IAA: Agent N

Chapter 30 - The Speech

I stood in front of the big two-panel door, preparing myself for the speech I'm going to give. I heard the muffled noises of the agents on the other side.

"Are you ready?" Zeke said next to me. I looked at him and hooked my hand in his arm. I nodded and pushed the door open.

As we walked in the auditorium the loud noises of people talking came to a stop. I saw some agents' faces turn to confusion as they saw me and Zeke walk in from the Director's door.

My eyes browsed around the auditorium holding around twenty thousand agents. I looked back in front me as we walked closer to the podium. Zeke helped me up the stairs and we walked to the mic stand. I nodded at him in thanks as he walked to the back.

I looked at the silent room in front me with thousands of eyes looking back at me. I adjusted the mic and cleared my throat. I noticed the opened folder Patricia organized for me on the stand and focused my eyes back to the audience.

"Good morning, agents" I said. Some good mornings were said back to me. I briefly smiled and nodded.

"These past few months have been hard for all of us…The organization received a tragic amount of damage. We've lost about 56% of our facilities, we're currently sitting in a run-down auditorium in the headquarter, and we've lost 1% of our agents…including our former Director…" I paused. My eyes landed on an agent mouthing something to someone next to him that pissed me off.

"What do you mean 'only 1%'? We were a total of 25.000 agents and we've lost 254 agents who've tragically lost their lives for the organization. These were agents who felt helpless fighting an unknown enemy, these were individuals who had families waiting for them at home, and these were actual humans with a beating heart, not some objects that the organization uses to meet its goals like many of you think" I said with a serious tone.

"…How many of you actually looked back and think what we – as an organization – did wrong? We've failed to protect our own people and we failed to protect our facilities. Like f*ck, the enemy was working WITH us and was right under our f*cking noses. How didn't we catch it? Why couldn't we catch it? We have to do better agents. We really do. Look at the state we're in. Look at the state I'm in. I can barely f*cking walk. If we were more prepared, we wouldn't have only lost 1%, it would've been 0%…" My eyes landed on the agent that made the comment. He made eye contact with me and looked down.

"…*sigh* Looking at your faces, I assume you're all wondering why I walked in through that door…" My eyes shifted across the room as some heads were nodding.

"…Alright…so as of this morning, I have been assigned as the new Director of IAA by Mr. Kim" I said to the agents. Loud chatters of what and why boomed immediately throughout the auditorium.

"…Silence, please" The noise didn't seem to stop. I gripped my hands on the side of the stand.

"SHUT THE F*CK UP!!" My voice boomed in the mic. The room immediately turned quiet. You could even hear a pin drop.

"...Thank you...Now, I know all of you have questions about the reason I was assigned. Well, you can go ask Mr. Kim. He obviously had some reasons why he chose me for the position, so go ask him if you're so curious" I said shrugging.

"Any questions?" I looked at the audience. An agent in the front raised his hand. I signalled at him to ask me.

"Weren't the lieutenants next in line for the position?" He asked me and other agents nodded in agreement.

"Yes, initially. But the position was assigned to me through Mr. Kim's will and that's final. And, there are no more lieutenants because I fired them. Next question" I said nonchalantly.

"Wait, what? You fired them? Why?" He added confused. And the other agents commented in agreement. I looked at him and sighed.

"When was the last time you all interacted with the lieutenants, hm?" I looked around in the room. Another agent raised her hand.

"In our last combat training two months ago?" She answered. I nodded.

"Okay, and where were these lieutenants recently when you were all fighting for your lives?'' The room was silent.

"Let me answer it for you. They were enjoying martinis and margaritas in Bahamas. Let me put it in better words for those who don't f*cking understand. They abandoned you and left you all for dead. And you think they have the f*cking right to fight over the Director position? Do you think they cared about you? They did not" I said, masking my anger. Some agents looked pissed at the actions of the lieutenants.

"So, yes…I did fire them and I think I had every reason to do so. Don't you think so?" There were some murmurs in agreement.

"...Alright, listen up. We've suffered a lot from Carlos' doing and we've lost a lot. Now I need all of your help to rebuild IAA. A better IAA. We're going to do this by working together…I am going to introduce a new system. I am going to need five agents that are well-developed in one of the five departments I'm going to mention. They are as follows: Short-range Combat, Sniping, Short-range shooting, Data Information, and Armory production. These five agents will automatically be the new lieutenants" The agents murmured in excitement.

"So, if you think you have what it takes, you can fill in the form that will be sent to your rooms and send it to my office. Don't be too cocky, now. I need well-respected and humble agents that are confident in their skills and are able to work under me without going behind my back. If not, you'll die… and I'm actually serious" I ended with a smile. Some agents nodded.

"We will start by repairing our internal resources and then go external. We need to work as a strong team to rebuild our organization. And I hope you'll accept me as your new Director so that we can work towards a better future for IAA. Are you with me?" I asked, finishing my speech.

The room was silent.

I looked around in suspense.

Then slowly, the sound of claps started from different sides of the room. Then it was all whoops and cheers. I smiled as I felt the reality sink in that I was going to be responsible for 20.000 plus agents.

I looked behind me to see Zeke already looking at me, smiling in reassurance. He stood up and walked towards me. As he reached me, he squeezed his hands on my shoulders and stood behind me.

"Now the game begins" He said chuckling. I scoffed through my nose.

"Yeah..." I said nodding while looking at the cheering agents with a determined smile.