Clash Of Worlds (24 page)

Chad didn’t wish to tell her the whole truth. The thought of his continuous violent nightmares might scare her. Therefore, he decided to tell her only part of the truth. “Sorry about that, had to check up on a guy here. You know, agent stuff?”

“Right…” answered Stacey, sounding only half convinced.

“Hey, I don’t want your dad on my back, do I? Besides, I have something for you.” Stacey smiled in delight at the sight of the champagne, instantly forgiving her boyfriend for his untimely absence. “Come on, get a glass,” he told her.

Stacey held up her finger in a motion for Chad to wait for a second and walked back over to the couch where she had been sat. As she walked, Chad examined her rear. She was wearing a white shirt, with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of black shorts. She was also bear foot, clearly feeling enough at home in Chad’s apartment to remove her shoes and socks. Chad looked fondly at her legs and hips, nodding to himself in approval.
She really is beautiful
.

Stacey came back from the couch and held out a pen drive to him.

“What’s this?” asked Chad, looking at it in confusion.

“It’s a pen drive silly,” she answered in a mocking tone.

“Yeah I know that, it’s my pen drive. Why are you handing it to me though?”

“James called, he wanted me to tell you he’s downloaded something to your computer. He made me put it onto this and told me to give it to you as soon as you got back.” Stacey handed the pen drive to Chad, who puffed his cheeks out as he took it.

“What’s the matter?” asked Stacey.

“That boy, he works too hard,” he answered in reference to James. “Come on let’s drink.”

“Aren’t you going to take a look at it?”

“They’ll be time for that later, come on let’s have a good time.” Chad attempted to kiss Stacey once more, but this time the young girl was reluctant. “What’s up?”

“I think you should look at it, he wouldn’t have sent it if it wasn’t important.”

“Fine,” replied Chad sounding a little annoyed. “You’d think you were the one who was an agent, not me.”

Stacey loved to tease him and began to once more. “Well, my dad run’s the World Order so technically…”

Chad interrupted her abruptly. “If you say you’re my boss one more time and we’re done!”

Stacey began to giggle but didn’t say another word.

Chad and Stacey left the living room and walked to Chad’s bedroom. Chad pushed a handle on the side of the bed and stood back. The floor beneath the bed began to move and the bed itself started to revolve around onto its side. This revealed a hidden stairway beneath the floor, which the pair began to descend. The staircase was not long, containing only ten steps. The darkness of the hidden room turned to light automatically as Chad stepped onto the floor.

The room was small in size. It contained specialized equipment, provided by the World Order. Every safe house that each agent lived in contained such a room. This was the place in which an agent would keep a record of all the activities within the city, and where they would report back to the organisation. A few feet from the staircase was a large leather chair, which was in front of a table containing very advanced computer equipment. The system was synced in with every CCTV camera in the city, enabling the agents to keep an eye on activities from afar. A laptop was at the forefront of the table, and behind it, stood three large glass touchscreens.

Chad sat down in the leather seat and inserted the pen drive into the laptop. Chad looked through the files for a few minutes, reading them in great detail.

“So, what is it?” asked Stacey, who had been standing behind Chad all the while.

“It’s all of this.” Chad placed his hands onto the screen of the laptop and pushed his hands upwards above it. The images stored within the pen drive flew up onto the three large glass touch screens that were housed above it.

Chad stood up and moved the chair back slightly, allowing Stacey to stand beside him. The screens showed the files in great detail. The pair read them together. They spoke of a group named ‘The Order Of Lux’ who was gathering forces all over the world. The files didn’t describe their plans in detail, but they spoke of several undisclosed targets that needed to be acquired before the Project Of Chaos could commence. More interestingly to Chad and Stacey however, was the naming of James as the groups number one target for elimination. Chad’s attention was also drawn to one particular document amongst the files that required a password to view. Chad and James had a special password that they used for confidential things that related to their secret abilities. Chad entered the password, which opened the file up.

This file contained the documents regarding James and Chad’s adoption and their assignment to the Bel Grave Orphanage in which they had grown up as children. Chad knew that by James assigning their password to this, he hadn’t shown this to the World Order yet.
This is none of the World Order’s concern,
Chad thought. James and Chad had always wished to know more about their past and why it was they possessed such amazing skills, but even having the power and resources of the government agency had not aided their quest for answers. This document that Chad was looking at was the first time that he had ever come across anything that mentioned the two boys’ childhood. Chad wished to read the file further but was interrupted by Stacey.

“Chad.”

“Just a moment love, I’m reading this.”

“Chad, I’ve seen that man before.”

Chad looked across at the far right-hand screen, which Stacey was looking at. On the screen was a picture of a man with long white hair. The man was smartly dressed, wearing a dark suit and tie and a white shirt. The man was described in the file as being the leader of the group. “You’ve seen him where?”

“He was watching us, yesterday…at the theatre.”

Chad wasn’t so convinced. “Are you sure?” he asked, trying his best not to sound patronising.

Stacey could tell he wasn’t buying it, but she was certain what see had seen. “Chad it was him. He was there last night. He was watching us.”

Chad sensed the young girl was a little tense and placed a caring arm around her shoulder. “It’s ok, everything will be fine. I’ll take care of it.”

“How did he find you here. I thought all of the agents were well hidden?”

Chad didn’t have an answer for her, though. The fact that this strange white haired man had been able to track him down was quite worrying. All of the agents were supposedly untraceable. Chad was no ordinary agent also. When he worked, he worked in stealth, with such speed and grace it was as though he was invisible.

The thing that bothered Chad the most though was the fact that this white-haired man had access to his and James’ orphanage records. The man had named James as the group’s main target so he obviously saw him as a threat.
Does he know about us
? Chad wondered.

James, Sophie and Boris sat in the back of a limousine, which drove through the busy and frantic streets of Sydney, Australia. Australians were renowned for having a good time and tonight they were certainly living up to their reputation. It was October 31
st
; Halloween and the locals were in the party spirit. There was still enough light in the early evening sky for the three agents to enjoy the sights of the great Australian city. None of them had ever been to Sydney before so this was a great occasion for them. Truth be told Boris seemed completely unmoved by the whole experience but still, James and Sophie enjoyed the sights. Sophie’s mood had improved somewhat since her departure from Tokyo, and James had hoped seeing Cody again would raise her spirits further still.

As the limousine drove along the Sydney coastline, James could see people celebrating with barbecues on the beach and fireworks, which James thought was a little strange considering it was Halloween. Small children were scattered all around the area dressed in Halloween costumes. Some were trick-or-treating, but many of them were doing what children do, having fun and causing mischief! A few of them pummelled the limousine with eggs as it passed them. The driver, who was dressed in a black hat and matching suit, typical of a limousine driver, shouted out at the children. James and Sophie saw the funny side of things though and joined in with the laughter as the youngsters ran away down the street.

The limousine finally reached a neighbourhood of tall buildings and the car stopped outside one particular block of apartments. The driver turned around to look at the three agents who sat in the back section of the vehicle. “Your host has already left,” said the driver in a strong Australian accent.

“Host?” asked Sophie.

“He means Cody,” James whispered to her, deducting that this was the only person who the driver could possibly be referring to considering it was Cody’s apartment they had arrived at.

The driver ignored Sophie’s question and carried on. “Inside you will find clothes suitable for your nights entertainment, and a message.”

“What entertainment?”

The driver again ignored Sophie. “Here are the keys to the apartment.” The driver tossed the keys to James. The three agents gathered their bags and climbed out of the vehicle. The driver drove off quickly without even so much as saying goodbye or even giving them a second glance. The three of them stood in confusion as they watched the limousine disappear down the street and out of sight.

“What a rude man!” Sophie concluded.

“Come on let’s get inside,” said James, not wishing to dwell on the subject. With that, the agent’s made their way inside the apartment block. They climbed up a narrow staircase for nine stories and came to the end of a long corridor, with several doors either side.

“Which one is it?” asked Sophie.

James took a look at the keys the limousine driver had given him and engraved on the larger of the two keys was the numbers 981. Examining the numbers on the nearest doors to them, James set off down the corridor. “It’s down here, come on.”

He turned the keys into the lock and they entered Cody’s apartment, which was an absolute mess. There were clothes scattered all over the place and the bin, which was right next to the door was overflowing with rubbish. Sophie gave an unimpressed look as they entered. The living room was in no better condition. The remains of a half eaten pizza lay on a small table alongside a couch, which had several of the seats out of place.

Same old Cody
thought James. The thought made him smile.

“So, is he squatting here or what?” asked Sophie, who was far from impressed at Cody’s living conditions.

“Well he never was the most domesticated guy in the world,” James said, remembering how untidy Cody had been back when they lived in the training facility.

The thing about Cody was he was a mummy’s boy from South Texas. He led a sheltered childhood on a small farm with his mother, father and three brothers. Professor Milton had spotted something special in him. No one else had seen anything unique in the young Texan and couldn’t understand why the old man had recruited him, but he had recruited Cody none-the-less. Cody’s parents thought he was leaving for college when he left Texas at sixteen, but the fact was he went with Professor Milton to the World Order’s training camp to see if he had what it took to become a fully-fledged secret agent.

Sometimes the Professor had wondered if he had made the right decision in recruiting Cody. At times, he was very clumsy and often foolish. He would speak without thinking first and perhaps wasn’t the sharpest tool in the drawer. He did, however, have heart, the purest heart of probably anyone the professor had ever recruited. This vindicated Professor Milton’s decision. He knew, when the chips were down, Cody could be trusted. He was a handful in a fight too, using all of his Texan aggression when in a confrontation. Unfortunately, Cody was somewhat lacking in terms of his domestication. He could not even boil and egg, never mind cook.

His mother used to cook all his meals until he left home. James had known Cody to live off one-pound pizzas for weeks at a time. It was somewhat of an achievement that Cody was so athletically built considering his awful diet. James noticed several empty pizza boxes on the floor of Cody’s apartment.
He’s still living off pizzas
, he thought as he walked through the littered floor of the living room.

Sophie’s attention was drawn to an envelope, which was on top of the television. She picked it up and opened the seal. “It’s instructions.”

Inside were photographs of three men, one of who was the white haired man that was the group’s main target. The letter stated that Cody had set off a few hours earlier for a party at the Sydney Harbour Marriot Hotel. The letter didn’t have too many details on it but stated there was someone in attendance that they would all be ‘dying to meet.’ James recognised the letter was a clear indication that Cody had set off in pursuit of someone from the Order of Lux, the group that James and Sophie had been sent to Sydney to reprimand. The letter went on to say that a car would be along to pick them up at 8 pm. The time was already 7.15pm, leaving the group very little time to prepare themselves and get into suitable attire.

Inside Cody’s bedroom, (which was equally as untidy) where two suits and one dress. The suits were for James and Boris, whilst the dress was presumably for Sophie, (although Cody had put a name tag with the word ‘James’ on the dress). Sophie took the tag off the dress and showed it to James.

“Very funny,” said James who was only half amused at Cody’s attempt of humour.

Surprisingly, Sophie was the first dressed. She came out of the bathroom and into the bedroom where the two men were still putting on their suits. “You’re kidding me, right? And they say girls take longer to get ready!”

Boris fixed his tuxedo and was finished. “I’m ready, I’ll be waiting outside.” With that, the Russian left the apartment.

“He’s a breath of fresh air isn’t he,” James said, referring to the old man’s social skills, or lack of them for a better term. James still hadn’t put on his shirt, never mind the tuxedo. He was busy spraying his face with aftershave, literally soaking his cheeks with a fragrance. Sophie thought he had overdone it a little, but she kept quiet. She was momentarily distracted by James’ muscular build. She felt a little awkward looking at James semi-naked. They had been friends for such a long time now that she had never thought of him as anything other than that. Still, she didn’t dislike what she saw. The Irish girl even found herself beginning to enjoy the view until she noticed something peculiar.