“Hey, idiot, what are you doing? Open the door.” A voice said from the other side.

Through the small opening, Adam had seen multiple people. The one in front was an unknown male dressed in the red hammer overall. He couldn’t see the other faces.

“If you don’t open the door right now, I’m gonna kick it in!” The same voice continued.

“Calm down, Hans. You're gonna need a battering ram if you want to do that. It’s criss-crossed with metal bars, to reduce the weight but still provide more than enough protection.” Another voice said.

“Sir, he isn’t opening the door. What should we do?”

“Hm, I guess you scared him. I probably should have been the one in the front.”

Hearing them talk like this, Adam calmed down slightly. Swallowing once, he gathered his courage.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Adam shouted from inside his room.

“Looks like I was right.” Three light knocks on the door. “Adam, it’s me. Asmoz.”

-Is it a trick? It does sound a little like Asmoz. The door might be distorting the voice. What should I do? Let them in? No, it might be a trap. But they might take me out at anytime anyway, there are many places that doesn’t have cameras. They have been spotted on the cameras now, so if I end up dead, they should get caught. Unless of course they are working with permission...- Adam debated with himself inside his head.

“Who are the others? I thought it supposed to be just you and me.” Adam said.

“That is, well, I don’t want to shout through the door like this. Could you let me in so I can explain?”

-Should I? I don’t actually think they want to hurt me or anything. But if they do… I got a surprise for them here…- Adam thought to himself.

One major benefit of his occupation was the tools he was provided with. They had all kinds of screwdrivers, hammers, electronic measurement equipment, pliers, cutters and knives. Adam had two different knives. The, orange colored, regular working knife that he had blunted a bit on his metal ladder, to make it easier to work with. Its short five cm blade was curved, with a covered top, and the handle insulated. The other one, completely unused, and larger. A straight very sharp blade ten cm long blade with a small finger guard.

They were allowed to walk around with their tool belts, and even bring them to their rooms. In case of some kind of emergency it would be bad to be separated from the tools. Most people returned the bigger things, like measurement equipment and ladders, Adam was no different. But since he had his tool belt with all kind of ‘weapons’ he was not defenseless.

He quickly ran over to the tool belt and took out the knife and hammer.

-With this, I might have a chance at least. Unless they have a gun…-

Adam put the knife between his teeth, to free up a hand, and unlocked the door. The door had a autolock feature so when he slammed it shut, it locked again. He didn’t open it, but simply waited for them to come in. With hammer and knife in his hands he stood next to the door. The door opened inwards so he stood far enough away so they couldn’t hit him with the door swing if they wanted to.

“Ok, coming in now.”

“Don’t try anything funny…” Adam warned them.

The door slowly opened. The man in blue, Achim Asmoz, stepped in first.

“Woah! What are you doing Adam? Put, put those things down.” Asmoz said, holding his hands up.

In total four people entered. Asmoz, Cora, and two unknowns. Both of them hammers.

“Stay back sir, I’ll deal with this.” The one that had been in the front before said. He reached for his pocket but Asmoz stopped him with a handwave.

“No, let me talk with him.” Asmoz said and walked closer to Adam.

“Hey, Adam, put those things down already. We didn’t come here to hurt you. If we wanted to hurt you, there are plenty of unsupervised areas. Not here in a one-entrance room with a camera just outside.”

“You say that, but what was he about to do?” Adam pointed with the knife.

“Well, we risked alot to get here. They were against the idea to invite you, but I stood up for you. We need someone in the screwdriver section and you are a perfect fit.”

“We? Who are ‘we’?”

“I’m, I’m a secret agent. For the EU. We all are.” Asmoz said. Cora and the other two nodded.

Adam stood there slack-jawed for a moment. “EU? Wow, didn’t see that one coming. Secret agent? Like a spy?”

“Yep, we are here to investigate what they do here. They suddenly forced us to cut down our armies. With no explanation! How can we possibly accept that?!” As Asmoz spoke, his face distorted in anger and he clenched his fists. “This base is the only lead we got.” He spread out his arms and spun around. “This underground base is huge. But our intelligence suggests they are even hiding something bigger. We have been monitoring the traffic to this area and something doesn’t make sense. You can’t even detect the base with a satellite. How is that even possible?!”

The other three had a similar look on their faces as Asmoz. Clearly they all cared a great deal about this matter.

-Hm, so they got the same goal as me. Oh well, this was getting way over my head anyway.-

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“So, why do you need me? I’m not exactly agent material.” Adam put back his weapons, or rather tools, in his belt, he was feeling silly holding them anyway. If he was up against a random thief, it might work, but against trained secret agents? Most likely will do more harm than good.

“As I said. We need access to the screwdriver section. We somehow failed to infiltrate it. We lost contact with two agents awhile ago. They must have been, discovered.”

“Discovered?” A feeling of dread rushed over Adam. He was once again reminded about the high stakes of what he was currently doing. Behind enemy lines, one slip up and it could all be over. Permanently.

“Yes, their fates are currently unknown. I won’t lie to you. It’s very dangerous. But, I have a feeling you already know that. Since I first saw you, I had a suspicion that you weren’t here for the food, nor to serve your country.”

Adam pondered a minute over this new information. It seemed like they didn’t know about the secret area. The question was, should he tell them or not. It might be better to keep that to himself for now. While they seemed to need Adam, he didn’t actually need them. It might even be more dangerous to mingle with them. They could be under surveillance and pull Adam into the suspicion zone. But doing this all alone was maybe even worse. So, Adam decided to accept their offer, and work together, for now.

“Ok, I guess I can join you. But how will this work?”

“Don’t contact us. We will contact you. Just keep doing your everyday jobs but keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.” Asmoz reached out with his hand, aiming for a handshake. Adam accepted it. Asmoz continued.

“Welcome to E.J.A.R. European.Justice.And.Revenge. You won’t get payed but I think you won’t mind. Let’s have some introductions. You remember Cora right?”

“Hello.” Cora gave a slight nod.

“She doesn’t talk much but she is good at what she does. Next is Pierre.” Asmoz pointed with his hand at one of the red overall dresses hammers. Pierre was tall, a head taller than the rest, except Cora who was almost two heads shorter, and he had short brown hair.

“Salut.” Pierre said.

“Also not much of a talker.” Asmoz chuckled. “Next is Hans.” Asmoz pointed at the last one in the group, the one that had been at the door and had reached for something in his pocket. Hans was the big muscular type and had blond short hair.

“Hello, nice, meeting you. I’m saying this only once. Don’t mess up. And don’t even think about snitching on us.” Hans said with crossed arms.

Asmoz awkwardly laughed, while scratching his head. “He, he is the serious type. He means well, even though it may not sound like it.”

“Um, hello.” Adam did a small wave. “By the way, what exactly is your goal? Justice and revenge? That doesn’t sound very good...” Adam said.

The group of four looked at each other. After they a few seconds they seemed to have come to a decision.  

“That, that’s too early for you to know. I’m sorry, but that is just too much information at once. I’m sure you can understand. Right?” Asmoz shrugged and smiled.

-So, they want me to work for them blindly. I have a feeling they don’t think very highly of me at all.-

“Ok, sure I understand. You are taking a big risk in just telling me about your secret agent status after all.” Adam nodded with a smile. “Something else I’m wondering about though. Have you seen any other agents here? From other countries.”

“Well, I saw one guy from a certain african country. Back in my younger days we often ran into each other, not rarely ending in violence. Now, we just ignored each other, no point in risking detection for old time's sake.” Asmoz said and took out a pocket watch.

“Well, we should get going now… Like we said, you will be contacted soon.” Asmoz said and left with his group. Hans gave Adam one last glare before leaving.

After Adam closed the door, he breathed out in relief.

-That was alot more tense than I thought it would be.-

While Adam laid down on his bed, relaxing, the group of four moved quickly through the base.

“Keep an eye on him, he knows something.” Asmoz said.

“How can you tell?” Cora asked.

“Didn’t you notice his reactions to what we said? Or rather lack of it. Apart from the secret agent thing, it seemed he knew everything else.” Asmoz said.

“I knew it. Should we deal with him now or later?” Hans subconsciously reached for his pocket.

“No, he can still be useful, right Asmoz?” Pierre said.

“Correct. He might even have discovered something on his own. For now, go back to your positions and wait for my command.”

PREVIOUS CHAPTERBack to Main PageNEXT CHAPTER