It was about eleven that night, and most people in the facility were fast asleep. Three masked men clad in black managed to slip into the facility. They were armed with fine Greek short swords and suppressed unique pistols made by a private firearms-manufacturing company.
The first man, codenamed Alpha, saw a patrolling security officer. He gestured over to the other two men, codenamed Bravo and Charlie. Bravo and Charlie scanned the vicinity before giving an ‘Okay’ sign to Alpha. That meant that there was no one else nearby. Alpha produced his pistol and shot the security officer once in the head. Immediately, Bravo and Charlie ran up to the dying security officer and dumped his body at a secluded position.
At the same time, John woke up abruptly. He felt that something was going wrong. He got out of bed and got dressed, taking the thumbdrive from the table and placing it in his pocket. John got out of his room and walked down the hallway.
Alpha, Bravo and Charlie were making their way towards the building where a portion of the CERN staff were staying. As they neared the entrance, the alarms started going off. Another security office had found it suspicious that his colleague, the dead one, was not responding, so he went to investigate. That security officer found blood trails and started panicking.
They swore silently. Their superior would be angry at them for being so careless. But no point crying over spilt milk. The three of them rushed into the building. In the lobby there was a person tending the reception/information desk. Bravo immediately shot the person dead.
The moment the alarms started going off, John was outside the room of Uri Gregorovitch. Uri was a Russian member of the research team, and the one in the entire team whom John was closest with.
John started knocking on Uri’s door. Uri opened the door and asked sleepily, “What?” John explained what he thought was happening and without questioning him, Uri began packing some of his essentials. Uri knew that John had been a CIA special agent, and did not doubt his words, as John was most of the time correct.
One minute later, Uri reappeared at the door, dressed and ready. He had a small haversack on his back. “Let’s go, John.”
They made their way down the stairs, and while they were doing so, they heard a voice over the facility’s Public Address system. “All CERN staff are to remain in their rooms and lock their doors. CERN security officers have been summoned to investigate.”
The two of them ignored the order and continued running down the staircase. They left the building through the back door. Outside the building, they saw security officers running around the area, with pistols instead of the normal batons in their hands.
Upon seeing the two CERN scientists, three security officers trained their pistols on them. Fortunately, one of the security officers recognised John. “Mis…Mister Ludlow? What the hell are you…you doing here?”
The security officer was an acquaintance of John. “Relax, Lucio. This guy and I are both scientists, as you know. We’re on an assignment from the Director-General himself. Don’t mind us.” That was a half-lie. Omar did not give them an assignment, but John was sure that Omar wanted them to stay alive, which was what they were doing now.
The two of them managed to get out of the CERN facility. They showed the hitchhiker’s thumb until someone was willing to transport them to their destination, which was nearby Geneva.
The two of them found a hostel shortly after they arrived at the city, which cost twenty dollars a night. Luckily, both John and Uri had brought along some money with them.
After booking into the hostel, the two of them made their way to a small café to have breakfast. While they were having breakfast, they watched the news on local television. Fortunately, both of them were able to understand French, since they had spent a long time in the region, which was officially French-speaking.
The headline was that of the attack on the CERN facility the previous night. “Police have counted more than five deaths and more than ten injuries. Five CERN scientists and more than four security officers had been shot dead by the three assailants, who are in police custody,” the anchorman announced. “Three scientists have been reported missing.”
“I think, for the time being, we shouldn’t reveal that we’re still alive,” Uri informed. “But wait, didn’t they say, three scientists missing? That means another person from our team could’ve escaped the facility!”
John nodded at Uri as he sipped from his glass of water. “Finding the team member is our secondary objective. Right now, our primary objective is to stay alive and find out who the hell wants to kill us.”
After breakfast, John bought a prepaid phone and called Harlow Smithson, his long-time friend who was still serving in the CIA. Harlow only answered the call after John tried thrice.
“Who the hell is this?” Harlow asked impatiently. John replied, “It’s me, man. Ludlow, John Ludlow.”
“Holy shit, you’re alive!” Harlow said. “Are you alright?”
“I’m okay. Harlow, I need your help, again. I need to find out the identities of the three pricks who attacked the CERN facility. I heard that they’re in police custody.”
“No can do, Ludlow. I’ll call back ASAP.”
An hour later, Harlow called back. “I’ve done a check on the three attackers. The first guy is an Egyptian called Claudio Rahman, and he is known in the three-man squad as ‘Alpha’. He was a member of Unit 777, the Egyptian special operations unit. Second guy, known as ‘Bravo’, is a Korean named Kim Dek Song, but many of his friends call him Dekson. Dekson Kim graduated from Seoul National University, but became a mercenary working for Academi. The third man, ‘Charlie’, is Charles Hakon, an American who is a former US Army Major. The strange thing is that all three of them are descendants of famous Greeks. Claudio Rahman is a descendant of Ptolemy, Dekson Kim is believed to have descended from Archimedes and Charles is a descendant of the famous warrior king Leonidas I.”
“What are you suggesting, Smithson? That the members of The Athenians are all descendants of famous Greek figures?” John asked. Harlow answered, “Yes, John. It seems like that. Maybe this will play a crucial role in your investigation. Good luck.”
Three days later, after a thorough investigation by John and Uri, they finally found the identity of a few other possible members of The Athenians. First was an anonymous internet celebrity known as Ekronos. What raised their eyebrows was that there was ‘kronos’ in the celebrity’s name. Kronos was a famous figure in Greek mythology. In addition to that, Ekronos liked to post about Greek history, particularly about people who tried to research about the history of Greece and died midway. With the help of Harlow Smithson, they found out that Ekronos was a Danish named Josaiah, who was now living in Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia.
The second possible member was a woman living in Zurich, Switzerland. Her name was Julia Burkes. Since Julia lived nearer to Geneva, the two of them decided to find her first.
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