The White Feather- A story of infinite worlds

Tony Rabada (Protocol One)

Well, if you're still here after twenty six chapters, hopefully you'll see this through till the end. So from now on, I’ll interact more often with you. Now that I’ve concluded Thomas’ adventure, let me introduce you to Anthony Rabada a.k.a Tony Rabada. Tony was a brilliant young man with absolutely no memory of his past (like all other agents, duh). I had the pleasure of meeting him once, just before he was getting ready to move out for Afghanistan on a battle which seemed miniscule at the time. But if you're following closely, you know that nothing is miniscule when it comes to gangs and terrorism.

So as I was saying, he was a brilliant young man. He was 6’2 with a nicely curled moustache, green eyes and shoulder length hair. He had an IQ of 248, which is pretty outstanding for a normal human but barely above average when it came to White Feather agents. What made him different was his truly extraordinary skill set. As Troy mentioned before, he beat Thomas’ aim trail score. That means he hit forty targets in less than fifteen seconds, and that too with only headshots. Other than that, he had an eagle’s eye and very keen observation skills. Strategic assessment tests, reaction tests, you name it and he topped them all.

So now you're wondering, if this was the greatest asset that the agency ever had, why are they risking him on a typical terrorist mission? Well, I thought the same thing back then. They’ve got to be stupid, right? Wrong! You see, the situation left them no choice.

Now, Anthony and his team weren’t the first ones to pick up a fight against these terries. There was a team of agents sent before them, but the terries were too smart to be killed by time travelers. They took them out and placed them in the same kind of environment like Thomas’ glass room. But the difference was that they were not as stupid as the Chakra. This called for protocol zero i.e. rescue of White Feather agents who cannot access the burning feather.

Okay, first let me introduce you to ‘the bandits’. They were more like a kind of freedom fighters, but they were fighting against America’s control over their country and its bases in Afghanistan. And THAT made them terrorists. Well, I’m not so good at political matters and I’m assuming that neither are you, so let’s move on with the tale.

Well, there was a civil war between the weak government and relatively strong bandits. They made it on the agency’s radar after they kidnapped Afghanistan’s president and successfully traded him for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Don’t mistake them for common insurgents just yet. They were backed by the communist countries who just wanted a war with America and their leaders were some of the brightest minds in the world.

So as soon as they caught the agents, they knew that they had hit a gold mine. I mean a watch capable of producing weapons out of thin air is more than enough to blow someone's minds away in 2013, let alone teleporting, time travel and all that s**t. They were convinced that the captives were CIA agents (I guess time travel was too fancy to believe). And in their stupidity, they found the perfect way to hide the agents from the agency.

You see, they figured that the watches would send a signal to CIA, so they kept the agents in a place similar to Thomas’ glass room. The difference was, when they had to get them out every two hours to prevent the self destruct of the nuclear cell, they sedated the agents so that they couldn’t say anything or for that matter, access the burning feather. They didn’t know that they had dodged a huge missile by this small step. Anyway, they also moved them regularly so that the agency couldn’t lock on a specific target.

With no other options left and all solid agents entangled in mission, the agency decided that if they were going to take a risk, then they will have to maximize their chances. And hence, they decide to send in Tony Rabada, the most promising recruit they had ever seen.

Tony and his team had been in the outskirts of Baghdad for three days now, and they had been eating dirt for the first two of them. Finally on the third day, they achieved a breakthrough when they successfully contacted one of the informants of the captured team. They were now driving straight to the city of Baghdad to meet him in person. At first they thought it was too risky, as she might have been the one who got them caught in the first place. But then they figured what the hell, they had no leads anyway.

Now Baghdad was a war zone. Half of the city was controlled by the bandits aided by the Russians, while the other half was under the control of the government supported by American military. To get to their informant, they had to go through the part controlled by the bandits. And it is exactly as bad as it sounds.

“It’s half past nine. The streets should be vacant right now, but we have to be careful. Keep your weapons hot and fake IDs ready.” Tony said from the front seat. His long black hair kissed the air and waved as the car sped up along the silent road.

“He acts so tense and disciplined all the time, what’s the matter with him?” Emma, the sniper, asked.

“His career depends on this mission. There is a lot of hype generated around him, and now he has to live up to it. Did you know that some people even compare him to Thomas white!” Olivia, the spy, explained.

“No s**t, those are some pretty f*****g big shoes to fill.” Emma said in awe and looked at Tony, who was tightening the lens on his camera.

“Did someone mention Thomas White? Hermano, that guy is a living legend. Did you know that once, he was smoking a cigarette while his house was being burned by some fugitives? He said he was waiting for the right moment to strike!” Gabriel, the gunner, exclaimed from the driving seat.

“Tough motherfucker, you mind if we don’t talk about that during the mission? We need to be focused, this is not a joke.” Tony said coldly and everybody went silent.

“Bandit check post coming up, get ready!” Tony said and grabbed his camera.

His green eyes beamed as the guard on the check post waved his hand, signaling them to stop. The car came to a halt with a creaky sound.

“Salam Walekum.” The guard greeted in Arabic.

“Walekum Salam.” Tony replied, lifting his palm up and bringing it close to the nose in respect.

“Amerikees? What are you doing out here at night?” The guard was visibly alarmed and gripped his gun.

“Eh hermano, cool down. We are reporters for the TV. Our plane landed far from here and we had to get to the hotel by night. Can we pass?” Gabriel tried to reduce the tension in the air.

“TV reporters, huh? Like the ones who sacrifice goat on the TV during Eid?” One of the officers said, stepping into the conversation.

“Uh….yeah, but surely better than that one.” Gabriel said.

“Show clearance pass.” The officer said in broken English.

Tony handed him their passes and waited patiently as the officer checked them thoroughly.

“Very few people have TV in Baghdad. My wife wanted TV, so she take one from shop and tell shopkeeper to send me bill. I had no money, so big fight with her. But she keep TV in the end and I have to pay.” The officer said and chuckled lightly while still going through their passes.

“How did you pay for the TV if you had no money?” Gabriel asked.

“I put bullet in shopkeeper head. In Baghdad, lead is solution to every problem with no solution.” The officer said and laughed loudly, forcing his juniors to join in without even knowing the reason.

The occupants of the jeep weren’t used to the comic part of the violence and went silent. The officer noticed this and stopped laughing abruptly.

“You are cleared. Be careful on our side of the city. People hate amerikaans there.” The officer said and handed back their passes.

“What about you? You seem pretty comfortable around Americans.” Tony asked, looking directly into the officer’s eyes.

“I would personally put a bullet inside each of you if I had the chance. But there is a strict policy of non-violence against reporters.” The officer said and shrugged his shoulders.

“You are reporters? Can you take photo of me?” a soldier said from behind.

“We’re actually kind of tired and we really have to get going. So….” Emma said from the back seat.

“Woman not make decision here in Baghdad. Take photo for his children, hothead.” The officer said sternly, looking at Tony.

“I really don’t think it’s a good idea. The background is dark, also….” Tony said, trying to let it pass.

“Are you defying my word, you mother b***h? Do not forget that I can bury you right here and no one will even know.” the officer said and tapped his AK-47.

Tony looked at the officer’s face for a second. He wasn’t f*****g around, and Tony realized it. So he nodded and took up the camera.

“You all want to have your photos clicked too?” Gabriel asked.

All three soldiers nodded, along with the officer. Gabriel took out his camera too and signaled Emma and Olivia to do the same. Tony instructed the soldier to come closer. As soon as all of them were in position, Tony clicked the button. The lens parted and a 5.56mm bullet raced through the air and crashed inside the soldier’s brain.

All four bodies dropped at the same time and smoke blew out from the camera lenses.

"I guess lead really is the solution to every unsolvable situation here." Tony said and instructed Gabriel to move out.

No one spoke another word for the rest of the journey before the pick-up truck entered the streets of Baghdad.