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The moments after Shing’s proclamation were met with stunned silence. My mouth had fallen open and I was unable to make a sound. It made no sense: why would my government kill my family?
Seeing that I wasn’t going to protest against his version of the truth, Shing moved over to the computer and turned it on, blocking my view of the traitorous guide.
Shing made to put the chip into the computer but stopped to look up at me. “You’ve failed,” he said in a carrying whisper, although his eyes held a hint of sadness.
I heard a click, like a gun’s safety being removed.
Shing turned his eyes back to the computer…
BANG
Shing’s eyes widened, their expressions changing from surprise to anger to fear and back to surprise in a split second. With his triumphant smirk still plastered on his face, he slumped forward, headfirst, onto the desk, blood flowing from the hole in the back of his head. It didn’t take a genius to see that he was dead.
Taking my eyes off Shing’s body, I looked over at the corner where the guide was hiding to see that he was calmly putting away his gun, the barrel still smoking slightly.
“Wha—?” I began, confused.
The killer strode over to the desk, dragged the corpse off it, and pocketed the chip. “You’d do best to stay out of this, Mr. Napoleon” he said, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at me. “More is going on here. More than you know.”
“Will do.” I replied. “Just release us and give me the chip and I’ll be on my way.”
The man smirked. “I don’t think so.” He strode past the cage trapping Rachael and I and opened the door. With one last backward glance, he left, the door sliding shut behind him with a hiss.
Immediately, I fell to one knee, fiddling with my sock.
“Leonardo, this isn’t the time to fall apart.” Rachael snapped. “Pull yourself together and let’s figure a way out of this!”
I returned to my feet, a knife in my hand, and I began sawing the bars.
“Have you lost it?!” Rachael cried. “An ordinary knife won’t do us any good!”
“This isn’t an ordinary knife” I replied, not taking my eyes off the bar I was sawing. “Its diamond edged, so it can cut through almost anything. And anyways,” I added as the section I was cutting became loose, “the only thing I’ve lost is the ability to trust.”
Within 10 minutes, I finished cutting an opening in the bars wide enough for me to climb through. After extricating ourselves from our prison, we searched the room before leaving for anything we could use as a weapon.
We left with a letter opener and an iron rod.
* * *
Once we were outside, one thing that immediately caught my eye was that the corridor was deserted except for us and the guards were had shot earlier, whose corpses were starting to emit foul odors.
“This is a first.” Rachael remarked as we walked down the hallway, taking care to avoid bodies and drying blood. “You’d think that this floor would be crawling with security by now.”
I shrugged as we reached the end of the corridor. I pressed a button on the wall, opening the elevator. I looked up and saw two guards staring at us.
Before they could act, Rachael and I leapt at them. I knocked my guy out with a blow to the side of the head, while Rachael used the iron rod to beat her opponent into unconsciousness.
Once we made sure they were out cold, we frisked the guards. We took their guns, their ammo, walkie-talkies, and card keys. Then we dumped their bodies in the hallway and closed the elevator, which immediately began going down.
Rachael looked over at me. “We are we going?” she asked.
I glanced over at the control panel as I walked over to the nearest corner and sat down. “The lower levels” I said. “It looks like that’s where our victims were going.”
Rachael blinked. “Shouldn’t we just leave and go to our respective governments?”
I shook my head. “I need to get that computer chip back. That’s what I came for. I can’t let these people use it.”
Rachael cocked her head to one side. “You sure that’s the only reason?”
I sighed and looked at her. “No. I want to know who he his, who he’s working for, and why he killed Shing.”
Rachael nodded, not needing to ask who “he” was. “There are numerous reasons why he would want to kill Shing: revenge, power, money…”
I shook my head. “I think it was to keep at secret.”
“What secret?” she asked.
I looked at the floor. “I wish I knew”
* * *
I stared at the ceiling, at the flickering lights above. I was thinking about Shing’s revelations. Why would my own government kill my family? Why would my commander lie to me?
Isn’t it ironic, I thought wryly, that I got the truth from a supposed pathological liar?
My thoughts turned homewards, and unbidden the faces of the different ministers appeared. Only one person could’ve had the authority to murder my family…
“Do you think what Shing said was true?” I asked Rachael, who was checking her weapon, softly. “About the chip and the rest of it?”
Rachael slipped her gun into her belt and looked at me. “No. You can’t trust a terrorist.”
I bit back a retort: didn’t she do the exact same thing when Shing’s killer rescued us? Instead, I replied “But he had noting to lose!”
“Yes, he had” she retorted. “And he lost it.”
I pressed on with my theory. “We were captured and weaponless. Shing had the chip. After he was done using the missiles, he probably would’ve killed us. He had nothing to lose, and everything to gain.”
“What would he have gained, then?” Rachael asked, crouching down to my level.
I shrugged. “Making me emotionally unstable, destroyed any trust I had in my government…”
Rachael looked at me closely. “Did he?” she asked.
Suddenly, the elevator dinged. I rose to my feet as the door hissed opened. “No” I answered as I stepped outside. “He just made me determined not to mess up this time.”
* * *
The lower levels of Shing’s complex were made up of a bunch of rocky tunnels, including some made by Shing’s men, making it a semi-natural maze. At the center was the exit, along with our destination: the control center
Rachael and I made our way down the only corridor leading away from the elevator, our guns drawn and held loosely by our sides. We made not a sound, for the floor was made of white marble, despite the black walls above it.
Suddenly, we reached a fork in the tunnel. I looked at Rachael, who nodded. She knew as well as I that the best way to find the control center was to split up.
I turned away from Rachael and began walking down the left-hand fork. As I walked, I noticed that at one point the walks and ceiling ceased to be rock and had turned into steel; even the floor was made of steel.
Presently, I reached an iron door with no doorknob or hinges to speak of. Then I noticed a rectangular touch-screen near my right hand. Upon activation, it lit up and showed me a number pad with four black spaces under it, representing the password.
I sighed and ran a hand over my face. Guessing 4-digit passwords was not my forte. In fact, anything computerized wasn’t my forte: I received a failing grade in my computer science class. I can’t even slice my way into a defenseless computer.
I almost pulled out my walkie-talkie to page Rachael; she was way better at this stuff than I was. However, no sooner had I put it to my mouth than I remembered the first rule of sneaking behind enemy lines with another agent: don’t break comm silence unless it’s an emergency. Sighing, I re-clipped the walkie-talkie to my belt.
As I did so, my hand brushed something hard in my pocket. Taking it out, I realized it was my cell phone. I stared at the number pad on the phone, and then at the number pad on the touch-screen. They were arranged exactly the same way.
I looked at my phone again, an idea popping into my head: what if the numbers on the pad represented the letters on the phone’s buttons?
A phone’s number pad has letters labeled on each button, except for 1. The number 2 stood for ABC, 3 for DEF, 4 for GHI, 5 for JKL, 6 for MNO, 7 for PQRS, 8 for TUV, and 9 for WXYZ. In order to get to a specific letter, simply press the appropriate button the appropriate number of times. For example, you press 2 twice for B, three times for C, etc.
I hefted the phone in my hand for a moment before slipping it back into my pocket. Shing’s name in numbers, excluding the multiple times you would press the appropriate number, would be 74464. But it was 5 digits long, one over the limit. Maybe if I removed a number…?
I tapped my chin thoughtfully. If I had to remove a number, it’d had to be one that appears more than once, and the only number that fit was 4…but which one? I couldn’t remove the one at the end, because that would spell “Shin”. I could remove one from the middle, but that would spell either “Sing” or “Shng”. However, you need to press the number 4 multiple times to get both ‘H’ and ‘I’.
I held my breath and entered in the number 7464.
One second…two…three…
The screen flashed green, and the door slid opened with a clang.
Keeping my gun at the ready, walked inside, the door sliding shut behind me.
* * *
I looked around the room. It was 18 feet by 18 feet and the walls and floor were lined with stainless steel. All around me were brightly lit controls, blank black monitors, and criss-crossing colored wires. In the center of the room was a huge screen, about nine feet wide and ten feet tall. Attached to the underside of the screen was a large control board.
I slowly walked towards the control board in the center of the room. I was completely covered with a black metal, possibly a different brand of stainless steel, and it was dotted with thousands of buttons and it also had an intercom, a cup holder, and a USB port. However, there was no slot for a one cubic centimeter computer chip.
I scanned the controls again, noticing a small green button in the upper left hand corner of the board. Upon pressing it, the screen above me lit up and revealed a map of the world, with several locations highlighted in red: Shanghai, New York City, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Seoul, and Washington, D.C.
I scanned the map again. Obviously, these locations were the targets for the French missiles. But what would have Shing gained by bombing them, especially his birthplace and hideout?
I hefted my gun. Why didn’t matter. My life didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except for making sure that France’s missiles would not be unleashed upon the world.
Right when I was about to fire, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
Spinning around, I saw Rachael standing behind me, her hands on her hips. “How did you get here?” I exclaimed.
Rachael jerked her head behind her. “I followed my tunnel to a steel door without hinges or a doorknob and that was password protected. It took me a while, but I managed to hack into the system and open the door.” Then her gaze shifted behind me. “What the…?”
I turned so I was facing the object that attracted Rachael’s gaze. “It’s a map that shows Shing’s targets for the missiles.” I replied.
Rachael stepped closer to examine the highlighted areas, her eyes narrowed. “Interesting…” she whispered.
“What is it?” I asked.
She turned around to face me. “The targets.” She replied. “They all have international impacts.”
I resisted rolling my eyes with difficulty. “Of course they do.” I answered. “A missile strike anywhere will raise the terror level and make life even more difficult.”
Rachael rolled her eyes. “Be serious, Leonardo.”
I sighed. “Okay, fine. What did you mean then?”
“First of all, New York City, London, and Tokyo,” Rachael began, pointing to each city in turn, “are called the three command centers of world economy. The destruction of these cities would make the world’s economy collapse.
“Next, there’s Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The former is the largest manufacturing center in the United States, while the latter houses its government. A strike at these locations would cripple America and, quite possibly, the whole continent.
“Seoul is also an important target, for it houses branches of many different international businesses, mostly from the United States. The same goes for Shanghai.
“Finally, all these locations—with the exception of Washington, D.C.—are among the largest metropolitan areas in the world. Millions upon millions would perish if these missiles hit.”
I stared at the map with a dawning sense of horror. “And since all these missiles would come from France…” I began.
“Everyone would attack France in retaliation and then France’s remaining allies would strike back and World War Three would erupt.” Rachael finished gravely.
I tore my gaze away from the map and looked at Rachael. “We need to blow this thing up” I said.
“Unfortunately, you won’t get that chance” a voice said from behind us.
I spun around. Standing behind us was Shing’s killer…and twenty armed guards.