Chapter 7: Shadowy Heights
"Where are they?" Bolt exclaimed as he paced the rooftop they were currently lounging on. Violet merely rolled her eyes before continuing to stare off into the distance.
It had been a month since her first mission, which had been a success. And yet such a failure. Shade had visited her once more, making sure she was ok and unharmed, then taken the file from her and told her she had done a good job. All she had felt like at the time was dirt.
After that time, she had been resting and getting over 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder' as the doctors who had checked her over would later state. She felt better now, death was normal. It was ok if you died. At least while in the line of service or from old age. Now that she was once again ok, Violet was once again out in the field, with her new partner, Bolt, who was even more green then her. He had never been on a field mission as of yet, and because of the mostly untested team, Shade had sent in another team, a veteran one, to help them along.
Currently they were in Huston, Texas. They had been laying low on a small ten story building, waiting for the other team to show up. Obviously the waiting was getting to Bolt, since he was constantly running one of his gloved hands through his wild blond hair, a bit of energy would every so often spark out from his feet and leave boot prints on the ground for a minute, then dissipate.
"Will you give it a rest?" Violet said after a while, having grown tired of his constant mumbling. "They'll get here when they get here" she stated.
"And we have gotten here" a voice said and the two agents turned their heads to see a man in a golden jacket, jeans and white tee climbing up the emergency ladder on the side of the building. Behind him, another man wearing the normal stealth suit with a coat over it. The first man had messy orange-red hair and green eyes, while the other had a business hat on his head and goggles, leaving nothing to really be seen. Both were carrying sub machine guns tucked inside their jackets.
"It's about time" Bolt complained.
The first man, more of a young man or old teen, grinned. "Watch it buddy, me and my friend here were on a very important secret mission, we had a reason to be late" he said. "What's yours?" he added.
Bolt turned red. "What?" he exclaimed. "We have been waiting for three hours for you guys to show up! What do you mean late?" he demanded.
The man that seemed to enjoy making Bolt mad glanced at his partner, then shrugged. "We were supposed to be here at seven. It's eight. Big deal" he stated.
Bolt stared at him. "You were supposed to be here at five!" he shouted.
"Keep it down" the man stated. "You'll wake the neighbors" he added.
Bolt just mumbled something unintelligible as he stalked off towards the corner of the roof.
"Secret mission?" Violet asked sceptically, wondering what he had really been doing. The guy turned and looked at her, their eyes locking for a minute and Violet felt something shiver down her spine.
"Yes. Me and my compatriot here" he said grabbing the other man around the shoulder and dragged him over, and by his face, he didn't like it, but also seemed to be used to such treatment. "Had to run a special mission to McDonald's and grab dinner" he stated, as if it were a real mission and the world depended on it. He then reached into his coat and offered her a burger, which she accepted. She had skipped dinner thinking they would have this over with by seven.
Violet, despite herself, couldn't stop the giggle that escaped her mouth. "You spent three hours at McDonald's?" she asked as she opened the burger's wrapping and began eating it quickly.
"No" he admitted. "One hour at McDonald's, ten minutes getting coffee, an hour hitting on all the hot women along the way here..."
"You hit on every woman we ran into. Even the ones past seventy..." his partner deadpanned.
"Well I can't help it if I am irresistible!" the other man exclaimed.
"You mean you think you are irresistible..."
Violet just chuckled and finished her burger. "Violet" she said in way of greeting. "You?" she asked.
"Edge" the man with the gold jacket said. Then pointed a thumb at the man next to him. "This is Whisper. He doesn't talk too much. But he is good in a pinch" he added.
Violet nodded. "That guy over there..." she gestured at where Bolt was sulking. "...is my partner bolt" she said.
Edge nodded. "Ok. Let's get this show on the road" he said and then headed towards the roof's edge. "Coming grumpy?" he asked Bolt, who just grumbled and followed him. "Madam" he said and made a gesture and bowed.
Violet just glared at him softly before jumping across the roof towards another one that was a floor lower then the one she was on. The fall was short and she immediately rolled as she hit the ground, avoiding any damage, then she stood up.
Right behind her was Edge, Whisper and then Bolt. All three rolling and standing up as well, now looking up at their target, a large thirty story building under construction and being patrolled by men wearing black suits.
Just before they had left base on a private plane, Violet and Bolt had been briefed on their mission. They were to link up with a veteran team, move towards and secure Luxury Apartments, which was under construction and being guarded by terrorists in military uniforms.
"Alright" Edge said. "Whisper, you take Grump and clear the lower five, i'll take the top five with Violet" he said. Again a shiver ran down her spine. Was she sick or something?
Whisper nodded and he and a annoyed Bolt moved off towards one end of the roof, while Edge pulled out a black tube looking thing, then fired it. A long rope shot outward, flying across the glow of the city as it's metal hook secured itself around a metal grinder. He then fired it again, but this time the back part of the tube shot into a wall and stuck.
Grinning at her, he held out an arm. Violet just rolled her eyes before getting up against him and holding on as he hit a button and the tube, now sporting empty holes with rope running through it, began to zoom up the rope towards the building. Within moments they made it to the first of the five floors, out of the ten top floors, and she quickly dropped down, letting go of his neck and jumping right at the first guard she saw, knocking him out with a pair of fast punches and then a kick to the gut, sending him flying back into a metal bar.
Ducking, she barely dodged the silenced machine gun fire of a few of the guards, who were wielding M16's with silencers. Edge however drew his twin revolvers and fired them, taking down four men, who were clutching their chests or throats, in a matter of seconds.
Standing up, Violet eyed the dead men with disgust. She hated killing. Moving onwards, they took care of a few more guards, then climbed a set of concrete stairs, and then began clearing out that floor. They moved in sync, like a team that had been working together for a while, covering the others backs and guessing the others moves and then using this knowledge to amplify their strategy.
Violet kicked a man in the jaw, sending him flying only to get clubbed to the ground by Edge's revolver's butt. He shot a man and she would hit him with her fist, sending him into a wall or bag of concrete, knocking him out. They continued this for two more floors, then they made it to the top floor.
Men behind boxes and crates and more bags of concrete and metal grinders and beams were scattered all over the place and there was even a man with a laser turret set up on the end of the roof, placing it right on a stack of metal beams. Violet was pressed hard with keeping both of them safe with shields as they all fired at the agents with their guns, but their numbers thinned as Violet and Edge began to knock them down one by one. Eventually there was only the man with a pistol, having abandoned the turret. He fired at Violet, but the round bounced off her shield and Edge socked him hard in the face, sending him flying off the edge of the building.
"Great work" he said and then whispered something to Whisper. Then he turned towards her and pulled a green bag he had been carrying off his bag. "Here" he said. "You're the best shot" he explained when she stared at him questioningly.
"What?" Violet asked.
"They didn't tell you? Or are you just trying to be funny?" Edge asked.
"Tell me what?" Violet asked.
Edge cursed. "The mission!" he stated. "We need to hurry, the parade is almost over!" he then grabbed the bag and began pulling parts out of it. Gun parts.
Violet felt her stomach squeeze. "You mean..." she asked in shock.
Edge looked up at her. "For the past five months, the Agency has been watching a man suspected of aiding, supplying and funding a terrorist group known as IRONCLAD. If we pick him off now, then their organization will crumble and thousands will be saved" he stated as he finished assembling the gun.
Violet stared at the now fully constructed rife, then at him, then at the gun and then back to him. "No" she said. "No. Im no murder!" she screamed at him.
Edge sighed and set the gun down then moved over and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Look at me" he said and she met his green eyes. "Look. If we don't kill this one man, then thousands will die if he funds their attacks on innocent civilians" he stated.
"We..we can arrest him! Take him to jail and-"
"Violet. Do you really think any court will take him to jail? He's a major politician and has power in the courts. He'll be out in days if we can get him tried" he said. "But who will give the proof? The agency can't come out of the shadows. We have to do the dark deeds in the middle of the night to keep others safe." he paused and moved her slowly towards the gun. "You are the only one who can take the shot, your the only one that can hit the distance. Please. Just do it. The world's at stake" he insisted.
Violet gulped audibly and picked up the .308 sniper rifle. The same one she had striped, assembled and...fired, during her training. She got down into a prone position and then brought the gun up, looking through the scope. "Black car, opened roof. Red shirt, black jacket, black hair" Edge said instructing her. She vaugely felt him place a comforting hand on her shoulder, and felt something spark along her collar bone to her neck. She ignored it for the moment, filing it away for later, and then sighted her target. The small, barely visible figure was standing up in the car, a red shirt under his black jacket. He was waiving to the people around the car. "He's a murder for helping those terrorists" Edge whispered. "It has to be done..." he added and she took a breath. "Good luck..." then she through her worries away and replaced them with his calm voice, then pulled the trigger.
/
Bob, feeding Jack-Jack, was watching the weather, when all of the sudden a news flash came on.
"This is Sarah O'Hian with action seven news" Bob recognized the woman from the other day, when she had been reporting the death of Rick Dicker. "A month after the death of the businessman Rick Dickers mysterious death, we have yet another death" she said and a video flashed on screen. This one showed the fund raiser parade down in downtown Huston, showing the President waiving to his supporters as he, the vice president, the first lady and his son and daughter sat in the presidential car as it rode along with all of the floats. Suddenly the president, who had been standing up, shot backwards as the people scattered. Due to the chopper's zooming in, Bob could see the others in the car ducking for cover as Secret Servicemen ran about, securing the area and drawing guns as the Vice President moved over the to the President's motionless body, looking as if he was trying to do CPR.
The video cut off and Sarah returned. "That is all we have" she said solemnly. "As of yet, we do not know if the two deaths are related or not, but we did get a short video of the killers, who were posted three blocks away on a construction site. The CIA and Secret Service directors have yet to release any information on how the assassination happened, but there were dead and wounded Servicemen found at the scene" she said. And another video popped up.
This one showed a spotlight being aimed at a pair of figures, one in black and the other wearing a golden jacket and jeans, running across the rooftop of the building as one of them carried a rifle of some kind. They then jumped off the building and landed on the roof of another one nearby, then they just vanished as the spot light moved around frantically, trying to find them.
Bob just stared. He was just thinking things. There was no way...
"We will get back to you when we have more. This has been Sarah O'Hian with Action News, channel seven" then the screen returned to the weather.
"And with a cold front moving in on..."
Bob just stared at the T.V. Was the world going mad? And where the people that had killed Rick the same ones that had just killed the President? And if so, why? Setting Jack-Jack down, Bob went to find his wife and make a call. He needed answers and there was only one person left that he knew of who could help him.
