"As he took in the view from the twentieth floor, the lights went out all over the city."

     The man in sunglasses gently picked up the briefcase from the floor and walked purposefully towards the door. 

    "Have a pleasant evening, sir." The concierge said, as the man slipped past him out into the busy streets of London. 

    "I will." The man said under his breath. He walked straight to the curb were the black Mercedes was waiting for him. 

    "Some weather we are having this evening." He said to the driver when he had closed the door. The driver nodded once.

    "Only the best, my second cousin is in town." The man blinked, knowing the driver was legit.

"Where too, sir?"

    "Just a walk in the park, if you'd be so kind." 

    "As you wish." They pulled out into Bridge St. from Belvedere Rd. going west, and crossed over the river. Then turned north on Whitehall.

    "How is your Aunt?" the man asked.

    "She recently had the influenza."

    "Was she cured?"

    "Oh yes, sir. She has had no more difficulties with her health."    

    "Excellent, I hope she has no more problems."

    "The doctors were not able to find anything else that might cause her to become sick again." The man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a mobile phone. 

    "Do we have mission approval?" he typed into the phone and tapped 'send'. Barely three seconds went by before the phone beeped and he received his answer.

    "Redemption is a go."

Then,

    "Eliminate him."

    "On second thought," the man said. "I feel rather tired, let me get out of the car." The driver pulled down an alley, and put the car in park. 

    "You are breaking protocol, Devon." The driver said, turning in his seat to look at his passenger. He was met with a bullet between his eyes from the end of a silenced pistol. The man opened his door , picked up his briefcase, and walked down the alley toward the main road. He tapped three times on his mobile phone and held it to his ear. 

    "Number?" A woman spoke in his ear. 

    "74385911." The man said. 

    "State your urgency, 74385911." She said.

    "Orange." 

    "Please wait." Two seconds later, a man spoke. 

    "Yes, Agent 74385911."

    "Awaiting emergency transpiration to Redemption ground zero."

    "Confirmation 4893. Three minutes, 6829304-5"

    "Affirmative." He slipped the phone back into his jacket, and turned to look at himself in the reflective panels on the opposite building. His grey suit was slightly rumpled, and he smoothed it with his free hand. Then straightened the navy blue tie around his neck, and readjusted the sunglasses on his nose. 

    Exactly three minutes later, a black Mercedes SUV pulled up next to him. He opened the door and slipped onto the back seat. 

    "Number?" The man asked

    "6829304-5." the driver answered. "We have little time." 

    "Yes." The drove without any more conversation, and it started to rain. Seven minutes later they pulled up in front of a modern office building. The man stepped out of the car and walking into the building. The rain making little dark spots on his suit. He walked straight to the elevators and pressed the bottom for level thirty-one. The button glowed yellow, and the elevator started to rise. At the ninth level, the elevator stopped, and the doors slid open. The man's eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses. 

    A tall black man entered the elevator and pressed the button the the thirty-second floor. The man's mobile phone beeped and he pulled it from his inside suit pocket.

    "Eliminate him." The message said. The man put the phone back into his pocket and retrieved the silenced pistol from his shoulder holster. he maneuvered it under his left arm and pressed it into the black man's side. He slowly squeezed the trigger. The black man opened his mouth, and a small sigh escaped him before his knees buckled and he fell to the floor of the elevator. The doors opened at the thirty-first floor. Two men were waiting at the doors. They said nothing to the man as he passed, they stepped into the elevator with the dead body and the doors slid shut.

    The man walked down the hall and stopped at room number 31-31. The door opened, and a woman was waiting there for him. "Come in." she said.

  

     He stepped inside and set his briefcase down on the table. Pulling out a chair, he sat down. The woman sat down opposite from him.  He slid the briefcase across the table to her. She entered in the passcode and the case popped open. She looked at the contents and nodded. The man took off his sunglasses, and laid them on the table in front of him. 

    "Grade?" she asked. 

    "The best." he replied.  

    "Creator?"

    "Alpha."

    "Time of detonation?"

    "Twenty-two hundred hours."

    "Landmass?"

     "One hundred square meters." 

    "Your mission in complete, Agent. It has been a pleasure working with you." She stood and extended her hand. He took it and shook it. 

    "Affirmative." He put on his sunglasses and turned, leaving the room. He walked down the hall to the elevator. As he waited for the elevator, a conversation he had had three years ago came back to him. 

    "A new life." Alpha said. "A better life." His words were followed by applause. 

    "This opportunity will open hundreds of doors for our organization." 

    The elevator doors opened and he stepped in, pressing the button for the ground floor. The doors slid shut.

    "We will make incredible advances in technology. We will create a new civilization. And it starts right here." More applause. The man remembered how Alpha outlined their plan. It started with an explosive. The same explosive that the man had just delivered to the woman behind the door 31-31. How once the bomb exploded, the city would initiate Omission Procedure. Where the power to the city would be shut off. This would leave Alpha room to do what he wishes with the city. 

    The doors opened and he exited the building. He opened the door to the black SUV. The rain was now falling heavily, and the driver had the wipers speeding back and forth across the windshield. 

    "Mission Complete. I am going home." the man said. The car pulled into traffic and sped away through the rain. They pulled up in front of a hotel, the man got out of the car for the last time, and jogged into the building. He took the elevator the the twentieth floor. Opened the door to his room and walked across the room. He opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the terrace.He glanced down at his watch, it read 21:57.

    "Three minutes." he said softly to himself. He stood silently until the watch read 21:59:59.

He looked up and as he took in the view from the twentieth floor, there was an explosion across town as Buckingham Palace exploded into a million pieces. The man smiled as the light went out all over the city. He pulled out his mobile phone. 

    "Mission Complete." He typed. And a helicopter appeared from over his hotel. A ladder fell from it and the man stepped off the balcony onto the ladder. The helicopter rose and carried the man with it as it left the dark mass of what used to be London, England.