EM RYDER
THE
FALL OF AGENT ZERO
Compendium 2020 – Story 17
By Andrew Hawnt
The
whole complex was alive with sirens, chaos and the sound of
approaching danger.
Just
how Em liked it. Her boots pounded along the corridor at a steady
pace, her eyes darting around her as she ran, finger on the trigger.
She would take anyone who got in her way down without a second
thought. Clad in her Agency issue black uniform that covered
everything but her head, it was easy for her to dive into shadows
should she need to.
However,
the time for subtlety had passed.
Em
arrived at the next blast doors and checked behind her. By the sound
of shouting and approaching boots, she had about seven seconds before
the grey corridor was alive with searing plasma bolts from the
weapons of Zero's troops. Seven seconds.
She
only needed five.
Em
swiftly keyed the passcode into the door, then slammed the palm of
her left hand against the bio-reader on it. The fibres of the glove
sections of her suit had been woven with the synthesized DNA of one
of the soldiers currently chasing her. As long as that thug was
alive, she could open doors.
Heavy
panels moved aside with a grind of hydraulics. The moment it was wide
enough for her to slide through, she dived into the next section of
the corridor and palmed the device on the other side of it. The doors
closed again with a heavy sound. She thumbed the dial on the side of
her gun and fired at the lock controls. The panel exploded in a
flurry of sparks, killing the mechanism and earning her a few more
seconds.
She
ran on. The core of the complex was next.
“Agent
Em Ryder,” came the booming voice of the man known as Zero over
speakers set into the corridor walls. “It's nice to have a visitor,
but you should have let me know in advance. I could have ordered
pizza.”
“Zero,”
Em shouted back. “I'm not in the mood for a quip-off. Do you mind?
I'm here to shoot you in the head.”
“Charming,”
answered the amplified voice. “And after all I taught you.”
She
arrived at the blast doors to the complex core and keyed in the
passcode. The light strip atop it went red. Access Denied, said a
mechanical voice from the unit. The passcode has been updated.
“Ah,”
Em sighed. “Bit of a setback.”
The
doors behind her began to open. She span to see powered wrenches
dragging the space wider. Shooting the terminal hadn't bought her as
much time as she'd hoped. Within a few seconds, the doors were open
wide enough for troopers to start pouring through. Each brandished a
plasma rifle, but nobody fired. Em faced them, training her gun on
them. She would be killed if they opened fire, but she would take as
many down with her as she could if that was the case.
“Hold
your positions,” said Zero over the speakers. “Agent Em Ryder is
here to kill me because of what we are doing, my friends. She is
acting on the orders of Agency High Command. Do you think she
believes in what the Agency stands for?”
“No,
Zero,” came the unified response. The eyes of the soldiers were
visible behind their shock visors. Each wore the glazed expression of
mind control.
“And
do zombified hired guns believe in what you stand for?” Em shouted
at the speakers closest to her. “Are they here of their own free
will?”
No
answer. Em smirked. “Thought not.”
“Trooper
Eric Kincaid, step forward,” demanded the disembodied voice of his
leader.
The
trooper did so as though sleepwalking. His eyes were unfocused. His
gun hand hung at his side.
“This
man is the one your suit has copied,” said Zero. “Because my
network shows him as alive and active, you've been able to gain
access to almost everything. I'm impressed.”
“Should
I be flattered?” Em sneered. “All I see here are slaves working
for a maniac who should know better. Are you enjoying goading me?”
“Yes,”
Zero said flatly. Then; “Trooper Eric Kincaid, raise your gun to
your mouth.”
Kincaid
moved his visor up and slid the barrel of his rifle between his lips.
“No,”
Em cried out. “Don't do this, Zero! You don't need to demonstrate!
Don't!”
“Trooper
Eric Kincaid, kill yourself.”
Kincaid
fired. White-hot plasma exploded from his rifle. The back of his head
disintegrated in an explosion of gore, showering the soldiers behind
him with blood and thick gobs of ravaged brain meat. His corpse
collapsed to the floor.
“Your
skeleton key is broken,” croaked Zero from his hiding place.
Em
gritted her teeth. She had seen plenty of deaths, several of which
she herself had caused, but seeing an innocent man forced to blow his
own head apart made her hatred of Zero burn even brighter.
The
soldiers backed up. They left Kincaid's dead body there with her. Em
watched them reseal the huge doors at the end of the corridor. As the
doors closed, the corridor's lights flickered and fell to darkness.
The sound of gas followed, and within moments Em's head began to spin
with the dizzy spread of tranqs.
She
fell into the darkness surrounding her and was unconscious before she
hit the floor.
*
Water
was tossed over Em. She came to with a yell, instantly trying to
throw a punch at the man before her. The shock of realising she was
attached to a chair and bound at the waist and ankles by a network of
electronic restraints only made her angrier.
Agent
Zero sat the water jug back on the metal table beside him. A slim
tablet computer sat by it. At the other end of the table sat Em's
crumpled mission suit, boots and gun, which had been dismantled.
Around him, the cavernous expanse of the structure's control core
seemed to go on for miles. They were on some kind of raised platform
overlooking the central workings of whatever he was concocting there.
The centre was taken up by a gigantic black spire surrounded by
computer arrays manned by wave upon wave of his possessed army. Em
quickly forced herself to focus and take in the exits, the walkways
bolted to the walls, the ventilation shafts and the visible machinery
around the strange obelisk. Forklifts were parked in a row. She could
see one driving around further away, unmanned.
She
looked down and was relieved to see she was still wearing something.
The white blouse, dark braces and black trousers had been useful
earlier in the day when she'd been posing as an office worker at
Zero's front company. They weren't much use now, but at least she
wasn't naked. It was always so hard to blend in anywhere like that.
Her bare feet were cold, and she made herself a promise that her
boots would be the first thing she grabbed once she figured out a way
to get free, even if just to kick Zero's teeth in more effectively.
Em
couldn't figure out what was around her neck, but she would bet it
wasn't good.
“So
tranq gas is the only way you can get a girl to hang out with you,
huh? Not really the mark of a gentleman, is it?”
Zero
grinned from beneath the brim of his stupid black fedora.
Interplanetary terrorism was bad enough but there was no need for the
damn hat.
“Em
Ryder, you've been a thorn in my side ever since you tricked your way
into the academy and they saw you as some kind of prodigy. You were
hard to train, hard to deal with and even harder to like. You are,
honestly, a worthless little parasite. You always had an aptitude for
trickery and violence, but in this case, the pupil will never surpass
the teacher.”
Em
grimaced at Zero's angular features and squinty eyes. She wanted to
stab the bastard right in the chest of his expensive suit. “Let me
out of this and we'll see who gets surpassed, old man.”
Zero
just smiled and picked up the tablet. He woke it up with a thumbprint
and swiped a control.
A
violent shuddering pain rocked Em's body, making her convulse against
her restraints. It only lasted a few seconds, but it may as well have
been an eternity.
“Let
me consider the lengths you have gone to in order to find this place.
Infiltrating my organisation at a remote level. Data theft.
Eavesdropping. Bribery. Destruction of property. You did pay
attention to the training I gave you after all. I understand why the
Agency sent you of all people. Our history is well documented, as is
your hatred of me.”
“You
know why that is, Zero. Her name was Becky.”
“Your
sister's death was a terrible tragedy, Em. In a situation like that
there would always be collateral damage.”
“You
shot her in the head while using her as a meat shield to get away
from the Agency and everyone you betrayed. You sold our secrets for
your fortune.”
Zero
gave her another jolt. She screamed this time, but the zombified
workers paid her no heed. The chair shuddered closer to the table.
“The
thing you always lacked when I was your teacher was a sense of
direction. I succeeded because I knew I would. You never had that.
Too busy taking chances and letting fate decide the outcome.”
“It's
served me well so far,” Em sneered.
She
slammed her boots against the floor, praying her weight was enough to
shift the chair. Pushing hard and suddenly, Em lunged forward at the
table, aiming right at it. She knew Zero would give her another jolt
through the neck restraint.
And
she was counting on it.
The
pain of the electric charge came again, but this time Em focused as
hard as possible on her momentum. She crashed into the table, pain
blossoming in her shoulder and forehead as it toppled, knocking the
water jug over and drenching her. She knew she was either about to
die or about to get free.
Go
on then, fate. I dare you.
The
neck brace sparked and smoked, shorting out as it overloaded. It
snapped open and fell from her before she hit the ground with the
table. Her other restraints opened and fell along with it.
There
was no time to think about how much pain she was in.
Em,
soaked, half-delirious with pain and fatigue, grabbed her gun by the
barrel. She forced her legs to work and stood as Zero lunged at her,
using the tablet as a blunt weapon. Em swung the gun at his hand,
smiling as she heard at least two of his knuckles smashed into pulp.
Zero dropped the tablet with a scream.
She
swung back, cracking his jaw with the metal weapon. As Zero's head
span, spitting teeth over the edge of the balcony, Em kicked his legs
out from under him and he hit the floor with a crunch, spraying blood
from his shattered mouth and clutching his ruined hand. He spotted
the tablet and snatched it up with his good hand. He pressed his
thumb to the screen and yelled into the mic.
“Converge
and protect!”
The
workers throughout the complex dropped what they were doing and
turned to stare blankly at the balcony. They reached to the sides of
their overalls and pulled out guns.
“Well,
that's a big bag of arses, isn't it?” Em bellowed. “You bloody
cheat.”
Zero
spat blood. “One thing I never taught you. Get someone else to do
your dirty work.”
He
raised the tablet to his lips again, ready to give the kill order.
“Okay,
lesson learned,” Em said flatly.
Em
hooked the water jug handle with the edge of her foot and kicked it
up. She grabbed it with both hands and swung it right at Zero's head.
The sound of it smashing against his temple was both shocking and
satisfying. The stupid hat fell off. He staggered, and she snatched
the tablet. She grabbed his good hand and slammed his thumb onto the
screen. The voice command app flashed green.
“Kill
Agent Zero,” Em said bluntly into the mic. The app flashed again.
She dropped it, cracking the screen against the ground. She stepped
back and leapt, fighting through the pain in her skull to deliver a
vicious double kick, sending him to impact against the rails of the
balcony.
Em
ducked back as Zero's own army opened fire on him. His suit was
shredded by blazing projectiles and energy beams, skin melting and
bone falling to ash as his limbs were blown away. His arms were gone
in an inferno of gunfire. Shots that made it through the railings
severed his legs, and as he fell, his torso was annihilated as well.
Only when a shot went through his head, severing his link to the
systems controlling his legion did the barrage end.
The
workers holstered their weapons and stood immobile, waiting for their
next order.
Em
picked through the gore and debris that was strewn across the
platform and retrieved the tablet. Dragging Zero's severed hand to
the screen, she was able to activate the voice command app even with
a cracked screen, although it flickered. She had to act.
“Dismantle
everything here, and then shut yourselves down.”
The
workers set about their task.
Em
picked up her Agency suit, gun and boots. She was about to head for
the stairs at the far end of the platform when she stopped, went back
to the mound of pulped horror that had been Agent Zero, and picked up
his hat.
Agent
Em Ryder popped the hat on at a jaunty angle and went to find
somewhere to get her stuff back on and put out the message to the
Agency.
Mission
accomplished.
©
Andrew Hawnt 2020
About
Compendium 2020:
Compendium
2020 is a project from author Andrew Hawnt that consists of 52 weekly
stories encompassing science fiction, fantasy and horror. They are a
mix of short stories and flash fiction, 100% original and written
throughout 2020. Why is he doing this? To keep the words flowing. To
keep the ideas coming. To dance in worlds that are his and his alone.
To prove that he can.
About
Andrew Hawnt:
You
can find Andrew on Facebook at facebook.com/andrewhawntauthor and on
Twitter and Instagram as @andrewhawnt. Formerly a musician and DJ,
Andrew is known for his books, comic book writing, music journalism
and more, including fiction in Doctor Who Adventures, the Judge Dredd
Megazine and others. Look out for his film work soon.
Comments