Sloth, Vermin, Smoke, and Strato — the operators working for Anna Ford looked normal. If he’d meet them in the streets, he’d think of them as that kind guy mowing his lawn or an overworked salaryman.

Strato was the only one who fit the bearded and well-built operator type with his left arm full of tattoos. They were eyeballing him while probably wondering who he was.

“Excuse them. They’ve been working nonstop over some trouble. I didn’t expect that we’d have someone so young working for us. I heard from Wilson that you’ve been working with him in this case.”

“I am.”

Kato leaned back. If someone saw him right now. They’d be surprised how more confident he was behaving. Facing people who didn’t previously know him made him more like Kato than Robert.

“Things aren’t progressing as we’d like it to be. We had troubles with certain people.”

“Heard that the She-devil was here.”

“Familiar with Verus?”

“Course’ I am. There aren’t too many women that are as deadly as her. She has the skill and we've worked with her on some projects. Hmm, are you sure that you should be accompanying us? Heard she shot you good.”

“She did. We came to an agreement and paid them off.”

“I see. Now for business. We’d recently come to know that there are people who wanted to expose some of our activities. Most of these people are pieces of shit, but they are rich pieces of shit that move the economy and we can’t have them doing as they please.

She took a file from her leather case.

“Meet Alfredo Guzman. A lying, cheating, and snitching son of a bitch. He’s called Mouse by his friends and enemies. Currently, he’s handling the materials that are keeping Rubio Ferric afloat.”

Kato scanned the documents. The more he read the files. He understood how vast and deep Rubio Ferric’s connections were. If anything it seemed Wilson underestimated his connections. There were even mentions that he had taken over some of the networks that his foster father had in the Golden Triangle and had been exporting Soviet-made weapons they were buying from smugglers who are connected to the Merchant of Death himself.

Most of them were being bought in African countries and the Balkan States. Even some places in Southeast Asia were mass-buying these weapons. Enough to raise an army of freedom fighters and terrorists.

“Going after the Merchant?”

“Not our call at the moment. He’s extremely useful and too hard to catch. He’s not connected, but let’s say that he’s the cause of why Guzman and his men are armed to the teeth. But these men aren’t our concern. What we are concerned about are these strong men who are harder and stronger than even above average men.”

Kato leaned on the table, “They’re Halfbreeds. There are two types of them. Those who are strong enough to ignore a bullet or guys smart enough to thrive on running criminal syndicates. Good fighters that are hard to kill.”

“So I heard. Honestly, as much as we’d like to do this ourselves. We’d need assistance and since we’d be operating in this city-state. We want to make sure that there are no problems and if possible we’d like to cooperate.”

“So you want Guzman or Ferric?”

“I’d be lying if I said that I don’t want them both. But Ferric’s not in our jurisdiction, so we’d like to take Guzman out. He’s the one that has been squeaking about some of our people. We don’t appreciate that.”

“Hmm, so what do you need from me?”

“This.”

She showed a picture of a mountainside bunker.

“It’s the suspected bunker that Guzman has been using. It’s ‘magically’ protected and from what I heard. Those who tried to enter his bunker got lost. We sent an undercover agent to try and get him out, but instead, he got lost, died of starvation, and was found hanging on a tree rotting.”

She took another photo. This time it was a clear image of the bunker with written lines on them.

“When I heard from some of our analysts that these are dead languages. I thought that it was some sort of code. We tried translating what they mean. Some in our department said that they are just superstitious writings. Turns out that after digging deeper – we realize that it’s part of a language that your side of the world uses to create spells.”

Anna Ford said as if she still couldn’t believe it. Kato shared the sentiment. Then again he was a dead man inside another man’s body, sharing memories and living again after being shot dead.

“It’s unbelievable, yes,“ Kato snapped his finger, lighting a candlelight flame on his ungloved finger. “But it’s true.”

The Operators surrounding them looked at the flame coming out of Kato’s trigger finger. There were no devices attached to his wrist. No form of wirings made him able to conjure flame. Not to mention that the flame he was conjuring didn’t have any sort of smell.

“The world’s getting crazier.”

“It is. But I’m sure that you’ve learned some rumors about this side of the world as well.”

“I did. So, you must have a method to get through this bunker?”

“I can probably disrupt the writings. Make it so that whatever it was that’s keeping them safe would go down. I could seal the source of power and then allow your Operators to enter. Are they armed with depleted bullets?”

“They are. They’d be ready to tear any supernatural being in there. I know that they are tough as nails, but in the face of the unknown they are like children.”

“I can make a seal on their hands. Give them resistance to the suppressing feeling that these beings have. Hmm, I could give them assistance, make sure that they have no problem.”

“You’ll be providing assistance then?”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“Are your wounds fine?”

“I heal fast, Ford. Though that is if you can spare some gear for me.”

“We can do that.”

Anna Ford grinned as he signaled Sloth to bring Kato some gear.

 

***

 

Strato folded his arms while watching Kato Lores create a seal on his men.

“He’s younger than I thought. Are you sure that he’d do us any good here, Ford?”

“Their forces are spread thin. He’s one of their Enforcers who have martial abilities and training. I was told that he served in our country, but after he became part of them. All his records have been expunged and redacted.”

“Not a single record left?”

“We might get some if we ask Wilson nicely. But I doubt that he’d agree when they are tight-lipped. They only allow one Agent to contact them and in this region, Wilson’s the one you’d talk to.”

Strato groaned. “Sure are secretive.”

“They have to if they want to keep things silent. They run in secrecy, most of our training methods, they mastered, improved upon it, and thrived using them. He'll have their own method to wipe memories.”

“We’re out of our element here. I rather shoot normal gun-toting bad guys than magicians and cultists.”

“Most of them use guns as well. It’s best to assume that the greatest threat that we’d need to watch out for is the supernatural.”

“If this was five years ago, I’d call you mad for talking about magic. Then again, I’ve seen crazy shit. Super soldiers and mad scientists. A lot of things are hidden, let’s just hope that the Millennium Bug or whatever they’ve been going on about would lessen the presence of all of this.”

“I hope so too.”

 

***

 

After arming himself and creating a seal for them. Ford walked them to the helicopter they were hiding two minutes away from their cabin. It was covered in a tarp and was watched by a guy they called Pigeon.

Since Kato was joining them in deactivating the seals. He had provided them with an earpiece and tuned in to their radio. He was also carrying a submachine gun with fifteen rounds and a suppressor. They loaned him seven mags that he carried with a molle harness.

He sat on the helicopter while listening to Ford briefing her men about what they should hit and what info they had before going in. Most of Strato’s men were quiet. Mostly polite and laser-focused on doing the job. Quiet professionals whose only function was to complete the mission.

It reminded him of some of the guys he had worked with in his other life. He liked their seriousness and the grim determination in their eyes.

Their entry point was around this clearing hidden by two landforms that have been separated from the mountain. A bald spot that they scouted and had made as a landing zone.

The team leader of this quad eyeballed him. “Hope you don’t mind following orders from me, Kato.”

“Not at all, Strato. You do you.”

“Good. Team we’re going to approach the target, have Kato here dispel whatever magic they have going on in there, and make our way outside. Expect heavy resistance, conserve ammo, and shoot well.”

“Roger that.”

The team said as the helicopter descended on the bald spot. Kato was the last one to get off the helicopter. Strato led the team while Kato guarded their rear.

They moved slowly and quietly. Each step was careful and relaxed. Kato noticed that they were avoiding stepping on twigs, and grasses, and brushing their shoulders on the foliage. It took a while for them to reach this vantage point where they got a good look at the bunker. Scouting the bunker, tagging enemies with their binoculars, watching their patrol pattern, and predicting their movements.

Meticulousness and patience were one of their best assets. After about thirty minutes of watching. Sloth positioned himself for a sniping position while Smoke and Vermin accompanied Strato in eliminating the hostels without making so much noise.

It was like watching how masters do their work. Each movement, each shot was calculated and executed with silence in mind. Sloth was watching their back, sniping anyone who noticed or was about to notice. By the time they reached the last two targets. It was already over. They shot them on the back of the head, dragged them to the shadows, and double-checked for any surveillance cameras.

After clearing the area, Strato called him to approach the front of the bunker where he saw the writings that were somewhat hidden from their sight. Using all his senses at once, Kato traced the important lines on the writings, cut them off, and started creating a seal that would cut off the source of power, disturbing the lines, and dispelling them.

Something was scratching on the wind as he finished cutting off the source of power. Kato spread his senses once more and checked if the trap was active.

He told Strato that he needed to get in first to make sure. They opened the bunker doors slowly, and let him slip inside where he felt this slight pressure. He took a few steps and spotted an eight-foot humanoid figure with three heads, three arms, and six eyes with horns on its forehead. The skin of the creature was leathery. It was holding a club on its bigger arm. With muscled legs that only have four toes.

On the neck of the creature, around their necks was this black collar that seemed to be pissing it off. Kato was about to retreat when all six eyes of the creature pointed at him.

Kato stared at the six eyes without moving an inch before it suddenly arched its back, inhaled its bloated stomach flat, and screamed hard enough to stun Kato from moving.

With his limbs halted. Kato gathered all the will he could muster and radioed Strato’s team about the appearance of a monster. It was probably the guard of the bunker and from the look of it, wasn’t going to quiet down until it was killed.