Something Confessed

            Ian was up before dawn and out of the stronghold before anyone else. Al through the night he was plagued with vision from one of their past missions, so to clear his head he decided to jog through the forest on the grounds.

            The jogging did not help, but rather brought the flashbacks forwards with more vividness that he almost felt we was back in Russia.

            He was running through a remote forest hot on the trail of his target. Dogs were barking and Russians shouting commands at each other but Ian was not phased. Off in the distance he heard a sniper rifle fire.

            He was clad in all black with his head covered in a balaclava and a hood that formed part of the clock hanging at his back. There was a quiver at his back as well containing only a hand full of arrows. The quiver was of such a design that the arrows did not move nor rattle as he ran.

            He closed on the first squad of three soldiers. Spying a ridge off to his left, Ian ran towards it and leapt over them, firing off three arrows as he did this. He landed before they did and ran onwards. He came across another group of soldiers and disposed of them as well.

            Five minutes later he came across an airfield with a helicopter prepping for take-off. Ian saw two agents on the far side of the airfield dealing with a group of soldiers.

            The helicopter was taking off as Ian closed on it. He leapt onto a nearby container and jumped off the far side past the helicopter. As he went past it, he released the arrow he had drawn in mid-flight. It pierced the glass and struck his target dead between the eyes. The pilot, startled, crashed the helicopter into the control tower not a minute after Ian landed on the ground.

            One of the two agents was on him before he could run. The agent was clad in full combat gear and armed with a sniper rifle. His face was covered with a set of yellow tactical glasses and a balaclava with a duck’s bill on it. The agent swung his weapon at Ian, who dodged it and slapped him with the bow on the side of his chest.

            Ian tried to hit him again, but the man grabbed the bow and ripped it from Ian’s grip. He aimed a hip shot at Ian, who knocked the gun out of the way and the stray bullet slew a soldier a few meters away. Ian drew a dagger from a sheath on the inside of his leg and cut at the man’s arm. The man loosed his grip on the rifle and Ian was able to disarm him.

            Unfortunately the man was well trained and kicked the dagger out of Ian’s hand and into the air. They struggled in hand to hand combat for a few moment as the blade spun in the air. Ian staggered the man with a well-placed punch to the chest, grabbed the dagger as it came down and kicked the man back into a container. Before the man could react, Ian impaled his vest to the container and punched him on in the chest before bolting.

            Ian found himself panting as he came to a halt near the lake. He had lost himself in that memory, and he wasn’t exactly sure why. It hadn’t been a particularly great mission although it did end in success. Although the Agency didn’t see it that way.

  “I’ve had enough of secrets,” said Ian to himself and he made his way back to the manse.

  “General,” Devon greeted over the sound of the troop helicopter taking off.

            They had been flown to Area 51 under the guise of inspecting the facility’s subterfuge resistance. Devon thought it was a good lie as it contained some truth. This time it was only himself and Evelyn on the assignment, much to his displeasure.

  “Special Agents,” said the General, a tall African American man. “It’s a pleasure to host you in our facility. I hope the little green men won’t give you any trouble,” said the man with a smile. “I’m kidding, of course,” he added as he realized Devon was not smiling.

            The General lead them into the facility and past a bunch of labs where they were doing advanced research and development. From the little Devon saw, they were years ahead with some technologies; they had working stealth generators that could hide entire tanks without any distortion while it stood still, nanites that could mend wounds and repair damaged parts of vehicles and a few magnetic acceleration weapons.

            After the tour, they were lead to the base housing where they would be staying for the duration of their investigation.

  “This is the only open unit apart from the presidential unit, which is obviously off limits to anyone but the presidential detail. I hope you don’t mind sharing a bed,”

  “Oh, we don’t,” said Evelyn with a sly smile.

  “Ah,”

  “We’ll call if we have need of you,” said Devon and closed the door leaving the General outside.

  “So, shall we?” she said, dropping a large duffle bag on the bed.

  “Let’s,” said Devon and they started setting up their equipment.

  “De Beer is starting to recover,” said Danny around dinner. It was just the five of them, the two couples and the odd one out, around the large dinner table that could seat twenty. “It was a smart bit of thinking Jacks did,”

  “He’s a smart kid,” said Ed.

  “He’s a cocky bastard, that’s what he is,” said JR.

  “We used to be like that,” said Ian.

  “Used to?” said Danny with a smile.

  “I can see why the Council wants you guys,” said Elizabeth.

  “How so?” asked Ian.

  “You work well together, and you understand each other on a level no one else can,”

  “Eventually you learn to understand them,” said Danny. “It took a while but I’m pretty sure I know Ed and JR well enough,”

  “And me you know all too well,” said Ian, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek.

  “We’re not that difficult to get along with,” said JR.

  “No, that’s not what I meant. It just, things you guys talk about and the way you say things. Without the proper context you could take it the wrong way,”

            After dinner, Ian and Ed opted to do the dishes. CNet insisted on helping, so they did not complain, and the girls went up to the library to look at wedding dresses. JR had gone off to call Laura.

  “You remember that one assignment in Russia, the one where we were chasing that weapons dealer?” asked Ian as he handed Ed a dish to dry.

  “Yeah, that’s the same one you had to sit out near the end, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. You never caught that archer, did you?”

  “The bastard dressed in black? No, I still owe him a good ass-whooping,”

  “You could try,”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I technically didn’t sit the end of that mission out,” confessed Ian. “I was the archer,”

  “You what?” shouted Ed in disbelieve

  “The Agency wanted to take him alive, after what he had done I couldn’t let that happen. They would have questioned him and released him, it wouldn’t suffice,”

  “So you went on a head hunting spree?”

  “Yeah, sort of,”

            They were silent for a bit, then.

  “You were quite a good shot,” Ed admitted, “but I’d still beat you,”

  “Oh, really?” said Ian and the two of them laughed.