Chapter 85 - His memories

In a small cell somewhere hidden, Victor Tachibana lay on the icy cold floor, despite a bed being there.

The cold floor took him back to one of his first missions as an agent of The Agency.

He had been lying in a similar cell, on a similarly cold floor, punished for disobedience and brawling during the Agency's training program, when his instructor had come to assign him to a case.

He was only 16 back then. The Agency recruited him off the streets when he was barely 14 and groomed him for espionage and assassination.

"I can't remember why they chose me..." Tachi pondered out loud to himself.

The last week or so in isolation had driven him into a sort of delirious limbo.

He had been sent to country A with a senior agent on request of a high ranking anonymous official in the government.

They were informed that a married couple working in one of the cyber departments of country A's government were in possession of state secrets that could be sold to international powers and entities that could alter the balance in the political climate.

They were to eliminate this family and retrieve the briefcase that contained these secrets.

It didn't go well.

The couple and the house burned in the fire, but the briefcase was never found.

What Tachi hadn't known, was that the couple had a 6 year old child, who had been saved, but was left orphaned.

Unfortunately, this child had been lost...along with any hope of finding the briefcase.

The only clue left was one piece of a pair of earrings with a unique design. A little lock and key with a 'D' engraved at the back.

Tachi remembered hiding this clue from the senior agent he was working with.

If the child got away, he'd rather let her go than commit a crime as heinous as murdering a 6 year old.

He'd held on to that earring since then. As a reminder of the failure from one of his first missions, as well as a reminder to preserve his own humanity.

Little did he know, that 10 years later, he would find a match to that earring.

Another flashback took him to a small village near the capital city of Country J. He was on yet another mission.

This time, it was a solo mission.

He was now a top sniper in the Agency, had a good standing and track record. He was supposed to assassinate the leader of a troublesome militia. The Xin group.

They had been terrorising the district and causing unrest by collecting tribute from poor families in the region.

As he hid in the bushes looking into his sniper lens as a Xin vehicle stopped at a local diner, pulling out innocent people and beating them up publicly for loot and extortion, Tachi was about to shoot the leader through the head.

Just as he was about to end the fiasco, a young teenage girl stepped straight up to the gang leader with a bat in her hand and a determined expression on her face.

"She was so stupid...so brave and so stupid..." Tachi spoke aloud to himself again.

Even though the girl was young, she was astoundingly beautiful.

She had long, wavy dark hair like thick wisps of night fog and doe-like almond eyes full of fire. High, elegant bones and a sharp chin accentuated her features, with full lips the shade of ripe strawberries.

Tachi remembered his frustration at not being able to clearly aim at his target due to the interference of the girl, but also his heart pounding in worry for the safety of the girl.

She seemed to be shouting profanities at them and swinging the bat dangerously in their faces.

The thugs were laughing at first. But then they got agitated and tried to hold her down and haul her away.

But the girl refused to give in.

None of the crowd from the diner helped her.

She valiantly fought off a few men until she was subdued.

Yet she snapped at them with a fiery aggression.

If he didn't do something, she would be taken away by the Xin thugs.

Forgetting his actual mission, Tachi shot at a few of the thugs holding her down.

In fear of not knowing where the shots came from, the thugs covered their leader and drove him away, leaving the girl in a battered state on the ground.

Tachi grit his teeth from the bushes where he was hiding.

He'd have to spend a few more days at this god-forsaken village to sniff out the leader of the Xin group now, extending his mission and incurring the wrath of the boss at the Agency.

But, before he knew what he was doing, he was running down to the injured young girl.

The crowd at the diner ran away in fear, abandoning their little, valiant saviour on the ground there.

She had been punched a few times and bleeding in a few places.

As Tachi approached her, she tried to get up and face him as if he was going to attack her.

He remembered, his heart went out to her. Her spirit was honourable and her fire was inextinguishable.

This girl was special.

He took her away to the little shack he was hiding away at during the mission and stitched her up.

He nursed and fed her for a couple of days before she was healthy enough to speak.

"Why did you do that? What gave you the courage to intimidate 15 thugs with guns and automatic weapons all alone with a simple bat?" he questioned.

The girl's eyes were still determined.

"What right do they have to strip the people of their honour and dignity every single day? I had enough. I will never sit on the side if I am able to do something. Even a little something. I am no bystander."

Her answer had surprised him. Her resolve, her strength. He wondered where she got it from.

And in that moment, he recognised the pendant on her necklace. It looked like it was originally a earring.

A earring with a unique design.

A lock and key. Turning it around, he found a 'D' engraved on it.

Astounded, he asked a simple question.

"What's your name, girl?"

Looking at him directly and unabashedly with her doe-like wide eyes, her answer was clear like summer rain.

"My name is Lina."