Carl Odin's Story

It was midday, and Carl sat on his white sofa, his feet on the glass table, with the flatscreen in front of him, showing a pristine picture as he took a swig from his newly opened whiskey bottle, and then putting it on the sofa table, on which his feet was also resting.
"Damn it, what do they want now?" he muttered when his secondary phone, the one he used for contracts aside from his job at Cyirus started ringing.
He picked it up after waiting it out a few signals, hoping that whoever disturbed him would give in and hang up.
"Yeah, speak."
It was a contract of high priority, therefore he was to be offered a very significant sum. He was told to meet for negotiations around 7 pm at "the usual place".
Before he had time to respond that he didn't do high risk hits since the incident, the other side hung up and a few hours later, Carl was sitting at a bar downtown, looking discretely around the room, to see if he could spot his contact.
After a few minutes the tall man with the greying black hair whose face he knew very well was sitting on the bar stool next to him. Just as the older man was opening his mouth to speak, Carl interrupted him.
"I won't do it."
The contact closed his mouth without speaking.
"I don't do high risk shit anymore. I've had Shadow Tech watching my ass ever since the incident, sure I'm high up in Cyirus, but Cyirus ain't gonna do shit for me when I end up chased around Echo by freaking God's army."
The older man sat silent for a minute or so, until he eventually opened his mouth again, this time he wouldn't be interrupted.
"Well, you being observed by Shadow Tech sure isn't going to help this operation, but you are a low-priority threat to them, and they have not once caught you during your missions since the "incident"." he said. "I am fully aware of Shadow Tech's power and influence on almost everything, and this is indeed a very high risk hit. But everyone can be bought, and the reward is ultimately what decides how much people's lives are worth to them when it comes to these sorts of things."
As he spoke he wrote something on his touchpad, handing it over to Carl when he was done.
Carl had not seen the amount of credits written on this touchpad in the hands of a single person ever before. Surely there were some really rich businessmen, company owners and no doubt Shadow Tech agents in the possession of this sort of sum. But for him to be rewarded this much for a single mission. Unbelievable. This could only mean one thing though, and that was no pleasant idea for Carl.
"You're asking me to take out Shadow Tech agents, aren't you?" was the question he asked his contact after a pause of staring at the sum.
The only response to this was a slight smile, followed by a nod.

Midway through looking at the mining reports, Adion heard a buzz over his mike. "What is it Janice?"
"Sir, one of the bar scouts over heard a conversation about an assassination contract on a Shadow Tech Agent."
"Do we still have time to eliminate the hirer? Preferably in-front of the assassin."
"Yes sir."
"Do it."

From the outside of the bar that Carl was in, a speeder could be heard parking. Soon one Shadow Tech Agent in Shadow Tech Assassin armor walked into the bar, up to Carl's contact, and shot the contact in the back of the head. The assassin then looked over at Carl and stated "I have a message for you from Shadow Wolf. Remember, we see everything." Soon after say that, the Shadow Tech Assassin started sifting through the belongings of the contact and said to himself "Lets see who sent you."

Carl Odin only sat and watched silently as after hearing a Speeder stop outside, an armored Shadow Tech Agent walked in and shot Henry Jameson, the man with the black greying hair, in the back of his head, dying the foam from the beer in front of him into a reddish color. Shadow Tech had not sent more than one agent, meaning they hadn't come to take Carl in, only scare him, or at least discourage him and make sure he would not associate himself with people attempting to stand up to them, probably meaning to take care of the plotters behind it as well. He had gotten the message, the man shot was someone he had known for quite some time, and while they hadn't been friends, as you couldn't really get attached to anyone in these kinds of business, he had been the one person who was reliable and somewhat honorable.
"Well that settles that then." he thought to himself as he left the bar without taking a look at the shocked people around, immediately getting on his own Speeder to arrive at the Penthouse in which he lived only 13 minutes later.
"Might as well sit down and watch the game then" he mumbled when he entered his apartment at 7:43 in the evening.

Adion was now sifting through the Shadow Tech ship records. He knew that recently some has been getting fake cargo on Shadow Tech ships as part of some smuggling ring in the sector. Of course, Shadow Tech wanted this handled in the most descreat manner, so Adion had to figure out the pattern for choosing ships from looking at the records and what the cargo on these ships was when opened.

Adion quickly found the pattern. The odd cargo was always loaded on the month's first ship to sector 31-6. That ship this month was currently being loaded. "Janice, tell the men of the Aromice to open all crates one the crates reach the storage room." It only took three crates to track down the man who was handling the smuggling on Echo 13. Deaming this as a lower threat mission that Shadow Tech could not be involved with, Adion decided that he knew just the man to do this.

Adion took out his work phone, checked the log of watched people on Echo 13. He then found the name he was looking for, Carl Odin. He called the number of Carl's secondary phone, which Adion himself had ordered tapped a couple months ago, which was good that Carl didn't know about the tap, not like Shadow Tech cared about most contracts. He was waiting for Carl to pick up his phone and was prepared to say "Carl, do you want the knowledge of the last... reason you were contacted to disappear before the report was even submited? If so, I want you to go to the office of agent Shadow Wolf. This call never existed." After that Adion would turn off the phone.

The Cyirus Mercenary opened his fridge up, grabbed a few beers, walked over to his sofa and sofa table, and just as he was putting them down his secondary phone called, for the second time that day.
"God damn it. What do people want with me today?" he asked out loud in an annoyed tone.
Carl hadn't gotten a call on that phone in two weeks, but this was the second call in one day. He picked it up without saying a word. It wasn't necessary, almost instantly the caller started speaking.
"Carl, do you want the knowledge of the last... reason you were contracted to disappear before the report was even submitted? If so I want you to go to the office of agent Shadow Wolf. This call never existed."
The voice was not one he recognized, but then again he hardly ever knew the voices of the people who called him, as he had not met most of them, the exception being Henry, but his was not a voice Carl was going to hear again.
Before he had time to answer the call ended with the other part hanging up.

What was this? Some prank call? No, nobody would make such a thing up as a joke, there wouldn't be any fun in it. The Cyirus mercenary decided this had to be real. But how did this person get the number for that very phone if they didn't want to talk business. Whoever called him had spoken cryptically, but if it was Shadow Tech themselves who made the call, it would be in his best interest to go where they told him.

The question was, why would Shadow Tech bring him in? What would they even bring him in for? And to send him directly to Shadow Wolf's office. "Quadrant 5's most dangerous man" as he was often referred to as, surely wouldn't have time for someone from Cyirus, even less someone who wasn't first in command. Carl Odin was at a pretty high position in the Cyirus Protection hierarchy, but he wasn't anywhere near second in command, where he once used to be, even less first, and for Shadow Tech to bring him up there to Adion Volf's office sure was peculiar.

Not more than a few minutes after the phone was hung up Carl sat on his Speeder, on his way over to Shadow Tech, trying to make sense out of the call he had just received.

Adion knew that if he wanted the smuggler eliminated without anyone noticing Shadow Tech's involvement, Carl would have to be in then out of the building itself in next to no time at all. Adion now needed to figure out when and where the target, codenamed S-X, would have to be eliminated. Then he thought of it. The back alley where S-X would normally hang out was on the edge of 2 of the ports warring gangs. That would be the perfect place to have the S-X put down. Now he just needed to wait for Carl and tell him about how, like most Shadow Tech contracts, it could not under any circumstance look like Shadow Tech had a hand in this.

"Veris, send me the files on The 36-Is, Jirptous Family, and S-X. Make sure to make it so that it can be loaded into a PDA or phone. Also, make sure that Carl Odin goes straight to my office without any other interactions." Adion spoke to the planets AI. 'Lets hope Carl can get this job done cleanly.' Adion thought to himself, waiting for the man to enter his office.

Upon entering the building, an action taken by Carl right after checking up on some quick back info on Agent Shadow Wolf with the help of his PDA, Carl was immediately greeted and led by a man dressed in the typical kind of Shadow Tech armor through several corridors and taken with elevator to the floor containing the office of Agent Adion Volf, as well as Shadow Wolf himself in it.

Carl Odin entered this very office as instructed and for the first time he met "the most feared man of Quadrant 5" face to face.
This man looked pretty normal considering. His face was covered in scars, and his red eyes was a sort of uncommon sight, but other than that he did not look particularly evil or threatening. He did look like the kind of person sitting at the top of an organization like this one, that was something Carl of Cyirus Protection Agency agreed on.

"So, why am I here?" he asked the man in front of him after taking a quick look at the interior of the room, standing still, not more than a few steps from the door he had come to enter through.

Adion's office was neat and organized. Multiple reports were showing on the wall opposite the window, which was behind Adion's desk. On the desk laid a small data chip, something that was very common when dealing in unspoken information. Adion then leaned forward in his desk and said "You have one week to kill the man who's information is on the chip." Adion said pushing the chip closer to Carl. "I need this kill to look like it came from one of the gangs who's information is also on the chip. Send me the man's right, middle finger by dropping it in the bin at the alley behind Gorgaron's Big Bar and Inn. Once I get confirmation that the finger is indeed the man's and that you have stirred up nothing more than the local gangs, and that Shadow Tech is suspected of nothing, you will get a 5,000 credit compensation. However, if you fail to kill the target by 2 days past the deadline, a Shadow Tech kill squad will be sent after you. You are allowed to decline this contract, but if you do, remember that you will be mentioned in my report 2 weeks from now." said Adion. Now he waited to hear the response from Carl. Adion did know that, even for a low risk contract, 5000 credits was not much for an assassination. However, Adion hoped that Carl would wish to not want to go up on Shadow Tech's radar.

Carl listened to Shadow Wolf's offer. He wouldn't like working for the organization of the men who had killed his mother. And for 5000 credits?
"This is completely ridiculous." Carl mumbled quietly, a little offended by what low thoughts this man must have of his assassination skills.

Surely this Agent couldn't be serious, offering that little. This sum was less than a fourth of what he was usually offered, as his hirers were most of the time pretty desperate.
"You call me up here to speak to me yourself," Carl began. " deeming by that, this target must be of at least some importance, and now you want to hire me to kill whoever this is for 5000 credits? I honestly thought more of Shadow Tech than offering a sum like that." Carl walked up to the desk of Volf.
"My mother was killed in cold blood by two Shadow Tech Agents at my 15th birthday, because she accidentally spilled a drink on one of them, working extra at a bar trying to get money to buy me a fucking cake." Carl was getting slightly angry, his tone slowly morphing into a more infuriated one as he looked right into the red eyes of Adion. "I've gotten robbed and beaten up multiple times by shitheads from Shadow Tech, I have nothing but contempt for your organization. While I'd not be overjoyed from being on your radar, and while I usually don't let personal feelings get in the way, I thought you could at least offer me an amount higher than the monthly allowance of a rich 14-year-old."
He didn't even care that he was in the Shadow Tech HQ, and inside the office Agent Adion Volf, he wasn't about to kill someone for 5000 credits, even less for a despicable organization such as Shadow Tech.

"I'm not saying I'm one of the good guys. Because I'm not, but at least I'm honest to some extent, and I'm honest when I tell you that I am not turning into a backstabbing cockroach for 5000 credits!" he finally ended his sentiment with, this last part being spoken with an increasingly loud and furious voice, mildly hoping that the Agent on the opposite side of the desk would keep his cool, like the kind of man he had seemed to be upon Carl's first arrival into the room, and not send in security to hold him while he pulled the mercenary's teeth out one by one.

"The 5000 credits is not your payment, its merely so that you can buy your groceries. The part about leaving you out of the report is the payment. At the current level of the radar you are at, we don't prevent you from doing anything that doesn't involve Shadow Tech, but if I don't leave you out of said report, things can change. Even being mentioned as a possible assassin of a Shadow Tech agent can end badly for you. I know that you are smarter than doing that, so I am extending to you a low risk contract that prevents you from being even more watched by Shadow Tech. If you think in the long term, the wrong move here could cost you countless credits, Carl." Adion stated with a completely calm voice. First off, Adion faced far worse temper tantrums from his own agents. Second, he knew that Carl's attention just needed to be averted to the correct details. Third, whether Carl saw it or not, Adion was armed to the teeth.

"So Carl, will you do it?" Adion asked.

"So Carl, will you do it?" Agent Volf asked him, his expression and tone not showing the least bit of change in mood.
"Well I guess he's used to this kind of stuff..." Carl thought. "Annoying." Not getting a reaction after insulting the Agent and his organization certainly hadn't helped soothe the anger that was stirring inside Carl.

He did not like the idea of working for this corporation at all. Not the least bit, but he didn't want to be included in this report Adion spoke of. Carl started pacing slowly, back and forth in front of the Shadow Tech Agent.
It was extremely tempting to shoot the blonde man, and then his own way out of the building. This was completely out of the question though, as it would definitely get him killed without even getting one floor down, and if not, he'd have to use all his credits to even have a minor chance to distance himself from Shadow Tech. No, he certainly didn't have many choices.

Carl kept pacing, and kept going though the different scenarios. "Damn it, I promised myself not to work for these people, unless the money was good enough, obviously." he thought, but he couldn't really come up with an option that would benefit him more than taking this job, given the circumstances.

"I would've said I'm not working for you, but for the money." he finally said. "But this is such a bullshit amount it's not even worth mentioning. So I will do this job on one condition, I want to be completely erased from the records and tracking lists. The second that finger falls into the bin behind Gorgaron's, you know nothing of me, nothing except that I am a Cyirus Mercenary with a fairly big quantity of credits and decent authority."
Carl stopped and turned to Adion Volf, now completely calm, awaiting the decision of the young man in front of him.

"I can't just remove your tracks from off this world. You know just how powerful my influence is, especially among people who's theory is to shoot it if it does not do exactly what you say when you say it. If I mention you in a different manner, I may be able to get you moved down a notch from the bad boys list. Do this smart enough and you might be able to take the money our friend has. And, I'll add to this to make it even more profitable from the target himself. If you manage to divert the attention to the gangs so well that they start fighting, I'll make it so that you won't have a single tracked bank record for the next month. Does that sound good to you?" Adion said. He was doing his best to keep all of his actions within his possible means. The nice part of working for Shadow Tech was that you are allowed to cover peoples' asses after they do a job for Shadow Tech, but you have to start tracking them like normal after a month. That was the only stipulation.

"My main interest is lowering my "heat". I won't be able to operate to the fullest until I get you people off my back, under the current circumstances." Carl said, suddenly a lot calmer and clearer, no longer speaking in anger. "My ultimate goal however, is to acquire money. The more the better. Therefore this part about getting the money belonging to this man I am to eliminate if I accept the offer, is interesting to me, as long as he is of the richer sort, and of course getting my bank record covered would also be extremely helpful."

Carl was actually contemplating helping Shadow Tech, he could hardly believe it himself, as he still despised the organization, but he thought that maybe he should stop being so picky about the people he worked for. He hadn't complained about killing innocent people before, so why should there be a difference just because he was ordered to do so by a specific organization he just happened to dislike?

"By what I can see, the man is not rich. Of course, he is also a smuggler. Which means that if you find certain information on his person, you might be able to reach his 'hidden' accounts. If you manage to find a credit chip on him, it will likely be loaded. I would keep any chips you find on him, and start transferring once you have gotten the message that your accounts have that magic month of no tracking. On the heat subject, I can only put in a good word for you. That can get you a little lower on the tracking list, but I am not sure to what extent my superiors will take that. Of course, once you accept the job, the biggest thing is timing and covering up, both of which I know you have experience in. Read those dossiers and I don't think you will have a problem starting a gang war over this." Adion said. He was beginning to see that Carl was also taking this as a business deal, which is good. If Carl could get the framing done, then he would be able to have more evidence that Carl is not trouble, for Shadow Tech.