The Bait

Agent Alexa Sharp knew that both time and many opponents were against her. She snuck down the hallway, ever wary of cameras, trip-lasers, and wandering guards. The former two had all been disabled by Reshma in the captured server room, but still, one couldn’t be too careful if one didn’t want to be dead. The latter threat presented a bigger problem, as any guards encountered would have to be subdued before they alerted more of their fellows.

Rounding a corner after carefully checking the way beyond it, Alexa found the door she had been looking for. A series of symbols on its steel, windowless front matched those that she had learned meant laboratory.

She took a small matte-black device off her belt (which was also black, along with her entire bodysuit, gloves, boots, and, coincidentally, her ponytailed hair) and held it before the door’s electronic lock. Pinpoints of muted light ran across the device’s surface for a few seconds, and then with a click that was loud enough to make her wince, the lock unbolted.

Alexa returned the device to her belt and drew a mini-taser. With it, she could stun up to four targets in rapid succession. If five or more people waited in the lab, she would have a fight on her hands. And if they had guns, it would be a messy fight. She drew in a deep breath, held it for a beat, and then pushed open the weighted door.

It looked like no lab she had ever seen. Smaller than a child’s bedroom, the room had plush carpeting beneath paneled walls and a ceiling full of recessed lights that put out barely a nightclub’s level of illumination. It contained only one significant furnishing: a padded examination table. A woman lay on the table, her head elevated slightly by a wedge shaped pillow. No one and nothing else occupied the room.

Expelling the breath she was still holding, Alexa shut the door and used the electronic key from her belt to relock it. Then she turned her attention back to the prone woman. She wanted to tell Reshma that she had found their quarry, but radio silence had been agreed upon for as long as they remained in enemy territory. So instead, she assessed the woman.

Wearing only a hospital-type gown, the woman lay completely still, with her eyes closed. She was slender and long-limbed, with blonde hair, fair complexion, and a pretty face. If not for the presence of several restraints and a strange headband on her, she would have looked like she was simply taking a nap.

Fabric bands comprised the restraints, and they stretched across her shoulders, forearms, thighs, and shins. The headband did not appear to be a restraint, per se, although two wires on either side attached it to the table above the wedge pillow. Circuits ran along the band, and at regular intervals, micro-electrodes connected it to the woman’s scalp.

Alexa knew that the woman’s name was Marie Burns. She didn’t know what the headband was for, and she cared only to the point that it affected her retrieving the woman and getting out of there.

“Marie?” Alexa called out in a firm but quiet voice. “Marie? Can you hear me?”

There was no response. With a sigh, Alexa bent over the headband, looking for a way to disconnect it, preferably without damaging Marie. After several seconds of probing it, she heard a hollow click. She pulled her hands back reflexively and watched as the band separated and then moved up and off Marie’s head.

Very quickly, Marie began to stir. Alexa called out to her again. This time, the captive woman opened her eyes. Slowly, she focused on Alexa.

“Hello, Marie. My name is Alexa Sharp. I’m an agent of DAGGER. I’m here to take you home.”

“Where am I?”

“You’re in a WEB base. You were held captive and possibly experimented on. But you’re all right now. I just need to cut you free, and then I’ll get you out of here.”

Marie looked down at her body and the straps that covered it. She tried to move, but couldn’t.

“It’s okay,” Alexa told her. “Just give me a moment.”

“I...I remember when they brought me in here. I think...there was something they pressed or flipped under the table. Near here.”

She wiggled the toes of her right foot. Alexa moved to that end of the table and knelt down to view the underside of it. Sure enough, she spotted a switch. Once again, she used the electronic key. Seconds later, the restraints unhooked and slid noiselessly into their housings within the table. Marie sighed in relief.

“Oh, thank you, Agent Sharp.” said Marie, sitting up and swinging her legs over the table edge.

“Easy, easy. Take it slow.”

“Do we have time for me to take it slow?”

“No, not really. But we also don’t have time for you to faint or collapse. So we’ll go with slow for now, okay?”

“Okay.”

Marie slowly eased herself down from the table. She stood, leaning against it, with Alexa lightly gripping her arm.

“Do you know what happened?” Alexa asked. “What they were doing to you?”

An odd look flashed momentarily over Marie’s face.

“Why yes, Agent Sharp, I do know.”

She raised her right hand and displayed it to Alexa, palm out. A flesh-colored ring encircled her middle finger, just barely noticeable for its tint.

“What--” Alexa started to say.

Without warning, a tiny blue spark flared on the ring. Then suddenly, the electronic key and mini-taser on Alexa’s belt shorted out. Before she could react, Marie grabbed her with the other hand, on which a similarly camouflaged ring was hidden. Upon contact with the agent, that ring sparked, as well.

Alexa gasped, jerked violently for an instant, and then stood frozen.

“I’m sorry if that hurt, Agent Sharp. It stung a bit when they used it on me. But don’t worry, the paralysis isn’t permanent. As you can see, I can move just fine. Here, let me get you situated.”

With no sense of urgency, Marie removed Alexa’s belt and dropped it onto the carpet. Then she pulled off the agent’s gloves and let them fall the same way.

“For the rest, I think it’ll be easier if you’re on the table. And that’s where I need to put you, anyway. So up you go.”

It took some maneuvering, but finally Marie placed Alexa onto the table, positioning the unmoving agent exactly as she had been just moments before. She then pulled off Alexa’s boots, stripped off her stockings, and began looking for fasteners for her bodysuit.

Alexa groaned. Her eyes fluttered, and her toes twitched.

“Oh, too bad. I don’t have time to strip you bare before the paralysis ends.”

Marie flicked at the ring on her right hand with her thumb. Soundlessly, the table’s restraints eased out and over Alexa’s body, then pulled taut. By the time they were in place, Alexa could  move her hands, feet, and head.

“Just in time,” Marie said with a smile.

She flicked the ring again, and the headband came forward and together to rest around Alexa’s skull. The micro-electrodes extended to her scalp, their touch causing her a momentary spasm.

“It looks like we’re all set now. So let’s get started.”

Alexa, now fully mobile again, strained and fought against the fabric bands that held her. As expected, they did not give way.

“Marie, you have to stop this,” she said. “You need to let me go. We have to get you out of here.”

“No, no, and no. We’re going to stay right where we are. I need you to tell me some things.”

“Marie, please, you have to--”

At a touch of her thumb, Marie’s ring sparked again. Then tiny charges passed between the headband’s electrodes and Alexa’s head. Alexa stopped in mid-sentence. Her jaw went slack and her eyes opened wide.

“Agent Sharp, please tell me who else from DAGGER is here at WEB with you.”

Alexa found herself compelled to answer. She fought with all her will to keep the words from leaving her mouth, but she heard herself say them anyway.

“Agent...Reshma Varma...is here.”

“Where is she?”

“In the server room...on level four.”

“What is she doing there?”

“Disabling...WEB’s security...and surveillance..”

“Thank you, Agent Sharp. That was very helpful.”

Marie flicked the ring again, and suddenly Alexa regained control of herself.

“Marie, you’ve just put a good woman into extreme danger! You need to let me warn her.”

“Please be quiet, Agent Sharp, or I’ll make it so you can’t talk.”

Alexa saw Marie’s thumb hover over the ring and thought better of continuing to argue.

“That’s better,” Marie said. “Now, I understand that you want to help your friend. But I’m not finished with you yet. Don’t worry. In a little while, you’ll see her again. And you’ll find that she’s fine, just like I am, and just like you’ll soon be.”

“You’re not fine, Marie. WEB did something to you. They brainwashed you. They--”

“I’m fine, Agent Sharp. You’ll see. Very soon now, you’ll see.”

Marie flicked the ring again. As Alexa braced herself, the headband delivered intermittent surges of electricity to her temples and forehead. The shocks didn’t hurt, and in fact they felt more like tickling itches. But each one broke her concentration and made it difficult to think. Over the next minute, her thoughts grew more and more befuddled, and her hold on consciousness became more and more tenuous.

Then, a warm drowsy feeling overcame her. She saw Marie smiling down at her and heard a soothing voice.

“Yes, yes, Agent Sharp. It will all be fine now. You, Agent Varma, and I will be just fine.”

And then Agent Alexa Sharp of DAGGER heard nothing more, as she descended into a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * * * *

“Alexa! Alexa, wake up!”

“Uhhh...Reshma...is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me. I’m going to get these straps off of you, and then we’re getting out of here.”

“There’s a switch under the table, down by my right foot.”

“There, got it. All you all right?”

“Oh, yes, I’m fine. Just fine.”

“Are you sure, Alexa? When I found you a minute ago, you were out cold with that weird thing on your head.”

“It’s okay. I really do feel fine. And soon, you’ll feel fine, too. Here, let me help you.”

“What? No! Nooo….”