THE SOMA SAGA V: INFILTRATION

The pale blue metal of John Jay's roof was still warm with summer heat, even hours after sunset. Eyes glued to our target across Tenth Ave, I paced back and forth to stop the soles of my boots from sticking to the roof panels. My cigarette was down to its last drag's worth, and before instinctually flicking it down to the street, I returned to the base of the radio antenna, where our bait had given up struggling against the manriki binding him in place.

"Always wondered how much a tattoo's gotta hurt." I growled through my helmet. "Been thinking about getting some ink myself. What'd it feel like, punk? After your little initiation bullshit and all." Poising the embers between my fingers, I found the eye of the purple dragon etched in his arm, and drove the butt in like a flu shot as he groaned into the gag in his mouth. "Something like that?"

"Stop playing with the bait, Raph." Mike snapped behind me.

"It's Nightwatcher, jackass."

"Whatever, Tortoise Boy. We need him ready for delivery."

"I'll wrap him up with a bow and slap some postage stamps on him, then." I chuckled, slamming a fist into his left temple and knocking his head back into place with a jab to the right. His eyelids fluttered hopelessly, and from my waistband I pulled the little bag of powder and cut piece of straw we'd found in his pockets when we snatched him from the alley. Smothering his mouth with my glove and blocking one nostril with the other, I popped the straw into the powder and shoved it roughly into his nose. Resisting the urge to breathe for a moment, he finally caved, and the contents of the baggie disappeared. Within seconds, the lowlife's pupils opened wide, and within the chains, he started to twitch nervously. A swift kick to the stomach helped that to subside a bit. "Looks like this tweaker's ready for detox."

"Einstein, this is Triton. You have the layout ready?" Mike pressed a finger to the earpiece in his cowl, and I heard Don buzz back through mine too.

"Triton, this is Einstein. The schematic's all uploaded, and your location's on the map."

"We ready to move out?" I asked them.

"Kamikaze, wait until there's more cover." Almost on cue, sirens blared and lights flashed as two ambulances pulled in front of the hospital. Hesitating until they'd unloaded their stretchers, Mike swung his hook around and tossed it, clinking as it latched onto the ledge of the roof across the street. "And please stick the codenames."

"This is Triton." Mike cut in. "Operation Christmas is a go." Unraveling my chains, I gave our inebriated hostage to Mike, and he swung down to the entryway. I jumped down to the next roof, my boots thudding as they hit the beige stone.

"Einstein, this is Kamikaze. You ready to cut the lights?"

"This is Einstein. Roger that."

On cue, the streetlights on the block and floodlights at the hospital door went black. Waiting until there was an opening in the traffic, I pounced down to street level and sprinted across to the other side. Rounding the corner just as they flickered back on, I found a fire escape just within jumping reach, and threw hand over hand until I saw the whirring boxes of the fans on the roof. I dangled a manriki into the furious blades, holding tight through the chinking and clunking until they ground to a halt, and pulled the grate cover off so I could slide through.

Immersed in darkness, I clicked on my visor lights, and landing on a horizontal portion, I crawled through the narrow airshaft until it met the opening of an elevator shaft. Leaping into the open space, I latched onto the cable and slid down until my feet met the descending elevator.

"This is Triton, the ER took the bait. Everything's going according to plan." That meant Mike had paraded into the emergency room all dramatically, delivering the tweaked-out Purple Dragon to the doctors, and was probably signing autographs or otherwise milking his stupid superhero shtick. A soft ding resounded beneath my feet, telling me I was right where I was supposed to be. Or rather, right where Don directed it to go. While the egghead was never our strongest asset in physical combat, his backing to run all the backstage details of our heist was a godsend.

"This is Kamikaze. In position at the second floor."

"This is Einstein, I have security footage of the ER staff entering a closet about fifty feet east of your position. Looks like our target."

"Roger that." Before we left for the mission, Don had been panicking about how to find the specific stuff that Leo needed in a whole hospital. I'd been the one to suggest that the best way to find an overdose cure was to give 'em an overdose and watch where they went. Add Mike as the distraction, and we had our plan. I hopped up to the air duct for the floor we needed, and trudged through on my knees and shoulders until Don buzzed in my ear.

"Kamikaze, you're above the target. The room's empty."

"Roger that." I head-butted the grate out of my way, gripped the opening and swung down into the cramped, dim closet. Rows of tiny glass vials covered the shelves, their white labels giving away their alphabetical order. "Einstein, remind me what the target is."

"Flumazenil. Might be listed as Anexate." Running a gloved finger along the edge of the shelf, my eyes scanned hungrily until they locked onto a match. I clutched two vials in each hand.

"That's a go on flumazenil. You ready to cut the lights, Einstein?"

"Roger that. Triton, ready to evacuate?"

"Roger that, Einstein. Ready on signal."

"Go." I swung my leg around the limited space, and broke through the metal lock of the door on impact. As expected, the lights in the hallway were all off, though some illumination poured in from the rooms. Not wasting any time, I bolted toward the end of the hall, a great glass pane from floor to ceiling. My shoulder met it first, and tumbling I went, hitting the ground two stories below as glass tinkled behind me and the lights returned. The caped silhouette hunched over the manhole in the alley before me told me I'd taken the right exit, and as he dragged the heavy metal across the asphalt, I pressed back into my earpiece as I followed him down the ladder.

"This is Kamikaze, see you in a minute." Landing in the sewer with a splash after closing the manhole back up, Mike and I started our sprint through the familiar midtown tunnels.

"They loved me in there, bro." He gloated. "Everyone wants a piece of the Turtle Titan."

"I can only imagine."

"Hell, I bet I could've just walked in there and asked the receptionist for some prescriptions. She'd have done anything to get that picture with me for her daughters."

"Wish you'd have thought of that before we decided I'd have to play cat burglar in a fuckin' emergency room." Mike stuck his tongue out in response.


Chapters like this make me wish I had any semblance of artistic talent so I could make a comic, or even animate a little. Nothing more badass than the two loose cannons of the TMNT pulling off an action movie heist!

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