Agent for a Cause (The Agents for Good), page 15
The look of warm passion that one would have expected to grace her face in composition with the rest of her body was absent though. Her face even though beautiful clearly reflected the hardness that was within, which was evidenced by the implacable black eyes that left one with the feeling that she thought less of you and that mercy was not a part of her emotional makeup.
I had never seen her carried away by any other emotion other than anger. She did her work with a coldness that echoed my own life before joining the agency. Her code name was Maria Christina and I had to say she was a good fit for the book character that she was based off of.
A body built for passion, but a heart as cold as ice, punctuated by an active disdain for all things male. I knew virtually nothing else about her other than like me, she was also one of Chantry’s favored protégés.
I wasn’t exactly quite sure why Chantry seemed to favor her so much. It was true that in her work she was the soul of both efficiency and effectiveness, but it was rumored that she had been slated by Chantry to take over for him upon his inability to run the agency as the chairman of the board. I was not looking forward to her taking over even though I appeared to be on good terms with her based on her treatment of me in the past.
I was efficient and coldly calculated in my duties just as she was, which she seemed to respect about me. Her favor towards me could also stem from the fact that I had never approached or even hinted at any romantic involvement with her and for good reason. She may be gorgeous by any man’s standards, but I could only imagine what a major pain she would be like to live with!
A man was liable to wake up with the ability to reproduce gone after it had been cut off in the night. I had been about to object to Chantry’s plan myself before she had preempted me though.
Chantry’s eyes twinkled as he gazed admittedly at his favorite protégé next to Flint. “What is it you object to in the rescue of the boy, Maria?”
“I do not object to the rescue of the boy first, but I do not agree with holding the bulk of our forces in reserve. The Iron Wills society itself has to be taken down! They have broken the treaty many times and this time will not be the last. They were saved the last time, because we lacked the available agents needed to take them out completely. The treaty made sense then, but now it doesn’t. I say we create a diversion steal the boy away and then we take them out. Not just their headquarters in Prague, but globally as well. We make such a mess of it that any survivors that are left don’t think twice about reforming the society.”
Chantry nodded as if mulling the plan over in his head, but I could tell that instinctively he had set up Maria to come forward and speak out as she had. He had manipulated her rather smoothly in his ongoing process of developing her for leadership of the agency.
I glanced at Maria and from the further hardening of her jaw line I could see that she’d realized her duplicity as to how she had just been manipulated by a master of the game. Chantry looked around the table. The nods of support for the second plan were hesitant at first, but grew in strength.
Chantry’s eyes focused in on the woman with the Ethiopian accent, “What do you think Madeleine of Maria’s plan?”
Madeleine turned her head to glance at Maria, “I do not care for so much violence, but she is right. To borrow from the American children’s story, “If you give a mouse a cookie he’ll ask for a glass of milk. If the Iron Wills were willing to betray us to this extent, then it is safe to say that when they felt they could, they would take us out. Better to attack first, but Maria in the future it would be wise for you to learn the value of mercy even though we can have none on our enemy at this moment.”
Maria nodded slightly taking the rebuff from the older woman surprisingly well.
“Then it’s settled we’ll go full scale with Maria’s concept.” Chantry said.
I doubted if there was anyone left in the room that didn’t think her plan had been Chantry’s all along, but what was important though was that she, like Chantry had thought of the best plan, which helped establish in all the agents the belief that Maria could hopefully one day be as adept as Chantry was in the management of the Agency for Good. It certainly wasn’t a job I wanted.
Chantry was speaking again, “Let’s begin to plan our little war then. Maria you mentioned a diversion. What did you have in mind?”
“Me.” I said interrupting.
Everyone looked at me. “I’m the diversion.”
“What do you plan on doing Tyre?” Asked the big American who went by the codename Bendigo Shafter.
“I’m going to walk right into the rave hall and start taking them out. They’ll think I’m on a personal vendetta once it looks like I’m alone and they won’t ship the boy out. While I’m in the rave hall causing a ruckus, Flint and some others will get the boy.”
I could see that Chantry didn’t like it, but he was keeping silent. Flint didn’t hold back though, “That would be suicide Tyre for whoever tried it! The place is crawling with not only their people, but others that would join in on filling you full of lead!”
“Nevertheless I’m going to do it.” I added firmly.
Flint looked like he was about to object again when Chantry broke into the conversation, “I’ll only allow it if you have backup of some kind.”
“My team can provide backup.” Maria piped in resolutely.
Chantry nodded, “Okay then.”
I thanked Marie with my eyes and she inclined her head slightly in response. I owed her one. I hoped I lived long enough to return her the favor someday.
The meeting went on and it became clear that the planning of such a worldwide coup would take a few days in the preparation, which I objected strongly to but was overruled. I just wanted to save Kevin, but the board was now dead set on eliminating the whole enemy group.
Chapter Thirteen
The Iceman
It was a hard four days on both Anna and I. She hardly slept at all and well I rarely slept much anyway. We were in Prague and waiting for night to come on the fourth day. Anna had insisted on coming, but I had made it clear that she would remain a safe distance from the action.
Anna had been helping me dress for the last hour in our room. Chantry had done his part to see that I survived the coming fight. I was wearing several million dollars worth of the most cutting-edge protective gear ever made and no one would have ever known it.
The body armor went on in skins that were repeated over and over, but despite the many paper thin layers of armor I still had a complete range of motion and as the operative who had dropped the armor off had said, ‘It breathed like Egyptian cotton’.
I just hoped I got to keep it after this, because it was already making me feel better about my chances of survival.
I checked myself in the mirror and tugged on the white suit coat a little, “That should do it don’t you think, Anna?”
My eyes shifted to her weary face and she held out the white fedora hat and I took it from her. It was heavy for a hat, but just my style. I put it on at a slight angle the way I liked it.
“How do I look?”
“Like my white knight in shining armor.” She responded and I smiled glancing back at her.
She wasn’t smiling though and my smile fell off my face as I could read what she was feeling. I hugged her to me and her arms squeezed tightly around me.
“I love Kevin and I love you! I want you both!” She said crying into my chest.
I kissed the top of her head as my hands rubbed her back, “And God willingly you shall have us both. Now stop this crying. Soon you’ll have both of us and then we are going to go away for a very long vacation somewhere warm.”
“You promise?”
“I promise! Now I have to go Anna. You’ll be able to see when they get Kevin from the control room from their head cams.”
She nodded, but I had to practically pry her arms off of me. She let go suddenly and grabbed my face and we kissed for a long moment.
Her eyes were stormy as she drew back, “Now you come back to me Nikolai Gravitausky!”
“Yes Mrs. Gravitausky.”
And then I stepped away and out the door to make my way down the hall.
Anna stood in the doorway and watched her husband go.
“Oh God why does this have to be like this?” She whispered, as she felt cold fingers of icy dread squeeze around her heart as she watched her lover disappear down the hall.
Maria stepped out of her room poised on top of the stiletto heels that the long plain ordinary trench coat failed to hide. She clicked her way up to Anna and shared her view of Tyre’s departing back for a moment before she reached out her hand and squeezed Anna’s shoulder.
Anna looked over at her not bothering to wipe the tears off her face.
Maria’s face gentled in a way most people never saw, “Ever seen your man in action honey? I mean real action.”
Anna shook her head, “No, not really, I guess.” Anna said in response.
“Well, let me tell you, it’s something to see! Did he ever tell you how he came to join the agency?” Maria asked.
“If you mean about Chantry shooting him and then nursing him back to life then, yes, he did.”
Maria looked back at the departing Tyre for a moment, “Chantry once told me that hunting down Tyre was the hardest and most dangerous endeavor he had ever encountered in his life. Your man eats entire drug cartels for breakfast and while many men couldn’t take down a rave hall packed with doped out gun rockers, he can! We call him the Iceman. Me and my girls will be there to make sure he doesn’t get shot in the back, while he’s taking out the trash. He’ll come back Anna.” Maria said, as she squeezed Anna’s shoulder once more and then moved off down the hall after Tyre.
“Maria.”
Maria stopped and turned back to Anna her face inquiringly curious.
“Come back yourself Maria!” Anna said.
Maria’s white teeth showed in a smile of acknowledgment at Anna’s caring for her.
Out of sudden curiosity Anna asked, “What do they call you when you’re not around?”
One of Maria’s dark eyebrows rose and her smile deepened, “I believe the term Ice Queen has been applied to me a few times.”
She turned back around and was soon gone. Later Anna would go to the mobile control room that the agency had set up, but for now she would pray.
I stepped into the van that would take us to the rave hall. It was about 11 o’clock and things would be heating up in the rave hall by now. I heard a whistle before I saw its origin. It was Galloway.
He came up shaking his head with his usual goofy grin in place as his eyes took in my suit. He pulled one flap of my coat back to the side and glanced around to my back under the coat.
He whistled through his teeth again, “Whooee! You take the expression ‘dressed to kill’ to new levels little buddy!”
I positively hated it when he referred to me as ‘little buddy’, but I never let him know it because it would only inspire him to use it more often than he already did.
Chantry looked me over approvingly, “Well here’s to hoping that this new experimental and might I add highly expensive fabric, is all it’s cracked up to be! Don’t get it dirty!”
He finished with a chuckle and I barely avoided the childish gesture of rolling my eyes.
“Oh Tyre? Little buddy?”
Galloway was pestering me about something and I reluctantly turned back to him, “Yes?”
Galloway launched right into his spiel the picture of exuberance, “We all heard about how your house exploded in a volcano and oh by the way what a cool location! Way cooler than mine I have to admit! But anyway hearing all about that and given your stellar past of agent excellence I thought a song might be in order.”
Oh no!
Came the silent dread filled thought as I heard his words.
“Now relax Tyre it’s not like the last one, which I admit was a bit cheesy and you’ll be happy about something else to!”
“Will I?” I asked with my tone expressing no optimism whatsoever.
“It’s not a country song this time.”
I waited for it.
“It’s more of a hard rock kind of power ballad song, if you know what I mean.”
I groaned and turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm.
He held up a flash drive triumphantly, “I just got the file back! A buddy of mine in that vein of music did a quickie for me to get some basic lyrics hammered out. It’s still not quite polished given the rush, but I think it’ll do!”
“Do what?” I exclaimed, but Galloway was lost in the process of plugging the drive in and playing whatever horrible monstrosity had been concocted upon it.
He proved that he’d heard me though when he said, “Why so you can have a theme song playing to go along with your Saturday Night Fever impersonation.”
“Theme song! Are you serious Galloway?” I exploded, but the song was already playing with deafening cadence within the tight confines of the van.
I cringed as the notes played out.
Finally it was over and I was about to let Galloway have it when Chantry said, “You know that’s actually not that bad given the field of music that it belongs to.”
Galloway positively beamed with pride at what he took as, rarely given, high praise. Shocked beyond words I turned on Chantry as I fought to frame the excoriating words I felt rising up in me in response to the embarrassing song.
“Now Tyre you have to admit that this is one of Galloway’s finer musical composing’s and having a theme song to change the beat of the place up some might not be such a bad idea.”
“You call that chaotic corny screeching, music? For the love of the arts don’t call it that!” I fairly shouted out.
Chantry shrugged as a smile played across his face, “Music can be different things to different people.”
He half turned to a widely grinning Temple Boone, who sat at the van’s controls.
“Patch the song into the sound system once Tyre’s in action.” Chantry said authoritatively.
I turned back to Galloway and with dark intent I said, “I’m going to make you regret this many times over Galloway!”
Galloway was wiping tears of mirth away from his eyes as he responded, “I don’t care what you do! This is going to be absolutely priceless!”
I gritted my teeth and stalked out of the van feeling completely embarrassed and I hated to be embarrassed. It made me so angry!
The moment Tyre was gone from the van Galloway and Temples jovial faces turned completely serious as their heads swiveled to Chantry who was still smiling.
Temple asked Chantry, “Do you think he bought it?”
Chantry nodded, “Oh I would say so. He’s mad as ever right now at the prospect of being embarrassed in front of so many fellow agents, which he desires respect from, more than anyone else.”
Galloway looking puzzled asked, “Tell me why are we trying to make him mad?”
Chantry responded, “Anger makes most men sloppy and overreach themselves, because of the passionate state of mind they are in, but Tyre is different. He was born in a hell on earth place and it was anger that he fed on to survive.
It was anger that he embraced in order to become the coldhearted killer that he was as a young man. Since doing good deeds and meeting the love of his life much of that foundational anger has left him. I thank God for that, but tonight he needs to be cold, merciless and as deadly as ever. In short he needs to be angry.”
Temple looked back at the monitors in front of them. He had hijacked all the security camera feeds from the rave nightclub. The screens showed the club packed tight with the young bodies of mostly teenagers and young twentysomethings.
The massed youth twisted and ground against each other to the tune of strobe lights their doped out senses lost in the euphoria of the wantonness of their actions. Temple shook his head as he viewed the packed house, “God forgive us!”
“Amen.” Chantry said quietly in response.
Galloway’s lips quirked up slightly, “Catchy tune anyway. Wish I had written it.” He said as he listened to the theme song replay through a headset he’d put on.
It was after one o’clock when I crossed the litter strewn street towards the innocuous looking door of the nightclub. Maria and her team were already inside and everything was set. I had no doubt that they would come in handy, but in some ways I would be alone in the packed club.
Even now Flint and several other agents were infiltrating into the Iron Wills headquarters building, which was directly adjoined to the nightclub. I strode past the tattooed, barely clad, youth standing in line waiting to get inside.
The muscle bound bouncer grasped my arm hard. I let my eyes trace up the restraining hand to directly stare into the brute’s eyes. He must not have liked something he saw there because he let go, as if his hold on me had become too hot to handle any longer.
“Have a pleasant night, Sir.”
I gave him my most chilling smile as I tipped the corner of my hat to him. He stepped back as I moved past him into the nightclub.
A tattooed floozy gave me an interested go over before indicating that I had to pass through a body scanner, which I complied with. Her lascivious eyes flew from me to her screen as it beeped out at her warningly. I watched her eyes grow wide with shock, as she turned from the screen to gaze up at me.
I held up one finger to my lips, “Shhhh!”
She screamed.
Oh well it had been worth a shot. Two enforcers from opposite corners ahead stepped toward us as their hands reached inside their jackets. My favored pistols slipped into my hands as I cross drawled them out from my shoulder harnesses under the coat.
They each puffed once their silencers among the quietest available on the black market. As the two men fell I have turned and one gun puffed again at the man who had stepped out from a security booth in the wall near the door.
