This is not a job without its perks. What I do for a living is very much off the beaten path, very much... under the radar, as the saying goes. I don't make a monthly paycheck, I don't have dental coverage, and I don't have a 401k.
Danny Rand, dressed entirely in the yellow and green military uniform of HYDRA, ran a wrist across his damp brow. The mask of his HYDRA suit was pulled back, revealing his young face. His eyes narrowed as he fumbled with wires in the palm of his hand. The electrical cables snaked out from between his fingers and into the wall, where the face of a control panel was hanging limply by a single screw. Clenched tight in Danny's teeth was a screwdriver that, at just the right angle, would have coaxed the others out of the wall.
And, really, at 26 years old, I don't need much of that stuff. With my dad's fortune and the Rand Company behind me, I've got a literal wealth of resources to fall back on.
A spark snapped between the wires, and the control panel lit up. Next to the panel, a steel door slid open. Danny smirked smugly to himself, and heaved the HYDRA mask over his eyes.
In his ear, a communications signal sprang to life.
"Ha-ha! Nice work, Danny Boy!"
There's also the fact that currency isn't really used much in ancient mythological cities.
Beyond the door was a corridor, dimly lit and plated with the same steel as the door. Rand's HYDRA-issue boots echoed as he stepped lightly down the path before him.
"Thanks, Davos." He muttered into his communicator, mounted on the inside cheek of his mask.
"Nice and easy, now." Rand's handler, Davos said, back in the heart of K'un L'un. An older man, in his mid-forties, Davos sat in a comfortable, glass chair, in the heart of K'un L'un's intelligence division. The central nervous system of information throughout the world about the ancient city, Davos and a select few helped Danny complete his missions, and keep the city a secret from the language-speaking world. On the screen in front of him, Davos had a schematic of the HYDRA base Danny was snaking through.
"Try to not go off half-cocked again, all right? We don't need another high-body count. The higher-ups are gettin' a bit >ahem< miffed."
Danny spotted a guard coming into view at the end of the hallway. He ducked into a recess in the corridor and held his breath.
"Single guard at the end of the hallway." He breathed,
"Gimme a minute, here."
"Take your time." Davos said, glancing at the nails on his left hand.
Rand took a deep breath, a slow one. A breath that reached into his lungs and spread into every vein, every drop of blood, surging through his system. His presence grew less noticeable, shadows seemed to welcome him, and when he stepped out of the recess in the bulkhead, he didn't make a sound. His boots, making contact with the ground every few seconds as he grew closer to the lone HYDRA guard, had ceased to echo.
A foot away, and Danny's right hand surged forward. His elbow bent, and his forearm locked itself under the man's throat. With a heave, his free elbow drilled itself into the soldier's helmet, knocking him unconscious.
"Nice one." Davos said, still staring intently at his fingertips.
Danny, meanwhile, was heaving the goon's body into the same recess he had found solitude in just moments before.
"HNNNG" He groaned, pulling the thug by his shoulders.
"Thanks."
The hallway ended in a fork, and Rand stared intently at both paths before him.
"All right. Now, before we continue --" Davos said, nonchalantly,
"-- let's just make sure we've got everything covered."
"Make it quick."
Rand heard the sound of paper being flipped.
"To the right, here, you've got the soldiers' quarters. Pretty standard stuff, I think. And, to the left, you've got the command center for the entire facility. That's where you'll find one..." More flipping.
"Lieutenant Saltz. Real nasty guy. Former Nazi sympathizer, believes in the occult, all-around pinhead."
"He's the one looking for the city?"
A third barrage of paper-flips,
"You got it. Personally requested every soldier here, hoping to find the 'mythical city of the Dragon' as it's called locally."
"So I've gotta..."
"Go influence him into thinking the city doesn't exist, escape, get back here for debrief."
"Simple enough."
"And, as always, our fail-safes include..." Rand could hear Davos chewing on the end of his pencil.
"Nothing."
"Sounds about right." Rand said, through gritted teeth.
He had already begun walking to the left, and soon, the sound of the commotion of a military operations room reached his ears. If he was being honest with himself, it sounded like K'un L'un.
Except K'un L'un wasn't quite as hell-bent on world domination. Or the slaughter of innocent people.
Rand entered the cavernous room. At the back wall were a series of windows, with a spectacular view of the Tibetan mountains. Rand saw a few peaks he recognized and was alarmed by just how close Hydra was getting to his home.
Realizing that standing and gawking wasn't doing much for his cover, Rand continued to walk towards the window. Around him were maps, cartographers, soldiers and guards, all busy running information back and forth, searching. Six or seven illuminated platforms housed maps of the region, some were even holographic, depicting the terrain in an eerie, blue glow.
At the end of the room was an elevated platform, leading to the windows. Rand stepped up, and, immediately recognized Saltz by his black trench coat and hat. Rand stepped just behind him, staring over his shoulder at the mountains.
"There you go, now. Not too obvious." Davos whispered.
Danny's eyes darted to the back of Saltz' head.
"You are here for something, aren't you?" Saltz said, slowly turning to face Danny. "You..."
"...Have a mission?"
Saltz now faced Danny completely. Rand felt his heart begin to race, and his breathing grow shallow. Something was drastically wrong.
With a shake of his head, he spoke up.
"Not exactly, sir, no." Rand said, extending a hand.
"Roy Tuska. I wanted to introduce myself."
In the split-second it took for Saltz to extend his, Danny drew a breath, and focused all of his positive energy into his hand.
Their hands met, and Danny muttered,
"What you search for is not beyond those mountains. It is in yourself."
And, like that, the moment had passed. Saltz' eyelids fluttered, and he stared at Rand for another second.
With a wave of his hand, the lieutenant muttered, "Y-You may go."
Danny turned and stepped quickly towards the exit.
"Nice work, Danny. Hopefully it'll stick. If not, we'll be back again in 48." Davos said.
"No, I am not sure that you will be." Saltz' voice echoed around the command center.
Danny stopped dead in his tracks.
"What? What'd he say?" Davos said hotly in Danny's ear.
Danny's breath grew short and rapid, and he turned slowly.
"You thought, did you" Saltz cooed in his accent, stepping towards Danny, "that it would be you to make a fool of HYDRA?"
Rand felt a snarl slip across his face. Their eyes met, and from behind the increasingly annoying HYDRA goggles, Rand felt his temperature rising.
"I'd hoped."
"In vain, it would seem."
"It would."
Saltz lifted his chin and opened his mouth a fraction before the next words slithered out of his tongue.
"Heil HYDRA."
"HEIL HYDRA." The room roared, as every soldier slowly drew their gun level with Rand.
"Kill him." Saltz ordered, a sneer on his face.
Uh-oh! Surely Danny's in over his head this time, True Believers!
Is this the day that HYDRA rules OVER the Iron Fist?
Find out next time!
TO BE CONTINUED!