Chapter 1

Weaknesses

    Kyle.  No last name came with it.  Not to say he didn’t have one, but it just never came up.  He was headstrong.  He was focused.  He was accomplished.  Hell, he was Kyle.  Could it have been the always perfectly spiked brown hair?  Maybe it was the way his jacket always parted and shirt always tightened around the sexiest part of his chest?  Whatever it was – it was like kryptonite.  Colleen was smitten from day one.  She couldn’t really even remember how they met – all she knew was that she was lost without him.  And god only knew what Kyle thought.  He was never very vocal.  Just loyal.  And he was exactly the kind of weakness that Colleen had long been searching for.

     The only fault that Colleen ever found with Kyle was that, for as successful as he was, Kyle was a closet Citizen.  And maybe that wasn’t a fault.  Maybe she should could empathize with them after all.  Kyle, as it turned out, was deep into cyber crime.  He wasn’t a criminal – he was a forensic analyst.  He spent days staring at unplugged computers, thinking and planning just how he would extract the perfect evidence without breaking any codes or initiating any safety protocols to wipe the memory.  Seemed like most people carried their entire lives on computers.  And most people carried criminal activity right along with it.  After all, every generation had their own surge of rampant criminal activity.  This generation was no different.  It wasn’t the hyped media and content theft that was so prevalent at the turn of the century that had swept clean – but a much lesser known crime that invaded the nation.  Tax fraud.

     And maybe all of this research was why Kyle could be a closet Citizen.  He knew exactly what they were hiding, and why.  Colleen assumed it was just the money – but the motives were so much more.  People wanted more privacy.  People wanted to do something without the government knowing.  Even more so, people wanted to do things without having to pay twice for them.  Illegal liquor and cigarette sales had skyrocketed into the top items that were being panhandled and bootlegged all over the country.

     It all came back down to the restrictions that had to come into place to keep the government running.  Wars had a way keeping a high national debt with no reasonable return.  And wars had just kept coming.  Even worse, was the land deals gone bad and the cost to government to completely reform the real estate market.  To top it all off, the job market crashing only crippled the government income.  For a few months, being a politician was practically volunteer work.  Just as well.  Of the few things that Kyle did say, one of them was that politics and leadership should be volunteer roles anyway.  And Colleen couldn’t help but agree more.

     The more she was around Kyle, the more she was drawn into his closet and he was drawn out.  There was something very wrong with the turns the country had taken.  And something needed to be done.  Before long, Colleen had always known that the country was headed for another disaster.  She just had no idea when it would finally take its turn for the worse.

 

     “We have to leave, now!” Kyle shouted as he slammed Colleen’s apartment door closed.

     “What’s wrong?’ Colleen asked quickly as she ran out from her kitchen to see Kyle’s clothes tattered and charred.  Kyle, with the exception of a few scratches, seemed unharmed but shaken.

     “Riots.”  Kyle shook his head as thunderous noises began erupting around them from outside. “The police are trying to control them, but they’re headed this way.”

     “Lock the door – we’ll be ok.”  Colleen was trying to remain calm and collected but she already guessed why they couldn’t stay where they were at.

     “They’ve got a lot of weapons – and they’re looting.”

     Colleen looked over at the curtained windows.   Sounds of sirens and loud crashes echoed through the closed off windows.  Every now and then a gunshot rang out, followed by several screams.  The sounds echoed louder and louder around the silence between them as Colleen pursed her lips in preparation for what was about to happen.

    “We’ll go to my office, Kyle.  It’ll be the most secure facility in town.”

    Kyle nodded and moved to unlock the door.

    A small crinkle of broken glass rang across the room as the noises from outside erupted tenfold.  As both of them turned to look towards the broken window, their eyes both caught sight of the rolling canister on the floor.  Her eyes darted to Kyle’s.  Kyle was looking at her with a trace of the same terror she felt in the pit of her stomach.

    Colleen was knocked senseless in a split second.  The entire apartment was spinning around her and she was on her back somehow.  She couldn’t focus.  Her eyes were burning as fumes erupted around her nostrils.  The scent was too overpowering to tell what it was.  All she knew was that her eyes, nose, and throat were on fire.  She couldn’t tell if she was rolling around or if more objects were smashing onto the ground.  Glass was breaking in her ears and her whole body began convulsing.  More earsplitting screams echoed across what was left of her sanity.  She tried to close her eyes, but it made no difference.  She was just as blind and in just as much pain either way.  An intolerable screeching was blowing out her mind from the inside and although she knew she was screaming aloud, she couldn’t hear anything over the screeches of agony in her mind.  Something else had to have happened, or her eyes finally registered that they were closed because she was finally in darkness.  Noises were still echoing around her, but they were so distant now that she was in some dark self-sanctuary.  And then, nothing.

 

*-*-*

 

     “Max Bryant, Federal Agent, Code 32.  Step aside.”

     The gate guard happily obliged as Max pushed his muscular form through the metal detector, flashing his federal I.D. everywhere.  Most people didn’t care, others watched as he briskly holstered his handgun.  As soon as he was through the security checkpoint, Max quickly moved about the building’s bright atrium towards the elevators, pulling his overcoat closed to conceal his weapon once more.  A couple in the corner shared a whisper, and the guard breathed a sigh of relief.  But by the time the elevator doors closed, Max had made a note of everything in the atrium.  Almost as if his khaki hat and overcoat was some kind of weird antenna, he had registered everything around him.  He didn’t even have to ask to know that the woman behind him in the elevator owned a small dog.  She also tried to cover it up with copious amounts of perfume and the use of a generic lint brush you could buy at any department store.  He also knew that the last person who used this elevator went to the 21^st floor.  But what he so wanted to know was why he was here of all places.  This was a reality complex.  Business and government working hand-in-hand as they should be.  Why was a top level agent from an unknown 3-letter agency sent here?  But he shouldn’t care.  In the end, a job had to be done, and it was pretty much always the same.  In fact, Max knew this was no different because he was never called to do rescue missions.  Either someone was dead or someone was going to be.

     As the chime rang for the 12^th floor, the older woman pushed past him and grunted something under her breath.  She was obviously single and owned a cat as well.  From the quick glimpse at her hands, Max could tell that her cat and dog rarely got along, but he was sure she pretended they did for whatever reason.  Max tried to push her from his mind.  He needed to focus more on the element at hand.  As the chime rang for the 17^th level, Max could already sense what was happening.  It was a complicated situation.  He stepped out onto the level to see a massive oak reception area.  Two glass doors were opposite each other at the end of the foyer.  A secretary’s desk of a matching oak lay between the two doors.  The man at the desk, Max noted, was fully armed.

     The door on the right read “BRACKETT – ZONE K-34”.  The other read “KILLIAN – ZONE K-35”.  Max sighed as he pulled his I.D. from his pocket to show the receptionist.

     “Hold on a sec.  I’ll have them check you out.”  The receptionist grunted as he quickly typed something into a computer.  Max couldn’t see it, but he knew that right now he was being thoroughly scanned by infared cameras, x-rays, and probably a dozen other methods.  A click sounded somewhere behind the door, followed by a loud buzzing.

     “You’re cleared.  Go on inside, buddy.” The receptionist said as Max walked over to the door and opened it.

     Behind the door, were some primitive looking cubicles and a solitary, glass-walled office.  Instead of a bustling office space, several federal agents were pilfering through parcels of information, examining computers, and rustling through file cabinets.  Two men in matching three piece suits were inside the glass walled office, talking to one another.  Max stepped past the cubicles and walked over to the office.  As soon as he caught the eye of one of the gentlemen, the man waved Max inside.

     “Max, you’re a bit early.  We still haven’t finished analyzing everything in here.”  Max closed the door behind himself and nodded to the man.

     “Anyways, Max, this is Agent Jacobian Drake.  Jacob, this is Max Bryant.  Max is from –“

     “Thank you, Danny.”  Max cut in.

     “Always this curt with your colleagues, Max?  Don’t bother hiding who you are, I already know who you work for and why.” Jacob snarled.

     “I work alone, for what should be obvious reasons, Jacobian.”  Max replied subtly.

     “Except I care about our situation and our country.  I don’t just cut the heads off of rampant snakes.”

     “Hey!” Danny interrupted. “Same team, boys.  Same team.  Jacob, fill in Max.”

     “Right.” Jacob sighed. “Several days ago, we got a tip off from our cyber boys that a known crime lord was seen with a federal agent.  It turns out, that the woman who runs this office has been dating an ex-double agent.  He went freelance crime lord about 2 months ago and fell out of our radar completely.  Our investigation shows that’s about when he started getting pretty serious with this gal.”

     “Where are they now?  Do we have them in custody?” Max inquired.

     “Max,” Danny sighed. “Why do you think I called you in here?  Because I have them?  You know what you’re best at.”

     “I’m an assassin, Danny.  I’m not a delivery boy.  Get Jacobian to find the lost lovers.” Max replied shortly as he turned to leave.

     “That’s what I already tried to do.” Jacob said in a raised voice that stopped Max from leaving. “We found him and went to nab him.  Problem is, that in the last two months he’s been rallying those damned Citizen Protestors.  When we moved on him a couple of days ago, the crowd over-reacted and a riot broke out.  In the chaos, we lost him and the girl.  And we know that the Citizens now have them in hiding.  To top things off, Danny here decided that we really shouldn’t be broadcasting that we have a lost agent in the arms of a double-agent-turned-cyber-crimelord.  So we don’t have any actual legal recourse to go after them.”

     “Any other problems you forgot to mention.” Max sighed as he turned back to look at Jacob and Danny.

     “Well…” Danny hesitated. “Kind of.  When they were moving in on the couple, the cops fired on the rioting crowd.  And Max, you know those damn Citizens.  Well, a few radicals have taken a liking to shooting the authorities.”

     “I’m still an assassin, Danny.”  Max sighed. “I’m programmed to kill.  You’d be better off sending Jacobian and his team of heroes back in there.  If anything goes wrong while I’m in there, I might do something you’d regret.  The Citizen movement is pretty popular right now, and the last thing you need is a shootout with a federal assassin.  Hell, even if someone finds my file and discovers I’m on this job – there’ll be hell to pay.  What do you think it looks like when you send an assassin into the heart of a radical movement?  C’mon Danny, I know that you know better than this.”

     “Max – I agree with you.  Believe me, I do.”  Danny rubbed his brow and sat down in the leather chair in front of the desk. “But the bottom line is that this comes from above my pay grade.  The thought of one of the largest districts’ property going to chaos because of a compromised agent is hitting all the right buttons on my food chain.  They want to get her in as soon as possible to find out how much she screwed up the system.  She was in close company with a known double agent for over 6 months.  Who knows how much damage has been done?”

     “Danny, I –“ Danny raised a hand to silence Max before he could argue the point.

     “Max, you have to find her.  And you have to bring her in.  I’m going to leave this assignment off the books as far as details go – so for the next two weeks you’re on sabbatical.  And for God’s sake, Max, don’t kill anyone.”

Author's Note

Chapter 1 - let me know everything.

Reviews

[PhoeniX]

im liking this story. the way your transitioning is great. again, you write like a pro :-)
the way you're making this transition is keeping me at the edge. the way books are written like this is something i admire. its not just a straight story flow, it has its breaks to different scenes. like a movie. great work!