A Prelude to War
It is a cold, rainy winter’s night in the city of London, England. Very few pedestrians walked the normally crowded sidewalks, and it seems that the city was wrapped in slumber. But the forces of evil know no rest.
A shadowy figure stood silently on a rooftop with an AK-47 slung over his right shoulder. Setting up the rifle on its wiry tripod, his mind ran through everything he knew about tonight’s target. More special than his usual targets. This would be harder than the others he had taken down. Faster, stronger, and smarter. This was the man that he had been waiting for, the one he had been training for for most of his life. Then he heard a noise, ducked and looked around. I need to stay focused, he thought as he got in position. Ready for everything, he thought, as his eyes scanned the area. Looking at his right he spotted something down in the darkness. Was it his target? He ran through his mind the basic features of his man. Height 6’3, Weight 230 lbs, and brownish hair. As he was getting closer, he put him in his sights. Yep, definitely his objective. As he waited for him to get closer, he remembered his previous encounter with the man in his sights. It was years ago, in the city of Budapest, Hungary. Well, that was a memorable time. And I have the scars to prove it, he thought. Then, just as he was going to squeeze the trigger, the man on the street spotted him. The man tried to dive behind a dumpster, but he wasn’t quick enough. The man grabbed his stomach, then fell over in a puddle of water. The shooter smiled, but in the back of his head he knew it was too easy. He quickly ignored that thought, then jumped down off the building. He walked up, hoping he wasn’t dead. He wanted to shoot him up close, he wanted him to see who took him down. He rolled him over, and was shocked. This wasn’t him! He had been tracking him for months, planning the right moment for revenge. Where did he go wrong? Just as he was thinking this several men came out of the corners, the sewers, and everywhere else he thought he had checked. How could this have happened! “Julien Bordeaux! You are under arrest for the murder of Adam Azarov!” said a tall female with short dark hair. It’s about time we caught this psycho, she thought. He’s been killing our best men all over the world, and we need to find out why.
The men quickly loaded their prisoner into a black van that suddenly moved up the street, and the woman jumped in on alongside the driver.
Ten minutes later on the road the sliding glass window that opened into the back of the van slid open with a click. A level voice said in a quiet tone,
“You might want to see this. We found it among the encrypted files on Julien’s laptop computer. It looks like it’s written in our coding.”
A hand passed a notebook-sized laptop through the opening and the woman snatched it quickly out of his hands. Her eyes widened as she read the code written on the smooth LCD screen. She whipped out her phone and said in a low voice, “Give me the Head Council. Immediately. Put out an arrest warrant for General Nicholas Joseph Fury.”
Chapter 1 coming soon!!
J. Daniel Green and P. Scott Watts