Project 6 Read online

6 doesn’t want to risk more casualties. He knows it isn’t necessary. If Terrence has taken a hostage, it means he’s looking for a way out. 6 knows he can provide just that, so he drops his gun. And he holds his empty hands in the air to prove it.

  “There. Now let her go.”

  It’s clear that Terrence is having a hard time trusting the agent. 6 doesn’t blame him. He’s all that’s left. He’s desperate. 6 only hopes that his desperation doesn’t end with him turning against his word.

  Dropping his gun isn’t enough. He has to talk Terrence down.

  “I know you don’t want to hurt these people,” he says. “They weren’t your targets.”

  6 tries to find common ground with the terrorist. It works. Terrence loosens his grip. The woman in his arms is scared, but 6 is more confident than ever that she’ll get out just fine.

  “Your right,” says Terrence. “I don’t want to hurt these people. And you know what the ironic thing is?” His eyes burn with anger, with accusation. He answers his rhetoric question. “I probably care more about these hostages than you do.”

  This is likely true. The Liberation Movement actively makes it a point not to harm anyone but those they chastise as members of the nation’s corporate oligarchy. Their mission is to win popular support. 6, however, carries different objectives. He is to neutralize threats, with or without civilian casualties. Protection is secondary to his employers’ agenda.

  Terrence continues.

  “You know, when we came here, those fat cat fucks never showed. Homeland Security set us up to take us down. You could have shut down the airport and evacuated everyone here when you had the chance. But you didn’t. The people you work for, all they want is to take us down. They don’t give a rat’s ass who dies doing it.”

  Terrence lets go of the hostage. She runs as far away from him as possible.

  “If Tom were around, I don’t know if he’d be glad to see you alive, or sick to his stomach.” He shakes his head and almost sobs. “They fucked you up, little brother.”

  6 is confused. And it shows. He stutters while he thinks, failing to understand the reality of his situation.

  6 does not have an identity. He does not have a name, or a family.

  At least, he doesn’t think so.

  “I doubt we’ve ever met,” he says to Terrence.

  Terrence laughs. He finds this incredibly funny. He tosses his assault rifle on the ground, then sits in the corner just below the window, outside the view of the sniper cams outside. He reaches into his pocket and lifts a cigarette. Terrence is docile. The situation is resolved. 6 can call it in at any moment now, and let the police take over as planned.

  Epilogue

  From the surveillance trailer parked three blocks away from LAX, Brandon Harper watches the mission unfold before his eyes. The monitors linked to the sniper cams tell him everything. And yet he still can hardly believe what transpired.

  “Did our agent just drop his gun in front of an armed terrorist?”

  His blood boils, turning his face red.

  “He completed the mission,” chimes Cassandra Sutrozky, Magnet Securities’ chief psychological analyst. “And he was able to take one of the hostiles alive.”

  “He ignored his mission objective.”

  “On the contrary. He analyzed the situation, and decided that the man with the hostage could be persuaded to turn himself in. It doesn’t take much to convince a desperate man.”

  And Cassandra knows that Terrence was a desperate man. His profile suggested as much, and he couldn’t stop shaking when 6 had his gun trained at his face.

  Cassandra is impressed with 6’s tact.

  Brandon Harper does not share her enthusiasm.

  “Goddamn it Cassandra, I do not train hostage negotiators.”

  “No sir, of course not.”

  “He was supposed to shoot him when he had the chance.”

  Harper rubs his temple, massaging his head as a means of dulling his frustration. It doesn’t work.

  “He must have recognized his brother,” he assumes. “It’s the only explanation for it.”

  Cassandra concurs.

  “It is difficult to tell.”

  The range of the sniper cams are limited. They can barely make out faces from the windows. Even now, as 6 is busy securing the hostages, he’s too far away for anyone to read his face, let alone Cassandra. There is a distinct chance that he recognized his brother, and this might have influenced his decision. But they won’t know for certain until they debrief 6.

  “The entire point,” continues Harper, “Of this assignment, was to test if our agents can do whatever we tell them to do without hesitation.”

  To this end, using Terrence’s brainwashed brother against him had been a deliberate measure by Magnet Securities. Brandon Harper wanted the ultimate test, to see if their reprogrammed agents would be willing to do anything and everything that was asked of them, including killing those they loved.

  Harper sighs.

  “The mission was a disaster.”

  “Sir, I think it’s too early to draw conclusions.”

  Ever the astute observer. Normally, it is what Harper admires about Cassandra. Tonight, it makes him mad.

  “I’m going to get some air.”

  Cassandra stops him.

  “Sir, what do we do with 6?”

  Harper’s next words are decisive, and do not encourage debate.

  “Cancel him immediately.”

  Cassandra doesn’t approve, but she only lowers her head in respect and nods.

  “Yes sir.”

  The breeze outside cools his tempered face. It does little to help him, but the outdoor air is a definite improvement.

  So close and yet so far. The reprog didn’t work. Either 6 recognized his brother, and chose not to shoot, or he didn’t, and he’d instead been re-programmed to be incompetent. Either way, the results were bad.

  Still, Brandon Harper is nothing if not ambitious. Twelve years of thankless work hasn’t stopped him from getting this far. If it gets him to what he wants, he’s more than willing to go for twelve more.

  The face of war is changing. And Brandon Harper won’t sleep until he does what it takes to secure Magnet Securities a spot on the frontline.

  Mission Completed