Chapter 1: The Realization

APRIL 30th 2011 1025 Hours

Cape Town, South Africa, The Slums

Blood. Normally most people cringe at the sight of it but I've been exposed to so much of it, it doesn't even phase me. Then again those that join the military life will get used to it eventually, even if it's their own. It still didn't make it any less painful though as the so called "Doctor" was trying to remove the 9mm slug from my left tricep. It seemed as though the adrenaline was starting to wear off, granted though I ran all the way from the docks from my former crew and friends, disappeared into Cape Town hiding a bullet wound, and hitch hiking to the one spot her damned system couldn't track me. Because no matter how advanced a computer system gets it would need to locate the device which the person uses and it needs to find me if it wants to track me. But then it hit me like running into a brick wall, I was doing the exact same fucking thing I did three years ago. When I let my anger get control of my convictions and principles and ruin my life, just so I could survive.

That system though, while it seemed impossible to construct, it was very much real. It was any tyrants wet dream come to life and was more dangerous than a hundred armies and a stockpile of nuclear warheads. I'm no computer expert but a program that can hack into other programs faster than they can adapt and take control of them without the user even knowing is the most dangerous form of cyber terrorism. And she wanted to use it to achieve her own twisted version of "world peace." Initially when she first told me that, I brushed it off and thought of it as another one of my clients empty and hopeless pipe dreams. But she meant it with conviction and determination, gathering a lot of money, resources, and personnel from the numerous arms transactions she's accumulated over the years. I just happened to land right in the final year when she really began raking in deals. I was so blind not to catch on to what she was actually planning and what's worse is she pulled extra wool over my eyes to manipulate me further into achieving her plans. Because she and I technically wanted the same thing in the end, a new world. Where she wanted a world without war, I wanted a world where I had a chance to redeem myself for all the stupid shit I've placed upon myself in my life and make right all of my wrongs. I would not care where my soul would go when I will pass on into the next life as long as I fixed and made better everything I've destroyed. But now it looks like it won't be the case, I have only one chance now and that's to stop her before she completes her system. And I won't run away and disappear from this like I did three years ago. How do you stop a monster? The answer is with another one, and ironically she pushed me out of both the light and dark and into her gray area.

"I'm surprised you are taking this with almost no reaction at all, I didn't give you too many pain killers did I?" The doctor said as he dropped the bullet into a plastic bowl.

"No, I just got a lot on my mind." He then prepared a needle and thread as was about to stich me up.

"For someone to shoot you in the back and completely miss the vital areas he must have been rather angry that your business deal went poorly."

He must have dealt with this kind of thing often, granted I was in an area of the slums where people had items like smart phones, Playstations, Bremont watches, and other items that they would have never gotten with a regular day job. And the shot didn't come from some two bit thug, it came from a trained Delta Force operator. I was lucky he did miss but then again the whole crew was trying to stop me.

"I thought you doctors weren't supposed to ask questions about how I got this way and just patch me up?"

He smiled gently as he stitched. "I apologize, unless I have to put my patient's under anesthetic I try to help them keep their mind off the fact I'm sewing up big gashes in their bodies from knife slashes and bullet wounds."

The wound was the least of my concerns for now, what I had to come up with was a plan. She managed to prove a point to the CIA spook that he could no longer get near her and at the same time she stayed off the international radar as a serious threat and was just another arms dealer. But she knew that there was only one real threat out there still remaining and it was me. But I knew I couldn't take her on by myself. I had no choice but to accept the inevitable and cross a minefield into getting help and then waging a fifty fifty chance that I'll just get picked off when and if I get across said minefield.

"When you're done, I need to borrow your cell phone." I said as I pulled an extra 500 dollars out of my wallet.

"It's urgent and a matter of life and death, not mine however. If this isn't enough how about an extra thousand?"

The doctor's eye's widened so much it was almost comical but then he relaxed and held up his hand to take the 500.

"If it's that urgent please go ahead this will be fine, I'll step outside and leave you to your business but don't cost me all of my minutes."

Out of all my training, all my hardships, and all the crazy adventures I've been on since I stepped out of West Point this had to be the most terrifying thing I've ever done. Only thing that could have made it worse was if I was actually there facing him. But he was my only chance or else I would have to go after her alone and I would die before I could even get near her. I don't intend on dying on knowing the fact that some selfish, hypocritical girl named Koko Hekmatyar took away free will from all mankind. All the feelings I had in my heart for her vanished whenever she explained her mad plan for world peace by completely tearing it apart. I still can't believe I actual said I would be by her side always, I feel like an absolute fool. On top of all that, I even shattered the heart of another woman I saw as my equal and was going to tell I loved. Some things on what she said was true, the human race is violent and brutal. So much so that we trample on each other to achieve our goals and naturally there will always be one that opposes that persons goals, that's why there's conflict. I was particularly amazed by how honest she was with herself by hating the fact she was an arms dealer but just accepted she had a knack for it and decided to go with the flow. It almost made me wanna puke by hearing that she'd use mass murder to avenge the deaths of people brought on by weapons. But then that's when it hit me. She had never been given a choice for anything in her entire life. Her upbringing, her knowledge, who she associated with was all based around meaningless violence and misguided facts. It skewed her perception of how she saw the world as something that she didn't like and like a spoiled brat she was going to throw a massive tantrum until she got what she wanted. Only this tantrum involved killing a lot of innocent people. But what solidified the fact that she was beyond gone was a simple fact. I don't know whether or not is my perception on weapons as an American, as a soldier, or common sense. Weapons don't kill people, people kill people.

Of course all that was running through my head wouldn't have mattered if the next conversation went sour. The phone began to ring on the other end and I steeled myself for it to pick up, I didn't expect an answer right off the bat because it was almost four in the morning DC standard time.

"Hello?"

Here we go. All or nothing.

"Dad, it's Damien. We need to talk."