Agent 23

Chapter 2: Brisk

The rays of the morning’s sun crossed the blinds of Tyler’s room, waking him up with a renewed purpose, he looked at the digital clock he had at his side, it marked eleven with thirty five, that was four hours and thirty five minutes after his hour of arrival at work, but he had other plans in mind for that day.

Now wearing a wine colored T-shirt and a pair of jeans, Tyler sat down at his wooden desktop where he had left his laptop in suspension mode, so he just pressed the power button and the system activated. “Alright.” He said to himself then started to dig in his files and folders, the ones in the hard drive and the cloud, in pendrives and other obsolete devices he still used to preserve valuable information. He dragged the incriminatory pictures and videos he found and dropped them on the MultiDoc software, which basically was a canvas where text, image and video could be combined and create a file playable in nearly every device with a screen on it.

The pictures varied from plans and contracts to vandalism and corruption, same as the videos which generally showed meetings of the board, Tyler only chose the ones where they explicitly spoke about acting illegally. As a scientist and a techie, Tyler had an obsession of doing a backup of everything, and in this case, it meant literally everything, being his information or not, he always took the liberty to do copies of the company’s files, just in case they were suddenly lost.

He saved the document to keep working on it later, he had his eyes tired and dry of staying nearly two hours looking at the screen. Tyler decided to take a rest and have some breakfast at the same time, so he exited his room and went downstairs. His house was not big neither small, it had the precise size and services to satisfy his needs, it was also tidy and minimalistic, with few occasional ornaments here and there, but in general, it was just enough for someone like him, practical and adequate.

Tyler passed through a brief corridor and entered the kitchen. He took a glass from the shelf over the stove and poured some water in it with the help of a convenient button that was attached to the wall at the other side of the room, the water came from a small aperture that had a sensor which detected that his glass was already full, turning itself off after a beeping noise. After opening the microwave, he put the glass with water there and closed the door then pressed the button with the icon of a hot coffee on it, then just waited, resting his back on the wall with his arms crossed, glancing up, smiling as he wondered what would his plan lead him to, he imagined interviews, job offers and the beginning of a new movement, trucks following him, spies on the streets, a burning house, shots and car crashes, his dead body on the floor of his room, thoughts of fear began to invade him, scenarios of what could happen if he sent that document, the consequences of doing the right thing, vengeances, persecution and several other events he was afraid of.

“I should stop now.” Tyler said to himself, with an anxious voice, hyperventilating, pressing his head with both hands, sighing repeatedly, feeling like if he was drowning. He took a few steps towards the bar that faced the living room and placed both hands over it, breathing in and out rapidly, he put a hand over his chest and felt his accelerated heartbeats.

“I’ll be fine….” Tyler gasped. “No, no…bad things could happen, what was I thinking?” His breathing got even faster. “What was I thinking?” He clenched his fists strongly and tried to think in a solution, he wanted to reveal the truth of HexTech Incorporated but also feared about his safety and his loved ones’, everything seemed lost, and now he could only think he had skipped work that day, how was he going to explain that? He never skipped a day since he was hired. The microwave’s beeps sounded at the same time as his sudden gasp, his breathing began to slow down and his heartbeats started to get back to normal. He let out a couple of sighs and smiled at the idea he had gotten, almost forgetting the water he had left in the microwave. “That’s the key.” Tyler said after a subtle, spontaneous chuckle.

After making his cup of instant coffee, Tyler rapidly returned to his room and sat down at the desktop again, he started to browse on several websites that sold components like antennas, routers, scalers and other type of technological devices. He added the components to the cart and bought them immediately after so, one by one. When the tech shopping ended, he dug in several sports shops, looking for bodysuits. After several minutes of search, he finally found the indicated one, a black bodysuit with striking red lines printed over it, it was just what he was looking for so he didn’t hesitate to add the item to the cart and buy it.

Tyler had pretty much covered what he needed to begin with his mission, now he just had time to kill, so he decided to relax a bit and laid over his bed, taking out his phone and browsing his chats on the different social networks he was part of, and after several disinterested scrolls, he found a new conversation, two messages, a girl from the work had sent them, he immediately recognized her, Clarissa Xander, a snow leopard, scientist as him, they worked at the same area, he always thought she was into him, but discarded the idea rapidly as he thought it was impossible. They didn’t talk too much back at HexTech, only the usual greetings of arrival and departure, casual and meaningless, but there was something on her look and voice that always made him suspect.

Clarissa 10:34

Hi

Clarissa 10:35

Are you okay?

Tyler 14:02

Hi, yeah. Thanks

Clarissa 14:04

Oh good.

Clarissa 14:04

I thought you were sick or something

Tyler 14:05

No, I just took a day off

Clarissa 14:06

:o really?

Tyler 14:07

Yeah, I needed a rest :p

Clarissa 14:08

Heh, I never thought you’d say that

Tyler 14:09

There’s always a first time

Clarissa 14:09

If you say so.

Clarissa 14:11

And what are you doing?

Tyler 14:12

Chatting with you ;)

Clarissa 14:13

No…really…

Tyler 14:13

Haha, sorry. I had to

Clarissa 14:14

Don’t worry ;p

Clarissa 14:14

But really, I still can’t believe you took a day off. You are like, very responsible haha

Tyler 14:14

A little, but, I’m kind into something.

Clarissa 14:14

What?

Tyler 14:15

I can’t tell you

Tyler 14:15

I mean I want to but not here

Clarissa 14:17

Is it that important?

Tyler 14:18

Very

Clarissa 14:19

You could tell me tomorrow, then

Tyler 14:20

That ain’t happening

Clarissa 14:21

?

Clarissa 14:21

Why? You’ll skip tomorrow too?

Tyler 14:22

Maybe

Tyler 14:23

Yes

Clarissa 14:24

Now I’m worried :(

Tyler 14:25

It’s not a big deal, maybe I’ll return some day haha

Clarissa 14:26

No Tyler we must talk

Clarissa 14:27

Are you free at dinner?

Clarissa 14:32

?

Tyler 14:38

Yes

Clarissa 14:39

Ok.

You choose the place

Tyler 14:40

I don’t know any

Clarissa 14:41

Maybe Amber’s, I really need a good doze of coffee.

Tyler 14:42

Cool

Clarissa 14:43

Okay. 4 is good?

Tyler 14:47

Sure, see you there then

Clarissa 14:48

See ya :)