Alexander Knight, a twenty-year-old freshly minted CIA agent sat in his economy seat on a trans-Pacific flight, going over the details of his cover identity on his computer.
No, wait. Calvin Brown sat next to Maria Baker in the economy section of Oceanic Airlines Flight 394, looking at something of absolutely no importance on his laptop computer. He was a Canadian College student of twenty-three years, traveling to Japan with his girlfriend in on a vague summer semester of 'study-abroad' that involved no actual program of studies. He was a major in art with a minor in music theory, and possessed no artistic or musical talent whatsoever.
He was exactly the sort of person that most of humanity would give little more than a pitying shake of the head. Perhaps a few parents might warn their children never to end up like Calvin Brown, but that was about it.
Which, of course, made it the perfect identity for Alexander's purposes.
He turned to Anna Patton, who sat in the aisle seat next to him. "So," he said. "Do you suppose it's safe to, you know..."
"Don't get any ideas, mister." She spat. "We may be dating, but we are not dating."
"So then you do think it's safe to talk."
"Of course." She said, rolling her eyes. "The agency has already secured the tapes for this flight, the movie is playing, and in any event, there shouldn't be any voice recorders in the passenger area of this aircraft."
"Thanks for the answer," Alex said. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask you what your thoughts were about this mission."
She shrugged. "It's a mission. That's all there is to it, right."
Alexander sighed. "You're an intelligence analyst, Anna. Neither of us is trained for this. Doesn't that make you even the slightest bit worried?"
She elbowed him. "Man up. Are you telling me you're scared by an itsy-bitsy deployment to Japan? Weren't you supposed to join the Army and go off to places with people actually shooting at you?"
Alex gave Anna a blank look. "Of course I'm scared. I'd be insane if I wasn't. For one thing, if this mission goes badly, we could be up against an entire country. Secondly, that's not really what scares me."
"What do you mean?"
"It's... failure that scares me. What if I'm not good enough to pull this off? What if I screw up because I'm not trained for this shit? What if I let the American people and everyone back at the Agency down?"
"Don't worry about that." Anna said. "If there really is magic involved, there's really no telling how high the stakes could go. It could be that you could let all of humanity down if you screw up."
Alex exhaled and tugged nervously at his artsy shirt. "Real helpful, Anna."
"Just doing my job."
"So, how long until we land?" Alex asked, changing the subject
"Not too much longer now." Anna muttered, opening something on her laptop. "The flight itself is about two more hours, and then we have to clear customs."
"We're supposed to be elite agents." Alex said, turning to look out his window at the endless carpet of clouds passing by beneath the airliner. "I'm surprised that there's nothing the Company can do about this flight."
"Well, obviously there's nothing they can do about the flight." Anna said, "They could put us on a diplomatic ticket, but that would be rather conspicuous, which would sort of render the whole thing rather pointless, wouldn't it. Well, I suppose that they could- Are you even listening to me?"
"I know that." Alex said. "Um, I mean yes. What was the question?"
"Never mind." Anna shook her head. "So, what do you think of the rest of the team?"
"They're okay, I suppose." Alex said, "I do wonder if they really pulled Nathan out of the jungle right before we met him, though."
"I can't imagine why they would lie about something like that."
"I can. It could be that his previous location was even more classified than what they told, or something like that. The point is, given the man, it seems plausible."
Alex sighed, then something seemed to occur to him.
"Do you think he'll really be good in an urban environment, through?" Alex asked, "I mean, Tokyo is a far cry from the jungles of Uganda."
"For one thing, we aren't deploying in Tokyo." Anna said. "Secondly, I'm pretty sure there are no jungles in Uganda."
"I knew that." Alexander lied. "The point still stands."
"He was hand-picked for this mission." Anna said. "I'm sure he'll be perfectly competent. What about the other guy? Ishikawa Kuroda?"
"He's supposed to be our local guide, isn't he?" Alex said. "He seemed like a decent enough guy when we met him back at the airport, right."
"I hope he knows the area, though," Anna muttered. "I mean, how long has it been since he's been there?"
"In sure they never would have picked someone without the necessary skills and experience for the job."
"So you can- forget it." Anna reached up and grabbed a strand of her hair, which she was wearing unbound for the flight, then sighed. "What do you think we're really going to find when we get there? Do you really think its going to be, well, you know..."
"No, I don't." Alexander said, looking down. ""There's only anecdotal evidence of those kinds of things are actually occurring. However, there is hard evidence that something big is going on."
"So then you don't believe your own report?"
"Honestly? I don't. I turned in that report because," He shook his head. "I don't know why I turned it in."
"I see." Anna said, looking across the aisle of the aircraft. "So do you think this is all a waste of time?"
"I never said that. If there really is something going on, we would be fools not to at least check it out."
"What do you mean?"
"It's like those ESP experiments they did back in the sixties. We couldn't risk not investigating psychic powers, just in case they did exist. We couldn't let the Soviet Union find them first."
"I see. So you turn in a report you don't believe, and when the entire Agency flips out over it, you start having second thoughts."
"I just-"
"Have some more confidence in yourself, Knight." Anna said. "I think you actually did believe that report, or you wouldn't have turned it in. And I have no idea what we're going to find in Japan."
"You sound happy about that."
"I never said that I wasn't."
Break
"Well, your papers seem to be in order." The customs attendant said in slightly accented English. "I believe that you are good to go."
"Thanks." Alex said, trying to sink into his Calvin Brown persona as he took his digitally 'stamped' passport from the attendant. He considered saying something else, but decided that would be breaking character.
"Enjoy your time in Japan, Mr. Brown. Next!"
Alexander walked through the customs gate. Anna intercepted him on the other side.
"So we're through." She said.
"So it would appear." Alex replied. "That was surprisingly painless, actually."
"We'll have to see if all of our luggage cleared, though."
Alex nodded. There were some rather... unconventional items in their luggage. If the bag got confiscated, it could potentially flag the pair for further attention, which was the last thing they wanted.
And that was if the security people didn't find the hidden compartment.
The pair began navigating the complex airport concourse, looking for the baggage claim. Eventually they found it, a series of carousels corresponding to airlines. Alex and Anna began weaving through the crowd toward the Oceanic Airlines claim. They arrived, and Alexander began scanning the bags on the conveyor belt for the ones he wanted.
That was when he saw something rather unusual.
A young woman was climbing onto the baggage claim, right next to Alexander's questionables bag. She had long brown hair and was wearing a single-piece grey dress.
"Is... Is she doing what I think she is?"
"I think so." Anna said in a terse whisper.
The girl made it onto the baggage claim and grabbed Alexander's bag. She began maneuvering it, and several other suitcases, in front of her, forming a sort of wall between herself and the crowd. Oddly enough, no one appeared to be paying her much mind. As the carousel moved, it took her, and the bag, closer and closer to the end of the track, where the conveyor belt disappeared into a hole in the wall obscured by hanging strips of rubber.
Alex made a snap decision. "I'm going after her." He said.
"You do that." Anna said, reaching down to her pocket and pulling out her smartphone. She entered her password and selected a bolded button.
"Security is down." She said, "Go!"
Alex bolted forward, climbing onto the baggage claim, and crouched down just as the girl passed out of sight. Anticipating that something might happen at the airport, the CIA had contacted a client agent and had them implant a remote-activated virus at the airport terminal to disable the security cameras for part or all of the building, allowing the agents to avoid or neutralize an incident without blowing their cover.
That was now paying dividends.
As soon as he was past the rubber curtain, Alexander stood up and bolted forward, then looked around.
He was behind the scenes at the airport. The floor had transitioned to raw concrete, and conveyor belts at various heights off of the floor carried the luggage from hundreds of flights and tens of thousands of passengers to the baggage claim.
Alex scanned the contents of the carousel and spotted his bag on the conveyor belt. He grabbed it off and quickly unzipped it, revealing a wide array of items. Alex dug through the bag, glad that he had been required to memorize the locations of everything in it. He grabbed a pair of latex gloves out of a bag and slipped them on, placed a communicator micro-bead in his ear, then slipped a few zip ties and a package of smoke bombs into his pockets.
Then Alex unzipped an interior compartment in the bag and pulled out his trump card.
It was a .45 caliber custom handgun, made especially by the CIA for missions like this. It was made from plastics, with ceramic materials in any areas expected to be exposed to heat. It was stored in a special compartment designed to project a false image to x-ray scanners. He collected the two clips of ceramic ammunition stored with the weapon and stuffed them in his pocket, which was considerately designed for just such a purpose.
Alex stood up and looked from side to side, searching for the girl. He spotted her attempting to climb over one of the conveyor belts and ran toward her, gun held pointing downward, but ready.
She whirled around and looked at him, eyes wide.
"I'm not here to hurt you." He said in Japanese, holding up his hands so the gun was pointed away from her.
"You aren't?" She said. "You aren't with the lab?"
Now that Alexander wasn't chasing after the girl, he was able to get a better look at her. She was on the short side, and her long brown hair hung in disarray around her head. She had Asian facial features, and her skin was a light tan. Her face would be natural on any teenage girl, but there was a crazed looked in her eye that Alex had seen in trauma patients before
"I'm not with them." Alexander declared. "Do you speak English?"
"Yes." She said, switching languages.
"Okay, good." Alexander said. He was confident in his Japanese skills, but wouldn't rate himself as a fully fluent speaker. In any case, speaking in English would reduce the odds a random passerby would be able to understand what they were saying.
"What lab are you talking about?" He asked slowly. He was clearly dealing with someone who was extremely terrified of... something.
"The lab that made us... Wait, you mean you don't know?"
Alex shook his head. "I don't. What are you talking about."
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you. We promised not to tell outsiders." She said. "When they catch me, they'll kill you if they find you with me."
Alex froze. Shoot on sight was generally not a common Japanese police tactic, if he remembered correctly. Either this girl was out of her mind, or there was something seriously wrong here.
"Don't worry about that. I can handle myself." Alexander said. "Um... what's your name?"
"I'm Hikari." She said. "Hikari Chiba."
"What are you doing here?" Alex asked softly, trying to be as unintimidating as possible while holding a gun. "Why were you trying to steal my luggage?"
She blushed. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure no one noticed me."
"So why are you here?"
"I was-" The girl flung her hand up and closed her eyes. A massive thud came from somewhere behind Alex.
He whirled around. In front of him was a glittering wall of light, like a thousand glowing threads woven into a single plane in the air. Behind that was a pile of rubble and chunks of concrete scattered over the previously-clean airport floor. Dust hung in the air, obscuring sight.
"So I've finally found you, brat." A hard feminine voice said. "You did well getting this far, but you aren't running any farther."
A woman strode out of the cloud of dust and stood in front of the transparent wall. She appeared to be about Alexander's age, with white hair hanging down to her shoulders. The most noticeable thing about her was the collar, a massive metal affair resting on her shoulders. She wore a plain brown jumpsuit that emphasized her large... assets, and stood with one hand on her hip.
"You can't take me back to them." Hikari pled. "They'll eject me for sure."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." The woman said. "They told me to deal with you myself."
Hikari shrunk back. "Please, no." She whispered.
"Begging for mercy won't help you," The woman said. "And I'm a full rank above you. You could never beat me, even if your power let you fight."
Alexander's mind was running in overdrive. Powers? Ejected? What are they talking about? What the hell was going on here? He looked toward the newcomer. "What are you talking about? What do you want with this girl?"
"This doesn't concern you," She announced. "Turn and run right now, and I might just consider sparing your life."
Alex reached down slowly into his pocket. "I'll ask you again. What are you doing here?"
"You have chosen your own fate." The woman said. She held her arms out to the side, and several pieces of the rubble on the floor began to levitate. They hung in the air for a moment, then shot forward, impacting the wall between Alex and the woman.
The chunks of concrete shattered as they impacted, sending dust and shards of stone flying. The wall faded as each of the rocks impacted, and the last one punched through it, and shot past Alex's head. He could feel the wind as it rushed past his ear
The concrete on the ground, the material still attached to the floor, began to vibrate in front of the woman, then began to flow forward like water, waves of concrete lapping toward Alexander's feet. Then a blob of the liquefied concrete levitated to head height.
Alex jerked the smoke bomb he was holding out of his pocket and flung it onto the ground. While it exploded and smoke billowed outwards, Alex dove to the side.
The blob of liquid concrete shot past where his head had just been and splattered against the far wall. Alex raised his gun and fell into a shooter's stance as he recovered, then fired a shot toward where the woman had been standing. He didn't know what was going on, but he guessed she was behind it.
As the bullet clanged against something in the distance, Alexander was already moving. The smoke provided him with concealment from the woman, and thus hopefully some protection against whatever she could do, but it also prevented him from being able to see her.
He moved through the smoke, pulling up his shirt to filter his air. The smoke was mostly harmless, but it could be an irritant if inhaled, and that was the last thing he needed right now. He reached the spot where Hikari had been standing.
"Hikari!" He said in a loud whisper.
"Yes?" She responded, sounding terrified.
"Come on!" Alex said, yanking her to the side. "And stay quiet."
No sooner than he pulled Hikari to the side did a fist-sized chunk on concrete shot past the space she had just occupied, pulverizing the mechanisms of the conveyor belt, which which screeched as the baggage on it came to a sudden halt.
Break
The moment she cut the security and Alex bolted toward the baggage claim, Anna was running She didn't run toward the fight; her skills didn't lie there. Instead, she grabbed her carry-on bag and began running for the ladies room.
She was there in several seconds. Miraculously, it was empty. She walked toward a stall at the end of the row, entered, locked the door behind her, sat down, and went to work.
She removed several items from her carry-on bag and began attaching them to the walls of the stall. An EMC projector that would conceal her location, a device to tap into the secure airport network, and an air freshener.
Within moments, she had a miniature mission control set up in the bathroom. Anna removed her laptop from her bag an opened it up, muttering prayers of thanks that the government had decided to splurge on nice equipment for this mission.
Once her laptop was active, she began selectively activating cameras in the cargo handling area and re-routing the feeds to her laptop. Frantically she searched for Alex in the mechanical labyrinth.
She spotted a cloud of smoke and some rubble. She figured she had the right place. Anna withdrew her headset and began speaking softly into the mic.
Break
Alexander's com-bead crackled to life in his ear.
"Alex, can you hear me?" Anna said.
"Loud and clear." Alex responded, louder than he would have liked. He had to speak fairly loudly for the bead to pick up his voice. Though the risk of giving away his location was unfortunate, the aid Anna could offer could turn the tide of the fight.
"What the hell is going on down there?" Anna demanded, "Are you in the smoke cloud?"
"Yeah. Forgive me if I don't say where."
"Alright." Anna said. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Alex ducked, just as a cloud of gravel shot past him, just to his right. "Come on." He muttered, pulling Hikari behind him. The pair ran to the edge of the cloud, and Alex cursed under his breath and drew another smoke bomb from his pocket.
Hikari gasped and raised her arms as a silhouette resolved itself in the smoke. A shimmering wall of light appered in the air, outlined by the smoke. Alex whirled around, tossing the smoke grenade behind him as he raised his pistol.
As he reached a firing position, a torrent of rubble rose from the ground around the figure and shot toward the wall. It impacted with an almighty crash as countless chunks of concrete slammed into the barrier in rapid succession.
Hikari let out a tortured breath, but the torrent of rocks cut off quickly. Alex jerked on Hikari's arm, pulling her backwards into the new cloud of smoke.
"I can keep this up longer than you can, Hikari." The figure said. "You're only a B-rank, and you're power can't hurt me."
As Hikari opened her mouth, Alexander elbowed her. "Don't talk." He whispered. "She's trying to bait you."
The pair backpedaled into the smoke, the silhouette quickly fading from sight. Alex led Hikari around the end of a conveyor belt, putting some real cover between himself and the woman.
What the hell is going on? He thought, ducking under the conveyor belt and motioning for Hikari to do likewise. How is any of this even possible?
As he crawled along the conveyor belt, stone clanged on metal several times as the enemy fire her concerte shooting attack into the metal structure.
Alex reached a point where the smoke thinned out, and decided to risk a quick check of the area. He stuck his head up above the conveyor belt and looked around.
He spotted a figure in the smoke and raised his pistol. He fire twice, but was too agitated to aim properly and missed both times. Alexander ducked back down behind the conveyor belt and gestured to Hikari to begin crawling backwards.
It wasn't a moment too soon. Seconds after he cleared the datum, a massive chunk of rock and concrete struck the stopped conveyor belt, sending luggage tumbling down on Alex and Hikari. She cried out in pain as a suitcase struck her leg.
"Cover me!" He shouted. Honestly, Alexander wasn't sure what he was doing. Putting his life in the hands of a girl he had just met was hardly standard practice. Especially when the method in question involved what appered to be magic.
Alex bolted upright and began laying down suppressing fire with his handgun as he reached into his pocket with his other hand and drew another smoke grenade. He tossed the smoke bomb behind him, then pulled Hikari up to her feet and began running with her further back into the cargo area.
Anna should have taken control of some of the cameras in here by now. He thought as he ran. That mean the smoke doesn't necessarily work to my advantage. What I need to do is get her out of it, so we can track her.
The duo cleared the cloud of smoke and kept running into the guts of the cargo handling area. The clangs of stone on metal still came as the enemy used her ability, but less frequently now.
Is she tiring out? Alex wondered, as he popped his second-to last smoke grenade.
As the cloud billowed out of the device, he spoke. "Talk to me Anna. Where is this bitch?"
"She's coming towards you, maybe fifty yards toward the concourse." Anna responded, "whatever it is she's doing with the concrete, I've got it on film now, so whatever happens, we've technically accomplished the mission. Feel free to die now, if you'd like."
"Hilarious." Alexander muttered, withdrawing his last smoke bomb from his pocket. He pressed it into Hikari's hand. "You can take care of yourself, right?"
She nodded.
"Good. Start running. If she catches up with you, use this and that barrier thing to protect yourself."
"I don't know how much more I can do without hanging up." Hikari said. "I'm only a B-rank."
I need to figure out what this stuff means. Hang up. Does that mean there's a limit on how much magic they can use?
"Hey, this girl who's chasing us. Is she close to hanging up?"
"She has to be." Hikari said. "She's used an awful lot of magic."
Then I might just have a chance. Alexander thought. "Remember, avoid a fight if at all possible. We win if she doesn't kill us."
Hikari nodded, and Alexander ran toward the edge of the cloud of smoke, pistol held in both hands.
I've fired ten shots so far he thought so I've only got twenty rounds left, total. Gotta make them count.
Alex ran out of the cloud of smoke and back into the guts of the cargo area. At some point, the conveyor belts had stopped working, and thick black smoke, darker than the grey of Alexander's bombs, rose from several locations.
He rounded a corner and spotted a flash of his enemy running down a corridor parallel to his path. He bolted down the corridor after her, but in the seconds it took him to get there, she was already gone.
"She's stopping." Anna said, "I think she's looking around. Maybe she hears your footsteps?"
Alexander grunted and froze, listening. Trying to hear footsteps was a good idea; he should have thought of it earlier.
"She's coming back toward you, Alex." Anna said. "She's levitated a chunk of rock. How the hell is she even doing any of this?"
"I don't know." Alexander whispered.
He caught the sound to shoes on concrete coming towards him and back up around the corner. As the enemy came into sight, he took snap shot at her, then ducked back around his corner.
"I think you winged her." Anna said. "She's falling back, but not going down."
"Good." Alex said. He needed every advantage he could get.
"She's moving back towards the girl!" Anna said abruptly. "I don't know how she knows, but-"
"Got it." Alex stood up and advanced in a shooter's stance around the corner. The enemy was gone, but he wasn't letting down his guard. He advanced, moving toward the location where he had left Hikari. As he walked, he passed a splatter of blood on some machinery and smiled. He had winged her, and whatever she was, she could bleed. She wasn't invulnerable.
There was a scream.
"The girl just popped her smoke." Anna warned. "I don't think you have much time left."
"I know that!" Alex shouted.
"No need to yell- oh, I get it. She's backing off of that girl."
Alex crossed an open space and pressed himself into a wall, holding his pistol up. He only had four rounds left in his clip. Slowly, he removed the magazine from the weapons and placed it in his pocket, replacing it with the fresh one. Ready to rock he thought, then immediately regretted his choice of words.
He whirled around, and pointed his gun down the next corridor just as the woman appered at the other end of it.
Rocks levitated around her. Alex lowered his handgun as the chunks of concrete shot toward him.
A single gunshot rang out, and a specially cast ceramic bullet left the barrel of Alexander's gun at just under four hundred meters per second. It shot at incredible speed across the space between the combatants passing the slower by much more massive rocks Alex's opponent had launched at him. It continued for a short distance across open space.
Then imbedded itself in the thigh of the woman.
She screamed and fell to her knees, causing Alexander's next bullet to fly harmlessly over her head. As he drew a bead on her for the next shot, a chuck on concrete stuck him in the breast, knocking him out of his stance and causing him to crumple in pain.
As Alexander recovered and prepared to fire another shot, wall of concrete shot into the air between him and his opponent with an ear-grating screech of stone sliding against stone. The wall of stone reached almost to the ceiling, then stopped growing.
Everything was silent for a moment, then there was a quiet hissing sound, like air escaping from a tire. Alexander took cover behind a corner, but nothing happened. After a moment, he stepped out into the corridor, and looked at the wall of stone.
It was shaped like a tulip bulb, bulging out slightly, then tapering toward the ceiling. Alexander listened for a moment, but the only sound was a pained whimpering.
Why isn't she attacking? Alex wondered, advancing cautiously toward the bulb. Did she run out of magic? Did she... what did Hikari say... hang up?
Alex decided that, whatever happened, she was no longer a threat. Entombed in her bulb and without her magic, there was nothing that the woman could do to him. Alexander made his way past the bulb toward where he had left Hikari.
After a few moment, he reached the hallway where he had left her, and continued down the hallway. A few moments of walking later, he reached found her, hiding behind a crate.
"Its okay." He said. "She's not a threat anymore. Its safe to come out now."
"Did you kill her?" Hikari asked , looking up from where she crouched, standing up slowly.
"No. I think she hung up. What does that mean, anyway?"
"If we use too much magic, then our Harnest hangs up and she can't use any more magic for the rest of the day."
"You'll have to explain later. For now, we have to go."
"Nathan and Ishikawa are inbound." Anna said through his earpiece. "Hold your position."
"Roger that." Alex said, nodding. "My friends are coming, Hikari. You should be safe, for now."
"Thank you," She said, walking toward Alex. "I never heard your name."
"I'm Alexander." He said, turning toward her and extending his hand. "Pleased to meet you."
After a few moments, Nathan and Ishikawa arrived, wearing fine suits and holding handguns similar to the one Alex had used.
"Where's the enemy?" Nathan said. "We got here as soon as we could."
"She's not a problem anymore." Alex said. "I took care of her. Now we need to get as far away from here as possible."
Nathan looked down at Hikari. "I see you made a new friend."
"Yeah, about that. Is it possible we could take her with us? There's a group after her, and I think they're related to what we're here for."
"Fine." Nathan said. "We have an extra seat in the car, and there's plenty of room at the safehouse."
"Thanks." Alex said. "Now let's go."
Break
Anna sighed as the pair of agents reached Alex. He was safe, and so was the mission. Really, they could quit now. With what she had on her laptop, they could return to the CIA and confirm Alex's report.
She unleashed a data-eater virus on the airport systems to ensure no digital trace was left of the team, then began stripping the devices she had mounted off of the walls and putting them away. Then she returned her laptop to her bag and made her way onto the concourse.
A crowd was lingering, but it wasn't as thick as it had been when they had arrived. Apparently, then music she had piped into the speaker system had covered the sound of Alex's suppressed gunshots. No order to evacuate had yet come, given her tampering with the system, but that would come in a moment, as soon as the data-eater ran its course.
She made her way to the service entrance to the cargo handling area where Nathan and Ishikawa had entered after claiming their weapons from their bags. She leaned up against the wall and slowly slid down into a sitting position.
This mission had just gotten interesting.