CHAOS CONTROL
 

While two people walking down the street is not in itself an odd sight, the building the two went into was. A young man, with dishevelled brown hair that was kept out of his face by VR goggles, was one of the strangers. His leisurely pace was matched by the second stranger. She had black hair with red streaks. What really made people stop and stare was the black trench coat she was wearing in the deadly Georgia heat.

            The two turned into a tall glass office building. They were ignoring the stares of the people. Several stopped to watch the man in the baggy cargo pants and the woman decked all in leather and camouflage. They only continued on with their lives when the two disappeared inside the glass monster that graced the streets of Columbus.

            The unlikely couple ignored the people in lobby just as they had done to the people on the streets. Their destination was the elevator, and nobody was about to stop them. As soon as they were inside, the doors closed. There was a few second delay before the elevator started moving. In those few seconds, a computer and a camera had scanned the two. Two files were on the unmanned computer’s screen. The female’s file only gave her name as ‘Tenshi’, meaning angel, and the location of training as being Okinawa, Japan. Her counterpart’s file had the name ‘Akii’, meaning demon, or evil spirit, the location of training was also Okinawa, Japan.

            The computer immediately knew what floor to send them to. When the elevator stopped they walked out and went to the door labeled only with ‘Chief’.  Tenshi and Akii were greeted by a portly gentleman with an English accent, he was dressed in a suit that stretched to accommodate his size as he ushered the pair to the chairs in the middle of the room. “Tenshi, Akii, so very nice to see you again. Your assignments.” He handed them each a folder labeled CHAOS CONTROL. They both scanned the folder.

            Akii sighed. Of course, he thought, another organization trying to take over the world. This time they had constructed a version of the atomic bomb much like the one used to bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. The day seemed to be a magnet for weird things because Tenshi’s next thought was, ‘Strange, they’re not using the bomb as a bargaining chip. In fact, according to this, there is no motive whatsoever.’ The intel gathered went on to say that, supposedly, the CHOAS base was somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

            “There is a catch to this mission though,” Chief said, breaking the silence. He observed Tenshi and Akii carefully and was pleased to note that this statement didn’t seem to faze them, proof that they were two of the best, “ Your partners…” Tenshi and Akii turned to the last page of the manilla folders at the same time.

            “ You’re crazy,” Was all that Tenshi could manage. Akii remained silent, and Chief cringed thinking ‘ Oh well, we all have our flaws.’

            Chief continued, apparently ignoring Tenshi’s outburst. “ In fact I would like you to meet your partners now.” As if on cue two men and a girl walked in followed closely by three guards.  A tall man with black hair and well muscled arms was first in, he had on baggy camouflage cargo pants that matched Tenshi’s and Akii’s, his shirt had a silver cross on it. The came a grinning kid who didn’t look any more that twenty-five at the most, he had red hair, a black shirt, and the uniform cargo pants. Last was obviously the ‘insane hacker’ the kid walked in staring at her feet, which where adorned with combat boots, followed by the same cargo pants as the other four, and a sleeveless shirt that read something in binary. She was clutching a laptop. Tenshi swore she couldn’t be older the sixteen or seventeen.

            “You’re having us work with a serial murderer, an insane hacker, and a skilled arsonist?” Akii stated questioningly as he stood nervously to face his new ‘partners.’ Chief nodded. “I have to agree with Tenshi on this one, sir, you are crazy.”

            “ Normally we wouldn’t do this,” continued Chief, “ But they have worked inside the CHAOS organization. Pheonix is a master of the backdraft and many other types of fires. He is also skilled in bombs.” Chief watched the arsonist as he rubbed his chaffed wrists, courtesy of the handcuffs. The arsonist smirked at his codename. Akii sighed knowing this was going to be one long mission. “ Next up is Requiem. He’ll be your manpower.” Tenshi death glared the murderer in response to his leering. “And last but certainly not the least, Hacker. She is the former head of programming for CHAOS. Hacker knows the computers there inside and out, and can get you past any security system.” Neither of the spies gave any response to this one. They were curious about Hacker, she said nothing, she did absolutely nothing when her codename was mentioned, she just stared at her feet. “Well then, I do believe you are all ready to go.” Tenshi and Akii recognized the hidden ‘no arguments’ in his tone.

In a few hours, the group of five were airborne and only minutes away from the first rendezvous point. The seaplane landed in the middle of the Pacific right next to an unmanned speedboat. The five boarded it, and Tenshi waved the pilot off as Akii started the boat. “ So, doll, in these five hours we’ve known each other I’ve never caught your name.” Said Requiem. Pheonix smirked, and Hacker remained silent.

 Tenshi turned to him and put on her best ‘I’m-a-good-person’ smile, “ My name is not doll, it’s Tenshi. If you idiots can’t figure out how to pronounce it, just call me Angel.”

“He meant your real name, babe.” Aki recognized Tenshi’s signs of her urge to kill. He had to put the two losers in the back of the speedboat in their place.

“ Our names are so classified that we don’t even know the. We’ve been trained as spies since our birth.” Akii noticed Hacker’s wide questioning eyes when he returned his focus on the speedboat. Hacker was sitting in the very front as she was the lightest of the group. “Don’t worry, Hacker, it’s not that bad. You get used to it after the first few years or so.” Hacker smiled at him. Both Tenshi and Akii were starting to like Hacker a lot. She was quiet and followed orders, unlike the two men in the back of the boat.

It took an hour to reach the island. They had timed their arrival perfectly. It was the dead of night and no one would be able to notice the speedboat’s wake (a cloaking shield kept the speed boat and it’s passengers invisible). Requiem told them where to go, but only after Tenshi had reminded him of his immunity in return for his help…with a gun.

They exited the boat after Hacker had confirmed that they hadn’t tripped any alarms. Akii noticed that the girl clung to her laptop like a child to her security blanket. He was still trying to figure out how a seventeen-year-old kid got stuck in an insanity asylum. Tenshi flicked him with her index finger and he got back to the job at hand. Hacker kneeled on the ground, her laptop in front of her, in a few minutes she nodded and closed the dim screen, and for the first time in the six hours they had known her, she spoke. “There are several points where lasers trip the security alarm. I can shut those down when we get to them. About a mile in the patrols get heavy. My usefulness ends there, temporarily.” After those four sentences, she fell silent. Akii nodded.

            “Alright,” he said, “Hacker, you’re the point, you start this line. Requiem you’re front guard, which means you stand behind Hacker. I’ll be patrol leader. Pheonix, you’re rear guard, behind me, Tenshi will end the line.”  The four nodded in reply and with a little coaxing from Tenshi were in a single file line. “ Now some basics,” Akii held up a fist he’d made with his right hand. “This means stop, Hacker, use this when we come to those lasers.” Then he pulled at his collar with his right hand, “This means to contact the patrol leader. One more and we’re set,” This time he lifted his right arm, and made all but his index and second finger into a fist and made a forward motion, “That means to keep moving.”

            He made his last motion again and Hacker started moving, keeping low to the ground and stepping as silently as she could. She led the tightly knit group around trees and bushes, keeping as close to the shadows as possible.  Requiem wasn’t prepared when her fist went up and ran into Hacker causing her to fall forward. She let out a little squeak and caught herself before her shirt set off the alarm. Akii pushed past Requiem muttering something along the lines of ‘inubaka’, which means idiot dog, and helped her up. Hacker smiled at him. Akii returned to his position in the patrol line and watched as Hacker easily disabled the alarm. She motioned for them to move on.

            With only two more near accidents of Requiem almost crushing Hacker, they made it to the base. Hacker was hiding behind Akii, he assumed that Requiem scared her. Of course, Hacker wasn’t about to say anything. She hadn’t spoken since her four sentences half an hour earlier, and he suspected she wouldn’t. She only spoke when she had to. In that case, it was an emergency.

            In silence, Tenshi and Requiem stole forward in the direction of the first pair of guards that had strolled by. “ Good night, boys.” Muttered Tenshi as she and Requiem twisted their necks. Akii cringed from the shadows of the trees surrounding the base. He hated it when Tenshi just up and killed like that, but he wasn’t about to stop her.

            The remaining three wasted no time sneaking out of the shrubbery on Tenshi and Requiem’s second kill. The five barely had enough time to hide in what little darkness the huge building offered them before another pair of guards walked by.

            Hacker started poking around at the panel that opened the door. Akii watched her hook up her VR goggles to the panel, then she connected another cable from the goggles to her laptop. In seconds, the door was opened. Pheonix entered first. He had a plan just in case they were seen. Tenshi and Akii failed to notice him fall slightly behind as he paused at an electrical outlet. Hacker and Requiem had guessed what he was doing and didn’t lift a finger to stop him.

            A guard’s shout from the outside did catch the spy’s attention though. They watched in horror as Pheonix closed the electronic door. Pheonix ran up the hall to them. “ Run, you idiots,” he hissed. Not that he really cared if they lived, but they were his ticket to immunity. The two wasted no time springing into action. A small rumbling and a large amount of pressure almost knocked the five off their feet. They knew what Pheonix had done, and they were just glad that they weren’t the ones caught in the backdraft.

            When the heat had diminished somewhat Tenshi turned and slammed Pheonix into the wall. “What the hell were you thinking?! You could’ve gotten us killed. And now they know we’re here.”

            “Hey, Tenshi, stop terrorizing him. Besides we got more guards coming our way.” Akii said pointing at the armored men running down the hallway.  Tenshi let Pheonix down and they turned to face the guards.  The five were doing fine until one of the guards dived at Hacker. Akii moved to stop him but was too late. Hacker hit the ground with the dead weight of the guard on top of her. Akii’s distraction allowed the guards to get an advantage over him. After that, the remaining three were easily subdued.

            Tenshi and Akii were the first to wake in the cold, metal cell. They were tied to the ceiling by heavy chains, and their feet were about a foot off the ground. Akii glanced around, he was pleased to note that they were still in one group. The question in both spy’s minds now was weather they should try to escape. According the file, the launch time was in an hour by Tenshi’s watch. The teammates glanced at each other and nodded. In perfect synchronization, they swung on the hook and used the force and their body weight to flip above the hook that was holding the chains. They landed on the beam above them and Akii pulled out Tenshi’s skeleton key. In seconds, they were free.

            Around that time the remainder of the team started to wake up. Tenshi freed them while Akii went to work on hacking the door from the inside. After several unsuccessful attempts, Hacker bounced over and took the equipment from him. In no time, the door was open and the team was sneaking down the hall.

            “So, doll, were the hell are we going?” Requiem asked. Tenshi glared at the word ‘doll’ but brought up a holoprojected map.

            “We’re here right now, the bomb is there.” She said pointing, “All those little red dots are guards. If we take this route here through the ventilation system we can avoid them.”  Pheonix and Requiem scrunched up their noses in disgust, they liked doing things the flashy way, but the rest ignored them and climbed into the dusty passageway. Tenshi didn’t like the fact that it was taking them a long time to get through to the bomb. Half an hour passed before Akii opened up the exit to the musty passage and jumped down. Tenshi followed and pulled up her holomap. She was wondering where all the guards were. Her map proved her theory that they were all outside the doors that led out of the bomb’s prison.

            Pheonix, meanwhile, wasted no time in getting to the bomb’s computers. He’d seen the design before and knew just how to crack the code. The only thing that could stop him was if the guards walked in. His worst fear was realized just as he was changing the last line of code. His ‘partners’ wasted no time in firing at the guards. He growled, the noise was not helping his train of thought. Hacker started typing around him; she had programmed the bomb and knew how to stop it. She smiled and nodded her head in the general direction of the fight. Pheonix understood the message and jumped up to help. Hacker took control of the keys. The final line of code had been changed just as soon as the leader of CHAOS walked in.

            His attention was entirely focused on the four with the guns. Hacker figured it was time she made some real use out of herself. Most of the guards were either dead or too wounded to fight, the rest were outside the door. Hacker realized the leader’s mistake and took advantage of it. She picked up one of the fallen guard’s guns and snuck behind the leader.

            The typical take over the world speech that the other four were enduring ended suddenly with the hammer off a gun being pulled back. Tenshi and Akii smiled, the mission was over, and they had won. They had proven that it was possible to win even with two convicts and a techie right out of the insanity asylum.

            Just as Hacker pulled the trigger, everything froze. ‘Program Terminated’ flashed in front of Tenshi and Akii’s eyes. The scene before them faded out of view.  They remained still as the VR goggles were removed from their eyes. “Congratulations on a job well done.” Said Chief as his star spies stood groggily. They had just beaten the newest edition to spy training. A simulator designed to send out random scenarios with weird catches. This program would revolutionize spy training.  Tenshi and Akii sighed, sure, the program was good, but it was unlikely. Oh well, they thought, all is not what it seems. The slipped on their jackets with a logo that read ‘I AM NOT who I say I AM’ in alternating large and small font, and in unison they exited the room without a second thought.