The Agency: ICE (Book 1)

Chapter 17: Baffling Responses

A dome of fire pooled above our heads as pieces of broken glass and metal flung all around us. That missile came out of nowhere.

"NOOOO!!!" Agent Saito cried, squirming against me and the straps. "Agent Bella!"

"What happened to the Sergeant?!" The S.A. shouted frantically on the radio.

I tuned out whatever anyone else was saying. I couldn't speak. I just witnessed a man look at death in the face before blowing up to smithereens. Such a painful and untimely death in the middle of a battleground.

"NO!" Agent Saito continued to cry and struggle against the straps. "He can't be dead! N-no!"

"Nurse, what happened to the Sergeant?" The S.A. said, worry seeping through his voice.

I gulped. "I... I think he's..."

"He's what? Dead?!"

...No.

There's no way he could die that easily.

If Lilli was right about him, then he always has a trick up his sleeve.

Come on, Agent Bella...

Please be alive...

Please...

And then, out of nowhere, a silver sphere emerged from the smoke and debris. Everything seemed to go in slow motion from that point on. The metal ball opened to reveal Agent Bella inside the contraption without a scratch! In his hands were three grenades, and he released the top of them and threw them towards the remaining people in the buildings. He then grabbed the sphere, which had shrunk to the size of a marble, and began to fall with a few remaining grenades attached to his tool belt.

"I'm okay!" he said on the radio.

Literally a second or two after he started falling, the grenades made contact with the buildings, and shockwaves sliced through anything higher than where the grenades landed. They were enough to make some of the shooters fall as the buildings tore away from their foundations, giving us all a little leeway as we landed. An intense heat shot towards me and Agent Saito in waves. I heard Agent Bella hiss in pain on the radio. Dios mio, if the heat was that bad down here, what was it like up there?

He then pulled a string in his uniform and exposed these wings attached to the sleeves and pants. Stunned, I watched him twirl so his stomach was towards the ground and glide down like a flying squirrel. You're telling me this man had that mechanism in his uniform and don't bother telling us until after he almost fell to his doom?!

"Woo..." Agent Bella looked back at the cloud of smoke that had been left behind from the collision. "Now that is something I do not want to experience again."

"Wait," Mila said on the intercom. "Are you telling me you've never been in a situation like this until now?"

Agent Bella made a small sound. "Well... I've done it in simulations...?"

"Nicodemos Bella!" The S.A. shouted.

Why did the S.A. call Agent Bella by his whole name? And without the title?

"What? I got you all out—" Agent Bella started.

"That's not what I'm talking about! "You could've died!"

"Better me than the entire team. And you knew I had asked for this flying suit to be installed in all pilots' uniforms!"

"Stop with your suicidal tendencies! And what the hell was that contraption you pulled out of your ass?!"