Excerpt: Agents of Metal Pt. 2

They moved to the next room, with a similar layout. It was darker than the previous: only two fluorescent tubes were on, near the door they had entered through.

The rear of the room was almost unlit.

Ian put the glasses in night vision mode, but the lights near him became much too harsh that way. Thermal, then.

He nearly let out a sound in surprise. In the back of the room, amidst the blue of the tables and partition walls, was a red-yellow shape. A human.

The shape appeared to be crouching behind some cover.

Should Ian just open fire? The bullets would probably travel through the partition walls. There was no choice than for the human shape to be a black op, crouching in ambush.

“Stay where you are, Agents,” came a sudden female voice, calm but cold. The shape was rising up.

Ian flicked back to normal vision: in the little light that reached the rear, he saw a woman in a dark blue uniform. She had short-cropped black hair, and a narrow, lined face.

The same as on the recording. The same who had killed Ranger.

In her right hand, she had a bullpup assault rifle. In the left, there was a small black box with a green light on it. Her thumb hovered above the box.

A detonator?

For the tunnel?

Ian took a quick glance around and noted that Blackhand, Sarge and Ripper all had their weapons trained on the woman, but no-one made a move yet.

“When I press this button, all the security will revert to original configuration, and the console passwords will be randomized.”

“Who are you?” Sarge shouted roughly.

“I might as well tell. Lilith. Commander of the Black Ops. Though you should remember –“

Ian's blood went cold.

Sarge should remember what? Her? Ian recalled how Sarge had been here before. Was it related to that?

“Or actually you shouldn't. But it will all come back to you now. All I need to say is: Wotan mit uns.”

A terrible scream erupted from Sarge's throat.

The woman was already fleeing, running through a doorway in the rear, but close to Ian, the Penetrator Hammer joined Sarge's anguished yell.

Ian spun around –

And saw Sarge shooting at Blackhand and Ripper on full auto, the Hammer bucking in his hand, going out of control.

Brainwashing!

Blackhand fell as he took at least two hits to his side. Ripper was perhaps still unhurt –

Ian ducked as the barrel turned his way, the lethal steel bolts flying so close that he could hear and feel the air moved by them.

The scream still went on, only gaining intensity.

Then came a single different gunshot, and the Penetrator Hammer stopped.

Ian turned to look: half of Sarge's face was obliterated by the exit wound, and he fell to his knees first, then to the floor.

Blackhand was half-lying on the ground, the M4 carbine extended in his right hand. His face was twisted into a heavy pained frown, his eyes closed for now.

A single ejected cartridge rolled on the floor.

Ripper's face was unreadable: his rifle was still trained on Sarge's unmoving body.

Blackhand spoke slowly and bitterly. “Flash programming. A short, very intense trauma, during which a triggerable command is drilled into the mind. I thought it was fiction, an impossibility, and I thought it was a bullet wound when Sarge returned –“

He shook his head. “Shit. I should never have taken him on this mission.”

The full realization took some time to take hold.

Sarge was dead, by their own guns.