by Adrian Popa
"Have a seat, you're lucky, I only just got here as well"
I sat next to Rat, facing Steve Jole, he had black hair, and also had a fairly skinny build and had a medium height. At first you wouldn't think he was a combatant, but most informants are, and I wouldn't want to base my judgments so early. I said to him.
"You probably know why I'm here huh"
"Yeah, here to kill me, I'm not going down without a fight you know"
"That makes things more interesting, I didn't hope that I could just bring you down without a fight"
Usually my targets aren't so easy to find or kill, but this was a special case, I guess all I can do now is just let Rat carry on his business. Rat clears his throat and begins speaking.
"So, Steve, it's been a while"
"Heh, apparently not long enough"
"Your days of being an informant not treat you well?"
"I can't see why you would say that"
"Maybe due to the sudden spree of theft you've done gave it away. How about you tell me what's going on"
"Straight to the point huh, but I don't see what you mean, nothing is going on"
"Cut it, I know this is serious, this has to do with HIM, right, you've kept it secret from us"
"And what if it does? You know going against him is dangerous, this is my own problem, I have to do this alone"
"That may be true, but this is a crazy job, it's going to solve nothing, your one of the few who know, don't let your life be wasted like that"
"Since when did you become my father, look, like I said before it's going to be fine"
"The consequences are too much to risk, you may have your own plans but, if it's him we're talking about, than he's sure to already know, and he's sure to make sure that you don't get away, or make it to him for that matter"
"Heh, and I'm willing to go for it, I've got nothing to lose, I've already pinpointed his location , all I gotta do is go in and end it"
"Why, why do all of this, I thought we were all going to finish him once and for all when the time was right, but you seem to have your own idea of how to do this"
"Come on Rat, you know how it is, just the same old same old"
"That's what I like to think, but there's something else going on isn't there?"
"Even if I told you, what difference would it make?"
"Come on Steve, you know how it is, being an informant and all, it's like you said, the same old same old"
Rat gave off a mischievous smile as he said that, Steve sighed and scratched his end and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, he put one in his mouth and lit it. He took the pack and turned it around and pushed one of the cigarettes out. He said.
"Want one?"
Rat refused and said to me.
"How about you?"
"Nah, I'm fine"
I had no idea what was happening in this conversation, Steve Jole seemed to be after someone and I was after him, Rat was here to just scope out some information. It may not concern me but me being here, I can't help myself and wonder what was going on. I can't complain If I don't get filled in, and if this really didn't concern me than I had no right to intervene. I asked Steve.
"I understand if you don't want to answer but, what exactly is going on here?"
"Oh, that's right you must have no clue what's going on here do you, but well I guess since your here to kill me and all I guess there's no harm to tell you is there?"
He said it with sarcasm, something that I don't tolerate much, I get the feeling that he's taking me lightly, and I even get the feeling that he's challenging me, but I'll have to restrain myself while Rats here. He continues.
"Well it's quite the story, but since time is something we all don't have, I guess I can summarize it for you, I'm out to get someone, simple as day"
"So you want to kill someone, but this seems a lot more serious than just that, care to explain some of the details?"
"Heh, this is turning out to be quite funny, hey Rat, do you think it's alright?"
"Honestly, at this point, it's better than nothing, we aren't being watched by HIM due to the structure of this place and the signal jammers, if anything this place is the only place we should be talking"
Steve jole gives off a little chuckle, he takes his cigarette out of his mouth and puts it on an ashtray nearby. He clears his throat and continues.
"The target I'm trying to kill, or rather the target that WE are trying to kill goes under the alias of John, or he is known to us as Kayneth, he's the head of Jeno, but doesn't act that way at all, he hired a person to act as the head in his place, and capitalized on the income himself. He likes to keep a low profile, or rather he probably doesn't exist to about 99.9 percent of the people in this city, currently we don't know what he's trying to get at but we do know that he's doing something quite ambitious. He's set off his own little experiment called Project Eleven, we don't know much about what that's all about but we're still working on it, and funny enough the person who he has enacting this project is you, Adam Henning"
The harsh reality hit me and I was stunned, John, or should I say Kayneth, he, is the one that Steve Jole is after. I get some answers but of course it leads to even more questions. And I'm way too deep into this to just ignore. Head of Jeno? What exactly is going on, who are these people, there's still a lot of missing pieces, but even they seem to not have all the pieces to finish this puzzle. Why was I chosen for this experiment, what's the purpose of Project Eleven, killing these people, do they actually have any purpose within them. Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture, I'm the one being left in the dark. But not anymore, I have to know what's going on. I ask Steve.
"Alright, it's a lot to take in but I think I have the gist of it, except I have a few questions"
"That would be expected, go ahead"
"When you say WE, who are you referring to?"
"WE would be a secret organization run by an old worker at Jeno who faked his death pretty nicely. We can't exactly say his name, but aside from his orders we work pretty well on our own, a self sustaining society so to say, he's just the head figure to keep us together I guess. Our name, even if you search this in the deepest parts of the net or even with any informant apart from us, you probably won't find it. We like to call ourselves the Discarded Knives, simply forgotten, and when we want, the moment you remember, we might welcome you to a cut from our blade, or something like that ha ha, and our current mission is to stop Kayneth"
A hidden organization, and their working to fight against, Kayneth. Steve claims to not know much about Kayneth's plans, yet an entire organization was involved in this, who exactly, is Kayneth. It looks like I can't get the answers from Steve, and I don't think Rat will easily tell me what I'm looking for either. There was still one question that Steve could answer for me, it was something quite related to this situation. I asked Steve.
"Are you planning to attack Kayneth all on your own? From the conversation before, it looks like you're going to head in and try to solve all of this by yourself"
Steve put on a grin on his face. He said with a smug expression and a confident face.
"That's exactly right"
Chapter 21
I ask Steve.
"Can you really do it?"
"To be honest, probably not, but you never know unless you try"
"Your willingly to throw yourself away like that?"
"You should understand, you're a hit man, you have to be able to take risks if you want to achieve your goal"
"You have his location, and you even have an organization backing you up, what's the point in going in alone"
"I have my reasons, and so does the Discarded Knives, standing around and doing nothing while waiting isn't going to accomplish anything"
"And killing your self isn't going to accomplish anything either"
"That may be true, but even if we know where he's holed up that doesn't mean we know what he has in store for us, we have no recon of the place what so ever, and it's
too dangerous if we were to formulate a plan without that , we would be going in blind"
So he's planning to be the sacrifice so that they can properly ambush Kayneth huh. That's a bit of a stretch, there's many other ways for him to go about this, being the bait and trying to play out Kayneth's cards isn't going to do anything, if Kayneth isn't playing around than Steve going in to try and get data is useless. I have a feeling that this is his own personal quarrel, no person would go in like that with such a stupid resolve. Steve continues.
"There's no point in trying to stop me, I've already set my mind to this, and I'm going to see it through"
Rat intervenes and replies to Steve.
"Is it because of HER?"
"Rat..."
"If it is then I can understand your frustration, but doing this isn't what she would want"
"But I can't live on knowing what happened, I have to do this, Rat, you understand don't you, losing someone to a reason as pity as that"
"I do, trust me Steve, but doing this is going to do nothing for both you and her, and us. Your an informant, and part of the Discarded Knives, you can't act based on your emotions, when you signed up to be in this, you knew that whatever grudge you had was going to have to wait"
"I know that Rat"
"And yet your still trying to find reconcilement from a case within the past, if you just reason with yourself, then we can all finish him off"
"And how long will that take Rat? You know that it will take us quite a while to properly scout his location and formulate a plan that will successfully finish him off. The more time we wait, the more time he gets the chance to finish off his plans. He has an agenda, but all we're doing is waiting around playing it safe. I'm doing this, Rat, you can't stop me"
"It looks like trying to convince you won't work, I understand. Well that's all I came for. Oh and Adam here still needs to take you out, but I guess even a hit man can have a heart, I'm sure if he just let you take on Kayneth that he'll finish his task anyway"
With that, Rat leaves. Steve Jole hasn't exactly been the best criminal, killing him seems almost wrong, Kayneth at this point doesn't give off the impression that what he's doing is for the good of this city, especially if one of his projects involves killing people, in a way I guess I can leave him off like that. It's true that if I just let him do what he wants then I could possibly just sit back and await Kayneth's next orders but I still have some questions. I ask Steve.
"It seems like you weren't telling me everything before, you guys probably already know what Kayneth is after don't you?"
"Oh, well I better work on my lying skills then, but I'm not the right person to tell you this, when the time is right, you'll know. Either way, If you're going to kill me now, than go ahead"
"I have a mission to do, and that involves killing you, but I do have my own morals and you haven't really done much either, honestly I'm willing to just let you do what you want with Kayneth, although that doesn't guarantee that you will die"
"I see, so your gonna tag along, well I don't care, as long as you don't get in my way"
"Also, how can I get in touch with the Discarded Knives?"
"That's an ambitious question, but since you already know so much, I guess it doesn't matter anymore, I'll text somebody, if I die, give a call to the first person in this cell phone's contact list, don't answer when he picks up"
Steve begins texting somebody, after he finishes he goes to the scattered equipment and starts packing. After he's done he turns to me.
"Well, let's go, I have a car near here"
"Where are we headed?"
"The high security complex, Hades "
"Hades, I've heard about that place , if Kayneth is staying there than he must be extremely rich"
"He's not just staying there, he owns the damn thing"
"He's that rich!?"
"And knowing that he has that much money, he probably has some crazy traps and guards there"
We head to Steve's car, and we begin driving to Hades. Steve says to me.
"Oh, and it's fine that you're in this car since Kayneth cant track you, but if he knew that you were doing this, than it could be pretty troublesome for both you, and us"
"I figured that doing anything stupid or questioning him would lead into trouble"
"Good, so you understand, even though your here, stay completely out of this, the moment Kayneth sees you it's all over"
"Keeping me in this car while waiting for you death is a little troublesome as well, a man gets bored, and with boredom comes exploration"
Steve sighs, and then says.
"Fine, there's a laptop under the seat, take it and keep an eye on the webcam, It'll give you feed on what's happening in the area using the cameras I set up beforehand"
I do as he says and find the laptop. I boot it up and look at the camera feed. He was right, the feed was directly from the perimeter of Hades. I could see everything in the area, except what was on the inside. I tried zooming one of the cameras to focus on the building, but as I got closer the feed started to die on me. I zoomed out. Steve continues.
"I'll leave this car in an area that will ensure your escape, take it back to Lake Rile once you've made it out, here take my cell phone"
He throws his cell phone to the back of the car and I catch it. He comes to an abrupt stop and says.
"This is where I start my assault, do not give away your position, your too important to lose at this point"
What does he mean by that, once again he's withholding the truth, there is definitely something up with this case that I do not know about yet. Steve leaves the car, and I keep an eye on the feed to get filled in on what's happening. Now that I look at it more properly, there doesn't seem to be too many outside guards. There's two at the main entrance and two at the back entrance. Not to mention the electric fence and barbed wire near the front gate that stretches into a small square around the building. A bullet can pass through the fence, and even rip it apart. I have a feeling that Steve isn't going to have trouble getting in, but trouble once he gets in. Unfortunately, I can't get any surveillance inside, wherever I zoom, the feed starts dying. After a while I see Steve on the feed. He's quite a distance from the fence, but he's getting ready to raid Hades.
I crept near Hades, by now Kayneth should already know I'm here.
It wasn't a matter of trying to be sneaky anymore, but rather trying to predict what Kayneth has up his sleeves. I slowly went to the back of the complex. I took out my silenced sniper and took aim. There was two of them, if I was fast enough, then I could take them both out in an instant. I steadied my arm and fired the first bullet. It went through the fence and right on target. The second guard took out his assault rifle and started to scope out the area. He reached for his cell phone, I quickly re positioned myself and fired. Both of them were out. I holstered my sniper and went to the fence. It was pretty high, and climbing it would get me electrocuted. I moved back and took out a zip line launcher. I aimed it at the complex's walls and fired. I tugged it to make sure it was in place and when I was assured it was I jumped and pressed the reverse retract button. The line began pulling us in and when I was inside the perimeter I pressed the stop button. There were a few windows but they were all blacked out. I balanced myself on one of the window sills, and jumped on one of the balconies. The balconies probably lead to the second floor, although there weren't any for any of the higher floors. Strange, but either way it will work out. I took out my silenced pistol and shot the launcher off the wall, and took it before it hit the ground. These windows look pretty reinforced, I guess I better go in the proper way. I jumped off the balcony and searched the bodies of the guards. One of them had a key card, I took it and went to the door. I swiped the card in the scanner and the door opened. I had my silenced pistol at ready, and I entered Hades.
I had entered from the back, and there was a hallway that lead into the reception hall. I was on the first floor. There were two rooms in this hallway, and some stairs
were near the end of the hallway along with a door. I slowly crept my way through the hall and went up the stairs. I soon saw myself on the second floor, there was a ledge that lead to the first floor. I crouched down and made sure I didn't stick too close to it. If one of the guards looked back, then he would surely see me. There were many cameras here but with the jamming gear I'm wearing, I shouldn't be detected. There was an elevator, near the other side of the second floor. I read one of the wall guides and it looks like the best bet on where he was, was the last floor. This complex was made out of eight floors in total. . I slowly made my way to the other side of this floor and near the elevator. There was an escalator that lead here, luckily no one else was here. I entered the elevator, it only went to the fourth floor. It looks like I'll have to walk up the rest of the way. I pressed the button for four and waited. When the door opened I had my guns drawn and was ready to shoot. There was no one here, not a single guard. I saw the stairs at the end of the hallway and made my way there. Just as I was about to open the door, I saw a person at the end of the hallway with a pistol. I quickly rolled to the side and dodged his bullet. This floor was a pretty much a square with a line through it. I could run around and get him, but that's assuming that he didn't already re position himself. I peeked out and he was missing. I quickly opened the door to the stairs and ran up. I didn't bother reading any of the door names as I dashed through the fifth floor, and went to the sixth. Only two more left. I slowed down to catch my breath and then walked to the stairs. A side door had opened and the man was there. He had a long trench coat on, sunglasses that hid his eyes, and his hair was pushed back, he also had a scar on his left eye that was visible and he held his pistol towards me. He shot at me. I quickly rolled to the side. This floor was shaped like a square with a cross in it. I quickly got up and the man was now blocking the stairs and firing bullets at me. I took cover. I fired a few rounds back at him, but didn't have great aim considering my position. I made my way around, and was facing where he was at. He was gone, suddenly I noticed he was behind me and took cover again. After a few shots he yelled to me.
