AGENT 23 BLACKOUT (Agent 23 Book 1)

CHAPTER 40

My dad hugs me and puts his mouth to my ear. "It's me, Aiden. It's really me."

I radiate with warmth on the inside, and I know the glow shows on my face. As he pulls back and gazes into my eyes, I see it, and I believe it. Zero, for whatever reason, has set my dad free. But I'm sure she didn't tell him about my end of the bargain. I'm certain he's been told that she's reconsidered, and she's going to release him, because she no longer has use for a defeated agent.

To solidify my suspicion, he steps around me, starting toward the tunnel entrance. He pauses and turns as if to ask for me to follow, but then realization dawns on him: I can't. His eyes harden at Zero as he now knows I'm giving myself up in order to save him.

Zero grins triumphantly.

"Aiden, come on," he says.

I shake my head with tight lips and serious eyes. "I can't."

Now, I know my decision for no one to die was the right one. I'm not a murderer, and I don't want anyone helping me to kill anyone, either. I'm Agent 23, and I know Zero's plan was for me to be an assassin, but I'm not. The notion that human life is expendable is not something I can accept. I can't kill someone because it helps me, or furthers my cause or agenda. For I know, if I or anyone helping me today takes another life, we'll be no better than Zero and The Collective. You don't fight evil with evil; you overcome evil with good. And maybe a few surprises, knocks over the head, and a sleeper hold—and maybe a nice roundhouse to the chin. I'll use anything short of murder and other extreme criminal means to bring about victory. This is not a military war. It's a game of subterfuge and a strategy to save lives. That's what Agent 23 is all about.

Seeing me in deep thought, Zero smirks. "So, where's your girlfriend?"

"Oh, she stayed behind."

"Really?" she says with sarcastic flare.

"Where's your other guard?" I raise my eyebrows and smile.

"I'm sure he'll be back shortly after he apprehends your sweet Miss Kayla."

The idea of that makes my stomach turn, but I stop short of a nervous swallow.

My dad starts back toward me. He's almost to me when a dart pegs him in the neck and he collapses with a thud and a ruffle of his clothes as he hits the ground.

Zero's head pivots to the other side of the mountain, Kayla's side. Her eyes widen and then narrow into a rage-filled squint.

Somehow, Kayla must have outsmarted the guard that came looking for her.

A split second after my dad passes out, Agent 24 whirls on the guard behind him with an elbow to the nose. In an unbelievable flash, he disarms the guard and smashes the other guard in the face with the butt of the machine gun. He then whips the end of the weapon around and bashes it into the head of the guard he elbowed. Both men fall to the ground, out cold.

In the meantime, Kayla unleashes another dart, imbedding it into the guard's arm to Zero's left.

Zero backs away, knowing she's been out dueled.

I start toward her, but she bends over and whips out a pistol from the fallen guard's holster.

She aims it at me, grits her teeth, and sneers. Then she wails in frustration, shakes the gun like she wants to pull the trigger so badly but can't. Finally, she turns to run.

With three of the guards out of commission and no one else coming to aid Zero, I realize Kayla not only outsmarted the fourth guard, but she probably nailed him with a tranquilizer dart. Agent 24 had remembered her performance at the old fort. With her aim improving after shooting the grenades, he decided she would be an integral part of our plan to use her and the dart rifle. First, to remove my dad from the equation, if he was faking and Zero still had control of his mind—the ultimate proof of that remains to be seen. And second, to take down at least one guard, which she did.

Actually, she took out two.

However, Agent 24 getting caught by the other guard was not part of the plan. So he improvised.

And finally, after Agent 24 surprised the guard holding him at gunpoint, and after he eliminated the remaining guards, Kayla's last goal was to drill Zero with a dart too...

But hitting a moving target is much harder than a stationary one.

Zero races down the passenger side of the semi-truck as Kayla's darts miss, one after the other.

Agent 24 bolts after her, but he's way behind her.

I chase after them, but Zero climbs into the cab of the semi and the driver floors the gas pedal.

The diesel starts out slow, but to back us off, she sticks her head out of the window and fires off a few rounds with the pistol. We dive to the ground to keep from being hit, and by the time we rise to our feet, the semi-truck with the leader of The Collective in it leaves us behind in the dust.

Unfortunately, that means Zero gets away to fight another day, a day that may come sooner than we think.