The Chimera Vector (The Fifth Column #1)

Chapter 36: Triple Agents

Anger burning a hole through her, Sophia watched Grace and her shocktroopers escort Denton from the lab. She and Cecilia were the prisoners of sixteen Berets, double agent Renée and triple agents Damien and Jay. All while Cecilia’s Elohim had been dispatched on a wild goose chase and Sophia’s team were either dead, dying or in retreat. Neither they nor the Elohim were aware of what had just happened here.

A surge of pain bloomed from Sophia’s stomach. She dropped. Renée was standing over her. Sophia squeezed her eyes shut, focused on breathing the way Sergey had taught her, dispersing the energy from Renée’s blow.

Two loud synchronized blasts filled the lab. It felt like she was underwater. Everything sounded dull. She opened her eyes. There was a flash of white light. She shut her eyes, then tried again, this time slowly. It was as though someone had paused her vision. She was seeing the same freeze-frame for a few moments. Then the freeze-frame slowly decayed to reveal what was happening beneath.

On her left, she saw Damien’s hand slam down on the scope of the Blue Beret sergeant’s MP5, pointing the barrel to the floor. Damien cut his other hand into the sergeant’s neck, pulled the MP5 sharply to one side and twisted it out of the sergeant’s weakened grip. The man fell in an awkward cross-legged position.

Now was the time to move.

Sophia rolled towards Renée, who was recovering from what must’ve been a couple of flashbangs. Lying on her back, Sophia raised her legs from the floor, ensnared Renée’s firing arm in her boots, one on the inside of the forearm, the other on the back of the upper arm. She clamped her legs together like a pair of scissors; the ringing in her ears drowned out the sound of snapping bone. Renée reeled back and her P90 dropped onto Sophia’s stomach.

Sophia instantly seized it and rolled onto one knee, the stock pressed between her shoulder and chest. She should’ve dropped Renée first, but keeping Cecilia safe was more important.

She found Cecilia crawling for cover on her hands and knees. One of the Berets was leveling his barrel at her. Sophia exhaled, snapped her holographic weapons sight up, the circle covering the Beret’s face. The dot in the center of the circle came to rest under the Beret’s helmet. She squeezed the trigger halfway. A single round tore the Beret’s head apart.

Sophia shifted her aim back to Renée.

Renée was missing.

Keeping low, Sophia made for Cecilia. Rounds buzzed around her. She took Cecilia by the arm and pulled her behind a node cabinet. From the edge of the cabinet, she took aim at the cluster of Berets. Circle and dot over the blur of movement. She exhaled. Then stopped. Damien was right in the middle of them.

She cursed, took her finger from the trigger and peered over her sights to watch the Berets—too close to Damien to open fire—draw stun batons instead. Damien darted swiftly into the right flank, using their numbers to his advantage.

She scanned for another target. Left flank. Lucia and Nasira were hauling Benito out of harm’s way. They needed covering fire. She was about to take aim, but someone was already putting rounds down there.

Jay. He dropped into a crouch at the adjacent cabinet and winked at her.

She ignored him, lined up a Beret and depressed her trigger.

***

Damien gripped the stolen MP5 by its scope. A Beret lunged towards him, a stun baton going for his neck. Sidestepping, Damien held the MP5’s shoulder strap taut. The baton bounced off the strap, almost striking the soldier back in his own face. Damien stepped in beside him and pulled the strap around the man’s neck, quick and tight, cutting off the blood flow to his brain.