Clash Of Worlds (30 page)

Sergeant Cooper wasn’t as thankful for Chad’s actions however. He was angry that Chad had dared to show up on a mission he was supposed to have no knowledge of at all. “You had no business even being in Sydney. You jeopardised the entire mission!”

Sophie was next to run the gauntlet and speak up. “Sir he’s right. If Chad hadn’t of turned up, the casualties would have been much worse.”

Her interruption incensed the sergeant even more. “No one else is to speak other than me and Chad, do you all understand?”

No one else dared respond.

“There was a sniper on the building next to the hotel where the roof battle took place. The same sniper who you knocked out before you arrived on the scene. We knew the target had a reputation for being a slippery bastard so the sniper was to shoot a tracking device onto him in order for us to track him. You messed all of that up when you engaged the target yourself. Now he’s gone!”

“I thought the orders were to seize and capture?” asked Chad.

“They were to begin with, however in the event that we were unable to reprimand the target, we were to hold him at bay long enough to lock on the tracking device,” replied Sergeant Cooper.

Chad began to realise he may not have been totally right after all. Still, he had saved lives, and that was worth something.

“This is why you weren’t assigned. James knew all about the backup strategy, and although things didn’t quite go to plan, he was attempting to carry it out. Then you showed up!” The sergeant said angrily.

Chad became furious and slammed his fist down on the glass table. The table cracked a little at the force of the impact. Stacey, who was still watching from the back of the room, was slightly startled at the impact.

“You know what, you should be kissing my arse right now!” shouted Chad towards the sergeant.

Several of the other agents looked at each other in shock, others gasped, whilst the rest simply stood open mouthed. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Never before had they witnessed such blatant defiance towards the leader of the World Order.

“Excuse me?” said Sergeant Cooper, in a surprisingly calm manner, given the situation.

“I stopped that Lucius guy, whoever he is, from killing everyone else that was on site,” said Chad.

“Are you done?” said the sergeant in reply, openly dismissing the agent’s opinion.

The look on the sergeant’s face told Chad he should really stop with his rant here and now, but for some reason he couldn’t control his anger. Suddenly, all of Chad’s emotions came boiling to the surface and he let loose his frustrations on his superior. “Ever since I joined this fucking organisation you’ve been holding me back! You keep me in Paris, isolated from everybody else. I don’t get assigned to important missions. Why? Tell me why? I’m the best agent this god damn place has!”

Chad had begun to walk ever so slightly towards the sergeant during his rant. Everyone in the room became a little anxious. They knew tensions were rising, and they also knew of Chad’s extraordinary strength. No one wanted to be the person to get between the inevitable confrontation. The only person who could realistically stand up to Chad was James, however, he was in a coma.

Recognising the need for intervention, Professor Milton decided to interject. “I think you should stand down at once chad!” The professor very rarely raised his voice, but this time he did. The old man’s words seemed to do nothing more than enrage Chad further.

“Shut up professor!” he shouted, pointing at him.

This took even the professor by surprise. He had been like a father figure to both James and Chad since recruiting them as youngsters, and Chad had never raised his voice to him before…ever.

“Let him finish,” said Sergeant Cooper, showing no signs of intimidation. “You’re pathetic, just look at you!”

Chad stood seething but didn’t respond.

“Do you want to know why you’re not chosen for important missions? It’s because you’re reckless. You’re a liability boy, nothing more!”

Chad’s breathing began to get heavier. He looked like he was ready to snap at any moment.

Stacey was genuinely afraid at this point. She had never seen Chad like this before, and the prospect of her boyfriend and father fighting it out made her feel violently ill.
Please stop it, the both of you,
she wanted to shout out but the words would not come.

Chad’s blood began to boil further still, his forehead began to drip with sweat. “I should be the greatest agent the World Order has ever known. It’s your fault I’m not! You’re Jealous, you’re holding me back!” Chad was now shouting at the top of his voice. He began edging closer to the Sergeant, and the tension between all could now be cut with a knife. Every employee in the control room now watched on in silence. Even those who were on the lower levels of the room had turned from their computers to look on at the verbal confrontation between the pair.

“Stand down now, that is a direct order,” said the sergeant.

“You know where you can stick your orders!” Shouted Chad continuing on towards him in the ultimate act of defiance.

“Chad stop it!” shouted Stacey from the corner of the room. She could no longer hold her tongue.

Chad didn’t hear her though for he was consumed with emotion. Suddenly, everything he hated about Sergeant Cooper come rushing to the surface. The fact he didn’t go on important missions, the fact he had to hide his relationship with Stacey, everything.

Then something strange began to happen. Chad started to hear a voice deep within his subconscious. He had heard it before in his nightmares, only now it spoke to him in the living light of day. “
You know what you need to do. Make him suffer, make him bleed.
” The sound of this voice began to make Chad shake. Part of him wanted to do it.

A flash of a middle-aged man in a dark room with old stone walls appeared before him for a moment deep inside his head. He wore strange robes, the likes of which the agent had never seen. He sat on a stone chair, the throne of a king. The words inside Chad’s mind were spoken from the man’s mouth. They left his lips calmly but with a hint of malice. “
Kill him, kill him now
.”

Chad clenched his fist. He was debating it.

Sergeant Cooper noticed the agent clench his fist, which brought forth the man’s own aggressive nature. “Oh, you want to strike me is that right tough guy?” Showing no fear, he walked right up to Chad.

The pair now stood eyeball to eyeball. Everyone in the room held their breath, not knowing what would happen next.

“You haven’t got the guts to do it,” said the sergeant, who was not intimidated by Chad whatsoever.

Chad didn’t say a word, still distracted by the images and voices in his head. “
He mocks you. He thinks you are weak. Show him how superior you are, show them all,
” said the voice. Images and flashes of a dark castle with numerous towers and granite walls and a shadow world overlapped the voice as it spoke to him. Chad became lost in the images. He felt nothing other than hatred and bitterness in his heart, and this negative emotion was being targeted towards the sergeant who stood directly in front of him.

Sergeant Cooper looked Chad up and down, almost in disgust. “I always knew deep down you were a spineless coward.”

Shaking uncontrollably in anger, Chad launched his right hand toward the sergeant, grabbing him around the neck. Several agents rushed towards Chad. Several yelled at him to stop, whilst others tried to grab him off the leader of the World Order. Chad was far too strong for them, pushing them away with his left arm. One of the twins, Jade, who had been one of Chad’s best friends back in their training days, tried to make him see reason.

“Chad, let him go!” she pleaded.

Chad lost it at this point. He pushed the girl away with authority, sending her back several feet before she fell to the floor. He increased the pressure on the sergeant’s neck. He flung him around and slammed him against the glass table, which the agents had been stood around during the meeting. Several pieces of glass crumbled as the older man hit it.

“Chad don’t do this!” said Professor Milton, trying desperately to bring him back to his senses.

Chad seemed unable to control himself anymore. It was almost as if some kind of powerful force was fuelling his anger. The professor’s words seemingly had no effect. Stacey had sunk to her knees in the corner of the room, sobbing uncontrollably.

Sergeant Cooper tried with all his might to fight Chad’s grip around his neck, but the younger man was far too strong for him. Chad held his left hand up and clenched his fist, preparing to strike. The sergeant knew that if Chad struck him with all his aggression, the blow would likely kill him. He struggled to speak but decided to say these final words to him. “I…never held you back…boy. I…know how…powerful you are.” The words struggled from his mouth as he chocked. “I need to…make sure you’re ready…before you can…save the world. But…if you have it within you…to kill without reason…well then kill!”

The voice in Chad’s head spoke once more. “
He lies. He hates you. He will never let you be with his daughter. Kill him
…” Chad posed to strike. Several of the fallen agents looked on in horror, they knew they were helpless to stop him.

“CHAD!” screamed Stacey has the top of her voice.

Her words somehow reached him. He turned to her for a moment, subsiding his anger slightly. The voice in his head intervened. “
Don’t listen to her, do it now
!” Chad returned his attention back to the sergeant. Torn between Stacey’s words and the words of the mysterious voice in his head, the latter of which seemed to have a great deal of power over him, Chad pondered for a moment. He wondered whether or not he should strike the killing blow on his foe here and now. It was as if two forces were fighting against each other in an attempt to make him act.

After a few moments, he reached a decision and unleashed the most fierce left-hand punch he could muster. However, instead of smashing the sergeant’s skull, his fist broke through the glass table on which he had placed his superior. The table shattered into pieces, showering many of the agent’s nearby with glass. Chad, who still had his hand around the sergeant’s neck, picked him up from the floor and released his grip.

Chad’s anger disappeared in an instant and he now found himself surprisingly calm. Stacey rushed over to her father to attend him. She then looked up at her boyfriend. A mixture of confusion and fear was edged on her face. Chad stood bewildered, he was totally at a loss as to why he had attacked the sergeant in the first place. Sure, he didn’t like the man, but he didn’t hate him either. He certainly had no desire to hurt his girlfriend’s father. He knew how much pain it was cause her, and the last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt Stacey.

It wasn’t only Chad who thought it peculiar that he had gone from uncontrollable anger to total tranquillity in a matter of seconds. Professor Milton watched him closely. Although the professor didn’t say anything, he simply pondered to himself, wondering if something, or someone, had triggered him off.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” asked Stacey, clearly not happy with Chad’s erratic behaviour. He looked at both Stacey and Sergeant Cooper almost in disbelief. “I’m sorry. I…” he didn’t know what to say. He had no idea why he had attacked the man.

The rest of the agents in the room had now composed themselves. They all stared at Chad like a sane man would look upon a crazy person. He picked up on them all looking at him, and Chad, who was by nature a very confident person, began to feel very uncomfortable.

An awkward silence filled the room for a few moments before being interrupted by a mobile phone ringing. It was Professor Milton’s phone. He picked the phone out of his jacket pocket and answered it. “This isn’t the best time right now,” he said to whoever it was on the other line. He felt that issues here needed to be resolved before he could bother with idle phone chat. His face began to change however as he listened to what the person on the end of the line was saying. Professor Milton then responded to what he had been told. “I understand. I’ll be along at once.” He then ended the call.

“What is it?” asked Sergeant Cooper.

“It’s James…” The Professor looked over to Chad. “…He’s awake.”

Chapter 11: A Memory Of Fire

“I’m fine, I’ve got to get out of here.” James was lying on a bed in the medical facility inside the headquarters. The medical room was small, one of the buildings more private rooms. James was hooked up to several pieces of machinery, which had aided in keeping him alive when he first arrived. To his left upon the wall, was a large mirror and behind it was a small viewing room where agents would usually view a patient inside the room without the person’s knowledge. A middle-aged female doctor, who wore a long white jacket and glasses, stood at the bedside. She moved the quilt slightly in an attempt to make him more comfortable inside the bed.

“You’re ok James, just rest a little, your friends are on their way.”

Although now awake, James was still not in the best physical condition. The building fall would have killed a normal man, yet here he was still in one piece. He had some internal bleeding and bruised ribs, and his legs hurt…a lot, however, he was still alive.

The nurse had a pen and small pad of paper in her hand. She noted down James’ vital signs and heart beat from the equipment the patient was hooked up to. She shook her head and smiled, almost in disbelief. When he first arrived four days ago, his body was broken; he had been very close to death. Yet somehow, a punctured lung had healed itself, and several of his broken ribs were now only bruised. “You must have eaten all of your spinach as a boy. You’re the fastest healer I’ve ever seen.”

A pager inside the nurse’s pocket began to beep. The nurse reached into her pocket and looked at whom the page was from. “Wait here, I’ll be back in a moment.” The nurse exited through a small door directly in front of the bed. James looked around the room, using only his head whilst lying on the bed. He tried for a few moments to sit up, raising his hands a few inches off the bed. He couldn’t manage to get up though for he was still far too weak. He let his head fall back onto the pillow and sighed.