Dangerous Games Part 6: The Eye of the Storm
Title: Dangerous Games
Part 6: The Eye of the Storm
Part 5:Fate worse than Death
Part 4:Blood on the Asphalt
Part 3: Deep Impact
Part 2: Faith in Strangers
Part 1: Into the Heart of Texas
Verse: Custom
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Action
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Year: October 1998
Characters: Cassandra, Seth, James Gysborne, Various people
Synopsis: Cassie takes a job and ends up way over her head
“Yeah so do I but we both know that if we do something like that and it’s not self defense then we’re just going to spiral downward until we look in the mirror one day and hate what we become. Come on, let’s get the hell out of here.” Seth said and then turned to head towards the van.
Cassie yanked the door open and got into the front seat of the van. Quickly she turned around and looked behind her only to be confronted with computer equipment and an arsenal of weapons. Hopefully none of that would come in handy. The computer worried her slightly since it could easily be hacked or used as a tracking device. There was no doubt in her mind that they would be found as long as the computer was in here, whether it was turned on or not.
“What are you doing? Buckle up!” Seth Said.
“Just drive,” she said climbing over to the back part of the van. Catching her balance she stepped over the weapons and squatted in front of the computer. Yanking out the tower, she rummaged around for a Phillips screwdriver and painstakingly opened it up, cursing the entire time for a power screwdriver. She wasn’t adept in computers, but she learned enough about them to know how to destroy one, while keeping anything important.
Quickly she worked with the electronics and pulled out some microchips that might be useful. After wards, she lifted her hand and partially allowed it to transform. She allowed enough water drops to hit the live circuit board, nearly electrocuting herself in the process, to short circuit the computer. Any tracking devices would be null and void, for now at least.
Climbing back into the front seat she stared out the window. Unsuccessfully she tried to tell her that was just deer blood staining the windshield, but she knew what it really was. Trying to see the world through rose colored glasses never worked for her, no matter how hard she tried. At least the bits of flesh and blood were flying off as the van went down the road.
Uncomfortable silences were not enjoyable in her opinion, and she really just wanted to eat and sleep but she wondered, after today, if she’d be able to sleep again.
“Did you…” she began hesitatingly and stared out the passenger window for a while before speaking again. “Have you been through this before?” She asked softly as she turned to watch him drive. “This…what happened just now…when I flagged you down at the River walk and you helped me escape, did you know this would happen?”
“Yeah, I have. I was in Vietnam, special forces, I went through a lot, killed a lot of people. I get nightmares sometimes. Sometimes…things like today happen. I knew this was going to happen but I just couldn’t let you or anybody suffer the fate those commandos were going to give you,” Seth said.
“You must be older than you look. You look my age. It sucks you had to go through that.” Turning around she looked out at the road, counting the yellow lines for a while in her head before turning back to him, “I feel like saying thank you again isn’t really the right way to say thank you. And I don’t know how to show my appreciation. Is that horrible? How do you say thanks for saving my ass? And thanks for…..” she trailed off not finishing her sentence. Thanks for not letting me be the one spattered, broken, and dead on the side of the road. “Does hallmark make a card for that?”
“I bet they do, if not you can be the first to write it,” Seth said.
“How do you…can you ever….will I ever be able to put this out of my mind because any advice right now would be much appreciated and … I…never mind.” She said wanted to ask why he even bothered to help her in the first place, but she refrained…Maybe Gysborne was right, maybe she wasn’t worth it and truthfully she didn’t know if she wanted an answer.
“No, but you learn to accept it or lock it away somewhere in the corner of your mind and hope you never have to relieve it. It will haunt you forever.” Seth said.
“Oh,” Cassie said. “Reality just hit and I don’t like it.”
“Pull over there,” she said pointing towards a store. Sure, it was closed, but it was late and she didn’t care anymore. Before the van came to a complete stop, she already jumped out and ran towards the door. Cupping her hands, she peered through the glass and noticed they had everything they would need.
At least to clean up.
Casually she turned around, and when she felt confident the place was deserted, she shifted into her water form, pulled herself together, and used the momentum to slide under the crack of the door. The first thing she noticed was there were not any Cameras or TV monitors. Talk about old fashioned, she reached behind the counter for a couple of plastic bags before coming the store for anything useful.
After changing into something less bloody she found a stiff flannel button down shirt. She grabbed the largest one they had and pair of jeans that she thought might fit Seth. Quickly she went around and gathered anything, which could be of use.
Stepping out into the night, she shut the door behind her and used her old clothes to wipe away any prints off the handle. As quickly as she entered, she ran back towards Seth. Pulling out clean clothes, she handed them to him. “I thought we could use something a little less bloody you know?”
***
“We got a live one here!”
Gysborne felt himself being lifted onto a stretcher. “I’m fine,” he said trying to sit up, but the medic already pushed him back down and started taking his vitals. “I said I was fine Dammit,” he knocked the stethoscope out of his hand and sat up. Running a hand through his hair, he looked around and let out a string of curses that nobody would forget in this life or the next.
Three Hummers came around the corner, and uniformed men immediately jumped out to clean and contain the scene. General Bernard William Holt, shy of a full star general by one star, ignored the corpses being zipped into body bags and headed straight for Agent James Gysborne. “How hard is it to find one girl Agent Gysborne? The media is going to have a field day with this. We already have people working on damage control and leaking an attack of a lion escaping during transport while being taking to the San Diego zoo in California.”
“Don’t talk to me about Damage control, six of my best men are dead by the hands of some special forces reject, two are injured and I never got confirmation on who the subject is with,” Gysborne roared.
“You mean this guy,” General Holt pulled out the poor photocopy of Seth taking from the surveillance camera on the stop light. “Do you know who this guy is? Doesn’t he look familiar to you? His name is Seth Rodgers, Vietnam war vet, Purple heart, highly decorated Army Ranger, until he was taken to work in the para psychology department because of his special ability to heal. Then he killed the entire department and escaped. This is the first time in over 30 years we’ve been able to find him.”
Gysborne snatched the paper out of his hand and studied it while the general began giving him the ‘rap sheet’ on their mystery guy.
“He’s a bon-a-fide hero and you could damage the entire operation and have your ass handed to you on a platter if this goes south. Now you get the girl, and make sure you get what we want. How hard is it to extract her DNA and terminate her?” The general bellowed as he turned around.
Gysborne snarled at him and knew he’d have a new team up and running before sundown. I really need to get some sleep but who has the time, he thought. The first thing he did was get a good picture of the two of them together.
An hour later, their photograph was faxed to every police department, post office, and the evening news, listing Cassandra Alexander and Seth Rodgers as wanted fugitives.
Two hours later, Gysborne and his newly assembled team began hunting for them.
“Sir, we were able to find them using a second tracker built in the van. It appears they are headed towards Las Vegas.”
“Good, wake me up when we get there,” Gysborne said as he leaned back and immediately fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
Part 6: The Eye of the Storm
Part 5:Fate worse than Death
Part 4:Blood on the Asphalt
Part 3: Deep Impact
Part 2: Faith in Strangers
Part 1: Into the Heart of Texas
Verse: Custom
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Action
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Year: October 1998
Characters: Cassandra, Seth, James Gysborne, Various people
Synopsis: Cassie takes a job and ends up way over her head
“Yeah so do I but we both know that if we do something like that and it’s not self defense then we’re just going to spiral downward until we look in the mirror one day and hate what we become. Come on, let’s get the hell out of here.” Seth said and then turned to head towards the van.
Cassie yanked the door open and got into the front seat of the van. Quickly she turned around and looked behind her only to be confronted with computer equipment and an arsenal of weapons. Hopefully none of that would come in handy. The computer worried her slightly since it could easily be hacked or used as a tracking device. There was no doubt in her mind that they would be found as long as the computer was in here, whether it was turned on or not.
“What are you doing? Buckle up!” Seth Said.
“Just drive,” she said climbing over to the back part of the van. Catching her balance she stepped over the weapons and squatted in front of the computer. Yanking out the tower, she rummaged around for a Phillips screwdriver and painstakingly opened it up, cursing the entire time for a power screwdriver. She wasn’t adept in computers, but she learned enough about them to know how to destroy one, while keeping anything important.
Quickly she worked with the electronics and pulled out some microchips that might be useful. After wards, she lifted her hand and partially allowed it to transform. She allowed enough water drops to hit the live circuit board, nearly electrocuting herself in the process, to short circuit the computer. Any tracking devices would be null and void, for now at least.
Climbing back into the front seat she stared out the window. Unsuccessfully she tried to tell her that was just deer blood staining the windshield, but she knew what it really was. Trying to see the world through rose colored glasses never worked for her, no matter how hard she tried. At least the bits of flesh and blood were flying off as the van went down the road.
Uncomfortable silences were not enjoyable in her opinion, and she really just wanted to eat and sleep but she wondered, after today, if she’d be able to sleep again.
“Did you…” she began hesitatingly and stared out the passenger window for a while before speaking again. “Have you been through this before?” She asked softly as she turned to watch him drive. “This…what happened just now…when I flagged you down at the River walk and you helped me escape, did you know this would happen?”
“Yeah, I have. I was in Vietnam, special forces, I went through a lot, killed a lot of people. I get nightmares sometimes. Sometimes…things like today happen. I knew this was going to happen but I just couldn’t let you or anybody suffer the fate those commandos were going to give you,” Seth said.
“You must be older than you look. You look my age. It sucks you had to go through that.” Turning around she looked out at the road, counting the yellow lines for a while in her head before turning back to him, “I feel like saying thank you again isn’t really the right way to say thank you. And I don’t know how to show my appreciation. Is that horrible? How do you say thanks for saving my ass? And thanks for…..” she trailed off not finishing her sentence. Thanks for not letting me be the one spattered, broken, and dead on the side of the road. “Does hallmark make a card for that?”
“I bet they do, if not you can be the first to write it,” Seth said.
“How do you…can you ever….will I ever be able to put this out of my mind because any advice right now would be much appreciated and … I…never mind.” She said wanted to ask why he even bothered to help her in the first place, but she refrained…Maybe Gysborne was right, maybe she wasn’t worth it and truthfully she didn’t know if she wanted an answer.
“No, but you learn to accept it or lock it away somewhere in the corner of your mind and hope you never have to relieve it. It will haunt you forever.” Seth said.
“Oh,” Cassie said. “Reality just hit and I don’t like it.”
“Pull over there,” she said pointing towards a store. Sure, it was closed, but it was late and she didn’t care anymore. Before the van came to a complete stop, she already jumped out and ran towards the door. Cupping her hands, she peered through the glass and noticed they had everything they would need.
At least to clean up.
Casually she turned around, and when she felt confident the place was deserted, she shifted into her water form, pulled herself together, and used the momentum to slide under the crack of the door. The first thing she noticed was there were not any Cameras or TV monitors. Talk about old fashioned, she reached behind the counter for a couple of plastic bags before coming the store for anything useful.
After changing into something less bloody she found a stiff flannel button down shirt. She grabbed the largest one they had and pair of jeans that she thought might fit Seth. Quickly she went around and gathered anything, which could be of use.
Stepping out into the night, she shut the door behind her and used her old clothes to wipe away any prints off the handle. As quickly as she entered, she ran back towards Seth. Pulling out clean clothes, she handed them to him. “I thought we could use something a little less bloody you know?”
***
“We got a live one here!”
Gysborne felt himself being lifted onto a stretcher. “I’m fine,” he said trying to sit up, but the medic already pushed him back down and started taking his vitals. “I said I was fine Dammit,” he knocked the stethoscope out of his hand and sat up. Running a hand through his hair, he looked around and let out a string of curses that nobody would forget in this life or the next.
Three Hummers came around the corner, and uniformed men immediately jumped out to clean and contain the scene. General Bernard William Holt, shy of a full star general by one star, ignored the corpses being zipped into body bags and headed straight for Agent James Gysborne. “How hard is it to find one girl Agent Gysborne? The media is going to have a field day with this. We already have people working on damage control and leaking an attack of a lion escaping during transport while being taking to the San Diego zoo in California.”
“Don’t talk to me about Damage control, six of my best men are dead by the hands of some special forces reject, two are injured and I never got confirmation on who the subject is with,” Gysborne roared.
“You mean this guy,” General Holt pulled out the poor photocopy of Seth taking from the surveillance camera on the stop light. “Do you know who this guy is? Doesn’t he look familiar to you? His name is Seth Rodgers, Vietnam war vet, Purple heart, highly decorated Army Ranger, until he was taken to work in the para psychology department because of his special ability to heal. Then he killed the entire department and escaped. This is the first time in over 30 years we’ve been able to find him.”
Gysborne snatched the paper out of his hand and studied it while the general began giving him the ‘rap sheet’ on their mystery guy.
“He’s a bon-a-fide hero and you could damage the entire operation and have your ass handed to you on a platter if this goes south. Now you get the girl, and make sure you get what we want. How hard is it to extract her DNA and terminate her?” The general bellowed as he turned around.
Gysborne snarled at him and knew he’d have a new team up and running before sundown. I really need to get some sleep but who has the time, he thought. The first thing he did was get a good picture of the two of them together.
An hour later, their photograph was faxed to every police department, post office, and the evening news, listing Cassandra Alexander and Seth Rodgers as wanted fugitives.
Two hours later, Gysborne and his newly assembled team began hunting for them.
“Sir, we were able to find them using a second tracker built in the van. It appears they are headed towards Las Vegas.”
“Good, wake me up when we get there,” Gysborne said as he leaned back and immediately fell into a deep dreamless sleep.