MIssion 5:Payback part 5

Note from the author: Well, I thought I'd just post the link to our interview: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5972359939885256315&hl=en. Let us know what you thought of it. If you didn't get a couple of the questions don't worry. As Laz so aptly put it, "you'd have to be drunk to understand a couple of these questions..." Or you'd have to have been there... or both... anyways, hopefully we'll also have some bloopers, there was quite a few, mostly of us rambling on and then suddenly realizing we were getting very stupid. And speaking of rambling, I'll shut up now. Now to our main attraction...

Continued from last week...

Continuing the random side-plot…

Agent P closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He sat down on his chair in his office at CIA headquarters. Why had ever taken this job in the CIA? Why? Things had been good at first; all they’d had to do was catch rebel terrorist every now and then, and that had been easy. Now all of the sudden they had a myriad of rogue agents on the loose and not nearly enough man power to track them all down. The most elusive, and consequently the most wanted, of the fugitives were Ryan Cruise, Timothius Danaford, and Laz.
There was another agent on the loose, however, one who went by the name of Jason Scorn. This particular agent was especially bothersome to Agent P, because of how easily he constantly outsmarted his agents at every turn. The guy was an expert at locating disguised agents, and could pick them out of the crowd as easily as if they were wearing red targets. On top of this, he was an incredibly good fighter, and could dismantle any five guys in the entire CIA.
As he was thinking about this, Agent P’s partner, Agent U, came into his office.
“Sir, there’s a call for you,” Agent U told him.
“Tell him I’m not here,” Agent P said, rearranging the photos of Ryan, Tim, Laz, and Jason on his desk.
“I think you might want to take this, its Jason Scorn.”
Agent P scrambled up from his chair and grabbed the phone. “Agent P,” he said.
“P, I knew you would come scrambling to the phone once you knew who I was,” Jason Scorn said from the other line.
“I didn’t scramble, I… how did you know that?” Agent P asked.
“I can see you, P.”
“That’s impossible.” Agent P paused and then looked at his desk. “Who’s pictures do I have on my desk?”
“Mine, Ryan Cruise’s, Tim Danaford’s, and Laz’s,” Jason replied.
“You could have just guessed,” Agent P said skeptically.
“Okay, I can tell you what you’re wearing right now,” Jason offered.
“What?”
“A black suit, with a red and blue striped tie, and black pants.”
“You could have guessed that too.”
“Who wears a red and blue striped tie? Why would I guess that?” Jason said, in his typical non-emotional voice.
Agent P held his hand over the phone, and whispered to Agent U. “He says he cans see us right now, is that possible?”
“Well sir,” Agent U responded. “Due to the utter lack of shades or blinds on any of the windows in this entire building, I’d say it’s highly possible that anyone can see us. Seriously, they have more secrecy on the set of Indian Jones 6.”
“Blast!” Agent P cursed. He turned back to the phone, “Jason… Jason?” But there was no answer. Jason was gone. “He’s on 222nd street, set up a trap for him.”
“How do you know?” Agent U asked.
“He left us a code,” Agent P replied.
“No he didn’t, he just hung up, how’s that a code?”
“Just shut up and set up the trap!”
“So we’re just gonna go there because he left you some code? What if he’s setting up a trap?”
“That’s impossible.”
Apparently, it wasn’t, but that’s a story for another time…

Back to the main storyline…

After they had gotten over the initial shock of seeing Cathy alive and realizing Jordan was no longer with them, the IMF agents were all very eager to see what was inside the files.
“Later,” Cathy insisted. “Right now we need to prepare for our attack on the Empire. Let me show you around the facilities.”
She escorted them and all the rest of IMF throughout the rebel base, showing them all their weapons, vehicles and other military supplies. She also showed them the living quarters and other important buildings, such as hospitals, banks, and movie theaters.
“But most importantly,” Cathy said, turning to the IMF agents. “Its all underground, which means that it can’t be reached by the Empire, except in two narrow entrances. The one you came by, and another that is barely big enough for a truck to fit through. That is our main entrance, and the one you came by is sort of our ‘back door’. Pretty neat, isn’t it?”
“Amazing,” Sarah agreed. The others nodded as well.
“But that’s enough of the tour, now we need to get down to business.”
“What do you mean?” Kayla asked.
“Well, we need to find Tim, of course.” She sighed. “And I guess we better locate Ryan and Laz as well.”

“Are you sure this will work?” Katie asked, her tone indicated that she obviously wasn’t very sure herself.
“Of course I’m sure,” Ryan replied, giving his trademark grin. “When have I ever been wrong?”
Katie looked at Tim. Tim just shrugged and didn’t answer.
“You’ve been wrong lot’s of times,” Laz spoke up. “You’ve just been extremely lucky.”
“Yeah, and why should that stop now?”
“There is such a thing as pushing your luck, you know,” Daniel said.
Ryan looked at him. “Not for me there isn’t. Now just do what we rehearsed.” The knocking on the door had turned into pounding, and lots of impatient cursing.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Daniel yelled in a drunken Southern accent. He yanked open the door. “What?” he bawled.
The two Imperial agents standing at the door were obviously thrown off by his attitude. “We’re from the government and we--”
“You’ve come to take my money haven’t you?” Daniel growled. “Well take it, I don’t have any anyways so you can take all of it.”
“No sir, we’re not from Imperial Revenue Service, we’re from the Imperial Police. We wanted to ask you if you’ve seen any of these men.” The agent showed Daniel pictures of Ryan, Tim, Laz, and some other man he’d never seen.
“What are their names?” Daniel asked stupidly.
“This one here’s Ryan Cruise,” the man said, pointing to the first one. “This one’s Timothius Danaford, and this guy goes by the name, Laz. This last one has a lot of names, but word has it that he’s calling himself, Matt Damon.”
“Well, I haven’t seen any of them,” Daniel said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, you think I’m stupid?”
The agent who was acting as spokesman smiled, “No, of course not. You mind if we look inside?”
“You have a warrant?”
“No.”
“Then yes, I do mind, now get.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the agent, he stepped forward and blocked Daniel from shutting the door. “We’re gonna have to look inside.”
“No,” Daniel said firmly.
The first agent looked at his partner. “He said, ‘no’, what do we do know?”
“We still do it, of course,” the other replied.
While this whole argument had been going on, Ryan, Tim, Laz, and Katie had snuck out the back door and were circling around the house. Ryan and Tim were coming around one side, and Laz and Katie were coming around the other.
The agents were just forcing their way into the house when Tim jumped out from behind the house and shot the first agent in the head with his Beretta. The agent fell off the front steps and onto the gravel. His partner jumped and grabbed Daniel. He thrust him in front of him, using him as a body shield.
“Great,” Ryan said. “Now what? We can’t shoot him without getting Daniel.”
Tim looked frustrated. “I don’t know, maybe we can double back and catch him by surprise.”
“Do you think Laz could shoot him from behind?”
“No, that would kill Daniel too.”
“We could accept him as an unavoidable loss,” Ryan pointed out.
Tim pondered this for a minute. “No, he’s my sister’s boyfriend, she’d kill me.”
“Well, they’re technically not involved,” Ryan made a good point once again, causing Tim to pause.
Tim shook his head after a few seconds. “No, she’d blame me, and the she’d claim that I’d know they were involved all along.”
“Well that would definitely move their relationship along then, don’t you think?” Ryan asked.
“True, but then he’d be dead,” Tim fired back.
“That’s a good point,” Ryan admitted, leaving them in the same predicament.
Suddenly, a shot rang out from the trees in front of Daniel’s house. The Imperial agent sank to the floor, a large hole in his head where his ear had been. His body fell against the now bloodstained door and he slid onto the steps.
Daniel wrung his bloody hands and screamed in shock; his face had blood sprayed on it as well.
“Where did that come from?” Tim asked.
Just then, a figure jumped out from the trees, holding a sniper rifle in his hands.
“Jordan?” Ryan exclaimed. “Buddy, where’d you come from?”
Jordan-- for it was actually Jordan, for real--smiled. “You guys are hard to track. Tim, I’ve been following you since you left your sister’s house. You definitely do leave a trail though.” Jordan held up a chicken feather in his hand and grinned. “I love the ingenuity, I must say.”
Ryan grinned, and went to greet him, and then he stopped. “How do I know it’s really you?”
Jordan looked at him. “You’re an idiot.”
Ryan looked satisfied. “Okay, you’re Jordan.”
“Wait,” Katie interrupted. “That’s it, that’s all you need? Anyone can say that.”
“Okay fine,” Ryan folded his arms. “Tell me something that only you would know.”
Jordan thought about this for a second. “When we were in kindergarten, you brought a live hand grenade to class and blew up the entire class room. Nearly blew your own face off.”
“That would have been a tragedy,” Ryan said, reminiscing. “Yep, you’re Jordan,” he declared.
“We did get the rest of the week off after that, though,” Jordan recalled.
“Yeah, that was good,” Ryan agreed.
“Hello,” a voice called. “Aren’t you forgetting someone?”
“Oh right,” Jordan snapped his fingers. “I almost forgot, you’ll never believe who I found tracking you guys as well.”
“Who?” Tim asked. “Kayla?”
Jordan gave him a look. “No, are you kidding me? All those other guys have practically forgotten about you already.”
“Figures,” Tim muttered.
“Who then?” Laz asked. “Sarah?”
Everyone turned to look at him. “Why are we so eager, Laz?” Ryan asked.
“I wasn’t eager, it was just the first name that came to mind,” Laz said, defensively.
“Sure, right Laz,” Ryan nodded.
“No, it was!”
“Whatever,” Ryan shook him off.
“I’m serious!”
“Okay, okay,” Jordan held up his hands. “Let’s just bring her on out.”
“Sarah?” Laz asked, instantly clapping a hand over his mouth.
Ryan jabbed him with an elbow. “It’s okay Laz, she is pretty…” he began but he trailed off when he saw who stepped out from the trees. It was someone that he’d never even hoped to see again, someone he’d taken for dead, and someone who, by all rights, should be dead.
“Cathy?” Ryan said in disbelief.
“Hey Ryan,” Cathy said. “Long time, no see.”

To be continued... next week...

Mission 5: Payback part 4

continued from last week...

“I’m sorry about this, Daniel” Katie apologized.
Daniel nodded. “Its okay,” he said, but it was pretty clear that it wasn’t.
“Great, he’s gonna hate me now,” Katie moaned softly.
“I thought he wasn’t your boyfriend,” Ryan said.
Katie jerked. “Do you always eavesdrop on people like that?”
“Yeah.”
Laz was busy talking to Daniel about how exactly he would get the bug out of Tim’s neck. “Is it painful?”
“You try slicing up your skin and see if it hurts,” Daniel replied, annoyed.
He gave Tim some sort of sedative. “This will deaden the pain, you’ll probably fall asleep soon.”
“At least its in the neck,” Ryan said. “I’ve had a tracking device inserted in a more uncomfortable place.”
“Where would that be?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Ryan mumbled.
Daniel shrugged and continued his work. “This is going to be hard,” Daniel sighed, when he located the tracking device.
“Why?” Ryan asked.
“Its inserted into his spine. If I hit the wrong nerve, he’ll be paralyzed. Are you sure you want me to do this?”
Ryan glanced at Katie. “Yes,” she said. “Do it, just be careful.”
Daniel carefully started to try and make his way towards the tracking device, but it wasn’t as easy as it looked. As he had said earlier, one wrong move and it would be all over for Tim.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise outside, as if a car door had slammed.
Ryan’s head jerked up, along with everybody else’s. “What was that?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know, stay here and I’ll check it out,” Ryan said.
“Wait for me!” Laz called.
They left the room, and it was just Daniel and Katie, along with the heavily sedated Tim. “They’re quite the characters,” Daniel commented, motioning towards Laz and Ryan. He pulled his tools out of Tim’s neck and wiped the sweat of his face.
“I know,” Katie nodded. “I’m so sorry about all this, it got out of hand…”
Daniel pulled down his mask that covered his face and removed his gloves. “Don’t worry,” he said, pulling her away from the table. “Its fine, I don’t mind really. It’s a good challenge.”
“I’m just so worried, that…” Katie trailed off.
“That what?” Daniel asked.
“That you won’t like me, for who I really am,” Katie finished softly. “A Rebel agent.”
“I would like you no matter who you were,” Daniel said. “Besides, I’m a Rebel agent too.”
“You are!” Katie exclaimed. “How did--? I mean, how could you? I had no idea!”
“I’m a man of surprises!” Daniel grinned. He went back to work on Tim, concentrating on the task at hand. Leaving Katie to wonder how she’d never guessed that he was a Rebel agent. He hadn’t segmed too surprised when they’d mentioned Imperial agents, now that she thought about it.
Suddenly, Ryan busted through the door. By the sound of his panting and by the look in his eyes, Katie knew that something wasn’t right. He stared at Tim’s neck and shuddered. “Man, that’s gross! How do you stand that?”
“What did you burst in here so rudely for?” Daniel growled impatiently.
“Oh yeah,” Ryan suddenly remembered and a troubled light came into his eyes. “I don’t mean to rush you, since you’re so busy, but we’ve got company, of the Imperial kind.”

Meanwhile, back in the Rebellion headquarters, the members of IMF had just received a stupendous shock. Cathy was alive, sitting right in front of their faces!
“How are you alive?” Sarah finally gasped, after gaping at Cathy for a while. “We thought you were dead.”
Cathy smiled. “So did a lot of people apparently. I guess we never told you that I had a body double.” Cathy sighed sadly. “Poor, Attilie, she met a rather bloody end, didn’t she?”
“You had a body double?” Chris was astounded.
“Ryan and Laz were pretty sure it was you,” Emmy commented thoughtfully.
“Please,” Cathy shrugged. “This is Ryan and Laz we’re talking about here. Two of the most incompetent agents in IMF.”
“Ouch, that’s pretty harsh,” Kayla said.
“They got my friend killed remember? Attilie was a friend of mine.”
“Which is why you used her as a body double?” Jordan said, dryly.
“Shut up, Pat,” Cathy snapped.
Emmy raised an eyebrow. “Have you not seen us for that long, that’s not Pat, that’s Jordan.”
“Actually,” Cathy shook her head. “That’s Pat.” She nodded at Jordan.
Jordan removed a mask from his face to reveal Patrick’s white head. The rest of his body was still black, though. Pat removed a voice changing strip from his throat and coughed.
“How’d you…” Chris asked pointing at his skin. He quickly realized that they hadn’t checked Jordan for a mask, how very stupid.
“Body paint,” Pat shrugged. “It’s gonna be real fun getting it off I’m sure.”
“But why?” Kayla asked.
“Jordan left on a rescue mission for us some time ago, right after my apparent death.” Cathy explained.
“Rescue mission for who?” Sarah asked.
“Tim, of course,” Cathy replied.
Just then, Clarence burst in the room. “Ma’am we found those documents.” He was breathing hard, and was waving a folder marked: Top Secret.
Cathy grinned. She took the documents from Clarence and excused him from the room. “These are the documents that can prove all that the emperor has been doing.”

Meanwhile…
“How many of them are there?” Katie asked, peeping out the window through the closed blinds.
Ryan smacked her hand away from the blinds. “Stop doing that, why don’t you just hang a sign outside the says: occupied? If they see you, they’ll know we’re here.” He tossed her his other sidearm. She fumbled with it and nearly dropped it. “Be careful that’s not a toy.”
“I know that!” she snapped.
“And keep your voice down.”
“I am keeping my voice down!”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am!”
“Shut up!” Tim hissed. He had just exited the operation room and was rubbing his neck; the tracking chip had been successfully removed. “Stop fighting, both of you.”
“Where’s Laz?” Ryan suddenly asked.
“In here!” Laz whispered. They followed his voice into the living room. Laz was typing away on a computer.
“This is no time to be playing on the computer, Laz,” Tim said.
“I’m not playing, I’m trying to throw those Imperial agents off their scent.”
“Don’t you mean our scent?” Ryan asked.
“Whatever, I’m sending a message to their lap top in their car. It says that we’ve been spotted in lower Jonopolis, hopefully they go for it.”
A few seconds later there was a knock on the door; apparently it hadn’t worked.
“Come on,” Ryan said. “I have an idea.”
“I thought that would work,” Laz said, still astounded that his plan hadn’t worked out. “It should have worked. It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault.”
“Shut up, Laz,” they all said in unison.

to be continued...

Coming soon...
from KWS...
An exclusive interview of Ryan Maples and Tim Danford, the writers of IMF. Hosted by Lazarus Dance. And Filmed by Chris Danford.

Mission 5: Payback part 3

continued from last week...

Sarah and the others stared in wonder at the Rebel base. There was all kinds of action going on around them. Cars and Trucks were coming in and out of the base constantly and there was a fair amount of people walking along the streets. That such a place existed underground without them ever even knowing about it was unconceivable.
The other agents had been led a different way by another guard, Thomas. The person in charge of the Rebellion had wanted to talk to them for some reason. Them meant everyone from Ryan’s team that was present, including Derek and Sarah, why them she didn’t know.
“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” the Rebel guard, Clarence, said with a grin on his face.
“Definitely,” Sarah gasped.
Jordan turned to Derek, who was the only one who didn’t seem overwhelmed with the whole facility. “Did you know about this place?”
“Sure,” Derek shrugged. “I belong to the Rebellion. So did Evan Hunter.”
“How come we’ve never heard about it?” Chris asked.
“The emperor keeps a tight lid on any information about any rebellion. He doesn’t let the public know that anyone opposes his will. Kt would give them too many ideas.”
“Seems like a pretty successful Rebellion.” Kayla commented.
“Have you ever fought the empire?” Chris asked the question that Jordan was just about to ask.
“Of course,” Clarence replied. “Many times, we’ve even beaten him before, you just never hear about it. The emperor’s very good about that.”
“Obviously,” Sarah commented. “Because I’ve never even heard of you.”
The Rebel guard led them inside one of the larger skyscrapers and then into an elevator. He pushed the button for the top floor and they started to rise.
“Where are we going?” Jordan asked.
“To meet with the director,” the guard replied simply.
“Who’s the director?” Sarah asked.
“What does he do?” Chris added.
Clarence held up his hands. “One at a time, please. The director is the leader of the Rebellion, and he is a she. She makes all the important decisions, like how to spend our funds efficiently, who to place our troops under, and what brand of toilet paper to buy, etc.”
“Toilet paper?” Sarah asked, incredulously.
“Hey, its expensive if you don’t buy the right brand,” Clarence said, defensively. “Those things add up.”
“You still didn’t say who she was,” Kayla pointed out.
“As for who she is… well I’ll let you see for yourself.” The elevator opened and they stepped outside into the hall.
Clarence led them up to door that said: “Director of the Rebellion”, on it. He opened the door and motioned for them to enter.
It was much like the emperor’s office, only not quite as nice. There was a huge desk in the middle of the room and an office chair sat behind it. The chair’s back was turned towards them, but they could tell that someone was sitting in it.
Suddenly, the chair turned around, and the young woman sitting in the chair smiled at them. “Good to see you again, my old friends,” she said.
Everyone’s jaw dropped, except for Clarence’s. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Their voices failed them and they couldn’t voice the thousands of questions that filled their minds.
Finally, Sarah was able to form one word in her throat and she breathed it out, amazed. “Cathy?”

A short while after Ryan had ran back into the woods to go grab Laz, Katie led out a long sigh.
“What?” Tim asked.
Katie rolled her eyes. “He’s supposed to be the guy to help us escape the empire? He can’t even keep track of his agents.”
“Just trust him, he’s defeated impossible odds many time before. He’ll pull it off, you’ll see.” Then he added to himself, “I hope.”
Ryan came back out of the woods with a grumbling Laz. “You guys always forget me,” he complained. “Every mission I either get stuck in a tree, or left alone inside a building surrounded by bad guys, or hanging from the ceiling. I’m tired of it!”
“Oh quite complaining, Laz,” Ryan groaned. “We always come back to get you.”
They piled into the backseat of the car, and Katie started it back up again.
“You don’t have to worry about anymore roadblocks,” Laz spoke up. “I brought enough C4 with me to blow up the emperor’s entire garage!” He patted the backpack that he’d set beside him.
Katie cringed and gripped the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles turned white. “You brought what?”
“C4,” Laz replied, as if he’d brought a box of doughnuts. “Just don’t brake too hard.”
“Get rid of it!” Katie yelled.
“Katie, Katie,” Tim tried to calm her down. “He was just kidding.”
“About the C4?” she asked.
“No, about the braking part,” Ryan said. Then he added. “Actually, you might want to take that seriously too.”
Tim glared at Ryan, who just shrugged innocently.
“Its fine, Katie. It won’t blow up unless we want it to. Right?” He turned to Laz and Ryan.
“Right.” They both replied. “Still,” Ryan said, smiling. “I wouldn’t break too hard.”
“Let’s change the subject,” Tim said, forcefully.
“Okay then, how are you?” Ryan asked.
“Wgll, other than the fact that I’m a wanted man and the emperor has a huge price over my head for anybody that brings me back dead or alive, I’m good. How about you?”
“About the same,” Ryan agreed. “How’d you escape?”
Tim told Ryan and Laz about how the emperor had made him promise to turn his sister over to him, and how he’d been let go. Then he relayed the information that had caused their slight problem.
“You’re bugged!” Ryan cried. “They know where we are?”
“Right,” Tim nodded. “Which means I need to be debugged, fast. Katie’s taking me to her boyfriend’s, apparently he knows how to take care of this stuff.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Katie insisted.
Ryan glanced at Tim and grinned. “Must have hit a nerve there.”
“I can see where Tim gets it,” Katie mumbled.
Ryan and Tim laughed, so did Laz but he didn’t know what they were laughing at.
“So, where are we going?” Laz asked.
“We’re here,” Katie said. They looked out the window and, sure enough, they’d arrived at somebody’s residence. It was a rather isolated residence, kind of out in the countryside, which suited them just fine.
A young man stepped out; he was about Katie’s age, which affirmed Ryan and Tim’s assessment that he was her boy friend, at least in their minds. He trotted over to their car. “Katie, what a pleasant surprise!”
Tim softly mimicked his voice in a high-pitched accent, so only those in the car could hear. “What a pleasant surprise!”
Katie kicked him and climbed out of the car. “Hey Daniel, its good to see you too!” They hugged, which caused Ryan and Tim to look at each other and nod, definitely a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.
“They’re on a first name basis, too,” Ryan observed.
Katie continued to shoot them all glares, and then smiled at Daniel. “This is my brother, Tim,” she pointed to Tim. Daniel greeted him and shook hands with him.
“Are these your brothers too?” Daniel asked, pointing to Ryan and Laz.
“No,” Katie answered quickly. “No, those are my brother’s friends.” She didn’t bother to say their names.
“Yes,” Ryan said sarcastically. “I’m friend number one, and he’s friend number two,” he gestured towards Laz. “Nice to meet you.”
Daniel laughed. “You’re a funny guy,” he chuckled.
Katie apparently didn’t agree. “Yes, so funny,” she said with a fake smile, and then she glared at him when Daniel wasn’t looking. Ryan just shrugged. “Their names are Ryan and Laz.”
They shook hands. “Now, down to business,” Ryan said. “We need your help with something.”
“My help? Of course, I’d be glad to help you.” Daniel seemed quite willing.
“Would you mind debugging our friend here, Tim,” Ryan jerked his thumb at Tim. Then he lowered his shades and said, “and we’d appreciate it if there were no questions asked.”
“Uh, sure,” Daniel said, bewildered. “Debug?”
“Yeah, you know, bugs,” Katie said. “They just get all over, in your clothes, your hair, your, uh…”
“In your neck,” Tim said.
“Yes, of course, in your neck,” Katie.
“What kind of bugs?” Daniel asked, still utterly confused.
“Beatles?” Katie tried.
Ryan shoved her aside, and laughed casually. “Ha, she’s such a kidder,” he glared at her, and she just shrugged. Ryan rolled his eyes and turned back to Daniel. “We need you not to ask any questions about this, understand?”
“Sure?”
“That didn’t sound like you were sure, are you sure?”
“Yeah, okay, I’m sure. What do you want?”
Ryan glanced at Tim and then turned back to Daniel again. “We want you to remove a tracking device from Tim’s neck. It’s the back of your neck, right?”
Tim nodded.
“A tracking device? But how--?”
“Uh uh, that’s a question,” Ryan wagged his finger. “Just do your magic and we promise that we’ll be out of here quickly. Hopefully before any Imperial agents show up, oops, said too much.” Ryan acted as if he had accidentally let that slip, but in reality, he hadn’t. He thought that a little motivation wouldn’t hurt the man, and as long as they had their side arms, nothing should go wrong.
“Imperial agents? Uh uh, no way, Jose.” Daniel shook his head.
“Oh come one, Daniel, where’ your adventuresome spirit?” Ryan chastised him, playing with his Glock in his right hand. “We wouldn’t want to have to force you against your will,” he casually flicked off the safety.
“What are you doing?” Katie protested. Ryan held up his hand to silence her.
“Its okay,” Daniel held up his hands. “I’ll do it.” He led them to his operation room and set Tim, facedown, on the table.
“A wise decision, Daniel,” Ryan said. “We’ll be watching, so don’t try any funny business.” He grinned. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
Danny glanced at his gun and swallowed. “Sure thing, you got it.” Just try not to interrupt, I don’t want to hurt him.”
“You better not,” Ryan said, fingering his Glock again. “Accidents can happen, but they usually happen in two’s, if you get what I mean.” He winked and left the room.

to be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 2

Continued from two weeks prior...

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere… where there lies a side plot that has nothing to do whatsoever with this entire story… Well, perhaps maybe a little…

“I told ya already, Earl,” Denise whined in a southern accent. “You let them chickens out and you’s nevah gonna get ‘em back.”
“And I told you,” Earl retorted. “Ta shut your trap, I’ll gets ‘em back.”
Suddenly, a young, red-haired man walked up to the two arguing spouses. “Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?” he asked.
Earl stared at him. “Can you tell where my chickens are?”
“Your chickens?” the red-haired man asked, bewildered.
“What’s your name, boy?” Denise whined.
“Jason, Jason Scorn,” the boy replied.
“You help us find our chickens, and we’s will help you find your way home. You’re lost, right?” Denise asked.
“Sort of, I guess you could say that. I don’t really know who I am.”
“You just said your name,” Earl pointed out. “What do you mean you don’t know who you are?”
“Just what I said, I think I have amnesia.”
“Well, what do you remember?” Denise questioned him.
“Nothing! That’s what amnesia means, stupid!” Jason yelled angrily.
“You don’t remember anything?” Earl seemed astonished.
“Well… I seem to remember killing people, for some reason. I’m not sure why,” Jason shrugged.
Suddenly, there was an explosion that ripped through the forest. Jason jumped back and gasped. “That must be the CIA, they’re after me!”
“Why?” Earl and Denise both called out.
“I have no idea, it has something to do with my past, which I haven’t figured out yet. See you guys later.” Jason ran off into the woods.
Earl looked back towards the explosion; smoke smothered the sky where it had once been blue. He could practically smell the fire from here. And in the sky he could see… what was that? Chicken feathers floating through the sky! Oh no!


Back to normal time…

“So, who exactly is this guy again?” Timothius asked for the thousandth time.
Katie sighed. “I told you already, a friend, one that can help us.”
“Exactly how can he help us, may I ask?” Tim was still skeptical. “I’ve been bugged, they inserted it into my spinal cord, not in my pants. It’s not that simple.”
“I know that,” Katie replied, losing her patience. “That’s why I’m taking you to him, he knows how to solve these kind of problems.”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to get you all riled up, is he your boyfriend or something?” Tim asked, partly trying to make conversation and partly trying to rile her up.
“No!” she said defensively. “Of course not.”
“So he is your boyfriend,” Tim smiled.
“I just said that he wasn’t,” Katie insisted.
“Yeah, but you were a little too defensive, which means I hit a nerve.”
“How do you know?”
Tim shrugged. “Because, I’m your brother.”
“I know, but you never used to be interested in this kind of stuff, you were always so serious.”
“Well,” Tim shrugged. “When you hang around Ryan Cruise a lot, he kind of rubs off on you.”
“That’s the fifth time you’ve mention his name,” Katie pointed out. “Who is Ryan Cruise?”
“He’s another agent,” Tim explained. “I don’t think I should say much about him, though. Who knows who might be listening?”
“What does he look like?”
Tim thought about this. “Well, he has red, wavy hair, and he’s always wearing these really cool shades, and he has lots of freckles.”
“Does he have a girlfriend?” Katie asked, curious about her brother’s friend.
Tim frowned. “I don’t know… it’s complicated. I think he wants one, but its not really allowed. Romance is kind of banned in our group.”
“So, how did you guys meet?”
“A long time ago, at this one party. It was in the Bahamas, I think.”
“You were invited to a party in the Bahamas? Maybe I should become an agent.”
Tim chuckled. “We weren’t invited…” he trailed off, thinking about his first mission with Ryan Cruise. Those had been the days, when everything was black and white, and he knew exactly who the bad guy was. Everything was so confusing now.
Suddenly, Katie hit the brakes and came to a screeching halt. Timothius lurched forward and slammed his head on the dashboard.
“What the heck?” Tim exclaimed, but then he saw why Katie had stopped. A roadblock ahead of them was blocking their access. No doubt the roadblock had been set to stop them.
“Now what?” Katie asked.
“Just play it cool,” Tim said. “Maybe they don’t know what we’re planning to do yet.” He eyed the thick forests by the roadside; they would be perfect cover if they needed to make a break for it. They could be perfect for an ambush too.
An officer walked up to their car and knocked on the window; Katie rolled it down. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he said, putting his hand to his hat and raising it slightly. “I’m sorry for the holdup, but there’s a couple of criminals on the loose.”
“Oh?” Katie tried to act surprised. “Who?”
“Oh, just a couple of trouble-makers, nothing to worry about ma’am. Just keep yourself safe; it looks like you already have a nice young man here to protect you. He nodded towards Tim.
“Oh yeah, he’s my brother.”
The officer nodded. “Well, I’m sorry about this, but we’re gonna have to search your car. Don’t fret though, we’ll be done in just a sec.” He was lying through his teeth of course; he had no intention of letting the both of them go. In fact, he had direct orders from Chuck Morris to take these two into custody. Tim didn’t know this, but still, he was cautious.
“We need to get out of here,” Tim warned after the guard had walked away, back towards the roadblock.
“How?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know, look for an opening.”
Just then, the entire roadblock exploded in a giant fireball. Katie and Tim ducked down in their car as the blaze shot into the sky. The cars roared with flames as they flew through the air and came crashing back down to the ground. Tim sat back up and looked at the flaming vehicles in wonder. “There’s an opening,” he murmured.
“What in the world?” Katie shouted above the roar of the flames.
“There’s only one man in the world who would be crazy enough to blow up a roadblock,” Tim said, still staring at the wreck.
“Who?” Katie asked.
“Ryan Cruise,” Tim replied.
Sure enough, a red-haired figure emerged from the woods just then. He was sporting some sic shades and walked with the air of someone who’d just blown up an entire roadblock. He walked over towards their car and cocked a boyish grin. “Hey Tim, long time, no see.” He looked around at the site of the explosion. “What’s with all these chicken feathers?” he muttered.

After Ryan had left, his team had sort of unofficially elected Jordan as their temporary leader. Although he didn’t have the same qualifications as Ryan, he’d already shown his willingness to act, and his capable leadership. Plus, Ryan had no qualifications, so he didn’t have very big shoes to fill in that area. So when Derek led them into yet another tunnel, which he said would finally lead them to the Rebellion, they all watched to see what he would do. Jordan shrugged and looked back at them. “I guess we have no choice but to follow him.” He stepped into the tunnel after Derek, and Ryan’s, or rather Jordan’s, team followed after him along with all the rest of IMF. Suddenly, the ground sloped downward so suddenly, that it almost made a sort of drop-off. Jordan stumbled and fell, rolling down the tunnel. He rolled, and yelled, down the tunnel until he plowed into Derek and came to a stop.
“Watch that last step,” Derek muttered.
“Gee, thanks for the warning,” Jordan replied sarcastically. “I almost--”
But he didn’t get to finish. Suddenly Chris came sliding down the tunnel and plowed into them, sending them both flying. “Sorry,” Chris apologized.
Jordan got up and brushed himself off. “That’s okay.” He was in better spirits in a minute though, as he got to watch Kayla, Emmy, and Sarah all slam into each other. He and Derek laughed until they cried, doubling over from the laughter. “That was funny,” Jordan said in between laughs.
Chris just frowned. “That’s not very chivalrous, help me get them untangled.”
Jordan shrugged and bent over to help up the girls. Just then another IMF agent flew from the tunnel and smacked into Jordan, sending him flying. The girls laughed hysterically.
“Now that was funny,” Kayla laughed.
Jordan scowled and got up yet again; he didn’t bother to brush himself off this time. “Somebody’s gotta fix that step.”
“Hey there, can I help you guys with something?” a voice suddenly said.
Jordan, and the rest of the agents that where still standing, whirled around to see who had spoken, it was a Rebel guard.
Derek spoke up. “We seek refuge from the emperor.”
The guard smiled. “Well, I think we can help you with that. Its good to see you alive, Derek.”

Katie was still recovering from the shock of the roadblock exploding when Ryan had come up to the car, but she’d finally found her manners and greeted Ryan. “So you must be the Ryan Cruise that I keep hearing about,” Katie commented, smiling.
“That’s right,” Ryan nodded, and then glanced at Tim as if expecting an introduction. “And you must be…” he trailed off, looking at Tim again.
Tim started to speak but his sister cut him off. “I’m his sister, didn’t you tell him that you had a sister?” she asked turning to Tim. His silence told all.
“I should have known,” Katie said, disgusted. “You keep babbling on and on about Ryan Cruise, but you never even had the courtesy to mention me to him even once. I can see that you’re real proud of your sister.” She paused and glanced at him. “Well?”
“I’m sorry?” Tim tried apologizing. It didn’t work.
“I’m sorry?” Katie mimicked. “Well, I’m sorry too,” and she turned away from him.
“Actually,” Ryan spoke up. “He couldn’t help it. There’s a rule in IMF that you’re not allowed to talk to other agents about your family.”
“There is?” Katie faced Ryan, not sure whether to believe him.
“Yeah, of course,” Ryan lied. “Its standard procedure.”
Tim shot him a look that said, thank you.
“I’m sorry,” Katie said, sticking her hand out the passenger side window. “We haven’t been properly introduced. “I’m Katie Danaford.” They shook hands.
“Ryan Cruise,” said Ryan. “Sorry about my rather… explosive entrance, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do. The roadblock was annoying anyways, and Laz wanted to let off some steam.”
“Speaking of Laz, where is Laz?” Tim asked.
“Oh,” Ryan smacked his forehead. “I forgot all about him.”

To be continued next week...