Agent on the Run (The Agents for Good) (7 page)

Flicker almost told him to put his hand back, because she already missed the warmth of it and the sense of connection there had been between them, but “Good morning” was all she said.

“Good morning.” I said in response feeling somewhat embarrassed of myself. She didn’t seem to mind where my hand had been, if her smile was anything to go by.

We both quickly got ready and I watched with real fascination, as she stepped into the lose pile of body armor. She pressed two fingers together from opposite hands and an electric spark snapped visibly. Immediately the loose armor snaked up her body by passing over her lower legs to snugly enfold her in its protective shell.

“Is that stuff bulletproof?” I asked curious to know.

“For the most part.”

“I bet its snake proof.” I said with envy to be heard in my voice.

She just smiled and started out at a more relaxed pace than yesterday, which I was grateful for. We talked along the way and when we reached my concealed Jeep five hours later I was kind of hoping that we hadn’t, because it meant that we would part ways now.

I stared at the jeep hating it in a way, “So like I was saying this was part one of a four-part process. I’ll be frank about it. I really need your help with this mission and beyond that I’d really like to spend more time with you.”

I studied her, as she enigmatically gazed at me. I was unsure of what she would do and fully aware that I couldn’t make up her mind for her. She was free to do as she pleased.

It was with relief that I saw her extend her hand out to me along with the words that she spoke, “I’d really like to spend more time with you too. What do you say to being partners?”

I took her cool metallic grasp and shook it firmly, “Partners it is then!” I said, but we both knew that we were enacting something far more than just a working relationship.

She didn’t let go of my hand and I saw her face darken from some source of self-doubt, as she asked hesitantly, “You’re sure you don’t mind?” Her alloyed fingers flexed slightly in a clear indication of what she was asking.

“I don’t mind.” I said honestly, even as I was glad that we were getting out in the open this sudden attraction between the two of us.

She gave me a look that said she still didn’t believe me. She let my hand go. Sometimes believing is feeling as well as seeing. I stepped close to her enfolding one hand around the back of her neck and pulled her into my kiss.

Her eyes had flared wide in alarm, but I ignored her shocked gaze and closed mine, as I deepened the kiss. She could so rip me into little pieces right now, but instinct won out. She started responding to my kiss with an innocent fervor that was beautiful.

I drew back from her lips and her beautifully expressive eyes blinked open with a dazed look of befuddled passion.

I smiled richly, “Not a problem, understand?”

She nodded affirmatively and I stepped back slightly.

“Now for the next problem. How are we going to stay in touch so you know where to meet up with me to collect the other parts?” I asked hoping that she had an answer to my problem.

Flicker turned from me then to unsling the little pack she wore and then she started rooting around in it in search for something. I took the opportunity to admire the way her very blonde hair fell across her face. There was something so very familiar about her. It hit me like a ton of bricks then.

I about burst out with my revelation, but something made me hold back. The resemblance between her and what had to be her two brothers, Flint and John, was unmistakable and I couldn’t believe I had missed it up until now. Another thought came on the heels of that one.

What would big brother think when he found out that I was dating his kid sister?

Did her brothers know she was even alive?

I doubted it from what little I knew of their stories. Did she know who she was?

Whether she did or didn’t it could wait for another day. She’d finally found what she had been looking for, two little black discs.

“These are thought responders. I already have a pair wired into my head. If you wear these you’ll be able to communicate with me by thought.”

I nodded and she stepped closer and started to place one in the area behind my left ear. I watched her pink lips move, as she spoke, “There will be a little sting as it connects to your resident electrical focus.”

“My what?”

Her lips split apart in a grin that showed her pearly white teeth, but she didn’t answer. There certainly was a sting to it, I acknowledged, as I winced against the pain of it adhering to the side of my head behind my ear.

She went to work on my other side. She was tall standing perhaps only less than an inch off of my 6’4”. I liked that. Her tongue came out to lick her lips, as she concentrated on lining the disc up right. Her lips glistened in the sunlight, as I felt the sting of the second disc. She was saying something and I tried to focus to hear what it was past my fascination of watching her lips move.

“Now I’ll be able to hear your thoughts.”

I blinked hard, all of my focus suddenly on her, as my eyes darted to hers. ‘Don’t do it!’ I silently screamed.

Oh rats! She did it.

I inwardly cringed, as I watched her face blush with an intensity of color. Trying to ease out of a terrible social blunder I threw up a hastily contrived defense, “Boys will be boys.”

She shot through that excuse with one disapproving look and I cringed visibly this time. Honestly I admitted, “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

She looked down her face still the color of crimson and said, “You didn’t offend me. Just shocked me a bit is all.”

“A bit?” I said disbelievingly.

“Okay a lot.”

“Sorry.” I said hopeless to change what she’d seen in my thoughts.

She glanced back up her blue eyes alive with a speculative gleam as she stated, “I guess you have this partnership going a lot further than a standard working relationship?

“I have only the finest of intentions in concern to you Flicker.” I said heartfeltly.

She nodded and something seemed to relax in her still rosy face, “It should be an interesting experience for both of us then.” She said husky voiced.

She left me suddenly then fading away into the jungle.

This just wasn’t right! A girl being able to read a guy’s thoughts at will! It was fiendishly diabolical!

“I heard that.” Came the distinct thought within my consciousness.

“Darn it!” I fumed out loud, but I heard nothing back in reply from the jungle, but the usual jungle sounds and the sense of someone laughing at me inside my own head. I reached up to tug at one of the discs, but it wouldn’t budge.

Morosely I let my hand fall defeatedly back to my side, as I acknowledged the sad fact of the matter that I had just gotten suckered in and had lost the battle of the sexes without contest.

Chapter Seven

Honor Defended

I stepped into the apartment fully expecting to find Jane gone and it was somewhat of a surprise to see her rise up out of a chair at my entrance. “I got it, actually I got two. One is for a backup in case we need it.”

“Excellent! Good thinking on your part.” Jane responded.

I gave her an odd look, as she seemed rather bubbly. I passed over the two nondescript items that I’d almost gotten poisoned to death over in several different fashions.

I couldn’t but help ask, “Why are you so upbeat?”

She glanced up from the items in her hands, “To tell you the truth I didn’t really think you could succeed, but now that you have I see hope in this mission. It will be a good thing to see my research actually do some good.”

I nodded and thought ‘and get paid for it’, but I kept that thought to myself. Her reasons for being bubbly seemed plausible enough, but there was just something about her that still didn’t add up with me.

“Well you knock yourself out with playing with those. I’m getting something to eat and some sleep before round two of this scavenger hunt starts.”

I headed back out to the town mindful to be cautious about being seen as I left the apartment. I thought about where to eat. Truthfully there weren’t many places yet available in terms of providing a real selection.

The economy in the nation had really pulled together as a whole in America after the Code had come down. Nations around the world, not so adversely affected by the Code, had given generously and America was well on the way to getting back up on its feet, but the recovery was still tough going in places.

An old fast food restaurant had just reopened. I didn’t really care for the food they offered, but perhaps because of the nostalgia of younger days I chose to eat at it. It seemed that everyone else had the same idea and there was quite a line, but it was moving along quickly so I stayed.

When I got to my turn at the register I ordered and paid and then went to stand off to the side with the other people who were waiting for their orders. Everyone behind the counter was busy, and they were doing their best to be organized against the rush. As each person stepped forward to grab their bag the manager himself would assist them.

His words became a constant repeating litany, “Do you need any sauces?” To which he fulfilled whatever their requests may be from bins on the other side of the counter generously. I stepped up to the counter to claim my bag and thinking to beat him to the punch I asked for honey mustard sauce.

The manager glanced up my tall frame and his whole disposition changed in the familiar hang-up that I was used to, but nonetheless angered by. With a curt jerk of a finger he gestured to an outward amenity station, “You can get your sauce over there!”

I was tired and hungry and right now the thought of pulling the pompous white hided racist across the counter and pummeling him half to death sounded like a good idea. Before I could act out on that ill advised fantasy though the sudden quiet of the place was punctuated by sudden, “Hey!”

All eyes of the people caught up in the sanctimonious taboo swiveled to a man standing in line waiting for his food a couple of feet away from me. He was an aging portly built man complete with beard and tattoos. He had truck driver and biker written all over him and he was white.

He had a no-nonsense attitude about him that might find some root in the faded Semper Fi tattoo bedecking one arm. Despite the man’s worn down and bedraggled appearance there was still something about him that demanded respect.

“I didn’t fight and bleed alongside people of his color in the fight for freedom so lily livered panty waisted idiots like you could stand so high and mighty behind a counter and dictate to someone as if they were beneath you, when you don’t even have a drop of spilled blood within you for a noble ideal and that’s if you ever had the gumption to even try! Now you reach your hand into that box and pull out them sauces like the man asked for or so help me I’ll come back there and lay you out!”

The apoplectic red-faced manager quickly did as ordered and then disappeared into the recesses of the kitchens, as the normal flow of the restaurant gradually restored itself in the absence of the manager. Something else was somewhat restored, my faith in my fellow man. I inclined my head toward the unlikely defender of equality and received one in return.

I had been going to just leave the restaurant with my food, but I decided to stay and claim a spot so to speak.

Jane was hard at work the next morning when I stepped within the apartment. From the amount of active computer monitors and strands of wires radiating out from the devices I had brought back I surmised that she had been at it all night. She truly did seem to be serious about helping.

I glanced at the monitors and what I saw was beyond my comprehension skills. It was apparent that she knew what she was doing at least.

Jane glanced up somehow still looking fresh after a night of staring into computer monitor and asked, “Ready for your next near-death experience?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the use of the old movie line from the A-Team.

“I’m afraid!” I quipped back at her.

I wasn’t really afraid, but well maybe I was.

Seriousness took over and I asked what I had been dreading to know the answer to, “So where to next?”

She seemed to pause before answering, “Wrangel Island.”

I’d heard the name before somewhere in something I’d read one time. I searched for it in earnest and like a faithful dog my brain responded for me, “Isn’t that where they think the last mammoths to be alive were?”

“Yes it is they were pygmy mammoths. The Soviets built a research facility on the island to study the biology of the place. It was abandoned and the Code took it over and expanded it underground more. It was where they did most of their testing on the humans that they turned into hybrid robots.”

“So you know about them?” I asked in an effort to dig up information.

Jane’s eyes flickered downward as she responded, “Yes I know about them and I think it was awful what they did to those poor people.”

“Was that all they did there?”

“No, they had other experiments.”

“Like what?” I asked not really wanting to know, but needing to know.

“I’m not sure. I was never there, but I heard vague rumors that it wasn’t good.”

She was lying to me again. I felt sure of it, but I didn’t press it.

She spoke again, “One other thing you should know about the place. There was some sort of an incident that took place there shortly after the Code fell and before my facility was closed down. I doubt whether you’ll meet with any resistance, but the facility due to its sensitive testing material was rigged to blow in the event of a security breach. Be careful not to activate any countdown procedures, as the whole facility will likely lockdown before it blows up.”

I nodded my head, “A real walk in the park this time.” I said sarcastically.

She countered with, “At least there shouldn’t be any snakes this time.”

No probably there wouldn’t be, but what else would I find in a facility that had experimented on turning humans into hybrid robotic forms?