Background music suggestion: The Gathering: Nighttime Birds'
Chapter 17: Nighttime Birds
Their ways are open
They spread as their wings
They want to be certain
of a warm surrounding
When they fly
Through the night as beautiful
Nighttime birds
The warm winds pick them up
When they fly
Through the night as beautiful
Nighttime birds
-The Gathering: Nighttime Birds
…
Cosmo sat on the edge of Helena's bed. He knew his moment had come.
"Helena, I want to say - no, I need to say - that I'm sorry for being an idiot when I arrived at the complex. I have my hangups...from my past."
She looked at him intensely, with her dark eyes, and he could see she wished know more. And so he told her. Of his father. Of the prostitutes...And before he could stop himself, the rest was out there too. The violence and he himself running away from home at seventeen. He also told of the miserable years that had followed. Finally, he buried his face into his hands when he realized he was actually sobbing. His mind felt like a chaotic mess.
"I'm sorry...I don't know why…"
He was startled as she caught him. Literally caught him, in her arms, and pulled him there right next to her. It felt so good, yet almost wrong, for him to be there. From Agent Legion's words he had understood that it was her who was all confused, and here he was, dumping his own problems on her. But she held him, whispering his name, cradling him inside her arms... Sometime later he finally opened his eyes and noticed what hers truly looked like, up close. She had most certainly cried too, and not long ago. Then, they didn't actually say anything. They just kissed.
When Helena eventually fell asleep in Cosmo's arms, he now most definitely looked at her sleeping. Being there beside her in the darkness he already knew that if she just asked he'd stay by her side...as long as she wished.
Later that night, when Helena woke up, she now wished to share more of her story, and so they lay face to face in the darkness.
"He engineered me, I know that now...So I don't have a mother. There was Sigyn, my mentor and my father's lover but I know she was never a mother...She could keep his ego in check though, and life wasn't that strange. But after she died, it was this strange genetic disease, there was no one who could handle him anymore…"
Helena shook her head.
"I am sure she would have never accepted what is happening now."
Then, she looked most thoughtful.
"You know...She was always so interested in the soulside of things...And she kept a lot of her research to herself but I think she actually made some breakthrough just before she passed away..."
...
Laurentius Adler had found the night most interesting.
After midnight everyone had moved to the living room - with the exception of Erik Stein and Cosmo Kavalyow who were nowhere to be seen - where they had some instruments; two worn guitars, one even more worn bass, an ancient drum-kit and a battered keyboard.
Ian Smith had first played the bass and Jo Alder the guitar. But at some point they had began dueling with the two guitars. Due to the consumption of absinthe their playing sounded bad but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Laurentius Adler was talking to the youngest Agent, Mitsuko Yamamoto, the Canadian-Japanese hacker who was now the last Agent of Metal in the room as the others had left. They were on lounging in the huge burgundy colored comfy chairs.
"So are they also couple...Agents Orfeus and Gudrun?"
"I suspect they like to listen to dubstep together and honestly, that is not an euphemism. They actually listen to it."
Agent Adler nodded smiling. He was looking at the instruments now.
"Do you play anything, Mitsuko?"
She looked a bit uneasy.
"Well...I've kind of been practicing bass. A lot actually...Because I was kind of hoping they'd let me audition for the band, Agents of Metal. It's thrash so I have to become very good first."
As she explained this Laurentius Adler didn't miss the excitement in her eyes.
"I have a feeling Ian would prefer playing guitar so I think I could have a shot…I mean did you see those two together?"
"I do believe your assessment of the situation is correct."
"But don't tell them...I want to talk about when all this is over...I guess I should say if it is over…"
"I won't tell them."
She now looked at the instruments.
"But what about you...Laurie? Do you play anything?"
It still felt slightly odd to Mitsuko to be on first name basis with the British MSA Agent.
"Well, when I was younger I had drums...I still play them occasionally at the HQ."
This seemed to be a pleasant subject to him.
"And it was actually funny you called me the cavalry because Trooper is definitely my favourite. I used to piss my parents off by listening to Maiden. It was the eighties, you know…"
"I can almost imagine. By any chance...did you have a mullet?"
Agent Adler nodded laughing. But then he suddenly looked a bit strange.
"Speaking of parents, I wished to tell you…I actually met yours once, as a young agent."
"You did?" Mitsuko seemed surprised.
"Yes...Brilliant minds. True pioneers in their field...Were you now there for the opening of their fund, in Kyoto?"
Mitsuko looked at her hands.
"Dr. Toyoda invited me personally...but I didn't go."
"I understand."
Laurentius Adler now felt sorry he had even brought up the subject.
"Well...do you want to try playing something?"
The suggestion clearly cheered the young agent up.
"Sure...Do you know "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Metallica?"
"At least the intro."
Mitsuko's bass riff combined with Agent Adler's drumming soon filled the room and sounded fittingly ominous in the Transylvanian night.
...
"We will go on the 18th, nighttime. The moon will be already quite full and the conditions should be suitable."
Agent Adler had gathered them for a briefing. MSA had scouted the site with a stealth drone from a safe distance.
"The pyramid is a steel and concrete structure, clad with a solar panel mesh. Also, it seems to have some kind of a heavy EMP counterattack system. What we were able to scan that there is an extremely large server room at the core, which is the heart - or should I say brains - of Bargala, we know now. We assume the route between the pyramid's entrance and the room has several heavy security measures. But basically we...just have to get inside and destroy it. Tyr Nielsen and Loke Magnusson have travelled out of Norway four days ago. We have all the reason to assume at least Mr. Magnusson would have the highest security clearance so we are very interested in him. And as you've noticed I've said the word assume at least twice so let's always remember that assuming…"
He definitely had a punchline coming up.
"Makes an ass of both u and me."
"So...We've estimated from the satellite images and drone data that there are perhaps fifty men present currently. Possibly even more. Also they had radars - had it been anything but the stealth drone, it would have certainly been picked up."
"I have twelve men. You are seven...And for many of your Agents, their strengths lie in the more cyber forms of warfare and I fear this will be more...traditional. So not only we need a ride but we also need a diversion."
...