Finishing their talk, they both went on their separate ways, right after he asked Crossed to get him an unnoticeable van he could use to not get noticed by the Fraternity when he gathers intel.
Making his way into his new room, he begins to assemble his CTD with Cortana's help along with the advice that he received from the store clerk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning, Cross left early to get the van for James to use in his mission.
Waking up and getting himself ready along with checking up on Anny, ensuring she's happy, groomed, and fed for the day.
In the kitchen, James prepared a simple breakfast for both him and Cross.
The sound of an old car could be heard parking outside.
Making his way out of the kitchen with the food prepared, he opened the door to the outside and saw Cross walking his way with a key in hand, looking behind him, he could see a beat up windowless van with rust and fading flower decals all around it.
"Hey James, got you your van, what do you think?"
"Is that an old Hippie Van?"
"Yep, got it for cheap, works fine and is quiet too. You can do whatever you want, it's fine if it gets scrapped."
"Well thanks, I made some eggs on the table."
"Oh thanks, the smell of that van got me hungry." James just raised an eyebrow, looking back to the van, he could guess what mix of smells it might possibly have, "it is what is, at least it's inconspicuous."
After their brunch, they both carried burn phones to contact each other incase of emergencies before leaving with the van to pick up some electronics to outfit the van with.
With mini cameras, laptops and listening gears, he went to a secluded area to begin his van modifications, with all that done he made his way to the Textile Mill, hopefully he could pick something up for the rest of the afternoon to night.
After hours of waiting, he finally manages to intercept a call signal far different from the normal calls he picked up about orders and whatnots from the Fraternity's side job.
Tapping on the call, with Cortana's assistance he also asks for the call to be traced to where the caller might be located when an unexpected situation arises.
"I'm sorry master but the call is highly encrypted, I have no capacity to track the signal as I am now."
"As you are now? So what do I need to do so you can do it now?"
"My stupid master would need to be a super soldier or get overcharged for me to process so much data and compute codes fast enough to decrypt the signal.
Doing so now would not only drain you of all energy, but you could go nuclear and melt from the inside out, not even the arctic could cool you down."
Sighing from the loss, he can only be grateful that he could eavesdrop on the call.
"The target is still alive, I need an explanation from you." The mysterious person on the call says.
"Our pawn has gone missing, and the traitor is still at large hunting my men. Until the situation is solved, nothing is absolute." Sloan is a cunning man, who worked at the Fraternity for many years, there was no reason to fear the organization on the other line.
"We had an agreement, your setback is costing us our plans." The person on the line says with calm irritation, but knows that there's nothing to be done but wait.
"The replica you're trying to make, it's been many years since the last time we allowed you to study the Loom of Fate. Any progress?" Sloan asks about another matter, steering clear as to not cause turmoil on both sides.
"What we are making is different, the Loom of fate only tells you people need to be killed for the sake of the world, but for us, we are using it for a different purpose and so progress is slow and there is a need for cooperation between us.
Don't forget we have already paid in advance" the other person simply says.
"I need to be alive for that money to have worth. You know very well how competent that traitor is, one of most competent assassins with a special ability.
We have recruited his son who has the same ability to eliminate his father, but he has also gone rogue, there are no details of whether he is still alive or dead, nor is the whereabouts of his father.
We have no choice but to lay low, or risk having more of the Fraternity picked off one by one during missions."
"Do you need assistance for your pest problem?"
"No, Your involvement will only bring more enemies against us. Don't think that I don't know what's going on, you're also hiding against your enemies, a single trace of our connection would be devastating."
"Fine, but be quick. We don't care about the cost, just get it done."
"Then we'll need to hire third party killers, they will act as cannon fodders to lure them out." James was stunned from what he heard.
The Fraternity is making deals with Hydra. "Just send the bill, the payment will be deposited on your account."
"As long as Cross is dealt with, all your targets are as good as dead." Sloan hung up the call, while James proceeded to call his father.
"Is everything ready?" James asked directly..
"All good to go, these rats can't be caged for long, so when do we go?" Cross asked.
"Tomorrow morning, I will give you the attack plan once I get back." James put his phone away before proceeding to drive away while careful not to be detected by anyone.
After a long detour, he reached his new home and met up with Cross for the plan.
"They're indeed working for someone, an organization that has managed to develop a software using their research on the Loom of Destiny.
It's just that it's not clear what kind of results they want to know. It's still in the experimental stage, and Sloan is providing service for their experiments.
To put it bluntly, he's helping them assassinate certain individuals recorded by their experiments. From this, it can be seen that the software they developed is to calculate people who are a threat to their organization.' James made a glass of water and drank it in one gulp.
"Hmm… This organization, should we go after them?" Cross asked in contemplation.
"Absolutely no way and impossible, for one, we don't know who they truly are, the amount of power and resources they could possibly have, and what kind of organization we would actually be dealing with.
We may cross with them again and be forced to engage them, but for now we focus on the Fraternity." With Hydra already in his, SHIELD should be lurking around. After all, Iron Man is about to appear.
"Let's start talking about our plans to deal with Sloan…" Cross had steered away the discussion to begin with what's important, but before he could say a word in, James interrupts.
"Hold on, before you say anything, I'll be blunt and say that it won't work." James rejected the plan before it was even said. "You plan on making me support you from far away right?" James raised an eyebrow as he stares at Cross eye to eye.
"Of course, you barely have any experience, and I can't just let you dive head first in the vipers nest." Cross says with conviction.
"Too bad for you but I got absolutely no skills in long distance support, I've only been trained for a few weeks but in those weeks I had mastered every teachings they taught me of hand to hand combat, knife skills, and pistol wielding.
I am more skilled in close combat so I need you to be outside as a sniper and keep an eye on me and any enemy that approaches."
"Absolutely Not! I won't allow you to go in alone, there's a limit to where I can see and protect you." Cross creases his eyebrow worried for his son for wanting to storm the castle alone and subject himself to gunfire.
"You know very well that what I said is correct. I have no use outside, and I know the people of the Fraternity during my training. I have fought with their strongest people since they show no mercy.
Don't forget that your blood runs through me and we both have the same abilities, they are not even an opponent. As long as I am not surrounded by them, everything will be fine. By the way, did you buy the grenades?"
"Yes I did… fine, you're right. But try to fight close to a window." Cross is a professional assassin. He knows when to give up once he sees the conviction in his son's eyes. His son had grown up, no longer he could control.
"Tomorrow morning, I'll drive the truck to the factory, crash it in reverse, and release the rats. At this time, I'll park the front of the truck at the gate to protect myself to the best of my ability, as you cover me with your sniper rifle from my blind spots."
"After the rats enter the textile factory, the bombs attached to them would be detonated, the glass here is basically gone. This is very beneficial to us and can play the effect of your long-range sniping. I have seen records of your jobs, and your marksmanship never misses its target."
Was James brave? He was certainly brave enough, but he knew very well that as long as Cross was outside, he would not be in too much danger.
Because if he died, none of the people inside would live. And he had Cortana to help him, so it was easy to control his ability and the AI assist that she provides in always seeing his target and perfect control of his body.
Just that alone makes him the ultimate human level Assassin.