Chapter Four
"So Sebastian had a secret." Nine spoke to Strawberry over his watch. "It is true isn't it?" He paced back and forth across the hotel suite, in front of the stunning view of the lake and mountains out of his window. "Were some of our missions evil?" he asked her.
"Yes... We needed the money. It is more complicated then that." Strawberry tried to explain. "It was just so tempting not to take the money."
"Does anyone else know?" Nine asked.
"No!" Strawberry replied.
"Are you lying to me?"
"Yes!" she replied honestly. "Look Nine, you come day in day out, collect your pay, no questions asked. That's your job!"
"I serve our planet Christine! There is more to it then that." Nine told her.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"With Sebastian gone, I'm afraid I'll have to dig into our files and destroy all ties to intergalactic criminals on my own. Can you help me?"
"Where ever are you going to get such funding? The president is not on your side in this, in fact, he could care less what happens to the other planets. He has Earth, enough power, he hold all the cards." Strawberry reminded him.
"I'll assassinate him and steal his deck of cards." Nine told her.
"Assassinate the president? That's a little cliché isn't it? Even for you?" she asked.
"It must be done. It's business I'm sure he'd understand."
"You'll have to wait and see I guess, when you have that gun in his face."
"Right! I have to get back to Earth. You can call this mission incomplete. I need Kyle and his contacts for now. The game has changed." Nine hung up on Christine and started packing up his briefcase.
He ran downstairs and walked to the front desk of the hotel to check out.
"This letter is for you." The receptionist handed him an envelope.
"Thank you." Nine nodded to her.
"You're all set Mr. Tatum. Hope you enjoyed your stay and come back soon to our lovely Twilight Hotel on Planet Anna..." before she could finish Nine grabbed the envelope and briskly walked to the exit.
"Kendrick!" the receptionist shouted, trying to finish wishing him a farewell.
Nine opened the letter. It was from Mandy, she left him her contact information. That seemed useful considering he didn't have Kyle's contact information. A lead was a lead.
Nine walked up to his ship, jumped in and departed the planet under camouflage, so no authorities were able to detect him once again. He flew past some moons and wondered how Natalie and Six were doing. He pulled up a contact screen on the side of his ship's dashboard and called Natalie.
"Hey babe, how's planet Katy Perry?" Nine asked Natalie as soon as she answered his call.
"Hippies! Hippies everywhere man! They do nothing but play music and braid each other's hair! This planet got some wicked ass drugs too!" Natalie replied.
"Did you catch the perp?" Nine asked. "What's the verdict?"
"I dunno man. Six is somewhere in the concert crowd, probably blowing soap bubbles." she replied.
"I am heading back to Earth. We have a whole new project to set up! Please get yourselves together, I hope to see you soon." he commanded.
"Whatever man, you're so like, not chill. Yo chill yo." Natalie ended their transmission.
Nine had no idea what to expect. Natalie was always such a straight up agent, maybe planet Katy Perry influenced them somehow.
As soon as Nine arrived to the headquarters of the organization on the Caribbean Island, he let the valet attendant park his ship once again. Nine walked up to the entrance of the mansion and rang the door bell.
"Welcome, what's the password?" a female voice echoed through an intercom.
Nine thought for a second, "Open up you baboon." he shouted.
The doors swung open and Nine adjusted his tie. He entered the mansion and ran up the stairs to the secret room. Once he entered the room, he found Strawberry at her desk. She had multiple virtual windows streaming in front of her. Half of them appeared to be live surveillance videos and the other half contained opened chats, opened files on personnel, and various secret missions written in paragraph form. Nine walked up behind her.
"I'm looking through them right now." Strawberry told him. "Did you get a hold of Natalie and Six?" she asked.
"Yes, they are one their way here." Nine replied, carefully analyzing the information in front of him. "So most of these are criminals?" he asked.
"They are, all of them in fact." Strawberry replied and scrolled through the files. "These are some of the most dangerous criminal warlords who paid our organization a huge amount of money to keep things under wraps. We need a plan to destroy their businesses, run them down, assassinate them or put them away for good. It's the only way we can cut our ties with them." she explained.
Just then Natalie and Six entered the secret room.
"What did I miss?" Natalie walked up to Strawberry and Nine. Six was staggering behind her. He appeared to be either tired or inebriated.
"Nothing, we were just about to begin." Nine looked over to Natalie. "My god, what on Earth happened to you? Both of you?" he then noticed their ripped up, elegant clothing that they still wore from Sebastian's party.
"Hippies man!" Natalie spat on the floor and continue to watch the virtual screens, studying the information.
"Most of these leaders are attending a criminals trade show next week on planet Taylor Swift." Strawberry continued to scroll through various files and emails.
"Oh, planet Taylor Swift." Natalie made a sour face.
"What's wrong with planet Taylor Swift?" Nine asked her.
"Nothing, I have a lot of exes who reside there. It's where I spent most of my spring breaks back in my college years." she explained.
"Ah." Nine replied.
"Nah! What's wrong with you?" agent Six stuttered and fell on the floor behind the team.
"Is he okay?" Strawberry turned her chair 180 degrees and looked at Six.
"He'll be fine." Natalie waved her hand at him. "Give him a day."
"Alright, so what's the plan?" Nine asked Strawberry.
"First of all, we have to get rid of these criminals. Secondly, we'll have to assassinate our president. Third, we have to find a way to fund our organization and work our way back to the top. The ending is quite easy, we will just hire a PR group to represent us." Strawberry explained.
"Or, we'll get it in editing." Six, still laying on the floor, started laughing at Strawberry's plan.
"Good plan Christine." Natalie nodded to Strawberry. "Get Nine and I a schedule and a map of the trade show. We will try and work our way in, perhaps have our own recruiting booth?" she suggested.
"Considering our reputation with these crime lords, we should be able to pass through." Nine agreed.
"Please, get some rest." Strawberry looked at Six again. "I will send you all the information you need."
Natalie dragged Six out of the room. "Ugh, c'mon Alex, let's go" she said under her breath, as she tried to pick him up.
"Got it. Good night. Rest easy." Nine kissed Strawberry on the cheek and walked out of the secret room.
He then headed to the valet and waited for the attendant to bring his ship around. He thought about the kiss he gave to Strawberry and felt a little lonely. Perhaps contacting Mandy wasn't a bad idea.
Once Nine got into his ship, he opened the envelope from Mandy, and dialed her number on his watch. Taking off into space, he was anticipating her answer. After a few tones, she picked up.
"Hello?" Mandy's voice came online.
"Hi!" Nine replied. "You left me your contact information." he said.
"Yes." she replied. "I spoke to Kyle about the office incident at his party. He told me everything."
"Really?... Everything?" Nine asked.
"You are a secret agent after his, and my, money aren't you?" she asked. "Were you at the house trying to honey-pot us?"
"No, well, yes, that was before Kyle told me the truth." Nine tried to explain himself. "Can we meet? I want to explain this to you."
"Perhaps we should." Mandy replied. There was a bit of a pause between them.
"I will send you my house address. You can come over tonight. Please bring some dog treats for Mittens." she finally said.
"Will do." Nine smiled, even though he knew she wasn't able to see him smile. He was a tad excited to spend the night with Mandy, at the same time, he was a little suspicious, not knowing what to expect. Shutting Kyle's cartel down to save his own organization meant shutting Mandy down as well.
After a few minutes Nine received a message on his watch from Mandy. They were coordinates to an apartment building located in the middle of Boston MA on Earth. When Nine pulled up a satellite live feed he noticed she lived in a loft. He searched for a parking spot near by and found an enormous mall located at the docks of the city. There he decided to park his ship and take a cab to Mandy's loft.
When Nine got into a taxi, he requested the driver to stop by a pet shop to pick up some doggy snacks. Upon arrival to Mandy's building Nine made a call to Strawberry so that she was aware of his whereabouts in case of an unexpected murder.
"How's it going with that criminal trade show info?" Nine asked Strawberry as soon as she picked up his call.
"Almost done! You'll have all the arrangements and itinerary for the show by tomorrow morning." she replied.
"I'm going to negotiate with Kyle Colt's ex-wife." Nine told her. "It may be a trap, I just wanted you to be aware that's all."
"Oh Tatum, please, don't tell me your status. I'd rather just be informed of your mission. You know I don't want to worry." she told him.
"You're right, I'm sorry." Nine replied.
"Take care, I'll talk to you tomorrow." Strawberry ended their transmission.
Nine paid the cab driver and stepped out of the car. He then walked up to the front of the building and called Mandy's apartment from downstairs as per her instructions. She buzzed him in and he took an old fashioned style elevator to the last floor of the building. There, he found himself walking down a long corridor and arriving to the last apartment at the end. He knocked and Mandy opened the door.
The woman was stunning. She wore white silk lingerie and had her hair tied up in a pony tail. She stepped aside and let Nine into her loft. There was a nice blueberry scent in her apartment. As she closed the door behind him, Nine looked around, checking her chic place out. It was a modern, kind of like from a furniture catalogue place, and had an urban vibe to it. A white Pomeranian ran up to greet the guest.
"Arf Arf" Mittens barked at Nine and tried to jump on him.
"Hey there Mittens." Nine greeted the doggy and took out some doggy snacks he got from the pet shop.
"That is so sweet." Mandy smiled at Nine's gesture. "You didn't have to actually get the snacks. It was a little bit of a joke." she said.
"That's alright." Nine smiled back at her and walked to the great big window of her loft. He noticed a beautiful view of the city and how it was lit up like a Christmas tree. Lights all around, lighting up the city so bright it almost looked like day. He even spotted a really bright light out in the distance thinking it was a shooting star, however, it was just a car with high beams on, traveling at high speeds on the highway. When will you people learn? You are blinding the population? he thought to himself.
"Beautiful view." Nine looked at Mandy who walked to the kitchen and got two wine glasses from a cupboard and an opened bottle of red wine from the fridge.
"So are we going to talk?" she asked him.
"Straight to business are we?" Nine asked her in return.
"Got to work hard before we play hard." Mandy chuckled and poured some wine in both glasses.
"What else did Kyle tell you?" Nine asked Mandy.
"Kyle's business is my business. I hate when my business is in trouble. I wasn't going to let Kyle lose his empire." Mandy started to explain. She then placed the wine bottle on the kitchen countertop and walked over to Nine by the window carrying the two, half filled, wine glasses in her hands.
"So then you know, Kyle will have to die eventually. We must get rid of our ties with him." Nine told her and grabbed a glass of wine from her hand.
"He doesn't have to die. He will sign over his assets to Earth's president, as per Sebastian's request, and when you assassinate the president Kyle will swoop in, taking back his cartel." Mandy explained her plan.
"So you just want a scapegoat?" Nine asked her.
"If you change all your paperwork, you won't have to kill anyone. Your job will be to convince your crime lord partners to sign over their contracts to the president." Mandy explained. "But it won't be easy. As you saw in Kyle's case he didn't trust Sebastian. The others will need some type of a promise that Earth's president will be assassinated and they will get their businesses back with interest of some sort." she added.
"You want me to work for them?" Nine asked her.
"You'll have to do something to gain their trust." Mandy sipped her wine and Nine did the same. "Your organization will be heroic. Everyone will be thankful, for you caught the president red-handed and took care of business."
"Corruption and crime doesn't pay!" Nine stated. "When will people learn?"
"They do pay, pretty well actually. So do you agree with this plan?" Mandy asked. "If so, I'll let Kyle know that his business is in good hands." she then reached out to hold Nine's hand. "He'll help spread the word and you'll have your proper organization's reputation back. You'll be preventing wars in no time."
Nine was pleased with her gesture and kissed her hand.
"Our organization will need funding." he told her.
"If you want me to fund your organization, I will have to be the owner of it." Mandy demanded.
"You will have to leave Kyle's business, we can't have our owner doing business with crime lords. We want the owner all to ourselves." he kissed her hand again, slowly moving up her arm.
"I already have half his money, I don't need his business. He can keep it." Mandy watched Nine smoothly move closer to her face.
"How can you trust me?" Nine asked her.
"The feeling is mutual." she placed her wine glass on the window sill, and Nine did the same.
Mandy grabbed his other hand and led him to her bedroom which was just up a small stairway in the corner of the loft. The windows of the loft were so big Nine felt uncomfortable, worrying someone on the street could be watching them. Mandy loved it and found that thrilling. As they were getting more intimate, Nine felt extremely uncomfortable and ran down to the window to close the blinds. He then ran back into bed with Mandy and the two proceeded to seal their business deal.