Spy Guys: In Action
SPY GUYS BOOK TWO:
IN ACTION
BY: JAKE KNIGHT
1. RECON
Man, why do I have to do these worthless reconnaissance missions? The spy wondered as he trudged along in the forest. His senior commander, a man whose name he didn't even know, seemed to enjoy sending him on only the most boring missions. He seemed to save the most "important" and "fun" missions for his three favorite agents, Tear, Cody, and Kenneth, the new trainee. And, for one, Cody betrayed them all just a couple of months ago! So here he was stuck trying to find any new threats that might have come up.
Suddenly, he heard a slight cracking sound behind him. Nobody else would have heard it, but when you have been training with the Spy Guys for two years, you learn that ignoring just the slightest of sounds could cost you your life. He turned quickly around, nine-millimeter handgun drawn, but didn't see anything. He looked around everywhere, but still couldn't find anything suspicious. He shrugged and started walking again, but kept his gun drawn, wary now. After walking around for about five more minutes, he came to a small stream running through the woods. He stopped, and refilled his canteen. He then started walking again.
Creak! He stopped. It sounded like it had come from above him. He looked up, and suddenly a man jumped down towards him, knife pointed at his heart. He rolled out of the way just in time, and the knife impaled itself in the ground. The man, obviously one of the hired help bad guys usually have hanging around there lairs, struggled to pull the knife out of the ground. He realized it wouldn't come out and pulled out a pistol, but it was too late. The spy jumped and slammed his foot into the side of the man's head. His eyes rolled back, and his pistol fell to the ground. He slumped over against a tree, unconscious. The spy smiled, and kept walking. Suddenly, he heard laughter behind him. Not happy, children's laughter, but chilling, cold-blooded bad guy laughter. He turned around, and saw a man with unusually sharp teeth standing there, pointing an AK-47 assault rifle to his chest. The spy responded quickly. He dove behind a thick tree just as the first shots were fired, missing him by inches and making splashes in the creek behind him. The man laughed again.
"You can't hide from me, Spy Guy!" Suddenly, a large knife broke through the tree right beside him, and he quickly rolled away. Suddenly, he felt pain erupt in both of his legs, and he knew he had been shot. The man walked up to him and pulled his big knife out of the tree. To the spy's surprise, he just knelt by his leg and started licking his blood. Disgusted, he kicked him in the face. Blood spurted from his nose. Angry, the man lifted his knife and stabbed him right beside his heart. Before he died, he heard the words:
"We are safe, sir." And then he was dead.
2. KENNETH
On one half of the screen was an arm, and in that arm's hand was a nine-millimeter handgun with a silencer attached. On the other half was an arm holding a USP .45 handgun. Suddenly, on the nine-millimeter half, a person wearing all black appeared. Before the nine-millimeter man could shoot, the other man fired twice, and the words YOU DIED appeared on his half of the screen. In the bonus room of Spy Guys HQ, Kenneth Rogers groaned, and Tear, sitting right beside him, smiled in triumph.
"And the great Tear wins… again."
"Hey, don't feel too bad. I do that to everybody." Tear said.
"Yeah, that's supposed to make me feel better?" Kenneth replied.
"Tear, Kenneth, please report to my office immediately." A voice on the intercom said.
Kenneth groaned. They stood slowly, taking their time, and trudged toward the stairs to the basement, where all the offices were. Spy Guys HQ was the house that everyone dreams of. It had an upstairs, a middle floor, and a basement. The front door was on the middle floor, and although it looked just like a regular house, it had motion sensors and video cameras everywhere, and there was a hidden button beside the door that revealed two pads, a fingerprint scanning pad and a number code system. Once you are through the door, you enter a wide hall, with a library to your immediate left and a dining room to your right. When you walk on, there is a hallway to your left, and at the end is a master bedroom. To your right is an archway, and inside and to the right is a concealed doorway that leads to stairs going down. Through the archway is a kitchen with an island in the middle, and a door leading back to the dining room. There is also a table for casual dinners, and a walk-in cupboard.
On the other side is another archway that leads to the living room with a plasma screen TV and two recliners, plus two couches. There is another room to the right with a piano and a sliding glass door leading to a deck and stairs down to a pool with a small water slide and deck chairs. Back to the living room, there is another concealed door leading up to a hall with a virtual training center, or VTC, and three bedrooms for three of the four agents working there. In the basement, there are two offices, and a bedroom, as well as a theatre. There is also a small kitchen with a refrigerator.
Kenneth and Tear walked down the basement stairs, and started to walk towards one of the offices. On the way, they both grabbed Cokes, and Tear grabbed a box of Rice Krispies. He loved that stuff. Kenneth was always wondering whether Tear's first box of Krispies had some drugs or something in it, cause he ate, like, three boxes a day. They made it to the door of the office, and walked inside. Sitting at the desk was their commander, Josh Tensik. Tensik was very tall, wore glasses, and always had a little stubble on his chin. There was never a time that when any of the agents came into his office and there wasn't some type of music coming out of it. This time was no different. When Kenneth and Tear walked in, S.O.S, the corny Jonas Brothers song, was blaring out of it. When Tensik saw them, he quickly shut the music off. He then turned towards Tear, who was the senior agent.
"Tear, I have a new mission for you. I want you and Kenneth to go to this place." He pointed to a map on his computer screen, which had a blinking red dot somewhere in the woods in North Carolina. "This is where the Life Tracker on our recon specialist, Agent Chase, showed that his heart had stopped. We believe that there is a new threat there. If you can remember, this is the same place you, Cody, and Jack investigated last year."
This comment caused Tear to take a sudden interest in his shoes.
"We believe," he said again, "that this may be a cause of some leftover henchmen of Woodsman that were never disposed of. I would like you and Kenneth to go down there, and investigate."
"Yes, sir." Tear replied. North Carolina? Kenneth thought. Woodsman? Why is Tear uncomfortable? What haven't Tear and the others told me?
Instead of asking these questions, Kenneth just said,
"When do we leave, sir?"
"As soon as you are well rested and prepared." Tensik replied.
"Ok."
Kenneth motioned to Tear, and they started walking up the stairs. Kenneth started the conversation.
"So, do you want to tell me what happened last year?" Tear took a moment to think about this.
"Yeah. I guess since you're now a Spy Guy, you deserve to know. Well, lets get settled here on the couch, it's a long story."
Kenneth sat on the couch, and Tear opened his Coke and poured himself a bowl of Rice Krispies, and sat on the recliner. Kenneth waited, and was about to say something when Tear began to speak.
"Exactly one year ago, I was doing my training in the VTC, when commander Tensik called me to his office. When I walked in, I was puzzled to see another teenager in the room. Seeing my puzzled look, he stuck out his hand and introduced himself as Jack Nickles. The commander told me that he was to be my first trainee. I was thrilled, for this obviously meant that the commander respected me as a full-fledged agent now. After about two weeks of training round-the-clock, the commander called both of us to his office, and told us we had a field mission. I won't go into details, but in the end we captured a criminal named Bad Guy."
"Bad Guy? What kind of name is that?" Kenneth interupted.
"Those were my thoughts exactly. Anywho, after a few more missions, we had to track down this dude named Woodsman. He was said to have started this humongous forest fire. Woodsman captured Jack on that mission, but I saved him. Unfortunately, woodsman escaped. Then, a few weeks later, we were sent out again to find Woodsman. But this time, we defeated him and took him back to base. Unfortunately, someone forgot to lock the door all the way, and Woodsman escaped, killing one of our other captives, Bruce, in the process, not to mention kidnapping me."
"What! How did he manage to do that? He must of got you in your sleep." Kenneth teased.
"Yeah. Whatever." Tear continued. "Anyways, where was I? Oh, yes, I got captured. Well, after they noticed Woodsman and I were missing, Tensik sent Cody and Jack out to rescue me. Apparently they split up. I had already escaped from Woodsman, and was trying to find a way to defeat him. Cody found Woodsman, and Woodsman, being the sly fox that he was, told Cody that Jack had killed me."
"What! He would never do that. And Cody believed him?"
"Yes. Anyway, Cody said something about a new mission and left. Then, Jack found Woodsman, and Woodsman told him that Cody killed me. Jack, unlike Cody, didn't believe him, and shot Woodsman in the chest. Then he went searching for Cody. Cody found Jack, and asked him why he killed me. Jack denied it, and tried to make Cody see reason, but Cody was blinded by his anger and hatred. At that time, I was hiding with my sniper rifle on top of a nearby hill, and saw Cody attack Jack. They fought for along time, and just when I thought Jack had won, he fell to his knees, exausted. I saw Cody raise his gun, and I tried to stop him, but I was too late. A shot was fired, and Jack slumped over, dead before he hit the ground. I screamed `Noooooo!`, and charged down the hill, sniper rifle left behind and pistol drawn. Obviously Cody was losing his mind, and was filled with hatred at Woodsman, and started to attack me. We fought for a long time."
"Did you die?" Kenneth asked. He looked hopeful.
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't die. But Cody shot a bullet a little too close for comfort, and I ran back to base, where we made arrangements for Jacks funeral."
Tear was obviously not going to say more, so Kenneth let him be, and went up to his room. He got his ipod, put the earphones in, and cranked up his Hawk Nelson album.
3. KENNETH
The next morning, at 5 AM, Kenneth's alarm went off, playing the song "The One Thing I Have Left" by Hawk Nelson. The beginning was kind-of creepy, so Kenneth waited until that part was over and then got out of bed. He went into the bathroom, stripped, and took a shower. He enjoyed the warm water, and was tempted to stay in a little longer, but scolded himself, thinking, No! Remember, you have a job to do. Don't let personal enjoyment get in the way. He reluctantly turned the water off, got out, and dressed himself in regular clothes. Then he took out his vest, and strapped on his supply belt, which held a radio, his pistol, ammo clips, and a knife. In a vest pocket, he put three throwing knives. Then he put on his socks, pulled on his combat boots, and headed downstairs. Tear was already down there, and was almost done with his breakfast.
"About time you got up." He said. Kenneth grunted in reply. He went to the closet, and took out four water bottles and a pack of ten fruit bars. He grabbed a backpack from it's hook, and placed these inside. He also put a laser cutter inside, just in case one of them got captured and needed to be rescued.
"You gonna eat?" Tear asked.
"Not hungry" Kenneth replied grumpily.
"Listen, pal, you have got to get used to wakin' up early. I'm gonna tell Tensik to start making you wake up at 5 AM every day. Do you want that?" Tear asked.
"No, not on the top of my to do list." Kenneth replied.
"Well, then I suggest you get your act together. We gotta leave in fifteen minutes, and you need the energy if your gonna fight all day."
Kenneth mumbled something, then trudged over to the cabinet. He grabbed a banana, and walked back over to Tear, sitting on the chair opposite him. He peeled off the skin, and started eating it. They both finished, and walked outside. Tear grabbed the keys to their car, and they both climbed into it. They didn't talk very much on the way. They pulled to the edge of a forest, and got out.
"Okay, Kenneth, here's the deal. When we walk into those woods, we will be in enemy territory. We have to have a weapon in our hand at all times, and we have to be careful. These people are not like us. They will kill you. They don't care whether you are armed or not, helpless or not, there main goal is to make sure that you die. You understand me?"
Kenneth nodded. He pulled his P9 handgun out of its holster, and made sure the clip was full. Then he put a throwing knife in his other hand.
"Okay. Let's go." Tear pulled out his own P9, customized with desert camoflauge, and held it at the ready. Then they both started into the woods. They walked for a long time. Kenneth started wishing he had eaten more at breakfast, and then remembered something.
"Tear? Can we stop and rest for a second?" he asked.
"Why? Are you already getting tired? I told you you should have eaten more at breakfast."
"I know." Kenneth noticed a pond to the right, and walked towards it. He sat on a nearby log, and took the box of fruit bars out of his backpack. He took one out, and started eating it. Suddenly, a blur went through the fruit bar and slammed it into the lake.
"Woah!" Kenneth yelled, and rolled off the log and crouched, pistol at the ready. Tear jumped behind a tree. Kenneth heard a crash off to his left. He turned, but no one was there. He turned back to Tear, but he had disappeared. He looked around every where, but couldn't find him. Then it dawned on him. Tear had been captured! The crash he heard must've been a distraction to keep him busy long enough for whoever it was that attacked them to take Tear. He walked toward the spot where he heard the crash, and sure enough, there was a big rock sitting there, alone in all the leaves.
"Dang." He said, criticizing himself for falling for that trick. He started walking in the only direction Tear and his captor could have gone: East.
4. VAMPIRE
Vampire walked through the woods, dragging Tear, hands-tied and gagged, behind him. It was so easy to defeat those stupid Spy Guys these days. It was much harder when it was Tear and Jack, because whenever he fought Jack, at least he had experience. Kenneth was so new he fell for the old throw-my-rock-over-there-so-you-think-I-am-over-there-but-I-am-actually-behind-you-and-capture-your-partner trick. He was so gullible.
He walked to the top of a small hill, then stopped, and looked over at his evil lair. He loved it, and he admired himself for having thought of it. It was a very broad, one-story building with only one door, which was guarded 24/7 by at least three of his henchman at a time.
The door led to a hallway, which traversed all throughout the building. Lining the hallway on both sides were doors, lots and lots of doors. Most of the doors had no purpose, leading either into gun closets, empty rooms, or a wall. There were only four doors out of the total of two hundred that led to anything of significance, and those were his main plan-making room, his bedroom, the henchman quarters, and the bomb and weapons room.
Any Spy Guy that was stupid enough to try to get into his lair wasn't going to come back out alive. He walked down the hill to the door, which was guarded by three henchmen with hunting knives strapped to their thighs and SCAR-H class assault rifles in their hands. When he approached them, one of them put his hand against a fingerprint-reading pad on the wall, and another put an access card into a slot. The doors swung open, and he walked in. He walked to the opposite wall, and touched a smiley face someone had drawn with a Sharpie.
A hidden door slid open, and revealed a staircase going down, underground. When he walked down the staircase, there was another door, and a keypad. He entered a six-digit code, and opened the door. Inside was a room, and on the sides were prison cells. All were empty except for one, which held a henchman caught trying to give information to the Spy Guys. He walked past a table, at which four guards sat with AK-47s beside them, playing poker with cookies. He used two keys, a fingerprint pad, and a keypad to unlock the cell door.
"Nighty-night!" he said, throwing Tear inside. He heard his henchmen laughing. Then he shut the door and walked out, stealing a cookie on the way.
5. TEAR
Owww. What happened? Tear thought, sitting up in a cot. He looked around at his bare cell. The last thing he remembered was being smacked in the side of his head, and had a few glimpses of being dragged along a forest floor.
Kenneth! He suddenly thought. He looked outside of his cell, but couldn't see anyone in the other cells. All he could see was a card table, with four nasty-looking guards with machine guns sitting around, playing poker. He sighed. Then he saw it. On each of the guards belts', there was a key ring, and each of those key rings had the same key. That key must be the key to my cell! He thought. Then he came up with a plan.
"Hey! Dumb guards!" he yelled. The guards stopped playing their game.
"Who you calling dumb?" one of them asked.
"You, fool!" Tear replied, egging them on. The guard stood up.
"I don't like people calling me dumb. It's not nice." He then picked up his machine gun, and walked over to Tears cell. As soon as he was close enough, Tear leaped into action. He swung his legs out through one of the bars, and both of his feet connected with the guards' stomach. He bent over, groaning, and Tear grabbed the machine gun. He swung it up, and before the other guards could react, opened fire. The guards were flung up and over their chairs, some sprawled on the floor, others slumped on the table. He kneed the guard by his cell in his face, and let himself out of his cell. He caught a glimpse of one of the guards' cards, and saw it was four aces.
"Too bad he couldn't use it," He said, walking out the door, taking a machine gun with him.
Tear snuck along the hallway, trying to find his way out. He vaguely remembered that this guys' base was just one long hallway, but it seemed like it was taking a little too long to get out. He was about to give up when he saw a rectangle of light in front of him, and realized it was a door! He was free! He walked up to the door, and opened it.
He was met by two mean-looking guards with machine guns. They stared at each other for a second, and then Tear remembered what he had in his hands. He swung his leg up and kneed one of the guards in the stomach, and then hit the other guard with the butt of his gun. Then he karate chopped the first guard in the back of his neck while he was slumped over. He stood up straight, and looked at both guards lying on the ground.
"I'll take these" he said, taking their gun magazines. He also took the two grenades they had. Then he spotted what both guards had on their waists.
"Sweet!" he said, swinging his SCAR onto his back. The took off the guards belts, and put one of them on. He looked in the holsters, and smiled at the two USP .45 pistols.
Tear walked in the woods, completely lost. Man, I really wish I wasn't unconscious when Vampire brought me through here. Crack! He pulled both pistols out, and turned toward the sound. He saw a shadow, a blue flash, then blackness.
6. KENNETH
Kenneth walked through the woods toward the place the Vampire took Tear. He suddenly heard talking that he pinpointed to about fifty yards away.
".. says as soon as we get enough together, we'll hit them hard, right at the center. That's all I know, all the boss told me, alright?"
Kenneth snuck up to the two, and in one swift move threw them against a tree and had a knife against each of their throats. He stared at them, and said " Drop the guns, and no one gets hurt. Yet." They looked at each other, and dropped their guns.
"Ok. Now, I want each of you to tell me everything you know about your boss and what his plans are." Kenneth told them.
"And what if we don't?" One of them asked defiantly.
"If you don't, I will be forced to stab one of these knives into your armpit, and twist it slowly. Then, I'm gonna make you lick the wound."
The two of them looked at each other again, and gulped.
The one on the left, the superior, judging on size and the walkie talkie on his belt, started speaking.
"Ok, ok. Just don't hurt us." He looked around nervously, then continued.
"We don't know very much about our boss. We have never seen him, or heard words directly from his mouth. He always sends his second in command to tell us our orders. For the past two weeks, we have been hiding out in the Lair. Boss says we are building up a powerful team, one that he says is developing "special talents". He won't tell us ordinary henchman what that means. But one of the things he did tell us was that once the team was assembled and ready, we were going to be attacking the SpyGuys main headquarters. He said that after we wiped out the SpyGuys, we were going to loot all of their stuff, and sell it for trillions of dollars. He said we would all get a portion of the money. What SpecOps team do you work for?"
"I'm asking the questions!" Kenneth said. "Anything else you wanna tell me?"
"Do you have a Twix I can have?" The henchman asked.
"You disgust me." Kenneth said. He then pulled out a Taser, and shocked them both.
Kenneth walked through the woods, having tied both of the henchmen to a tree after shocking them. Suddenly, he stopped. He pulled out his taser, having left his pistol in the car. He saw a shadow go about ten feet in front of him, and shot it with the taser.
7. JOSH
Comatose! I'll never wake up without an overdose of YOU! Josh Tensik sat back, closed his eyes, and let the music flow through him. He had just finished all of his paperwork for the day, and so he wanted to take a break and listen to some Skillet right now. His bluetooth headset that he had put back on the desk started vibrating, and Tensik let a long sigh come out of him. He grabbed the headset and hooked it to his ear. He pressed the talk button, and said,
"Tensik."
"Commander? This is Kenneth. We have big news."
"Talk to me."
"Sir, with respect, I would prefer to deliver the news in person, if that is ok with you."
"Well, alright, but when will you get back?"
"I'm at the door, sir."
Tensik walked down the hall and into the main room, and saw Kenneth standing there outside the door. Kenneth waved, and Tensik shook his head. He undid the lock, and let Kenneth into the headquarters.
"So, what was so important that you had to tell me?" Tensik asked.
"Big important news, or the small, easily handled information?"
"Hm… I'll go with the small info." Tensik said.
"Well, Tear got captured, and I went looking for him, and I saw a shadow jump out with a gun, and I taserd him, and it turned out to be tear."
"Where is he now?"
"In the backseat, sleeping."
Tensik walked to the car, and looked into the back window. Tear was curled up, sleeping.
"So….. what was the big news you had to tell me?"
Kenneth said, "Come inside. It's a pretty long story."
Kenneth and Tensik walked into the HQ. Kenneth sat on the couch in the "Living room", and Tenisk sat on the recliner. Kenneth told the commander everything he had learned from the two henchmen in the woods. When he was done, the commander looked half shocked, half like he almost expected they would plan something like this.
"Hm…. I kind of expected something like that. What I didn't suspect was that you could actually get this information out of the henchmen. I figured a criminal as professional as the Vampire would pound it in to his henchmen that if they were captured, not to give in, no matter what the capturers did to them." The commander said, with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Yeah, I thought that too… should we take what they said seriously?"
"Of course, we have to take all credible threats seriously. Do all the necessary precautions, more cameras, more guards, etcetera. But we also need to keep investigating, you know, figure out if it is their real plan."
"Yes, I was going to propose the same thing. May I go tell tear?"
"Yes. Tell him he is in charge of Operation Slammer. And give him this file."
Tensik handed Kenneth a file folder labeled: "Top Secret: Operation Slammer"
"Ok. Anything else, sir?" Kenneth asked Tensik.
"Yes, one more thing."
"What?"
"Stop calling me sir."
"Yessir." Kenneth said, and quickly walked away before the commander could get him.
8. TEAR
Oww… why does my head feel like it was just used in the FIFA world cup? Tear thought as he slowly and painfully sat up on the couch in the upstairs living quarters in the HQ. He took a couple seconds to realize where he was. Then it all came flooding back in one giant wave.
"Ooh." Tear moaned, rubbing his head because of the headache that had just invaded. He walked over to the medicine cabinet and grabbed the Tylenol package. He opened it, took a pill out, and swallowed it. He walked to the sink and gurgled some water and spit it back out. He then went to find the rest of the team. He first went to the basement, where they most likely were. He walked down the stairs, and turned the corner. He almost ran into Kenneth, who was just turning to come up the stairs, with a file folder Tear could barely make out "Top Sec-" on.
"Hey, Kenneth." Tear said, side stepping him.
"Hey, Tear. I have something for you, from the commander." Kenneth handed him the folder. "He said that you were in charge of Operation Slammer." Tear took the folder, and saw that what was written on it was: "Top Secret: Operation Slammer"
" The commander said to read it through, then assemble your team, whatever THAT means…"
"Ok. Thank you very much, Kenneth."
"Your welcome, Tear." Kenneth walked up the stairs to do… something. Tear looked at the folder. Then he walked over to his office, flipped the door sign from "away" to "busy". Then he walked in, closed, and locked the door. He walked over to his desk, opened the folder, and began to read.
9. VAMPIRE
The henchman's head whipped back after the Vampire's fisted connected with the henchmen's nose at high speeds.
"Why did you tell him that? Don't you realize that now you have given in, they will suspect that what you told them isn't true? THEY AREN'T THAT STUPID! You should have refused to tell them ANYTHING! They probably already have scouts trying to figure out what our REAL plan is! Do you want them to find that out? HUH? Get him out of my sight." The Vampire told his other henchman. The henchman grabbed the other henchman, who was still holding his bloody nose, and dragged him out into the hall. The door slammed behind them. The Vampire put his head in his hand and sighed. Sometimes he wondered how some of them even came to be working for him. Of course, he didn't pick out his henchmen personally, he let Bron, his second in command, do that. But in the seminar he had hosted for the henchmen, What To Do If You Are Captured And Interrogated, he specifically said to never underestimate your opponent, never give in whenever they try to get answers out of you. Now they would have to get extra guards, better defenses, more patrols, the whole nine yards. He knew Tensik, knew Tear, knew they weren't dumb enough to think that the henchmen would actually have the guts to tell the SpyGuys Vampire's plan. So now they probably had someone on some top secret operation trying to figure out what their REAL plan was. But they would never find out. Vampire walked to the door and opened it. He walked into the hallway, and stopped where the henchman still held the stupid henchman.
"You know what to do." Vampire said to the henchman.
"Yes sir." The henchman responded. The henchman being held realized what was about to happen, and started to beg for mercy. Vampire looked at him, and said
"Well, you should have thought about that before you did something stupid."
The holding henchman dragged him out the door, the stupid henchman screaming his head off. Vampire turned and walked toward his office. There was no room on his team for stupidity.
10. KENNETH
After giving Tear the Top Secret folder, Kenneth headed up the stairs to the relax room. He sat down on the recliner, and picked up his laptop case. He entered the password, and clicked on Word. While it was loading, he picked up the universal remote, pointed it at the TV and pressed the power button. The channel it was on was NBC News, and there was a pretty reporter giving breaking news. Then he saw something that brought him serious déjà vu. In the banner across the bottom of the screen was this headline "Breaking News: Another Wildfire Has Hit The North Carolina Woods. Police Say Arson Is Unlikely". Kenneth felt a sickening feeling in his stomach. He had a feeling the government was going to call them any second. And just like he prophesied, the phone rang. Kenneth let the commander get it. About a minute later, the commander said through the intercom: "Kenneth, Tear, please report to my office. Immediately." Kenneth closed his laptop and walked back to the basement. On his way, Tear joined him.
"Do you know what this is about?" Tear asked him.
"Well, I think it has something to do with the event in North Carolina you, Jack and Cody were involved in last year."
Tear's face went white. "What makes you say that?" He said, almost a whisper.
"I turned on the TV, and it had Breaking News saying that another wildfire has hit the North Carolina woods. And about two seconds after it the phone rang. About a minute after that the commander called us to his office. Coincidence? I think not!"
Tear was silent as they walked into the commanders office. The commander was sitting at his computer when they walked in.
"Hello agents. Please, have a seat." The commander welcomed them, and beckoned to the two seats in front of his desk. Tear and Kenneth sat.
"Do either of you know why you are here?" Tensik asked them. They both shook their heads.
"Well, then I guess I have to tell you. The United States government just called. They wanted to tell us that they think there is something up with the mysterious wildfire that just took place in the North Carolina woods."
Tear cringed at the mere mention. Tensik went on,
"They have assigned us the task of running a clandestine operation to check out what is going on. Tear, since you already have an operation of your own to work on, not to mention your, ah, bad memories of the area, you will not be working on this operation."
Tear breathed a sigh of release.
"Kenneth, you are being put in charge of the operation. I want you to pick four men that you think are well enough to go on this operation. Then I want you to, using this folder, brief them on the details." Tensik held out a folder with the words "Top Secret: Operation Woody" written on it. Kenneth took it.
"Well, you both have your assignments. Now hop to it." With that the commander sat down and started typing on the computer. Kenneth and Tear took that as a dismissal, and left the room.
"Well, that went as expected." Tear said.
"How so?"
"Well, I had a feeling it was going to be something about North Carolina."
"That's true. Well, I guess I'll see you later. The sooner I get my team together, the sooner I can get back out in the field!" Kenneth said, waving to Tear and walking toward the training area. When he got there, he saw the job of choosing four good men would be harder then he thought. The training area was huge, it was basicly a giant field, a big square that could fit four football fields. In the field were a ton of different exercise things and obstacle courses. Before you could become a full fledged agent, you had to spend every day except Sunday in that field exercising for four years. You had to pass every obstacle course in under a certain amount of time, do a certain number of push ups, sit ups, crutches, pull ups, all kinds of exercising. And right then, the percentage of people that went through the course and passed was about 5%. And half of those got stuck in desk jobs. But that didn't mean there wasn't a lot of people in there. There was enough people to fill up three Super Bowl football stadiums.
Most were men, but there were a few women in there too. But you did not want to mess with them. Most of them could have you on the ground, a gun to your head, and your left hand cuffed to your right leg in less then thirty seconds. And that was when you had two knives in your hands. So Kenneth immediately went to the far right corner of the field. This was where he would get to see who was really the best. Someone a few years back had made a crude wooden sign that read:
"Fighting Arena. Do Not Enter Unless You Are Ready For A Fight." And it was true. The two opponents he found there at that time were two men, both mid twenties, one a caucasion but with a bad sunburn, one black with a long scar running down his face through his eye. The white man looked like he had the upper hand, he had the other in a head lock, and was kneeing him repeatedly in the stomach. Kenneth was about to write something down, but suddenly looked up in surprise. The scar-faced man flipped his legs backward over the other man, using the leverage to break the headlock. The other man looked at him in surprise as the scar-faced man knelt down and swung his legs, tripping the other man. Once the man was on the ground, the scar-faced man jumped on him, twisted his arm behind his back painfully, and shoved his knee into the man's back. The scar-faced man said
"Give?" and the other man gave a loud grunting noise in response. The man got off of him, and the white man walked away limping and holding his arm. The scar-faced man walked over to where Kenneth was standing and stuck out his hand.
"I noticed you standing there while I was in a headlock. My name is Deeson. And you are?"
"I'm Kenneth, one of the new agents in HQ." Kenneth said, accepting the handshake.
"An honor to meet you, congratulations, I know what a challenge it is to reach that stage. I hope to be able to make my self, I only have half a year left!"
"Well, how would you like to become an agent half a year early?" Kenneth asked.
"What do you mean?" Deeson asked, looking confused.
"I mean that Commander Tensik just gave me a top secret operation, and I am supposed to pick out four good soldiers to accompany me and help me complete this operation, and in return, he is taking off six months of your training time."
"So…. Are you offering me a place on this team?" Deeson asked starting to get excited.
"Only if you accept the challenge. If you wish to have a place, come to the Briefing Room at 0600 sharp tomorrow morning. Got it?"
"Yes, Sir!" Deeson said, saluting.
"No saluting, I am not your superior." Deeson quickly put his hand down.
"Sorry sir."
"And one more thing." Kenneth said, smiling.
"What is it, sir?"
"Stop calling me sir." Deeson smiled, and quickly ran to go through an obstacle course.
Kenneth went throughout the field, doing basicly the same thing. When he was finally done, he had his team: Deeson; a women stealth specialist named Cat; a sniper named José who could hit an apple off of someone's head from two miles away; and Danny, the heavy weapons and explosives specialist. Kenneth was completely worn out from all that walking and standing all day. He went up to his room, changed his clothes, made sure his alarm was set, and climbed into bed. He was asleep within two minutes.
11. TEAR
Ok. Tear thought. This paper says I need to get another person that I think would work well with me to complete this operation. This was going to be hard. The only other person he really worked well with was Kenneth, and he already had an operation of his own. Man I wish Cody was here. Tear thought. But Cody wasn't there. Not anymore. It looked like he was going to have to go the training area and watch for someone he would be compatible with. He walked out of his office and toward the training area. When he got to the door and grabbed the handle, it was already twisting. He jumped back in surprise as the door opened and Kenneth walked out. "Hi ya Tear." Kenneth said as he walked by him with a clipboard.
"Uh, hi Kenneth. Are the people still in there?" Tear asked him.
"Yeah, there's a lot to choose from."
"Thanks." Tear walked into the training area. Kenneth was right, it was packed. There were at least one thousand people in there, if not more. Oh boy Tear thought. This is going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Suddenly, he noticed something that could make this a whole lot easier. He first heard people chanting: "Billy! Billy! Billy!" and turned to find where the sound was coming from. He saw a group of people fist pumping the air and chanting in front of the hardest obstacle course the SpyGuys had. Tear walked over to the course and stood a little bit away from the crowd so that he could see. Then he saw what everyone was hyped up about. In the middle of the obstacle course was a man around thirty years of age who was taking the course down like nobody's buisness. He easily hopped the five foot fence, climbed over the twenty five foot wall in under thirty seconds, did the fifty pushups without losing his breath, and crawled under barbed wire fifty feet in ten seconds flat. When he got to the end, the whole crowd was there to congratulate him and give him a pat on the back. He waved them off modestly and started walking away. Makes an impressive run through the obstacle course, check. Not a prideful jerk, check. This might be the guy I'm looking for, Tear thought. He walked over to the man, Billy he guessed from the chanting, and stuck out his hand. "Hello, my name is Tear."
"Um, I'm Billy."
"Nice to meet you, Billy. Listen, I have a proposition to make."
"What kinda proposition?" Billy asked.
"The kind that could make you a full agent a half a year early."
"I'm listening."
"Well, I have an operation that the commander gave me. He said that he needed me to pick one person to help me out with it. And so far, I see your talented, as well as modest. I think we will work together good. What do you say?"
"What is the mission?"
"You'll find that out at the briefing. Tomorrow morning, seven o'clock sharp. So, if you want to do it, show up."
"I'll come. Nice meeting you, Tear." Billy walked away, and Tear walked away happy.
12. VAMPIRE
After dealing with his henchman, Vampire walked back into his office. He sat in the chair in front of his desk and leaned back. Good henchmen were so hard to find these days. He leaned forward and looked on his desk. Time to get to work. He picked up the folder that had the title "Undesirable #1" written on it and started looking through it. He came to the page titled "Profile" and looked at the picture. It was a picture of the only criminal mastermind in the world that was smarter then the Vampire. It was a picture of Cody Johnson, the ex SpyGuy special agent. The reason Cody was undesirable to Vampire was because Cody was slowly taking over parts of Vampire's territory. Vampire wanted to put a stop to it. He had already sent at least a dozen threatening letters to him telling him to back off, but he hadn't replied. So now he was going to have to try to do it by force. He was going to gather some of his troops and get ready for the biggest gang fight ever. He stood up and walked out the door of his office again. He walked for about a minute down the long, seemingly endless hall. He turned to a supposedly random door and opened it. Inside was the Henchmen Training Zone, or HTZ for short. He had an obstacle course, a shooting range, and a boxing ring. He had at least a hundred henchmen total, which worried him because rumor had it that Cody had more than two hundred. So he had started an extreme training program that would make each henchman worth about three of Cody's men. Each man had to start the day with a strict diet of one fruit, a cup of V8 juice, and a bagel. Then they had to go directly to the HTZ. Once there, they had to do one hundred push-ups in a minute and a half. Then they did fifty crutches in a minute. Then they got a five minute break. After their break, they head over to the obstacle courses. They have to keep going through each of the five obstacle courses untill they get through each of them in at most a minute and a half, with each course getting progressively harder. After that they got a banana, a granola bar, and a bottle of water for lunch. Then they headed over to the shooting range. They had to get five bullseyes consecutively with the 9mm pistol, the M1 Carbine, and the SCAR machine gun. Then they went to the boxing arena and fought each other until they each had at least five more wins then losses. Then they were dismissed for the day. They did this every single day of the week, except Sunday. That was their resting day. So, he was pretty confident he would have the upper hand. Then he noticed something. He was watching one particular henchman-to-be that was different from the others. He was of Spanish origins, approximately five foot four, and seemed to have a knack for basicly everything. He did the one hundred push-ups in forty five seconds flat, the crutches in thirty. He skipped the break, blew the obstacles with only two restarts, and ate his banana and granola bar in twenty seconds. He shot up the targets with only one miss, and won in the ring with only losing one round. He then came jogging over to a bench near Vampire and sat down, sweating but not even out of breath. Vampire walked over to the man and asked him what his name was. The man responded,
"Who's asking?"
"Your boss."
"Alejandro, Alex for short."
"You blew right through that course."
"Yes sir, thank you."
"How would you like a better job?"
"Like what?"
"Like promotion to field commander."
"I accept."
"Good." End of conversation. That's how Vampire liked it: Short, simple, and to the point. This Alejandro guy really could take care of buisness. It was about time.
13. JOSH
If you ever step to me… I, sometimes wish that I could fly, hold me tight in your arms tonight, sick of living inside a lie, alright!
The Commander barely resisted singing along to Step to Me by Thousand Foot Krutch because he knew that if he did, his agents would be able to hear him and would be all over him. And he was not slow to forget the Burnin' Up incident. So he sighed and turned off the music and opened up the SpyGuys website. Suddenly his screen got very fuzzy, like a TV when you don't have any service. He quickly turned on his bluetooth and spoke to the hacking and technology specialists:
"We have a possible break, computer network Bravo do you copy?"
"Yes sir. We have it on our screens, proceed."
Josh turned back to his computer screen, and clicked his mouse once. A video feed popped up, and it had a man sitting there with his eyes blocked out by a black strip. The man had a slight smirk on his face.
"Hello Josh."
The Commander tried to keep a confident look on his face.
"Hello. What do you want?"
"You know what I want. I want you to call your agents back. I know you are sending a squad to get me, but I'm warning you, if you allow them to continue their mission, they will all die."
"Why are you bothering to warn me when you already know what I'm going to say?"
"Because I didn't want you to be too surprised when you have to make four difficult calls to four anguished families."
The screen went black. The Commander spoke again into his bluetooth.
"Did you trace him?"
"No sir. He had a very powerful firewall, I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Just get back to your programs."
The Commander sat heavily in his chair. He pressed the button on his intercom and said, "Kenneth, you and your team come to my office immediately. We have some new developments you must be briefed on.
14. KENNETH
I wonder what else the Commander would have to tell me? Kenneth wondered as he and the other four members of his team climbed the stairs to the Commanders' office. They reached the top and entered his office. When they walked in, he stood up and gestured for them to sit in the four seats in front of his desk. He stood in front of his desk while they sat.
"So I guess you all are wondering why I called you hear."
All five of them nodded their heads.
"Well I guess I should probably tell you. At exactly 0520 this evening, I was working on my computer when the screen blanked. Then a video screen appeared with a man with a black strip covering his eyes; with a slight smirk on his face. He told me to cancel you guys' operation, because if you continued…"
"What? What did he say would happen?"
"He said… He said you would all die."
The room was silent. Danny was the first to speak, "I only have one thing to say to him: Bring it on!" The others all enthusiastically agreed.
"Guys, I'm glad that you aren't scared off very easily, but this guy means serious business. He doesn't make empty threats. You will all have to be on the top of your game the whole time. No breaks. Do you think you can handle it?"
"That's like asking me if I can handle sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of fruit loops. Of course!" Kenneth replied.
"Good. I guess you guys can go back to prepping, but be extra precautionary."
The five SpyGuys nodded, and left the room. Danny started the conversation.
"So. What do you guys think about the new findings?"
"I think that that guy is full of crap. He can't possibly have the man-power to make a threat like that against fully armed, fully trained, specialized government agents. It's just not possible." Said Cat speculatively.
"Well, if he thinks he can catch a sniper off guard, he's out of his mind. I'd shoot him before he even found us." José said confidently.
"I just say we do our job, and get out. Alive." Deeson said quietly.
"I agree with Deeson. We need to get it done; as quick and efficient as possible." Kenneth said, nodding.
"Agreed." The other three said. They then each split to do the other things on their agenda.
15. TEAR
10...9...8...7...6...5… Tear counted down the seconds until 7:00. Right when the clock hit 7:00, Billy walked into the room. He sat and whispered to Tear, "Right on time." Tear just smiled. The Commander stood up from his desk and nodded to them.
"Let's begin. If you look on this Smartboard, I have conveniently written in bold the title of your operation, code named Slammer. Your investigation is into a string of somewhat disturbing serial robberies, in which the robber breaks in, swipes anything with value, and murders everyone in the house. The most disturbing part is that he is so confident he won't be caught that he video tapes himself killing the occupants. I am going to show you one such tape."
He went to his computer and switched windows to a video screen. He switched to full screen and hit play.
The face they saw wasn't really a face; it was covered with a ski mask. He made sure it was recording; then started the show.
"Hello again my dear police friends. Here is episode two of my exciting show, Watch 'Em Pay. On this episode, I will show you just how much I can make your stomach crawl. First, let me introduce to you the stars of the show. Come on out!"
He turns the camera around, and we see three people; a mother, a daughter, and a father with their hands bound and duct tape across their mouths being marched by two men dressed similar to the robber.
"Those two men are his second and third in command." Tensik said.
The men dragged the family to a couch and sat them on it. The man holding the camera then set the camera on something and pointed it at the couch. He walked to the couch and slapped each of them, hard. Tear felt Billy flinch each time. When the man slapped the daughter, she started crying. He raised his hand to slap her again, and the father jumped in the way and took it. The man smiled a very evil smile, then faster than anything Tear or Billy had ever seen before he pulled a military issue battle knife out of his coat pocket, and stabbed it up through the bottom of the man's skull. Blood spurted all over his wife and daughter, who both screamed as loud as they could, but it was muffled by the duct tape.
The man put his knife away, and pulled out a pair of metal pliers and a wooden ruler. He laughed evilly, and walked toward the remaining people.
"That's all you need to see." The Commander said, and turned off the video.
They stared at the now blank Smartboard in silence. Billy had a sick look on his face, and Tear was hiding the same feelings behind his expressionless face. The Commander just kept his head down. Billy broke the silence.
"So… What do we have to catch this...uh...? Guy?"
"We have confirmed it is a male. Well, all we have is the locations of all his attacks, five total. Your job is to take the five attacks, find where his base is located, and capture him."
"Yes sir."
"The map is on both of your desks. Get to work."
"Yes sir."
"Oh, and one more thing."
"Yes sir?"
"Make it snappy. I don't want to receive any more episodes."
"Yes sir." Tear and Billy left the room.
"You think you could've said yes sir anymore?" Tear teased.
"Shut up." Billy said, smiling.
16. ALEJANDRO
"So, when do I get to know what I am doing?" Alejandro asked quietly, the ski mask he was wearing getting stuffy.
"I told you. We are running a routine border check, to make sure no SpyGuys or other undesirables are trying to take our space." Vampire replied, and then pointed for them to go to the right.
They were both dressed in their field equipment, and were out in the woods three kilometers from the main base. They had standard henchmen issued SCAR assault rifles, as well as two each of fragmentation and stun grenades. They were both wearing ski masks, and had battle knives strapped to their chests.
Suddenly Alex heard a twig snap somewhere to their left. He quickly swiveled and held his gun up, ready to fire, but there was nothing there.
"What is it?" Vampire, who had turned at the ready as well, asked him, watching him closely.
"Nothing. I thought I heard something. I guess it was nothing." Alex said, shrugging. Vampire lowered his gun, but stayed wary.
They kept walking through the woods. Alex stopped by a large tree, and leaned against it. Suddenly, they heard the sound of branches breaking above them. Vampire rolled out of the way just as a limp body crashed to the ground right where he was standing. They both raised their guns and pointed it at the body. They walked toward it slowly, and Alex poked it with his foot. There was no reaction.