The First Agent. (First draft.)

Chapter One

“Hey Anthony. “ Richard said. Richard Garrison was an old friend of mine; we had gone to high school together and graduated from the same college. Now, 20 years later, I’m living in a small suburban house right outside New York and Richard is my mailman.
“Mornin’ Richard.” I hollered back, “Are you coming to the reunion tonight?” I asked.
“Of course,” Richard said with a smile, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
A lot of the kids Richard and I went to school together with joined the army, including myself; however, most had either been K.I.A. or are currently being treated for PTSD. In memory to them, every year Richard and I get together with the other two guys in our class not dead or crazy and have lunch together.
This year, Richard chose the place, a small tavern on the edge of the city. It was a quiet place that never really saw a steady stream of customers and they were always happy to see us.
As Richard left, I went out and took a look at my mail, mostly retirement checks and advertisements for local stores. I threw them out and opened up my email. Most of it was spam and more advertisements but as I scrolled down I saw an email from an unrecognized address. Not only did I not know who it was but it seemed as though they had bounced the email off of so many servers that not even my computer could pinpoint the sender’s location. I decided that I should open it to see who it was so, after opening a malware protection program, I opened the email. It read:

To whom it may concern,

I’ve seen your work Thompson. It’s swift, quite, and clean. I have a job that requires a certain level of skill, one that only you possess. If you are interested, meet me after the reunion, in the tavern. There’ll be no need to find me, just sit at a table and wait for me to find you.

Have fun,
The General.

I stared at the email, not knowing what to think of it. I’d been out of the service for 5 years now and I had no interest in going back. I looked at the time, 11:45, and the reunion starts at noon. I knew it might be dangerous so I grabbed one of the handguns I keep around the house, put it in my back holster, and got in my car to leave.
When I got to the tavern, I took a look at my surroundings. Sitting at a table in the corner was the two guys we were going to have lunch with. It looked like Richard wasn’t here yet. At the bar stood an old man, about 70 years old, he smiled and waved, I knew him from a few years back when we had our first reunion here.
“They’re sittin’ at that back table Tony.” He said. I nodded and smiled.
“Thanks Sam.” I said. As I went to the table I looked around me, the place seemed empty. It wasn’t very often that we were the only ones here. On any other occasion I’d be thrilled, but this was different, it was dangerous.
“Tony!” Will exclaimed as I sat down, “Long time, no see man. What’ve you been up to huh?”
Will was a nice enough guy. He had never had any really interest in joining the military. After our high school years he went on to Harvard and became a professor at Yale. This was the only time that he could see us, between being a tenured professor and having to undergo chemotherapy for his lung cancer, he didn’t have a lot of free time.
“Not much, mostly cashing retirement checks.” I said, “How’s Sarah and the kids?”
“Oh they’re fine,” He answered with a smile, “Jason, the youngest one, just got accepted into a fancy private school. He had a little help though, something about the principal being a student of mine.”
“Makes ya feel old doesn’t it.” said Chase. Chase was a tall man, standing at about 7 feet, and had been a star basketball player in college. He decided to continue his education though, instead of going into pro sports, and is the current coach of one of the best college basketball teams in the nation.