Colour Coded: The Black Bullet

by Katy Jordan

  The noise of the door opening caused him to turn around and notice her.

  Bullet tried to be calm and contained, much to her body’s reluctance, and she walked over beside him, staring out at the hills too.

  “I heard you were looking for me,” she said calmly.

  “Yeah, but I noticed the sunset and I got distracted. Kind of reminded me of you.”

  “Me? How?”

  “Bright, warm… trying to hide from the world.”

  Bullet shuffled on the stoned path awkwardly.

  The evenings were getting colder as they entered into October and the wind brought with it an icy chill.

  It didn’t seem to bother Jack at all.

  “So, why were you looking for me?” Bullet asked.

  “Why were you looking for me?” he replied. “I spoke to Lab at the infirmary, she said you went to find me, and she hadn’t seen you since.”

  “I wanted to help prep you,” she said, “and say I’m sorry.”

  “For what?” Jack asked, this time genuinely perplexed.

  “For being so hard on you. I just care, and I still think this is a really bad idea. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “The reason I’m doing this is because I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Which brings us to a stalemate,” she finished.

  Silence wrapped around them like the cold breeze the evening brought.

  “You have the number to Youth’s hotline?”

  “Yeah, it’s on speed dial.”

  “Don’t leave it there. Memorise it, and then delete it, just in case Neon gets a hold of your phone. If ever you dial it, delete it from your call logs.”

  “I will.”

  “If you need to get out, call and tell us you’re ‘homesick’. We’ll come for you.”

  “I got it.”

  “And don’t jump into mission mode right away, give it a little time so that it doesn’t raise suspicion…”

  “Bullet, I got it,” he cut her off, turning to face her.

  Not giving her a choice, he pulled her into a hug.

  Not that she needed a choice. She wanted to hug him.

  She didn’t want to stop hugging him.

  “I have to go,” he whispered in her ear.

  “I know.”

  Bullet felt herself holding him tighter, Jack returning the gesture.

  “Is that why you’re not letting me go?”

  “You can bet your ass that’s why.”

  Jack chuckled softly, placing his chin on top of Bullet’s head that was resting against his chest.

  She pulled away and looked up at him. Even with her high-heeled boots on, Jack was still a good foot taller than her.

  Rocket’s car pulling round to the front of Colour Coded HQ ruined the ever-intense moment that they were having together. As Jack was letting her go to walk to the Subaru, Bullet pulled his arm back towards her, losing herself in his hazel brown eyes again.

  “I love you.”

  Jack smiled a mad smile.

  “I love you too.”

  Reluctantly, she let his hand go and watched as he got into Rocket’s car, and they sped down the driveway, the small stones pinging backwards frenziedly in the wake of his wheel spin.

  The car reached the main road and took a left out of view.

  Jack was on his way back to Neon, with no earpiece, no direct method of contact other than a replacement phone when he was in the clear, and a camera that didn’t record sound.

  But, nevertheless, he was on his way back.

  Hopefully, for the last time.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The hot water hitting her skin was refreshing and welcomed as Bullet tried to wash away the stress of her day. She could feel the water massage her head as it beat down on her scalp and made its way through her hair. She closed her eyes and tilted her head up towards the shower head, letting the water pour across her face and down the front of her body. She caressed the shampoo into her hair, making sure she didn’t miss a strand, and began to rinse it out. She did the same with her conditioner and began washing her skin with the bar of soap on a small shelf in the corner of the shower cubicle.

  Bullet stepped on to the tiled floor, feeling fresh but tired at the same time. She was trying her best not to think about Jack, although admittedly she was struggling.

  If he had listened, he would have been there with her.

  Instead, his stubbornness allowed everyone to cave to his plans, and he went in there, despite the danger that he was putting himself in.

  Bullet lay in her bed staring at the ceiling, in her pyjamas, wondering about him.

  Rocket wasn’t back yet.

  She wondered if he was already there. If he was okay. If he had spoken to Neon.

  If he was safe.

  Her brain was racing. She was restless.

  She adjusted her pillow and turned on to her side.

  Closed her eyes. Took a breath.

  Nope.

  She couldn’t shut off.

  Maybe she was hungry.

  Bullet got up and put on her black silk dressing gown, and barefoot, made her way down the spiral staircase. As she passed the first floor, planning to make her way right down to the bottom, she heard murmuring coming from Youth’s room. There were a few muffled voices that she could hear.

  She made her way along and stood outside the door.

  Youth, Sparrow and Tide were taking the first night shift keeping an eye on Jack.

  “What the hell is he doing?” Tide asked.

  “I don’t know… is he lost?” Sparrow replied.

  “I highly doubt it, he was working for Neon for two years in that warehouse before the whole thing with Flare happened. When he went back the last time he definitely knew his way around,” Youth added.

  “Then why the hell is he walking around in circles?” Sparrow enquired.

  “Maybe he’s not, maybe it just looks the same to us but it’s actually different passageways,” Youth suggested.

  “No, it’s the same. Even the cracks in the walls are exactly the same,” Tide informed them.

  Bullet walked in. She had heard enough.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Everyone stood upon her entry.

  “Nothing, what makes you think anything’s wrong?” Youth lied, forcing a very fake smile at her.

  “Because you talk loud, and Jack’s walking around in circles,” Bullet retorted. “Next time, if you’re going to lie, make it even slightly believable.”

  Bullet walked to the monitors, watching as she witnessed what they were saying about Jack. His camera was walking around the same areas, down the same corridors, along the same passageways.

  “Has he been in touch?”

  “No, absolutely nothing,” Youth replied.

  “Who met him at the entrance?” she enquired, turning to Sparrow.

  “Neon did, along with two guards,” Sparrow answered, “but, it seemed pretty amicable.”

  Sparrow loaded the footage he recorded of Jack’s arrival to the warehouse on to one of the monitors.

  Bullet observed as Neon ran out to Jack who was pretending to be a lot worse for wear than he actually was. She recognised the warmth that Neon displayed when he put his arm around Jack’s waist and helped him inside.

  “If Jack was pretending to be in really bad health, why is he just cruising around the corridors?” Tide asked, baffled.

  “Where did they go when he managed to get inside?” Bullet asked.

  “He was taken to his room, he sat down on the bed, his jacket came off for a second, I think so that they could look at his wound, and then the jacket went back on and this started,” Youth explained.

  “How long has he been wandering for?”

  “The best part of an hour,” Sparrow replied.

  “An hour?” Bullet spun around, stunned. “And none of you thought this needed Colour Coded?”

  “We thought it might just be us thinking it was a problem and he wa
s actually travelling around the place,” Tide defended.

  “Seriously? Look at the floor, look at the walls, the doors, the…” Bullet went quiet.

  She noticed something.

  Something she was surprised that Youth didn’t notice first.

  “What’s wrong?” Youth pressed.

  “I saw something, shush,” Bullet instructed.

  Her gaze was pulled to the screen like a magnetic force. She was trying not to blink in case she missed it.

  What she’d miss, she didn’t know yet.

  “THERE!” she yelled, thrusting her finger out towards the screen.

  “What?” Sparrow asked.

  “It’s exactly the same as before,” Tide added.

  “No, I saw it,” Youth chimed in.

  “It flashed,” Bullet announced, “it flashed or… jumped, like it was on a loop or something.”

  Youth was typing frantically on the keyboard, trying to limit the video feed to the section where they saw it. Footage loaded up on the third monitor, secluding the section of footage.

  This time, everyone saw it.

  “Youth, what can you do?” Sparrow probed.

  “I can trace the feed and check if it’s still live or not,” he replied as he was, yet again, slamming the keys hard and in a frenzy.

  “It’s not live.”

  “Shit. Call everyone. This needs Colour Coded. I’m going to get The Spectrum,” Bullet ordered.

  Sparrow went on to the earpiece to wake everyone up, but Youth lifted a clear panel on the wall covering a bright yellow button and thumped it, sounding a wailing alarm.

  Bullet ran along the corridor, her bare feet sliding on the tiles as she made her way along to The Spectrum’s room.

  As she was reaching the door, he appeared in his tartan dressing gown and slippers, shoving his glasses on.

  “Jack?”

  “He’s in trouble.”

  “How?”

  “Someone wore his jacket and walked around for a while, ending in a circle. They looped the footage and sent it back to us, playing it on repeat,” Bullet explained as they ran back along the corridor to Youth’s room.

  “How long?”

  “It’s been just over an hour now, sir.”

  They entered the Yellow Youth’s lair at the same time as the Lavender Lab ran in, where everyone was gathered in their nightwear, and Youth switched off the alarm.

  “Do we have any way to get in touch with him?” Flare asked.

  “We can call him but it’ll put him in even more danger than he’s already potentially in,” Sparrow replied.

  “Rocket, get Bullet’s motorbike, your Subaru and Sparrow’s Ford out the front and ready to go,” The Spectrum demanded.

  “Yes, sir,” he replied, running from the room.

  The Spectrum made his way to the monitors next to Youth.

  “Bullet tells me this has been going on for an hour?”

  “Yes, sir,” Youth replied.

  “Why wasn’t this noticed sooner?”

  “They fooled us, sir. We thought everything just looked ridiculously similar, and Jack was heading somewhere. It was just before the Black Bullet came in that we considered possibilities as to why Jack would be walking around in circles, I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologise to me, son. You can apologise to Jack if we get him out in one piece.”

  “We will get him out in one piece,” Bullet growled at her boss, who turned to face her in shock at the tone she threw in his direction.

  “We need a plan,” Tide interjected, “arguing amongst ourselves isn’t helping Jack.”

  “Whatever we’re doing, I’m in on it this time,” Flare announced.

  “Lab?” The Spectrum turned to her.

  “I medically cleared her this morning. Other than her arm which needs to remain in the cast for another week, she’s good to go,” Lab responded.

  “So, what do we do?” Flare asked, trying to contain her excitement at being involved again and maintain a serious tone.

  “Sparrow, what’s the security situation?” The Spectrum enquired.

  Sparrow lifted his tablet, and Youth lifted another to activate the drones and assess the boundaries of Neon’s warehouse.

  “There’s a lot more guards than there was before,” he said, his nose almost touching the screen.

  “There’s six down each side of the building, four at the entrance, and one in each corner of the grounds. Getting in is going to be no easy feat,” Youth added.

  “Unless…” Sparrow drifted off.

  “Unless what, Sparrow?” Flare pried.

  “Unless we don’t take the car. Do an air drop-off.”

  “Would that be possible?” Flare demanded.

  “You’d need to fly pretty high so that it doesn’t cause suspicion, which rules out an abseil entry,” Bullet said.

  “And also, sky diving is a real hit or a miss, and the parachutes would be more than noticeable,” Gecko added.

  “So, then how?” The Spectrum snapped, getting frustrated and impatient.

  The room went quiet, as everyone racked their brain to quickly come up with the most effective solution.

  Tide moved suddenly.

  “Youth, can you load up the new blueprint that Flare and I drew up?” she asked.

  Youth dunted on the keys rapidly and loaded the requested picture.

  Tide studied it carefully.

  “The sewage line.”

  “Pardon?” Flare jumped in.

  “We can get entry through the sewage line. Underground. We’ll never be seen, and I doubt Neon would expect it,” Tide offered.

  “Anyone have any objections?” The Spectrum looked around the room at all the faces looking at him.

  “I’m not going through a sewage pipe!” Flare stated adamantly.

  “That’s fine, you were always going to be waiting in the car,” Bullet said.

  “What? Why?” she demanded.

  “Your arm’s in a cast, Flare.”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “GIRLS,” Lab cut in. “Take it easy.”

  Flare slumped into a seat behind her and crossed her arms sourly.

  “Everyone, get dressed, collect your gear and get going. Quick, march!” The Spectrum ordered, and instantly everyone got up and swarmed down the hall to the spiral staircase, Flare, Lab and Gecko going down, while Bullet, Sparrow and Tide went up.

  Bullet’s was the only room right at the top, as the spiral staircase led straight to the door of her room. She burst in and grabbed a pair of trousers out of her chest of drawers and jumped into them. She chucked her nightgown on to her bed and pulled on a T-shirt while her feet fumbled around to get into her boots.

  In all black, as usual, she went over to a mirror on the far side of the room and held her palm against it. It bounced outward slightly, and she swung it open, entering a hidden room.

  The Black Bullet’s arsenal.

  She lifted a handgun off a hook already in a holster and strapped it to her thigh. She grabbed a silencer and slid it into her pocket as she walked down and reached for a long black bag. After opening it, she checked that all the parts for her sniper rifle were there and ready to go, and zipped it shut, flinging it on to her back.

  She headed out, grabbing four boxes of ammunition, two in each hand and stuffed them into the pockets of her leather jacket.

  On the wall by the door, hung a variety of knives, all different shapes and sizes, all in a sheath. She snatched a dagger off its holder and ran out of the armoury, whirling the door shut behind her.

  At the front of the building, everyone but Gecko had gathered by the vehicles, including The Spectrum, ready to go. But, there was only two.

  The Spectrum had asked for three.

  “Why’s there only two?” Bullet enquired.

  “There’s been a change of plan, Bullet,” Rocket told her, “we’re taking my modified transit van and your bike. We’ll explain it more in a minute.”

  Rock
et had Bullet’s black Kawasaki motorbike positioned close to his red van, her helmet sitting precariously on the seat with her gloves inside.

  “Who’re we waiting on?”

  “The Green Gecko,” Tide replied.

  “Now, remember everyone, this is the first mission in a while that has included all of us. Follow protocol. Your name to their name and then your message. Understood?” The Spectrum ordered.

  Bullet nodded as she shoved her radio into her ear and pressed on it.

  “Bullet to Gecko, you almost ready?” she asked.

  “Gecko to Bullet, I’m on my way down the spiral staircase,” he responded.

  “Okay, I’m going to park on the other side of the hill to the west of the warehouse,” Rocket stated.

  “But, the hill to the east isn’t as high, it’ll be faster to get over,” Flare informed him.

  “I know, so they’ll see that coming,” Rocket replied, “Tide knows the pipeline locations, so she’ll go on the bike with Bullet who will get as close to the warehouse as possible without being seen or heard. They’ll start working on gaining access to the sewage line while you guys hike your way over to meet them.”

  “Flare, Rocket and I will stay in the car and then steadily make our way around the hills to get closer to the warehouse. If we do forty miles per hour, it’s three miles from where we’re doing the drop off to the warehouse going over the hill; that buys you just over an hour and a half to get in and find your way around,” Youth added. “I’ll be scanning the network to see if there’s any live security cameras on the inside and hack into their feed, while Flare’s looking over the blueprints to note the fire exits and work out where extinguishers would be… you never know.”

  “Lab,” The Spectrum walked over to her, “hold the fort. Keep your earpiece in. Be ready for our return.”

  “I will. Be safe everyone,” Lab pleaded, as she backed away to the door of HQ.

  “I can’t believe he didn’t even make it a day,” Tide expressed as she climbed on to the back of the bike while Bullet put on her gloves.

  “I know. Neon’s definitely up to something. He knows more than he’s letting on to Jack,” Bullet replied.

  She swung her leg over the bike, and it sprung to life at the push of the button, as did the van on their left while everyone climbed into the back.

  The Spectrum sat in the front with the Red Rocket.