Secret Agent Man

The first thing Gerard noticed when he started to wake up was the mind-numbing tension shooting from his neck all the way down his spine. He tried to lean back as much as he could to relieve it, but he found he could only move a few inches. He quickly figured out he was tied to a chair, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the man standing several feet away, next to the windows.

“Do you know how they made these, Mr. Way?” the man asked placidly. “They used real gold. Nothing better for reflecting the sunlight in this place. It’s like being under a bloody sunlamp for half the year.”

Gerard finally managed to glance up at him, looking at him as if he had lost his mind. It was only when he looked to his left that he was able to form words again.

“Lyn…Lyn, wake up…” She was also tied to a chair, in the same position as him, but she was still unconscious. He turned his attention back to the man. “What the hell is going on here? Who are you?”

“In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re my prisoner, Mr. Way.” The man walked back towards him a few feet and sat in a much more comfortable-looking chair. “You may call me Hawkeye.”

Gerard quickly saw why as a small brown hawk flew over to land on the man’s hand. His eyes widened. “Lyn was right. You’re the one who kidnapped the others.” He felt stupid for not figuring it out entirely until then, but that was the least of his worries at the moment.

“Yes, I did,” Hawkeye answered with no expression.

“What could you possibly gain from kidnapping government agents?” Gerard questioned, now slightly confused. If it were for some kind of political scheme, the man wouldn’t gain much from them; they didn’t really care about the reasons behind anything the Agency did. At least, Gerard didn’t. There had to be some other reason.

“It’s not what I could gain, but what I might lose,” Hawkeye responded. “I’ve built quite an empire here, and I will not let it all crumble simply because one of your country’s spies decided to investigate my history.”

It was then that he began to understand. One agent must have gone to learn more about what Gerard was sure were Hawkeye’s illegal activities, which led to his or her death. Another went to find out what happened to the first, and a chain was started, leading back to him and Lyn. The only thing he could do was make sure it ended there.

He heard Lyn start to stir next to him and watched as she slowly opened her eyes. They were a little swollen and extremely red, as if she had been crying.

“Lyn, are you alright?” he asked. She simply glanced at him and said nothing.

“Oh, she doesn’t look so good,” Hawkeye said with a false note of concern in his voice, petting the bird as if nothing was wrong. “What did you do to her, Gerard?”

“You’re the one that did this,” Gerard answered angrily. Before he could say anything else, a door at the other end of the room opened. He was shocked at who ran inside.

“Mom? What are you doing here?” the black-haired girl asked.

“Lyn, what’s going on? How do you know this guy?”

“She didn’t tell you?” Hawkeye asked, trying to sound shocked. “We’re old acquaintances. You could even call us friends.” He snapped his fingers. Gerard was shocked to see Bob and Ray enter the room. Bob began walking over towards them, looking directly at the girl.

“Don’t hurt the kid,” Gerard said warily. “She hasn’t done anything.”

To his surprise, Bob did nothing of the sort. He instead approached Lyn and knelt to the floor to untie the ropes binding her hands behind the chair. She stood and walked over to Hawkeye with Hayley following her closely. When she reached him, he quickly pulled her into a kiss, causing Gerard to look away in deep disgust.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Gerard,” the man said, smirking madly. “Why would I hurt my own daughter?”

“…Your…daughter?” Gerard barely managed to say. He stared intently at Lyn. “You were married to this guy?!” Whether it was anger or betrayal burning inside of him at that moment, he was unsure. He wished more than anything that he could trade places with Hawkeye, watch him suffer so painfully, let him be tortured so badly…

“Do I detect a hint of jealousy, Mr. Way?” Hawkeye asked placidly. Gerard closed his eyes for a second and took a slow, deep breath.

“I don’t care at all, actually,” he answered coldly. “But I am going to kill you.”

“How do you plan on accomplishing that?” The man wrapped an arm around Lyn’s waist and pulled her closer to him. Gerard nearly screamed. “You are tied to a chair and surrounded by four highly trained assassins. It’s impossible.”

“Wait…four? What are you talking about?” he asked in confusion. The man shrugged.

“Bob, Ray, Lyn, and myself. You should learn to count.”

“You?” Gerard scoffed. “You’re a wealthy freak of nature. How could you possibly hurt me?”

“I’m certain you’ve read my file somewhere before,” the man answered with a laugh to his tone. “I was in your line of work once. British Special Forces and such. But I mysteriously went missing on a trip to Eastern Europe… Oh, how they missed their finest agent.”

Gerard’s eyes widened. “You’re Matt Bellamy.”

The man looked stunned. “What?”

“You’re the one they’ve been trying to find for years!” He laughed, though there was no joy in it. “You idiot, you’ve got the Russians after you! They won’t even ask what you’ve done wrong; they’ll just kill you!”

“I can take care of myself, as you can see,” the man answered curtly. “You should join us, Mr. Way.”

“Why would I even consider something like that?” Gerard spat.

“Despite the fact that you managed to get yourself captured, I think you’re reasonably good at what you do. That…and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be responsible for a horrible tragedy.”

Gerard didn’t have to ask what Matt was talking about, because Ray left the room and returned with the answer.

“Let him go!” he shouted. Ray didn’t even acknowledge that he had heard anything and dragged the helpless man over to the large pool in the center of the room. Gerard struggled a little in the chair, finally managing to press a hidden button in the cuff of his sleeve. It shot a laser through the ropes binding his hands together, also giving him a small burn in the process. He ignored the searing pain and ran to save his brother.

Bob tackled him to the floor, but Gerard managed to kick him off. He reached for his regular gun, but found it missing and grabbed the smaller auxiliary handgun he only used when he didn’t have time to reload. It only held five bullets, so he knew he would have to be careful. He hesitated for nothing more than a second and shot the former agent directly in the heart, not looking back to assess the damage before running towards Ray, who was about to drop Mikey in the water.

He fired two shots at the curly-haired man; only one hit home, but it was enough to knock him out of commission. He then turned his attention to Matt as Mikey ran out of harm’s way.

Gerard was surprised to find the slim barrel of a Silhouette .357 Magnum staring him in the face, held by two hands with perfectly painted nails. He reacted without a thought other than protecting his own life as he pulled the trigger for the fourth time that night. It seemed to happen in slow motion as the bullet traveled out of his gun and into the body of his attacker.

It was only as Lyn fell to the ground that he realized what he’d done.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to die.

Instead, he continued walking and coldly, apathetically, fired his last bullet into Matt’s chest. The man collapsed to the ground, coughing up blood and rolling over onto his back, unable to support his own weight. The bird squawked and flew helplessly away, more worried about saving its own life than being near its eccentric owner.

“Do you believe in God, Matt?” Gerard asked as he calmly pulled a second clip from a pocket inside his jacket and reloaded the gun.

“I’m an atheist, actually,” Matt said with a strange smile, already having accepted his own death. Gerard looked at him as a serial killer would look upon his latest victim, with a complete lack of emotion or hesitation.

“Hmm, shame. I’m Catholic,” Gerard said sarcastically. “Go to Hell.”

He re-holstered the gun after taking the shot that silenced Matt forever. Ignoring the clearly traumatized stare from his brother and the quiet sobs from Hayley, he walked over to Lyn and checked her pulse. His blank façade quickly dissolved into a face filled with self-hatred and remorse.

“What are we gonna do now, Gee?” Mikey asked, his voice quivering. Gerard stood and sighed. The bird had already disappeared, and he didn’t plan on looking for it.

“We’re getting out of here.”