Sunday, December 21, 2014

Breach in Security





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.