as precious as Brynn here—is not going to be enough to convince my peers to go against a man with the sway that Damien has.”

  “What if she showed them what she could do? It convinced you so it might convince them?” Bear asked.

  “You know better than anyone that people fear what they don’t understand. Furthermore, they hate what they cannot control. We start telling people that the God Mode is a reality, and she will become a lab rat faster than you can say, ‘Happy Birthday.’ This child can heal up like that boy with the hair and the metal knives in his hands from the movies.”

  “That’d be Wolverine,” said Bear.

  “Isn’t he sexy?” Winter said to Heather, who agreed with an “mmhmm” and a shared laugh.

  “My point is this: Show this child to anyone else, and she will eventually cause extreme panic. Death and disease are big business, my friends, and a child with the power to heal is a rather sizeable threat to the world economy. She is honestly safer with Silas than she would ever be with say, WHO or NIH,” Winter continued.

  “I’m one of the few people that she has met today who isn’t trying to use her or kill her. Her mother’s dying wish was that I look after her. So then, what do we do? I want Brynn to have a normal life,” said Spade.

  Winter looked at Brynn and the passion in Spades’ eyes. She sighed, tousled the young girl’s hair before returning to her desk and picking up her phone. She hit a single button, and suddenly, her expression become quizzical.

  “What’s wrong?” Bear asked.

  “Cleveland isn’t answering.”

  “Maybe he’s in the bathroom?” Heather responded.

  “Miss Wolfe, this is a SOCOM facility. Cleveland would sooner piss his own pants before leaving his post. Something is wrong.”

  Winter’s fears were confirmed when she pulled up the surveillance feed, which showed no one seated at the cash register. She hit another button on her desk, and 12 seconds later, four MPs arrived.

  “Gentlemen, I need for you head up and check on Cleveland. We might have a situation.”

  “Yes ma’am,” the men replied in unison and headed out.

  PAP PAP!

  Pike dropped all four MPs with multiple headshots as they entered the lobby area through a hidden door behind a false wall. After checking each of them, he found what he was looking for: security credentials.

  He collected a card, slipped behind the false wall and swiped the badge to call the elevator. He eased in and hit the button for every floor. Each time the elevator would stop, Pike would check his GPS signal to see if he was any closer to his target. Once he arrived at B11, the signal became stronger.

  Pike clipped the security credentials to his belt loop before exiting the elevator and continued following the GPS signal, acting as if he belonged in the building. The people in the offices he passed by were so engrossed in their work that they hardly noticed him, and those who did notice him suspected nothing. To them he was probably just another contractor.

  That’s what you get for putting civilians at a SOCOM facility, Pike mused as he continued making way toward his objective.

  “You have reached your destination,” an automated voice declared from his phone.

  Pike slid the phone into his pocket and crouched low to the ground. Peeking through the frosted glass window of the office door, he spotted a woman seated at a large desk. Standing nearby was a large man, easily six foot five; another guy who was maybe six foot one; and a woman who appeared to be in her late 20s or early 30s.

  Standing directly in front of the shorter guy was the person he had been waiting all day to see: Brynn James.

  “At last,” said Pike as he loaded a fresh clip into his weapon.

  9: Trust Me

  Austin Cole watched his smartphone like a hawk as Asha Born floored the Chevy Impala with a lead-infested foot. Earle Walker sat in the back with Rickey Sweeney. Four additional police vehicles followed.

  “Asha, you should have let me drive,” said Cole.

  “I beg your pardon, sir?”

  They both knew Cole couldn’t drive worth a darn, which is why he never did.

  “I’m probably the worst driver since someone saw fit to give a man a plastic badge and arrest powers, but even I know you don’t take 123 straight through Vienna to get to 29 when you’re in a hurry. Too many lights.”

  “We do have a siren on, sir. We are the police last I checked.” Asha replied.

  “And this is traffic in front of us, isn’t it? I’d like to get there while we’re young.”

  Asha gave him a look.

  “I’m still young,” Cole laughed.

  “Compared to Methuselah, yes, you are, sir,” Asha chuckled.

  In the back of the car Sweeney gave Walker a look suggesting that he knew the real reason Asha took 123. It was to give her contact more time. And while Walker’s expression conveyed strong, yet
tacit agreement, it also reminded Sweeney that they still had about as much actual proof as they did when this first came up in conversation.

  None.

  PAP PAP!

  Heather had called her his rabbi—a high-ranking member in the organization who had allowed Bear to get ahead without actually warranting it. He knew he hadn’t earned anything when she gave him his shot in SOCOM back when he was 19 years old. Consequently, he spent the next 8 years working his tail off to prove her right. There was no one Bear respected more and no one to whom he owed more than Winter Harlin.

  And yet, as he watched her now lifeless body slide out of her chair down to the carpeted floor, anyone seeing the expression on his face might have supposed that she wasn’t anyone particularly special.

  Time slowed to a crawl for Marshall Pike. He had caught everyone by surprise when he kicked open the office door and put two 45-caliber slugs into the forehead of the woman seated behind the desk. Now his biggest problem was deciding whom to kill next.

  He could kill the hairless “Wookie” that stood to his left or the attractive woman—who in any other circumstance he’d be trying to sleep with—standing to his right. But it was the man in the middle, the one who had stepped in front of Brynn James, the one coming at him to deliver a “cobra punch” who posed the most immediate threat.

  He’d start with him.

  The young man had skills. Pike, a student of multiple forms of martial arts, knew the move and used the man’s own momentum to flip him hard into the opposite wall.

  CRACK!

  Heather kicked the silenced pistol out of Pike’s hand. Then, Spade delivered a perfectly executed spinning-heel kick that landed beautifully across the jaw of their attacker. Generally, this move served as a coup de grace in most of the fights he had found himself in. Unfortunately, nothing deflates a man faster in a fight than when the person he just landed his best maneuver on shrugs it off.

  Bear took advantage of the moment to do the one important thing that everyone else had apparently forgotten about: get Brynn out of there. Scooping her under his tree trunk of an arm, he ran as fast as he could out of Winter’s office, his knees screaming in pain with each awkward and lumbering step. He didn’t have time to wait for the elevator, but he pushed the button to call it just the same before looking for a stairwell. If their attacker heard the chime of the elevator, then it might buy them time.

  Spade, Heather and Pike circled each other—none willing to make the next move and each realizing that they weren’t all going to make it out of this room intact, much less alive.

  Pike glanced to the door, cursing himself immediately for revealing his need to leave. Spade eased himself in front of the door to block Pike’s exit and delivered a message to Heather through the briefest of glances. As much as they didn’t like to admit it, when Heather and Spade were on the same page, they proved to be an effective and deadly combination.

  Heather delivered a tiger palm strike towards Pike’s throat that he instinctively leaned back to avoid. The attack, however, was never meant to actually land. Heather already knew her opponent was skilled and faster than she was. Her strike was meant to distract him, which it did, allowing Spade to sweep Pike’s legs to trip him. What neither of them expected was for him to avoid both moves.

  POW!

  Pike landed a bone-chilling jab to Heather that stopped her cold. Legs betraying her, she slumped to the ground in front of Winter’s desk.

  WHUMP!

  Spade delivered a monstrous body shot to Pike’s ribs that actually hurt him. He followed the move up with six additional shots to the same area and then executed a rising knee strike to Pike’s chin that sent him reeling. Pike spit out blood, while Spade motioned for him to bring it. Unfortunately for Spade, Pike did exactly that.

  KA-POW!

  Pike exploded with a forearm shot to Spade’s throat that hit him so compellingly that it actually spun him end over end. Spade landed unceremoniously on his back, extremely thankful that the office floor was carpeted. Pike went to get his gun, but Heather kicked it out of reach. That was all she could muster, however. After gauging his opponents’ condition, he decided that continuing the fight would only waste more time. He ran out of the office to find out where that big guy might have run off with Brynn.

  BING!

  The elevator chime in the distance had Pike instinctively running to it. As he was about to get on, however, he noticed a nearby stairwell and stopped. Anyone in a hurry wouldn’t take the elevator, but they would certainly call it to cause a distraction. In the stairwell, he immediately heard what sounded like a large man struggling his way up 11 flights of steps. He hurried after them.

  Heather picked up Pike’s pistol, then helped Spade get to his feet. Once they ran out of Winter’s office, the loud footsteps running up the nearby stairwell alerted them to where they needed to go. Though about to follow, Spade noticed the elevator sitting open. He pointed to the elevator, to himself, to the stairs and to Heather. He then brought his hands together to indicate that they would trap Pike this way. Heather nodded but took the elevator as she patted her left pocket where her car keys were. Spade understood—she would be in the best possible position to chase Pike if they couldn’t trap him. He hurriedly ran up the stairs taking two at a time.

  Bear nearly cried when he saw the sign that read “B5,” realizing that though he had climbed six flights of stairs, he still needed to climb five more. Fear beginning to grip him as he heard the footsteps behind him closing in, he moved his large frame as quickly as he could while carrying Brynn.

  He climbed and climbed and climbed; finally, he made it to the top, but much to his chagrin the stairwell door was locked on his side. He was mostly upset with himself for realizing this a little too late.

  “Of course it would be locked, Bear,” he thought.

  This was a business front for a secure military facility. He put Brynn down and stood in front of her. He was no fighter, but right now he was all she had.

  Like a professional athlete in his prime, Pike bounded up the stairs. By the time he reached Bear, he wasn’t even out of breath. In the large man’s eyes, he saw the familiar look of fear.

  He had expected as much. What he did not expect, however, was that the big man would suicide dive on him from the top of the stairs.

  Bear launched his six foot five and nearly 300-pound frame directly into Pike from the top of what ultimately cascaded down into at least 16 individual steps. The two men landed with an extreme thud that both would feel for years to come. Pike’s guttural moan indicated that he had gotten the worst of the fall, but his sheer grit and determination had him rising to one knee before Bear had even gotten off his stomach. Pike was about to make Bear pay when Spade struck out of nowhere.

  POW!

  Spade caught Pike flush on the jaw with the palm of his fist and followed the move with an elbow strike to the middle of Pike’s back. Pike swore in agony, but had enough energy left to spin quickly and slam both of his hands to Spade’s ears.

  CLAP!

  Spade heard nothing for several moments. What followed were a loud ringing noise and eventually a rumbling in his stomach that ultimately led to him projectile vomiting.

  Pike delivered a chin-splitting front kick that sent Spade tumbling backwards down the stairs. His victory would be short-lived, however, once he saw the stairwell door open to reveal Heather.

  “Come on, Bear, move your ass!” she yelled.

  Bear got to his feet and grabbed Brynn as he ran past Heather, who stepped into the stairwell and let the door close behind her.

  Pike needed to make quick work of this woman if he was going to catch up to Brynn. He ran toward Heather, but the surprise of her not striking him but pulling his own gun on him stopped him. However, he was not as surprised as she was when the weapon didn’t fire.

  CLACK!

  “What the hell?” Heather shouted.

  Pike used the momentary distraction to deliver an uppercut that sent th
e woman reeling backwards ultimately to the ground. He maneuvered around to the stairwell door and swore when it wouldn’t open. Noticing the access panel next to it, he remembered he had a security card.

  The door clicked open. Pike quickly exited, but not before Heather managed to lodge her foot in the doorway before it closed. Spade had recovered and was making his way up the stairs, so she got up and kept the door open. Once he reached her, they ran out together.

  Bear floored his Jeep, cursing the “car gods” that a Wrangler was anything but a getaway vehicle. He weaved his way through traffic and for some reason decided to head back to route 123 and get on 66.

  When Marshall Pike came running out of Ambassador Autowash, he actually invented new swear words upon seeing Sharon napping in the passenger side of his Porsche.

  “Way to be there, wing man!” he spit as he flung open the door, hurled himself inside, and slammed the gas.

  Firing up her Police Interceptor, Heather zoomed after the white Porsche that she saw peel out of the parking lot, assuming it was chasing Bear’s Jeep.

  “Jesus H. Christ,” she swore, “there is no way that a Wrangler is out-running a blasted 9-11 Targa. We gotta catch up quick.”

  Spade nodded in agreement. Noticing she still clutched their attacker’s gun in a vice grip, he eased it out of her hand so that she could drive more effectively.