Agent Rogue

Chapter 4

            He spoke to me as if I was nothing that day. I was not his child, not his family – not even a person. I was simply nothing. Another added frustration putting strain on his lifetime dream to change humanity.

            The words cut deeper than any other blade could, but I would prove him wrong and Alistair right. I was something; not the scared little girl confused as to why her own father could be so cruel, but an agent willing to do what was necessary for those she served. I could do something right, and that would be to find Barnes.

            My shoulder throbbed as I skulked through the woods, gun hanging lazily at my left side. I didn't call out for him once; if I did, there was nothing stopping him from running away in the opposite direction. Alistair may have had some criticism waiting for me when I returned to the agency for unlocking Barnes's handcuffs, but I had no choice. It was impossible to open a parachute without the use of your hands, and the Director wanted him alive.

            I hated putting my faith in a traitor – a traitor that got to live when my best friend didn't – but what other option was there?

            I clenched my jaw as I pressed on. Barnes had to be useful somehow. Because if Scotty died for the life of a deserter—

            "Agent Knight!"

            With a swift movement, I drew my gun and pointed it towards the trees, aiming it at the skull of Derek Barnes.
"Woah!" His hands shot up for me to ceasefire. "I surrendered, remember?"

            I burned at the way his lips quirked at the violent reflex, but not in the way I had burned up when I first laid eyes on him in the casino. No. This wasn't just burning. This was an incineration from the inside. A flaring pain that needed cleansing.

            I raised my chin and held my breath as Barnes stiffened, not daring to open his mouth. I was boiling over with both hot and cold anger coursing through my veins. My finger twitched over the trigger. All it would take was a single tug to cash in a debt I was owed. An eye for an eye, a life for a life.

            Then the agency would become blind.

            If I acted on emotion and yanked back the trigger, Barnes failed to be of any use to the agency and the mission would have been pointless. Scotty's death would have been pointless. I would not for one second have allowed any moment of his life to be considered a waste.

            My arm grew heavy and I let it drop with a quiet groan.

            When he thought he was safe, Barnes let out a sigh. "You had me there, agent." He almost laughed at the fear. He laughed.Bastard. Cocky, inconsiderate bastard. "Now what do we do?"

            That was enough. I snapped like a dry, dead branch.

            I dropped the gun before temptation corrupted me entirely and channelled all that pent-up anger into the strongest left hook I could bare to swing.

            A bone cracked in my hand as my fist connected with his sharp jaw.

            Barnes groaned in pain, taking a disoriented step back as he held his head and winced. I was desperate to let out a cry as pain fired up my hand and wrist. The lunge was strong but uncontrolled, likely damaging the tendons somehow. I refused to show him any weakness. Instead, I grit my teeth and watched him wallow in his own pain, not letting him see that I had suffered for it almost as much as he had.

            "That,"I spat, "was for Scotty."

            His face softened, something coruscating in his eyes that I mistook for genuine pity. I had hit my head as I burst through the clearing. I was deluded, my brain too fogged to read emotions as I usually did.