PART I: CONDOLENCES
This just in. The body of the renowned rookie, Maria, has been found by Green Lane. Authorities are in full force in investigating the murderer
2 WEEKS LATER
The team circled the circular table. Et was at the head. There was nothing except the sounds of keyboards clicking, and a few coughs here and there. None of them looked at each other. Et’s eyes ran through the room. Everyone seemed glum. But the glumest of them all was Jules, after the shock of Maria’s death.
“Boys, continue working. Jules, may I have a word?” Et stepped out of the room, quickly followed by Jules, ordering him to close the glass door.
“Listen, kid. You have a heart. But, that heart is now poisoned with revenge. You’ll act out of your ways to catch whoever did this” Jules stared at the ground, unable to speak. The words got stuck at the tip of his tongue. “I appreciate the effort but, go home kid.”
“I won’t, sir.”
“Jules, lis-”
“Even if you tell me to go. I’ll go on this mission alone. I joined this team because I wanted to bring justice. Not only to her, but to the countless other innocent lives it affected. Justice, to others.”
“Jules-”
“Sir, we found something,” Z stepped out of the operating room.
“We’ll talk later,” Et said, and entered the room.
“What is it, Z?”
“Sir, for the week before she was.. killed… she received many death threats from many accounts. I have traced the IP address on each of them, and they are the exact same. These were all from the same person.”
“Hmm, so, what do we do now?”
“With some help, I could look for a breakthrough. It would take a week or so, sir.”
“Take all the time you want, I want the bastards.”
A few hours later, the team departed for their home. Jules stood in the corridor of his floor, and took out his shiny brass key to his door. The lock clicked and he entered.
A white comforting couch got cushioned. He had a beer in hand, and he sat, looking in the direction of the open T.V. Tracking down the cyberbully would take a lot of time, and what if it’s too late by then? What if he himself goes in the battlefield, alone?
The television shined in golden. Jules decided it was not worth it, as he drifted onto a moment of peaceful sleep.
PART II: REITS
Over the week that followed, the team worked extensively. Clocking in at 5, and ending the day at 5. Research and whatnot followed in their plethora of dead ends.
On their office bulletin was the newspaper clipping, with Maria’s photo receiving the medal pinned at the center. Jules often spent hours a day staring at this. It was meant to offer some motivation, and for Jules, it definitely did.
“Jules. Jules. Jules!”
Jules became startled. It was the major. “We have something,” Et said.
Jules stepped in the conference room, where Z was in the middle of explaining.
“... looking at text messages, he will attend a concert at Brook’s today. It’s a great opportunity to nab him sir.”
“Good,” Et assured him, “Adrian, take Jules, Harry and Omar with you. I’ll talk with their security to help us. Get a move on boys.”
4:30 P.M
TEAM IN PLACE. ANY UPDATESGOT A LOOK IN HIS SOCIALS. I HAVE A PHOTO. I’LL SEND IT.
The man in question was a pale but muscular German, maybe in his mid-30s. He was wearing a black hoodie, black pants as well. The photo was circulated in the team. The team was now on high alert. The three walked in circles around the 20,000 seater stadium. Each stand was checked and each person questioned.
Jules and Omar met.
“Any signs?” The latter asked.
“Not yet. Hey, nature’s call, gotta go’
Jules made a break for the restroom. The fifth urinal to the left called for him. Two over to his left, another person joined. Jules caught a glance. A scrawny European gentleman. They acknowledged and Jules turned to leave. On the door still he stopped. A European, black hoodie.
He turned back, the man was now exiting the restroom with him. Jules’ eyes followed him. A blink, and he disappeared into the crowd. This was him!
Jules made a run for it. Around the brightly-lit stands, and around crowds of families, he ran for him, and finally caught a glance of him. It was Jules, the man in front, and Adrian a few paces over.
“Adrian!” Jules screamed, the only viable option he had. He caught a few funny looks, from the man, few around him, but most importantly, Adrian’s.
“That’s the guy!”
The man was being pointed to. He fixed his stare at Jules, but then was about to turn when
SMACK
The next thing he knew, he was in a dark, dimly lit room, with a lamp hovering over him. In front him, a table, and a chair, and a door, which opened, showing a burly man entering.
“I am Adrian. Adrian Malkovich. And you are in the TASX warehouse. We have many reasons to suspect you were behind Maria’s death. Please,” as he said this, he set up a tape recorder in between them, and kept it on the table, “state your name for the record.”
“Provide me proof that you are the police, or the-”
“You want proof?” He kept a gun on the table, next to the recorder, “This is your proof. Now, SPEAK!”
“I-I am Reits.”
“Well, Reits, how were you associated with Maria?”
Reits stayed silent, still fixated on the gun. Adrian stood up, took a breath in, walked over to the German, and gave his head a few hard bangs on the table. Reits’ forehead exploded in blood and pain, and a few screams escaped him.
“I won’t ask any more. How do you know Maria?”
“It was only b-b-bait, sir. This guy, I don’t know his name, but he went by G-G.R. We would attack her, and then he asked me to send her an address to come and catch who was sending her these threats, and that’s what I know, sir. Please let me go. Bitte. Gott, hilf mir!”
The man burst into tears. Adrian exited, and was met with Et. “He confessed, sir.”
“Good. I’ll take it from here.”
The man looked up, now he saw a white-bearded, coat covered gentleman. Et took a seat.
“I’m Et. The captain, leader etc, etc.”
“Now, what?”
“We heard all of it. G.R. this guy, have you met him?”
“Ne-Nein”
“Sure? Ok, fine. What about the address that you sent her?” “By, Green Lane”
“Thanks for your service sir,” and turning off the tape recorder, Et left.
“Leave for Green Lane, check the security footage on the date she received that message.”
PART III: SECURITY
MAY 3, 23:46:47, GREEN LANE, CAM-3
There was nothing. Nothing at all. No movement at all. It was yet another dead end in their 3 weeks of investigation.
They boarded the van, and made their way to their office.
“I’m gonna kill that son of a gun,” Adrian seemed to curse.
“Did you notice anything… strange?” Jules asked.
“Like?”
“There was a beam of light, like the headlights of a car, for a split second.”
“What are you implying?”
“That they have tampered with evidence.”
“You think so?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Turn the van around.”
The 4-man squad made their way into the security cabin once again. 3 guarding the entrance, Adrian going into the cabin.
“Show me the real footage.”
“What?”
“I know that footage is wrong. Show me the real thing. Now!”
Under the gaze of a man who seemed he was about to lose it, the man in the cabin complied. The one they showed was indeed fake. From the headlights of the van, a man came out. Black overalls, and tight jeans. A raised gun, two shots at, from his guess, Maria. Behind the shooter, another man emerged. Adrian looked closer. It was Seb!.
He rushed out. Just as he did, the officer called someone. “They know.”
Adrian gave the order to get to the office quickly. Seb was behind this, and now after Jules too. He told this to Et, and the man was equally astonished.
A FEW DAYS LATER
A close eye was kept on Seb. Every movement was tracked. And a random message caught their eye.
SERENITY OVAL. NOW!
The team pushed out. A few hours later Jules entered the office, that day, was late. “Guys?” He called out, with no reply.
He took a seat in his office, and then heard a piercing BEEP!
Jules stood up. Another beep. Was the smoke detector broken? It didn't sound like a smoke detector, more like the alarm system. The alarm system? Some one was breaking in?
Jules caught onto this, and quickly, with a gun in his hand, took cover. Someone entered the office. Jules waited for silence. He moved closer to the entrance wing. He breathed in deeply, mustered up the courage, and decided to jump in. 3.. 2… 1.
There was no one, not a single soul. He lowered the gun, and turned.
SMACK
PART IV: WAREHOUSE ACCIDENT
The view Jules saw when he opened his eyes was a darkish-brown warehouse, with all sorts of firearms on the table. Numerous goons stood all around him. He couldn’t run if he wanted to.
“The rookie has woken up. The Golden Rookie. Welcome to my humble abode!” A stylish man in black attire, his arms raised sideways screamed in front of him.
“Seb,” Jules muttered under his breath. Seb asked for a stool and placed it in front of him. Jules tried to move his arms, but discovered his hands, and legs, were both zip tied.
“I have been waiting for ages, AGES, to meet the one who destroyed my services,” he stood up and then continued, “ I lost a very trustworthy client that day. And that son of a bitch Vincent had to kill himself that day. He just had to,” and then pointing a finger at Jules, he said, “It is all because of you. And oh I have waited so long to meet you,” one of the goons, noticing that one of his arms was reached out, handed him a gun, ‘Any last words?“
“You kill me, you die, you don’t, and you still die. You’re helpless. Kill me, bastard”
“See you in hell then, bitch.”
BANG! BANG!
CHAPTER II: BATTLEFIELD
PART I: ONE DOWN
On the morning of May 6th, the entire TASX team gathered at Pritchett’s Funeral Services. Jules’ body was retrieved on a rivershore. The team was disheartened. He was a brave kid, just to meet an end like this.
As the coffin carrying his body was lowered into his grave, Adrian shed a tear from his eye. He couldn’t speak, it was like his legs were drenched in cement. Anchored to the soil, he watched in misery.
The services were over. The team returned to their vans.
“You all right there, Ad?” Et asked.
“I’m fine sir. It’s just that, he… he was a great kid. Pure. Brave, I-I just can’t believe that he’s gone,”
“I’m sorry Adrian, but this is how things go here. You joined, despite Lara telling you the danger of this job, and when Lara was killed in the mall attack, you still didn’t leave. We’ll find justice Ad, trust me.”
The team went back to clicking and cladding on their keyboards. No one uttered a word. It was painfully silent.
Adrian pondered back on Et’s words - Lara, the mall.
PART II: THE MALL ATTACK
4 MONTHS AGO
“Good evening Ro N’ Mo,” Adrian greeted the two guards in the front. He had grown to like them since their unpleasant welcoming the day he arrived. He gave them a nod and walked over to the team headquarters. With a smile, he nodded at each.
Taking his seat, he looked over to his right. Alex had looked like he hadn’t slept all night, which he hadn’t. “Anything new Al?”
“Not yet, but it’s just weird that, why would Seb go to France, even while knowing he’s under surveillance, It’s just-”
“Look man, you’re sleep deprived. Give it a rest. It’s just conspiracy or something.”
“Team X,” the radio beside them cackled. It was the guards outside, “we have some company. Lara, what should we do.”
“Take care of them”
“On it!”
On the camera footage, they could see the guards warning two delivery men. Even though they couldn’t hear anything, they guessed a lot of arguments must have been going on. The men, dressed in blue, finally turned to leave.
“They’re going”
BANG!
The guards were shot. The two men - along with one more - rushed in on the all entrance and made way for the headquarters. Lara warned all of them to be armed, lock the shutters of the cloth shop they were operating from, and wait. They waited… and waited… and waited and finally
BOOM!
The shutter had been blown off. Of the 10, 3 were killed. Adrian, Lara and the others hid in the back. There was a lot of smoke. After a couple of seconds of waiting, shots emerged from the smoke. 4 more, dead. Adrian, who did not get hit, crouched over, saw Alex dead, blood trickling from his chest. Lara stood beside him. Just then, another set of bullets were shot, hitting the 3 of them. Adrian lay down, in cruciating pain in his stomach, and a half-opened eye.
From that eye, he saw the perpetrators approaching Lara. From them, he saw a man, with a scar under his eye, raise his gun, and shoot, thrice. Each hitting her more painfully than the last.
Adrian blinked, and the three were heading out, he stood up, but then fell, and managed to find a good grip for himself. He chased after the three, while taking out the gun he had in his pocket. He shot twice, each hitting the men beside the man with the scar, while the scarred man took off in the van he had come in with. His gun breathed out 3 more shots, but all of them deflected off the bumper of the van.
The van took off. He fell to his knees. He couldn’t think properly.
“Ad!”Someone seemed to call out to him. “Ad! AD!”
PART III: OPERATION Z
Adrian opened his eyes, he looked beside him, it was Et. He was slouched over in his seat, rethinking the incident.
“You alright?”
“Yeah”
“Z had put in some work. He traced down each warehouse of illegal arms in the area. Seb might be in any of them. Take the boys, destroy the operations, find Seb. Can you do that?”
Adrian nodded. He could. He wanted to!
The team was assembled. Adrian, Z, Omar and Liam. All driven by vengeance, for vengeance.
TARGET I: LIVERPOOL INT. HOUSE
A group of fifty workers stood inside. They were led by a chubby man, who looked a lot like an American. A van came outside.
“Chubbs, there’s a van outside asking for you.”
The man escorted Chubbs out. He approached the man. It was the TASX team.
“What’s this ‘bout?”
“Seb asked for a routine check-up. Nothing more,” Omar, in the driver seat, responded.
“He said nothin’ to me”
“Mister, nothing depends on you, does it”
“Talk to me like that once again, you’ll be talkin’ to me gun”
“Woah bud, sorry”
“Let them in,” Chubbs ordered the man. The van was let in. Beside Omar sat Adrian, behind them were the Z and Liam.
The van came to a halt by the warehouse parking lot. The 4 came out, with a gun strapped on each of them. They came into the warehouse. A big, industrial warehouse, which seemed as if it was used for textile. A set of stairs by a wall, leading to Chubbs’ office. The big man ordered them in.
“Make sure no one gets in,” Adrian told them as he went in alone.
“So, what’s the checking you need? Take a seat.”
“It’s ok, I’ll stand.”
“Stubborn, huh. Well, have it your way then. So what’s the checking?”
Adrian raised his gun, and so did the Chubbs’ men behind him.
“Tell them to drop the guns, or my men will kill all of us,” Adrian warned to which Chubbs gestured to them to lower their guns. After assuring safety, Adrian began,
"Where's Seb?
“And why the hell would I know that”
“Let me remind you that there’s a gun in front of you,” gripping the gun tightly he said.
Chubbs took out a phone and gave a call.
“Ya, Chubbs”
“Basco, where are you?”
“Merseyside, Seb asked me to go over here, why?”
“Decline the call,” Adrian ordered, and Chubbs obeyed. Adrian lowered his gun. “Thanks for the help,” he said, and exited the office. He met with the three outside. “Planted the bomb?”
“Yep”
“Good”
They got in the van and drove away, and then Z hit a button.
BOOM!
The warehouse was now just a few pillars of dust on the floor. Target 1 was compromised.
TARGET II: MERSEYSIDE
The van pulled into a greenhouse nursery this time. A young thin, pale, who seemed to be 19 or so, came to greet them.
“I’m Basco”
“You’re Basco? We need Seb.”
“Oh man, you missed him, was here a couple minutes ago.”
“Here? In a nursery for plants?”
“Yeah. We stash the guns here till further notice.”
Interesting, the team seemed to say in unison.
“Well, anything else?” Basco asked.
“Yeah, where did he go?”
“City shore.”
“Ok, thanks,” Omar drove the van around. Basco’s phone rang. It was an anonymous number.
“Hello?”
“Ba-Ba-sco”
“Chubbs?”
“Did-anyone-come-there?”
“Some old blocks, why?”
“They’re with the po-police, kill them…”
Basco declined the call, he raised a pistol, aimed at the driver and
BANG!
The bullet seemed to miss. Omar stopped the van. The team came out, and took cover behind the van. A few more shots from Basco, and then five more joined behind him. The four behind the van managed to take out three of them, and then three more again, until only Basco remained, who was shot in the chest. The nursery front was bloody. The four came out from hiding. They turned to leave, when Basco’s phone rang. It was Seb.
Adrian walked over to the phone, and took the call. “Bas, Chubbs not answering. Go down there and check what's wrong. Basco?”
“Basco’s not here dear.”
“Hello? Who’s this,” the voice grew more concerned, “Who the hell’s this?”
“You might have heard my name. It’s Adrian here”
“Oh. Adrian. The Ukrainian hot prospect in the 90s, you aren’t dead?”
Adrian chuckled. Seb continued, “I killed Jules, now what’s this? Revenge?”
“I’m coming for you Seb.”
“Well, Mr. Malkovich, I’m waiting.”
PART IV: THE HUNT
TARGET III: CITY SHORE
For a final round, the van rounded Liverpool, and edged into the city shore industry. A big brown factory. Two guards stood side-by-side at a gate. They got orders from a man inside, and escorted the men out of the van and into the factory. On reaching the entrance, the team was masked over.
The mask came off. They were seated, with their hands tied at the back, and seated in line. Opposite to them, Seb.
“Look at you all. Pathetic. You know, you wanna destroy this hard-earned business? I earned this. My father had nothing. Nothing at all. He left us for good, and then went on to die alone. And now, you wanna destroy this precious, hard-earned kingdom I built?”
“You call us pathetic, while you’re the pathetic one.” Omar remarked.
With a flick of his wrist, the gun in Seb’s hand went off. Omar was shot in the head. The other three shrieked. Adrian locked eyes with Seb.
“Mr. Adrian, I’ve heard about your countless brave stories, about how the Russians killed your family, how the Portuguese took you in for a secret training, and now, England’s ‘best’ spy.”
In the middle of this, Adrian managed to cut through the zip ties he was being tied in. He reached the skin of wrist, threw the blade down, disposed of the zip ties, and slowly took out his gun.
“Well, all three of you are going to meet your death so, last words?”
Adrian looked around. He saw a box of dynamites behind Seb. With a jerk, he shot, the bomb blew up, eliminating half of the 50 guards standing behind Seb. Even though Seb jumped forward, the box was too far to reach Seb. Adrian stood up, and released Z and Liam amidst the bullets in his direction. The three quickly found cover and opened fire at the opposition, managing to hit all of them. Seb tried to run but was quickly shot in the leg by Adrian and fell over.
“Take Omar and get out. I’ll follow behind you,” Adrian told the three who reluctantly acted on his command. Adrian approached Seb, crouched over, holding his leg. Adrian bent over.
“Pathetic,” Adrian spat out.
Seb held out for Adrian’s hand. “I’ll make you an offer. Spare me, and you’ll get whatever you ask for.”
Adrian pushed away the tightly grasped hand, stood up, and straining all his energy, raised his gun. “Any last words?”
“It’s not over with me. You’ll get more trouble in your way, and I-”
BANG!
“I’ll see you in hell, bitch.”
Adrian exited the warehouse, took out a remote, and pressed it. This warehouse was gone too.
The team fled the country the following week. Seb’s death, the warehouse fire, and all other damage were marked as separate occasions. It was fine, and the team felt a sigh of relief, until,
“Breaking news, live from Liverpool. Gun attacks in Roster Middle School has shaken the country…”
“Live from Manchester where Manchester High see the worst school attack possibly in English history…”
“Live from Norwich where a terrorist attack on the mayor has shaken the residency. The country now looks for a ray of hope…
CHAPTER III: THE MOLE
PART I: HOPE
RING!RING!
The noise of the alarm clock from Room 101 was deafening to say the least. After the clock wobbled from vibrating, it was shut off. It was, as on the clock, 7:00, meaning that he was late. The same hand that shut the clock now lifted it and directed it into his vision. Realising that he was 15 minutes behind schedule, he jumped out of bed. He had got an opportunity in this new job from a mail two weeks prior which read along the lines of,
Dear, Marcus
After thorough inspection of your skills in the environment of danger, we, the Authoritative Commission, have decided to let you join our new team, TASX2, following May 16.
With best regards
Sullivan Et
The man (Marcus) following his daily (actually nightly since it was a night shift) schedule, had now reached the elevator, in an untidy manner, comprising of his tie going in every which way, and his collars mismatched in fashion, had managed to get out of the elevators, fixing his attire, and jump just in time for the daily bus to Trent Park. From there, it was just a 10-minute walk to the second floor of IGOR PUB, and greet the guard, who opened a door for him, and after that door came a giant star, with words COUNTRY BEFORE SELF etched onto the center.
From one of the sliding doors in the office emerged Major Et, the lead of the team. “Meeting in 5,” he said as he passed by Marcus. Et seemed to repeat this with every person in the office, before asking Yosuf to announce it loudly. The team was gathered at the main office, each surrounded by a person on either side, and them surrounded too, and they all stood round a rectangular glass table.
“Boys, we have a tip-off. We have marked Seline as the distributor. After Seb, the operation continued with Seline, and now we have a tip-off. The team will be present at the plaza in less than half-an-hour. I want the strongest team sent. Yosuf, you’ll be in charge. Marcus, investigate cyber-activities. Get a move on, now.”
THEY HAVE LEFT.
Outside, a shiny tinted van was parked. What went in, nobody knew. There were 6, that sat waiting for a signal, and once they received a message saying that they had left, they got ready. Each one wearing masks, loading firearms, preparing grenades. One of them, sent a message to someone else.
PART II: 8:22 P.M.
3… 2… 1
The 6 men outside waited for it, and as the silver van departed the gates, 4 of them went in, the rest acting as getaways, as secretly as they could. The doors were assisted by the guards. After blending in for some time, they found Et, talking with one of the members. The head took out his mobile, typed that Et was found, and slid the phone down a nearby trashbin. The 4 took seats around the office, in each corner of the office, secretly thinking of their attack plan.
The clock struck half-past 8. One of them stood up, walking toward a water filter placed outside the main office. Clamped to his waist was a gun. He noticed Et inside, talking with ‘JACK,’ as it said on his ID-Card hooked to his breast pocket, and signed him to call the captain out. Jack listened, and asked Et to step outside, and that he had, “something to show you.”
Et stepped out after Jack. The man, dressed in a thick all-black attire made his fingers rest properly on the gun, and then waited until Et passed his line of sight, and then,
BANG!
The shot was fired. The other 3 quickly made way for the shooter to join. Marcus, at the far end of the room, came running to the center. He looked at Et. Thankfully, there was not any blood. The bullet had missed by half-an-inch, plummeting to a flower vase instead. Et, still on the floor due to the shock, noticed Marcus and pointed him in the direction of the EXIT sign. Marcus saw the shooter running. He ran after them.
Slowly but surely he caught on speed, managing to tackle the slowest of the bunch at the expense of the other 5 slipping away.
“KKL-32112,” Marcus kept repeating this over and over again as he went back inside, and wrote the number of the getaway van down in a notebook. Walking steadfastly down the office, he sank into a chair and typed the numbers into the database.
“Marcus!” Et called out, finally finding his stance, “Take some with you. There’s something big at stake here.”
8:43 P.M. Int. Plaza
“Guys,” back in the tip-off place, Yosuf gathered the team and told them about the news. The tip-off, as they had now realised, was a fake. “We need to go, now!”
8:45 P.M.
TASX VAN
Marcus, Gray and Wills got into the second silver van in the parking lot, and made their way down into the country, with Marcus getting updates. The van which the attackers had come in from was going quickly into the forest boundary, inching closely.
KKL-32112
“Bloody idiots I say. God damn idiots!”
“You gave the flipping orders, Trent. The hell you pissed about on.”
“For God's sake. We’re lucky them bastards are behind us. Seline is not gonna be happy with this. Get to the warehouse shed, I got a plan.”
The warehouse shed was placed in the heart of the jungle. It was previously a nursery, used to stash guns and whatnot. But after Adrian and his guys came around, it was deserted, the weapons still there.
TASX OFFICE
“Sir, we got the man ready, whenever you want to,” a sturdy man came into Et’s office and told the captain. The man in question was the accomplice Marcus had captured. Et walked over, partially limping as he was still recovering from the shock, and sat opposite to the man in a darkly lit room.
“Say your name for the record,” Et said, as he set a voice recorder in between them. The man paused, his nose bleeding, and overall looking bad.
“SAY IT!” Et demanded now, banging his palm into his side of the table which rattled ferociously under his force. The man jerked, and then immediately went on,
“I’m Kuns.”
“Kuns. So, what were your idiot men thinking when attacking me, may I ask?”
“I don’t know… I was just there as the driver, they never told me anything. It was something related to Seb’s death, or something like that.”
Et sank to the back of his chair. Just then, the door opened. In came Jack, who asked if he could be of any help. Et quickly rejected, saying the man has spilled just enough. Jack exited the room.
KKL-32112
KUNS HAS CONFESSED ABOUT SELINE.
The driver cursed, passed the message to others, and then they all cursed. The van entered the forest, and then after the passing of a few minutes, another van entered this time, their rivals.
PART III: IMPOSTOR
“Et,” they tried a few more times, and then their radio coverage picked up Et's voice, “we have followed them to the forest.”
“Good, leave the van, engage in on foot pursuit.”
“Sure sir.”
Back in the office, Et sat opposite two of the team’s best, Alex and Felix, and tried to decode the madness of the office.
“Sir, trust us. The tip-off was a fake, and the address of the sender is from this office. We have a mole among us.”
Et nodded his head. He seemed lost in thought for a while, finally snapped and then said to them,“Alex, take all phones into custody. Felix, help the team ‘round the forest.”
The duo did as they were told. Felix was dispatched into the team’s whereabouts, and Alex looked into everyone’s phones.
FOREST
The team came to a halt. They were about 12KM in, when they saw a black van parked. No one inside. This must be the attacker’s van. They were on the right track. They walked forward. Nothing. They walked in threes, nothing. They asked Felix, who tried his best in tracing the numbers, but the location of the perpetrators showed the van, and just as they looked, the phones were stashed into the glovebox. They turned on the only working one (the others either cracked open, or missing a SIM), they might have forgotten about this one. There was a message on it. THEY KNOW ABOUT FOREST, LEAVE VAN FAR FROM NURSERY.
A nursery? They knew about a famous one somewhere here, but how could plants help in this. Shoot them with peas? They asked Felix, who confirmed that the van was parked a mile south of the nursery, just in a way to throw them off. The forest team followed Felix’s lead. They were close. They could feel it. Back in the office, Felix told this to Et, whose suspicion grew even more. A mole was absolutely with them, and there wasn’t any doubt.
Et, slouched over with dreary eyes, looked to and fro the office room. No one seemed out of place, but still, there was still someone doing this. His eyes studied each in the office. No one particularly caught his eye. He ordered a cup of coffee from Jack, and then rested his head on the tip of his chair, looking up. Lost in dreary land he wandered. His eyes were restless, his heart beating, his head pumping out sweat by the second. He was lost in thought and he thought more harder, and harder and-
The door opened, it was Jack with a cup of coffee. Et asked him to sit opposite him. He didn’t speak for a while. He would break out into sentences starting with “It's just weird,” and would stop halfway through the sentence. He then looked at Jack, his eyes initially on the blank white cup of coffee, and then excused him to leave. Suddenly, he rose his voice, asked him back onto his seat, and then bent forward.
“3 years, Jack. How much did they offer?”
“Sorry?”
“When I questioned Kuns, they got a message, when we learned about the forest area, they avoided the path. Felix told me that he learned this from Marcus. About the forest, it could have been anyone, but Kuns, you were the only one there. You sent the tip-off too, didn’t you? And the mole when we were helping Maria and Jules, you were helping them bastards in jail, weren’t you?”
Jack broke into sweats, which drizzled on the side of his head, and hit his shoulder like raindrops.
“How much did they offer you?”
“Nothing, sir.”
As Jack formed this answer, Et took out a case from his drawer, kept it on his table, opened it (showing a gun), loaded the gun and pointed it at Jack. As Jack said “nothing” once more, the safety was released, and the trigger went off. The mole was handled.
PART IV: NURSERY GAMES
Gray waited around the nursery. Wills did too in the opposite direction. Marcus stayed central. Two armed men were deployed on either flanks. Gray managed to, without getting caught, hide in a bush without being seen. He had a clear view of the men in front of him. With his two hands clamped tightly on his pistol, he raised it, aimed, and finally pulled the trigger. With two, deafening blows, the men came down. On the other side, one of the men went to check it out, the other one planting his feet. He looked around, warned the last one in the nursery to watch out, and went closer to the bushes’ boundary, where Wills was hiding. He stepped closer, covering Wills with shadow, but he was still unnoticed. The man looked down, and opened fire. Will dodged it, came back, but ultimately got shot, and fell to his knees. On the other side, the man heard this, walked over to the other side, and instantly got shot by Gray, who emerged from the bushes, into a slither of limelight, and turned the corner, to meet with Will’s shooter, who ultimately gave him a blow to his chest.
Marcus saw this unfold from his place in the bushes, counted a few breaths in, and stood up, instantly catching the notice of the last shooter. In a classic Mexican-standoff style, both guns went off. But, only Marcus’ bullets hit. He went into the nursery, where cutting a corner, where he instinctively raised his arms in the air after seeing a machine gun in front of him, held by the final attacker.
“Drop the weapon,” the attacker said in a deep, dark tone. Marcus bent to keep the gun down, lowered his head, and ran forward, with his head dismantling the attacker’s patella, causing him to fall, dropping the gun. The man sat on the floor, while Marcus stood over him, his silhouette covering the man’s build.
“Where’s she? Where’s Seline?”
The man smiled, and spat on the floor, next to Marcus’ shoes, which joined the build of his face as Marcus, out of pure spite and anger, kicked him. The man’s nose bled.
“It’s too late now. Your men can’t do shit now.”
Marcus raised his gun which he picked from the floor and pulled the trigger. After the adrenaline drained from his body, he gave up, and sat on a low-raised table. He notified Et, and then seemed to type in a few numbers, where he seemed to slowly pick out from the very back of his mind, and after entering in 10 digits, he hit the call button.
“Adrian speaking.”
“Ad, we have one more job. Care to join.”
“Tell Et to give me 2 days.”
CHAPTER IV: GUNS N’ ROSES
PART I: THE UKRAINIAN
Flight U-22 landed in London airport. From it, among the numerous other passengers, emerged a man dressed in a black suit who was carrying a big suitcase with him. Reaching the exit doors, he turned and went to the restroom. After a couple of minutes, he exited, this time, without his suitcase. From the same flight emerged Adrian Malkovich, and after batting an eye on the man with the suitcase, and then later shrugging it off as nothing, joined his fellas in a van waiting outside.
“Welcome back, big fella,” Marcus, sitting in the passenger seat by the driver, welcomed him.
“Glad to see you Marcy. You too Gray,” he nodded at Gray, the driver, who nodded back. “How’s Wills?”
“Doing fine now.”
“Glad to hear that.”
By now, they merged onto the highway. It was a few minutes after they did this that Marcus got a call.
“Yes sir? Yes, sir, we picked Adrian. What?” his face going pale, “Sure sir.”
“What?” Gray asked. “Bomb attack in the airport, just now.”
“Oh no.”
Adrian’s mind went back to the man in a suitcase. If they go back it might be dangerous. Et called Marcus again.
“Marcus. They know Adrian’s here. They’re warning us. We must be alert.”
And indeed it definitely was a warning. A warning that was unforeseeable. A warning that announced a new regime of villainy.
They reached Liverpool sooner than expected. Adrian met with Et.
“It’s danger out there, pure danger.”
“We need to keep the operation short, sir.”
“Good point, so we-”
A brick crashed in from their window, managing to miss the back of Adrian’s head by a few millimeters. The glass crashed, and there was a roar from outside. Pulling on the blinds, they saw about three dozen people, with some of them lifting signs that said JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS and BULLCRAPS BEHIND THE WALLS. The public was now fuming for the victims of the bomb incident, and had learned that it was targeted towards the team, particularly Adrian.
The people inside saw all this in wide, pale and fearful eyes. In the middle of the crowd, a sign with the TASX emblem burned. The smokes whirled in the sky. The fumes seemed heavy. Nothing was fixable now, except for finding, and ending, this circus at last.
PART II: GOTCHA!
“Today is a new day. An untouched day,” Adrian assured himself as he woke in his apartment, made breakfast, and left for the office. He reached it. There was no one outside there that day, except for the burned ashes, and some stomped signs on the ground.
Marcus and Gray were working inside. “Hey Ad,” they greeted, to which Adrian greeted back.
“Did you find about him?”
“G.R?” Marcus doubted, “The guy’s a ghost. Has no record, but we do know that he was assigned by Seb in that attack you worked on.”
“But,” Gray interrupted, “he was seen in Ukraine, and a few days before that, with Seline. We suspect the bomb was his, and Seline knew you were going to come here.”
Adrian nodded. They were a leap away from finding Seline, but there would be a mile-long gap between them.
PARIS, FRANCE
A man walked into Pavillon de Soins. He was smoking a pipe, covered from top to bottom, and demanded a room for that day. He received the keys, which dangled in his fingers as he climbed a set of stairs and looked for room 301. He finally reached there. He kept a suitcase he had been carrying beside him, lined up the key in the lock, and then after looking behind his shoulders, opened the door and entered with his suitcase.
The room was a normal one you would find in any lodge. A bed with a white mattress filled most of the center of the room. It was very small. The man sat down on the bed, kept his suitcase to open it, and picked up a revolver under a pile of clothes. He kept the gun back, and picked up a phone, and called someone.
“Hello?” The line picked up.
“G.R. here.”
“It’s Seline, speak.”
“I’m in France. Until the bomb incident dies down, I'll be here.”
“Good.”
The assassin declined the call. No one knew his real name. They all knew his appearance - about 6-feet tall, sharp eyes with a scar under the right one, lips that shut sharply, and a bearded face. He was notorious in the criminal world.
Back in Liverpool, Seline (sitting in her residency, surrounded by a few of the members) returned to talk with the group of members sitting around her, discussing what to do next.
“We have already done the needful. It’s only time till the British government is forced to sign this deal,” one of the ministers spoke.
The deal - to overturn the decision for a team like TASX, opting for a team created by Seline herself along with the minister - would promise them priorities and most importantly, a few pounds of Pounds in their bags.
“How long should we wait then?” Seline asked. She shared similarities with her brothers, both in personality and appearance. Straightly streaked dark hair, and a killer look.
“I don’t know. I have been asking them, but, it’s not working.”
In the office, Felix came up to the trio that is Marcus, Adrian and Gray. “Guys! The minister was spotted in Seline’s residency.”
“So?” Adrian curiously asked. “Before he was elected as the Foreign Affairs Minister, he wanted a section of the military’s payload for another team. Seline now has access to a shit ton of weaponries. Now that he is the minister, he might have joined forces with Seline. And all of this protest thingy, it is to pressurise the government into giving in even more.”
Adrian listened closely, thought for a while, and then told them to alert the Prime Minister. Tell him something’s fishy up.
THE PARLIAMENT
The phone rang. The PM’s secretary picked up, asked about the issue, then put them on the line with the PM himself.
“Good Morning?”
“Hello, sir,” it was Et, who had been notified by Gray and asked to ask about it to the PM, “I’m Major Et.”
“Mr. Et! So glad to meet you or, call you. Tell me, sir, how can I help?”
Et explained everything. The minister thanked him, and called the man in the meeting.
“Mr. Guzman,” the PM began. “Yes, sir?” “I hear you’re in a meeting, am I right, minister?”
“No, sir. I’m brushing up with one of our… clients. Anything else?”
“Nothing else. Have a good day.”
Guzman turned to Seline, “The team has found out. You have to leave.”
Adrian left with the team. They were headed to Seline. A team of 5 armed men, and with a target on her place, the team headed in certainty and in a thought of violence. Seline, too, left the place, and gave a call to her assassin.
“G.R. Make me a plane ready to leave from here, right now. It’s no longer safe.They have found us.”
PART III: TERMINALITÉ
A thickly guarded place, Seline chose to set up her safehouse on the outskirts of the city, a place outside the radar. The team reached there. It was a classic English house, or so they thought, small enough to easily house around 5. They knocked on the doors. No answer. Adrian stood outside the gates of the province, about fifty metres from the front door. On seeing the team’s helpless mannerisms, he too felt helpless. He shaked his head from one direction to the other, and then back, to see a vegetable seller outside.
“Excuse me, sir. I’m with the police, have you seen the people living here.”
“I don’t see and tell, mister.”
“Sir, it’s a matter of national security.”
“I have fresh gourds here, need any?”
“Your bribing games won’t work with me. Now, details, quick,” the man seemed uninterested. Adrian gave in. “How much?”
“20 a piece.”
“God, help us,” he handed the money, but refused the order of the gourd, “Now, details.”
“They left, about… a minute or so ago.”
“Where?”
“Dunno. The girl said something about planes and Paris.”
“Thank you, good sir.”
Adrian called the team over, and ordered them to take for the airport. Seline was headed for Paris. They drove the van to the airport, cleared security and finally reached the gate.
“Excuse me, any planes leave for Paris?”
The woman by GATE 3 checked her records, and then told them that a private jet is just now leaving for France.
“Good, we need to go now.”
“Sorry sir, can’t let you do that, I’m afraid.”
“What? Why?”
“I could get fired, you know?”
“Listen missus,” Adrian showed them credentials, “we are the police, we need to get on right now.”
The lady read his card “Adrian Mal-Malco-Malcovich. Oh! You’re the prick responsible for the bomb in London. Can’t let you pricks through."
“Lady, please, we need to-”
“Raising your voice now, you bastard. Security! Get them off here.”
Leave the plane, the airport seemed a long shot for them. The operation was a failure.
2 HOURS LATER
Adrian sat opposite Et in the captain’s room. A television was turned on, which was placed to Et’s left, and closer to the ceiling.
“Leave it, Ad. We tried. Anyhoo, we do have a team in Paris. Should we deploy them?”
Adrian said nothing for a while. His blunt Ukrainian eyes were fixed just below the table. After a while, he spoke, “There won’t be a need for that, sir.”
“Why’s that?” An extremely puzzled Et asked him.
“Breaking news from Paris, as the Foreign Affairs Minister, Seline and notorious hitman G.R. was found to be in a bomb blast.” The reporter on the T.V. presented. Et stood up, completely shocked, rubbed his eyes, and then looked at Adrian, who had produced a smirk on his face.
“Reports confirm that,” the reporter went on, “the minister was pressuring the government into trying to form a sort of military on their own. Seline is also known for her underground connections and her dangers in Liverpool. Major Et is applauded for the cause.”
“But… how?” Et asked the man opposite. “I have my sources, sir.”
2 DAYS LATER
“I now welcome Major Et to the stage,” The PM welcomed on stage the captain, shook hands with the minister and the King, and then gave a speech, about how it unfolded, but most importantly , how he couldn’t have done this without Adrian Malkovich, the Ukrainian Tiger.
The man in question, Adrian, was standing at the local cemetery, where Jules’ body was bruised. On his coffin, it wrote, “Here lays Bravery and Rightfulness.”
“Good day, mate.” A man appeared beside them, who greeted Adrian.
Adrian did not look at him. Fixating on the grave, he gave a smile, and then said, “Hope Paris was a delightful experience for you.”
“It certainly was. The team got it done wonderfully.”
“Glad to hear that. And then, will you return to Canning for your detective works, or stay with me and the team now?”
“As much as I would like to, I just want to live my life properly now. This was just once because I was in Paris then.”
“No pressure,” the two chuckled, “So, till we meet again, Arthur Leghorne?”
“Till we meet again,” and the two parted ways. Adrian stayed with TASX and with Et and the rest. As for Arthur, well, that’s a tale for another day.
LA FIN
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