Chapter 15

I was in a shit ton of trouble.

I had received the email about an hour after we had completed the contract, and had deleted the data I was supposed to send to the client.

You have failed to complete the contract objectives set out by the client. Due to this your payment has been docked accordingly, and you are currently under investigation by the board.

Please do not leave your country of residence; we will be in touch shortly.

That had been three days ago, and I still hadn't heard anything. It wasn't even signed so I had no idea who was investigating me. A pang of guilt hit me again as I thought about Diana, I hadn't meant to her let her down. My days had been filled with a rollercoaster of emotion, one minute I thought about how stupid I had been going against a contract's guidelines, especially when I was being monitored. The next minute I felt a sense of massive relief that I had erased that awful, invasive program from existence.

I fiddled with the coffee cup in front of me absent-mindedly. I was pretty sure I was going to be fired; they couldn't let that kind of disobedience stay within the agency. 47 suddenly swam to the front of my thoughts, he had chosen me to replace his trusted handler, and I had already fucked up beyond belief. He would be better off without me, I had kind of sleep walked into this crazy world, following a man I barely knew but somehow had a strange hold over me.

Glancing at my watch I saw that Helen was late. I ground my teeth in frustration, where was she? I shouldn't even be meeting her, but there wasn't much else I could do to piss off the board more than I already had. She had sent me a desperate message last night, asking if I could talk. The tone of her words told me there was something very wrong, and so I had once again gone against protocol and arranged to meet at our old café. I sensed whatever she wanted to talk to me about, was better done face to face.

I was about to give up and leave before someone saw what I was doing; the paranoia was strong at the moment. Then I saw her weaving her way through the crowd in Leicester square. She looked her usual glamorous self, hair styled elegantly and a long, expensive looking overcoat swishing as she walked. But her face was gaunt and haunted, and her eyes darted from side to side nervously as she made her way over to me. I stood up, concern written across my face as she finally saw me and gave a small, weak smile.

"Are you alight? What's happened?" I hugged her fiercely, the months apart melting away instantly.

"Oh Morgs, I'm so glad to see you. It's been too long." Her voice was high and reedy, thick with emotion as she greeted me. I let go of her gently and moved her towards the chair opposite mine.

"Do you want me to get you a drink?" I spoke in a clam, even voice. My training kicking in as I looked at my rattled friend. She flicked a worried look towards the busy café interior and shook her head.

"No thanks, I just need to talk." I could see a wetness in the corners of her eyes, she was holding back tears.

"Go on, I'm listening." Looking down she took a shaky breath in, preparing herself.

"It's Greg." I blinked in confusion, the name rang a bell but I couldn't stop thinking about that American I had helped kill a few weeks ago.

"Greg?" She looked back up at me, her face a mask of frustration.

"Greg, my ex. The one who's been stalking me for nearly two years?" Realisation dawned on me, and I leant forward so I could lower my voice.

"What's he done this time Hels?" She lowered her head again, her hair covering her expression.

"He's gone too far this time Morgs. He- He broke into my flat and-" I could see her struggling, and I reached a hand out towards hers.

"It's ok." My voice was soft and comforting, and I could see her breathing start to settle. Raising her head, she fixed her gaze on me.

"He attacked me Morgan." The word smacked me in the face. The coldness of shock was quickly followed by the heat of rage.

"He what!?" I spat the words out. "Go to the police Helen." Her face crumpled as she finally gave into despair.

"I can't, he threatened to destroy my career. Said he'd post loads of these photos he's taken of me while we were together online. Morgan I saw them, they're all fake but-but." She swallowed trying to keep the sobs down. "You know how good at Photoshop he was, they're awful Morgs. He said no one would believe me once he's shown them." My vision was starting to blur with anger, the little fucking low life. Helen had never hurt anyone, she had let him down easy when she broke up with him. It was completely out of the blue and I wasn't going to let it slide.

"I'll take care of the photos Helen, go to the police." Hope filled her eyes as she gripped my hand tightly.

"How?" I shook my head.

"Doesn't matter how, I'll take care of them." My voice was firm and filled with the authority my new job had taught me. I could see Helen look at me properly for the first time since our reunion.

"You've changed Morgan. I can see it. Whatever your new life is, it's doing you good." She smiled a sad smile, and I couldn't stand it any longer. I stood up and pulled her into a tight hug.

"I've missed you." The loneliness of the past year overwhelmed me as I held my friend. Most of the time the excitement of my life now drowned out the sacrifices I had made, but seeing her again had made me realise how much I had been missing from the world. She broke down and started sobbing into my shoulder, a few people looked round from their lattes but my piercing stare made them turn away again hastily.

After a few minutes I released her and looked into her wide eyes reassuringly.

"Go home, call the police. I'll sort this tonight ok?"

She nodded, biting her lip. Slowly, like she was in a trance, Helen turned away from me and walked back into the crowd. It hurt to see her look so vulnerable, but I needed to get this guy now. Looks like my hobby had taken its first personal order.

...

I had been methodically hacking this shit head for an hour. All thoughts of my impending dismal from the agency pushed to the back of my mind. He was proving suspiciously hard to get to. I knew Greg was good with computers, but it seemed I had underestimated his skills. Coming from me with my current experience, this set my hackles rises.

I was about halfway done I reckoned, he had hidden the pictures in various places, probably to avoid someone doing what I was currently doing. Helen had been right, they were foul. I was struggling to look at them as I deleted each one, he would have destroyed the girl with these lies he had created. Right now I was wishing I was in the agency's good books, so I could have swayed them to activate my own contract against this guy. I made do with what little I could do for my friend though, and was just cracking his latest firewall when my phone rang.

Pausing mid type, I gave the offending item a sideways look. Was it them? Gingerly I picked up the phone and saw Helen's caller ID. My relief from staving off the inevitable was quickly replaced with concern though. I swiped the answer call button and placed it to my ear.

"Everything ok?"

Her scream sent a wave of panic crashing through me. It was a blood curdling sound, which betrayed real, life threatening fear.

"Helen!" I felt more helpless than I had ever had on any contract. I didn't know where she was, or what was happening to her. Her screams of terror were punctuated with heart wrenching sobs, and I felt my eyes welling up with tears of frustration.

All of a sudden her cries became distant, and I heard the air shift in my ear indicating someone else was on the other end.

"Who are you? What are you doing to her?" There was silence on the other end, but I could just make out the sound of slow, steady breathing over Helen's distress.

"I swear to fucking god, you better let her go or I'll-"

"Or you'll do what Peregrine?" My heart stopped in my chest. What the fuck?

"How do you know-?" The man gave a nasty laugh.

"That really doesn't matter right now, all that matters is you stop what your doing to my property and come to lovely Helen's flat as quick as you can." As if to emphasize his point, Helen suddenly let out an ear splitting scream. It was Greg, Greg?! I gripped my phone so tightly it was a wonder it didn't break.

Greg paused for a moment waiting for a response, I couldn't find the words to express my terror and furry. Eventually I heard him sigh, "I'll be waiting."

Just before he hung up I heard Helen's strained voice in the background, "No Morgan, don't-"

The line went dead.

...

I stood outside Helen's flat, unsure what to do. I knew this was a trap, obviously, but I could not see another way out of this. The agency wouldn't help me right now, plus I knew what they'd say. Let her die. Sometimes I wondered why I had agreed to enter this brutal world they existed in, but then 47's face appeared in my mind and I mentally kicked myself for being an idiot.

I had nothing to defend myself with; I wouldn't have known what to do with it if I had been able to find a weapon. I made a mental note to teach myself to shoot if I made it out of this. Taking a steadying breath through my nose, I advanced on the apartment entrance. Looking around the darkened street I noted how completely alone I was, before pressing Helen's buzzer.

"Yes?" His voice sent shivers down my spine.

"I'm here." I growled down the speaker to him. There was no response, just the click as he opened the door for me. My feet felt like lead as I took the four flights of stairs to Helen's front door. He was waiting for me in the dark entrance, a pistol in his hand. My eyes widen, they were hard to come by for the general public in this country. It made me suspect this unassuming man even more.

He waved for me to hurry up, using the hand holding the gun to push me roughly into the flat. It was like a bomb had gone off in there; furniture was turned over or pushed to the wall. There was broken glass on the wood floor and I could see spots of blood here and there. My stomach churned. As Greg shut the door behind me, locking it many times, I searched the dimly lit living room for my friend. I found her on her side against the far wall, bound at the hands and feet, and gagged.

She was motionless and in a panic I rushed over to kneel by her, I closed my eyes in relief as I saw her chest rising and falling slowly. Just unconscious. There were some nasty bruises covering her arms and face, and a deep gash on her knee but otherwise she looked whole. I gently rested my hand on her cheek.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered. It was clear to me now that this was my doing. Greg knew my codename somehow, which meant he knew who I worked for and he'd used Helen to get to me.

I stood up quickly, spinning around as I heard his footsteps behind me.

"She'll be fine. She's just having a nap." He smiled cruelly at me and pointed his gun at a lone chair set in the middle of the room.

"Sit." It wasn't a request.

I glared at him as I slowly sat on the wooden chair, he moved over and immediately tied my wrists behind me, attaching me to the chair. The cable tie he used cut into my flesh uncomfortably.

"Now then, we need to have a little talk." He sauntered around to stand in front of me; he smirked as he looked down at my vulnerable state. My plan was to keep him talking, and assess my situation as it unfolded. It wasn't the best idea.

"What do you want Greg? How do you know my name?" He leveled the pistol at my head, I didn't react.

"I've been keeping an eye on you for a long time Morgan, you were singled out when you joined the newspaper." I frowned, none of this made sense.

"Who singled me out?"

"We did. We recruit the best and the brightest hackers from around the world. The future is online and we want to be the first to control it. People call us a lot of things but we are simply known as Cicada 3301." My jaw dropped, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They were a myth, an online legend. I had heard about the puzzles on the deep web but just thought it was someone dicking about. Greg took in my shocked expression, clearly enjoying the moment.

"We've been watching your progress Morgan, from gifted hacker to deadly assassin handler. You've made our lives quite difficult recently."

I shook my head, something still bugged me.

"But you're a nobody Greg. You went out with Helen for, what was it? Two months and then you've been harassing her ever since."

His lip curled at my judgment of him.

"A cover, I didn't think the bitch would dump me before I could get close to you. She thought she was something special, I could never stand her. Although I must admit…luring you out of your hiding place certainly was fun." A blind fury took over, and in my desperation to lash out at him I tried to stand up with the chair attached to me.

Before I could reach him he gave me a sharp crack to my head with the butt of the pistol. I stumbled back and landed back on the chair, my head ringing. I could taste blood in my mouth.

"That's enough of that. Stay put." I spat on the floor, my spit tinged with red.

"Ok, so your part of some bullshit, super hacker organisation. What do you want with me now? It's clear I work for someone else." He chuckled.

"Not for long by the looks of it. You really cocked up in Dubai, that was our information you stole. It's the second time you've screw up our plans." I racked my brains for another instance I might have pissed off this Cicada group. He waited for me to get to it myself, but my brain was still fuzzy from the hit he had dealt me. He sighed impatiently.

"Washington? You killed our guy in the congress." Holy shit, that congressman was about to launch a bill allowing legal monitoring of citizens, and I had deleted a program built to do just that. He saw my comprehension, and smiled.

"There we go, now you're getting it. So I have a question to ask you Morgan, or Peregrine, whatever you call yourself nowadays." He aimed the pistol at Helen's head. "Will you join us?" My throat tightened in fear, why hadn't any neighbours heard this commotion. Had he killed them all? The talking plan wasn't really getting me anywhere, and I was running out of time now.

"Why would I?" I managed to level my voice to appear calm. I wasn't sure I was fooling him though.

"Well, for one I've got you tied up with a gun pointed at your best friend's head. And two, it's really in your best interests. The ICA won't want you now you've gone against their orders and we can protect you from them." This time I snorted mockingly.

"You protect me from them? Yeah, whatever Greg." A furious look came over his face and moved towards me. I didn't have anywhere to go, the second hit to my head set the room spinning and tiny spots of light burst in my vision.

"We'll own them soon. So don't fucking think for one second you know what you're in the middle of, because you don't" He hissed the words into my ear. I blinked my eyes, trying to clear my view, a worry feeling of nausea was bubbling in my stomach and I felt something hot and wet sliding down my face.

I turned my head to lock eyes with him, he was only a few inches away from me and I could feel his breath on my cheek. For the first time I thought I was going to die. A numbing sense of the end nearing started to creep up from my feet, to my legs, to my body. It worried me that I didn't seem to care, all I cared about was keeping Helen alive.

"Own them? What do you mean?" My voice was thick and slurred, my tongue felt too big for my mouth. I forced my head straight again and he moved away to regard me from a distance. The gun was back on Helen.

"Cicada wants to infiltrate the ICA, it's why they got me to flush you out. We knew where you'd gone the minute you disappeared after that hit on your boss. I just needed to find out where you were hiding."

His voice was beginning to sound like it was at the other end of a tunnel. I was fighting to remain conscious, I knew it.

"I'm not going to help you." Every word was a struggle, I saw Greg smirk cruelly.

"That's a shame. At least I'm going to save the ICA a bullet." He cocked the gun and aimed it at my head now. The numbness had reached my chest and arms, this was it. I guess it had been worth it, whatever I had been doing for the last year. I just wish I could make sure my friend was safe before I went.

"Before I kill you, can I ask you something?" Through the fog I noted how strange that question seemed.

"You can ask."

I glared at him, determined not to let him kill me with my eyes shut. He paused for a moment, the smile turning into a leer, "Who thought you'd be any good at this really?"

There was the tiniest creak of a floorboard behind him, then a low, familiar voice cut through the silence.

"I think you'd better ask me that question." Greg's eyes widen as he felt the barrel of a gun press against the back of his head. Then my vision turned red with his blood.