Heroes and Villains
4; the hunt begins.
Jose Gonzalez sat behind the steering wheel of a sleek, unmarked black van outfitted with a surveillance system similar to that of his employer, Alonso Salazar. With dark, pcokmarked skin and lank black hair that was always slciked back with grease, Jose was not known for his looks. In the world of mercenaries he was known to be without soul; had no conscience, no regrets about killing men, women, children alike. Determined to get that paycheck long past due and willing to do anything was a deadly combination. He and two henchmen had been employed by Salazar to track his targets every move. Unlike most of his former jobs, he was told to be obvious, to make sure that the target knew they were being followed. Not known for his intellect, Jose was perturbed as to why his employer wanted to found out. A man known only as Banjo, the brains to Jose’s brawn, knew very well why Salazar wanted Portman to know she was being followed. He wanted her to be spooked,be scared. Scared people make mistakes. And it was working. After only 5 days she had called for the meeting with the man named Foster. Salazar had ordered for them both to be put under audio surveillance so the malicious team’s third member went undercover into the small coffee shop and was currently sitting on the table behind the distracted couple, sending every word, every move to the surveillance truck and ultimately to Alonso thousands of miles away.
“They’ve left the shop” erupted from the speakers amongst a mass of static, waking them from their silent reverie.
“Follow them, we’ll be behind you.” Banjo said into a microphone on the console.
The crowded street looked like any other. Rainy English drizzle turning flustered Christmas shoppers into bedraggled monsters, tasteless lights and tacky snowflakes littering every spare space. A young man and woman hurried down the street. She could have been one of millions: with shocking red hair and heavy makeup, dressed in casual black jeans and a coat with a deep hood, the girl threaded through the mass unnoticed. He could have been anyone with dark lustrous hair and an obviously well built body even behind his stylish leather jacket. They stopped halfway down the street at an unremarkable alleyway and disappeared from sight.
Once Nick and Alexi were absolutely certain they had lost the black van, they headed down the alley way into an old, derelict looking warehouse down one of the side alleys. Peering into the dusty gloom they found what they were looking for; an old scruffy homeless person, seemingly resting on a couple of cardboard boxes. For if a stranger walked into this warehouse, which was pretty unlikely anyway, they would have found nothing out of the ordinary except for the distinct smell of rotting fish, left behind by the previous owners. But this was no normal disused warehouse among many. This was the entrance to the little known headquarters of the NSOA, which was practically unheard of except in the highest command circles in governments. Nodding briskly to the old beggar man, who was in fact one of the NSOA’s many agents, paid to guard the entrance of their headquarters,they made their way to the back of the warehouse where a cardboard box, no different from the type you might find packaged TV’s or apples, had a touch screen in it. They both pressed their hands into screen which not only took a scan of their hands but also their DNA, leaving a tiny pin prick of blood behind. Then one after the other, looking around cautiously, they spoke their full names and passwords and waited for confirmation. They had often thought that the security precautions were unnecessary as no one knew about them anyway, but had been proved wrong when one of the many enemies of the Agency had tried to blow the headquarters up the year before.
When a heavily enforced bullet proof, bomb proof door opens up in the middle of a filthy towering pile of boxes, most people would stop and stare. But not these two. Not noticing the sudden muffled yelp emitting from behind them, they slipped wordlessly into the darkness beyond.
“I'm going in after them” the third team member said, letting the old guards body to the floor but dragging him by the hand behind him. He placed it firmly on the touch screen and silently slid through the gap, not letting the door open fully.
After going through two more tricky safety procedures, one scanning irises the other BMI recognition, they entered they seemingly endless maze of rooms. The corridors, and the doors surrounding them, had not been named or numbered so that if a intruder happened to get past the safety procedures, they would be immediately lost. All NSOA agents had to memorise a map, but even that didn’t cover the entire site. They had no idea what most of the rooms they went past were for. There were rumours of scientific experiments, the lastest nuclear and atom bombs and rooms full of files of everyone who had ever come to the attention of the corporation. The floors, walls and ceiling were made up of grey reinforced steel, lit only by rows of LED lights that lit up when it sensed you were near. This made the labyrinth even more bewildering. Slowing their brisk walk, they stopped out side one of the indistinguishable doors and pressed their hand onto another fingerprint scanner.
“They’ve left the shop” erupted from the speakers amongst a mass of static, waking them from their silent reverie.
“Follow them, we’ll be behind you.” Banjo said into a microphone on the console.
The crowded street looked like any other. Rainy English drizzle turning flustered Christmas shoppers into bedraggled monsters, tasteless lights and tacky snowflakes littering every spare space. A young man and woman hurried down the street. She could have been one of millions: with shocking red hair and heavy makeup, dressed in casual black jeans and a coat with a deep hood, the girl threaded through the mass unnoticed. He could have been anyone with dark lustrous hair and an obviously well built body even behind his stylish leather jacket. They stopped halfway down the street at an unremarkable alleyway and disappeared from sight.
Once Nick and Alexi were absolutely certain they had lost the black van, they headed down the alley way into an old, derelict looking warehouse down one of the side alleys. Peering into the dusty gloom they found what they were looking for; an old scruffy homeless person, seemingly resting on a couple of cardboard boxes. For if a stranger walked into this warehouse, which was pretty unlikely anyway, they would have found nothing out of the ordinary except for the distinct smell of rotting fish, left behind by the previous owners. But this was no normal disused warehouse among many. This was the entrance to the little known headquarters of the NSOA, which was practically unheard of except in the highest command circles in governments. Nodding briskly to the old beggar man, who was in fact one of the NSOA’s many agents, paid to guard the entrance of their headquarters,they made their way to the back of the warehouse where a cardboard box, no different from the type you might find packaged TV’s or apples, had a touch screen in it. They both pressed their hands into screen which not only took a scan of their hands but also their DNA, leaving a tiny pin prick of blood behind. Then one after the other, looking around cautiously, they spoke their full names and passwords and waited for confirmation. They had often thought that the security precautions were unnecessary as no one knew about them anyway, but had been proved wrong when one of the many enemies of the Agency had tried to blow the headquarters up the year before.
When a heavily enforced bullet proof, bomb proof door opens up in the middle of a filthy towering pile of boxes, most people would stop and stare. But not these two. Not noticing the sudden muffled yelp emitting from behind them, they slipped wordlessly into the darkness beyond.
“I'm going in after them” the third team member said, letting the old guards body to the floor but dragging him by the hand behind him. He placed it firmly on the touch screen and silently slid through the gap, not letting the door open fully.
After going through two more tricky safety procedures, one scanning irises the other BMI recognition, they entered they seemingly endless maze of rooms. The corridors, and the doors surrounding them, had not been named or numbered so that if a intruder happened to get past the safety procedures, they would be immediately lost. All NSOA agents had to memorise a map, but even that didn’t cover the entire site. They had no idea what most of the rooms they went past were for. There were rumours of scientific experiments, the lastest nuclear and atom bombs and rooms full of files of everyone who had ever come to the attention of the corporation. The floors, walls and ceiling were made up of grey reinforced steel, lit only by rows of LED lights that lit up when it sensed you were near. This made the labyrinth even more bewildering. Slowing their brisk walk, they stopped out side one of the indistinguishable doors and pressed their hand onto another fingerprint scanner.