CHAPTER 1
Los Angeles
0900 hours
"Ben, what are you looking at?"
Erica stared at me. She probably thought I was staring at her as well, but I was looking a fraction away from her left cheek. I was staring behind her, past her, as far as I could see. We had been assigned, well, she had been assigned, well, Alexander had been assigned to something and we were 'tagging along' which is a nice way of saying leaving Alexander in the car while Erica and I did all the legwork. A very powerful dictator of an African country was in danger of being assassinated in his vacation home... which we were currently under. Unfortunately for us, there were about a dozen trained mercenaries that the dictator had hired himself to be his personal bodyguards. Also unfortunately for us, they were all paid off by the very people attempting to assassinate mister High and Mighty. You can see why this was a fairly tense situation. Erica was rigging a breaching charge from the equipment we found in the maintenance area 5 feet below the dictators bedroom. I was currently analyzing the buildings' above ground and below ground areas, so as to find any possible exit. Erica had said that any of these were definitely boarded and or heavily guarded. I wore a watch on my right wrist that was counting down. 60 seconds down, 180 seconds left, 50 seconds more until the charge is built, leaving 130 seconds to get out of there before we get our brains blown out. I thought. Lightbulb...
"I'm thinking of a plan. That I just finished. We use the backyard of the house for an exit."
"That doesn't make any sense; the most heavily armed area of this building is the backyard."
"Exactly, we use me as bait and during the initial breach; we clear the main guards in the bedroom. I fight my way through the remaining mercs to get to the front door, where Alexander will be waiting in the Van."
"Great. We rely on my father as the only way to prevent you from being shot..."
She made a good point, but Alexander had proved himself to be somewhat useful when it really matters. And I mean REALLY matters. Like, missile about to launch 6 bad guys about to kill you matters. I inspected the breaching charge that Erica was struggling to build. Even for her it was complicated. One wire was off by less than an inch. I slowly moved it into its place and it powered on. Erica looked at me, impressed. I shrugged it off while I duct taped the bomb onto a small box of gunpowder. This might turn out very bad. I radioed Alexander to inform him of our plan. I stood on top of a ladder and stretched my arm up to the ceiling, which was the floor of the master bedroom. I flicked a switch and it started a 10 second countdown. I glanced at my watch; Right on schedule.
BOOM
I knew that one of the guards had been standing right where the breaching charge had gone off and he was swiftly incapacitated. The floor disappeared from underneath him. He fell to the floor, where he lied until Erica ruined his haircut. She tossed the guard's SMG up to me and I leapt into the bedroom. I looked down at Erica and shouted, "Circle around the house and take him!" I shoved the dictator down the hole where he repeatedly thanked Erica for not killing him immediately. They bolted. Knowing he was in good hands, I focused my entire mind onto the task at hand.
11.
The double doors burst open as two mercs trained the lasersights on me. The lights went out, just what I knew Erica would do. The mercs were disoriented for a short time, until resuming their aim. But I was behind them, 2 shots rang out and they dropped to the floor.
9.
The shouting of the guards filled my ears. I was unable to tell where they were. Unfortunately, I had requested two lessons on "Determining your enemies' location" only to skip them when I needed to save the world. I got onto one knee in the hallway. I tossed a grenade down the hall behind me counting down the seconds in my head. The stomping of the guard's footsteps neared and I thought back, to two weeks ago. On the firing range, I was having trouble hitting any target; I had lost my mojo I guess. Erica was behind me and held my arms against hers as she guided my fingers onto the trigger. She spoke softly into my ear.
