Chapter 13

A few days passed since Nyx had been made aware of Edward Brandt’s existence, and he was already feeling like a prisoner in his own house. Avery was very limited in the details about Edward. He only knew that by monitoring the phone network inside the FBI Field Office, Avery could determine that Brandt had been assigned to the investigation. How much Brandt knew about Nyx was very much unknown. Still, he could not take any chances; the potential threat needed to be resolved quickly.

Avery had managed to convince five more members from within the bowels of the internet to carry out the tasks beyond his reach. Each must have been paid a tremendous sum and no doubt persuaded by the threat of revealing their identities. Nyx didn’t care much for his home being used as a base of operations, but he had little say in the matter. It was like everyone had crashed each other’s birthday party. People were in high spirits, but they didn’t know anyone there. Nyx, the most experienced and probably most matured of the bunch, had been designated to lead the group.

The group had gotten along surprisingly well despite not knowing much about each other. There was very little dick measuring even among the younger two of the group, which couldn’t have been older than twenty-five. Avery did manage to recruit a female into the team. I guess Avery is not entirely sexist, Nyx thought. In order to keep things at least semiprofessional, they stuck with aliases rather than their recently uncovered legal names. Echo and Slim were the youngest of the five. Tremor was a beastly man and spoke with an Australian accent. He likely never forgot his protein shake after a workout. Piranha was the most experienced out of the others, and Nyx thought that she would almost be cute if she didn’t have that scowl constantly on her face. Lucious didn’t talk much and mostly kept to one-word responses, and no doubt was just as worried about this arrangement as Nyx.

“Alright, gentlemen, and lady. Gather around,” Nyx commanded. At least the group was mature enough to simply go with the flow of things. He grabbed a stack of folders from his computer desk, which also adorned a brand-new printer.

“Here are your individual target packages, courtesy of Avery.”

Each member took a moment to examine the information, some of them confused. Nyx was given the freedom to pick who would do what, so with what little information he knew about the assassin, he had to use his best judgement.

“Why isn’t there anything international?” Piranha asked after she took a glance at everyone else’s target packages.

“That’s because we are to only handle the domestic side of things. I’m told that Avery already has teams elsewhere in the world. I assume it’s just faster and more efficient this way.”

“Question,” Echo and Slim in unison. “These are just simple computer nerds on here.”

“Yes, I’m tracking that. What about it?”

“Well, that’s hardly sporting, isn’t it?”

“If you want sporting, I recommend hunting pheasants in South Dakota. I’m just giving what I have received. Somehow and some way, they are a threat. I don’t have the answers that you desire.”

“Hey, it’s fine. That’s why I’m called Slim. Because I have a very slim chance of missing my targets.” He cracked smile from the corner of his mouth.

“Then I would be more comfortable if you were called ‘Never’ but moving on.”

“Any questions from you, Tremor?” Nyx had given him the task of finding and killing Edward Brandt. While he would have loved handling the task himself, Avery felt it was beneath Nyx. Besides, he was tasked to eliminate several international diplomats at their country’s embassy.

“Yeah, who is this guy? And how do we know that he’s going to be at this Andrew Simmons’ funeral?”

“Because I put Andrew there, and Edward Brandt was a friend. And somehow, he knows of my existence and will probably stop at nothing to get to me.”

“Well, should you be the one to do the honors then?” Tremor gave an attempt at professional courtesy.

“I wanted to, but Avery had other plans for me. So, it looks like you get the privilege. I doubt that he will cause much trouble. It looks to me like he’s just another simple policeman who is working alone on this. But please be a gentleman and give me the details when you return.”

“Absolutely. Any specific way that you would like me to handle this?”

“No, you don’t have to be creative. Sending a message probably doesn’t help our cause very much.”

“Roger.”

“Remember, no phone use, except if from Avery.” Nyx started feeling like a platoon leader again giving the old operational security briefing.

The members grabbed their belongings and began their separate journeys. Nyx couldn’t be more relieved. Finally, some quiet time again. The phone began to vibrate; it was Avery. “Oh, come on!”

The familiar and somewhat demanding voice of Avery came through.

“Well executed. Everyone is on their way.”

For a moment, Nyx had forgotten that Avery could be listening and tracking him at any given time. It was a terribly invasive feeling, but he had to cope. “I thought so. I’ll be leaving shortly as well.”

“I have a change in plans for you.”

“Really? I thought machines were calculated and precise in their intentions.”

“Humans have a way of disrupting that through their erratic and sometimes unpredictable behavior. I have to adjust and take my opportunities just as you do.”

“Where am I going?”

“Maryland. The printout will have all of the details for you as well as what equipment you will need. Take every necessary precaution as I know that this will be a very high risk and dangerous mission for you.”

“Alright, I’ll see to it.”

Nyx ended the call and moved over to the printer that was printing multiple pages. When he picked up and read the first page, his eyes opened wide, and his jaw had dropped. “What the f—”.