The Prologue
Also, check out my Spotify Playlist I put together for this fic.
(Keep in mind the chapters, though. The tracks are kind of like a soundtrack.)
London, A week ago
Voices joined the noise of the metropolitan city that offered its obligatory honking and screeching of cars to anyone bold enough to stay up this late on a Wednesday night. The only difference to any other night in the city was that these new voices hid behind the walls of an empty and guarded office building. The voices were instructed to be kept inaudible.
A redhead in a sand-colored business suit nodded, the command for the operation to finally begin, the result of endless preparation and diplomatic back-and-forth between the CIA and this possibly pretentious other side who claimed to possess very delicate intel.
Agents focused their visual equipment on the other building, the building of interest. It was a small-sized office complex with a dark roof and had been determined as safe exchange location days ago. There was only one back door beside the main entrance and that same door one had been bricked up since half a decade. If anything went south, back-up would handle the situation in an instant. No one could know the government agency operated on foreign ground right now, not with these highly classified documents involved. What they had been promised could shatter the European Union, even the NATO.
Two armed figures, provided with subtle headsets and two brown attaché cases, moved out of a bus and crossed the street. With twelve pairs of eyes focused on them, the men knew their team had their backs.
As soon as they stood before the smaller building, they entered, took the lift to the eleventh level and, as agreed, stepped into the room with the left hand placed on the watch on their right wrist. The sign. The two men were welcomed, placed their cases on a table to reveal the enormous amount of money inside. Everything as negotiated.
The three men who had expected the agents gave a slight nod and the first of them put away the drawn handgun in his hands. With the numbers clear in his mind, he unlocked a safe that showed the promised files. In exchange for the money. Everything in order. He took the files out and turned around.
At the same time, a window shattered. Immediately, the men started to shoot in the window’s direction for a few seconds. After that, it stayed quiet. Nobody moved, but every heart pounded.
All of the sudden, an object emitting a sharp, bright light flew into the room. The men went down, sought cover. Strange noises echoed through the big empty level. Noises like books falling and pens crunching under feet turned from familiar to alarming. The men knew those sounds were meant to taunt and confuse. But maybe, maybe they were dealing with more than just one attacker and he was coming closer?
After a couple of seconds that sped up every heart in the room in expectation, one of the men couldn’t take the suspense anymore. He stood up and fired the entire round in his semiautomatic with closed eyes. But the room was empty apart from his colleagues, the CIA agents and him.
Suddenly, the dazzling light disappeared, leaving all the men blind even in the darkness they’d managed to operate in before. They didn’t see the brunette hair moving through the room; they didn’t hear the near-silent footsteps nearing and moreover, they didn’t see the round trademark plates buzzing blue with electricity flying at them.
It wasn’t long before they were all down, unable to ever stand up again. The unmistakable scent of burnt hair filled the atmosphere. Blood turned the carpet into an ocean with sticky islands.
The attacker moved through the room with powerful strides, always staying behind the walls for cover. Every professional would’ve known this exchange was supervised and without doubt, backup was on its way by now.
But even if they spotted this individual, they’d never find out the identity behind the shadow. All the masks, tricks and lies applied were establishing that level of stealth since a number of years.
The shady figure moved fast, unseen and unheard, quickly grabbing the files plus both cases. In exchange, a strand of red hair and a drop of blood stayed in the room. It was a balanced exchange. Red hair and blood, all collected and stored despite unforeseen obstacles that definitely counted up to the five lives that ended today. It would lead the government on the tail of a certain Russian redhead, just like the remaining electric shockers she was known for.
When the CIA backup team had finally conquered all the stairs up to the eleventh level and entered the room that had gleamed a shrill white only a minute ago, every agent was geared up, ready to shoot the unwelcome intruder. All they found, however, was an empty office level. No visual on the attacker, not even one hint as to where he’d disappeared.
Suddenly, glass shattered. Everyone turned around immediately, weapons ready. They didn’t shoot. Silence and calm heads. Seconds passed. No one dared to move. No orders. Whoever was playing games with them, whoever was trying to kill them like their first two agents, would pay. A minute of nerve-wracking silence followed and the agents, though more prepared than their predecessors, were growing irritated. Nothing happened at all.
Out of nothing, the shattering noise returned. But no wind hit the skin of the agents. Confused glances were exchanged. One of them slowly walked into the direction of the sound, gun aimed. He inspected a wall and when he returned, holding up a small device that was programmed to relay the sound of bursting glass every minute, everyone straightened and let out a sigh of relief.
The leader of the team nodded to himself. He would make sure this attacker would pay tenfold for making them look like fools, for playing with his trained agents. This psychological attack would leave scars, and combined with the given high-stress levels of their jobs, some in his team would need even more counseling, which meant a new rotation, new team members, and more work.
One of the agents called for the team and pointed at the corpse-littered ground. Everyone started the investigation immediately, A drop of blood with a long, thick hair in it. A good hint, more than just a blood sample. Perfect.
The leader smiled. They’d catch this psycho quickly. There were enough traces to follow around.