Back in the Game

“Agent Greene, come in. We have a situation.”

David Greene tapped the bottom crown on his thick silver watch. Without missing a step on his evening jog, he replied, “I read you, Beta. What’s the situation?”

Not a minute later, David was relaying what he had learned to Randy as they rushed to the other side of campus.

“So, the People’s Front Nine finally made a move, huh?” Randy asked contemptuously, twisting the bottom dial of his own time gauge. “It’s about time. I was getting bored playing babysitter.”

“Don’t get too excited,” David replied, setting his own time gauge to match frequencies. “A Delta squad was already deployed. They uncovered the Anarakian involvement and interrupted the People’s Front operation. We’re just cleaning up.”

“Then the Deltas couldn’t have done a great job,” Randy joked mirthlessly. A slim, silver gun had appeared eagerly in his hand.

“They were a bit focused on the Anarakians,” David countered. He was clicking his own gauntlet gun over to stun. “It looks like the spiders were tipping off the Front about some intel. As soon as the Deltas saw there was timeless interference, they made their move.”

“And let some People’s Front slither away, eh?”

“And they’re making their way here of all places,” David noted as they ran up towards a series of buildings at the edge of campus that were crammed together at their corners. In the middle of all of them was a little empty courtyard called the Box. Inside, the buildings themselves had nearly as little. They were mostly used as storage, with only a few night classes being hosted there.

David and Randy took up concealed positions across the way from the buildings. They scanned it carefully, but all seemed still in the night.

After a moment, Randy observed, “I notice we’re a couple trainees short. But hey, if you want to go in at two-thirds strength, it’s your call.”

“Calling in Kennedy and Blake would just key them up,” David replied quietly. “They’re not ready for a real mission.”

“But Beta Control is desperate enough to call us in,” Randy noted.

David grimaced. “Let’s just concentrate on recovering the PF9 agents.”

He twisted out from around his cover and towards the buildings. As the two approached, Randy’s head tilted slightly. David noticed immediately. Without exchanging words, they slowed their pace and adjusted their gaits. Their footfalls became nearly silent, and they veered closer to the buildings.

A moment later, Randy gestured with well-practiced hand signals. David followed the signs and saw it. A heavy oak door that wasn’t quite shut. He nodded towards Randy, and they made for a side entrance.

They slipped inside, making barely a whisper’s worth of noise. A slightly louder shuffling met their ears. It was a couple of corridors away.

“Class?” David mouthed. Even in the darkness, Randy understood his partner’s question.

He shook his head, no more than half an inch. “Too quiet,” he mouthed back.

And David nodded in response. He realized he hadn’t needed to ask. The mistake the intruders were making was the sort that informed David’s own tactics. They were trying not to be noticed, and ironically, they were making themselves more conspicuous by that act.

Even with the advantage on their target, David’s nerves were set on edge. Why was he feeling this? He hadn’t felt this way since his first missions.

Well, it was his first real mission in a while.

He pushed aside his concern as best as he could. He and Randy had reached an intersecting hallway. David held up a hand at the same time Randy did. He couldn’t suppress a smile that bubbled up in the release of tension. Still, he was quick to refocus. He and Randy had noticed the same thing at the same time. The sound was coming from two places. From behind a near door, and further down the hallway as well.

David pointed to Randy, and then down the hall. Almost as an afterthought, he pointed to himself and then to the near door. Randy nodded and made the formal OK hand signal, even though David could easily see Randy’s response right next to him. And then he was gone.

Randy was creeping down the hall even before David had turned back to his own objective. David stepped just as discretely up to his position, though not quite as swiftly. The muffled sounds were louder now, but David still couldn’t make out specifics. He could tell a couple voices were exchanging hushed words, but—

The telltale whoosh of a gauntlet gun cut through the quiet. David’s head snapped around at the high-pitched hiss crackling down the hall, which was soon followed by clatters and shouts. A man slumped limply over the threshold of Randy’s door, which had been thrown open.

Randy himself had sprung to life. He twisted to the side of the door as a second man nearly killed him. A harsh tick, tick, tick, ricocheted tinnily against the walls as the assailant continually squeezed the trigger of his silenced pistol. But they both were moving too fast. Randy had twisted out of the sight of pistol, even as it shot up and around, as if sniffing out its prey. But the gunman had sought out his target too eagerly. He leaned out the door and to the side, trying to get Randy in his sights.

No sooner had the black-clad assailant leaned over the threshold than Randy struck again. His left arm snapped out and grabbed the other’s wrist. He clamped down and pulled the other man into the hallway. He brought himself right in his attacker’s face, pulling the silenced pistol past him. The man in black fired uselessly, maybe in surprise.

Randy jabbed his own silver weapon into the man’s ribs. The gunman winced in pain. Randy released his wrist, pushed him back with the gauntlet gun, and fired. All within a split second.

The attacker spasmed, and then sprawled on top of his comrade’s body.

Meanwhile, David heard a commotion behind his door. Seeing Randy had secured his area, he twisted the knob and burst through the door. Or tried to. A heavy body on the other side brought his momentum to a sudden stop.

David immediately grounded himself and scanned the two-inch gap between the door and the frame. He spotted yet another figure further in the room. He instantly raised his weapon and fired two bright blue bolts at his target.

A fresh tick, tick, tick made him mimic Randy’s earlier move, diving to the side of the door. But this gunman didn’t repeat his ally’s mistake. He fired a few more times, but the door slowly easing open revealed that men had retreated further into the room.

Before David could formulate his plan to respond, Randy took that responsibility from him. David heard the crackle-hiss of Randy’s gauntlet gun from inside the room. At that same moment, the second silenced pistol ceased firing. David wasn’t one to commit to reckless actions. But now, he didn’t hesitate to burst through the door.

His attempt to capitalize on Randy’s surprise attack, however, came to naught. He and Randy both came in firing, but all they saw of their opponents were their heels rounding another door. The two Time Peace agents rushed forward, but hesitated before diving into the next chamber.

Naturally, Randy was the first to peek his head out the door. And then he snapped it back into the room as another two silenced shots tried to clip him. David had pulled out a small, round mirror, and as Randy ducked back into cover, he angled it into the hallway.

“Go, go, go,” David said. The gunman had bolted.

He and Randy charged after the retreating men. They didn’t have far to go. The big doors to the building hadn’t finished closing when David kicked it open again. He immediately sidestepped out of sight as Randy leaned around and aimed his weapon.

They next silenced shots were nearly drowned out by the sound of the car starting. David and Randy were forced to hunker down as the car’s wheels squealed. Randy fired a couple energy beams, but the weapon effectively did nothing to the vehicle’s exterior.

Randy grunted in disgust.

“Call it in,” David ordered, already backtracking towards the downed intruders. Finding them still slumped in the doorway, he first secured the silenced pistol, flipping on the safety, and removing the remaining rounds. Then, he carefully searched the two men. He found no ID, of course, but several bags, a camera, a Swiss army knife, and lockpicks. But as he was searching, he noticed something strange.

He put his fingers to the neck of one of the men. The flesh was still warm, but he felt no pulse. He adjusted, but still found nothing. He went to the other man. He found the same thing.

Randy walked back into the corridor, saying, “Local control has my report. Got a partial plate.”

“What is this?” David demanded, gesturing towards the bodies.

Randy looked back at him blankly. “What is what?”

“They’re dead. Did you think we lost interest in interrogating them?”

“No, I did what I had to do.” Randy stated it matter-of-factly. No sign of his usual scorn.

David looked at him aghast. “There’s a stun setting,” he reminded Randy.

“Doesn’t work in an arena,” Randy replied defensively.

David looked at him blankly, baffled. Slowly, the facts reassembled themselves in his mind. Randy was down the hall. All the combatants were in a small area. And as swift and deadly as Randy was, he dispatched his attackers too flawlessly. From outside an arena, anyone (even a timeless) would only see the last iteration.

David looked at the body again. Sure enough, there was a time gauge on the wrist. It all became clear. As soon as this Anarakian opened, or even approached the door, an arena automatically activated. For some reason, it was a small arena that only encompassed part of the hallway and the room. Sometimes that happened. Time gauges were roughly reverse engineered from time gate and other arcane technology. No one quite understood how they worked, and they sometimes seemed to have a mind of their own.

Once the arena dropped, Randy no doubt had gone through several versions of that fight. And the way arenas worked, only the last version would “really” happen. Arenas created their own little pocket timelines, isolated to a small area. At any point, someone inside with a time gauge could reset that pocket timeline to the moment it was created—the moment the arena first dropped. Each sequence of events that got reset would then be lost to the ether—only existing in the minds of the timeless who had experienced it. But the last iteration, the last sequence of events that broke or deactivated the arena, would become a part of the full, real timeline. And so, it would be the only thing someone outside the arena would see.

There was one other effect of being in an arena. You couldn’t have an arena within an arena. Meaning, the stun setting of the gauge gun (which depended on a mini-arena to find the right charge) wouldn’t work.

“There was an Anarakian here,” David said.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” Randy replied irritably.

“Right, but the question is why? Why did an Anarakian come here?”

That made Randy drop the attitude and look around suspiciously. He knew as well as David that Anarakians were hesitant to stick their necks out for their timeline-based pawns. Which suggested something was special about this place.

They immediately set to searching the room their targets had been sniffing around in. The People’s Front goons had clearly been here for some time, and interestingly, this room was one of the less empty ones in the building. It appeared to be a repository of old documents, many of which were plans for old buildings and maps of original Aechrian settlements. It didn’t take long to find what the intruders had been looking for.

One drawer had been left open. The surprised Front agents hadn’t gotten a chance to clean up after themselves. Inside, a stack of photocopies had been left disheveled. And right in the middle of the mess were sketches of a 19^th century coastal fort.

“I think I know where they’re going,” David noted, pressing the bottom crown on his watch. Fort Arthur was only a few minutes away.

***

Fort Arthur was situated strategically on a cape, south of the modern naval port at the academy. Unfortunately, its protruded position from the island had proven to have a potent drawback. Over the years, the land was eroding away quicker than the Fort’s builders had anticipated. This was one reason why it had never been replaced with a more modern installation. And also why its surroundings were being carefully excavated for historical artefacts before they would be lost forever.

David and Randy crept past the tents and tarps shielding exposed soil. David thought that whoever was heading the dig was putting in a lot more effort than necessary. There couldn’t have been that many lost and interred treasures outside of the fort, could there? Either way, he had to be grateful to the elaborate production—it gave plenty of cover for his and Randy’s approach. They would have to depend on stealth until local control could send them reinforcements.

The Delta team must have really made a mess, David thought with a mix of bitterness and anticipation. It was down to the two young timeless. All they had to do was not screw this up. And keep an eye out for more Anarakians.

But if this was a rendezvous point, the Front weren’t making it obvious. So far, neither David nor Randy had spotted a single soul. David signaled to Randy to head towards the fort itself.

As they followed the work of the excavators towards the coastline, they had greater and greater leeway in how much noise they made. The waves crashing against the rocky coast would give them a break, but still they maintained a professional quiet.

Randy abruptly pointed, but David had already seen it. In some of the freshly turned earth, a lone set of footprints stood out. They looked fresher than the others, and more importantly, they were set apart from the back and forth of the dig staff’s tracks. Carefully, they followed the new trail towards the very edge of the coast.

There was even more excavation here, digging towards the foundations of the fort. But David didn’t get a chance to ponder the purpose of this particular project before he heard it. A singular voice, sometimes muttering, sometimes speaking in a normal volume.

David cocked his head to the side. It was coming from an excavated trench running parallel to the rocky, sloping shore. The source of the noise was concealed by scaffolding and platforms running over the trench and up the wall of the fort. David did one more visual sweep of the area, and then approached, weapon in hand.

He almost didn’t notice the stars being replaced. Instead of the natural dulled formations, a series of brilliant pinpricks against an impossible blackness appeared. David didn’t wait to see the multicolored swirls of the arena wall, he reacted.

He dropped prone, but he wasn’t the target. A man popped up and shot Randy. Randy pulled the trigger of his own weapon, but shock ruined his aim. The blue beam hit the lip of the trench, the attacker safe behind it. Randy stumbled and fell to the ground.

The attacker twisted around with a frenzied expression. Too slow. David already had him in his sights. Before a second bullet could be fired, David’s shot dropped him.

The gauntlet gun was still cool in his hands, calmly awaiting the next task demanded of it. David had just killed the man. Just as Randy had. Randy—he was his first priority.

David darted over to him. Randy was making a horrible gurgling sound, but David didn’t try any first aid.

“Randy, go for the gun. The gun, Randy,” David instructed as Randy’s eyes struggled to focus. “In three…”

He lifted his watch.

“…two…”

He rested his thumb on the middle crown.

“…one!”

David sprang forward as time jolted backwards. It was the beginning of the fight. A flash of blue illuminated the ground just as the Anarakian popped over the ledge. A gunshot.

David winced but didn’t slow. He was already at the ledge, and he dove over it and on top of the man. The two wrestled, David going for the man’s burned wrist first. Twisting the Anarakian’s arm behind his back, he then glanced around for Randy.

He was standing in the trench, too. Unscathed. He secured the pistol, and then helped David secure the prisoner.

“The headless fir will accumulate the masses,” the Anarakian threatened. Or David thought it was a threat. He had said it with such fluency that it took a moment to sink in that it was gibberish.

“What? Is that supposed to be some sort of code?” Randy asked, snapping his head back and forth for signs of anyone who might receive the message.

David pulled the middle tab on the enemy’s time gauge and the arena collapsed. “I don’t know,” he replied.

“If the conference were to falsify, the headhunters would possess,” the man insisted angrily, nearly spitting at David. His eyes were bulging from his head, and he was struggling with inhuman force.

“Randy, a hand,” David said as he struggled against the iron pull of the demented man.

“What is with this guy?” Randy asked as he, too struggled to keep him down. “Did he loop himself?”

“The three-piece theater is roughly for a new time!” The man continued. “The fall-ish canopy is ripe to replenish!”

“This is more damage than just a looping,” David said worriedly. He then spotted something.

As the man strained against the two Time Peace fighters, his bulging neck tugged at his collar. Near his collarbone was an odd pair of short, straight scars. The parallel disfigurements sent a shiver of recognition down David’s spine.

“He’s one of Sainne’s,” David announced. The twin scars indicated a Talhesian implant. They were reserved for Sainne’s most blindly loyal assets.

Crack!

The man suddenly jerked and went limp. An instant later, David and Randy threw themselves to the dirt floor of the trench.

“Sniper!” Randy called out.

“Noted,” David grunted in frustration. The Anarakian next to them was dead. It only confirmed David’s hypothesis. And that this had been a rendezvous.

“He just had to go nuts when someone was watching,” Randy complained, already scanning the area for safe escape routes. Another round sent a spray of dirt flying from the opposite side of the trench.

David and Randy crawled towards the fort, under the cover of the scaffolding.

Crack!

A wooden beam splintered into pieces as the high-caliber round passed straight through. The platform over the trench shuddered slightly. Ahead of them was a tunnel descending below the walls of the fort, into the island itself.

Randy shoved against David. He wasn’t moving, just staring into the black mouth of the tunnel.

“Let’s go!” Randy shouted as another gunshot cracked through a support.

“No,” David said. Looking into the tunnel, he had a bad feeling. He couldn’t explain it yet, but the insane Anarakian suggested this was more than mere intuition. He turned back to Randy. “We can’t go deeper.”

Randy swore but shifted position. He flipped onto his back, keeping his head under the ridge of the trench. He pulled out the pistol Sainne’s late agent had used against him.

“Then we’re going to need a screen,” Randy declared. To David’s horror, he started shooting out more support beams. But he was shooting those on the side between the two of them and the sniper. David realized he was trying to drop the platforms and obscure their movements. If the idiot didn’t crush them first.

Instinctively, David’s hand went to his time gauge. But he stopped himself before pressing the middle crown. He realized in an instant that would be useless. If the collapsing platforms wouldn’t break the arena, the sniper’s bullets would.

But in a flash of inspiration, he realized the time gauge was still the answer. He twisted off the crystal on top and pulled the black strap that sat over the silver links. He yanked the black strap over his thumb and let it snap against his palm, In the same practiced motion, he twisted the crystal into a barely visible notch on that strap.

The platforms above David and Randy’s heads tilted forwards. But before they could slide out and fall on the ledge of the ditch, another round from the sniper shot out one last back beam.

“Go!” David ordered as he popped up and fired his crystal ray.

A beam of bright white energy blasted a hole through the thick lattice of wooden shafts and dig equipment blocking their way to the shore. David was charging forward as he fired.

The platforms dropped. Randy shot towards the opening. He grabbed David, as if to shove him through the hole the latter had just made. Both flew over the lip of the gorge.

The tilting platforms hit the edge of the trench behind them. The two teens rolled onto the rocks.

A beam struck David’s shoulder blade.

He tumbled across the shore as the scaffolding collapsed. The stones of the slope slid towards the sea. He tried to find a grip but found nothing solid. He didn’t notice the pain.

He reached out again, and he found Randy’s outstretched arm. Randy, perched on the angled terrain, held onto David. Until the rock gave way.

The ground shuddered as a second wave of debris buried itself into the excavation. Randy slid, David pulling him down. David accepted the panic. Letting it wash over him, it suddenly became clear how useless it was. He adjusted the position of his feet and let himself slide into the surf.

The cutting razor cold chopped through his flesh and ached his bones. He gasped but let himself float out just a little further before kicking.

Randy fell into him, but David pushed back. They drifted a little further into the gentle waves, but only a little. Even as David pushed him over and around, Randy twisted and cupped his hands. The two swam side by side back onto the shore, careful to keep the fort between them and the sniper.

A cloud of dust helped protect them. Not only had the scaffolding collapsed, but part of the outer wall of the fort seemed to have gone with it. When David and Randy had finally pulled themselves out of the water, slipping and sliding several times, David looked over to his partner.

“So much for laying low.”

“Forget that,” Randy replied dismissively. “Let’s blame the People’s Front. It’s true enough.”

“True enough,” David said, more because he was out of breath than anything.

They waited, exhausted, for any sign that the Anarakians or People’s Front or anyone else was out there. Just as they started making plans to slip away, Randy’s watch beeped.

Answering the comm, he said, “We’re not dead.”

“Glad to hear that, O’Neill,” came the curt reply. “We’ve cleared the area.”

“You couldn’t have come just a minute earlier?” Randy demanded as David hurriedly screwed his time gauge back into its normal configuration and take over the conversation.

“We needed you to distract the targets,” the operator replied dryly. “Thanks for the assist.”

And the line clicked off. David glared at Randy. They needed to have a long talk about communication. In more than one way. But there would be time for that later.

Carefully picking himself up, he offered a hand to his comrade. After pulling himself up, Randy glanced around. He saw the lights of Time Peace vehicles approaching. They’d take over for the cleanup. That was fine with Randy. But still, he wasn’t happy.

“Something stinks about this,” he complained.

“You’re wondering why they came here,” David observed as they carefully walked towards more stable ground. He rubbed his shoulder. The pain was starting to set in, but it didn’t feel as bad as it could have been.

“And why they made a stop at the school,” Randy confirmed. “Were those documents that important?”

“Apparently so,” David mused, glancing at the now buried tunnel as they passed. “My guess is they were looking for something specific.”

“And in a hurry.”

“Before the Deltas could close in.” David nodded to the personnel canvasing the area. “They wanted to make a move fast.”

“Like I said, something stinks,” Randy repeated. They walked past the perimeter. They would be debriefed in a more secure location.

“Yes,” David conceded. “What it is we’ll never know. Not until we’ve been reinstated.”

Randy grunted his disapproval, but David just kept walking on. He filed away the night’s events and once more turned his attention to the future. Tonight had been a wash. But he still had his plan. A direction. There was a lot of work to be done if he and Randy wanted back in.