the Unexpected Heir

Felix Lane Archer

Chapter Seven: Felix Lane Archer

Now that Gerald was making some progress towards a responsible lifestyle, his parents were eager to provide him any needed support.

Reason they were here tonight to show that they had endorsed his potential union with Lesley. Besides, the Pipers were climbing the social ladder really fast and were already becoming worthy allies.

Penelope although engrossed in the conversations of the older folks, paid keen attention on Gerald, hoping and praying he wouldn't commit any further blunder.

——

Meanwhile somewhere in the sky, cruising into a different continent, Cruz was still overwhelmed with emotions as he geared up in anticipation of his long awaited reunion with his parents.

It's been five hours since the plane took off and Cruz have had ample time to reminisce.

After he had overseen the neutralizing of a security threat against his country, he had a brief virtual meeting with the president. And afterwards, with all the time to spare, he couldn't help but go down memory lane.

Cruz Lane, known in his real identity as Felix Lane Archer was the first child of the world renowned Archers. The Archer family headed by Micheal Archer were the richest family on the planet.

A decade ago, their wealth was estimated at about 500 billion dollars. And since then, it had grown astronomically.

Even the popular wealth estimating platforms could no longer keep tabs on their abundant wealth. The figures had become unquantifiable.

The Archers were into crude oil exploration, pharmaceuticals, Car manufacturing, Real Estate, Health Care Services and Hedge funds. They controlled the stock market in three different continents.

Felix was born into stupendous wealth. As a child, he was very unique in many ways and was undoubtedly a genius.

When other kids would be restless and play away without any sense of duty or responsibilities, Felix was withdrawn and calculative. At age five, he already had a penchant for adventure and espionage.

He had a hyperactive and intelligent mind that always figured out what the grown ups were up to. He would analyze just about anything that came as a puzzle and solve them in a matter of minutes.

So his parents nurtured him accordingly and created the environment for his genius to thrive.

A 10-year-old Felix was already a certified hacker, a martial art expert and a consultant for the Archers. He was frequently taxed with uncovering loopholes in the many businesses they ran and he succeeded every time.

By the time he was 15, he already knew he wanted to be a spy. That decision didn't appeal to his family given their resources and vast wealth.

They wanted a different path for him. They saw his uncommon insight and genius instinct as something that would rightly place him as the future CEO of the Archer conglomerate.

Accepting that reality for their genius son who they should instead use their fortunes to protect was a bitter pill for the Archers to swallow.

Michael and Claudia Archer only agreed to his decision on one condition. They would oblige his quest to live his dream for just ten years and after that, he would retire and return to take his position as future CEO.

They would also make unlimited funds available for his use at his discretion by creating pseudo-companies to fund him.

Feix also went on to acquire advanced mixed martial art training and attended military training camps. He opted for the toughest routines and always outperformed his competitors.

So immediately he turned eighteen, already in his sophomore year in college, he got enlisted into the elite secret intelligence agency in the country.

The intelligence chiefs were thrilled to have him onboard, of course his family influenced policies across the globe and he would be an invaluable asset. His relevance would be unprecedented.

The kind of access he had and with no one suspecting such a high profile person of being a spy was ingenious in itself.

Thus, Felix's journey to becoming Cruz Lane begun.

He remembered the many powerful criminal organizations he infiltrated and dismantled.

Some of them were controlled by families that had operated within the same circle as his own family. Although none could really compete with the Archers. They were just priveleged to exist in the same clime.

He quickly learned that most of the seemingly legit businesses of these folks were just fronts for the real criminal organizations they ran.

His modus operandi was to use a silicon mask to disguise his appearance whenever he went undercover.

He would infiltrate them with his influential access usually as an investor using a psuedo-company. He acquired huge shares of the legit business they fronted, gain trust enough to be invited into their underworld operations, become an important part of their operations, learn all their secrets and get enough evidence to ruin them.

Sometimes he would expose their criminal operations to the public as an anonymous hacker, especially to discredit the companies they fronted so that innocent civilians would boycott any dealings with them.

His activities were unconventional unlike the other undercover agents. He made sure to pit the key figures of those organizations against each other.

Then the bloodbath within the organizations would begin. Trails of betrayal and distrust would eventually trigger a self-implosion. The trusted soldiers within the organizations were usually the target of the underworld bosses.

And when the bloodshed starts to spiral, the law enforcement would sweep in and neutralize the organization.

No one ever suspected his role. No one would think that anybody will bring down an organization they had major investments in.

His accomplishments were remarkable as he successfully carried out over a dozen of those operations around the world.

Organizations involved in—criminal arm deals, pharmaceutical products that caused terminal ailments, human trafficking, biological and chemical weapons were the targets.

He quickly rose through the ranks just within two years and was drafted into the most sophisticated intelligence program.

The government was experimenting with performance enhancement cells regeneration and he volunteered to be in the program, and that was were a special ability was unlocked in him.

Adding to his natural genius, he started exhibiting superhuman abilities in surveillance, countersurveillance, and combatant warfare.

At a point he had become almost invincible.

After a major threat to the country's sovereignty surfaced. The agency needed an agent with a special skill set.

With his new enhanced ability, he was the only person for the job. Given the sensitivity of the mission, he needed to go deep undercover and his real identity would have to become extinct.

There was also a threat to his cover being blown, so they had to fake his death.

An international criminal organization he had infiltrated were heavy on his tail.

There was a mole in the agency that was selling agent's identify to big criminal organizations through a dark web bidding channel.

The agency feared his cover had been blown and that created a more compelling reason to fake his death

They needed to safeguard him and his family from the threat while he continued his operations.

'The Archer Family Mourns' was the headline on news channels and tabloids for about a month. The news of the unfortunate helicopter crash made headlines across the globe. He was only 20 at the time so it was seen as a huge tragedy for the Archers.