Agents

Prologue

"Squad 1, cover the back entrance. Squad 2, seal the alleyways. Squad 3, you're with me." I separated my team into squads surrounding the old worn down warehouse. "On three....... THREE!!" I commanded to the agents through their ear pieces, leading them into the building. Gas cans rolled along the ground, covering the level with a think mist of grey. Muffled shots were fired through silencers as limp bodies covered the floor around me. I could see each squad was clear around the room through the gas mask securely stationed on my face.

     Quiet footsteps echoed off the walls as my division proceeded to the underground level of the one story building. Making our way down the steps to the underground bunker, a hidden thug with a knife lashed out at the agent next to me, slashing my partner's arm before I shot a single bullet through his eye. An empty sewage pipe serving as a hallway led us to our destination, and to our target. Leading all three squads now I burst through the doors of the bunker. Ten men stood around the walls of the room holding machine guns now ready to fire. But my team was quick to shoot as I led them into battle with a shot to the target's right hand-man. 

     Another one of the target's men took up the position and began to aid him in the fight to escape. Bullets were flying everywhere and I lost sight of the target who managed to slip out of an exit that our source was reluctant to tell us about. He had probably been seeking years off while still being loyal to his boss.

     I turned to my right to see a man scared half to death begin to raise his gun from his right side. Using my left hand I knocked his hand to the side, grabbing his wrist and twisting it forwards. He jerked forward from the force of his arm being pulled into an unusual position. His shoulder swung downwards and I folded his arm behind him breaking it, and using his body as a shield on my way to find the target.

     Two men were guarding a metal door that had a cloth draped over it. Taking them off guard I shot one in the chest as he fell into the other one. Gaining his attention he shot five rounds at me before I threw my body shield into him. Shock ran through his eyes as he looked at the lifeless body of his friend being thrown at him. I used his distraction to my advantage and shoved a four inch knife from my belt compartment up into his sternum and dragged it down. Ramming the door open I burst into another room, no bigger than my dining room, made completely of metal. No windows or furniture decorated the sterile cell besides one over head light that kept flickering on and off. A small heap of battered blankets sat in the far corner most covered by darkness. 

     "Agent Cross." my name echoed around the room as a fellow agent beckoned their captain. "A vent leading up to behind the dumpster in the alley is how he escaped." the young agent placed a gloved hand beside an open vent just big enough for an adult man to fit through.

     "What squad did I assign you to agent?" I commanded to the agent now shaking silently beside me.

     "Squad 2... sir." the agent informed me.

     "And was it or was it not your job to seal the alleyways?" I commanded once again to find the agent shaking even more violently.

     "People make mistakes....... sir." the agent said hesitantly.

     "No agent. You made an error that compromised our entire mission." I realized that I might have been harsh on one agent whose fault it was not entirely, but we can not afford to make 'mistakes' that could potentially cost us our jobs. We are meant to be the best when all else fails. "Secure this room!" I yelled to agents, in hope of finding something that would save us from rendering the entirety of this mission a fail.

     I entered the lone metal room once again, but this time to be welcomed by the whimper of what sounded like a baby. Making my way over the pile of blankets that had been shifted slightly from their previous position, I pulled them away from the shaking body of a little girl. She seemed too tired to scream, and had a bandage wrapped around her head sopping with blood. Her fingernails looked bitten, broken, stubby, and bloody.The long curly dark brown hair of her head stuck to the skin on her neck coated with a thick layer of grime and sweat. I pulled her into my arms where she struggled before giving up and crying a river into my shoulder. Whispering that everything would be okay and stroking her back, her arms wrapped tighter around my neck as I attempted to hand her off to another agent. She wouldn't let go as the sobs and trembling of her little body distracted me from the almost silent words coming from her mouth.

     "Don't let me go." she whispered before passing out in my arms.