Shane stretched his arms over his head before looking back at the contract on his desk. It had been such a busy two years since he bought WCW that he was starting to tire. He was giving serious thought to letting Dustin take over the day-to-day operations of WCW. He and Marissa wanted to have children. He knew Dustin could handle it.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in," he called.
His secretary, Lorraine Smith, came into the room. "This package just arrived," she said and set it on his desk.
"Thank you Lorraine," Shane said.
She left the room.
Shane picked up a letter opener and cut the box open. He found a VHS tape in a smaller box. He took it out and found that the tape was unlabeled and there was no note inside of the box. He went and inserted the tape into the VCR and hit play. He sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk and watched.
On the screen were his father and two other men that he did not recognize.
"Shane will be in Atlanta the rest of the week," Vince said, "so you should have no trouble finding him. I want this to look like an accident. In fact, make it look like a drunk driving accident."
Shane hit pause and then rewound it. He was sure he had heard that wrong. He re-watched it a few times before he was convinced that he was not mistaken.
Vince handed a slip of paper to one of the men. "This should cover your fee along with a bonus. I want you to make sure that Shane and Marissa are both in the car."
The video went black and then a message appeared on the screen. The message had a phone number with writing below it that said: We can help.
Shane picked up the phone with a shaking hand and dialed the number.
The phone rang twice before someone answered. "Hello?"
With a shaking voice Shane said, "I received a video."
"Shane?" The person asked. "This is Shane Douglas. Are you still at your office?"
"Yeah," Shane said shocked by the news that Shane Douglas was the person on the other end of the line.
"I need you to go home and pack what you can and someone will meet you at your home. All will be explained then." There was a click as Douglas hung up.
Shane stared at the receiver before putting it back on its cradle. He picked up the phone and dialed home. As soon as Marissa had picked up, he instructed her to start packing and that he would tell her what was going on when he got home.
Dustin walked into his office. "Are you finished with…" he stopped, "are you okay?"
"Yeah," Shane lied. "Dustin I have to leave for awhile and I don't know when I'll be back. I need you to take over the company."
"Me?" Dustin asked in surprise. 'What's going on Shane?"
"I have no idea," Shane said truthfully. "I'll call you when I do."
"Okay Shane,' he said still looking at him funny. "Good luck with whatever's going on," he said and walked out of the office.
Shane shut his computer down and turned off the lights. He walked up to his secretary and said, "Lorraine you can take the rest of the day off. You will be paid for a whole day of work."
"Thank you," she said.
Shane walked down the hall to the bank of elevators. He was afraid that this would be the last time that he'd ever be in this building.
When he arrived home, he found it in a state of disarray. "Marissa?" He called.
Marissa appeared at the top of the stairs. "I've packed as much as I can. What's going on Shane?"
Shane led her into the media room and inserted the tape. He hit rewind and then played the tape.
"Oh my God," Marissa exclaimed. "What is this Shane?"
"I don't know. I received the tape at my office. When I called the phone number, Shane Douglas answered."
"Shane Douglas?" Marissa repeated. "Are you sure that this is real? Shane your father would never do anything like this."
"I know Marissa but I don't know what else to do."
There was a knock on the door. Shane went to the door and looked through the peephole. His brow furrowed. "It's Eddy Guerrero," he said as he opened the door.
"Hi Shane. Hi Marissa," he greeted are you guys packed?"
'What is going on Eddy?" Shane asked. "There has to be a mistake. My dad would never do something like this."
Eddy snorted. "He's done worse." He said and then saw a look of anger in Shane's eyes. "Shane I've seen and heard too much and know that this tape is real. It was from a camera in Vince's office." He looked at his watch. "We really need to get going."
"You've been recording Vince's office?" Marissa asked.
"For a few years now," Eddy admitted. "I wish I could tell you none of this is true but it is."
Marissa and Shane exchanged looks before they went upstairs to get the boxes. They weren't sure what to do.
When they arrived at the airfield, they found Shane Douglas and Tammy Sytch waiting for them. Shane tried to remember the last time he'd seen either of them and realized it was at Chris Benoit's funeral.
A man stepped away from Tammy and walked up to them. "I'm Agent Michael Erichson," he said.
"Agent?" Shane asked in confusion. Nothing in this situation made any sense to him.
Several men came up and started loading the boxes into a small plane.
"I'll explain on the plane," Michael said. "It's a short flight but we should have plenty of time to talk." He said and then he, Tammy, and Douglas boarded the plane. After some hesitation, Shane and Marissa followed them onto the plane. Eddy was the last one to board.
"What is going on here?" Marissa demanded. "We saw the video but I still don't believe it."
"A few days ago we were alerted about this tape by someone we have planted in the WWE to keep tabs on Vince. This source has never been wrong."
Shane sat back and stared at him in disbelief. "My father would never do that."
"Shane," Eddy said as he buckled his seatbelt. "To be honest, we never thought Vince would do anything to you or Linda. It's possible that someone told Vince that you knew something. This person may have been wanting to get rid of you but it's hard to tell."
"Vince doesn't work alone," Douglas said. "Stephanie, Hunter, and Shawn have been helping for years. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, and PJ Polaco have been known to help at times."
Marissa grasped Shane's hand. She couldn't believe anything she was hearing. They had visited with Vince and Linda the last time they were in Connecticut and nothing seemed to be awry.
"Where are we going?" Shane asked deciding to move past the stunning news for the time being.
"Kentucky," Douglas answered, "I have a cabin about two hours outside of Louisville."
Convenient, Shane thought as he remembered that Eddy owned Ohio Championship Wrestling, which was in Louisville.
"Michael and I live there," Tammy explained, "there are no neighbors for miles."
"So the five of us will be living in the cabin?" Marissa asked.
"Well I live in Pittsburgh," Douglas said, "and Eddy lives in Louisville."
Shane frowned again. He wasn't sure he liked this. He didn't know Tammy that well and he didn't know Michael at all.
"We'll have Agents box up the rest of your possessions. Just let us know if there is anything you need and we'll bring it," Michael said.
"What's Shane going to do about WCW?" Marissa asked.
"I've called Dustin and asked him to run the company for awhile."
Eddy smiled. "That was good thinking. We may be able to help you with WCW. Right now we need you to stay in hiding."
"Have you done this before?" Shane asked.
"You could say that," Eddy said with a glint in his eyes. He didn't say anything further.
Shane fell asleep during the drive to the cabin and had to be shaken awake by Marissa. He got out of Eddy's car and noticed they were indeed in the middle of nowhere. He started taking boxes into the cabin.
"Just set them on the floor until we have everything sorted out," Michael called.
Shane set the boxes down. He was about to go outside when something caught his attention or rather someone.
"Hey Shane," Chris Benoit said as he came into the room, "do you guys need any…"
That was the last thing Shane heard before everything turned black.
