The world is full of surprises, and when you least expect things to happen, they usually do.

Hashim Osmani was the missing link I was searching for; the clue Ziad the assassin gave us, tied several loose threads together. Of course, when I managed to unearth this snake, he was in the middle of doing something evil. (Bad apples and all that.) In the middle of George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, of all places.

Can you imagine the temerity of the man? He actually planned to kill the President of the United States. What is worse, he almost managed to do it. Well, that just shows you how far a blind ambition will get you. Luckily, he was judged and found lacking.

Benjamin Franklin said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Well, I had no intention to fail, so I prepared a few things in advance.

I modified one transporter in case of situations that required a faster deployment, where even seconds mattered. The idea was that two people could work as snipers from above, while the team jumps to the ground from the hatch I cut in the middle of the transporter, so they could be in the thick of the action within seconds. It worked as planned and the opposition didn’t last long. If you are into horror and gore, you should look at the archived recordings I have of the event. Those terrorists did not stand a chance against superior firepower combined with advanced body armor. Elizabeth and Alice brought a completely new meaning to the expression ‘shooting fish in a barrel.’ Using the flechette sniper rifles I made, they had a little competition between themselves, who would take out more marks. (Alice won—naturally.)

Michael and the team were death incarnate, mowing down bad guys in droves, they didn’t even try to remain hidden. Well, they were invisible and had mostly bulletproof battle-suits, so the fight was unfairly one-sided. All of the terrorists were neutralized by the team.

After Michael had his little get-together with Hashim Osmani (which resulted in the dismemberment of the terrorist’s hand), he then had a little chat with the President himself. That may not have been the smartest thing to do since he allowed his face to be seen; I was not happy about that. Grandpa did say that there was no point in crying over spilled milk, so we will deal with that in time.

My main interest was Hashim Osmani and all the things I could find out about him. I tried to dig more information, and I found plenty. When I connected all the dots of his evil empire, it was enough so that any law enforcement agency would call it the scoop of a decade. Drug trafficking, prostitution, enslavement… he was a busy boy. Unfortunately, the thing I was looking for, the information about the ‘High Council’… nothing, nada, zilch.

We couldn’t even take the man with us for a prolonged interrogation session. Well, we technically could, there was no one left on the premises except for the President and his two agents. However, he had just organized one of the most devastating attacks on the Secret Service in history and tried to assassinate the head of state of the United States government. Those two Secret Service agents would've gone to any lengths to keep him in their custody. Additionally, taking him would have poisoned our relations with the POTUS to the nth degree. And, that was something to avoid. The man owed his life to us, and that was a thing I had plans to exploit in the future. OK, that sounds a bit opportunistic, but we will need to deal with the government, and having an IOU from a man leading it is a boon we couldn’t pass on.

Hashim Osmani had a convenient heart attack within hours of being in custody, which was plain old horseshit. Especially if you consider the fact that all his close associates died of various accidents within the day. (All of them on the same day, what are the odds?) It would seem that the ‘High Council’ didn’t want to be found, and they were willing to go to great lengths to make that happen.

It was frustrating to an unbelievable extent; as soon as we found someone who could show us the way to the yellow brick road, the road was removed and all traces were hidden.

My search was not a total loss; I managed to liberate a couple hundred million from his accounts. I don’t know what it is with these people, carrying their smartphones on an assassination attempt is a real no-no. It is like an honest to god amateur hour. I don’t care how strongly you believe in a positive and successful outcome of your mission, real professionals don’t carry anything that can identify them. (Seriously, it is in the rulebook.)

From it, I got into his personal network at the upscale residential building in Washington, D.C. and relocated all the funds he had access to. (I can’t stress enough how dangerous those automatic password managers are, they do remember everything, and that is like stealing candy from a baby for me.)

In any case, some of the murky contacts from his emails were interesting, they may not be part of the ‘High Council’, but evil is as evil does.

It feels strangely liberating when you can let yourself loose and do very bad things to evil people, and when that annoying good angel that sometimes sits on your shoulder is simply not there.

One of Osmani’s contacts was this terrorist financier living in Dubai that I took a shine to. He was rich and powerful and was a true believer that wished for a worldwide caliphate to be established. In it, every human being should follow the same deity he did, and obey the same laws he preached about. I took the liberty of reading through some manuscripts on his computer, he fancied himself somewhat of a religious writer. (Funny thing, those high-priced blonde prostitutes he enjoyed frequently were not exactly legal under those laws.)

I followed digital trails to find some things he was directly responsible for, and found dozens of cases where his money was the cause of innocent deaths. Just because he did not personally pull the trigger didn’t mitigate his guilt, he provided the funds, so he needed to suffer the consequences. And I was extremely irritated that the ‘High Council’ eluded me once again, so I needed to let off some steam. While he was not the prey I was chasing, he was unquestionably a legitimate target of my wrath. Besides, the man was so easy to mess with since he had a weakness… you see, he was a hardcore homophobe.

I started small, placing a few personal ads on a few LGBT sites and magazines. Let me tell you, I can write some pretty tempting and tantalizing personal ads. After getting a few dozen calls (from men in search of true love and maybe something more), he changed his phone number. I don’t know what he was thinking? If it was so easy to escape Max the mighty, everyone would be doing it. Then I started sending him emails with embedded videos of gay men making love to each other, which made him mad beyond all reason. He may be crazy rich, but those phones and computers were expensive, and all that breakage doesn’t fall under warranty. He gave up carrying them all together and tried to go full Luddite on me; oh, how little he knew of the modern world. Computers are everywhere nowadays. In one’s car, the fridge, the TV… everywhere.

There is this cool software Hollywood uses for realistic computer graphic animation, I acquired it (and yes, I did pay for the full license), and then improved it considerably. The short video of him with some very gifted young men went to his closest associates, and to anybody he interacted with. After that, they all started looking at him funny. They didn’t want to hug him and kiss him on the cheek anymore. When I finally played him the video on his big-screen TV, he broke that as well… such a wasteful human being.

Which brings us to now, I check on him on occasion. As I said, there are cameras everywhere, some I even managed to place in his private quarters using small drones. Well, he cries a lot. It is getting a bit pathetic really, such a powerful man broken down by a few little pranks. He should embrace the difference in this complex world we all inhabit, and find happiness in little things. On the other hand, maybe it is too late for that; the powers that be feel embarrassed by his lewd behavior, and the fact that he flaunts it like that, so… they are going to arrest him in a few days. People in his part of the world are very strict about such things. Pity he has no money left for bribes and a lawyer since I took it all. (And possibly placed him in a few debts. And when I say a few, I mean so many zeroes it would make a billionaire run screaming in terror.) Well, banks can reclaim some of that money by confiscating all of his property.

You see how easily one can use someone’s weakness to completely destroy their life. Now, ask yourself what dark secrets are you hiding? What is the thing someone could turn against you? Don’t worry, if you find yourself on my radar, you will certainly find out.

There were a few others on my naughty list, who suffered similar fates, but they were all small fish compared to the Middle Eastern homophobe. I keep stealing money from these dirtbags with no remorse what-so-ever… maybe I am turning into a professional thief? …No, I would never…