Slide II

Chapter Two

MI6 Director Laurence Hancock is a very tired man. For the last three days, he has been ensconced at MI6 headquarters, handling the disaster caused by Doctor Mindy Paine’s treasonous actions. Project Stalker in the hands of any terrorist group is a disaster, but in the hands of an ISIS affiliate, especially one as vicious as the Hand of Islam, it is a nightmare scenario. It has led to some hard choices and unpleasant conversations between himself, other members of the British government, and their allies. This is not something that they could keep in-house, considering how much damage the bioweapon is capable of not just now but potentially decades into the future. They need every resource available to them, even if it means causing irreparable damn to United Kingdom’s standing within the international community. Talks of a global task force are already happening, talks of which Laurence has been at the center.

The suicide of Doctor Paine and the bombing of her flat, which killed her mother and daughter, are both being investigated by MI5 in coordination with law enforcement agencies across the country to hunt down the three Arab males caught leaving the flat mere minutes before the explosion. This morning his MI5 counterpart informed him that they had a promising lead. That led them to stage a raid on a cottage in a village called Erlestoke in Wiltshire. A few hours ago, he was informed that the raid was an utter bloodbath that ended with all the suspects dead, along with ten officers, when after a fifteen-minute gunfight, one of the suspects triggered a massive explosion that left a crater where the cottage used to be. The news drove the headache he had been developing over the last three days to new heights and finally forced him to take the advice of those around him to leave the office and get some rest at home.

It is yet another disaster in a long succession of them since 2023 began. But really, it started last December. Laurence is part of another organization, one that is more powerful and has a wider influence than MI6 or, indeed, the entire UK government. Its name is the Illuminati. Within it, his codename and title are Alpha. Before last December, it was Beta. His elevation came was triggered after two major events last December. Both of these were carried out by an organization that keeps every remaining member of the Illuminati up at night in cold sweats, the Unseen. The Illuminati is an organization with agents worldwide and billions of dollars in assets, but the Unseen, well, they are something different. They can be anywhere at any time. They are the ghosts that haunt the ghosts, and they don’t live in the shadows. They are the shadows. They have their claws buried in every government and corporation that the Illuminati does and more.

They are made up of beings altered by genetic science decades ahead of anything that any government or corporation has achieved. Science has created super soldiers that most people only believe exist in comic books. They are controlled by a woman only known as Queen Eve, who, if what they have learned is to be believed, has been alive for over a century and is nearly single handily responsible for building the monstrous shadow superpower into what it is today. No one knows how old the organization is, but they predate the first incarnation of the Illuminati by hundreds if not thousands of years and are responsible for the decimation of that one and many other versions of the organization.

The two organizations have crossed paths many times before and during Laurence’s tenure with the current Illuminati, each time ending in a bloody defeat for the younger organization. They seemed satisfied with giving them a bloody nose for crossing into their territory until the Illuminati attempted to kidnap one of their altered soldiers last year. They used one of their splinter organizations, Core Six, to do the deed. They succeeded at the kidnapping using beyond-state-of-the-art combat armor to perform an attack on the Secret Service detail protecting the United States Vice President. The target was one of the agents protecting her. They took him and held him at a facility that had United States Department of Defense protection. Still, the Unseen showed up, cracked it like an egg, and disappeared, leaving nothing but c*****e as evidence that they were there. After that, things only got worse.

It began when they took Kappa, the member responsible for that operation. They could chalk that up to him being foolish and deciding to go to ground in Switzerland, which is confirmed to be the location of the Unseen’s headquarters, the near-mythical Castle Raven. They came and went like ghosts, once again leaving bodies in their wake. They killed all the guards but left the staff alive, and everyone one of them told the same story. They never heard a sound. One minute they were working, and the next, they were bound and gagged on the ground and left there until authorities arrived to free them. Kappa was protected by a force that included special forces veterans, and not one of them managed to get off a shot in his defense.

Then, there was Alpha, Laurence’s predecessor and the man who made the Illuminati into what it was. His kidnapping was truly terrifying, and although Laurence is not sure how many of the other members knew the former Alpha’s true identity, he had made it his mission to learn it. It is a major breach of the organization’s security, but he knows who most of his fellows are behind the mask of their Greek alphabet code names. That knowledge only increased his terror of the Unseen a hundredfold after what they pulled. Their former leader’s true name was Zhangchun Bi, and he was quite literally the most powerful man in China if not all of Asia. He was the founder and CEO of ChinaLife, the largest company in China and the third largest in the world. All of this was on top of being the leader of the Illuminati or first among equals, as he styled himself. There were few in the world who could match the power and respect Zhangchun wielded, but none of that saved him when the Unseen came for him. They snatched him out of his compound in Hong Kong and left it a flaming graveyard. Despite the protection of a private security force, soldiers of the nation’s military, and the Illuminati’s best attempt to copy the Unseen’s genetic super soldiers known as the Illuminated, they took him. China put all of its considerable might behind finding him, but it is like he vanished from the face of the Earth. However, their search did not last as long as they would have liked considering that a week later, many of their top government officials, including the General Secretary himself, were assassinated. Leaving the country in a state of near civil war as many seek to fill the power vacuum left by this. It also pushed the story of the disappearance of one of the world’s greatest businessmen right out of the headlines. Nothing that Unseen does has a singular purpose.

These events have led Laurence to call an almost complete halt to all Illuminati operations—most of the leaders who can have gone to ground. The rest are like Laurence. They have positions they can’t abandon and depend on them to keep themselves safe. Everyone still does regular check-in, but only with him. He has forbidden them to contact each other, and they are more than scared enough to follow that order. It is now summer, and no other members have been snatched, which Laurence hopes means the Unseen are satisfied.

His driver pulls through the gate of his family manor outside of London, where he has lived alone since his wife Elenor died five years before, and his children are off living their lives. He sounds most of his day surrounded by people looking to him for orders. So, he looks forward to the solitude. Unlike most English blue bloods, he doesn’t maintain a live-in staff, and the place has so much security that guards are unnecessary. Any triggered alarm will result in the place being swarmed with armed Secret Intelligence Service agents within five minutes. He gets out of the car and gives his driver instructions to be there in the morning to pick him up. The agent waits for his boss to enter the residence before pulling off.

The automatic lights of the darkened house come on as Laurence moves through it. He walks into the living room and drops his case on the couch before heading to the bar to pour himself a drink. The lights are dimmer here, and soft opera music starts to play when they come on. He doesn’t realize he isn’t alone until he hears the sound of ice clinking in a glass behind him. He doesn’t turn around as he reaches for the bottle of cognac and the panic button hidden on the shelf beside it.

Unknown: You can push that until your finger breaks, but no one is coming.

The voice makes Laurence freeze with his finger inches from the button. The voice is deep and rich with an urban American accent. Laurence slowly turns around and looks into the dimly lit corner, where a pair of glowing violet eyes look back at him. When the figure leans forward, he is faced with the most handsome man he has ever seen. His face can only be described as angelic. He has brown skin that lands somewhere between caramel and milk chocolate, his black hair is cut into a fade, and he has a full-groomed black goatee. He is dressed in a black polo shirt, jeans, Nikes, and platinum and diamond jewelry. He looks like he is ready to go to a party, not like he has just broken into the home of the Director of MI6. His muscled physic, even fully dressed and sitting along with the cool aura of danger that radiates off him in waves, leaves Laurence feeling like he is standing across the room from a lounging lion studying his next meal. The man tosses back the rest of whatever of Laurence’s liquor he was having and stands. He is about 6’1, the same height as Laurence, but Laurence feels like he is looking up at a giant.

Slide: For the purposes of this visit, you can call Slide. I don’t think I have to tell you who I am with. Do I?

Laurence: The Unseen. You...you...are her son. You are Atlas. Eclipse.

Queen Eve has one biological child, said to be the next step in human evolution—a monster she raised from birth to be the heir to her bloody throne. Marked out by the pure violet eyes that he only shares with her. For years, the Illuminati only knew him as Unseen 666—the one responsible for over a hundred of their agent’s deaths, if not more. They later learned that his real name was Atlas or Eclipse. Now, here he is.

Slide: Yeah, that information is a bit outdated, actually, but that is neither here nor there. I am afraid we are here for you, Laurence.

Two figures appear from nowhere at those words, and hands like vice grips grab his arms. Within seconds his hands are zip-tied behind his back. His struggles are about as effective as a child would be in their grip. They stop when another figure walks into the room; when another Laurence walks into the room. 6’1, pale white skin, slightly overweight with a head slicked back grey hair. It is like he is looking into a mirror. The doppelganger is even wearing the same suit as him.

Slide: I know. Creepy right?

Laurence Doppelganger: God, I am hideous.

Slide: Yep, it is pretty f****d up. But look at the bright side. You get to live in a swanky pad, attend royal dinners, and boss a bunch of James Bonds around all day.

Laurence Doppelganger: So, not worth it. God, I have jowls now. Why did I volunteer for this again?

Slide: You got voluntold, buddy. You look lost, Laurence, sorry. You, of course, know about our fondness for playing with genes. This monstrosity before you is one of ours, his name is Allen, and he has had his genes altered to match yours. So, now he is Laurence. He will be taking over your life from here on out. You will spend the rest of your days as a guest of Castle Raven. From what we understand, you have been hellbent on seeing the place. You will get to see part of it anyway. I won’t lie. It is not going to be pleasant.

Laurence: You will never get away with this.

Slide: I mean, I could go back and forth with you and monologue like a good villain, but I have places to be. So, I’ll just leave you with this nugget of knowledge. You are the fifth member of the Illuminati we have swapped so far. So, tell me, did you ever notice?

Laurence is speechless.

Slide: There you go. Enjoy your nap. It will likely be the last peaceful one you ever have.

Laurence feels a sharp pain in his neck, and within seconds darkness takes him.