9 A Golden Moment

Ten squads of five agents each were at work all at once. I sat in the communications van placed centrally to the action taking place in the broader sections of Mumbai.

My eyes flicked back and forth across the wall of screens showing the real-time progress of all the teams. Each team had a handler and in supervision over each of the ten seated handlers was Eleanor Kentridge, otherwise known as Sissy.

She stood or more aptly spoken, hovered, by my side biting at her nails. She was only 23 years old, but she'd held her position of significance at the Agency for over four years.

She was a child prodigy that had never stopped progressing. I knew she was taking in all the conversations coming in from all ten squads even as she had the ability to play more than ten games of chess with different opponents at the same time.

The feedback communications from all ten squads were being fed into her earpiece simultaneously and the mere thought of what a jumbled array that must be like to decipher would have driven me mad. For all her brilliance, though she like most geniuses was socially awkward, which was sad because as a whole she was quite cute.

I'd never entertained anything with her, instead fostering an older brother type persona despite the fact that I knew she'd always been open to more. I'd wondered how she'd take to Sonia and to my surprise the two had gotten quite close. Sissy seemed to have set her sights elsewhere and that was good, because the two of us would have been a disaster together.

It was dizzying the amount of information needing to be surfed through right now, but in general things appeared to be going well. This was the largest single night operation by the Agency in years and the first of any kind that I was directly responsible for or even involved with.

I would much rather be one of the squad leaders out on the streets, then cooped up in this van as I was. It wasn't to be though, as like it or not the tentacles of leadership beckoned.

Glancing to one screen I noticed something about to go wrong and pointing I glanced to Sissy, only to see her nodding as she spoke directly into that squads command line overriding the handler's directions that might have led to a disaster.

Situation averted, I glanced away. I really wasn't needed here.

Tiredly I rubbed at my sore eyes only to regret it instantly as my hands came in contact with my still swollen face. Sissy was shaking my arm and I looked back to see all hell breaking loose at team 5's location.

Without a word I turned and stepped out of the van. The reserve team came alive and swung their legs over their dirt bikes even as I did the same.

I kick started the bike to life and roared out into the street, followed by the other five agents all of us sounding like an angry swarm of avenging hornets.

This was more like it. That said, I tempered down my excitement with the knowledge that agents might have already been lost, let alone the potential for harm to come to children being held as captives against their will.

We zipped full throttle around dirty street corners, sending late-night city goers into panicked disarray. The sound of heavy gunfire echoed out up ahead.

It was the kind of disturbance bound to attract attention. Pressing a finger to my ear I made the call I already had in the queue waiting to be made.

A voice came alive on the other end in Hindi, before cutting to English, "It's you bloody American isn't it?"

"One and the same. Stand down your forces and keep them at home. I don't need your guys getting shot up in the line of our fire."

"Who do you think you are to tell me what to do in my own city?!"

"I'm the guy who beat you and three others to a bloody pulp with a chair leg after you made hamburger out of my face. It's your choice, but any funerals in your department are on your head and not mine. I repeat, stand down."

I ended the call as we arrived on the scene. Twisting the handle I chewed up the steps of a slum underworld palace on the back wheel of the bike.

At the top of the stairs, I smashed through a pair of glass french doors. My fellow bikers lifted pistols and snapped off shots at armed gunmen running about in panic as their reserve shattered apart because of never being in a confrontation like this one before.

I gestured and two riders came abreast of me just as we smashed through the other side of the palace built on the money of selling others into slavery and worse. My flanking riders reached out and grasped a handle of my bike as I let go and stood high.

We zipped across the short elevated inner courtyard patio and hit air as we shot out over the balcony. In air I unstrapped the machine pistols from the fuel tank and bringing them up I let them chatter in crisscrossing arcs of whispering death as their ammo belts zinged upward only to have the shells sent flying in short order.

The terrain ahead of us shattered apart as hundreds of rounds spewed forth in a leaden rain meant to destroy and terrorize. The pinned down team members of group 5 ducked out of cover and advanced after us even as every enemy gunman shuddered in panic behind whatever solid bulwark of protection they could find.

The pistols clicked empty and I let them drop even as I somersaulted over the back of the bike. The flanking riders let go and peeled off to the sides to once more smash into the house through glass entryways even as my bike lit the night sky of this corner of Mumbai as it exploded against the wall of the house.

Shaken gunmen started standing up as if befuddled into a state of shock by what was going on and my teams took no mercy on them for their oversight. This wasn't a nice war. This was a war meant to bring an end to something beyond detestable.

Pulling both side arm pistols free I let them click with suppressed aggression and added my bullets to the barrage that was making this place turn into a bloody massacre. As enemy gunmen fell I stepped into the house.

Sissy's voice was suddenly active in my ear and following her directions I made my way through the mansion of a high ranking government official/underworld profiteer. What better guise to hide under with such an illegal operation than a position of public and political authority.

A place where honest cops would always be forbidden to enter and search under even the noblest of pleas for justice to be served, but such was not the case tonight. This was one of the benefits that the Agency had working for it.

We simply didn't care what kind of political anthill we kicked over because we were not politically motivated or funded by those who were. We were an unseen entity working outside the scope of others influence who thought they controlled the lives of others that they held spheres of influence over.

Everyone had to answer up at some time though to someone and tonight it was those who thought it was cool to steal the children of others for profit, while their own children slept peacefully in their beds at night. It was this darkness in the hearts of men that bore the need for eradication because those possessed of it simply weren't worth bartering with.

My guns were a constant hammering staccato that dealt out death with precision as I advanced down a bay of cells filled with screaming girls and boys who somehow recognized in me a savior from the torments they had been thrust into. As they reached out through the bars trying to touch me, I did my best to take out the guards at the other end before innocent lives were taken out in crossfire or ill aimed shots.

The enemy fell and reaching the end, I dealt one a shot to the back of the head as his hand started to move toward a fallen gun. The original team's handler was on the com line, "All positions secure. The official and his wife are in custody."

I spoke, "What about the police?"

Sissy's voice came over the com, "All cameras show no action on their part to leave the police stations. Seems like you made quite the impression."

"Maybe, or maybe they stayed put when they heard whose meat house we were tearing down."

Agents were quickly unlocking cells and as they did the flood of enslaved individuals were directed down the safest avenue of escape from the estate. I had not expected there to be so many children here.

As it was we'd rented every available van that the city had to offer for tonight's operation and I doubted that there was enough space for all those I saw gathered in the vans allotted to this team.

A boy no older than six stood crying completely overcome by everything and a girl no older than maybe eight turned back to pick him up. I beat her to him and with him balanced against my hip and her holding onto my other hand, we brought up the rear of the parade from the cellblock.

Mei Ling and Art Cassidy came behind us with assault rifles at the ready to pulverize anything that moved into final submission.

Worried about what to do with so many extras I landed out on the street side of the mansion already planning the possibilities of what could be done. Sissy had beaten me to finding a solution to the problem.

She and several other team handlers were ushering in kids into the back of the communications van. Seeing me Sissy quickly said, "Don't worry, all the other operations are closed up. This is the last one."

Nodding, I passed off the boy and girl. The girl moved off and then stopping she looked back at me and then she was running.

Leaning down I caught her as her arms wrapped around my neck as she cried out gratitudes spoken in Hindi and English. Her arms were like a golden weight about me as I felt some of the darkness I had about my soul dispelled.

Hushing her gently, but wanting to appreciate the moment for the great success that it was I lifted her up and stepping forward I pressed her into the back of the van again. She let go as the doors were shut, but to my dying day I don't think I'd ever forget the look in her eyes directed at me with every part of her being.

I'd done something good. It was what the Agency was about anyway, but this moment went deeper.

Hurrying up the side of the van I stepped onto the step rail and hung on as it began barreling its way down streets even as early dawn began to break forth upon the beginning of a new day. Gun held out to the side at the ready for any sign of trouble I instead felt like I was in a daze as I reflected upon everything that had occurred.

How had so many things gone right?

"Thank you God! Thank you for never giving up on me."

The van cleared the outer suburbs and sure that it would reach its destination without hindrance as not one cop appeared to be on patrol anywhere I dropped off the van. As it roared away out of sight I tucked my gun away and walked down the street.

An early-morning fruit vendor was setting up shop and coming around the cart she extended a mango out to me. She had a look to her that said she knew what had happened this night.

I accepted the mango and made as if to pay her, but her hands gestured no. Nodding, I thanked her and continued on down the street.

Biting into the fruit I found it to be the sweetest I'd ever had in my life. It was gone in what felt like seconds and looking back I made to call out my thanks for what had been the best tasting of all fruits I'd ever had, but upon doing so I abruptly grew still.

There was no fruit cart and there was no woman either. Looking to my hand, I took in the very real mango pit that I held, even as the taste of it continued to explode across my taste buds in what I knew would be a memory not easily forgotten.

Breathing shallow, I contemplated the reality that I'd just had an encounter with an angel, an angel that had looked at me as if I was a fellow worker in something good, the shared goal of protecting the innocence of children. A call came into my ear and distractedly I took it while still staring at the empty street.

"So from what I hear the operation was even better than what even a great success could be defined as. No children hurt, no agent casualties, over 200 gunmen neutralized, and every targeted objective fully completed. Words fail to say how much I am in awe of your first time in charge of an operation Rorian."

Evan's voice seemed to me as if but an echo as my mind traced over everything that had happened, which had me saying something in reflection of the reality of the moment.

"What was that Rorian?"

Speaking louder I said, even as my hand gripped into a fist about the mango pit, "I can do anything through Jesus Christ strengthening me."

Evan's voice seemed to contain a smile as he said, "Yes, indeed you can."

"Sir, it wasn't me. Don't give me credit for this. It's all God."

"Indeed, so it is. It's a wonderful feeling to be used as a hand of God, isn't it?"

"Yes Sir. I... I don't want to be paid for this."

Evan chuckled, "I understand, but the facts are you're going to be knee-deep in diapers soon so your request is denied. Relish the moment you're in right now Rorian. Days will come when the justified honor of what we do in seeking to please our Creator won't seem as real to you as it does in this moment. This moment can never be taken from you no matter whatever the future may hold. When times get hard remember this day and keep fighting to see another one like it."

"Yes, Sir."

"Salif has everything under control. Go home and get some sleep."

"Yes, Sir."

The call ended and I started to walk. An open air taxi pulled broad side of me and with a glance at the driver I saw him gesture to the empty seat behind him.

I swung in and sat down still feeling as if I was in a dazed form of reality. The city streamed by and then stopped.

Blinking, I recognized my own safe house. It dawned on me then that I'd never told the driver where to take me.

Getting out I looked at him even as stooping down on the floor he picked up a basket full of mangoes. Numbly I took the proffered basket from him as he held it out to me.

"Thank you." I whispered, as staring at the man I looked for something deeper than the mortal form that I saw before me.

Smiling, he shook his head and pointed upward, "Thank Him. Much good has been done this day, but best of all a man of faith has gained confidence to believe that bigger and better things can be achieved to the glory of God."

I nodded in acceptance of the truth. This night now turned into day had forever changed me. I would never be the same.

The man smiled and pointing ahead to the rising sun even as police sirens finally began blaring out in a city waking up to scenes of bygone chaos, "Keep going forward in faith, Rorian. Don't look back at your past. It's already forgotten by the One who judges all, even as you are washed clean of it by the innocent spilt blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. You are a new creature. Dwell no longer in the shadows of memories of someone you haven't been for a long time."

My gaze took in the new sunrise only to come back to see that like the fruit vendor the taxi and its driver were no more, but the basket of mangoes remained in my hand. Going up the steps I unlocked the door and stepped inside the house.

Walking by the living room, I saw Pelan fast asleep. Smiling, I took a mango and rolled it across the floor to where he would notice it when he woke up.

Going into the bedroom I closed the door and sat the basket of mangoes and the mango pit down on the dresser. I was going to plant that thing.

I slipped my flack vest off along with my guns and assorted knives. I tossed the earbud to the far corners of the room.

Still fully dressed, I laid down with a groan upon the bed. Sonia instantly came awake.

My eyes were already closing though. She kissed me and I grunted even as my hand sleepily stroked her cheek in response.

Sighing peacefully I felt her move down and pull my boots off. Sleep was quickly beckoning to me as she came to slide under my arm and cuddle into my side.

I heard her voice filled with intrigue speak as she moved my hand to rest on her bare hip, "Your hand is sticky?"

I felt her breath on my face and she asked, "Have you been eating mangoes?"

Falling into the tunnel of unconsciousness, I nonetheless quickly mumbled out, "Don't throw the mango pit away. It's….. important."

Sonia took in the even rise and fall of her mate's chest as he gave over to much-needed sleep. Placing her hand over the steady beat of his heart, she smiled, and as she nuzzled her face in against him she said, "I wouldn't dream of throwing your mango pit away Darling."

There was something significant going on here, but it could wait. Right now was a promise fulfilled and in contented peace Sonia drifted off to sleep in the arms of the man that she loved more than life itself.