Haven- Agent 51 Read online

  Haven Histories: Agent 51

  Published by Ebook Assets

  Copyright © 2016 by D.C. Akers

  All Rights Reserved

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  http://dc-akers.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Other Books by D.C. Akers

  Chapter 1

  The night was calm and the humidity stifling as two men slowly emerged from the eerie, black ocean. Their boots sank in the sand as they moved swiftly up the beachhead and into the dense forest of the island of Daraca, located just thirty miles beyond the borders of the Dark Lands.

  Hiding in the brush, Rylan Dalcome and his teammate, Zeek Na’Gear surveyed the area.

  “I can’t see a thing,” Zeek said into his com and adjusted his goggles. The nocturnal lenses were doing their job; there just wasn’t anyone there.

  “Something’s not right,” Rylan said.

  Zeek looked over at him. “What’s not right?”

  “I don’t know, it just feels wrong. It’s too … quiet,” Rylan said and pulled his goggles up so that they rested on his forehead.

  Rylan removed his staff, Talus, from his back where it was strapped over his exo-armor. He gripped the staff just beneath the three prongs that held the circular gemstone in place. The purple stone did not illuminate, sensing Rylan’s need to remain hidden within the jungle. With his other hand he reached for the nearby tree. Rylan closed his eyes in concentration. Immediately a network of roots throughout the jungle was clearly visible in his mind. The vision mapped out a small section of the island, as well as the thermal signatures of all life nearby. The number of life forms was staggering, and Rylan had to focus in order to narrow down the signatures to only diagonal walkers. There were only two signatures that fit this description, and they were several clicks away. Rylan released the image and quickly stowed Talus behind his back again.

  “Well?” Zeek asked impatiently. “Anything?”

  Rylan frowned in disappointment; apparently Zeek had been staring at him the entire time when he should have been scouting the area. Rylan glanced over at Zeek and pulled his goggles back down. Zeek looked completely white against the gray luminescent background of the nocturnal goggles.

  “I see two insurgents above ground to the south,” Rylan said and looked down and press the com button on his gauntlet he wore around his forearm.

  “Bane Squadron, this is Shadow team. We have reached the beachhead,” he said quietly into the com. There was a moment of silence before someone replied.

  “Confirmed, Shadow team. Be advised we’ve picked up several anti-air cannons to the north of your position. You’re not alone down there.”

  “Confirmed,” Rylan replied. “Shadow team out.”

  Zeek moved closer to Rylan and nudged him on the shoulder. “Hey, I guess those feelings of yours were right. Sounds like there is a lot more going on here than the Majesty thought.”

  “It’s looking that way,” Rylan said. “I’m thinking the Saber was shot down.” Less than two days ago the Majesty lost contact with one of its stealth aircrafts, a Saber 127, over the west side of the peninsula. Its mission was to capture high altitude imagery and look for ground movement.

  “Yeah, me too,” Zeek said. “Looks like we might be fighting our way in and out.”

  Rylan did not like the sound of that. That was not what he had envisioned for his first team mission. Zeek was in the wrong mindset, he thought. He needed to be thinking stealth, not combat. Rylan would fight if he had to, but that needed to be a last resort. This was, first and foremost, an extraction mission. They were to get in, hopefully undetected, retrieve the pilot, and get out. But it sounded like his partner had other plans.

  He was used to having his Master Keeper at his side, but Demetrius Lore had been assigned as the lead Keeper in his own rescue mission in the Goblin city of Ashkatar. Top Realm officials had fallen under attack from the Tora, a radical band of Hobgoblins, while negotiating a new zone treaty. So here he was, his first mission as lead Keeper, and he had been stuck with Zeek. To make things worse, they’d had very little intel at the time of deployment. It was unclear who had captured the pilot. The image and audio from the cockpit suggested random insurgents, but since the ship was downed in the Dark Lands, it was most likely Cyrus Kan’s soldiers who had grabbed the pilot.

  Rylan motioned to Zeek and then pointed to the tree tops. Zeek acknowledged, placing his hand on the nearest tree. Several tall branches began moving, lowering themselves to the ground. Zeek took hold of the nearest branch and was quickly swept away into the darkness. Rylan turned and continued to advance through the forest. Within minutes he had reached their destination.

  “Ry, I see them,” Zeek said, his voice sterile as it echoed in Rylan’s earpiece.

  Rylan peered through the brush. The camp was small and desolate. Best of all, he had been right—there were only two insurgents standing guard.

  “I see two. You?” Rylan whispered.

  “Confirmed, there are two insurgents,” Zeek said.

  Rylan looked on as the two guards moved from the shadows into the light of a campfire. The flames roared and the embers glowed, expelling red ash into the muggy night air. Rylan wrinkled his nose at the rancid odor wafting toward him.

  “Zeek, do you smell that?” Rylan asked.

  There was a second or two before Zeek responded. “Yeah, I do.”

  “What is it?” Rylan asked.

  “To be honest, I thought it was you,” Zeek replied, and then snickered into his headset.

  Rylan didn’t laugh. He wondered if this guy took anything seriously. “Stay focused,” he said through gritted teeth and shook his head. Fresh out of the academy and already Zeek was cocky. Demetrius had warned Rylan that Zeek was a wild card. He was good, but he liked to play by his own rules. Rules that had gotten him in trouble once or twice before.

  “Hey!” Zeek said, “I am focused. I don’t see you hanging from a tree.”

  Rylan looked to the trees above the cave entrance. There, in the darkness, hanging upside down with his arms and legs wrapped around a thick branch, was Zeek.

  “The smell is coming from the pile of severed limbs on the other side of the campfire,” Zeek said.

  Rylan felt his stomach tighten. He was almost afraid to ask, “Is it the pilot?”

  “Nope, not human,” Zeek said, “Too much fur.”

  Rylan let out a sigh of relief. He wanted to find this pilot, and he wanted to find him alive. Sure, it was his first mission, and he wanted to be successful, but this was more than that. This was about a man who was being held as a prisoner. A soldier of the Majesty, who was probably scared and alone. Time was of
the essence, and it was slipping away. They needed to get moving, but first things first; they needed to eliminate the guards.

  “Stay sharp, one of the guards is moving your way,” Rylan said.

  The militants wore heavy armor, helmets, and carried Witch-grade caster rifles that were banned by the Majesty years ago.

  “I hate this damn place,” one of the guards grunted as he stepped around the campfire. He stopped just a few feet from Rylan’s position. “It’s creepy! This whole island is creepy.”

  “Well, get over it,” the other guard said, “You get paid to kill, not think.”

  The first guard mumbled something under his breath and moved to the outer perimeter of the camp. Rylan followed him, stepping carefully through the brush and tall trees. At the same time, Zeek slowly positioned himself above the other soldier, who began adjusting the sights on his rifle.

  Gradually, Zeek untangled his legs from the branch and slowly lowered them down. He had moved to within inches from the guard when the man looked up. Before the guard could speak, Zeek locked his legs around his neck and twisted. The cervical vertebrae cracked with an audible SNAP, and the guard fell limp. Zeek gently released his grip on the soldier, letting him fall quietly to the ground.

  Rylan stared in surprise. The technique alone required extreme strength and a strong knowledge of grappling fundamentals. But to do it with your legs, hanging from a tree, well … that was impressive.

  Rylan turn to the guard closest to him, and slowly removed Talus from his back. The staff began to vibrate, sensing the danger at hand.

  “Easy, Talus, I see him,” Rylan said.

  The soldier moved closer to the edge of the brush line and peered between two trees. He raised the small communication device that was attached to his wrist and spoke into it.

  “Tech One to Tech Four,” he said. “Tech One to Tech Four,” he repeated in frustration. “Where the hell are they?” he grunted.

  Rylan stood silently, barely breathing. He was careful not to move as the guard stepped closer. Talus stopped vibrating, but Rylan could feel the power surging through his staff. Zeek watched from afar, frozen among the branches, careful not to give his position away. Rylan’s gaze moved from the guard to the thick vines that hung above him in the tree tops. As Rylan called on the element of Earth, the vines began to move. They slowly glided and twisted their way through the leaves and branches toward their prey.

  “This is Tech Four,” a voice finally said from the soldier’s com.

  The guard looked back down at his device and pressed the button to speak.

  “This is Tech One, checking in, we’re all clear here,” he said.

  “Status confirmed, Tech One, all clear.”

  The guard lowered his arm and shook his head. “Useless,” he muttered. He reached for a pair of land goggles strapped to his belt and began scanning the shore line.

  This was it, Rylan could almost hear Demetrius’s voice saying, as he had so many times before. Distractions create opportunities. And here it was, an opportunity. If he was going to strike, this was the time to do it.

  The vines slithered into view through the branches. Rylan concentrated, focusing as they inched closer to the guard’s helmet near his neckline.

  The guard turned to the right, adjusting the lens on his goggles, and Rylan froze. The vines abruptly stopped moving. His hand tightened around Talus, and his heart began to race. He was so close, he wanted to strike now, but the vines were still just out of reach.

  Slowly, the guard panned to the left, and Rylan quickly clenched his fist. The vines sprang from the branches and latched around the guard’s neck. Rylan jerked his fist up, and the guard was hoisted into the air and out of sight. The tree branches rustled, and leaves fell as the man gasped for air, but there was no use. The guard was incapable of freeing himself. Rylan’s hand shook with force as he stared into the treetops. He could feel the pressure he was placing around the soldier’s neck through the vines. Rylan squeezed tighter until he heard the soldier’s final gasp. Talus stopped vibrating, and the guard hung motionless from the treetops.

  Zeek jumped to the ground, withdrew his staff and stepped into the firelight. “Well done, Dalcome.”

  Rylan continued to stare into the treetops as the last of the leaves floated to the ground. He took no pleasure in taking someone’s life. Unfortunately, it came with the job, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He was sure that if the tables were turned and the guard had seen him first, he would have no hesitation in putting a bullet in Rylan’s head. But as luck would have it, Rylan had taken advantage of the opportunity as he’d been taught to do.

  Rylan emerged through the trees, and together the two Keepers entered the cave. Every few feet a small green Kamber stone was lodged in the wall, illuminating the tunnel entrance. Although it was still dim, there was enough light to see anyone approaching. Rylan and Zeek removed their goggles and stowed them away. Kamber stones were notorious for interfering with nocturnal lenses, making it difficult to see clearly. Rylan scrutinized the tunnel walls, noticing how smooth they seemed, not jagged and rough like one would expect in a cave.

  “I wonder how long this facility has been around,” he said.

  “I don’t know, but surely the Majesty would have spotted the heavy machinery needed to accomplish such a feat, especially with all the aerial surveillance we’ve done in this region,” Zeek replied.

  “Unless …” Rylan slowed his pace until he came to a complete stop. He placed his hand on the wall and moved it over the smooth surface. “Unless the compound was here before the reconnaissance missions began, in which case, it could be heavily fortified by now,” he said.

  “That’s not good,” Zeek muttered. “What if it isn’t Cyrus Kan’s compound at all, what if it was some, I don’t know, some new band of rebels we have never encountered before?”

  Rylan removed his hand from the wall and stepped back. This was becoming more alarming by the second, and there was something else troubling him. He looked down at his gauntlet.

  “Do you feel that?” he asked.

  Zeek stepped closer to Rylan. “Feel what?”

  Rylan looked around the tunnel and then back to his gauntlet to make sure the readings were correct. “The temperature. It’s rising.”

  Zeek look down at his gauntlet. “That can’t be right. It should be getting colder the farther we descend.” He looked back up at Rylan. “How is that possible?” Rylan could hear the concern in his voice.

  He turned and looked down the tunnel. “I’m not sure. Could be generators. Maybe the compound is more advanced than we thought.”

  “Maybe. But we’ll never know standing around here talking about it. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have all this great intel to go on,” Zeek jabbed.

  Rylan looked over at Zeek in frustration. “Look, having poor intel is no joking matter. It’s dangerous. We have no idea what we are walking into!” he said.

  “Who’s joking?” Zeek shrugged. “Besides, I got your back, Dalcome. I won’t let them hurt you,” he said, smugly.

  Rylan bit his lip. Demetrius had been right about this guy. He was a wild card. He was talented, but his ego was a problem, the kind of problem that could get you killed if you weren’t careful.

  Rylan turned and began walking down the tunnel again. “Stay close.”

  “Yes, sir,” Zeek said.

  Chapter 2

  As Shadow team advanced through the tunnels, Rylan held Talus firmly and began to sweep the cave for elements. He could sense the water below the surface, but it was minimal at best. To call on water would result in a wet floor, but nothing more. Earth was clearly apparent as he gazed at the stone walls. There was no vegetation in the cavern tunnel, so that left him two Earth options—gravity and the rock itself. But to move the stone would be dangerous; it might cause a cave-in. Gravity, on the other hand, could be quite powerful. Air was always an option too, although in the confines of the cavern there was not a lot of air to w
ork with. They would have to rely on stealth and the element of surprise if they were going to rescue the pilot and make it out of there alive.

  Zeek led the way down the passageway with Rylan close behind. Several feet in front of them was an opening to a much larger area. Zeek slowed his pace as Rylan moved alongside him. Together they stood in the tunnel, staring at the dark void in front of them.

  “The heat source is close,” Rylan said.

  Zeek looked at his gauntlet. “It’s below us, over … there.” He pointed to the end of the shaft. Rylan squinted to see past the tunnel because the Kamber stones that had been placed along the walls stopped just short of the chamber.

  “I think I see something,” Rylan said.

  “What?” Zeek said, staring harder into the passageway.

  “There.” Rylan pointed. “Near the back of the room, I think I see …”

  Together they slid their goggles down over their eyes, and immediately the room came into view. It looked like a thin set of spiral stairs in the far corner of the room. Rylan had expected the room to look more like the rest of the cavern, but instead the floor was made of large cobblestones.

  “I wonder where that leads,” Zeek said.

  Rylan surveyed the room. From where he stood it looked completely empty.

  “I’m … not sure,” he replied, “but we’re about to find out.”

  “Should we try and trek it from here, maybe map out the surroundings?” Zeek asked.

  Trekking had worked above ground because of the network of tree roots, but it would not be as easy down here.

  “No use,” Rylan said, “I sensed nothing organic within the walls.”

  Zeek looked over at Rylan, “I didn’t sense anything either, but I was hoping it was just me.”

  Rylan’s elemental push was more powerful than Zeek’s, and Zeek knew that. It was commonplace for the Majesty to pair Keepers of different elemental strengths on a mission. They felt it made the team more complete as a unit, and they were right. Missions were always unpredictable; the more elemental skillsets you had, the better chance you had at success.