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Chapter III

Agent Shield had never experienced a moment without the knowledge that he was special. Never doubted for one second that he was destined for something great. Never doubted that he was meant to change the world.

            Until now.

            The Hungarian Demtak Mine blinked silently on the table, marking the passage from his short pointless life to the longer eternity of his defeat.

            Agent Shield slowly took his left hand in his right and put pressure on his ring finger. The specially crafted brace snapped the bone along its old break and Agent Shield gritted his teeth. At least he could depend on some things.

            The force bubble was extremely subtle in appearance. The human eye did not want to see it, worked hard at denying it, only picking up its faint blue outline in transit. But it existence was irrefutable. If the bomb exploded now, Shield was confident he could contain the blast. The problem was the mine was remotely controlled. There was no way to determine when the bomb would explode, so he was at the mercy of the man controlling the detonator. For the time being he was safe but for various reasons he couldn’t just wait around. Lugging around the force bubble for the rest of the night was also a non-starter. Whatever was going on, he would need his mobility and at least two hands to deal with those responsible.

            He did not have the power to manipulate anything inside the force bubble, which was unfortunate. It would be nice to somehow reach inside the casing of the Demtak Mine and disable it. He could adjust the size of the bubble which gave him an idea. Not an idea he could exercise here, but a solid and workable plan. He needed space first, open air.

            The front entrances would be guarded, but the roof might work.

            He grabbed either side of his force bubble with the specially designed magnetic tips of his gloves and left the room with it. The noise from above had subsided, but not entirely vanished. He kept to the stairwells, especially after spotting his first AC operative. Clad entirely in yellow, each foot soldier wore a gas mask on their face and a pair of antennae mounted on either side of their heads. Something was off though. Generally an AC action squad would be composed of one or two henchman and a human controller. As far as anyone knew, the henchmen were like the Demtak mines, controlled remotely by radio. But these henchmen were actively searching each room with a calm methodical grace. He saw no sign of radio control. Another observation for his report.

            Shield reached the roof and tossed the bubble enclosed mine far into the air. Which, with frictionless, inertia-less objects, proved to be quite some distance. Watching it arc far into the night sky, he sought the knot of pain and trauma feeding the bubble’s existence. He breathed deep, visualizing the knot slowly slip, unraveling. Far above came a purple flash and satisfying pop to mark the mine’s destruction.


            Rubbing his temples to ward off a burgeoning migraine, he made his way back downstairs. Tonight’s escapade had been a set-up from the word go. He wanted to know who wanted him dead.

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