This
would be my 14th death. I
studied the drone imagery of the target site one last time before Becker took
the tablet from me.
“We have
to do it now,” he said to the rest of the people in the room. In his dark suit Becker looked out of place
among the medical staff in their pale blue scrubs as they strapped me down to
the table. He looked nervous as he spoke
into his encrypted phone. If something
went wrong his career was through. I
would be dead too but that wasn't his main concern.
A heavyset
nurse swabbed my arm. Her expression
stayed neutral as she injected me with the drug mixture that would stop my
heart. She was the only one who had
ever done the injections and I couldn't help wondering how she ended up with the
task.
I
concentrated the target site in the seconds before I lost consciousness.
When I
could see again I was looking down at my body on the table. It was still weird to be outside of it like
this. But I didn’t have time to dawdle. The medical staff was already getting the
defibrillator and other items ready to bring resuscitate my body two and a half
minutes after my heart had stopped. I
visualized the target site and then I was there.
It was
an enclosed compound on the outskirts of a city. Tarpaulins covered the courtyard and blocked
observation from outside. I zoomed down
to street level and passed through the compound’s outer walls. Guards openly carrying automatic weapons
walked around the covered courtyard and among the half dozen expensive vehicles
parked there. The guards couldn’t see me
of course. I checked license plate
numbers. So far everything looked good
but I needed to see more. I guessed I
had about a minute left.
I
drifted past a guard at the entrance to the main building. He jerked and quickly looked around. Some people can sense my presence when I’m
out of body. I’ve mentioned it in my
mission reports and the eggheads of the Delphi Project are stymied trying to
explain the phenomenon.
All the
targets gathered in a large room on the ground floor. Time is running out and I quickly went
through the rest of the building. I had
just finished going through the living areas upstairs when everything went
black.
The
shock of resuscitation was the worst part.
I was completely disoriented at first.
Becker’s voice cut through my mental fog. He pushed aside one of the doctors and leaned
in close to me.
“Are we
good to go?” he asked again.
My mouth
felt like it was stuffed with cotton but I managed to croak out two words. “Targets confirmed.”
Becker
stepped away from the table and spoke into his encrypted phone. “Missile strike has a green light. Do it now.”
150 Seconds was inspired by this post on io9.
150 Seconds was inspired by this post on io9.
