Chapter 2: The Assignment

CHAPTER 2: THE ASSIGNMENT

That night after dinner, the couple went back to their condos. Kai slowly walked Cecilia to her door. “Our three year anniversary is coming up, what would you like to do?” he asked.

She crossed her arms in front and slightly tilted her head up to think. “What about a romantic dinner at my place,” she proposed.

“That’s it? Nothing exciting?”

She shook her head and smiled, “Not this year. Let’s do something different.”

He turned to face her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Alright, but I’m cooking because your cooking skills suck.” He started to laugh which got her offended.

She playfully punched him on the shoulder, “Excuse me if I don’t cook often!”

“Ok…ok…” and he laughed some more.

She was about to give him another punch, but he grabbed her fist. “Aren’t you afraid that if you keep on hitting me like this, I can end up in the hospital?” he joked.

She yanked her fist out of his grip and crossed her arms in front again. “That is what you get for teasing me.”

He came forward and hugged her. Her rosy scent from her body overpowered his nose, making him enjoy the sweet scent. He pulled back and kissed her soft tendered lips.

Then he whispered, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she smiled.

Kai let her go and stood there while she turned around to unlock the condo door. Upon success, the door creaked opened to welcome her back home. Cecilia turned to look at him one last time and waved at him. He waved back and then she went inside. He turned around to the other condo door right across from hers and entered his.

Cecilia walked inside to her place and the lights automatically turned on. She jumped in surprised to see a couple of unexpected visitors stood silently in her living room.

She recognized the two men. One was a man that she and Kai had encountered earlier this morning. He had a band aid on his nose and a purple bruise on his cheek. She grinned to see how pitiful he looked. Next to him was an older man in his 50’s-cleaned cut type of guy that has a thick ash mustache, and wore a black expensive suit.

She stared at the old man and scolded, “Mr. Cho, you know that breaking into someone’s place is a crime right?”

“I am your boss…” he replied.

“WAS…” she corrected him.

His cornered lip curled up as if it was funny to him. “Right…WAS your boss…Anyway, I won’t be long...”

The doorbell rang. He directed his left hand to her front door. “Answer it,” he said with a devious look on his face.

She became suspicious of this old man. Why is he here? What agenda does he have for her this time? Without questioning him, she slowly walked to the door and opened it.

Kai was in an arm locked by the same four men from that morning. His shirt was missing some buttons and was half tucked in his pants, revealing his bare, muscular chest. On his left cheekbone and right jaw, there were a couple of red bruises. As for the other men, they were in more worsen condition than him. Their lips busted open, showing a small tint of blood on the side and parts of their faces were swollen red from being hit. She figured that the boys just had gotten into a brawl not too long ago.

Kai glanced up at her. “Hi,” and smiled like nothing had happened.

She got upset at Cho San and turned around to stare at him rebuked. “Really? Do you have to go this far?”

Cho San smirked and walked steadily toward them as he spoke. “You two didn’t need to beat your ex-colleagues this morning. All you had to do was to come with them peacefully.”

They stopped a few feet away in front of Kai and Cecilia. Kai looked at the man next to Cho San and remembered him from this morning. He was the one that grabbed him by the arm.

“Well he started it,” he sneered.

Cho San shook his head in disappointment and ordered his men to release Kai. They did as told and pushed him inside Cecilia’s place. Kai staggered forward and Cecilia caught him before he fell to the ground. The Then the men closed the door behind them and guarded it in case Kai and Cecilia decided to escape.

Cecilia crossed her arms in front and stared coldly at their ex-boss, “So, what do you want from us then?”

Cho San raised a yellow enveloped in front of him for them to see. “I have a proposition …I know that the both of you had resigned from the Black Ops Force, but I have no one else for this kind of mission except. Do you want to hear it?”

Cecilia scoffed sardonically, “Well, we don’t have a choice do we?”

Cho San laughed, “It is up to the both of you if you want to take this mission or not.” Then he purposely waved the envelope at their face to taunt them. “Ten million dollars can go to…someone else…”

Both were surprised by the huge amount of money. Kai wanted to make sure if he was hearing it correctly.

“What did you just say?”

Cho San grinned knowingly that he finally had their undivided attention. “You heard me. So, what do you say?”

“This mission must be very dangerous to be worth that much. Am I correct?” asked Cecilia.

“Correct. You two were my top agents that had shown very high success rate in all of your missions. With your talented skills and tactics, you two can assassinate these guys.” Then he waved the yellow envelope in front of them again, “So?”

Kai turned to nudged Cecilia on the arm and had a big closed smile on his face. She knew what he was thinking and it was the same vibe that she had also.

“Alright. We’ll take the mission,” she answered excitingly.

Happy to hear their answer, he handed them the envelope. “Take this and read it thoroughly.”

Kai quickly took the envelope from Cho San’s hand and was stunned by its heavy weight underneath his hand. Cho San’s men opened the front door and left. As Cho San walked down the narrow hallway, he shouted back at Kai and Cecilia, “Welcome back guys,” and laughed happily. Cecilia closed the door and made sure it was locked from the inside. Like their ex-boss, she didn’t want any more uninvited guests over to her place.

Kai and Cecilia didn’t wait a single moment of their precious time and went straight to work. They quickly ran to sit down next to each other on the living room couch and Kai pulled the thick documents out of the yellow envelope. Out came a bunch of thick packets mixed with papers, photos, and USB disk. They then went to their computer and inserted the disk. Seconds later, the logo of Black Ops Force appeared on the computer screen. Kai clicked on it and an automatic video played of Cho San.

CHO SAN’S VOICE:

Special Agent Kai and Special Agent Cecilia. Welcome back to Black Ops Force. This mission was assigned to us from a third party’s request by CCIA. The mission is simple. Eliminate the two dangerous criminals, Tsui Man and Alex Wong (Their pictures showed on computer screen) on June 24^th.

“That is a week from today!” Kai became bummed. “Oh well, I guess that will be our anniversary present then.”

Cecilia nudged him on the arm. “Well you wanted another exciting year, so there you have it,” and the both of them chuckled.  

CHO SAN’S VOICE CONTINUED:

According to the informer, Tsui Man and Alex Wong are meeting at Mystic Mountain that night (A picture of Mystic Mountain appeared in replaced of the two criminals). Enclosed is more information of the assignment. I wish the both of you luck.

The Black Ops Force’s logo popped up on the screen again and then a female voice started to speak.

The disk will be destroyed in 3. 2. 1.

The monitor screen showed the logo being dissolved and then everything on the screen turned black. Kai took out the USB, and to make sure no information existed, he took it to the fireplace and turned on the fire. The flames came out automatically like a gas stove and tossed the USB into the fire. The USB turned to flames instantly until it became charcoal. He turned the fireplace switch off and the both of them went back to the couch.

Kai spread the documents across the coffee table. Most of the photos were pictures of the two men that they were assigned to find. She noticed that in one of the two men’s photos, the man had a permanent scar on his left eyebrow. For sure, that will help them identify him easily from the rest. Cecilia grabbed that man’s profile packet and started to read it.

“Tsui Man…32 years old, 5 feet 8, 180 pounds, medium-built, short black hair, brown eyes…”

Then his skills caught her attention and she showed the profile to Kai.

“Look at this. Tsui Man was an ex-Black Ops also. He was an ex-sergeant in the military and in the Bomb Squad for over ten years…”

Kai took the profile packet from her to read it while she picked up another stapled packet. “No wonder this mission is worth ten million dollars,” said Kai.

Kai saw a cut out newspaper clip that was dated two months ago. The headline read, “Hikers Found Treasure at Mystic Mountain” and he showed it to Cecilia. They saw that a sentence was highlighted in yellow and read it.

“Hikers found an unknown, white object in the deep forest of Mystic Mountain and is being excavated by Professor Choi and his team of archaeologist from National Museum of Science and Research. At this time, the area is closed to the public until further noticed.”

Curious of what this had to do with their mission, they searched through the documents for more information. Cecilia came across a stapled packet that had a small picture of the other man and read his profile. As she read the general demographic information of the guy, she came upon something intriguing and got excited.

She quickly showed it to Kai. “I think I’ve found the connections. This guy, Alex Wong, is a fanatic in Antiques. I guess there is something in Mystic Mountain that he wanted.”

“Well whatever it is, that place must be heavily guarded, or else, Tsui Man wouldn’t have been involved then.”

She agreed with Kai and nodded.

They studied for a couple of more hours and then Cecilia got tired and yawned. She placed the papers down on the coffee table and got up to stretch.

“I’m going to go sleep now…”

There was no response from Kai. She turned and saw him still reading Tsui Man’s bio. She felt ignored and slightly punched him on the shoulder.

“Hey! I’m tired, so aren’t you going to leave?”

He turned and glanced at her with a cheesy grin on his face, “I can’t. The boys and I made a big mess in my place so…I may have to spend a night in yours.”

“You boys sure love to destroy things…”

He shrugged.

She shook her head and sighed, “Alright, I’ll get a blanket and pillow for you then.” She got up and slowly walked into the bedroom to go grab the stuff.