Timothy Nugent Author
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Chapter 93 - FBI
🕑 Added 2024-12-25 23:33:14 +0000 UTCBlake peered down from the castle merlons on the assembled forces below. The few law enforcement vehicles, which spotted the road at the beginning, had multiplied until their front gate resembled a parking lot. The FBI had descended on the small town of Pinetop, and had made it their own.
“Hell yeah!” Montgomery celebrated another victory over holo-chat. “That’s how it’s done!”
Blake watched the half-opacity feed in amusement and nostalgia as his friends bumped fists after their hard won fight over top a pile of green corpses. The trip there had not been easy.
It had taken the trio over an hour to reach the goblin scenario. Donna contacted the faction as a whole, and found a willing member who had not stayed within the bunkhouse. Debra was visiting her mother on the Reservation and had a personal issue with the gathered law enforcement. She happily ferried them to the scenario.
However, securing the ride was just the first step. His friends and Kuruk needed to reach the main road before it was safe to pick them up. Any closer and they risked the attention of law enforcement. Montgomery proved more than capable of the task with his Fade.
Once they entered the level one goblin scenario, the real challenge began. To Blake’s relief, the AI’s assigned objective was simple elimination, but that made it straightforward, not necessarily easy. The goblins had been split into groups of five or six. So far, Montgomery and Jeff had taken each group by surprise, but that could only last so long.
Montgomery was his usual self.
Eventually, a neighboring group would be alerted, or a goblin would escape to gather reinforcements. However, in the meantime, Blake watched his friend's victories while he kept an eye on the gathering crowd.
Outside the law enforcement’s perimeter, reporters arrived in their vans, eager to display live video to their viewers. The sheriff’s propaganda had spread, and now, the entire country likely believed him to be a crazy criminal. His antics with the helicopter, however, were not broadcast.
When Blake last talked to Agent Harris, he had been assured that Jennifer Taylor had been contacted. However, they continued to make no promises about an interview, or the time it would take for her to arrive. After hearing that, Blake immediately ended the conversation, and promised to return, only when she did.
If they believed that he was solely focused on a tell-all interview, they would not do anything drastic until it was clear to both sides that nothing would come of it. He still felt it was unlikely that an interview would happen, but it was a stalling tactic he was more than happy to use.
Who’s that?
Blake turned his head to observe another new arrival, when something suddenly slammed into his cheek bone. The impact caught him off guard, and he was rocked backward.
What the hell was that?
His hand immediately went to his face and rubbed the whole, but bruised skin. Then, he heard the distant crack of gunfire, as the sound from the initial shot finally reached him.
Sniper!
Blake jumped from the raised merlon to the battlement below and peered out the crenelation in search of the sniper. The shot had come from a distance, so he scanned the treeline.
Seriously? What is Agent Harris thinking?! Isn’t he worried about the hostages? I thought he was smarter than this.
As he continued to search, a bright flash lit up a distant hill. Almost two seconds later, a large bullet slammed into the stone beside him and rebounded.
Okay, enough of this.
Blake would not stand still to be fired upon. While the large caliber bullet only slightly bruised him, he was not sure what would have happened if he had not turned his head. Blake was not eager to see if his eyeballs were just as bulletproof as the rest of him.
He hurdled the merlons and fell twenty-six feet to the ground below. Once he landed, to the sound of gasps and alarm, he activated Alacrity and ran towards the line of cars before him.
Before they could raise their firearms, he reached the barricade of vehicles and used a Charged Guided Spatial Step to teleport behind them. Once clear, he angled through the empty field opposite, and into the trees which lined it. At over a hundred miles an hour, he hopped fences, tore through yards, and crossed county roads in an effort to reach the distant sniper nest.
Halfway to his destination, his Alacrity faded, yet he continued his high speed. Twenty seconds later, he scaled the four-hundred-foot hill almost a mile away from his faction town, and activated Oblate Mind Sense. He would have done so before he climbed the terrain, but his evolution of the ability would have worked against him. Blake had flattened the spell. Had he used it before, anyone atop the hill would remain hidden.
Oh, so it’s an ambush.
His scan revealed not just the sniper in his nest, but three others hidden nearby as well. Blake decided to ignore the bait for now and eliminate the ambushers first.
“Shit! They saw us!” Montgomery shouted in his ear. “Run Jeff, RUN!”
Blake desperately wanted to check on his friends, but he could do nothing for them. Instead, he muted the audio and minimized the transparent video so it would not distract him.
While he was momentarily distracted, his attackers did not remain idle. Two men on his left, and one on his right, exited their cover. All three had large, heavy machine guns, which they seemed to handle with ease. They were all clothed in camouflage uniforms with long Kevlar vests labeled FBI. They wore helmets and goggles which hid half their faces, but he could easily see they were a mix of races.
“Now,” the black man on his right barked.
Suddenly, the ground beneath him exploded, and he was thrown off his feet. While he was not harmed, he was surprised, and remained that way when they opened fire with their high power weaponry. He was momentarily riddled with bullets, before he came to his senses and teleported to his right.
Now that’s impressive.
The professional team was not surprised by his sudden relocation. Instead, they immediately halted fire, the leader called out his new position, and they shifted their heavy weapons.
However, Blake did not allow them to resume fire and released a Directed Mind Blast. All three were immediately hit by the cone. They moaned in agony, sank to their knees, and as the closest to the blast, the black leader even passed out.
Easy.
Just as he celebrated his quick victory, a loud explosion jolted him, and he was rocked to the side. Twice more he was hit before he located the source, a camouflaged sniper hidden in the saddle of a tree. The operative wore a ghillie suit and held a massive rifle with a large attached scope. He continued to fire round after round, while Blake rushed forward, until his magazine was empty.
While the sniper reloaded, Blake quickly cast a Hastened Gale at the man, and felt satisfaction when he was thrown from the tree. The sniper landed hard on his back, yet reached for his sidearm without delay. However, before he could draw, Blake stepped on his hand, bent over, and growled a warning, “Don’t.”
The sniper froze.
Once the threat was clear, he lifted his foot and extracted the pistol from its holster. He slipped it in his pocket, pointed to the frozen soldier, ordered, “Stay,” and left to investigate the others.
The leader remained unconscious, so he ignored him. While the two others were still awake, they were in no condition to fight. They cradled their heads and muttered about their inability to see.
You’ll be fine, you big babies.
While they were incapacitated, Blake collected their weapons and piled them together. Seeing that they were still in no condition to speak, he retraced his steps to the sniper.
“You got a name?” he asked as he crouched nearby.
The sniper remained silent but began to move.
Seriously?
“I’d worry about my back with a fall like that. Dude, you just shot me with a big ass gun, tried to blow me up, and then followed up with machine gun fire. The least you can do is give me your name.”
For a moment, he thought the sniper would remain silent. However, the man eventually mumbled, “Esteves.”
“Okay, Esteves. I don’t know why Agent Harris thought this little exercise was a good idea, but it obviously backfired.”
“Because you’re freakin’ bulletproof,” the man muttered.
Blake snorted. “Wow. I can’t believe you actually noticed. I thought everyone was still pretending magic doesn’t exist.”
“What do you want?” Esteves growled.
“The same thing I’ve always wanted,” Blake threw up his hands. “To be left alone!” Blake began to pace back and forth. “But, nooooo! You can’t do that. For some reason, you and everyone else feel the need to kill some innocent kid.”
“Innocent?!” Esteves snorted, and then winced. “I hear you killed a bunch of local cops so you could keep running drugs. Don’t sound innocent to me.”
“Lies,” Blake rounded on the prone man. “All made up by a corrupt sheriff who got mad because his bully of a nephew got beat up in school. Did you know he shut my parent’s restaurant down and got a warrant to track my cell phone because of a little high school fight and truancy?”
“You know, you could always turn yourself in and tell your side,” Esteves suggested.
“Or, you guys could just get me the interview I asked for. You are seriously asking me to turn myself into a group of killers who shot first and asked questions later?” Blake asked in disbelief.
“Well, when you put it like that…” Esteves trailed off. “What happens now? You gonna finish us off?”
“No,” Blake snorted. “If I wanted you guys dead, you would be.”
“The Captain ain’t dead?” Esteves asked, hopeful.
Blake glanced over his shoulder at the unconscious black man. “No, he’s fine. But, he’ll wake up in half an hour with a splitting headache.”
At the news, Esteves sagged in relief.
“But, I can’t let this go unpunished, or it will keep happening.”
The sniper stiffened.
“I’d like to take all of you hostage, but we’re almost a mile away from town. The others aren’t in any condition to walk, and I don’t want to carry everyone. I’d have to make multiple trips. So, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to take everyone’s guns and since your back doesn’t seem to be broken, I’m going to escort you back to the walls. Then, you’re going to join the SWAT team as my prisoner.”
“What do you need guns for? You seem to do just fine without them.”
“They aren’t for me,” Blake said evasively as he collected their weapons. He slipped the slings of all three machine guns over his shoulder, cradled the large sniper rifle, and then strode up to Esteves. “Now, get up and march.”
The ghillie equipped sniper warily stood and began to trod down the hill. Unlike Blake’s Alacrity fueled sprint to the ambush location, the return trip took over fifteen minutes. By the time they reached the standoff, Blake had retrieved the pistol from his pocket and pointed it at his prisoner’s back.
A line of FBI agents and local police aimed their firearms at Blake as he approached the wall, but held their fire. When they were just fifteen feet away, Blake said, “That’s far enough. This is going to be a bit awkward, but I’m going to have to carry you.”
“Uh…” Esteves drew out, uncertain.
“Just stand there,” Blake ordered, and then wrapped his arms around the sniper from behind.
“Ow! The Barret’s digging into my side,” Esteves complained.
“Get over it,” Blake rolled his eyes and placed a hand at the base of Esteves’ skull. “You FBI guys are big babies.”
Then, without warning, he leapt. When he reached his apex, he teleported them atop the merlons and turned to address the assembled crowd.
“The FBI sent these men to assassinate me!” he yelled. “As you can see, they failed! I let the others live, but Mister Esteves here is now my prisoner. Next time, I won’t be so magnanimous. The next person who attacks, dies.”
He then turned and stepped off the battlement. Before they hit, he used his second accumulated charge of Spatial Step and appeared on the ground, sans velocity. Blake released the shaken Esteves and ordered, “Okay, come with me. You get to join the others in a cell.”
While the marched to the faction hall, Blake unmuted his holo-chat and checked up on his friends. To his relief, they were not only still alive, but had completed the scenario. Now, they waited and celebrated as Kuruk searched for the required alloy.
Now we just need to stall for another day and a half.
Blake escorted his new prisoner through the lobby and down the stairs to the jail below. He opened the only available cell door and forced the FBI man inside with the others.
“Agent Harris wants to talk to you,” the SWAT leader stated.
“And, I want to talk to him,” Blake agreed and collected the man’s headset. Before the negotiator could say anything, Blake turned to face the leader’s body cam and demanded an answer, “What the hell was that?”
“Blake, I assure you, the FBI did not order anyone to attack.”
“Really?” Blake said sarcastically and pointed to the three letters plastered across the man’s body armor. “Because it looks to me like this says he’s FBI.”
“I am as confused as you are, Blake”
Blake snorted. “That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not confused, I’m angry.”
“Please, Blake, don’t do anything drastic”
“And why shouldn’t I?” Blake asked. “I’ve only asked for two simple things, to be left alone, and an interview. You haven’t delivered either of those things.”
“Blake, I swear, this wasn’t us,” Agent Harris assured him.
“Stop saying my name over and over,” Blake said, “It’s weird.”
“I’m just trying to be friendly.”
“No, you’re trying to use psychology or whatever training you go through to calm me down,” Blake corrected. “You know what will calm me down? Giving me that interview.”
“We’ve already contacted Miss Taylor, and she has expressed interest in an interview.”
“Uh huh,” Blake rolled his eyes.
“We are now coordinating with Miss Taylor to get her to you as quickly as possible.”
“Good, then we’ll talk again when she gets here.” Before Agent Harris could protest, Blake took off the headset and tossed it back to the SWAT team leader. He then left the cell and slammed the door behind him.
He was about to contact his mother to inform her of the new development, when he received a notification. According to the interface, Jordan was trying to contact him through holo-chat. Curious, he accepted the call.
“What’s up?” Blake asked as he climbed the stairs.
“You’ll never believe it!” Jordan drawled in his southern accent.
“What happened now?” Blake complained.
“We got that alloy we needed, and the Architect threw in something extra for us!”
“Of course it did,” Blake muttered and ran a hand through his hair. “What does it want now? The blood of a virgin?”
Jordan laughed. “It doesn’t want anything. After we met the new requirements, it said we successfully completed a ‘Complication’, and it finished construction immediately as a reward.”
“Wait, what?” Blake stammered, confused, as he entered the lobby.
“The shield generator’s completed!” Jordan informed him. “You can turn it on any time!”
Blake eyebrows rose, and he immediately sprinted up the two flights of stairs. He ran down the hallway and burst through the open door of his mother’s office. Donna jerked in surprise from behind her laptop as he rushed inside.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he assured her as he slapped his hand on the town interface orb and navigated the menus. A moment later, he barked out a laugh.
Your town’s shield is available. Would you like to activate it for a cost of four hundred thousand nano per hour?
“Yes!”
Comments
E
It’s on your side!!!?!?!!?? Yeah!!!!!!
Laura Pilkington
could say milli. 1 milli is a million nano, so if you wanted to convert for the math challenged you could 😅
L Pedersen
I was retwatching Die Hard the other day (it is a christmas movie, fight me.) and I was reminded that if you need a christmas miracle you can always rely on the FBI :D Kinda wish Blade had captured them all though or if only one I'd have prefered Jeremy. Oh well, I'm certain they'll all join Blake's evil legions soon enough...
The_Hedger01
Thanks for the chapter !!
John Doe
I don't watch TV, so I had to look that reference up: Parks and Recreation Wiki. Heh!
John Doe
Now that you mention it... This is an unfortunate quirk of the story focus. In the 21st Century we are all very familiar with the notion of nanotechnology. Unfortunately, the prefix: nano is also a rather cumbersome International System of Units (SI) numerical measurement. This has got to be awkward as Hell for the author to render smoothly into a story-line. Oy Vey! It is like saying to a butcher: "Hi, I would like a pound of nano-particles of beef, please." My brain starts to hurt when I remember where "nano" falls on the S.I. tables: 10 to the 18th exa E, 10 to the 15th peta P, 10 to the 12th tera T, 10 to the 9th giga G, 10 to the 6th mega M, 10 to the 3rd kilo K, 10 to the 2nd hecto H, 10 to the 1st deka da, 10 to the -1 deci d, 10 to the -2 centi c, 10 to the -3 milli m, 10 to the -6 micro µ, 10 to the -9 nano n, 10 to the -12 pico p, 10 to the -15 femto f, 10 to the -18 atto a,
John Doe
I can't believe the author gifted us with a chapter on Christmas Day!!! Yowza! Best. Gift. Ever. Heh! :-)
Undead Writer
Thanks for the chapter!
Thundermike00
Hey, can we steer away from using Blake as our example? He’s an obvious outlier. Instead, let’s focus on an elite team from the current Warriors lineup. Just imagine the daily earnings they need to keep that generator running smoothly! What do you think?
Jamison Schneider
Maybe if they put special agent Burt Macklin in charge this situation wouldn't have been so messy
Kyle
The thing is, it is literally counting nano machines. If you make the numbers smaller it does not make sense in that context. This is not just a currency it s also a machine that is used to make make biological and magical augments to the users body.
gideon ferrier
Yeah while it would be a lot for any normal person delving at level he is pulling about 1 to 5 million nano per kill so he kills on person and it will run the shield for 10 hours at the minimum.
Cary Edens
I don't like that the first 3 digits of nano are never used and the the next 2 are barely ever used. Wish nano was dropped by a factor of a thousand. It's pointless and confusing.
Bakerbob
I feel that it is a lot now, but really is not. There are most likely upgrade later that will raise the cost higher, but with most likely 10-20 teams + it was hinted that there would be quests and way for civvies to earn nano to... 400k/hour is peanut if you have a 10k people community. I feel like a 1% taxe on 10k people would pay for the shield quite easily if everyone is able to get 4000nano/hour
Lance Wheeler
That is a lot of nano
Timothy Nugent
400k an hour is almost 10million or 10 meganano per day. Blake can pull in about 100 meganano per day if he goes hard.
David Ford
I feel like the absurdly high nano costs in this story make it hard for me to gauge value. Everything feels like it costs a thousand million squillion nano. Is four hundred thousand nano an hour a lot or not? My first thought was that it sounds extortionate, but then I couldn’t recall what kind of scale is in place, if MC brings back millions per mission is it trivial?
