Family Matters

[Supernautus]

They said it would be easy, nobody would know, and I'd be on my way with minimal fuss. If only I'd listened to my own thoughts, these guys are dangerous, and little did I know, resourceful. I should explain myself, this isn't a good place to start.

 

Tuesday morning I recieved a telephone call, turns out my family are involved in some terrible things. So I get this call, they're telling me that if I ever want to see my family again I better do exactly what they say. What choice do I have, but their instructions are tough. First off I have to go to my fathers office and I have to access his computer, which takes me no time, and what I find blows my mind.

 

My parents are involved in what one could only call a revolutionary plan to clean up the city. I should explain, they run a successful demoliton business, and now I understand why. Working alongside the various criminal organisations in the city they've carved out a living providing explosives for various "enterprises". A little to the chinese, a little to the mob, and a little to every two bit organisation that ever fired a gun in anger. Eventually I find what these guys are looking for, my parents provided high explosives to the Li family, biggest chinese triad organisation around, they were used in an attempt, successful, to blow the home of one Joey Patrone, money man for the big guns of the mob.

 

So this is what they wanted, makes me wonder why they didn't already know, but my old man is prone to clamming up around most people. I get another call five minutes later, am I being watched, I look around, but I don't see a likely suspect. They want me to dump the copies of what I found out in a nearby storm drain, which I do, just as well it's a dry summer night I think to myself. I had hoped that would be it, but it turns out they don't intend to turn anyone over anytime soon.

 

6pm Wednesday I'm sitting in a big, posh french restaurant called L'eglise with Samantha trying to at least pretend I like the taste of extremely salty snails. The night, I felt, was going well, I'd chased this girl for three years before she finaly paid enough attention to actually find out my name, and finally she was in my grasp, so not a good time for my cellphone to start ringing, but I think i'll just ignore it. Eventually it stops ringing, but that doesn't mean I'm out of the woods yet, not by a long way.

 

Just as the main course arrives some big italian guy arrives at the table, and pushes a banana against my back, at least, I hope it's a banana.

 

"Mr Donati wants to see you outside, now!" was the basic idea of what I heard.

 

"And who is Mr Donati, I know nobody by that name" I think if I act dumb maybe I can wriggle my way out, but something smells bad.

 

"Don't matter, you come with me, or we take the little lady here too" raising the stakes somewhat.

 

With little choice I had to explain the situation to Sam, being sure to leave the details to the barest minimum. I stood, and folowed the Gorilla to a big black sedan. He opens the door and shoves me in, then I'm face to face with the oldest guy I think I've ever seen. I have to look deeply into those wrinkles to understand that bizarrely he's smiling.

 

"Ah, Chris Sparks is it, you've still got some business I need attended to, I need you to get my money from those damn Chinks."

 

I didn't like the way this was going, but with these people so capable of finding someone who was I to refuse.

 

"Here's what you're going to do, you're going to be driven, by my guys here to a warehouse, they're going to kit you out with some gear then you're going to bust into Li's tower, and transfer me 5 million dollars straight from their Swiss account."

 

I realised this job was going to require a lot more than just my average hacking skills and suddenly I felt a little sick.

 

"Sir, how do you expect me to do that, I don't know the codes, and I'm sure Li didn't write them down on the side of his monitor, besides that fact, isn't this place going to be very heavily guarded" if the panic didn't show in my voice I'm going to take up acting.

 

Donati and his men started to laugh, guess I shouldn't give up my day job, then Donati leans closer

 

"That's why we're giving you some guns, and maybe some clothes that'll minimise your chances of being spotted, you don't have a real choice, if you can't get me my money, I'll kill your parents, and your little girlfriend in there, and then once that's done, I'll lock you in a room alone with a pistol."

 

It's amazing how suicidal you become when painted into a corner.

 

"Glad to see freedom of choice is alive and well in your eyes." I don't even realise I'm speaking.

 

They laugh again, a big belly laugh.

 

"Kid I like your style, but you're right, your choices are pretty eay to make in our company, it's a do or die business, if that's all in order then, boys, take him into the alley and get him to the armory"

 

I'm bundled out of the car before I know what's happening and dragged into a dark alley, where two shining red motorcycles sit, I'm tied to the pillion as the bigger of these two apes climbs on in front of me, my eyes covered with a piece of dark cloth, and as soon as the other is ready, we speed off into the night.

 

Fear really does grip you when tied to the back of a fast moving vehicle blind, all I could hear was the roar of the engine, and squeal of the wheels, plus the sporadic random honkings from angry cars, I can only pray these two know what they're doing, and before I know it I'm being bundled off the bike, and dragged into a place that is as silent as the grave. There they remove my blindfold, and I see their armory, and think to myself the US army would love an armory this varied.

 

Aside from the obvious tank, which seemed a little out of place. They carried everything from pistols to rocket launchers, but I get two silenced pistols and a shotgun, they kit me out in some black figure hugging costume and explain again what I'm doing, these must be the more inteligent species of mob Gorilla.

 

"You go in silent, pistols only, and you don't stroll in through the front door, unless you're suddenly feeling like you'd rather die, and take everyone with you. Here also is a small electronic explosive, with this you'll blow their computer network once you get what we want, once inside your use of force is up to your discretion, but I suggest you use the shotgun only if you can't escape cleanly, and that's it, I don't want any questions, so don't ask"

 

I clam up, their boss might have laughed, but these guys looked like they felt the gloves were off now they were off their leash, after a moment, I'm being blindfolded again, and a terrifying bike ride later, I'm dropped off in the middle of the city, my blindfold removed, they point me in the direction of the Supersoft tower, and my heart sinks. A software company was going to have some very difficult computer security, especially one run by a criminal family, these guys had buried a local lawyer Mack Simpson for speaking out about their business practices, or at least, those are the rumours, now I didn't even think to doubt them.

 

In looking for an entrance It turned out I had to circle the entire building before eventually finding a rear basement door, the door was open, but guarded, I almost came out right on top of the guy, but luckily he didn't spot me, and so I waited, feeling that, eventually my moment would arise, and sure enough, 20 minutes later, it did. I heard the muffled voice of someone else, calling out from inside the basement, and the guard sighed and threw his cigarette butt on the ground, turning to go inside, without a moments thought, I run for the doors, stopping short to make sure nobody was right behind them, I spotted the guard ahead, walking towards a lit area.

 

The basement was laid out like a library, rows of bookshelves filled with various paraphernalia for the creation of video games and other such software, if I'd been here for my own reasons I could have a field day, but I needed to think quickly, and carefully, traversing the room while ensuring I stayed away from the light was fairly easy, but a couple of times I stepped on something which almost tripped me, sure I'd made a noise I would wait in silence, and when it turned out I wasn't heard I would carry on, after a few minutes I found a spot in the dark, where I could see the doorway that was lit up, my intention being to wait here until whoever was in there finally got what they wanted and left, I had seen no other doors on this side of the basement so assumed I would have to go through the room they were in.

 

My wait was turning into a long one, so I headed for the door, hearing muttered conversation from behind it, I quickly peek round the corner, the two guys, with their backs turned towards me, are doing something I'm sure their boss would kill them for, playing the latest Football game together with a couple of beers, on the floor beside them is a large crate, the lid leans against the side, but from this angle I couldn't see what was inside. Thinking fast I pulled a pistol, making sure the safety was off, I squeezed off two aimed shots, popping both guys in the base of the skull, I've never heard anything as nasty as the crack those bullets make on impact, but my troubles are minimised for now.

 

Quickly I cross the room, taking a second to glance in the crate, filled with little bags of white powder, I could assume they're loading talc, but dad always told me he didn't raise a fool. I headed for the door out of this room, met with two shiny silver elevators and a dark staircase, I take my chances with the stairs, feeling an elevator leads to me being surprised not the other way round. I climb the first three floors and pop my head out the door, nobody is around so I walk out into the hallway I walk down a few rooms, until I hear the sound of a radio calling out the game, it takes about a second for me to register that this must be a security office, inside sits one guy, not like any security guard I've ever seen, he's big, but in a muscular, fit kind of way, not the jelly bellied fatty I expected. Again I pull the pistol, and again I succeed in stopping the guy un-noticed.

 

In front of me is a bank of monitors, feeding out camera views presumably from this floor, from this I spot the server room, and note it's location for blowing it on my escape, I assume that Li's office is on the top floor, and backtrack to the steps, I quickly realise that the top floor is going to be a long walk, eventually getting to the 75th floor I pop out into what looks like a chinese palace hall, the lights dimmed, and the room silent. It takes me a few minutes to find the room I want, and when I get to the computer, I realise I'm in luck, someone was using the computer to look at their funds and had left it on, I realised maybe he'd be back and set to work fast, transferring funds from their account to the other, I waited for the transfer to go through, and finally it did, this was too easy, and I spoke too soon.

 

As soon as the transfer completes, a voice speaks out from behind me.

 

"I'm surprised you didn't complete a more thorough investigation of the room before stealing my money" I would have kicked myself in the ass, hard, if I was able.

 

"Mr Li?" as if I needed to ask.

 

"Correct boy, I've been watching you since my guard was shot downstairs, you've attributed your success to luck, but I merely let you up here, after my business with your father Mr Sparks, yes I know who you are, I had heard he had disappeared, and so I was actually waiting for something like this, tell me, which of the families was it that hired you?"

 

"It was Donati sir, he left me with no choice, told me he'd kill my parents, kill my girlfriend, if I didn't get his money back, I had to do it" I chose this moment to turn around, facing a chinese guy in his early forties holding a nasty looking pistol in his hand, with no silencer, it's unnecessary in his own building faced with a burglar.

 

"OK, son, here's, the deal, that money will stay in Donati's account until your family are safe, if you can just do something for me, it's fairly simple and shouldn't raise any suspicion with Mr Donati." naturally, I'm all ears.

 

Li wants me to do something dangerous though, he wants me to wear a wire when I get back to Donati, get evidence that he was kidnapping my family, and that he asked for the money to be stolen. Get Donati to say pretty much any incriminating thing I could catch him on. This felt bad to me, dirty, and a tad too convenient, how did Li know I was coming, how did he know who I was, that worry was there in the back of my mind but It was quickly shut out by my fear of this situation, I agreed, of course.

 

"Excellent Mr Sparks, please follow me"

 

I followed Li, down the hallway, into another room, where six other members of his gang were sitting, each with an Uzi trained directly on my head, fair enough, I had broken into their place, but my god was it scary. After a moment Li returned his attention to me, in hand he had a small transceiver and microphone, he asked me to remove my shirt, and sticks the transceiver to me, wiring up the microphone and closing my shirt, then placing the mic through one buttonhole in my shirt he finishes, and tells me to head out the way I came in, that no guards will bother me because they know I'm here, and I'm ony my way again, this time I take the elevator all the way to the basement, and on the way out, fire off a couple of shots from the shotgun into nothing for good measure.

 

The car was there when I came out, door open already so I stepped in, and there sat Donati, smile still present.

 

"Thank you Mr Sparks, the transaction was completed to my satisfaction, perhaps now Mr Li, will think carefully before blowing away my investments, I will be happy to hand over your family but first again we must cover your eyes." This is it, I thought, finally an end to my troubles.

 

After a fairly long period of time we eventually stopped, and my blindfold was removed, they led me to a run down old house, chances are nobody lived here for a very long time, even though there was a light coming from one of the windows, they led me into a little room where both of my parents sat, tied, and gagged, my fathers face fell as they led me in, and he began to struggle.

 

"Now now Mr Sparks your son has done what we asked, and you will be released momentarily, if your son can explain why he's wearing a wire." There it hit me, like a ton of bricks dumped sqaurely on my chest.

 

"I-I-I don't know what you mean" I stammered.

 

"We've known since you got in the car Chris, we thought your little job went a bit better than anticipated, did Li make you wear it? Did he want to catch me for what I'd done, you see my boy, I was a little less than honest with you, It was me who blew up Patrones place, Li and the other families know that, with Li's money I was going to get away from here, set up home somewhere nice and quiet, but now I'll have to rethink it."

 

I was terrified now, as two of his men drew pistols to the heads of my parents and on a nod from Donati, blew them away simultaneously.

 

"You violated my trust boy, and now we're going to play a game, we're going to give you 30 minutes to run, after that time is up, we'll find you, and when we do, your time is up too, please, hand over the guns."

 

I was suddenly grabbed from behind, stripped of the weapons they'd provided me with, stripped of the wire Li fitted me with, and kicked out into the night. Li said it would be easy, and perhaps it was for him, and did it cause minimal fuss, well, when I saw two cars pull up outside the house, and Li stepping out, I started to wonder, he looked right at me, and pointed his finger, in a shooting motion, and I ran.

 

The End.

 

 

that's my first attempt at writing something here, I usually write screenplay type stuff at home with the intention of maybe one day getting somewhere with it, but there's a piece completely adlibbed I thought I'd post, hope you like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ryunday]

I liked it good work.

Edited August 18, 2007 by Ryunday

[Supernautus]

thanks man, I may write some more stuff when I get time, not bad for something off the top of my head though.

[Oxidizer]

That's from the top of your head? And your first non!screenplay type fic? Wow. That's f*cking impressive.

 

The more skilled/experienced writers better watch out - they've got competition!