The Game Is On: Chapter 1, Scene 1

“Every woman should know how to kill with the first shot,” Michelle Blackstone heard from behind her. She ignored the wisecrack, remaining focused on the dark and dreary maze of hallways before her. Her heart raced frantically and her palms grew slick with sweat as she leveled her weapon, fired another round, and watched the dying man slump to the floor in a pool of blood. Once Michelle was certain her target was no longer a threat, she reached over, pulled a silver security card from the dead man’s shirt, and tucked it in her pocket. Piece of cake, she muttered to herself.

Stealthily, Michelle inched forward, keeping her slender body pressed against the black textured cement wall. When she finally reached the next hallway, she saw another pair of bulky camouflage-clad men striding toward her. Two well-aimed shots from her silenced pistol stopped them in their tracks.

The sound of a bullet hitting concrete caused Michelle to spin around and look behind her. Intense blue eyes focused on their mark, she fired, sending the guard to the floor like a floppy rag doll. She watched intently as a stream of deep red blood oozed out of the hole her weapon made in his uniformed chest. She could almost smell the hot, coppery scent of his blood. Bond. Jayne Bond, she joked inwardly.

Before she could turn around and continue her journey down the dingy hallway, another shot hit, pocking the concrete floor behind her. A quick glance in the direction of the shot’s origin revealed the head of another guard peeking out from a side corridor. Michelle pulled the trigger, fully expecting this guard to meet his demise as well. Instead, the gun simply went ‘click’.

“Damn!” she cursed aloud. Her gun was out of ammo. Michelle needed to reload the weapon, and quick! With a flick of her wrist, the gun was ready to shoot again. Good thing, too, because another guard’s head popped out of nowhere a few seconds later. Feeling confident once again, Michelle pulled the trigger. The man’s head exploded with a surprising amount of blood and gore, most of which was splattered all over the wall behind him. His collapsing body smeared the blood down the wall as he sank to the floor. Surprisingly, Michelle didn’t feel the least bit squeamish about the bloody carnage before her.

She sensed rather than felt the pair of hands reaching for her from behind. Twirling around, she managed to kick both guards under their chins, sending them down for the count, possibly permanently. She wasn’t going to wait around to find out though. Michelle scolded herself for not reacting quicker to the situation, as hand-to-hand combat was one of the quickest ways to get killed on a mission like this.

Five more guards met their maker as Michelle worked her way down the blood splattered hallway. Finally, she reached the end of the corridor where a security door blocked her way. She pulled the security card she had taken from first dead guard out of her pocket and inserted it into the narrow slot. A loud click echoed throughout the hallway, and the door slid open with a mechanical whir. Michelle made her way through the doorway, keeping a watchful eye out for more guards. They never came.

Instead, the room was completely empty except for the diabolical machine in center of the room. A metallic voice was counting. Thirty... Twenty-nine... Twenty-eight... Prominent on the control panel was a flashing red button, labeled stop. Next to it was a much smaller button with a neon green glow. Its label said simply, go.

Michelle hesitated and then felt her mother’s hand rest on her shoulder. Eight... Seven... Six... Finally she pressed the green button as the voice said two. The countdown stopped and the computer screen flashed, “Mission Accomplished. Your rating is Omega Master Agent.” That made the third time Michelle had saved the world that morning.

Michelle turned away from the computer screen to face her mother. “See?” She gestured back toward the monitor. “I told you it was too easy.”