Urbex

Resignation

Fenix's POV

I lift my gaze at the guy stitching me up. From his facial features, I'd guess he's Italian. His head is shaved, and he's working on me while wearing a three piece suit. "So who are you guys anyway?" I ask. "Listen, if you don't know already, I ain't gonna be the guy to tell ya. Let's just say we're a group of very skilled people in our line of work." He says. He closes the last of my wounds. "Alright, you're good to roll over." He says, taking off his latex gloves. I roll onto my back and thank him as he hands me a wine glass. "This'll take the edge off a bit." He says.

I take a sip. "God, the Foundation is gonna be mad." I think to myself, wondering where my watch is. The bald guy seems to notice me looking at my wrist. "Oh yeah, sorry about that. We were pretty much certain it was a monitoring device, so it's in a lockbox in the lobby, company policy, y'know? When you feel like it, I can take you back up there." He offers. "That'd be good, yeah." I say.

He wheels me back into the hall, into the elevator, and we exit at the foyer. "Alright, let's see if you can stand." The bald guy says. I toss my legs over the edge of the stretcher, standing up wearily. "Looks like your legs are good. Say, uh. Do you have any idea what might have attacked you? Y'know, besides the gunshots. Cause it looks like a god damn lion attack." The guy says. I shake my head, remembering those glowing eyes of the creature that attacked me. "I don't know what it was. Don't wanna either." I say.

The guy nods with a short laugh "I don't blame ya. Anyway, if you need anything, I'll be around." He says, walking off. I walk up to a window, looking out to see clear skies and a road with next to no traffic. I find a lockbox on one of the many ornate tables in the room, and see a finger scanner on it. I press my pointer to it and it pops open, revealing my watch. "Nifty." I strap it onto my wrist, walking to the nearest bathroom. I see countless missed messages. "Fuck." I hit the call button. "Hey, I'm here." "God damn it Fenix. The Foundation is requiring a mandatory evaluation." A man's voice said through my watch speakers. "Fine. I'll be there when I can." I growl. I click the mute button on the watch spitefully.

"Fuck. Memory wipe time." I mutter. There was no one who could protect me from the foundation. They had my address and countless field agents who would search for me. They might even torture me into telling them what Sig is. I couldn't do it. Working for them paid better than damn near any other job out there, but I'm not gonna let them hurt my friends. I unmute the speaker, fuming. "Y'know what? Fuck you, fuck your memory wiping shit and fuck this foundation. Consider this my resignation." I yell, storming out of the bathroom and throwing the watch hard back into the lockbox, slamming it shut.

"Helluva way to quit. In a bathroom no less." A voice says from the balcony above me and to my left. I look up, seeing a man in a dark red shirt and black formal vest. "Yeah. Risky too, with my line of work." I say. He laughs. "I'm in that boat too, can't quit it without making the wrong people mad. Good thing for me though, I like my job. So, what set it off?" The man asks, walking down the stairs and approaching with two cups of tea. "Well, working for them means giving up all sense of privacy. They wanna know every damn thing. It's gone too far now, they've threatened my family." I say.

The man hands me a tea, his red handlebar mustache curving over a sympathetic smile. He looks at me for a minute, as if judging something. "Do you know...what we do here?" He asks, cocking his head slightly. "I have a decent enough guess." I had been thinking about it since Sig showed me that armory, this Villa was just the nail in the coffin for my theory. Handlebar guy looks skeptical. "Really? Let's hear it." "Hitmen?" I say. The man's brows raise slightly. "I'm impressed! I assume you've got a friend who brought you in here right?" He asks, taking a seat in front of a fireplace and motioning for me to as well. "Yeah, that'd be Sig." I say, sitting across from him.