The fluttering of the little black surveillance bird’s wings fought against the breeze coming off the Rio Grande as it focused on the voices of the men standing forty feet away. Two miles above, the crew listened intensely for understanding as to what the next steps were for the deadly cargo that was being loaded into an intolerant man’s truck bed. Hannah sat at the pilot’s seat, monitoring not only the situation on the ground, but also watching out for air traffic changes so that the ship would avoid being seen from above. Eric sat at a workstation, digging as much information up as he could on the suspects. Ron and Teancom stood side by side with their arms folded behind Hannah watching the extremely high-definition wall projection at the front of the ship of the zoomed in arial view of the scene. They watched and listened to everything they were doing and saying. Their attention was locked onto the owner of the truck as he pulled a gun on one of the loaders for not handling one of the boxes as gently as he wanted.
          Fists clenched as they watched the man throw an already beat up girl down on the floor like a used rag. They heard the man yell, “You better get me a replacement. I need someone who doesn’t have signs of abuse all over their face. You have five hours to bring me a replacement to my warehouse. Got it!” Hannah gasped as she heard the words “Get rid of that woman. Leave no loose ends.”
          Teancom’s teeth began to grind as the situation unfolded. “I’ll go get my equipment.”
          Rubbing his forehead, Ron made an executive decision based on known protocol. “No, you won’t.”
          Teancom’s eyebrows rose as he turned to Ron. “What? Are you serious?”
          Ron sighed as he faced Teancom. “Look. We are under strict orders to keep a close eye on that bomb and let nothing distract us of that. Nothing.”
          Teancom threw his hands up in the air. “So, we’re going to just let her die!?”
          Ron’s tone rose to match Teancom. “I don’t like it any more than you do. Understand that we don’t know what kind of contacts these guys have. If that guy from the truck…”
          “Amir.” Eric interrupted.
          Ron rose an eyebrow as he looked at Eric. “What?”
          “The guy driving the truck. His name is Amir.” Eric replied.
          Ron’s eyes rolled back towards Teancom. “Ok, if Amir were to call the place where these two scumbags were supposed to pick up another girl and the place had no idea what Amir was talking about because we took their main contacts out, suspicions would rise, and we might lose our opportunity to find out more information as to the source of where this NUCLEAR DEVICE came from and who else might be involved. Who knows what else is out there.”
          “At the price of this woman’s life!” Teancom shouted.
          Again, Ron matched his tone. “One life for millions!”
          Teancom shook his head. “We can cover the variables if they happen. We can’t just watch that woman get executed!”
          Taking a deep breath, Ron lowered his tone. “We can’t risk it.” He placed his hand on Teancom’s shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “This is protocol. I’m sorry.” Turning away from Teancom, Ron walked over to Eric to find out what else he knew about Amir.
          Teancom closed his eyes in frustration. He couldn’t believe that they were going to do nothing. They could easily save her, yet they wouldn’t because it was more convenient for the sake of the mission. He opened his eyes as his thoughts continued to dwell on the situation. As he was about to turn away from the projection, he looked down where Hannah was sitting and noticed that she was staring at him with her eyebrows elevated and eyes wide open like a sad puppy begging for scraps. Her look pushed him over the edge. His face cringed as he settled on his decision as to what to do. Looking at Hannah, he nodded his head. Hannah grinned and turned back to her controls.
          Turning around, Teancom marched with haste to the back of the ship toward the equipment room. Ron noticed his destination and exclaimed, “Where do you think you’re going?”
          Teancom opened the door to the room. “I can’t watch that crap.” The door slid shut behind him.
          Looking toward the front of the ship, Ron noticed that the projection was focused on two men dragging the woman up the river to her ultimate demise. He put his head down for a moment, then focused his attention back on gathering data.
          In the equipment room, Teancom went to work. He grabbed a gravity belt (which looked like a plain leather belt with a small rectangular black buckle), a long sleave black shirt, gloves, combat glasses that looked like tightly fitting sunglasses with a thin strap, and a neck gaiter and held them up to his phone to sync them. Once synced, he put them on. With the neck gaiter over the bottom half of his face, he brushed his finger across the side of it. The gaiter hardened, creating a seal around his face. He did the same thing with the glasses and the strap tightened around his head. Lifting up his phone, he quickly messaged Hannah, “lock the targets with my glasses.” A few seconds later small red dashes appeared in his visual that led through the ship and down to where the two men next to the river were.
          Teancom walked over to a cabinet, unlocked it with his handprint, then opened the door. He quickly grabbed a rifle as well as a tablet that was in a hard pouch that was mounted on the inside wall of the cabinet. Holding the tablet up to the rifle, he scanned the gun then threw the strap attached to the weapon around his body, allowing it to hang on his back. Placing his right hand on the face of the tablet, he held it there until the words “Registered” appeared. After throwing the tablet onto the shelf of the cabinet, he grabbed a magazine that fit the gun. On the bottom of the magazine were the words “Lethal”, “Sleeper”, “Stun”, and “Tracker.” He hesitated. The temptation to set it on “Lethal” was great. Fighting the urge, he slid the switch to “Sleeper.” Swinging the rifle in front of him, he quickly inspected it. After inserting the magazine into the weapon, he pressed the bolt catch to chamber a round.
          He pulled up his phone again and chose “quick decent” with a slowdown elevation at twenty meters. The small rectangular belt buckle adjusted for the changes. It was his “gravity parachute.” After taking a deep breath, he charged out the door into the main room, rifle in hand. As he walked out, he could hear Ron exclaim, “Where do you think you’re going!” Ignoring his comment, Teancom went straight for the side of the ship. Placing his hand on the wall, a door slid open to expose the outside. Without hesitation he jumped out of the ship. As he fell, he looked over his shoulder. The bottom of the ship was completely camouflaged. It reflected the image of what was immediately above them, making it seem like it wasn’t there. All he could see was a shadow of a body banging his fist against the wall in the middle of a rectangular light. With a grin on his face, he looked down, turning his attention back towards the targets. Gripping his rifle with both hands, he straightened his body downward to reduce air friction for a quicker decent.
          The small dots quickly became larger and larger as he followed the path to them. He pulled his rifle forward and looked down the sights. As he hovered over a target, dots on his HUD turned from red to green. Because of the air resistance against him, it was hard for him to hold a target. He could quickly see the details of the situation. One of the men threw the girl to the ground. Just as he was about to jump on top of her, Teancom sprayed the area with several shots, hitting the two men as well as the girl. The men’s limp bodies fell to the earth. Teancom threw his feet in front of him just as his belt kicked in and quickly slowed his decent. As he hit the ground, he leaned forward and rolled to reduce the impact. He immediately jumped up and walked over to the three unconscious bodies, gun at the ready.
          As he was verifying their status, a large square platform with poles on each corner appeared behind him. Noticing it, he took a deep breath and started dragging the bodies onto the surface of the platform. As soon as he pulled the last one on, his surroundings twisted out of existence and was replaced with the sight of a room in the ship. He pressed the side of his neck gator, loosening it again, and pulled it down. He cringed as the stench of the two men hit his nostrils. Looking at the door that led to the main room of the ship, he knew what was waiting for him on the other side. He pulled off his glasses and walked toward the door.
          Before he could reach the door, it opened. Standing at the doorway was Ron. Before Teancom could say anything, Ron grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him into the main room. With one smooth motion, Ron Threw Teancom to the ground, disarming him of his rifle at the same time. “Do you understand what you just did! You jeopardized this whole mission! We have terrorists of an unknown origin that have access to nuclear weapons and are not afraid of using them! We can’t afford this crap!” Ron’s face went sideways as the stench of the men in the other room hit him. “And what is that smell!”
          Hannah stood up and was about to say something. Ron immediately noticed and pointed to her. “You are in the same boat he’s in! I told you to grab him with the ships beam and you didn’t do it!”
          Eric stood up at attention. “Actually, sir, it wasn’t Hannah’s fault. I disabled the beam and prevented her from using it.”
          Ron’s eyes widened. “You too!” He threw the rifle to the floor, then walked over to the closest workstation, slamming his hands on the counter as he leaned hard against it with closed eyes. After a brief moment, he slowly stood up straight. “You understand what this means for all of you if I were to report this, right?” He took a deep breath then looked at each of them. “Now we don’t have a choice on succeeding because if something goes wrong, I have no choice on including all details in the reports.” He looked over at Eric. “What’s the status on Amir?”
          Eric sat back down and gazed at his computer. “He pulled the truck into a warehouse. It looks like he took the little girl to the second floor, threw her in a room and went back downstairs.” After a of minute of staring intensely at the screen, he continued. “Yeah, it looks like he’s putting the pieces of the bomb together. As soon as it’s assembled, I’ll lock onto the detonator to block it. As of now, no cell activity as of yet.”
          “That’s just great.” Ron gave an ice stare towards Teancom, who was picking himself up off the floor. “If he hasn’t made the call yet, he definitely will when the replacement girl doesn’t show up. Maybe we should castrate you and throw you in a dress.”
          Hannah stood up again, stomping her foot as she did. “Excuse me! Am I not good enough?”
          Ron turned his attention to Hannah. “Really? When’s the last time you’ve had your boots on the ground? You’ve been in the pilot seat your whole career.”
          She returned Ron’s icy stare. “I’ve been trained just like everyone else. I’ll be fine.”
          Ron walked up close to her and stared her in the eyes. “Training is one thing. Being down there in real life is something else. This guy will not hesitate to abuse you and kill you, not necessarily in that order.”
          Hannah returned the stare. “We have equipment for that. I’m not afraid.”
          His eyebrows went down as his voice deepened. “It’s not just that. We need to get information from him. We need to complete the mission.”
Her eyebrows went up as her voice went higher. “So, you don’t trust me.”
          Teancom interrupted, “She’ll be fine. We’ll all have eyes on the situation, and she’ll be in communication with us if she needs it. Besides, we don’t have a choice. I look terrible in a dress.”
          Ron took a step back from Hannah as he turned toward Teancom. Almost cracking a smile, he rubbed his brow as he shook his head at the situation. “I swear it Teancom. I don’t know what to do with you.” He walked up to Teancom and shoved his finger into his chest. “This is all on you. You better not let anything happen.” Looking at Hannah, he motioned his head to go with Teancom. “Get her ready.” Closing is eyes in disgust, he walked over to Eric and joined him in observing the situation below.
          Teancom grabbed his gun that Ron threw on the floor, then went back into the back room with Hannah following. As soon as she stepped in, she closed the door. “You know, if you pushed yourself to get command of your own crew, you wouldn’t have to deal with that.”
          He looked at Hannah with a brow raised and pointed his finger at her. “Don’t start up with that again. You know I would be forced to make those bull crap calls. Situations like this is the reason I cringe to think of taking command. I would hate to hate myself.”
          Hannah started up again. “Maybe if…”
Before she could say anything else, Teancom interrupted. “Stop.” He took a deep breath, then proceeded to put his gun away. “Let’s get you ready to go.” Hannah smirked behind his back.
          They went to work pulling out thin transparent shock gloves, a tight body suit, a hat, and a wig and placed it on the table. Teancom grabbed the hat that resembled a plain grey baseball cap. “Put on the body suit and gloves. I’ll be right back.” He walked out of the room, across the main room, and into the room with the unconscious woman and smelly men, still laying on the platform. Lifting one of the men’s limp head, he scanned the man’s face with his phone, then held it up to his hat until the phone made a beeping sound.
          Scrolling through his contacts, he tapped his phone then held it up to his ear. “Hey, it’s me. I have a woman and two men that need to be transported out of here. The woman was a hostage and just needs to forget the last hour. The two men however need to be questioned and probed with extreme prejudice. Oh, and I’ll need a raggedy dress similar to what the woman is wearing in Hannah’s size as well as similar pants and shirt the men are wearing in my size asap. Thanks.” Hanging up the phone, he took a step back from the platform and waited. A few seconds later, the three bodies disappeared, along with the platform. After a couple of minutes, the platform returned with a grey, warn out dress as well as a pair of seemingly dirty jeans and shirt lying in the middle of the platform.
          Grabbing the clothes, Teancom walked out of the room and back over to the equipment room where Hannah was changing. Placing his hand on the door itself, he manually slid it just enough where he could fit his arm and the dress he was holding. On the other side of the door, Hannah grabbed the dress and shut the door after Teancom pulled his arm out of the way. After a minute, the door slid open and Hannah stepped out wearing the dress and the dark-haired wig while projecting a different face. Her body suit and gloves matched the pigment of her face and blended with her body as if she was not wearing it. In essence, she looked like a completely different person.
          Teancom looked her up and down, trying to spot any glitches. “Looks like you’re ready. Remember, although the jumpsuit acts like a gravity belt and will stop high velocity projectiles and knife attacks, it won’t slow you down if you fall from high distances.”
          Hannah smirked. “That’s comforting.”
          Returning the smile, Teancom continued. “Don’t worry, we’ll have you in our sights the whole time. Let me get your comms.” He quickly disappeared into the equipment room and came back holding a small round open container. Inside was a pair of brown contact lenses and a small dot. “Remember, the dot goes in your ear and the contacts aren’t only your eyes, they’re our eyes too, so be aware when, you know, going to the bathroom and stuff. Do you remember how to activate the keyboard?”
          Hannah took the container. While putting on the equipment, she replied, “It’s still a three second blink to activate and deactivate the virtual keyboard and one second to type the letter I’m looking at, right?”
          Ron turned around from looking at a screen over Eric’s shoulder. “Yes, it’s still the same. Eric, is the vehicle in place?”
          Eric turned and joined the conversation. “An old 2010 Honda Accord has just been dropped outside of the city, approximately thirty minutes away from your target. Keys are in the ignition.”
          With a sigh, Ron looked at Hannah. “It shouldn’t be like this. You shouldn’t have to be injected into this situation. I’m sorry that it turned out this way.”
          Shaking her head, Hannah replied, “I’m not. A woman is alive. That’s worth it. Teancom, is there anything else we need?”
          “I think you’re all set. Let me change and then we’ll head down.” Teancom walked to the back room and closed the door. A few moments later he came out dressed in the dirty jeans and shirt delivered to him earlier, fortunately without the smell. He looked at Hannah with an upward head nod. “You ready?”
          Hannah clenched her fists. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”
          With a smile, Teancom motioned his head in the direction of the room with the platform while putting on his hat. With a few taps on his phone, the hat changed its appearance to look like a worn-down Dodgers cap. A couple of taps more and his face changed into the face of the dirtbag he scanned. Opening the door, he stepped aside and motioned with his hand to go in. With a grin on her face, Hannah walked in the room and onto the platform with Teancom right behind her.
          With a distortion of the scenery, Hannah and Teancom were outside in the dark on a dirt road. Right beside the platform was the vehicle. Both of them walked off of the platform and got in the car with Teancom driving and Hannah in the passenger seat. As they pulled away the platform disappeared.
          After about a mile of driving on a dirt road, they reached the main highway that led to the city. Twenty minutes down the road, Teancom pulled over right outside of the main city. He pulled out his phone. Hannah tilted her head at Teancom’s actions. “What are you doing?”
          Tapping and swiping at his phone a few times, Teancom showed Hannah the screen. On it was a view of enhanced thermal imaging of the inside of the warehouse. They could see the profile of the little girl laying on a bed upstairs. Down below they could see her captor asleep on a couch. “Looks like they are both sleeping. Maybe we should wait a little while so as not to disturb him. That will only make him grumpy.”
          Hannah nodded her head in agreement. Her hands were clenched in fists as she unknowingly rocked back and forth. Teancom noticed and grinned. “Did I ever tell you about the story of my father before he was recruited?”
          She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
          “Well, back in the early 90’s my father just got out of the military and took a job delivering goods to local grocery stores in the Compton, Lynwood, South Gate area. At that time, it was a rough environment to work in to put it gently. He said he would see gang violence all the time. He would watch as people were gunned down because they were wearing the wrong colors. One day he was having a frustrating day from issues with deliveries plus bad traffic and other things. He was in his delivery truck with the passenger door slid open at a stop light. One of those gang members pulled up beside him and said, “I like your sunglasses. Give them to me.” My father had a nice pair of Ray-Bans on. He was pissed. He took them off and put them on the dash right in front of him and yelled, “You want them? Come and get them!” The gang member laughed, then pulled away without getting out of the car. My father always told me that story and would laugh instead of giving me a point as to why he told it to me. He always told it like it was the first time telling it to me.” Teancom laughed.
          Hannah wrinkled her nose. “You going to be like your father and just laugh too?”
          Shaking his head, Teancom smiled. “No, I think by now I know why he kept telling me that story. Bad guys and bullies will always do what they do when there is no consequence. In fact, it enables them to keep doing it. If my father would have given up his sunglasses, he would have been the new target for everyone in that guy’s gang. But he didn’t and they never bugged him again. A lot of times, bad guys and bullies are cowards. All it takes is a little resistance and they shift another direction. Those that aren’t cowards, well, strength definitely helps to deter their actions.”
          With a grin, Hannah replied, “I get it. Thanks. You know, you should lead your own team.”
          Teancom cringed at the thought. “Again, with this. Are you kidding me, especially after what just happened. To be expected to obey the nonsense protocols, even when it means sacrificing people’s lives. To sacrifice doing the right thing in order to keep my command. Like I said before, I would hate to hate myself.” Teancom propped his phone up on the dash as Hannah laughed. They sat and watched the screen.
          After a couple of hours, they both decided it was time to go. Teancom pulled the vehicle back on the road. Hannah was no longer clenching her fists or rocking as they traveled. They arrived at the warehouse ten minutes later and parked across the street.
          Teancom got out of the car and walked around to Hannah’s door. After opening the door, he gently grabbed Hannah’s arm as if he were forcing her to get out. Hannah took a deep breath, then played along. Pretending to struggle, she reluctantly got out. They walked side by side onto the property and up to the building’s door. Before they reached it, the door swung open. Amir was standing inside. He quickly grabbed Hannah’s arm and inspected her. Pulling her inside, he exclaimed, “She’ll do. Moneys in your account. Get out of here.” Amir slammed the door on Teancom.
          Quickly walking back to the car, Teancom tapped on his phone. “She’s in. Are you tracking her?”
          Eric answered on the other end. “We got her. Visuals are clear from her contacts and we have full audio. Come on back. I’ll have the platform waiting for you outside of the city. Sending coordinates now.”
          Jumping in the car, Teancom raced to the meet point where the platform was waiting. He jumped out of the car and onto the platform. Both him and the platform disappeared from the ground and reappeared back onto the ship above. He walked into the main room and joined Ron who was looking over Eric’s shoulder at the workstation.
          Eric looked up at Teancom. “Looks like everything is going to plan. Hannah just bathed the kid and they both changed into the clothes that Amir gave them. Her comms seems to be working.” Eric pointed to the message Hannah sent. “Poor little girl. This guy is a monster.”
          Teancom cringed at the sight of the bruises on the girl’s legs. “It’s a reminder as to why you are down there. Just keep your eyes open. And when you can’t, we got your back.”
          A message came back. “Thanks. I will.”
          They watched from above as the hours passed. All three of them stared at the screen as Amir loaded the girls into the truck and drove off. As they made their journey, both Ron and Eric went to the back to take a nap while Teancom continued to monitor the situation. When they came back to relieve him, he refused and continued to watch.
          It was dark when the truck finally pulled into an L.A. residential housing track. After they pulled onto a driveway Amir opened the garage to the house and got out of the vehicle. Hannah closed her eyes for three seconds. When she opened them, letters appeared like a keyboard in front of her. She focused in on an individual letter and blinked once. The letter appeared above the floating keyboard. She wrote, “We arrived.” To the right was the word “send.” She focused on it and blinked. The message disappeared. After closing her eyes for another three seconds, the letters disappeared. She heard Teancom in her ear. “Heads up. He’s getting back in the car and it looks like he’s holding a metal shaft that he pulled from the drawer. It looks like a silencer for a gun. Stay calm. The jump suit will protect you.”
          After getting in the truck, Amir pulled out his gun and screwed on the suppressor.
          Hannah’s eyes widened. “I thought you were going to let us go.”
          Amir gave her a cold glance. “I lied.” He motioned his head in the direction of the little girl in the back seat, now asleep. “She’ll make a nice personal pet for me.” Pointing the gun at Hannah he said, “As for you, no loose ends.”
          He pulled the trigger. A bullet exited the gun towards Hannah’s head. Just as the bullet was about to strike her forehead, the jumpsuit that Hannah was wearing kicked in and stopped the bullets progression. It spun in mid-air, then dropped on Hannah’s lap. Hannah looked at the now puzzled Amir with a devilish grin. Amir frantically pulled the trigger multiple times, emptying the magazine. Several bullets made their way to Hannah, all stopping short and dropping. Hannah grabbed the gun from Amir, who sat there with his jaw dropped. She smacked him on the side of his face with the grip of the gun. Holding up her hand, she made a hang loose sign with her pinky and thumb extended which activated the transparent shock gloves she was wearing. Punching Amir’s chest, a surge of energy flowed through his body causing him to pass out.
          With daggering eyes and a clenched jaw, Hannah looked at the dirt bag now passed out. Clenching her fist, she swung as hard as she could and punched his face. Pushing passed the pain in her hand, she struck him again. Ron’s voice sounded in her ear. “What was that?”
          Hannah pushed against his chest. “I slipped. Twice.” As she attempted to compose herself, Hannah glanced in the back seat to notice the little girl now awake and staring at her with wide eyes. Hannah made the hang loose sign with her hand again. “I’m so sorry sweety.” She touched the girls leg causing the girl to pass out as well. “The targets are out. Send a recovery crew to clean up.”
          Teancom’s voice echoed in her ear. “Great job Hannah. The bully has been deterred. Clean-up crews are on their way in both locations and we are coming to get you.”
          After taking a long deep breath, Hannah sat back and grinned.