It was an old building located right in the middle of the city, built of
stone and glass, it overlooked a nice
part of the world. Perfect home for the average person, an even better hiding
spot for those of great importance, when one thinks of a safe house, one assumes
a cabin or house off the grid, not a beautiful building such as this. Which of
course furthered the sweetness of the deal, however it’s rare that things can
go according to plan.
It was twelve past noon, as the men entered the building, all dressed in
black and carrying weapons. There were eight in total; four of them dispersed
around the lobby ensuring full coverage, the other four took the elevator up to
the penthouse where they knew he would be waiting. The elevator traveled
slowly, only adding suspense to the matter, there wasn’t much time to waste.
The elevator opened and they exited in haste, two men stayed in the hallway
while the other two used a key and opened a door.
The room was large and well furnished, six more men were waiting in the
room while a seventh was seated in front of the television enjoying lunch. The
men eyed the two newcomers, one stayed at the door while the other approached.
“Sir, we have a problem.” He stated in a deep voice eyeing the man seated
in front of the T.V. He was tanned, his hair was blond and face melded into a
perpetual look of seriousness, his eyes which were hidden by sunglasses were
amber except when he was mad then they darkened to a deep brown.
“What do you mean by problem, Arthur?” Asked the man seated in front of
the T.V which he turned off and looked at Arthur. He was pale, and by his size you
wouldn't wonder why. His hair was thin and gray and there was no distinction
between his head and neck. His deep blue eyes turned to Arthur in wonder.
“Intel came in, chatter between their ranks has indicated they've
discovered your location and are planning an attack today. We need to get you
out of here right now!” He responded.
“Is there anything concrete which suggests that we need to move today?”
“Descriptions, a building similar to this one, it’s been the only thing
we've been hearing about for the last two days, and today it became more
intense.”
“That doesn't sound good enough for me. I need to know if it’s this
building, if-“
“Sir with all due respect, you know how dangerous they are and that
you’re the only witness that could put their commanders away and get rid of
them for good, now I personally think you are being unreasonable.”
The man laughed and stood up, “My name is Charles Vickley! I am the
president and founder of one of the best computer software and security
companies in the world, I am worth Two billion dollars and I am not going to be
bossed around by some mall cop! If you think I’m being unreasonable, then there
is a bloody good reason why!”
“Let’s get something straight, Adrian Van the man you’re testifying
against, invested Fifty million dollars into your company, off the books. In
return you made him a security system that can not only alert a system breach,
but can also contain it and use it against the attacker. This operation was
kept hidden, off the books and everyone who worked on the project besides you
is dead leaving Mr. Van’s organization legally untouchable. You right now have
two choices, testify against him tomorrow or end up missing like the other
thirty, the choice is yours… Also, if you call me a mall cop again, I will
break your jaw! Are we clear?”
Charles looked around the room and then nodded his head. “All right… we do
it your way.”
“Excellent, now we’re getting the cars ready, you’re to get into the
third one with agent Morris, once we are all set we’re going to be traveling as
a convoy to a designated safe house where you will stay until tomorrow. At
8:30am we will be transferring you to the courthouse where you will testify
against him, that day he will be convicted and imprisoned for life. Then we’ll
get out of your life.”
“Just like that, sounds like a piece of cake.”
“Say that after the drive. Everyone, pack-up we are leaving in five
minutes, come on time’s a wasting and we don’t have that much to begin with.”
The cluster of agents began packing things as quickly as they could
Arthur stood by the window tapping his index, middle and ring finger against
the glass in sequence repeatedly while watching them, Charles stood against a
wall shaking his head. “All this trouble over the words of a man, how come I
need government agents anyway, they never told me why.”
Arthur stopped tapping and looked at him, “Nor did they tell you who
you’re testifying against, all for good reasons. The only thing you’re to be
concerned with is the actions you and Mr. Van participated in.”
“Good point.”
The agents quickly finished clearing the room and Mr. Vickley was escorted down to the garage by
his entourage of agents all kept tightly together.
The door opened and the men moved down the hall past the stairwell into
the garage where ten cars ranging from a nice sports car to an old busted van
were waiting for them. “You’re in that one, there are plastic mannequin to make
it look like a family trip, just stay quiet and will get you to the safe house.”
The team moved to their cars, Charles was in the van with the plastic
family while Arthur was three cars down in an old pick-up truck. The vehicles
were all different and licensed as civilian vehicles, it was the perfect plan.
The convoy moved out one by one, they drove down the streets with a few
cars in between and if they could, dispersing themselves. As they traveled
Arthur watched the pedestrians and other vehicles, it was fool-proof yet
something didn't feel right.
Let’s hope the plan goes
accordingly.
The drive continued at a slow pace, tensions were high, everything was
relying on this trip going as smooth as possible, even the slightest flaw could
throw this mission into jeopardy. Nothing could go wrong… yet it would all fall
apart within two minutes.
The group continued driving, the van with Charles was at the front of
the traffic line, the light turned green and it began to drive. It speed faster
than the others leaving the rest of the convoy in its wake, and as it finished
crossing the street, the lights for the adjacent lanes of traffic turned green
causing a rush of vehicles to begin flowing, which caused a large multi-vehicle
accident. Two of the convoy cars were taken out in the accident while the rest
were held back.
“What the hell!” Shouted the driver of Arthur’s car, as he slammed on
the breaks.
Arthur quickly grabbed for the nearest walkie-talkie and tried to
establish contact with the van.
“Number three are you there, number three come in over!”
“We’re here over.” Came a static voice of an agent in the van.
“There’s just been massive accident, we've been cut off from you, pull
over and wait for us, over!
“Yeah sure, just give us… What the-?” Loud banging was heard over the
speaker, then it became silent.
“Number three, come in, do you copy?”
Still no audio could be heard, then all of a sudden an explosion was
seen a few blocks away.
“Oh crap!” Shouted Arthur, he jumped out of the car and began
running towards the smoking mess as
other agents struggled to get out of their cars and follow after him.
He slowly approached the flames, there was no doubt about it that was
their van. The two agents driving were now a mess of burnt flesh and blood with
a foul odor adding another level of unpleasantness. “My god… but how?”
“Sir, there’s no sign of Charles wh-“
“Of course there won’t be a sign of him, he’s probably stuck in the back
of the van burnt away falling apart with hot wax clinging to his flaming
remains!”
The agent was silent. “Call the fire department, I’ll call boss… This is
just wonderful!” He spoke sarcastically walking away from the mess.
The mission was failure… but how?
***
It was around eleven o’clock at night, a black van
drove slowly towards a waiting boat. Standing on it was a smug looking man, he
wore fine clothes and stood with confidence, he was tanned with a black
mustache and hair, and brown eyes.
The van stopped in front of the boat. Three men got
out and move towards it, two were completely covered in black while the last
one was well known.
“I see our plan worked?” Shouted the confident man.
“I suppose it did Adrian.” He responded.
“Do you think they can figure it out?”
“No, it happened too fast and there communications
were disabled, simple failure of technology.”
“They still could have caught onto the-“
“No, there were mannequins, the back of the van will
be covered in hot wax making it useless!”
“You’re a very confident man Mr. Vickley.”
The old man smiled. “One would be when he is planning
his escape, what of my money.”
“All transferred to the account as planned, I still
can’t believe that worked though.”
“Arthur always had a tendency to tap on things, all it
took was you watching from a far and me stopping him at the right time. I
suppose some common sense as well, after all, I let him do it a couple times,
he probably gave 13 taps or so. Had one man not been counting and another
watching the cars then… let’s not think about that. What we should think about
is getting out of here.”
With that, the two men boarded the boat and began
sailing off towards freedom, amused at the success they had achieved.
