The Agency

Chapter 5

Renn’s POV:

I step silently towards Fin, who’s momentarily preoccupied by the vacant chair, and bring my hand carrying the knife round the side of his neck. Then all at once, I grab his left shoulder with my free hand and hold the knife stingingly close to his neck. “Don’t move!” I whisper close to his ear, though I needn’t have bothered, he’s as frozen as ice.

“What do you think you’ll do now, Anne? Kill me perhaps? It would make things much easier for me.” I jerk him round to face the door so that he’s still in front of me.

“Move.” I nudge him forward with my free hand and he begins to trudge forward. We get through the doorway and out into a grey brown passage leading to the left and right. “Which way’s out?” I dig the side of the knife deeper into his throat, reminding him of the threat. He turns, somewhat reluctantly after a few seconds, towards the left and begins to trudge forward once more. I keep the blade close to his jugular and prod his leg with my knee, spurring him onwards.

“What is the point in all this?” His voice is calm yet somewhat strained, I suspect I’m holding the knife too close but I swiftly cast any feelings resembling sympathy from my mind; he does not deserve my sympathy, he never did. I don’t answer him either, reminded by the consequences of such an act of betrayal. “We can help you Anne, you’ve been suffering from the sickness of your upbringing for years, and we think you’re more than that.”

“I’m sick?!” I whisper furiously in his ear, “I almost lost my sanity because of you; what you gave me made me sick!”

“I’m sorry for that, you have no idea how sorry...”

“It was your idea!” He stopped abruptly and I crashed into him from behind, “What are you doing?! Keep moving!” But he stays stock still, seemingly shocked by something.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because all you have ever tried to do is manipulate me into getting what you want from me! You think I haven’t known all along what you were trying to do? And when I wouldn’t give it to you, you drug me to insanity!”

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you feel that way, but I had this strange idea whilst you were tracking me for weeks, that you were holding back, because somewhere deep down there was a spark of trust still there.” In truth, there had been, but no more. He is a vile animal, whose only intent is to escape his inevitable fate by any means possible. With no limitations to his efforts, how could I endeavour to trust even an ounce of what he says.

“Move!” I jab my knee sharply into the back of his legs and he stumbles forward again, this time at a faster pace. We quickly come to another corner and I grip his shoulder to slow him. We creep forward silently until we’re a metre away from rounding the corner. I lean in close to his ear, the heat emanating from his face brings a flush to mine; I speak my words almost silently, in case of probing ears round the corner.

“You’re going to talk our way out of this building; anyone that finds out I’m with you is a dead man, do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Good, right, go round the corner and tell anyone you immediately meet that there is a meeting in five minutes in...the room you usually have meetings in. If the coast is clear, which, by the fidgeting I hear I believe is not the case, then come back and give me thumbs up. Does that sound like something you can do?” I see him nod in front of me. “Good…go then.” I watch him walk, with a surprisingly convincing casualness, round the corner. Once he’s out of my sight, I turn and run silently down the corridor towards what has an eighty percent chance of being the real exit. I slow towards the corner until I reach a complete standstill at the edge. I hold my breath like a sniper, hoping only silence to meet my ears, but the heavy breaths of a medium to large male is my reality, and I prepare my stance for combat and my knife to kill. Then, leaving no room for doubt, I swing round the corner and use the surprise in my attack to bury my knife a couple of times into his stomach. He lashes out blindly, crippled by the severe wounds in his belly. With a suspected Fin in my hot pursuit, I sink the final plunge up under his ribcage, and with a sharp twist, I extinguish the light in his eyes and watch as death claims him.