Task force RED

The task force was like a family to me. I say that in the past tense because it’s no more. The task force was set up by the black Queen. My boss. She runs a crime syndicate that stretches to the farthest reaches of the world. She set up the task force as her personal hit squad but overtime it became something more. It became mine. It was like an inheritance of sorts. She put me in charge of the force and we carried out missions for her and for anyone who was willing to pay top dollar. I was proud of this responsibility because it solidified my belief in the idea that she was training me to take her place when she perished, and boy was I good at what I did. I handled that team so well that people started calling me the Red Queen and I was proud of the moniker because it was like that of my boss. The black Queen. It also bears mentioning that the boss was like a mother to me so it felt really good to be called something similar to her. Over the last ten years we had run successful missions all over the globe but all that changed on the second of July 2018. Before we met our untimely demise that day, we had recently taken in a new member-or recruit if we’re being technical-six months prior. We had rescued her from a sex trafficking gang and she had caught our eyes after she slaughtered one of her captors-emphasis on the word slaughtered-and we came to the conclusion that such talent could not go to waste, so we kept her and trained her. And she was impressive. Really impressive. We gave her the name Sheila seeing as she couldn’t remember her name prior to us finding her. She left a huge impression on the rest of us because she was the youngest and arguably the best.

Now the force had five major players or leaders as it may be. The total number of people in the force was 25 but without THE FIVE-as we were called-nothing could happen without our say. The five consisted of Smith (out weapons expert), Lin (our tech and computer guru), Amelia (our trainer and dare I say the deadliest), Castle (our strategy expert) and last but not the least I, the leader.

On July 2, we were executing a recent mission given to us by the black Queen. The mission was to take out a dictator in an African country who was causing trouble for her in some way that I wasn’t aware of. It wasn’t our business to know why she wanted him dead, it never was.

We managed to get into the country inconspicuously. We invaded his residence disguised as guests, waiters and whatnot. But all that changed when we all lost communication. No amount of training prepares you for the panic you feel in the field when things don’t go according to plan. But as I made my way around the residence in search of my team members I noticed that they weren’t in their various positions which could only mean one thing. They were dead. While my mind was trying to figure out what had gone wrong I had to force it to shut up and make a decision between running for my life and continuing with the mission. It decided for the latter. I made my way towards his private quarters. I never made it. I only remember blacking out. Castle was the one who had rescued me from the death that had awaited me. He later showed me evidence that Sheila was the one who set us up. Apparently she had been communicating with this dictator right from the get go. It wasn’t a mistake that we found her when and where we did. Castle had been suspicious for quite a while-he’s suspicious of everyone-and his suspicions had led him to discover that she was secretly communicating with this dictator all along. And his suspicions were what saved my life but unfortunately not that of my teammates. The dictator-yes it’s his moniker-was an enemy of the black Queen, and this was his move to try and get inside information on her operations and ultimately kill us when done. He didn’t succeed. I and Castle were the only ones to make it out alive. But we later discovered that only 21 members of task force RED were confirmed dead. We were 24 in number-excluding Sheila-so you do the math.

But all that happened two years ago. This is the present day and I’m currently in a restaurant in Germany. The restaurant has cameras which is good because it’ll be important for what’s about to happen. I’m in Germany because Sheila is in Germany and I’m here to kill her in the most magnificent and beautiful way possible. I order my food and wait. It’ll be five minutes before it happens. I count the time in my head and eat with the appropriate speed so I finish just in time. And then it happens. Sirens start ringing out on the streets as police cars and an armored van crowd the streets. Police men come out of the cars and have their guns aimed at me in the restaurant. The windows of the restaurant are top to bottom so they can see me just as well as I can see them. The armored van opens up and men in heavy duty gear pound their way out and make their way into the restaurant and surround the table I’m at aiming their rifles at me. As you can imagine every other person in the restaurant scrambles out except me and the only waitress on duty who has her hands up and looks as scared as she should be. The policemen don’t even acknowledge her existence and brush their way past her as they surrounded me. They made a big mistake in ignoring the waitress. While the men in heavy duty gear shout something at me in their language the waitress makes her way behind the counter, bends down to collect something and comes back up armed with an automatic machine gun and aims at the police outside the restaurant crouching behind their vehicles and opens fire. The waitress’s name is Amelia, she was our trainer and dare I say the deadliest of us. The men surrounding me are five in number. As soon as she opens fire they all turn around to see their colleagues being sprayed with bullets at which point I get up from my seat and dive for the one nearest to me. The other four divert their attention back to me as I scramble with one of them on the floor. He eventually manages to kick me away towards the table where I sat. At which point I flip the table over and jump behind for cover. They didn’t know how to react, they seemed confused as to focus on me or Amelia. But all that doesn’t matter as I remove the pins from the two grenades I managed to get off the police guy from our scramble and flick it towards the five of them from behind the table and shout “DIVE!!!!!!” just loud enough for Amelia to hear above the sound of her gunfire. The gunfire ceases just moments before a loud boom rocks the restaurant. I get slowly from behind the table. Amelia also rises from behind the counter and says “This had better work.” I knew what she meant.

All of this was simply a show for Sheila. I had been coming to this restaurant for over two weeks at exactly the same time of day everyday, so as to get Sheila’s attention. Castle had tapped into the city’s cameras and had noticed someone tailing me consecutively for the last three days and deduced that she’ll make a move today. We also knew she had booked a hotel room a few blocks from here under a false identity. We also knew she’d send mercenaries to kill us while she watched through the restaurant’s cameras. These cops we just killed were mercenaries, there weren’t any police dispatched in this area. So I dusted my clothes and replied her saying “Yes. It will. She’s too dumb not to try to run now.” Amelia nods in agreements and drops the machine gun on the floor. She’s not concerned about her fingerprints. Neither of us are, we don’t exist on any database. As we make our way out of the restaurant I step on the neck of one of the mercenaries who managed to survive and don’t move an inch until I’m sure he stops breathing before I take my foot off. Amelia smiles at me as we make our way out of the destroyed restaurant. We meet Castle on the sidewalk amidst the litter of dead bodies. He’s in a black coat, arms in the pocket looking a little cold as sirens ring in the distance. “It’s not long before she comes now.” He says as he hands me the trigger to the bomb. I take it from him and we wait on the sidewalk. We don’t wait long until we see her drive past us. It happens in slow motion. We all make eye contact with her as a look of shock crosses her face. I don’t wait for her to get too far before I press the trigger and see the car go up in flames, the heat reaches us where we are. We smile, pat each other on the back and head off in different directions. I walk for a while down the block before I hail a cab to take me to the airport. I get settled in for my flight and doze off.

It’s the best sleep I’ve had in two years.