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FINALLY at Harper's flight.

I could lie to you and say Lio was right and it was just another batch of Jinn bs but we all know that isn't true :)

Plus Lynx kind of has built up to this every chapter she has her POV in...

I have been on vacation with my family since last Monday and I was until the 22nd so if this is posted around the 24-25ththat's optimal.

Not much left to say, save that our two 1st person protagonists are finally going to meet

BUT just so everyone knows.

A friend of mine has been pronouncing it this way and it drove me up the wall..

It's pronounced TAI (as in Tie or Thai,) and not TAY as in (_Tay_lor)

Tay is the douchebag alter ego of Tai that drinks straight vape juice and gasses you with axe body spray

///

"...But that's beside the point. I played the tone for him and apparently he was able to hear it. It's not supposed to be audible, not even on the Janus frequencies... He shattered the cube in an instant..."

Thinking of the cat looking up at his superior that day in the subway station, Marshall's fist clenched and he was a little more scared of Tai now.

It was only a flash of light and was there for less than a glimpse, but it was enough for Marshall.

His head snapped to the left.

One hand finding his way to his shades, Harper didn't question him as he calmly walked towards the disturbance, his vision now thermal.

After all, his job was normalizing the disturbances. And screwing over the odds.

The other hand found its way to his holster, to the revolver that gave him his name.

With any luck, he could end whatever Jinn wanted to start here...

And the perpetrators themselves.

They were already in the airport, and he was discussing things with Harper.

Alone.

They'd been given access to the full airport as security and were now moving through the control rooms, inspecting them.

Marshall wanted everything turned upside down here.

In fact, his squadron (and those present from Brasilia Esquadrao) would be escorting a replica Harper, android, while they took a more covert route.

If GRA wanted a skeleton crew, they would get it.

But they were going to get a damn good one.

Marshall would always have one ear out the door, and now that he saw a streak in the hallway...

Looking around one way and then the other, he spotted a figure hurrying away, nowhere to hide and nowhere to branch off to, all rooms were locked.

"You," he said, hammer of his gun locking down and permeating the silence of the room, "turn around slowly."

Sizing him up as he did so, the figure was wearing a long brown trench coat that concealed anything from the front, in the dim lighting coming only from the insides of unoccupied rooms, Marshall could barely make out the shades...

And they were the thermal sort.

In fact, he realized he couldn't see much of the figure's heat signature at all...

Turning off his own thermal vision, Marshall stared as Caine stared back, only the first one betraying any signs of surprise.

"Why are you here...?"

Caine gave no response at first.

"Harper."

The thick American accent was haunting, and Marshall had forgotten the sound of Caine's voice.

The gray wolf's mouth hung open.

"He's... He's in here, if you want to see him. I was just watching over"-

"Yes, that would be fine."

Caine edged past Marshall in the thin hallway, and Marshall realized he'd never replaced his gun in the holster.

No worries of discharge, he'd made the trigger hell just because he liked his hammer at the ready at all times.

Following Caine, shades failing to hide his sheer emotion, he could feel the tension coming off Harper as they stepped into the room.

At first the shiba said nothing, surprised Marshall had a friend at first but then when he saw the dingo in full view...

"James. Opera sent me personally to guard you."

Harper said nothing, hands shaking.

"Caine... I, er..."

It was clear he had no idea what to feel.

Harper had seen the dingo plenty of times but the presence of the lizard always near him dampened what he felt.

Now that Opera wasn't here....

The three former teammates stood in silence, looking between each other.

"I suppose Leftenant Marshall may accompany you as well. I am here for your safety, James Harper."

"...Call me James."

Caine gave no response. He didn't answer to things he didn't like.

"Mrs. DeSanta did not share your judgement in including Global Squadron 201. That is why she sent me here."

"I can assure you, Caine, my squadron is more than we'll need here."

The dingo gave a look over to Marshall, acknowledging him for what seemed like the first time in ages.

"Your presence of an untrained and unfit Janus afflict is noted. Also the Trojan. The others are regulars, and green at that."

"Jake's been in war for years in East Asia, since he was 18. Rochelle's been shooting guns since she could hold one- I've seen Riddick fight before, without guns, and it's"-

"I. Don't. Care."

Caine faced Marshall completely now, not just a turn of the head, and once more the wolf was reminded the last time the two saw each other....

It was at Alexandria's funeral.

And they'd gotten into a fistfight afterwards.

But that was another story...

Marshall shifted uncomfortably. The dingo didn't look fazed.

Marshall reckoned that was what GRA wanted him to be.

The whole point of messing with his head and then giving him a new name...

Either be somebody like James did...

Or be somewhere in between like Caine was.

///

My hands were shaking, and my teeth were chattering.

Whatever scenarios I'd run over in my head... I had no clue how big the airport was, and they were all now rendered null.

I looked down at myself. This was the first time in a month or so I'd worn normal clothes.

I'd worn jeans besides my loose ripped Gibraltar ones once and they were uncomfortable to me, as well as the light jacket they'd given me, and the shoes.

Marshall supplied our clothes, and paired us up based on them.

Either way, I was trying to look like a normal person here.

And hopefully no one would notice the pistol in my jacket pocket.

My squad already split up and I was with Rochelle, who'd gone so far as to plug in earbuds, her music so loud it was audible to me.

Or maybe that was just Rochelle.

One of the security guards gave me a look so I flashed the chrome blue badge from my pocket, just low enough so he would see it.

He gave me a nod and we continued untouched.

Rochelle grinned and waved at him.

"Last I was in an airport it was to get drugs in from Turkey."

I gave her a strange look, and she shrugged.

Rochelle was someone I never really questioned, just because she was...

She was Rochelle.

Nowadays people like that are the most dangerous, but I'll take my naïve points and run with them.

We sat on a bench, and I got a glimpse of black armored men carrying guns and escorting the VIP.

Way across the airport. I knew most of us were disguised as civs, that was how the GRA did things.

Squinting at the group that was given a wide berth, I made out several of the Brazilians as well as Reyna.

6 in total escorting Harper.

The rest of us were stationed around the airport, maybe standing near entrances or in the center so we could be easily summoned.

"Pretty compelling, right?"

I looked over to the white furred mutt beside me.

"What is?"

"Harper."

"...What?"

She looked between me and Harper's group for a moment.

"You can't tell?"

"Can't tell what?"

"It's a fake!"

Knowing my last three responses all consisted of "what" in some manner, I decided to take a look at the group.

"I mean... They all look real to me."

"No, Harper's a fake... Oh, you wouldn't know... Look at his facial expression."

I did, straining to see as they took a right and started walking across the atrium.

At first, nothing seemed off.

They stopped for a moment as one of the Brazilians questioned someone.

Harper gave no response that there was anyone there, simply kept staring ahead.

He'd been doing this since I saw him, I realized.

And though it was hard to tell from a distance... He wasn't blinking either.

"...How did you know?"

Rochelle gave a dry laugh.

"The GRA puts more funding into cloning than actual robotics. That's an android that's not programmed to do anything but follow people around, and probably simulate certain emotions. Reprogrammed steward bot, most likely."

I was a little surprised at her knowledge.

I was a little surprised at cloning.

But I think my surprise was starting to wear off at this point.

"You seem to know a lot about that."

"I dealt in robots and the like before I joined GRA."

"You're only 18, though, aren't you?"

She gave a "pfft" and turned to me.

Coming into the GSS at 18 meant you maybe had less than a year of training, so you had to be damn good to get recommended for GSS...

We, all of us in 201, were special cases.

She was wearing a leather jacket that was cut at the sleeves just below the elbows, and I saw that bit of ink I'd first caught when I met her...

It was a snake tattoo that went from her wrist and back up her sleeve on her right inner arm.

"I didn't work for Trojan, just in a... scrap garage."

"Where are you from anyways? New Kingdom?"

"Wales."

I couldn't pick out the finer accents back then, but all I knew was that she was from somewhere in that area.

Wales, however...

It was a glorified Gibraltar.

She laughed at my expression, as many had.

"You aren't the only hard mofo in 201, are you now?"

She laughed again, and moved her arm over, showing it to me.

She'd never concealed it before, not gone out of her way to, at least, but never showed the snake tattoo off.

"This's my gang, right here. Swansea Snakes. I was the best shot they had."

"I thought you couldn't have a criminal record to get into GRA, let alone GSS."

She gave another "pfft."

"They don't care what you did, they just care what you do. They want the good shooters. Not people."

She raised her eyebrows at me.

"How'd you come to be recruited anyways?"

I opened my mouth, but realized besides someone picked me up on the servers, I didn't know.

That and my Janus seemed a pretty touchy subject.

I didn't have clearance to discuss it with anyone but I wouldn't have any idea until after the airport, when I finally worked up the nerve to ask Marshall about it.

Around that time...?

Damn, have I told this story right?

How many discrepancies are going to come up?

How much is going to come out I'm going to regret later?

"Well... I"-

"Attention all staff members, we are now under Code Bravo, repeat, now under Code Bravo. Thank you."

Rochelle closed her mouth and then opened it again, grinning madly.

I stared at her for a moment.

She looked at me and laughed.

"Sorry, habit. I grin whenever I have premonitions."

"Premonitions of what sort...?"

"Do I really need to tell you?"

I shook my head and looking back to the center of the atrium, I'd lost sight on Harper and his crew.

A certain Retriever in a somewhat uncharacteristic brown trench coat and baseball cap picked up his pace, walking across the atrium as he'd been doing for the last ten minutes.

I hadn't noticed Alvin earlier and it came to me that Jinn wasn't going to pull a brazen attack here...

There could be a sniper on the roof...

Someone could burst out of the crowd and fire into the fake Harper...

And the fact that fake Harper was such made it no easier for me.

If I was close and they pulled a gun, it wasn't like they were just going to admit defeat...

"Do you know what Code Bravo means, anyway?"

"Nope. But I don't like it."

"...Same here." I responded, folding my arms against my stomach and trying to ignore the trembling of my hands.

"There's still half an hour until Harper's flight gets ready."

"Oh? I thought it was five minutes or so..."

I hadn't been looking at the clock and instead of getting nervous I entered a strange calm.

Now that I knew where the large digital hung from on the wall, I stared at it, prodding it with my eyes, asking it to move faster...

A yawn from the mutt, and a sudden weight in my lap.

Her head was there, she had her feet propped up on what once was her armrest.

Looking down, one of her hands passed dangerously close to my face as she stretched, only one eye opened.

It was brown.

For a moment I was questioning until she opened the other one.

It was gray-blue. Which was what I thought her eye color was...

I'd never registered she had heterochromia before. It took me direct eye contact from inches away.

"I hope this isn't awkward."

"...You do this often?"

She smiled. "You're so soft, Tai. I wouldn't mind sleeping on you at all."

Blood rushed to my face and she laughed madly.

"I'm just fucking with you! God, your face is"-

A scream and a gunshot.

She jerked up and stood up before I could even sit up.

Drawing a revolver out of her jacket's interior pocket, she looked around.

More gunshots.

I gulped. I won't talk about nervousness anymore, you get it...

Rochelle turned to me, revolver pointed up in the air.

I realized we might have been scaring the civilians, guns in the open...

"Don't worry! We're with the GRA! We're here to"-

Something flew by my head fast enough to ruffle the fur on my ears and I heard a loud bang as it hit the wall behind me.

Rochelle pushed me down behind a crate, and looked out for a moment, recoiling as a bullet embedded itself in the crate just in front of her.

"What the hell was that, Tai?"

"I need to differentiate us from them"-

"And get us killed? A fucking flare might as well have just went up on us!"

She grit her teeth and peeked out a moment again, once more shooting back quickly.

Spinning the cylinder to check it was loaded everywhere, I noticed her stomach was rising and falling quicker than before.

Maybe it was dumb, but once again I saw my teammates as a bastion, and myself as nothing.

Again.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you..."

With a growl I barely heard over the screaming, she ran across the atrium, taking potshots at the people I couldn't see...

Peeking out of my side, I saw people in street clothes, heavy jackets, gloves, leveling glocks and the occasional rifle...

They all had black masks on.

One of them dropped with a spray of crimson and the vertigo from seeing bodies in the simulations came back.

This time, I couldn't tell myself it wasn't real...

Rochelle was now behind a concrete planter with a tree in it, much narrower than my own metal crate...

I realized I had to do something for the benefit of my teammate.

For the life of my teammate.

Part of me told myself to close my eyes but I needed my vision for this...

Leaning out of cover, I fired three shots from my P99 into the nearest Jinn operative, and without a second glance darted back behind cover, almost going out the other side and back into fire in my haste.

Looking towards the mutt, she gave me a nod, looking over her cover and firing a few shots.

I put a hand on my heart and sank to the ground...

I'd just taken a life.

Consciously. Meaning to. In fact, I'd fired three shots instead of one...

No.

I had to approach things pragmatically here, no time to stop and think...

I became someone different.

I became someone who grew up in Gibraltar.

I could be that person, only for a bit.

I could still hear the cries of civilians and distant gunfire.

We weren't getting help for a reason here, but I didn't exactly start counting the tangos.

We were pinned until someone bailed us out... And unless the crate I stood behind had ammo in it...

Jinn descended on the two members of the most inexperienced branch of the skeleton crew.

///

Stalking the back halls, I had to find him.

The cameras would win me something, hopefully. I hadn't given any orders out to look for a white cat, that would arouse too much suspicion.

In fact, I'd already been shot at by a few of my own.

They didn't know who I was. They certainly didn't expect anyone in a kabuki mask.

And their training was mask or no mask, if it wasn't the standard Jinn faceplate, fire at it.

Not counting civs, of course.

But that was fine, I had more Jinn blood on my hands than GRA at this point...

I didn't feel like a blue falcon but to think, I might have trained with the people I was killing back in my early days...

In my childhood...

No. Whatever I was before the mask was dead and rotted.

I heard footsteps and picked up my pace.

Muffled voices, and I dove inside the nearest room in the dimly lit, blue tinted hallway.

Offices lines the halls, and I couldn't have picked a more compact one...

Ducking down behind the desk, my uzi in one hand, I held my breath, prepared to be still and make no noise for up to 4 minutes, my personal endurance dropping off there.

Heavy footsteps.

I pictured a man in padded jugg armor and winced.

I could handle the Brazilians, but 201 was to be... _preserved._I didn't want the cat having a negative opinion on me, or Jinn.

To think...

This entire mission would go to hell if he didn't like me...

No kidnapping the Janus, you'd catch fire spontaneously.

The footsteps ceased.

Whoever it was must've-

"I know you're behind the desk. Come out and I might not shoot you."

I knew that voice... I couldn't pin it, though...

Putting the uzi back in its holster, I raised my arms and turned around, to see the vegetable himself standing there...

"Ajax #2. Sorry, I meant Caine."

"You will find I am perfectly competent as an assassin. And if it pleases you to know when we hired him I could have killed him at any moment."

He adjusted his pistol from my body to my upper head, my cue, and I quickly dove aside as the bullet whizzed past.

No banter, no signature playful intimidation tactics this time. GRA hired Ajax to kill me and that meant...

Well, I had no quarter. They wanted to kill me and probably didn't mind if Caine offed me himself.

Moving around the clustered office space, swerving back towards the desk, I rammed into Caine with all my weight knowing it would get me nowhere.

He was tall and muscular enough to block the entire doorframe.

Doing what I expected him to do, he grabbed me by the back of my coat and slammed me into the opposite wall behind him with my momentum, recovering his pistol from the ground.

Staggering up, at least I was out the door...

Left arm and ribs hurting, I realized I didn't have my uzi and looked back to see it laying on the ground, next to the dingo's foot.

Dropping instinctively, bullets whizzed over my head, five in total. I pounced around the corner from my position, not enough time to get back to my feet until I was in cover.

Most of my training consisted of getting the shit beat out of me but Caine knew just how to do a number on you...

Walking through a back exit, I saw the apron, the hangar in the rear, the terminal made a C around the whole thing, giving them a wide opening.

This was a big-ass airport. Harper couldn't have picked anything less convenient for spotting a specific person...

While being chased by a specific highly-trained assassin whose shoes were worth more than me...

Turning around, he busted out of the door but by then I was already moving underneath an airplane.

Ducking behind the wheels just as he started shooting, I heard the somewhat calming sound of bullets hitting metal, and began to pat down my ribs.

Something was broken... I would just have to deal with that for now.

Taking a deep breath, I went out of cover and around the other side of the plane, then scrambled up the open APU bay's ramp, some of the cargo abandoned at the code Bravo most likely.

Big-ass airport, big-ass plane... I would lose him here, if he didn't starve me out.

Unsheathing my knife, I'd lost one to a security officer trying to smuggle the things in, triggering the Bravo.

It was a sloppy entrance.

Whoever was Jinn here was royally fucked when this was all over. Their order was to simply wait for the time, jump out of the crowd and then mask themselves, and start firing on security and GRA.

Meaning the cameras could record their unmasked faces.

Pyrrhic victory was harsh, but Jinn dealt in harsh.

No one was coming.

Maybe Caine wasn't-

Nope, footsteps again.

I crouched down lower behind a shelf of cargo, in the shadows of the APU bay.

Watching him through the cracks of the shelves and bags, I saw a flicker of blue on his glasses.

No, I wasn't going to make it unless he didn't find it necessary to turn around, having walked past me before activating his thermals.

He stopped just before the doorway into the main section of the plane.

Pause.

A good five seconds passed, and I felt my heart beat without touching it in every single one.

He whipped around and fired at me, a solitary five shots ringing out before one finally hit....

I cried out in pain, cargo falling on me, and I hoped my mask's "possum" function that Gynezis installed a few weeks earlier worked...

Sure enough, I felt cool wind on my forehead as a circle of the ceramic popped out soundlessly, fake blood leaking out through the new hole.

The real gunshot wound was in my chest somewhere, but that was covered by a duffel bag that fell on me when the shelf collapsed.

One way or another, I hope I convinced him it was a headshot, so he wouldn't empty another cap just to make sure.

I closed my eyes, more out of pain than anything.

I'd taken gunshots before... Just never had to sit still afterwards...

Daring to open one eye just slightly, a flashlight blinded it as he swept over me.

He'd disabled his thermals so the light outside wouldn't screw with it, of course...

"You Jinn think you are invincible. No. Most of you do not see the truth before you eat hot lead."

He holstered his gun and cut his flashlight, pulling a radio attached to his lapel from inside his trench coat.

Struggling with the cord for a moment, he pressed the button and a static sound emitted.

"I've killed the leading Jinn operative. Status?"

"We've cleared the hangar building, sir. Terminal crew's gone silent."

"Terminal crew's ¾ of this strike team... And what about Harper?"

"He's safe. Tracker says he's oscar mike with Esquadrao unit 2"-

"The real Harper."

"He's nearer you, isn't he?"

"I wouldn't have asked if... Damn it, I left them to go after the Jinn."

He cut the radio off before a response was audible, and I'd fully planned my next move by then.

Just like earlier, he struggled with the cord.

I'd eased the rubble off by the time he realized he needed two hands to get it untangled.

Finally setting it back into place, he couldn't have had time to defend against the oncoming blade.

Ripping into his shoulder, I twisted it brutally, and he tried to turn and fight but I climbed on his back, cutting off his air with my other arm and anchoring myself in him with the blade.

His screams were muffled and I felt blood on my gloves, dripping down his chin.

Naturally he did the only thing he could do, besides scream, run backwards into the wall, squishing me between a Caine and a hard place.

Wincing on recovery, he prepared to do it again but at the last second I jumped off to the side, one hand pushing him into the wall with the blade, and he slammed himself.

Staggering away, I jumped back on but realized I'd broken him; he fell to his knees.

Savagely, I ripped out the blade to only a moan of anguish and planted it square in his throat.

A gurgling sound.

He fell.

Withdrawing my blade, I sheathed it, put my wet hands on my knees, and panted.

Maybe he wasn't just another Ajax... He'd done a number on me.

I looked out into the mid-day sun in the distance, out the cargo bay.

"I don't give monologues for dead men."

Ironic, because he wouldn't hear that.

Well, if he wouldn't hear it...

"Corporate sonuvabitch..."

I had no qualms about him hearing it either way.

I walked out into the daylight, clutching the wound in my chest, the fake blood in my mask having run out.

A loud bang just beside my right shoe. Looking over, a certain gray wolf was standing there with a Marshall revolver...

Sprinting back into the plane, he wasn't main 201 but I still needed him alive.

I looked at Caine, contemplating giving him a few quick stabs just to make sure...

But another crack above my head and I continued into the plane.

///

It was about ten minutes into running that I finally caught myself.

They'd cut the power to this part of the terminal and now I was standing here, illuminated only by the still-glowing signs powered by something else.

"R-Rochelle?"

Looking around my mutt companion wasn't.

Around, that is.

My breathing picked up and I crouched in a dark corner, beside the bar at some sort of kiosk.

Gunshots were audible where I came from. Echoing around the terminal.

I swapped my clip, only a bullet left in the other one and I wasn't about to fire it off.

I had to regroup, that was what we did when we got separated in the simulations.

But there was no spawn point this time...

And if you died on the way there...

"Come on. This way."

The voice was distorted heavily.

I gave a gasp and scampered onto the other side of the kiosk, away from the glow of the signs.

Six.

Six in total.

The static of a radio and I definitely wasn't hearing through the mask and speaker's layers of distortion.

"There's been an issue, captain. Just came in. Apparently the Harper we've been chasing is a fake."

"WHAT?!"

"Someone shot him and he didn't react, radioed in afterwards. His face... Yeah, he's an android."

_ "...Fuck. Just kill as many GSS as you can. I'm not dying on account of a fucking bot." _

I put a hand over my mouth and closed my eyes, fear incarnate swelling in me.

I began to say a silent prayer to God in Arabic, just low enough so no one would hear but me.

I knew nothing about God, just that he was out there.

No one ever taught me about him.

And that he was supposed to be merciful...

I hadn't done anything wrong, just joined GRA...

The footsteps drew closer.

They passed me, and I prayed none of them would see me.

No, they passed with no indication.

"Pop em' between the eyes like we did the monkey, boys."

"Make em' scream like he did going down."

"Did you see the look on the Jaguar's face? I got him in the arm afterwards."

"Whatever. That's a fuckin' career highlight for me, though. Right there in his forehead!"

They went on about...

Killing.

The Jaguar.

Lio?

No, I hoped he wasn't dead...

They said he'd gotten hit in the arm.

My hands shook and my teeth clenched.

I felt like I did in Harper's room, the two men dressed for hell and then some watching me.

Blowing up the cube of glass.

I knew Lio for a day, but to a kid from Gibraltar that was enough to be my best friend.

A whistle began blowing in my ears, audible only to me.

It got higher pitched as I drew my gun and crept out, watching their backs as they walked away.

Primal instinct welled up and I released a feral cry of anger, hate, rage...

It almost drowned out the gunfire.

I hit the one who'd radioed in, behind everyone else, in the back, and he fell with a scream.

By then everyone turned around and I was firing into the mass, still shouting.

"make em' scream" took a bullet to the leg.

The one that shot Lio's throat erupted and the blood was black in the lighting.

Two bullets for the one who shot the monkey.

And another one for the one who hadn't said anything.

One was left, and I was out of bullets.

He leveled his gun on me and I'd made a mistake, it was over here and now.

A click.

"FUCK!"

He grabbed one of his friends' guns but I was sprinting down the way they came, the shriek still echoing slightly.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, KID!"

Gunfire around me, but I rounded the nearest corner.

No hope of losing him, he was some sort of feline like me, agile and fast...

A door was ahead and I burst out onto the airfield.

Sprinting into the open, I ran under a plane and the terrifying sound of bullets on metal made me cringe.

He shot 7 more and I hoped that was his clip, running again.

He was yelling but I couldn't hear him anymore, he'd stopped to shoot this time and was dead on almost.

I could see one figure in the distance going up the ramp to a cargo bay and I hoped it was one of mine.

Another gunshot, a different sound, a heavier weapon.

A few yards to my left, someone was looking at me and at first I thought I'd been shot by the rifle he carried until I saw his blue badge.

Looking back, my tiger assailant was dropping, blood flowing from the wound in his chest.

The man standing next to me was a coyote of some sort, heavily built, and we were the same height.

"You alright, kid?"

I opened my mouth and nearly fell over from exhaustion, the Gibraltar fading away and Tai catching up, all the running...

I shook my head no.

"Shot anywhere?"

No again.

"Alright... I think they're cleaning things up now. Jinn's starting to leave. You're with 201, I assume."

I nodded.

He supported me up and we went into the other side of the terminal.

Seeing my face, he gave a forced smile.

"This part wasn't attacked by Jinn, we got the android Harper here."

He put a hand on his forehead.

"You weren't supposed to know about that, were you... Anyways, there's no reason to worry now. Real Harper's been escorted out of here."

We moved inside.

"I-is anyone else in here?"

I finally managed to speak.

"I got the android in a room with me. Other than that, just a few, I think. But we're scattered. I can't get comms up, my radio took a bullet for me."

He gave a chuckle and his easiness calmed my nerves.

"We'll be fine, kid."

We walked into a room that was well lit, the dark hallways behind us now.

Looking over, Harper was in the corner giving an exaggerating nervousness, nails in his mouth.

Very different from the real one.

Minutes passed.

It was quiet. Saying too quiet would have sounded cliché but...

I really didn't like this.

I contemplated...

First live mission, and it had already been beyond what had been expected, and now this.

Waiting for either Jinn or GRA to bust in.

I had a premonition that something bad was going to happen very soon and I was generally right about my premonitions.

"You good, cadet?" The coyote beside asked, lowering his rifle.

"We're just going to secure this room and stay put until further orders. That's what the big man said"-

I'd turned away after he asked if I was good but his sentence was interrupted by the sound of something sticking in something and a body hitting the floor.

Over in the corner, "Harper" began to hyperventilate.

I aimed my gun at... Nothing.

There was just his body on the floor, a stab wound clearly in his back.

"Oh god..."

I was dead.

It was over.

Slowly turning towards Harper, my eyes locked on his.

No, he wasn't looking at me.

He was looking behind me.

Something violently swept one leg out from under me, bringing me down to one knee, and I cried out in pain and terror...

Almost falling down, I touched the cold metal and stared into the eyes of pure fear, not an inch between us.

One hand pushing up on my chin, another holding a blade just under it.

I stared into the operative's eyes for a good five seconds, Harper's breathing the only sound in the room.

My assailant showed no skin at a closer look. She wore street clothes, up until the red hooded trench coat and gloves came on, along with a kabuki mask.

Bloodsoaked.

W-....

The mask?

Looking over at Harper, I knew this robot had no recollection of his test and therefore sharing with him my dream.

I finally realized I was Janus.

I remembered looking through the filters of a dream, but that did it no justice.

She started laughing.

Moving into me only slightly, I was put off balance and she kicked my other leg out from under me, sending me to the ground.

I ripped my knife from my vest's pocket, backing up to the wall.

"Get the fuck back!"

Giggling.

"You really are in over your head, aren't you?"

She walked over to Harper, putting her knife under his chin, lifting his head to look at her.

If anyone could have been more terrified than me...

"Bet you didn't expect a full scale assault... Nonetheless any lies they told you about civilian casualties aren't... Well, they're lies."

She turned back to me.

"We just want Harper. Must suck to be put in this situation on your first mission, huh, Tai?"

She knew... My name?

Twirling her knife with finesse, she approached me.

"Well, gotta be the cleaning crew on this one."

Coming at me, I barely rolled and got to my feet before her swipe scraped up the brick wall.

Remembering what Reyna taught me, I edged away from the corner and moved quickly to the middle of the room, now she was pressed to the wall.

"So, we got a smart guy, huh?"

With that she charged at me, and I was barely able to parry, metal clashing, praying that my fingers would survive this rapid attack, no training in knives whatsoever...

I moved back quicker for my own safety, and in a forward lunge, the operative lost her balance.

Instinctually, I grabbed her by the neck and with more sheer determination than strength, slammed her into the ground.

She was extremely light; it took far less effort than I'd expected but as I pinned her my strike was blocked before it had gotten there.

She showed no signs of being hurt...

"You pin many girls down, Tai?"

What the hell?!

Laughing at my dumbfounded expression, she socked me in the face, pushing me off with her feet.

Getting up, she dusted herself off. "Damn, really didn't expect that. Guess Reyna taught you good. Seems like she's a hardass."

"How the fuck do you know our names?!"

Another giggle. Her mask fit with her character.

"Jinn has its resources. You guys really are clueless, sending a skeleton crew and GRA junior up here."

I noticed she'd maneuvered well, and she was now next to the fake VIP...

Grabbing Harper, I made a move to stop her, but she drew away.

"Ah, damn. You got me."

She laughed, and at first I had no clue what she meant, but then I realized she must have caught on this was Harper's replica.

"You know, I had to pull a lot of strings to arrange this meeting, you and me."

I edged away again. If she was going to kill the stand in, so be it.

My cowardice was showing and I was no Reyna.

"What are you talking about? Why haven't you killed me?" I would have said them aloud even if I didn't want to, pounding in my head.

She threw her knife into the wall beside Harper, and I caught a small laugh at my flinch.

The more jumpy I got, the more frequent they were.

"We might not have much time, so I'll get to the point. I'm not here for Harper at all."

She rolled her shoulders and moved her neck slightly, and a noticeably loud crack room distance away sent a shiver down my spine.

"You got my note a week or so ago, didn't you?"

"...See you at the airport? That was you?"

"Yup. You won't believe the amount of security they have on just the windows, Tai, it's absolutely..."

She shook her head again. "Getting off topic. Point is, let's call me and you... friends."

"Friends?"

She stared at the replica for a moment. "I'm not with Jinn. Well, I am, but call me a mole."

"So you work for GRA?"

"No. Hate them worse."

A mole in Jinn, but not for GRA?

"Who do you work for?"

She gave another laugh, as if she didn't know for just a moment.

"A... subfaction, if you will. A few people in Jinn that would rather help people than control the world."

I never thought of the GRA as rulers, they were the Global Reformation Agency, after all...

Nor Jinn, they were just the isolationist terrorists...

But when was the last time the GRA helped out in Gibraltar?

Was there a last time?

"You don't know it yet, Tai, and I can't tell you right now, but you're in deeper shit than probably anyone. With GRA and Jinn alike."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out for yourself. Not ready yet."

Silence settled over us. Sitting there in the corner, Harper was cowering, and I hoped there was no mic or anything on the replica.

"N-no, fuck that. I'm not taking some cryptic answer, I've been taking those since I joined"-

A hammering on the locked door interrupted me.

She nodded. "Expect me."

Sprinting towards the window, she dove out of it, shattering the glass but not hesitating for a moment, and the door burst open, GSS agents aiming their guns around.

"Secure the VIP!" They surrounded him and escorted him out of the room.

Marshall edged his way towards me through the crowd. "You good, Tai?"

Good?

Good?

"She went out the window!" I shouted involuntarily, maybe that's why I didn't stutter miserably.

One of them ran over, looked out, and shook his head. "No one could get out that way, kid..."

Marshall lowered his shades, then took them off.

I stared up at him, speechless.

Even in this room, with more GRA soldiers than I'd even seen in one place...

I felt horrified.

"Are you alright, Tai?"

I shook my head no. "T-the operative was here. We fought and she..."

"She let you live?"

He sounded incredibly surprised, then not so.

"Did she have a mask?"

Of course.

He would know.

"Y-yeah..."

Looking at me quizzically, Marshall nodded. He hesitated for a long moment. "Mission well done."

Was it really?

///

EAT IT WOLFIE I WON THE BET

I wrote the part from where "it's quiet, too quiet" way in advance (before I published ch. 1, actually) so if Tai seems a little out of character that was my original intention for him.

Yeah, Ross died ;( the monkey

I had nowhere to go with his character, he was just someone I made up on the spot to be friends with Lio

I never planned a death for him (at least not here) but I suppose you can't plan death haha

Nothing else to say I just want to post this