Legends don't die. Robert Smith doesn't die. And he has created many legends that no one knows but himself. But when he worked for the CIA, he must keep dying and keep coming back, again and again. It's mostly because, he must hide the fact that he doesn't age. If he stayed on for too long, people would realize he just looked like a 23-year-old forever. Secondly, he often grew tired of what he was doing, so he quit his job by dying. He doesn't really physically die. His death has always been fake. But, that's the only way he knows how to escape his current situation-- fake a death.
His name alternates between Robert B. Smith and Brian R. Smithson. He finally retired to the name "Bob Tchaikovsky" to constantly remind himself the last innocent man he had witnessed dying. Robert has vowed to not let innocent man die under his watch.
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{The Past----, 1954, Moscow, Russia---}
He was recruited to work for the CIA in the Cold War, targeting Russians and turning Russians to work for the U.S.
A few years into it, Robert was working on turning a scientist, Illych Tchaikovsky. Robert was sure he could get Illych out of Moscow. He was going to meet with Tchaikovsky at a tea room on that day. Before he entered the metro station, he sensed something was wrong.
Robert Smith had hypersensitive senses. He could smell something wrong before something even happened.
It was not a time when there were mobile phones. Otherwise, he would've called Illych and told him not to leave his house.
Moscow Metro Number 2 was never good news. It was abnormally deep. It reminded him the tales in the Lord of the Rings, when you dug too deep, something was bound to happen.
Robert Smith began to run to where he believed Illych might be right now. He wanted to stop him from going into a metro station. He ran so fast that every pedestrian turned their heads, watching an incredibly fast shadow passing them by. He was running at 38 miles per hour at that time.
But he still didn't run fast enough. When Illych Tchaikovsky was already climbing down to the super deep metro station, someone easily grabbed Illych amidst of those deep stairs. Robert wanted to yell "Stop!" But it was too late. Someone then cracked a Molotov cocktail bomb on him. The innocent man, Illych Tchaikovsky, then screamed in terror and pain. He was burning and flapping his body against the ground. Robert felt he was burning from the inside.
Robert Smith quickly retreated to a designated safe house, in case he would be compromised now that Illych was attacked.
He didn't think Illych was attacked by KGB, the counterpart of CIA. His senses told him, it came from a so-called ally—he believed it was caused by the British intelligence agent.
How did Robert know? When Robert smelled the burning of Illych, he also smelled the alcohol that had vaporized in the air. It was the kind of fine liquor only served in foreign embassy.
How did he know when he never even drank a drop of it? He smelled it from the breath of a man who worked at the British Embassy once.
Robert didn't even bother turn this information in for his handler. No one was going to believe him. A British ally trying to kill a friendly Russian working for the U.S.? Why? No way.
Robert Smith decided to die. Fake dying, of course. He believed he was no longer safe after the death of Illych Tchaikovsky. He would be the next person to get "taken care of."
But he rejoined the CIA as another man, Brian R. Smithson.
All he did was, pretending to die in an accident in St. Petersburg. And then, he secretly took a train to Helsinki. He bought another passport and used that to fly back to New York City. He had so many fake passports. CIA gave him a bunch, but he wasn't going to use those.
He then dyed his hair to dark brown. He had light blond hair as Robert Smith, but he decided to have dark hair for Brian R. Smithson.
He was still that 23 year old man. He came back using a different name. He easily passed all the tests—physical and written exams, because he had taken all those tests before. He had all the requirements. He could shoot, he could fight, he could endure interrogation. This time, he was determined to do some justice.
He found a mole in CIA selling names to the British and an agent in British Secret Intelligence Service
No one knew how he found them, but it required Robert's foreign language skills and disguise skills. He was able to fool the moles into thinking he was a Russian. He had the physical strength to run after their vehicle on foot and stopped their car by hand. He was then able to convince them and then trapped them in a safe house. When the two men denied their wrongdoing, Robert hit "record" on a tape recorder. It was all quiet on the tape. No one knew what Robert was doing during the quietness. All anyone knew was, within ten minutes, the two confessed to the whole thing, how they killed Illych and other Russians.
And the reason was, the U.K. didn't want the U.S. to win in the Cold War... nor lose it. The British wanted the Cold War to drag on.
This was exactly why Robert had become disappointed in the system and in all the politics. The British were supposed to be the allies, but they were merely trying to latch on and drag on. Robert knew this when he was stationed in Southwest China during World War II. The British wanted to keep all their colonies in Asia, but did not put in any effort to fight off any Japanese invasion. They basically wanted the U.S. to fight their war for them.
Now, the British wanted the U.S. to keep being trapped in this Cold War. Checks and balances. No one should have more powers. The Cold War was a good way to keep checks and balances.
So the U.S. was unaware of this hidden agenda from the supposed "ally." And the U.S. was now trying so hard to work with World War II aggressors to fight in the Cold War. How silly was all this? Robert couldn't bear it anymore.
Robert turned in the tapes and evidence to his superiors about the British trying to drag on the Cold War, but apparently those tapes and evidence had never gotten anywhere. If what he turned in was not going to take any effect, that meant Robert would be in danger.
So Robert decided to die again. He was gone. Like a ghost. Like a legend that can only be retold but cannot be reproduced.
His third try with CIA was to stop foreign influences on the best minds in the U.S.
Since the 60s, the U.S. was striving in innovations. It then, attracted the enemies to install themselves inside the U.S. to try to approach those innovators, inventors, and entrepreneurs.
One of which was an American bio-chemical engineer who was developing a weapon that could attack very precisely.
It was such a powerful weapon that the actual address of where the weapon was being developed was unknown to even people in the CIA.
Robert didn't know where it was, either. He just knew his mission was to protect this unknown engineer. He just didn't want to participate in anything that would harm anyone innocent.
Surely, protecting an engineer shouldn't harm anyone innocent.
But Robert was wrong. He would soon have to die, again.
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Thanks for the reader who voted a power stone for this novel yesterday! I also thank those who just recently added this book to the library. All of these have been very encouraging.
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