Alpha glares at the operative working the lock on the main door. The dull clunk was a schoolboy error. The operative swallows. He has just secured himself a punishment when this mission is over. It’s not his fault though. The lock is really old. He hasn’t done a lock this old for years. He nods and moves back. Alpha nods at the next operative, who pulls the door open as the operatives aim inside the corridor. Not that anyone will be there, but they have skills for a reason and precautions count.

The outer door is breached. She looks round the room then unzips the compartment on the small black holdall. She reaches in and pulls the weighty object out. She throws the bag through the portal and moves closer to it. She leans through to quickly glimpse the room in the bunker then pulls back into the warehouse. She gains position. One foot through. One foot in the past and one in the future. She tuts again at the analogy that sums up the last few years of her life. One foot in the past. Always one foot in the past. She presses a button on the object in her hands and makes ready.

Alpha points to the inner door then at the method of entry operative. Alpha motions what will happen if the MOE operative fucks this one up. The operative nods and moves to the door. He drops to a crouch then opens a leather pouch to select the picks he needs. He pushes them into the lock, and barely a click is heard as the lock is undone.

Barley a click heard, but it’s enough. She smiles and throws the object. A second later she is in the bunker picking up the tablet, which she swipes to break the connection. As the signal is sent and the blue light flickers off one flame comes through, dying the second the light ends.

Alpha hears the charge being dropped on the floor. Bravo hears it. Charlie hears it. Delta and Echo hear it. They hear it, which is why they are paid more, why they are the elite, why they are selected to do the things they do. They drop as the others move forward towards the door and the room beyond that detonates from the plastic explosives on a timer that ignite the fuel splashed from the cans the woman brought with her. Flame scorches out. The pressure wave is huge. The sound, the heat, the sensation and the vortices created by the explosion kill the other operatives outright. The five move fast. They scrabble to stagger out through the main door as the front wall of the warehouse blows out. Glass and brick flies across the road. The air feeds the flames that roar up into the sky.