A Pivotal Axis
Part 1
Most men in my profession would agree that silence is the taste of poison before a still heart. Silence is not the mist that hides our enemies but the light that reveals them to us. But before I get ahead of my self let me tell you who I am and how I came to be so.Rewind, fifteen years ago when I was only seventeen, mind you I was not stupid, just young.
***
I had just got home from Boarding School. I got out of the cab determined to convince by parents that I had to go to a party that night at my friends’ house. They where not home yet so I went to my room and slept.
When I awoke I heard voices. They where home so I went down the hallway to talk to them when I heard a third voice, it sounded very familiar. I figured they where having another meeting being politicians but when I heard my fathers voice rise, I stood by the door and began to listen.
‘We will not change now, we must stick to what we stood for when we began, it is necessary’ I heard my fathers’ voice and then the other voice ‘you may still believe in that but I don’t, can’t you see with all this power we could become kings, can you not see it, it is within our grasp all we have to do is..’, ‘No and that is final’ my mothers’ voice interrupted. There was a long silence and then I heard two clicks then I heard the man’s voice say ‘I am truly sorry’ silence swallowed the air, I heard two muffled gun shots.
I could not breathe but what I remember most about that moment was the sound of their bodies hit the ground and what shocked me most was how clear my mind was, I turned around, picked up my untouched packed bag and ran. I ran down the stairs, out the door, down the street and I kept running, no emotion, no fear and no where to go but I just kept running like it was the only thing keeping me alive, the only thing keeping me breathing.
By the time I stopped I realized what had happened and I didn’t know what to feel, angry that they left me, or mournful that they where gone and for a moment I chose to morn, I could not breathe, the pain was over whelming and the tears where not enough, the yelling was not enough and the punching was no longer letting out the pain but adding to it so I decided to be angry but then I didn’t know who I should be angry at, them for putting themselves in harms way , the owner of the voice who killed them or me?
***
The next three years I survived by stealing, hiding and scamming and I became a master of lies. I never told any one of my past and I never told the same two people the same lie. I never stayed in the same part of the city longer than a week and even that was a risk. Some one was tracking me I didn’t know who, how or why, all I knew was how to keep moving for a rolling stone gathers no moss, in my case, deadly moss.
I became a product of circumstance and I came out stronger, mind and body. I always kept my head down and I remained nameless for as far as any one knew I did not exist, just a phantom of the past with nothing to offer anyone. One cold night, I was sitting beside a fire when the strangest shadow came over me, I was being watched, they had found me and there was nowhere to run. The time to fight had come and I was not sure if I was ready to face the murderer that killed my family and exiled me to this life. But then I felt the presence of another man he was not with him. I was shocked to realize he had always been there and he chose to allow me to sense him now, why now?
The sound of footsteps approaching made me tense and yet my mind stayed clear. The man was in a black trench coat with the collar standing erect on his shoulders covering the lower part of his face in its shadow, he towered over me. He was wearing a hat and all I could see where his eyes, his piercing, dead eyes. I took a deep breath and stood to face him directly.
‘Anthony Hays, you are a hard man to find these days’ he spoke ‘you have acquired a skill, much like your parents’ killer, that our company finds valuable’ he raised his chin ‘we have an offer for you’ I looked into his eyes ‘what is it?’ ‘We would like to offer you a job at the company, with a few months in training you could be an asset’ there was a long silence ‘I accept’ the man seemed some what taken aback by my choice. At that point all I wanted was a warm place to sleep at night and proper meals but that is by no means what I got. Who would have ever believed that a choice made in desperation would be the choice that would shape my entire life?
The man I sensed had disappeared. The tall man and I walked off together ‘so what do I call you?’
‘We call each other by last names until we are assigned code names, I am Jaguar, and you will be assigned one after your training, welcome to the company, Hays’
The next day I was taken to a field on a large island some where in the pacific. The island was packed with one large forest, it was hot, humid and I was glad for I had come from a December winter on the streets. That feeling did not last long. There where others like me, recruits that seemed to have pervious training and where at least five years older than me. That was my first taste of the company, I am sure that they had much less innocent reasons for being there than me but in time I would develop a more callous motive and theirs would , could by no means compare.
Our trainer was a well built man with, what seemed like, rocks for eyes and as far as we where concerned his name was ‘General’. Our first assignment was given to us the minute we arrived at the island. His introduction was small but efficient ‘I am General’, then he threw each of us a small knife and got on the helicopter we had came with ‘I will be back in seven days at this exact time on the north of the island to collect what is left of this group and I will only wait ten minutes, Welcome, Gentlemen, to Anaconda Island, you will find out soon enough why it was given that name, see you in seven’ and then he was gone. We where nine in the beginning, but one by one, they seemed to vanish. I didn’t care much; I didn’t make friends or enemies, I never spoke to them for all I could see was the finish line.
What I remember most of that dense and humid Rainforest was not the deadly snakes and insects or the feeling of never being alone, always being watched by a predator, not even the sounds at night that until this day have me puzzled on to what it was that made them but it was the utter feeling of freedom. I felt as though I was exactly where I was suppose to be, I felt I belonged and for the few days I was traveling north with the blood of three snakes on my hands and the trademark of an anaconda an my neck I was free, I was a man; I was man the way man was supposed to be; Untamed.
***
Believe it or not I was the first to arrive and early; so obviously I belonged. When the helicopter landed General tried to hide his amazement, I was sitting on a rock sharpening a peace of wood with the small knife he had given to me, I got up, handed him the knife and sat in the helicopter. Ten minutes later we left. We saw one other survivor but he was too late. The General sat next to me and spoke “I expect he shall learn one more lesson before he dies” he turned his head to face me, “timing is everything” than he adopted this smile upon his face that only confirmed further more to me at that point that he was simply crazy, little did I know that to be in that profession, that quality was not only admired, but also, required.
That night I was given a name, a new name, Falcon.
Where I had lived as a child; had know become a war zone. My parents’ assassinations had been part of a large organized preparation to over through the newly elected government. The company I work for was a large part of it.
The day that I found out was after a year of working for the company. I had received my next target and my new identity; Jason Marshal, a volunteer worker for a large international humanitarian group from South Eastern Europe. These Camps were where most of the remaining government officials, head rebels and a few runaway personnel of the company went to hide. My target was a runaway, off course, harder to track than the others but worth it when I think that this could be the person who murdered my parents; this would ease the nagging question in me demanding to know why I am doing what I am doing and where I am going with this. When I found out and decided to continue my work the guilt ate in to me like termites on wood, it was painful.
The targets company name was red fox and his real name was not told to me. All I knew was that he was not only a runaway but the company had information not reliable but still that indicated he was the leader of a movement against the company.
It was cold December morning when I gained entry to the humanitarian camp. It was a large camp of about two thousand people and two killers. Young doctors speed around the camp insuring as much as they could that people where getting the correct treatment much like me.
I spent the night at the camp and had met a young doctor by the name of Sebastian Dimitri. He was a nice man with what seemed to be a good heart but there was something I noticed about his that made me unable to rely on what he told me. At night when our shift was over, the topic of the present government came up and he seemed not to care. I had seen a scar on the back of his neck which I was sure was caused by soldiers as a technique of subduing rioters during the take over, I had taken the training my self. I started to experiment and said “the present government has done more for this country than the last one, what you think?” He was standing with his back towards me but I could sense rage within him. It took a while to answer but he did. “I really wouldn’t know”. That was that he must have been art of the movement. Why would he try to hide his feelings when he was obviously anti government with good reason? Unless he knew what I was but that would mean he knew who I worked for.
The next day I spotted red fox but I decided to follow Sebastian. Two anti government men in the same place smells like a meeting. Sure enough I followed Sebastian in to one of the smaller tents on the far east of the camp. I hid in the trees next to the tent because there seemed to be security and a few moments later red fox emerged from the tent and whispered some thing into on of the guards ears, patted him on the back and he nodded. The man walked off towards my tent. I had been rated out. I had known staying the night was a risk. I decided I had to act fast and hard before they knew what hit them.
I had cut of all contact from the company like I do on any mission for safety reasons. That night I decided to strike mid night. I spiked the drinking water with a strong sedative that is activated three hours after consumption. Just like clockwork the guards were out and I had a 5 minute window to get to red fox. I stood at the tent door. I knew he knew I was here.
