"Why are we here again?"
The blonde man walked leisurely through a large field. He looked at the rows of tobacco leaves in disgust. "And why does it have to be a bloody tobacco field?"
Another man in a dark suit looked up at the sky. "I thought we were going to be heading home now that the trafficking case is done. I don't know what else we are going to do in Brazil." The man in the suit pulled out a cigar, lit it quickly and started puffing on it.
"You know, second hand smoke is even-"
"Shut it November, I've heard that sermon more times than I care to remember. Let's just keep our eyes open for-"
The man suddenly stopped. A bright light filled the sky as stars started falling, slowly at first, then more and more often. One came streaking across the sky, almost overheard. The blonde man fell to his face, his arms covering his head. The fallen meteor slammed into a village about a mile from the pair. The ground shuddered with the impact. The blond man looked up from the ground.
"What the hell was that?"
The man in the black suit looked up again, visibly shaken. More stars were streaking across the sky, looking disturbingly unlike meteors. Patches of starless sky were now appearing
"What is going on? Are you seeing this? Are those the… the stars?" The blond man fell back on his butt, staring with awe up at the sky.
The other man was in just as much awe, his cigar dropped from his open mouth. "It-it's happening, just like she said it would. I thought it was all a hoax…" He quickly grabbed his phone and punched in a number. "Hello, yes sir it is happening. Security code? Yes, ok, five five alpha seven Charlie, code name June reporting in… how's that for protocol? Now about the sky falling around us." The man paused to listen. The blond man had shifted his stare towards his partner, a confused look on his face. Another flash of light lit up the field as a gas station on the edge of town erupted into flames.
"JUNE! WHAT IS GOING ON?" The blond man shouted, reaching for the sidearm at his waist. June looked over at him, the phone still pressed up against his ear.
"I'd sit down, or rather get down if I were you." June crouched down in the field. "No not you. I have another agent with me, remember?" He looked back, "I mean it man, get down. There is a big one coming."
By now, the sky had grown void of stars. A single bright light was shining, and rapidly becoming brighter. It grew to a blinding intensity. The blond man shut his eyes, but the light was still bright, even through his eyelids. Suddenly a spine shuddering Thump sent a vibration that overwhelmed all of his senses. He curled up into a ball, his eyes shut tight.
The warmth of the rising sun peaked through the tobacco plants, the light shining bright into the closed eyes of the two men. Their limp bodies started to slowly move. June let out a long groan, trying to rise to his feet with all the dignity that he could manage. He looked over at the other agent, still lying flat on the hard dirt.
"Get up November, we've got work to do."
A small Brazilian girl woke from her sleep. What a night, she had barely slept a wink last night due to that bright light, whatever that was. She yawned quietly, it must have been more Government Men in their scary floating car. Yes, the one with the big spinner on top, they would often fly over with a big bright light. Daddy had always said that they were looking for bad little girls and boys. She giggled at the thought, she used to believe that old lie. With another yawn, she got up slowly, and walked quietly to the door. Golden sun light poured in as she blinked rapidly in the brightness. Suddenly her eyes went wide. A small whimper escaped her lips as she gazed at the scene in front of her. The small village was half burned, with blackened skeleton building and crumbled walls throughout.
"Momma?" She said quietly, then found her voice and shrieked like a banshee. :MMMAAAAMMMAAAA! MAAAMAAA! MAAAAMAAA!" She collapsed at the door way, falling to her knees with tears leaking past her closed eye lids. As she broke down into sobs, she opened her eyes. There was a faint sound to her left, a sound like the sound she heard every Easter at the old cathedral the sound of bells, of piano, of the wooden wind chimes that were outside her house. She paused, her sadness forgotten at the moment. She started walking, almost as in a daze, seeking for the source of the mysterious noise that was filling her head.
She stumbled through fields, and then over rocks until she reached an area by the village stream, blood dripped from the lacerations on her hands, those rocks had been much sharper than she had thought. Somewhere in her mind, she remembered visiting here often, usually with the other children of the village, sometimes alone. They were dead now, at least a large number were. The fire had to be massive to destroy that much of the town. There was no fire department to combat the blaze, and the sleepiness of the night would have only added to the chaos. Chance of survival was low. She stood stunned for a second, unsure at why she was having these thoughts, and then started walking again. The other children were not her concern anymore. She crawled over a rock and gazed at the river. No longer was the thin winding river, a large object had impacted right on the river, leaving a large circular hole, now filled with water. The girl stared at the pool of water, her eyes suddenly becoming dimmer in colour.
Tokyo, Japan
The sound of sirens filled the night sky. They had started during the day, right when that meteor struck. Now that the sun was down, the strange dark sky was something to behold. An elderly woman strolled down the street, oblivious to the sirens and panic surrounding. She gazed up at the sky, feeling an odd feeling. It had been so long since she had felt it. Her amber eyes glinted in the light of streetlamp. She had made it. A small bright light had started shining in the sky. It was not by itself for long though, soon there were other small lights, twinkling into existence. The elder woman reached into her purse and pulled out an outdated cell phone. She punched in a number and brought it to her ear.
"Code name February, code Charlie Foxtrot Zulu one three Bravo. Yes, I know, it's begun."
Two years later
"Agent Zero Eleven!" A man in a dark suit called out, running down the hall of the busy building. The blond man down the hall glanced over his shoulder, his hand discreetly reaching into his suit pocket.
"Are you talking to me?" The blond man said, feinting ignorance. "My name is Charles, Charles Windser. You must have mistaken me for-"
The other man pulled out a large silver handgun, flipped the safety off and fired, but Agent Eleven was already moving. As soon as the pistol had reflected even the slightest bit of light, Agent Eleven had dived to the left, smashing through a glass wall into an office. The bullet missed, smashing into a window down the hallway. Agent Eleven peaked up from the solid mahogany desk in the luxuriously decorated office. His much smaller handgun was up and ready, firing a two quick shots, one that struck the man's shoulder, the other diving straight into his chest. There was a split second of pure silence, and then all hell broke loose. Office employees started screaming, running and a few simply hunched down behind something. At the same time, a door to Agent Eleven's left was smashed down. He turned, training his handgun on the source of the noise. His eyes grew large as he realized what it was, and then he emptied the rest of his magazine at the heavily armed men that were running in. One fell, a bullet hole in his face. Another stopped dead, pushed back by a trio of rounds slamming into his bulletproof vest. The other men pushed passed them, training their sub-machine guns on the lone agent. They opened fire with a wave of metal slamming into the large desk. Agent Eleven took a quick breath, pulled out a small ball, pushed in a small circular shape on it and flung it over the desk towards the men. The small metallic ball hit the ground and rolled right in front of them, and then suddenly shot out a cloud of gas, quickly enveloping the men. Agent Eleven bolted; arms over his face as he smashed through another glass wall. He slid past a few very surprised office workers and barreled towards the break room. With a quick move he opened the fridge and snatched out a small bag labelled TOFU, then threw the microwave down from the cabinet it was perched on. Behind the microwave there was another handgun and a small combat pouch.
The streets of London were quiet now. A lone blond lady strolled down the street. The sudden sound of a cellphone broke the relative calm atmosphere.
"Hello? Yes, I am aware of the operation…I can be there in 5 minutes." She quickly flagged down a taxi. The driver smiled, then stared with his mouth open as she pulled out a small revolver.
"Get out." The man quickly opened the door and ran. The woman jumped in, taking just enough time to throw her seat belt on and move the seat forward. Then she slammed the car into first, grimacing at the harsh smell of rubber as the aged car accelerated quickly down the road. A quick tug of the emergency brake brought the old veteran of a taxi down a small back alley. The lady already had her phone out.
"Decade? Yes it's me, and we have a snag in the operation. Agent Eleven has been made; I'd say the mission is over unless he can pull something fantastic out of his ass." She paused, nearly clipping a shiny luxury car. The harsh horn blared out. The woman ignored it; continuing to break the speed limit as the taxi swerved through the sparse London road, well, relatively sparse when compared to most of the time.
"Are there any contractors there?"
In a quiet office, Decade held the phone to his ear, "Yes we believe that they have already recruited one at least, maybe more. Yes, I know he is not trained to deal with them, I don't think he has even heard more than lunchtime gossip about them. We have to get him out now, or leave him to die. I guess it all depends on how fast you can get over there."
A small cloud of smoke trailed behind the taxi as it flew around a corner, and it definitely was not from the squealing tires. The blond lady sniffed gingerly, smelling the burnt oil that overwhelmed the overall smell of burnt rubber and stale cab. The next intersection brought her within touching distance of a red Double Decker bus. She gulped back a scream as the bus laid on the horn.
"Easy there, Ricardo won't be happy if you don't make it home tonight." She muttered to herself. "Zult! Sacrebleu!" The taxi barreled down a small alleyway, whizzing past a pair of very drunk Englishmen.
Silence had filled the floor. Shattered glass crunched under the heavy boots of the security guards. Automatic weapons swept across the shattered remains of the office. Amid the helmeted men, a single man in a black suit stood among them, looking relatively frail in comparison despite his authoritative look. The men starting searching through the debris; knocking desks over and smashing through office doors.
Small shriek came from a small brunette woman, pulled from her hiding space under a desk. The guard, realizing that she was not his target, let her go and continued sweeping the floor.
"Hey boss! Come here!" A guard shouted enthusiastically. A window in the lunchroom had been smashed, with a small metal cord attacked to the refrigerator, leading out the window. He peaked out the window, looking down. There was a microwave on the other end of the cord. Shards of glass were also strewed on the ledge of the window on the same level as the microwave. The suited man walked calmly to the window, glanced down before pulling out his phone.
"He's down two floors from here, probably came through the window." The man looked at the floor. His eyes suddenly went red, a blue glow surrounding him. Suddenly a blinding white light shone in front of him. The other men hastily shielded their eyes. As the light faded, a ragged hole was left in the floor. The man quickly grabbed a nearby keyboard, slamming it over his head, snapping it in half. With a stoic look he hastily dropped down the hole. A small pause followed as the other men glanced at each other. It only lasted a second though as they moved forward and dropped, one by one, through the hole onto the floor below.
Agent Eleven typed fiercely at the computer in front of him, hoping that the men had bought his ploy. After grabbing what he needed from the break room he had tied the microwave to the fridge using his utility cord, conveniently stored in the TOFU bag. Then he threw it through the window. It fell for a second before running out of cord and swinging into the window two floors down. Then he quickly scrambled out out the window, avoiding the shattered glass, and started climbing. Two floors up and he could slide a window open and quietly slip in to the dark lit room. He had picked the perfect place, aiming straight for his target, the abandoned part of the building, closed for "Repair". MI6 knew better though, and this corporation's research into the Gates was very illegal here in Great Britain, but also very interesting to the British Government. Agent Eleven's eyes scanned the screen as information started downloading, his small microchip transmitting all information automatically to the MI6 database, rather than storing the information on itself. This would insure the mission's success, even if it went south for Agent Eleven personally. He grimaced at the thought.
Thump. A small muted sound made Agent Eleven whip his head around, aiming his pistol at the source, the long staircase leading up to the room. He quickly flipped the monitor screen off. With a black marker, he then scribbled over the small power light on the computer's tower, leaving it to all appearances to be off. Scuttling behind another desk, he peaked out. The small footsteps continued as a small man walked up. His large spectacles made his eyes look even bigger and more worried than humanly possible. He glanced around before heading to a computer. Agent Eleven gave a silent breath of relief that it was not the same computer that he had used. The sharp noise of rapid typing filled the silence. Agent Eleven sat there, silent. All he had to do is wait until the download was complete, and then either sneak past the nerdy fellow, to the freedom of a mission well done, and hopefully a glass of scotch on a warm beach.
The nice dream was erupted by a small double beep. It could have been a trumpet. The flash drive had finished downloading and transmitting. The gentle beep was just loud enough to catch the other man's ear. He paused typing, slowly looking around. The chair squeaked as he started to get up, then slowly started walking around the room. Agent Eleven gulped, knowing that he had to act quickly. The man had wandered over to Agent Eleven's computer. Bending over, he flipped the monitor on. Then his eyes grew wide, not at the DOWNLOAD COMPLETE notification on the screen, but rather the arm around his neck. Agent Eleven held him in a choke hold for a few seconds. It was cutting off the blood flow, rather than the oxygen, that caused unconsciousness. The man went limp as Agent Eleven slowly lowered him, arm still around his neck. Then he placed his knee on the man's back, one hand across the front of his face, grabbing on the man's chin, the other on the back of the man's head. With a vicious twist and a sharp crack, Agent Eleven let the man drop the few extra centimeters to the floor. There was no such thing as leaving a witness unconscious on a mission like this, not when he could wake up at any time and blow his cover, probably ending up killing him. No, this was not a warm, huggy feeling job.
The employees had all been herded into one area. Elevators had been locked down. Two entire floors below the suspected floor, as well as the floors between it and the original floor had also been swept. The suited man looked unemotionally at a group of men as they arrived empty handed, just like all the others. He swiftly pulled his small phone, a small clear credit card shaped device. A few touches was all it took. He brought the phone up to his ear.
"Boss, yes it's Johnson. No sign of him." The man stood straight-faced, obviously oblivious to the stream of profanities that came from the phone. "I do not think that is necessary sir."
On the other end of the phone, a man was absolutely losing it in his private office. These damn contractors! Why wouldn't they just act like humans? He hurled a coffee cup across the room.
"Boss. The research lab is right above us, is it not? The contractor looked up at the ceiling above him. "If the infiltrator merlye diverted us to the lower floors, he could find a route upward toward the computer servers without us actively tracking him."
The man sat silently in his chair. He didn't know what would be worse, having this man be right, or having the infiltrator escape. "Go check it out."
The group of men had rapidly made it to the floor, energized by the thought of redeeming themselves. The door was needlessly broken down, it's unlocked nature ignored. Filled with confidence, flashlight beams led the way in front of courageous men, ready to fight and even die for their cause. Their chests were puffed out as they sprinted up the stairs, and flooded into the small room above. Safeties were off as their sub-machine guns aimed at any inclination of a person. Their actions were for naught however. The room was empty, well, almost empty. The body of a thin man was stuffed under a desk.
A blond man strolled down the noisy British streets. A ratty taxi barreled past him, losing control and skidding into a nearby bench. A blond woman jumped out, frantic and yet filled with disbelief.
"Agent Eleven?! Wait! What? H-how?"
Agent Eleven looped his arm through hers and strolled down the road, pulling her along.
"Calm down and keep moving. You made quite a mess there."
They strolled through a quiet park. The blond woman seemed to have calmed down a little.
"Did you see him? The contractor?"
Agent Eleven was quiet. "No. I was not aware there was one there. I do wish that they would tell me these things. As for that vacation I was promised though. I think there should be an extension, considering I survived a contractor… apparently."
The blond woman looked at him, not knowing if he was joking or not. "Shouldn't we be driving somewhere? Preferably very fast?"
He just sighed. "If you had your company's secrets stolen in an instant, would you not suspect the car driving down the road, driving very fast?
They continued walking. He continued, "I would, what I would not suspect would be the cute couple walking through the romantic park." The woman broke out in a red blush.
The two of them continued walking down the deserted walkway.
"Now about that extra time off…"
"I'm not your boss, Agent Eleven, and how the hell did you get out of there?"
Closing statements
Thank you all for reading. Hopefully this is just one chapter of many. I have plans to continue the story, hopefully do some background on other characters. This will have to wait of course. I would appreciate a review, I would love suggestions, especially some ideas about some of the other character's pasts.
I would really appreciate these ideas for the future chapters.
Updated, small typos were fixed