Part 3 – A New Life

Chapter 11

"I do enjoy these brief meetings Perry."

Carlton smiled, I couldn't see his face fully but I could see the corners of his mouth turn up from the angle I was at. We were stood in a busy train station leaning against a pillar on the edge of the giant terminus. We were on opposite sides, so as not to appear together, but were both facing out so we could hear and just about see each other.

I had my arms folded and an impassive expression as I replied, "You know I only do it when I really have to." I saw him shift slightly and look down at his phone.

"You love it." I couldn't help but smile at his cheekiness. It had been four months since I had passed the handler initiation test, and I had grown to like Carlton Smith a lot. It was frowned upon to have any kind of relationship with one's agent, but I found we worked better knowing a bit about each other. We were partners after all.

We had completed a number of contracts together now, Carlton had a habit of being a tiny bit clumsy and too confident for his own good, but gradually he was starting to listen to me more. We were being given harder and harder assignments as the agency picked up on his improving success rate. I was also become more and more adept at infiltrating our targets online as well.

Slowly I pushed a laptop bag towards him with my foot. It was the reason we were meeting in person; I had only done this a few times since starting with him but occasionally I liked to give him intel face to face. Some of the stuff I did to complete our contracts was a little too risky to send through the ICA's system. I didn't want to accidently wipe out all their data, it wouldn't go down too well I felt. He didn't acknowledge the bag moving closer but I knew he had registered it.

"The virus is on there, all you need to do is switch it with our target's laptop and it should wipe out his operations like the client has requested." I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye. We were due to complete this one tonight; it was a little closer to my base as I would have liked but it was a simple enough job that it shouldn't attract too much attention.

"The plan is to complete tonight. I'll look forward to hearing your dulcet tones Perry." He had started calling me Perry pretty early on in our partnership, his excuse that Peregrine was too much of a mouthful. I knew a lot of the senior operatives weren't a fan, created too much of a friendly relationship but I didn't mind. I kind of liked the nickname.

I grinned as I pushed off from the pillar and walked away from the agent without looking back. I needed to get to my base to prepare. I had decided to move back into London. The city was a logical place to base myself; it was a main artery to a powerful part of the world and big enough to disappear easily. I had used my generous salary to actually buy a place there, but nothing too big. Just a modest, newly built flat on the outskirts of Stratford.

Occasionally I saw Helen and Andy around, I liked to keep an eye on them. They didn't know I was back in the country, and it was safer to keep it that way. I sometimes felt a twinge of sadness as I watched my best friend meeting other people without me, but I didn't want to risk dragging her into my volatile world.

I weaved my way through the crowd of St Pancreas Station, staying alert of my surroundings. Since taking this job I had become a lot more paranoid, being hired by a previously unknown organisation and discovering there was a lot the average person didn't know can do that to you.

I made my way towards a train to Stratford, as I excused myself through the throng of commuters I froze as I saw a figure watching me from the shadows of the station. It was only for a second and when I stopped to focus on them they had slipped away, but I had been sure what I had seen.

It had been him, Tobias. At least my body was reacting like it had been, my heart was pounding in my chest and I felt like I couldn't breath. The man had been hard to see in the side of my vision, but it had been the eyes that had given him away, unnaturally bright blue eyes glinting at me from the shadows. I had been seeing him, or at least thinking I had, for a while now. I kept telling myself I was being stupid and needed to get a grip, it had been almost a year now since I had last seen him but I couldn't stop thinking about him lately. The more I knew about this job and what he did, the more I kept replaying our short week together. I had been clueless and very stupid.

I was still staring at the empty space where he had been, without thinking I walked over to the wall where he had been standing watching me. Had it been him? Was I just going mad? There was no trace of him; well of course there wouldn't be. If it was really him he would easily have eluded me and if it was my imagination, well daydreams didn't tend to leave clues. I was beginning to doubt my certainty a minute ago when something shiny by my foot caught my eye. I bent down and picked up a silver coin, it wasn't any currency I knew and I turned it over, frowning.

My heart picked up when I saw the insignia stamped on the side of it. A crown with the words, 'Merces Letifer' below it; this was one of our coins, that we gave to agents to distract targets. It had been him; I gripped the coin tightly and quickly walked towards my train. A small smile playing across my lips.

...

"Good evening Agent Smith." I adjusted the headset as I arranged my intel files around me.

"Evening Perry." I rolled my eyes, he wasn't meant to reply but nothing Carlton did was by the book.

"Your target is retired hitman Francis Strong. He is appears to have a sedate and mundane life but the truth is far from this. Masquerading as a common security guard, he is selling intel on his previous clients and blackmailing many powerful people. Needless to say this also threatens us, our client wants us to silence him for good and erase all the data he has collected against his former employers. Be careful agent, although he is retired he was a formidable assassin in his prime, and probably still has a nasty bite."

"You worry about me too much. I've got one thing he hasn't."

I sighed at Carlton's interruption to my briefing. "What is that then?"

"You of course." I could hear the smile in his voice and I shook my head.

"Very good, but let's not get too cocky. This guy is a nasty piece of work when he wants to be. Do you have the laptop?"

The POV camera tilted down to show the bag I had passed to Carlton earlier resting by his feet.

"Keep it safe. I won't be able to destroy the data any other way." He picked up the bag and straightened up. He was outside a factory complex, it was late evening now and the street was dark. Orange street lamps lit the pavement and a few workers on the night shift were trudging into the massive building. The target was scheduled to be patrolling the offices above the factory floor tonight. There was a small security guard office up there too where he would be taking his breaks and where his laptop with the encrypted information would be kept.

By all appearances this seemed a fairly straightforward hit; however I had learnt in my short span in this job not to assume anything. Carlton moved off towards the security gate; I knew Francis wasn't assigned there tonight. I got to work preparing to access the factory's security. This was slightly different to my usual approach; the factory had no intranet so I had given Carlton a dongle we would have to insert into the system himself. Just like old times.

I looked up at the main screen, Carlton had slipped past the perimeter guard and was moving swiftly towards the massive factory building. Shifting in my seat, I waited patiently for him to enter. Over time I found it easier to let Carlton do the majority of the work, at the start he had been a bit wobbly. Years of being captured and failing had left him unsure and a little beaten, but slowly after we had completed a number of contracts together I had seen the change in him. He was still a little clueless, and with my inexperience it made me uneasy when we were given hits like this, but we worked well as a team and he trusted me.

He made his way down a corridor now towards a stairway that led into the maintenance room. As was the norm I had sent him the blueprints for the building a week ago so he could get his bearings. I had a copy next to me in case he needed guidance, but he moved confidently downstairs and quickly picked the lock to the maintenance room.

The cameras in this factory were few and far between; it was probably why Francis had chosen this place to work. Lots of privacy at night. Carlton took out the dongle I had given him and held it up waiting for my instruction.

"Ok Perry, where does this go?"

"There should be an access panel in the wall to your left." He turned and I saw the place I meant. "There."

He made light work getting the panel off, I took in the exposed wires for a moment trying unravel the one I needed.

"Ummmmm…the blue wire there, in the center." He reached in and gently extracted it. "Ok, you're going to need to cut and strip it to attach the USB adapter."

I had talked him through this before, but my mouth still went dry as I watched him cut, strip and rewire the loose end to the USB adapter the dongle was lodge in. One false move and the alarms would be triggered. I didn't necessarily need to get into the security system here, but I always felt that little bit safer having control of it. It made my agent's life easier as well, and anything that elevated a little stress from the job they did could only be good.

Carlton fumbled once or twice, but the dongle was in place finally. My laptop pinged as it signaled a device trying to access it. I clicked 'OK' and the familiar split screen of CCTV cameras appeared.

"I'm in." I announced, quickly scanning through the sparse cameras on the site. There was one labeled second floor and I caught a glimpse of a security guard patrolling.

"Target is on the second floor."

Carlton turned on his heels and exited the maintenance room. I watched him intently, with any luck we could be in and out within an hour. There were no other guards in the building; something didn't sit quite right with me about this. An ex-hitman leaving himself this exposed; sure he wasn't one of ours but still…the whole thing made me restless.

He had reached the second floor and was already making a bee-line for the small security office on the floor. I was hoping Francis had just started his patrol and wouldn't be returning any time soon. I hadn't seen him on any of the other cameras yet.

"Agent Smith, any sign of the target?" I wouldn't usually interrupt, but I couldn't stop the uneasiness that was threatening to take me over. Carlton slowed slightly, before answering in barely a whisper, "No."

That was what I was worried about. He had reached the security office; it was empty. Without hesitation Carlton walked in and set about replacing Francis' personal laptop with the exact copy I had given him. He was a good agent but he had a nasty habit of barreling into places without any caution. The best agents never left anything to chance. I blew into my cheeks in frustration at my gun-ho agent, and kept a sharp eye on the security cameras on this floor.

"Do I take his laptop?"

Without breaking my gaze with the cameras I replied curtly. "Yes" He was almost done when I saw the tiniest movement on one of the cameras near the room. My hackles rose instantly; it was Francis edging quickly along the wall to stay out of the camera's view. He knew we were here.

"Agent Smith hide, now!" The urgency in my voice triggered something in Carlton, without a moment's thought he stowed the target's laptop in the bag and quickly hid in a nearby storage unit. Just as he softly shut the metal door concealing him, Francis walked into the room.

I felt a moment of pride as I saw through the gap in the unit that Carlton had placed my decoy laptop exactly as the target had left it. He was a lean, unassuming man with a pinched face and glasses perched on his nose. He was the opposite of what most people would think a hitman looked like; I knew better. He was the perfect person, hidden in plain site no one would think twice about him killing someone.

His bird like eyes flicked around the room before settling on the laptop. Slowly and deliberately he walked around the desk and sat down in front of it. My heart was in my mouth as he seemed to look right at Carlton's hiding place; he stared for what seemed like an age at the storage unit before finally opening the laptop. I saw him grit his teeth in frustration as my 'System Warning' message popped up as planned. It would tell him the laptop had shut down unexpectedly and returned to safe mode. It was the easiest way for me to explain why his desktop wouldn't match his actual laptop.

I heard him clicking away furiously as he installed all his settings back to the way he had them. Then a grin spread across my face as he did exactly what I wanted him to do next. He got up and check outside the room for any other guards trying to pay him a visit, satisfied he was alone he sat back down and produced a dongle of his own from his pocket.

So this guy wasn't completely stupid, he hid his IP like I did when surfing a part of the Internet he shouldn't be. The ICA knew Francis kept his information on a server in the deep web, and I knew the only way to safely get rid of it was to get the target to access it himself and spread my virus. I could tell Carlton was watching him as closely as me as he began typing in his login. I bit my lip, I hadn't moved for a good ten minutes; it felt like I was the one hiding in that room with him.

Once he had logged in that would be it, the virus I had hidden on the laptop would act fast and erase every trace of the incriminating information online. Sure enough Francis' eyes widen as he stared at the laptop screen, he brought his hands down hard on the desk making me jump. Carlton didn't move a muscle, those years of experience finally paying off.

"I think it worked." I whispered into his ear. My jubilant mood was soon cut short though as Francis suddenly looked straight ahead, his face a picture of calm.

"You think you've won do you?" He was speaking to no one that I could see, just staring ahead his voice a monotone, a slight German accent to it. My stomach knotted in fear, what was he doing?

"I'm not an idiot, I know you're there." He slowly got up, his sudden rage completely evaporated. "Why don't we settle this like men, eh?" I saw him reaching into a draw in the desk and pull out something metallic. I was helpless, only able to watch as Francis moved swiftly over to the storage unit and yank the door open.

Carlton stumbled out, the spontaneity of the attack taking him by surprise. He straightened up to look at his target, who was now holding a silenced pistol to his head. I could only see Francis' calm expression, as he looked the agent up and down.

"You're not the first to come after me you know, but you're certainly the one that's got the closest."

"You're making a mistake." Carlton's voice sounded confident, but I could hear a small tremor in it. He was cornered and he knew it.

"Am I?" Francis narrowed his eyes at Carlton. "Who do you work for then?" Carlton didn't respond. Francis curled his lip at the agent's silence, before drawing the pistol back and cracking Carlton in the face with the butt of it. I heard the metal connect with his flesh, and winced as my agent huffed in pain. "Come on now, don't be shy. They aren't going to begrudge you having a little chat with me before you die."

The shock of the situation finally began to ware off, and I turned my attention to the CCTV system I had up on my laptop.

"Urgh. Fine, it doesn't matter if you know. The ICA sent me." I cursed under my breath, what was he doing? I swear, this guy made my job ten times harder. I furiously looked through the factory security, what could I get to from here. I had CCTV, alarms, fire safety devices. I stopped; fire safety. Patching together a plan I continued to type as I spoke to Carlton in a calm, if slightly annoyed, voice.

"I'm going to turn on the sprinklers Agent Smith. Get ready." I glanced at the screen to see if the situation had changed. It hadn't; except Francis was grinning from ear to ear.

"The ICA? Well fuck me sideways. I finally attracted the big boys." His grin turned sinister. "I'm not too upset with you deleting all my bargaining chips now. Not when I've got an ICA agent I can squeeze for info." His voice had taken on a menacing edge; I could see the hitman in him starting to come out.

"Let's start with the easy stuff, who's your handler?"

Shit, I sped up my efforts to isolate the sprinklers and trick them into activating. There was the sound of another blow as Francis hit Carlton again.

"Who's your fucking handler?" I wasn't overly concerned about the question, after all that was what codenames were for. I was more concerned with what this man was going to do to my agent; the agency didn't take kindly to handlers who let their assets die.

"Nearly there Carlton." I never used his first name, but I was highly stressed out currently and protocol was low down on my list.

"Go to hell. You know who I work for, even if I tell you who my handler is, it isn't going to help you. Might as well just let me go, it's in your best interests."

Francis laughed, it was a cruel sound, "Oh no my friend, you're going nowhere. I need to send a message…you understand."

Francis' face was deadly; he was going to shoot.

"We understand…dickhead." I hissed as I pressed enter on my keyboard.

Several things happened at once; the sprinkles burst into life above the men's heads, Francis looked up at the offending source of the sudden downpour, taking his eyes off Carlton. He took the momentary lapse in his aggressor's attention to plant a well-aimed upper cut to Francis' chin. The target staggered back with the impact, his eyes wide with shock. Before he could gather himself again Carlton pulled his silenced pistol from his jacket in one fluid movement and shot Francis between the eyes.

A spray of blood shot out the back of his head, his face permanently stuck in a state of confusion and shock as he slid to the floor with a thump. In the distance I could hear men shouting before a harsh ringing echoed throughout the building.

"Thanks Peregrine." Carlton sounded breathless.

"Save it for later, get out now. Don't forget the laptops." I was probably more abrupt than I was intending to be, but I was still very aware we weren't in the clear yet. Carlton shoved my decoy laptop in the bag with Francis' original and bolted for the door. The coast was still clear but we could hear the sound of heavy boots advancing.

Carlton ran back down the stairs; a feat not made easier by the torrent of water now flooding them. At the bottom he joined a throng of late shift workers trying to escape the freezing shower. He kept his head down and matched their speed; his suit and laptop bag helping him to blend in. A gang of security guards dashed past towards the stairs searching for the imaginary fire. They wouldn't find one; they would find a dead security guard though and we needed to be at a safe distance when they did.

The exit was ahead and Carlton slipped out with the other workers. Before they could cotton on to the unfamiliar addition to their work force, he quietly stepped into the shadows of the factory building as they jogged off towards the fire checkpoint. Looking around to make sure no one was around to witness his escape, he ran and scaled the chain link fence surrounding the factory. He landed nimbly on the other side and walked briskly off into the night.

"That was a close one, wasn't it Perry?" His voice was high with adrenaline; I rubbed my face with my hand.

"Let's not do that again Smith. Next time take your time and listen to me."

"Aye, aye captain." He answered cheekily before the screen went black.

Mission complete.