Agent Hill: Reboot Read Online Free

happy.
    The truth was Sarah wasn’t sure if she wanted Becca to forgive her. It seemed like justice for her to be shunned from the family she had always seemed to ignore. Her job didn’t allow for long-lasting emotional connections. The past six years had seen her seat at family dinners and holidays lie empty more often than filled. All of the excuses she gave were lies, but in her conscience, she’d given them weight, knowing that she was out trying to keep safe the very people she was leaving behind. Her family had always chalked it up to her being independent, but she was afraid that her absence was just a cover that lay under the façade of lies. A truth that she may have loved her job more than her family. And today those lies could finally break through the surface.

 
    ***
    The mountain ridges in Tajikistan north of Dushanbe offered a spectacular view of the country’s landscape. Geometrical rock spires jutted from the mountains in smaller formations that accumulated into the massive mounds of earth that would continue to grow long after Rick Demps had died, and the compound that nestled in the heart of the mountain would be consumed.
    The past three days had been a culmination of speaking with his colleagues in similar locations and standing at this window in the makeshift office, looking out onto the landscape before him. He was hundreds of miles away from civilization. The only people around him were the bodyguards on his payroll.
    A knock at the office door alerted his attention, and he pressed the intercom to let them inside. The doors to the office opened, and Rick’s right hand, Heath Fuller, walked in with the air of servitude. “Mr. Demps, he’s ready to speak with you.”
    “Bring up the screen for me,” Rick said, sitting down and adjusting his tie while Heath set up the equipment for the satellite call. Rick had been waiting for this the entire three days he’d been isolated in the mountains. It was his opportunity for escape and actually being able to enjoy what life he had left.
    Over the past few years, Rick had been to countless meetings with the man he’d never truly met. But each of those meetings had turned the tide in his favor, and there was no reason to believe that this meeting would be any different. Especially since he finally had an ace up his sleeve—one he’d been waiting to use for a very long time.
    “Rick, you look well,” the man said, his face blurred and his voice modified per their usual protocol.
    “I wish I could say the same for you,” Rick said. “The news seems to believe that I am responsible for quite a bit of villainy. I’m hoping, now that we’ve finally had a chance to speak, that this could be resolved.”
    “Your face is all over the news, Rick. I don’t see how any of this can be resolved.”
    “Throughout our interactions, we’ve always been able to maintain a level of professionalism. It’s what’s made our arrangement so beneficial for both parties. You’ve retained and enjoyed your anonymity, while my company’s financial prowess grew, from which you’ve also gained a fair amount of income. I think now would be a bad time for either of us to end what has worked so well for us in the past.”
    Rick snapped his fingers, and Heath handed him an envelope. He opened the end with the sharp blade of a letter opener, tilted the envelope to a downward angle, and poured out a small square sheet of paper. He pinched the top corner between his fingers, the contents not visible except to his eyes. “You’re probably wondering what this is, but I’m sure you can take a wild guess, seeing as how I would have surely expected your trepidation in continuing our business exchange with the risk mounting to what it has become.”
    “I would tread carefully,” the man said. “Take whatever it is you think you have and burn it.”
    “I don’t think I will.” The pleasantness had dropped from his voice, leaving nothing but the cold promise of threats.