Agent Kat

Chapter 16: Control Rooms

Lily jumped up and burst into the main control room, her pistol cocked and at the ready. There were shouts and gunshots. James cried out and leapt up to follow his wife. Leroy and Kat locked eyes and followed him.

Leroy and Kat followed James through the door, but as soon as they entered, a blast echoed through the room, and three inches away from Kat's head, a bullet cracked the glass. She screamed and nearly dropped her gun. Another blast sent a ringing sound through her head, and she saw James collapse in front of her, scarlet red blooming across his white dress shirt, right on his gut. 

Seeing him fall in front of her, Lily, who had been hiding under a desk the whole time, whispered, "No..."

She jumped up, leaping across the desk and shooting at their attacker, hitting him square in the chest. But as he fell, the man used his last dying breath to take one last shot at them. 

Leroy, who was practically glued to his spot, just watched as the bullet slammed into Lily's chest, right into her sternum. As she fell, right next to her husband, who was already gone, she said, "Run." The light died from her eyes and her body went rigid, then limp.

Kat clamped her hand on her mouth and let out a short, high-pitched scream. Nothing like this had ever happened to her. She had never seen a body, never seen anyone die, and especially never seen anyone die for her, being what she was. It felt like her heart was cracked beyond repair, her mind stained with the blood of her allies.

Her entire body went rigid; so rigid they felt like they would snap at any given moment. It hurt. Not a physical hurt, but a different kind of pain. Even though she hadn't known them for more than half an hour, she still felt that pang of loss, the deep ache that spreads through someone's chest when they realize that the person they were mourning would never blink again; would never breath, would never speak words of wisdom and love again. Crying out again, she fell to her knees and wept, holding herself as she shook. 

Leroy, who had seen enough death to last a lifetime, was still frozen, just watched as the shooter went limp as well. He looked over at Kat finally. While he wanted to stay and at least thank the two people that had saved them, he knew they had to go. "Kat... Kat, we have to keep going."

She shook her head. "They--they--" she said between hiccupping sobs. Hot tears started to fall down her cheeks in rivers, harder and faster than before. "Why--We--didn't even--know them..."

"Kat," he said firmly. "I know, but we have to keep going. We'll come back, I promise." She faced him, her eyes red and beginning to go puffy. Leroy finally got his feet to move. Walking forward stiffly, he picked up the gun from Lily's hand. 

Shuddering, Kat whispered, "I can't do this. Not if it means people will lose their lives for me."

"You don't have a choice. You're one of us now." Leroy's bright blue eyes held a world of understanding, but also a stubborn edge, like he wasn't going to let Kat stay there and mourn. 

Taking a deep shaky breath, she nodded. "Fine. Where... Where to next?"

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"What's the difference between the control room and the main control room," Kat asked, all the shaking and shuddering gone. "I mean, Nova and Freya said they heard something in the control room, but here we are in the main control room. There must be a difference of some kind."

Leroy nodded, tapping the keys on a keyboard. "Yeah. The control room Nova and Freya were talking about was the security control room. It held all the screens for all of the cameras situated around the helicarrier. And let me tell you, there are a lot. They capture everything. Every movement. Maybe that's why the lights went out earlier. So the cameras wouldn't catch them disabling everything."

"And what about this control room?"

Turning the screen attatched to his keyboard, Leroy showed Kat a 3D diagram of the helicarrier. "The main control room controls everything. Lights, security, flight, music... Don't ask," he added. 

She nodded. "Cool. So, what are we doing here?"

Taking a breath, Leroy said, "Well, I believe the original plan was to apprehend the baddies, but... Lily seemed to have taken care of that. I don't think there's just one though. So, what I'm doing, is accessing all the cameras in the helicarrier and turning them back on. That way, we can see where the rest of them are."

Kat's breathing hitched. "So, the cameras capture... everything?" she asked, thinking about her late night crusade. 

"That's right. And they're powered by the spinning of the turbines, so as long as we're up in the air, they'll keep taping." Leroy smiled at her. "Don't worry. You're totally safe. Nothing gets past our security."

"Except for the people who managed to drug something at the ball, and snuck into the control room, and turned off all our security--"

He cut her off. "Okay, okay, I get it." He tapped some more keys, and a large list of seemingly-random numbers and letters. "Um... They put up a firewall. It'll take me a sec to hack through it."

"What are you, a computer genius?" Kat joked. 

He shrugged. "Maybe... I don't really know. I've just always been good with computers. Are you?"

Shaking her head vigourously, she said, "No. I've never touched a computer before, and I'm certain I would break or crash it before it even turned on."

Leroy laughed, his carrot-orange hair shaking. He continuted typing for a little bit then nodded. "Okay, the cameras are back up. Let's see who's infiltrated SHIELD this time..."

"Wait, so this has happened before?" Kat exclaimed. "This isn't the first time this has happened?"

Laughing again, he shook his head. "Of course. Not."

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Dear readers,

The picture is of Leroy's eye. Just saying...

-flygirl1