Henff family Penthouse
Central district of Paris, France
9:17pm
Ryan 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 armed men in black suits making their way up to his penthouse apartment to kill him in mere minutes. They were four in the elevator and another three climbing up as quickly as they could. His house had an A.I system that could connect him to his phone even while he was having a shower, but he had not turned it on after getting home that evening.
….
Agent W looked at her screen and was not surprised when her call got no answer, she had noticed the intruders making their way up to Ryan's apartment earlier through the agency's security system which she had limitless access to. It was her job to keep him informed of the organizations decisions and also to keep him safe and alive like she had been doing for the last 4 years. No other agent had someone watching after them from behind a computer screen 24/7, but Ryan was a special agent and a really special man. 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 even though she noticed the intruders get into the building through the back door and past the basement minutes ago and had been trying to reach him for almost 3 minutes already. She had no other way of reaching out to him and reached for her keyboard at once, there was one last and final way to reach him but the agency only allowed her to do so in cases of extreme emergencies. She launched the program on the computer quickly.
She typed in the sequence of codes that would activate a last resort communication device she could use to contact Ryan through the chip in his head. 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 from anywhere in the world. It was like telepathy but done technologically. She typed in the codes for activating Ryan'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; she knew he never got startled though. He was immune to the feeling of shock or urgency and it was one of the reasons he was so efficient in the field and capable of eliminating his targets even when the mission suddenly became dangerous or time sensitive, he was never bothered and definitely never in a rush. He was more machine than human but every other agent envied him for it.
"Agent Phantom we have an emergency. Ryan can you hear me clearly." She asked reverting to his real name reflexively as the adrenalin in her kept spiking. The elevator conveying the men up was taking longer than expected to get to the penthouse because she had delayed it from going at full speed after hacking into the buildings system. It would eventually still get to the top and deliver the assassins to his front door. "Ryan if you can hear me respond immediately." She said again getting more and more worried, Ryan was the only field agent who had another agent watching him 24 hours every day from a screen and the reason was very clear, he was the only one who had survived the project Genesis procedure all those years ago and was now the agencies biggest asset. They couldn't afford to have him killed.
"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." Ryan asked shaking his head and being his usual mean and direct self. He wasn't surprised by the intrusion; he hardly ever had any form of privacy anymore, not that he really cared though. He didn't have the empathy to care about things that weren't important enough to be considered life changing anymore, not since the procedure. "What is the matter Agent W?" 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." Agent W said with some hints of sarcasm as she spoke to him through the implanted chip in his ear. He left the shower immediately not caring that he was totally naked and had his goods out even with armed men coming to kill him. After hearing what his guardian agent had just said he got a little bit excited, he had endured a really boring day of partying and sex, none of which really gave him any catharsis or excitement anymore. The thought of men coming to kill him as revenge for killing their boss felt way better.
He stood naked in the middle of his room as the water dripped down his body already making all the mental calculations on how to best deal with the situation, his thinking and reasoning speed was like that of a computer and he had already come up with a very simple solution to the problem. His efficient and super smart thinking was just another added ability from the Project Genesis procedure all those years ago. He didn't really need to know any more information but the human part of 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 walking slowly towards his wardrobe and taking out a grey T-Shirt and black joggers from in his left hand. He didn't put them on though; he just held them in his left hand as he crossed to the other side of the room. He was right handed but he needed his right hand to carry something else, something he was very good at holding and using to perfection. It was a laser beam pistol.
"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 these guys worked for the target I took out in Moscow two weeks back and want some revenge right?" Ryan asked knowing exactly what the answer was.
"Yes they do." Was the older lady's curt response
"They only suspect me to be the phantom because of your mistake in Moscow that night, you should have killed all the security cameras and no one would have seen my face." Ryan said.
"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 he 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. It was customized to look like the Beretta APX even though it was a totally more dangerous weapon than what the actual thing was, it had the same design but this pistol did not shoot bullets, it shot laser beams that assured death when a target was hit. He made his way to the front door with his weapon in his hand, his clothes in his other hand and his body ready to kill.
"What do you intend to do?" Agent W asked waiting to hear his plan before sharing hers; he normally didn't share any of his plans as he considered himself way smarter than whoever he was with.
"The plan is simple; 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." Ryan 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 sounding irritated and wondering what her human mind could have planned instead, the possibility of death if he got into a gunfight didn't even cross his mind; he had been shot at many times in his life and had never been hit so he never got scared by men with guns anymore, he never got scared at all. 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 thanks to all his modifications during the procedure that made him into a perfect killer.
"They think you are the one who killed their 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. The wild and carefree lifestyle the media has painted of you is a perfect cover; 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 shoot even a single laser shot at any one." 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 Agent W; you don't expect me to climb out the window right?" Ryan 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." Ryan suggested turning to look at the windows and actually liking his ideas. (He had no fears and felt invincible at all times)
"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." Agent W 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 laser pistol then?" David asked sounding bored but patient at the same time. Agent W looked 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 of the building." She suggested and for the first time Ryan seemed to agree with her idea.
"I know exactly where to be, kill the lights on this floor in exactly 2 minutes." Ryan 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 while the killers passed beneath him after that he could drop down and walk away without any trouble, but it all seemed too easy for him. He smiled to himself and instead changed the setting of the laser gun from kill to stun using a knob on the side of the pistol.
….
He stood at the top of the staircase and could hear the footsteps of the armed men coming up to kill him now. He had been counting down the minutes in his mind and at exactly two minutes, all the lights went off. Agent W had cut off the power supply to the penthouse floor of the building just like he had asked. He stood there completely naked but not in any way ashamed with the laser pistol in one hand and his clothes in another. He raised the gun and held it just in front of him. He had one big advantage over the three men now, his eyes had been modified during the procedure as well, he could see perfectly in the dark.
He took his first step down the stairs and let out a shallow breath as he saw the first man. He quickened his movement and pace while squeezing the trigger of his laser pistol thrice.
"One, two, three." He counted slowly as he kept on moving. He didn't stop or turn around. He just counted the number of thuds as he walked passed their unconscious bodies and down the stairs. All three men had been hit with bolts of electricity from his gun to keep them unconscious for the next hour. He had shot all three men even before they noticed he was there. It was why he was so good at his job, he was faster, smarter and stronger than any normal human agent and he knew it.
He was out the front door and out the building in no time and got on his bike which was always parked out front. As he rode the bike now heading for a small house he had on the other side of city of Paris, 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 fearless 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 Ryan'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. Ryan Henff was their best 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, 2050
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 very 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 till he had lost both his parents on that rainy night. He would pass through New York and settle some business before quickly continuing on to his actual destination, he would fly to Orlando in Florida where his new home was already being prepared for him and then try to begin his final year in college as quickly as he could while pretending to be a normal 24 year old man just trying to start his life afresh in a new place and away from his crazy life in Europe.
He closed his eyes knowing full well that flying from France to the USA was barely a two hours flight for those who could afford the inter-continental teleportation price. He would be in New York that same night. It was one of the perks of being alive in 2050, teleportation had been incorporated into flight times and made it so easy to travel and much faster. Ryan sat there with his eyes closed but his mind unable to be stable. He opened his eyes and sat up straight in the plush seats. For the first time in years, his mind was anxious about something and he wanted to pretend that he didn't know what it was. He had checked using the agency's systems and was sure Sofia did not live in Orlando anymore, but he still found his mind anxious and maybe even excited about the possibility of seeing her again. He blocked off all his thoughts instantly and lay back into his seat, for some reason he could remember her name and remembered that he was not supposed to see her but he could not remember her face or the reason for staying away from her for so long. He was not someone who could get excited about seeing a lady; he had been modified to be free of such useless emotions. His focus went to something else instantly, he had to be focused if he was to keep being the best at this job he loved so much, the responsibility of eliminating the worst people all around the world was one he enjoyed.