Agent Allen crouched behind the FOR SALE sign he’d just hammered into the front lawn of the sprawling, high-end home of the neighborhood he’d decided was a prime spot for geographic farming. Some simple data mining had determined that the upscale cul-de-sac and surrounding area was home to not only a few hedge fund managers, architects, and corporate leaders, but one of Allen’s primary foes: criminal mastermind Zack Fineman.

A pair of Fineman’s thugs were on to Allen, having tailed him ever since the Inman conference wrap-party last night. He thought he’d lost them, but they’d caught up to him here in Strasdale this morning. Apparently, today’s order was to kill, and they’d fired off three shots in Allen’s general direction. The thicker-than-average steel FOR SALE sign provided just enough cover for Allen to reload and engage in this clandestine firefight of suppressor-muffled handguns in the middle of the day. A ricochet put a hole in the fender of Allen’s new Tesla, and he winced with disappointment.

He’d had enough of this nonsense.

Allen peered out from behind the sign, spotted thug number one, and unloaded a well-placed single shot to the neck, dropping him where he stood. The assassin’s weapon clattered on the ground as Thug number two took the opportunity to live another day and retreated between two homes at the corner of the street, speaking into a Bluetooth as he ran.

Allen holstered his weapon inside his suit jacket and strode confidently toward the man he’d put down. He reached into the man’s pockets, but they were empty except for a burner phone and a car key fob. Fineman always worked clean. The phone would be useless, but the car might yield some intel. Allen stood and pushed the key fob button. In the distance, he heard a brief car horn chirp. Tracing the sound to a spot around the corner, he saw the silver sedan parked near a fire hydrant.

The car smelled new inside, and the glove compartment was completely empty. He started up the engine and the in-dash navigation system showed him what he wanted to see: a trail leading straight back to Fineman’s lair. Allen added Fineman’s lair address to the lead profile in his Chime app, and headed back to his midnight blue Tesla Roadster.

It was time for an open house…

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Tune in next week for another exciting installment of Agent Allen!

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