Zero.

Chapter Sixteen

MY HEART started to race once the words left my mouth. I was sick of not knowing whatever Lee thought to be the truth, but a part of me dreaded what he was going to say. He stared at me for a moment, seeing if I was serious or not. I couldn’t blame his hesitancy. He told me my name and I attacked him. I wasn’t even sure how I would react.
Sighing, I removed my guns from the holster, along with the knife in my boots.
“I’m unarmed now. I’ll do my best to keep my temper in check. But at least you don’t have to worry about me pulling a weapon out on you.” I cautioned.
He eyed my hands warily. “Like you need weapons” he scoffed.
He had me there.
“Nonetheless, you can begin.”
He settled on the floor and after kicking my weapons aside, began.
“It was 1940 and I was only 12. At the time I was into some pretty messed up things: robbing houses, drugs, anything that made me quick money.”
“What about your parents?” I interrupted.
“Never knew them. Jumped around in the foster system until I finally ran away and never looked back.”
I nodded, having every intention of letting him finish his story, when something hit me.
“Wait, you were in 12 in 1940?  If that’s true, then you should be over 150 years old!” I exlaimed looking him over. He was definitely youthful.
“Ah, you caught that.” He laughed.
“Technically I am almost 138. But I bet you can guess why I don’t look my age.”

"Because you stole the serum we use." I said matter of factly.

"Why would I need to steal it? I had it administed to me for years by Chief." he retorted 
“That’s not possible.” I whispered.
There were only two agents who survived the trials to be in the Sleep state and then Awaken when needed and that was Agent One and I. Chief was the only exception. He underwent the same process we did to stay young, so that he would be able to run Headquarters, well beyond his expiration date.
“One of the many lies Chief told you. I was the first agent to go through the sleeper process.”
I shook my head “How?”
“When Chief found me, I had finally gotten arrested. He showed up in my cell one afternoon with an offer. Jail or a new start. A family. I clearly chose the latter. It was a no brainer for me. I had nothing and no one else. He trained me for years, molding me into an agent. At the time, there weren’t many of us.”
I nodded slowly. “Headquarters formed right after the Vietnam War began. If what your saying is true, then we should have been barely getting started.”
“Someone read their How to be an Agent Manuel.” He joked.
“But yes. There was only a handful of us and then the Sleepers Program was initiated. I had just turned 27 and I was the prime candidate for the trials. I had the best scores, aim and was unbeatable in hand to hand combat. If any agent was irreplaceable at the time, it was me.”
“So you volunteered?” I asked.
“Yes. Chief has a way of making you feel… like you belong. Like he’s the only one who really cares about you. At the time, he wasn’t leading Headquarters. He was just a recruiter who found potential agents, but he was the father figure I always needed and he knew exactly how to exploit that. All he had to do was suggest that I participate in the trials and I was in. There were 15 of us who underwent the process. I was the only one who survived.
So the program was dismissed and I was the only success. For a long time, I wasn’t Benjamin Lee anymore.”-
“Are you telling me you were Agent Negative Zero?” I snorted.
“Cute. But no. I was called Genesis. My body was compatible with the trials, so I couldn’t die. When I was hurt I would go to Sleep and wake up healed and never aging. I was Chief’s top hitman, I did all the big jobs, never failed a mission and ultimately secured Headquarters’ position as the worlds top secret agency.”
“Chief was the one to raised Headquarters from the ashes.” I said, but my voice didn’t have the conviction it did earlier.
“Wrong. Chief was the face Headquarters needed to take the credit. It took me a while, but I realized what I was, a ghost. A weapon lurking in the shadows doing the dirty work while Chief climbed the ranks.
I started realizing that I was becoming a monster, but I held on to the vision Chief plated in my head from the beginning, that we were the good guys, so I blindly followed him. As he moved up in leadership, so did I. Soon he was the director of Headquarters and I was his right-hand man.
“What changed?” I wondered.
“I met her.” He said simply.
“It was 1995.  I was in Afghanistan undercover as an army soldier trying to find refugees associated with the terrorist attack. I brought along another agent with me. His name was Anthony.” He paused in his story to glance at me, but I kept my face neutral. With a sigh, he continued.
“He was a bit young, but one of the best. Chief had assigned me to train him when he was still new, but Andrew didnt need much traning. After I realized how skilled he was, Imade him my partner. I ran it by Chief, but he barely paid me any notice. Apparently he just wanted to have more time to train a new recruit that he was paying close attention too.