Secret Agent Man

He had no reason to move toward his weapon, so I pulled mine. I aimed it toward the doorway where I expected my former lover to appear. Another movement. He had rolled out in the opposite direction, stood up and fired a shot. Bluefeather never saw it coming. He fell to the floor with a thud.

“What the hell is going on here?”

It was Driver. “Stay back!” But he stepped out of the bathroom, and Andrew took him down. Where was Stephens? “Stephens! Fuller is armed; Bluefeather is down!”

“Stephens can’t help you, Dixon. He had a nice asshole, and his bulge wasn’t bad, but he was too much of a busy body. He’s around somewhere… as dead as dead can be.”

I swallowed, but the lump in my throat remained. I was crouching behind a short filing cabinet. My mind was going a million miles an hour. I could see a movement in the reflection of one of the light fixtures in the ceiling. I knew Andrew was about twelve feet away from me and about 20 degrees to my right. One of Andy’s faults was that he tended to put his hands onto things to pull himself up. It’s something I noticed during our field practice exercises. If he did that this time, I’d be able to disarm him and find out what was going on. I got myself ready. At the first sign of movement, I stood partially up and took aim. The bullet knocked the gun from his hand and took three fingers and part of his palm with it.

“Throw the other gun over.”

“Fucking hell, Dickie. You’ve really hurt me.”

“Throw the other gun over here!”

“I only had the one.”

He was lying. He might not be able to hold it in his right hand, but he had one as sure as I was still alive. I saw Alec peek his head into the room. I touched my index finger to my lips and motioned him back. He did as I said. My focus was back on Andy.

“When did they get to you?”

“Aw, Sweetheart, they didn’t get to me. I was theirs when I joined.”

Talk about sleeping with the enemy.

“And the way this is going to work out is that … No, I don’t think I’ll spoil it for you.”

I could hear Andy moving around. He would be expecting me to come in from the same direction I shot him. Shit, unless he was thinking that I might try to trick him. Hell, I decided to walk around to get behind him. I hoped he wasn’t as quick with his left hand. Before I moved out of place, I tried to get him talking again.

“So, was everything that happened between us just so you could be in tight with one of the newbies?” I started my move.

“Oh, poor Dixon. I used you. Everytime I let you fuck me, the bonds between us were just growing stronger. No. I didn’t love you. I don’t even care about you. I have to say though, you are a really good fuck. One of the best I’ve had. Plus, you top the list for blowjobs. I’ve never had anyone who could manage the level of suction and tongue movement that you did. A plus for that. But you know, you’re kind of selfish. I always let you fuck me, but you never let me fuck you. I guess I’m going to have my chance to fuck you now.”

I made it. I was standing behind him. He hadn’t heard me or seen me. There was a gun in his left hand. “Drop it, Andrew! Drop it now!”

I saw him move the gun’s barrel toward me. I emptied three rounds into his heart. His cold, cold heart. His heart that never loved me. But then, I didn’t love him either; he was just a better than average fuck. I couldn’t think about that now, though. My job was to protect Alec. There was someone, or several someones, outside the house, and for all I knew, Andy had let them in.

After checking to make sure Andrew was dead, I called Alec out to help me with the monitors. “Watch for any movement on these screens. Call out to me if you see anything.”

“Are they all dead?” His voice quivered; he was terrified.

“Yeah, but we’re not. You’re in the middle of doing a brave thing; I need you to hold yourself together and help me. Help me so we both get out of this OK.”

He nodded and began to study the screens.

I ran to one of the emergency stations and hit the buzzer. Unless Andrew had compromised the system, agents should be receiving data that a safe house had been violated. Only the supervisor would know which house. I didn’t know the location of any other house. Protocol told me that we needed to clear this house and seek shelter elsewhere. But unless I knew it was safe to exit, it might be safer to stay here.

“I see movement,” Alec called out. I was standing next to him in an instant. He pointed at the monitor. It was barely perceptible, but there was indeed movement. I thought that I could make out about 5 dark figures. Had Andrew unlocked all the security measures? Would they be able to walk right in.

Could I trust the escape tunnel? I decided to let Agent Bluefeather test it first. I pulled him to the tunnel entrance. “Sorry to do this to a fellow agent, but you were a bit of a butthole earlier, and it could save my life.” I entered the escape code and placed his body over the entrance. The floor opened, sending his body down and to the end of the tunnel. We could hear it slide along the way. Gunfire erupted and echoed up the tunnel. It wasn’t safe. Fuck. They were waiting at the exit.

“They’re moving,” said Alec. His voice was calm and measured. “I’ve got multiple targets at the screens labeled front door and back door.” His choice of words were interesting. I’d have to ask him later if he’d been playing spy on his video game console.

But right now, we needed to hide, and I needed to disable the monitors. I entered the codes to electrify the doors and window frames. The stairs to the second floor were already armed. “Alec, I need you to slide behind these computers and to find the opening to a really small space. I’ll be right behind you. I need to get some things from the armory room. Now go.”

Alec immediately slithered into the small space. I got some fresh clips and an extra gun. I asked God to watch over us and to give me the wisdom to get us through this safely. I twisted the power cord to the monitoring station and shorted out the system. I triggered the outdoor lighting system to light every other fifteen degrees around the house. If they were using night specs, it would render them less effective. As I slipped into the space under the bed, I heard the crackle and scream of someone’s being electrocuted.

I pulled shut the panel. Alec and I were in darkness, and I wasn’t sure what to do next.

“Agent Miller?” The voice was truly a barely audible whisper.

I reached my hand out and felt Alec’s foot. He began to move. “Stay really still.”

“I just wanted to thank you.”

The floor seemed to rumble and a banging noise accompanied by some deep grunts and thuds was followed by some clicking noises. The stairs had just trapped some men in the basement. And it gave me an idea.

“Alec, you can thank me when we’re out of here.”

I knew that to get out of the small space where we had hidden ourselves, I needed to unlatch a board that I could slide to the side. Once in the bedroom, the exit through the hidden bookcase would lead into the hall. I knew that we didn’t want to go that way.

The key to our escape was the mechanism that drove the staircase trap. The rumbling told me that it was under the floor next to the wall at the foot of the bed.

First things first. “Alec, we are going to get out of this space, but we have to be so quiet that none of those men can hear us breathe. I’m going to undo this latch and slide this board. We’re going to go out into the bedroom. Do not sit on the bed. Stay on the floor.”

The latch was more difficult to open in the dark than I had expected. I finally got it open. The board had warped, and it was a struggle to push it out of the way without making noise. The house had become very quiet. Enough time had passed that I knew the emergency signal had not worked. I imagined the men trying to kill us were scattered through the house, and my hopes that more of them might be put out of commission by the windows or stairs were dwindling.

The odds that the two of us would get out alive increased when I was able to lift a floorboard above the stair mechanism with ease. Other boards followed. I had explained to Alec how we were going to slip down next to the mechanism and crawl through the service duct to the main power distribution bank. According to the plans I had scanned, power ran underground from the cables running under the sidewalk to the main power distribution room, which was really a small concrete bunker buried about 50 feet from the house. A locking manhole cover allowed entry for repairs, but it was probably grown over. There might be enough room for us to get to the area under the sidewalk and into the gutter system. If not, the manhole would be our only option.

As we slowly moved along to the distribution room, the sound of another man being electrocuted brought about a bit of activity. I’m sure I heard an argument followed by a heavy thud. I heard Alec begin to breathe harder. I pulled him up next to me. The passageway was tight, but I whispered into his ear that we would be fine.

“I’m so scared,” he whispered back. His voice had the sound of someone who had been crying. I wanted to hold him and comfort him, but we needed to move on.

Once we were in the distribution room, I held him. I told him what a good job he had done.

“I’m sorry about what happened back there. I let my nerves get to me. I’m just so thankful that you’re looking out for me, Agent Miller.”

I pulled him close. I wanted to say that I was just doing my job, but it seemed to be more than just a job. He was a person, and so far, he presented to me like a nice guy, an attractive guy. I kissed the top of his head. “It was nothing that you didn’t deserve. And I think you should call me by my name.”

“I don’t know. I heard them making fun of your name. They said that your boss, the big guy from the bathroom right?”

“Driver? He was in charge, but we were partners.” I tried not to think about his being dead.

“They said you were sleeping with him.”

“I wasn’t.” I didn’t tell him I was sleeping with Andy. What a fucking idiot I was there. I took a deep breath. There was no reason for that to come out.

Alec thought for a minute. “What if I called you by your middle name?”

“Dixon is my middle name,” I replied.

“What’s your first then?”

I hesitated telling him, but with so many men after us, we could be dead before morning. “It’s Elijah.”

“Elijah Dixon Miller. I like Elijah.” He leaned up to kiss me. I pulled back. He immediately regretted it. So did I. Not that I didn’t want to taste those lips; they looked soft, wet, tempting. But I needed to stay focused on the job at hand, getting out of here alive. I didn’t need to think about how great it would feel to have my dick inside him and our lips touching.