Black X Chapter 1

Chapter 1
Alana Sphinx sat up so fast that her reports fell off of the bedside table. Normally she would have been overly agitated after having been up more than half of the night putting the finishing touches on them and placing them in order, but she had more pressing matters to deal with. The dreams had started up again which meant only one thing. Her sister was somewhere close by.
Alana sighed and got out of bed and began picking up her papers. That was one thing that annoyed her about the special division of the FBI that she worked for. All of the paperwork from all of their assignments could only be typed on the computers in the downtown office which meant there was a lot of hand writing involved.
And now that Liara’s back things are going to get a lot worse Alana thought as she slid her papers into her briefcase and brushed a loose strand of her dark hair out of her face. Her sister never made things easy when she appeared. Not like any government agency had ever been able to pin her down. At best, they were able to keep the body count to a minimum if Alana had the warning dream about her sister in time for people to get prepared.
Alana sighed again and hopped in the shower. It didn’t take long for her to wash up and dress herself in her black blazer and slacks with her light weight combat boots. She laughed when she thought about how she had seen a movie where a female FBI agent ran a guy down while wearing heeled boots. She had tried that before. The blisters were nothing nice.
Alana made her usual check of her house before putting her guns in the holsters under her blazer and headed out into the garage. She couldn’t deny the fact that she did love her car. The black 2012 Camaro was something nice to look at. The agency didn’t go cheap on their vehicles.
The drive from Alana’s house to the home office wasn’t more than seven minutes with the light traffic that covered the streets of downtown Baton Rouge at 5:00 am. Alana was never late, but she never got to work before Josh, and when she pulled into her parking space next to his she knew he had gotten there first again.
“Rough night,” Josh said as Alana walked to her desk across from his. “You don’t even look like you had the night off.” He was already hard at work typing up his reports from the night before last never missing a beat as he talked. That was one thing she could say about him. The man could multi-task with the best of them. Josh was a few inches taller than Alana putting him at average male height with the frame of a man who worked out on the regular. His skin was a shade lighter than hers putting him at the color of coffee with a little too much cream in it, and his dark hair was cut low.
“It definitely wasn’t the best,” Alana said sitting at the desk across from him. “I had that dream again.” Josh stopped typing.
“That means…” Alana nodded.
“Liara is in town.” Josh exhaled loudly. He remembered what happened the last time Liara and her Black X organization were around. It was not pretty.
“Let’s go get some coffee,” Josh said coming to his feet. “Don’t argue. Anderson doesn’t come in until seven so we have time before we ruin his day. At least we can be fully caffeinated when we do it.” Alana smiled. Leave it to her partner to make her feel a little better. She was still glad there were hardly any people who came in that early in the morning because she wasn’t in an overly talkative mood.
Alana didn’t talk much on the ride to the coffee shop and Josh didn’t bother her. He knew how things got when Liara was around. It dredged up a lot of Alana’s more painful memories.
“Black with four sugars,” Josh said handing Alana a cup. She took it and sipped. She hadn’t even realized that she had stood against the wall when they came in her eyes on the door. The community coffee shop where Josh had taken her was empty aside from her, her partner and the workers, but Alana still felt uneasy. She knew she would be like that until whatever her sister was planning was over.
“Don’t look so worried, woman. Everytime you’ve had the dream and Liara showed up things weren’t nearly as bad as you thought they were going to be. You know we can handle…” The door opened and a man walked in. He smiled at the barista and looked around. As soon as his eyes locked on Josh and Alana he pulled out a gun and fired at Josh. The bullet grazed his arm, and he fell backward. The man fled and Alana chased him not even bothering to check on Josh. She knew he was fine.
Alana sprinted down the street after the man, thankful for the fact that she hadn’t worn those heeled boots. There wasn’t much traffic which made it easy for her to close the distance on the man as he cut across the street into a shopping center.
Without warning the man turned and threw a punch at her. Alana’s reflexes took over and she blocked the punch and countered with a punch to the man’s chest followed by a kick to the side of his head. The man toppled to the ground and she drew her gun and aimed it at him daring him to move.
“I’ve got questions and you’ve got answers. If I even feel like you’re lying to me I’ll smear your brains on the pavement.” The man laughed.
“You and Liara share more than just the same face.”
“I knew this had something to do with her. How did you find me?” The man laughed again.
“She really has you shaken up, and she hasn’t even done anything yet. You didn’t even realize I had been following you since you left your house.” Alana wanted to kick herself. She hadn’t been on her toes at all. “Liara wanted me to give you a message. She says she’s tired of you warning your agency everytime she is around. She also says its been fun, but her master plan is about to take effect and she doesn’t need you chasing her anymore.” The man’s body began to glow bright red and a split second after Alana realized what was going on he exploded unleashing a blast that leveled the shopping center.
When the flames vanished and the dust settled Alana was the only thing left standing. A split second had been all she needed to shield herself. It was fortunate that she had been blessed with Hydro and Telekinesis otherwise she would have been incinerated despite her telekinetic shield. Of course had she not had those abilities she never would have become such a high ranking member in the FBI’s God Hand division. Nor would she have become the only person Liara had ever tried and failed to kill.