Agent Rogue: Espionage

Chapter 1

          The cliff towered forty feet above the frozen lake. Hanging off the edge was not ideal.

A muted rumble beneath the snow had the two of us stumbling into the rocky lining. Clumsy footing paired with a sheet of black ice and a relentless gust hauled me over. I had clawed and screamed for a grip, but only the rope hooked from my belt to my partner's kept me afloat in the icy current.

The wind screamed in my ears.

"Tyler!" I yelled. "Pull me up."
A pause long enough for fear to slip down the back of my ski-jacket. "...ground's unsteady," I managed to make out.
"Dig your heels in."
It took a moment for the message to carry. "What?"
"Dig your heels in!"
"I can't hear you!"
Oh for—I yanked the scarf from my nose and mouth, gasping at the cold that whooshed in and settled around my muscles and heart. "Dig. Your heels. In."

Snow and ice crunched beneath rubber, and the ascent began.

A sigh from my lips fogged the goggles suctioned to my temples. I tried rubbing them clean, but an opaque mist fuzzed the shapes of the frozen wasteland; even the blue glisten beneath the dusting of snow was no longer visible.

Hiss.

I dropped.

Nylon twanged as I jerked to a stop. I knocked into the glacial wall by the wrath of the brewing blizzard. Heat stung my arms.

At least I remained airborne.

I gulped at the drop below me, then looked up. "Tyler?"
"I slipped!"
"Well done. Now haul her arse onto solid ground," Scotty snapped. I winced at the sound, and tapped the radio concealed beneath my hair. The collision with the cliffside had tripped a wire, sparking my eardrums with his pitchy accent.
"I'm trying," Tyler replied.
"Not good enough. Do."

I groaned. Collins insisted on Tyler accompanying me on the investigation as I would have 'benefitted from the offer of educating others' – not to mention he was due a promotion and required an observation. Scotty opposed our separation for the mission, Derek brought up the conversation on his recent lack of fieldwork as per usual, but Collins was persistent I took Tyler alone as the others were far too brash to provide an educational experience. Personally, I imagined myself horrifically unqualified for such a job, but agreed once I was threatened with the mission's reassignment by Rodriguez.

So, I had to teach. Remain calm and display patience. Just like Collins said.

"Take a breath," I instructed him. "Take a breath, regain your footing, and try again."
"It's so slippery," he said.
A snort. "That's what she—"
"Not now, Scotty!"

He made another attempt and I went up.

Up.

Up.

And down. I took another beating from the wall for good measure.

"I'm sorry!" he cried. "It's just so cold, a-and slippery and I can't—"
"Breathe." I grimaced at the throb in my cheek. If I did not need to communicate with Tyler, I would have pulled the scarf back over it to protect the raw skin. "You are an agent. You are in control of—"
"I'm cutting the rope."
"You are—" The squeak from my throat carried across the mountaintops. "What?"

Sawing. Sawing sounded from above the cliff's edge.

"Tyler Hops I swear to god if you are—"
"We're both not getting out of this. It's pointless for us both to die."
The earpiece crackled. "Hops, if you let her fall, you might as well jump in after her because the pain I am going to unleash on you—"