“The informant has confirmed a presence,” Charlie Kilo Four Six informed his leader.
Victor Romeo Zero One grabbed a set of headphones and put them on. “Do you have a name?” VR01 asked firmly into the mouthpiece.
“Not yet,” Agent Frink answered, “Well, not a real one. Though Johnson has told me that she is female and has quite some fighting capabilities.”
VR01 looked at CK46. “It’s an Illuminati terrorist,” he said to the other Man in Black.
CK46 nodded in turn and switched on the loudspeaker system. “We have confirmed the presence of a terrorist inside the town hall. All forces: clear a path.”
His electronic voice boomed outside the armored mobile command post. The scores of Army men outside heard it loud and clear. Tanks swivelled, transports turned, and the foot soldiers redirected their course to the center of the town.
***
“So, why are you here?” Andy asked their female rescuer after they woke Bionic up.
“I’m here safeguarding an . . . artifact . . . of great power in this vicinity.” Selena paused to belch, earning her the awkward stares of the men. “Sorry, big lunch. Anyway, I was hoping that you boys would be able to help me move it to a safer location.”
Johnson shook Agent Lemafé until she snapped out of whatever shock she was in. Afterward, he addressed Selena. “We would be very willing to help if you told us what the artifact is and where it is being held.”
Selena smiled her manipulative smile. “It’s an old rock. Just follow me.” Then she turned and strode up the stairs.
Johnson and Andy gave each other a knowing glance and followed.
Lemafé and Bionic, each a bit shaken, walked closely together up the creaky old stairs.
The stench of death filled the air, and flies swarmed a few bodies that were probably former officials. Once the group had reached the central hallway of the second floor, Selena stopped and asked, “Do you hear something?” The others immediately answered in the negative, despite the fairly obvious gunfire and metallic movements outside. Selena became wary anyway, and glanced around in every corner.
“It’s most likely a group of former police fighting outside. They might have a . . . riot bus, or something,” Andy suggested as he kicked at a few rats in the unlit hall.
“Not in a town this small,” Selena countered. Right before she pulled something out of her vest, a huge boom was heard and the building shook. Nearby, an outer wall crumbled, and automatic gunfire could be heard everywhere out there. The male agents looked around. Then a metal door leading to a storage room just behind Lemafé was hit by something on the other side. The loud bang was followed by a dent.
Selena pulled out a grenade. There was another loud bang in the door, followed by another dent. This repeated until the door finally flew off its hinges. Selena signaled for the other agents to take battle positions, but none of them moved, except the terrified Lemafé.
Three dark figures walked in through the entryway. They were wearing identical black suits, ties, and shades with white dress shirts. Their corder earpieces confirmed that they were indeed Men in Black.
“It’s them,” the one on the left said.
“The informants,” added another one on the right emotionlessly.
“And the terrorist,” said a central third man in a very controlled fashion.
“We must proceed,” noted the first.
“And the other?” Asked the second electronically.
“Intentional collateral,” the third muttered.
Then the middle MiB rapidly pulled out a massive Desert Eagle handgun and shot Lemafé in the head.
Selena pulled the pin out of her grenade and threw it at the MiBs. The male members of Team 13 ducked to the side as the explosive landed a distance behind the cloned Men in Black.
The two MiBs on the side charged Lemafé, hands raised in fists. The middle one reaimed his Berreta and fired at Selena just before the grenade went off and blew him forward.
Selena dodged and parried the uppercuts of the two Men in Black and countered with an open-handed strike to one. The MiB ignored the superficial blow and returned with powerful kick.
Selena blocked the kick with her arm and threw a jab at the other MiB. Both of the black-suited men stumbled back a bit.
Meanwhile, the third man stood up and threw a double-fisted punch at Selena. The female took the blow hard in her vested stomach, coughing up blood. The Man in Black grinned ever-so-slightly.
The other two MiBs leaped at Selena, but she ducked and they landed on the ground behind her. The female then did a somersault kick on the man in front of her, knocking him back.
The two MiBs behind Selena rose to their feet and charged her again. She was able to counter one’s attack with a headbutt, but the other punch sent her flying into a side office.
As the three Men in Black repositioned themselves in a triangle, Slena rose to her feet. A zombie was in the office with her. She dodged it, then she picked the thing up by the side and swung it around. As it gained speed, she let go and it flew at the three MiBs. Only the central one was able to dodge.
Then Selena popped another grenade off her vest and threw it at the pile of men on the floor. The central Man in Black dodged the explosive and jumped into the office, hiding behind the wall. Team 13 collectively ran further down the hall.
As the grenade went off, Selena drew her knife and dodged shrapnel. She charged the man in the office with her. Since he was fairly stunned by the blast, Selena nailed him right in the chest.
The MiB, grunting in more anger than pain, twisted and pulled the knife from Selena’s grasp. He kicked at the agile woman but missed, leaving him temporarily vulnerable. Selena took her opportunity and unleashed a volley of jabs on the man’s torso. The MiB fell backward, landing a few inches from the hole in the floor created by the grenade.
Selena kicked at the man, causing him to fall through the gaping orifice and land twenty feet below on the main floor.
Selena realized the danger her mission was in, so she ran out of the office and over the hole to the stairs leading to the top floor and roof.
Meanwhile, the surviving members of Team 13 said their goodbyes to the late Agent Lemafé.
***
“She’s downed three Men in Black?” General Hammer yelled in disbelief. Those cloned supersoldiers were the best fighters this country had. He knew that there were only one hundred clones of each model, and there were only six-hundred-seventy-six different models. Killing three of them could be quite a setback.
The bureaucrat in front of him nodded grimly. “The leading MiB of this assignment, FP Eighty-Two, suggests that we send in a score of MiBs to successfully eliminate her.”
The general sighed. “Very well. Just make sure she doesn’t get that damned top-apex thing. Now I’ve got a battle to run here.” With that, the subservient scurried off.
General Hammer hoped the MiBs would solve their problem so he could finish clearing out this town.
***
Running through the top floor of the Janesville town hall, Selena found it hard to concentrate on her mission. The MJ 12 was after her, the US military was battling right outside, and she was miles away from any help or comfort. The flickering overhead lights sure as hell didn’t help, either.
Selena pulled out her cell and tried to call Poca back at the safehouse, but there was no service here. After cursing, Selena continued running through the hall.
When the leather-clad female sighted the stairs ahead of her, she paled. Coming down the stairway, blocking her path, was a cadre of dark figures. In the strobing light, she saw that the multitude of men wore matching black suits, ties, and shades. They took menacing poses at the foot of the blood-stained stairs.
Selena stopped running and pulled a heavy phonebook off of a table. She threw the book at the men, who dodged. Then they charged.
Selena dodged the first few blows, grabbing two arms and twisting them around each other. One blow knocked her to the ground, while another left a large bruise. on her face.
As Selena rose, she drew another knife and twirled it deftly around one MiB’s torso, cutting his suit. The enraged man grabbed her arm, but her kick sent him flying into one of his comrades.
Two other MiBs pulled out their guns and opened fire. Selena cartwheeled into a meeting room off to the side.
As the woman prepared for another kung-fu fight, a mortar ripped into the room.
Selena was blown out into the hallway again, her right leg ripped off and her left arm broken. She was in tears, barely out of shock.
A Man in Black, towering over her crumpled form, grinned slightly. He swung a heavy fist at her, but Selena somehow managed to dodge.
The gravely injured whipped out another knife and swung wildly at the MiB, but he dodged every swipe. Soon his companions surrounded the woman, and unanimously drew their Desert Eagles.
Right before the end, Selena heard one Man in Black whisper, “It was inevitable.” Then the men blew her brains out. Literally.
***
Once a cadre of Men in Black and strike troopers had pulled the surviving members of Team 13 out of the crumbling town hall, the male agents were met with the all-too-familiar disinfectant spray-down followed by a tranquilizer. The three men collectively awoke in a three-bed motel room just outside of Mayfair County.
The three already had a Bureau 13 encoded message on the room’s computer ordering them to clean up the area around the now-disinfected Janesville. Apparently, some creatures form the InCom Complex had escaped the reach of the MJ 12 and US military. It was the Bureau’s job to clean up.
But before they did that, the three men knew what to do.
It was a good thing Bionic had brought his portable keyboard with him.
***
The dark motel room slowly lit up, shining yellowish incandescent light on the three black-suited agents. Bionic was on the right, standing in front of his keyboard. Andy was in the middle, looking down. Johnson was on the left, also looking down. All three were wearing shades.
Then Bionic hit a note on his keyboard. He continued with a simple, gospel-like tune. The three agents began snapping to every other beat. They shuffled from side to side in unison. Their shuffle, snap, shuffle, snap pattern became obvious soon. Before long, they began to unanimously repeat in deep, baritone voices:
“In the middle a’ the . . .
I go walkin’ in the . . .”
Then Agent Frink’s voice sounded off over the webcam. Back in Milwaukee, on top of the building that held the team’s office, Frink sang in his semi-high-pitched voice:
“In the middle of the niii-iiigth,
I go walkin’ in my sleep.
From the Mountains of Faith,
To a river so deep . . .”
The three back at the hotel room repeated the last few words of every line just after Frink finished saying them in the same baritone.
Frink continued with the song on the rooftop of the skyscraper, singing to the rising sun.
“I must be lookin’ for something,” the Professor sang.
“Lookin’ for somethin’” the others repeated.
“Something sacred I lost,” Frink sang, widening his arms to the sky.
“Somethin’ sacred I kno-oo-ow!” the agents repeated, still shuffling and snapping alternatively.
“But the river is wide,” Frink sang soulfully.
“Oh, it’s wide!” the three accented.
“And it’s too hard to cross!” Frink sang.
“Too hard to cro-oss,” the three repeated deeply.
Frink launched into a solo, raising his voice another octave only to have it progessively grow quieter:
“Even though I know the river is wide,
I go down every evenin’ and I stand on the shore
And try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find what I’ve been lookin’ for!”
Then he returned to the chorus, accented by the agents in the motel.
“In the middle of the night,
I go walkin’ in my sleep
Through the Valley of Fear
To a river so deep.
And I’ve been searchin’ for something
Taken out of my soul,
Somethin’ I would never lose,
Somethin’ somebody stole.”
Frink looked up toward the slowly climbing sun for the next stanza, putting his arms out wide for all angels to hear. He sang in a beautiful decrescendo.
“I don’t know why I go walkin’ at night,
But now I’m tired an’ I don’t wanna walk anymore.
I hope it doesn’t take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is that I’ve been lookin’ for.”
There was a short pause before the agents returned to chanting and Frink once again sang.
“In the middle of the night,
I go walkin’ in my sleep,
Through a jungle of doubt
To a river so deep.
I know I’m searching for somethin’
Something so undefined,
That it can only be se-ee-en
By the eyes of the blind,
In the middle of the niii-iiight.”
Bionic began a keyboard solo as the agents in the motel returned to repeatedly chanting:
“In the middle a’ the . . .
I go walkin’ in the . . .”
After a short time of this, Frink dove into a spiritual verse:
“Not sure about life after this,
God knows I’ve never been a spiritual man.
Bap-tized by the fire, I wade into the river
That is a-runnin’ through the promised land . . .”
After Frink finished his last word, there was a complete pause. Bionic stopped playing, the men stopped chanting, and Frink stopped singing for three seconds.
Then they all began again:
“In the middle of the night”
“Middle of the night . . .”
“I go walkin’ in my sleep”
“Walkin’ in my sleep . . .”
“Through the Desert of Tru-uu-uth”
“Desert a’ Truth . . .”
“To a river so deep.”
“River so de-eeep”
“We all end in the ocean,
We all start in the stream,
We’re all carried along
By the River of Dreams,
In the middle of the niii-iiight . . .”
Frink ended his lines by yelling “Hallelujah!” to the skies as the three agents at the motel continued their soulful chant of:
“In the middle a’ the . . .
I go walkin’ in the . . .
Middle of the night . . .
I go walkin’ in my sleep . . .
Mountains of Faith . . .
River so de-eeep . . .
In the middle a’ the . . .
I go walkin’ in the . . .
In the middle a’ the . . .”
Somewhere, up in the bright morning clouds, an angelic former Agent Lemafé found a heavenly former Agent Kingston and they walked together across the sacred River of Dreams toward the Pearly White Gates.
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