The Brigade

Still working on a title

Hello readers! Back to Daniel's POV

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I strutted out of the ballroom with my head held higher than it had been the whole trip. I guess I finally got that I was a soldier. This was real and I needed to be a leader. My Jackal senses were still going like mad. It was as if I was a pinball machine. I lead the way out of the emergency exit. The noon sun beat down on me. I quickly shielded my enhanced eyes from the glaring sun. I blinked a few times, and then saw a line of people exiting the building. They all thought that there was a fire. Somewhere in the distance I heard sirens wailing. I wanted to go back and get Alice, but I had told her to rendezvous at the fountain. If I went back in there and her group got out then I would be in trouble. I didn't know if I wanted to try to sneak around the group around the side and see if we could go undetected or if we should try to hide in plain sight. I paused on the grass for a second. The gator twins looked perplexed.

"Uh, shouldn't we get out of the middle of the grass?" Zach asked.

"Hold on," I said putting up one finger. Agent Bond cleared his throat.

"I suggest we head into the crowd ," he said.

"Do you have some N.E.W. era friends in there to greet us?" I asked.

"No, but we might make some if we stay in the open. If we were to try to sneak around and we get spotted they can gun us down no problem. N.E.W. era can't risk exposing themselves this close to Area 51. They wouldn't be able to snipe us in the middle of a crowd. They probably have assassins in the crowd with the little Sleeve knives, maybe tasers, and possibly a silenced pistol." I hate it when I want to argue but can't deny the facts. Agent Bond was right of course, but I just felt like I should do exactly the opposite of his idea. Then it hit me. He probably said that so I would want to disagree. He probably has assassins around the route we would take if we went alone. With that in mind I decided that we should go into the crowd.

"Let's go into the crowd," I said. We kept to the side of the building. Any one of the buildings I was looking at could have a sniper in them. We crawled through bushes, dashed in and out of shadows, anything to avoid being in the open. One time when we were behind a hedge we saw some people who I thought were employees until I saw the glint of a silver Baretta strapped to a guy's waist. They went past us thankfully. Just as they were about to turn the corner I saw Reggie's nose wrinkle. He sniffed. His eyes widened.

"No," I whispered. Zach was violently shaking his head violently. Reggie stifled the sneeze before it could come out with his sleeve. We all sighed softly with relief. Suddenly Reggie reared back his head and sneezed. Immediately everybody flattened themselves to the ground. I heard a gunshot. I drew my own pistol, popped up and pulled those trigger. He was down. Agent Bond and the rest of the group were already army crawling away. I holstered my gun and set off after them.

Of course we had to crawl through the rose bushes. Thorns scratched at pricked me. I didn't dare make a sound. It was only a matter of time before the N.E.W. Era assassins found us. Just then I heard the sound of. A footstep crunch against a leaf. It was faint even with my augmented hearing. I froze. Everyone stopped crawling. I could see the end of the hedge where we could pop out and make a dash for the crowd. The fire alarms still wailed. The fire trucks that I had heard in the distance had arrived. Thankfully we couldn't be heard moving through the bushes over the alarms and

"Everyone stand up to a crouch," Agent Bond whispered. We did. Vanessa and Agent bond had their guns drawn. A shadow appeared on the wall near the end of the hedge. They were waiting for us. I motioned for the others to step aside. I focused all of my attention to my auditory senses. I closed my eyes. I heard the assassin's heartbeat thumping. With my eyes still shut tight I brought the gun into position. I took in a deep but silent breath through the nose. I pulled the trigger. The was a strangled shout and then a thud. The others looked at me in awe.