Sunday, November 23, 2003

News Article
I was incredibly bored and I got it done.

Enjoy.


We’ve all heard about the Counter-Terrorist agencies employed by governments all over the world, and how they frequently work together to bring down the bad guys. How old are the members? Late twenties at the youngest, mid forties at the oldest?

What if I told you that there was an existence of another Counter-Terrorist group, completely secret to the public that was a combined force from America, Australia Britain and Russia? That this group, originating as a simple exploration of an idea from Australia’s top ASIO and ASIS agents, is now one of the most respected shock groups in the world?

An amazing development, no? How old must be the members, to be regarded as the forefront? Late forties maybe?

Try twelve.

We’ve seen movies such as Spy Kids and Agent Cody Banks, which place children as key espionage agents doing the work of adults, and accepted them as a good form of entertainment, nothing more. After a pivotal meeting of four nations, the existence of the Special Youth Force, or SYF, has been released to the public.

The ages of the SYF members range from twelve to nineteen. The younger members are planted in schools or situations that are dubbed ‘at risk.’ Once there they can quickly act and bring down an act of terrorism if it should arise.

Such was the secrecy of the SYF’s actions that all of their missions have not been released to the public. Informed readers should remember the incident at Gryphon College six years ago.

Six million dollars in damages were done, but not one hostage’s life was lost out of the two hundred students that were held captive. Previous to the disclosure of the reports of the event, the public did not know the full story of the events. Two ex-army Apache’s were flown onto the Campus by the terrorist group, and were skilfully taken down by the SYF agents planted in the school, only the age of thirteen.

The video footage of a youth trying to shoot down one of these Apaches with a pistol became instantly famous when leaked videos were sent to the leading news publishers of Australia.

This youth is, in fact, one of the many SYF members employed by the government, but he’s also the first. His parents were the ASIS agents that started the experiment when he was twelve, along with his sister, deceased.

Oddly enough I met this gentleman, now almost twenty, on one of my trips to Singapore. I found him combing the rubble with other youths his age and interviewed him about the disastrous explosion. He and another SYF agent brilliantly peddled off a story that they were University students and had been driving past when the explosion happened. I bought the story.

This agent, his name now known, Liam, was informed that the existence of the SYF was to be released to the press and requested me to be his interviewer.

We met again in a secluded section of the Sydney library. I had been waiting for only a few minutes when he appeared beside me on one of the reading couches, dressed casually like the other teenagers browsing the shelves. (I later found out that they, too, were agents from his team).

I beckoned for him to begin from the start, when he was first recruited into the SYF.

“When I was twelve,” he started. He spoke with a crisp accent with a slight hint of Spanish, an after effect from his last mission he told me. “My parents fully informed me about their vocations. My twin sister and I were surprised; seeing as they were always home, like other parents, and they were completely unrestricted in attending important things in our lives. After the initial shock had passed, they informed us that we were to be integrated into a new ASIS organisation. We were, in effect, to be the guinea pigs of the fledgling SYF.” He paused there, a small smile playing across his lips as though he found the recounting of his life clichéd. “Heavy, full on training followed after our full consent. We trained like the SAS, day in day out, and kept to our school schedule. Don’t ask me how, but we managed to juggle intense training missions in PNG and scrape passing grades. Our first real mission came just a couple months before we turned thirteen. We were with a certain Major Pine when a Sprigot mortar, a booby trap, compromised our situation. Major Pine took the damage, Jess was ahead of us and safe, but Major Pine couldn’t protect me from the light.”

Liam paused there for effect, and lowered his pale-blue tinted sunglasses, pointing to his eyes. I could just make out the irregularity around the pupil, evidence of laser surgery.

“I went into intensive care and they managed to save most of my sight, but I was stuck with glasses until just a year ago when laser surgery advanced enough to cope with my situation. After that event I began a spiral downward of sorts, I became more reclusive, intense, you could say. Jess blossomed and became the social butterfly. When knowledge of my parents passing reached me, I sunk further.”

“How did you rise out of it?” I asked, as the agent sitting beside me was cheerful, much like the one I met in Singapore.

Liam grinned, “I met a certain agent.” He said knowingly. He caught my look and added, “no, not in that way. But she was teamed with me along with other agents for another mission. I was sixteen there and, to quote her, ‘a trigger happy son of a bitch’.” He gave a small laugh. “During the mission, don’t ask me why, I warmed up a little and began to take the road back to normality. Maybe it was because…” He stopped abruptly there and mused for a while. “Actually, I don’t think I’m allowed to mention mission details to you.”

I raised an eyebrow as he looked up and called to a nearby pretty girl, whom had her nose buried into a novel. I instantly recognised her from Singapore, though I didn't recall her being seated there before.

“Rae, am I?" He asked and then apologised to me, "I usually forget the intricacies of these things.”

The girl known as Rae, flicked her hair out of her face and said, “go for it. If you’re not allowed, it will be edited out of the article anyway.” She smiled apologetically at me and shrugged, saying, “It’s the truth.”

“Well, Rae here was mistaken for a certain weapons dealer’s daughter, and had to play the part in the effort of finding out more information. She, I might add, played the part beautifully.” He winked at Rae, who blushed slightly and looked back to her book. “A situation arose where I was captured by this dealer, and, to keep playing the part, had to torture me on several occasions to keep the dealer believing that she was his daughter.”

Liam raised his palm, showing me a symbol that had been carved into it. He must have noted my involuntary flinch, because he smirked and put his back to me. He lifted the back of his shirt and revealed a mess of scar tissue, evidence of the infamous cat-o-nine tails.

“I have to tell you,” he said when he’d turned back to face me, “it really wasn’t pleasant. But I’m over it now, and in an odd way, I’m better for it.”

Liam wouldn’t reveal the details of his current mission, or if the SYF had any involvement in the Singapore incident, but he did inform me that it was in the interests of public safety. “As always,” he said dryly.

“Would you call yourself a hero?” I asked, I had to ask it.

Liam’s eyes knew as a wry smile crept over his face again. “Don’t call me that.” He said. “The term hero is reserved for fictitious people like James Bond that never get shot, have perfect teeth and sleep around so much that they have invented their own venereal diseases. What I do is a job. There are so many loose ends that you have to be prepared for anything. We’re the anti-heroes, we get the job done, save bits of the world, and have scars, not medals, to show for it.”

He shook my hand and rose from the seat. I looked back down to my notes, and when I looked up, the library was deserted.

Comments would be greatly appreciated, as well as anything on the song I mentioned below.

[EDIT: AAAGH! Indents don't register..]
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