Judas

“Breaching in T-minus six minutes,” the voice in my earpiece says, followed by an unintelligible shout before it goes quiet again.

Six minutes to get a grip on the small weapon in my hand. The thick vest wrapped around my torso is so hot and uncomfortable that I’m sweating bullets the size of those in my gun; the ones this vest protects my rapidly-beating heart from.

“You look like you’re going to vomit,” Jade says quietly from the other side of the threshold.

I swallow. “Is it that obvious?”

My partner’s face goes serious. “We’ve made it this far. It’ll be over soon. All of it.”

I nod, unable to verbalize any sort of response.

“T-minus four minutes, thirty seconds,” my earpiece says again. I adjust my clammy grip on the gun.

Four minutes and thirty seconds until Agent Jade Castillo and I will break down the large, industrial-grade underground vault door and uncover what the FBI has been meticulously planning to locate for over a year now: millions of dollars of profit obtained from assassinations, drug trading, gang wars, and every other illegal act the organization felt falls within their demoralized compass. The money has been collected and held in this vault for safe-keeping by the higher-ups within the ring of underground criminal activity.

Not so safe from the FBI, however.

The organization operates without a name to uphold confusion and anonymity about their workings, instead assigning chilling code names to each of their operatives. If we get this money, it will put such a dent in their forces that complete annihilation will easily be at the FBI’s fingertips.

“Scarlett,” Jade gets my attention again, “seriously. It’s not like you to seem so…disturbed during a mission. Is everything okay?”

I hold back a dry laugh. Everything is as ‘okay’ as it can be, given that we are waiting to complete the most vital, final piece of this mission. The building is swarming with military and FBI still hunting down members and protecting our whereabouts so we can complete our part without a bloody interruption, and as of fifteen minutes ago, the leader of the cartel—Deathless—escaped without a trace.

Still, I nod. “Yes. Just ready for it to be over.”

Jade nods in response.

“T-minus three minutes.”

“Okay,” Jade exhales sharply, “we’ll secure the money and load the elevator. The helicopter will be waiting on the roof to be loaded. Once the money is on, they’ll take us back to base, and this whole thing will be over.”

As she goes over the bare bones of the plan one last time, I’m not sure if she’s trying to reassure me or herself. The coolness of the metal wall does little to remedy my growing internal temperature.

It has been a while since I felt fear this visceral during a mission.

“Two minutes.”

Jade gets into position, facing the door, looking at me once more. “We’ll get out of here in one piece.”

I don’t look her in the eye, instead nodding at the metal floor.

The vault’s lock begins to twist and turn, caused by the remote digital hacking our team is conducting back on base. I know there is no going back now, and as soon as Jade kicks the door down, I have strict orders to fulfill.

I adjust my vest and grip on the gun one more time, inhaling and exhaling as the one minute warning sounds in my ear. The faint, rapid beeping of the digital lock falls in tune with my heartbeat, providing me with the sound of finality. I close my eyes and think of my mother.

The fifteen second countdown starts, the voice muffled in my ear with each descending number. The vault door sounds with several bangs and heavy clicks before it goes quiet.

“Vault is successfully unlocked. Commence breach.”

Jade’s military-grade boot meets the industrial metal with another bang, and the heavy door begins to swing open. Bright fluorescent lights flicker as shelves lined with unassuming black duffle bags present themselves for our taking. Jade rushes to the shelves and begins pulling them off and I quickly follow suit. I count fourteen bags, all stuffed full of cash, as we work in silence, chucking them towards the threshold. As she grabs the last bag, I head down the hallway and call the elevator, standing between the doors when it opens.

An adrenaline-full Jade slides a bag to me that I place between the doors, keeping them open as we haul the rest with urgency and have them in the elevator in less than a minute.

“Vault’s clear,” Jade yells as she jogs back toward me, “let’s get out of here.” She holds a finger to her earpiece and repeats her first words, adding, “we’re headed up to the roof for transfer.”

I step fully into the elevator after her and press the button for the rooftop, where the helicopter will be waiting. The floors climb one by one, too slowly, and we reach the top where the whirring promptly shuts off, and I know they cut the building’s power to secure our location. Jade pries the doors open and I start to chuck the bags onto the roof as an officer with heavy military equipment strapped to his body jumps out of the helicopter and makes his way over to us.

“Good work agents,” he yells over the din with a single nod, gathering up half the bags onto his own. Jade carries another four and I gather three.

I wonder just how much money I hold in my hands.

The two of them walk in front of me, and when we approach the open door of the helicopter, the bags are quickly hauled in. The pilot, also in uniform, says something into his headset as he rises from his seat and helps stack the duffels.

While they are occupied, I take the opportunity to switch my earpiece with the second one that’s been waiting in my pocket. I press the tiny button to turn it on, and after a few beeps and crackles, a deep voice sounds.

“Judas. I take it your mission was successful?”

“Yes,” I reply under my breath.

“Excellent. Assistance is incoming. Two minutes.”

There’s no going back now. My fate is final. And so is theirs.

I raise my gun and send two bullets clean through the heads of the pilot and officer.

Jade whirls, gun aimed at their assailant, arms going slack when she sees no one on the roof but me.

She says nothing for several seconds as she stares down the barrel of my gun. Behind her, blood begins to pool across the roof. I have never witnessed such guttural confusion in her eyes before, especially such aimed directly at me. But I deserve it.

“What did you do?” She says with an eerie calm, but I still catch it against the noise of the blades.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

I have also never seen Jade freeze before, especially in action, nor have I ever seen terror on her face like there is now.

Her voice grows hard and unyielding and her gun is now aimed at me. “Agent Donov—”

“Jade, I don’t want to hurt you, but they’ll be here any second—”

“Who will be here?”

“If I don’t kill you they will—”

Metal bangs when the stairwell door opens and three members of the gang emerge onto the roof. Jade whips her head to them and back to me so fast I barely brace myself as she tackles and holds me to the ground.

“How long.”

“They will kill you—”

“Don't act like you'd care if they did! How long have you been working with them?” She screams, earning the attention of the gang members who are already in the helicopter and checking the bags.

“I need the money—”

In a single motion, Jade knocks the gun out of my hands and slams my head back against the concrete. My brain vibrates with the impact, but I grit my teeth and grab her vest by the thick shoulder straps and flip us around, holding her down and holding my gun against her temple.

“Jade, I’m sorry—”

“You’re a traitor. You’re a double agent,” she interrupts me again through equally gritted teeth, hardly fighting me anymore and instead speaking with weak defeat laced in her voice. “You’re a double agent.”

“I had to do it. They promised me the money I need and it was the only way to get it.”

“No it wasn’t. No it wasn’t, Scarlett, you—” A shot rang out from the helicopter followed by the shattering of glass, cutting her off. Her head hit the concrete in defeat. The helicopter was ready to leave, and if I wasn’t on it in ten seconds they would happily leave me behind to deal with the egregious repercussions of my betrayal to the FBI.

“I’m sorry,” I say before I slam the barrel of my gun against her temple and she goes slack beneath me. I fire a bullet over the concrete railing into the river below us and wait a few seconds before standing and not sparing her another glance, hoping the men will believe her to be as dead as she looks, despite the lack of blood beneath her.

As soon as I’m in the helicopter, we lift off the roof and I watch her shrinking form for as long as I can before my earpiece crackles to life again.

“Well done, Judas. The funds are being transferred to your account as we speak. Deathless is very pleased with your performance and aid in his escape.”

I swallow and numb my body of any feeling. I thank him cordially, then rip the device out of my ear before dropping it into the river below us.

JADE’S POV

The blow doesn’t knock me out for very long. I wake in time to see the helicopter gaining height above the roof and taking off in a direction I can’t name because the ache in my head is overriding any sort of logic or basic sense of direction.

But I don’t need any of those things to remember the betrayal of my partner.

For the money, she said. To pay for her mother’s treatment, I knew.

She’ll be placed on a most wanted list for this. I know that, she knows that. Eventually, she’ll die for what she’s done.

If I could, I would scream. But I can only perform one function at a time, and first, I sit up. Then I lay eyes the two bodies and river of blood on the roof.

I feel for my earpiece and find it on the concrete next to my leg, quickly shoving it in my ear.

“—do you copy? Agent Jade Castillo, do you copy? Over.”

“I’m here,” I say weakly.

“We’ve lost contact with Agent Donovan. Has there been a casualty?”

I swallow dryly. “Donovan shot and killed the pilot and officer. Three gang members breached the roof and took the helicopter, money, and Donovan willingly with them. The mission has been compromised and unsuccessful. Request for immediate transfer.”

I’m met with silence for a few seconds before, “we’re sending in reinforcements now. Are you hurt, Agent?”

“I’ll be fine,” is what I land on before communication is cut and I am a sitting duck until another transport gets here.

Physically, I will be just fine. A concussion will heal, but this void ripped into me by Scarlett’s swift and stunning violation of the trust we’d built over the years will require…

I’m not even sure if healing is the correct word, because I’m not sure that’s possible. It would be difficult to patch up the already boiling vengeance in me. I’ll never see her again, if she’s lucky. If she’s smart, she’ll change her identity and go into hiding, her poor mother with her.

Helicopter blades fill my ears again and another military-grade vehicle descends onto the roof. I stand carefully as the uniformed men gather the bodies and quickly usher me into the helicopter where I rip off my vest and am immediately pounced on by a military doctor.

The lights of the surrounding buildings blur together as my eyes remain trained on the scarlet river we leave behind.