Zero.

Chapter Twenty

Agent Zero
I COULDN’T understand how Lee did it. Being a rogue agent was exhausting. The constant moving and looking over your shoulder was annoying, and I never factored in the amount of paranoia that went with it. It had been days since what happened at Pembroke’s Vault and I was now holed up in a gross motel trying to figure out my next move. I knew that Headquarters would clean up the mess One and I had left behind with some tragic story, so at least I wouldn’t have to worry about that. What kept me on edge though, was wondering how Chief would respond to me going AWOL.

I was fully prepared to defend myself, but I didn’t want to have to kill any agents who were stupid enough to blindly follow Chief’s orders. And that was assuming One wasn’t who came after me.
I wouldn’t kill her and she wouldn’t stop trying to figure out the truth.

But now that I finally knew the truth, I was sure she would be better off not knowing.
I had looked through the entirety of the file Benjamin had given me and what I found made me sick.
Chief had single handily been responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. Headquarters was simply a tool in his quest for power. The drive Benjamin had contained videos of the original Sleeper Trials he had told me about, so I couldn’t deny the truth. He had been the first subject to survive them and from the detailed accounts kept of his missions, he had more blood on his hands than Agent One and I combined.

I found hit’s targeted at presidents, world officials and millions of dollars’ worth of transfers and withdrawals from drug lord’s and notorious criminals all under Chief’s name. He used agents as a guise to cover up his true selfish motives and the anger I had at being his pawn left me seething. But that was nothing compared to the hollow ache that came from reading the files Lee had on Anthony.

The man from my dreams had a name now. And as fate would have it, I confirmed he was real only to be confronted with the truth that he was dead. The file on him was the hardest to see. I wanted to laugh because he was real, but his death tormented me in a way I couldn’t understand.

From the memories I had of him, I knew that I loved him, but it seemed impossible that I was able to feel such depth for a man I could barely remember. I stared at his photo for hours, trying to recommit him to memory.

Brown eyes, brown hair, cooked smile, strong jaw, straight nose.
I knew that he was the one I kept dreaming about.
We were supposed to get married.

Tears welled in my eyes. My heart ached at the phantom memory of him. From his file, I could only see that he was a skilled agent that was imprisoned and put to death for attacking Chief and several supposed traitorous accounts.

Like every other time I tried to think about Anthony, rage and despair twisted my gut, so naturally; I blocked the thoughts out and focused on the facts I could deal with.

Chief was a monster. He killed Anthony and Benjamin’s family amongst countless others and based on some sick obsession with me, he had crossed my genes with Agent One in an effort to replicate me. That last part sent a shiver up my spine. Beside the feelings of being violated, I couldn’t help considering Agent One. She was brought back from the dead to be used as a test subject for a madman’s obsession.

The file on the Gene Cross wrote her off as a “useful failure” apparently the cross hadn’t worked as planned. It was supposed to transfer everything about me into Agent One, but instead it gave her most of my features and swapped a few of our key traits. So that was the reason we looked alike and were equals when it came to combat. She was basically my carbon copy with a twist. The twist being that she kept some of her original traits and I took some of hers as well. Before she died she was apparently a tech genius at M.I.T. a quality she clearly maintained.

No one compared to Agent One’s tech skills, including me. I wasn’t sure what about her had transferred into me, but I knew it was pointless to try to figure it out.

With a sigh, I sat on the floor with my back against the bed. I twisted my gun around in my hands. It hadn’t left my hands in days. It was only a matter of time until Chief found me, and I still hadn’t come up with a decent plan.
With all that I knew, I saw no other choice.
Chief had to die.
Reloading my gun, I laid back and waited for him to find me.