I looked at the notification on my watch. At first, I didn’t recognize the app: a lemniscate made of red, blue, yellow, purple, green, and white stars with a triple integral superimposed. Numbers and symbols began scrolling, and then a holographic interface projected itself in the air.

I glanced at my wife, who appeared to be sleeping. Our children, similarly, were crashed on the carpet in front of the TV, which still droned on with some mindless Saturday sitcom.

Memory slid into place unbidden. It was time.

Agent 48, Libra, Activated

Contract Assignment Codename: Lykaon Fire

Duration: Six Stellar Intervals

Libra: Restorative influence needed in lower world, northern hemisphere, coordinates 37, 22, 78, -14. Outside influence detected approximately three nights ago in the vicinity of the city of Tripoli. Immediate local influence is unseasonable weather, increased breakdown of electronic equipment, extended lifetime for mechanical devices. Suspected extra-fate actors include demonic influence, reawakened deity, cult activity, aberrant choice.

Projected outcomes:
Complete Success: 28%
Partial Success: 23%
Partial Failure: 72%
Complete Failure: 13%

Contract Budget and Assignments: Two competent agents have been activated under the auspicious Air signs of Libra and Aquarius. Novice agent activated under the inauspicious Air sign of Gemini. Veteran agent activated under the auspicious Earth sign of Virgo. Virgo shall act as observer and liaison to the Alliance. Agents shall coordinate from Chapterhouse Tripoli. Rendezvous in: 25 hours, 18 minutes, 13 seconds

Barely enough time to get my affairs in order, damn them. I would miss my family. But it had been too long, and I had been preparing the way for this for the past four years. It had caused no small amount of pain to nudge my wife into an on-again, off-again affair with my best friend, but there was just enough doubt surrounding timing in both of their minds that he would accept my children as his own. The children themselves were young enough that, by the time the contract was up, I would be a distant memory.

I stood from the couch and walked to the bedroom my wife would soon share with another. I pressed the wood panneling back in two spots and watched as it slid back, revealing a black briefcase, handgun, and a small black booklet that would stand in for any official documentation I might need. I replaced these with my wallet, discarding the identity of one Samuel Wallace and shedding his fate. By leaving it so close by, the threads of auspicious destiny I had woven in when I created it would benefit my family. Perhaps in two or three decades, I could revisit them.

Perhaps I would be able to recruit my son, or better, my daughter. It had been ages since Libra had recruited a woman into their ranks. It was past time.

Closing the panel, I placed my thumbprint upon it, sealing it forever. If the building itself was torn apart to the foundations, the compartment would be just another chunk of wood and insulation. Destiny would wind its way through my family in a matter of days.

I tapped my watch, indicating acceptance of the contract, and placed an order for a car. I kissed my comatose wife on the lips one last time, and placed a kiss upon each of my children’s foreheads. I had long since lost the ability to cry, but I still felt the pain of loss. I always did. Perhaps it was a failure. There were those who claimed they felt very little, but even more who refused to form attachments altogether.

Unhealthy, my father had told me centuries ago. We needed them as much as they needed us.

I walked out of the house that had been mine for only a few brief years, closed the door, and locked it behind me. A symbolic act if ever there was. No thief would ever see this house. The door was closing on the destiny I had made. The lock was me never returning.

My car was already waiting.

671 words

r/TenspeedGV