Enid was dressed in her Atlantean armor again, a thin wire was attached to a micro-printer. It could make photo-quality paper from a repository of material, like a 3D printer. It could be used as one for small parts as well, but she was using it to make photos. She heard a knock at the door. She yanked the adaptor wire from her watch’s connect and opened the door a crack. It was Eyre.
“Wait here.”
Enid moved to the windows and pulled plastic chip clips from her pack and clipped the thick drapes together creating a dark room. She motioned for Eyre to enter, she did and stopped immediately when she saw the strange set up. Enid reattached the wire to her wrist. She could do it wirelessly but it was easier to just plug it in, in most cases. Especially without a wireless network. She pulled the photo out of the printer and placed it down and the printer started the next one.
“What is that?”
“Atlantean matter creator.”
Eyre nodded, she put a manilla envelope.
“The ID you asked for, Sarah.”
Enid nodded. Eyre picked up one of the photos and looked at it with her green eyes.
“This is amazing. Probably could have saved us a hassle if I’d known you could do this. Why not just print passports and ID’s.”
“Mmm better with a skilled forger doing it.”
“I don’t understand but I’ll take your word for it, you know this… stuff.”
Enid set the next three prints on the three she’d already printed. She disconnected the adaptor, collapsed the printer and stuck it in her pack. She reached across and pulled open the envelope. Her ID was on top. She quirked her eyebrow at her daughter.
“Mia Black?”
“I figured we’d go with something interesting.”
Enid shrugged, she paged through the rest of the ID’s and put them back in the folder then slid it into her pack.
“Thank you, Eyre.”
“Thank you for what you did for me in Italy.”
“Sure. No problem.”
Enid offered her hand. Eyre hugged her instead. Enid hugged her tightly. Eyre looked at her with a quirked head.
“There is something so familiar about you beyond the face and hair. Like I’ve known you my entire life. My gift must just be confused.”
“Must be.”
“I’ll let you get to your planning. Stop by when you get to London?”
“I need to see Sextus, if he lets me I will stop by.”
Eyre started to leave then turned and looked at her mother.
“I’m curious, who came first you or Sextus?”
“That’s still up for debate.”
Eyre smiled. She waved at Enid then walked out of the room. Enid looked at the pictures of Olga she’d printed. They were snaps of her Hazel had taken with her contact lenses. It was a good picture. She wished she could have printed them in color, she totally could have, but it would have been absurd to have them. Color printing wasn’t exactly fast or cheap in the sixties.
*****
Enid hadn’t been explicit about her plans with her team. She could get unfettered access to the building by making sure it would need to be cleared out. She closed her eyes and activated the armor’s helmet. She slipped into the front door when it was opened. Hazel was on comms and doing overwatch with Godfried. Elle was gathering street intel. She weaved and dodged through people on her way to the HVAC room in the basement. There were no cameras she could see and she knew she’d see them in this day and age. She slipped down the stairs to the basement and pulled the pin on the stink grenade. It was what the Systems Alliance called a non-fatal deterrent. Though people who got caught in a tight space usually ended up in a medivac because they couldn’t stop vomiting. She set the timer and slipped back upstairs. The time for detonation passed and the sound of people making noises of disgust started to echo around front foyer. Then the vomiting. She heard an alarm sounding the rush of footsteps.
She was glad she had her helmet on, she could see the last of the group leaving, it as a pair of soldiers helping a man in a suit out. She headed towards the part of the building the blueprints had conveniently left off, she used a pry bar and the strength of Atlantean armor to pop the door open. She was surprised to see two soldiers in gas masks. They were as surprised as she was, only it was because a reinforced door just wrenched open of its own accord. She was still hidden by her suits active camouflage, and she took them both down easily. She ripped their masks off. They started to gag instantly and then the vomiting started. They started to rush towards the closest exit. And by rushing it would take them several minutes because they could barely move without throwing up. She started to search through the offices trying to find any listing for safe houses or current targets. There were white boards with pictures of possible threats. She was glad it was the sixties, and everything was still paper. Though she ran into a room with a console and screen. That would teach her wouldn’t? She dug through her pack for a 29th century multidoctor. They were made of conductive liquid metal and would automatically sense the connector and adapt themselves so they could interface with any era of technology. Helpful when stuff was dug out of the ice and still salvageable. Or interfacing with Alien technology. Maria had designed it based on Enid’s suggestions after dealing with the Saroids. She connected the display interface and keyboard to the adaptor then the other side to her holo-phone. Its quad-quantum processor would brute force any security system this ancient mainframe might have with ease. She tapped in the alias for Olga, along with her physical description. She watched her holo-phone easily tore all the data from the computer and built a syntax database. Unfortunately, the data transfer was limited by the media it was pulling it off of, which were the massive magnetic tape reels. She glanced at the corner of the holo-display. The stink would start to dissipate after about sixty minutes though pockets would hang around for days. The building wasn’t airtight, but some parts would be. The holo-phone found a reference to Olga. It also referenced the safe house number which it cross referenced the list of safe houses to determine she was being held at a black site near the river. In a rather nasty area of Paris. One frequented by vampires to her recall. She didn’t wait for the complete database transfer. She just had the holo-phone send a primitive delete command to mainframe and yanked the adaptor.
“Got it.”
“Great, umm mom, they got Marines in tactical gear heading in with gas masks on.”
“We knew that would happen. Sorry it took so long. Their computer was slow ass.”
“They had a computer?”
“Yes. Good for us. I’m heading to recover the device.”
Enid drew her gun and headed out of the CIA’s western European hub and into the Embassy proper. She shot the first three marines she saw with one of her colt pistols. The rest started taking cover and firing wildly to the front of front desk of the Embassy. Enid dropped to her hands and knees and crawled to the basement. She could hear their M-16’s still firing. They didn’t seem to realize no one was shooting at them currently. She pulled a stasis cube from her pack and put the spent device into it. She made her way up the stairs and two marines were guarding the door she shot them both in the head and walked out the door. She could hear the rush of boot steps of the rest of the squad but she was long gone before they arrived.
“I’m out. Lets Regroup just have to…rinse my suit.”
She ran causing her camo to shimmer but she had what she needed. She was relatively close to the Seine. She slipped into one of the storm sewers and launched herself into the Seine. It was a filthy river but it was going to be better then the stink from the bomb. She was quite happy they’d made it water soluble. She’d need to shower in it to remove the gross from the river but she’d probably make it into the hotel without being kicked out. She swapped holo-web’s when she climbed over the wall and looked like just another Parisian as she walked back to the hotel. It was only a fifteen-minute walk. No one was in the suite when she arrived. She just went straight to the shower and soaped the armor and the outside of her pack down. Then rinsed herself off. She peeled off the armor and hung it to dry along with her pack. By the time she finished the suite had a table full of room service. Godfried and Elle were drinking wine and laughing. Hazel was too busy eating to be saying much. Godfried saw Enid and cheered.
“So, exhilarating. In and out. No muss no fuss.”
“There was a bit of muss and fuss, had to shoot some Marines.”
Godfried shrugged.
“IF they were in Vietnam it would be the same hmm?”
Elle poured Enid a glass of wine. Enid picked it up and sipped it. She pointed to the pistol Enid put down on the table as she sat.
“Oh, you used American weapons. Tricky.”
“I honestly didn’t want them to blame the USSR. I mean they probably will anyway.”
Elle nodded. Enid picked up her glass and took a sip. Then started dishing herself out some food. Godfried held up his glass.
“Told old friends and new memories.”
Enid raised her glass and took a drink as did Elle. Hazel struggled to keep up because she’d been shoving another mouthful of food in. Godfried laughed.
“You have your mothers table manners.”
Enid glared at him but then took a fork full of the candied vegetables. She was starving. The adrenaline of the infiltration was leaving her mortal system and now she was just tired and hungry. Eventually everyone had eaten their fill and between the group had finished two bottles of wine. Godfried leaned forward.
“So where is she?”
“Nasty part of Paris. Near the Stalingrad station.”
Elle and Godfried both nodded in agreement. Enid held up her hand.
“Give me a few minutes.”
She walked to the bathroom and pulled out three of the military insect drones she’d requisitioned in the 29th century. They were technically made to mimic natural pollination in the bio-domes and farms but these had been modified to be holo-scanners and were equipped with different optics. She put them on the windowsill and tapped in the coordinates of the safe house and sent them on their way. She went back to the table and popped the cork on another bottle of wine.
“Tomorrow I’d like if you guys could do some leg work near the target. Need to know what the crowds are like during the day. Escape routes. Godfried, I don’t want your van flagged so we need two cars. I’ll go in disguise buy something with good speed and handling fit four people, and a second vehicle for you Godfried. I’ll gets plates too, something we can ditch. Don’t want them to have an easy time tracing it back to the original owner. Hazel you’re going to buy a car with your British ID, keep it all official Lucy Black. Elle you should probably get yourself one too. We’ll put the van, and the two new clean cars outside Paris. We’ll burn the car and go our separate ways. This kind of job we need to not be seen together afterwards. US is the beehive you don’t want to poke. And we’re about to kick it over.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Get some rest, we have a really long day tomorrow.”
*****
When Enid woke up the next morning, she had a bit of a hangover. She also had three worker bee drones waiting on her windowsill. She swept her hand over them and moved it towards her holo-phone and the data started to pour in. Her holo-phone used the scans the drones had made to create a full 3D image of the complex. She even had a good picture of the holding area. Olga was pretty banged up, there were two other prisoners Enid did not recognize. One was middle eastern and the other looked like another Caucasian. She searched for their descriptions in the database but found nothing. Likely she hadn’t gotten to them, or they had not been entered. She moved on through the feed. She was able to identify six armed guards on the outside of the building, six inside. At least four agents were sleeping there. She also was able to identify the storage room for their interrogation tapes. She’d already started calculating what she’d need to do to bring the building down and take out the intel inside. Enid picked up the three bugs put them back in their case and back into the pack.
She tapped a few spots on the holo-display and the display vanished. The military grade holo-phone would give her best points of entry. Patrol routes and civilian density on the sidewalks of the area for last night. She could assume it would be less because today was Sunday and people would be less like to be out and about. She ordered some room service and waited for her team to complete their objectives. She was glad for the lack of cameras in the 1960’s. If this was 2027, or the 29th century it would be a lot more difficult to get away with it. She left and purchased the two vehicles they would need using a holo-web to disguise her features. She was the first to return, the team started trickling in. Hazel and Godfried were first. Enid smiled at them.
“Everything go well?”
“Cars are stashed in a wooded area near Versailles. Van, two clean cars for us. Used the camo nets you gave us.”
“Excellent. Once Elle gets here I’ll tell you my plan.”
As if summoned by the mention of her name Elle walked in and waved at the group.
“Hello Elle, what’d you get?”
“Church Tower is the best place for Godfried to set up. Will give him a view of two sides of the building. Sightlines are clear of trees. Four guards on the outside during the day at least. Pretty crowded today but it was Sunday and there are two churches nearby.”
“Good intel. I wasn’t sure about the church tower.”
“Okay. Now, I warned you I had pretty advanced tech I ran across. So don’t be shocked.”
She tapped her wrist and pinched her fingers together throwing a hologram of the black site onto the table. Elle was intrigued and poked at it. Godfried gave a dramatic gasp in his own way.
“So from last night, I identified six guards that patrol the outside. Six guards inside. Four to six agents over the five hours it was observed. They are using sleep deprivation on our target and this one.”
She zoomed into the white male she had identified.
“Also they seem to have been beaten, possibly drugged with something. This one seems to be in good health, and was allowed to sleep. He’s middle eastern don’t have an ID on him.”
She zoomed into the last prisoner.
“He’s Palestinian, a terrorist. Not sure why the Americans have him. The Mossad would pay good money for him to be dead.”
Enid shook her head.
“Not here to go after terrorists.”
“I’ll come in and do it.”
Enid glanced at Hazel.
“What do you think? Do you think Olga will trust me?”
“No, for all we know the other prison there was sent to kill her and got caught.”
“Elle, I need to go with Hazel. You don’t know demolitions.”
“I’m not going to let him live. A bomb he made killed thirty-two Israeli citizens and injured twice as many. Half of them children.”
Enid frowned.
“Fine I’ll take him out.”
Elle nodded.
“Good enough for me.”
“Okay Elle, Godfried. I need the guards outside to not get in our way on the way out.”
The pair nodded.
“Okay so plan is this, we get our asset out. I execute your terrorist. The other one…I don’t know. I’ll set demo charges in the interrogation and evidence storage area. We take out the agents present. Elle, I want you in the car waiting. I will ensure their cars will not get far. If they to chase us I want them to not get far. In and out in fifteen minutes. Hazel and I will enter through this window here.”
She pointed at a point on the map.
“We will go in quiet. Come out loud, our asset is going to be dead weight.”
Everyone nodded.
“Finally, if anything goes wrong scatter. Elle you and Godfried make tracks. Hazel put your payments in your vehicles already.”
Elle shook her head and Godfried was nodding, his arms crossed.
“No. Leave no man behind.”
“You have responsibilities now. If the op goes sideways get out of there.”
Enid glanced at the pair of old resistance buddies who were in their forties now. She didn’t think her words had any impact.
“Hazel.”
Hazel looked at her mother.
“While I’m setting the charges on the cars. You’ll be setting two shaped charges on the walls. Their detonators will be linked to the firebombs for evidence and interrogation recording storage. If things start to go wrong you will detonate them early, get yourself and Olga out.”
“Mom, I’m with these two, not leaving you behind.”
“You lot are hopeless. Fine. If I am killed, you will not worry about me. You know what needs to be done.”
“Godfried clear anyone in our path when we exit the front door. Then get your ass to the car and get to the rendezvous point.”
“Elle I need you ready to put those driving skills to use. Likely we’ll be coming out hot.”
Elle nodded.
*****
Enid had her holo-web set to camouflage and slipped over the fence of the compound. It was an old police station. She kept low as she moved towards the van, and three cars. She placed a charge with an accelerometer linked detonators on them. They would detonate as soon as the car started moving. She moved to the breaching point. Hazel was also using a holo-web to camouflage herself. The pair knew they were close to each other due to vibration from their wrists. Hazel popped the window the pair climbed up. They were in the kitchen. Enid dropped her camo and motioned for Hazel to head around the back of the building. She headed towards the front.
Enid made her way to the front doors there were two guards posted there. They were dressed casually but she could see their firearms. She lept out and caught the first one unaware. She shifted her armor’s wrist plate into a punching dagger and hit him in the throat. He started to choak out the other one pulled his gun out, but it was too late, Enid was close enough she was able to kick his wrist sending the gun tumbling away. She punched in him throat. He began to drown on his own blood. She swept forward. A female agent was sitting at table cigarette in hand. She had a tape recorder in front of her. Enid punched her at the base of her neck. Her punching dagger severed her spinal cord. The woman fell face first on the table. Her eyes were wide, but she was paralyzed from the neck down and her brain would not be able to send signals to her diaphragm to breath.
She left here there and moved into the sleeping quarters. She killed the last four agents swiftly. She found her daughter standing over two dead guards’ bloody knife in hand. She motioned towards the stairs. The plan was that Hazel would deal with the last two guards and head towards Olga. Enid followed her part of the plan and dropped the fire charges in the records room and also in the interrogation tape storage. So far things were going as planned and I was making Enid nervous. Plans never went this well.
By the time she reached the cells Hazel had already dealt with the guards. Enid looked down the hallway and saw her messing with the door to Olga’s cell. Enid formed an energy blade from her armor and hacked the dead bolt and the three hinges on the metal door. The man Elle had called a terrorist looked a bit shocked to see the fiery red-haired teenager appear from around the now open doorway. She drew her colt and shot him in the head without any pomp or ceremony.
Hazel had seen what her mother had done and formed imagined her armor forming an energy axe and hacked the door down and tossed it aside. Enid opened the last occupied cell and kneeled beside the man. She shook him. He blinked up at her through swollen eyelids. He spoke in Russian.
“Are you here to rescue us?”
She couldn’t let him report back home so she shot him in the head and left him there. Hazel was struggling with Olga. She was yelling in English.
“I am American!”
Hazel slapped her on the cheek.
“Olga its Greta. Here to rescue you. Let’s go.”
All eyes turned towards the sound of woosh as Enid’s fire charge was prematurely detonated. The whole basement was about to be engulfed as the pipes carrying natural gas started to blast walls open. Enid had no idea what she was doing but as the explosion engulfed them, she put up a shimmering barrier around the trio. Her eyes flared a bright blue, and her hands were marred by veins of the same hue. The building was engulfed in fire. The barrier around them flickered and vanished leaving them unprotected in a building that was very much on fire. Olga was in a stupor and was of no help. Enid collapsed. Hazel looked around and realized they couldn’t escape the way they came. She had tears in her eyes as the panic rose up from her gut into her throat. She stood there for several seconds flames licked at her mother’s feet. The Atlantean armor keeping her from burning but it would only last for so long. She closed her eyes and while still hyper-ventilating shifted to her half-wolf form and started tearing at the stone wall with her massive talons. She breached the wall and it crumbled inwards. The fresh source of air caused the fire to surge towards the trio. Hazel and Olga were on the ground and were spared the cone of fire but Hazel was not and she let out a squeal and whined as the flames licked at her back. She shifted to human form and willed her helmet up. She was in agony her entire back had third degree burns and was pressed up against her armor. She tugged her mother up first and pushed her out and then Olga. Finally following. The flames were already engulfing the upper floors. She could hear gunfire as the guards on the ground tried to shoot at the sniper who was killing them one at a time.
Hazel had tears dripping down her cheeks. In a feat driven by pure adrenaline she picked her mother and Olga up and started running towards the waiting car. Elle fired three shots at a couple of guards. She injured one and killed the other. He was using the cars for cover. Bullets were bouncing off Hazel’s armor as she covered her mother and Olga and pushed them into the back seat. Elle kept trying to give covering fire, but the cars were blocking any chance of her hitting their assailant. Hazel was hyperventilating from the pain but still had enough awareness to hit the detonator on her mother’s belt. The CIA’s cars exploded one after another. The guard did not fire anymore rounds in their direction. Hazel climbed in the car. She was still crying and making whimpering sounds.
Elle slammed the car into gear and peeled out. Sirens could be heard in the distance. The car surging forward slammed Hazel back into her seat, and she cried out in pain. As Elle came around the corner and found herself passing two Parisian police cars. One almost rolled as they did a u-turn to try and chase after them. Elle shifted up and ripped own the straightaway. Enid had picked an Aston Martin DB5. It was faster than the police cars and handled better. Elle cornered and then shifted back up. They still weren’t making much distance on the police because they were in a city.
“Hazel, I need you to get these police off of us.”
Hazel nodded. Tears still dropping down her cheeks. She was still running on pure adrenaline. She picked up the gun and reloaded it and started taking shots at the police cars. She wasn’t being very successful between the weaving of the car and the pain she was in. She tossed the gun on the floor of the car and reached back into her mother’s pack. She pulled out a crate of non-holy hand grenades. She took one out of the crate and pulled the pin. She held until they cornered again, then dropped it on the road. Elle noticed the newly appeared crate of grenades in the teenager’s lap.
“What the hell? How did she did she have that on her?”
Hazel shook her head. She was starting feel lightheaded.
“Was on the floor.”
The back window blew out as the grenade went off. One of the police cars was engulfed in fire as the engine was hit from underneath it. It careened out of control into a building. The other one started to pull back. Hazel’s head rolled back, and she lost consciousness.
*****
When Hazel woke it was nearly dawn. She could still feel the searing pain on her back. She was leaning against the dashboard of the car. Enid was in the back seat. Hazel could still see the blue veins on her hands. Her mother was still asleep. Olga was leaned over on the hood of the car looking like she had the worst hang over of her life. Hazel rolled out of the opened door. She rolled out of the car and pulled herself up. Olga was too out of it to notice. Godfried and Elle were rushing towards her. Hazel stumbled away from them into the bush. They stopped and Elle said something to Godfried before trying to follow. By the time she reached the path Hazel took she only found a silver furred would with third degree burns on its back. She stumbled backwards and Hazel ran off into the forest. She returned about thirty minutes later in her human form fully healed. Elle rushed over to her.
“Where did you go? I saw a wolf…I thought…”
“I needed to throw up. Sorry.”
The sun was starting to rise now. Godfried was rubbing Olga’s back. The girl was still out of sorts. The CIA had drugged her with something strong. Elle pointed to the car.
“I don’t know what is wrong with your mother…I don’t see any burns or holes in her suit but… she just won’t wake up.
Hazel nodded.
“She… overexerted herself. She’ll be alright in time.”
Hazel shrugged off Elle’s hands.
“We should get going. Like mom said, we need to deal with the cars then head our separate ways.”
“But…”
“We’ll be fine.”
Hazel started by helping Olga to the waiting four door turquoise car. It looked like something out of a fifty’s movie to Hazel. It had small fins and a big grill. It was a boat and kitted to the gills with doodads. She carried her mother to it. Elle and Godfried tried to help her and she waved them away. She picked up the crate of grenades and moved them to the car.
“Look we’ll be fine; I know what I’m doing. Mom would want you two to be safe so you should get going. I’m going to drop a grenade in these cars we need to get rid of, the smoke will bring people. You should go.”
Elle frowned but nodded and hugged Godfried. They went to their cars and drove off. Hazel started the Vega her mother had acquired and pulled up to the edge of the road. She left it running and ran back into the clearing and threw grenades into the cars and ran away. The grenades were incendiary, so the cars were engulfed in flames. She hopped into her waiting car. Her mother had left a map showing the route to the closest car ferry crossing of the channel. She rolled down the window and took in the fresh summer air. She wasn’t sure if her mother would be okay but soon she’d be with her grandfather and if anyone could do something it would be him.