Spy Mage System

285 An Tricky Investigation

“Yeah, I figured,” Brie said, shrugging. “You’re not one of them are you?”

“What’s that supposed to—you know what, let me not waste anymore time,” he said, to which he quickly reached into his belt, and equipped a gun in his hand.

My heart raced right at that moment.

“No!” I shouted, settling my legs in the middle between the slopes before charging at him. He turned around after my desperate battle cry with his hands gripped on the gun tightly.

Before he could even face it towards me, I drove into his body, to which we soared right over Brie, landing near the edge of the roof.

My hands were pressing tightly against his neck, as croaking sounds slipped from the sniper’s throat. His face under that black mask of his was slowly forming into the color of a tomato.

I looked to the side, seeing his arm steadily reach for his belt. What did he have? His gun was probably lodged inside the dirt, and the wand was probably stacked with the boxes, meaning…

Suddenly, a knife swung from the left side of my face, which I quickly loosened my left hand on his neck, and caught the knife in its tracks.

Unfortunately, the balance of power was against me, to which he managed to push me over to the side, rolling down the slope before dropping down onto the white, wooden floor of the building.

.....

A loud thud and a surge of pain followed the impact, which I groaned, feeling my spine burn in pain. Our grips were unfastened from each other, which gave me enough time to look to the side, and recognize the weapon.

It was—indeed—lodged into the dirt, and it was going to be the weapon that’s going to save me.

I turned my head to face the man, who was on the right of me. I rolled towards the left onto the dry ground, grabbing the gun and reaping it from the soil.

Once I turned my body, I faced the gun right between his eyes, which he was much closer than I thought he was.

I knew if I didn’t face this weapon at him in time, I was probably going to be partnered with him in another test of strength—or worse.

But yet—which happens in a lot of stories and movies—the strength to pull the trigger was non-existent.

Now, you might be thinking that you would pull the trigger of the man trying to kill you, but if you were in my situation, would you shoot?

Fear shaking in your fingers, terror coursing through your veins, adrenaline driving through your bones. Would you?

“Heh, you don’t even have the guts,” he said with a smile. I wanted to pull it so bad, but my finger wouldn’t pull the trigger.

It was as if the safety was on, except it wasn’t, and my hands were too frozen to even move. “Go ahead, shoot it!” he encouraged, cackling afterwards. “What are you waiting for?”

I kept the gun facing right at him, mostly just to keep him away from me.

“Yeah, I thought so. You’ve never been in this situation before,” he said. “You’re panicking—you’re shaking in your boots!”

He wasn’t wrong, I was. I carefully rearranged my fingers, hoping that this time it would encourage me to pull the trigger.

It didn’t.

“How about you give me the gun, and we can work this out. You’re a determined fool, and I can’t deny that,” he said. “Maybe you can join us.”

“Hush,” I said timidly, to which he listened somehow, and shook his head.

“Wrong word,” he said. “I was looking for more of a yes—but after all, it’s on you.”

All of a sudden, the sound of a fired shot aired through the sky.

The sniper’s eyes froze for a moment, as if he was engulfed by the cold, before they steadily began to shut. Shock contained my mouth from uttering any words, as I slowly dropped the gun.

I raised the top-half of my body, as footsteps came to my rescue.

“Hey, are you good?” Hans asked, which after a moment, I nodded. “Yeah, what about Brie?”

Right then and there, footsteps arrived over the corner, which belonged to Brie.

“Oh, Connor!” she said. “Why did you do that?!”

I leaned my head back in shock. You’d think she’d thank me for saving her, but instead, I’m being scolded!

“What do you mean? Did you want to die?” I asked her.

“No, did you?!” she quickly responded. “That was completely reckless.”

“Hey, guys, there’s no time for that. Let’s see if this guy has any information on him,” Hans said, staring down at the unconscious man.

***

The man woke up after a wave of water splashed against his face. He looked scared, his eyes darting around in fear. We were inside of the hotel room, where we managed to get a chair from the dining table. We placed it right beside the bed.

Hans got some spare rope to tie him up to the chair, entangling his entire body with the furniture.

“What—where—what?” he muttered. He paused for a moment, as if was realizing something.

“My mask…” he muttered.

The sniper had an interesting face structure: It was angular and sharp, with a defined jawline that seemed to chisel his features. The mask he was referring to must have been concealing a face that was just as intriguing.

“Hello, remember me?” Brie said, waving with a very sarcastic smile. He didn’t even break a grin, but only gave furious eyes.

“What?” he hissed. “What’s this for? You think you’re going to torture me or something? I’ve been through it all, so trust me, you’re not doing anything.”

Brie chuckled. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, you’d have to be a fool to not torture someone for information,” he said, shaking his head in confusion, laughing while he did so.

“I guess,” she said. “But you know what, who cares, let’s give it a shot.”

She motioned for me to get her a chair, so I reached out and grabbed a nearby one, as I dragged it right in front of the sniper.

Brie took a seat and crossed her legs. She looked at him as if he was a joke or some sort of circus clown. “Now, just to say, we caught you by surprise. I’m even thankful I’m here,” she said.

He stayed silent.

“You and the TSA are very skilled fighters. Like, it took two people to take you down, and that was even a hard fight. Now imagine a Shadow Operative. What would that even mean?” she rambled. “Is another one going to come for us since we knocked out the first one?”

“No,” the agent said abruptly, which everyone paused, and guided their eyes towards him. “You knocked the first one out, but that doesn’t mean they’re done. You guys are dumb, like brainless. Do you not know that when SO’s are put on a mission, they have to neutralize that person until you or that agent dies.”

He began to laugh, which eventually escalated into a wheeze. “I can’t believe you amateurs. Do you know how experienced an SO is? I’m pretty sure you fools learned this. One guy can take down three to five men with little effort.”

“Yeah, we can see that. The other one was about to kill us. Are you an SO, because you fight pretty good,” Brie asked.

“Well, I wish I could say I was. I’m just very good at what I do. Even in the most difficult of circumstances, I practice, train, and persevere. I’m that type of guy!” he bragged, laughing along with his rant.

“Yeah, you are,” Brie said.

“No, but in all seriousness, one of our SO’s is probably as dangerous as the army of agents that are going to be arriving at your doorstep soon…oh,” he muttered.

“Yeah, you arrogant fool,” Brie laughed. “I didn’t even have to torture you, you knucklehead.”

“So you now know that…” he trailed off, gulping as he darted between the three of us. But, out of the blue, Brie reached behind her belt and pulled out a gun. Three bullets sunk into his chest, as his head dropped to the side.

“Thank you for your service,” Brie said, fastening the weapon back into her belt. She then looked at us with a worried expression on her face.

“We gotta go.”

“You think?” I hissed at her. “We definitely gotta go!” Hans nodded. “I’ll prepare the car, and then we get out of here ASAP. We need to avoid any stops.”

“What if we got to go?” I asked, feeling already the need to run to the restroom.

“Well, you better go now, because we won’t have time to stop later,” Hans said, his voice testifying a message of warning.

Preview:

Hans ran towards the car. He unlocked the doors, entered the vehicle, and turned on the ignition.

“Come on, let’s go!” he shouted, which me and Brie rushed over to the car, opening the doors and slamming them shut.

“Okay, how far are we to Arizona? From there we can go to California,” Brie suggested, glancing at the back window before returning her attention to the front.

He checked the GPS and replied, “It’s about a 10-hour drive to Arizona. We can make it by tonight if we don’t take too many breaks.”

“I guess,” she said. “Come on, let’s go.”