-Chapter 9
Rain was pouring against the windows of the E50 headquarters in London. Alfonzo was calmly reading a bible in solemn silence. News had broken out of yet another failed preemptive strike on Victory on the shores of Crete. As with the second, this third strike was completely caught on world video. Now the whole world was whiteness to Victory displaying his ability to take military rockets to the chest with no physical harm done to him. Analysts and experts were attempting to explain it as some new breakthrough in force field technology that Serene Corporation already in prototype phase. Some leaked videos that hit the web exposed what those prototypes looked like, which raised reasonable doubt that Victory was the simple result of technology. The exposé revealed that top of the line Serene Corp force field engines were more than three stories tall, requiring a stationary power source of immense capacity. This led general consensus to consider it less than likely that someone was able to perfect such a device to be portable and invisible on the user.
As the water pelted against the glass, Alfonzo buried himself in the words of one of the psalms. He did his best to momentarily put aside the situation with Victory, and America's response. On the computer monitor, a notification chimed. This came much to Alfonzo's surprise, as he had disabled notifications for the time being. The notification came as a cartoon version of Alice giving a peace sign. Upon pressing the icon, Alice was visible on the screen.
"Phase one is ready. I have scanned and confirmed Agent Herd's location." said Alice.
"Very well. Proceed as directed, Miss Fujieda. Find Alexey Volden Junior." said Alfonzo. Alice gave a salute and signed off. Another notification rang on the monitor through the emergency channel. Alfonzo let out a despondent sigh as the notification was that of a mayday call, as Victory was just then commandeering a US Naval vessel. The USS Nicholas Spehar, designated SXN-02 was praised to be a Serene Corp masterpiece of Naval warfare and Special Operations. Upon the initial declaration of war given by Victory, the Fleet Admiral had the boat launched under direct order by the President to deploy the most capable force to neutralize any and all threats associated with Victory. The vessel was outfitted with weapons that were never demonstrated to the general public before, in addition to the rest of the standard issue stacked in an armory enough to serve the needs of a small army.
"God help us all." prayed Alfonzo, returning to his reading.
"Righto. Some mate needs to brass up that left flank." suggested the man calling shots on the front edge of a perimeter made surrounding Horlivka. The man tilted up the wide brim of his leather hat, his E50 tactical suit scrunching as it moved. He kept going between talking on the transceiver to looking through a pair of binoculars. Without warning, there was a flash, and Alice appeared out of thin air.
"Woah! Holy dooly! I must be nackered! Some ricer sheila just hopped outa my battle tranny!" said the E50 operative. The term ricer was not taken well, as evident in the massive slap in the face Alice gave the man.
"Not the best time to be away with the fairies, Major!" came the voice on the other end of the transceiver.
"Shut ya gob, and brass up the left flank!" the Major replied with gusto. The order was then acknowledged, and heavy machine gun fire could then be heard raining down hell upon the counteroffensive coming in from the North.
"Now, pardon the offense, Miss." said the Major, changing to a far more cordial tone.
"Of course you may want to-" as the Major continued, a bullet landed inches from where Alice stood. "Yeah. You're gonna want to get in cover. We're pinned down by two snipers right now."
Alice immediately ducked next to the Major behind the car which barely masked them from the rifles. She flinched as the second bullet buzzed by her head.
"They're in those buildings just up ahead... I think I can nail em." said the Major, which made Alice curious. The Major wasn't carrying a rifle, or anything resembling a gun on him. It was hard to tell as he wore a black cloak over his tactical suit. Putting his back against the car, the Major unfurled his cloak unveiling an arsenal of curious looking bladed weapons. Their intended use was somewhat clear when the Major took one of them in each hand, and threw them in the direction he was facing. Before Alice could bother asking why the Major chucked the blades in the opposite direction of the snipers, he waved a hand in the air. Once more a pair of bullets zipped by in uncomfortably close proximity of them. Quietly, slowly, and verbally the Major counted to three.
"Righto, then. Let's stand up and look pretty for the nice gentlemen up there." said the Major, which was definitely confusing Alice. "Av-a-go, mate! Up!" he insisted, taking Alice's hand and dragging her onto her feet.
"Smile pretty, now." said the Major, himself grinning ear to ear and waving his hand. "That's it. You bloody well aim right at us, and..."
As this was going on, the bladed boomerangs that the Major hurled did an inertia defying curve in the air. They both suddenly shot upward, then backwards in the air, as well as increasing in velocity as they flew. Then as the two stood up and bated the snipers to remain in the open while they took aim, the boomerangs landed in the head of both snipers. They were both instantly neutralized. The apparently sharper of the two barely managed to squeeze off another round that was put enough off the mark in the nick of time so it only smashed through the car window instead of tearing a hole in the Major's chest.
"Hwah! Fair crack of the whip? If not for a hair's length, it woulda been curtains! That's a bloody oath! Haha!" shouted the Major, with excitement to make Alice seriously wonder about his sanity.
"Any who. I am Major William Herd of Australian Special Operations Command, at your service. Also known by E50 as Agent William Herd. You may just call me Bill." said Bill, taking his hat off and giving a short bow as he addressed the lady.
"Dr. Alice Fujieda. As of now, I am a fellow Agent of E50." said Alice, still not feeling at ease with the continuing sounds of gunfire all around.
"Welcome to the recently independent Ukraine. Now, never in a dream has a sheila given me a job in the face. But forgive me if I am still a little concerned in just how you got here like you did?" said Bill.
"It's complicated." Alice hinted with a nervous smile.
"Well. I don't reckon it's as complicated as to why you dropped in, eh?" Bill followed up, kicking at a shell on the ground.
"I suppose not. Alfonzo needs us to find Volden Junior." said Alice, brushing her shoulders, and like magic her outfit changed from her lab coat to that of an E50 combat suit.
"What's all this hocus pocus?" asked Bill, remarking at the display.
"Cross digital storage. With the help from my personal computation engine program, I invented it within the seconds it took me to crossload myself here through your wireless devices." Alice loosely explained.
"What the flak does crossload mean?" asked Bill, not quite fascinated by the technobabble.
"It means to upload, or for lack of a smarter term, teleport something physical from one place to an other by means of the cross digital process." said Alice. She pulled out the handgun from the holster on her leg, and meant to make a more impressive demo of her cross digital technology. The gun clicked, yet was without any rounds. Then it suddenly flared up, and Alice had to throw it away before it blew up in her hands.
"There's some kinks I still need to work out." she said, bringing up a selection screen in front of her as if out of no where. "With the right modifications, and rights to a legitimate storage facility, I could create the most efficient mobile storage/delivery system ever to be conceived."
Bill looked over her shoulder, getting interested when a specific model number came up.
"Is that the Drummer, DX 12?" he asked.
"If by that you mean the most advanced all terrain reconnaissance vehicle to date." said Alice with a smile. She pressed on the selection and the mentioned vehicle momentarily materialized before them.
"And it's in GI green! Ripper!" said Bill, officially impressed. "We'll need this, otherwise we're gonna go walkabout looking for Volden. My sources put him 50 k's south of Woop Woop, which is somewhere in that mess over there."
Bill pointed in the general direction he earlier ordered to be "brassed up." The machine guns were still going, and Alice suddenly had second thoughts.
"Aw. No worries, mate! She'll be apples!" assured Bill with a hard pat on Alice's shoulder. "Now let's climb on in this Yank Tank, and put the petal to the metal! As they say, yeah?"
Meanwhile, back in America, Jim's sleek black sedan makes it's way to Chenango Forks High School. Max maintains pursuit of them at a distance, and out of the sight of passersby.
"Where is it?" asked Jim.
"The school is just down this way." said Grace.
"I'm in no mood for the Mickey Mouse games, kid. I mean, where is the thing you call Max?" said Jim.
"I call him Max because he's not just a thing!" said Grace.
"What convinces you otherwise?" Jim asked, coldly.
"The way he speaks. The way he's always there for me, when no one else is! The way Max has been my only real friend in this stupid place since I moved here!" Grace began to rant on. Something perked Jim's ears, making the decision easier for him to make. Yet he kept his act up the whole way to the school. It was just a shame a civilian had to get involved.
