Mask Of Pain
Chapter 11
Percy's POV
As Percy stood in front of the imposing structure, he couldn't help but admire it. It wasn't everyday he got to go to a five star building for a rich party.
It was nighttime, the wind was chilly, and the stars burned with the brilliant sapphire pallor of electric light. The large river that separated the great city in two reflected the diamonds in the sky. Venice couldn't have been more beautiful.
Percy still remembered the times he shared with his mom and younger brother as they went to Montauk Beach. They would stare at the stars making a wish whenever a shooting star crossed the sky. Percy missed those times immensely.
"Jackson, you're gonna stand there like an idiot all night or are you going to be a gentleman and walk me to the oh so beautiful building you're starring at" Reyna told him as she looked at him exasperated.
She was dressed all fancy tonight just like everyone else that attended the party, including him. Reyna had piercing brown eyes lined with mascara, her glossy black hair was warn in a single braid. Basically, she was beautiful. Especially in the dress she wore: a long sea green colored dress with high heels (Paula Patton fancy dress Mission Impossible 4).
Percy's hair was messy as usual no matter what he did (Andrew Garfield's hairstyle in The Amazing Spider man 1). Percy's outfit for the night was: A white shirt under a navy blue tuxedo jacket and matching skinny tuxedo trousers with black tuxedo shoes
"If Ramirez-Arellano would be more kind and polite than of course" Percy replied with a grin, "the gentleman would gladly walk you to the oh so beautiful building he's been starring at"
"I'm actually surprised you wouldn't be staring at what I'm wearing" she said, "Rather than that building over there"
"Well if you insist, my lady" Percy said bowing, "But the gentleman didn't want to be impolite and just set his eyes on the next most beautiful thing in sight"
"The building?" Reyna asked incredulously raising an eyebrow at him as she held her purse in her hands.
"Well-" Percy was interrupted by Grover who spoke in their earpiece.
"As much as I'd like to listen to you two flirt and the making of Preyna" he scolded them, "I would also be happy that you two enter that damn building!"
"Wait, Preyna?" Percy asked him looking at Reyna with a frown who returned it, "What the hell is Preyna?"
"Ah never mind, its Selena's talk rubbing off me" Grover's voice echoed through their ears.
"Anyway, Jackson" Reyna said getting Percy's attention, "Let's do what the man says and let's go into the damn building" she motioned to it.
Percy sighed before he nodded to her as they walked to the building. They climbed the front steps, showed their invites to the security guard and they entered the building.
Inside it was even more breath taking than the outside of the building. The building had the shape of a cross with the main dance floor in the middle. Several rich people were already there dancing. Percy and Reyna joined them in the middle of the dance floor.
Percy held out his hand for her to take. She did as he pulled her more to the center before facing her. He put his right hand on her waist and his left hand in hers as they gently swirled around.
"Mr. Di Ravello isn't there yet so just act natural" Grover told them through their earpiece, "Grover out"
"So," Reyna started as they danced slowly to the flow of the music like everyone else, "Tell me something about yourself, Jackson"
Percy looked at her with an eyebrow raised: "Why would Ramirez-Arellano be so interested in Jackson?" Percy asked her with a grin.
"Well, like Grover said, the target isn't here and since we haven't much else to do" she said, "I wanted to know more about you as we don't see each other often and when we do, it's only for business" she continued, "So instead of talking like professionals, let's talk like normal civilized teenagers?"
"Alright, well what do you want to know?" he asked her as he spun her around in a circle before dancing slowly once more.
"Where are you from?" Reyna asked him looking into his eyes. Percy knew she didn't know much about him only what was written in his file but there wasn't much written. Hers on the other hand, had more information.
"New York" Percy said smiling at the many memories he had of the city that never sleeps. All the good memories and all the bad ones.
"Really?" Reyna asked having a frown on her face telling Percy she was thinking about it. Percy nodded before she asked her next question: "Do you have family there or friends you care about?"
"I would imagine" Percy told her vaguely as he knew what she was doing. She was getting information from him so if in any way they would become enemies, she could use the information against him.
Reyna cocked her head to the side as she analyzed him with those piercing brown eyes, "You're smarter than I thought Jackson"
Percy rolled his eyes at that and looked to the left. At that moment the big doors opened to reveal the star of the show: Mr. Di Ravello. "Oh look who joined the party" Percy whispered in Reyna's ear as he let her go, "I would imagine that it's your cue?"
Reyna sighed but reluctantly walked to the man who appeared. Percy smiled at her retreating form when he heard a familiar voice in his earpiece, "Wow Percy I'm impressed" Luke told him, "You just sent her away without one bit of guilt"
"Did you call me just to talk about that or something else" Percy retorted.
Luke was one of the first people he met five years ago when he joined the organization. He was also one of Percy's main trainers in martial arts.
"Calm down buddy," Luke said in Percy's earpiece as he walked towards the bar since he was supposed to 'act natural' and it would definitely look strange if he was seen talking to himself in the middle of the dance floor, "Something more interesting of course"
"Alright well let's hear it" Percy said as he sat on one of the high stools that wasn't occupied at the bar.
"Well, I've successfully infiltrated the building and now I am making my way to the safe where I will be waiting for you" Luke said casually while Percy sighed.
"And you didn't say this sooner because…" Percy said as he stood up again and made his way to set of double doors on the far side.
"Well I didn't want to ruin the Preyna moment" Luke said with a chuckle making Percy roll his eyes as he pushed his way through the mass of people that were grouped together on the dance floor.
"What Preyna is in everybody's vocabulary now or what?" Percy said sarcastically as he pushed open the double door leading to a corridor. He looked left and right before he changed channel on his earpiece.
"Um Grover remind me which way I'm supposed to go again?" Percy asked checking his Rolex watch. It read 10:29PM.
"Ah, you forgot already?" Grover said, "It's to your left" he continued, "Seriously Percy I thought you would remem-"
Percy changed channel to Luke's again as he turned left and made his way down the corridor. As he reached the end of the corridor, he turned left again and a few feet to his right was another set of double doors. On each side was a security guard dressed in black tuxedo suits. Both were tall and broad shouldered. The one closest to Percy had short cropped military hair the color of pepper whereas the other one had longer hair but blond.
It just took them several seconds to notice Percy and they immediately stepped towards him with the one with pepper hair held up his hand for Percy to stop, as he spoke in Italian Percy didn't understand a word but he could clearly inter-operate his gesture: Piss off!
The other guy with the blond hair however was tense with one hand to his hip where a hand gun rested in its holster.
When Percy was close enough he grabbed the pepper haired man's right hand and twisted it, which broke his wrist and before he could scream, Percy brought his right hand and punched precisely to the middle of his chest between his lungs sending him to the floor.
The blond haired guy brought his gun up but just as he was about to fire, Percy jumped towards him and took off the top half of the handgun's barrel preventing him from shooting. Faster than the man could react Percy kicked the man's right knee sending the guy to his knees before Percy turned in a 36o degrees circle and connected his right feet in the man's temple knocking him out.
The pepper haired guy tried to get up but Percy punched him in the temple as well, sending him to the land of dreams. The two men were lying unconscious on the floor. Piece of cake, Percy thought.
Percy didn't waste any more time and quickly dragged there limp bodies to the far corner so no one would see them. Percy sighed when he dragged the blond guy next to his buddy. These two sure weighed a ton, he thought.
He walked back to the double set of doors they were guarding and pushed them open leading to another corridor with a set of steps. Percy quickly and silently jogged up the steps into a bigger corridor that led either right or left.
Percy turned left and a few feet away, there was a grill attached to the wall to the left. Percy brought his hand and banged against it a few times. Not loud enough to attract unwanted attention but enough to get the guy sitting behind the vent his cue.
Suddenly the grill fell to the floor with a loud BANG! Luke than jumped out and faced Percy who looked at him with a frightened look.
"Gods Luke!" Percy whispered/shouted at him, "Now the security guards will be here any minute!"
Luke was a tall, handsome twenty year old young man whom quite a few girls liked, with short cropped sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, an athletic and muscular build much like Percy's but even more muscular, and a sneaky look. The only thing that wasn't perfect about the guy was that he had a thick, deep pale scar that runs from the bottom of his eye down to his chin.
"Nonsense" Luke told him with a grin, "You took care of those two by the door earlier, well done" Luke clapped Percy's shoulder.
Luke was also dressed like Percy with a tuxedo of his own; it was black instead of navy blue like Percy's and he had a black bow tie.
"Do you have the guns or not?" Percy asked Luke exasperated by the older boy's carelessness.
"Well of course!" Luke said with a grin as he brought out two hand guns out of the vent. Unlike the guns of the security guards, Percy knocked out earlier, these ones weren't only with a silencer, but they also shot sleeping darts.
Percy took one of the guns in his hand before he walked down the corridor shortly followed by Luke once he put the grill back into place. They walked on the curvy corridor until they reached a point much like Percy encountered earlier when he climbed the steps; it split in two directions, one went left while the other went right.
Percy crouched against the left wall and looked back at Luke. He peered around the corner to see only one security guy. He was too far to take out but thankfully they had something that would help. Luke brought out a circular object the size of a tennis ball. Percy took it from Luke's right hand and rolled it to the middle of the corridor.
The ball became invisible before the security guard could notice it. The ball that now could only be seen from the other side, opened to sprout out a mini gun that automatically aimed at the security guard and shot a sleeping dart faster than the guy could react. He fell to the floor snoring like a pig.
Percy stood up and grabbed the orb and handed it back to Luke who pressed a button that shrunk it to the size of a golf ball before putting it in his pocket.
The two of them continued down the corridor on the right until they had to turn left leading to another long corridor. Percy had completely forgotten about the ridiculous amount of corridors. They looked like a maze when Grover showed him the blue prints of the building.
They walked to the end of the corridor, Percy's gun aimed to the ground in his right hand in a completely relaxed demeanor, trusting his instincts. He could see it was the same with Luke. As they reached the end they turned right and once more two security guards were guarding a set of double doors.
The two men only had time to look at them before two sleeping darts hit them sending them to the floor. Luke brought his hand up and Percy high fived him without looking. Then they dragged the two men to the end of the corridor before walking back to the double doors they guarded.
"Grover we're in position" Luke said though his ear piece, "How many men are behind these doors?"
"Alright, wait a sec…" Grover's voice spoke through their earpiece, "I count six armed men inside" Grover said, "Two at the end of the room guarding the safe, two on the right by the window, one on the other side by the door and another one right behind the doors, his back turned to you"
"Alright, thanks Grover" Luke said before he continued to Percy, "You're ready for this?" Percy nodded and he continued again, "On three: one, two, …"
Percy and Luke both kicked the double doors open as they aimed their guns up. The world seemed to slow down around them as Percy stood to Luke's right, he aimed his gun to the two men by the window. Percy's aim was perfect as two darts flew like in slow motion out of his gun.
The man who stood a few feet in front of them didn't even have time to turn around as Luke had already shot a dart in the man's neck and the second dart was already on its way to the man who stood next to the door.
Suddenly time went back to normal as both Percy and Luke shot one dart each aimed at the two men at the end of the room some thirty meters, who guarded the safe. All six men fell to the floor more or less at the same time.
But Percy and Luke didn't have time to rejoice at what they did because the clock was ticking. Percy and Luke marched to the end of the room and stood in front of the safe that was in the wall. There was a touch screen next to the safe with the silhouette of a hand and a dial pad under it.
"Umm… Grover? Can you hack that?" Percy asked as he spoke in his earpiece looking at the screen.
"Mmm… No I can't" Grover said, "It's bio-security much like ours back at base, it's un-hackable"
"Well, that means Ramirez-Arellano didn't join the mission for nothing then" Luke said.
"What was that?" Reyna's voice came through Percy's earpiece, and she didn't sound happy.
"Mmm? Nothing, just asking if you have the code miss?" Luke said with a smile while Percy rolled his eyes.
"Well of course Mr. Castellan, what do you think I've been doing for the last ten minutes with Mr. Di Ravello?" Reyna said sarcastically.
"Ugh, are you guys finished?" Percy said urgently at them both while looking at Luke, "We don't have all night"
"Alright Jackson, here's the code" Reyna said, "52136907"
Percy entered the numbers on the digital screen before pressing enter. The small screen turned green and the safe opened. Luke put his hand in the safe and when he pulled it out, he was holding a large file that was in a protected sleeve.
"Wha-" Percy was interrupted by the sound of alarms. He sighed as he looked to the ceiling and saw red light flashing about.
Luke turned to Percy and threw him the file, "Don't lose that!" he yelled over the loud noise as he pointed his thumb to a side door of the room, "I'll be getting Reyna and me out of the building while you get us the getaway car!"
Before Percy could comment, Luke had kicked the door open and sprinted off. Percy turned to the window and quickly opened it. He looked down and could see the large lake and next to it a speed boat that most likely belonged to Mr. Di Ravello himself. The double doors through which Percy and Luke came into earlier, burst open and a dozen security guards came streaming into the room. Percy waved at them, "Adios guys!" before he jumped out of the window into the dark.
He landed with a splash! In the cold river. Before resurfacing, he did a good twenty meters underwater. As he came up for air, he was right next to the speed boat. He quickly climbed into the boat and turned the engine on and disappeared full speed in the cold night.
The wind blew against his wet hair as well as his wet tuxedo suit. He sat down on the driver's seat and he opened the protective sleeve to read the file. It was consisted of several pages of classified information on the terrorist group known as the TITANS.
The first time he heard about them was five years ago when he found out that Gabe was working for them. But what happened with Gabe was only the start of a long journey. He encountered them many more times than he wanted in the five years that came after.