Four Keys to Doomsday

by Anastasia T Wolfe

The mission is impossible. The stakes are incredible. Failure is unthinkable. A multinational arms race is brewing, a race to locate the four keys of death and claim the weapons stockpile deep below the ground. Any one of the warring parties could destroy the world. Jack West has to find a way to pull together his shattered team to find the stockpile first... and destroy it.

10. Chapter 10

HAVANA, CUBA.

Stretch's hospital room looked more like a five star hotel room. It had a floor to ceiling glass window that allowed Stretch to see the entire city go by twenty levels below his feet. Several times in the past year, Pooh Bear had caught Stretch staring out at the beach with a melancholy expression in contemplative silence.

The other thing he would do was paint or sketch scenes and landscapes, some of Israels more scenic areas and many of other places that he had been, and many of the things he had seen, good or bad. Some of his doctors suggested that this art could be a good therapy, allowing him to get a few more of his feelings out. Stretch didn't like to talk about himself; really, he didn't like to talk at all.

Pooh Bear had checked his watch over three hours ago when he didn't receive a message from Jack, and decided that it was time to tell Stretch about the mission, and about how it had apparently not gone well. He had been sitting in the wheelchair at a height adjustable desk, a blanket over his knees. He had his laptop computer open in front of him playing a browser Space Invaders game. After an idle chat about the weather and Cuban street food, Pooh Bear told him about the mission and poked the dragon beneath that cool exterior.

"You let him go alone?" Stretch shouted, "Were you born this stupid or did you develop the skill over time?"

"How dare you call me stupid?" Pooh Bear snapped back, "Huntsman does not need my help! He does not need your help, and he thought that you had too much to deal with right now, so he asked me not to say anything."

"Fine," Stretch sneered, "He is the stupid one. He hasn't got a snowballs chance in Brazil!"

"Don't be so negative, Stretch."

"I can't help it," he said bitterly, "I'm too low to the ground."

"Huntsman always finds a way out."

"He needs help," Stretch's grey eyes narrowed, "Only he is too stubborn to admit it let alone ask for it."

"Yes," Pooh Bear said simply, "Does that remind you of anyone?"

Silence fell, and Pooh Bear could tell by the look in his eyes that he was as angry at himself as anyone else, "I hate it when you're right," he sighed, "Especially when it means I'm wrong."

"There has to be a way to help him from here."

"My bullets aren't long enough," Stretch snapped, "But there is a riskier way, if you're up to it."

"I'm listening."

Stretch's stare never wavered once, "I am going to hack Mossad."