Target
"Michael James Fairbrook," Carol said, tossing a heavy manila coloured file onto the meeting table, in front of all the members of her operations team and her boss.
"Son of Charlie and Annabelle Fairbrook, born in Iowa. The first time we learned about Michael was when we caught him sneaking into DOJ files, when he was still eight years old. Rather than put him on the watchlist, former Director Lance decided to put him into an advanced programme for training savants after he finished school. We recruited him and placed him in a shell company with the lie being that he was a regular cubicle worker."
"The reality of it was that he was using his analytical skills to determine everything we needed to know about our enemies."
"When you say everything…" Lyle spoke, with his hand raised up "do you mean?"
"Everything, from their favourite foods to which one was going to appear in front of the camera to make another threat. Apparently at any given point in the day, Michael is playing chess with thirteen different opponents. Each move he makes and each move his opponent makes creates more and more games."
"So substitute games with what a person or people are doing," Harry said, with a dark look.
"And you have a human that's effectively clairvoyant," Carol said, finishing the sentence "there were obvious limitations to such an ability but in a time when supercomputers were useless against an analog opponent, Michael's predictive analysis proved vital in the field."
"If that's true then this kid should be one of us," added one of her analysts "Why is he out there leading a religious cult instead?"
"Senator Altman," Carol replied and everyone in the room hung their heads in defeat.
"The Senator used Michael's predictive skills to conduct drone strikes on designated hot zones. The problem with that move is the amount of collateral damage it caused. When Michael heard about that, he punched the Senator in his face, effectively killing his career."
"You know what happens after that," Harry continued "we 'leaked' footage of him having some kind of mental breakdown which went viral on the net. His parents committed suicide and he became a punchline before fading into obscurity."
"Until now," Lyle added, with a gullp, looking at a muted video of Michael speaking to the masses.
"The timing of everything that's going on can't be a coincidence," Harry added "as of last night, Michael Fairbrook has jumped to number one on our person of interest list. I want to know everything about him from what clothes he wears to the people he's met along the way."
They nodded and the analyst team left the meeting room, leaving behind only Harry and Carol.
"Something on your mind," Harry asked.
"The psych evaluation frames Michael as this apathetic and closed off person that's known to keep his distance from everyone else. But here he is speaking to tens of thousands of people like nothing's wrong."
"That psych evals five years old at least," Harry countered, "if a lot can happen to a man in a day, imagine a week."
"That's not the only thing," Carol added "I talked to some of my hacker contacts and after they spent fifteen minutes talking about how his 'lights off' incident was legendary, I asked him how he was able to pull it off."
"The short answer, he couldn't have."
"What do you mean?"
"To pull off a hack like this requires thousands of hackers working together simultaneously and perfectly; which is impossible to pull off."
"In short, we're missing a piece of the puzzle," Harry said.
"A very big piece," Carol added.
00000000000
With the mask off and the cat out of the proverbial bag, it was only a matter of time before the media and the arms of the government, make their move. He planned for that and with her help, he was ready for them.
Which was why Michael got off the stage, took off his robe, then handed it to one of the staff. As he did that, a young woman, dressed in a medium gray suit with a maroon shirt underneath walked towards him.
"That was a pretty gutsy move," she said, straightening her circular glasses.
"The mask was bound to come off one day Kelly," said Michael, calmly.
"Thanks to that, I've been getting plenty of calls coming in, all wanting to land an interview with you," added she, "I even had to put the thing off because it was constantly vibrating."
"Ah but don't worry," Kelly said sounding a little flustered "Now that your rally's over I'll start speaking to a few of them and try to nail down some dates."
"Kelly, this is a big moment for everyone here," Michael said, placing an assuring hand on her shoulder "it can get a little overwhelming for some people so by all means, take the night off and relax."
"Ok," nodded she "By the way Michael, I heard of this really great sushi restaurant and I…"
Her words were cut off when Michael felt a vibration in his pocket and took out his phone.
"Hold that thought," said he, answering the call
"How's it feel finally going back into the world?" asked a familiar voice, from the other side of the phone.
"Exactly as predicted. I'll hold down things on my end while you and Fury 1 continue with your mission," Michael replied.
"Ah, that reminds me. I also called to tell you we found one of Essex's facilities in Delhi. The team is heading there right now and I'll be providing on site support."
"You? Why not ask our guardian angel?"
"Pfft, if we pool all our resources into one thing, we'll be leaving you out in the open." countered he, with a cocky laugh "besides, I should pull my weight from time to time."
"Very well, I'll be going to the loft. Once your mission is complete, we'll have a face to face. And bring Fury 1 as well, I haven't spoken to him in a while."
"Alright," said he then cut the call.
"You were saying something Kelly?" Michael asked, turning to her but she shook her head,
"Never mind, it can wait for another day."
000000000000
It was late at night in the city of Delhi when the helicopter landed on the outskirts. The door slid open allowing the Fury team to get down first followed by their on intel support, Barry Wilcox.
Gone was the old Barry with an undernourished figure that looked pale and sickly. In the wake of Essex's attack and gathering of additional forces, Barry took it upon himself to change himself, in order to be ready for whatever Essex threw at them.
The team were outside an abandoned aeroplane storage shed. Barry took out his laptop then spoke.
"Satellite's picking up seven hostiles in the shed, four due west."
At this, Fury 1 got on the ground, then looked through the scope of his gun. After a few seconds of looking he said "Found 'em but they're too close together to take out one at a time."
"Take them all down," said Barry, followed by Fury 2, Fury 3 and Fury 4 all pointing their assault rifles in the direction their captain was aiming at.
"Four, three, two, one; execute."
One target, one bullet. They fired at exactly the right time, watching through their scopes as their bullets hit the intended targets.
The four got back to their feet and stood alongside the remaining Fury team.
With a nod from Barry, one of the Furies pressed a button, causing the explosive they had placed on the door to detonate. The team entered while Barry watched the scene through his laptop. He watched as all the dots that were dotted orange, vanished one after another.
When he saw only one was left he went inside. There he found the last agent on his knees while the Fury team had their rifles trained on him. Any unnecessary movement, any jump and they'd turn him into swiss cheese.
"Michael told me about you," Barry said, while strolling up to the prisoner "among those that interrogated him, he mentioned one guy that was former SAS. Tell me, how do you go from serving your country to starting wars on a whim?"
The prisoner did not answer, instead he spat at Barry and in response Fury 5 rammed the butt of their gun in his face.
"Fine then," Barry said, shrugging "if you wanna skip with the foreplay then let's get down to business. What's old man Walcroft got planned?"
The guy didn't answer and received another shot to the head from his captors. With his head lowered, Barry and the others heard him giving out a low chuckle. After hearing that, he raised his bloodied face, looking straight at Barry and said "You can't stop it."
"Stop what?"
"You can't stop the advent," said he, just as a bullet pierced his heart, causing nearly everyone to scatter in different directions to find some cover.
"Barry, what the hell are you doing?" shouted Fury 1.
"Don't bother trying to find the source," Barry said, looking at his laptop "they're long gone by now."
"I don't understand," said Fury 6, walking up to him "if they had one man that we didn't know about then why didn't they use him?"
"Probably because the shooter's primary mission was to make sure that no one survived," Barry replied.
"Well if that's true, then he did a poor job leaving this joker alive," countered Fury 1.
"He left this guy alive to send a message, they want us scared, running and always looking over our shoulders, wondering when they're going to strike."
"Which means they're trying to bide their time then," said Fury 6, crossing their arms.
"Exactly," Barry said, looking at the corpse lying in a pool of blood "but to what end is the million dollar question."