Chapter 2

I walk into his house and we go into his kitchen.

"Can I get you anything to drink, Sam?" Wesley asks me.

"Sure. Fruit juice, if you have any." He glances at me oddly, then returns with a glass of apple juice, and a glass of coffee for himself.

"I've been up most of the night," He states. "Trying to make sure I had everything here that you need." I guess he doesn't realize that I've just finished sleeping for about eleven hours because he shows me to my bedroom, and says, "You can catch a nap if you want."

I politely tell Wesley, "No thanks," and then he starts pacing around his room and glances at me a few times while doing so.

"Fisher… I know about Mason Hendricks… Last year, the Shop, everything. I see it in your eyes: you don't feel as you should trust me, or any other Third Echelon contact, but you can check my credentials, drug me to tell the truth, anything. Just know that you can trust me.

"I have put your gear inside of your room, under your bed. If you really want to, you may leave and head off to one of the hotels around here."

I nod to him, and quickly go to retrieve a suitcase, and a bag from under the bed in the room he designated to me. I walk back into the room, stop at his door, and say "Thanks," and walk out.

I go next to the road, look up and down the street, and spot on of the cheap hotels that Hong Kong sports. I walk up the road, and check in to my room.

Once I get into my room, I lock the door behind myself, and put my bag and suitcase on my bed, and begin to open them. I check inside the bag first. It contains my suit, which is made of material that keeps me cool in heat, warm in cold, and has fibers of kevlar woven into the fabric, giving a slightly helpful bulletproof effect to the suit.

I check further into my bag, and find my Five seveN. It's my semi-automatic, twenty round pistol that comes equipped with a flash suppressor and silencer. Plus, a new little feature added in is the OCP that Third Echelon recently were able to get their hands on. The OCP, which stands for Optically Channeled Potentiator, allows the user to "zap" any electronic device into not working for a few moments, and is completely silent.

I check to make sure the barrel is clean, and the firing pin is good. I slide in a fresh clip, and flip on the weapon's safety. I then pick up my pride and joy: the SC-20k. It fires 5.56x45mm ss109 rounds in a bull pup configuration which allows for it to have maximum firepower without sacrificing the ability of stealth. It can either fire a single shot with a half squeeze on the trigger, or a full squeeze will deliver an automatic burst.

The SC-20k also comes with a built on attachment. This attachment allows for a stable firing platform for things such as Sticky Cameras that relay information back to my OPSAT, or it allows for me to shoot such things as Sticky Shockers, which incapacitate anything up to and including a horse.

My OPSAT, which stands for Operational Satellite Uplink, gives me a direct connection to everyone that helps me back at the NSA. The National Security Agency's team, also known as Third Echelon, may communicate to me also through a pair of implants in my ears, and I may communicate back by touching the one located in my throat. Since the implants only rattle the small bones of my ears, only I may hear them, but me speaking back is a different story.

I finish searching through the bag, and find a few fragmentation grenades as well as two gas grenades and a couple of Sticky Cams and Sticky Shockers. Once I reach the bottom of the bag, I find a note that simply reads: "Red 0051". I realize that this is the code to relay back to Third Echelon that I've received the equipment. You never know who's listening in anymore, so we use codes through the OPSAT to communicate. I quickly type in the code, and then promptly receive a message that says: "Go to the hotel that's next to the Purple Queen, and ask for 'Jess' at the counter. –L".

Hmmm. Lambert is sending me close to where one of the most powerful people in the Triads are in Hong Kong. Wonderful. While the man did save my life, I was hoping not to meet him again, so on this little trip, I just hope I don't see him.

I quickly slip on my suit and gear, and put a jacket on. This will conceal the upper half of my suit, which goes a long way to making it look like I have on some kind of biohazard material protection gear as pants. I just have to lug around my backpack, which I'm perfectly used to.

I walk outside, and hail a taxi. Luckily, since I've been to Hong Kong a few times in the past year, I help direct the taxi driver to the Purple Queen. Once we arrive, I pay him, and get out of the cab. I look around, and take a moment's glance at the Purple Queen, recalling some not-so-fond memories from there. I then turn to my right, and enter the fleabag hotel situated here.

I step on up to the counter, and summon up some of the Chinese I know, and ask the receptionist where 'Jess' is. She promptly hands me a brown envelope and continues doing something on the computer that she is stationed at.

I go off into a corner, so nobody may look over my shoulder at whatever it is in this envelope. I pull out a sheet of paper out of opening it. It reads: "Coen, US Embassy of Hong Kong, Held Hostage, Basement F3, Reason: Unknown". I take a double take at the paper, just to make sure I've read it correctly. And then the thought races across my mind… Why the hell is she being held captive at her own damn embassy?