All of them froze at those words, hearts going cold with apprehension. What on Earth did this guy mean? How was he able to see through our plan?
He chuckled mirthlessly at X's stunned expression, causing X to school his face once again. "Oh Agent X, I honestly expected a much better proposal from you and your team. I've heard so much about your prowess that I was expecting to be blown away by your presentation. But this... this is frankly disappointing."
X snarled at his words and bared his teeth. "Whether I've lived up to your expectations or not is none of my concern. What does matter is how you know about me, about my name."
"Ah, ah. let's not get ahead of ourselves. All that matters is that I know your name and that you work for ACE. How about we alter our deal a little bit to better suit our current circumstances?" he countered.
X's eyes furiously roamed the room, looking for answers he wouldn't likely get. Then he happened to glance at his team. Could one of them, including Hacker or Sheaf, have possibly done this? That thought was horrible, but not unlikely, given that even he had been working for the "enemy" in disguise.
However, the first thing that caught his eye was Meteor's panicked expression. His eyes widened slightly, and he vowed to immediately cart her off to ACE after this mess was taken care of. But first, of course, he had to see to the new situation in front of him.
He took a deep breath, found his centre of balance again, and faced the pixelated guy. "Alright, you've got me there. I'm not sure how you know me, but for now, it'll have to be put aside. Now I'll be revealing my true intentions to you, and you'll do the same, and we'll find a compromise that hopefully works for us both. Agreed?"
He laughed irritatingly again. "Oh Agent X, how desperate you are to stay in control of a situation that's clearly spiralling out of your control. But I'll agree this time since I want things to work out between us as well. So tell me, what is it that you seek?"
"Information," X answered immediately. "I want information on one of your regular clients. Her codename is Shell, and she's the current head of SHADE. I've received reliable intel that she plans to take over the world using the VX you periodically supply her, so I need you to give me her whereabouts to stop her."
The guy tilted his head appraisingly. "I'm beginning to see that spark I was looking for earlier. If you had spoken to me with such conviction earlier, I might have even humoured you for a while. But alas..."
"That's enough chit-chat, let's get back to the point," X interrupted with an impatient gesture. "As I was saying, I need information, that you clearly have, on Shell and her whereabouts. Will you give that to me?"
"It really depends, X, on whether you're able to do something for me in return. If you're complying with me, then I'll be more than happy to give you what you need. Or else..."
"What is it that you want then? Is it money? Because if it is, I have quite a bit of money from our funds to make you happy. Just tell me how much you want, and we'll work something out." X offered. In his eyes, the deal had seemed perfectly reasonable, but the guy looked offended for some reason.
"Is that really what you think of me? That all I'm interested in is a few measly pieces of paper?" he began in a mock-offended tone. "Oh no, I want something that only you can give me." he paused for dramatic effect, stared into X's eyes, and then proclaimed his end of the deal. "I want ACE to pardon all our criminal activities, and absolve all the pending cases against us for smuggling and dealing with dangerous weapons."
X's eyebrows shot up in the air and gave an exasperated gasp. The guy smirked at this. "Don't need to act so flustered, I'm not even asking for much. I know you have the authority to sanction such things. I just need your assurance that you won't come chasing after us once you've taken care of Shell."
X looked extremely forlorn as he slowly nodded his head in agreement. "This means all your current crimes will be pardoned, and not any future law-breaking you commit, alright?" he warned. The guy seemed happy enough by this and nodded eagerly.
"Okay, now that this is taken care of, you need to honour your end of the deal. Tell us Shell's location." he entreated. The guy immediately widened his eyes.
"Not so fast, Agent X. I need it in writing from you that you will honour your word, including all the subclauses we have talked about. Then you'll need to put your signature in there as well."
Ugh, my boss' going to kill me, X thought and sighed at his request, but since the situation was desperate, he agreed to the conditions and quickly drafted the required document. Then he showed it to the guy, who read through it carefully and asked X to sign it.
After this was taken care of, X reminded him of his deal once again. Since he didn't seem to have any more objections, he agreed to disclose the location.
X quickly opened a blank page and hovered his pen above it, ready to receive the data, when something struck him. "Wait, why are you disclosing this information to us again? Don't you guys have some pact for secrecy? Does customer loyalty really mean nothing to you?"
He looked amused that X had asked such a question, and readily answered it, "I'm a businessman through and through, Agent X. I only act according to what's beneficial for my company, both in the short term and for the long run. Right now, I'm caught in a situation where my whole company could be turned over to the authorities at any second. If I need to save it, I must break a few minor contracts. On the other hand, I have a lousy deal by one of my many customers that will get terminated very soon anyway. So why not come over to your side and take benefit from it?"
"Fair enough," X conceded with a shake of his head. "Now shall we get to it?"
The guy cleared his throat, grabbed a piece of paper from somewhere, and read out the address written on it. X copied it down as quick as he could, analysing it simultaneously for its credibility.
"Yes, that's it." The guy announced. X looked up from the paper he was writing on and gave him a critical look.
"This address seems legit enough, but by any chance, if it isn't the location Shell is hiding in, I swear I'll hunt you down myself," X uttered. The guy waved his hand dismissively.
"I'm not kidding, I really won't rest until you're in my hands ..." he paused, realising that he didn't even know his name. "Wait, what's your name again?"
"And what makes you think I'll give you that information, Agent X?" he answered with a twinkle in his eye and disconnected the call, causing the pixels in the air to dissolve in a smattering of colour.
"Well, that took a turn for the worse," Meteor said with a nervous chuckle. X turned to her with furrowed brows and decided to confront her immediately.
Without explanation, he went up to all three of them and demanded to see the devices they had used for the research. Hacker and Sheaf handed it in without question, but Meteor looked hesitant while she gave it to him, just as he had suspected.
He quickly scrolled through each of their devices and their search and chat histories. He gave Hacker's device an extra good check to make sure she wasn't hiding anything. Then he checked Sheaf's device and, finding nothing wrong with it, handed it back to him. Sheaf and Hacker seemed to know what he was doing, so they just let him be.
When it was Meteor"s turn, she didn't even wait for him to go through her device before crying out that it was her who have that guy their information. Even though he had expected it all along, the confession made X livid and he quickly called up ACE, asking them to send operatives to pick up Meteor and put her under questioning.
Meteor didn't offer further protests and just sat quietly as X made another call, this time to explain the negotiations to his manager. As he had predicted, his manager scolded him for agreeing to such a preposterous deal, but gave in and agreed to see to X's request.
Now all that was left was for them to wait for ACE's team to arrive and collect Meteor. The atmosphere was tense now, but for various reasons. All of them pondered on various negative circumstances and dragged the silence till they heard ACE's operatives at the door.
X handed Meteor over to them with a brief summary of her background and behaviour. They nodded at his instructions and carried her away.
Hacker put her hand on X's shoulder, shaking him out of his reverie. He turned towards his team and gave them a short nod. They understood its implications and smiled encouragingly.
"Now that Meteor is out of the picture, we need to start planning properly for the final mission," she reminded them. X nodded to himself and guided them to a comfy sofa. His thoughts were running like crazy, but he was clear-headed enough to collect them together and talk to Sheaf and Hacker.
"Right. So the place that guy mentioned is one I'm familiar with," he started and took a deep breath. "It's a medical lab of sorts, and it's actually the same location they took my wife and the other hostages, and eventually killed them."
Both Hacker and Sheaf glanced at each other silently, but X pushed forward without dwelling on too many feelings.
"And I had visited that place after... after the news reported the incident, so I know most of its ins and outs. Here, I'll draw up a map for us," X said and pulled out a large piece of paper. He closed his eyes, pictured the location as best as he could, and moved the pencil against the paper in quick strokes.
Sheaf and Hacker leaned in and observed the completed map closely. "It's built like a labyrinth, with all its passageways and rooms. How will we ensure that we won't get ambushed in it?" Sheaf commented.
"By not going into it blindly," Hacker answered, eyes still fixated on the map. "You see these points here? They are blind spots in the building. I studied them in a basic architecture course. If we manage to get to them safely, we can collect enough information to launch a proper attack."
X ran his finger over the locations thoughtfully. The locations seemed to check out though, that much was clear. And Hacker's plan was a good place to begin.
"Alright, let's work on our goals for the mission," he said. "There are two main objectives we need to fulfil. Our main goal will be to disengage Shell and Snow. We also need to prevent her from communicating her threat to the world's leaders, which means, by extension, we need to stop that rocket from launching into the atmosphere."
Both of them nodded. "So our main intention is to overpower Shell, right? That means we need to make her our prime target when we're collecting info." Hacker interjected.
"Yeah, and she'll be fully prepared this time, so we need to be extra careful in approaching her. I'm expecting tons of traps, but I'm sure there'll be other things up her sleeve as well," X replied.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Sheaf suddenly exclaimed, startling them both. When they stared at him weirdly, he hastily completed his sentence. "There's almost certain trouble? Nasty villain? High chances of capture, torture, and/or death? Why isn't our team on that scene then?"
Hacker and X laughed when they heard his reasoning. It didn't do much for the situation, but it did help them ease their nerves a little bit.
"Sheaf's right! What are we waiting for? Let's go get this party started!" X backed him up with a slight pat on his shoulder. They all cheered and trooped out of the house in a steady trickle.
Since it was nighttime, the usual stampede of feet, conversations and vehicles were replaced by the soft chirrups of crickets and toads.
X whistled as he walked, hands tucked over the small of his back and legs swinging back and forth in a rare display of ease. Hacker and Sheaf felt a little intimidated at the way X seemed to be much more at ease when his actions led to revenge, but there was nothing they could immediately do to help him. These matters needed time, patience and effort, after all.
"We've reached!" X announced, stopping in front of a modern medical facility with white walls and a huge black gate. He looked at both of them, touched his finger to his lips, and shook his head. They nodded back at him and repeated the gesture.
He used his finger to make a circle in the air in front of them and then pointed toward the facility. Hacker and Sheaf looked at the building, saluted dramatically, and stealthily moved into the shadows to take the route to the blind spots.
X turned and walked in the other direction, covering the periphery of the lab in the process. All of them were on high alert, looking out for traps and sensors that could trigger less-than-pleasant situations.
There were a few small tricks and traps here and there, but they were so childishly done, that it seemed like they were placed out there for names' sake.
Meanwhile, walking around the perimeter of the facility served as a refresher for X, reviving memories of walking this exact path to witness the spot his wife was murdered.
Bitter memories aside, it also confirmed that the map he had drawn for Hacker and Sheaf was accurate. That's actually quite the relief. It would suck if they followed the wrong map.
Soon he reached the spot he was designated, and he crouched down to avoid being seen. Once he was sure that he was in a safe position, he used the walkie-talkie to contact Sheaf and Hacker to check on them.
Both of them reached their respective spots at the same time as him and picked up the call immediately.
"Can you see anything useful from your locations?" X asked.
"Yeah, I can see workers milling around here. Seems like they're slowly putting together the final touches to the vessel, judging by the materials they're carrying around." Hacker reported. Sheaf repeated observations along similar lines as well.
"From my side, they seem to be preparing the VX and storing the containers in a part of the vessel. There seems to be an adequate amount, to be honest, and I don't think the fact that the amount of VX she has isn't complete is going to deter Shell. She's going to launch this cyber-attack, whether or not she has her estimated VX." X replied.
Both of them nodded grimly at that, though this was to be expected. What less would you expect from such a villain?
"Alright, I think our spots have given us as much information as they can. Now we need to carefully move around to the rest of the blind spots so that we can get as much data as possible to plan this..." Before he could complete his sentence, the back of his neck prickled and he jumped to his feet, pulling out his gun and spinning around. He immediately spotted three operatives in black pointing guns at him as we
uh oh, X is in trouble now. It looks to me like he might do something more drastic than voting...
And while we're at it, thanks for 2k reads on Agent X!! You guys are the best!!!!!