"Just call me Link."

"OK Link, I know all the loopholes in enemy base five," Bill responded.

"OK Bill, lead the way. We have to infiltrate the main core and destroy it. Simple and sweet."

"As you wish, Link."

Bill sounded exactly like any other partner I had worked with. Only smarter and more coordinated. The snow kept on falling. That left two pairs of footprints that were covered with snow in some time. Warfare in snow differed significantly as it reduced visibility and range. But it was all the same to Bill. He detected enemies by sensing their thermal signatures. Bill touched the wire in an external protection system.

"Over ride complete. All the external security cameras, thermal scanners and lasers are now useless for about an hour. I over rode it using the program designed by HQ."

That's so fucking cool, I wanted to say. Instead I said,"Good work, Bill." All the tiptoeing and manual cutting of wires, following cameras and masking thermal images was rendered useless in just the first two minutes of infiltration.

At this rate, the mission might not be as difficult as I had expected. Bill infiltrated the external ground and started walking towards the right. I followed close behind.

As we moved, I informed him,"If we meet an enemy, killing him will send a direct signal to the control centre of base 5. Then things might get ugly. The best way is to shoot the enemy on the right of the neck. That way the transmitter is destroyed, therefore no signal reaches anywhere."

"Understood, Link. The right of the neck." Saying so he raised his left arm and he shot from his hand. A sniper fell on the snow below. The white snow around him slowly turned to red as blood flowed from his neck.

"A good shot soldier!" If this goes on I might get an inferiority complex, I thought. General Link, best soldier, my ass. But I kept the joke to myself.

"The honour's mine, Sir!" And whose idea was it to add responses that were so formal? A joke or two might have worked wonders. Maybe in the next upgrades they add a touch of humour.

Bill's right hand rose up and shot another sniper. He didn't deviate from his path or even slow down. He just kept on going.

Bill turned a left. He didn't see either side but raised both his hands to shoot. Two patrol guards fell. There was one aspect I felt different in this mission. Usually company of a comrade generated some level of confidence. They had our backs. Here I was actually a little carefree. Bill was an impregnable shield from any possible enemy fire. Literally. He walked with his back upright. I walked behind him, crouching. This was a stealth mission after all. But Bill could maintain stealth without crouching.

With a comrade we have this primal fear, Don't shoot my comrade or he will be hurt. That is not acceptable. Here it was quite the opposite, to the point it was humorous. I felt like shouting,'Try shooting him punks. You will see what comes of it.'

"Crack a joke, Bill", I tested the research department.

"What do you call a man with a bullet in his lungs?", responded Bill.

"A tough gun?"

"No Link. He will be known as a dead man!"

Bill laughed.

I did not.

Well done, researchers. You think feeding such jokes will lighten the mood during stealth missions? I am a General. Does not mean I take death lightly. Its quite the opposite.

"Crack a joke which isn't grave or doesn't involve death."

"I only know jokes that are grave, Link."

What happened to the good old 'chicken crossed the road' gags. Oh wait, even they had dead chickens sometimes.

The next three minutes found us inside the facility. We went to room after room, guided by Bill. I actually got a chance to fire when there were multiple enemies. We never faced return fire.

We reached a particularly large room. Just as we were passing through, instinct told me to look behind. A bullet zipped past me and hit the man behind. The right of the neck. I stopped as my heart beat returned to a calmer pace. Bill kept walking. His hand was pointed at the dead man. His head faced ahead. It seemed he had eyes on the back of his head.

Even though I know he has thermal sensors, I will never get used to this, how many ever times I see it.

"You don't have to worry Link, I saw him before I entered the room. Just that, I didn't have a clear shot until he came out."

He seems to sense my fear. No wait, thermal scanning. My heart rate would inform him that. Increased heat signature.

The path Bill chose involved a lot of climbing. We killed twenty four enemies in total, out of which Bill killed sixteen. Though it seemed like an easy infiltration, I knew the amount of effort that had been put in bringing out the smallest holes in the security and calculating the best possible route.

On the eighteenth minute of infiltration, Bill signaled low battery. That also meant he won't be able to fire anymore. He only had enough left for movement and return journey. I didn't complain. All that was left to do was drop the projectile on the core and fly away from there.

The main core was a jet black hemisphere. It had shields on it. A spiral staircase ran from the base of the hemisphere to the top of the building, with radius same as that of the sphere. From any part of the staircase, the core could be seen. We were on a higher floor. I looked around and climbed the stairs to a point, where a window would be directly behind me as I faced the core below. In case of an emergency, I could fly out of the window using thrusters on my suit. The only problem being that the anti air units would incinerate me in mid air. But once the core was down the anti air won't work either, making it a rather safe trip. So I advised Bill to do the same. He obeyed.

The only problem in that plan was, the shields were too thick. I didn't have enough firepower to bring the core down. The calculations of the HQ about the strength of the core were certainly amiss. All the weapons I had, would barely scratch the surface. Nor did Bill have a stronger weapon. Even if he did, his batteries were down.

"We will have to make a bomb, Bill"

Then it happened. Bill pointed at a lower ring of the spiral stair case. Five enemies. All armed. I had about three seconds before they informed the control centre, in other words failed mission. I pressed a button on my index finger with my thumb. And then time slowed down.

The time didn't actually slow down. It was a drug induced in my system, from the suit, that made me feel as if time had slowed. In a way, I saw everything in slow motion. Including my own actions. 'Then what is the use?' you might ask. I could still think at a normal rate. Life saving for a soldier. Helps in split decisions and precision aiming. A researcher once tried to explain it to me. It affects the brain's perception of time or something. But if a person outside were to read my mind at that time, it would seem as if I was thinking faster. A single second stretched to five.

I weighed all my options as I reloaded my gun. In three seconds I could kill three of the men, as it would take two seconds to reload. Bill would probably act as meat shield to take the gun shots. One of the men would inform the control centre and the mission would be sacrificed. Or if Bill didn't protect me, I would die and again the same result. Building a bomb in three seconds seemed impossible. I couldn't fly to escape, that would mean definite death.

As the first second was about to get over, Bill leaped.

I understood. I threw the gun as my hand reached towards a button on my chest plate. Thrusters kicked in and pushed me out of the window. I saw Bill fall slowly towards the core. The men tried to shoot him, but all the bullets bounced off his armour. That was the first time in the mission that he was hit by a bullet, not that it affected him. He turned in mid air. His lips moved. I don't know if it was my imagination but I thought he said,"Goodbye Link!"

His hands moved to his chest where he tore the suit and his body armor to reach for the battery within. His hand jerked a little. An explosion shook the building. I was safely out of the window by that time. I saw the building being consumed in the explosion as a mushroom cloud rose up slowly, forming various patterns that seemed to get bigger. I had suspected from the start, that the research department used a nuclear battery in place of a usual one, to solve 'the battery problem'.

The patterns seemed to consume one another, rather than a clear winning pattern emerging, the conflicting patterns kept on increasing. It reminded me of the human race. The snow below seemed to turn directly to steam. As the patterns grew too bright, I closed my eyes. The thrusters were on auto pilot.

Goodbye Bill.

****