So this is where he's hiding out this time! I thought to myself while nearly falling off the edge of a cliff. I looked over the edge as small rocks and pebbles plummeted below. Despite feeling terrified I dredged onward, taking my sweet time on the canyon. Out of all places why did it have to be here in the middle of nowhere? It's hot and miserable, yet I must complete my mission no matter how much I want to just strip my clothes off and lounge leisurely at a pool, sipping on an ice cold drink. My mission this time is to investigate the area, as there's been reports of a rocket or missile being built. If necessary I should intervene, and usually it is completely necessary. I wouldn’t exactly say I’m a spy, more like some kind of agent for the government. Now I wish I got paid better, but the pay isn’t terrible and I get paid whether I actually go on a mission or not, so I usually try my best to get out of missions. However, this specific villain, I guess you could call him, is considered to be my nemesis. Early on in my career it seems I always encountered him, and sometimes my mission goes great, and other times it doesn’t. Either way the agency now dispatches me anytime they hear he’s involved since I have experience dealing with him. To be frank, I’m the only agent that has crossed his path that he hasn’t killed. His real name is unknown, and he has never really said what he prefers to go by, but I call him Silver, due to his silver hair that he always has slicked back. Now, if you ask me I’m pretty sure he dyes it, there’s no way in hell that’s his real hair color, unless he’s older than I know! Pretty sure intel suggests he’s in his thirties, but again not much is really known about him. One thing we do know is Silver is incredibly smart, probably one of the smartest people on Earth, however, he doesn’t use his brains to benefit the human race. Instead, he strongly believes in minimizing our existence, that the human race would survive longer with Earth’s resources if there were less of us. Whether or not he is right, he still shouldn’t be deciding somebody else’s fate by mass killings, and that’s where our agency steps in and keeps tabs on him. Sometimes he goes off grid for months at a time, only to resurface with another invention from a lab made disease to a weather machine that can produce tornadoes and tidal waves. He’s come up with a little of everything. Unfortunately we aren’t always there to stop him in time. I’m almost surprised he hasn’t created a zombie virus or something, but then again I probably play too many video games. I never really know what to expect from him.

I’m pretty sure at this point he goes out of his way to make me miserable. I mean seriously, couldn’t he pick a better place for his evil guy secret lair that’s not on a precarious canyon cliff, and not one hundred degrees? I feel like I’m burning up carrying all this gear. I’m not sure why the helicopter couldn’t have dropped me off closer, I know the whole stealth thing and all but this is ridiculous. How many miles until I get there? There’s nothing in sight!

    I pulled out my phone, a special rugged phone the agency provided that has better gps capability. Great, even this phone shows no signal! What’s the point of having all this fancy gear if it doesn’t work right?!

    “Uggghhhhhh!” I grunted out loud, if I was anywhere close to his base, I’d have blown my cover. It must be the heat getting to me. I’m tired and grouchy and I’ve been lugging around this gear for hours looking for his base. Intel suggested it’s in this area but wasn't sure. Knowing him he probably planted some fake intel to throw us off his trail.    “Where is this freaking base?!” I kicked one of the rocks in my path in frustration. It flew down the canyon, making more rocks tumble after it. It made so much noise I for sure gave my position away. At this point I didn’t really care though, I’m just ready to go home. The intel has to be wrong! We’ll need to investigate further before I go on a wild goose chase after Silver again.

    “You’re making a lot of noise, you know? For a high ranking agent, I’d think you’d know better than that.” A deep, soothing voice behind me taunted me. “But how long have you been out here now? Three hours? It’s been fun watching you almost self-destruct. I thought I’d show up before you gave up.”

To say I was startled would be an understatement, I wasn’t expecting anyone to sneak up behind me, in fact I thought I was being pretty vigilant. I jumped suddenly and felt my foot slipping on one of the loose rocks nearby. Although I had gotten out of the narrow part of the canyon I still found myself closer to the edge than I’d like to be, that being said I slipped and nearly fell off the edge. To my surprise the man who had done such a great job scaring me enough to slip off a cliff, was also the same man who caught me from falling. His strong muscular hands gripped around my waist and pulled me closer to him, I found myself in his embrace with my back turned toward him. I was so close I could smell his cologne, which admittedly smelled pretty damn good.

    His muscles flexed against me, I could tell he worked out often. “Can’t have you falling off the edge.” He leaned in to whisper, his breath hot on my ear. “That wouldn’t be any fun now would it?”

    I roughly pushed away from him, causing me to stumble a little beneath the weight of all the gear I was carrying. I had everything from my laptop to supplies to camp out a few days if things went wrong.

    “Finally decided to show up huh Silver?” I grumbled, feeling a little weak from the heat, but that wasn’t going to stop me from fulfilling my mission now that it was finally starting to go somewhere. “So what’s your plot this time? A missile to blow up part of the world?”

    He chuckled pretty loudly. “Ah I’m sorry you’re out here on false pretenses, but it appears you’re intel is wrong. I’m merely out here collecting a special mineral for my research.”

    I narrowed my eyes in disbelief and put my arms on my hips in an attempt to intimidate him. “Uh huh sure you are! And what’s this research for anyway? Coming up with yet another virus?”

    “Have you ever heard of a mineral being used for a virus?” He asked sarcastically, coming a little closer to me. He ran his fingers through my hair. Jokes on him I’m all sweaty from the heat so that couldn’t have been pleasant. “No, this mineral has certain qualities I intend to take advantage of.”

    “What does that mean? Are you going to gather a bunch of rocks and throw them at people? Yup you’ve finally lost it. Pack it up everyone, he's throwing rocks at people.” I threw my hands up dramatically to put emphasis on my joke. The idea was to embarrass him a bit so he’d tell me what he’s really up to, but we’ve gone through this cat and mouse game so many times before he probably already knows all of my tricks.

    “I know what you’re doing, my dear. You want me to tell you my actual plan so you can run back to your little government and tell them all about the big bad guy. How cute you think that’s going to work. Run along now, I wouldn’t want to hurt a small little thing such as yourself.” He waved at me dismissively and started to walk away just like that.

Ugh! I hate how condescending he is! “Hey! Don’t walk away from me!” I dropped the heavy equipment I was carrying and rushed.

He spun around to face me. “I knew you wouldn’t give up that easily. It’s a shame, I don’t want to hurt you, you should walk away now so I don’t have to.”

Doesn’t want to hurt me? He’s never had any problem hurting any other agents. Somehow I feel he has pity for me since I’m so short and small, which only angers me more. I’m a damn good agent. How dare he judge me based on my looks! “Don’t tell me what to do! You’re going down!” I may have let anger get the best of me, but sometimes I just can’t stand this asshole!

Even though Silver’s at least a good foot taller than me, I let my anger get the best of me, I flew out of the gate with a punch followed up by a kick when he flawlessly dodged the punch. The kick didn’t miss, but he didn’t seem fazed by it. “What the?!” I was a bit taken aback and I think my brain turned to mush, so I threw another punch. He caught my fist before it could make contact with him. I know he wasn’t this strong the last time we fought!

“You should have walked away when I gave you the chance.” Was all I heard before blacking out.