Alex did not immediately fly to Oman, he was wanted by the royal family, and would need to smuggle himself inside the country. Luckily for him, he was friendly with a hostile government in the form of Iran. As a result, he ditched his private plane in an airport in Russia and used a fake passport to gain entry into Iran.
He had lost the means to use his actual abilities, and he was facing the final countdown. The trip itself was difficult, but luckily by the time he got to Tehran everything was in place to arrange his final transport to the capital of Oman.
A few brief cases full of untraceable cold hard cash and Alex was smuggled into the city, where he manages to conceal his appearance with some bronzer, hair dye and colored contacts. It was just enough to escape the notice of the authorities.
After all, they were searching for a blonde hair, blue eyed American male, and not a man of darker complexion and hair color. Redacted was constantly in communication hacking into Omani government computers and tracking any traffic towards his identity.
However, even though Alex had ended up in the Capital of his enemy, he needed a way to infiltrate the palace. Luckily for him, there just so happened to be a gathering today, a sort of memorial service for the slain prince, and there was a familiar face who needed an escort.
Margaret Rockefeller was standing outside her limousine, her date, aka her husband, having clearly run off with a younger woman while they were stuck in Turkey for the refuel of their jet, because she was in a very poor mood.
She had no way of knowing it, but when Alex approached the woman, he was someone she desperately wanted dead. Even if she didn’t recognize him. In a highly accented tone, Alex asked the woman for a favor.
“Hey beautiful, can I ask you for some help?”
The woman rolled her eyes, signalling to her bodyguard that she was not in the mood for some local playboy to try to pick her up, though she was graceful for her age, she was far too mature for some Casanova to remotely have a chance at picking up. Her tone matched the exhaustion on her face as the security tried to get Alex to leave.
“I don’t have time for your nonsense, Lucas. Please send this fool packing.”
Alex immediately waved his hands, acting as if he was not a threat, while begging one of the two targets of his end game task for a chance to explain himself.
“Woah, hey, I get it… But I promise you, I wasn’t trying anything funny, I just wanted a light is all. I saw you smoking and figured you could help me out?”
Margaret took one look at her watch and realized she had time. After realizing this, she nodded at her bodyguard to cease hostilities before handing over the smoke she was in the middle of to the stranger.
Maybe it was because she was pissed at her irresponsible husband for missing this important meeting, or maybe it was because she was just acting on a whim, but for whatever reason she had decided to share this smoke with a stranger who seemed like from the expression in his eyes that he was also just done with everyone’s shit. Even so, her tone was filled with hostility as she handed off the cigarette.
“I just want you to know I have diplomatic plates, and a .380 in my purse. Try anything and Lucas here won’t need to deal with you himself…”
Alex didn’t say anything, and instead took a long drag, making sure his lips made perfect contact with the cigarette, exhaling out of his lungs before handing it back to the woman across from him. He only responded after she had taken another smoke herself.
“Thanks Miss Rockefeller, but you don’t need to threaten me with a good time. After all, the moment your lips touched that cigarette we are now in the same boat. So we might as well get along together, no?”
Lucas immediately realized Alex had hoodwinked his boss and reached into his coat to draw his gun, but Margaret was a bit quicker. She was the brains behind her family’s operations after all.
And she could tell Alex had done something to the cigarette they shared, without her or her bodyguard detecting it, thus she halted Lucas’ actions while demanding Alex explain himself.
“No stop! You… I take it you’re Mr. Smith… Damn you’re good… No wonder the boys in Langley have had a hard time tracking you, just a simple spray tan and change of your hair and eyes, and I didn’t even recognize you.
So… What the hell did you do to me? You didn’t have much time to do anything, and by the words you said you laced your lips with poison no? And we are now both ill, aren’t we?”
Alex was indeed surprised that Margaret was smart enough to deduce all of that within a few seconds, and thus he quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial with a small white powder, which he tossed to his target.
Informing her exactly of what he had done before making his demands.
“You’re a clever girl aren’t you? Yeah… I laced my lips with poison, and I’m not going to tell you what it is, just that it’s in that vial. Now we don’t have much time to live either of us, unless we get an antidote, but luckily for you I have it secured elsewhere within reach, but I’m going to need you to help me crash this little party of yours if you want me to hand it over.
Or you can wager that I gave you the right poison and that your labs can analyze it and synthesize the precise antidote and dose required before you keel over and die. … SO what will it be Miss Rockefeller? Will you be my date to this fine little gathering?”
Margaret stood in complete and total disbelief at how well she had been played by the man her people were supposed to be looking for at this very moment. And she also knew there was a less than 10% chance Alex gave her the actual poison he used to get them both on death’s list.
Because of this, she couldn’t help but smirk and laugh as she made a comment while shaking her head.
“Here I thought you were a brainless playboy like that bastard of a husband I have… You’re smarter than I gave you credit for…. Alright, I’ll play your little wager… After all, I have never quite been able to figure you out… Your end game still eludes me, so I want to see where this goes….”
Alex raised his arm with a snarky expression as he gave the bodyguard the stink-eye basically telling him to fuck right off, as he and his secondary target accepted their little dalliance together.
“Then, shall we get going? The show must go on as they say….”