Chapter 27

“08-02-28”

‘Huh?’ Bert looks at Lando’s phone as it had been ringing on and off again for the past hour or so. On the screen he looks at the contact calling him but he couldn’t make sense of it as he was only seeing a bunch of random numbers.

Lando had been out for a while now, stating that he has a “meeting” with one of his contacts. He had told Bert it was going to be a short meeting but it had already been an hour and there was no news coming from Lando’s side, making Bert feel a bit weary.

‘Sorry!’ Lando said as he hurriedly burst through the door carrying bags and bags of stuff in his grasp, looking like he went grocery shopping with how much food and other things he was carrying.

‘What the?! Where did you come from?’ Bert asked.

‘Just from the corner store?’ Lando answered.

‘Corner store? You look like you went to a supermarket?’ Bert said as Lando gave him an apologetic smile.

‘Nah, It’s just because I met with one of my staff back at my pub, He said he’s got some info he needed to share and apparently also has some goodies for me. I’m kinda touched ya know… Even if I’m just their boss they treat me like family.’ He replies looking like he had a tear welling up within him.

‘Well I’d like to know more about it but first…’ Bert responds as he points his gaze towards his phone, which was still ringing as they chat. Lando apologizes once more as he retrieves his phone from the counter. As he looks at it his gaze suddenly turns grim as he takes a glance at Bert before rushing back upstairs to answer the phone. The only thing Bert caught before Lando disappeared up the steps was his opening hello, which in itself, already sounded ominous as he closed the door behind him, leaving Bert alone once again.

…

…

‘I’ll give you ten seconds. If you don’t come out, then…

Use your imagination.’

Val suddenly felt a ping go through her heart. A grim tightening burst of energy immediately infected her upon hearing the words that man had let loose. He had said it in a calm soothing tone but even if he did, it still gave her a grim feeling that things weren’t going well for them. She had the strongest urge to jump out and surrender but she knew Lorna was never going to let that happen. As she is the type to stand her ground at the face of death itself. The back of her mind was screaming to jump out but she kept herself steady whilst looking at the two sticks of Lichen charge she had on her hands.

She decides to put it to use.

‘Ten.’

‘Nine.’

‘Eight.’

‘Sev-’

He hears faint “thud” from his left as he scans the area for the source of it. Soon he notices a stick-like entity rolling towards his position, and underneath the car he stood upon.

Sensing something, he instinctively leaps from the roof of the car as a burst of electricity casts a dome of energy from the center of the blast, which catches him, as he falls prone in between the parked cars in the lot. Immediately Val and Lorna use the distraction to run towards the exit as they hear a whirring sound coming from where the man fell.

‘I thought you were gonna surrender?’ Lorna says sarcastically.

‘I thought the same about you!’ She answered.

‘Well I “was” curious with what he had to--’

‘What? Are you serious?!’

Lorna nods. Leaving Val in shock as they ran towards the golf cart they used to get there.

‘Lorna?’

‘Lor!’

‘What?!!’

‘You didn’t answer me!’ She shouts as they hopped inside the cart, speeding away from the scene.

‘Well it was some info… Besides, I got a plan B.’

‘Plan B my ass…’

They were about to go across a bridge that connects the docks together when a stack of containers suddenly tumbles down in front of them, forcing her to take evasive maneuvers. When the dust settled, she spots the man chasing them, standing atop the rubble.

‘Time for plan B Val.’ She said as she hands her the remaining explosives from her bag as well as taking out something that she could only describe as a “hand cannon”.

‘Run back behind the containers and blow up the rest, and oh…’ She said as she pulls Val back before she sprints away.

‘Don’t wait for me.’

Val nods, and while her face suddenly grew pale, she knew what Lorna meant as she sprinted away and took cover behind the containers that were still left standing. Lorna on the other hand steers the cart in the other direction and drives away. Making sure to drive through the smoke so that the man could see her flee, clutching her weapon underneath her jacket to conceal it.

Just as she had expected, the man leapt through the smoke and into a sprint, matching her pace. He grabs on to the back of the cart, slowing it down with his raw strength as Lorna turns around, gun in hand. Aiming the barrel straight and true in between his eyes.

…

…

-Bang-

Val hears gunshots from afar, stopping her on her tracks. She felt the urge to look behind but fights it, pushing her legs to continue running. She continues to hear a couple more gunshots fire as she nears the warehouse they had just escaped from as she takes out her camera and snaps photos of the cars and any other details tht Lorna might’ve missed including a room on the upper platform overlooking the parked cars, which looked like an office where the man chasing them had stationed himself in. She enters the room and the first thing she finds was a suitcase filled with different advanced looking firearms, the small concealed kind of weapons.

‘The guy wasn’t kidding…’ She thought as she walks up to the computer and boots it open to access its files. She pulls out her phone and dials J2’s number as she wires her phone through one of the computer’s drive sockets while she finds any crucial data to extract.

‘Val where in the world have you run off to?!’ J2 shouts as he answered the phone.

‘I assume the race is still on? Seeing as you’re still inside the tent.’

‘They’re on the final leg so they should be arriving in a few minutes but… Where the fuck are you?!’

‘Not important, what IS important is this data I’m streaming through this call, so please, take care of it…’

J2 looks confused for a moment until a prompt appeared on his screen asking approval for a data stream.

‘Accept it J2 I don’t got all night…’

‘Oh… yeah wait a sec…’ He said as he plugs his phone into his laptop and accepts the prompt. As soon as he accepted his laptop screen changed its display to an unfamiliar desktop, which confused him.

‘Who's screen is this?’

‘It’s the screen from the computer I’m stealing from. We have shared control for the next three minutes so help me out here.’

‘Okay what do you need to find?’ J2 said as Val starts mouthing off her specifics.

Val has little to no experience in dealing with computer programs even though she’s forced to learn some of the basics to be able to run Jack and Barry’s. Nonetheless when it comes to breaking through security passwords and other complex computer stuff, she has J2 to help her out. Which is where J2 comes in as she asks him to break through the Bureau of Customs data banks, much to J2’s shock, but as always he reluctantly obliges seeing that Val seemed to be in a pinch at the moment.

It only took J2 half a minute to access the secure data banks of the Bureau of Customs as they both started to wonder if it was actually secure in the first place.

‘Okay I need you to find anything related to Carbine and compile it to your laptop.’ Val said as she looked abruptly behind her as if she heard something that could cause her to be alarmed.

‘Are you okay?’ J2 said as Val looked back at her phone’s camera with genuine concern in her eyes.

‘Continue compiling, I need to check something out…’ She said as J2 saw her walk away from the camera and towards the door on the left of his screen as it suddenly burst open, sending the door and Val flying towards the opposite direction. J2 couldn’t believe what he was seeing after he saw his friend, who was just beside him an hour ago, being sent flying towards the wall as a man which he could only describe as “The Terminator” with long hair, enters the room in a menacing manner.

…

…

‘I’m just calling to let you know.’

‘I see…’

Lando hears the line cuts off as he turns around to face the door. He sighs as he turns the knob only to find Bert on the other side with a guilty look in his face.

‘Really Bert? I could’ve just told ya.’ Lando responds in a disappointed tone.

‘What? You were the one who ran upstairs to hide. You’re not supposed to conceal info from your partner ya’ know?’ Bert responds in protest.

‘Fine…’ Lando answers. ‘Just so we’re transparent, remember that overseas contact I told you about?’

‘So that was him?’

‘Her…’

‘Oh…’ Bert replies looking surprised.

‘It doesn’t matter.’ Lando said as he walked past Bert and down the staircase. ‘What matters here is my contact has seemed to have gained an interest in our investigation when I sent her some intel regarding Kawabata Aisha.’

‘Really? How so?’

‘She seems to be familiar with the man. Calls him Mister Asia and she wants to get closer to the action.’

‘So you let her?’ Bert asked with a bit of hostility in his tone. Deep inside he doesn’t want anymore outsiders interfering with his investigation.

‘I never even had a choice in the matter.’ Lando replies with a melancholic sigh. ‘She’s already here.’

Bert’s eyes widened in shock. ‘Here?!’

‘Here…’ Lando clarified. ‘She said she’ll be in touch with us once she’d done her own digging. In the meantime let’s continue with our own stuff. It’s not like we have nothing on our plate anyways.’

‘It’s not that Lando! What if she gets in our way?’

‘She won’t.’

Bert looked at Lando’s stern expression, trying to fathom how could he be so confident with this person he had just mentioned.

‘Really? She won’t?’ Bert replies in doubt.

‘Trust me. In terms of operating, she’s beyond human.’ Lando answered as he reached for the whisky bottle on the counter.

‘Bert, Have you ever heard about Project Eight - Two - Twenty - Eight?’

‘Huh?’ Bert answered as Lando handed him a drink. Gesturing him to sit on the sofa as Lando follows suit. Bert gets a clear feeling that this would be one of Lando’s long lectures about things he rarely knows about.

‘While I may not know the full extent of their operations, what I do know is that they’re an experimental mercenary group, operating legally under NATO.’ Lando explains.

‘Experimental? I’m getting super soldier vibes here Lando. So you're telling me we might be dealing with Captain America’s here?’ Bert replies, alarmed with what he had just heard.

‘Those are the details I do not know, but as per this contact I have from their group, they are experimental “weapons”.

‘Well shit…’

‘Anyways continuing with the details I do know of. They are born and raised as fighters. Taken in at the age of eight and graduating when they reach twenty eight years old. Hence the Project name.’

‘Eight - Two - Two - Eight… The contact on your phone…’

‘Yes. Exactly.’ Lando replied as he took a sip from his whisky.

‘Their main purpose is to take various missions that NATO could not take on their own and working closely with NATO nations and the allies of said nations to keep the status quo of world powers.’

‘So basically you’re saying they are Captain America?’

‘Could be, depending on how you see it.’

‘So CCP? Russians? NoKor?’

‘Yeah specifically to counter these countries. They even built their HQ in Hong Kong for easy access.’

Bert stares dead straight at Lando’s eyes for a moment after hearing that particular location from his statement. His mind already connects the dots but decides to bring up his theory on a later date.

‘You look like you figured something out?’ Lando said as if he’d already read Bert’s mind.

‘Yeah I just remembered the Kingpin op. Ring any bells?’ Bert said, visibly stunning Lando.

‘Now’s not the time… But yeah, you’re right on that.’

‘Dammit Lando, sometimes I envy you but sometimes, I really am thankful for my wife and kids.’

‘They keep you honest bud, Believe me you don’t want my life. It’s… mostly short term on everything.’ Lando said as Bert raised his glass saying: ‘Amen to that!’

‘Anywho back to topic. To summarize their function, think of them as an Adventurer’s Guild that are affiliated to working in favor of the NATO kingdoms and vassal nations.’

‘Except for the fact that the Adventurer’s guild actually produces their own adventurers instead of recruiting. Am I right?’ Bert said as he refills his glass.

‘Correct, also, I used the term adventurers because their only contract is to work for NATO for the benefit of NATO, and that’s it, nothing more specific than that. It doesn’t matter if they’re working for rival companies or armies with a conflict of interest, as long as their employer is affiliated with NATO nations and those nation’s allies then they are free to accept said jobs.’

‘So they’re not tied to any nation or army and are free to move on their own volition? That sounds unsettling.’ Bert said as he took a gulp from his glass. ‘The idea that super soldiers running around with their own free will somehow makes my gut churn. It’s like hearing there’s an army of killer robots out there plotting to take over as the dominant species of this planet.’

‘Right again!’ Lando said. ‘It’s that kind of psychological warfare that NATO’s after so that the other superpowered nations won’t overstep their boundaries.’

‘But what if China made their own eight to twenty eight?’

‘Destroyed.’ Lando flatly replies,

‘You mean they did?’ Bert asked with curiosity in his eyes.

‘No one really knows the full roster of these people Bert. For all we know there might be some government officials in this country who are born and raised in Project Eight Two.’

‘Are there?’ Bert asked, feeling alarmed.

‘I have no idea.’ Lando answers in a “matter of fact” tone. Putting his glass down on the table as he stands and heads towards the computer. ‘But if somebody creates something that might oppose them. You can be sure there’s already somebody nearby ready to destroy it.’ Lando states with an ominous tone.

‘Now, where did we last left off?’ He asked as Bert sighs, finishing his own glass before following suit.

…

…

[85]

[86]

[87]

[88]

The number on J2’s screen steadily rises while he watches the nail biting feed from Val’s camera as she gets thrown once again on the other side of the office, desperately fighting to stay alive against the man who was chasing her. She stands up just in time to dodge his foot from stomping her, grabbing a nearby chair, swinging it rapidly towards his face which he took in full force making him stumble his footing.

‘HOW MUCH LONGER?!’

She shouts at the camera which startles J2.

‘Ninety two percent!’

‘Fuck!’

The man notices the phone that was plugged into the office computer as he figures out what was happening. He cries out a deafening roar as he gathers his strength using his metal legs and leaps towards the workstation to cancel the download but Val tackles him mid air to delay him even if it costs her being vulnerable in close proximity. And as she expected she quickly found herself in a stranglehold the moment the man got his bearings back.

‘Ninety five percent!’ J2 shouts through the speakers as Val feels her strength slipping away. Her sight slowly dimmed as she struggled to breathe. She can feel her neck slowly getting crushed by his steel arms as tears start flowing out of her eyes which were now blinded from the lack of blood flow through it.

‘Ninety six--’

Everything went dark.

Strangely the only thing she felt was a searing heat in the small of her back.

The searing heat had shockwaves of force plowing through it.

Countless shockwaves.

Continuous shockwaves.

‘Nine--’

The heat was burning behind her.

Mini explosions came one after another.

And suddenly.

‘Ninety eight percent!’

Her hearing was sharper.

The heat was gone.

The shockwaves were gone.

And her eyes begin to see light once again.

Everything was blurry, like she was in a dream.

But soon everything came to perspective.

In front of her was Lorna.

She had a desperate look on her face.

Firing her gun at the man who stood before her.

She was on the floor, wall on her back, sitting barely upright.

Running out of bullets, she receives a full kick to her side.

Her face distorts in pain.

Val felt her body gasp for air as it seemed to move on its own volition.

Standing up.

Stumbling forwards.

‘Ninety nine percent!’

In her mind she thought: ‘Die already…’

She felt a sharp ping of pain on her side.

She grabs her waist to comfort the pain, but the pain remains.

She also felt another thing.

A thing she forgot.

Her sight was now back as it was, and although she felt weak…

She had a plan.

‘It’s Done!’ J2 shouts from the speakers.

‘Good log out and disconnect.’

‘But Val--’

--BANG--

‘He never could shut his trap.’

Lorna said as she dropped her arm with her gun, on the ground in exhaustion.

‘You’re lucky it jammed robocop. Looks like the last bullet wasn’t for you…’

The man turns to look at the stricken down Lorna Loran. Her face bloodied and bruised from the fight as Val stood behind him in clutching her sides, her pained reflection he could see from the window above where Lorna sat.

‘Congratulations, you succeed…’ The man said looking at Lorna. He glanced down to see his clothes had been torn off and his blood was flowing through the metal fibers on his abdomen where she shot him point blank to free Val. ‘You even managed to make me bleed.’

‘Hah! So you ARE still human.’ Lorna scoffed.

‘I am and I failed because I still am. I guess killing you two would be fair compensation.’

Lorna’s eyes widened as she clutched her gun tightly in her grasp. She wanted to shoot him to save herself but she was out of bullets to fire. She grits her teeth to prepare for the inevitable, it is here where she saw Val jump in action to grab him from behind whilst holding a Lichen charge in her hand. She sees Val smiles at her as she twists the charge, igniting the fuse.

She could only watch helplessly as her friend held on tightly waiting for the charge to detonate.

…

…

…

…

…

Darkness surrounds everything.

It is as if the lights had been magically taken away.

Debris fly.

No one understands what had just happened.

Everything went by rapidly.

A hole has been punched from above.

She had lost her grip of him.

And she had lost her grasp of the charge.

An entity had stolen both from her arms while she watched helplessly.

Getting thrown once more on the other side of the room.

Hopefully for the final time.

Something had landed from above sending shockwaves across the room.

Forcing her to let go.

She sees the entity throw the man out of the window like he was nothing.

Throwing him out like a pitcher would. Then destroying the charge.

Everything went by in a flash.

But she witnesses it in slow motion.

The entity looks back at her before leaping after the man it had thrown.

Seemingly flying through the window it had just broken.

The window “she” had just broken.

The entity had a face.

Short but flowing blond hair.

Dark sultry amber eyes.

But her body was the same metal she had seen on the man.

There was nothing but darkness and silence afterwards.

She looks at Lorna across from where she was. Looking as shocked and confused as she.

‘Is it over?’

Lorna asked.

Val thought hard if it was. They had learned what they needed and they had gotten the data they wanted.

‘Yes… Let’s leave…’ She said with a sigh of relief.

The only challenge they had left was if they were fit enough to drive back.

A question with an answer that both had unspokenly agreed on;

as they limped back in the midst of darkness, calling the Mayor’s son for assistance.

Behind them, only screams, as the clouds affront show light from a distance.