“Yeah?” 73 chocked into the phone.
“We need you and 26 down at head quarters now.” The unfamiliar voice informed her.
“We were told to report back at—.”
“To hell with what you were told, we need you down here now!” HE snapped at her.
“Okay okay we’re coming…” She dropped the phone and dragged her self towards 26’s bedroom.
“hey 26…”
“MmmmWhattt?” 26 groaned sleepily.
“They want us to go in.”
“Damn it! Have they *yawn* No sense of humanity?”
73 thought about it for a few moments,“No. I hope not any way."
“What the hell took you so long?” Felin snapped at them as soon as they were in his sight.
“A lack of sleep” 73 retorted.
Felin looked up at her surprised. “We have a problem.”
“Don’t we always?” 26 shot, handing 73 a cup of coffee. She couldn’t imagine what they would have done with out the dark liquid, probably 8 hour days.
“What’s wrong with you two? What is this? This attitude?” He snapped at them.
The two girls stood in front of him silently, he glanced over them and continued.
“54’s body was found mutilated, his face peeled off and missing…”
26 suddenly burst out of the room looking very pale
“Now there is something you don’t see every day.” 73 muttered amused, “What do we have to do?”
“Well his body was found in the showers, some pop star got the shock of his life.” Felin said with a smile.
“Pop stars?” She asked wiggling her nose. “Don’t like them too clean.”
“Oh not these guys, they’re dirty alright. During the last week their security staff numbers have risen by 250%” Felin informed her. He leaned on to his desk, “now you tell me why a clean little boy band would need to raise their security numbers, have their arrival dates kept hidden, find mutilated bodies in their showers and worst of all have two attempts made on their lives?”
73 smiled “Not so clean then I suppose…I wonder what they were involved in…who they refused to pay…have you checked for any transfers of money—.”
”Yes 73 we’ve checked all that. Nothing unusual that’s why we’re having trouble.” He signed , “We were wondering whether you and 26 should bring them in, but with 26 the way she is and considering what you did to Contanti I don’t think it’s such a great idea.”
“Excuse me? You don’t just pull me out of bed at 3.00 and then tell me to go back .” 73 shot at him, “ And any way I don’t always kill'em and if 26 isn’t up to it I’ll bring’em in myself…” 73 pleaded.
“Oh no… the only way you’re going is with 26, stop it don’t pull that little innocent face on me it doesn’t work…..NO you either go with 26 or you don’t. Now go see where she is.”
73 obeyed It wasn’t much of a challenge to find 26. 73 found her in the bathroom looking deadly pale.
“You alright?” 73 asked handing her a tissue.
26 rolled her eyes. “Do I look alright?”
“No I guess not.. but what the hell did you expect me to say? How long till you die?
” I suppose that would be more your style…” 26 muttered miserably.
73 signed and decided to inform 26 about the mission. What she left out ofcourse was that if 26 didn't feel up to it, she wouldn't be allowed to go either. “You wanna catch the killer? Well here’s your chance.” She added at the end to convince her.
26 studied her for a moment, “He won’t let you go alone will he?” She said with a smile.
“No he won’t . Recons I’m gonna bring them in dead! I mean look at me? Do I look like I’d be capable of killing them?” 73 insisted.
“if I didn’t know any better I’d say no, but I have a brain.” 26 muttered straightening up
”Come on we’ve gotta bring them in for questioning.” 73 began walking to the door. “You up to it 26?”
“Yeah I could pull it off.” 26 said not wanting to miss out on the fun.
“No worries Doc. Just some boy band.” 26 told him.
“Back in one piece please.”
“Doc were going to arrest a boy band not save the world , your car will come back in one piece.” 26 said a little hurt.
“Not the car! You two.”
”Oh.” 26 smiled sheepishly and got into the car.
73 started the car and moments later she was enjoying the traffic free roads of Sydney at 5.00 am.
“73 you’re driving too fast.”26 wailed as 73 sped trough an other red light.
“Oh don’t worry we’ll get there in one piece …” 73 tried to sound reassuring.
”seventy threeeeeeeeeeeee….”26 wailed again as they nearly collided with a huge truck.
”Fine I’ll slow down.” 73 muttered refusing to admit she had been shaken by the near miss.
26 took a deep breath. To kill or not to kill ….Damn it get a grip! “here’s the info tape they’ve chucked together for us.” 26 said reaching into the dash board.
The tape was full of un useful information, the only things they learnt were the men’s heights and weights.
“Great they all weight twice as much as we do and if they have their guards…” 26 thoughtfully calculated the situation.
“What are you worrying about? We’re not gonna have to carry them into the van! We have guns we point they walk.” 73 said coldly.
That girl is obsessed with guns… 26 thought. Maybe it’ll come in handy….”Do you know what would have been real handy right now? A picture of them.”
”Well too late for that now. Cheer up , you get to see them live.” 73 said literally jumping out of the van.
”Aren’t I lucky.” 26 muttered to herself getting out of the van.
They climbed over the hotel walls quickly and expertly.
“Which room?”
”That one.”26 said pointing to a window on the 7th floor.
“We have to climb all the way up there?”
”Quiet! You wanna wake the whole neigh….”
”Shhhhh” 73 shook a hand in front of 26 to silence her as the light in that room turned on.”73 inquiring….” She whispered into her collar, “Do the targets get up early?’
“come on “ 26 muttered rolling her eyes at her partner's stupidity. “By the time we get up there they’ll have had the whole SI assassinated.”
73 sobered quickly. She secured the rope and began climbing. “Using a rope to climb. I feel so primitive….” She complained.Half way up 73 pulled her mask off. 26 Raised an eyebrow at her.
”Hard to breath." 73 explained defensively.
“What ever. Aren’t you a little worried they are gonna see your face?”
“They aren’t gonna remember….” 73 smiled.
Before long they were hanging on either side of the window. 26 motioned for 73 t o be ready and counted to 3 silently…73 dived trough he window followed by 26.
“What the fuck?”
A brown haired man who had nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of them wailed.
They were in an over decorated room, the man was yelling for help and heavy footsteps followed his call. A moment later a large man stood at the door pointing a gun at them. There were four men behind him
Before the other four had time to get in the room, 26 kicked the man’s gun out of his hand and hit him using her elbow. He fell to the ground limply and unconscious.
“I expected better.” 73 muttered as she quickly kneeled to check his pulse.
The four men at the door didn’t come any closer, the brown hair had stood frozen. “How the hell did you get in here?” A tall blond asked them.
“No questions, move.”26 said coldly, pointing a gun at them…..
”Alert….leave premises at once….” The message beamed trough their ears.
The two agents stared at each other for a moment before 26 jumped out of the window.
”By the way.” 73 said “Nice P.j’s” Before jumping out herself.
With a lot of bad luck 26’s hand slipped on the rope she fell trying to get hold of herself and managed only a meter off the ground. The alert had sounded urgent, so urgent that 26 had held her breath , as though she expected to have the building blown up any second….
“You O.K?” 73 landed silently next to her.
26 nodded slowly, “let’s get the hell out of here and see what the alert was all about.”
Felin shook his head sadly, “And did you two know about 19 giants that were about to pour into the room? It was suicide, I can’t afford to loose anymore agents. We’ve lost an other two agents .”He informed them
”two ?” The agents asked together.
”One” Feline held up one finger, “And two” He held up an other finger.
26 frowned, but 73's expression remaines solid.
Felin continued, “33 and 74, their bodies were found not long after you left….their hands and eyes are missing….” 26 paled again and 73 wondered how an agent could be so squeamish. “This guy is good.” Felin went on. “I’m afraid he’s also very ,very sick….” It was very easy to tell Felin hadn’t slept very much and the pressure was perhaps a little too much for him. “We don’t think it’s the band any more, but they definatly have some connection to all this.
26 couldn’t believe what she was hearing, 33 had been a good friend of hers’ … and the though of him dead with his eyes and hands missing….she tried to force the image out of her head but it wouldn’t budge. She envied 73 her lack of emotion, you could have told her half the world had been killed by terrorists and she would say: So what? They were gonna die anyway.
“No one ever said agents lived long.” 73 retorted snapping 26 out of her thoughts.
Felin rolled his eyes and pulled out a half empty bottle of whiskey he kept hidden in his desk for occasions like this one.
“What do we have to do?” 26 asked disgusted by 73 inhumanity.
“Well…we still want the band brought in, but I’ll get some one else on to that. Right now we need you two down at the docks…there’s news of a drug deal going on.”
”Oh come on!” 26 wined. “Aren’t we a little too well trained for that? I thought the police handled all that stuff!”
“Excuse me! I’m the commander, I give the orders you obey. Is that clear or do you need a trip down to the isolation cells?” Felin said narrowing his eyes.
26 didn’t reply and the two were dismissed. Out side Felin’s secretary handed them a folder, she wore an ever present , suffering smile.
73 opened the file and began reading while 26 complained “I can’t believe this! We’re gonna be in and out in what? 10 minutes? What did I ever do to deserve this? I’ve never…..”
“26 put a damned sock in it! What are you ? and ever replaying tape of complaints?” 73 snapped half-heartedly.
73’s tone was strange, 26 sensed something out of order. “What’s wrong?”
73 looked up from the file, “I don’t know.” She replied, “I really don’t know. And that’s what’s wrong…”
26 didn’t understand but she didn’t bother asking for an explanation. Instead she asked, “What do we have?”
73 glanced back down into the file, “ It’s definetly bad, but it might take us just under 20 minutes.”
? “Well lets get going!” 26 said fastening her pace, “I wanna be back in time for training those lazy C blockers.” 26 explained catching the almost horrified emotion which shot trough 73’s eyes and disappeared quickly.
They stepped out of the building. 73’ had parked the car in the streets, agains the rules. The drive to the docks proved simple, they even had time to eat , although 26 was spent more time staring at the plate.
73 pointed this out and added, “ I dunno .. you are just too….human I suppose.”
“Well excuse me! Having my friends mutilated isn’t some thing that’ll put me in a good mood!” 26 retorted angrily. When she saw 73’s blank face she said, “You know friends…people you care about?”
73 shrugged her shoulders. “Nope don’t have any.”
26 shrugged off an uneasy feeling, “ I suppose you were never in one place long enough make any.” She said not wanting to think about the other possibilities. She got up,“We better go, you can’t trust Sydney traffic.”
73 was very quiet during the drive to the docks. 26 suddenly wondered how 73 had ended up being the one who drove.
“What’s wrong? “
73 didn’t look away from the road, “Nothing. Just thinking….”
“About?” Curiosity got the best of 26.
”Wondering why we have been sent here while we are completely capable of getting the band to head quarters?”
“What the hell have they trained you for? Have you ever heard of relaxing? You don’t need to figure that out, Felin probably has a good reason….”
73 had that blank expression on her face again, “I’ve been trained as an agent , nothing more and nothing less.” She parked the car , got out and walked away in out rage.
Contents
Chapter eight
