Nocturne
Isaac had insisted on going solo, but the director would not hear of it, so teamed him up with Madison, a raw Agent who had zero field time. He knew better than to complain, otherwise he’d be on the director’s hit list permanently. After all, he was the one who recruited her after the Sebastian Affair in London. Besides, this was a routine breaking and entering. Not too much could really go wrong, after all. That is, if Madison sat in the car and kept a lookout down the alleyway while he took care of business. He smirked. Nothing like a good snipe hunt to break in new recruits. Besides, he doubted that little wisp of a girl, training or no, had his background as a second-story man. He crept up to the privacy fence of Patricia Myer’s estate when he heard a voice in his ear.
“Isaac,” Madison began.
Isaac mouthed beneath his breath and the subdermal transmitter amplified his response. “What is it, Madison? I thought I told you to maintain radio silence except for emergencies.”
“Hmmmm,” said Madison, thinking aloud. She couldn’t be more than nineteen. Isaac was certain of it. “I think this qualifies. Y’know that alley you wanted me to keep an eye on?”
“Yes, Madison. You see something?”
She responded very matter-of-factly. “A gyre is forming.”
Isaac’s stomach sank as he began to run back towards the car. “Get out of there,” he cried out. He pulled his pistol from its hidden holster and screwed on the silencer. His head filled with static as the gyre played havoc with their communications.
Madison knew Isaac wanted to ditch her. Didn’t think she could keep up with his bad boy agent moves, but she’d seen his type before. She’d even dealt with them from time to time, so she didn’t put up a fuss when he had her stake out the alley. She figured it was for a reason, so she just went with the flow. After he left, she had walked around the car and checked the ground. That’s when she noticed the chalk lines on the ground, the intricate symbols scribbled seemingly at random, a sentinel ward. She sighed. No sense worrying him. She figured she could handle anything Patricia Myers might throw her way. The file indicated Ms. Myers was a freelance diabolist who did some odd jobs for some small time players in the area- she might talk to the dead for an overzealous mob lieutenant or manage or even divine the pass code for an alarm system of one of her wealthy neighbors, but all in all she was harmless. However, Madison suspected the file might need to be updated if they managed to survive long enough to report back in. She noted the Pi symbol woven with a great degree of sophistication into the runic patterns and, admitted to herself, she might well have missed it altogether had it not suddenly begin to glow with a muddy green energy. That’s when the gyre appeared and she already saw shapes forming. Evidently, Ms. Myers finally decided to side with the enemy once and for all. She notified Isaac and took several steps back, muttering some small enchantments she had learned from her grandmother, and waited.
Two figures appeared in the wake of the gyre. Their forms ghostly and insubstantial until settling into solid form. Pandorans. Agents of PI wearing their traditional cowled hoods and gas masks and holding flat black pistols of curious design. They spoke softly in what Madison recognized as Enochian, the language of Angels. Curiouser and curiouser. They walked past her and towards the car. One of them paused and fiddled with something from his pocket while the other seemed to peer in her direction. She hoped her grandmother’s invisibility charm held.
Isaac arrived just as the Pandorans threw a gas bomb into the passenger’s side of his car and closed the door. From where he crouched, he just made out the tell tale hissing sound of their trademark, paralyzing poison, Limbo. He blinked and his eyes teared for a moment as his nightvision contacts fell into place. Just the two of them. He hoped to take one alive, but knew it was highly unlikely. That’s when one fell, as though struck from behind. The other one cursed in German and waved his hand. A circle of fire flared up around him and Madison let out a sharp scream as she appeared near the fallen Pandoran and collapsed, her clothes on fire. Isaac sighed. No time for prisoners after all. He fired three rounds in rapid succession and the Pandoran fell. He pulled out a hydropack from his belt and threw it on Madison and went to check on her. She was out. He figured from shock. She had first and second degree burns across her hands and face. Better off not waking up for awhile. He pulled out a stimkit from her ankle pack and injected it into her thigh. The morphine and nanobots would stabilize her and fix her good as new in no time, but this mission was aborted. They’d need to come back and quick with a whole strike force if they held any hope for retrieving Ms. Myer’s newest acquisition before she disappeared. Damn and damn. I’m sorry kid, he said softly, cradling Madison and slipping off down a side street. I never should have brought you into this world.
