Modern/Delta Green - The Beginning of the End (COMPLETED)

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 4 – Raising the False Flag

Guppy froze in his tracks.

“Guppy?” asked Jim-Bean.

“No, I think this is a trap.” His eyes darted to the other workers. Computer speakers dinged as a mass email was sent to everyone. Staff slowly started to get up, their eyes on Guppy and Jim-Bean.

“Look,” said Fiona. “Just follow me—“

“No!” shouted Guppy. “I can see you are in it with them! The only way we can bring about balance to Mother Gaia is through force and fire!”

Fiona’s hand slipped under her desk. Her eyes narrowed. “Are you threatening me?”

“I’m threatening the world!” shouted Guppy, spittle flying from his lips. “I—“

Before he could continue with his rant, Fiona lifted a black canister and pushed the trigger. Pepper spray hit Guppy full in the face.

“Run for it!” shouted Jim-Bean.

Guppy shrieked, pawing at his eyes.

Jim-Bean hurdled a desk, shoving Jenkins aside, and slid down the banister of the steps to the lobby. Guppy attempted to follow, running blindly in the direction of Jim-Bean’s voice…

Only to smash his groin into a desk. He groaned, bent over in pain.

Downstairs, Hammer and Archive reached the lobby just as Jim-Bean did. The staff, up to this point calm and collected, panicked. People started screaming as Jim-Bean tore through the lobby, dashing out the exit.

“Stop!” ordered Hammer. He comically fumbled for his gun, giving Jim-Bean ample time to get away. Guppy was not so lucky.

One hundred pounds of angry editor kicked him square in the back. Guppy flipped over the desk. Fiona leaped from the desk onto Guppy’s torso, straddling his throat with her thighs. She had one fist upraised over him.

“Wait!” gurgled Guppy.

Then Fiona punched his lights out.

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 5 – My Friend Fiona

Fiona was reaching for her car keys when she heard footsteps behind her. She whirled, pepper spray at the ready.

“Wait!” Jim-Bean ducked out of the shadows. “Wait, I know we got off to a bad start before. But I believe that you’ll want to hear what I have to say,” he cleared his throat, “without, you know, all the drama of my compatriot.”

Fiona’s aggressive stance didn’t change. “You’ve got ten seconds before I call security.”

“Do you know a Jason Jawolalski?”

“No. Who is he?”

“He’s dead. We found three words on a note in his car: FIONA and THE ECOTOPIAN. Whoever he was, he was looking for you.”

“Why should I care?”

“He was working for Amalgamated Bio-Carb. And he had a very important package that I believe you’d be interested in.”

Recognition flickered across Fiona’s features. “ABC? I wrote an article about them, they’ve performed all kinds of animal tests.”

Jim-Bean looked over his shoulder. “The security cameras are going to swing back this way in another few seconds. Can I buy you lunch?”

“Meet me at the Starbucks across the street,” said Fiona. “I’ll see you there in ten minutes.”

“How do I know you won’t call the police?” asked Jim-Bean.

“You don’t,” said Fiona. “But then, you came to me, so I guess you’ll have to trust me.”

Jim-Bean nodded and faded back into the shadows.

Sure enough, Fiona came into the Starbucks ten minutes later. Jim-Bean was already seated at a small table.

Fiona put her satchel down next to her. She placed her pepper spray on the table, a very clear warning.

“First, who are you really?”

“I’m with…a group that has common interests to your own. My request to meet with you about my article was just a cover. I’m trying to uncover whatever ABC was up to.”

“What do you know about ABC?” she asked.

“Not much,” said Jim-Bean. “We know that ABC is an aggressive bio-technology research and production firm that seeks to patent new drugs and chemicals which have applications to human and animal medical needs. They also subcontract their chemical and pharmaceutical production facilities, producing orders for customers around the world.”

Fiona shook her head. “That’s just scratching the surface. The long-term corporate goal is to turn their own production facilities to the production of patented drugs that ABC produces.” She pulled out her Macbook Pro and booted it up, tapping a few keys. “ABC currently has twenty-tree drug patents pending. They are particularly interested in drugs that affect the central nervous system: anti-psychotics, anti-seizure medication, etc. Their first commercial product, currently undergoing FDA review, is a drug used to revive long-term coma patients. They’ve also been seeking artificial neurotransmitters which could be used to ‘bridge the gap’ in severed nerve ganglia. But they’ve been burning through money like mad with their research division.”

“I think that research has resulted in something,” Jim-Bean searched for the right word, “unnatural.”

“Unnatural how?” asked Fiona.

“Jason Jawolalski was dating a woman, Lucinda Ennis. She received a chemical from Jawolalski that she used reanimate her father’s corpse—“

“Stop right there. Did you say ‘reanimate’?”

Jim-Bean nodded. “Her father, Henry Ennis, killed several people in the town of Runville, Massachusetts, before he was finally destroyed.” The reality was that a Majestic-12 retrieval team had ferried the animated corpse off to a containment facility. There was no stopping Henry Ennis. “This chemical, called Sapphire, reanimates dead tissue. It took us awhile before we were able to track Jawolalski down. By the time we caught up with him, he was dead.” That was a lie too – Jawolalski was killed by the protomatter enlarged Phyllis Kraygen, but the details were unimportant. “Before his car was impounded, we found a box. A box that moved.”

Fiona leaned forward, intrigued. “What was in the box?”

Jim-Bean kept his expression grim. She was falling for it. “An animated dog’s head.”

Fiona gasped. The death of Jawolalski meant nothing her. But to kill a dog…

“We believe Jawolalski defected from ABC and was intent on rendezvousing with you. His plan was to show you the dog head and convince you to help him bring down ABC, by force if necessary. The men who were pursuing me were tipped off by ABC. They framed me under some ridiculous terrorist plot.”

Fiona nodded. “That explains a lot. There is a persistent rumor that ABC researchers conducted human experimentation in China as part of their program to repair neural damage, and their name was mentioned by congressional representatives in conjunction with the ongoing debate over high-technology leaks in China.”

“I’m impressed,” said Jim-Bean. “You’ve done your research.”

“I’ve done more than that,” said Fiona. “I’ve discovered ABC’s Blackfoot production facility. If they’re processing anything illegal, my guess is it’s there.”

The name sounded familiar. Jim-Bean recognized it as the same reservation Blade grew up on. “Where?”

“It’s twenty miles north of Browning, Montana. The Blackfoot tribe is exempt from EPA regulations due to a legal loophole. ABC took advantage of that and built a chemical production facility there. Nobody’s supposed to know about it.”

“That’s exactly what we needed. Do you have information as to the location—“

“I do,” said Fiona. “But if anyone’s going to take down ABC, it’ll be me.” She scribbled an address on a napkin. “Meet me here at midnight. I’ll assemble a team. We’ll drive out to Montana – can’t appear on any passenger lists.” She stood up.

Jim-Bean, taken aback, stood up as well. “I’ll find Guppy. I doubt they can make any charges stick.”

Fiona frowned. “Fine, but make sure he keeps his ranting in check. I’ve dealt with too many nutjobs in my day to have one endanger a mission as important as this.”

She whirled out of the room, leaving Jim-Bean a little lightheaded.

He tapped the hidden earpiece. “So, uh…guys?”

“What did you get out of her?” replied Hammer.

“I think it’s the other way around. Fiona just recruited me.”

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 6 – The A Team

Fiona’s team consisted of Keith Bass, contributing editor; scruffy socialist and self-styled ecological Che Guevara and Dwight Jenkins, gofer, receptionist, part-time environmentalist and full-time horn dog. Jim-Bean guessed blowing up ABC was right up Bass’ alley. As for Jenkins, he undoubtedly hoped blowing up ABC would be right up Fiona’s alley.

Sure enough, they picked up Guppy just before getting on the road. Hammer was careful to leave Guppy in front of the Samson police station just in case.

Fiona drove. Jim-Bean sat in the passenger seat.

“You got any weapons?” asked Jim-Bean.

Fiona shook her head. “Just pepper spray.”

Guppy rubbed his eyes. “As dangerous as I know you are with that, I think I can help.” He opened up his jacket. There were sticks of C-4 along with detonators.

The others gasped.

“Where did you get that much explosives?” asked Dwight.

“Oh I carry it with me,” said Guppy nonchalantly, patting a bulky satchel.

Dwight and Keith exchanged glances but kept their mouths shut.

“Here,” said Jim-Bean. “I’ve got a few weapons you can use.” He handed his Glock 18C to Keith. “Be careful with it.”

Keith took it gingerly and nodded.

“What have you got for me?” asked Fiona.

Jim-Bean pulled a Smith and Wesson Model 29 revolver out of his bag.

“That’ll do,” she said.

“I don’t think…”

Fiona, one hand on the wheel, snatched the heavy revolver from Jim-Bean. With a flick of her thumb and snap of her wrist, she opened the chamber, glanced down to ensure it was loaded, then snapped the cartridge back in and spun it. She shoved it into one of her boots.

“I thought you didn’t know how to use guns?” asked Guppy.

“I said I don’t HAVE any guns,” Fiona corrected him. “I didn’t say I don’t know how to USE guns.”

Jim-Bean looked around the seat at Guppy, out of Fiona’s field of view, and mouthed, “Wow!”

“What about me?” asked David.

“You’ll be fine,” snapped Jim-Bean. “Just stay behind me.”

“Hold on tight boys,” said Fiona. “It’s gonna be a long ride.”

She hit the gas.

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 7 – The B Team

Hammer and Archive flew ahead of Fiona’s team to scope out the plant.

ABC’s Gemstone facility was located at the end of a six-mile-long private access road off County Road 464. The facility was within ten miles of the Canadian border, which local Blackfeet still referred to as “the Medicine Line.” The Milk River ran past the facility and supplied it with water. There was also a rail line which crossed the Milk River and headed into Canada. The property was surrounded by an outer fourteen-foot chain link fence topped by razor wire and an inner twelve-foot fence also topped with wire. The two fences were separated by a thirty-foot wide kennel run; guard dogs patrolled the kennel run at night. The fences surrounded an area of about fifty acres.

The Gemstone facility consisted of a set of four low-lying bunkers arranged in a cloverleaf design around a central fifth building. The central building, known as the Aguas Mansion, included the administration offices, data processing, a security office, six research-project labs, cafeteria, medical center, and emergency decontamination facilities. Each of the four surrounding bunkers was a production unit.

There were also a few outlying buildings, including the waste-incineration building, the temporary staff quarters, the dog kennel, and the security annex and vehicle garage.

“The central building is a huge Chateauesque structure begun in 1901 and completed in 1903, built by a magnate from America’s Industrial Revolution,” said Archive. It had cast-iron roof cresting and steeply pitched hipped roofs. Its stone walls were a mixture of French Renaissance and Gothic styles, and it had tall, elaborate brick chimneys. “In the 1950s it was converted to a sanatorium. ABC purchased the mansion and surrounding olive grove in 1993.”

“A sanatorium,” snorted Hammer, peering through a scope of the sniper rifle. “Why am I not surprised?”

A Bell JetRanger helicopter landed the night before and discharged a Germanic-looking muscle-bound executive and his entourage of five men, all dressed in designer suits.

“We’ve got movement,” said Archive.

“I see it,” said Hammer.

A train arrived at the south gate at 9 p.m.

“And here comes the A team,” said Archive.

Jim-Bean’s car pulled up on a bluff overlooking the facility. The five of them filtered out, all clad in black. The distant figure that could only be Guppy stumbled down the slope towards the entrance.

Hammer chambered a bullet into the sniper rifle. “This is going to be a disaster,” he sighed.

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 8 – Little Fish in a Big Pond

Guppy stealthy made his way to the front gate. He had hacked the security camera with his cistron to provide a repeating feed. The only thing he had to worry about was the guards, and there was a window of a minute where the gate wasn’t covered. It was all going according to plan…

Until Guppy tripped. He rolled, tumbling out of control, past the olive trees and landed flat on his back in the road.

“Ow,” said Guppy without thinking.

One of the guards peered down at him. “Hey!”

Guppy looked up. He was a dead man.

Then the guard jerked as he was struck in the back of the head. He fell over on top of Guppy.

“Oof!” shouted Guppy.

The others joined him.

“What happened?!” asked Fiona, helping him to his feet.

“I fell,” said Guppy. He looked down. “Then he did.”

“Yeah, about that,” said Jim-Bean, rubbing the back of his neck. “I have some compatriots helping us out. Native Americans, actually.”

“Whoever they are, they’re crack shots!” said Keith, peering into the darkness.

Suddenly a klaxon blared and lights strobed.

“We’ve been made!” shouted David in a panic. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Wait,” said Jim-Bean. “Look at the color of the lights. They’re a bright green.”

The lights weren’t the usual red of an alarm.

“What does that mean?” asked Keith.

“Not sure,” Jim-Bean lied. “But whatever it is, we didn’t set it off. Something else is going on in there.”

Guppy went over to the gate and applied some C-4. “Don’t have to worry about being stealthy now. Stand back.”

They stood back as Guppy blew the gate.

More guards fell before they could react, sniped from a distance.

Fiona waved Keith and David through. Guppy hung back long enough to ask Jim-Bean a question.

“What does a green light mean?”

“A chemical breach.”

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 9 – Who Let the Dogs Out?

Howls and growls echoed all around them, an interruption to the staccato beat of the alarm that rang across the facility.

“Guard dogs?” asked Fiona, pointing her revolver everywhere at once.

“Worse,” said Jim-Bean.

A bluish-red hound, its flesh torn and hanging, lurched from the darkness and slammed Keith to the ground. He unloaded Jim-Bean’s Glock into its stomach, but the thing didn’t even react. It bit hold of Keith’s face and worried his head like an old rag.

Jim-Bean fired his HK in a spray, peppering the hound with bullets. Its head exploded and it fell off of the bloody mess that was Keith.

“I need a weapon!” wailed David. “Keep them off me!”

Jim-Bean didn’t get the chance to celebrate his victory. Something big and wet slapped into his back, knocking him to the ground. He rolled as teeth snapped at his face.

It was another hound. Jim-Bean struggled to maneuver the HK into position but he didn’t have room. It bit down hard on his arm. He screamed.

The hound’s head exploded. Fiona stood over Jim-Bean, both hands on the revolver, the barrel still smoking.

“Thanks,” said Jim-Bean with a smile.

“That was close,” said David, clearly shaken. “What happened to Keith?” He took a closer look. “Oh Jesus, look at his face! LOOK AT HIS FACE!”

Keith had no face.

Guppy was down as another hound knocked him over. He struggled to keep the dog’s mouth from biting his throat, but only ended up getting one arm gnawed on.

Fiona took aim and fired. BOOM! The midsection of the hound exploded off of Guppy.

As David stood freaking out, another hound snatched his ankle. He fell down, wailing.

The dog began dragging him into the darkness when its jaw was torn off by a sniper’s bullet.

Fiona spun, pistol at the ready. “Is that it? Is that all of them?”

“I think so,” said Jim-Bean. He put to fingers on Keith’s throat. “Keith’s dead.”

“Oh God,” moaned David, clutching his ankle. “I think it bit my ankle.”

Fiona leaned over Guppy and listened to his breathing. “Guppy’s unconscious, but he’s alive.”

“I don’t feel well…” said David.

Jim-Bean walked over to David, who sat rocking on the ground. “That’s because you’re infected.” He put the HK to the back of David’s head and pulled the trigger.

He never knew what hit him. A bullet hole exploded out of David’s forehead. He slumped over.

Fiona screamed, whirling on Jim-Bean. “You son of a bitch! I’ll kill you!”

Jim-Bean put up his HK in a gesture of compliance. “Easy. Easy. David was infected with the Sapphire pathogen. He’s was already dead, he just didn’t know it. That’s why there’s a green alarm instead of a red one; there was a chemical leak at this plant, something we had nothing to do with.”

“What about you?” snarled Fiona, the revolver steady in her hands as she aimed it at Jim-Bean’s forehead. “You were bitten!”

“I…can compensate.”

“And Guppy? Are you going to kill Guppy too?”

Jim-Bean sighed. “No, I’m not going to kill Guppy. I have friends who can help him.”

“What kind of friends?” asked Fiona, not taking her eyes off Jim-Bean. “Your American-Indian friends?”

“I haven’t been entirely truthful with you, Fiona,” said Jim-Bean carefully. Behind him, Hammer and Archive stepped out of the shadows.

“You!” said Fiona. “You’re not government agents, are you?”

“Close,” said Hammer. “We’re something more than that. Now if you don’t mind, we’d like to save Guppy’s life.”

Fiona put the pistol down. Archive went over to Guppy and applied a poultice to the wound.

“Your arm,” said Fiona softly. “It’s not bleeding anymore.”

Jim-Bean held up his forearm. There was no trace of a wound. “Just a scratch,” he said with a smile. “Like I said, I haven’t been entirely truthful with you. But I need to know I can trust you with that gun, because we’ve still got a job to do. If this chemical leak gets out into the atmosphere, the damage to the environment could be catastrophic.”

“Are we still here to blow up ABC?”

Jim-Bean nodded. “They have to be stopped. If they can do this to dogs…”

Fiona lowered the pistol. “Then count me in. But after this, you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”

“We’ll explain it in full detail,” said Jim-Bean. “I promise.”

Guppy sat up gasping from Archive’s ministrations. “Dogs! Big dogs!”

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 10 – The Running Man

The main entrance to the mansion proper was a covered car port. The driveway ran directly from the inner gate under the car port and around the front, ending in a turnaround outside the garage. Employee cars lined the driveway. Broad, shallow stairs led from the car port up to ten-foot wide oak doors. Bloody footprints led to the doors. The terrible stench of rotting flesh lingered.

“This isn’t right,” said Hammer.

“The alarm may have been triggered just now,” said Archive. “But whatever happened here has been going on for awhile.”

A man thumped softly on the mansion’s front door, smearing gore from his now-damaged hand. Only when he turned was his face visible; a bloody, eyeless, ruin.

“Zombies,” said Jim-Bean with a frown.

Hammer took careful aim and pumped several bullets into faceless thing. It jerked. With a moan, it whirled and began dashing toward them.

“Fast zombies,” said Hammer. “Great.”

They all opened up on it. The zombie pitched forward, its legs torn out from beneath it as gunfire perforated its knees. It fell to the ground, twitched a few times, and finally lay still.

“Fast zombies, dogs…” Guppy blinked. “This is just like Resident Evil!”

“You play too many video games,” said Jim-Bean.

“So that begs the question.” Archive cut Guppy off. “If Sapphire has been leaking for some time, and someone just set off the alarm, who set it off?”

“Maybe there’s someone still alive inside,” said Hammer. “Or maybe someone started the leak on purpose.”

They took up position on either side of the door and kicked it open.

Inside, the lobby of the mansion was a fifteen-foot Egyptian statue of Set. Security desks flanked the statue, and folding wooden doors led into the dining hall. Two security guards sat at the desks in the lobby. Both were male, one African-American and one Caucasian. The African-American guard was disemboweled. The front of his uniform was a bloody mess. The Caucasian guard’s throat had been torn out and his lower jaw torn off. Something bit out his tongue. The shoulders and the front of his shirt were soaked in blood.

They immediately hopped up and over the desks. Again gunfire tore into them. This time they cleared the distance to reach Hammer.

Fiona dropped one of the zombies with a well-placed shot to the head from her revolver. Hammer cut down the other.

“Check them for ammo,” said Hammer. “We’re going to need every bullet.”

Archive fingered the leather phylactery that hung around his neck. “Don’t worry,” he told Hammer. “I’ve got the heavy ammunition when we need it.”

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 11 – Brains

Hammer kicked open double doors to a large, multipurpose space that had stacks of plastic chairs and folding tables against the walls, white boards, a speaker system, and a wooden floor.

A guard from the second floor study and all the Research Vice Presidents were present. One female still wore her glasses, but her face and arms bore terrible bite wounds, her left ear torn off. A stocky, red-haired Caucasian woman in her early thirties lurched forward with a broken neck and her skull slightly misshapen. A frail sixty-year old Caucasian man’s head had been crushed and his jaw dislocated. The others bore similar bite wounds; clearly the dogs and zombies had gone to work on each other before succumbing.

“Back! Back!” shouted Hammer. He yanked the door shut just as the zombies slammed into it.

They retreated down the hallway.

“Bathroom!” shouted Jim-Bean. He sprayed the hallway just as zombies stumbled out into it. But they were ineffective, and the zombies fell over each other as they dashed towards them in pursuit.

They ducked into nearest restroom. It was one of those bathrooms with no doors.

Hammer fired a burst at one zombie as it reached the opening. Its head burst open like an overripe fruit. “There’s too many!” he shouted over his shoulder. “Archive, they’re all yours!”

He spun out of the doorway and back into the rest room as Archive slid out to face the zombie horde.

“By the power of the Elder Sign, I repel you!”

He held up the symbol tattooed on the leather remnants of an Asian woman’s human skin. The eye at the center of the pentagram opened wide, unleashing a blazing red light onto the advancing zombies.

They burst into blue flames, howling and clutching at their faces, enduring suffering even more awful than their Sapphire-infected state.

There was nothing left but blue dust.

“Wow,” said Guppy.

“This isn’t working,” said Jim-Bean. “The more noise we make, the more of those things we attract.”

“We have to find the entrance to the Sapphire processing plant,” said Hammer. “It shouldn’t be this hard!” He pounded one fist next to the emergency exit plan on the wall. “That’s it! First floor, through the security office.”

“Well get going!” said Fiona, shoving Hammer ahead of her. “You’re not supposed to be here anyway.”

“What?” asked Hammer.

Fiona tapped the sign of a woman in a skirt. “This is the ladies room.”

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 12 – Insecurity

Hammer ran into the room at the top of the stairs. Zombies howled and shrieked behind them.

He pointed down the steps. “The security office should be down this way!”

Jim-Ben and Archive slammed the glass doors shut behind them.

“Good, then we can set the C-4 and finally get out of—“ Fiona was cut off as a zombie smashed its arm through the glass door and looped it around her throat.

Fiona shrieked, clawing ineffectively at the zombie’s blood-encrusted arm.

“I can’t get a clear shot at it!” shouted Jim-Bean. “Stop struggling!”

Fiona’s eyes bugged. “STOP. STRUGGLING?”

“Archive!” commanded Hammer.

Archive presented the Elder Sign. The zombies shrieked, bursting into blue flames around Fiona.

The supernatural energy, the zombie attack, it was all getting to her. Fiona kept screaming and, free of the zombie’s grip, lunged toward the stairs.

“Fiona!” shouted Guppy. “Wait! It’s not safe to go down there!”

Fiona turned and punched Guppy in the face. He fell back, stunned, half-sliding down the steps.

“Damn it woman!” shouted Jim-Bean. “Calm the hell down!” When Fiona spun with a raised fist, he clocked her in the jaw.

Fiona’s eyes rolled as her head bobbed back. She fell backwards down the steps.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” shouted Hammer.

Jim-Bean looked at his fist. “I didn’t mean to hit her so hard…”

Guppy, down at the bottom of the steps, managed to cushion Fiona’s fall with his body. He rolled her off of him and lifted his pistol.

They were in the security room. Guppy got to his feet and realized who was in there with him.

“Mother trucker,” he said.

 

[talien]

Dead Letter: Part 13 – Hasta la Vista, Baby

Gunfire erupted down below them in the security office.

“What the hell is going on down there?” shouted Jim-Bean.

Archive caught sight of a huge man in a dark-green Kevlar body suit. It covered him from head to toe. A swastika was emblazoned on one arm.

“Karotechia!” said Hammer, shocked.

Straddling the now bleeding Guppy and unconscious Fiona, the Nazi aimed his Luger at Hammer at the top of the steps.

“'Bthnk! Ftaghu! Fhtagn!”

Archive pointed and the Nazi froze in place, his finger on the trigger.

“My turn.” Hammer took a running jump and flipped over in the air down the steps, landing right in front of the big Nazi. With both pistols out, he put them to the Nazi’s chest and pulled the trigger.

The Nazi’s body jerked as the bullets sparked off of him, ricocheting around the security room. Hammer spared his Glocks a look of disbelief before he ducked for cover as the other Nazi stormtroopers fired at him.

Hammer dove and rolled, firing back. A red hole appeared on the forehead of one of them and he fell, dead.

“They’re not all invulnerable!” shouted Hammer.

Jim-Bean slid down the rail of the steps, spraying the room. The other Nazis ducked behind the security console in the center of the room.

All around them, green lights flickered warning. The words CHEMICAL BREACH flashed. A map identifying the four cylinders of the chemical plant, each color-coded, flashed on the blue plant in particular. The Sapphire plant.

Hammer looked around. A safe was open in one corner of the room behind a desk.

“They started the leak!” shouted Hammer. He crouched towards the desk.

More gunfire ripped through the room. Jim-Bean focused and, pointing at Guppy’s unconscious form, then pointed at the Nazis on the far side of the room.

“Guys,” said Archive.

One of the C-4 sticks with a detonator attached flipped through the air, guided by Jim-Bean’s will. Jim-Bean focused and the detonator connected to the stick went off. The explosion forced the Nazis troopers to dive for cover.

Hammer peered into the safe. Papers labeled Nuevas Fronteras. “They’re destroying evidence, covering their tracks!”

“Guys?” said Archive, sweating as he focused on the big Nazi.

Hammer raked gunfire over the desk, forcing the Nazis to duck.

“GUYS!” shouted Archive. “I can’t keep him still for long!”

The big Nazi grunted. He was breaking free of the spell.

Jim-Bean blinked. “I got it!”

He pointed, and one by one, C-4 floated from Guppy’s unconscious form and slapped itself onto the broad pecs of the Nazi.

“When I’m done with this we’re not going to have a lot of time!”

Fiona stirred.

“Grab Guppy!” shouted Jim-Bean.

Fiona dragged Guppy up the steps.

“What about Hammer?” asked Archive.

“Don’t worry about me!” shouted Hammer from the other side of the room. “Go! GO!”

Jim-Bean shoved Archive up the steps as the big Nazi roared free of the spell through sheer willpower. He took careful aim of at Jim-Bean’s retreating back.

The four blocks of C-4 stuck to him all began beeping at once.

“NEIN!” shouted the big Nazi as the explosion tore through the security office.