minute or less to do this so listen carefully and do this swiftly…” he explained calmly and quickly, “Administer the serum directly into the bloodstream, inject it into the neck, understood?”

“Yeah, got it…” Kirby said, removing the cap on the syringe and filling it with the serum, then tossing the empty vial aside. He rolled Kodi over onto his back and picked up his head, injecting the serum into his neck. “Ok, now what do I do?”

“Now you give him the resuscitation pill. Apply it orally, understand Kirby?” McIntyre said, everyone in the room staring intently at the wall monitor, mainly at Kodi’s heart-rate and blood pressure.

“Alright… Pray to God…” Kirby replied, placing the pill in Kodi’s mouth before giving him some water and lifting his head to make him swallow it. Everything was still for a moment as Kirby and everyone in the Operations Room waited to see what would happen. After a few seconds, Kodi’s heart-rate began to pick up again, his blood pressure gradually rising back to normal.

Kodi’s burgundy eyes slowly began to open and he groaned wearily. He sat up on his elbows, looking around before looking at Kirby.

“Kirby? W-what the Hell happened to me?” Kodi asked weakly, his vision slightly blurry but it was beginning to get better as his strength began to slowly return to him. It still felt slightly hard to breathe, but Kodi knew if he was alive now, then he’d been cured.

“Oh thank God…” Kirby said, falling onto his back and sighing heavily with relief, “I thought I’d been too late… Christ, that was close…” Kodi chuckled slightly and turned on his radio.

“This is Agent Kodi… I’m alright now…” he said, then heard loud, ecstatic cheering from the Operations Room.

“Kodi, it’s damn good to hear your voice again!” Colonel McIntyre said, beaming widely, “But I think there’s someone here who’s even happier to hear your voice…” He took off the headset and handed it to Jenna.

“Kodi? Oh thank God you’re still alive!” Jenna said, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, “Are you feeling alright now, sweetheart? Nothing wrong?”

“Yeah… I’m fine Mom…” Kodi replied, then thought to himself for a long moment, his mind drifting toward his father and what he’d said before he’d nearly died, “… Hey Mom… is Dad there?” Jenna sighed softly and swallowed slightly.

“No Kodi… your father left the support team… He’s back at home…” Jenna answered softly, “Do… Do you want me to tell him something for you?” All was silent for another long moment. “Kodi?”

“No Mom, that’s alright…” Kodi said, still feeling a bit upset over the fight he’d had with Balto, “I’ll see you soon… Agent Kodi, over and out…”

Kodi turned off his radio and closed his burgundy eyes. Taking a deep breath in and exhaling it slowly, his mind ran back to his father. He was sorry for what he’d said to his father before, but also felt he deserved an apology. But he did give me an apology… and I spurned it… I have to tell him I’m sorry… Kodi thought to himself, opening his eyes slowly and looking over at Kirby.

“Alright partner… Let’s get going…” he said, rising to a standing position and checking the remaining bullets in his Beretta, “We’ve got a mission to complete and we’ve only got a few hours left to complete it… Let’s make sure we’re not late…”

Kodi replaced the magazine into his handgun and holstered it, holding his hand out to Kirby. Kirby grinned and took his teammate’s hand, Kodi helping Kirby to his feet. With a nod to one another, both agents sprung out into the hallway, guns drawn, ready to fulfill their mission…

            Niju walked down the dimly lit hallway of the Radio Tower, reading over a paper he grasped in his hands. It was a list of information he’d gathered on Balto Harrand. He scowled at the small picture of the wolfdog clipped to the document and growled softly. But it didn’t matter now, because in an hour, his revenge would be exacted, and in a few more hours after that, he’d be leaving this desert a very wealthy wolf. He grinned and chuckled darkly, proceeding to the Communication’s Room and picking up the radio.

“This is HQ to Spec-Ops team… Spec-Ops team, this is Rogue Leader… Do you copy? Over…” Niju said into the radio. The sounds of static filled the room before a response was heard.

“This is Spec-Ops Leader to Rouge Leader. We copy you, over…” said the Spec-Ops squad leader through the crackly speakers attached to the radio.

“Where is your current location, Spec-Ops Leader? Over…”

“We’re somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean… Uh, approximately 126.4 miles from shore. About an hour from landing, over…”

“Understood Spec-Ops Leader… Rouge Leader, over and out…” Niju said before turning the output radio off and walking out of the room, back down the dimly lit hallways. Everything is going perfectly… Nothing could possibly ruin this moment… he thought to himself with a large grin when a crackling was heard from his hand-held radio.

“This is Lieutenant Drawn to Niju Suarez, over…” came the voice of the Lieutenant. Niju picked it up and held it up to his mouth.

“This is Niju Suarez to Lieutenant Drawn. I read you Lieutenant. What’s the situation? Over…” he replied, waiting for the Lieutenant’s response.

“There’s two American agents somewhere around here… I got one of them, but the other one’s probably still alive somewhere… Keep an eye out for them and place all sentries on high alert, over…” Lieutenant Drawn said. Niju pressed the button to reply when he glanced out a window and saw a soldier’s body lying nearly out of sight. And then two shadowy figures ran by.

“Lieutenant, both agents are still alive… Set the area to Red Alert, over…” Niju said and stared out at the soldier’s body. A few moments later, an alarm was heard all over the military base and soldiers scrambled to form into their designated squads. Niju continued to stare at the dead soldier in disbelief that his impenetrable defense had been breached…

            Kodi skidded behind an adobe wall of a small bunker and out of sight, shortly followed by Kirby. Both agents gripped their pistols tightly as they watched the patrolling soldiers group up into three’s and four’s. Kodi glanced back at Kirby who nodded slowly. As a group of three guards walked by, the young husky spun around the corner and hit one of the dogs in his throat, dropping him to the ground. Kirby came around and shot one of the two in his head, Kodi taking out the last one with two rapid shots to the guard’s chest.

Once the bodies were hidden, the two agents ran for the Communications Building. Kirby smashed open a window and Kodi jumped in, pulling out a penlight and scanning the dark room he’d entered. It looked like it was a mapping room, used for drawing out maps for topography and other various kinds. Kodi motioned to Kirby and his teammate entered behind him, Kodi opening a door to a dimly lit, dark green corridor. The two preceded silently, ears alert for the slightest noise.

“Something’s wrong… There’s no guards here for some reason…” Kodi said, getting the eerie feeling like something bad was going to happen.

“Yeah, it’s too strange if you ask me…” Kirby said, nodding in agreement, “I mean, there were no guards here or at the Weapons Building… It’s almost as if they wanted us to be here…” Kodi gasped suddenly and spun around to face Kirby.

“Kirby, you’re a genius! You’re absolutely right! The reason there are no guards here is because they’re all guarding the missiles! We’re looking in all the wrong areas!” Kodi exclaimed with delight, “That means if we find the guards, we find the missiles! And if we find the missiles, we find Niju!”

“And then it’s mission accomplished!” Kirby said, understanding what Kodi was getting at, “That’s brilliant! And since we’ve already searched three of the four buildings, that only leaves that smaller one left!”

“But why would a building that small have all those guards in it, along with hundreds of missiles… That just doesn’t add up…” Kodi said, shaking his head in confusion. Kirby thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers and ran back to the mapping room with Kodi. As Kodi held up his penlight, Kirby searched around until he pulled out a map.

“Here we go! The topography of this section!” Kirby said and lay it out on one of the folding tables, “Now, let’s see what we can find out about this place…” Both agents looked over it before Kodi pointed out a rock formation to the south.

“Hey, take a look at this! There’s a cave over here in this rock formation!” he stated, tracing his finger toward the compound, “It’s just a few hundred meters south of here…”

“And it says here that cave spans for six hundred meters…” Kirby said, holding up a recording notebook, “That would mean that cave runs from there all the way up to this compound!”

“So that small building leads to an underground!” Kodi exclaimed, “It all makes sense! It would provide a safe escape route and a place to hide the missiles from aerial scouts! That’s why only the satellite could pick them up! All the guards are underground with the missiles!”

“Smart boys…” came a cold voice from the doorway. Kodi and Kirby turned in time to see Lieutenant Drawn fire his handgun at them, a burning feeling then tearing through Kodi’s right shoulder. The husky cried out in pain and stumbled backwards, Kirby diving behind a folding table and kicking it over for cover. Kodi fell back behind a desk and out of sight, wincing as he looked at the wound on his shoulder.

“You know, you boys really shouldn’t be interfering with matters