Agent in the Dark (The Agents for Good) (18 page)

Shalako held him for a moment longer, but then patted Utah on the back before he pushed him way, “You need to go son, but first do an old warrior one last favor.”

Chapter Twenty One

Finish It!

I drug myself along the floor towards the reactor leaving a bloody trail along the floor. Get to the reactor, set it to overload, save the world. That was all I could content myself with of the future now, because I wasn’t getting out of here.

I tried not to think about Asia, but thoughts of her were all that filled my mind. It was those thoughts that drove me on and kept me awake. I had to destroy this place so she could live safely, even though I wouldn’t be with her.

Some lucky punk had put a bullet into my leg and it had messed it up royally. I couldn’t even put weight on it so I had to drag myself along the floor. I had little strength left to do anything else anyway. Stupid elevator had stopped working on floor 22 and I’d had to run down the rest of the stairs to the basement where I’d run into a firefight with a hold out security group.

They were dead now and so would I be soon enough. Everyone on our side would be free of the building by now so it would be safe to start the overload.

I’d be lauded as a hero for this no doubt.

Ra-
ra and all that jazz and bluby-dy-duck, Asia would be safe and that was all I cared about. I glanced upward at the reactor and I saw where the digital displays with lots of buttons were. Oh how I hated technology sometimes! I truly was obsolete in some ways I guessed.

I saw a big red lever with lots of warning labels around it, now that was more like it. I pulled myself up the side of the reactor to reach for it, crying out in pain, as my leg moved. My fingers settled around the handle, “Think exit strategy bro, exit strategy!”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Flint, “What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Same thing you are apparently.” Flint replied, as he slapped my fingers away from the red handle and smacked a big bundle of plastic explosives to the reactor wall. He pushed a button that gave the characteristic alarm clock chime noise and then he was helping me.

I was secretly relieved to have him here, but I couldn’t let that show, “Get out of here! You’ve got a wife and two kids!” I groused out.

“And a brother that I’m not ever leaving behind again!” Flint said firing back.

“Well then I suppose I’ll let you save me then.”

“Big of you, now this is going to hurt.” Flint said.

Oh was he right about that! He tied my leg off in two places with a
slat of wood and a crowbar. “Bones broke.” Flint said, like I’d needed an explanation to tell me that.

I felt dizzy, but that abruptly cleared on a fresh round of pain, as Flint picked me up and slung me over his shoulder.

“What do you weigh 300 pounds or something?” Flint huffed out.

I felt for him, I really did, but that was no reason to insult me. “250 you jerk!”

Flint chuckled, as he started off. “You should put on more fat instead of muscle it weighs less.”

“I’ll keep that under advisement dear brother.” I said beginning to feel dizzy again.

It was slow going up the stairs and Flint was puffing hard. “You’re getting old
, brother.” I said not able to resist from needling him.

“Don’t remind me!” Flint said, as he gained the first floor and headed for the outside, but the place was a shambles with fire everywhere. Parts of the structure were already fai
ling and it was possible we might not get out yet. I sure hoped so though, big brother had gotten my hopes up coming to the rescue like he had.

“Should I be concerned about the robotic Viking goddess, whose holding up the ceiling ahead of us?” Flint asked.

“She’s a friend.”

“
My don’t you get around brother.” Flint quipped.

“Hey! You’re talking to a married man here!” I respon
ded hotly.

“And glad I am at long last of that fact John!”

“Yeah me too. Thanks for doing this James.”

“Anytime.”

“Thanks Blondie.” I called out in passing, as we slipped by my newfound friend holding an I-beam and a partial section of the ceiling up in order for us to get by. We were out of the inferno then into the cool night air and I felt wind. It wasn’t wind, but chopper blades.

There was more pain, as Flint unloaded me into one of them. My head was on something soft, even as something wet touched my face. I opened my eyes and saw Asia’s face above me, as my head lay in her lap, which felt like heaven.

“Why are you crying, I’m not dead honey?”

“I’m happy!” Asia responded all blubbery sounding.

I squeezed her hand, “Me too!”

Shalako picked his head up, as smoke grubbed-up Code security forces filed in around him. They didn’t look happy. Why should they, the integrity and control of their great tower was in question, their Code up-link reading out like meaningless gibberish to them and thousands of their bu
ddies were dead. Bad night.

Someone, who appeared to be in charge stepped forward to rail an accusing question, “What is the meaning of this useless attack?”

“Oh just a pastime hobby that I engage in from time to time, saving the world and all that, from dark minded individuals such as yourself.” Shalako replied calmly.

The man swelled up in anger, “You traitorous retch to speak to me so! You are a dog!
A stupid dog that will soon be no more!”

Shalako nodded, “You’re right on that last point, but your description of me is a little lacking, because you see,” Shalako’s hands came up from his sides to reveal two gr
enades with their pins already flicked off into space, “I’m a warrior!”

Flint looked around grimly, “Is this all?”

“Yes Sir.”

Flint swallowed reflexively at the sight of just eighteen bloodied commandos, which were all that was left of all the companies combined. Maria, himself, John, and Tyre were all that was left of the agency in attendance.

“Look there’s one more!” A commando said pointing.

It was Utah, with another man over his shoulder. They were the first two to have been seen from G Company all night.

Utah let his burden be taken from him and straightened up before Flint. “Last two from G Company, Shalako’s still back there gut shot.”

Flint nodded grimly.

Utah glanced down at the commando he had carried from the forward battle line, only to be met by the apologetic gazes of the commandos, who had relieved him of him. One of them said, “I’m sorry, but he’s dead. I had a pulse for a moment, but it’s gone now.”

Something snapped then within Utah at the knowledge that the man he’d carried to safety at the expense of Shalako’s life was now dead. The sacrifice by Shalako had been poin
tless!

Utah roared out in rage and wheeled around to run back for Shalako, but Flint grabbed a hold of him. Even so Utah drug Flint and two other commandos, who’d come to help Flint along with him, as he tried to go back for Shalako. The night was punctured by two almost simultaneous blasts and Utah stopped, “No!”

The commandos pulled a now un-resistant Utah back to a chopper and pushed him inside. Tyre wrapped his good arm around him and Maria grabbed Utah’s other arm as the chopper took off.

Utah stared bitterly out the open bay of the chopper at the fires disappearing in the distance. To no one in particular he said, “I’ve waited all my life to have a father’s guiding influence, I find it in the middle of a battle and I lose it within an hour.”

Tyre glanced over at him and then back out at the retrea
ting fires, “At least you had that much. Now honor him by looking past what you’ve lost to what you’ve gained this night. That’s the take away you should take from this. Let your experience, no matter how brief it was, change you and make you a better person, a testament to the person that inspired you to be better than you were before. Don’t dwell on the loss, but seize the victory to be had and claim it for your life.”

Flicker had watched from the shadows, as her brother and some others had hauled the man determined to return for his friend back to the choppers before they had taken off. The enemy, her former masters, were even now filling in and around the base of the tower. A mistake on their part, because there hadn’t been much time left on the timer. She took off then across the savanna springing forward in great leaping bounds, until she moved faster than a cheetah in the hunt for a gazelle.

She was free from the control of those who had made her, but she’d never be free from what they’d made her into. Tears coursed down her cheeks, as her long hair streamed out behind her, but no matter how fast she hurtled over the ground she couldn’t get away from the monster that they had made her into.

Behind her in the distance the ground quaked and the tower and much of the partially constructed city literally blew apart. The Code was locked in a language of confusion. Code forces around the world came to a halt unable to understand their instructions and at a lack for any means of communication, while rebel forces struck with pinpoint savagery in a bloodbath struggle to regain their freedom and see that justice was done.

The Code and its followers were virtually defenseless against the onslaught of the world they had for a brief time, been masters over. The Code fell and the nations of the world were reborn in nationalistic pride of individuality. The dreams of a unified one world government would have to lie dormant in the hearts of dark minded men once again, until humanity succumbed to the lure offered by those, who inspired individuals to be their own gods and forsake understanding, in exchange for the lunacy of an immoral life, where no excess was held back from.

C
hapter Twenty Two

Delivery

My eyes blinked open and I stared at the ceiling blankly for a moment, as memories came flooding back. I’d gotten an infection and they’d treated it and that was about all I could remember.

I blinked again.

The ceiling was my ceiling! I was on the island! How was that possible?

Someone shifted beside me and then Asia’s smiling face came up into my field of vision, “Good morning sugar.”

I blinked again, “We’re on the island?” I asked, still not believing what my eyes were telling me.

She nodded.

“I don’t remember coming here!”

“You were sedated. I convinced the doctors that you’d heal up faster here, as opposed to being cooped up in a stuffy hospital.”

“Thank you!” I said overwhelmed with gratitude for her actions on my behalf.

“You’re welcome baby.” She said softly, as her fingers grasped my face, as she leaned in to kiss me passionately.

During the kiss two things became clear to me. One was how so very much I was grateful to have come through what I had and to be here with this woman I loved back on my island. The other was the startling realization that my beloved pressed up against me was as naked as I was, except for where I was covered in bandages.

Her lips drew away from mine and her eyes were full of smoky passion as she said, “I want to make a baby with you.”

I groaned, “Honey I’d love to, but I’m not quite up to that right now. Heck I don’t think I can even sit up!”

She smiled and the light in her eyes turned to that of a teasing glow, “What’s this?
You refusing to have an intimate encounter with me?

Mindful of my broken leg she eased over more on to me and said teasingly, “And besides, who said you had to get up.”

“You are an unmitigated hedonistic little temptress!” I exclaimed, as she charmed me into the impossible.

Smiling seductively she said, “Oh you’re wrong about that honey. I’m just a wife that loves to appreciate her man, who I think is up for any challenge that I throw at him.”

She kissed me back passionately and it was a kiss that I returned with equal passion. She drew back smiling, but her smile changed, as she saw the tear coming down my face.

“I love you!” I said simply, at a lack for any better way of putting it. “You’ve changed everything with the gift of you
rself to me. I love God for so many reasons, but the gift of you is one of the biggest. If it wasn’t for your sacrifice I’d still be in the dark and lost from the truth of how much God loves me!”

She had tears of her own now, “John, it stopped being a sacrifice a long time ago and instead I’ve come to see that you’re the greatest blessing I could’ve ever received in life.”

“Likewise.” I said

She hugged me then and my arms encircled her. I smiled after a moment, as I let my arms fall back to the bed to
lay at my sides. She broke the kiss and looked into my eyes.

Smiling I said, “I’m at your mercy.”

“I know!” She said her words husky with promise.

Ten months later.

Asia looked around, in a free moment of peace not filled with contractions, at her husband’s handiwork. He done what he said he would and what a good job he’d done of it!

He’d turned the small hot spring pool into a veritable spa with underwater benches and interchanging shallow and deeper areas. He hadn’t stopped there. He had completely enclosed the space within a snug shelter.

It was humidly warm and balmy within the spa chamber, as Arctic winds raged away outside far below zero in te
mperature. Another series of contractions hit and she did her best to focus on relaxing and breathing through them.

Relaxing wasn’t actually that hard to do with John’s whispered encouragements directly into her ear, even as his
big hands rubbed her soothingly over and over. He was the best birth partner a woman could ever dream of having.

Asia turned her face and sighed into his neck seeking comfort in the aftermath of a brutal contraction. Her water had broken four hours ago and since then the contractions had been merciless in their severity. She started to cry, as another one hit her.

“
Shhhh, keep breathing honey. Here lay your head back on my shoulder and open up your throat for more air flow.” I said encouragingly.

Asia did as I said and it helped, but there was no rest from the contractions now, “I can’t do this!”

“Yes you can.”

“No I can’t!” Asia screamed back in pained defiance.

My voice remained calm as I said, “Any girl, who can save the world, can bring a baby into the world.”

“That was easy compared to this!
Oh God!!!”

I pulled her head back from where she’d clenched it fo
rward, “Breathe honey!” I commanded.

She did then in gasping breaths.

“Do you feel the urge to push yet?”

“No!” Asia whined out piteously, as I mopped the sweat from off her face.

“I want this baby out now! I want this over!”

“
Shhhh, I know you do honey, but we’ve got to let your body tell us when to push or you could hurt yourself.”

Asia’s sobbed against my neck completely done in with this whole process of bringing new life into the world.
Desperately I searched my mind for a way to distract her.

She’d quieted down some and I asked, “You know there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”

“What?” She responded, her tone decidedly ill-natured.

“Now that the Codes dead and gone, perhaps you could tell me what was the language that you used to scramble the Code with?”

“Cherokee.”

“Cherokee?” I repeated blankly.

After Asia was through another round of sharp contra
ctions she responded, “Cherokee is still a spoken language today, but many don’t know that at one time there was a written language, with its own alphabet. The world has long since thought that the Cherokee alphabet had been lost, but I love learning new languages and I discovered a remnant of the alphabet on the black market. After this is all over I want to release that alphabet back to the Cherokee people.”

I shook my head in admiration of this amazing vibrantly intelligent woman that I had the privilege of calling my wife. She seized up again, “
Ohhhhhh!”

She grabbed at my hands desperately and then met my eyes with a frantic need, “I need to push!”

I lifted her forward onto her hands and knees in the warm water, as she began to push in earnest. Throughout this whole ordeal the hardest thing for me had been to hide how scared I was, but now as I saw my baby’s head crowning everything changed.

This process had been happening for thousands of years and it was about to happen again tonight.

I got Asia’s attention after a push was over, “Do you want to stand?”

She nodded jerkily and I held her up securely from behind, as I let her hang limply in a squatting position in front of me. It was a back killing position for me to maintain, but any amount of discomfort was doable, if it helped her out in any way.

It really didn’t take long then. One moment she was i
ntensely pushing and then she was catching our baby with her own hands. The baby, as soon, as it left the warm water began to scream bloody murder, as we both stared in slack-jawed wonder at the flawless creation in Asia’s hands.

“Oh John she’s a girl! She’s so beautiful! She’s absolut
ely perfect!” Asia exclaimed over and over, as all the pain she’d just been experiencing moments before was completely forgotten. All I could do was nod in rote answer, as I was beyond words. Asia brought our screaming little girl up to her chest, as I eased all of us back down into the water to sit on a bench.

“Oh baby girl
its okay! Mama loves you! It’s alright!” Asia said soothingly to the little life in her arms. “Oh God thank you for our baby girl!”

The little girl quieted down some with the contact and smell of her mama’s skin and together we stared and felt at our perfect little creation of wonder.

“Are you hungry honey? Momma’s got lots of milk for you. Wanna try some? Oh that’s good isn’t it!”

Staring over Asia’s shoulder I couldn’t get over the bond that I already saw between mother and daughter, as they watched each other. The tiny articulate little fingers were just too much to resist and I reached a finger out. My heart stopped, as she grabbed a hold of my finger, with a surprisingly strong grip. Talk about a bond!

Asia’s face turned up to mine, her face was absolutely r
adiant, “Look what we made honey!”

We kissed then and little baby Elisha started squawking, sounding disgruntled at the lack of attention paid to her. Asia didn’t stop the kiss though, but ended it when it was time to, before turning back to her unhappy little girl.

“Daddy had mommy first. You’re just going to have to get used to that little Elisha.”

Elisha didn’t look convinced and we both chuckled at the look she was giving us. Idly, I let my fingers feel the still attached umbilical cord. The rubbery cord pulsed steadily b
etween my fingers. When Asia and I had decided to have the birth on the island unassisted we had poured over everything we could find on how to have childbirth naturally.

One thing that had shocked me about modern medical practices was the absolute insistence on severing the umbilical cord immediately upon birth of the child, as if it was a crucial medical necessity. It was far from it actually. In fact it was one of the worst things you could ever do to a newborn baby.

Up to half of the baby’s blood supply could still be in the cord and placenta after delivery. Severing the cord immed
iately created a crisis within the baby to create new blood to replace that which was lost that need never have occurred. Cord blood wasn’t just any ordinary blood either. The loss of the beneficial properties in the cord blood could affect a child negatively into adulthood.

When the umbilical cord quit pulsing it was time to sever it and not before. It could take up to 40 minutes or more for it to stop pulsing during which time the baby was still getting oxygen and nutrition from the mother through the cord to help it recover from the stress of birth, not to mention the health benefit of having its full supply of blood to start out life on the outside with. It was also the best thing for the mother to leave the cord attached, as it helped the placenta to fully detach naturally, with less chance of hemorrhaging.

The reason many babies got jaundice, which some babies even died from, was due in large part to not having received their cord blood. Such a simple thing to do to ensure the health of a newborn baby and yet modern medical practice paid no attention to it or simply didn’t care enough about the baby’s welfare. This was one of those things about society that caused me to prefer living on my island separate from it.

The arrogance of belief that a group of educated somebodies knew better and had the right to dictate what should or should not happen with no concern to whatever the wishes or concerns of the individual, who was actually experiencing the event in personal perspective, was abhorrent to me. The medical field was just one of the institutions of mankind’s popular practices that eroded away at the freedom of an individual to make their own decisions.

It was that fundamental cancerous mentality to be found in all human societies that had helped lead to the rise of the first Tower of Babel and then later the Code’s virtual tower. The belief that a few should take over the thinking of many and decide for all the way things would be, based off of their own screwed up moral compasses justified by the e
xcuse that the majority of society or at least those that mattered most to them would benefit and that the sacrifice of those who wouldn’t was acceptable. Such was the path by which freedoms are slowly lost, until the will, endowed upon humanity by their Creator to choose any decision at all over their own fate, is taken from them and they are enslaved to the desires of another.

Although a crisis had been averted in the world thanks to the courageous efforts and sacrifices of many, history often repeats itself. And one day a force already within the world would rise to enslave those hearts of man not already committed and sealed by their Creator, into an opposition of all things God, by virtue of being the opposite of God, the two being diametrically opposed.

Thankfully my spirit was sealed and my destiny sure, but the problem of that anti-force was yet to come, perhaps even within my children’s lifetime. Oh how I prayed not! But since the Earth was created and time had begun to be mea
sured, time had been running out and sooner or later those things which must be would occur so that they might also be finished by the sovereignty of God.

Today however was not that time.

Today was a good day. I left off of my gloomy thoughts to focus on the miracle of life held snug and warm in my wife’s arms. Little Elisha sated with a full belly and toasty from the heat of the room and our bodies was fast asleep nuzzled against my wife’s chest. We had a real family now.