ANGEL IN BONDAGE © SPECIAL QUARANTINE RELEASE

This is a scene from a future chapter that can be enjoyed alone and is NOT Chapter 3. It’s a fun scene, which is why I’m releasing it now; I thought people could use some entertainment while we’re all in quarantine. It’s also a good relief scene for after Chapter 2. And you get to meet someone new to the AiB cast.

SCENE!

The agent didn’t expect her first near-death experience to occur as soon as she set foot in the Halo.  The elite group within MI6 was comprised of a ring of buildings and locations throughout London, all connected by hidden means of transport.  She had recently gotten hired after she had passed a series of tests not too long ago, and she was at the main location to see M.

It was a haven.  Warm marble arcs and columns formed a perimeter around an expansive central garden. The clusters of stone buildings built around it had elegant Victorian intricacies with twists of modernity.  The woman came under an arc that brought her inside.

The interior was just as beautiful, yet nothing in the peaceful high ceilings of the halls had suggested that a projectile would suddenly come flying at her head.   A preoccupied lab technician was also in the line of fire. The agent’s shoes made two cold taps on the floor before she hugged him down and out of danger. The projectile they had narrowly dodged left a mess of shattered glass and rolling rubble at their feet.  The employee did a double take at the woman, unsure of whether to be more stunned by the life still in his body or her beauty, but Yiuna was already looking back towards the direction of the threat in precautionary measure.

“Whew, that thing went flying!” said the technician, laughing in relief.  “I shouldn’t have checked my phone in this warzone. That apprentice is planning to leave a special kind of mark on this agency, I tell you.”

He nodded towards the damage.

“And M just snagged us some budget recently, too.  She won’t be too happy about this once she finds out.”

He got up to retrieve the tiny white device that had shattered the glass wall to the outside.  From past the open doors from which it came, Yiuna overheard a conversation.

“Zero, believe me, I ran the check twice before this.”

A calm voice replied, one that was too tired to hold any anger.

“Then it shouldn’t have done that.  I’ll check it myself next time.”

A messy-haired man came out from the entrance, ash brown strands catching the light of the sun.  The gold-beveled device splayed its floating wings and left the technician, hovering above Zero’s outstretched palm before compacting its geometry and landing in his hand.

“It happens,” said Zero, addressing the technician.

“It sure does.  Hey, remember that time when you nearly sent the older prototype flying into M’s fac- ”

Zero gave him a deceptively blank stare-down.  The technician’s blood temperature dropped about two degrees.

“…I have no idea what I’m talking about,” he finished.  He left in haste.

Zero finally registered the new woman’s presence.  They stood in silence. Somehow, a “hi” didn’t seem appropriate to him.

“This isn’t my fault”?  “Welcome to the lab”? “The Halo cares about the safety of its employees”?  Forget it, he thought.

He left without a word.  Yiuna started questioning her decision to join.

 

✧

 

Back in the lab, Damien was guffawing.

“It’s alright, M.  Our new lady just saved a technician from some trouble, right?  Those reflexes certainly pass the test.”

The Halo’s most seasoned inventor shook the remainder of his laughter off as he took his attention back to his tools.  Damien wore his grey hair brushed back into a low, noble ponytail that curled slightly at its end, held together by a simple black ribbon.  It was an otherwise dated style that the amiable German inventor had managed to make look timeless.

M gave Damien a firm look.

“This is Her Majesty’s agency, not a sandbox,” she retorted.

Damien kept working away at the device on his counter as he replied.

“I still haven’t gotten complaints about my wine from anyone other than you.   The bedroom sealed off in this lab shows enough dedication, don’t you think? Even though you could take the Halo’s private underground to this agency’s hotel within minutes.  Unrivaled fringe benefits! That keeps us more dedicated than the best tech companies out there.”

There was truth in his words.  The Halo offered its employees many means to live and breathe its air exclusively, from providing free lodging to extensive food services. One could argue it was just an attempt to boost slavery to the machine, but there were also very practical reasons.  Due to the sensitive nature of the agency’s work, it was much safer for certain people to live within its network anyway.

“You’re defending your own habits as much as the fact that he’s picked them up from you,” said M.

The inventor shrugged M off with a slight frown.

“Come now, he’s still functional.  Zero, lay off the drink, will you,” he said.  Damien then proceeded to take a sip from his own glass, causing M’s serene expression to break with a noticeable twitch in her right eye.  He finally turned his attention to the new hire. His voice became a tad softer as he addressed the miss.

“Fräulein, I’ve heard about you,” he said. Yiuna felt a flash of sympathy in the way his eyes crinkled.

“I’m Damien,” he continued in cheer, “humbly serving as…your weapons master of sorts, amongst the other gears I spin here.” The agent noted the rather regal look about him from the way he carried himself.

“I’m assuming you’re armed,” he said.

“Yes.”

His smile held the charm of a seasoned strategist.  She figured he probably won a lot of battles with that smile.

“Why don’t you bring your gun out.”

Her slender fingers pointed the barrel of a pistol towards the floor.  Damien took it from her.

“Sig P938,” he said.  “How do you like it?”

“It’s not bad.  I’m left-handed though, so the mechanics aren’t ideal.”

“Well, if you like the feel of this model, I can switch the magazine drop to your thumb later.  Bring it up to your par.” He paused. “And since we have one out here too…”

A glint of mischief flashed in his eyes.  Damien looked around the room until he found Zero.

“Grab the 938 from the pile,” he instructed him.  Yiuna stared at the multiple mounds of metal and parts.  Which bloody pile, she thought.  Compared to the tidier areas of the facility, she had to wonder if she was still in the same building.

The agent picked up a receipt from the mess near her.

 

“OLD LONDON INT’L WINE & SPIRITS

925 WORTHEN RD

LONDON

DL12 7YQ

TEL: 070 598 9932

—————————————————–

1 MOET & CHANDON IMPERIAL BRUT £139.00

2 TAITTINGER COMTES DE CHAMPAGNE £165.00

1 DOM PERIGNON VINTAGE £285.00

1 LEITZ EINS ZWEI RIESLING £20.49

1 WEHLENER S. RIESLING KABINETT £18.99

2 CHATEAU L’EVANGILE £462.00

2 GEWURZTRAMINER £51.98

—————————————————–

TOTAL TO PAY: £1,142.46

CARD: £1,142.46

CHANGE: £0.00

TOTAL ITEMS: 10

APPROVED – THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING WITH US.”

 

There was a bias for German imports that she suspected was due to the happy man she had just talked to.  Was all the alcohol the two men were drinking actually permitted?

Damien motioned for Zero to come over with two quick knocks on a long table counter, prompting him to disassemble the gun that matched her model. Yiuna was surprised when he motioned for her to come over as well.  The master inventor clunked her gun down on the same table, gesturing discreetly for the agent to bring the receipt over as well.

“Disassemble your gun here, will you please.”

Combined with the ease of confidence with which Damien held himself, the agent found it hard to refuse him.  She looked at him questioningly, not particularly fond of fooling around. M held a similar look to her new hire, but allowed Damien to continue despite herself.  She found his unconventional entertainment a welcome relief at times, not that she would admit it. And Damien was keen on proving a point to M. A point that would allow a charming cellar of alcohol to stay firmly rooted in the sacred confines of the lab.  Once Yiuna made it over, Damien snatched the receipt from her and pulled his apprentice aside.

“You expensed this already, right?” he asked Zero in a low voice, angling the receipt away from M.

“Office supplies.”

“Great!” he exclaimed, receipt crisping to a crumple as he balled his fist.  He handed it back to his son, who pocketed it out of sight.

“Time for a race, or rather, a demonstration – ,” said Damien, stressing the last word, “of competency.”

He made a single gesture to direct their attention towards the opposite wall.  A blade of white light streaked across it before it parted open to reveal an indoor shooting range.  Yiuna took apart her gun as a row of targets revealed themselves. There was one directly in front of her, as well as one for the man standing beside her.

“M, you might want to cover your ears for this one.  This is to show you that the alcohol is of no detriment to his work…” said Damien, gesturing towards his messy-haired apprentice, “or mine.  Hands flat on the table, both of you. Put your gun back together as if Her Majesty’s life depends on it,” he continued, “because my well-being depends on this too…” he trailed.

Yiuna figured she could win this fairly easily.  Yet her opponent seemed to disagree. Did the man named Zero stifle a laugh at her just then?  She turned her head and caught him smirking. As if he had already won. It brought about an unexpected tinge of annoyance beneath her stoicism.  Yiuna wasn’t competitive by nature, but this man was already dead to her.

“Shoot at your target once you’re done.  The first to fire a round wins.” Damien sliced his arm between them as a starting flag.

“Ready…” he prompted.

He waved his arm up as a flag to start them off.  As if by the flip of a switch, the exhausted apprentice became another person entirely.  Now very alert, Zero’s hands moved more by fluid feeling than by any real conscious effort.

Click.

The barrel locked back into the slide.

Click.

He seated the spring.

Click, snap, click.

He pushed the slide back.  The pin dropped through. Any possible trace of an alcohol-induced stupor had drained right out of him.  He racked the slide for good measure and snapped the magazine back in.

Just as Yiuna poised herself to shoot, a gunshot cracked the air from beside her.  Her own gunshot echoed the first less than a second behind, but the difference was noticeable enough.

“It was nothing,” Zero said with ease.

The agent’s gun thudded on the table rather loudly.  She had lost on her first day, and in front of M, to someone this sloppy.  Did all her years of discipline against such a shoddy disposition come down to this?

In contrast, the apprentice had only gotten a confirmation of the outcome he had expected.  It was his version of an employment flex. Zero had spent too much of his life in the slave hole of the lab to not have known with confidence that he would come out victorious.  It was laughable for him to think otherwise. In fact, he had laughed just moments ago at the possibility. However, the lady did come stunningly close to his speed, enough to surprise him a little.  He figured he should’ve expected that from someone M hired.

Damien nodded satisfactorily at the results, shooting the speechless M a look before speaking to the agent.

“Are you surprised, Yiuna?” he asked.  Whether or not she was, he clearly was not.  A note of post-victory pride was all too evident in the strategist’s voice.  “It’s in the nature of his work to be good at putting things together. Don’t think too much of this little game of mine, you did well.”

Zero resumed his duties.  Damien spoke to M, gesturing towards the targets.

“Zero’s not a bad shot, either,” he mentioned.  “Even if our lady was more on target.”

“Being so trigger-happy isn’t useful here.  This is what happens when I let you decide the meaning of what a good use of the lab’s budget is.  That definition wasn’t supposed to include the purchase of an extra supply of bullets a few months back,” she replied.

“A win is a win. And it’s good enthusiasm, right? It keeps him going, so it’s fine if there’s some indulgences.  Including some alcohol and a healthy dose of brass in the diet.”

“…And that’s why it’s back to me to determine what those indulgences are.”

Damien laughed.

“One day, you’ll see why it’s good to let him explore things more.  It’s part of the creation process. The mind of an inventor is something else.”

At times like this, M questioned herself.  Like father, like son…Is this really alright?  M removed her earplugs as Damien’s face lit up with realization.

“I’d almost forgotten my manners,” he said, turning towards the agent.

“Yiuna,” He gave her a curt bow with a nod of his head.

“Welcome.”