Codename: Ghost

Offduty #1

Stage 1.

My pace increased to a normal jog. I hit the outer track, assessing future obstacles from afar. Potential routes became clear. After three circuits, I left the track and headed into the zone. Escalating terrain barred my way. I climbed a low grassy rise, descended an ivy-choked hill, hopped over a wooden fence and headed onto the inner track at a fast jog...

Stage 2.

Small buildings loomed amidst trees, brambles, and grassy knolls. I ducked under branches. Leapt into open windows. Descended narrow steps. Twisted. Dodged. Lunged. All with a steady pace. After three circuits, I headed offtrack again. Terrain continued warping together. I climbed, leapt, and sped through it all until reaching the innermost track...

Stage 3.

My speed increased. Attention sharpened. I ran through a nightmarish tangle of city/jungle. Trees grew through buildings. Stairs split hedges. Hills opened windows. Extreme acrobatics came into play: backflips, frontflips, cartwheels, leaps, pirouettes. Pure brawn joined it: climbing, landing, swinging, leaping. All was one long graceful sequence. After three circuits, I headed offtrack, re-crossed the entire MTZ and came back to a slow jog out into the darkness...

Done. Total Time: about twenty minutes.

Gun Range.

My blood was pumping nicely, but it was time to take things down a notch. Sort of.

I slowed my jog back down to a walk. Motion sensors picked me up. Lights activated. The gun range was illuminated, its rectangular duraglass enclosure glimmering. I slipped inside, shutting its clear door behind me. All exterior sound was muffled by the bulletproof walls. My gaze fell upon a weapons rack. I selected a pistol, ammo, noise-dampening headphones, and walked down the line of firing counters to stop at the centermost. Its display screen brightened. My eyes rose to view the targets: standing manikins of various size, shape and color. My grip tightened. Raising the pistol, I–

Distant lights activated.

I paused. My eyes flicked left.

A black-clad figure was walking towards the climbing pit's massive edge. Lights began activating within its black depths. Shadowed cliffs and tightly clustered towers became visible...

The first of my peers had arrived.

Unconcerned, my gaze flicked back to the targets. I began firing single shots. Each loud report was muffled. Once complete, the firing counter displayed my results: all twenty shots had struck nearly dead center. I called for a reset. Hidden hydraulics stood each slumped manikin back up. Firing in a single fast sequence, I rapidly tagged each of them again. All twenty shots hit inside the center ring. I called for moving targets. They began moving along semi-randomized paths. I fired ten single shots, all hitting center mass, then fired ten sequential shots, half hitting center mass and half outside. Momentary pause.

Good overall scores. But I could do better.

Endless rounds followed. Rifles. Automatics. Specialized Weapons. I used them all. By the end, every manikin was shredded. I finally called out for target disposal. They dropped into matching garbage chutes, fresh replacements rising back up afterwards for the next agent. I racked my last weapon (a gas-powered XL Carbine), left through the clear door, and...

Done. Total Time: about thirty minutes.

Codebreaker.

The distant climbing pit was still lit within. I turned away from it, heading deeper into darkness. Motion sensors picked me up. Lights activated, illuminating Codebreaker: a huge circular command platform with curved seats and gleaming computer hardware. Max capacity was six agents, so the polite among us might use only a quarter of it. But polite had never fit my relentless drive. I slaved the entire platform to my ID, dropped into its central command chair and sighed. Hardware activated: all four computer towers, all eight support modules, and all twelve display screens hummed to life. Swiveling slightly for a wider view, I leaned forward. Opened up a high level training course. Began typing away...