Mack

Mack kicked the man in the kidneys before turning him over to look at him. Mack knelt down on top of the man and put his knee into the mans ribs. He pulled a knife out of his pocket which he slid between the mans legs up to his groin.

"I'm going to ask you a couple of questions and if you don't answer truthfully I'm going to cut you. Do you understand?"

Hasan nodded quickly, "Ye-yes I un-understand."

"You're sure you understand because I don't want to have to hurt you, but if you don't answer truthfully I will cut your balls off." said Mack forcefully.

Hasan nodded again.

"This is the second time I have seen you. The first was when I got to Casablanca. Who asked you to follow me the first time I saw you?"

"A la-lady named Al-Alex paid me to follow you."

"Thats the same lady you were just on the phone to?"

"Ye-he yyes."

Mack closed his knife and put it back in to his pocket. "Good. Give me your phone, then you can leave."

Mack stood up, allowing the man to get off of the ground. The man hurriedly got up and ran away.

Mack walked to the hotel and up to his room immediately. He stood in the middle of the room thinking.

Who's having me followed? The old man or Peter Novak's people?

"Fuck it." Mack stood there for another moment. "Sultry vixen."

Old Man

Melissa awoke early from her slumber; the clock on the night stand said it was 02:50. Pete was still asleep next to her. She got up silently and walked out of the bedroom. It was an amazingly large house and always had seemed cold and unwelcoming to her. She made her way down to Pete's office where she closed the door behind her and turned a lamp on. She didn't have much time and had a lot of documents to search through. It had been about a month ago that a man had approached her.

She had been running as she did three times a week. As she was running she heard the footsteps of someone behind her. The man quickly caught her even though she had stepped up the pace somewhat. The man ran beside her for a few minutes then asked her a question.

"Do you consider yourself to be a moral person?"

She did not answer but rather started running even faster. The man chuckled as he easily caught up to her and asked the question again.

"Melissa Holden, running away from your problems never helps. I repeat, do you consider yourself to be a moral person."

The man knows my name. What do I do.

"What do you want?"

"There is a car coming up at the end of the park. I would like you to get in it. You will not be hurt, I give you my word." The man then hands Melissa his credentials which show that he works for the London Police. She hands the badge back to the man after she has a good look.

She ran for a little longer before she turned to say OK, but found that the man was not there anymore.

At the end of the park she found that the man had not been lying. There was indeed a car waiting for her. A man stood there with the back door open of a black sedan with darkened windows.

Melissa slowed down and stopped about 15 feet from the car, hesitating. She saw an old decrepit looking man poke his head out of the car door.

"Come here, come here. Its OK, you're safe." said the old man.

Melissa hesitated further then slowly got into the car.

Melissa felt a pang of deja vu as the man started talking. "Morality is a difficult subject is it not, Melissa? My name is Archer; I work for the British Government. We know that you have intimate relations with Mr. Peter Novak. I am wondering if you know what kind of person he is." At this point Archer handed Melissa a manila folder.

Melissa took the folder then looked at Archer. She opened the folder slowly and found that it was full of pictures; lots of horrific pictures of dead people. She flipped through the pictures slowly; taking in the dead after more dead.

"Wha..."

"These are pictures of a village in lower Africa that a mysterious disease broke out in. Everyone in the village died. They died quickly as deaths go, but you can be sure that they suffered before they passed."

"What does this have to do with me, with me or Pete?"

"This atrocity was covered in the news briefly, Miss Holden. What was not covered was that under this village is a rather large deposit of pollucite. You see pollucite is the principal ore of cesium which until recently was only found in a few places in the world. As you probably know, Magmus made most of its money about 10 years ago from a device they created that can find deposits of heavy isotopes from space. They made lots and lots of money selling this technology to the government's of NATO. Anyways, pollucite as I said, is the principal ore of cesium. Scientist recently discovered how to create a fission nuclear device from cesium isotopes. Confused yet? It is all so confusing to me, at least."

"Again, what does this have to do with Pete and I?"

"Ah, did I not say?"

"Uhh no, you didn't"

"Well, first, the scientist that discovered how to create a fission nuclear device from cesium isotopes work for Magmus Corporation. And, second, the atrocity that happened in Namibia is because of a virus that Magmus Corporation released."

"Wha...I-I don't believe you."

"I thought you might say that. Please see the last document in the folder I gave you."

Melissa flipped to the last document and started to read it. It was an internal memo from Magmus regarding a warehouse transfer from Lancashire, UK for a shipment of medicine to Namibia.

The old man did not wait for the young woman to respond. "So, what I need is for you to find more proof. We do not have enough yet. Don't answer. Just think it over. Here is my card." Archer handed Melissa a business card that was blank save a single phone number on it.

"Thank you for your time, Miss Holden. Is there somewhere I could drop you off."

"No, here is fine. uh... bye"

"And Miss Holden, for your own safety I would suggest that you don't mention me or our conversation to Mr. Novak. Good bye, Miss Holden."

Melissa closed the filing cabinet drawer she had been looking at just as she heard someone coming down the hallway.

Pete must be awake.

She watched at the glass door as she saw a shadow go in to the bathroom. She opened the door and silently ran down to the bedroom. She had been looking for 3 weeks now for documents and she had not found anything. She was glad because she was not sure, but thought she was falling in love with Peter.

Its absurd to think that he did those things anyways. This was Peter, he wouldn't hurt a fly.

Pete walks back in to the bedroom at that point. "Where were you, gorgeous?"

"I was getting a drink from the kitchen. Come here, you can finish what you started earlier, but seemed unable to finish."

"I fell asleep! You're so hard on me!"

"I'm not hard on you, now get down there!"

Back In

A hand came down to put out a cigarette into an already overflowing ashtray. Smoke rose to the top of the yellowed ceiling, threating to drown all oxygen out of the room. The old man got up from his chair slowly, stretching his muscles in the process. He grabbed his cane and headed for his office door.

He got to his office door and shouts out, "Somebody, come here."

The office of around 20 people came to a stop. People kind of look around as one person volunteers by standing up.

"Not you, where is....where is David." came the old man's voice.

David stood up and came towards the old man.

"Good, David, walk with me." They walked to the center of the complex which was the only place in the whole building where a person could enjoy the sky, clouds, and sun. They walked out in to the court yard and sat down on a bench. The old man lit up a cigarette as he sat there thinking for a moment.

"David, we have got a big op coming up. You know that Alex is down in Morocco right now. You and everyone else is probably wondering why. I'm reading you and Sander's on to this operation. Let him know."

"Is this to do with Magmus Corporation?"

"I knew there was a reason we hired you. Thats right. We believe Magmus is developing a stable isotope of Cesium that would allow use in a fission powered nuclear device to be small enough to fit into say a backpack or suitcase. Yes, nuclear weapons can already fit in to such a small delivery system. The problem with this new isotope is that it is believed that it could be fabricated by almost anyone once the initial technology is created. After you get read on, I want you to assemble a team. that has intricate knowledge of SoAf and that has gone through the Radioactive Weapons course. The team will be lead by Michael Makin."

"I thought Makin was disavowed?"

"That will be all, thank you."

"Yes sir."

David left the courtyard to begin preparations for the operation. The old man sat there for another minute thinking before getting up and walking back to his office. He sat down slowly as he put his cane to the side. He picked up the phone to dial Alex.

"Hello?"

"This is Archer. I got your message. How is our mutual friend?"

"He just got back from Rabat this morning."

"Good. I need you to approach him."

There was a pause as Alex thought about how to answer. "OK."

"Alex, I get the distinct feeling that you disobeyed me and approached him already."

There is another pause. "I approached him the first night he got to Casablanca. I know you told me to watch from afar. I was curious though. I have heard so much about him and I just wanted to talk to him. He's a nice guy."

"Girl, don't tell me what he is and is not!" Said the old man's voice ferociously. There was a pause on Archer's side of the phone this time. "Michael needs to be handled carefully right now. After what happened to him he is...." Another pause. "wound a little tight I'm afraid."

I suppose it's good that the old man does not know that I slept with him.

"Yes, sir."

There was silence from Archer's side for a while, "Alex, you're a good agent. Thats why I gave you this assignment, but don't let yourself get caught disobeying me again. Do you know why he goes by Mack?"

"Yes, he got the name when he was in the SAS, right?"

"Right, when he was in the SAS one of the missions I sent him and his teams on was to rescue some hostages in Afghanistan. They parachuted in to the compound at night and killed most of the terrorist, while making their exit they were ambushed. Michael sent his team with the hostages to the evacuation point. He stayed behind to hold off the badies. He killed 9 of them before he was taken down. Well, he had always taught his team to be...." the old man paused for a minute. "a little disobedient. This was something that I was against, however I could never deny Michael's results. So half of his team came back, finished off the other 3 badies, and helped Michael to the pickup. They joked at that point that he must have been like a bulldog in a fight, so they started calling him Mack. Consequently that's when BOB got his name also. BOB carried Michael back to the chopper. They were the best team I've ever had. They are also, well there are things that you don't know that I'm not at liberty to discuss with you about him."

"I had heard parts of the story before. What things?"

A knock came at Alex's hotel room then. She moved silently to the peep hole and saw that it was Mack.

"Its him." She whispered.

"Really?" Archer paused. "Get your weapon and be careful, bye."

Alex put the phone in her pocket and drew her Bereta from her bag. "Coming."

Alex put her piece down the back of her jeans then opened the door.

"Hi Mack, this is an unexpected surprise."

"Hi! I was in the area and thought I would come by and see you. How are you?"

Mack stepped forward towards Alex. "I'm good. Just finished my last meeting yesterday."

"I think we both know that we are past that." Mack lunged with both fist towards Alex's chest. She dodged the attack knowing that she would not be able to block his attacks which were more powerful then her. She kicked him in the knee from the side as she swung around. In a fluid motion he knelt to the ground with the knee that had been struck, and used his hands against the floor to propel a kick towards her chest again. She flew back in the air while she drew her weapon from behind her. When she looked up though Mack had already rolled to the left and was holding a gun to her head.

"Slowly, put down your weapon. Make no mistakes, I will put a bullet in your head if you try anything."

Alex slowly laid her weapon on the bed which Mack promptly picked up.

"Michael, I was sent by Archer. He wants you back in for one last mission."

"I have a mission of my own, thanks."

"I think you will find that they are one and the same."

Mack stood there with his weapon pointed at Alex's head. He pulled a couple of security ties out of his backpack. "Here, you know what to do with these."

"Michael...."

Don't talk, secure your hands."

Alex took the security ties and bound her hands together pulling them tight with her teeth.

"Good, now put your feet through your arms."

"Michael..." He flashed at Alex momentarily before pulling duct tape out of his backpack.

"MICHA..." Mack quickly put a piece of tape on her mouth, which he took great pleasure in.

"Shhhhhh. First, I have had an extremely uncomfortable morning and second, we don't know each other nearly well enough for you to call me that.

Anger flashed in Alex's eyes. She grudgingly obeyed by rolling back on the bed and pushing her legs through her bound arms causing her them to be in the back now. Mack came over and frisked her roughly. Which she was sure he was enjoying far too much. He found her knife and a phone in her pocket.

"Is this your secure GSM?"

"Yes." Alex let out a small sigh.

Mack thumbed through the contact list until he got to the number he was looking for. He dialed the number and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello, Mack"

"Hello, old man"

"Is Alex, OK?"

"Yes, she is fine." Mack tossed Alex's knife on to her lap since he was sure who she was now and lowered his weapon. "I'm going secure." The phone made some modem noises for a few seconds.

"How much did Alex tell you?"

"Not enough." Said Mack bluntly.

"Drop the hostility, Michael."

"Your agent is still alive."

"Touche'. I want your help and I know that you need ours. The man you are after, the man that is responsible for your wife's death is a larger fish than you know." Archer paused.

"I'm listening."

"I've formed a team that I want you to lead. We are going to take his operations down."

Mack paused before responding. "If you are involved now, why don't you just arrest him?"

"We don't have any firm evidence yet. We have someone on the inside but they are finding it difficult to get the information we need. I have gotten approval to..."

"to run an op?"

Alex cut her hands free and then held her hand out to Mack. Mack took the magazine out of her gun and emptied the chamber of its round. He then handed Alex her weapon.

"Yes." Came Archer's voice through the phone. "Are you in?"

Mack sighed, "I don't suppose I have a choice. You will send details?"

"Good and yes I will send details. I'm glad you are with me, let me speak to Alex."

"Your not training them as well as you use to." Mack handed the phone to Alex.

A flash of fury came across Alex's face as she took the phone. Mack had said the last comment for her benefit. The truth was that she was good and he knew it.

"Good job, Alex."

"But..."

"It's alright, don't feel bad. He's one of the best. And, Alex...."

"Yes."

"As a rule of thumb, you shouldn't sleep with the enemy. It makes you weak."

"Sir..."

"We will talk further when you get back."

"Yes sir."

Mack watched Alex as she hung up the phone. She stood there and he could see the anger building in her.

Shite, to close.

Alex jabbed quickly at Mack's chin twice with her left fist before catching him with a hook with her right. She stood there in a fighting stance ready to go a second round. Mack was unsure that he would win this one if it started.

"I have no wish to fight you. I'm sure you have my number. Call me when Archer sends the packet."

Leaving

In a small town in Namibia several houses were scattered in an unplanned manner out in the African countryside. It was a beautiful site with plains of grass and small sections of trees extending from the town for many miles before the next town. A small clinic was in the center of the town that at one time the people went to get treated for injuries and to receive vaccinations. Several cooperative vegetable gardens were organized in the back of the houses with a small church in the center of the town next to the clinic.

A gentle breeze blew through the town drying the laundry that was hanging on the lines behind the houses. The sun, although very hot was bearable today. The town was not large enough to have an official name and the inhabitants never knew the town by any name other than home.

The town seemed empty of people today though. There were no children playing. No one was working in the vegetable garden. In fact not a single person walked in the town. They were all gathered for a town meeting in the church.

A total of thirteen people sat in the modestly decorated church. The church, which had been built many years ago was completely built out of wood. Although it was modest a lot of love had gone in to its construction. The diversified group had adults, children, women, men, blacks, and whites. They sat intermingled with each other in an indiscriminate blending of friendship. The adults chatted with each other as the children played quietly in the pews. A man got up from the second pew; he put his hand on people's shoulders as he passed by. Abeeku slowly walked to the podium and gravely looked at the crowd.

"Hello everyone. I hope you are all well."

There are collective hello's from the group.

"I called everyone here because I have a few things that I wanted to say." Abeeku took a drink of water from the glass on the podium. "After helping to bury most of my family and friends a couple of weeks ago; I felt a want to ....." he paused as he found it difficult to keep his emotions under control. "....share my feelings on the matter. I know everyone here has lost as much as I have and I wanted to question the group also on where they thought we should go from here."

"I have lived in this town my entire life. I have raised three beautiful children that I thank God moved away long ago. I am for staying. I am a hard worker and would like for us to try and rebuild."

"The question I have is; how can we maintain this community with so few people?" Said a young black man.

"That is a good question and one that we should address, Majaliwa."

"We have no doctor, no teacher, and half of the work force that could normally have tended the garden and livestock are now older than 50. Our entire livestock of goats and cattle have perished, also. I personally am going to have to go else where to live and find work."

There were some nods from the group as others agreed with Majaliwa's statement.

"I understand the pain you feel Abeeku. The times I have wished that I had not been away when this tragedy happened. That I could have been here and could have died with my wife and daughter. The pain has been great for all of us. This disease or virus; its unthinkable that this could affect so many people. Majaliwa, although we have not known each other that long. I also feel that I could not stay here. There is just to much hurt now." said Mack.

Abeeku paused again as tears welled in his eyes. The land on which this town was built had been his home for over 40 years. He had raised two beautiful sons that were now dead along with his granddaughter. With all the hurt that he felt, he still wished to live out his remaining days here. But he understood why a lot of the younger people wanted to leave. This tragedy had taken a town of around 250 people down to thirteen. He knew it was impossible to keep the community going.