Macknally quickly surveyed the empty bungalow. Joplin's soulful voice and a strange, lingering, foreign feeling energy seemed to be the only evidence that someone had been in their space. Agent Macknally, usually quite composed under fire, freaked the fuck out. She totally lost her shit. She scrambled to the bedroom and threw herself in the walk in closet, stumbling on a pair of heels. Falling face first to the floor cleared her mind. The panic defused, she faced her options with a new, cold focus- give in to fear and lock herself in the closet to wait for McGee to return like a broken woman with separation anxiety... (deep down, Macknally knew that McGee was not coming back anytime soon, and that was paining her deeply in a way she did not even want to deal with right now) ... OR ... she could do her job and give chase. McGee and her abductor must be within walking distance still, there had been no sound of approaching or departing vehicles. Mack would have heard a car from 1/4 mile away in any direction in this isolated beach hideaway.
He must be dragging her away at gunpoint right this second.... but, in WHICH direction? To the beach? Inland?
VO [Agent McGee's Vioce]: "MOVE!!! THE CLOCK IS TICKING!!!"
Hearing her lovers sexy and tough "Drill Sergeant" voice scream at her in her mind to stop wasting time and move, jump-started her body and kicked her training into Over-Drive. Naked, recovering from the initial shock, she suddenly breaks her stoic disbelief and starts taking action.
Directly to the arms safe in the closet. She was strapped into her Tactical armored vest, in 3.3 seconds, like she wears them every day instead of a bra.
In less than a minute and a half she had cleared the modest rooms of the bungalow, and was out the door, locked and loaded and in pursuit with her unconventionally large and deadly 6-shot S&W MagHammer with built-in silencer, at the ready.
She scanned the horizon and the veranda deck and surrounding lawn, as she quickly circumnavigated the bungalow looking for evidence or signs of McGee and the intruder.
Nothing, no trace of anyone doing anything within the immediate area around the building. No distant figures running away in any direction.
Mack: FUCK!
Back to the master bedroom to throw on some clothes, shoes, and indeed she keeps the body armor as a corset bustier. Managing to look like a proper law enforcement officer, she pauses for a moment to center herself and try to clear her mind. But the surge of adrenalin was still building, and the red fog of rage was crowding in on her awareness.
Out the door again, without consciously deciding which direction she would search.
A quiet voice spoke up moments after she realized she was running towards the main building of the resort, which was hundreds of yards away:
"Not the most likely place that a hostage taker would run with a naked possibly screaming woman."
She pivoted, without breaking her stride, and swung 'round towards the beach.
"A boat getaway? Do you see a boat out on the horizon?"
She kept going, only veering slightly towards the outcrop of rocks that divided the beach just to the north of her position.
"You're on a wild goose hunt."
She ignored the voice in her head, that sounded alternatly like either her dead mother or McGee.
"They are gone."
"...or just around the next corner?"
Struggling to focus on identifying evidence pointing in the direction the intruder absconded with Bobby, Macknally starts to trip-out... seeing movement at the corner of her eyes where there was none, imagining clues on the ground in the middle distance that were shadows.
The nagging voices in her head went silent.
She stops running about 45 feet from the beachhead, sun glinting in her eyes from the water. She has the random thought of wishing she had shown the wherewithal to grab her sunglasses.
Holding her breath to hear as clearly as possible- waves, birds, wind, sand... no sounds of people.
"Or wait...." the voice in her head speaking up suddenly, "There!!!"
Coming from a distance to her right, carried on the wind- a woman's voice. panicky and high pitched, but... the right timber!
"Bobby!", the voice in her head screamed, confirming that it had to be her, it MUST be McGee.
Just up the beach about three hundred feet, and around the picturesque rocks that jut out into the water- Two people, silhouetted in the setting sun's rich, heavy light. Arguing.
"That's her. I know her silhouette anywhere", the voice insisted.
She pushes herself to run harder.
She focuses in on the shape of the man, standing in front of the woman ("Bobby", insists the voice in her head), who did look just like McGee, from this distance.
She pushes her body harder, switching her gait and her breathing pattern to her Stealth Speed, in order to avoid detection by the man her gun was targeted on.
YOU ARE READING
zero hour
Action"Set in an experimental sci-fi comic book action adventure literary world-building project universe of multi-book series nested within other book series, 'The Zeppoverse' may be a bit disorienting to navigate at first... but you kind get used to it...
