Middleground

Chapter 3

All around there was the swishing of capes as the Male agents closed in on the house. They blended in with the darkness and looked like bats gliding through the night. The only break from the quiet darkness was their staffs pounding down on the ground in perfect symphony. You could hear the echo of hollow cherry wood, the muffled clink of ceramic, and the clank of the artificial plastic from the younger boys.

Sure, the target would know that they were there, but it would be too late. As everyone knew, you could run, but you couldn't hide from the Males forever. They always seemed to track you down, just like bloodhounds.

The house surrounded, the agents closed in. Unlike all of their other raids, this one was elaborately planned out. The Males were not going to screw this up. This was their one and only shot at catching the worm that was hacking their systems and stealing information for the Rebellion. No one knew her name or anything about her. Someone had given her the alias Nova, and it stuck. Their only hint at her whereabouts was a message they had received only hours prior that said she was being contained at a secure location in Sydney, Australia.

Johanna Rubain, a representative from the Females' main operation point, the Center, stood next to the Commanding Officer, who the Males had dubbed Commander. She had been quickly selected from list of candidates who were waiting for their call. She felt that the only reason she had been chosen for the job was because of her need for experience, not to mention the rising task force that she was leading. She was required to have at least one raid under her belt before she took them out on the field. It took Johanna at least a month of pleading to the Female council for them to finally agree to send her on the next available mission.

"This is your last chance to wait in the van until we're finished," Commander muttered to the young woman to his right.

"I assure you that I am fine. I have done this before." She was lying. She had trained for raids like this and read about them in her textbooks, but she had never actively participated in one. The idea wasn't foreign, but she had never experienced one in real life. Of course, she would never tell Commander that. If he knew, he would surely send her back to the van and make her wait for them to bring out the fugitive.

"Your call." His eye roll goes unnoticed in the moonless night. After another few seconds, he shifts his attention back onto the house and yells into his earpiece: "Enter on three! One."

"Keep the element of surprise," one of the mediwitches muttered to the man next to him.

"Two."

All of Australia probably knew they were there by then.

"Three!"

The Males all flooded into the house through the windows, doors, any opening they could find. They immediately started clearing each room as instructed.

Johanna waited for what seemed like hours before they received the all-clear to enter the house.

From the back of the waiting group, Johanna and Commander stepped forward. For the most part, representatives were required to stay near their superiors for the entirety of the raids to ensure that they didn't take any of the evidence for the Females or for themselves. The Females' North and the Males' South held little, if any, trust for one another.

Johanna stayed a few steps behind Commander as they picked their way across the grass and into the house. The moment she stepped over the threshold, the metallic scent of blood knocked her off guard. Covering her mouth as not to puke, Johanna forced herself forward into what looked like a living room where the smell was strongest. Eyes watering, she glanced around.

The room looked like it had been put together for temporary use. The coffee table was made of a plywood board lain across two milk crates, and the desk was two small filing cabinets with a sheet of metal over top of them and a laptop sitting on top of it. The couch was threadbare and littered with holes and the sliding door was cracked open, giving the room a biting chill. By the desk, a staff that looked to be made out of wires, computer chips, and other electrical pieces and then crystallized in glass lay on the floor as if it had been dropped in a rush.

In the corner of the room, a small horde of agents were gathered around something, muttering restlessly. Johanna's eyes shifted around the room in search for Commander, but he was gone. She knew that she had to stay with him, but she wanted to know what they were looking at. In the end, she gave into her curiosity stepped uncertainly to the edge of the small crowd.

When the Females sent her on the raid, they gave her one job. She had to identify Nova if she was found. They gave her a picture as a reference, but Johanna felt that she didn't need it. All she needed was a picture of a snake- the two must look fairly similar.

Johanna slowly pushed her way to the front of the huddle. In the middle, a young girl with some type of cloth around her stomach was propped up against the wall. The girl's hair fell across her face from the way she was seated and she was obviously fighting herself to stay conscious. The cloth around her torso was blood soaked and needed changed. Sitting on the ground beside her was what looked to be a first aid kit whose possessions were strewn across the floor.

Despite her obvious efforts to save herself, the blood was still pouring out of the wound and seeping through her cloth, leaving a giant blood stain. Just the thought of what lay under it made Johanna sick to the stomach. The girl had clearly crawled to the corner soon after she was injured, and hadn't moved since then.

"Hey, girl! Get up!" One of the men crowding her shoved her shoulder and let out a loud, barking laugh when she groaned in pain. He looks to the younger boy kneeling next to him, "Is this the infamous Nova? I, myself, was hoping for a bit more than this. What about you?"

"Killian, I don't-" the younger boy was cut off by the mediwitches arrival.

"Back off!"

"Give her room!"

"Let her breathe!" They pushed their way to the center and immediately went to work.

"Everyone, step back!" Commander's order rose above the quiet chatter that surrounded them. Immediately, everyone complied. He marched to the front and knelt in front of the girl. He reached out and gripped her chin in his large hands, lifting it up higher to get a better view of her face.

As her head tilted up, her hair fell away and her face was out in the open. She looked vaguely familiar, in an odd way. Johanna felt like she should know her, recognize her.

"What's your name, girl?" he asked gruffly.

The girl blinked sleepily, and looked around the room. When her eyes landed on Commander, she grinned at him. Her grin reminded Johanna of a fox's sly smile.

"What took you guys so long?" she asked, pausing to cough into her hand. To Johanna's horror, when she finally dropped it, her hand was a dark red with blood. "I was expecting you lot hours ago."

Commander narrowed his eyes. "I asked you a question, Woman. What's. Your. Name?"

"It is I, the Great Nova!" she raised her hands above her head, but promptly dropped them with another groan of pain.

"Do you work with the Resistance?"

"Don't we all, in one way or another, play a role in their rising?" she asked.

Johanna took a deep breath of air through her nostrils, causing the girl to look at her for the first time.

"Johanna Rubain." the way she said it was almost as if she were asking a question. The sly grin that had previously occupied Nova's face was replaced by a look of shock that morphed into an actual smile. "I have to say that this is definitely the last place I expected to see you."

Before Johanna could respond, Nova slumped against the wall, unconscious.