"Alpha 1, this is Alpha 2, come in."
"This is Alpha 1."
"Kitty, how much longer do I need to stay out here? There's nothing going on, I'm cold, and this is so stupid."
"You're staying there as long as it takes for us to finish this. Now shut your mouth and keep this frequency clear, got it?"
"Yes sir. Anything for you sir. Whatever you say."
"I told you to keep quiet. Do you want me to come out there myself and sew your mouth shut?" There was no response. "Thank you." Lori continued her scan of the outskirts of the small town that was she was assigned to protect during the practice exercise.
Why on earth did West give me this assignment? He knows better than I do of my potential. Lori Bond was first in command of the small special operations unit that Tom West had put together after his discharge from the navy. She had been dismissed from the British Secret Service after she messed around with the wrong man, who ended up being her commander's son. The British government did pay for her move to the states, attendance to MIT, and another move to California. West met her on one of her frequent trips to a shooting range just outside the San Fernando Valley and found interest in her skills. After about a year of watching her, West asked her to join the Impossible Mission Bureau that he was in the process of forming. The International Management Bureau, as it is technically called, was not supported by the US government, but it did not deny it either. In fact, the pentagon sometime handed down some of the dirty work to West and his team.
Through her specialized binoculars, Lori thought that she had picked up something about two kilometers north of Alpha 2's position. Studying the area for approximately five minutes, Lori decided to let it go and continue her surveillance. It was no longer than thirty seconds after she had given up on that particular area when Alpha 2's position lit up with the newest holographic explosion. Instantly Lori knew that she had lost Alpha 2 to the person she was least expected to see that night.
"All units report."
"Alpha 3 reporting in."
"Alpha 4 reporting in."
"Alpha 5 reporting in and what the hell was that?"
"Alpha 5, shut your trap and move 1,000 yards south of Alpha 2's last know position. Alpha 3 give him cover. Alpha 4, get that machine gun turned around and open up on the area about two klicks north of that same position," barked Kitty. I should have known that he would be out here himself.
Tom West knew exactly where each of Kitty's men were positioned, but he still had no idea where she was. West brushed this thought off like one would flick a mosquito off his or her hand. West had been trained by the best navy seals and eventually climbed all the way up the ranks that he could possible reach. When discharge two years later, for reasons that no one but the brass and West know, he decided to create a unit that he could command and not worry about the powers above interfering. He had searched for someone to lead his unit in the field and found that Lori was just the right person for the job. He had done a background check on her after their first meeting at the shooting range and the profile was perfect. West never did reveal much about himself to the rest of his unit so very little is known by his team that he does not want them to know. With his training and study of many different types of warfare it took a lot to bring him down. In fact he got his nickname "Slayer" from the amount of people that he has taken out on missions before they knew what was going on.
West predicted that Kitty would move her people around after he took out the first one. He was surprised how easy it was to take out the hummer that contained his first practice victim for the night. The guy must have been sleeping because he was not very aware of West crawling underneath the hummer. After he had laid the small explosive on the belly of the hummer, he crawled to the nearest building and waited for the right moment. He hope that his little surprise two kilometers north of the vehicle would catch someone's eye.
When the bomb went off the holographic blast was incredible, he never imagined that something so fake could be so real, he could feel the heat and the light was almost indiscernible from the real thing. When the people started to move and the machine gun started to unload its ammunition into the field he knew exactly what they were after.
To his surprise though, one of the agents under Kitty's command came tromping through the bush about 100 feet ahead of West. It took one shot and the agent's communicator went dead, his gun would not fire, and he knew that he was official dead for this exercise. West could hardly keep in the laughter when the second agent followed in the dead agent's footsteps. They need some work, a lot of work, West thought as he took out the second agent right were the first one had come to his end for the night. That left the agent manning the machine gun and Kitty. West walked over to the two dumbfounded agents, snickered at their expressions as he walked over, and finally checked the last frequency used on their communicators.
"Hey, Kitty. Three down, two to go. Hope your ready."
"Any day Slayer, any day."
