4

For the majority of the rest of the day, Aiden reviewed the mission with his squad and thought about how he could possibly not kill the professor. His squad had 8 members including himself. Two of the operatives, Mia and Ava, technically worked under the intelligence department and were responsible for supplying the fire team with necessary intel, as well as to watch over them in the field with drones or other detection equipment. Two more operatives, Zoey and Caleb, were officially working for the technology department, giving suggestions for the best equipment to use, and writing the necessary customized software for different missions. That leaves the fire team, which had 4 members. There was Aiden, who was the leader; Nathan, who was medic and rifleman, as well as second in command; Hunter, who was their grenadier and explosives expert; and finally Ryan, who was either sniper or automatic rifleman depending on the mission type.

When Aiden introduced the operation objective and mission brief, he could see silent protests on the faces of the more pacific half of his squad, while the other half seemed to be perfectly fine with murder. Aiden couldn’t really blame his fire team. All of them grew up in tough homes and were thus made tough men.

The mission parameters composed by Mia and Ava were simple. The professor came from a family of aristocrats, as those apparently still existed in Europe, and thus was living in a 32-bedroom chateau on the outskirts of Orleans in France for the summer. However, it does seem that although of nobility, the professor probably wasn’t the wealthiest of his kind. From the satellite images, it could be seen that what was meant to be a garden was practically empty of life and that the only real obstacle to the castle for his team was a dry riverbed around the castle, which marked the existence of a moat before most of southern Europe was turned into a desert as a result of climate change.

What the team needed to do was somehow to fake a heart attack for the 70-year-old man without any of the 7 other inhabitants of the castle noticing. From intel gathered, the professor usually slept at eleven and would wake up at six. He lived in the south most room in the castle, which was around 50 meters away from the next room his nephew rested for the family vacation. The entire mission was simply too easy for anything to go wrong, and the more he and his team planned out the small details of their mission, the more Aiden realized that it was practically impossible to save the professor.

By the end of the day, Aiden had to try very hard to not show his frustration as his team drew multiple backup plans to ensure the death of their target, and was starting to order equipment form the resource department. What was essentially planned, was that at 9 at night the team would arrive at a place 5 kilometers away from the residence by air. One hour later, they would be in view of the castle. By cover of the night, dressed in all black, they would first be using grappling hooks to scale the northern side of the castle which was a storage hall where no one lived. Once at the top of the building, the team would move to the southern side. Ryan will then move to the eastern side of the building, and place a bug at the air vents, which would then be remotely controlled by Ryan. The bug will walk down the air vents into the professor’s room, and the attached camera would ensure that the professor is alone before any further actions. Furthermore, in order to ensure that everyone is sound asleep, the team would wait until it is one in the morning. The grapples will then be used against to lower Aiden and Nathan down to the professor’s window, while Hunter keeps watch in case of anything unexpected. Ryan will fly the bug to the professor’s neck, and inject a dose of venom to make sure that the professor sleeps soundly through everything which is about to happen. Because a larger dose of poison is needed dot induce a heart attack due to the small size of the bug, Aiden and Nathan will then pick the lock, enter the room, and inject the final lethal dose. Once injected, the professor will have 30 minutes before he would wake up, and find his heart beating uncontrollably. By then, the team would be at least two kilometers away from the castle.

It was a plan which could not go wrong, and Aiden felt helpless as he left the office. His partner, Nathan, ever so perceptive, asked him what was wrong. Aiden obviously couldn’t say he was down because he wanted to save the professor, and so answered that he didn’t know what he would do after his dismissal by the end of the week. Nathan gave him a strange look. Aiden was now confused.

“So they are not dismissing you?” Aiden asked Nathan.

“No, and by the look of the squad, you are the only one who is going.” Answered Nathan.

Aiden was confused, as he could not imagine why the company was keeping his crew. From his experience in the morning, Aiden was sure that all the officers were being dismissed, so why not the rest of the operatives?

“Well, good luck to you then buddie, it’s going to be hard for you after the week,” said Nathan.

Aiden looked and Nathan and pretended to be comforted. “Thanks,” he said, with false sincerity. He could see that Nathan was hiding his excitement, being the second in command, Nathan would be taking his chair as captain once the week ended. Aiden signed as he and Nathan parted ways at the southern gate of the campus. Nathan went into his mag-mobile and waved Aiden goodbye with a genuine smile. Aiden forced a smile and waved back. When Nathan was gone, Aiden took a long look at the magnificent gate of the Bureogis Headquarters. Although he knew he still had two more days to go before leaving for France, and six days before his formal dismissal, he felt as if this is his last day. Aiden signed as his mag-mobile arrived. He knew that he is going to miss the free transportation that his company provided, but there was little he could do about that. When Aiden arrived at his studio on the 45th floor of his apartment forty minutes later, he virtually crashed onto his bed, which squeaked loudly under the momentum. Aiden rested there for a minute letting his muscles relax. Then, he disconnected his specs from the internet, took Eddie’s message pin out of his pocket, and started viewing the message.