Part 2: Your mission, should you choose to accept it…
"Neo!"
"YE-OW!" Neo fell out of his bunk, slamming into the tempered steel floor. Someone was pounding on his door. "Coming…" He stood, holding his head.
"Neo, get your ass out here! Briefing, now!" Trinity was screaming through the wall. She raised her hand to pound again and nearly punched Neo in the nose. "Sorry, but come on!" She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him after her. Neo scrambled after her, boots clanging on the floor.
"What's going on?" he asked, trying to keep up with Trinity.
"Mission briefing," she panted out. "There's teams diving tomorrow morning and they're giving us details. Follow me."
Neo raced after her, thankful for Kismet's training. He scrambled after Trin through a hatchway and flattened himself to the wall as she did. The room was packed with people and Neo barely had room to breathe. He listened intently to a speech that was more along the lines of a pep talk and stared down at a sheet of paper that was thrust into his hands. It read:
Mission profile: Intercept prototype agent program. Destroy immediately. Casualty
index is 11.
Following that was a list of the ships involved. The Neb was on the list; so was the Indy.
"What's a casualty index?" Neo asked.
"C.I.s are based on teams of eleven," Trinity explained. "They're the number of team members it's considered acceptable to lose before the mission must be aborted."
"So…It's all right for the everyone to die?"
"To keep the agents from getting better than they are? Of course." Kismet appeared out of nowhere at Neo's side. She looked up at him, something glinting in the depths of her eyes. "We should always be prepared to die, even if it means that only one more person lives only one more day. A sacrifice is a noble thing, even if the rewards seem small."
Neo smiled for a reason he didn't understand. "I'll remember that."
"Good." Kismet was gone before he could respond.
"You have the rest of the day free," Trinity said, jerking him out of his reverie. "Just be in the dive room at six tomorrow morning."
"Six a.m. is a long way away. Do you mind showing me around Zion?" Neo asked.
Trinity smiled one of her rare smiles. "Not at all."
"Okay, here's the plan." Kismet stood in the center of the dive room, arms folded over her chest. "Once we're in, we split into teams of three, except for me; I go with Link. Out here, the watchers will rotate, so that they stay fresh. Chip takes first watch, then Tank, and the rest of you can rotate in from there. Inside, the teams are going to try and confine the target to any given patch of city block. This is our man."
She held up a slightly fuzzy picture of a businessman in his late twenties. "Two teams arrange an accident to distract him, while Link and I swipe his briefcase. Inside the case is the disk the agents are after. They're using him a courier; he doesn't know what he's carrying. The target will leave work, then proceed down Fifth Avenue, heading for his house on North Washington Street. One team will remain posted at his home the entire time; if he gets away from both us and the agents, he'll head straight there. Nerve, that's your group's assignment."
A man with short, buzzed blond hair gave a nod of acknowledgment.
"Once we get the other two teams in place around him, it'll be up to them to do a little playing in traffic. We get a nice little fender bender for everyone to stare at and Chip and I shouldn't have much trouble swapping his case for our decoy. Once we've got it, we'll blow that pretty piece of plastic to kingdom come and then everybody's out."
"What do you mean 'play in traffic'?" Neo asked, not sure he liked where this was leading.
Kismet grinned. "Come on, Neo. You can't tell me that with all you powers in there you can't figure out how to arrange a car accident to distract a man's attention for five minutes?"
Neo sent her a level gaze. "I can put something together. Just get me in there."
Kismet's gaze was equally level. "In due course, Neo. Now, any other questions?" Silence. "Good. Everyone take a seat and good luck."
The group exchanged somber nods and selected chairs.
Nerve and his three teammates left the building first, turned left, then scattered into the crowd. Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus followed, turning right, and the final team came after them. Five minutes later, Link and Kismet followed.
Three blocks later, the two distraction teams were in position. With a few quick maneuvers and a little help from the Construct, it appeared as though two cars had collided at a stop sign. A crowd gathered to watch the fight that ensued between Trinity and Card, one of the women from the second distraction team. They posed as the drivers of the vehicles and carried out a screaming match, throwing in a few bitch slaps to keep the crowd around.
Neo, Morpheus, and Stark (another member of the second team) tried to break up the pair at various points and were subsequently shoved aside. The crowd whooped and Kismet smirked when she thought she heard bets being placed. Suddenly, Link grabbed her arm. "Here he comes," she hissed. It was the target.
"Right on time," Kismet whispered and backed up against a wall, the decoy briefcase in hand. As soon as he stopped to watch the fight, they'd –
"He's not stopping!" Kismet gasped.
The target walked past the crowd, paying it only a slight glance. "We've gotta get that case," she snarled. "Link."
Her partner moaned. "Don't do this to me, buddy."
"No fucking time, Link. We shoot for it, ready?"
The brunette sighed. "Sure."
The pair chanted in unison, "One, two, three, shoot!"
"Scissors cut paper. You get him."
"But you always use rock!" Link scowled.
"I know. Either way, he's your job now."
Link rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll keep him busy."
She ran forward, tapped the man on the shoulder, and pulled his face to hers. She kissed him hard, keeping one hand firmly locked on the back of his head. His eyes were wide and he struggled slightly, but she refused to let go. Kismet raced forward and prepared to snatch the case, when she swore. It was handcuffed to his wrist. "Give me a little longer, Link," she said, pulling her gun from inside her coat. She fired a shot at the handle and it flew off. Thrusting the dummy case into his hand, she leapt up and ran, calling over her shoulder, "I've got it, Link, let's go!"
The brunette pried her face from the target's and sped after Kismet. "We're leaving!" she screamed to the distraction teams.
Neo and the rest ran down the block, leaving a disappointed crowd behind them.
Kismet riffled through the briefcase, tossing papers and files aside. "Gotta be here, gotta be here…Gotcha! You sneaky bastard, you."
She held the disk between her index and middle fingers and twirled it. "This is it?" Link demanded. "This is the 11 we've been so scared about? A little damn piece of plastic??"
Kismet just nodded and pulled a small case out from her pocket. Flipping it open, she pinched off a piece of a putty-like substance that was inside, pressed it onto the disk, then stuck a fuse to it.
"C4 on a floppy?!" Link yelped, scrambling backwards. "Isn't that extreme?"
"Not on this disk." Kismet took a lighter out from her pocket and lit the fuse. "Let's go."
The two girls ran from the building and down the street to where the other teams waited. Nods were exchanged and they hurried to the pre-determined exit. Link flipped open her phone and pressed a few numbers. "Nerve? It's done…We'll see you outside."
A dull explosion sounded in the distance and Kismet pulled out her gun. She checked the clip, then swapped it for a fresh one. The group paused at a corner; Card peered around it cautiously at a phone booth. She waited until the phone began ringing, then ran forward and picked up the receiver. She vanished and half a second later a bullet tore through the glass of the booth.
Trinity swore. Link grabbed her phone. "Come on, come on," she murmured. "Pick up the damn phone….Nerve! Forget the exit you had planned, man! They know! They fucking know! Get away from there and find a new way out!" Link's face paled and the hand holding her phone was shaking.
Kismet put a hand on her friend's shoulder, surprised when the other girl jumped at the touch. "What's the matter? What did Nerve say?"
Link shook her head. "He didn't say anything…Didn't have to…There was gunfire…Someone was screaming…I don't think they're gonna make it."
Kismet closed her eyes, running her tongue along her lips and drawing a deep breath. She snatched Link's phone, hung it up, then dialed the Operator. "Talk to me, Tank. Where's the nearest exit?…Sounds good. I think we can get there…Before I go, how is…Oh. Okay."
She hung up the phone and put it back in Link's coat pocket. "Tank gave me another exit that's not too far from here. We'll have to be fast if we want to make it." She didn't say anything about Nerve; it was simply understood.
Shots rang out above them, splintering the sidewalk at their feet. They ran.
"Go inside, there's a phone. Hurry!" Kismet fired several more shots at the agents across the street. "Get moving!!"
She snarled when she spotted Neo in the doorway beside her. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
"Helping provide cover fire." He stopped a bullet two inches from Kismet's head.
She snorted and batted the frozen bullet out of the air. Pulling a Tac-9 from inside her coat, she locked in a clip and sent a spray of fire across the street. Someone screamed.
Kismet was vaguely aware of the steady rhythm behind her: ring, pick up, and hang up. When the pattern was broken, she yelled at Neo, "Your turn, hot shot!"
"You first," he said, reloading his gun.
"Don't you even start," she snapped. "I'm not leaving anybody out here by themselves, not even if they're the One. Now you pick up that fucking phone or I'll cut the hard line myself and we get to find another exit." She fixed him with a steely-blue glare. "Don't think for a moment I'm kidding."
Neo didn't have the strength or patience left for a fight, so he tossed his gun aside and hung up the phone. It rang and he picked up, glancing back to the doorway. He saw Kismet smiling at him, blood running down the right side of her face, then he opened his eyes.
*****
Well, that's all for now. Sorry this took so long to get up. I'll write part 3 and have it posted ASAP.
Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed part 1, pledging to stick with me through this madness. It means more than you can know.
Until next time...
*Kat-chan out* ^_^ \/
"Neo!"
"YE-OW!" Neo fell out of his bunk, slamming into the tempered steel floor. Someone was pounding on his door. "Coming…" He stood, holding his head.
"Neo, get your ass out here! Briefing, now!" Trinity was screaming through the wall. She raised her hand to pound again and nearly punched Neo in the nose. "Sorry, but come on!" She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him after her. Neo scrambled after her, boots clanging on the floor.
"What's going on?" he asked, trying to keep up with Trinity.
"Mission briefing," she panted out. "There's teams diving tomorrow morning and they're giving us details. Follow me."
Neo raced after her, thankful for Kismet's training. He scrambled after Trin through a hatchway and flattened himself to the wall as she did. The room was packed with people and Neo barely had room to breathe. He listened intently to a speech that was more along the lines of a pep talk and stared down at a sheet of paper that was thrust into his hands. It read:
Mission profile: Intercept prototype agent program. Destroy immediately. Casualty
index is 11.
Following that was a list of the ships involved. The Neb was on the list; so was the Indy.
"What's a casualty index?" Neo asked.
"C.I.s are based on teams of eleven," Trinity explained. "They're the number of team members it's considered acceptable to lose before the mission must be aborted."
"So…It's all right for the everyone to die?"
"To keep the agents from getting better than they are? Of course." Kismet appeared out of nowhere at Neo's side. She looked up at him, something glinting in the depths of her eyes. "We should always be prepared to die, even if it means that only one more person lives only one more day. A sacrifice is a noble thing, even if the rewards seem small."
Neo smiled for a reason he didn't understand. "I'll remember that."
"Good." Kismet was gone before he could respond.
"You have the rest of the day free," Trinity said, jerking him out of his reverie. "Just be in the dive room at six tomorrow morning."
"Six a.m. is a long way away. Do you mind showing me around Zion?" Neo asked.
Trinity smiled one of her rare smiles. "Not at all."
"Okay, here's the plan." Kismet stood in the center of the dive room, arms folded over her chest. "Once we're in, we split into teams of three, except for me; I go with Link. Out here, the watchers will rotate, so that they stay fresh. Chip takes first watch, then Tank, and the rest of you can rotate in from there. Inside, the teams are going to try and confine the target to any given patch of city block. This is our man."
She held up a slightly fuzzy picture of a businessman in his late twenties. "Two teams arrange an accident to distract him, while Link and I swipe his briefcase. Inside the case is the disk the agents are after. They're using him a courier; he doesn't know what he's carrying. The target will leave work, then proceed down Fifth Avenue, heading for his house on North Washington Street. One team will remain posted at his home the entire time; if he gets away from both us and the agents, he'll head straight there. Nerve, that's your group's assignment."
A man with short, buzzed blond hair gave a nod of acknowledgment.
"Once we get the other two teams in place around him, it'll be up to them to do a little playing in traffic. We get a nice little fender bender for everyone to stare at and Chip and I shouldn't have much trouble swapping his case for our decoy. Once we've got it, we'll blow that pretty piece of plastic to kingdom come and then everybody's out."
"What do you mean 'play in traffic'?" Neo asked, not sure he liked where this was leading.
Kismet grinned. "Come on, Neo. You can't tell me that with all you powers in there you can't figure out how to arrange a car accident to distract a man's attention for five minutes?"
Neo sent her a level gaze. "I can put something together. Just get me in there."
Kismet's gaze was equally level. "In due course, Neo. Now, any other questions?" Silence. "Good. Everyone take a seat and good luck."
The group exchanged somber nods and selected chairs.
Nerve and his three teammates left the building first, turned left, then scattered into the crowd. Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus followed, turning right, and the final team came after them. Five minutes later, Link and Kismet followed.
Three blocks later, the two distraction teams were in position. With a few quick maneuvers and a little help from the Construct, it appeared as though two cars had collided at a stop sign. A crowd gathered to watch the fight that ensued between Trinity and Card, one of the women from the second distraction team. They posed as the drivers of the vehicles and carried out a screaming match, throwing in a few bitch slaps to keep the crowd around.
Neo, Morpheus, and Stark (another member of the second team) tried to break up the pair at various points and were subsequently shoved aside. The crowd whooped and Kismet smirked when she thought she heard bets being placed. Suddenly, Link grabbed her arm. "Here he comes," she hissed. It was the target.
"Right on time," Kismet whispered and backed up against a wall, the decoy briefcase in hand. As soon as he stopped to watch the fight, they'd –
"He's not stopping!" Kismet gasped.
The target walked past the crowd, paying it only a slight glance. "We've gotta get that case," she snarled. "Link."
Her partner moaned. "Don't do this to me, buddy."
"No fucking time, Link. We shoot for it, ready?"
The brunette sighed. "Sure."
The pair chanted in unison, "One, two, three, shoot!"
"Scissors cut paper. You get him."
"But you always use rock!" Link scowled.
"I know. Either way, he's your job now."
Link rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll keep him busy."
She ran forward, tapped the man on the shoulder, and pulled his face to hers. She kissed him hard, keeping one hand firmly locked on the back of his head. His eyes were wide and he struggled slightly, but she refused to let go. Kismet raced forward and prepared to snatch the case, when she swore. It was handcuffed to his wrist. "Give me a little longer, Link," she said, pulling her gun from inside her coat. She fired a shot at the handle and it flew off. Thrusting the dummy case into his hand, she leapt up and ran, calling over her shoulder, "I've got it, Link, let's go!"
The brunette pried her face from the target's and sped after Kismet. "We're leaving!" she screamed to the distraction teams.
Neo and the rest ran down the block, leaving a disappointed crowd behind them.
Kismet riffled through the briefcase, tossing papers and files aside. "Gotta be here, gotta be here…Gotcha! You sneaky bastard, you."
She held the disk between her index and middle fingers and twirled it. "This is it?" Link demanded. "This is the 11 we've been so scared about? A little damn piece of plastic??"
Kismet just nodded and pulled a small case out from her pocket. Flipping it open, she pinched off a piece of a putty-like substance that was inside, pressed it onto the disk, then stuck a fuse to it.
"C4 on a floppy?!" Link yelped, scrambling backwards. "Isn't that extreme?"
"Not on this disk." Kismet took a lighter out from her pocket and lit the fuse. "Let's go."
The two girls ran from the building and down the street to where the other teams waited. Nods were exchanged and they hurried to the pre-determined exit. Link flipped open her phone and pressed a few numbers. "Nerve? It's done…We'll see you outside."
A dull explosion sounded in the distance and Kismet pulled out her gun. She checked the clip, then swapped it for a fresh one. The group paused at a corner; Card peered around it cautiously at a phone booth. She waited until the phone began ringing, then ran forward and picked up the receiver. She vanished and half a second later a bullet tore through the glass of the booth.
Trinity swore. Link grabbed her phone. "Come on, come on," she murmured. "Pick up the damn phone….Nerve! Forget the exit you had planned, man! They know! They fucking know! Get away from there and find a new way out!" Link's face paled and the hand holding her phone was shaking.
Kismet put a hand on her friend's shoulder, surprised when the other girl jumped at the touch. "What's the matter? What did Nerve say?"
Link shook her head. "He didn't say anything…Didn't have to…There was gunfire…Someone was screaming…I don't think they're gonna make it."
Kismet closed her eyes, running her tongue along her lips and drawing a deep breath. She snatched Link's phone, hung it up, then dialed the Operator. "Talk to me, Tank. Where's the nearest exit?…Sounds good. I think we can get there…Before I go, how is…Oh. Okay."
She hung up the phone and put it back in Link's coat pocket. "Tank gave me another exit that's not too far from here. We'll have to be fast if we want to make it." She didn't say anything about Nerve; it was simply understood.
Shots rang out above them, splintering the sidewalk at their feet. They ran.
"Go inside, there's a phone. Hurry!" Kismet fired several more shots at the agents across the street. "Get moving!!"
She snarled when she spotted Neo in the doorway beside her. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
"Helping provide cover fire." He stopped a bullet two inches from Kismet's head.
She snorted and batted the frozen bullet out of the air. Pulling a Tac-9 from inside her coat, she locked in a clip and sent a spray of fire across the street. Someone screamed.
Kismet was vaguely aware of the steady rhythm behind her: ring, pick up, and hang up. When the pattern was broken, she yelled at Neo, "Your turn, hot shot!"
"You first," he said, reloading his gun.
"Don't you even start," she snapped. "I'm not leaving anybody out here by themselves, not even if they're the One. Now you pick up that fucking phone or I'll cut the hard line myself and we get to find another exit." She fixed him with a steely-blue glare. "Don't think for a moment I'm kidding."
Neo didn't have the strength or patience left for a fight, so he tossed his gun aside and hung up the phone. It rang and he picked up, glancing back to the doorway. He saw Kismet smiling at him, blood running down the right side of her face, then he opened his eyes.
*****
Well, that's all for now. Sorry this took so long to get up. I'll write part 3 and have it posted ASAP.
Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed part 1, pledging to stick with me through this madness. It means more than you can know.
Until next time...
*Kat-chan out* ^_^ \/