COMM: "Mic check"

COMM: "Loud and clear Sal, you all set?"

COMM: "Yeah, time is 7:39pm, want to get started M?"

COMM: "Let's commence the operation."

Sal grins and cracks his knuckles while rolling his shoulders and neck. "Showtime."

COMM: "Don't forget to change your hair, we don't want anything that could lead them back to us, and you stand out way to much with that pink spiky hair."

COMM: "I know M, can't have me being found and caught."

He runs his hand through his hair, transforming it to black and slicking it back, going further and changing his eyes to ocean blue.

COMM: "All done M, let's get the show on the road."

COMM: "Move out Agent, remember, non-lethal tactics only, fifth freedom has not been authorised."

M keeps her eyes on the screen in front of her, watching the live feed of Sal's contacts so as to pick up on anything he may miss.

COMM: "I've got two guards on the closest entrance, probably more on the other entrances too." Sal said as he started moving closer to the massive cruise ship, tapping his tac-com and highlighting the security room in blue, possible meeting rooms in yellow, and security cameras in red with their cones of sight being illuminated with pink light.

COMM: "Ignore them, find a secondary means of entrance."

Sal looks up and down the side of the ship as he starts to sneak closer, staying in the shadows.

COMM: "The mooring ropes, I can sneak on-board that way, thankfully it's a moonless night so shadows are plentiful."

He moves to the front of the large ship and hooks a leg around the thick cable, swinging underneath it then hooking his other leg around and uses his arms to work his way up.

COMM: "M are you able to keep an eye on the cameras through the tap, need you to keep an eye out for hostiles."

Turning to watch a second monitor she flicks through the cameras until she finds the one she is after, the one watching the front deck of the ship.

COMM: "You are clear for now Sal, keep moving."

He keeps working his way up the cable, his eyes glued to the hole the cable is fed through as it leads up to the deck, inching closer and watching the highlighted camera swing back and forth.

Chatter and footsteps reaches his ears, causing him to come to a dead stop and press his body close to the cable.

"I heard the boss is meeting some big titty blonde tonight."

"Is she hot?"

"I haven't seen her yet but rumour is she is a 10/10, boss says we'll be paid a lot for her."

"But is she as hot as Mirajane Strauss for that magazine?"

"Oh that's a tough one."

The voices and footsteps get closer to Sal who quickly moves up the cable and brings his legs down from it so he hangs alongside the ship.

COMM: "Sal they are heading to the edge."

COMM: "Gotcha, just going to hang out for a bit before I duck in."

The two guards reach the railing and gaze about the docks below them, looking for any sign of movement.

"Looks all clear."

COMM: "Stay there a bit longer, they are starting to move away, I'll let you know once the camera has panned away."

Sal waits as the footsteps drift away, getting quieter and quieter then brings his legs up around the cable, he then climbs around so he lies on top of the cable with a leg straight down for stability.

COMM: "I'm in position to board."

COMM: "Move on my mark. Three… Two… One… Mark."

The agent quickly stood up on the cable and vaulted over the railing, landing almost silently as the camera's cone of sight came into full few as it points off to his right.

Quietly moving to the wall and pressing against it underneath the camera so he is in a blind spot, quickly running through a few options and routes to take.

A: Follow the two guards to a quite area and take care of them.

B: Avoid all patrols until he gets to the security room.

Choosing option B, Sal slips down the opposite direction to the patrol, staying low and close to the wall.

As he reaches the corner he carefully peeks around it to check for signs of trouble, seeing none he continues down that path and out of the danger of being seen by a camera.

Sal makes his way to the security room, dodging guards and cameras alike as he sneaks through the ship.

"How long are we staying in this ship for?" Comes a voice from within the security room.

"Beats me, the boss said we have almost have a full stock, so probably a few more then we can do the delivery." Replies a second, closer voice.

"Do you know if he plans on using this ship for the delivery?"

"I don't think so, it would be hard to keep all the girls contained, we'd either have to lock them in the staterooms or the engine room, both cases could cause us to lose product."

COMM: "M I have a potential lead on other girls that Doppler has stored."

COMM: "Make them talk, we'll pass on the information to the police."

Sal takes out two spider trackers from his pouch and places them on the floor, he taps his tac-com to activate them and sends them into the room.

Immediately a red silhouette appears against the wall right next to him followed by one a few metres away.

He activates the code breaker in his tac-com and brings it up next to the security card lock beside the door, glancing at the estimated completion time between looking up and down the hallway, patiently waiting for the door to unlock.

Sal reaches behind him and under his jacket, unlatching the clip on the holster for his tranq pistol and sliding the gun out, using one hand to rake the slide and load a round into the chamber then gripping it and readying himself for quick close combat.

The door softly clicks as it becomes unlocked, a small message flashing onto the tac-com's screen to notify the user that it has completed the task.

Standing and moving against the door, Sal focuses on the two red silhouetted hostiles who have turned to look at the door curiously.

Quietly depressing the door handle he sets it on the jar before busting into the room, his left hand finding the gun of the closest guard, wenching it from his grip and throwing it into the hand of the second guard to throw him off balance.

Kicking the door shut as he grabs the guard by the throat and pinning him to the wall, Sal spins around and points the tranq pistol at the other guard as he recovers from the impact.

PSSssh

Sal pulls the trigger on the pistol, sending a dart into the jugular of the guard and quickly knocking him out with the potent liquid contained within.

The pistol cycles with a small magnetic pulse, sending the slide back and collecting a new dart to be chambered as Sal brings the muzzles around and up against the neck of the guard he is holding by the throat.

"I've got some questions for you and you are going to answer them properly." Sal growled out.

"Really, threatening me with a tranq gun? What are you, some kind of pussy bitch?"

Sal pulls him off the wall then slams him back against it with a heavy thud.

"That is the least of your worries pal." Sal said as he put the gun away then gives the guard a dangerous grin.

The guard shakes his head to clear the fog from the impact and coughs again. "Is that so?"

"First question, where is the boss hiding?"

"He ran down to the local pharmacy, had to buy this little blue pill called Viagra for you, just so you can GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

"Wrong answer pal." Sal said as he pulled the guard over to the desk then kneed him in the gut to bend him over, grabbing the back of his head and slamming it into the desk hard, disturbing the mice and keyboards.

"Ouch Fuck, take a joke you fucker."

"Answer the question."

"Fuck you."

Sal throws the guard to the middle of the room and cracks his knuckles with a feral grin. "Ooh I'm going to have a lot of fun with you."

COMM: "Don't get too rough with him Sal, we need him alive and conscious so you can question him."

The guard looks up from the ground in time to see a boot crashing into his face.

Sal picks him up the slams him into a monitor, sending his head through it then pulling him back through then back up so they are face to face. "Feel like answering now?"

"F-fuck off bastard…"

Sal moves over to a door leading into a small storage room within the security room and opens it, sticking the guard's head between the door frame and the door then slamming the door shut on his head a fair few times.

The guard groans as he gets pulled back up to face his attacker. "W-what was the question again?"

"Where. Is. Bora?"

"R-room 526, he is meeting that blonde chick in there soon."

"That wasn't so hard now was it? Now question two, where are the rest of the girls?"

"W-what?"

Sal drops the man and knees him in the ball as he falls down. "The girls you fucks are selling into the slave trade."

"Ow fuck man, why the balls!"

Sal pulls out his Glock and shoots a suppressed sub-sonic bullet right down the crotch seam of the guard's pants, skimming the underwear and having the bullet pass so close to the man's balls that he can feel the heat.

"Answer the question or you'll get much worse than a knee to the balls."

"Oh shit…" The man simpers. "The girls are in a warehouse on the docks, in shipping containers to be loaded onto trucks tomorrow and taken to Bosco."

"What is the warehouse number?"

"For-forty two… warehouse 42."

COMM: "You got that M?"

COMM: "Loud and clear, once you get to room 526 and incapacitate the target then I'll get the Hargeon police to move on the warehouse and then the ship once you have extracted Celeste."

Sal holsters his Glock and pulls out the tranq pistol then fires it at the neck of the beaten guard, knocking him out, once the liquid is completely in the circulatory system of the guard he pulls the darts out of the two bodies and places them into an empty pouch, hiding the bodies in the storage room.

Sal turns and looks up through the floors at the highlighted rooms, tapping his tac-com to focus on room 526 only.

He picks up the casing from the round he fired then puts it into a pouch and turns to the desk, he turns off the recording for the security cameras so even if he is seen from now on, he will not show up on the playback.

COMM: "Moving on the room now."

Sal slips out of the security room and moves up the ship carefully, placing trackers on every guard he comes across on his way to the floor he needs to be.

Once he reaches the right floor he moves down the hallways, approaching the room, poking his head a round the corner he spots a group of four guards outside the room with two more coming down the hallway to the group.

"The girl inside?" Asks one of the two patrolling guards to the four stationed by the door.

"Yeah, turned up not long ago." One of them responded.

"What's she like?"

"Smoking hot, definitely going to get a fat pay check after this lot."

"Ooh that's perfect."

"Keep your voices down, we don't want to spook the girl and have her make a break for it."

"Oh what's she going to do, stand on my foot?"

Tink Tink tink

The six guards look down at a weird disk that landed between them.

"Huh, who threw that!?" One said as they all look around, searching for danger.

Click

The two halves of the disk split open horizontally and it expands up by an inch then hisses as it gushes out clear gas.

"What the fuck…"

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud

One by one the guards fall to the floor, rendered unconscious by the gas emitted by the non-lethal gas grenade.

After the gas clears Sal moves up to the door, picking up the grenade and snapping it shut then placing it back in the pouch it came from.

COMM: "I've located room 526."

COMM: "Affirmative, remember, we need Doppler alive."

Sal searches the bodies of the guards for a key card but mentally swears when he can't find any.

COMM: "I'm going in via the window, I don't want to spook them when I open the door."

COMM: "Best to go two rooms down and enter through the balcony from there, just to make sure that they don't hear the room next to them."

Sal nods and walks two rooms to his left and uses his tac-com to unlock the card locked door, passing through and out to the balcony, he climbs over the edge so he hangs from the fence, dropping down so his hands are on the floor.

The sound of a door opening and footsteps reaches his ears from the target room as Doppler walks out onto the balcony.

"Fuck me that girl is a lively one, doesn't want to give up." Doppler said as he rubbed one of his thighs, a purple bruise growing underneath his purple pants.

COMM: "I've got eyes on one of the targets." Sal said as he slowly and silently shimmies across the edge of the balconies until he is right under Doppler.

Doppler leans on the railing and looks out at the horizon. "Well, just makes it more fun breaking her."

Pulling himself up quickly and fairly effortlessly, Sal grabs Doppler by the hair and drops back down.

Thunk… Thud.

He slams their head into the metal railing and knocks him out, letting him fall to the floor as Sal climbs up and onto the balcony.

COMM: "Target neutralised."

COMM: "Secure the girl and confirm her identity and condition."

Sal grabs Doppler by the collar of his shirt and drags him back inside, muffled grunts and whines coming from a bound and gagged girl on his right.

He dumps the body on the bed and walks to the girl, noticing her torn clothing and scratched skin with some bruises slowly developing on her exposed skin.

The girl falls silent at the new man in front of her as she looks up at him with a sliver of hope in her eyes.

COMM: "She matches the description, blonde with brown eyes, slim but busty, looks like the height matches too, approximately 165 cm, 5'5", need to check when she is standing though."

COMM: "Make sure to remove her high heels, it will make getting out of there easier and we can get her true height."

Sal slips his tac-com off and holds the rear of it up to her face. "Look at the light."

"Mmph?" The girl looks at him questioningly but complies, looking into a dull light beneath the lens on the tac-com.

COMM: "It's a match Sal, that's our girl, Celeste, prep her for exfiltration."

Sal puts the tac-com back on his arm and unties the woman, removing the tap from her mouth. "Can you move?"

The woman gingerly rises from the chair, rubbing her wrists where rope was tied tightly around. "Somewhat, I'll be fine in a sec. Who are you?"

"Just call me Sal right now."

"That guy, said he was Salamander… That he worked with the FTA, the Fairy Tail Agency…"

"If someone announces that he works for a clandestine agency as a man as infamous in the business as the Salamander is, I'm pretty sure he is lying."

"Then who is he?"

"His name is Bora, a slave trafficker that specialises in females, I assume I don't need to tell you what I mean by that?" Sal said as he walked over to the bed he dumped one of his targets on.

"He was planning on selling me as a sex slave?"

"Yes, by the looks of you, and all of your injuries, it looks like he wanted to test out the merchandise first."

Celeste wobbles as she walks over to the bedside table and takes a pouch with silver and gold keys inside, smiling down at her beloved friends and strapping the pouch around her thigh and draping her torn red dress over it to hide the pouch.

"Yes, he did want that, but I fought him off, he only just tied my legs up then as I started kicking the high heels at him to keep him off me."

Sal grabs the rope and places it on the bed, strips Doppler and ties him down to the bed. "Take your heels off and throw them overboard."

"But these are my favourite pair!"

"You can't run in your current condition while in heels, hell I don't know if you can normally, and I need you to keep up with me if we are to get out of this place safely."

Celeste fumes silently but takes them off and walks out to the balcony.

COMM: "Height matches the description too, no doubt about it." Sal said as he made sure Doppler won't be able to get free by himself.

COMM: "I'll have the police move on the warehouse, they are chomping at the bit to get their operation underway and don't like that we are, and I quote, Stonewalling them."

COMM: "Make sure I can get out of here with Celeste, I don't care if it pisses of the local police."

COMM: "I'll do my best Sal."

"Ok when are we leaving this damn ship?" Celeste asks when she re-enters the room.

"Right now, I took care of all the guards that were right outside the door but this ship is full of them." Sal replied as he walks to the door to the hallway.

"So we just have to stay quiet right?"

"Well we don't have to worry about cameras as I took care of the guys in the security room, but we still have the regular patrols, so yeah, stay quiet"

The blonde nods as she follows the man out of the room, stepping over the still sleeping bodies of the guards.

"This way." Sal said as he starts walking down the hallway, his eyes moving about, scanning the area for threats.

Bang, Bang, Bang

COMM: "Sal! Bad news, the police are moving on the ship, they are trading shots with the hostiles."

Sal grabs Celeste and pulls her down into a shadow. "Fuck, why did you have to where red…" COMM: "Understood, what do you want me to do, the guards are going to be on high alert and the police will probably be trigger happy since they had to wait so long."

Celeste hits him on the arm out of anger and frustration.

COMM: "Damn it, hold tight, I need to let the director know." M said before muting herself and making a call.

"We have to sit still for a moment, the cops are storming the ship and will most likely shoot us if we are seen."

"Why will they shoot us?"

"We are on a ship full of sex traffickers, and while they know there is an operative on board conducting a mission, they will most likely be trigger happy because we made them wait until we were clear, now they have jumped the gun and we are still here."

"Oh…"

COMM: "Agent Salamander, it's the Director, Agent Demon told me of what has occurred, lethal force has been authorised for Doppler's men, but deal with the police without any fatalities, we don't need any backlash from this operation, preferably avoid them as much as possible but if confrontation does occur then use non-lethal tactics." Came an aged male voice, conveying wisdom and authority.

COMM: "Copy that Director, continuing with the mission now." Sal replied as he starts moving through the ship again.

"What's going on?" Celeste asks as she hurries to follow him.

"I've been given updated orders, we are to proceed with the mission but if we come across any of Bora's men then its shoot to kill if we get spotted, police are to be avoided or knocked out."

He bends down and picks up a FN P90 off a sleeping body of a guard along with a belt which has ammo pouches and spare mags for the weapon on it. "Here, do you know how to use one of these?"

"No… not particularly…" She responded.

He puts the belt around her waist and tightens it to fit.

"Put simply, hold it like this." He brings the PDW up to his shoulder and aims down the hallway.

"Detach the mag and replace it like this." He hits the release and pops the mag out of the top then slides it back in and pops it back in place.

"Uh huh." Celeste nods quickly.

"Cock it like this." He cycles the bolt and ejects the round that was in the chamber.

"Safety is here, keep it on A for automatic." He shows her and turns it to safe then to A with his thumb.

"On Auto the trigger is two stage, half pull fires one bullet at a time, full pull fires full auto."

"Ok." She replies as she takes in the information.

"When not in combat take your finger out of the trigger housing and rest it alongside the housing." He turns to the other side and demonstrates it.

"And finally, don't aim it at anything you aren't planning on shooting, when you aren't holding it to your shoulder for firing, keep it to your chest and angled to the ground." He brings it to his chest to show her.

"Got it." The blonde says.

"If you need more ammo then get it from any guard we drop, I've noticed they are all outfitted with P90s, grab the full mags only, you can see the rounds through the semitransparent mag, if it has bullets from one end to the other than grab it, replace any empty mags you have with any full ones you find."

He hands her the gun in his hands then picks up a second, giving it a once over before strapping it to his back and placing extra mags in his belt.

"Let's move out." He pulls out his Glock and starts walking down the hall.

"Coming." Celeste replies.

A few quiet minutes pass for the pair as they work their way down the hall, the only sounds being Sal practically silent footsteps, the soft patter of the feet belonging to the woman beside him, and the sound of distant gunshots from the firefights between the slavers and the police.

"Sal…?" Celeste asks at a normal volume, only for the man to give her a silent shush as he places a finger to his lips.

"Yes, Celeste?" He spoke quietly and got a questioning look from the woman. "Celeste is the code name given to you by my handler and the others back at HQ."

"W-why Celeste?"

Sal crouches down behind a fire wheel cabinet and nods to a space next to him then peeks around the red cabinet. "It's short for Celestial, we know of you and your heritage."

"How, I made sure to keep everything quiet, I even used a fake name."

He looks at her and shakes his head. "We are one of the more well-known agencies in Fiore, but even being well known doesn't limit our ability to work in the shadows, let alone gather intel, it just makes things a little more difficult if things get linked back to our agency."

"So who are you, if you are well known then…" She starts but is cut off quickly.

"I'll answer that in due time, but even if I told you my real name, you wouldn't know who I was, even by my code name, unless you were in the business or are affected by the business, like you have been."

"So if you told me your code name?"

"I have, its Sal, but even then you would only know the name, nothing else, not unless you take the red pill and see how far the rabbit hole goes, little Alice."

"My name isn't Alice…" She said with a huff.

"I know what your name is, that was a reference to a movie that was about a reference to a movie/book."

The sound of shouting and running reaches his trained ears as hostiles approach.

"Incoming, get ready." He said as he moved up to an intersection of two hallways crossing paths, getting onto the right corner facing down the hall, he points to the opposite corner. "Get into cover there."

The blonde in a red dress moves and awkwardly copies his crouched form the best she can, aiming her P90 down the hall.

A group of eight slavers come racing around the corner, moving with purpose as they head to the battle with the police. "This way, we can get behind them and get them in a pincer."

Sal takes a deep breath then slowly releases it as he raises his suppressed pistol, aiming down the hall at the incoming targets.

His perception of time slows as he slips into a deadly focus, zeroing in on his targets' heads and rapidly squeezes the trigger with perfect precision.

Eight 10mm bullets fly out of the barrel one after the other, soaring through the air as the eight accompanying brass cartridges eject out of the pistol, each bullet landing perfectly between the eyes and close to the ridge of the nose.

One by one in quick secession, all eight heads snap back from the impact of the bullets followed by the bodies falling to the floor, limp and lifeless.

"Ok, let's move up." Sal said as he stepped out of cover and lowered the muzzle of his pistol to the floor, glancing over at the blonde woman.

She leans on the wall and shakes, having watched eight people's lives snuffed out in mere moments.

"You're going to need to get used to that if we are going to get out of here alive, we got lucky that I managed to eliminate them before they could get a shot off or we'll have alerted any surrounding slavers to our location." He said as he walked to her and helped her stand up.

"J-just give me a moment please."

"Make it quick, I'd rather not be stuck between slavers and police in a storm of bullets."

Celeste takes a few deep breaths then nods to the agent next to her, telling him that she is ready to continue.

Sal readies his pistol and continues down the hallway, he slips his mag out and checks the guide to see how many rounds he has left before slotting it back in.

"How far do we have to go?" Celeste whispered.

"A fair way, we have to go up and cut through the casino, which gives us a wide open area to sneak through, lots of noise and places to hide, and lots of cover if we get into a firefight."

"Is it safe going that way?"

"I don't know, chances are the slavers have an ambush set up there, let me check in and see what the situation is."

COMM: "Can I get a sit-rep on the casino?"

COMM: "One moment Sal." M responded.

"Up this way." Sal said as he climbed a stairway.

"I'm confused… you said you'd check in but didn't do anything?" Celeste said as she followed her protector.

"I have a non-verbal mic, reads the movement of my larynx when I speak silently. I talked to my handler and am just waiting for her to get back to me."

"Oh ok."

COMM: "I've got some bad news Sal, I'm seeing thirty plus hostiles in the casino, all hiding behind tables and gambling machines, once you get to the right floor, head towards the casino but take your first right, continue down for two junctions and then turn left, you'll come through a side door that they aren't focused on."

COMM: "So if we are careful then we could slip by fine."

COMM: "Give Celeste your black jacket, her red dress stands out too much."

"Ok I've just heard back from her, my hunch was right, we'll have to detour so we don't come from their front. Here put this on." Sal said as he came to a stop, putting the P90 down and taking his jacket off and handing it to her.

"Why?" She asked as she took it from him.

"So you blend in more."

"It's the red dress again isn't it?" She deadpanned as she slipped on the jacket.

"No shit, you stand out like a sore thumb, which is fitting as they are both red." Sal replied sassily as he put his PDW back onto his back and started moving again.

Celeste huffs and follows the spy through the hallways and up to a set of double doors with a large flashy sign. "This must be the casino…"

"What gave it away?" Sal said as he turned to her.

"…" Celeste gave him a blank stare.

"Was it the sign? It was the sign wasn't it?" He spoke as he pointed up at the sign that said Casino.

Celeste sighs and rests her face in a palm. "Can we just go in and get this over with?"

Sal smirks and goes to the door, slowly and quietly opening it as he levels his pistol with the gap.

He slips through the door in a crouch and moves to the nearest cover, watching Celeste slip through after him, her ripped and shortened dress causing her to accidentally flash the man and give him a nice view of her matching red lace thong.

"Where to now?" She asked quietly.

Sal points to the far side of the room, past numerous armed slavers.

"Huh, Hey who opened that door?!" Came a nearby voice.

"What door?" Came another.

"East side, get your guns ready people, looks like we have some target practice!" Shouted a more authoritative voice as the sound of multiple guns getting cocked reached the duo's ears.

"Well shit, looks like the party is about to start." Sal remarked.

"Oh no… I-i forgot to shut the door." Said Celeste.

"Let's bring some firecrackers." Sal said as he pulled a flashbang from a pouch and primed it then arced it over his cover and into the line of sight of the slavers.

BANG!

The grenade goes off with a bright flash of light, a split second later Sal bolts out of cover and sprints for a large pool table, grunting as he forces it up and onto its side, using the thick granite of the table as a bullet shield and taking cover behind it.

Celeste follows quickly, fear evident in her face and eyes as her whole body shakes.

"OPEN FIRE!" Shouts a slaver as a cacophony of gunshots ring out from the other side of the table, followed quickly by harsh thuds of the bullets colliding with the granite.

"Well looks like I don't have to stay quiet anymore." Sal said as he holstered his Glock and took the P90 off his back, prepping it and readying himself for the bloody firefight to come.

Well, that's chapter two, hope you all like it, if you like the story then give it a follow or favourite, if you like to give some feedback or just want to have your say then drop a review, any and all feedback helps.