The shootout at `Crazy Mongers' would be one to remember
Episode 4
The endless scenery zoomed by as Duke sped off into the horizon. He checked his watch, it was 9 AM and the sun was rising higher with each passing minute. He reckoned that at the speed he was going, he would surely make it to Mali before noon.
He had awoken at 6 AM. As soon as the sun's first rays streamed through his windows. And he had been riding ever since he left fifteen minutes later. Armed with his laptop, his gun and no pair of extra clothes, he had begun his journey towards the coastal city of Mali; a hostile road by anyone's standards; the road to Mali went through the everglades with their teeming crocodiles before it entered the worst type of terrain, the harsh salt desert. Winds swept in tiny grains of sand that danced about on the roads in wispy mini tornadoes. Population density was down to a minimum, with a few scattered townships at great distances.
As the wind streamlined across his helmet, Duke thought back to the conversation he and Damien had the previous night
"So what you gonna do hon? Buy air tickets? You only have till tomorrow."
"No, I can't afford air tickets. And I don't think I'll make it in time anyway. I think I'm gonna go there by bike."
"What?" Damien cried from the other side. "How the hell you gonna get there by bike? You'll probably get eaten by crocodiles on the way or something, or worse, you'll turn to crispy toast in the middle of the desert!"
"Yeah, but it's the only option."
Damien opened his mouth to say something but then shut up. He knew it was pointless arguing against Duke in such situations.
"So what you gonna say to him if you do catch up?"
Duke could hardly give a reply that time. And that was exactly what he was thinking about, riding along on his bike through the salty desert air. The temperature was beginning to rise and his dark attire and bike were going to make him bear the brunt of it. But those were the least of concerns in his mind. Nothing would stop him from meeting Christian, he was now sure of that, but then what exactly would he do once he did meet him? Damien's words came floating back to his mind again.
"I mean, don't hit him or anything when you see him sweetie, cause we both know what he's capable of doing when he's in a fight."
"Don't know, we'll see."
"And where does that girl fit into all this? The red-haired one I met at the bar."
"Don't know." Duke replied again as Damien sighed at his redundancy.
And then Damien had launched into a vivid description of what had happened to the people who Christian had intercepted that fated night, telling him every detail of Randy and his unfortunate mates, how a couple of them were still hospitalized and how one of them would probably never be able to reproduce, even if he wanted to.
And Duke had barely listened. He was deep in thought of what he would do. But there was one thing he did know; there was no way he was going to sit back and try and forget the whole incident.
~~~
"So that's where we split up right."
"Yes, after we get in the ship and enter E-deck, you're gonna make your way to the control room and I'm gonna continue towards Mr. Checkov's private collection."
The plot seemed perfect to Christian. This would probably be one of the easier tasks they had been on. That did not mean he would be on a lower caution level. But everything had been perfected to the last routine, and things didn't look like they could go wrong now. Christian smiled to himself as he recalled how things had gone wrong on their last job; that moron had entered in the password wrong!
Christian shook his head to clear his thoughts. He needed a break from their jobs, and he was going to get it after this task. There was a lot of thinking he had to do; a lot of thoughts had to be expunged from his mind.
~~~
It was 11 AM when Duke pulled up at a kerb on the outskirts of Mali and tugged of the helmet on his head. It had been boiling hot inside but he had made it before he had to face the worst part of the afternoon sun. A young boy who looked to be about 14 eyed Duke as he unzipped his jacket and strode of the bike.
"Hey, is that a BMW?"
Duke smiled as he patted his bike, "Yup."
"Cool, can I take a ride?"
Duke stared at the kid shaking his head in wonder.
Duke thought about how he'd made it to the town and Christian was somewhere there too. But the only information Duke had, pertained to where Christian would be sometime that night. He had no clue as to where he was at that very moment. He decided to acquaint himself with the scenario that he would be facing that night. After all, he had to be fully prepared, or he would miss his only chance.
Ten minutes later, Duke made his way into a coffee shop and was glad to find his much preferred lemon iced-tea on the menu. That would give him something to sip at whilst he got down to business.
He flipped open his laptop and immediately started searching for wireless internet connections. The screen showed up quite a few and Duke was surprised that they were all encrypted. He sighed as he realized that more and more Internet Service Providers were taking notice of illegal usage of their bandwidths and had begun to encrypt their usages.
That would hardly deter Duke though. A few minutes of code filtering, and he was through.
Through and blissfully breaking through and scanning the security reports of the private docks and on board a luxury yacht called the Nebressa.
~~~
It was evening time and Damien was just getting off from work as his phone buzzed. It was his neighbor, Mrs. Writer, asking him not to pick up Valary from the play group for she was free herself.
Damien sighed as he realized that he had all the free time to do whatever else he desired that evening. He wondered what his sod of a friend was doing, and had he in fact reached Mali? He called Duke a bastard in his mind when he thought about how he never even took the pains to inform him that he had reached Mali safely, but he knew Duke was never one for formalities.
Damien's cellphone buzzed with the arrival of a message. It was from a number he failed to recognize.
`Mark; 32, 5'8", brown hair, blue eyes. Care to meet up? (P.S. Got your number from a friend.'
Damien bit his lip as he read the message once again. `What the hell', he said to himself, `I'm free anyway', and dialed the number.
20 minutes later Damien walked into a bar and flipped open his phone and accessed the pictures folder. The mysterious Mark had forwarded over an image of himself and Damien had found it adorable. The almost baby like charm the guy possessed had Damien smitten in a second and high-fiving the air for his stroke of good luck. Now he had to meet the real thing and see if Mark was indeed the dreamboat he claimed he was.
He saw him near the counter, in a red polo-shirt and immediately his body reacted in more ways than one. Mark smiled as he made his way towards Damien and extended his hand showing his perfectly straight white teeth.
"Hey, I'm Mark. Pleased to meet you."
5 Minutes later, they were at Mark's apartment, Damien getting drilled for all he was worth. He was moaning and cursing at the top of his voice as the beautiful man ploughed him. Between gasps and moans Damien looked up to the angelic face that was giving him the ride of his life. He had really scored today, a guy who looked like a 16 year old and took charge like a man. And boy, was he hitting all the right spots.
Mark grabbed Damien's dick as he pumped in and out of him, stroking long and hard as they kissed ferociously, and soon Damien tripped over the edge, his release coming way too soon, hoping, somewhere at the back of his orgasming mind, that there would be a round two.
A minute later Mark collapsed breathing heavily, onto Damien's frame, seeding the condom clad dick which lay buried deep within his companion. The two bodies were covered in a sheen of sweat from the frantic coupling. Damien stroked the brown hair as he mentally thanked the mystery middle person who had forwarded Mark his number.
"Don't take this the wrong way," Damien stated staring at the beautiful face, "But I think I've seen you somewhere before."
Mark smiled and Damien melted at the sight of the prettiest of faces. "Yeah, you might have seen me on porno."
And then it hit Damien; Mark Lester! He was a porn model! And he had in fact seen him in the most intimate of scenes in his collection.
"You might have seen my buddy too." Mark gestured as Damien immediately threw him off when he noticed the presence of a third person in the room. He frantically tried to hide his nakedness as he glanced up to see who it was.
"Hey fruitcake! Simmer down! It's just me."
Damien's face turned pale as he looked at the all too unforgettable face. Only it had a scar across it now, a wicked cut on the right side that started above the lips and ended just below his eye. It was Randy.
Damien immediately realized that something was very wrong.
~~~
There was no moon that night, which made for a favorable scenario for Christian and Vanessa. He motioned her with his fingers to follow as they stole into the night, towards the docked Nebressa.
They had stolen in easily, getting into the dock area required cutting through an electrocuted fence and handling a camera surveillance system. And it had been easy, a bit too easy, Christian felt. And now they were in. They looked at the ship parked at the harbor, a few soft lights glowing at the sides, but other than that, the night seemed dead.
Christian gestured Vanessa once more as they dashed in the direction of the ship and with soft splashes dived into the water. They would enter the ship from the leeward side.
Minutes later, the two were hurriedly stuffing their wet suits into duffel bags as Christian signaled his partner towards the E-deck.
They glanced at each other before nodding affirmatively; this would be where they part. From now on, Christian's job would comprise hardware; acrobatics and physically securing the painting whereas Vanessa would handle the surveillance system and the security vault break through; the software side of things.
~~~
Damien yawned. He had been frightened before but now he was bored to death. The sudden appearance of Randy Rodriguez into the picture had left him shocked, but now he had no clue what was going on. The steamy sex and post orgasmic bliss he was enjoying with Mark had obviously been rudely interrupted and much to his surprise, they had then dragged him into a room and locked him inside.
Damien was surprised they hadn't even tied him up, not that he knew what they were planning to do. And he had spent the last 6 hours locked up in a room which even had a TV inside. He was hardly in a mood to watch though. They had taken his phone and there was no way to get in touch with someone outside, but other than that, they had not done anything to him. `Maybe they plan to bore me to death', he thought to himself.
Suddenly he heard footsteps outside as the latch slid open and Randy Rodriguez came in grinning. He was followed by two other men.
"So tooth-fairy? How you been?"
"Hungry." Damien replied, a little disappointed that Mark wasn't with them. The wicked guy had gotten him into this situation, but he still found him cute.
"We'll have to take care of the hunger shan't we? Let's go grab a bite to eat."
Randy held up a black scarf as Damien realized that they intended to blindfold him. He sighed as he put up no resistance.
"So where are we going?" Damien questioned his group as they led him out of the building and into a waiting car.
"We're going to meet an old friend of mine." Randy replied before he forcefully shoved the blind Damien inside.
Minutes later, Damien found his questions not being answered as Randy asked him to `shut the fuck up for he would find out things eventually'.
Damien had almost dozed off by the time the car screeched to a halt, and pairs of hands roughly made him exit the car. He groggily walked along with the men as they led him up a flight of stairs and felt the temperature drop as the air-conditioning of a building surrounded him in it's cool blanket. He had many questions in his mind. Why would Randy Rodriguez be after him? What did they want with him anyway? And why the hell had they got such a cute guy to try to entice him into the whole thing in the first place?
Damien was abruptly pulled back as their group stopped and knocked at a door. Seconds later he was ushered into a room and his blindfold taken off. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the light as someone's voice sailed through the room..
"So favi, you're our fairy friend Damien aren't you? Make yourself comfortable, you're my guest now."
Damien looked to where the voice was coming from. His breath got caught in his throat as he looked at a woman with a half burnt face smiling at him.
~~~
"Yup, it's done," Vanessa spoke softly into the microphone. Now head over to the double doors.
Somewhere on the lower decks Christian made his way towards the grand entrance which required a computer key to be fed in for entrance. Vanessa provided him with the key she had obtained and the door slid open, making a whirring noise as it did, revealing a gate of iron bars that was to be tackled next. This would be the last obstacle to cover for Christian to reach the painting. And then he would have to manually handle the alarm system that would go of if the painting was removed incorrectly.
A few keyboard taps later, The iron bars slid up and Christian was in.
Vanessa let out a sigh of relief. The operation had been easy, bit too easy; and that somehow made her feel it was going dreadfully wrong. As if they had been expected and things had been laid out for them. She had easily overwritten the surveillance system and the firewalls to the security system had taken hardly any effort to bypass. She couldn't help shake the feeling that something was amiss. Maybe they had gotten a bit too good at their job.
Inside the grand room that housed Mr Checkov's private collection, Christian was surrounded by a conglomeration of curios, artifacts and paintings. He boldly made his way towards the painting they were seeking, and drew out the cylindrical holder that would be used to hold it.
He drew out a knife from below his thigh and advanced towards the painting.
`A rather crude alarm system for such a collection', he thought to himself as reached out to insert the knife into the socket that tripped he alarm system and gently tugged at the frame of the painting.
He let out the breath of anxious aur as he placed the masterpiece on the ground and withdrew a second knife from his body suit. Now all he had to do was slice the canvas from the frame, roll it up and three hundred thousand dollars would be theirs.
He knelt down to start at the job and the blade of his knife had barely touched the canvas fabric when Vanessa's voice cackled into his ears.
"Christian, you have to get out immediately, there's..."
He failed to hear the rest as the earphones hissed static into his ears and the connection went dead.
Christian stood up in a flash.
"Vanessa?" he spoke worriedly into the microphone. "Can you hear me? What's going...?"
The rest was cut off as Christian heard a whirring sound and was shocked to see the grand entry door sliding shut. He made a mad dash for the door and dived forward to try and make it in the last second through the narrow opening left as the door steadily closed in.
He failed.
His head rammed against the door as he felt the solidity of it and collapsed on the floor. He groggily stood up as he pushed against the monolithic gate. It was no use. And he was sure it would not budge even if a force ten times greater than his was applied.
Suddenly Christian hear another whirring noise as the iron bar gate collapsed and fell behind him.
Christian watched in horror. He was trapped between the double gates. This could not be happening.
"Vanessa? Vanessa? Whats going on? Are you there?" he stated in a frenzied tone into the headset but received no reply.
Christian looked around at the small two foot wide enclosure he was trapped in. And he had no way out. Was this the end for him? Where was Vanessa? What had gone wrong in their plan?
He kicked against the door screaming and shouting but nothing moved. It was no use. He was powerless. He had been caught.
In his helpless state he fell back against the iron bars and slumped down to the ground, a million thoughts running through his head.
`There go the plans for my vacation now.' He thought as suddenly he chuckled in the cramped confinement. He sighed as the tension left his body, realizing it was no use; he was doomed.
A clicking noise from the first door jerked him up with a start. Had the authorities gotten here so soon?
His mouth fell open when he saw who it was. Standing ahead of him in black leather pants and a biker jacket was Duke, with a smug expression on his face.
"Yo! How you been?"
~~~
Ok, that's it for this episode (yeah I know it's a small one), but I'm going out for the next five days so the next one's gonna be a little late. And that one's gonna have all the action, so be on the lookout for it!
And thanks to all those who mailed me!
skyunending@yahoo.com