It took over two months, but the high-end brokerage firm finally found a buyer for the Texas farm Hunter had seized from the late Frank D'Amico.
The buyer was a massive Japanese multinational agricultural conglomerate. The brokerage firm charged an exorbitant fourteen million dollars in processing and legal fees to handle the anonymous transfer.
However, they more than earned their massive cut. They managed to sell the sprawling, forty-thousand-acre property for a staggering one hundred and seventy million dollars. That was vastly higher than the firm's initial appraisal of one hundred and thirty-six million.
Hunter didn't care about the corporate logistics or how they drove the price up. All that mattered was that another mountain of liquid wealth had just landed in his secure accounts.
It put him in a fantastic mood. As the second major winter blizzard cleared over California, Hunter booked a first-class flight to New York.
Several hours later, at JFK International Airport.
Diana stood in the arrivals terminal. She was wearing sleek, professional business attire, but the biting New York cold front had forced her to throw a heavy down jacket over her shoulders.
She compulsively checked her wristwatch. She was a bundle of nerves.
Thanks to the blackmail cache Hunter had provided, the ICA had finally secured a legitimate, unshakeable foothold in the United States, specifically in New York. As a direct result, Diana had been promoted up the administrative ladder.
But the promotion had brought a terrifying amount of pressure.
Prior to this, Diana had dispatched her top asset, the legendary super-assassin Agent 47, to tail and investigate Hunter.
The results of that investigation had shaken the ICA to its core. 47 reported that Hunter possessed a borderline supernatural learning capacity. He mastered any lethal skill effortlessly, demonstrating terrifying proficiency in parkour, close-quarters assassination, lockpicking, and extreme long-range sniping.
Worse yet, during the surveillance operation, Hunter had detected Agent 47 multiple times. He had even come close to catching the legendary ghost.
In his final debriefing, 47 bluntly stated that Hunter was at least his physical and tactical equal, and potentially his superior.
Diana had initially been skeptical of the report. But she knew the truth about Agent 47. He was the crown jewel of the former Soviet Union's top-secret "Agent Program," a perfectly engineered genetic super-soldier.
Because of his genetic conditioning, 47 was hyper-rational and entirely devoid of ego. If he said Hunter was a superior threat, it was an objective, statistical fact.
As the regional recruiter, Diana had forwarded this assessment to the ICA's highest echelons.
The ICA was a global titan, but it was still structurally weaker than the Continental Hotel, particularly in the Americas. They were desperate to recruit elite assets to bridge the gap.
The Director of the Americas had personally handed Diana a strict directive. She had to acquire Hunter's blood, hair, or bodily fluids at all costs. The ICA's internal genetic laboratories needed to determine if Hunter was a product of the same Soviet Agent Program that birthed 47.
It was a matter of organizational survival. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the ICA had poached several key scientists and uncovered the horrifying truth of the cloning initiative.
Despite the genius of the Soviet scientists, the original Agent Program was plagued by failures. Only fifty viable test subjects had survived the grueling genetic conditioning.
Most of those surviving super-soldiers remained loyal to Russia. A handful escaped and were absorbed by various global syndicates. Agent 47 was statistically the most lethal of the fifty, and the only one the ICA managed to secure.
But the ICA knew they weren't the only players on the board.
Syndicate International, the terrifying multinational biotech corporation, had poached the vast majority of the original Soviet geneticists. They had poured billions in black-budget capital into refining the failed Agent Program.
Rumors indicated that Syndicate International had successfully smoothed out the genetic flaws. They were supposedly fielding entire private military companies staffed by genetically modified super-soldiers.
Engineering a flawless super-soldier took a fraction of the time and money required to train a conventional special forces operator. That was exactly why the major world powers were terrified of Syndicate International.
Reading 47's report, the ICA brass was deeply paranoid that Hunter belonged to Syndicate International or another rival faction holding Soviet cloning tech.
The pressure on Diana was immense. She needed that DNA sample.
Furthermore, the ICA had recently taken on a highly complex, delicate contract. It was a job Agent 47 couldn't handle. His genetic conditioning made him far too cold and robotic to navigate the nuanced social engineering required for the hit.
Diana needed Hunter's adaptable, charismatic touch. But because Hunter was technically a Continental asset, she couldn't order him to take the job. She had to seduce him into accepting it voluntarily.
"This is going to be incredibly difficult," Diana muttered to herself, her breath pluming into a cloud of white mist in the freezing terminal. "I just hope I can convince him."
Suddenly, her eyes lit up.
A tall, commanding figure had just stepped out of the arrivals gate and into her line of sight. Hunter had arrived.
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