Prologue

Faster.

Faster.

I’ve got to run faster.

My feet pound the concrete rooftops, every once in a while, I’ll hear a ‘clang’ as they hit a steel one.

Clutching yet another strange, wired mechanism tightly in leather-gloved hands, I can feel it making a bizarre pulsing sensation somewhere within it. Leaping and bounding, I’ll admit I’m not the most graceful in my caliber, but at least I make up for it in speed and strength.

Run faster.

Don’t stop.

This is what I’m trained for.

Tonight’s assignment was simple enough: Infiltrate Mei Lin’s headquarters and mingle with guests. Easy. Sneak into the power plant. Also kind of easy. Clip a few wires from the big, huge device. Not easy; in fact I think I messed up a little on that one… but nothing really happened, so…. Never mind. Then get past the automated guards and get… whatever-the-hell-this-is. Easy. Then escape, and bring it back to my… ‘Creators’ or ‘bosses…’ Easy enough.

However… Something does not feel quite right this time. With every landing on another skyscraper, every beating of my boots, it feels as though there is something eating away at me. I’m unable to explain it, but I do know that it’s some sort of bad omen. Something is wrong, something’s just not right tonight.

Normally, this part of the city is very much alive at this hour, with business parties like the one at Mei Lin’s headquarters just now, but now everything is near silent. There are no office lights on in the gigantic buildings, there’s not a ring of laughter or shouting from inside any one of them. Besides the thick drops of rain slipping down, it is completely quiet.

Suddenly, I do believe that I finally understand what those old movies mean when they say ‘It’s quiet… TOO quiet…’ It doesn’t sound so cliché anymore…

Funny, this almost seems… nostalgic…

Oh…

Shit.

Be well.