"Daaaad! Where are you?! Don't tell me you're hiding—Oh hello, Dad, what are you doing bent over like that?"
Atlas blinked as he got out from under the bed and turned to look at his eight-year-old 'son' who stood a few meters away from him in his school uniform. He still didn't understand how he got roped into all this, as this was the last thing that he had expected himself to do. Well, it was probably a good thing to be a hot girl's 'Daddy', but to be an actual dad? Hell no!
Yet here he was, babysitting a kid not even his own.
What a weird story it would be to tell to his grandkids. 'How did you two meet?' 'Oh, I was just coming back from killing someone, and your dad seemed to think it was a good time to tell the killer about floating bodies.'
"Dad? Man, we really need to get rid of this zoning-out habit of yours," Harry grumbled as he snapped his fingers in front of Atlas' eyes. "How Aunt Maya even handles you when I am not at home surprises me."
"Oi! I don't zone out, and she isn't here all the time either," Atlas rebuked as he took Harry's bag and started rummaging through it. "That woman just wants to be here when her 'cutie pookie bear' is home. And trust me, I am not that person."
"Of course you aren't. We both know I am the cuter one; girls just can't resist my charm." Harry laughed as he plopped on the bed.
"You are a bit too young for 'charming' the fairer sex, kiddo," Atlas smirked, "And trust me, they would love a sexy hot man like me more than they'd like a scrawny little shit like you."
"Uh huh, uh huh…says the man who got slapped by Aunt Maya a few days ago because of his perverted habits. Makes me wonder who's the kid among us."
"Obviously you, little Mr. Charmer, who got into a fight today."
Harry opened his mouth to rebuke but then immediately shut it when he realized what Atlas had just said. "Ahh…err… You know about it already?"
"Well, duh…" Atlas shrugged; he brought out Harry's school diary and pulled out a slip of paper that had been written by his schoolteacher. "You have a bruise forming under your right eye, and the knuckles of your right hand are swollen and slightly red—punched with it, I presume?" He continued, "Not to mention the edges of your nails are rough, which means you grabbed someone's collar or shirt with them."
"Did my teacher call you?"
Atlas opened his mouth but then snapped it and nodded, "She did. I got a phone call when I was in The Office. She was—don't roll your eyes, dimwit."
Harry just sighed; he knew Atlas' job change and that the man referred to the headquarters as his office. In reality, it was just a plain building where there was a large bulletin board and two guards; people with bounties on their heads were photographed and placed on the board by the benefactors while the mercenaries looking for a job picked the photos.
There were certain rules to this, but that was just going into more details. Something that Harry never minded to learn and Atlas never wanted to teach the boy. After all, what was the use of learning all of that when you don't even want to do that work in the first place?
All Harry knew was that his dad was so high among the mercenary ranks that he never had to pick the offers anymore. Instead, he was always in high demand and only received big gigs that either paid him tens of thousands or got him a favor with one of the big names in the world.
"She was a bit worried. The call was regarding the recent fight you had and how they would've suspended you if not for your good records at school. She—"
" —More like if not for you fucking her every month…."
" —Was also horrified that you had almost killed the boy. She said you were excessively brutal this time. Care to tell me why?"
Harry looked down at that. He wasn't ashamed, no. He would fight that idiot repeatedly if it were up to him. He felt Atlas sit beside him on the bed, and then the man's large arm wrapped around his shoulder as Harry almost involuntarily leaned against the larger man's side.
"I am worried for you, Harry. You know I don't care if you hit a guy or two, but getting suspended? Or fighting someone to death? That's not something I want for you." Atlas patted the boy's messy head. "You know you won't get a good job if you keep this up, and I don't want—"
"But I don't want a desk job, Dad!" Harry frowned, "I want a cool job. Like yours! When will you understand that?!"
"And my job, as you put it, isn't something that I want for you. When will you understand that?"
There was a pregnant pause as both father and son took a deep breath together. They knew that both of them were as stubborn as the other one, as this particular topic had been discussed a few times before.
Each time with no conclusion, as Harry was hell-bent on becoming a mercenary just like his dad, while Atlas didn't want Harry to follow him in this life-threatening job where no one knew what would happen the moment you met a foe stronger than you, or luck decided that enough was enough.
"I'm home!" A new voice, distinctively feminine, announced herself. "Now where is my little munchkin?"
Both Harry and Atlas immediately jumped off the bed, cleaned the wrinkles on the sheet, and then Harry started to change his clothes while Atlas hid the note from Harry's teacher that he held in his hand.
"We're in the bedroom, Maya!" Atlas announced and took a step back as the lady in question ventured excitedly into the room. She bent down and picked Harry up in her arms before giving him one of her special Maya hugs that was basically just smothering the boy with her DD tits….boy did that make Atlas jealous of his kid's fortune.
"Hey…ugh—Maya! Can't breathe!" Harry patted the buxom woman's back, who smothered the boy once more before she released him.
"So, how's my favorite munchkin, and did you do anything exciting today?" Maya ruffled Harry's already messy hair as she started to help him change into his pajamas. They discussed his day at school and then started walking towards the living room while Atlas followed them.
Maya had been a blessing in their lives. She was actually a single mom who lived nearby and was the owner of a small bookshop-cafe by the corner. She occasionally used to drop by as a house help to help Atlas whenever he returned from one of his missions. Other than her and now Harry, there wasn't anyone who knew what he actually did for a living.
She was also really good with the medical arts, as she used to be a trained nurse but had to leave because she discovered that after a few years, she just didn't want to be a nurse anymore.
The day he had met Harry and took him home, Maya was the first person he had contacted. At first the woman had proceeded to scold him quite loudly before she had decided that Harry needed to go to his own home.
But when both Harry and Atlas repeatedly denied her, she decided to wait for Harry's guardians to put up a missing report. Something that was yet to be published in the newspapers or magazines because Harry's guardians were more than happy to get rid of the boy.
After that, Maya decided that Harry was to stay here and that she would work as a full-time caretaker for the boy as well as give him as much affection as possible. Harry, of course, was all too happy to meet another human who accepted him for who he was, and slowly the affection-starving boy got accustomed to both Maya and Atlas.
That was three years back when the trio had just met. After that, a lot of things took place, which included Atlas using his connections to get false papers for Harry. The boy's surname, 'Potter,' was removed, and instead he took Maya's surname as his own because…well, Atlas didn't have one.
And thus…. five-year-old Harry Carter, son of Atlas, was born on July 31st, 1980. The boy was given as much love and affection as he wanted by both Atlas and Maya, who had decided to take Harry as their own kid. Turning the boy from a socially inept and awkward but a bit smart introvert to something that unfortunately resembled a ditto copy of Atlas.
Something that Maya was definitely not fond of, and had told that numerous times. Not that either of them cared.
Maya's daughter Jessica, or Jessie for short, was a year younger than Harry. She went to the same school as him and was a hyperactive girl who loved to banter with the only boy that her mom really allowed to spend the night with them.
"Can I ask you something, Maya?" Harry asked her as the trio sat around the dinner table for lunch. Maya began filling Harry's plate with the gravy while Atlas busied himself with the oven where the roast chicken was being prepared.
"Sure, sweetie."
"Dad wanted to know if you would go on a date?" Harry pulled his best puppy dog eyes at her.
"OI! You brat, I didn't say any of that, Maya. I swear!" Atlas immediately denied her. "It's all his doing."
Maya shook her head at the man's antics before she looked at Harry. "No, sweetie. I won't go on a date with Atlas. That idiot doesn't deserve a woman like me; all he wants is his many playthings."
"And what about me?" Harry smiled. "Would you go on a date with me, Maya?"
Albus Dumbledore sighed helplessly as he finished reading the letter that he had received from his longtime friend Alastor Moody. The man had been given a private mission to locate the Boy-Who-Lived ever since he went missing all those years ago.
Moody had just sent a letter in which he detailed how his latest search mission had been a total failure, as he had not been able to find the boy in Germany either. This was the twelfth nation that they had searched for Harry, and the search was being done as secretly as possible by the selected few Order members that he trusted.
Dumbledore vividly remembered the evening when his accomplice Arabella Figg, the squib whom he had asked to stay in Privet Drive, had reported that she hadn't seen or heard about Harry Potter for the last two months.
At first he had just assumed that Harry's relatives were keeping him away for some reason, or not letting him leave the house. He had even asked Figg to infiltrate Number Four and ask the Dursleys for the boy. Unfortunately, the moment she had uttered Harry's name, she had been asked to leave, and that wasn't in a polite manner.
Later when he went there himself, he learned that Harry had burned Vernon's hand and face in an accidental case of defensive magic, which hadn't been received well with the older man who had taken Harry to a forest a few miles away from the house.
After that, when Vernon had visited the place about two days later, going as far as to have the audacity to be surprised when he found that there was no sign of his nephew and thinking that some wild animals might have hunted the boy, the eldest Dursley hadn't taken any action regarding his missing ward due to the fear of Muggle laws.
Dumbledore had been utterly infuriated at the Dursleys and had—in a moment of rage—cursed the Dursleys before leaving the threshold of Number Four.
The first thing he did when he returned was to call Alastor and tell him about the missing celebrity. They quickly realized that they couldn't just announce his disappearance, or the ministry would be in an uproar and the supporters of Lord Voldemort who were still free would start a manhunt for Harry Potter too. And the light side couldn't afford to have the dark's claws reach Harry before they reached the boy.
Therefore, what they did was summon a selected group of individuals whom they trusted and started the long mission to locate as well as bring back Harry Potter.
But the results of their search expeditions were woefully poor. The only hope that Harry was alive came from Hogwarts' student registry book that still hadn't crossed out his name from its list. Which only happened in two cases: One where the child had voluntarily declined their letter or joined another school. And second, when they died before they could be accepted to Hogwarts.
"What are you going to do now, Albus?" Armando Dippet, former Headmaster and Dumbledore's friend, asked from his portrait behind him.
"The same that we have been doing for the last three years, my friend." He sighed, "Continue searching for him. I cannot stop till we find Harry; he's needed to fight the war and finish the prophecy that marks him Voldemort's equal."
"What if you don't find him?"
"We have to, Armando." Dumbledore placed the letter back on his table and picked up the quill to write his own. "He is the only hope Britain has against the dreadful times that we shall be forced to endure."
"Are you still thinking that the boy will return?" The slightly shrill tone of the former Headmistress Dillys Derwent, asked him from her portrait near the staircase. "For all we know, that locket you found at House Black could be the first and only one that he made."
Dumbledore shook his head. "I have my reasons, Lady Derwent. Tom has indeed made more of those foul things, and he is still alive somewhere. Weak and in hiding, yes, but very much alive."
"And what about the locket? Did you destroy it?"
He shook his head. "The locket needs to be opened to be able to destroy it, and the only way it will open is when a Parselmouth orders it to. Tom ensured that no one would be able to destroy it even if they somehow got their hands on it."
"Then how do you plan to destroy it, Albus?" Dippet asked him. "Because we know that he can't be completely defeated till even a single one of these things survives."
"That is what we have to do, Armando." Dumbledore smiled. "Somehow find a way out of this whole quandary."
"Harry! Jessie! Where are you? You do know we'll be late if you keep this up, right? And Maya would kill me if we made her wait anymore." Atlas announced as he tied his cufflinks and looked at his reflection in the large mirror that was in the living room.
"Coming, Dad!" The boy replied, stashing the last of the equipment underneath his bed before he filled the small briefcase with his stuff. "Hey, Jessie, is Dad there?"
The little brunette with baby-blue eyes slowly tiptoed over and took a sneak peek; she saw that Atlas wasn't to be seen, which meant he was still busy with something. "'Harry, quick! He's not here yet. We need to do this before he sees us."
Harry nodded and made a dash for the master bedroom, where he placed the briefcase exactly the way it was placed underneath his bed. The only change would be that instead of containing his dad's 'work stuff', now the briefcase contained his school books.
"Harry?"
The boy jumped out of his skin when he heard Atlas speak from behind him. He glanced back at the man who was wiping his wet hands on the nearby hand towel, which told the boy that his dad had just finished his customary bathroom break before they went out anywhere.
"Hey Dad, just came to tell you that we were ready." He nodded, "Oh, and Maya is waiting for you outside; she's grumpy right now because you were late."
"I was late?! You two are the ones who took time coming downstairs." Atlas pointed out as he bent down and took out his briefcase from under the bed. "If anything, you two should be the ones who get punished this time."
"Yeah, but we are cute." Harry gave a smug smile. "You, on the other hand, are a grumpy old man, so you get the scoldings while we get ice-creams."
"Grumpy old man, my arse," The man grumbled as they left the room and the house.
Outside, Maya was waiting for them in his car; she had already taken her customary passenger seat next to the driver, while Jessie took the one behind her. The girl opened the door for Harry, excited about going to the carnival.
"He didn't suspect, right?" She whispered. "I am sorry, Mom came the moment you went inside the room. So I decided to stop her from marching inside."
"Don't worry, girl." Harry smirked. "My old man doesn't suspect anything. It's all according to the plan."
"Perfect!" She grinned. "Now he won't leave for 'work' till we return."
The briefcase that Harry and Jessie had been tinkering with contained all the equipment that Atlas used in his missions; it was also the reason why they had to stash it away because the mercenary had a very bad habit of sneaking off during family time so that he could finish off one of his targets.
They didn't mind it most of the time, as the man was actually good with his work and finished off the targets as soon as he could, but then there were times when things didn't go according to the plan, and that would be when their combined survival depended on the magic of Lady Luck and her fragile consideration for the cute little children's lives.
Yes, Harry and Jessie were the cutest little ones, and they won't listen to anyone who denies it; others were stupid anyway.
"Alright, is everything ready?" Atlas asked as he locked his seat belt and gunned the engine. He looked behind and saw the kids smiling brightly while Maya nodded. "Perfect. Carnival, here we come! Kids, on the count of three…"
Both Harry and Jessie grinned while Maya facepalmed, "Atlas, when will you—"
"One…" Atlas grinned, switching his legs from clutch to accelerator. "Two.."
" —Grow up, this is not something a responsib—"
"THREE!"
"WOOHOOOOOO! AAAAA!" The kids and Atlas screamed loudly as he slammed on the accelerator, and they rushed towards the carnival, laughing at Maya's facepalm and giggling among themselves.
The lady, on the other hand, smiled when she heard the laughter that always followed this particular ritual of theirs. She looked back at the kids; both of them were giggling as they basked in the aftermath of their impromptu shouting match.
Yes, they were a menace, and Atlas was a mercenary who killed people on commission, and yet there would be no other places in the whole world where she would want to be more than with her little family of four.
Her little family of four.
The regular clapping of heels on the marble floor echoed through the hallway that was lit by fluorescents and guarded by men dressed in an official all-black attire at regular intervals.
A woman, her red hair bound tightly in a perfectly made bun, her hourglass figure encased in a shiny black attire that clung to her like second skin. She looked at the guards, her pale-blue eyes searching for anything out of order as she marched towards the grand door at the end of the hallway.
The redhead pressed the switch outside the large doors and waited for a beep before she said, "Agent-A5. Reporting to the deputy regarding mission Axis." She took a step back and waited for the machine's scanner to scan her from head-to-toe before a green light lit up and the large doors opened.
"Five!" A boisterous voice, distinctively male, welcomed her as she stepped inside the room. "Just the woman I was waiting for, and for the right reason! Come closer! Take a seat." The voice exclaimed.
Five walked towards the table; her pale-blue orbs glanced at the two men who sat opposite each other. One, the Deputy, was a large man with short-cropped brown hair and a large scar that ran down the side of his face, while the other was a well-fed, round, paunchy, balding man wearing quite an expensive white suit and three golden rings that were around his pudgy fingers.
"Meet Mr. Magnus Peralta, the man whose mission you are here to talk about." The deputy introduced and she gave a single nod of recognition. "Mr. Peralta here was asking about the status of our operations regarding Axis. Would you like to tell us about it?"
Five gave a nod and opened the red file that was in her arms. "According to our reports, the target and his family are currently on their way and about thirty minutes from reaching their destination. Target has three others with him: One woman, two children. All civilians."
"Bah!" Peralta smashed his fat fist at the glass table. "I don't care who is with him; tell me what you are doing to counter it."
"A take-away team consisting of seven C and three B ranked ones along with agent A7 and two BM agents have already infiltrated the target's destination." She explained, "All of them are equipped with the best equipment our agency has to offer. The operation will begin once the target reaches the destination, and the takeaway will start once they are all stable and surrounded."
"What about the exits?" The deputy inquired.
"There are four exits in the area, three of which will be blocked once the target has entered, and the remaining will be used to escape after the target is eliminated."
"Good enough." Magnus grinned, rubbing his double chin in glee. "How much time will it take?"
"It depends on the target, sir." She replied, "Once he is stable enough, and the exits are blocked,. It would take about fifteen to twenty minutes before he's eliminated and then another fifteen for our agents to escape the establishment."
"What are the chances of failure?" The deputy asked her.
"Zero, sir."
"Fool." He shook his head. "The chances of failure in a mission like this are never zero. Keep a plan B if things go downhill, alright?"
"But sir, this is one target we are talking about, not to mention we are—"
"Are you new to this, agent?" The Deputy sneered at her. "Do you have any idea who this target is? Just do as I say. Make a plan B. Tell the squad that they should bomb the entire building if Plan A has failed, understood?"
Five gave a small nod, "I will, sir."
"Keep reporting to me regarding any major change." He waved her off, "Dismissed."
The agent gave a small bow and was about to leave the chamber when the fat man's voice interrupted her from behind.
"And, Agent Five, was it?" He asked. "Make sure that you get all four of them. I don't want any witnesses, not even those kids."
The woman gave another nod before she left the room. She looked up at the illuminated ceiling and mentally prayed to the god for blessing the target with good fortune so that neither the target nor the three civilians would survive the attack.
She knew that if even a single one of them managed to escape, the deputy would chew that person alive and make an example of why a man should never betray the organization.
'For the sake of your own little family,' Five thought as she left the hallway, 'Make sure you're dead, Zero.' and with that, she went towards the surveillance room to check on the target's location once more. This was going to be one of those long days.
"WOOOooooHOOOOOooooo!"
"Don't fall off the edge!" "JESSIE! SIT DOWN!"
"WOOOooooHOOOOOooooo!" Harry and Jessie hollered as the two were, once again, swung by the giant Ferris wheel. The duo started giggling when they saw the troubled expression on Maya's face and the way Atlas was just grinning at them before giving a subtle thumbs-up.
"JOIN US, MAYA!" Harry screamed happily while Jessie just held his hand as tightly as she could.
"And die from the shock? No, thanks." The buxom woman shook her head. She turned to look at Atlas. "I'll kill you if either of them get hurt. Understood?"
"Uhhh..Sure. The Ferris wheel would definitely swallow the little kids." He smirked. "Oh! What if it accidentally turned into a giant monster and came after us instead?" He laughed as Maya slapped his arm.
It took them a few more minutes before the ride was over and both the kids joined them, happy smiles on their cute little faces and a certain thrill that was starting to leak from their wide eyes.
"I take it the ride was fun?" Atlas asked the two and smiled when they cheered loudly. "Alright, now, next on the list is movies. It's an evening show, so we have some time to pass." He looked at his watch and then to the rest of them. "Any ideas where we could spend it?"
The excited glint in all three of their eyes told him that they indeed knew some ways to pass the time and that it probably would not be a good way for him. Still, he let the kids take either of his hands as the four started to walk through the numerous stalls that had been erected for the Carnival fair.
"Really? A toy shop?" Atlas asked as they stopped in front of a small shop with lots of figurines inside it.
"A Comic-Con!" Harry immediately corrected him.
"Yes, a toy shop."
"Comic Con! Don't compare it with a stupid toy shop, Dad." Harry frowned. "A comic con is a place for mature people."
"So what are you doing here?" Atlas chuckled at him.
Harry opened his mouth to reply before he realized he didn't have any, so he shrugged, "Good one." He grinned. "Also, we are here because I want to see if there's any new Iron Man comic or not."
"And Spiderman." Jessie blushed. "There's this new black monster thing called Venom that was introduced in the last update, and I want to check if there's any progress."
"Wasn't that in January?" Harry asked her as they walked towards the entrance. "Peter will probably get hit a few times before he realizes that there's a way to stop Venom as well. It's the same thing."
"Every hero does the same thing, Harry." Jessie shot back. "Even your precious Iron Man has his moments. At least Peter has his own powers."
"Iron Man made his own suit from scratch, and he's rich!"
"He's like Batman without the broodiness." She smirked. "Peter is cheerful, happy, and tries his best to work it out. Not a know-it-all rich snob like Tony."
"Peter's a kid."
"So are you."
"He has no charm, pining over the same girl for years!" Harry pointed out. "Tony gets them all."
"Unlike some, Peter knows loyalty." She poked him in his ribs. "And he has more charm than you, as he has MJ, Gwen Stacy, and Black Cat."
"Then he's a blind nerd to ignore Black Cat and go after…."
Both Maya and Atlas just gave a tired sigh as they followed their kids into the comic con. Atlas himself had read a few from his son's comic collection, and even he couldn't deny that they were actually pretty good. He had some issues regarding a few things that were shown, but…..well….it wasn't like he could do anything about it, right? If it was up to him, the comics would end up being marked 18 within a month, so at least the creators took care of that.
⁂
After two hours of browsing through various stalls and shops, three comics, two figurines, and a pair of brown goggles later, the small group ultimately entered the movie theater with two large buckets of caramelized popcorn and cups of chilled cola with little star-shaped ice cubes in them.
"What're our seat numbers?" Harry asked, taking a sip from his cup.
"It's 34-37 in the fifth row."
"Which one's the fifth row?" Jessie asked him.
"The one with that woman in the ugly pink dress." Harry pointed out.
"Exactly that one." Atlas nodded while Maya chastised the boy. "In fact, yours is right next to her."
"No way!" Harry stopped midway and looked at him with his mouth agape. "I am not going to sit beside her. She looks like she eats children for breakfast and smells of all the fruits, ranch and cheese mixed into one."
Even Maya chuckled at that one as the quartet made their way towards their seats. In the end, it was Atlas who was pushed beside the woman, and he was quite relieved to learn that she didn't smell like all the fruits, ranch and cheese mixed into one.
He still didn't know about the children for breakfast part, nor was he willing to test it out.
They quickly settled down with Atlas, Harry, Maya, and Jessie in the order, buckets of popcorn and cups of soft drinks between them. The merc was a bit sad when they had asked him to keep his work briefcase either with the guards or in the car. Something about a rule of not being allowed to take anything into the theater except for the stuff you bought from them, and without his briefcase he felt like a hooker without her clothes.
Safe to assume that it wasn't a nice feeling, and, for some weird reason, his sixth sense was alarming him that something bad was about to happen pretty soon.
The movie began, and he tried his best to calm down his jittery nerves as they were slowly introduced to the characters: A girl called Anna Madden, who suffers from something called glandular fever and finds out that she dreams of things that she had drawn herself, including a boy called Marc, who has muscular dystrophy and who lives in a house drawn by her.
At first, they were all quite engrossed in it, munching on some popcorn and sipping from their cups as the girl kept on adding stuff on the screen; it was only after the first thirty minutes that Atlas noticed something weird about the whole scenario.
For starters, even though the entry gate had been locked, he could see more heads in the theater than there were when the movie had begun. There was also the fact that even though it was a carnival, the theater wasn't full, and other than them, there were only more families who had been given their seats on the front row.
Not to mention that he could feel a few eyes continuously watching him, even when he subtly turned around to look at the back; all he could see was grown-up men watching the children's movie in complete silence.
It was as if they were sitting amid robots who were actually sent for a different purpose but were biding their time by watching a movie.
Atlas shifted a bit in his seat; he could feel that something was going on, and he tried to get a better look at the theater by pushing his seat a bit back. Surprisingly enough, it was at this moment that instead of getting the lever for shifting the seat, his hand instead wrapped around something else.
Something that was thick, long, and as hard as steel. He tried to get a feel of what he was holding, slowly moving his fingers along its length in the dark before his eyes widened when he caught on to the intimately familiar shape of a fucking gun that was kept just beneath the seat of the lady beside him.
Within a moment the blonde merc understood the reason for the extra men who had joined them and the reason why he and his family had been surrounded by stone-faced men.
They were sent here by someone, and they were here to eliminate him.
Without another word, the merc slowly leaned back in the chair once more, hurriedly taking note of the newer additions in the dark room. He could count about ten people who were now sitting around them, not to mention that the lady beside them was most probably a killer too.
He looked at his family; all three of them were deeply engrossed in the movie and had no idea that they were, quite literally, surrounded by death. He reached for his briefcase only to curse when he realized that it was still with the guards, and going to retrieve it might not sit well with his killers.
So, Atlas did what he thought any responsible mercenary would do.
The man leaned down close to Harry's ear and pointed his hand at the large screen, "Harry, don't give a reaction. Remember the pretend game we played at Jessie's birthday last week?" He whispered, giving a faux smile. "Give your best pretension of a dumb kid who has just been shown something interesting. Now."
Harry blinked a bit at the weird request, but even he understood the urgency in Atlas' tone. "Ooh…that was good, Dad. And what about those?" He asked, a bit louder, before whispering. "What now?"
"Keep it down, kiddo; others are watching as well." Atlas replied a bit loudly before he pointed to a different part and whispered, "We are surrounded by people who want to kill us. Tell Maya to take Jessie and dunk down. Then you three will hide from the fighting and escape through the front exit as soon as possible, alright? And stay together!"
"Wait-what?!" Green eyes widened in shock. "What about you?"
"They're here for me." Atlas gave another fake chuckle as he patted Harry's back. "They'll be focused on me, and I'll use that to keep them busy till you lot are safely outside. Here, take the key. Don't look back, clear?" The man pushed the car's keys into Harry's little hands even as the boy was about to protest.
"Shh…." The merc continued, "I'll try to join you as soon as I can, but if I can't, then don't wait. No questions, Harry. This is important." He glared at Potter, silencing any doubts that his son clearly had regarding this impromptu plan for their survival.
It took two minutes for Maya to understand, and the woman looked back at Atlas, tears in her eyes as she smiled at him. The man shook his head, telling her neither to cry nor to reveal the plan before his eyes looked pointedly towards Harry, who was fidgeting in his seat, and Jessie, who was sipping her drink.
The unspoken words were crystal clear, and Maya understood what he meant. It took her ten more seconds before she took a deep breath and put her arms behind both Harry and her daughter, giving a single nod to tell that she was ready.
'If only I had my briefcase…' Atlas thought wistfully, 'Then this wouldn't have been a problem at all.' Finally, after another minute, the merc gave Harry a small pat on his back, smiling at the way the little kid's hand reached to grasp his own before he stopped.
Atlas leaned back in his chair, his hand going down for the gun that was beneath his adjacent seat as he accidentally poked the lady.
She turned to look at him and raised her eyebrow.
"I was, uhh, wondering," He spoke, trying his best to pull the gun more towards him, "Do you like this movie?"
The lady frowned a bit. "Why?" She asked, her voice distinctively heavier than a woman's. "Are you the director?"
"Ah! Of course not." Atlas shook his head. "I just wanted to know if you think it's good enough to be the last thing you watch." He asked with a small smile as his hand wrapped around the gun's handle.
"Why would it be the—" She began but stopped when she understood what he meant. The woman pushed her hand beneath the seat and opened her mouth to warn other agents only to hear a small click beside her head followed by a loud bang before she slumped sideways in her seat.
"NOW!"