The Eleven

by Adrian Popa

  Chapter 9

  "Nice work, you got your hands on some nice loot at his place". I finish putting out the items I found at James' room. I take out all the equipment I was given and set it down on the table as well. Hamsburg continues "Well looks like your done here, my men will escort you back to your place, good job, you've done better than I expected"

  "No problem"

  As I begin to walk out of the briefing room, Hamsburg yells "Hey wait". I turn around, and he throws me a gun. "Keep it"

  "Thanks"

  I was blindfolded and escorted out of the headquarters. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear everything. As I continued walking, I heard a door open, I continued walking towards it, the door closed. The men warned me to watch my step. I did and found myself climbing a set of stairs. We soon reached a platform, turned right and began again. When we reached the top of these stairs, we turned left and began on another set of stairs. This was the last set of stairs. I heard a door open from above us, there was a room there. From all of this I will assume that there headquarters is underground, and this must be one of the rooms they use to surface and enter. This was a different path than what I went through to get to the mission vehicle. I was still blindfolded but didn't remember having to go through this. I follow them through another set of rooms, we walked through three rooms in total, until I was told to "Get in". I assumed it was another car, I sat down, and they got in the front. They started up the car and began driving. Looks like they are pretty strict on who gets to know where they are. For now it's impossible to know where to find these guys again, looks like I need to call up Rat.

  I arrive at my building, I take off my blindfold and give it back to them. They drive off. I check my room, everything is untouched, like this never happened at all. I reach for my phone to make a call, and just as I'm about to get my phone, I get a call instead. I take my phone and check the caller. Private. I pick up.

  "It seems your having fun Adam"

  "Not funny"

  "Since your back from that little kidnapping, I assume you can get back with my task"

  "Well, that kidnapping has done most of the work for me, I was taken to A. 's headquarters, he leads his own organization underground"

  "Oh, really, well that is very convenient, however do you know how to get back there?"

  "That's the problem"

  "Very well, I shall send you a map of the base, and directions of getting there"

  "Wait W-"

  He hangs up. I receive an email with a digital picture that mimics the wall map I saw back at the headquarters. I also get a map showing where the base is. How the hell did John get this, did he know about this all this time?. If it was Rat, he could of traced me back to the base, but getting an entire floor plan. If John can get things like this, then why does he need my help. But then again, Hamsburg was pretty strict, if John really didn't know that he was running underground, than he must of used something to scan the area to find him, and he probably didn't think of it until he saw me get captured. If that is the case, than I guess Hamsburg played his own death. I get my equipment ready, and study the map carefully. Once I'm ready, I'm heading out, that is of course when night has fallen.

  I reach the entrance of the headquarters. It's an abandoned store. If I break in there should be an underground entrance for me to go through. I walk around the store for a side entrance. I find a backdoor. Perfect. I listen in carefully for any guards. I hear movement. Only one. I take out my knife, and knock on the back door. "Who is it!?". I move to the side, and wait until he opens it. I hear him unlocking the door. A satisfying click, once I hear that, I quickly pull open the door and stab him. He falls in front of me, a pool of blood surrounding the outside. I check his body for any keys, I find none. I go inside and close the door behind me. I see the metal ground door leading into the headquarters, with no keys, I'm going to have to break in using my "Door Opener". I pull out a gun with an attachment under its muzzle. I flip the hammer, and aim at the door. A laser shoots out of the attachment as I make a nice circle over the door. I put on my fingerprint proof gloves and descend the stairs. Strange, there's no guards on the stairs, I soon reach another door, possibly the one leading into the headquarters. I listen in carefully. There's about three guards here. I take out the floor map. According to this, I'm at the left wing, with the cafeteria and shooting range here. If I make my way to the right wing with the living quarters, I can go into the "Master's quarter" and kill Hamsburg. I'm surprised John was able to get such a detailed map. If I make noise now, all three of them will be alerted, can't have that happening. I can probably wait out only one of them is in the room. There doesn't seem to be another way of sneaking in either. I listen carefully and wait patiently. "Hey, Sam and I are going to check up on something, we'll be back soon"

  "Alright"

  Okay, looks like this one is going to be alone, time to make some noise. I take a bullet out of my magazine, and throw it up the stairs. I listen carefully, looks like he's walking this way. I stand to the side. A satisfying clicking sound alerts me that the door has just been unlocked. I stay completely frozen. He opens the door slightly and puts his head forward to peek in. I draw my knife and in one motion, a red pool of blood forms on the center of his head, I gently place the body down behind the door, search his body for any keys, and close the door behind me. Looks like he had one key, probably to his own room. I check the map again, there must be a place where they have spare keys. Not the cafeteria, not the shooting range, if I make my way to the middle wing, and break into the briefing room, then maybe. There's also the data room, in the middle wing, there might be a spare set of keys there. I hear them coming, I run to a counter and hide behind it. As they walk in the room they see that their friend is no longer there. "Hey where the hell is he?"

  "Don't know, let's look for him, you check the cafeteria, I'll go to the shooting range"

  "Got it"

  As they leave and head to search, I enter the middle wing. I head to the data room, locked. I take out my knife and break the handle, the door opens. I enter, and begin my search. I find a set of keys, one of them labeled with "Master", this should be the mater key. I take it. A document is opened on the table. I look at the cover, "Top secret". This might be interesting. I look at the top of the first page, it says "John". A picture of a phone is in place instead of an actual person. The details of the person are all unknown. Under it is a headline that says "Project; Eleven". Project Eleven? John? A phone, could this be the same John I know? I continue reading:

  We received a strange phone call from a mysterious man who calls himself "John", he does not disclaim his actual name, and we have no means of tracking him down, he always calls using a private number and even the informants don't know who he is. He does not harass us but rather gives us a ambitious offer. Apparently he has known about us for a while, the only problem is that he can't find us, he says he could destroy us in an instant. His offer is simple, he wants us to participate in an experiment where he sees how we fare against eleven random people he will have us eliminate. We see no reason to refuse, but we also see no reason to accept. He offers nothing in return, yet he isn't forcing it upon us. We decline, we don't have time to waste with his useless games. We did come close to tracking him, he did give us an email once, which was his biggest mistake, and we managed to catch a small glimpse of his real name right before he stopped us in our tracks. It wasn't our fault, he was the one acting suspicious and cocky, and he even threatened to hand information about our secret organization in to authorities. The only thing we have on this guy is that his real name starts with a "K". Case unsolved, report end.

  This is very interesting, I will keep this all in mind. I put the report back to where I found it. Looks like John had a bad run in with these guys, played a few wrong moves and got himself in a sticky situation. It's no wonder he wants me to kill Hamsburg, probably wants his revenge. I probably shouldn't tell him about this report either. I leave the room and head to the r
ight wing quietly. I see the living quarters and the Master's quarters, I step quietly while listening for any signs of other guards. As I reach the entrance to the Master's quarters I take out my key and press my ear to the door. Looks like he's sleeping, I put the key inside the door knob and as quietly as I can unlock the door, and slowly let my way in. Looks like this place is pretty big, although this is the Master's quarters, it seems more like a mini apartment. I find myself looking at what it seems to be a living room. I quietly close the door behind me, and lock it. I make my way inside and find two doors. One to my left and one to my right, I head to the one on my left, and slowly open the door. Looks like this is a bathroom. I head back into the living room and head to the door on the right, he must be in there. I press my ears on the door and open it slowly. I see Hamsburg sleeping on his bed. I take out my knife, and in one swift motion, start an overflowing fountain on his neck. I begin to search his quarters, and after finding everything that would be valuable I make my way out. Mission complete, John.

  Chapter 10

  "Your next target is a man named Thomas Hanks, he was an ex-scientist for Jeno, the largest scientific institute in the city, now he runs rampant inventing dangerous weapons to blast people with, I'll leave you to finding and killing him"

  Well looks like there is no end to this, time to find some dirt on this Thomas guy, Project Eleven huh, eleven people to kill maybe, looks like I'm on my third person, either way, it's been keeping me busy, and I'm still killing criminals, so it's still in my line of work but, what is John's purpose? What does he want to achieve? Perhaps ill find out soon enough, with people like Hamsburg having documents on him, who knows what other people John tried his little experiment with. But if his cause really is something worth protecting, than I shouldn't snoop around too much, no good having a worker who knows too much, or at least that's what I should make him think. For now John isn't hurting me, and I sure as hell hope he isn't hurting anybody else, for now all I'm doing is killing off the people who are doing criminal activities, I have no right to go against or go with John, but the fact of matter is, what choice do I have if I'm doing what I want to. These days would be simply boring if I didn't have a challenge, and ever since I got wrapped in all of this, I have been pretty occupied. For now all I can do is play along, if he really wanted, he could probably kill all of these people himself, but he's not, my best guess is that he's recruiting people for his own organization or gang, but with an initiation test like this, I really hope that this gang doesn't exist. I go to my computer and begin a search on my third target, Thomas Hanks.

  Looks like he was a pretty big scientist back in the day, did a lot of work and made his mark. He was respectable, but apparently one day he just upped and left, no good bye or anything, and they haven't been able to find him since. John says that he's been using his inventions to attack people now, but nowhere on the news is there any sightings of him, or anyone using fancy gadgets as an assault weapon. He might be another cold line, an underground criminal who is unknown within the masses. Either way if anyone would know, it would be Rat. I pick up my phone and call Rat.

  "Hey, I need some info"

  "Well, if you can put your money where your mouth is, I can look into it"

  I explain Rat the situation.

  "Well I have heard of Thomas Hanks, he used to do some pretty amazing things back in the day, luckily I was interested when I heard that he left Jeno, so of course I went to see what he was up to, and your right, he has been using his fancy inventions to attack people. He wears a mask, and attacks random people. He has no direct pattern to where he attacks but he does it. More recently he's been more quiet and only pops up every once in a while."

  "So do you know where he could strike next?"

  "My guess is as good as yours, but if I have to say, I'd say that he's going to strike Jeno next"

  "Jeno, why?"

  "Well, over the past few months, his attacks have only been limited to scientific facilities and buildings, they don't follow a specific rule, but if I have to say, I'd say that he's aiming for the top gun next"

  "How boring, if that is true, then this would be way too easy, but I guess it's all I've got, so I'll go for it, thanks"

  "No problem, and watch out, this guy is dangerous, his mind has helped this city before, so it can also destroy it"

  "Alright, I'll keep that in mind, see ya later"

  I hang up, and as reluctant as I am I go check out Jeno. Jeno is a huge facility, if Thomas was to attack this place, than I honestly have no idea where he would strike. I could always get a good bird's eye view of the place and scope it out that way, but by doing so I would have a hard time killing him. The facility has two entrances, one at the front, but that requires identification, if anyone wants to go in, they need authorization and even then it's pretty hard if you're not going for official business, securities tight when it comes to visitors, but I guess they have to. The other entrance is the back door, the one that is well hidden at the back of the building and has no guards what so ever. I would guess that only staff would have keys to it and know where to find it, and Thomas was part of Jeno before. If I'm going solely based on Rats assumption than Thomas would try the less guarded back door. Even the front door is pretty well guarded at night, although I have no means of knowing what the floor plan of Jeno's facility is, as long as I can stop him before he makes his way in, I should be fine. But if it ends up that he doesn't strike, than I would just be wasting my time. I guess I should stake the place out for now and if anything happens, I would take action. I gather my things and move out for Jeno.

  The sound of many computers and machines being used rings throughout the large room. Two men sit on couches while contemplating about their plans.

  "Not bad Hanks, you expect to ruffle them up with these huh?"

  "If all goes well, then they may regret ever walking down the path they did"

  "Should I help out for this one?"

  "Usually, fellow scientists help one another, but, you shouldn't, this is my own problem, so I should go about it myself"

  "Alright then, those tests went well didn't they, you were able to create powerful weapons out of ordinary equipment"

  "Well, you outdid yourself as well considering what you've done"

  "Some would argue whether what I did was science or not"

  "Ha ha, your right about that, Haylin "

  I make my way to the Jeno facility and begin finding a good place to hide. As long as I can get a good view of both the back and front, it should be fine. Who knows, maybe Thomas might end up going crazy and raiding the place at the front, but whatever goes, I better be careful. I have no idea what this guy can do, but from what I hear, he won't be a pushover. It already reached night when I arrived, so that saves me some trouble. The lights of the facility shine bright and shows no sign of stopping. The guards up front seem to be pretty well armed, and the place is riddled with security cameras. Going from the front is practically suicide. I advert most of my attention to the back of the facility while occasionally looking at the front. After a while, I begin to think that he won't come attack and that I wasted a lot of my time. That is until I see a strange man, cloaked in the darkness, step up to the back side of the facility. He was wearing a black track suit and had a black mask on and a dark cape on him to hide his backpack. There was two security cameras, but he positioned himself up against the wall to avoid their sight. He took out a pen shaped item from his pocket and aimed it towards the camera. He pressed onto the button at the top and a laser began cutting its way in the camera. He did the same with the other camera. This must be Thomas, he probably used that pen to disrupt the cameras' function. I raise my sniper and aim down his head. I see him pull something out of his pocket in attempt to break open the door. I pull the trigger. He drops the item he had in his hand and leans down to pick it up, I miss, and hit the door. What kind of dumb luck is this! He takes notice and quickly breaks open and closes the door behind him. Crap, now I have to c
hase after him. I quickly run towards the door, with the noise that came with my shot, I better hurry. I reach the door and break the lock, I enter the facility, and hide in one of the spare rooms. Guards pass by, for now I need to find Thomas and kill him, then get the hell out of here. I make my way to the second floor. A lot of guards are stationed at the first floor, and these floors are pretty big anyway, I'll have some time before they decide to increase security in higher floors.