Renaissance | ON HOLD

Chapter Nine: Aiden

"Are you sure you can handle this mission?" My brother asked, before I said good-bye to him.

"It's what we've been training for all our lives, Alex, I'm ready."

"I know, but it's still your first mission," Alex reminded with a shrug.

I chuckled off his suggestion that I would be nervous, even though deep down I was falling apart. But he couldn't see that side of me, never. Plus, I had to do this. It meant so much to me, to Alex, and to Aric. We were taking down Dominion today, or at least starting to.

I looked up to see my brother's eyes filled with tears, but yet a small smile showed on his lips. It was same contradicting feeling I had. I will be meeting my parents killer, or so I hoped. I was happy to be taking down Dominion, but sad also as I remembered what parents fought for and what we were fighting for now. Freedom.

"Go well, sister."

Alex and I embraced one another, not sure if this would be the last time to do so. Aric, from a distance, gave me a reassuring nod and even a slight smile. Our presence seemed to make him happy. He had been alone for so long, it wasn't like that anymore.

The good-byes were done and it was time to leave. I was being smuggled into a small nation in Southeast Asia; I didn't even know it's name. All I knew is that inside of it was one very important man, Lewis Venustus. The leader of Dominion. Aric had concocted a seamless, well hopefully it would be seamless, I was to infiltrate. Became a mole. Take down Dominion from the inside. It should go down without a hitch, but you never know. The danger involved was high, the risk of me never coming back was even higher. But it would all be worth it in the end. Dominion would be gone and the earth would be saved. Yeah, I would definitely say it's worth the risk.

"Buffaloes dance in the sunset." I said with a bit of uncertainty to a stranger in a bar.

Aric had told me this was the place I was to meet my pilot. A bar near the coast called, Kaptain's Peak. It was a grubby looking place that was pretty much empty, other than one man at the bar who looked rather intoxicated. Aric did say he would be here though, so I figured I better check and see if this lone wolf was him or not.

"Buffaloes dance in the sunset?" The man asked through slurred words.

I rolled my eyes; this is the wrong guy!

"Did Aric tell you to say that?" He then said with a bit of a chuckle.

I nodded. "So you are the pilot?"

"Is your name Aiden?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm the pilot."

"What's your name, Aric didn't tell me."

"My name is Nishith," he replied.

"So when do we leave?"

"We can leave right now, my plane is out on the water."

"Don't you want to let your head clear first? You seem a little bit drunk."

"Clear my head, my head is as clear as a bell."

Oh great, I have a drunk pilot who wants to fly me to Asia right now.

"Do you have any other bags?"

"Just my backpack."

"Good, you packed light, smart move. It's a small plane."

"So I've heard."

"Well, without further delay, may I escort you to your chariot, madame?"

"Sure."

Blood rushed to my head after being ruthlessly knocked to the ground by the barrel of a large rifle. What a great welcoming committee! I pushed myself up off my back and onto my knees. The gun was pointed right to my head and everything went dead silent. After all the chaos in the small village of Shemar, the quiet seemed out of place.

I was in Lewis' territory now. Being here seemed to heighten my senses, I had to be on my toes constantly though, so that was good. I looked around to try and find Nishith, but he was no where in sight. Did the drunk man bail on me?

Before I could even think about getting angry about Nishith, two black SUVs came charging down the road toward us. I was surrounded by a few local policemen. They all had their guns pointed at me and I had my hands raised because of it. All the protesters that were here before had been dispersed and they disappeared as fast as they had appeared.

The SUVs stopped in front of us and no one came out until the dust storm they had brought with them died down. I coughed and waved my hands around my head to try and get the dust away from my eyes, nose, and mouth. But my attempts to do so seemed futile from my coughing fit.

Suddenly, the front door of the first SUV opened and out came none other than, Lewis Venustus in the flesh. I stared at him in awe, not in a respectful way, I just couldn't believe he was here.

"Why is protesters always leave when I come to see them? Makes me think that they are really protesting nothing all, they are just putting on a show," Lewis said randomly.

I gulped, here comes the monologue.

"But I see that you have caught the intruder, my police officers aren't as incompetent as I thought. You shouldn't have much of a problem, Miss Devine."

Who in the world is he talking to, there was no other women around. Not only was he a genius strategist, the man was apparently also delusional. How intriguing.

"And what might your name be, pray tell?"

He was talking to me now and looking directly into my eyes, which to be honest made me uncomfortable.

I gulped, trying to clear my throat of the layer of thick dust that lay on it. "Aiden."

"You're American?"

I shifted a bit, but didn't answer.

"I'll take that as a yes. Well, I don't really want to interrogate the American here, Miss Devine. It's too dirty anyways. What say you?"

I looked around to see if anyone would answer or maybe someone in one of the vehicles would roll down their window and reply to him, but it was just silence.

"Great idea," he said with a sinister smile.

Before I could say "Jack and the bean-stock", a black hood was placed over my head and a knock to the head sent me to ground.

"Welcome to paradise," Lewis' voice whispered into my ear before I lost consciousness.

Yeah and it's great to be here...