A New Dynamic
Part Four
Eugene scanned the room “Where’s Mack?” he asked, suddenly realizing his friend was absent.
“Right here!” Mack came through an adjacent room that was marked ‘servers’. He waspushing a small man with thick glasses.
“<I SWEAR to God! I didn’t know! I don’t know anything!!>” He cried out in English, his voice cracking with fear.
Eugene walked over to the little man “He’s the target?” he asked Mack.
“Near as I can figure. He’s the one half these assholes have been grabbing at.”
Eugene turned towards the man and said in English “<Whatever you got yourself into, we need to know. Now.>”
The man shuddered “<Who…who are you people?>”
Ami ducked back inside “We’re cle-”
“<HOLY SHIT!! IT’S ONE OF THEM!!>” he screamed and stumbled backwards away from the NIS.
“<Relax greasy. I’m with them,>” Ami said angrily as she stalked towards Eugene “listen, Ruabie, we need to call Jak and get the hell out of here. We’ve got a clear path back to the elevator and the roof.”
Eugene nodded and turned back to the man “<Two choices. You go, grab whatever it is they want and come with us or we send you out there as a distraction and then find what you’ve got ourselves. You’re decision.>”
The man stared at them blankly for a second “<Y-you wouldn’t.>”
“<I’m a member of a clandestine secret organization that really only cares about results. Chucking your sorry ass out there to the wolves will get us our bloody results.>”
The hacker looked from face to face “<It’s on my laptop. I’ll get my laptop.>” he said as he stumbled back into the room behind him.
* * *
The quartet were now standing in the elevator and everyone was silent as Eugene tried to raise Jak on the intercom.
“Jak?! You there! We could really use your help!” He prodded the headset with his finger “Bloody piece of trash is on the BLINK!”
Ami shifted unhappily “It’s not on the ‘blink’ it’s being jammed.”
The man between them was clutching his bag and shaking “<W-What are they saying?>” he asked Mack in an undertone.
“<Eugene is having problems getting our pilot on the line. Ami thinks it’s being Jammed.>”
Eugene turned back to the man “<You’re going to want to stay back. I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.>”
Eugene pushed the man into the front corner of the elevator, so he was covered by the metal wall.
Eugene shoved himself up against the wall beside him as Ami and Mack did the same on the other side of the small space.
The door ‘binged’ signaling the end of their short journey, the doors began to slid open and a bullet round pieced into the room.
The man hugged his laptop to his chest and cried out.
Silence followed.
Then hundreds of rounds exploded into the elevator, denting the metal and making the small space shudder and groan from the weight of the bullets colliding with the metal walls.
The three agents pushed themselves as flat against the walls as they could, avoiding the bullets, Eugene pushed his arm against the man they were attempting to protect
“See?” Eugene reiterated “Told you. Bloody fucking hassle this is.”
After a few moments the frequency of the bullets slowed to a crawl and then stopped all together.
Inside the elevator Eugene took stock of their situation, no one was any worse off than they were when they entered the elevator, they had managed to avoid any damage by taking cover against the elevator’s walls.
Eugene looked down at the hacker “<Is the information on the hard drive?>”
The man nodded “<Y-yeah…it’s in there.>”
Eugene grinned “<Good, now how hard is it to pop that thing out?>”.
Seconds later Eugene slowly dangled the laptop case in front of the open elevator’s doors “Listen! We give up! You’ve beaten our asses right-well! Take the damned thing!!”
Eugene tossed the laptop out a few feet from the elevator and pressed himself back against the metal wall.
“<Everyone is going to want to hold on>” he said as he shifted his weight against the wall as Several of the remaining thugs ventured towards the bag.
One of them grabbed it with his foot and pulled it closer to the group, he bent down and unhooked the clasps.
The roar inside the elevator was deafening, fire licked through the open door and the rooftop creaked and shuddered.
“I hope you realize those were my last five grenades” Mack said to Eugene absently as the redhead cocked his gun.
“Yeah, but I gave those little explosives such a fine send-off, didn’t I?” Eugene responded happily as he checked his own gun.
Ami stepped towards the door and popped her neck “Mack, stay with the mouse-man. Ruabie, cover me.”
She charged out into the confusion, hands exploding into energy balls as she flung the attacks into two dazed invaders, sending them skidding across the roof.
Eugene opened fire into a tangle of fleeing adversaries, he aimed low, knee capping as many as he could, one Mekolokian took a round in the chest, but it looked non-fatal.
Eugene crashed his gun into man who dove at him with a knife; the man fell heavily to the floor and groaned.
“Do we have a plan here? Or just keep hitting people until they stop trying to kill us?” Eugene asked as he reloaded his weapon.
“Do you have a better plan?” Ami yelled as she put another blast of energy into an advancing man’s face.
“No, but something would be nice!” Eugene hollered as the door to the stairwell bust open and another dozen men rushed out of it into the battle
“FUCK ME!” Eugene yelled angrily as he started to shoot at the new group.
Eugene and Ami were forced back towards the elevator. They didn’t want to leave Mack alone with a single pistol and a frightened computer geek.
“Again, do we have a plan?!” Eugene asked no one in particular.
“We could go back into the building and try to get out through the ground floor” Mack suggested as he fired his gun towards a thug.
“No good, the elevator is beat to shit and those blighters are streaming out from the damned stairs” Eugene said angrily.
“Die with honor?”Ami suggested.
Eugene was quiet for a second “Not high on my list but it seems like that’s starting to be our only real op-” Eugene was cut short as a familiar ship crested the top of the building.
“Hey-a Euge! Sorry I’s a lil’ late. Traffik was a whore.” The small ship’s front mounted machine gun on the whirred to life and Jak opened fire into the group surrounding Eugene, they scattered out of the way, attempting to avoid the rounds.
Eugene grabbed the back of the computer tech’s shirt and yanked him out of the elevator “MOVE!” Eugene said as he and his team started to sprint for the hovering craft.
They reached the edge of the building and Eugene tossed the man across the small gap between the roof and the ship, he landed with a thud.
“<Hey –a bruddy! You Okie bak dere’?>” Jak said to him happily, the hacker stuttered and nodded.
“<Good, Good.> EUGENE! Moven dat’ ass eh?!” he yelled to the agent, who was standing aside to let Mack jump across the gap and into the ship.
Eugene gestured to Ta’Ami to jump and she threw herself into the air and landed on the ship.
“Move it, Ruabie!” she yelled,
Eugene rushed to the edge of the building as a rocket streaked past him, forcing Jak to swing the ship out of the way.
Eugene streaked past the ship and began to plummet through the open air but was suddenly jarred to a stop.
He looked up and Ami was clutching his ankle.
“You’re not going to die on my first mission Ruabie,” The Velkin woman said angrily.
“Far be it from me to leave a black splotch on the beginning of your career with the ZPF,” Eugene said happily as she dragged him into the ship.
Mack helped him up and they strapped themselves in.
* * *
The trio watched as other ZPF ships shot past Jak’s baby, carrying more agents to arrest the remaining goons.
“Dat was fun, eh?” Jak said from the front of the ship.
Eugene sighed, then leaned forwards “How’d you know to come back?”
Jak laughed “I kno yah Euge. I hung about da area waitin’ for…uhh… tell de director I gotta call, jah?”
Eugene leaned back again and grinned “No problem brudda. Not a problem.”
Ami shifted in her seat “Is it usually this exciting?”
“You mean poor intel leading to ambushes, sneak attacks and all around pains in our rears?” Mack said as he rummaged in the cooler Jak kept on board.
“Yeah…that” Ami said.
“Pretty much” Eugene said as Mack passed him a drink.
“Wonderful” Ami said “and…I’m sorry I thought you were a incompetent, philandering, screw-up.”
Eugene grinned “Well…I’m not an incompetent screw up anyway.”
Jak grinned as he banked slightly and readied the ship for the trip back to the base.
