Chapter 102: The Manager
Alex moved before the first mercenary cleared the doorway.
His biomass had already shifted, forming dense armor beneath his skin and extending claws from his fingertips. He positioned himself flat against the wall beside the entrance to the second-floor room, invisible in the shadows, while Natasha pressed herself behind the overturned desk with her pistol raised.
The footsteps came up the stairs.
The point man entered with his weapon up, his finger off the trigger until he had a target. Ex-military, probably special forces.
His eyes swept the room, registered Natasha behind the desk—
Alex's hand shot out, grabbed the man's throat, and yanked him through the doorway with his inhuman strength.
The mercenary tried to shout a warning, but Alex's grip crushed his larynx before sound could escape. In the same motion, Alex drove his other hand—claws extended—through the man's tactical vest and into his chest cavity.
The biomass tendrils acted instantly, burrowing into flesh, spreading through the dying body, beginning the consumption process even as the man's nervous system was still firing its final signals.
Memories flooded in:
Name: Jamie Bonde. Former British SAS. Current employment: Sentinel Solutions, a private military contractor specializing in "discrete asset recovery." Assignment: Eliminate witness from Crucible incident. Employer: Unknown client, payments routed through a coordinator called "The Manager."
Bonde's knowledge: The Manager handles all cleanup operations for the games. Never met him face-to-face. All communication through encrypted channels and via the team leader. Current objective: Confirm target termination, no witnesses, sanitize location.
Alex absorbed it all in seconds.
The second mercenary was already reacting, his training kicking in at the sight of his point man being pulled through the doorway. "Contact! Contact! Man down—"
Alex released the dissolving corpse and surged forward into the doorway.
The second mercenary fired—three round burst, center mass. The bullets punched through Alex's shirt and impacted his biomass-reinforced torso, deforming against the dense tissue beneath.
Alex didn't even slow down.
His clawed hand swept across, catching the person's rifle and tearing it from his grip with enough force to dislocate the man's shoulder. The mercenary screamed and tried to draw his sidearm—
Alex's other hand shot forward, fingers elongating into spear-like points that punched through the man's throat and out the back of his neck. The scream cut off instantly.
Behind him, the rest of the team was already adapting. They were truely professional to their core, they didn't panic at seeing their teammates die. They spread out, sought cover and shifted to suppressing fire.
"Target is hostile meta! Authorized to use lethal force! Spread out and—"
Alex retracted his hand from the mercenary's neck and threw the body backward into the third man, using the corpse as a projectile. Two hundred pounds of dead weight crashed into the mercenary and sent him stumbling.
Then Alex was among them.
The stairwell became a slaughterhouse.
The third mercenary recovered quickly, bringing his weapon up even as his teammate's blood soaked his tactical vest. He fired point-blank into Alex's face—
The bullets punched through Alex's cheek and jaw, tearing through flesh. For a split second, the mercenary thought he'd scored a kill shot.
Then the wounds sealed themselves, biomass flowing like water to repair the damage in real-time. Alex's face reformed, completely healed, and his expression never changed from the start of the fight.
"Oh Fuc—" was all the mercenary managed to say before Alex's hand shot out and grabbed the man's head.
He then twisted it with enough force to snap his neck like kindling. The body dropped.
The fourth guy had better survival instincts. He saw three teammates dead in under fifteen seconds, saw the impossible healing, and made the smart decision to retreat and regroup rather than die pointlessly.
"Fall back! Fall back! We need heavy weapons—"
He turned to run down the stairs, but Alex's arm extended, biomass forming a whip-like tendril that lashed out across fifteen feet of distance. It wrapped around the man's ankle and yanked hard.
The man went down, crashing onto the metal stairs harshly. His weapon clattered away. He tried to draw his sidearm with his one arm and cut the tendril with his combat knife with his other hand.
Alex retracted the tendril, pulling the screaming man back up the stairs like a fisherman reeling in a catch. When the man got close enough, Alex grabbed him by the tactical vest and slammed him against the wall hard enough to crack concrete.
"How many?" Alex asked.
"F-fuck you—" the man gasped.
Alex's free hand formed a blade and pressed it against the man's throat, drawing a thin line of blood. "How many operators? How many know about this location?"
"Six... six total..." The man's eyes were wide, seeing death. "Four up here... two securing perimeter..."
"The Manager," Alex said. "Tell me about him."
"I don't know, okay!! Only captain knows! We get contracts through encrypted channels, payments in crypto, no faces, no names!" The words came out in a panicked rush. "He coordinates cleanup for the games, that's all I know! Please, I've got kids, I—"
Alex drove the blade through the man's heart. The begging cut off instantly.
He let the body drop and turned back toward the room where Natasha was waiting. She stood in the doorway now, pistol still raised but unnecessary, staring at the bodies scattered across the stairs.
"You are no joke..."
"Stay here. Two more outside. I'll handle them."
Alex said simply. He crouched beside one of the bodies, placing his hand on the corpse. Biomass tendrils extended, beginning the consumption process.
"Wait—"
But Alex was already moving, vaulting over the stairwell railing and dropped to the ground floor. He moved through the factory like a shadow, heading for the exit where the two perimeter man would be waiting.
Outside, the remaining two operators had heard the gunfire and screaming. They'd taken defensive positions behind their vehicles, weapons trained on the factory entrance, waiting for their team to emerge.
Alex could hear their radio chatter through enhanced hearing:
"Do you copy?"
"All units, respond. What's your status?"
"Shit, we need to call for backup—"
Alex emerged from a side window instead of the main entrance, circling around behind their position. By the time they realized he wasn't coming through the door, it was too late.
The first man died without seeing what killed him—Alex's clawed hand punching through the back of his skull and into his brain stem. Instant death.
The second man spun, bringing his rifle around, firing wildly—
Alex moved faster than human reflexes could track, closing the distance in a heartbeat. His hand caught the rifle barrel, crushed it like aluminum foil, then grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him off the ground.
"The Manager," Alex said. "Where is the phone used to contact him?"
The man's face was turning purple. The man gestured weakly toward his tactical vest. "Pocket..."
Alex found the phone—a burner, heavily encrypted. He released the man's throat just enough to let him breathe.
"Unlock it."
Trembling fingers entered the code. The phone unlocked, showing a single contact: "CLIENT."
"Call him," Alex ordered.
"He'll know something's wrong—"
Alex's claws pressed against the man's throat. "Call. Him."
The man, seeing no other option, pressed dial. The phone rang twice before connecting. No video, just audio.
"Report." The voice was processed, distorted, impossible to identify.
The man opened his mouth to speak—
Alex squeezed, crushing the man's throat completely and consumed him. Alex caught the phone as it fell, bringing it to his own ear.
"Status?" The Manager's voice came through sounding impatient now.
Alex modulated his own voice manipulating his vocal cords to approximate the dead man's accent and tone. Not perfect, but close enough over an encrypted connection. "Target neutralized. Building sanitized. No witnesses."
A pause. Alex could hear calculation in that silence—the Manager weighing the report and checking for any anomalies.
"Confirmation code," the Manager said.
Alex replied, pulling from the memories he'd consumed from one of the person he killed earlier - the captain of the squad. "Tango-Seven-Victor-Nine."
Another pause. Longer this time. Then: "Acceptable. The loose end is tied up?"
"Confirmed," Alex said, maintaining the voice. "Target and any evidence eliminated."
"Good." The tension in the Manager's voice eased slightly. "There's been a change of plans. We are moving ahead with the notion that the primary site is compromised. We will be moving operations to the secondary location for security purposes. I'll be there personally to brief the team about the next games."
An opportunity—direct access to the person coordinating these death games. Alex thought.
"Where?"
"Coordinates coming through now. Be there in two hours. And bring the team—this briefing is for all senior operators." The phone beeped as data transferred. "Don't be late. The clients are getting impatient for the next Crucible, and I need to ensure we have adequate security for the setup phase."
"Understood," Alex said.
"One more thing," the Manager added, his voice taking on a harder edge. "If I find out you're lying to me about the cleanup—if that witness is still alive and talking—I'll make sure your death makes the Crucible look merciful. Clear?"
"Crystal clear."
"Good. Two hours. Don't disappoint me."
The line went dead.
Alex stood there, holding the phone as new coordinates appeared on the screen. A location on the outskirts of Jakarta, isolated, perfect for a secure meeting.
Alex stood in thought for a second and returned to the second floor where Natasha waited.
"They're dead," he said simply. "All of them. I will be leaving now."
"Leave?" Natasha's voice was sharp with fear. "What about getting me safe—"
"You'll be safe," Alex assured her. "I'll arrange extraction before I go. But first, I have a meeting."
"Meeting with who?"
Alex held up the phone, showing her the coordinates. "The Manager. The person who's been coordinating your hunters. He is the one who runs the games."
Natasha's eyes went wide. "I know you have powers but... that's suicide. If this guy is important as you say, then that place will be crawling with security—"
"I know," Alex said.