Agent on the Run (The Agents for Good) (5 page)

Blinking I got a grasp on my bearings. I was alive, but not for long. I’d run off an abrupt cliff in the middle of the jungle. At least 50 feet further below me a turbulent stream flowed, but it was shallow with rocks everywhere. I wouldn’t survive a fall into it.

I was clinging to a tree root about 20 feet below where I’d fallen over the edge. I’d be easy game for the headhunters hanging in the breeze as I was. They’d likely try to pull me up so I wouldn’t bust my precious head open on the rocks below.

I heard there excited jabbering from above, it wouldn’t be long now one way or another. I had failed everyone and I could see no way out of this predicament. No one even knew to come to my rescue that is except for God. I had been forgetting Him in all this somehow.

I closed my eyes and let my head fall forward against the tree root, “God I need your help! Please send help and deliver me from this situation so I can complete this mission that I’ve been assigned.”

I felt tugging on the root. It was all in God’s hands now. Screams broke out from above and a native went sailing out into the air windmilling in his airborne panic. He was closely followed by another and another and another. They fell individually to smack loudly off the wet rocks below their screams of fright dying with them.

I glanced from the bloody water below up to the edge, even as my tree root started being hauled upward. Just who or what was God utilizing to save me?

Was He saving me?

The idea of an angel went through my mind and I swallowed reflexively at the thought of meeting one of them. It was with complete buyer’s shock that I found myself gazing into the masked face of robotic figure instead of an angelic one.

A robotic arm came down and a hand opened wide in obvious invitation, “Take my hand.”

The voice was clearly human, but odd sounding. Why was God delivering me into the hands of a Code robot?

I had no choice, but to reach upward and grasp the metal representation of a hand. It gripped my hand firmly and without further warning I was swung upward to land on my feet on top the cliff. I never stopped, but I took off into the jungle as fast as my feet could carry me, as if the hounds of hell were after me. I wanted nothing to do with a Code robot.

The passing vegetation was a blur, as I darted through the humid jungle corridor. I hadn’t run like this since high school, where I’d been a star running back on the football team. Everyone said I would have been a great college athlete, but I was turned down for a scholarship in place of another promising prospect.

My dream of being an NFL football star was over and it had probably been for the best. That kind of flashy lifestyle would’ve likely destroyed me at the time. Instead I was here in this awful jungle doing something truly meaningful with my life.

I glanced back over my shoulder and saw no signs of pursuit by either robot or vengeful headhunter. I came to a stop and bent over trying to catch my breath. I had to get my bearings as to my location in the jungle before I became even more lost than I probably already was.

“You run very fast, but not as fast as me.”

My breathing stopped for a moment and I glanced upward to see the robot standing before me not even breathing hard. The way she spoke was odd, almost as if she had learned to speak, as if she was deaf to the sounding out of her own words. Although her voice was husky the feminine outline beneath the formfitting body armor was unmistakable.

We stared at each other and I was at a complete loss as to what to do. The range of her abilities had me in a position of virtual defenselessness against anything she might do.

“What do you want with me?” I asked slowly.

Her hand reached up and pulled the facemask type helmet off. Long blonde hair cascaded down to pool overtop of her shoulders, as piercing light blue eyes gazed at me from a face of porcelain beauty. She was as white as I was black and yet she was the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.

“My name is Flicker and I want to help.”

I fought hard to swallow down the instant infatuation I felt for this woman to ask, “Why do you want to help?”

“Because you work for the Agency for Good. One of your number set me free. I would like to take as much revenge upon those who created me as possible as well.”

That pretty well answered the question and gazing at her I could easily see how such a determined woman could scrape down the side of a glass tower with Asia in tow. She was offering me help and I sorely needed it.

I stepped forward holding out my hand to her and curiously I saw her hesitate slightly before she grasped my hand gently in a firm shake.

“Thank you for saving my life back there and yes I would appreciate all the help I can get.”

She nodded and released my hand, her cheeks slightly tinged red with humble embarrassment at my formal thank you. She had saved my backside back there and to say I was grateful was to put it mildly.

“I’m about two days away from my Jeep, but I’m not quite sure where exactly that is right now. I don’t suppose you would know would you?”

“Follow me.” She said softly, as she turned to move off into the jungle at a pace I knew was meant for my limited abilities and not hers.

Flicker glanced back time to time to check how her companion was faring. He truly could run long and hard, but he was still so slow and he was getting tired even though he didn’t like to show it. He had pride, which was something she admired, as she could never have any for herself.

They would need to camp soon, as it was getting quite dark. It wasn’t a problem for her to continue seeing, but soon he’d be stumbling unsure of his footing in the darkness. If he broke his leg and she had to carry him out of here she’d destroy his pride for good.

It was better to make camp so that at least one of them could retain complete humanity, after all how could one be human and not have some pride in oneself, Flicker thought darkly to herself.

Chapter Five

Fireside Attraction

A rest stop would’ve been good. Lunch would have been better. A lot of things involving rest, food and water would’ve been good, but super tracker just kept going on relentlessly. I’d been panting practically the whole time in my effort to keep up with her and my sides were beginning to really hurt along with everything else. This was turning out to be the boot camp march from hell.

To take my mind off the effort and pain of keeping up with her I thought on the mystery that was her and why I was so overcome by her. The attraction part was easy, she was stunningly beautiful, but was she fully human or was I forming an attraction to something not real?

She looked pretty real to me. The shifting supple grace of her body in front of me was harmony itself. Her robotic arms and legs moved seamlessly along with the rest of her in effortless power over the uneven terrain. The arms became real at just above the elbow and her legs became real just above her knees. Perhaps she was missing some of the original parts, but what she still had was all the torment I could handle.

All day I’d wished that the armor suit she wore wasn’t so skintight, while the other half of me had reveled in how tight it was. Either way it hadn’t made running any easier all day I grimly acknowledged to myself. I found myself liking her blonde hair too, which was odd, as I’d never really cared for white women or blondes before.

Her pace started to slow, as we came into a clearing in the higher part of the jungle where there was more bare rock and less vegetation. “We stay here tonight.” She said simply, as she came to a stop.

“Sounds good!” I huffed out quickly, as I stumbled to a stop bending over to take the pressure off my sore lungs.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small quirky grin briefly light up her face. It was clear to me that she was having fun at my expense. Not such the stoic robot after all. Actually there was very little roboticness about her other than what could be seen. She was very much a real life person outfitted with some rather alien looking appendages, but human all the same.

“I’ll go get us some food why’ll you make a fire.” She said.

I nodded and watched her head off into the darkness not liking for her to be out there alone in the dark, but in all truth the jungle had more to fear of her then the other way around. I glanced around the still clearing and then up into the heavens.

I was downright honest with my Creator for a moment, “I want her. Do you have any objections to me staking a claim on her?”

There was no answer on the slight breeze or in the quiet corridors of my heart. I’d take that as a no, until further notice.

No that wasn’t right.

I looked back up into the early night sky, “Sorry about that. I promised You my commitment, as a single man, until the day you provided me a wife, with the understanding that that day might never come. I humbly would like to know, is she the one? I can’t live without You Jesus in my life, but I can live without her and my commitment is to You. Can I take this relationship any farther?” To my shame I guess I really wasn’t expecting an answer again, but I got one.

“You may. Be kind to her. I will bless the union, even as I am eager to grant the desires of a faithful servant to come to pass. Share your faith with her and give her the hope that she lacks and accept her as she is and love her even as I always have.”

At some point I’d fallen to my knees and the words spoken to me registered with a Divine weight and a corresponding responsibility. I stayed on my knees for quite a while. This was going to be a big change in my life. The change I had been hoping to experience for a long time.

It was fully an hour later when Flicker returned with a taper already skinned and gutted. The sight of it got my stomach churning in anticipation. I started butchering it and was further surprised, when Flicker upended a small pack she wore and rare tropical fruit tumbled out in abundance.

I picked one of the odd looking fruits up and took a bite. I’d never had anything that tasted like this before. The fruit had flavor beyond belief!

“Do you like it?” Flicker asked.

I glanced at her, “I love it, but you shouldn’t have gotten it. You must of had to climb the tallest of trees to get fruit like this.”

Her eyes averted away slightly, “It was nothing.”

I reached out to touch her shoulder and her eyes flashed back to me startled, “You could have fallen easily. Even you with your extra abilities would be hard-pressed to survive such a fall.”

Her look was defensive, “What do you care?”

“I care very much. You helped save the world with what you did at the tower in Africa a year ago and today you saved my life and besides either of those two notable things you’re an amazingly gifted and beautiful woman and a lot more should be said of you than that you fell to your death, while picking fruit in the forest canopy of an obscure area of an Amazonian jungle.”

Flicker stared at me out of a pair of shocked blue eyes and almost reflexively she touched a lock of her hair with a metallic finger. She glanced at the shifting interplay of her metallic fingers and then back at me, as if she couldn’t understand something.

I handed her a piece of her hard earned fruit and then I put the meat onto skewers to cook over the fire, as she silently ate her fruit all the time watching me. I watched her in return, as much as she watched me. We both seemed curious in some way about each other.

When the meat was done we ate until we were full, gorging on both the meat and the exotic fruit. In some ways I don’t think I’d ever tasted anything that had the quality of the meal that we shared together.

I’d seen a small stream over to the left of us before dark and digging in my pack I found a bar of soap and pulling it out I walked off into the dark, as she continued to watch me. Out of view of the campsite I slipped off my clothes and gratefully washed the sweat and grime of the past several days off. I washed my shirt off to, but I left my pants alone.

I headed back to the fire bare-chested. As I stepped into the light she glanced up at me with the same desiring gaze, as Jane Worthy had. Here were two white women without any racial hang-ups. I wished I could say the same of myself.

I hadn’t been interested in Jane, but Flicker……

I had never seen white skin look so good on someone before and I had certainly never imagined pledging myself to a person of her color. One just never knew the path you would take in life, until it occurred sometimes. I did know that I didn’t have a single regret, as I looked down at her now.

Flicker’s face flushed rosy and she glanced away. I knelt down by my pack and gazed at her intently, until she met my eyes.

“That suit looks……. Comfortable.” I added tongue-in-cheek.

She snorted and gave me a dirty look to which I responded by chuckling.

“Why don’t you take it off?” I suggested softly.

She gave me a quick nervous look and to keep the mood light I quickly added, “Unless of course you’re afraid of me taking advantage of you.”

Her fingers flexed and a small smile played about her mouth, even as I smiled fully at her. She could rip me apart without half trying and we both knew it.

She was female so I diabolically used it against her to further convince her, “You could take my soap here and go wash off and wear this spare shirt of mine, while your clothes dry. It’s a good chance to freshen up some.”

Those were the deciding words it seemed. She abruptly stood up and turned two dials on her sides that I hadn’t noticed before. The stiff body armor fell to her feet as loose and flexible as a bed sheet, as the electric charge that had held it conformed to her de-initialized.

Flicker’s face was the color red, as my eyes traced up her smoothly muscled thighs to the tight shorts she wore on up to her tight T-shirt. I stood up and walked around the fire to her, as she watched me come toward her warily.

Her T-shirt had little rips and snags all over it, “Is it hard to get this off by yourself?”

She looked away her eyes emotional, as she nodded.

“I’ll help you if you want.” I offered slowly.