Igi: 2

He grabbed a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, and lobbed it toward the main generator. The explosion turned the night orange. In the chaos, they sprinted across the tarmac. Bullets cracked past. Nightshade fired twice, and a sniper tumbled from a water tower.

Jones allowed himself the faintest smile. “Still alive. That’s the only score that counts.”

Nightshade’s cell was a reinforced door with a keypad. Jones didn’t have the code. He had something better—a portable bypass tool he’d “acquired” from a disgraced MI6 quartermaster. He pressed it to the panel, and the lock clicked open in twelve seconds.

Inside, the prison smelled of rust, sweat, and burnt coffee. He moved through the corridors like a ghost, pausing at every corner to peek with his tiny fiber-optic camera. Two guards at the end of the hall, one smoking, one complaining about the cold. Jones pulled a flashbang from his vest. He grabbed a grenade from his belt, pulled

“The scenic route,” Jones replied, handing her a pistol. “Can you walk?”

Thump—CRACK.

Jones’s blood turned cold. Compromised. Bullets cracked past

“Change of plans,” he said, pointing to a fuel truck parked near the south wall. “We’re leaving loud.”

They commandeered the truck. Jones hotwired it as shrapnel pinged off the armor. The gate splintered under the vehicle’s weight, and they roared into the forest, the prison lights shrinking behind them like dying stars.

They reached the rendezvous roof just as the alarm finally blared—someone had found the first body. Searchlights cut the rain into white knives. A twin-rotor helicopter was supposed to be waiting, but the pad was empty. “Still alive

The main gate was suicide. Too many cameras, too many heavy-caliber nests. Instead, Jones went vertical. He scaled the drainage conduit with his fingertips, pulling himself up hand over hand until he reached a ventilation shaft. The metal groaned, but the rain swallowed the noise.

Here’s a short story inspired by IGI 2: Covert Strike .