Mission: Betrayal part 5

Continued from last week...

“How long is his meeting?” Ryan asked for the hundredth time. He was sitting, impatiently, in the imperial waiting room, along with Laz and Christophear.
The emperor’s secretary, Mattie was what they called her, just glared at him. “He’ll be done when he’s done.”
Ryan leaned over towards Laz, who was reading one of the magazines in the emperor’s waiting room. “She freaks me out.”
Laz shrugged. “She’s the emperor’s secretary, what do you expect?”
Christophear laid down his copy of Imperial Times and sighed. “This is really starting to get boring.”
“You’re telling me,” Ryan rubbed his temple with his hand. He picked up one of the celebrity magazines and then threw it down in disgust. “That Hollywood actress is acting up again.”
“Which one?” Laz asked.
“You know, the one with all those drug problems,” Ryan explained, searching for the name.
Laz looked at him. “Which one?” he repeated.
“The one that went into rehab not that long ago.”
“Which one?”
“The one that--” Ryan started but he was interrupted by Mattie.
“The emperor will see you now.”
“Thank goodness,” they groaned. They trudged up the stairs and up to the Imperial office. Ryan knocked on the door.
“Come in,” the emperor’s voice commanded.
The three obeyed and stepped inside.
“Hello there boys,” the emperor greeted them. He was sitting at his desk as usual atop his chair. His stare pierced them, but it seemed to land on Christophear the most.
“I just heard the news,” the emperor said sadly. “I’m so sorry.”
“What news?” Ryan asked.
“About Michelle’s death,” Christophear reminded him.
“Oh right, of course, Michelle’s death.”
The emperor shook his head. “I know how you must feel.”
“Do you?” Christophear questioned as he sat down in one of the guest chairs.
“Well,” the emperor said, a sly look coming on his face. “I know how you must feel. You’ve betrayed your team, even though they all trusted you. You took advantage of that trust and killed a teammate, who thought she was your friend. What if you get caught? And now, your worst fear has been affirmed.”
Chris frowned, bewildered. “What?”
“Don’t ‘what?’ me, Christophear,” the emperor said. “We know who killed Michelle. The surveillance cameras got it all on tape.” The emperor pushed a button and a large screen TV came down from the ceiling.
“Whoa, where’d that come from?” Laz asked and then shook his head in admiration. “You could play some serious Halo on that thing.”
The emperor ignored his comment and grabbed a remote and started playing a video. It was Michelle’s house. He stopped the camera just as a figure entered. The figure looking up at the camera was Chris!
“Care to explain what you were doing at Michelle’s house at the night of the murder?” the emperor asked. Both Ryan and Laz looked at Chris, questioning looks on their faces.
“That’s not me!” Christophear finally burst out. “I was never at Michelle’s house last night!”
“You got an alibi?”
Chris looked down at the floor. “I was at home alone last night.”
“I didn’t think so.” The emperor called for some guards to come into the room.
“Wait,” Ryan spoke up. “You can’t just arrest him!”
“Why not?” the emperor asked.
“Because, he’s one of my guys! He wouldn’t kill Michelle. Besides, isn’t there something in the constitution that says ‘innocent until proven guilty’ or something?”
The emperor’s gaze pierced Ryan. “Not anymore. Now it’s, ‘guilty until proven innocent.’ And I don’t think our former friend Christophear here will have such luck.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Laz. “He’s still our friend.”
“Yeah, and we won’t let you take him,” Ryan declared defiantly.
The emperor sighed. “I can see you’re going to make this difficult.”
Suddenly, two steel hands grasped onto Ryan’s shoulders. “NO!” he yelled.
Ryan twisted around and elbowed the guard in the stomach and then kicked him hard into the emperor’s desk, sending papers flying. Christophear grabbed the guard behind him by the arms and threw him over his head and onto the ground. Laz wrapped his leg around the other guard’s leg and threw him down onto his face.
The three guards lay crumpled at their feet now. “Cool,” Ryan gasped. “It’s been too long since I’ve done that.” They looked up, but the emperor was gone. “Where’d he go?” Ryan pondered. But before he could say anymore, they heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Great,” Christophear groaned. “The secret police.”
The IMF agents had heard rumors of the secret police, but they’d never actually seen one of them. Probably the same was true for most of the secret police with regards to IMF. They never worked together. Few of the emperor’s secret organizations did.
“Now what?” Laz asked.
Ryan glanced around. They had no weapons. At least none that could match with the countless, top of the line weapons that the secret police were sure to have. “Out the window!” Ryan yelled.
Laz and Chris glanced at each other. “Are you crazy?” they asked.
“Yeah, why do you ask?” Ryan leapt onto the window ledge and kicked through the glass. Laz and Chris shrugged. They ran up to the window.
“Here, Ryan and Laz, take these.” Chris tossed them each a standard issue Sig Sauer P226. “Found these on the guards.” He kept one for himself.
Now, to depict this scene accurately, one has to understand the way the Imperial Palace was designed. From the top of its pointy roof, to about the second floor, it is all glass. The glass is at an incline, slowly rising up, getting steeper and steeper till it hit the top. Right now, they were at about he eighth floor.
Ryan jumped out, backwards and headfirst. He slid down the glass incline upside down, with his back to the glass. Laz and Chris followed after him, using the same technique. They could barely make out the amazed looks that they got when people saw them through the windows, whizzing by.
They were rapidly approaching the second floor. Ryan signaled to the others and then reached to his belt. He pulled out a cable with a hook on it (see Mission 2 part 4), and threw it above him. The cable slid along the glass, searching for a hold. Finally, it broke through the glass and caught onto a window ledge inside, stopping Ryan’s fall. Both Chris and Laz followed suit. They dropped onto the ledge on the second floor and yanked their cables loose.
“Now for the homestretch,” Ryan declared. The attached their cords to the ledge and bungee jumped to the ground. Waiting at the door, undoubtedly to ensure that they didn’t escape, were four guards. Ryan, Chris, and Laz, drew their weapons and took out the guards. They released themselves from their cables and ran towards the IMF van.
“Start it up, start it up!” Ryan yelled to Jordan. Jordan started up the van and Zach opened the doors, standing by with a M60 Saw.
Suddenly, bullets starting whizzing past them, the secret police were firing at them! Kayla tossed them each an automatic rifle, and they started firing back.
Ryan, Chris, and Laz hopped in the van, and Jordan took off. Just as Zach was pulling the door shut a final bullet came screaming into the van. It hit Zach right in the chest and he was knocked back into Emmy by the impact.
Zach groaned. “Oooh, it hurts!”
Ryan whirled around. “Zach! Jordan get us out of here!”
“What does it look like I’m doing!” Jordan screamed. The van roared away from the Imperial palace. “I’m gonna have to try and shake these guys. Hang on.” Jordan started weaving through traffic.”
In the back of the van, Zach’s wound was still bleeding. Chris was trying to put pressure on the wound and Emmy was keeping him elevated.
Zach moaned every time the van moved suddenly.
“Just stay with us, Zach,” Chris said. “Stay awake.”
“I, I, I, cant feel my legs,” Zach groaned. “I can’t feel my legs.”
Emmy started to sob. “He’s gonna die. Oh no, he’s gonna die.”
“No he’s not,” Chris snapped. “Pull yourself together.”
Kayla just stared at Zach in apparent shock. Laz was trying his best to help. “What can we do? Can’t we help him?” he asked.
Sarah seemed devastated herself. “It’s all my fault.”
“Why were they shooting at us?” Kayla finally said, wringing her hands. “We’re on the same side.”
Ryan turned to face her. Wearing a very serious look, probably for the first time in his life. “Not anymore, Kayla,” he declared. “Not anymore.”
Zach was growing weaker by the minute. “He’s losing too much blood!” Chris yelled.
“We can’t do anything about it,” Jordan yelled back. “Just try to hold him a little longer.
“It was an honor serving with you guys,” Zach said.
“Don’t talk like that,” Laz said, leaning over him.
“Goodbye,” Zach whispered. He started to moan again, and then his eyes closed, his breathing ceased. Zach was dead.

to be continued next week...