022

The first thing Norman felt when he got off the plane was cold, just cold, unlike the previous times, this time there were not too many people waiting for him.

Precisely only one person, a man in a black suit that covered his body and did not let his face be seen at all.

Norman just got off the plane calmly and approached the man in the black suit: "Let's go" he mentioned simply as he started to walk soon being followed by the other man.

…

Currently, the Osborn was in a house in the middle of nowhere, snow was the only thing that could be seen.

"When you told me you had a job for me, I never imagined it would be in Russia" the man in the black suit reproached, "Does that matter?" asked Norman, "Walter remember you are alive because of me, so you should at least get some work done" Osborn pointed out quickly.

Whatever Walter Hardy was about to say died as he heard his boss's words, "I wish I could be with my family" he mentioned quietly, "Yes, I do too" Norman told him, "Now tell me, exactly what did you see?" he demanded seriously.

Walter just gave only a sigh before beginning his story, "It took me longer than expected to find it, plus it had a lot more security than I expected" he began to say as he moved to grab a backpack and begin pulling various things out of it.

"How many people?" asked Osborn as he gave him a glance at what Walter had placed on a table, they appeared to be some sort of blueprints.

"From what I could gather, maybe around 30 people, most of them are heavily armed guards, and it's obvious they have killed more than once" explained Walter as he handed Norman a folder who just opened it and began to look at the photographs it contained, "As for the other people at least 5 of them are scientists or doctors, I don't know for sure" he added quickly.

"The blueprints were made by me, the things that have no name is because I could not get to them, and consequently I do not know what they keep inside" Walter began to explain seeing how interested Osborn was in his blueprints: "I only have one question Sir" he said after a few minutes in silence.

"What exactly is that place?" Walter asked, although he doubted he would get any answers besides the fact that he had thousands of other questions, but he knew that, of all of them, the one he had just said had the best chance of being answered.

Norman just smiled at his subordinate's question, "It's the home of a ghost" he answered simply which only made Walter confused.

…

Norman was on his way to the coordinates that Walter had given him, he did not take Hardy with him, as he knew he would not be of much help after all the man was only good at infiltration and stealth, but he left much to be desired in combat.

His blade was in his hand, ready to be used at any moment, his attire was similar to Walter's and covered most of his body, it was always better to be safe in this kind of cases.

Soon he could make out some sort of rock formation with a metal door in it, it was being guarded by two armed men who didn't seem to feel the heavy weather there. It seemed to be that Walter's report was correct at least for the moment.

Norman only tightened his grip on his sword before teleporting away.

The two guards hadn't noticed anything strange, however, a strange sound was heard in the quiet night, one of the guards quickly points to where the sound had been only to see that it was where his partner was, finding that he had disappeared, only leaving behind his weapon on the ground.

That fact provoked a feeling of uncertainty and just as he was about to report it he felt a stabbing pain in his left side of his chest, the next thing he saw was a sword blade sticking out of his chest, soon after his life vanished.

Norman just retracted his blade and wiped it with the man's clothes, a few seconds later the lifeless body of the second man fell from the sky.

'It really is simple to take a life' thought Osborn before he began to move towards the door and began to type in several numbers in order to open it.

Before entering Norman could observe how several crows began to arrive at the place, however, he did not give much importance to that fact, after all he had to be quick in his work.

With that thought Norman entered through the door and soon it closed, what Norman did not notice was the arrival of more crows to the place, almost as if they were looking for something.

…

In one of the rooms of the hideout an electronic meeting was taking place: "Do you understand the orders?" asked a man however the screen only showed a kind of shadow.

"Yes sir" replied a man in a lab coat, although doubt was somewhat predominant in his eyes, the other man just nodded before cutting the communication.

"Call all the guards, we will need them plus inform the others that we need the machine running" commanded the man to the guard that was with him.

The guard only nodded before leaving to carry out the order he was given, the other man for his part stayed a few seconds in a static form, simply thinking how many men he will lose this time when he wakes him up.

After being in that form for a while the man started to leave the room, but as soon as he came out he felt a bit of doubt, silence was the only word that came to his mind, too silent.

Unconsciously he brought his hand to where he was hiding his weapon, but even with it in hand he could not calm down, his steps were fast and his eyes were going back and forth all over the place.

He quickly reached the room where his colleagues were supposed to be, but the only thing he found were their lifeless bodies, near them was the guard he had given the order to inform them.

Before he could react he felt his weapon being snatched from his hands and a cut in his throat had been made, he died without being able to say a word and without being able to see his killer.

Norman for his part simply continued on his way, he had finished with most of the people who could be a danger to him, he honestly did not want to kill the scientists, but it was unlikely that they would talk, so he preferred to dispose of them in a simple way.

Osborn soon arrived at the command center, while he couldn't get information from the people working at the facility that didn't mean it was the only way to get it.

Norman had made a program that would help him get information quickly and hidden, so he wouldn't have to do it himself, instead he walked to a remote part of the center.

The most prominent feature was a sort of cylinder made of glass, a star was etched into the metal surface of the cylinder and through the glass could be seen the figure of a man with a metal arm.

'Jackpot' thought Norman as he looked at the man who appeared to be in a deep sleep.