At the same time, at AINS, Jon was in the same situation as Annie.
The same paperwork, same headache.
Bunch of gibberish he couldn't understand, he just stared at it, pen in hand.
"is anything the matter" Rita asked him brows raised.
Jon practically glared at her.
Can't these people realize that he was just a nine year old kid?
How in the world did they expect him to understand jargons that even some grown ups had trouble making sense of.
He glanced at the woman.
Rita had just finished putting a stamp on a folder and her signature.
She leaned back on her swivel chair and interlocked her fingers, and stared at Jon.
His eyes scanned the paperwork, his eyes moved from left to right while he tapped the pen on his right cheek.
The AINS, much like AINA did the dirty work for the top dogs of the underworld and even high-class politicians.
Info the official law enforcement couldn't get their fingers on ordinarily, AINS had their methods and ways they wouldn't share with the outside world.
AINS was the brains, AINA was the muscle.
Jerome Fiske ran the entire thing.
Each organization had their own directors, those directors answered to madam Jerome.
She was a rich widow, who'd lost her husband at the hands of the mafia with billions of bucks left behind as inheritance.
She originally bought the island Arasia as a source of recluse.
She took Lorenzo the only surviving son she had withdrew from the outside world, taking all she had left along with her she wanted a break, wanted to get away.
The few men and women still loyal to her husband found her trail and followed her to the island.
She changed her last name Luciano, erasing all traces of her past life, ties to her husband and began a new one.
The only thing that could link her to her past was her son Lorenzo.
He was a stubborn one.
The moment he had learnt of his past, he did a name change even against his mother's wishes but he was a grown man and no way was he going to let go of his history just like that.
Hell no. He wanted his name back, Lorenzo Luciano.
With the money she had left and her able skills at seduction including her brains and beauty, she managed to build Arasia into a formidable location.
It wasn't a country, nope, a person couldn't call it that.
It was more like a fortress or a hideout, it's co -ordinates wasn't on any map.
The only way in and out was through air or sea.
Even those had separate roads that linked to and fro the main city.
One road to, one road fro both the airport and sea port, separately.
One would wonder how that much money came about, easy.
Assassinations, kidnappings, missions.
In general, crime, weapons.
AINS also developed weapons in addition.
Rare weapons that were in high demand that cost fortunes.
Anything they could lay their hands on.
Most contracts they got was oddly official.
They came from countries and even bore stamps from the leaders of those countries.
How those leaders managed to hide the paper trail, Jerome had no idea how the arseholes managed to keep it secret and hide the paper trail but it wasn't any of her business.
So long as Arasia recieved it's pay, she was satisfied.
There was no such thing as half payment up front and the rest later.
It was payment up front. She made sure they were reliable, did their job according to the client's specifications.
If they wanted no traces, she ensured it was so.
Wanted it staged, it was so, no questions asked.
Arasia was the perfect auto killing machine.
Most countries knew of it's existence but they prefered the place to still stand.
Things their official government organizations couldn't do, Arasia took care of it plus Jerome had personal dirt on almost everyone so they wouldn't dare.
For Intel, they mostly used kids, teenagers who had been trained from birth, placed undercover in homes and in places that had Arasian agents.
They even had set up families infiltrating most countries.
Tough jobs and assassinations, they used the grownups and jobs that required seduction, they had the very finest.
All the females took classes, learnt the
subtle methods of persuasion without having to lift a finger.
Jon looked at the damn file and signed it anyway.
He wished Annie was here, she'd have known what to do.
If only he knew his sister was in the same tough situation as he was ... clueless as well.
The moment he dropped the pen, Rita grabbed the file, she scanned the info, her eyes widened at the surname on the document but she had to be sure.
"what's your father's name"
she asked a Jon who'd slacked his upper body on the chair he sat.
"Adam Hart" Jon replied.
"your mother's name?"
"Elizabeth Hart"
"the two girls?"
"they're my sisters" Jon replied, wondering where all this was going.
Rita was sure now. Her suspicions were true.
It really was them.....she had to see Madam Jerome.
"Will I still get to see my sisters?" Jon asked hopefully.
"of course...there are visiting days... you can see each other then" Rita replied.
She closed the file and stood up, then adjusted her glasses.
"let's go...you need to see the male living arrangements and get settled in" Rita said, adjusting her Jacket.
Jon stood up and followed her. The woman walked briskly out and swiped a key card on the door.
They went through a series of connecting hallways and arrived at a sort of store room but this one had robots doing the work instead of humans.
The only human present was sitting at a desk on the opposite side of the entrance.
He glanced up the moment Rita and Jon walked in.
"Rita darling what brings you to my humble coop" he cooed, Instantly dropping what he had in his hand.
"oh pullease" Rita said rolling her eyes.
"Find him something" she added, nodding her head in Jon's direction.
"ah...a new one" the man said, picking up a digital board and punching in some gibberish Jon couldn't see.
A bit rolled towards them and the man spoke
"he's going to take your measurements boy...so just relax"
Jon lifted his hands sideways.
The bot took his measurements and rolled into goodness knows where.
The bots were identical. The moment the bot disappeared, Jon lost it in the remaining army of it's likeness.
It surfaced later holding a plain white body suit that had a thin collar covered in nylon which it held out to Jon.
Jon took it and it rolled off.
It had wheels instead of legs.
"see you later Robert" Rita called out to the man behind the desk as they walked out.
The man blew her kisses, she laughed.
Jon noted it was the first time she had broken her poker face.
They exited the building into open air.
The floor was paved with tiles and the sound of their shoes disturbed the peace of the air whooshing in Jon's ears.
The entire area was quiet.
Where was everyone? Jon wondered.
Soon they were in front of another building.
Rita nodded to the woman at the desk and went straight in.
It was a 15 storey living quarters but the only special thing was, instead of being built upwards, it went down.
The first floor was up, the others went downwards.
Rita pressed a button and an elevator door opened.
The elevator was see through.
Jon joined her in it and went down 5 floors before it stopped.
They got out and walked through a long corridor before Rita stopped at the second to the last door and swiped her key card.
The steel doors slid backwards.
Jon entered into a room that had identical beds in a long row which came out directly from the walls.
There were no legs anchoring it to the ground.
"this is your living arrangement.." Rita started.
"just a bed? where's the couch? no wardrobe?
am I supposed to have only this for a wear?" Jon asked incredulously.
He suddenly had the feeling of being in an orphanage.
This was basically the same thing! the only difference was the tech..I thought these people had dough he wondered.
He didn't know what he had been expecting, but it definitely wasn't this.
Rita's poker face didn't shift one instant, her expression remained the same.
She adjusted her glasses and continued, ignoring his words.
"this is your living arrangement....the closet is built into the wall, there's an entertainment center, and training starts at eight every morning"
Jon's eyes scanned the walls and didn't find anything that resembled a closet.
He looked at the woman, brows raised.
"sorry miss but I don't see any closet doors"
Rita calmly walked to one of the beds and touched a button.
A dull door sliding sound was heard and a section of the wall moved from bottom to top, exposing the hollowed inside.