Legacy

Chapter 18

  September 15th, 2222. "... the bodies were found early in the morning following signs of what looked like a break-in late last night." The news says as Mathias watches from a bar in Seeira. "This is strange, why are we hearing about some homicide in America from Seeira news channels?" Mathis thinks to himself. "After searching the house for potential robber, a calling card was found as there was no sign of a robbery." The news says. "The calling card is well known to come from infamous and previous thought to only target political figures, Skell. Skell is a terrorist seemingly working alone, and in all cases has only targeted political figures up to this point. What does this mean for our safety? Is he moving on to more people after expanding his target list or was there more to this? We reached out to some local neighbors to find out more."

  "No, they were a completely normal family." A stranger that the news interviewed. "We lived next door to them for years. I can't possibly see what would've justified killing them out of the blue. I think whoever this Skell is needs to be taken down, and fast."

  Mathias stares in horror as the news explains the death of Jade's family. "But..." he thinks to himself. "Did... did they know I was going to back out? Did they prepare a backup assassin to kill a completely normal family and make it look like me? Why would they go so far as to kill a family? What is their game? Why was this so important to them? Are they... trying to set up this agent of theirs as a potential target? What are they learning that the CIA is so afraid of?" Mathias drinks the last of his drink and leaves some money on the table on top of the bill, held under an ashtray on the counter. As he walks out, he thinks to himself "Think, Mathias, think! Do they know about Gladio? What else have they been up to? Would that Silas guy be able to tell me anything without me arousing suspicion? How and where do I find him?"

  "If there's any one thing I wanna find out" Jade says at the next meeting in the HQ control room, "it's where the hell Skell is and why the hell America is going so far for control and what the hell I can do to get back at them."

  "I understand the anger, but we have to consider diplomacy." Haru replies. "Look, believe it or not, most if not all of us have some bone to pick with... well, many countries. We'd rather not commit to all out war. We'll be observing them, but for now there's also a rise in power control related conflict in Russia. I know this seems off topic, but we are a counter terrorist unit. Gumiho is formed to prevent a rise in terrorism worldwide."

  "Yeah, what about this Skell character in the news?" Dana asks.

  "We need more time to track him down." Haru replies.

  "Do it quicker." Jade growls. "That little rat fucker killed my family. I'm not going to let him live nor breathe without knowing I'm breathing down his neck. I want the little fuck dead. I want everyone around him dead! I want him to be removed with extreme prejudice!"

  "I promise, we'll track down Skell." Silas adds as Jade breathes heavily in a fit of rage. "I'll be making it my personal mission to keep tabs on him. As for currently, we have to move to make sure there aren't more Skells on the loose and more dead families on our hands. I promise, we will have Skell taken down, one way or another."

  "Silas is right." Holly adds. "It's best to keep a level head. From here on out, you five represent something bigger than yourselves. We may be busy for a very long time and yes I do mean we. Remember, Haru and I may be mages, we may have to lead a whole country, but we are you current and only supervisors. We're your best ally and greatest resource. Do not feel afraid to reach out to us. When we send you out to Russia, you can be sure we're busting our asses to gain any intel as legally as possible... maybe bending a few of the rules here and there. Until we can find a notorious criminal, we can not chase a notorious criminal. You'd be setting yourselves up for failure if you don't practice intense control of every situation. And yes, I do mean every situation. Have I made myself clear?"