Chen Li: Origin of an Assassin (A Jennifer Bryan Spinoff)
Chen Li never forgot the last day he saw his parents. He thought about it quite often.
He could vividly remember them being hauled off to prison when he was just sixteen years old. He also remembered when Mr. Wong, an agent of the Ministry of State Security told him “Young man, you have two choices right now. Option one, you can go with your parents to a prison labor camp in Xinjiang. You’ll probably be dead in a year, but at least you’ll be with them.”
“Option two, you come with me.” He continued. “The MSS has a new secret agent training program, one that needs a fresh batch of young recruits. It’ll be incredibly difficult, and it’ll mean you will never see your parents again, but at least you’ll be alive. Most likely.”
“So, what’ll it be?”
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And then, after his daydream was over, it was back to reality; back to his day-to-day routine at a top secret MSS assassin training camp deep in the Tibetan plateau.
He and the other agents-in-training (all eighteen of them) practiced Sanda, a Chinese martial art, for a minimum of two hours everyday. This usually included at least thirty minutes of full contact sparring.
Chen was put up against the strongest trainee in the entire camp, Feng Xiandong.
“READY!” their instructor shouted. “FIGHT!”
Feng started throwing jabs to feel out Chen. Chen tried to retaliate by throwing low roundhouse kicks, but Feng was fast enough to block all of those.
And then, Chen had an idea. He faked going for a low kick and then immediately raised his leg for a devastating roundhouse kick to the face. Feng was knocked out less than a minute into their match.
Moments later, a familiar face came into the gym and said “Chen Li, follow me please.”
“Mr. Wong, I had no idea you were coming. If you’d just give me a minute to take off my sparring gear…”
“Come with me please.” He repeated, and this time Chen followed him.
Mr. Wong spent most of his time in Beijing, handling his agents from behind a desk. He rarely made visits to the training camp, but when he did, it was meant to monitor Chen’s progress himself.
“I’ve spoken with others at the MSS, and we unanimously believe that you’re ready for your first mission.” He explained as he handed Chen Li a file. “There’s a Vietnamese general who needs to die.”
Chen would never know why this Vietnamese politician needed to die, nor would he ever dare ask. He knew his job was to do whatever the MSS ordered him to do, and not ask for any more information than what he needed to do it.
“We’re going to kill him, and blame it on a Vietnamese paramilitary syndicate.” He said. “The three of us are going to enter under the guise of tourists.”
“I’m sorry sir, the three of us?”
“Oh yes, I forgot to mention.” He said. “An experienced assassin is coming with us to cover in case you fail. We’ll try our best to avoid, well, anyone, but on the off chance we don’t, you are a pair of newlyweds on a brief vacation.”
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The next day, Chen met Jing, a former student at the same school he had spent the past five years attending.
“Hello.” Chen said as he went to shake her hand.
She did nothing. “Look, let’s save ourselves the time of formalities.” She said. “If you die, I really want to feel as little remorse as possible. And spoiler alert, you probably will.”
Mr. Wong chuckled. “Always with the high morale, aren’t you Jing?”
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Mr. Wong arranged for a truck to drop off Chen and Jing outside the general’s house.
“If you do this right, we can be in and out in just a few minutes.” Mr. Wong explained on the drive. “And we need to. If the police have time to get here before we leave, we’ll all have no choice but to…well, I think you both know what we’d have to do to ourselves if caught.”
Chen would’ve gladly done it, and he knew Jing would as well. They’d both rather die than let their secrets be uncovered.
“Our intel says that not all the guards have guns, guns are only given to the more trusted staff. But even ones who don’t will have something like pepper spray or tasers, so be on high alert.”
The moment the driver stopped, the two of them exited the vehicle. A guard approached them and started speaking, but Jing simply shot him.
The two of them sprinted towards the front door. It was locked and reinforced, but nothing a little cube of C4 couldn’t get past.
Jing and Chen rushed into the house. Mere moments into their assault, Jing was killed when a guard opened fire on her with a semi-automatic handgun.
Chen then turned and fired one perfectly timed shot that killed the guard. He then proceeded throughout the mansion.
While Chen was distracted, another guard pepper sprayed him and tried to grab his gun. Chen couldn’t even see, but was still able to feel for him, grab him by the neck, and slam his head into a wall.
He quickly ran to the kitchen sink and splashed water over his face. It didn’t do much, but it was better than nothing. He then continued through the mansion.
The final two guards had positioned themselves outside of the general’s bedroom, with their guns pointed straight down the hallway. They almost shot Chen was he turned a corner, but Chen quickly retreated once he heard one of them fire. He then killed them both with a handgun, before proceeding into the General’s personal room.
Chen instinctively swiveled his head around the room, looking for the General, and he found him, by his foot of all things. He was decently well hidden behind a wardrobe, except for one of his feet slightly sticking out. Chen the shot him in the foot, which forced the General to leave his concealment.
The General then tried to fire at him with an assault rifle, but Chen was faster on the draw. He killed the General with just one shot to the heart.
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As Chen was leaving, he was surprised to see Mr. Wong waiting for him in the entryway. “Acceptable job.” He said. He then looked down at Jing’s body and said “You could’ve done better, but at least you killed the…”
And then, Chen grabbed one of the fallen guard’s weapons and pointed it at his handler.
“What are you doing?” Mr. Wong asked.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the opportunity you gave me.” Chen said. “I love the People’s Republic of China, and will gladly give my life for it. But you killed my parents, and I can never forgive that.”
And then, Chen Li killed his former handler.
Chen Li found the escape truck on his own, and was taken straight to Beijing. The handlers he met back at the MSS headquarters completely believed that Mr. Wong was just an unfortunate casualty of the mission, but that otherwise Chen Li had done perfectly.
That day was the beginning of an eleven-year career as an assassin.
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His story concludes in Jennifer Bryan: An Assassin in Taipei.
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