Free Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) by Dave O'Connor

would have preferred to run this past Angina but she was not here now and no amount of berating on his part was going to change that.
    He knew that she trusted him. But did he trust himself to get the plethora of details right. The chime sounded on his terminal reminding him he had fifteen minutes to go before his next appointment. He double tapped the reminder and said “Ah yes, Torine!”
    As he did so, his assistant rang through “Sir Agent Torine to see you.”
    “What?’ he replied rhetorically “She’s early!”
    “Yes Sir, shall I have her wait?”
    “Oh no, send her in.”
    Jebna recognised the tall athletic frame of Agent Torine as she entered. She was an impressively attractive female. He may be old enough to be her father but there was no denying what he saw before him.
    He glanced down at his terminal and authorised the plan. He looked up at Torine and waved for her to take a seat. He then reviewed the recipient list one last time. He was happy with it. He glanced up to see his visitor. He saw the pistol in her hand fire. He felt the shock of the pulse charge shudder into his body. The shock was tremendous. But Jebna had spent a lifetime dealing with shocks of one ilk or another. His mind was honed through experience to recover from them quickly. It was trying to do so right now. His body on the other hand was shaking. He knew he was dying. He also knew he had been betrayed. In slow motion he could see Torine stand and raising her pistol for the coup de grace. He pushed his right hand forward, not to feebly ward off the next shot but to press the send on his plan. His finger touched the screen and the last sounds he heard were the acknowledging ping from his terminal followed by the pulse shot that would terminate his life.
    The terminal pinged once more as Torine moved behind the desk to feel the absence of a pulse on Jebna’s neck. She glanced at the screen as Angina’s FLASH warning message appeared. She smiled. “Too late Director. You’re next.”
    The siren heralded the opening of the door. Torine shot the assistant as he pushed through. The gun he was carrying fell to the floor with a thud. Torine bolted to the door, saw no one else was following and reached for her communicator.
    “What are you waiting for?” she hailed. “Or do I have to do everything myself.” She terminated the call, stepped over the body, walked out through the lobby area and through the door to the rooftop where her hopper was waiting.
    As it ascended she could see the FIA troops moving across from their vehicles towards the front entrance. The battle for the ‘complex’ had begun.
    Ursoola Miokin was still trying to get a response from the Deputy Director’s assistant. Her head was throbbing from the siren. From her desk on the second floor above the main entrance she saw the armed figures storming to the front doors. “Seal the building” she hailed on the security wide channel. She had no idea what was going on but it would be on her head if any armed intruders breached the complex.
    The blast doors closed in under two seconds propelled by the charges that were detonated by the front desk security team. But they were too late to save the two guards outside the front doors. They were cut down by pulse fire. The automatic pulse guns rose from out of the ground on their pedestals and began raking fire against the armed intruders, who quickly fell back, leaving two of their own motionless on the ground.
    On the 27 th floor the head of communications Milus Olasso was only just getting his wits about him. He struggled to do up the holster. He had never been a field agent and had never had to fire a gun in anger. He hailed Jebna’s office but got no response. Then he hailed the assistant and got no response. He hailed security “Ursoola, what’s going on?”
    Ursoola was looking at the head cam of the lead in the team she had sent up to Jebna’s office. She could see his body slumped forward over the terminal.