The Voice On The Other Side (closed)

[zydrate]

The Voice On The Other Side (Closed)

http://i.imgur.com/C2icFrZ.jpg?1

Katie aka "Tracer”

*****
She sat at her lone desk in her two bedroom apartment...her desk consisted of 6 monitors and 2 keyboards. She wore a headset with a mic. No one knew where she was exactly located and only a handful of people knew the real her and Katie wanted to keep it that way.

To put her job description in terms one could understand was, she was the Penelope Garcia of the real world. But, the thing was the group she worked with didn't know her real name either. She was only known to them as "Tracer."

At the current moment, the work she and the group did was off the records. A mercenary of men that were out in the field while she helped them out tech wise...like run license plates, hack into surveillance cameras... Never did Katie question where the orders came from or how she was able to hack into systems so easily, such as satellite and government systems but she could. Never did she use any of the information that she came across for personal gain. Nor would she ever.

No, this was a good job and she helped others. Never were any of the assignments ones where killing was involved. In fact, it was quite the opposite. They did what the police couldn't do.

Her earpiece buzzed, "Tracer."

"Mission report needed."

Ahh, she recognized that voice from anywhere. It made Katie smile as she pulled up the requested information from a file in her secured email. It only took a moment for her to get what was needed as she answered. Max Jennings, one of the men she was assigned to. Katie didn't know what Max looked like and she was sure he didn't have a clue about her. Their on-air chatter was always flirtatious, but that's as far as it went.

Katie knew Max was single and had been part of the Navy Seals with specialized training in many areas. She was recruited just a few months before him and so that was the connection they had when they started working for The Agency.

Katie had no physical training like Max. She was never in the military nor police force. In fact, her world was much different as she grew up in several orphanages after her parents were killed in an automobile accident when she was 5, luckily Katie made it with only a few scratches. If you asked her now what were her parents like, she couldn't remember much about them.

Although at the age of 14, she started showing a love for computers and had spent most of her childhood holed up in chat rooms and online gaming. Once she finished high school, she would go to college little by little, trying to seek her degree in Information Technology. She was only a few credits shy when The Agency approached her with a job offer.

So, that's where she was today, part time student when she could and full time Agency worker.

"Alright Cowboy, here's what we got today..." calling Max by his call-sign, "Big time banker, Joseph Howard's daughter was kidnapped two days ago, the FBI and police are working on it but they haven't gotten anywhere. All ransom demands have been met with each one falling through thanks to the FBI. You've been assigned to find the girl who was last seen here--I'm sending you the video--leaving her part time job at Cafe' Seven on 12th and Grande two nights ago…do what you have to in order to get her before they kill her in 24 hours. And yes, before you ask, all info has been sent via message-link. Report in two hours, you know the drill."

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/jj530/justarious1/b0f2f9e9b65582a24a85ce9a681a2b74_zpshsft67yt.jpg

Max Jennings

****


His phone chirped and the inner ear piece spoke in a recorded message of her voice Tracer as it always did before a message came in from her, or any perspective contact from the agency. A slight grin made it’s way across his features as he pulled his car to the shoulder of the road and engaged the clutch, put the stick into neutral, put on the parking brake and put on the emergency flashers. He pulled up his tablet from the seat next to him as her voice filled his ears.

“Tracer.”

His voice was low, gravely, something he often used to his advantage when getting information from sources of the female variety. He accented it often with Tracer, he was about 110% certain it make her squirm in her seat, and he loved it. Then again she returned the favor on more than one occasion. They often traded flirtation, but never let it get in the way of the job.

He could have probed information about her personal life, but he chose not to pry too much. He understood the need to compartmentalize information for security. As a seal he was no stranger to breaking up cyphers and sensitive information to make sure that it could not be captured by the enemy, so he never got too much information from her, though occasionally she offered a tidbit here and there. He was pretty sure she was single, and that was a damn shame, as smart and charming as she was? He snapped his mind back to the task.

“mission report needed.”

”Alright Cowboy…” Christ he could listen to her talk forever. He looked over the info, he wasn’t more than 30 minutes out from her last known.

He got out of his car and went to his trunk. Popping it open he pulled out a large duffel bag. He opened up his bug out kit and slid on the light tactical vest which was already fitted out with a side arm, two loaded clips, and a combat knife. Over that he pulled on a light weight sports coat and snapped the middle button that was cleverly made to look like it was a button. It could easily be pulled apart so he could clear his holster or reach for the combat knife.

“Alright. All set. So how come you never send me any pictures of you with all this info? How long have we been working together Tracer? I’m starting to feel like you are just not that into me. I’ll check in later.”

He gave a deep chuckle, closed his trunk and slid back into his car. The drive was quick and when he made it to the Café they were not helpful, having already gone through this with the police and the FBI they were not interested in talking to a PI as he introduced himself as. It was not like he could muscle anything out of them, and the police had already taken all the video surveillance.

He left and began looking around outside and spotted an ATM with a sight line to the parking lot. There was potential there. He fished his phone out of his pocket and entered his encryption code and fingerprint scan to call Tracer. When he heard her answer “Quickest two hours of your life, right? So I am standing in front of an ATM that is in the parking lot of the Café. Any chance you can look through the surveillance on there and see if anything pops? I am betting lazy cops to doughnuts that they didn’t check it. You should be able to ping the wifi off my phone, right? Yeah I pay attention to your tricks! Smart is sexy after all.”

 

[zydrate]

“Alright, all set…so how come you never send me any pictures of you with all this info? How long have we been working together Tracer? I’m starting to feel like you are just not that into me. I’ll check in later.”

“All right, be careful.” Katie said as she hung up, smiling and shaking her head. No matter how many times they talked, he still seemed to know how to get under skin…in a good way.

While he was doing his thing, Katie looked more into the whole situation. Most of the time, they went in blind and while the situation was urgent, she didn’t get to do her follow up until they got the orders and that included background checks on everyone involved; victim, parents, suspects. She needed to be ready for anything and everything just in case. She even alerted other ‘helpers’ in case Max ran into trouble in the field.

Katie had her headphones on with her music blasting as she did her research…well, blasting within limits so as not to disturb her neighbors. She was so busy on her end before she knew it, her earpiece buzzed and her music automatically muted as she answered, “Tracer.”

“…Smart is sexy after all.”

Katie chuckled as she pulled up the information he requested, “Well, what can I say, I’m rubbing off on ya…” silently she muttered curses because the ATM he mentioned wasn’t listed in the file because it was one of those independent ones that aren’t associated with any major banks and can charge you up the ass for money. “So, I take it her co-workers weren’t helpful.” Damnit, this was taking longer than usual. “Hold on…the ATM’s encryption code runs on an older system… as we’re waiting, I sent you something to help you pass the time.”

With that, Katie worked on the surveillance from the ATM as she heard a chuckle from the other end of the line, “Yeah, make me smile too…OK, we’re in, I’m looking at the time from when the vic left the diner and…crap, it’s a frame by frame shot, that’s going to be harder, give me a sec.”

“Damnit, something’s not right Cowboy, take a look,” Katie quickly snipped the frame shots and sent the information to him and heard him swear, “Exactly…she gets into a car willingly and that’s it… what do you want to do, Cowboy?”

Listening to his plan, Katie nodded, even though he couldn't see her, "Got it. Report in four hours. I have help on stand-by if you need."

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

“Helpful? Why would they be helpful. After all they already talked to 2 people! Why would they talk to another! It is only one of their coworkers having gone missing! Fucking people.”

He was pacing like a stalking cat. A few people in the parking lot, including the woman he had spoken to in the café who had come out for a smoke had made eye contact with him had quickly made themselves scarce upon seeing him in the mood he was in now. He could turn on the charm when he wanted to, but when he had a mind to, or when the mood struck him to, he was an imposing figure. Right now he was zombie with a chainsaw kinda scary.

“Hold on…the ATM’s encryption code runs on an older system…” He pulled up his phone as she sent him the little Gif. She could always tell when he was tense and needed to calm down. They had been working together long enough she knew that when he got really worked up it interfered with his ability to see through a problem. Damn that woman, she knew him too well. He chuckled softly. “Yeah, make me smile too…OK, we’re in…

“Alright, I’ll take a look.” He flipped through each frame. Taking his time; going back through several frames a few times there was a long, protracted silence and then he finally broke that silence. “Son of a bitch.”

“Exactly…she gets into a car willingly and that’s it… what do you want to do, Cowboy?”

“I think there is a reason the locals and the feds are coming up deuces on this. Look at the car, look at her expression on her face. She knows this person. Whoever she gets into that car with, there is no fear. Whoever has this girl, knows the family, which means daddy dearest has some explaining to do. I’m gonna go work the dad again; without the kid gloves.”

He stalked back to his car, hopped into the vehicle and fired up the engine. He peeled out of the parking lot and onto the street, making his way toward Joseph Howard’s home. He made the drive in less than thirty minutes. He slowed the car as he made the final approach as to not draw too much attention. As he suspected there was a moderate law enforcement presence at the home. Two uniform officers posted at the front door, and likely an FBI listening team inside. He put the vehicle in park and strode up to the front door and one of the officers raised out a hand to stop him “Sir you cannot be here.”

Max stopped and looked befuddled “No? What about freedom of the press? Am I not allowed to interview a man about his involvement in his daughter’s kidnapping?” That gave the cop pause long enough for Max to reach in, grab his forearm and twist hard. There was a sickening pop as the shoulder dislocated and the officer went to the ground. The other cop reached for his weapon, but Max had anticipated it, and leaned forward with his knee to pin his hand against the fire arm’s handle, crushing the knuckles in the process. Reaching around to grab the stun gun at his belt, he disengaged, long enough to use it on the cop before he could recover from the pain, and then on the second officer before he could get up from the ground.

He dialed tracer’s number and sent a text message letting her know he was going into a hostile situation and leaving an open mic.


He let himself in with his fire arm in one hand, and the phone in the other hand. He pushed the door closed without a sound and locked it behind him. He began clearing rooms one by one until he found the room with the two feds and Joseph. The fed’s to their credit drew quickly despite their surprise, but Max didn’t even flinch.

“Wrong. If I was here to kill anyone, all of you would be dead already, so would the two Uni’s outside. Instead I am here to figure out why Joseph here is impeding a federal investigation into his own daughter’s abduction. “

“Put that fucking gun down and get down on your knees!”

“You can shout all you want sunshine, but I promise you that won’t happen. This gun is the only reason I am still alive. They still have Carlson teaching at Quantico? Yeah, thought so. No way in hell I’m dropping this weapon until you take me seriously. So since you want to think you are in charge, let me counter your reality sunshine. You are going to come over here and take my phone and stay inside my God Damn sight line at all time. If you do not, I will put you in the ground and then shoot Joseph for being a shit bag and generally all around bad father. Luckily, you have backup, so maybe your partner will be smarter and we can try again. Assuming she doesn’t try and shoot me, if she does, hopefully you brought more feds.”

”Are you fucking insane?”

“Hey we have a winner! I am. Now. Phone. It shows pretty pictures of his daughter willingly getting into a vehicle of someone very rich, someone she knows. You going to come get it boy scout? Or do you need to let your partner hand you a pair of balls first?”

He heard the FBI agent whispering with his partner, but they were desperate for leads and finally he made his way over toward Max slowly. “Remember Jarhead, inside my sightlines. Yeah, I saw your ink. Respect. I’d hate to have to add speed holes.” He made his way back to the table. “Now you guys can decide who wants to cover me while the other one watches the file. Done? Good. Tracer, show them the file.”

Tracer played the file for the FBI woman while the man covered Max and she sword under her breath. “He’s not lying. He’s on the level. She is clearly getting on by her own, big ol’ smile on her face. Where did you get this?”

“There is an ATM in the parking lot where she was taken from that isn’t on the main grid of banks. No doubt taking too long to get a warrant for. Lets say this was not exactly legally obtained. So Joseph, what did you do?”

Joseph got up and tried to run.

Max reacted like a bolt of lightning, he had been expecting this, they always tried to fucking run. He wanted to knock that piece of shit out, but doing so might damage his speaking face! Let’s face it, he might need to talk to the captors again to keep up the ruse to buy more time for Max to do his job and keep the girl alive. A single step to the left, he brought up his now free hand and pushed it straight into Joseph’s gut, the man bent double.

The FBI agent’s raised their weapons ”Stop! You can’t hit him!” ” He’s getting away!”

Max pushed the crumpled Joseph back into the couch and back into ‘federal custody’ “yes I can, no he isn’t and what the FUCK did I say about sightlines?!?” With an irritated sigh he pulled the hammer back on his weapon. “Next time one of you inches another step, someone looses weight, okay? I am really trying to be helpful here. Oh and you, not sunshine! I’d stop trying to discreetly poke around in my phone. It has negative side effects. I’m serious about that. Only warning. She is really protective about her secrets.”

”You call your phone a she?”

“What? Fuck no. Not my phone. Seriously. You should just give it back to me. Last time someone poked around it too much there was permanent neurological damage from the electric shock she gave the guy.”

The FBI woman gave a very loud snort.

“Hey, I warned you. Now back to important shit before it smells like cooked chicken in here. JOSEPH. WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!?! Seriously. This would be much faster if you guys just let me have him for thirty minutes or less. Faster than a pizza. The longer you protect this shitbag, the less chance we get the REAL victim back alive. Actually, you know what, come to think of it… FBI lady. If you press the thumb print in the center, it will show you a digitalized copy of my military ID that way you know I am on the level.” Or you know… totally turn the phone into a flash bang. Luckily it will disengage the mic first so Tracer won’t go deaf.

”Let me look.” She placed her finger on the phone and the phone made a strange noise. The earbuds went into place to protect Max’s hearing and he turned his head away. The speakers let loose a deafening sound that shattered the windows in that room, and the screen and camera lens flared brilliantly to life for a brief moment. It was over in seconds, but the damage was done, and when it was, the audio was as Max was cuffing both of the feds and dragging Joseph to the other room. He was screaming because he couldn’t see or hear, and Max muted the audio for Tracer’s benefit. He tied Shitbag up to a chair and closed the door and unmuted the audio. “Alright. I have Shitbag all to myself, going to get some answers, after I leave, send a clean up crew. I’m shocked you didn’t fry that bitch. I know she is a fed, but she touched one of your toys an awful lot more than you normally let people do. This one even vibrates and everything. Christ, he’s still screaming. I don’t know if he is still deaf, or if it is because he is tied to a chair. I’ll update you soon.”

“Shitbag, shut up already. If you don’t I am going to start cutting things that you don’t want me cutting.” Blissful silence. “Okay. Now that the feds are not going to get in my way. What. Did. You. Do? Trust me Shitbag. I am much more scary than the people you fucked with. So start talking.”

”I can’t! He will kill me!”

“See, that is where you are wrong, Shitbag. Despite their failings, the feds do some things right. Witness protection for instance. If you had given them all the info, they might have gotten your daughter back and you guys would be there right now. Instead, now we are here. I am REALLY good at my job, and we still may never get your daughter back because you have been fucking off. There is still a chance we get her back and you go into protection, but you need to shoot straight. RIGHT fucking now.”

Fuck. This was bad.

He slammed the door.

“Tracer. Warm up that back up. I am going to need a field refit as well. Shitbag got into bed with the biggest mob boss this side of the country and then tried to screw them over. Now the feds have their money. All hands on deck. This is bad.”

 

[zydrate]

"What? Fuck no. Not my phone. Seriously. You should just give it back to me. Last time someone poked around it too much there was permanent neurological damage from the electric shock she gave the guy."

"That was an accident..." Katie interjected, her voice only heard by Max, but it was true, she didn't realize the shock of the phone would interfere with the guy's pacemaker... it was a mess. Luckily, he lived--at least that's what they told Katie. Meanwhile, she was busy locking up the phone the FBI agent was going through. Immediately, Katie locked the phone so the information Max was looking at prior to handing the phone to the woman was not accessible.

".....Actually, you know what, come to think of it… FBI lady. If you press the thumb print in the center, it will show you a digitalized copy of my military ID that way you know I am on the level."

Katie muttered under her breath and dropped her head in her hands, "Cowboy--no..."

"Let me look." she heard the woman say…with that, Katie yanked off her headset and tossed it on the desk, even though her audio was muted, she was just playing it safe in case something went wrong...well, that and the screams of the others when Max started speaking as he unmuted his end. She lowered the volume so Shitbag’s--Mr. Howard’s--screaming wasn't so damn loud as she placed them on speaker...

".....I’ll update you soon."

"Wait! Cowboy--!!" But it was too late, he had cut the line.

Katie took that moment to alert back-up that they would be on code-red stand by, meaning she would have to send them in no matter what. That would also alert her bosses....boss, she wasn't sure, that they would need to get with the FBI to smooth over any bad blood that was about to be reported. The clean-up crew would have a hell of a job on their hands...depending on what Max had done exactly...

Meanwhile, moving to a different terminal, Katie had gotten the female FBI agent’s fingerprint from the scan and so she to run it. As it was processing, she waited for Max to call back…Wow, there hadn't been this much excitement in a while...at least in a few weeks. Leave it to Max to keep Katie on her toes. Although she helped other 'fixers', as she liked to call them in her reports, Max was definitely her favorite...especially with all the flirting they did. She could only imagine what he was doing to get some answers out of Mr. Howard...hell, she didn't want to imagine. There were stories of what these fixers were capable of...that's why they worked outside of the law. They got the job done.

"Tracer. Warm up that back up. I am going to need a field refit as well. Shitbag got into bed with the biggest mob boss this side of the country and then tried to screw them over. Now the feds have their money. All hands on deck. This is bad.”

"I have back-up in route,” she said, “OK…” Katie keyed a few things to search for a safe spot to get a refit. She would put in the order and in no time, a new car would be delivered to a drop point with new equipment for him. As she was relaying the information to Max, the background check came back on Miss FBI agent. While she was reading the file, Katie cross referenced it with some other ‘confidential’ documents her bosses had sent her…

“Oh…. shit!” Katie exclaimed as it was extremely rare for her to cuss… She realized her speaker wasn’t muted so she threw on her earpiece as she heard Max ask her what was wrong. “Max, is anyone following you?!” Of course, he would recognize it if someone was … but still … She didn’t even wait for his answer as she tracked him by his phone GPS and then hacked into the city’s camera system. “Sending you the most direct route to change vehicles.”

“The FBI agent…Agent Whitney, I’ve pulled her file with the bureau as well as some—well, it doesn’t matter how, but it seems she’s part of an I.A. investigation for having ties to Marino in the past. She wasn’t supposed to be assigned to this case, Max…”

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

“Oh…. shit!” The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Tracer almost never swore. When she did, things were really going down hill. “What’s wrong?” He gripped the steering wheel tightly, and all the emotion drained from his voice as he checked his mirrors again just to be sure. “Not yet. The Uni’s will make it possible though. They saw me pull up in this car. With the feds at their back they will be on me quickly. How deep is this rabbit hole?”

Then she answered the question. A fed on the take, that was pretty rare; local p.d. happened often enough, but feds usually had much more scrutiny, it was harder to tempt them. With the amount of stroke Marino had though, it wasn’t as surprising as it could have been though. Tracer was anxious, he could tell, but Max was already locking into his element. Until now he had just been easy and laid back, now that there was a true level of danger the playful banter melted away, and the soldier polish came to the surface.

“Coordinates received. I am inbound ETA Thirty minutes. I want to brief the team in an hour. Have them mobilized and geared for urban night infiltration, with gas masks at the safe house on 76th and Wash. You will need to sit in on that briefing as usual and I want you running our over watch for the strike. I don’t trust anyone else. Make sure you get some sleep after the briefing. I know you worry, and it keeps you from sleeping I need you sharp. Shitbag’s daughter needs you sharp. I’ll catch you in an hour Tracer.”

No flirtation this time. He had switched gears so quickly, so abruptly to anyone not used to dealing with that it might have been insulting, but Tracer and he had been working together for quite a while not, this is not the first time things had gone sideways and he had suddenly switched his emotions off like a light switch.

He made the drive in silence, but did not drive the car all the way to the drop point. He parked the car several blocks away, from the location of his new vehicle and began unloading gear. He stowed a med kit in the half empty bug out bag, and zipped it shut. He then slung two more bags over his left shoulder, one that was long and nearly ran the length of his body and could easily fit a rifle, or a shot gun in, the other was much larger and bulkier. It sagged with weight, but it didn’t seem to slow him at all as he made his way toward the location of the new vehicle.

He loaded up the vehicle and then made his next top to the refit area which was not far away. He pulled into the garage which opened automatically, recognizing the RFID chip inside the cars stick shift handle. He was already sliding out of his coat even as he parked the car. He pulled out his side arm, ejected the flip and cleared the chamber with a flick of his wrist, catching the free flying bullet mid air. He set it all down on a table that was there for cleaning and assembling weapons. Placed the bullet back in the mag and replaces the magazine with a hard click. He shifted out of the tactical vest and then quickly unbuttoned his shirt and slid out of it.

He was well muscled, with good definition but he was not the type who spent all his spare time in the gym. His muscles were hard though, and lean. What gave him his exceptional strength and speed was how solid the frame that muscle was built upon appeared to be. His shoulders were very broad, as was his chest, the sort of guy who looked like he belonged on a football field. He had a few scattered scars, and unlike most service men he was almost entirely tattoo free. The only tattoo he sported was the traditional crest of the navy seals. An eagle landing on an anchor, with the cross beam made of a trident . The only special touch was a motto his unit had agreed to that was penned around the crest in what looked like eagle scratches “God will judge our enemies. We’ll arrange the meeting.”

He slid out of his pants as well and even down to the skin. Boxers were not exactly the right choice for this assignment. He pulled out the larger bag and fished out a pair of clean traditional briefs and slipped them on. On top of that he placed the athletic supporter and slid in the cup. He slid into the form fitting black pants and latched down the belt. Then he pulled over the black thermal shirt that would both keep him cool in warm weather and warm in cool weather and also help him blend into darkness. He stuffed his feet into the steel toed combat boots that were still polished to a shine to this day; some habits just never got broken. Finally he strapped on his knee and elbow pads; but refrained from placing his combat helmet on just yet; the image of driving through the city with a combat helmet on with night vision goggles on was both ludicrous and likely to get him pulled over.

He pulled the other bag from his car and pulled out his M-4 and began removing the scope. The last time he had fired the weapon was for a long distance sniper mission. There would be much more close quarters combat tonight. A few bolts and he gently plucked the scope free and set it down. Walking to the cabinet he pulled out a fresh battery and a T-1 red dot scope, as well as an infrared laser that could be mounted to the stock of the weapon. Finally he pulled out two large ammo cases and set it all down on the table.

He mounted the infrared laser to the left side of his weapon, and turned it on. Mounted the red dot sight and turned it on, then we back to the practice range in the back, with his helmet and placed it loosely on his head and activated the night vision goggles. The laser was working beautifully, he began to line it up and fire a few shots down range and sight in the weapon. Once satisfied he turned everything off and made his way back to the car, loaded up the unopened boxes, the bags which were now filled with his civilian clothing and bullet proof tactical vest and drove off to the meeting sight.

**************************************************************

At the meeting sight the others were already waiting, and he wasn’t late. Good, he was eager to get under way. As soon as he pulled in to the parking area he saw the other four members of his team. They were all dressed in similar fashion to he, with their own preferred weapons for this type of a strike.

He parked next to the other cars, dug out the two large boxes and set them down on a table next to the team. ”He comes bringing gifts said a deep voice he immediately recognized. He turned around and spun to embrace Johnathan Remus, not only another seal, but a member of the same unit. This was one of the few personal things Tracer knew about him and she had learned it by accident as they had ended up working on a project together once. He was guessing this was no accident. She knew they were walking into a shit storm, and she was planning to protect her asset by putting someone at his back who was like a brother to him. “Hell, dark horse if I’d known you were coming, I’d have brought strippers and beer.” He chuckled and right at that moment he heard his phone chirp and the earbuds announce Tracer coming online.”

John laughed, not knowing that Tracer was now able to hear the conversation. “Shit you can save the strippers and just make sure one of those boxes is beer and not tear gas. After listening to that operator of yours talk. Damn. I don’t know how you get any work done. What a voice. You always were a lucky bastard, Cowboy.”

Max laughed deep in his throat and replied smoothly. “Don’t I know it? Yeah listening to her talk is basically audio porn, and I think she knows it.” She does now anyway. He looked over Dark horse’s weapon. “Still running that big bitch of doom? Let me see if I can guess the loadout. Thermal scope hybrid suppression, extended mag?”

”Yup. Asshole.

“Okay then. We will need to get everyone outfitted with strobe tags before we go in. Dark horse here likes to use an anti-tank sniper rifle to shoot people through walls. Oh it is effective as hell and devastating to enemy morale and cohesion. However without strobe tags the risk of friendly fire is too high. I’ll bring an extra one for our target. Just make sure you keep with us Dark Horse, and once we have eyes on, hold your fire until you see the fifth strobe.”

”Sure Cowboy, hey is your operator single?”

“You are not, so it doesn’t matter, does it? Moving on. Looks like you are sporting an M240? Nice. Well looks like you are big enough to support it. Callsign?”

”Tiny”

He wanted to face palm. Why was there always some big as motherfucker named Tiny? ALWAYS.

The last was a small, compact woman carrying an M-4 with a side barrel shot gun modification. Perfect. “Alright, someone who thought about door breaching without having to resort to blowing things up. What is your call sign?”

She grinned at all three of them triumphantly, as if she had just won some important victory. “Peg me please.” All of them looked at her in dead silence, it was not a lack of understanding on their faces, no they understood all too well that was the only name they had for her. They had no other way to address her, so every time they talked to her they were going to have to say “Peg me please”

That was when he heard Tracer bust out laughing.

He let out a long exasperated sigh. Was it too much to hope for that he was the first one to die tonight?

A few moments later they all had a digital layout of the compound. It was being displayed on a large table top surface.

“Okay. So the reason we are doing this tonight is two fold. Marino had a fed in his pocket guarding the father, which means had we gone in immediately their guard would have been at it’s highest. Instead of going into a freshly kicked bees nest, we kicked the nest, and let them fly around for hours. Let them tire our and think ‘maybe our show of force scared them off’. The second is the night strike gives us a giant advantage. On top of our training, they are not going to have the tech for night fighting and we are going to use it to full advantage. Once we are on sight Tracer is going to take out the grind for a full block. That way it will look like a normal power outage. They might raise their guard a little, bit not much. Let them sit and stew for a bit, then we go in. Tracer we will have you running interference with the power company, keeping the grid down. We don’t know where she is, so this will be a room by room sweep. The main problems are these long corridors here and here. That is a lot of distance with no cover, but we have flashbangs and teargas for that. Also this area here is a potential choke point, but between our ordinance and the SAW, we should be able to keep it clear and hold it. Tiny, I am going to post you there. You will be making sure we have an egress. Dark Horse will be outside helping reduce enemy numbers and taking care of enemy movement. Once Tiny gets in place you and he will be working together a lot.”

He looked over at the small woman and gritted his teeth, then smiled in false sweetness. “Peggy and I will continue working sweeps until we find the girl. Questions?”

 

[zydrate]

Sleep? There was no way she was going to get any sleep right now. No, too much had gone wrong so far....well, not wrong but not right either.

This was supposed to be a routine operation. Most were. But then again, some were not and it required extra effort and of course, field support in the end. This time, the mob was involved and they played a dirty game because usually local law enforcement was also involved.

After hanging up with Max, Katie contacted a few other 'workers' to help out on this one. These guys weren't just the normal back-up that she had sent out earlier. No, these were ones with talents equal to what Max did. After contacting them and giving them the location, she quickly sent an update to the higher ups letting them know the status of the mission. She wouldn't get a response from them, just a confirmation that her message was sent... as for after a successful mission, fifty thousand would be deposited into her account from an unknown source. She wasn't sure how much Max received but it was probably double that.

When everything was secured, Katie quickly went to her kitchen and heated up some left over pizza from the previous night. She had about 10 minutes before she had to contact Max so she decided to jump in the shower, where she quickly washed up and then rinsed off. Afterward, she dried herself off before changing into a pair of leggings and a matching sports bra and slipping on a zippered hoodie before bunching her damp hair into a messy bun at the back of her head. No, she didn't need to dress up for her job, thank goodness, but she certainly wanted to be comfortable also.

Before getting on the line, Katie dug into the city records and pulled up several blue prints on Marino’s compound. She sent it to Max, along with a few pictures of the compound seeing as how they needed all the information they could get. Just as she got back in contact with the team, she heard Max chuckling and for some unknown reason, that made her smile.

“…After listening to that operator of yours talk. Damn. I don’t know how you get any work done. What a voice. You always were a lucky bastard, Cowboy.”
“Don’t I know it? Yeah listening to her talk is basically audio porn, and I think she knows it.”

“I do now…” mumbled Katie as she tried not to blush to Max’s words…right now; she had the mic on mute so even if she made a sound then Max couldn’t hear her. As they talked, she tried her best not to listen...so she busied herself with getting each agent’s identification number from a micro-chip that was implanted into each person’s ear-piece. The number and tracking device would help Katie keep a tab on each one as they

”Sure Cowboy, hey is your operator single?”
“You are not, so it doesn’t matter, does it?”

Katie quirked an eyebrow at Max’s tone in his response…he sounded a little protective when he answered and she noticed that Dark Horse didn’t say anything about it afterward. Taking her mic off mute, she then noted each agent’s call sign. This was the first time she would be working with ‘Tiny’ as he was fairly new to the Agency but not new to combat. Katie was so busy handwriting everyone’s call sign down, she didn’t realize she had laughed when she heard Peggy’s sign and she quickly apologized, knowing only Max could hear her.

“Sorry…” she said, trying not to giggle more. Clearing her throat, she got serious before connecting on the comm with the entire team, “Sending Marino’s mansion layout to you all.” Katie said as she sent them each layout before setting the mic back on mute and listening to the debriefing. It was pretty late at night so Max was right about them not expecting the team to go in right now.

”Questions?”

Knowing she was the team’s eyes and ears, Katie spoke up when everyone acknowledged Cowboy’s plans, “Waiting for your signal on the power grid, Cowboy. Once that’s down, I’ll be able to gather heat signatures so hopefully it’ll make your jobs a bit easier but only for fifteen minutes at the very least.”

Sure, Katie wasn’t in the very least someone who had been in the military. All her talk and jargon was all picked up from the job…as well as studying others’ techniques and of course, a lot of reading in her spare time. She knew was expected and that no matter what she heard, she had to remain calm through it all and give them the necessary information needed in order to help them survive.

Of course, focus was also the key, not just on her part but the others too. The ultimate goal of each mission was no casualties and so far, they were gold on that and if she knew Max the way she did, he would want to keep it that way.

A few minutes later, the team was in position and Katie was ready with the power grid... she heard Max's signal and with a few keystrokes, the power to the compound went down... of course, she would keep it down for as long as they needed it because the city's grid ran on such an outdated system so it didn't take much to do all that. Instead of concentrating on one area, she sent out an outage at a radius of 5 city blocks as not to raise suspicion with anyone, let alone the city...

"Power's down, proceed with caution. Keep in contact and call off your kills..be careful everyone."

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

The briefing went well. Everyone seemed to be on point with the plan, no real questions so far. Tracer gave her feedback and he acknowledged it. “Roger that Tracer.” Nothing more was to be said. “Alright. Sounds like everyone is 5 by 5. Lets saddle up.”

Everyone got into their vehicles and approached the target building from the safe house. Dark Horse set up in an abandoned textile mill across the street which allowed him multiple vantage points and several angles of access from ”Dark horse in position”

Peggy, Tiny, and Max all were waiting on that. “Alright Tracer, time for midnight.”

"Power's down, proceed with caution. Keep in contact and call off your kills..be careful everyone."

And like a switch the power went out…

Then it came back up. “Tracer, they have to have a back up generator. I know you are not sloppy. Their lights just came back up. That’s okay. Tiny, Peggy, clear the sentries. I am going to get a piggy back for Tracer set up. She can use their security system against them. We don’t want them to know we are here. Side arms, silencers.”

”Cowboy, I am getting a heat signature. I think it might be their genni. I can take it out from here if you want. “

“Negative Dark Horse, a power outage is a normal occurrence. A power outage and then their generator explodes? We might as well have Tiny spray the side of the building. Just keep overwatch for now, don’t fire until we make entry, or last resort, everyone on this block will know we are here the moment your gun starts going off.”

”Roger that”

Peggy and Tiny were already moving through the dusk covered lawn, their IR strobes helped them keep each other in line of sight, they were using hand signals to communicate and time their advances. There were only two sentries outside, they had relaxed their guard, or else fortified inside and made the inner walls a hard target.

Peggy and Tiny eliminated both men with precision. The shots went off almost at exactly the same time. Max felt a thrill rush through his veins, it was not often he got to work with a skilled group like this, and when he did it was always a fucking rush. These were not hired thugs, these were hardened, trained god damned killers who could handle the pit of hell opening up and spewing fourth legions of demons.

He crouched low and made his way around the side of the house toward where he knew the security panel was from the briefing. He pulled out the piggy back kit and his lock pick. He popped the lock in a few seconds and tapped the wires with the specially designed gator clips that bit right through the insulation and clamped right onto the copper. He activated the power module and flicked up the antenna. The piggy back kits had kill switches inside, once they were done, the operator could activate them and it would fry the whole panel and fuse all the components together, effectively making the tech impossible to retrieve. “Alright Tracer, you should be retrieving direct access to their camera’s now. What do we have going on inside there?”

 

[zydrate]

"Tracer, they have to have a back up generator. I know you are not sloppy. Their lights just came back up. That's okay."

"Damnit!" Katie said out loud, although her mic was on mute, which she did purposely seeing as how she figured she was going to be cursing a lot.

"Alright Tracer, you should be retrieving direct access to their cameras now. What do we have going on inside there?"

It took a few seconds but as soon as their cameras came on screen, Katie unmuted her mic, "Got it... give me a second..." Quickly, she scanned through their security cameras, looking for the hall or room with the most guards.

There was none.

"What the--..." she said, cutting herself off. There was nothing. No high concentration of guards--at least none she could see. There might be a room without out the cameras...

Her monitor flickered...what the fuck?!

"Hold on...something's not right..." A big something wasn't right. Her monitor flickered again before she realized what was going on, "Abort mission! We've been set up!" With that, Katie activated the kill switch to the piggy back kit and then jumped up from her desk; quickly falling to her knees and crawling under her desk, yanking the power cords to all the computers. Her mic was still on, "They know you're all there and they know where I'm at!"

There were certain protocols she had to follow, one of them is terminating communications with the team, "Cowboy, you know how to find me," was the last thing she could say before ending the call and yanking her headset off her head before throwing it on the desk. She threw on her shoes and grabbed a readied backpack with contained a laptop, an inactive prepaid phone which just needed activation. There was nothing else she needed as she ran to the door of her apartment and carefully opened it, looking both ways...as she was going to step out, she heard footsteps... a lot of footsteps heading up the stairs that were a few doors down. Although her heart was racing, she managed to keep calm and head to the fire escape in the kitchen. Luckily, she was nimble enough to get onto it with no problem before heading down as fast and quietly as she was able to.

Just as she jumped from the last step onto the pavement, she heard shouts and then someone yelled, "She's down there!" Someone yelled from the fire escape. Looking up, Katie gasped and then ran toward the street. She had to get out of here. One thing she had on these guys was the fact that she was younger, in shape and could run faster...

Luckily by the time she reached the street, she already hung a hard left and ran down the sidewalk before hearing a gunshot hit close to her and that only prompted her to run faster....

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

Ice ran through his spine. They had been compromised. There was no other way that they could have found Tracer. There was no way the Mafia had the kind of hardware or skill to decrypt their coms or tech. Someone had to have leaked the information; there was simply no other way this went down. He walked over to Tiny with thunderclouds in his eyes, his jaw set hard. The big man actually took a step backward.
“Tiny, I need to borrow this from you.”

The big man grunted, and handed over the M240 without a protest.

“Alright guys, you heard Tracer, we have been compromised. Don’t go back to your safe houses, ditch your cars, no telling how much info was leaked, I may go as far as getting rid of your phones. We have a mole. Report back to HQ in Civi dress, ditch your gear at a drop site. No one ends up in a Morgue tonight. I need to go get my operator.”

He set the safety on his M4 and let it fall against his side with the shoulder strap and hefted the heavier M240 over his shoulder and dashed toward his vehicle. The protocols for tracing Agency personnel were very specific. He fired up his engine, put his thumb on the biometric scanner and read off his agent identification number. This unlocked the higher functions of the phone that couldn’t be accessed any other way. They matched the information against a voice print as well so the subject could not read it under a drug or pain induced state or it would fail.

He had never tracked a handler before, he had tracked other Agents, living and dead. It unlocked their personnel file and activated the subdermal tracking beacon as well as the tracking beacon on their mobile phone. “Track Agency asset Tracer.” The phone chirped and then opened up a picture of her, he took in every detail, a cold detached part of his mind remarked that she was an attractive woman, even as he committed her features to memory. ”Now tracking Katie aka ‘Tracer’ Would you like to transmit a message?” The phone said robotically.

“I’m on my way Katie. Keep moving.”

The mic was still transmitting when the engine roared and the tires squealed in protest. Max was coming, and bringing the fires of hell with him.

Even if she had dumped her phone as long as she had her ear piece she would hear the message, the dermal implant had enough broadcasting power to do that.

 

[zydrate]

"I'm on my way Katie. Keep moving."

Keep moving...keep moving... And that's exactly what Katie kept doing. She moved. She had only stopped long enough to assess her situation. She couldn't run into another building and risk the chance of getting trapped. Of course, she could have gone into some place public but at this time of night, there wasn't much of a choice on where to go...that and she didn't want to put anyone else's life in danger...

Keep moving.

The sound of tires squealing caught her attention and she knew she had been found. The street she was on was empty and the stores closed. A gunshot made her yelp in surprise as she immediately ducked, only to feel someone from behind tackle her hard and then pick her up like nothing--it all happened so fast! She was tossed into a car--her backpack torn painfully from her back, yanking her arms back as a big hand muffled her cries and another set of hands cuffed her arms behind her back...but that didn't stop her legs from thrashing and kicking, making as difficult as she could for them to get control of her.

She had one thing they didn't--she was surprisingly strong for her small frame...

Keep moving.

But yet, at the same time, she was making herself tired...why was she so tired?

Keep moving.

She couldn't keep moving... not any more...

I'm on my way Katie...

"Save my ass, Cowboy..." she thought as she was enveloped in darkness...

The woman sat in the front seat, watching as the young woman was taken and subdued. She motioned with her head for the man who held the syringe to discard it out the window. The tranquilizer would keep the young woman under for a little over 2 hours... all they had left to do was extract what information they could out of her and then, dispose of her body...

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

vements as he weaved in and out of traffic. Estimating by her progress she was still on foot and moving erratically. This was good and bad, first she was moving under her own power, so that was good; it was however bad, because it meant she was being perused.

She started to slow, and then halted all together. He wondered briefly if she was boosting a car. He glanced back at her file again to see if she had those kinds of skills. He growled under his breath. Fuck. Sure was unlikely that she did.

Then she was on the move again shortly after the halt. He adjusted his coarse to intercept the new movements as best he could. Now he was tailing a moving target from across town and it became a more difficult task. A call came in from the agency, but he cut it off immediately. He could not trust anyone from the agency right now; he had to consider himself as good as burned for the time being. The leak had to have come from inside, and whomever it was that gave the information was likely trying to track him and extract information. Oh of course they were tracking his tech, but there was nothing he could do about that right now, that did not mean he had to engage them and inform them of his plans.

He knew that in all likelihood he was going to end up walking into a fortified hard target with no back up. They might even know he was coming with the mole feeding them info from the agency. None of that mattered right now. His training, and the gear he had with him was more than enough to get in and punch a hole through whatever they had waiting for him when he arrived. His plan was going to be simple enough, hit them hard and fast before they knew how to adapt. A force like a Mafia organization with no formal training that was used to using brute force and intimidation would stand no real chance against a Blitzkrieg assault, even if it was just one man.

Katie finally stopped moving and Max pulled onto the freeway and reached under his dash, flicking a switch. Lights and sirens began going off immediately that identified him as an unmarked police car, this allowed him to move through traffic, and more importantly to speed without worrying about the consequences. He even had the technology that first responders had which changed all the traffic lights so he hit nothing but green lights once he made it back into areas where there were once more traffic lights which he did once he pulled off near the bay.

The tracker was flashing in the industrial park, he accessed the city records to see just what the building was and furrowed his brows. They took her to a headstone engraving business? I suppose they thought that was being clever on their part when they took their victims there. Unless they were carrying assault weapons there would be a great deal off available cover for him, if not, the cover would at least be degradable. For him however the SAW would tear that fucking place apart.

As he neared the exit, he slowed the car, and turned off the lights and sirens. He pulled the car around and did a final weapons check. The M4, the SAW, Two side arms, one for him, and one for Katie if she happened to be conscious. He had several hand grenades on hand, tear gas grenades, and flash bangs. He checked the bag. Plenty of back up’s in there, clips, a few belt’s for the SAW, some more grenades, and some Det cord and 2 gas masks. He stuffed his combat knife into his hip holster. He was as ready as he could possibly be. He hid the vehicle several business’ away and began moving quietly toward the building marked ‘Marco’s Headstones and Memorials’. The business was obviously closed, and there was no one outside guarding the place. They were trying to hide their activities this time. He took two deep breaths and then crossed the open field toward the front door at an open run.

He stopped at the door just off to the side so he was out of view, the cover of darkness hid him well, but he was careful not to let his silhouette stand out in front of the large plate glass window out front. He silently tested the knob, noting it was locked. He silently and slowly let the SAW ease down and let the strap take the tension and pulled up his M4. Looking through the night scope he twisted his body to peer through the front window looking for sentries. There we go! Four guys in the lobby and these guys were armed with AK 47’s. They were clearly not expecting trouble though. They were playing cards. He put the M4 away and checked the SAW, sure enough, Tiny came through and had a night Scope himself. Looking through it hurt like hell as the lobby was well lit so they could play, but that was about to change.

He flicked off the safety, pressed the butt of the weapon to his shoulders and unleashed hell. First he aimed for the fluorescent lighting, dropping the men into darkness and shattering the front glass. The sudden loss of sight dropped them into panic, which is what Max intended. Pressing his eye to the night scope now that he had all the advantage, he let the gun do what it was made to do turn men into hamburger. The bullets and muzzle flash acted like some sort of grizzly strobe light to illuminate the scene of the 4 men as the SAW tore through muscle, sinew, and bone. The phosphorus tracer rounds lit up the room as they pierced the air and struck the walls or flesh. The men screamed as they died, or sometimes never got the chance. This gun kicked like a bitch!

He didn’t stop to check to see if they were dead, even if they were not, they were so horribly wounded there was no way they could fight. He was already moving at a quick clip. Pushing through to the next room that was moving like a kicked ant hill, men grabbing weapons and starting to file out of a long hall way. Max simply crouched low, braced the SAW on his knee and mowed the men down as they filed out of the room. Six men died before they knew what was happening. Finally they realized there was an attacker at the other end of the hall and they stopped coming through the industrial door. It had a small square hole where a glass window was placed. Max saw a head poke through and depressed the trigger. The glass and the head were erased in a shower of glittering gore.

Max advanced, firing a few shots to provide his own cover to keep the men from coming out, or trying to shoot at him. Reaching to his side, he pulled out one of the tear gas grenades. He pulled out the pin and held the lever until he made it to the door. He released the lever, cooking the grenade for about two seconds before dropping it into the window. Pressing his back against the window, he pulled out his gas mask and slid it on.

He could already hear the men coughing, things falling over as they tried to escape the effects of the gas. Max waited a good thirty seconds for the gas to spread and settle before carefully opening the door. Again he shot out the lights to rob the men of what little sight they might have. One of the men reacted to the sound of gun fire, firing in his general direction but missing wildly and actually shooting another mobster in the leg. Max pulled out his knife and began moving through the darkness, using the sound of coughing and retching to guide him to his victims. He checked his phone once in a corner to make sure tracer was not in this room before dispatching the poor bastards and moving on.

He reloaded the SAW before pressing on, as the process was somewhat time consuming and he was not as proficient with it as he was with his M4. It has been years since he had manned a SAW. Pressing into the next room he rounded a corner and nearly lost his head. A group of mobsters were ready for him. They all opened fire with Aks the moment he rounded the corner, pure luck and reaction time was all that saved him from losing his life. He leapt back around the corner, driving the large machine gun into his ribs with a grunt of pain; he rolled to his feet prepared to open fire but there was no pursuit, they were holding their ground. Smart.

”Ready to die merc?” You can’t kill us all. Yer girlie has info we need and once we get it she’s a gonner.”

Max let out a breath. Tracer is still alive and will be until they extract information out of her. Good. “Really think I can’t kill you all huh? You guys should have done your homework a little bit better. See, you went and made this personal. I might have let you guys go before if it was just a job, but now I AM going to kill you all. No one gets out of here alive except me and her. You crossed a serious fucking line. Hope you enjoy hell.”

{i]”Hah. How are you gonna kill us? You can’t even get around this corner!”[/i}

Max reached behind him and pulled out a frag grenade with a low chuckle. Pulling out the pin. “A magician never reveals his secrets, kid.” He cooked the grenade as he took two steps to the right then he threw the grenade hard and high against the wall. The grenade ricocheted and detonated in mid air roughly ten feet in front of the mobsters. The throw was off, but Max couldn’t see them. It didn’t matter of course the targets were still well within the kill zone of the weapon. Max rounded the corner and casually strolled up to the pile of kids bleeding out. He pulled out his side arm and put a bullet in each one’s head. Coldly he repeated “everybody dies.”

He holstered the side arm and looked at his phone. Katie was in the next room. He let the SAW fall away, and gripped the M4 with one hand, and held a flash bang in the other. He approached the door and pulled out the pin. He pushed the door open just enough, tossed in the flash bang and slammed it shut. He heard the deafening POP and then kicked the door open. There was a woman near Katie, she was on her knee’s clutching her head with a hand gun in her hand’s. Katie was slumped over in a chair, clearly unconscious, but breathing slowly and steadily. Max dashed into the room and kicked over Katie’s chair, clearing her out of the way and opened fire on the woman who was still recovering from the flash bang. He emptied half the clip into her body. He checked the room, no one else was here, he quickly closed the door and used the lock. He scooped Katie up and put her back in the chair, he slid out of his vest and put it on her instead.

“Alright Tracer, time to get out of here.”

He used his phone to pull up schematics of this building, and it looks like this wall was an exterior wall. All he had to do was punch a hole, and they were home free. He pulled the det cord out of his bag and set it up on the wall, wired the detonator and then, poked his head out the door. Immediately bullets began flying from the other end of the hall. Well shit. He pulled out the SAW again and pushed the muzzle out the door and just blindly began to fire in their general direction. He heard screams, and their firing stopped as he fired until the belt ran dry. He didn’t blame them, to undisciplined street kids a gun like that would scare brown streaks in anyone’s boxers. He didn’t bother to reload it. He dropped it to the floor and quickly switched to the M4. Used what was left in the clip to take out the lighting and drop them into darkness.

He swapped clips quickly and then pulled out a tear gas grenade and threw it as far as he could down the hall to keep them suppressed. Then he pressed the door closed and walked over to Tracer. He scooped her up easily into a fireman’s carry position and carried her to the door. He set her down gently. Using one of the straps of the vest to pull her against the wall behind him he poked his head out and used the night scope to peer out the door.

The mobsters were starting to poke their heads around the corner. Max used the M4, a few headshots discouraged any more looky-lous. He dragged Katie out of the room with one hand, while covering them with the other, keeping his attention on the corridor with the night vision scope. Another head, this time he unloaded about five shots and didn’t land any. He let Tracer lay where she was and pulled his last two frag grenades from his belt and crept down the corridor. Pulling the pins he took one in each hand, he threw one to each side of the corridor. He hauled ass back down to where Tracer was and then yanked the door shut. He flipped the detonator on, and hit the button. The Grenades, and the det cord both went off at the same time.

“alright kid, time to go!”

He hefted her back up into a fireman’s carry position, opened the door again and pulled out his side arm. He fired a few more shots down the corridor, just in case and slammed the door shut behind him.

With Katie on his shoulders he sprinted out the hole in the wall and around the side of the building. He had a hand on either side of her to stabilize her, but still had his side arm out. As he was about to round the front of the building he slowed, and readied his side arm in case there was anyone waiting for him.

He rounded the corner, but there was no one there.

He slammed his side arm into his holster and made a dead sprint for his car. They were almost there when he felt the bite of the bullet. He almost went down, but managed to keep his stride as the bullet tore through his thigh. Limping the rest of the way to the car he pulled out his keys and hit the button to unlock the doors. He somewhat unceremoniously dumped Tracer into the back seat, got into the front and just fucking tore out of there.

He drove for a solid twenty minutes to make sure they were not followed before finding a place to lay low; some shitty run down warehouse. He pulled in and yanked the med kit from under the driver’s seat which was drenched in blood and practically fell out of the driver’s seat. Opening up the kit he checked to make sure there was an exit wound, then he gave himself a shot of morphine and began stitching the wound. Wrapping it with gauze, he staggered to his feet, looking haggard and pale. He dug through the kit and found an epipen.

He opened the back seat of the car and gave the shot to Katie. He figured that should counter the tranquilizer that they gave her. He gently shook her shoulder with his hand. “Hey, Tracer. Wake up. Your safe, it’s Max.”

 

[zydrate]

2 years ago...

There would be no one here today to watch her graduate... she had no family to call her own but Katie wasn't going to be down about it. Despite all the odds she had faced so far in her young life, she had finished high school and she would accept that diploma with her head held high. She had to be proud of something, besides, she had also earned a full paid scholarship to college...how she got it, she wasn't sure only because it was from an organization she had never heard of. She had done some research on it but nothing had come up...

It was halfway through her first year in college when she was 'approached' by two men in suits. The had said the dean had a message for her and wanted to escort her to his office. God, she was so gullible...well, probably was still to this day...

Well, when she had reached the dean's office, she was greeted by another man... a man who was no taller than her 5'2" but yet, he carried a lot of power behind him, not to mention two bodyguards, who stood silently by the door of the office.

Mr. Patton had told Katie they were looking for people like her... people who knew about computers and 'hacking' and that made Katie smile because, well, no one used that word anymore... she listened to his proposition and of course, she didn't need to think about it... and that's how it all came to be. In almost no time, she had found herself in a self defense course, and then a weapons course... it didn't hit her until after her first assignment as to why she was put through all that. Her first assignment, Katie had shown she was a natural.

Of course it was all a ploy because they had wanted to see if she could handle and well, she did.

That's when she was assigned to Max.

Max...

With a hard gasp of air, Katie's eyes shot open but immediately closed as her body jerked and heart raced...what the hell?! She rolled onto her side and suffered a couple of dry heaves and she felt a hand on her back...and that voice!

"Cowboy!"

Her breathing still coming in hard gasps, she turned to face Max... but she didn't see his face, instead, she saw blood! Her eyes were wide with shock as she looked at Max's face again... he was pale and sweaty, "You've been shot!"

With that, she got up, ignoring the pain her body was in, and crawled over to him, immediately putting her hand on his thigh, applying pressure to his wound as she shook her head, "I'm sorry... I should have done better to get away from them...but... I couldn't..."

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

He smiled down at her and reached down to run his fingers through her hair, then stopped, realizing his fingers were covered in his own blood. Instead, he just shook his head and fished through the bag he had stashed in the car and found some water. He washed the blood off his hands methodically and gritted his teeth a little as she applied pressure to his wound. “It is better that you didn’t. They might have killed you in the ensuing struggle. These guys were just low-level street thugs. There was a hell of a lot of them, but they were just a blunt object.”

He unstrapped his vest and did the same for her now that they were safe. “We have a more immediate problem, Katie. We are burned and we both have a lot of tech that can be used to track us. Whoever set you up to be abducted by those ham-handed mobsters could only have been from inside The Agency. Unless you fancy dermal surgery with a combat knife we need to deactivate all the tracking data on our tech before a strike team can be assembled, then we need to relocate”

He reached down to put his hands over hers, gently pulling them off his wound. “I’m okay. It went right through, I already stitched up before I woke you. The bleeding will stop. There is a laptop in the trunk, here is my phone which is linked to The Agency’s network still. Between the two I figure you can make something happen right? If anyone can do it, you can.”

He paused. “Then we need to vanish. Don’t worry about that, I have it covered. It won’t be glamorous but I have some cash stored away. That way The Agency can’t freeze the account of already withdrawn money. I have contacts that can resupply us and get us off the grid. From there we can plan our next move. I don’t know who did this, or why, but I am going to start dropping bodies until I find out.”

As if he suddenly remembered he handed her the sidearm and clip-on holster. “Here. You are going to need this. Extra mags and ammo are in the passenger floorboard. For now, lets get to work on masking ourselves to tracking.”

He leaned against the car to avoid putting weight on his wounded leg as he popped the trunk and pulled out the laptop which he passed to her. Then he pulled out one of the burner cell phones that he had back there. The trunk was packed with just about anything you could want from climbing gear to an assortment of firearms, to melee weapons.

He placed the sim card and the battery into the burner and dialed a number from memory. “Hey Lt, it’s Max. Yeah, long time brother. I’m jammed up pretty bad and I need to lay low for a little while and I need a restock. I can pay well, but I need it yesterday, can you help your second out? Thanks, boss I owe you one! Beers are on me next time. I’ll contact you again soon. Thanks, man!”

He turned to Katie and smiled. He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote out a message in case the Agency decided to turn on the microphone of any of their tech. Contacted my old Navy CO. He will line up supplies and a place for us to operate from and sleep in. We are good to go on that front. Once you have made sure we cannot be spied on, I’ll call him back and give him the full details on what we need.