‘Hello Mrs Gardener’ He says

She carries on kissing him, finally looking up at him and smiling.

‘Hello Jason’

Fifty Seven

Fredrick is tiring by now. The long crawl through the air ducts is one filled with cramp and hot air, as the sweat drips down his forehead he turns around to Nathan who is a mere few feet away.

‘It’s funny how an air duct for the AC can be so damn hot’ Whispers Fredrick

Nathan laughs quietly as he taps Fredrick on the leg

‘It’s okay man, let’s just keep going. We need to get out of here.’

‘Why are you touching me again? I told you star, I’m no batty boy’

Nathan stops crawling and punches Fredrick in the leg

‘I told you, I don’t know what that means, but I’m gathering that now you said that, you assume I’m gay, well I’m sorry to disappoint you, I’m not a batty boy. You call me that one more time; I’m going to kick your ass!’

Fredrick grabs his leg in pain

‘Why you do that for man? You crazy or something, you want to fight me, the man who is saving you, in an air duct? You crazy white boy’

‘Racism is not the answer Fredrick. Have I called you a black boy?’

Fredrick shakes his head

‘No, but if you did I would make sure I cave your face in bombaclart’

Nathan hears voices in the room below them. He signals Fredrick.

‘Be quiet, there’s someone below us’

‘No shit, there’s a whole bunch of people below us, guards, hostages, guns, explosives.’ Says Fredrick

Nathan and Fredrick carry on crawling through the air duct for a few minutes. They come across a T Junction.

‘Which way should we go? Asks Fredrick

‘How am I supposed to know, you’re the one who came through here.’

‘I know star, it’s just its different on the way out’

‘What do you mean different? They did not change the dam air duct layout in a day’

‘I know it’s different because I’m going the opposite way aren’t I, you stupid or something?’

‘I don’t think I’m the stupid one here, course you’re going the opposite way, that’s how backwards and forwards work!’

Fredrick turns back around to Nathan, this time squaring off to him, pushing Nathan back a few steps. Nathan pushes Fredrick back. Fredrick swings for Nathan, but Nathan ducks out of the way, while the punch lands firmly on the metal walling of the air duct, rattling the structure with a humongous clang. Suddenly the floor beneath them collapses as both men fall through the air duct into a room, landing hard on some concrete flooring. Both men dazed look at each other in spite as they sit up to draw breath. Nathan looks up at the ceiling and notices the massive hole in the air duct where they were crawling in a few seconds prior. Nathan looks at Fredrick who appears to be worse for wear as he grabs his arm, clutching it in pain.

‘Are you alright Fredrick?’

As Fredrick gasps for air, he’s hit in the back of the head with an AK47. Fredrick’s head snaps back to the ground, hitting it with a bloody thud. Nathan jumps in fear as he turns around to see a barrage of armed guards taking aim at him. Behind them, Connor Chase walks into view holding his trademark gun.

‘Glad you could join us Nathan, you gave me a scare. I was worried you left without saying goodbye’

Fifty Eight

Frank picklocks the padlock with a hair clip, he looks around making sure that no one is in his vicinity. He hears the clip snap in the lock.

‘Shit’

Frank takes a few steps back from the rusty warehouse door and takes another look around his surroundings. He notices the nearby layby where cars are sweeping by at high speeds. Frank times his actions. He notices headlights coming down the layby to his right, glistening through the chain link fence separating him from the road. Frank ducks to avoid the beaming lights. The car sweeps by with a whoosh. Frank peaks up over the fence and sees no oncoming traffic. He gets up and walks over to the nearby door once again. He draws his weapon and fires a shot into the padlock. It snaps and buckles at the force of the bullet. He smiles to himself.

‘That should do it’

He takes the buckled padlock off the door hinge and throws it on the floor. He opens the door to the warehouse and is greeted with a sheet of black. The whole room is pitch-dark. He manoeuvres himself into the black, feeling the wall for a light switch.  He finds it and flicks the switch. The light bellows through the room, hitting his eyes with a fierce penetrating ray, obscuring his vision, making it go red for a few moments. His eyes refocus and light up with joy as he looks upon a mass of weapons and ammo stockpiled to the ceilings.

He walks over to the assortment of heavy weaponry and picks up a bolt action Remington MSR sniper rifle. He cocks the bolt back and pumps out a .338 calibre bullet that lands on the stone floor of the warehouse with an everlasting echo that dampens into the night. The smoke coming from the side of the rifle plumes into the air, as Frank cocks the bolt back one more time for good measure. He enjoys the sound of the projectile hitting the floor, as he takes aim with the MSR; he scopes into the far distance of the warehouse. He aims down the sights, four hundred meters; he flicks the laser sights on and takes a deep breath, his finger hovering over the trigger, twitching with excitement.

Fifty Nine

‘Okay men, this is it. We are going in for a sweep of down town Boston. I’m splitting you up into teams of ten. In total there will be ten teams. Each team will take on a certain block, in which I will relay that information closer to the execution of the sweep. In the next hour there will be a ten truck convoy riding down Boston. Each team will have a point man for the operation. I will call out the teams in a minute. Each of you will have a number on your shoulder. That number will correspond with your team. So for example if you pick out a number one, then you will be part of team one, and so forth. The selection of numbers will be random; you will pick out the numbers from a box. After picking your number, use the Velcro strap to put the number on your shoulder, then report to your team’s point man. I will announce the point men for the teams now, so bear with me.’ Says Chief Shaw

Shaw announces the point men in a random order. Each man steps forward and turns around, forming a line across the width of the car park, facing the on looking officers. Shaw steps in front of the selected point men, he paces up and down, looking on at the remaining men.

‘Okay team eight will be led by officer Santiago. Team nine will be led by Officer Phillips. Finally team ten will be led by Officer Mullins.’

Mullins steps forward and joins the point men in formation.

‘Okay team leaders disperse to the convoy area and line up next to your numbered truck. The selected men will join you once they get their numbers randomly assigned to them. I will come and brief each one of you in the next thirty minutes.

The selected team leaders leave the formation and walk up to their assigned vehicles. Mullins walks up to his number ten truck and looks around at the other men down his left, each leaning against their trucks. Truck number nine’s point man nods his head in acknowledgement. Mullins nods back. He takes a deep breath in and swallows hard. Something just doesn’t feel right he thinks to himself.

Sixty

Sandra Austin pushes the hot water button on the vending machine. The water spills out of the plastic nozzle flowing into a polystyrene cup. She then hits the cappuccino button. The machine hums and sputters as it delivers its powdered coffee into the cup. She bends down and grabs the steaming beverage out from under the dripping nozzle. She takes a sip from her drink and pulls a face. Her work colleague standing next to her laughs in amusement.