Kieran had a plan, so carefully laid out and while rough around the edges it was plan that twelve straight hours were invested into. Kieran first almost went home, and he was on the steps when he made a huge mistake. He let his curiousity get the better of him, which he never does, and went back to investigate the flashdrive. There was just....something that gnawed at him. Kieran went back to the house where the drive was stashed, and used the spy equipment and computers to decode and look at what was on the drive. What he saw.....words could barley contain what he felt. Kieran knew he needed to forget what he saw, but in the corners of his mind he already had wheels moving towards what he was going to do.
Thats what was happening now. Kieran had messaged his employer, set up the pick up, and now here he was hours early scouting his contact. This women, the albino, was definetley who he was meeting. From her out of scene appearance, to the way she held herself, it was obvious to him. Kieran wore a black suit jacket with black button up shirt with black suit pants and shoes. He had a gun hidden in the back of his pants, and the flash drive in his jacket pocket. Kieran decided he was going to wait, see how she was reacting.
Hours passed and ten seconds before the on the dot time Kieran walked over and sat on the bench. He spoke soft but loud enough so he could be heard by the women next to him.
"Did you hear about the bird? What kind of bird was it again?"
Cori remained composed once she caught sight of the man in a black suit approach. Behind her shades, her white eyebrows furrowed together: he was young, maybe college age, but tall, and his strides boasted confidence as he moved toward her. And if it wasn't for the way he carried himself, she might have paid him no mind. However, her suspicions seemed to be correct as the young man took the seat beside her, and she glanced down at her watch. He was exactly on time, and the evidence continued to prove that this kid was the contact. So she decided to put her phone away and give him the time of day.
She licked her lips, the sunglasses remaining on her nose. "A blue jay. What'd he steal?" she responded. At that point, she was only following procedure, and there may have been a hint of impatience in her response.
"The worm."
Cori nodded, satisfied at his quick response. "Right, and I'd like to get that from you," she said, though she hesitated after, raising her head to look around at the park goers. The kid was young--maybe not even the killer hired to retrieve the data, maybe just a messenger--and her guard was against those who she didn't know, walking about. Contracting through a third party was good for saving face, but you had to trust quite the line of people to keep things underwraps.
Her questions were straight forward, and it was unclear even her knowledge stood. "But, how did it go? What did you learn?"
Kieran sighed mentally. He could not believe he actually had to do it this way. A gun was easier to use, force would be more.......well he would be more passionate about. But this.............
Kieran sta up straighter and looked at the women. He barley spoke above a whisper.
"Lean in, I can't speak of this out loud. What I found will shock you and it is something I need to say now. It is vitally important."
Cori was more annoyed than suspicious, her sunglasses shifting as her nose wrinkled against the request. However, she wanted the information, she wanted the data--she could humor the contact because it meant getting out. So, she complied, leaning toward the young man, listening.
Kieran leaned forward and with a swiftness that would suprise anyone who knew him in any way shape or form, kissed the women on the lips. Kieran cupped her cheek with his right hand, letting the knockout poison on his fake lips he stole from the espionage house be absorbed into the womens lips.
Stunned, Cori was still for a moment, eyes growing wide and face starting to flush from embarressment--obvious red on her white, white skin. It was as she acted that her head suddenly felt full of air, and she shoved him away weakly as she snapped at him, "You just assulted a federal..." Her words trailed off, and she lulled, panic setting it--but it felt far away. "Wh-what did you do to me?" she gasped lightly, instinct drawing her hand to her phone in her pocket. She had to get help-- and then she was out.
Kieran held the women in his arms, as if she was feeling ill and he was embracing her. Kieran refused to look around, believeing doing so would make it clear that he was doing something suspicious. Kieran liften the women, carrying her bridal style, and rushed to a nearby car. Kieran had already scouted the vehicles in the area and broke into one so when he needed to dash he could. H eput the women into the back seat of the chevy blazer truck, the hopped into the driver seat.
Kieran took many back roads and sharp turns, making sure he was not followed by her hidden security detail. He was sure she had one. But he needed to hurry, before he realized it he only had twenty minutes before the poison would wear off. After 12 minutes he fina;;y felt cnfident about losing her tails, then parked at the house where he found the flash drive. Kieran had two minutes.
Kieran was thankful he made all the prep work in advance. Kieran was able to move her into the living room, tie her hand behind the chair he set her in, tied her feet up, then tied a rope around the under part of her chest. Kieran then hooked the flashdrive up to the computer he set up in front of the women on a table. He wnated answers and there was no way she could lie when he had hard proof.
The woman stirred, her head lulling as she slowly came to. She squinted as she blinked against the grogginess--her sunglasses were gone, she didn't know where the brief case was. And when she went to move, she couldn't. With a grunt, she tugged at the ropes binding her hands and arms, panic threatening to set in, but she knew she needed to stay calm. The contact had nabbed her, she realized, and her eyes shot up to find him toying with a computer. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded.
Kieran spoke but did not turn around.
"So here how this is going to work. What I am doing right now is accessing the flash drive that contains the files you hired me to nab. I nabbed them, and they can be yours. But first you need to answer three questions.
One, who are you? what is your name?
Two, What organization do you work for?
Three, What the hell were you people thinking? Messing with stuff like this? Did you plan this? Why I some sort of "intended target" along with everyone else?"
Fear was slowly setting in at the accusations, prompted mostly by her recent mistakes. If she had made the mistake of sending one mole in, then it was definitely possible she only set herself up to get killed, too. She wouldn't allow herself to get comfortable with death, though, and her wrists twisted behind her back as she spoke. "What are you talking about?" Cori said, her narrowed eyes drilling daggers into the back of the man's skull. "You know I work for the CIA. So who are you working for?"
Kieran turned around and backhanded the women. His hand made a shapr popping noise as it made contact with the womens face.
"Again I will ask...What is your name? Who do you work for? Why was I chosen? Why did you do this to me?"
Cori gasped as his met her cheek, and she struggled as the pain shot through her head, her vision clouding for a moment. Unaccustomed to being on the recieving side of an interogation, she feeling surprisingly angry at the backhand. Her voice shook with that anger as she spoke agian, her wrists twisting again as she struggled to maybe loosen the ropes.
"My name is Cori Woods. I work for the CIA. And I don't know what you're talking about--I didn't handpick you."
Kieran sighed and turned around. Kieran then jumped and mid-air he spun around and kicked Cori which sent her flying backwards. Kieran walked over, picked her up chair and all, then set her supright and rolled her forward so she was looking at the computer.
"Look at the screen! Alien experiments! Freakin super friggin powers! Human testing! Look at it!"
Cori felt the air leave her chest before the pain, and she was left unable to cry out as the chair fell back. She coughed, struggling to catch her breath, the kick leaving her dazed and her hands crushed painfully under the chair. Then, suddenly, she was up again, being shoved in front of the computer screen. She could hear the man shouting at her, but the words weren't quite registering as she recovered the energy to focus again. There were multiple documents open, all about what he was talking about.
"Wh-.." she stammered, but swallowed instead, not wanting to incite more violence as she read what was in front of her. It was as she read that his words echoed again: aliens, super powers, experiments, and Coalition. She couldn't help the raspy laugh, a short gasp of disbelief. This couldn't be real. "I've never seen any of this before-- please, you have to believe me," she explained quickly.
Kieran studied Cori's face. He looked at her, then the computer then at her. She........he didnt know what to think. He knew in his heart she was telling the truth and his brain was saying the same thing. But.........he was so sure. Kieran took the moment to pace the room. If it was true she had no idea what was on the drive, then more likely the CIA had nothing to do with it. His employer, to his knowledge, was someone high up there. And here she was, innocent in all this.
Kieran walked over in front of Cori.
"Seriously? Never?"
Kieran reached down and pulled out his hidden ankle knife. He raised his knife hand up, and cut the ropes under her chest. Then he went around and cut her hands free, then went around and cut her legs free. Kieran sheathed his knife and knelt in front of Cori.
"I swear I thought for sure you were somewhat behind this. What on the file........trust me its horrible. If you want to read it you can, if you to just take it you can. But...please....forgive me."
Kieran reached up slowly and gently felt the bruises on her face.
"I thought I was being controlled. I hate that feeling of being manipulated."
As the man paced, she eyed the files, comitting as much to memory as she could. She wasn't sure how long she'd have this in front of her, and she didn't exactly trust the man at this point to let her go with it. When he stepped in front of her, she tensed, bracing herself for another attack with a steely glare-- that admittedly faltered when the knife was unsheathed. Cori swallowed and watched with wide eyes as--
As he cut the ropes. As he knealt in front of her, her instinct put her on the defensive: her hand raised to reach under her jacket-- the gun was missing from her holster, however, not that could admit she was surprised. "You were hired to get the information, why would I know anything that was on it?" she snapped.
Though as he reached up to touch her, with her hands free again, she didn't flinch or tense. She shoved his hand away, and somehow managed to refrain from punching him in the throat. "Don't! Touch me!" she said as she stood up, moving back against the chair. "You assaulted me, a federal officer! You-- you-- I don't know who the hell your employer is, but this is getting back to them." Despite the apology and sudden gentleness, she was still shaken, and she was far more interested in the data. So she not-so-gently shoved passed him, reading the files again, her hand on the flashdrive that stuck out of the computer. "If you want to make it up to me, I need you to tell me exactly who you are and exactly what you know, right now," she added, glancing back at him.
Kieran sighed, then sat softly on the edge of the table. His eyes never left Cori.
"My name is Kieran Hishamie, I am a freelance espionange agent of the highest caliber. You may know some of my work, the assassination of the previous war lord of {classified}, The theft of the english crown a few years back, and more recently my work here in the states working on dismantiling the entire smuggling operation of the North-East Mafia. I was contracted about a week ago by someone in the CIA to hunt down a rogue CIA agent and return a missing flashdrive. It contained top secret covert information. I confronted the agent at an abandoned home under construction but there was complications."
Cori paused in her reading to listen, relaxing further as he freely gave information. She didn't quite trust it, but she had yet to hear anything that sounded like a blatant lie. A realization set in, and she closed her eyes with a small sigh, watching the screen again but not quite reading. She hadn't given the information that she had her team stolen the files from Coalition, so of course Kieran would've thought these files were the CIA's. Couldn't really trust that to be recieved well, even if it did almost get my killed, she thought, wincing as she rubbed at the bruise on her face.
Kieran ruffled his hair.
"The house ended up exploding. I tracked a black market criminal to a cafe, where I obtained information off his laptop that brought me to this very house. I recovered the drive here. Thats also where I discovered the information on this drive. What I know...........apparently someone or something aka an organization has been using the CIA as a cover to conduct illegal human experiments so humans can develop super powers. They also have hidden the fact that aliens have landed, fought, and lost. They now condiuct secret experiments on alien tech."
The woman listened to the end of his tale, and she hesitated as she connected his words to the files in front of her. Cori cleared her throat, deciding against admitting to blatant theft--his end of the job was completed, anyhow. "Needless to say, this is...sensitive information, Kieran. You handled your contract--" a wince-- "thorougly. So thank you." She closed the files and ejected the flashdrive, dropping it safely into her jacket pocket. "Obviously, you'll be expected to keep this quiet for now, and trust that we'll be handling it." Her hand twitched, but she seemed to decide against a handshake with this dangerous man. Instead, she gave a curt nod.
"Now, where are my things and where are we? I need to get back."
Kieran reavhed underneath the table the computer was on and he was leaning against, and pulled out a small brown paper bag tape underneath. He set it on the table.
"All of your personal effects are here."
When Cori went to reach for her stuff though he held a hand out, not aiming to touch but to halt Cori.
"Let me ask this, you have to have a blacked out record of me. And you must be able to tell my skill level. I am sorry I hurt you but like I said I thought I was being betrayed by the CIA. When proved wrong I stopped. So let me in, let me be part of your team on this. I wanna find the guys who used me, hell I would have probably destroyed the CIA if it wasnt for your honesty. I am an invaluable asset. Besides, how many people can you trust with something like this? Let us go back to my base of operations, let me tend to your...injuries....and we can discuss what we need to do next tactically."
She scowled at his hand, and then at Kieran, new suspicion setting in. It seemed like he was telling the truth. And Cori would have been happy leaving with the documents, never to see this man again. But as she watched him with those narrowed, red eyes, and the pieces came together in her head, she found herself wondering a few things about him. Since he insisted on keeping her here, she asked, "How did the house explode...exactly?"
Kieran put his suit jacket on, and buttoned a few buttons up.
"You already know how dont you? Why even ask? Just know I didnt ask for this, and I never use "it" in crowded places. No one who doesnt have it coming has been hurt by "it""
Kieran checked his knife, then his gun, then made sure he had his wallet and phone.
""You can hate me all you want, but dont deny you need me. Who else is as motivated as me to find the people who did this, so they can reverse it?"
And just like that, the other questions she had to drill with were irrelevant. He didn't even try to hide "it" and she scowled further, irritation setting in. She was like an AP Honors kid, hyped up to present a PowerPoint she had poured hours of effort in only for the bell to ring. There was no pleasing Cori, clearly, and she slowly gathered her things as he explained his personal involvement and his goal. "You can help by escorting me back to the office, she offered, her tone sober and serious. "I can't sit on this information. It has to be reported right away."
Kieran shook his head but offered an arm, ready to leave the house, get in the car, and drive away."If you choose to report it that is on you, I did my part of my contract. But I am warning you if you do make sure you protect yourself, because whoever wanted me to think it was CIA, isnt going to like the fact you are filling out official reports and sending them up the chain."
Kieran swiped the side of his nose with his other hand. "I do nto want to see you get hurt even more after today."
"You're freelance. You don't care. You just follow where the money goes," she accused coldly. "I know what I'm doing, and I need the rest of my men behind me. You offered to help, and I told you how you can do exactly that: by taking me back, even if it's just to the park you kidnapped me from." She ignored his his arm as she walked out of the house. Had she known where they were, she would have demanded the keys herself, but nothing looked immediately familiar. And while she had futher questions--what exactly "it" was, maybe how exactly Kieran thought he could help--she figured they would be best demanded once they were in the car and he couldn't avoid them.
Kieran sighed and gently but forcibly wrapped her arm through his, and walked them to the car. He opened the door for her, while she gave him attitude and evil looks, and Kieran......felt guilty. He normally had no problem doing what he did, but normally he gets paid for it. This wasnt that. That was......just wrong. He was mad. The last time he got that mad it was over his brother........
Kieran shook those thoughts away. Not now, he thought, not now. Kieran almost closed the door but stopped.
"I may be a freelancer but I was tricked. I dont "get tricked" ok. I am perosnally involved, I wont even charge for it. Stop trying to assume me and my intentionds."
Kieran dugg out of his pocket a ring key with a few kets on it. He gently laid it on the inside of the car right in front of Cori within hand range.
"The keys to the place. I dont think it is a CIA place, but the owners arent coming back probably. I let them know who it was that stormed the place so the CIA has nothing to worry about."
Kieran closed the door, ignoring Cori's looks whatever they were, then walked around and got into the drivers seat. He started the car.
She sighed as he took his seat beside her, eyeing the keys. Hesitantly, Cori took them and dropped them into the pocket opposite to the flashdrive. At the very least, Kieron would make a useful contract. A freelancer, yes, but it was growing more obvious to her that he had personal stakes in this whole mess. So, she licked her lips and sat back, relaxing her tone and some of the attitude. "Okay. What exactly do you want Coalition to reverse?" she asked, recalling the name plastered all over the documents.
Kieran gripped the steering wheel slightly tighter. "Ok so imagine this. Matter is the building blocks of the universe. But imagine if matter was poisonous and explosive. That is what my power is. I call it Black Matter. I can construct physical manifestations of Black Matter. Problem is, its unstable and deadly. I hurt myself whenever I use it, and anything around me. Its why I try not to use it. The explosion........that was me. I knew my and the rogue were alone, and he got lucky. He had me in a corner, I would have died from dumb bad luck otherwise. One problem is......well I can feel the energy inside. It feels....awful.....always....."
Cori remained silent for a bit, absorbing the fact that Kieran just explained that he had an insane superpower. She sighed and placed her glasses on her nose before looking back out the window. "I don't understand any of that," she admitted plainly. To admit she didn't understand something was difficult for the woman, and actually not getting it was even more frustrating. "We'll figure it out, though. You won't be outted, but I'm going to need my people on this as soon as possible. This could explain all the chaos going on--all over the world--since that huge outage. I need to figure out what Coalition is..." Her voice trailed off.
"I do appreciate that you want to help. But you have to understand. I can't just... let myself trust you so easily, right? We can stay in contact, but I just can't promise some sort of partnership with you right now," she explained. As she did, she pulled her phone, checking the time and flipping through her messages.
Kieran sighed and nodded. He pulled up to the park and parked.
"I get it, I dont like it though. Here put in a number I can reach you at in my phone, and if you need me for an emergency or for a mission call me or text."
Kieran pull out his phone and handed it to Cori.
She punched her number into the phone before handing it back to the man. It would reach the cellphone she had on her. Then Cori sighed, puasing for a moment. An awkward silence hung in the air as she searched for the right words. Professional Cori was, but this matter seemed too personal and shady to be professional. And she sucked at personal. "Right. Thanks," she said stiffly before exiting the car.
Kieran nodded, sensing the awkwardness. Kieran sighed and hated it. He left the keys in the car, got out, and started wlaking away. He turned around once to look at Cori...then turned back around and walked away, heading towards his base of operations.
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