•To avoid any confusion, this takes place shortly before the start of Agent and shows the details behind how and why they chose to contact AISE. •

~ 3 months later ~

"Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces passing me by and skurdeleedurrrdeeeleee-duuuuur."

I stopped at a red light with the rest of the pedestrian crowd and got a side-stare from a mother with her child. I shot a smile back at her and continued humming along to the music in my ears as I waited for the light to finally turn green and let me pass.

Just as the light switched, the music in my ears halted to a stop. My ringtone started playing instead, and with a quick switch, I took the call. "What's up, hot stuff?"

"Yeah, no. You can't pull that off either."

Smurf's voice made me smile as I walked across the busy road and turned a sharp left towards the subway.

The last few months had been great between us. Really great. We had agreed to take things slow and just see where things were going, but then stuff had happened and we had been forced to make a decision; either stay together or move to New York together when the situation had demanded it. A lot of shit went down after 'A' had revealed his identity, but it had all been for the better. The job he had offered me back before everything happened was still valid, and so I had taken it. Sadly, though, it meant changes – one of them being relocating to New York.

But surprisingly, Smurf had chosen me and now here we were, living in Harlem together. We had gotten a cute little place together, Smurf was working for a small software development firm, Elana had started her special private schooling, and so far, things were going pretty damn amazeballs, to put it in Valley-girl.

"Well, then it's back to Smurf. What's up?" I asked, grinning when I could almost picture her roll of the eyes.

"I'm just calling to remind you that we have that conference call in half an hour. Oh, and buy some more toilet paper on the way home. And milk!"

"I haven't forgotten, and will do," I said, hiking up in my shoulder bag. "I'll be at work in fifteen minutes, so I'll set up the secure line there. I'll be ready in time."

"Alright... God, I'm so nervous, I don't know why."

My smile faded a little and there was a good reason why.

While the past few months had been the best of my life, they had also been the worst. After everything had happened with Eli, freeing him and taking down the C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S program, the world had felt like bliss... for about five seconds.

It was a couple of weeks later, I got the cribbley-crawling sensation on my back as I was walking home from my tech job that I was being watched. At first I thought I was paranoid, but then after a night out with Eli... he had told me he had been feeling watched as well.

Soon thereafter, it became pure paranoia leaving the house, until the point where I didn't feel comfortable letting Smurf go to work without an escort or Elana go to the park with her nanny for several hours of the day. I started to feel like the freedom we thought we had won wasn't so free after all. They might've let Eli go, but now they were watching us.

All of us.

And that's when me, Zoe and the big boss had decided to upgrade.

"Don't worry," I said, hearing Smurf take a deep breath into the phone. "Everything's gonna work out. Don't forget who's on our side."

"I know, I know," She exhaled heavily and then I heard the telltale sound of a pillow being fluffed. Was she cuddling without me? "Just... don't be late for the conference call today."

"I'll be as on time as your period."

"And now I'm hanging up."

I grinned, at last. "Love yooooooooou."

Hanging up the phone on me, I smiled and stuffed my phone away, just as I walked down to the subway.

Time to get to work.

My new work.

~~~

Stepping into the foyer of the large building, I sipped my big gulp and walked towards the elevators, seeing people greet me with head nods and hellos as I passed them by. I waved and smiled back, before pressing the button for heading down.

"Hey, nerd! I need you at the meeting later," A voice then suddenly called across the foyer. I turned around and found the source, then grinned and waved.

"Good morning to you too, Rya. You've got it!"

The elevator dinged behind me, and I turned just as Rya (one of the less awful agents who worked here) turned and ran after some other guy who flipped her off from across the room. Monroe or some shit, I think his name was. I didn't bother with the douches. And from the murderous look in Rya's eyes, neither did she.

Stepping into the elevator, I took it down to the IT floor, humming along to the music playing in the elevator. Finally, I came to the bottom and stepped out, already wishing I was back home with Smurf's head sleeping on my chest. Or my head on hers.

"Heyo," I waved to the rest of the gang as I stepped inside the IT department. Running my card through the machine and typing in my code, I was granted access to my computer.

"Wassup, man?" Dreadlocks with the weed-smell waved at me from his booth with a lazy grin, while adult-acne gave a 'hey' from his corner as well. I didn't like to perpetuate stereotypes, but these guys had hit it pretty straight on with the whole "I'm a computer nerd and live in my mom's basement" type of thing. And ironically, that's why I had needed to change up my own looks; I'd stick out like a sore thumb, and that was just for eating protein.

"How's it hanging? Any good new cases?" I conversed while taking off my backpack and throwing myself into my seat. After typing in my password and opening up my computer, I browsed through my assignments and memos of the day.

"Nah, man. Just the boring stuff. Hey, do you wanna come over for some movies later? Me and Al are gonna watch Star Wars and maybe order some 'Za. Wanna join us?"

My eyes caught an alert on my computer and I frowned a little. "Uh... no thanks, guys. I've got plans with my girlfriend."

"We've got weed, man."

"– So does she."

Al and Zoomer (as he liked to be called for some reason, but I think his real name Martin) laughed, but then left me to my work as I started pulling up the alert I had seen. I typed in a few lines of code when the material was restricted above my paygrade. It came up empty, no results to be fetched. What?

Frowning deeper, I leaned back in my chair and thought for a moment.

A few months ago, after having confessed to feeling monitored, I had set up a phone meeting with the big boss who, after hearing us out, had voiced a few words of his own.

"Are you sure?" His authoritative voice had asked.

"It's a gut feeling, but it's a fucking strong one," I had spoken with grave seriousness. "Eli's been feeling it, too. The other day, I swore I saw this dude taking a picture of me, and not because I'm a hot piece of ass. They're watching us, man, I swear."

There had been a moment of silence, but then a rustling of papers. "Alright. I feared this would happen, but I've been preparing for it."

"– Preparing for it?"

"If the government is responsible for the C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S program, it's likely they're the ones watching you guys, too," He had told. "They've been cautious with covering their trails, but I think I've finally found a lead."

"You know which government branch is behind it?" I had pushed on, sitting up in my seat, knowing we had been working the past few months on figuring out which branch of the government was funding the program.

"I can't be certain, but it looks promising. I found a very small, very faint trace of something I couldn't decode a few weeks ago."

"Why didn't you tell me? Maybe I could've cracked it?" I argued, a little annoyed.

"Because I wanted to be certain. I set up a trigger alert on certain words, so whenever the chosen words popped up into our monitored government programs, it would alert me."

"And a word popped up?" I asked, hearing him hum in affirmation. "Where did it pop up?"

There was a small pause, but then he had spoken; "The CIA."

This brought us to the future as I watched the alert ping on my screen; the whole reason why I had gotten this job and changed my whole identity. After our conversation, he had let me in on his word search and allowed me to take over the hunt. We hadn't stopped there, though, but had decided to take an extra step towards ensuring nothing would pass us by.

And that's why, as I looked around to see that no one was watching me, I took a deep breath and pulled the untraceable phone out of my pocket and sent a quick, but very important message.

'Caleb: SOS, guys. Moving the meeting up to 5 minutes. New break in the case.'

Hitting send, I then stood up and pretended to stretch.

"I'm gonna hit the can," I said, looking at Al and Zoomer who were both buried in their computers. "Be back in a moment."

I then grabbed my backpack and hurried out of the IT lab, trying as much as I could not to run. I found the room I had been using for the past few months and finally set everything up.

Hacking into the CIA's security, I cut off all listening and video feeds in the tiny empty office I was in and then set up the scrambled, but protected line that would link me to the rest of them. Then, starting up my program, I opened my laptop and found the video call, taking a deep breath before hitting Call Group.

It only took a moment before both of them answered almost simultaneously.

"Hello?" Smurf's voice was the first to speak.

"What's happened?" His deep voice spoke next.

"Alright, we're gonna get to what the meeting was supposed to be about in just a moment, but first we need to talk about what just pinged on my computer," I told in a rush, barely giving myself time to enunciate. "Remember that word-trigger hunt you were running, boss?"

"Did something show up?" His voice sharpened.

"It did," I nodded, even though they couldn't see it. "C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S."

Smurf let out a short gasp, while the other end of the line merely sighed heavily.

"I knew it," He whispered. "I was right."

"So what does this mean?" Smurf spoke up, sounding even more worried than she did earlier this morning.

"It means the CIA are somehow involved with them," He spoke up, the sound of fingers meeting a keyboard sounding vaguely in the background. "just as my father's name showed up a few months ago in the word alert. I couldn't be certain it was related to C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S, given how he died and the many illegal enterprises he was involved in, but now I'm certain. What more did you uncover, Caleb?"

"That's the thing," I jumped in, shaking my head in frustration. "The data was confidential beyond my paygrade. Someone made a file about something C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S related, but it's inaccessible now somehow. Not even my program can fetch it."

"Which means the data was removed and transferred to a remote device, off-linked," He muttered under his breath. "They moved the file to their super computer."

I cursed under my breath. "They won't let me near that. I've only been working here for three months, and it's not like I can just break in there, even with all my tricks and hacks. I'm not James Bond." Superman maybe, with these dumbass glasses I was wearing, but definitely not Bond.

"What if..." Smurf then slowly cut in. "What if... we could get into the super computer?"

"What do you mean?" He voiced.

"Well... say if we got direct access to the super computer... do you think we would be able to find the file then and see what it was about?"

I thought for a moment, practically hearing him do the same. "I suppose that could be possible. I mean, I would have to design a virus to extract it somehow, because God only knows what kind of security they have on that thing that prevents you from doing a manual search unless you know what you're looking for. But since we've already got the keyword..."

"So if we could get into the super computer, we could get the file and find out what the connection between the CIA and C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S is?"

"Yes, I would say so," He replied, thoughtfully. "What are you thinking, Zoe?"

There was a short silence, and I could picture my smart, hot, but also nervous girlfriend biting her lip. "Smurf?"

"Well..." She hesitantly started. "Since this meeting was supposed to be about us discussing looking into overseas protection programs... then... how about if... we took two birds out with one stone? Pardon the pun."

"What have you got in mind?" He voiced, a hint of humor in his voice.

"Well, okay. Hear me out; if we want protection from a foreign government, they'll probably want a really good reason to protect us. I say we tell them about the C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S program. Tell them the truth; they've got kids from all over the world stuck in a lab, getting tested on. Whichever overseas protection program we choose, they'll probably want their kids back, right?"

"You're saying we involve another government into a program we're trying to stop anyone else from learning about?" Boss spoke up, a harsh tone grating along his words.

"But hear me out! They'll be able to help us out in more ways than one," She continued, sucking in a breath. "What if... they broke into the CIA, with our help... and stole what we need?"

My eyes widened when something clicked. "Wait, that would give me access! If someone broke into the super computer and tried to access the files, they would want their best IT guy on the case! That's me!"

"And you'll be able to get everything we want, in case the virus doesn't get it all," He bid in, sounding even more thoughtful.

"Yeah. Not only that, but I could also plant a bug that would give us a way into the super computer forever. So we wouldn't have to surveil them from the inside anymore and I can finally get out of this itchy wig," I added, scratching the brown wig on top of my head. "This could actually work!"

"But this is crazy," Smurf pushed out, sounding overwhelmed. "I mean, breaking into the CIA, you guys... how are we going to find a government that'll be willing to do that and risk a war with the U.S?"

"War's already begun," He spoke, heavily. "Leave that part to me. For now, Caleb, keep this to yourself until further notice. Both of you keep your heads low and your phone lines open. I'll be back when I've got some news. Are we clear?"

"Alright," I agreed, hearing Smurf do the same. Shit. All of this just got serious real fast. "That's a deal."

"Alright. I've gotta go. Take care, both of you."

The line went dead on his end, leaving me and Smurf to sigh heavily to each other.

"I'm sorry, Smurf, but..." I started, rubbing my eyes.

"What?" She softly sympathized.

"I..." I took a deep breath. "I'm really gonna need a blow when I get home."

And just like that, the line went dead on her end as well.

~~~

~ One Month Later ~

– This was so sketchy, I felt like I should be wearing a trench coat.

As it turns out, finding a government that was willing to risk their country's safety over protecting a bunch of young people was a hard task. It had taken weeks of screening, hacking, investigating and aggressively squeezing Smurf's tiny body close to mine before we finally found an agency that was willing to take on the task.

And it hadn't exactly gotten any easier when the big boss had returned to us a couple of days after our phone meeting, telling us that due to the high profile he had, he couldn't get into this matter himself. He had been watched by C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S his whole life, and if they learned that he was making the move to expose all of their secrets to another government, it was only a matter of time before he was arrested for high treason.

The only person, as it turned out, who could look into all of this, was a person who didn't exists on paper. Aka, me.

So after a whole month of investigations, we had finally made it to today; The day where, hopefully, I wouldn't get gunned down in an empty parking structure, tipping on my feet and chewing like a madman on the piece of blueberry bubblegum in my mouth that had lost its flavor about ten minutes ago and now tasted like bland rubber. But it was all I could do not to have a nervous breakdown, knowing that this could potentially go in one of two ways.

The agency I had gotten in contact with had been the cleanest, most code-following agency we could find. Their agents might as well all have been named something with a 00 in their name, since looking over their confidential transcripts and personal files, they were practically assassins with a moral code.

And that was why I was currently tearing the gum to pieces in my mouth.

Because I was about to meet one of them.

Their agency's top chief whom I had gotten in contact with through some sketchy means, had expressed interest in our case when I had painstakingly showed him glimpses of just what we were dealing with here. Photos, recordings and even paper records of all the terrible things they were doing to innocent children, even to children of their own country.

The chief had since told me that due to the sensitivity of the case, he would prefer to have one of their overseas agents stationed in the States come collect the evidence in person, getting it directly from the horse's mouth, and since hence come back to them with what they needed; a plan. I was told to meet this agent at an address they would provide an hour before the meetup.

And that's how I currently found myself in an empty parking structure, probably also soon to be my last and final resting place.

They had taken their precautions, so of course we had taken ours. I had gotten in touch with the big boss who had given me an untraceable phone where all I had to do was type in two small words in case of an emergency.

Don't tickle.

Everything inside my body was tickling, crawling and skittering as I finally heard a set of heavy footsteps come across the concrete floors, around the corner of a dark pillar.

"Hello?" I asked, clutching the phone in my hand. God, this was how I died. Not between Smurf's legs as I had planned, but right here, saying hello to a man who could snap my neck as easily as lord Farquad had snapped the gingerbread man's legs.

I definitely should've worn a trench coat.

"Caleb Montrell?" An accented voice spoke from the dark. The footsteps halted for a second, and I nodded, clearing my throat.

"Yeah, that's me, and just FYI, this is creepy as fuck, so please step into the light," I spoke in a rush, hoping my voice didn't sound too messed up.

The reply I got was a low, amused chuckle from the dark.

The footsteps then picked up again, and now slowly coming into the light, I sharpened my eyes and squinted as the large shape came into view. "I told you my name. Now can I get yours?" Please don't be 007, please don't be 007, please don't be—

The man finally stepped into the light, and with a noticeably charming smile, he lowered his head and tucked his hands into his pockets. "Vincenzo Santino; At your service."

• • •

Aaaand introducing Good Guy #2.