Before leaving the base, Kirsten had to report his departure to the boss, so he tried to come up with a solid excuse for why he had to leave at such a critical time and without looking suspicious.
“Leaving? Where?” -Asked Darius.
“To Canada, I’m meeting an associate there. He has some eh…important information regarding a recent operation.”
“An operation? And you have to meet him in person for this?”
“Well, I…” -Kirsten considered himself decent at lying, but that skill wasn’t helping him much this time around.
“…I see.” -Said Darius, the way he said it made Kirsten’s skin crawl. – “…If it’s that important then it’s fine. You can go, I’ll keep an eye on the current situation.”
“Thanks sir, I’ll return as soon as I can.” – Kirsten ended the call, hoping that when he reached the helipad no one would shoot him in the back.
Once he was far away from the base and on ground level, he sent the pilot back to the base and took a vehicle that was prepared for him and headed towards the Canadian border. He agreed to meet up with the chief operator in one of the safe houses located in Alberta, and the pilot had dropped him off close to the border, so he only needed to drive around 6 hours to get there, he couldn’t get there directly with the helicopter, because that would draw in unwanted attention.
He crossed the Canadian border with no problems and headed towards the city, there were only three more hours of journey until he got to his destination, still, it was a lonely ride. Despite everything, he didn’t like to take entourages by his lonesome, but according to the chief, it was a necessity.
When he was getting close to the city his phone chirped, it was the chief once again.
“Chief?”
“Are you on your way to the hideout?”
“Of course, I’m on my way. I’ll be there shortly.”
“Good very good.” -The chief made a pause to take a deep breath. –“…There’s one thing you must know before you come here though.”
“…What? What is it?”
“I didn’t want to recognize it at first, Kirsten. I’d like to admit, just like you, in the beginning, I believed in the Organization’s cause. I disappeared from the world just to help Darius in this fight, I believed we would really change the world for good.”
“What are you trying to say, sir?”
“…I’m saying that everything has changed, Kirsten. The game has changed. We cannot stay in the shadows any longer, the elite have their eyes on us now, and they have moved their finger…this is a real game now, with defined sides…” -At that moment, Kirsten noticed how lonely the highway was. –“…And I want to be on the winning side.”
Kirsten looked to his left and saw a black van about to collide with him. He didn’t have time to react, they made sure he wouldn’t be able to.
The van crashed with his vehicle and the impact knocked him out. The people inside the van quickly dragged Kirsten out of the car and took him with them, just as planned.
Kirsten had no way to know how much time had passed ever since he fell unconscious, it could’ve been minutes, hours, and even days. All it mattered to him was the predicament he had gotten himself into.
He slowly regained consciousness, he found himself strapped to a wooden chair inside a dusty and derelict warehouse. His sight was still blurry, but he could feel the presence of five people standing in front of him.
“You are finally awake, Eyler.” -He recognized that voice, it was the chief’s. – “I was getting worried that they may have hit you a bit too hard.”
“Chief? Adam?”
“I’m sorry that it has come to this, but I’m afraid we’ve all been cornered to make these choices.”
Kirsten’s vision finally centered. The chief was standing right in front of him, accompanied by Richter, some men he didn’t recognize, one of the assassins they had hired the year before: The Spider, and the most important of all, his superior as a handler: Lionel Fritz.
“Hello Kirsten…” -He said. – “It’s been a while.”
“Mr. Fritz…what the hell did you do?” -Asked Kirsten, feeling his heart slumping down to his stomach. – “What the hell is going on!?”
“Don’t take it personal, Kirsten.” -Said Fritz. – “If you think about it, it was just a matter of time everything devolved into this.”
“I told you to think carefully about jumping ship when you still could, Eyler.” -Said Richter, taking this chance to taunt his most despised rival. – “You played your cards wrong, now you are going to pay for it! you are going to suffer like a lowly criminal!”
Adam raised his hand. – “Settle down, Matthew. You see Kirsten, it would’ve been very easy for us to order the men that brought you here to execute you right after they knocked you down during the crash.”
“…Then why didn’t you do it…?” – He asked.
“Because despite what my colleagues may want, Mr. Fritz and I think you are still deserving of a chance to get out of the walking shipwreck that is the Men of the World.”
“Walking shipwreck?”
“Do not pretend it isn’t so, Eyler. Lionel here has told me all about it, and you don’t need to be an expert in logistics to know that it’s all true.”
“What’s true? What the hell are you talking about? You…you betrayed the organization?”
“That smack in the head may have made him a little bit slow, Richter.” -Said Spider, letting out a mocking laugh. –“Your guys should’ve been more careful.”
“Believe me, he deserves far worse.”
Lionel walked up to Kirsten and placed his hand on his shoulder. – “I know how much this group means to you. It was the same for me. Darius saved your life, gave your life a whole new purpose, so you repay him with your utmost loyalty. He’s a very private and secretive man, that always bothered me about him, if only we knew where he got the fortune and resources to make all of this possible…One thing we do know about him though, is that he’s very idealistic, in fact, way more idealistic than anyone else I’ve ever met.”
“What are you trying to say?” -Asked Kirsten, trying to force his way out of his restraints, his forearms getting hurt by the friction of the ropes, the more he struggled, the more they tightened.
“What I’m saying is that Darius, his organization, both of them are like a single man armed with a wooden stick facing an iron giant. Given those odds, it’s inadmissible that the man would win, is it not?”
“You are implying we can’t win this war?”
“Exactly. Darius needs more than what he has to even make a dent on the machine that is the world’s elite, The Imperium, however you want to call it, and good intentions aren’t enough. I’m sure he knows it too, no matter how hard he tries or how much the elites let us get away with, they’ll smoke us all in the end, the only thing they have to do is say “enough is enough” then they’ll send their best to clear the entire organization. Men, resources, bank accounts, deals, associations, every-thing.”
Adam raised up his voice once again. – “That’s why he now desperately grasps around, ordering us to find the most dangerous human beasts around the world, to even have the slightest chance against their own supernatural beasts… but the truth is: Spectre, Chain, Fate, Alquist, and even Butcher…none of them stand a chance against those people, we are sure of it.”
“So what? You gonna…accelerate the organizations’ ultimate demise by aiding with its destruction?”
“We won’t destroy it, we’ll just force it to be passed onto someone else’s authority. The Organization may be flawed in many ways, but it’s worth preserving.” -Said Lionel. – “It only must change, adapt to survive.”
“Adapt?”
“Darius is the problem.” -Said Richter. – “That bastard, as long as he lives, will drag the entire organization to ruin. That maggot must go if we aim to create something better with it.”
“He took you in when everyone else had abandoned you, you sick pretentious bastard!” -Yelled Kirsten, Fritz punched him in the face as punishment.
“That’s what he does best.” -Said Fritz. –“He recognizes that the best method to guarantee the loyalty of his people is for them to be in his debt, just like he did with you, me, Mr. Bonde and Richter over here. But the key to reach out towards a better future is to break out of that feeling of indebtment and do what is right, to do what needs to be done!” – Fritz turned around and showed him his back, he couldn’t tolerate seeing him in the eye any longer. –“The Men of the World won’t ever win a war against the Elites…not an open and all-out war, that is. We believe that the real course of action is to make changes from the inside.”
“Changes? From the inside? What in the goddamn are you talking about?”
“I’m aware of your story with all the groups and companies that comprise The Imperium. That experience has made you shut down any idea or proposition of making peace with them, but I tell you, peace is the only choice here!”
Adam interceded. –“That’s why we’ll subvert the organization, slowly but surely, disposing of the most dangerous and troublesome elements inside. There are many people inside the organization that support us, so a takeover will be easier. Then, once Darius is gone, we’ll reach out to The Imperium’s envoys. The Men of the World will annex themselves to them.”
Kirsten couldn’t believe what he was hearing. For a long time, he thought that he knew those three men perfectly as workmates. There he learned that you never get to know people perfectly.
He couldn’t believe that the men that once inspired him to keep going forward were so cowardly and corrupted.
Lionel spoke up once again. – “So…here’s where you come in. As I said, you deserve a chance. Despite everything, you are a capable, intelligent and rational man. It would be a waste, a terrible tragedy, to negate you the opportunity to continue forward, of putting you down even. You are more than capable of running the organization, you understand its purpose and meaning. That is why we want you to join us, to change the organization for good.”
Kirsten looked down to the ground, a few droplets of his own blood spilling on the floor. That crash may have moved his brain a little, making him hallucinate, because he could swear he saw the reflection of Butcher in those drops of blood, staring at him with that cold yet fiery glare.
“Of course, as a sign of good faith, we must show The Imperium some “servitude” if you know what I mean.” -Said Lionel. –“That’s why we must break the organization’s sword.”
“You don’t mean…”
“That’s right. Well, there’s some assassins that do agree with what we are trying to achieve, like Ms. Spider here, but most of them are pretty much closed to even considering working for the elites. Darius made a fine job selecting them, I never thought that idealistic and uncompromising killers actually existed in this world, but here they are, and they are in the way.”
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Kirsten was creating a scenario in his mind, but even if it was imaginary, the possibility of it becoming reality was very high.
Lionel was underestimating the Men of the World’s assassins; Darius selected them for a reason. He said that they didn’t stand a chance against the Imperium’s assassins, but he was gravely wrong. Kirsten had seen it himself; their skills and experience made them an equal match for their executioners.
Darius had warned him to not allow anything to aggravate them. In Kirsten’s vision he saw Butcher, Fate and many of the others they had recruited, tearing down the Organization piece by piece as an act of retaliation and vengeance.
He saw Fate decapitating the entire administrative crew with her strings. He saw Chain sinking their naval base into the depths of the ocean. He saw Silencer blowing apart Matthew’s brains with a .50 Cal, Spectre scalping Adam and sending his hide to the white house as some sort of symbolism.
And of course, he saw Alicia, severing his own head with that terrifying knife that never leaves her side.
“So, what do you say?” -Asked Lionel, bringing Kirsten out of his stupor. –“Will you take this chance to save yourself, along with us? Will you help us change the Men of the World for the better?”
Kirsten hung his head low, staring once again at the drops of blood at his feet. Alicia was still there, now she had a puzzled look in her face, wondering what path he would take; what kind of man he was? Both she and him wondered about that.
Kirsten wanted to believe he was the right kind of man to correct the mistakes done by others. He raised his head back up, and stared at Lionel dead in the eye. He could already predict Kirsten’s answer.
“In this job, I’ve worked with many different people…mainly assassins. They all were and are pretty unique individuals in their own right. They always set off to kill whoever’s file I hand to them, a pretty grim profession, I know. Sometimes, I would speak with them when they returned after completing their job, in between small talk, I would ask them: “What did you think of your target when you saw him?”
“What does this have to do with-” -Protested Richter, but Kirsten didn’t allow him to complete that interruption.
“Let me finish. I’d ask them that, and most of them told me the same: They were the most petty, self-righteous and delusional bastards they had ever seen in their career…after enough of them told me that, I revindicated the promise I made to myself when I started to work in this organization: I wouldn’t ever work with them ever again, not with them nor with any of their branches. If I returned to work for them, I would return to work for a lie, a fantasy that leeches off the real world…that leeches off its people, real people, people that deserve to be fought for and protected.”
Lionel barely could hold the vitriol that was threatening to come out of his mouth.
“Now that you’ve decided to take this path, all of you are now my enemies.” -Concluded Kirsten, getting a laugh from Spider as an immediate reaction.
“I told you he wouldn’t ever accept that, Bonde.” -Said Richter. – “He’s a goddamn parasite, just like the girl he brought in.”
“You fear her that much, huh?” -Asked Kirsten, taking this chance to mock him. – “It’s good that you are afraid of her. Butcher is no normal assassin. Judging by what you people told me you must’ve already sent some of your sympathizers to get rid of her, right?”
“That’s correct.” -Said Lionel.
“How many? 10, 20 men?”
“Around 6 covert operatives and there will be 12 agents waiting for her in her plane back to the base.”
Kirsten laughed loudly, his chuckles echoing throughout the warehouse.
“…That won’t be enough, not by a long shot. You said many sympathized with your cause. Well, just like you said the assassins wouldn’t stand a chance against the Elites…your people don’t stand a chance against Butcher.” -He turned to see Adam and Matthew. – “The same goes for all of the others; Fate, Chain and even Jeanne. You want to take them down because they wouldn’t ever comply to your hostile takeover, but guess what, the moment you pit them against you…is the moment you lose.”
Lionel closed his eyes and shook his head with disapproval.
“It’s unfortunate you see things like this, it’s also unfortunate we cannot be allies. If that’s the case, then we’ll continue on without you, and you shall be disposed of accordingly, as a member of the former Men of the World.” -Adam, Matthew and Spider walked towards the exit alongside some of their men. – “Goodbye, Kirsten. Hope God has mercy on you.”
“He won’t have any.” -He replied. – “And he won’t have any on you either.”
“But you’ll go first.” -After saying that, Lionel walked away, leaving the warehouse and leaving Kirsten alone with the handful of thugs that had been ordered to stay there and make him suffer as much as they could.”
One of the thugs approached Kirsten while clenching his fists. – “Mr. Fritz told me to give you a bad time before you kicked the bucket.”
“Of course he did…”
“I know it’s none of my business, but you should’ve taken his offer.” -Commented another thug standing right next to him.
Kirsten sighed. – “Well…I prefer to keep my dignity. I only do what I think it’s right.”
“Yeah, and you’ll pay for that.” -Said the thug in front of him right before hitting him on the nose. That man was a heavy hitter, his punch was strong enough to stun Kirsten’s ears. Then he received a blow to the stomach, then back to the face twice.
With every punch, Kirsten’s conscience drifted away more and more. It wasn’t up until the fifth strike that he was sent back to his memories, to those experiences that made him the man he was.
He was a proud American citizen, always aiming at doing good, protecting and serving American citizens. He was young and stubborn, determined to protect his loved ones.
After a successful career in the military, being commended by his efficiency, courage and esprit de corps, he was approached by some influential individuals in the CIA, who offered him a spot inside the agency to participate in extra-judicial operations, the real kind of operations in which national security was at risk, or at least that’s what Kirsten was led to believe.
He journeyed around the world, saw its many dangers, participated in the fight against many dangerous terrorists and extremist organizations that threatened his country, one way or another.
The thrill of the work, the dangers he went through, all of the many close calls there were. unlike his colleagues, it was all very invigorating to him, but he still kept his collected and professional demeanor, making him one of the CIA’s best spies of his generation.
His director then thought that it would be a great idea to involve him in the most extra-judicial operations and missions the CIA dealt with.
“Our main priority is to ensure global equilibrium.” -Said the director. – “Every day, that balance is at stake, every day something new arises that would put society at risk if left unchecked. We exist to guarantee control and ensure that order is not upset.”
Inland threats, anomalies, information leaks and deserters, Kirsten’s role in the CIA was to deal with all of the aforementioned. He worked in auto-pilot, dealing with these threats systematically, maintaining collateral damage to a minimum, silent and discreet. He wouldn’t stop to think about the why and how of the fires he was putting off, or the people he would capture and even assassinate, if they all were threatening his country, then there was no point in making questions, only pulling the trigger was worth his time.
It didn’t take much time for Kirsten to see who the real enemy of his country was. One day, they received news of a certain terrorist attack that would take place in the heart of the country, they had all the means and resources to prevent it and neutralize the perpetrators; Kirsten was more than ready to move out. But then, his team received new instructions: they were ordered to stand by and let it happen.
Kirsten didn’t want to abide by those orders, he protested, he berated their commanding officer, but he didn’t give him any other choice, and his teammates seemed to be onboard with abiding by those orders.
He was forced to stare with impotence as thousands of lives were being extinguished in the most catastrophic terrorist attack to ever happen on American soil. The director, Edward Aubrey Koch, would tell him that this event was vital to ensure peace and order in the United States, but Kirsten refused to accept that.
Later on, Kirsten would notice a new act being propositioned to the congress in response to the terrorist attack. They called it the Loyalist Act, and on paper it guaranteed the citizens’ security and well-being against terrorist and other national threats, but in practice it allowed the government to circumvent American freedoms to get a tighter hold on their livelihoods, income, social life, among many other aspects of regular life they would use this opportunity to tamper with.
Some would tell Kirsten he was exaggerating, but from his perspective this was the beginning of a darker and perverse turn for the United States, the end of many good things, and unlike many others in his same line of work, he was unwilling to accept this as the new status quo.
And thus, he departed, abandoning his role as a CIA agent, and hellbent on stopping their injustice. However, he was just a single man, he alone wouldn’t be able to stand a chance against the big American giant.
That’s when he was approached by Darius, and he offered the sun to him.
“You and I search for a better future for everyone.” -Said Darius. – “As long as the Imperium exists, that future won’t ever be a reality. How about if we change that?”
Kirsten would follow Darius to the end of the world, because he knows that Darius has the key to change the world for the better and permanently so.
“Here lies Kirsten, the failed spy.” -With these words, Kirsten sought to leave his past behind as nothing but a mere nightmare and be reborn as a new man who sought peace for everyone all around the world.
A year after being recruited into the MTW, Kirsten heard from their informants that Edward Koch had met his ultimate end in Iraq. He was leading an operation for the destabilization and silent reformation of the country, but he winded up burnt to death alongside his men in camp Sigma. They never knew the details of his death like what happened or who attacked them, the informants called it “an act of God.”
But now, with the new information they had gathered, Kirsten was absolutely sure: Edward Aubrey Koch had been murdered by the Butcher, and because of that, he was eternally grateful to her.
Kirsten was brought back to the present with another heavy blow, now his entire face was bleeding, not to mention the damage he had been dealt to his ribs and stomach. The thug using him as a punching bag was starting to enjoy himself, showing to his pals how hard he could punch.
He hit him three more times, straight to the face, stunning his ears, Kirsten was wondering in between punches if there was a way out of this ordeal.
That’s when he noticed that due to the impacts, the chair’s legs were damaged, he just needed one more push. Exactly as he realized this, the thug felt the need to show his friends he couldn’t just use his hands, but also his legs, so he kicked Kirsten in the stomach as hard as he could, destroying the back legs of the chair, sending him to the ground.
Alongside the chair, Kirsten’s restraints were also undone, but he didn’t have enough energy to move, he was barely conscious as he was.
The thugs stared at him on the ground, wondering if with that kick they had managed to put him out of his misery, or maybe he had been dead long before that.
“I think you may have busted his brain with all of those punches you threw at his face.” -Commented one of them. – “Go kick him a bit, just to make sure.”
Kirsten’s torturer approached him and kicked him slightly, just because he was feeling pity for him, seeing how low a man can fall. After kicking him twice he checked his pulse, it was very weak, that was a sign for him that Kirsten wasn’t long for this world, and that was enough for him.
“(I was too weak to prevent it all.)” -He thought for himself. –“(Yet, she was capable of putting an end to him on her own, with just the guns on her back. Maybe she’s got a death wish…or maybe, I’ve been a coward this entire time.)”
Kirsten slowly opened his eyes, his vision becoming clear once again. He saw his torturer speaking with his friends. – “I should try and become a professional boxer after all!”-He bragged to them, and they were fully supportive of his idea.
“(It’s all going to happen again…unless I throw myself at the action this time.)” -He slowly reached out to a piece of the broken chair that looked sharp enough. – “(…let’s try following her example.)”
A surge of conscience, Kirsten quickly got up from the ground before the other thugs could warn his torturer and plunged the piece of wood into his throat.
“Shit! Get him!” -Yelled one of them. the torturer dropped to the ground holding onto his own neck.
The youngest out of them rushed Kirsten with a combat knife but he evaded it on instinct and countered him by smashing his Adam’s apple, stealing his knife and plunging it into his side, piercing the heart.
It had been a while since Kirsten was in the middle of some real action, but it seemed like his body still remembered what to do and how to move.
The other two drew out their pistols and opened fire while he took cover behind a pillar.
“Surround him!” -yelled one of the two, then Kirsten heard both of their footsteps approaching from both sides of the pillar. He couldn’t deal with the two of them at the same time.
There was a piece of rope next to Kirsten, he could’ve preferred something more effective but it was better than nothing, now he needed to make every move count. He quickly tied the rope to make a loop and waited for the two thugs to come close enough.
Once they were two steps away from ambushing him, Kirsten turned to his left and threw the knife at the first thug, nailing him in the neck, then turned to the right and threw the lace and caught the thug’s pistol, then pulled it away with all of his strength.
They both looked at the gun flying through the air, falling towards Kirsten’s side. The henchman couldn’t believe the situation he was in, but this kind of bizarre tactics were a common sight for Kirsten.
He grabbed the gun once it was within his reach and didn’t stop to listen to the thug’s pleas, placing two shots in his chest. Once the man had fallen to the ground, he turned towards the other thug who was on his knees holding onto his neck but was still willing to put up a fight. He tried to lift up his gun to shoot at Kirsten, but he was quicker on the trigger, putting an end to his misery.
Miraculously he had been able to take down all of these enemies without help and being at a massive disadvantage. Kirsten started to feel 10 years younger, once again he felt the rush of being in the thick of the action. He fell on his knees, his entire body started to tremble, forcing him to drop the gun on the ground. He was bleeding from his forehead and was badly bruised, but it was nothing that would kill him.
“(I had forgotten.)” -He thought. – “(Maybe this is how she feels after every firefight…I wonder what she’d say if she saw me in this state…)”
He placed his hand on his knee to get back up, he drew a pleased smile on his face. – “(Since when I have been thinking about her so much? We barely know each other.)” -Kirsten looked at the corpses, they may have been agents he never had the pleasure to meet or were independent contractors. In any case, it wasn’t personal for most of them, and they expressed themselves openly. He felt remorse putting down people like them. – “(…Maybe it’s just she can do something I can’t.)”
Either way, he realized he didn’t have the privilege of staying there reflecting, he had to leave and stop the rebels.
He limped out of the warehouse, gun in hand. Lionel and Adam were both gone, just like Spider and Richter. Fortunately, it seemed the henchmen inside had their own vehicle parked right there. He approached the car, broke the glass to open the door and hotwired the ignition; there was no time to go snooping around for the key.
He drove the vehicle towards the highway and stepped on the accelerator, soon he noticed a sign indicating that Calgary was just 5 kilometers away. Lionel’s men had taken him very far away from his meant destination, but at least he was close enough to another hideout located near Bullhead Road.
Kirsten hastened his pace, pressing the accelerator down to the bottom, disregarding the speed limit. He needed to get there and inform Darius before Lionel’s group made their move.
He had to be fast, or else, the assassins would destroy the organization because of Lionel’s stupidity.