Henff family Penthouse

Central district of Paris, France

9:17pm

David stepped into the shower section of his large bathroom and let the cold water cascade down his body. Having a very cold shower after a very stressful day was a normal part of his routine now. As he stood there completely free from all thoughts for the first time all day, he relaxed and let his body take the much needed respite the cold shower always offered. There in his bathroom, he had no idea his phone was ringing and had no idea about the seven men making their way up to his penthouse apartment to kill him in mere minutes.

Agent watcher looked at her screen and was not surprised when her call got no answer. She ran a quick thermal scan of the apartment again and quickly noticed Dave in the bathroom probably having a cold, noisy shower. Now she understood the impossibility of him hearing his phone ring in the bedroom. She had no other way of reaching out to him and reached for her keyboard at once. She typed in the sequence of codes that would activate a last resort communication device she could use to contact her agent. All agents working for the Agency had micro chips implanted at the base of their ears that allowed an agent with the right access code direct access to a secure and immediate line of communication. She typed in the codes for activating David's communication chip and was relieved when the light on her computer screen flashed green to indicate a successful booting of the chip and connection to it. She placed the microphone close to her lips and spoke slowly in order not to startle him or give him a bad shock.

"Agent Phantom we have an emergency. David can you hear me clearly." She asked reverting to his real name reflexively as the adrenalin in her kept spiking. The elevator was taking longer than expected to get to the penthouse because she had delayed it from using her system. It would eventually still get to the top and deliver the assassins to David's front door. "David if you can hear me respond immediately." She said again.

"Of course I can hear you; this chip connects me to you no matter where I am or what I am doing. It is like having my ear in your hands at all times and you know that. You also know you are not meant to activate it unless in terms of an emergency so I hope you have a really good reason for talking to me while I am having a shower." David asked shaking his head. He wasn't surprised by the intrusion; he hardly ever had any form of privacy anymore. "What is the matter Watcher?" he asked slowly and in a low voice knowing full well that the chip was designed to carry audio signals as well as receive them once activated, not minding how faint the sound actually is.

"You have four armed men in the elevator heading for the top floor, you also have an additional three armed men going up the stairs quickly and definitely heading for the penthouse as well just in case you get bored with the four in the elevator." Watcher said speaking through the implanted chip. David left the shower on and had already put on his boxer briefs in the seconds after hearing what his guardian agent had just said.

He had gotten a pair of joggers and was putting them on already but the agent in him made it impossible for him to not ask any questions. "Watcher do you have any idea who those guys coming to kill me are?" he asked putting on his grey joggers and picking up his phone in his left hand, he was right handed but he needed his right hand to carry something else.

"I just scanned a picture of the four in the elevator; they all have the tattoo of three-leaf clovers on their necks." Watcher said calmly deciding not to give any more information; he knew exactly what that tattoo meant already.

"If they have those tattoos it means this guys work for the Russian mafia right?" David asked knowing exactly what the answer was.

"Yes they do." Was the older lady's curt response

"That means this is all connected to my mission in Moscow some time back right?" David asked again still knowing exactly what the answer was.

"We are both responsible for almost totally botching that mission; let's not talk about it right now. We have more pressing issues to take care of." She said before proceeding to press some keys on her keyboard. She was right and David knew that, he had to be focused on the men coming to kill him if he wanted to leave here without any holes in him. He bent down and took out the Beretta APX pistol from the drawer next to his bed before taking out the suppressor and attaching it quickly while making his way for the front door.

"What do you intend to do?" Watcher asked waiting to hear his plan before sharing hers; he normally didn't have any plans.

"The plan is simple partner; I go out there and put one bullet in each of their heads before they have the chance to even fire a shot at me. When I am done killing the killers then I'll walk out the front door and let you and the Director decide what happens now that my cover is partially blown." David said and heard the immediate disapproval in his supporting agent's voice when she sighed. "If you have better plans then share it instead of sighing so loudly." David said laughing softly, the possibility of death never ruined his laugh; he had been shot at many times in his life and didn't get scared by men with guns anymore. Especially not when he also had a gun, he was very good at using guns and had proven to be one of the best on the planet at hitting a target.

"They think you are the one who killed the mafia boss in Moscow and you are actually the one, but they are not totally sure yet, no one is ever totally sure of anything. If you get into a gunfight with them and kill all of them without getting shot it becomes very suspicious. You are the Agency's best undercover agent because you are the one most discussed in the tabloids, blogs and magazines. You should not blow your cover just like that." Watcher said into her microphone and waited patiently for his response, when none came she knew it meant he agreed with her so she kept talking. "Instead of shooting anyone, let's sneak you out of there without you having to waste even a single bullet." She said confidently.

"How can I sneak out of here, it's a 34 storey building and I am at the penthouse. They have the elevator covered as well as the staircase Watcher; you don't expect me to climb out the window right?" David asked laughing even harder now in total contrast to the seriousness of the issue at hand. "That could actually work; I could jump out and create a makeshift parachute with my sheets. I could also just use a steel line from the storage unit and climb down the building safely. At least I could get to another floor." David suggested turning to look at the windows and actually liking his ideas.

"Please no, you won't be doing any of that. It's unnecessarily dangerous and if you succeed it would only just raise more question regarding who you really are to be able to do any of that." Watcher said shaking her head as she stared at her screen like she had been doing the entire day.

"How do I get out of here without shooting my gun then?" David asked sounding excited but impatient at the same time. Watcher looker at her screen for some seconds and noticed something about the killers that made everything easier.

"Your intended killers came here to just kill you and go; they don't have special equipment or the actual skills of an assassin you have. They don't have any night vision goggles. I'll switch off the light in the last floor of the building and all you have to do is stay in a good spot and wait for them to walk past you while you sneak down the stairs and walk out through the front door.

"I know exactly where to be, kill the lights in exactly 2 minutes." David instructed and then opened the door. The elevator doors faced his apartment door and the stair case was down the corridor. All he had to do was suspend his body above the stairs by hanging between the narrow walls above the stair case. He smiled to himself and knew this was going to be the easiest escape he had ever done till date. He placed his phone in his pocket and slid the gun into the waist band of his joggers before turning to face the stairs, climbing it would be a piece of cake.

….

David stood at the reception area of the hotel he got as a birthday gift from his uncle a year ago bare-chested as he had forgotten to pick a shirt while planning his escape earlier. The receptionist had no idea who he was but had been staring at him the entire time, he couldn't blame her for doing so when he was standing there shirtless waiting for bike to pull up in front of the building. He heard the sound of his bike and knew it had arrived; he smiled at the receptionist before walking out the hotel with a swagger to his steps, even though it had all been too easy to escape those dumb killers. As they had planned, Watcher turned off all the lights in the last floor from the comfort of her house and with the use of a few keys on her keyboard. All he had to do was come down from his hanging position up the wall and walk down the stairs as quickly and as noiselessly as he could. He had gotten to the reception area where watcher asked him to wait for his bike which she was able to control remotely and bring to the entrance of the hotel for him.

He wanted a car but as usual his guardian agent (Agent Watcher) had convinced him otherwise and made it clear that there might be more armed men waiting for him outside in which case it would be easier to maneuver through any traffic and lose any pursuers if he was on a bike, he had seen wisdom in the plan and went along with it.

As he rode the bike now heading for a small house he had on the other side of town, he wondered what the Agency would decide to do about him now that his identity was almost totally exposed. The attack on his personal property by armed men clearly connected to the incidence in Russia was not something anyone would just consider a coincidence because it was clearly not one. It had been a planned hit and if he were not always connected to his caretaker agent via the ear implants he would have either gotten hurt this night or have been forced to show how really dangerous and lethal he could be thereby solidifying the current rumors about him flying around in not just some circles of the underworld but some levels of the global security network.

He had a feeling the Agency was going to send him far away for a while at least just till the heat blew over, he had no idea but he wished he did so he could know what exactly to expect. He pushed the speed of the bike to its limits not minding any tickets that would come for breaking speed regulations later; he could easily pay those ones off. He just wished he had more of a say in whatever was going to happen next but he didn't, speeding through the streets of Paris and being as careless as ever was just what he needed to clear his head and he was doing just that.

…..

Director Margaret Colt was the current director of the Agency. She received the details of the attack on David's home barely five minutes after it had happened and was already receiving calls from the higher-ups who controlled the agency and made the more critical decisions. David Ryan-Henff was their top agent and had been for years so risking him was not an option. In a few minutes the decision was made and the Director had no choice but to relay the information to her agent. He had been sent to the country he would have wanted to avoid the most because of his past there and there was nothing he or the Director could do about it, the order had come from the very top of the chain of command that controlled their dangerous organization. There was one good thing however; he was going to be really safe where they were sending him to.

...

11:50PM

16TH February, 2022

He sat in his jet remembering the events of the night and how instead of letting him sleep he had been ordered to fly to the states that night. He sat there wondering what he would probably do with his life the next couple of months when all his friends and favorite places were in Europe where he had spent the most fun years of his life.

"I haven't been to that city in years." He said to himself as he remembered the city he had been asked to relocate to. It was the city where he was born and where he had experienced a good childhood. He would pass through New York and settle some business before quickly continuing on to his actual destination.