Evenfall (14 page)

C
hapter 5

Boyd glanced at the room identifications as he walked down the hall in Artillery, looking for the room that housed the blunt weaponry. He was a little lost, not knowing where to go specifically since no one had told him. Although there were a few other people walking around he didn't bother to stop any of them. The rooms were labeled well enough so it was a simple matter of walking past the right one.

It was the first time he was on a mission so everything was new to him yet he was resistant to bothering with asking unnecessary questions. His fingers curled absently around the comm unit he'd been given at check-in and his footfalls were quiet as he strode down the hall.

It was early morning but a person would never know it down here, underground with no windows. Boyd had learned that the typical procedure for a mission included a briefing with the unit, followed by a visit to Artillery to arm himself. The building had been innocuous enough from the outside and when he'd walked in to discover a modern-looking lobby with clean lines and a pleasant feel, he hadn't been surprised. Nothing was what it seemed at the Agency; a lesson he'd learned quickly.

He'd already been given the remote to control Sin's collar, although he didn't see the need for him to have it and had no intentions of using it. After that, when he'd checked in with the staff at the desk, they'd given him a miniature microphone and ear bud set that they called a comm unit. He'd been told that the comm unit was standard equipment for all agents but that if he needed something more sophisticated he could find it downstairs.

The entire set was very discreet. The ear bud was nothing more than a thin flat disc that would be nearly invisible in the ear and would be hidden beneath the fall of his blond hair. The wireless microphone came in a variety of types but the default was a small pin that would be easy to clip on clothing and hide. He could turn the transmitter on and off at his convenience but he'd been told that typically on missions with a partner the transmitters were left on unless it would be a distraction. Whatever the case, he didn't see any need for anything more sophisticated so he didn't bother looking.

With the amount of information he'd been absorbing in the past few days, additional learning about unnecessary equipment was not something he was interested in pursuing. The information he had been expected to memorize regarding the unit was more than enough to keep him fully occupied.

The insurgent groups that orbited Janus, as Carhart had put it, had turned out to number in the hundreds. Not all were relevant anymore but they were all related in some way and he was expected to learn the key players of all groups, even ones that had been defunct for some time. He'd been given a palm sized touch screen panel at his first meeting with hundreds of pages of data that he'd managed to get himself acquainted with in the few days that had passed since he'd met the other members of the unit.

There were a large number of hostile factions in North America, many with names the Agency wasn't fully aware of or names that were incredibly similar. Whether or not this was due to lack of originality or a general sharing of ideas between insurgent individuals was unknown. But to simplify matters, the Agency had assigned a number known as a 'faction' to the hostile group.

The current mission's target were members of faction 53, also known as True Democracy Movement or TDM. It was currently headed by a man named Warren Andrews who had built the group from the ground up with another man, Jason Aarons, who had since left the faction. It seemed fairly frequent that leaders were usurped or loyalties changed in these small factions. It was another reason the Agency assigned numbers; sometimes the new leaders changed the name entirely even though the same people were in it.

Sin hadn't shown at the briefing which hadn't seemed to be a big surprise to anyone but certainly hadn't put General Carhart in a good mood. As a result, Boyd had been the only one to be told the mission overview.

The objective was for them to infiltrate an abandoned building that a fraction of 53's members were using as a
safe house
. Newly gained
Intel
alleged that information regarding the location of 53's main base would be found inside and they were expected to retrieve it.

As such, he figured he probably would want a weapon of some sort and planned to get one of his preferred type. When he found the blunt weapons he was satisfied to find expandable tonfa like he preferred, in a lighter weight version than he was used to but that still had the strength.

He looked around at a few other rooms to see if he needed anything else and in the process walked past what appeared to be the main area where guns were stored. The walls were lined with sophisticated displays for more pistols, rifles and shotguns than he'd even known existed but that wasn't what made him slow down and head into the room. Instead, it was Sin's unmistakable figure clad in a black long sleeved t-shirt and his usual frayed black cargo pants. He was half turned away from the door as he surveyed his options.

Boyd walked over and stopped near Sin's side, idly turning his attention to see what Sin was looking at. He didn't know the precise name of the model but it appeared to be a .45 ACP of some kind.

Sin examined the gun and cocked it, appearing to not even acknowledge Boyd's existence. It was a fact that was undermined when Sin said without looking over, "That's it?"

"What else is needed?"

"If there's a gunfight, I suppose you could always throw it like a spear and hope it takes out multiple shooters," Sin replied with complete disinterest in his tone. He walked away from Boyd without waiting for an answer and began surveying the rest of the weapons although he continued to hold the .45.

Boyd idly looked at the selection in front of him. It was a fair point.

He picked up a 9mm, expression neutral as he studied it. When it came down to it, though, he wasn't particularly comfortable with guns and he was still perfecting his aim. The gun would simply be a hindrance that could also be stolen and used against him. And if it came to needing one in a theoretical gunfight he could obtain one there. No doubt he could steal one on location or from one of the hostiles. Ultimately, he set the gun down, deciding the potential inconveniences outweighed the potential convenience. He turned to look where Sin was to see if was ready.

Sin just raised his dark eyebrows and made no comment although his full mouth crooked up very slightly at the side. His gave Boyd a brief once over and turned back to what he'd been doing, collecting ammunition for what Boyd now saw was a .45 Ruger.

Boyd watched Sin, trying to determine what he was thinking. Perhaps he thought Boyd wouldn't last long without a gun or without taking his advice. It was hard to tell and that was what made Boyd watch him just a little longer than he normally would. He didn't particularly like that he couldn't discern Sin's thoughts. He preferred to have a good idea of what the people around him were thinking, especially in a situation like this.

Although he wondered, he didn't ask. He simply stood to the side waiting for him to finish.

He couldn't tell if Sin always chose his weapons this carefully or if he was just taking his time for no particular reason. Perhaps he felt no urgency about the mission parameters which was likely since he didn't know them. Or perhaps he was hoping to irritate Boyd.

Another agent entered the room, a tall Asian man with bleached blond hair. His eyes swept the area and as soon as they fell on Sin, the man did an about face and left.

Sin's reputation certainly preceded him in every case on the compound. He'd been turned away from the other man so it couldn't even be a case of his glare and intimidating aura warding the agent away.
In fact, Sin was remarkably thin-looking compared to the muscular field agents that Boyd frequently saw. His hair was disheveled, his jaw stubbled and his clothes were obviously fraying and poorly sized. There was nothing overtly frightening about Sin that would be obvious from such a quick glance, but still the agent had fled. It was an interesting phenomenon.

Sin finally finished gathering his equipment and when he turned to Boyd, there was a darkly amused expression on his striking face.

"I'm fully at your disposal."

Boyd nodded and left the room without speaking. Sin wasn't far behind him and the two of them stopped briefly at the
checkout
point on the main exit. After that, it didn't take terribly long to get to the garage where they got a vehicle. Boyd automatically took the driver's seat and soon they were on their way. It wasn't until they were in the car that Boyd finally bothered to fill Sin in on what the mission was even about, since the older man hadn't asked yet.

"We are to infiltrate a building with people from faction 53 and retrieve information about the main headquarters for purposes of a follow-up mission," Boyd said calmly after they passed the check out point at the gate and drove away from the Agency.

"Exhilarating."

Boyd fell silent briefly. He slowed to a stop at a red light and looked over. Sin was looking out the window and Boyd couldn't see much of his face. He could tell from Sin's clothes and the way he was sitting that he wasn't wearing any sort of armor, not even a bulletproof vest or bodysuit.

It seemed odd to Boyd. Was Sin that confident or was he simply arrogant? Did he know something Boyd didn't? Why wouldn't he use anything at all when he'd been the one to bring up the idea of a gunfight? It would seem that one would want to have protection just in case. Boyd was wearing a bulletproof bodysuit himself, beneath his clothes and the fall of his trench coat.

Without the driving to distract him, he found himself noting that it was the first time they were alone together. The windows were rolled up and without the radio on, it was silent except for the muffled sounds of the car itself and any quiet shifting of their clothing.

He watched Sin out of the corner of his eye, trying to get a feel for the man. He couldn't decide if Sin simply didn't have any particularly deep or moving thoughts when he was silent, or whether he was hiding everything from everyone around him.
Boyd suspected that Sin was simply guarding any of his thoughts from outsiders but if that was the case, what was he thinking? Did he expect that Boyd would be dead by the end of the day? No one seemed to have much hope of any of Sin's partners lasting indefinitely and Boyd had to wonder how transitory this seemed to Sin.

With such close quarters, other details stood out to him. Sin seemed freshly bathed; Boyd could faintly smell some sort of body wash or shampoo that lingered on him. It smelled like coconut. It was one more detail that seemed just so slightly in discord with the man's reputation.

Boyd had to wonder how much of it was orchestrated to throw people off, or whether Sin simply didn't realize or care what varied impressions he gave others. And if that was the case, were these bits of some other aspect of Sin's personality that were showing through or did Sin grab whatever was available and didn't put any thought into any of it?

The questions ran through Boyd's mind for a few moments before his eyes narrowed faintly and he looked away completely, out the driver's side window while he waited for the light to turn green. It irked him that he was wondering any of this in the first place. He didn't care whether Sin liked coconuts or not, yet the fact that he couldn't get a grasp on the man's motivations even when he put effort toward that goal served to provoke him into analyzing everything.

The light turned green and Boyd turned his attention to driving again. He hadn't determined an answer to any of the oddities Sin represented and it was mildly vexing.

Without warning, Sin leaned well into his personal space. The motion was abrupt and nearly alarming but it turned out that Sin was merely reaching over to turn the heat down low enough to be completely useless.

"What are you doing?" Boyd asked, distracted by Sin and the already cooling air. "It's cold." He reached out to turn the heat back to its original setting.

"I thought you weren't as delicate as you look," Sin replied blandly and smacked Boyd's hand.

Boyd's eyes narrowed faintly and shifted over to Sin. He couldn't believe the man had just smacked his hand. "Turn the vents away from you, then. Not all of us are apparently frost-bitten across our entire bodies." He flicked his gaze along Sin's attire, which was entirely too thin for the cold, and reached to turn up the heat again.

"What would you do if we became stranded and had to camp out?" Sin wondered, resting his head against the window and regarding Boyd. "I will certainly not share my body heat."

Boyd raised an eyebrow. "Who said I would want you to?" He looked back at the road but his attention was on Sin. "And for the record, having normal reactions to the cold does not make me inferior or weak as you seem to be implying. Perhaps it is you who would need help were we stranded. You could be at risk for hypothermia."

"I've survived a winter in Siberia when I was ten."

"What were you doing in a Siberian winter at ten years old?" Boyd asked dubiously.

"Searching for Santa Claus."

Boyd shook his head but was unsurprised by the answer.

Sin flicked the slats to his vents down with a decisive click and went back to looking out the window.

Feeling a tiny sense of victory at that, Boyd didn't stop the briefest hint of satisfaction in his eyes. It was silly, yet this showed him that Sin wouldn't necessarily win everything. Even if it was a disagreement over something so minor that it didn't matter anyway.