Mission 3 Part 7

The woman gave a wicked grin. “We meet again IMF agents, for the last time.” She laughed evilly and added, somewhat anti-climactically, “Actually it’s M, not Q.”
“Wow,” Laz said, scowling. “That was cheesy, ‘we meet again IMF agents, for the last time, ha, ha, ha.” I mean wasn’t that in a cartoon movie or something? Surely you can do better than that.”
M scowled back. “How about this? Shut up or you die.”
Laz gulped. “Works for me.”
M tapped her foot on the floor. “So, what exactly did you do with my sister?”
Ryan shrugged. “I don’t know; what did we do with her?”
“We have her on the helicopter,” Emmy explained.
“Good, bring her to me,” M said in an evil voice. “So I can shoot her.”
“Ah, sisterly love,” Ryan replied sarcastically.
“Shut up, Cruise,” M snapped. “I’ve got something special planned for you.”
Kayla’s mouth was still wide open. She was the only one who was aware enough to be fully amazed. “Wait, how did you get here?”
M laughed, eager to tell her story. “I escaped from that pitiful jail by faking my own death.”
Ryan gave a knowing look. “I did that once,” he reminisced. “It was pretty cool, except for the fact that the other guy they put in the coffin with me was actually dead.” He shuddered.
M frowned. “Don’t interrupt! I’m trying to bask in my own self-imagined glory here!” She sighed and continued, despite the funny looks all the agents gave her after that last out burst. “So when I heard about my little twin sister’s plan to blow up the empire with the TNW’s, I knew I had to intervene… and take credit for the plan myself. I was just in the middle of doing that when you guys showed up.”
Ryan appeared to be thinking hard about something underneath the net.
M growled. “What is it, Cruise? You have a question?”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, how much older are you than your sister? Like five minutes?”
M rolled her eyes and was about to comment about Ryan’s knack for saying all the wrong, and stupid, things and the wrong time when…
Pat burst through the door that the IMF agents had entered from.
“Hello there, Pat,” M said. “You’re just in time to see the whole IMF squad beg for their lives.”
“Pat, you traitor!” Ryan barked. “I knew it.” He glared at Timothius, who hung his head.
“I must say,” Pat laughed. “You all look ridiculous underneath that net.” He paused, reaching ever so slowly for his trusty Colt .45. “But not as ridiculous as you’ll look, M.” He drew his weapon and tried to get a shot off at M, but M was too quick. She shot Pat’s gun out of his hands before he could even shoot.
“Ow!” Pat groaned. The bullet had missed his hand, but the impact of it hitting the gun out of his hands still hurt him.
“I’m disappointed in you,” M clucked her tongue. “Taking sides with these pitiful agents. Too bad you guys won’t live to see what I’m going to do with these TNW’s,” she patted the suitcases next to her. “It would make your skin crawl off, literally.” She laughed her evil laugh again.
Just as all hope seemed to be lost and IMF appeared to be doomed, the two forgotten agents, Chris and Zach burst through the door that M had come through. They charged into M and sent her sprawling.
“Let’s see your skin crawl off, M,” Chris said, keeping his automatic rifle trained on her as Michelle freed the other IMF agents.
“We took care of the conductor,” Zach informed them. “The train should be coming to a halt any time now.”
“Good,” Kayla said, crawling out from underneath the net with Zach’s help. “We need to get these TNW’s out of here.” She spoke into a radio clipped to her flak vest, “Jordan, Joy, get ready to land; we’re stopping the train.”
“Roger that,” said Jordan’s voice.
“Oh crap,” Ryan exclaimed.
“What?” everyone asked.
“One of these nukes has a timer on it,” he told them.
“How much time?” Laz asked.
“Five minutes.”
“I don’t think I can disable it that fast.”
“We’ve got to get it out of here,” Kayla urged. “It will destroy everything within a one mile radius! Including us!”
Ryan grabbed the suitcase with the timer on it and started to run back the way they had come.
“What’re you doing?” Cathy asked.
“Getting rid of it,” Ryan replied. “Five minutes should be plenty of time for the Porsche to get one mile from here.”
“Don’t do it, Ryan!” Laz called. “You’ll never make it back in time!”
“Just stop whining and tell me where the closest unpopulated area is,” Ryan said, continuing to ran to the back of the train.
“Go east about two miles and you’ll reach a completely unpopulated area,” Laz informed him while trying to keep up. “Let me go with you,” he pleaded.
“Not this time,” Ryan shook his head.
“What happened to dopey sidekick?”
Ryan had reached the Porsche now and he unhooked it from the ramp and hopped in. “Not this time, Laz.”
Laz stubbornly opened the door and climbed inside. “You’re not leaving without me.”
Ryan smiled. “You’re a very stubborn, dopey sidekick.” He backed off the train, which had come to a complete stop by now, and turned east.
“Wait,” Emmy called, running up to the ramp as he backed off. “Don’t go!”
But Ryan and Laz were already off, racing to the spot where there was the least population.
“I never got to say goodbye,” Emmy sniffed.
“Its okay,” Kayla comforted her. “They’ll be back, trust me.” She watched them earnestly as they drove off. “I hope,” she added quietly
Timothius shook his head sadly. “I don’t think they can make it back in time.”
Kayla glared at him. “You’re not helping.”
“Sorry, I was just saying.”
“Try saying something encouraging then, bro,” Christophear advised, coming up from behind them with a handcuffed M in front of him.
Michelle nodded. “They’ll be okay, Emmy, you’ll see.”

Ryan drove as fast as he could to the spot where Laz told him to go. They reached it with about one minute left on the timer. Ryan tossed the TNW out of the window and turned around.
“We’re not going to make it, Ryan,” said Laz, seeming somewhat stunned.
“Well, it’s been fun Laz,” Ryan said. “And hey, we at least know what to expect. I mean, we’ve been through this before. I wonder if we’ll see any flowers this time?”
Laz nodded slowly.
Ryan raced as fast as he could back the way they’d come, but he knew it was all for nothing.
“Laz,” Ryan said.
“What?” Laz asked.
“We’re gonna die again, aren’t we?”
“Yep.”
“This could get old after awhile, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, probably.” And suddenly the nuke exploded, and their world was engulfed in darkness.

To be continued next week...