Chapter 30

Pov Calla

After few hours of hiking, I came to a house. It was a small rustic house at the edge of the jungle, and there was laundry hanging in the backyard. I stole some simple clothing and continued my way. Before the house, I came across a small stream and washed off most of the blood. During my 'visitation' here, I gained a few new scars, the most noticeable of them being on my wrists.

Before long I came to a small town.

Walking past an outdoor café I steal a phone that was left unattended on the table, and continue my walk. Dialing Linda’s number and putting the phone to my ear I call her.

“Major Shelia” She answers on the other end.

“Linda, it’s me.”

“Calla!? Are you alright?”

“Yeah I am. I’m in Puerto Rico. Can you get me a ride back?” I ask her. She sounds like she hasn’t slept at all since my abduction, which I now know lasted four days.

“Of course. What happened?” She asks, and I start explaining the situation. I tell her everything from the abduction but leave the torture part out. I end my explanation to the way how I got saved during the confusion of a raid and left the scene. I didn’t tell her about the nanotech nor the reason why they took me.

She in turn told me how they revealed Red’s identity to the Americans and how it was probably because of that the raid was executed. She told me that she didn’t know how my location got leaked but she was looking into it.

After talking for a while I went to the nearest airstrip and waited for my ride. After few hours a J.A.T.F. troop transport plane arrives, and I hop on. It was transporting J.A.T.F. soldiers from Africa to U.S.A. and was in the area so it didn’t take long.

“So let me get this right. You were on Puerto Rico visiting your uncle but your plane broke. Then you radio help and our pilot responded because he was near the area?”

“Yes” It’s perfectly reasonable.

“And the shackles?” Another soldier asks

“It’s called fashion.”

“And the blood?”

“… I’m menstruating?”

“pff Hahaha. Yeah right. What’s your name really lass?” The leader of the group asks.

“I told you. Erica.”

I like that our flight continued. They asked me questions and I answered. Pretty sure they didn’t believe a single thing I said but it was all fun and laughs. At one point one of them complained about the new standard issue rifles and then I got to impress them with my knowledge of weaponry.

It's much easier to make conversation with people that share your interests than with the ignorant civilians.

All in all, a fun trip with good company.

“Best of luck then lass!” The soldiers gave me their goodbyes as we were separating. Never once did they call me Erica and only used ‘lass’. I kind of hope to meet them again.

Spotting a familiar vehicle on the parking lot, I approach it. Linda rises from the driver seat and comes toward me with quick steps.

“I’m glad you are alright.” She says, giving me a short hug and keeping her composure. I can tell she is in a different mindset she was at the library a few weeks back. She is in the mindset of a soldier, ready to hunt the enemies down.

And I’m glad for that. I didn’t need an emotional reunion now. It was only a little bit of torture and it isn’t even that long the last I saw Linda. I want to put all my focus on my agenda now. I thought I could take it easy and possibly relocate somewhere but decided to put those thoughts away.

Caturix must cease to exist.

That was the last time they will hurt me. And by doing so, they gave me the tools I need to break them.

We are traveling in Linda’s car towards one of Mox’s safe houses. I contacted him to meet up with us and take the hard drive with him that I collected from the Brooklyn facilities.

Before I exited the jungle complex I tested my abilities in other ways. I delved through their database in the facility, at least all the data that was connected to their main network. I didn’t have time to go through most of it, but I did manage to get locations.

Nine locations in total, four of them were the locations J.A.T.F. bombed months ago, including my old home in the forest; one was the Brooklyn facility and one was the Puerto Rico facility where I collected the data.

The rest were unknown to me. One was in Tokyo and looking at the satellite images, it’s a skyscraper. One was in Hawaii, a factory by the looks of it and the last one was in Germany. The German facility was a big industrial complex.

Arriving in an alley, we open an old metal door and enter the elevator. It’s old, almost antique and surely a safety hazard but I still board it. It makes nerving sounds during the ascent. Linda slides the door to the side as we enter a large room.

The floors and walls are hardwood, pillars decorated with carvings support the roof. In the middle of the space, there is a sand garden and I recognize the style of Zen from Mox’s books. He is there waiting for us, wearing a monk’s robes.

Time to start putting together another operation. One that will end this.

A few days later

Pov Calla

Sitting on a plane I think of my past few days. Things got really complicated for a while in there, but I managed to get a desirable outcome.

After I told Linda that I got some locations she, of course, wanted to resolve the situation within J.A.T.F. jurisdiction. Then the Americans somehow managed to connect me from the jungle facility to the J.A.T.F. and they wanted to take also part with the attack on Caturix. After investigating Gregory Wilson they got the picture of what kind of an organization it was.

So general Raven and the American big sirs decided that this is to be a joint operation. The Americans had found out the identity of ‘Blue’. I didn’t know there was a fourth color but thank god for inter-agency data sharing.

I killed White twice, and if I can believe the last one, that means that there won’t be a third one. But when taking care of the others, I want it to happen at the same time so that they can’t choose new predecessors.

And from those thoughts, I made my plan. Comparing the investigation results of me, J.A.T.F. and U.S.A, I concurred that Black, the leader is in Tokyo and blue, the one in charge of the finances and operations is in the German facility. And Red, the one in charge of security is in prison here in America. Military prison but a prison nonetheless.

At first, I didn't see the pattern, but after helping Mox to crack the hard-drive from Brooklyn, I made sense of it. With the nanotech, cracking the encryption was much faster. The hard-drive contained an IP-address to a secure server. The server had only four users, White, Red, Blue, and black. From the server, I gained clarity as to how the Caturix functioned and also I got locations of the two still active IP's that connected to the server.

I don’t care much about Blue, as I never met any of the colors during my training and it seems like he only got contracts and passed them to the Al-Aman and its sister organizations.

But that means he knows where the other subjects are.

Rescuing them isn’t my burden though, and I don’t even know if they would want that. But if I were to kill Blue, I would lose that option altogether.

So my plan is this: I gave the locations to general Raven. Only two of them though. The German and Hawaii. J.A.T.F. will surely take the German and U.S.A. Hawaii because of their jurisdictions. To the general I said I want to have nothing to do with this, so they can take care of the rest, but Linda guessed that to be a lie.

It took some convincing of her to let me do my own thing, but I got through to her in the end. I’ve made it clear that I can take care of myself with my actions and continued survival.

With J.A.T.F. taking care of the Germany location, Blue is left to them. They are less likely to use the subject training organizations for their own good, as they are more transparent compared to the U.S. military.

I met up with Darrel and told where Red was held and that he is the one behind the attack. Darrel wanted to know Red’s motive, so I came clean and told that he was after me.

Being a member of the Rabbit Hole gives me protection from them to a point. Assassinating a man in US military prison is included in that protection if said man has made a clear attack on a member.

Though Darrel made it clear that I would owe him ‘one’, a favor as I now know, but that is fine with me. It simplifies my plans.

All that is left is the Tokyo location, the one known only to me. I asked Mox to get me to Japan cleanly and asked Darrel to provide me some weapons over there. This time it was a transaction, and the cost of the weapons is reduced from my future pay. I know this was just a way for him to ensure my employment after my own thing is over but once again, I’m fine with that. Employment is good.

So now I’m on a plane headed to Tokyo. J.A.T.F. and the Americans start their attack in exactly four days and at the same time Rabbit Hole carries out the assassination. That’s when I move also.

The Americans and J.A.T.F. have dubbed this operation as ‘operation broadsword’, and the Rabbit Hole calls it ‘Puncture’.

But the true name that encompasses all four operations taking place at the same time is called ‘operation Closure’. And I’m the only one who knows that.

A closure has many meanings but the one I'm after is a bringing to an end; conclusion.

J.A.T.F. knows about the German and Hawaii attack, and the Rabbit Hole thinks this is just a singular hit with time specification, but the truth is much more.

I wanted it to happen like this because I don’t want just to destroy Caturix. I want them forgotten. If the leader dies in a battle no one knows about and only Blue is captured is the closest thing to that I can achieve.

With more time I maybe could do better, but I want to end this. I am a patient predator, but I feel if I start seeking perfection, this will never end.

According to my research, Caturix didn’t back up their information. But I’m sure the leader had backups. Black, real name Kazumi Yamato, is a leader of a large corporation. The corporation isn’t a shell company but after some digging, I notice it was the main financier of Caturix.

There were tons of data the Americans got from Puerto Rico and shared with J.A.T.F. It didn't make sense to them, because of the sheer amount of useless information, but with the data from the hard-drive I knew where to look.

Germany

Pov Nata Verusha

I’m double checking my equipment before the attack. We are gathered in a warehouse close to the OA, and 'operation broadsword' is about to commence.

I’ve been hearing rumors that this whole thing is connected to Calla, the little blond girl I met last fall. I remember she leaving the Omega training because of the incident but the particulars were never made clear with us.

Now, in my first actual mission as a new operative, I was assigned under major Linda Shelia. She’s a bit of a legend in the J.A.T.F. intelligence community so I’ll gladly take her orders.

“Is it true that this involves Calla?” I ask her. She gives me a complicated look but doesn’t answer.

I take that as a yes.

“Can you at least tell me how she is?” I continue. Annie has been wondering what happened to her so I might as well try to get some information.

“She is doing good.” She answers and I don’t get the chance to ask anything further as the mission is about to commence. The troops are doing last check on their weapons and reserve is in place.

Location: undisclosed

Pov Dom

Hiding the shiv in my sleeve I keep on walking. Three days ago a guard came to me with a proposition. He said that my family would be looked after and paid 50 000 US dollars if I do this for them. I’m already spending the rest of my days here, in a secret military prison that no one knows about.

That makes me wonder the reach of those who gave me this job. But it is of no matter, I’ll see it through. I love my family dearly and my only regret is that I can’t be there for them. The need of money got me into this mess in the first place. This is the only thing I can do for them now.

I trust they pay, the guard doesn’t work for them but he was paid handsomely just for delivering the message so it's worth the risk.

The man, prisoner number 1024 is in my sights. This isn’t my first contract killing, and I know just the place where to stab to make a sure kill before the guards intervene.

Time ensure my family’s future…

Hawaii

Pov Special Forces sergeant

The countdown to the breach is already going. The last of the troops are soon in position and the raid is about to commence but my thoughts drift back to the girl.

The girl who killed two of our captives right under my nose and disappeared into thin air. Who the fuck was she?

We checked the flights that came and left the island after her escape and boy, were we surprised to see a J.A.T.F. troop carrier making a pit stop in the local airport. And when we asked them about it, they clammed shut so fast that I’ve seen trees more talkative.

They just gave us the name ‘Calla’ and that she is an independent operative.

I’m shaken away from my train of thought as my second in command grabs my shoulder.

“T- minus three mikes.” He says and I respond with a nod. Time to start last checks.

“Everyone goes home tonight.” I say to my men the few words of encouragement I always say and hope that this time I wasn’t lying.

We wait in silence for the initial breach to be executed.

Pov Calla

Standing on the roof of an adjacent building of my target building I keep my eye on the watch. It’s 2100 local time, and my target is in the building.

I have done surveillance for the past few days and mapped the target location guard routes and camera positions. I surveyed the target with my regular means, and with my newly found skills. I can access the target buildings surveillance cameras, and I know the blueprint of the building.

There is tons of data I can get access to, but it’s mainly about the legal business of the corporation. The curious thing is, I cannot find Black’s office computer anywhere in the network so it’s probably isolated.

But I know where the data is kept. Or at least I'm pretty sure. The vault that can be accessed from Black's office. Most of my planning went into figuring out how to crack it. I came up with a plan, although it's a bit reckless.

"hehe..."

Okay, it's a lot reckless.

Linda would never let me go through with this if she were to know my plan.

Still, I'm oddly proud of my plan.

My hope is that in the other attacks they can’t find enough data to piece their research together. But even if they can, the way White spoke indicated that he was needed for the research to be continued so I try not to worry. I’m only one girl, so perfection in this matter is difficult to achieve.

Time to start moving. Readying the crossbow in my hand, I shoot it at the target building’s roof that is twenty meters lower than mine.

With the rope secured I do my last equipment check. Pistol with high tech suppressor and subsonic bullets, few extra mags, a knife and a parachute strapped to my back and a shoulder bag that holds the remaining equipment needed for my plan.

Confirming I’m ready I slide using the rope to the target building's roof. When there, I yank the arrow out and throw it off the roof along with the rope.

There are cameras on the roof and in every other part of the building complemented with electrical locks and trackable keycards. If only the White’s would have been more open about the possibilities of their research Black could have prepared for me.

I have accessed the building's network and I start manipulating the cameras. It is easy to loop the surveillance feed in a singular camera just when I would appear on the screen. I calmly walk towards the roof's door, looping the security feed always when I’m about to show on camera.

If they were to look at the recorded feed, they would probably notice the wrong timestamps in the feeds but as they are only a few seconds off and I return them to normal after I have walked past, they won’t notice it immediately and when they do, it’s already too late.

Coming to the door, I place my hand on the keycard reader, and by tugging the electromagnetic field just right, the door opens with a click. I leave my parachute to the roof and head in.

‘Operation Closure’ commence.