Mr. Black

The sharp wind bit against Guy Black's exposed flesh, and the sound of screaming sirens wailed through the cold night air. He glanced out across the city from the edge of the skyrise building, ready to jump, and his eyes locked down onto the busy streets of London. Despite the time of night, the city was still alive, lit up like a beacon of light shining up to the heavens but struggling to attract the attention of God's forgiveness. Instead, the mundane lives of the public found themselves bathing in the sins of the devil. Every other street corner found itself occupied with lowlives looking for their next fix for the night and shady dealers winning off their suffering. However, the odd flower bloomed out from the chaos of tangled weeds, the beautiful rhythmic sounds of laughter, and music. The noises of the real world were a blissful distraction for what Guy was about to do.

The people below looked like ants lined up after each other as they continued on with their daily lives, and if he accidentally slipped, then splat, goodbye Guy. He glanced over at the building opposite him. The neon flashing lights of the word "hotel" reflected against his hazel eyes, and for a moment he gazed at the couple getting it on through one of the windows. He arched a brow, highly interested, and wondered how the pair ended up together this early in the evening. It wasn't yet seven o'clock. The man undid his bow tie and unzipped the woman's vibrant red dress. They had to be going out for the evening, but they couldn't keep their hands off each other before they made it out the door. Guy wondered if it was an affair. He loved to make up background stories for the ordinary common lives of those who had no idea what happened under the government's shadow. It gave him a sense of normalcy. He would do anything to leave his line of work and live an ordinary, mundane life, and as sappy as it sounded, he wanted to get married to his girlfriend, buy a house, and have a mortgage.

Normal things.

Guy's younger brother, Mikey, had asked him to join his band. That was a normal thing to do, wasn't it? The lead singer, Alistair Baker, had tragically died in a fire last year, and Mikey was distraught over it, blaming himself when it wasn't his fault. It was a faulty stage light that sparked and set the curtains alight, a pure accident. But as they say, life moves on, and the rest of the band wanted to keep performing in honour of their fallen friend. Guy could have the position if he wanted it. He knew all of their songs, having grown up with his brother's band rocking away in their best friend's garage. They weren't a famous band but slowly rising up the ranks. Guy shook his head for even considering such a ludicrous thought. One, it was disrespectful to the deceased singer, and two, he would never be able to get out of his line of work, and he didn't want to get his brother or his best friend caught up in his dangerous lifestyle. They would only find themselves killed.

Big Ben chimed. The time had come. His boots curled over the edge. He craved moments like this when his adrenaline spiked into overdrive as he prepared himself for the jump. He double checked the harness and rope attached to his waist. All good and ready to go. He now needed the all-clear from his partner, Nikki Kane, who right at that second was typing away on her computer, decrypting the tower's security systems. He brought up his black bandana from around his neck and covered the lower half of his face, disguising his rugged good looks.

The building belonged to Charles Kingsley, the current CEO of Kingsley Consolidates, an electronics and drugs manufacturing company with military contracts. After infiltrating the company disguised as a security guard for the past week, he'd found out that they had an unauthorised, deadly bioweapon in their possession, which Guy had been assigned to confiscate by any means possible.

"Have you ever heard of the Ghost?!"

Guy violently shook and adjusted the volume of his earpiece. Nikki's question had sounded more like a screaming child and had almost scared him off the side of the building.

Guy scoffed. "He doesn't exist. An old wive's tale created by the agency to scare off the mob."

"The Ghost does exist!" Nikki made a ghoulish sound when saying his name.

The Ghost was nothing more than a rumour whose name kept popping up recently within the shadow world. Apparently, he was a freelancer, an antihero as Guy liked to put it. The Ghost had never been caught, his face never seen before, and intelligence agencies fought for his expertise in the field, including the one Guy worked for, MI6. The Ghost only ever left a calling card in his wake, a literal picture of a ghost with his untraceable phone number printed on the back. Guy had hated the sound of him from the moment he first heard about him. Antiheroes were loose cannons and got in the way of his work. But he could understand Nikki's fascination in him. She loved to hack. Her hacker name before she was arrested and given a plea bargain to join MI6 was Enigma, and she had yet to hack the Ghost's number and find his location. She loved a good mystery to solve, and she wouldn't stop until she uncovered his face.

"Am I clear to go yet?" Guy had had enough of her latest obsession. He gazed down the edge of the glass building and measured the distance he would have to drop.

"Security disabled!" Nikki cheered, having finally hacked into the building's network. "You have ten minutes to get in and out."

Guy clicked the timer on his watch and jumped off the building and abseiled his way down. His feet silently ran down the large glass panels like Spider-Man, and the wind whipped his dark hair around his face. He came to a sudden halt, the rope stiffening and lurching against his torso, taking the breath out of him.

"Shit!" The rope was jammed, but he could have sworn he'd checked over the equipment. This shouldn't have happened. What had he missed?

"What's wrong?" Nikki's voice quivered with anticipation.

This was the last thing he needed right now. Guy checked his watch. Nine and a half minutes left to go. He tugged on the rope, but it still wouldn't budge. He had no other choice if he wanted to complete the mission.

"The rope is stuck. I'm going to free climb it."

"Are you mad? Actually, don't answer that!"

Guy smirked, gripped his hands between the glass panels, and held himself up against the building, and with his other free hand, he unclipped himself from his harness. He immediately felt the weight of his body strain against the arm holding him up. The wind picked up, and droplets of water spat against his face. His eyes narrowed, highly frustrated with the weatherman who had told him it wouldn't be raining today. Why did he even bother watching the weather? This was London. It rained so much it was a cliché.

The rain thrashed down, soaking him through to his bones, and a stream of water flooded down the windows. His grip slackened, and he slipped and fell. His heart spiked, and he quickly reached out and grabbed onto a passing ledge. His arm jolted violently, and his wrist dislocated from the sudden impact. He grunted as he hung off the side of the building and watched his harness cascade to the ground, knocking a lamp post and startling a pedestrian couple walking past. They squinted up from beneath their purple umbrella but couldn't spot Guy camouflaged against the dark building and continued walking home.

He breathed out a sigh of relief and continued to climb his way down the building and finally made it to Kingsley's office floor. Guy reached into the back pocket of his bag and pulled out a small but powerful laser cutter, one of Nikki's latest gadget designs. He cut through the glass, making a hole big enough to squeeze through, and he forward rolled onto the ground.

"I'm in."

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Nikki screamed. "Climbing without a rope?! I've got Director Miller breathing down my neck right now. If you had died, it would have been my head on the chopping block, and I don't want to go back to prison!"

"Well, it was your climbing gear that malfunctioned, so I can't exactly blame Miller for breathing down your neck." Guy looked down at his watch. "After all, I am his best agent. I'm irreplaceable."

"Vain much?" she scoffed.

Guy had five minutes and counting, and he couldn't escape the way he came in. He would need to formulate a new extraction plan now that he couldn't make it back to the roof. The plan was already falling apart before it had even started. Nikki continued to curse down the line at him that her gadgets were top notch and that Guy did something to break the equipment. He ignored her as he thoroughly inspected the office for the safe. The room had a harsh feel to it, with the desk made from steel and the walls painted a dark depressing grey. It reminded Guy of a prison cell. At the other end of the room, hung on the wall, was a professionally hand-painted picture of a pouting nine-year-old girl, the plaque at the bottom reading Maggie. Guy found it borderline creepy that Kingsley would have a picture of a girl in his room when he didn't have any children or family for that matter. Guy made his way behind the desk and felt around it until he found a small red button and pressed it, and a hidden wall behind the desk slid open, revealing a robust, silver metallic door.

The safe.

Guy took out his smartphone with its own local area network, connected to Nikki's computer, and placed it against the keypad, and it started to hack into the system and electronically pick the lock. The door clicked, and the safe swung open. That was too easy for Guy's liking.

The safe contained ancient artefacts, jewels, and gold bars and at the back on a shelf, sitting in a small glass box, was the bioweapon. A shiver ran down his spine, and he could see his warm breath cooling against the cold air. The safe was like a gigantic refrigerator, keeping all of the artefacts intact, but more importantly, keeping the bioweapon cold.

When undercover, Guy had come across a laboratory a couple of floors below filled with scientists creating the weapon, and that vial was their final product. It had already been auctioned off and was now ready for Kingsley to ship off to the buyer. It was worth billions but could kill billions. Guy had no idea who bought the weapon. It was auctioned off online through the dark web. Nikki had an invitation to the private event through her alias, Enigma, but the price was too high for MI6 to place a bid down. Not even their friends from across the pond could get their hands on it. That's why Guy was stealing it tonight before it got into the hands of a nutcase syndicate who wanted to start World War Three.

"The safe is open," Guy whispered.

"Do you see the item?" Nikki asked.

"It's in my line of sight."

Guy entered the safe, and the second he stepped inside, a deafening alarm set off throughout the office, wiping the victorious smile straight off Guy's lips. His heart jumped into panic mode, and he checked his watch. He still had a minute to go, so why had the alarms gone off? He could already hear the loud, thumping footsteps of the security guards heading in his direction. Double panic.

"Nikki, what's happening?" His voice was laced with fear.

"Hold on!" She typed away on her computer.

Guy sprinted to the end of the safe and snatched the vial encased within the glass box and carelessly shoved it into his backpack. He ran towards the office door, but it wouldn't open—a biometrical lock. Only Kingsley could get in or out of his office. It was the whole reason Guy had abseiled down the building in the first place. He didn't have time to find Kingsley's thumbprint and took out another one of Nikki's gadgets from his bag and stuck it above the lock and turned around, covering his ears. It exploded with a bang, and and he flinched as the door handle flew past Guy's head. The device did little damage to the room but absolute carnage to the lock, the door now swinging open and a whole new set of alarms blaring down the corridor and alerting the guards of his location.

"The safe had heat sensors that regulated the temperature of the safe. By stepping inside your body heat set off an alarm," Nikki explained, "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It doesn't matter now. I have the package. I just need to find a way back to the extraction point. The security will be on my arse soon!"

"Okay... exit... room."

Guy hissed and tore out his earpiece when it buzzed with a high-pitched static noise. Someone was interfering with his communication and had cut him off. His heart raced, and he couldn't think straight. Without Nikki as his eyes and ears he was running blind. Guy did the only thing he could do and improvised. He started running for his life. He burst through the fire escape and wound his way up the stairs towards the roof. Shots fired from above, and he rolled out of the way, pegging himself into the corner. The bullets stopped, and he dove forward and made his way back down. His extraction point was now overrun with guards. He burst through the door onto another level. The heavy sweat dripping down his face forced his bandana to slip off his chin just as he caught sight of a security camera zoning in on him. Shit. He'd compromised his identity. He quickly recovered his face and sprinted down the red flashing corridor. His breathing was fast and heavy, and a sore stitch formed on his right flank. His whole body was on an adrenaline high, and he couldn't help but grin a little as he continued to run for his life, trying to find an escape route. He ran for what felt like an hour, and as soon as he found an exit, it was quickly overrun with guards. He checked the time, and his nose scrunched up. He was late for his girlfriend's art gala opening.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Cassidy was going to kill him if Kingsley didn't kill him first. Guy ground to a halt when the devil himself stood at the other end of the corridor.

Author's note.

Thank you for taking the time to read my work.

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