An American Villain 3

My father couldn’t believe it when he looked close to the code. I knew it couldn’t have been him, he wasn’t that kind of a person. Even before The Corporation took over, he was an American through and through. He flew for the military for years, he was a true patriot.
“I don’t understand, how could someone have access to that code?”
I flipped the screen around and tried to dig deeper into the file to see if there was a trace history of it.
“It’s locked, this is as much as I can see. Dad, do we need to worry about this? If I found this, the tech teams will find it as well.”
He rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck side to side.
“The only way to avoid a problem in the future is to act on it now with a solution.”
The doors opened and a security team walked in.
“Sir, you need to come with us.”
They escorted my father out of the room and I could see the director with the top programmer next to him. My father went peacefully with them, he knew he didn’t do it and so did I. The director motioned for me to come with them.
“We just want to talk to him about a security concern. He is not in trouble for anything. Now I need you to get to the tactical command room to assist the operative going.”
He turned and followed the security team escorting my dad. I went the other way and followed the corridor towards the elevator. The doors opened and there were two other men in there, almost like they were waiting for me.
“Morning gentlemen, I assume you are to escort me through the building?”
They didn’t say anything as the elevator moved through the building. The doors opened and one of them stepped past me.
“Right this way sir.”
I felt like I was walking into a trap that was laid weeks in advance. I walked with them until we reached the doors of tactical command. As soon as they opened one of the security guards stepped out and stopped us.
“Sorry boys, only Otaza is allowed in. You two return to your posts.”
He pulled me into the room and the doors shut, locking behind us.
“Sorry about that, the director has his personal security doing his errands since the attack happened now. I don’t like them and don’t want them inside my command room.”
I looked at the man’s uniform and he was their lead tactical commander. I nodded my head in agreement and proceeded to walk towards the wall of monitors.
“Is the operative on his way to the hospital?”
He pointed to one of the monitors on the wall, it was a stream from the camera mounted on the operator’s chest piece.
“He is about to leave the station, flight time to the hospital is only half an hour.”
He pointed to another set of monitors that looked like live television.
“We have been watching the local and national channels to see if it has made news yet. A few local stations have picked it up but nothing on the national level. The director is trying to get the media to back away and not broadcast it. The last thing we need is a panic.”
I looked around the room at everyone else, they all seemed young and around my age. We stood and watched the monitors and waited for our field operator to get to the hospital.

“Otaza, I need you on this terminal. You are going to feed our man on the ground information on what he needs to do. He should be landing on the roof in a few minutes.”
The girl who was sitting there got up and handed her headset to me.
“I guess you are the prodigy I’ve heard so much about.”
She seemed interested in what I was going to be doing by pulling up a chair next to me.
“I wouldn’t say prodigy, just someone who thinks up crazy ideas.”
One of the guys a few terminals down chuckled and spoke up.
“Crazy is an understatement, I heard what you did on your first day, you are a mental case dude.”
I looked at the girl and just shrugged my shoulders and then stuck out my hand.
“Otaza, my father is Mitchell Raiger.”
Her eyes got wider and she reached out to shake my hand.
“Your father is a legend around here. It’s nice to meet you, my name is Rae Hanly.”
The commander spoke up to the room.
“We are live people, our operative has landed on the roof.”
I faced the terminal and pulled up his camera feed in the corner of the screen. I heard one of the others in the room giving him directions to the defense system. He moved through the roof doors and down the stairs. The live television showed four armed men walking outside of the hospital with a hostage.
“Ladies and gentlemen we are seeing first here on channel 11 who the suspects are. They seem to have someone with them.”
As the reporter kept talking, one of the men stepped forward and shot the hostage right outside. The camera cut off and the news network put up a warning screen to viewers.
“Do we have a drone inbound to see what’s happening?”
The commander looked towards one of the men who sat at a flight terminal.
“We followed the operative in, we are out of view of them currently. If we get any closer we could give away our plan.”
The commander walked close to the now apparent pilot.
“You get the drone within range, they already killed one hostage that we know of. I don’t want any more bodies, do you understand me?”
The pilot nodded his head and began to move the drone closer. His feed from the drone appeared in the center of the wall on the larger monitor.
“Activate the swarm. I want full coverage of this building within minutes”
I looked back at the camera feed I had on my terminal, the operative was getting close.
“You’re up Otaza, get him in the cage and through the protocols.”
We only had video from his camera, the sound wasn’t coming through because of all the metal in the building.
“The cage has a keypad on it, enter the code 591076, it’s the override that will get you through.”
His hand came up into view and started typing the code. Suddenly he fell against the cage and tried to get up.
“Contact people, our operative has been compromised.”
The camera picked up another man who was wearing all black and a mask over his face. He pulled our man up and began to drag him away from the cage. He fell to the ground flat on his back.
“Someone get that sound working!”
The commander was watching close to the live feed. The man who attacked the operator stood over his body and pulled out a pistol from his side. He slid his finger under his throat and then fired four rounds into him. He bent down to the camera and then the audio started to come through.
“Those who choose to stand with The Corporation of America will suffer. The wrath of The Forgotten will rain down upon you.”
He stood up and shot the camera to cut the live feed off. The room was in chaos as the commander tried to mobilize a team to move in.
“Everyone stop what you are doing.”
I turned around with Rae to see the director standing at the back of the room with my father.
“Sir, we have an operator down. Our plan has been compromised and they have already killed one hostage that we know of. We need to move into the building now before they kill more.”
The commander was angry at the situation and knew what needed to be done.
“I understand your anger, commander, but you need to stand down. We don’t know who The Forgotten is, how big they are or how many of them there are. Our best bet is to send in someone else alone.”
My father tried to step forward but was stopped by the Director.
“Otaza, it’s your day.”
I looked at my father who had fear covering his face. I didn’t know what to do, I wasn’t a field operative.
“Sir, I’m no use in the field, I’m just a technician.”
I stood up and walked close to him.
“A technician is exactly what we need on the ground, not an operator who is only trained in combat.”
The doors opened and his personal security team began to escort me out. I turned around to look at Rae, it was the first time I met her but she looked concerned about the situation.

I managed to convince the director to let me get a few of my prototypes from my lab to take with me. They weren’t field tested yet but I played with them in the lab and knew they would work. I was ushered through the building and down to a cart. They cleared the roads to get me into hangar one as fast as possible. The elevator doors opened and I was left to head up alone. The elevator doors opened and I walked across the causeway and to the landing pad that had a scepter waiting for me, just like the one I was picked up on my first day. I could see the pilot getting ready for take off but I wasn’t sure who it was. I climbed inside and sat down, grabbing the headset to talk to the pilot.
“Let’s go.”
The engine wound up faster and the lift started to rise as the overhead doors opened. I looked up at the pilot’s display on the window. The time to destination was a lot less than the first operative’s time.
“Pilot, it’s supposed to take a half hour to get to the hospital.”
He remained silent until we cleared the tree line and got into the air. He set it to auto pilot and then turned around to me.
“Dad!? What are you doing!?”
He handed me an ear piece and then unplugged my headset. I put it in my ear and heard him speak.
“Do you really think I was going to let someone else fly you on your first field assignment? I’ll get my ass chewed when I get back, but I’ve gotten that before. Plus I’m already in trouble for the code problem, plus now it’ll be beating the two security guards within an inch of their life.”
He smiled and then turned back around and shut off the autopilot. Another voice came over the channel and it was Rae.
“Your dad and I have been friends since I started, so when you got pulled to go out I told him I wanted to be on coms with you to help.”
I didn’t know her but she knew my dad and that was good enough for me.
“Aren’t you both worried about what will happen after this is over?”
Rae and my dad laughed and I heard the tactical commander in the back speak up.
“Wait what did he say?”
Rae spoke up again.
“He said fuck the Director.”
It was nice to laugh, it helped me calm my nerves. My dad flipped a few switches and the sound of the scepters engines started to change.
“Hold on to something back there. This has the prototype for the in atmosphere hyperdrive.”
I pulled my seatbelt over and clicked it in and then tapped the seat. The engines got louder and the ground below became a blur. My dad was loving this, I could hear him laughing as he steered the ship through the sky. The display on the window wasn’t responding to the speed but I could see the city scape coming into view quickly.
“Get ready to hop out, I’m going to drop you in the parking garage a block over. I’ll pull off and wait for you across town. Rae will guide you through the building.”

The shuttle swooped down and hovered only a foot above ground as I jumped out. I ran to get undercover as he turned the nose of the ship up and went straight up.
“You’ve got some distance to clear. There is a stairwell that will take you to the ground floor, get moving Otaza.”
I saw the sign for the stairs and started to head that way. I went down five flights until I reached the ground.
“Alright, which way am I going?”
I looked around and had two different ways into the parking garage.
“Go left and take the back alley until you reach the hospitals receiving docks.”
I went left and started to head towards the exit.
“Your other left!”
I turned around and headed the other direction.
“Am I just a blip on your map? Can’t you see my silhouette?”
I heard my dad laughing quietly on the channel.
“Sorry, I had the map upside down. Keep going and get to that receiving dock.”
The alley was quiet and it was only a block over until I saw their receiving lot with their docks.
“I’ve got four of them standing out back. I need another way in.”
I could hear her talking to the commander about another way into the building. I looked around and saw a trash chute that was open and went up a few floors.
“Hang on, I found another way, I’m going to climb up the trash chute.”
I pulled my backpack around and dug into one of the pouches. I had gloves that I’ve been playing with that have magnets in them.
“That’s gross, how are you even going to get in?”
I slid them over my hands and tightened them down.
“Magnet gloves, I’ll be able to climb it.”
I heard my dad laughing harder and mumbling something.
“Well if it works then I guess take that way into the building. I see where you are at and where it will put you. You will only have to cross two hallways and take another set of stairs and you will be where our operative was caught.”
I walked under the chute and put my hand against it. The magnets took and I began to climb. I got a few feet up and let one hand go, one of the gloves supported my weight alone. The climb was easy at the start but half way up it started to get narrow. I began to worry that I would get myself stuck as I climbed higher. I looked down and instantly regretted it, I was almost to the top. As soon as I got to the top it leveled out and gave me an area to lay still.
“Stop! Do not move or make a sound. I’ve got heat signatures on the other side of that hatch.”
My heart started to race faster and suddenly there was a loud crash and their footsteps got further away.
“Make this count, we just flew our drone into the side of the building. Get moving!”
I quietly opened the hatch and crawled out.
“Go right, then left and follow it down to the stairwell.”
I moved quietly and looked around at the rooms I passed. It was a bloodbath here, they have started killing the patients.
“Guys, they have killed every patient I have passed by. You might want to get a larger force ready to breach the building if I don’t succeed.”
I couldn’t stomach the carnage anymore, I had to stop looking and just keep moving. I reached the stairs and as soon as I opened the door I was right behind one of them. Before he could turn around I reached around his neck with my left arm and pulled his head hard around. The sound of the bones in his neck breaking caused my stomach to turn and I wanted to puke.
“Otaza, what was that?”
My dad spoke up in place of me, he knew I couldn’t talk about it.
“That was what we called sudden and abrupt contact. You handled it professionally Taz, keep moving son.”

I reached the cage where our operative was killed, his body was still laying on the ground. His blood had soaked his clothes and his body was pale. I had to catch myself and stop the process of puking. I looked around me to make sure no one else was around and then punched in the code. The cage opened and I stepped inside, closing it behind me to prevent followers.
“Open the service door and head down the stairs, there will be a terminal next to a large sealed metal box.”
I opened the door and walked through, the room was like a freezer.
“Damn it’s cold in here, is it supposed to be this cold?”
I could see my breath in the air, the room was starting to get ice on the walls. Rae began explaining the order of how to bring Archangel back online.
“The kill code put the defense system in cold storage to prevent it overheating. You need to prime the handle next to its case so that the system’s power is restored first.”
I looked around until I saw the handle near the top of it. I pulled it and pushed it a few times until the terminal screen began to flicker and turn on.
“Next you need to activate its stabilizer, the case is pressurized to keep it sealed inside. If you try to open it without the pressure stable, it will destroy the Archangel.”
I pulled up my sleeve and opened the data pad on my arm. I reached into my pocket and grabbed my universal splice cable and plugged it into my arm and then into the terminal. I bypassed the terminal’s security and activated its pressure systems.
“I’m getting pressure readings on my end, the case is starting to level itself out. There is going to be some hissing as the air is slowly let in. It will take a few seconds and then it will pop open.”
The hissing started and stopped in a sequence that worked its way from top to bottom. The case popped open and then the doors slid sideways and then around the sides.
“Whoah, so this is Archangel.”
It was a defense robot with a very large rifle and wings on its back. It was painted white with a large Red Cross on its chest.
“Focus, we need to bring it online. Once it’s active, you need to stay out of its way. Your RFID signal from your chip will keep you safe from being shot but that doesn’t mean you won’t get knocked over.”
I wasn’t chipped, I’ve avoided it since I was brought in.
“Rae, he isn’t chipped like the rest of us.”
I could hear her swearing in rapid succession over the channel as the commander kept asking what was wrong.
“Otaza, once you activate Archangel, you need to haul ass.”
I started the activation sequence and quickly unplugged my cable, tucking it away into my pocket.
“What will happen if I stay around for the show?”
It’s body began to twitch as it woke up from storage.
“There won’t be a show, you will be killed. Anyone who accesses their case that isn’t chipped is considered a threat.”
Its head turned and looked down at me, its arms were still locked but those started to release.
“Target acquired.”
I started to step back and hit the door.
“RUN OTAZA!”
I pulled the door open and then pushed through the cage. I ran up the stairs and heard it bust out of the cage and follow me up.
“Head for the trash chute!”
I ran down the hall towards the trash chute and heard multiple footsteps and voices coming my way.
“I’ve got its camera feed going, it’s targeting you!”
I rounded the corner and was faced with four of the attackers.
“DROP!”
I hit the floor and bullets flew over my head and into the wall. The four other men turned and ran the way they came.
“Get on your feet Otaza! Get out of there!”
I ran towards the trash chute and even more men came back around the hallway.
“Taz, turn around and head to the windows at the end of the hall, you need to run like you’ve never ran before.”
I heard my dad again and did what he said. I started running and as I passed the hall I came from, Archangel was standing right there.
“This is a dead end! It’s just windows!”
I kept running but my mind was telling me to stop. I got close to the windows and saw the scepter lower down.
“JUMP!”
I put my arms out forward to break the glass and went through the window.
“Whoa! I got you buddy!”
I felt the cuts on my arms and face as I went through the glass and landed in the ship.
“I’ve got him, Rae, we are returning to the base. Alert medical, he’s going to need stitches.”
I rolled over and held my side, I felt my hands getting warm.
“Dad…”
My vision got blurry and I started getting cold, I heard him talking but only caught the first part of it.
“Hold on Otaza, stay with me….”