Just doing my job

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my life that scared me, but this is truly terrifying.” I stood looking out the window of my hotel room, the deserted London Street below sending a chill down my spine.

“I have seen many cities like this, but it still feels wrong.” Ren stood behind me, looking over my shoulder, “London is always so vibrant, so full of life.”

“We should probably get out of town as fast as we can: it’s only a matter of time before they track us down.”

“You think Pierce betrayed us?”

“No: I’ve known Sid too long to believe she’d do something like that. No, this is something else. S.I.U. or MI6 must have been watching her.”

“How many superhumans in S.I.U.?”

“Twenty fully time field agents, with another ten backup and support, mainly telepaths. The rest of the staff, including all the officers, are all regular humans.”

“And MI6?”

“Classified: I was only with them for six moths, on loan from S.I.U. when they needed back up from someone the people they where dealing with wouldn’t recognise.” I looked at my watch, “We need to get out of town before they work out where we are.”

*********************************************************************

We didn’t have much to pack, travelling light being the name of the game, so packing was mainly a case of shoving a change of clothes into a backpack and grabbing our coats. We paid up as we left, the credit card Kay had given us supposable untraceable and linked to some secret government slush fund.

I was getting used to the idea that asking my friends how they did things like that was probably a bad idea.

“Nathan, we need to talk about what happened back in Covent Garden.” Ren looked concerned, “I’ve seen something like that be, but only from a strong telekinetic-psychic.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I looked away as we headed for the river, “It’s probably something to do with what Kay said about my powers developing further.”

“Nathan, you stopped a hail of gunfire that should have turned me into Swiss-cheese! I may be able to fly and have well above normal strength, but I’m not impervious like you…”

We were standing in the middle of Westminster Bridge when the world turned into a huge ball of flame. The same distortion that had appeared in the Red Lion appeared again, surrounding the three of us in an almost invisible barrier.

Artemus walked up to the edge of it and pressed his hand against it. “Not even warm.”

“Nathan, who at S.I.U. is pyro-kinetic?” Ren asked.

“No one: it’s considered to dangerous.” I looked round for a clue, “Only the army employ them…”

The flames disappeared, leaving us surrounded by a circle of terrified looking commuters. A deafening roar filled the air and I looked up to see what looked like a huge dragon, made entirely out of flame, loom above us.

“Oh crap!” I gasped.

“What’s going on?” Ren asked, her eyes wide with terror.

I didn’t blame her: the image of the dragon seems to be almost hired-wired into our subconscious, hitting the button marked ‘primal fear’. Add to that it was made out of fire, something else that we are pre-programmed to be afraid of, and you have a truly terrifying sceptical.

The dragon roared, flame shooting out its mouth and hitting the invisible barrier. The distortion diverted it around us, leaving the three of us standing there completely unharmed.

“Son of a…” I blinked, “I know who this is!” I cupped my hands round my mouth, “Diana!”

The dragon stopped and looked down at me. It slowly dissipated, shrinking until only the fiery outline of a woman remained. She floated down onto the bride, the asphalt melting under her feet as she walked towards us.

“Nathan Drake.” Her voice dripped venom and barely contained rage; “I should kill you where you stand!”

“I’m no the one who killed your brother.” I stood my ground, hoping that the barrier would hold if she attacked again.

“You know this woman?” Ren asked, looking at first me, then the newcomer.

“Yeah, I know her.” I nodded, “Meet Diana Mackenzie, aka Inferno. She’s Duke’s big sister.”

“I was his sister until you got him killed.” Diana hissed.

“You know full well that I’d never do anything to hurt Duke: he was a brother to me.” I took a step forward, the distortion moving with me, “I’m not the one you want if you’re out for payback. I want to get the bastards who killed him: they tried to kill me for god’s sake! They will pay for what they did, but this, drawing so much attention to us, is just playing into their hands. London is under Martial Law: how long do you think it’s going to be before the army shows up?”

“About now…” Ren pointed to a helicopter hovering just down river from us.

There was a flash, and a beam of laser light struck the distortion right in front of Ren. The field expanded, enveloping Diana as well.

“Well this is a new trick.” The tall Australian pyro-kinetic looked at me, her shoulder length flam-red hair covering half her face, “You got a plan?”

“Yeah, kind of…” I looked round, waiting for S.I.U. or military superhumans to appear, “Artemus: get Ren and Diana out of here. I’ll meet you at the agreed location. If I’m not there in one hour, it’s because I’m dead.”

The short Frenchman nodded, grabbing the two women by the hands and teleporting them out with a flash. The distortion field shrunk down till is extended for about half a meter in every direction from my body.

“Nathan, this is Captain Hobbs.” An amplified voice called out from the helicopter, “Surrender now, and we’ll talk things over.”

“Like that’s going to happen…” I muttered under my breath as I looked round: Hobbs never went into the field unless he had major backup. I spotted two unknown flyers hanging back either side of the helicopter, keeping an eye on me.

“So one minuet I’m standing in line to get some popcorn, next my pagers going off and I’m called back to London.” A voice called from behind. I turned to see Sidney Pierce standing behind me with an amused look on her face, “I don’t know if I should kiss you or kill you.”

“Game time Sid: this is what I’m up against.” I opened my arms wide, showing that I wasn’t carrying any weapon, “When I came to work for S.I.U., you told me that we were there to save the world. The question is, do we live in a world worth saving if these bastards win?”

“What do they have planed?”

“They are convinced that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, and the only way to stop it is to gain control of as much of it as possible. Briton’s just the first step: the New World Order is here and now.”

“You know, I was half expecting you to come up with some alien invasion theory involving the assignation of JFK…”

“Then you could have simply marked me as insane and gone on with your happy little life.”

“I’m 36 years old, with 3 kids under five: the last thing I want in my life is any more complications.”

“It’s your call Sergeant…”

“Bugger it: I was getting bored with things anyway.” Sidney smiled, ripping off her I.D. badge and throwing it into the Themes, “You got a plan, or are you just playing it by ear?”

“Playing it by ear at the moment, but getting the hell out of here would be a good idea…”

“Sergeant Pierce!” An enraged Captain Hobbs called out from the safety of his helicopter, “Arrest Corporal Drake this instant!”

Sid smiled as she looked up at Hobbs and gave him the finger in full view of everyone who was watching. I could guess the reaction that got: the Captain was obsessed with discipline. The insult must have hit him like a slap in the face.

“Burning bridges Sid.” I smiled, “Who’d he bring to back you up?”

“Just those two MI6 goons: he was supposed to wait for some heavy backup, but wanted the glory of capturing you for himself.”

“Yeah, well, his mistake: I’m not the same man I was two months ago…” I floated up into the air, keeping an eye on the Hobbs’ two bodyguards, “Get ready to run…”

The first goon opened up with an optical blast that flashed across the gap between us in an instant, only to be stopped dead in its tracks by the distortion field.

“That’s new.” Sid raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

“A little something I picked up in Australia.” I explained, “Courtesy of someone dropping a tactical nuke on my head…”

Not wanting to give my opponents a chance to recover, I charged at the one who’d attacked me as fast as I could, catching him unaware. The force of our collision sent him flying into an office building, smashing through glass and steel.

I didn’t have time to worry about anyone who might have been on the other side of the windows, watching the fight.

Goon #2 charged at me, and a shiver went down my spine as I recognised him: he was the same kid I’d faced off against in Brighton, back when this all began…

To Be Continued...