Short Stories

MARY

Agent X dropped onto the tiled floor. He knew it was a stereotypical name, but that's what he was; X, an unknown quantity. No one knew much about Agent X, not even himself, although he knew more than most people. Agent X looked around the corridor, there were flickering lights, they would go down soon, the backup generator keeping them powered was like a toy to Mary. "Mary, where's the Man?" Agent X whispered into his microphone attached to his chest, an earpiece in his left ear whispered back "I don't know, he's not on any of the security cameras. My guess is that he has a secret floor somewhere, with its own power and security systems, Peters is too clever not to. Stay alert, we're not done yet." Agent X crept silently along the corridor as he had trained a thousand times. He peaked around a corner to see two men with fully automatic assault rifles advancing down towards him, he rounded the corner and dropped them with two silenced pistol rounds before they could even blink, he felt no pity for them. Agent X made his way up the corridor, towards where the security guards had come from. To his right was a steel vault door. "This is it, this isn't shown on any of the plans." Whispered Mary through his earpiece. He gazed at the steel door for a weakness, then without speaking took a wireless transmitter from his suit and inserted it into the panel on the wall. "Nicely done, Ex." Mary said, "You're getting smarter." Agent X grinned, the compliment made him feel slightly warmer inside. Agent X watched as the massive steel doors slowly retracted into the walls, then leaped to the side as an RPG came hurtling out of the doors. He gritted his teeth, his suit should be able to take an RPG to the chest, but training was training. He heard the Rocket explode down the hallway opposite to the doors, counted to two and a half, then entered with his silenced pistol raised. The first three men dropped before anyone else had got a round off, they were wearing black, but had a logo of the Earth on their left forearm, except this Earth had the continents coloured green instead of the normal brown or white. They called themselves the Humanists, and were the deadliest terrorist organisation to ever exist. Their reach used to extend into almost every country, but over the last two decades MARY and its members had started winning more than it lost, and had started pushing back the terrorists. Agent X took in their clothing and equipment, a gun, but not one he recognised. "Glasses" Said Mary in his ear and he reached up to his glasses, changing them to infrared, letting him see the body heat of his opponents just as the electric lights in the corridor went off. Mary whispered again. "I can take out the lights in this hallway but the security system for the rest of the floor is... complex. You're on your own from here on in." Agent X grunted to show he understood, then raised his gun and fired two shots at the last two men, one for each. He reloaded, then walked until he came to an intersection with no indication of which way to go. He examined both corridors intently, then turned left. The left corridor was slightly dirtier, more people had travelled this way recently. The corridor slowly curved to the right, then it suddenly opened into a large circular room filled with strange experiments. Creatures floated in tanks of liquid, test tubes filled with chemicals of interesting colours boiled, and standing in the middle of the room, facing him, was Professor Peters, one of the leading scientists backing the Humanists. The man was small and frail, he looked to be getting on towards elderly, probably in his late sixties. Peters was holding a large cannon, undoubtedly one of his latest inventions, Agent X would have to be careful. Peters studied Agent X, but didn't shoot, instead he said, "I knew you'd come for me sooner or later." Agent X said nothing, just stood there waiting for the man to continue, he obviously wasn't interested in killing him just yet. "Who were your parents? Assassin? If you don't mind my asking of course." Ex frowned, "My parents died when I was very little, I never knew them. You cannot distract me with emotional attacks." The Professor nodded, "I wasn't trying to. Just curious. And what about you Mary?" He turned and spoke as if to an audience. Hidden speakers all over the place crackled to life. "Hello Professor." Mary's voice came from everywhere, it was warm and calm as always. "Who were your parents Mary?" Mary paused, "My parents were bad people, they worked for your kind." Ex would have almost jumped in surprise, but his emotional training kept his face neutral. "I disagreed with their ideals, and they tried to kill me. As far as I'm concerned, I do not have parents, kill him Ex." Ex raised his gun and fired, one bullet, straight through the man's skull. Nothing happened. Hologram. The professor kept talking, "Mary, I know you hate us, it's understandable why you do. But what you're doing is wrong. You left us to fight for goodness, but we fight for Humanity. True there is famine, plague, racism. I do not deny that these things exist, but they are our  problems, you're trying to cure insomnia with a metal bat." The Hologram flickered, but didn't stop. Mary spoke again, "This really is an ingenious security system." She said, "it is full of little surprises. OUCH! And a few big surprises it seems." She chuckled, "But I am making progress." The Professor nodded and spoke, "I calculate that it should take you until roughly twenty-three minutes, six seconds, and twenty-eight milliseconds past midnight to completely gain control over my little system, although to shut me off should only take to the end of this sentence." He paused, expecting something to happen. Nothing did. "Either sentience doesn't suit you Mary or you're..." The Professor paused again, then his eyes widened and he turned and shouted "EMP the whole thing!" Before the Hologram flickered out. Mary chuckled again, it made Agent X want to chuckle as well. 'The fools hadn't thought Mary could trace the signal.' He thought, 'Well his little worker can sort him out oh ye-'. Agent X halted his train of thought. 'What little worker?' He wondered. 'What was I thinking?'. First off he'd let himself be emotionally compromised which was utterly unacceptable, but what also played on his mind was why? He did not feel remorse or hate for the Professor, so why should anything about the Professor make him mad? Yet he was mad. He could feel a deep, powerful loathing for the man. Not just for the Humanists, but for that man in particular. It was illogical. He shook the feeling and stood a little straighter. "What are my orders Mary?" He asked. Mary's voice crackled over the speakers, "I located where he was, but he'll be moving already. I'll send you the location but you'll have to track him from there." Agent X nodded, "And when I find him?" He asked, though he could guess what the answer would be. She'd tell me to elimin-"Eliminate him" Mary said coolly.

Mary watched Ex standing there, gazing into space, thinking. It was natural, she supposed. Everyone had to make decisions, but he had never taken this long. Finally Ex stopped staring blankly and stood to attention, he was ready for orders and asked for them. Mary grinned internally, the old fool had sorely underestimated her. She could have shut that Hologram off the moment Ex put the Bug into the panel, but she'd chosen to wait. Bide her time. It was cunning, it was wise. All those fools kept saying she was wrong, that omniscience wasn't wisdom. Well, she'd just proven them wrong again hadn't she? That fool of a professor thought his measly codes and worms were enough. But where he had worms she had birds. "And when I find him?" Ex asked, good. His will was still hers. She got a faint tingle of pleasure just imagining what Ex would do to her father when he caught up, "Eliminate him." She said.  

The camp was in ruins. There were only five living people in it from the one hundred or so guards that had attempted to do their jobs. Admittedly half of them had been asleep, but explosions didn't discriminate. He'd run out of ammunition and downright refused to use one of the guns from the fallen guards. He would not ever be caught with something of the Humanists in his possession, regardless of the cause. Besides, it had been a while since he'd had fun. The five remaining guards all clustered around the entrance to one tent, they were understandably terrified. He moved faster than they could think, and had two down before a single shot was fired. He let his suit do the work this time and barely felt the three bullets which crumpled instead of tearing through his heart, not terrible shooting all said and done. He smiled at the others, reached out one gloved hand and tapped one of the guards on the forehead, releasing the force of the bullet which his suit had just absorbed. The remaining two men tried to run, one fell with a broken neck before he managed to turn. The other was surprisingly quick and managed to dodge out of the way of his grab. The man turned and fled. Agent X let him go. Agent X entered the tent. The Professor was waiting. Even as Agent X raised his gun, one final bullet saved for this man, the Professor spoke. "Here I come Vangie." He said. Agent X paused, "Vangie." He rolled the word around, "Vangie, Vangie. Evangeline Summers?" How did he know that name? The Professor looked at the Agent in confusion, "How do you-?" Agent X shot him in the head. Evangeline Summers. How did he know that name? He'd have to ask Mary about her.

Mary was in shock. How did Ex know that name? That was impossible. The only other person who had known that name died in a tent five minutes ago. The only other person who knew the name of her mother, had been her father. The Professor. Had he told him? No, he'd just mentioned a name. Ex had known that name. And that meant that somewhere was something she hadn't accounted for. And that meant that Ex was no longer trust-able, that Ex was now corruptible. It meant Ex was now, if she'd had a throat she'd have gulped, Ex was now the enemy.