Disclaimer: You've all read it already, I own the original characters, the rest someone else has a piece of paper saying they own it.
I'll be honest, I think this is the only part that could deserve an R rating, but oh well. I guess rating it higher makes my story seem more mature. *smiles*
Chapter 7
The meeting with the supplier went incredibly smooth, and Richard was promised everything he wanted within four weeks. And of course, the price was negotiated. All told, the bill for the first order of hardware, because when dealing with such complex missions Richard could never predict everything he'd need right off the bat, was over one hundred thousand dollars.
Now it was five days later. Richard rode shotgun with Stephen out to the military facility that was currently housing Magneto. The air conditioning was a blessing, it looked to Richard that it must be about one billion degree's outside. The heat waves on the horizon made Richard sweat just from looking at them. Stephen's Saturn was infinantly more comfortable than Richard's beat up Chevette, but he grinned to himself that the little white piece of shit would kick the crap out of this fancy car in a race, if not a beauty pageant.
Richard was in high spirits all day, but didn't talk much. He was too busy remembering the roads they took so he could get back here on his own.
"Your not going to believe this place Rich. It's nuts. It's harder to get into than Area 51."
Richard only caught "Nuts,... Area 51"
"Rich, you alright buddy? You've been out of it all day."
"I'm alright, just trying to get my bearings. How long have we been driving now?"
"Eight hours."
Richard blessed God for not condemning him to this drive in a Chevette, no matter how impressive it's guts were. "We've gotta be close to it, I don't think there's much more desert left."
"Yeah, if you squint real good, you can see the first buildings in the blur on the horizon."
Richard squinted, but he couldn't make out any buildings from any of the other dark splotches. He gave up and resumed his task of mentally catalogueing the roads. Stephen didn't bother speaking either and they drove in content silence. Faintly, Richard could hear U2 singing about New Year's Day on the radio. It made him think of a recent radio interview he heard about their new album, but he couldn't quite remember what it was called. He just remembered how preachy their lead singer sounded when he talked about God and the soul and how they were continueing their journey. Just lots of Christian shit like that. He remembered one quote by the lead, he had said, "There are so many songs about all the things a person can't take with them when they died. We have decided it's time people start thinking about the things they have to bring with them." It sounded awfully profound for a rock star who had a period of dressing up with devil horns for a while.
Some buildings started to appear on the horizon and Richard's attention was quickly snapped away from Christian Devil dressing rock stars and their profound moments. The compound was surrounded by a chain link fence with barbed wire, and inside where various buildings, houses actually. Richard guessed the entire outer limit must be over 5 miles in diameter. Stephen drove up to the gate where an armed soldier stopped them and came to the driver's window, Richard took notice of two other gaurds, both holding automatic weapons, on the other side of the gate watching them.
"Good afternoon sir, what business do you have here today?"
"My name is Stephen Lauren, I'm chief investigator of mutant crimes with the New York state police. I'm here to speak with Eric Lensherr about his involvement with a couple of ongoing cases."
"May I see your driver's license, registration, and occupational ID, please, sir." It struck Richard that despite how polite the young soldier was, he really wasn't into asking for ID. Stephen got out all of it and handed it over. The soldier handed it to another man standing in the outpost who immediately picked up the phone.
"And who is this with you today, Mr. Lauren?"
"This is Richard Freyes, he's an investigator from Canada who has similar interest in Mr. Lensherr about another case."
"May I see your ID please Mr Freyes." Richard produced the doctored ID he had prepared for this specific event, and like Stephen's, it was promptly handed to the man in the outpost who was still on the phone.
"It will just take a moment for you to be processed in." the guard kindly informed them. The waiting seemed to drag on and on. But eventually everything was handed back to them and the gate slid open.
"Everything checks out. Here, make sure you wear these at all times while your within the complex and ensure you drop them off with me again when you leave." The young gaurd, whom Richard noticed was a Private Klinck, handed Stephen two clip on visitor tags.
"Have a good day gentlemen." Stephen rolled up the window and drove into the complex.
"Guess the money you paid for that badge was worth it. I'll be honest, I had my doubts that it would work." Stephen confided. Richard just shrugged and went back to studying the complex.
Stephen eventually came to a stop in a parking spot clearly labelled "for visitors" and turned off the engine. "Well, here we are." The two men climbed out and walked to a double door with a pair of uniformed soldiers. Their tags were checked and the doors held open for them. They proceeded down a hallway that felt like it was completely sterile to Richard. They were greeted by a couple of men in business suits before they even got past the front desk. The taller of the two was older than Richard with a receding grey hairline combed with that professional cut that belonged in downtown New York. He approached Stephen and held out his hand, "Good afternoon, you must be Mr. Lauren?"
Stephen nodded his head and shook the businessman's hand.
"Ah good, we've been expecting you. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Frank Dodson, Mr Lensherr's attorney. This gentleman is Jefferey Waynes, my partner." Stephen shook Jeff's hand as well, and replied "It's good to meet you two. This is Richard Freyes, an investigator from Calgary." He then added as an afterthought just to be clear, "Alberta."
Mr. Dodson's brow creased a bit and he said, "I wasn't expecting you Mr. Freyes, oh well no harm in killing two birds with one stone. Of course you both realize I will be present for your interviews with Mr Lensherr, and you will only be admitted one at a time."
"Of course." Stephen answered, obviously hating Mr. Dodson already.
"Well gentlemen, if you'll follow me I'll lead you both down to Mr. Lensherr's quarters."
Richard wondered to himself what it must be like to defend a mutant in court. Defence attorneys already weren't the most popular human beings on the planet, and since Mutants probably fell a little under defence attorneys, a mutant defence attorney didn't seem to be an attractive career. Oh well, the money would undoubtedly be wonderful, and Richard could appreciate working in an unpopular career for money.
The four men walked down the hall and caught an elevator just as a police officer was stepping off. Frank put a key into the slot above the buttons and hit an unmarked key. The elevetator began it's descent and Richard watched the glowing red numbers count up B1, B2, B3....
Finally they stopped on B7 and they stepped out into an L shaped hallway with large panes of glass looking into an enormous room. In the middle hung a small cube and a single man sat at a table reading, Magneto. Richard could recognize him from the news video's from the train station. His hair was combed neatly and he was in a white prison jump suit. Though Richard couldn't see Eric's face, he could've sworn Eric looked a hell of a lot older than he did in the news clip from the station.
"Mr. Lauren, you'll be first. If you'll please come with me." Mr. Dodson and Mr. Waynes led Stephen around the bend in the room and Richard followed just up to the elbow. He watched a cop push a button and a plastic tube, suspended from the ceiling by numerous poles, was extended and connected to Magneto's cell. Eric closed his book and set it aside while he watched the men gather at the other end. The cop collected Stephen's gun and everything else that had metal. Stephen ended up leaving his belt, all his pens (he was lent a pencil by the policeman), his tie clip, even his notebook with the metal rings joining the pages together, and all his pocket change and keys, in a plastic tray that made stephen think of his mother's cookie sheets. The police officer accompanied the three of them into the cell. Richard noticed that none of the cops had guns down here, they had black batons slung to their belts that must have been made out of a super hard plastic.
Richard watched patiently while Stephen spoke with Eric. On a couple of occasions he grinned when the lawyer interrupted Stephen. For the first time, Richard wondered to himself how plausible it might be to use poison. It was obvious that it would be next to impossible to get a crosshair on Magneto while he was in here, but maybe poison or gas. Would it be possible to activate the furnace and burn him? Richard looked around for what might be the emergency furnace controls. He turned to the nearest police officer, "I hear they can scorch the room with the flick of a switch. He must be considered pretty damn dangerous eh?"
The cop looked amused, "No, unfortunately the judge decided that leaving such a device intact is too big a risk for a man who isn't condemned to death. Sorry, a mutant not condemned to death." The cop spat out that last bit obviously regretting he didn't have control of the red button that would burn Magneto into a crispy critter. "Before he was brought here, the furnace was taken apart, to prevent accidental activation."
Oh well, that would've been too easy anyways. Another thought struck Richard right away, "Is it safe for Mr. Lauren to leave his belongings in that tray?" To this the cop just shrugged and replied half heartedly, "We've had some scientists study him a couple of days back. They figured that his powers are limited to a range of eighty five feet, or something close to that."
A flurry of movement caught Richard's eye and he looked back at the cell. The cop beside him swore loudly and hit a large button activating an alarm bell that hurt Richard's ears. Mr. Waynes and the cop that walked into the cell were laying on the ground in an expanding pool of blood, and both Stephen and Mr. Dodson were standing very upright, as if guns were being held to their heads. Though Richard couldn't see what was going on. Magneto started walking down the plastic tube and Stephen and Frank led the way, the same way a hostage would walk in front of a loaded rifle. Richard watched in stunned amazement as Magneto was led out of the tube by the two men.
The cops grabbed out their sticks and their supervisor shouted for them to back down. As the three of them stepped out of the plastic tube Richard could see about a dozen tiny silver discs floating around the two men. Richard couldn't quite figure out what they were, but it should have been obvious to him. The three of them passed a cop who stood with his back flat against a wall, sweating bricks. When they had crossed him, the cop raised his stick and charged Magneto. Eric swung one of his outstreched hands back towards the cop and two of the floating discs fired straight into the cops right eye, punching deep into his head. There was no blood at first, and the cop just collapsed to the ground, his body twitching in convulsions. Stephen tried to take advantage of Magneto's distraction and brought his fist around smacking the old man in the back of the head. Three of the discs sought out soft parts in Stephens head and dived straight in, one into each of his ears and one in his left eye. Blood sprayed out of Stephens ears, and he spun himself around convulsively and fell onto his side.
Richard stood dumbfounded, and none of the other cops tried to get in Magneto's way as he led his hostage into one of the elevators and closed the door. As soon as the door closed, other cops immediately ran to the other elevators and Richard heard them talking into the intercoms frantically. Richard still couldn't quite piece together where Magneto had gotten those little circles from. He bent down to Stephen and checked his pulse even though he knew he was as dead as a man could be. Richard looked down Stephens body and stopped when he saw his shoes, suddenly he knew where Magneto got his lethal weapons from. Stephen always wore fancy leather shoes with thick soles. Those shoes also had very shiny metal loops where the laces would tie the shoe up. All the laces were ripped up where the metal loops had torn themselves from the leather. Richard couldn't help but commend Eric's resourcefulness. The smell of blood was starting to seep into the air, but Richard could also smell something else that didn't fit with blood or sweat. He looked around where Stephen had fallen and saw a puddle of urine on the floor nearby, apparently Mr. Lensherr's attorney had wet himself.
Richard stood up and recollected his senses. The cops were busy climbing into the three open elevators and Richard quickly squeezed himself into one of them. They didn't seem to notice. The cops poured out into the main lobby and Richard followed with the mass. Three soldiers were dead, it looked like they were shot with their own guns which were hovering behind Magneto as he walked with Mr. Dodson leading him out of the building. Now he had two more soldiers with their own rifles sticking into their backs.
Richard watched through the glass doors and Magneto rose up into the sky. He was about to run outside to see where he was going, but his mind shifted gears and he ran back into the elevator he came out of. A key was still in it's slot and Richard hit the unmarked button. The door slid open and Richard ran to the little bowl that held Stephen's pocket change. Richard scooped up his keys and left the building.
The entire complex was in turmoil and Richard could hear helicoptors warming up for take off. He couldn't help but laugh at how futile it would be to try to apprehend Magneto again, he would twist those helicoptors into pretzels. Richard didn't have any trouble leaving the complex, the gaurds just shooed him out and Stephen drove back to New York as fast as he could. Meanwhile, the military base looked like an anthill that was just stepped on. Soldiers and police officers scurried around, spoke into their radios, and generally didn't accomplish anything constructive. As for Magneto, Richard couldn't see him anywhere in the sky, the bastard was gone. Richard had no idea where Magneto was going exactly, but he had an idea of how to find out.
Chapter 8
Richard knew that he would be contacted for questioning, but fortunately for him, they would be trying to contact him up in Calgary, which suited him just fine. Now, however, he had to figure out where Magneto's secret lair was hidden. He knew that's where Magneto would go, and gather up the rest of his 'Brotherhood'. Although it was a secret hideout, Richard knew that Senator Kelly was kidnapped by Magneto and brought there a little over a month ago, and it was during this time that Kelley had made his drastic political change on the mutant registration act. Eric must be an incredibly pursuasive man. Fortunately, Richard knew he wouldn't be the only person looking for Magneto, or the only person who would know of Magneto's break out. Richard had a strong hunch he would be crossing paths with the X Men again, and in this case sooner would be better than later.
But now Richard had to find out where the X Men hung out. For this Richard put a wire back to Nemesis, surely that man would know. Richard hung up the phone after leaving his request on Nemesis's voice mail and put on a pot of coffee. The phone rang and it startled Richard, surely that bastard wouldn't be phoning back already with the information. He picked up the receiver, "Hello?"
"Hello, may I speak with Mr. Freyes please?"
"This is he." It wasn't Nemesis, it sounded like a bank trying to pawn off another credit card.
"Mr. Freyes, I am phoning to inform you that most of the hardware you have ordered has come in and is ready for pick up. I am also to inform you that I expect the last piece in three days. We will let you know when it's in."
Wow, that was exceptionally fast. "Thanks."
"I don't need to inform you of the place. But you are expected to collect tonight at 8:30."
"No problem, I'll be there."
"Have a good day Mr. Freyes." The phone clicked off before he could answer back. Richard checked his watch, it was seven now, and it won't take him fifteen minutes to get to the warehouse. He already had paid them in advance so he didn't have to worry about suitcases full of unmarked bills, and that suited Richard just fine as well. He never liked how tense suppliers could get when they felt they had to check all the bills before they let you go. Oh well, it's only business Richard had reminded himself more than once. But the fear of being shot instead of getting his gear wasn't very real when dealing with 'The Supplier'. Nobody fucked around with him, and it was so tough to get in touch with him in the first place, the supplier knew he had filtered out only trustworthy clients.
Richard drank his coffee and left for the warehouse.
That night ran it's routine and within only half an hour Richard had collected over half his stock and was already back at his apartment sorting through the unmarked cardboard box. He had to sift through those styrofoam puffs that are used to pack VCR's and TV's, but instead of a TV Richard found a large steel ammunition box inside. It wasn't locked and in no time Richard had his rifle spread across the table (in about a dozen pieces mind you), a box of fifty rounds, a synthetic combat knife, and a stealth suit that adjusted his temperature to match the room and refracted sonar and night vision effectively making him invisible to those forms of surveillance.
Excellent.
The phone rang.
"Hello?"
The computerized cyborg voice was unmistakable, "Hello Richard. I have the information you requested, but I'm curious as to why you want to find the X Men."
"You already know that Eric broke out of prison today don't you?"
"Yes."
"Well, I know you don't know where his hideout is, but I know the X Men will be looking for it now. I need to find out from them."
"Clever. Although I don't know how you will get the information from them, I'm also not going to ask. It's one of my pleasures to watch my employee's come up with creative ways to complete their objectives. I know that this complicates any plans you have, so I will give you a two month extension to complete your mission." Richard was surprised that the computer voice managed to convey a mild form of sympathy. He also decided that Nemesis sounded alot like those cyborg's from that Star Trek movie with the bald captain, he could never remember his name.
"Thank you, it's muchly appreciated. But I expect I'll be able to finish this in it's regular time slot."
"I will be impressed if you do. Have a good night Richard."
"You, too." The line clicked off, Richard never hung up first, just in case Nemesis decided to have a change of mind and add one final note to the conversation. He flipped up the screen on his laptop and connected to his Email. Sure enough there was a message from Nemesis with the X Men's address. Apparently they hang out in a private school for gifted student's, with a man named Charles Xavier at it's head. The name rung a bell with Richard but he couldn't quite place it, oh well it didn't matter.
Oh shit it did matter! Charles Xavier is probably the only known mutant more powerful than Magneto, he's the cripple who can read men's thoughts and control their minds. Richard cursed under his breath. This ruled out just being able to play the cop routine. That meant he'd have to sneak onto their jet somehow. But what if the old bastard decided to go with the X Men when they went after Magneto? This was assuming they even did go after Magneto, they might just wait for him to strike again. Too many variables.
Richard decided that he had to go to the school one way or another. It was just outside of New York, well at least that was convenient enough. Tomorrow he'd go and scope out the school, then once he had all his equipment he would go talk to someone there who would know, he'd just have to make sure he didn't encounter Xavier. He must leave the school at some point, Richard was sure that even mutants took vacations from defending the world at some point. But the new challenge was how to find out. Richard was sure that Xavier wouldn't publish his travelling plans in the New Yorker. The only way to find out would be to get in the school, get into the computers? Hell, if he got in the computers he wouldn't have to bother wasting time with Xavier's travel plans, he could just find out if they knew where Magneto was hiding. Would it be possible to hack in through the net? It was worth a shot. But not now, Richard would have to go in through a different terminal. If they had a jet that couldn't be picked up by news crews and their camera's, then surely they'd have a trace program in their computers. Well, Richard was exceptionally skilled with computers and he believed that if there was a way to hack into the X network through the net, he could find a way. If not, he'd just get into the school itself. When face to face with any terminal, there was always a way to get the information one looked for.
Richard poured himself a cup of coffee and sat back down in front of his equipment and continued his inspections, at this point it was more for fun than to check it's quality. He went to bed early that night, he had a busy day ahead of him.
The road's were still relatively empty, however empty they would ever get in the New York city area. It was only four in the morning and Richard was starting to think that he should've drank just one more cup of coffee, or maybe seven more. A map was open on the passenger seat and Richard had highlighted the roads that led to Xavier's school. The back seat was covered with enough wires and computer bits that it struck Richard that it's contents were probably worth more than his car. All of that was hardware to put up another IP address to prevent the X Men's inevitable computer security programs from being able to trace him, as well as a cellular modem so he could connect from his car just outside the building. It still seemed to be a doubtful proposition to Richard but he had to give it a shot. If it failed he had a suit in a plastic dry cleaning back in the back of his car and he could just go and visit the school itself. If it came to that however, Richard would end up camping in his car until the early morning hours again before he'd try to break in and have a peak at their computers. For that, Richard had packed a black jump suit with necessary cat burglar gadgets in the compartment where the spare tire once rested.
Only once before did Richard have to break in someplace to get information before attempting the mark, and it went successfully well. Richard was following a man (this was before he was hunting mutants) named Frank Buntaro. Frank was an oriental businessman who had the bad luck of witnessing a mob shoot-out and saw clearly who was involved. Fortunately for Frank, because he was such a successful businessman he had professional security around at all times, among the best, which prevented the mob from just sending a hit man to take out the only key witness in their upcoming trial. Unfortunately for Frank, his security wasn't able to deal with Richard.
Frank was going back to Japan with the intention of laying low for a while and hoping that the mob wouldn't follow him across the Atlantic, after all the trial was still months away. Well, no mob hitmen followed Frank. Richard had to break into a bank to find out where Frank's home bank account was located in Japan (Richard swore he would never meet another man who kept his home address so secret as Frank Buntaro, until of course, he met Nemesis). The break in was as clean as Richard could've hoped for, they never new he was in there. It struck Richard how frequently it seemed that he got his ideas from movies and books, and this one had more than one resemblance to that movie where Sean Connery and that hot english woman were cat burglers trying to set each other up to be busted by the fuzz (Richard also seemed to be completely unable to remember the names of more than half a dozen movies he had seen in the last ten years.).
Richard had purchased four telescoping poles that connected to a window and cement it was mounted into. Then he had a tiny laser cutting torch to sever the window's connection to the building. Richard ran the laser all around the rim of the window and the poles extended making a three foot gap as it pulled the glass away from the bank. Richard knew that this particular bank didn't have any trip laser alarms, but it did have heat sensitive camera's and motion sensors. The camera's Richard dealt with by wearing a cold suit, not unlike the temperature matching suit he had bought to deal with Magneto, and he crawled low on his belly as the particular motion sensors in this bank were the type that only worked til about two feet off the ground, motion below that didn't register. When Richard reached a bank computer (which he was assured, by a bribed security officer in the mall the bank was connected to, would be left on), he raised himself just enough to see the screen, and even then he only got up on his knees so slowly that if anyone had seen him, they may have casually mistaken him for a fixed statue. The difficulty that the motion sensors presented was that the typing on the keyboard of moving the mouse could send them off, the way Richard knew to get past was by making his movements so slow that the sensors wouldn't register them as movement at all. This made an operation that would normally take a professional less than five minutes in and out of the bank last nearly twenty minutes. Richard got out of the bank and replaced the window, using a very special invisible adhesive at the normal joints to make the glass stick back into the building, and the next day he was on a plane to Tokyo.
In the end it didn't prove very difficult to find Frank and follow him back to his home, Richard waited at Frank's bank where he had some business to deal with, then followed him around downtown Tokyo for six hours until he finally went home. That night Richard picked the lock (which actually consisted of a card reader Richard forged), and crept into Frank's bedroom. Frank wasn't the only one in his bed tonight, and so far as Richard knew this wasn't planned as Frank wasn't married and Richard didn't see him wine and dine any young ladies that night. During his brief moment of hesitation he heard the creak of the floor boards behind him, someone had seen him and a gun was already pointed at his back, and here in Japan was the end of Richard Freyes rather promising career. The gun shot never came and Richard didn't bother to tempt fate by waiting to find out why. Richard spun around and saw a man in the shadows holding a stick in one hand trying to sneak up and bash him in the back of the skull. The blood was pumping through Richard's ears and he was sweating much more than he would normally allow himself too while on a job, but this time he couldn't help it. The man he was trying to kill was rich, and his house portrayed that in every way, wonderful scents from flowers, paintings that Richard couldn't make out in the dark, and a silk house coat slung over a chair by the bed. And now Richard was face to face with what he figured was a fifty thousand dollar a year live in body guard who would have absolutely no problems with bashing Richard's skull in first and asking questions later. The man was shorter than him but Richard could tell he was well built even though the darkness of the hall shadowed any real details. The body gaurd stopped and stared at Richard, probably surprised, that moments hesitation was all Richard needed.
The pistol swung it's barrel around to Frank's body gaurd and raised itself slightly. To Richard it seemed like the air he was swinging his gun through had turned to syrup and surely the guard would leap toward him and bring the club down on his head before he could get off one shot. But the guard just stood there and let Richard fire two rounds right into his chest. The man didn't make a noise, he just stood there for a moment and fell to his knees making a quite thump when they hit the carpet. Richard could tell the man was staring at him through the darkness and at that moment he didn't want that man staring at him at all, as if the man would steal his soul and suck the blood from his body with his dying gaze. Richard stared back, becoming more unsettled knowing this man was branding Richard with his last living moments, not bothering to check his wounds or call for help or even bother pleading for his life, just staring at Richard marking him. Probably so the man could find Richard in hell and pay him back when Richard's time came. Finally the man fell back and his arms splayed out to his sides. So far as Richard could tell he was dead, he would double check before he left. Richard let out a breath and he realized he was holding it ever since he heard the creak of the floor behind him. He turned back towards the man and woman sleeping peacefully (she was probably just a hired thrill to relieve the stress of being part of a mob trial), undisturbed with the demise of their security. The soft soled boots didn't make a sound on the carpet and Richard walked right up to the foot of the bed. The woman stirred in her sleep and turned over throwing the blanket off her revealing her breasts to Richard. The man rolled over and put his arm around her, then stopped. Richard watched Frank turn his head and stare right at Richard. Once again his breathing stopped and Richard hesitated one moment too long. Frank shot out of bed screaming in japanese, probably at the guard Richard just killed. The woman sat up in a confused muddle and didn't understand what was going on. Richard noticed that the man was going for a handgun which fell off his bedside table as he jump up. All the screaming and confused speach from the two of them seemed to be drowned out by the two muffled bangs of Richard's gun as he fired directly into Frank's back while he fumbled with his gun. Frank lurched, as the bullets carried through and punched holes into the floor, and flipped over onto his back looking at Richard with wide pleading eyes. In the dark it seemed like Frank's face just dissapeared, but Richard could see the shadow's of the former businessman's brains sliding down the side of his bed and sprayed all over the carpet. At this point the woman he was sleeping with clued in and began to scream. Panic had completely overtaken her and she just sat on the bed screaming into the night staring at Richard. The blanket had since been completely thrown off her and from where Richard stood nothing was left to the imagination. The gun was brought around and Richard fired a single shot which punched a hole right through her neck abruptly cutting off her ongoing soprano cry. She stared disbelieving at Richard, clutching her throat gasping for air. Richard could see blood running out from under her hands and sliding down between her perky breasts. He always found it odd how he remembered how hard her nipples seemed in the last few moments of her life.
Richard decided he didn't want to watch her clutch at her throat and gasp voicelessly for another ten minutes so he fired another shell which struck her right above her right eye. Her body seemed to fly off the bed and fall out of Richard's site, the only thing remaining was a dark shaded spray of blood on the headboard of Frank's impressive bed.
As Richard left he remembered a sudden impulse to see the gaurd he had killed so he switched on the hall light for a brief moment and his heart sank. The gaurd he killed was only a boy, no older than sixteen, the club that Richard figured was going to be used to dash his brains was a plastic flashlight which would have shattered if swung hard enough at Richard. He killed a sixteen year old kid who was now laying on a carpet soaked with his own blood, and a woman who's brains were all over the pillow she had her orgasm on less than five hours earlier, and neither probably knew any of what Frank had unwittingly seen back in America. Life's a bitch and then you die, some people more abruptly than others.
Richard decided that he didn't want to deal with these memories while he drove on to Xavier's school. Yeah okay, I'll take these memories away, but while were driving why don't I talk to you some more about them. The kid was probably only heading to the bathroom for a piss when he saw you. The woman sleeping in the afterglow of rockin' sex and you killed both of them for your paycheck. Richard turned on the radio and for the remainder of the drive, he managed to successfully think of nothing but that ill fated trip to Japan.
As the sun was rising, Richard's chevette came around the bend on the forest lined road and saw the stone wall marking the edge of Xavier's property. An iron plaque mounted next to the gate declared that this was
X
Xavier's School for Talented Youngsters.
Est. 1953
The gate was locked and another sign lower down told Richard that the school didn't open for another two and a half hours. That gave him plenty of time to set up his computer and try to hack his way in.
Setting up the computer and the extra software took longer than Richard expected, but not too long that someone might come out of the school and see a white chevette with a computer set up on the passenger seat with a two thousand dollar satellite modem pointed directly at the school. The computer connected quite successfully with the school's network, but only the public websites that were set up for normal net viewing. It didn't take long for Richard to realize it was a complete lost cause to try to hack in online. Well to tell the truth, Richard didn't have much choice after ten minutes of getting down to business.
Richard started with a program to get the IP address of the server computer the X Men were using to connect online, and that worked just fine. Once Richard had the IP address he sent a highly modified trojan program that was disguised as an Email which would open itself once accepted into the target computer and immediately make a connection between the host and the target. It was a simple method, but the software cost Richard seven thousand dollars and worked on everything. Until now.
When Richard sent the bugged Email his computer screen went blank, a moment later all the power shut down. Richard restarted the laptop he bought specifically for this purpose only to find out it's harddrive completely erased, except for a message which appeared on his screen. It was a simple text message in white which read, "Your computer has been cleaned and a subsequent program installed into your hardrive which has irreperably damaged your ram and modem hardware. This has happened as a result of an illegal attempt to network with a target computer, consider this a warning."
Richard just stared at his screen for fifteen minutes, too shocked to even swear. Eventually he just turned the power off and dissasembled the computer set up packing it under a blanket in the back seat of his chevette. He then got his suit out of his trunk and changed right in the middle of the road. The school opened in half an hour, but Richard started his car and drove off to look for a cafe for breakfast. Tonight Richard would break into Xavier's school and continue his hunt for Magneto. His stomach cramped up at that moment as a line from his dream came back to him, the young girl calling out "No Men Allowed." Only this time, he thought of the young japanese boy he killed. No men allowed to live. Or women for that matter.
Richard started thinking of how he would get into the school this afternoon, then breaking in later that evening, and ultimately resulting in his next paycheck.
I'll be honest, I think this is the only part that could deserve an R rating, but oh well. I guess rating it higher makes my story seem more mature. *smiles*
Chapter 7
The meeting with the supplier went incredibly smooth, and Richard was promised everything he wanted within four weeks. And of course, the price was negotiated. All told, the bill for the first order of hardware, because when dealing with such complex missions Richard could never predict everything he'd need right off the bat, was over one hundred thousand dollars.
Now it was five days later. Richard rode shotgun with Stephen out to the military facility that was currently housing Magneto. The air conditioning was a blessing, it looked to Richard that it must be about one billion degree's outside. The heat waves on the horizon made Richard sweat just from looking at them. Stephen's Saturn was infinantly more comfortable than Richard's beat up Chevette, but he grinned to himself that the little white piece of shit would kick the crap out of this fancy car in a race, if not a beauty pageant.
Richard was in high spirits all day, but didn't talk much. He was too busy remembering the roads they took so he could get back here on his own.
"Your not going to believe this place Rich. It's nuts. It's harder to get into than Area 51."
Richard only caught "Nuts,... Area 51"
"Rich, you alright buddy? You've been out of it all day."
"I'm alright, just trying to get my bearings. How long have we been driving now?"
"Eight hours."
Richard blessed God for not condemning him to this drive in a Chevette, no matter how impressive it's guts were. "We've gotta be close to it, I don't think there's much more desert left."
"Yeah, if you squint real good, you can see the first buildings in the blur on the horizon."
Richard squinted, but he couldn't make out any buildings from any of the other dark splotches. He gave up and resumed his task of mentally catalogueing the roads. Stephen didn't bother speaking either and they drove in content silence. Faintly, Richard could hear U2 singing about New Year's Day on the radio. It made him think of a recent radio interview he heard about their new album, but he couldn't quite remember what it was called. He just remembered how preachy their lead singer sounded when he talked about God and the soul and how they were continueing their journey. Just lots of Christian shit like that. He remembered one quote by the lead, he had said, "There are so many songs about all the things a person can't take with them when they died. We have decided it's time people start thinking about the things they have to bring with them." It sounded awfully profound for a rock star who had a period of dressing up with devil horns for a while.
Some buildings started to appear on the horizon and Richard's attention was quickly snapped away from Christian Devil dressing rock stars and their profound moments. The compound was surrounded by a chain link fence with barbed wire, and inside where various buildings, houses actually. Richard guessed the entire outer limit must be over 5 miles in diameter. Stephen drove up to the gate where an armed soldier stopped them and came to the driver's window, Richard took notice of two other gaurds, both holding automatic weapons, on the other side of the gate watching them.
"Good afternoon sir, what business do you have here today?"
"My name is Stephen Lauren, I'm chief investigator of mutant crimes with the New York state police. I'm here to speak with Eric Lensherr about his involvement with a couple of ongoing cases."
"May I see your driver's license, registration, and occupational ID, please, sir." It struck Richard that despite how polite the young soldier was, he really wasn't into asking for ID. Stephen got out all of it and handed it over. The soldier handed it to another man standing in the outpost who immediately picked up the phone.
"And who is this with you today, Mr. Lauren?"
"This is Richard Freyes, he's an investigator from Canada who has similar interest in Mr. Lensherr about another case."
"May I see your ID please Mr Freyes." Richard produced the doctored ID he had prepared for this specific event, and like Stephen's, it was promptly handed to the man in the outpost who was still on the phone.
"It will just take a moment for you to be processed in." the guard kindly informed them. The waiting seemed to drag on and on. But eventually everything was handed back to them and the gate slid open.
"Everything checks out. Here, make sure you wear these at all times while your within the complex and ensure you drop them off with me again when you leave." The young gaurd, whom Richard noticed was a Private Klinck, handed Stephen two clip on visitor tags.
"Have a good day gentlemen." Stephen rolled up the window and drove into the complex.
"Guess the money you paid for that badge was worth it. I'll be honest, I had my doubts that it would work." Stephen confided. Richard just shrugged and went back to studying the complex.
Stephen eventually came to a stop in a parking spot clearly labelled "for visitors" and turned off the engine. "Well, here we are." The two men climbed out and walked to a double door with a pair of uniformed soldiers. Their tags were checked and the doors held open for them. They proceeded down a hallway that felt like it was completely sterile to Richard. They were greeted by a couple of men in business suits before they even got past the front desk. The taller of the two was older than Richard with a receding grey hairline combed with that professional cut that belonged in downtown New York. He approached Stephen and held out his hand, "Good afternoon, you must be Mr. Lauren?"
Stephen nodded his head and shook the businessman's hand.
"Ah good, we've been expecting you. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Frank Dodson, Mr Lensherr's attorney. This gentleman is Jefferey Waynes, my partner." Stephen shook Jeff's hand as well, and replied "It's good to meet you two. This is Richard Freyes, an investigator from Calgary." He then added as an afterthought just to be clear, "Alberta."
Mr. Dodson's brow creased a bit and he said, "I wasn't expecting you Mr. Freyes, oh well no harm in killing two birds with one stone. Of course you both realize I will be present for your interviews with Mr Lensherr, and you will only be admitted one at a time."
"Of course." Stephen answered, obviously hating Mr. Dodson already.
"Well gentlemen, if you'll follow me I'll lead you both down to Mr. Lensherr's quarters."
Richard wondered to himself what it must be like to defend a mutant in court. Defence attorneys already weren't the most popular human beings on the planet, and since Mutants probably fell a little under defence attorneys, a mutant defence attorney didn't seem to be an attractive career. Oh well, the money would undoubtedly be wonderful, and Richard could appreciate working in an unpopular career for money.
The four men walked down the hall and caught an elevator just as a police officer was stepping off. Frank put a key into the slot above the buttons and hit an unmarked key. The elevetator began it's descent and Richard watched the glowing red numbers count up B1, B2, B3....
Finally they stopped on B7 and they stepped out into an L shaped hallway with large panes of glass looking into an enormous room. In the middle hung a small cube and a single man sat at a table reading, Magneto. Richard could recognize him from the news video's from the train station. His hair was combed neatly and he was in a white prison jump suit. Though Richard couldn't see Eric's face, he could've sworn Eric looked a hell of a lot older than he did in the news clip from the station.
"Mr. Lauren, you'll be first. If you'll please come with me." Mr. Dodson and Mr. Waynes led Stephen around the bend in the room and Richard followed just up to the elbow. He watched a cop push a button and a plastic tube, suspended from the ceiling by numerous poles, was extended and connected to Magneto's cell. Eric closed his book and set it aside while he watched the men gather at the other end. The cop collected Stephen's gun and everything else that had metal. Stephen ended up leaving his belt, all his pens (he was lent a pencil by the policeman), his tie clip, even his notebook with the metal rings joining the pages together, and all his pocket change and keys, in a plastic tray that made stephen think of his mother's cookie sheets. The police officer accompanied the three of them into the cell. Richard noticed that none of the cops had guns down here, they had black batons slung to their belts that must have been made out of a super hard plastic.
Richard watched patiently while Stephen spoke with Eric. On a couple of occasions he grinned when the lawyer interrupted Stephen. For the first time, Richard wondered to himself how plausible it might be to use poison. It was obvious that it would be next to impossible to get a crosshair on Magneto while he was in here, but maybe poison or gas. Would it be possible to activate the furnace and burn him? Richard looked around for what might be the emergency furnace controls. He turned to the nearest police officer, "I hear they can scorch the room with the flick of a switch. He must be considered pretty damn dangerous eh?"
The cop looked amused, "No, unfortunately the judge decided that leaving such a device intact is too big a risk for a man who isn't condemned to death. Sorry, a mutant not condemned to death." The cop spat out that last bit obviously regretting he didn't have control of the red button that would burn Magneto into a crispy critter. "Before he was brought here, the furnace was taken apart, to prevent accidental activation."
Oh well, that would've been too easy anyways. Another thought struck Richard right away, "Is it safe for Mr. Lauren to leave his belongings in that tray?" To this the cop just shrugged and replied half heartedly, "We've had some scientists study him a couple of days back. They figured that his powers are limited to a range of eighty five feet, or something close to that."
A flurry of movement caught Richard's eye and he looked back at the cell. The cop beside him swore loudly and hit a large button activating an alarm bell that hurt Richard's ears. Mr. Waynes and the cop that walked into the cell were laying on the ground in an expanding pool of blood, and both Stephen and Mr. Dodson were standing very upright, as if guns were being held to their heads. Though Richard couldn't see what was going on. Magneto started walking down the plastic tube and Stephen and Frank led the way, the same way a hostage would walk in front of a loaded rifle. Richard watched in stunned amazement as Magneto was led out of the tube by the two men.
The cops grabbed out their sticks and their supervisor shouted for them to back down. As the three of them stepped out of the plastic tube Richard could see about a dozen tiny silver discs floating around the two men. Richard couldn't quite figure out what they were, but it should have been obvious to him. The three of them passed a cop who stood with his back flat against a wall, sweating bricks. When they had crossed him, the cop raised his stick and charged Magneto. Eric swung one of his outstreched hands back towards the cop and two of the floating discs fired straight into the cops right eye, punching deep into his head. There was no blood at first, and the cop just collapsed to the ground, his body twitching in convulsions. Stephen tried to take advantage of Magneto's distraction and brought his fist around smacking the old man in the back of the head. Three of the discs sought out soft parts in Stephens head and dived straight in, one into each of his ears and one in his left eye. Blood sprayed out of Stephens ears, and he spun himself around convulsively and fell onto his side.
Richard stood dumbfounded, and none of the other cops tried to get in Magneto's way as he led his hostage into one of the elevators and closed the door. As soon as the door closed, other cops immediately ran to the other elevators and Richard heard them talking into the intercoms frantically. Richard still couldn't quite piece together where Magneto had gotten those little circles from. He bent down to Stephen and checked his pulse even though he knew he was as dead as a man could be. Richard looked down Stephens body and stopped when he saw his shoes, suddenly he knew where Magneto got his lethal weapons from. Stephen always wore fancy leather shoes with thick soles. Those shoes also had very shiny metal loops where the laces would tie the shoe up. All the laces were ripped up where the metal loops had torn themselves from the leather. Richard couldn't help but commend Eric's resourcefulness. The smell of blood was starting to seep into the air, but Richard could also smell something else that didn't fit with blood or sweat. He looked around where Stephen had fallen and saw a puddle of urine on the floor nearby, apparently Mr. Lensherr's attorney had wet himself.
Richard stood up and recollected his senses. The cops were busy climbing into the three open elevators and Richard quickly squeezed himself into one of them. They didn't seem to notice. The cops poured out into the main lobby and Richard followed with the mass. Three soldiers were dead, it looked like they were shot with their own guns which were hovering behind Magneto as he walked with Mr. Dodson leading him out of the building. Now he had two more soldiers with their own rifles sticking into their backs.
Richard watched through the glass doors and Magneto rose up into the sky. He was about to run outside to see where he was going, but his mind shifted gears and he ran back into the elevator he came out of. A key was still in it's slot and Richard hit the unmarked button. The door slid open and Richard ran to the little bowl that held Stephen's pocket change. Richard scooped up his keys and left the building.
The entire complex was in turmoil and Richard could hear helicoptors warming up for take off. He couldn't help but laugh at how futile it would be to try to apprehend Magneto again, he would twist those helicoptors into pretzels. Richard didn't have any trouble leaving the complex, the gaurds just shooed him out and Stephen drove back to New York as fast as he could. Meanwhile, the military base looked like an anthill that was just stepped on. Soldiers and police officers scurried around, spoke into their radios, and generally didn't accomplish anything constructive. As for Magneto, Richard couldn't see him anywhere in the sky, the bastard was gone. Richard had no idea where Magneto was going exactly, but he had an idea of how to find out.
Chapter 8
Richard knew that he would be contacted for questioning, but fortunately for him, they would be trying to contact him up in Calgary, which suited him just fine. Now, however, he had to figure out where Magneto's secret lair was hidden. He knew that's where Magneto would go, and gather up the rest of his 'Brotherhood'. Although it was a secret hideout, Richard knew that Senator Kelly was kidnapped by Magneto and brought there a little over a month ago, and it was during this time that Kelley had made his drastic political change on the mutant registration act. Eric must be an incredibly pursuasive man. Fortunately, Richard knew he wouldn't be the only person looking for Magneto, or the only person who would know of Magneto's break out. Richard had a strong hunch he would be crossing paths with the X Men again, and in this case sooner would be better than later.
But now Richard had to find out where the X Men hung out. For this Richard put a wire back to Nemesis, surely that man would know. Richard hung up the phone after leaving his request on Nemesis's voice mail and put on a pot of coffee. The phone rang and it startled Richard, surely that bastard wouldn't be phoning back already with the information. He picked up the receiver, "Hello?"
"Hello, may I speak with Mr. Freyes please?"
"This is he." It wasn't Nemesis, it sounded like a bank trying to pawn off another credit card.
"Mr. Freyes, I am phoning to inform you that most of the hardware you have ordered has come in and is ready for pick up. I am also to inform you that I expect the last piece in three days. We will let you know when it's in."
Wow, that was exceptionally fast. "Thanks."
"I don't need to inform you of the place. But you are expected to collect tonight at 8:30."
"No problem, I'll be there."
"Have a good day Mr. Freyes." The phone clicked off before he could answer back. Richard checked his watch, it was seven now, and it won't take him fifteen minutes to get to the warehouse. He already had paid them in advance so he didn't have to worry about suitcases full of unmarked bills, and that suited Richard just fine as well. He never liked how tense suppliers could get when they felt they had to check all the bills before they let you go. Oh well, it's only business Richard had reminded himself more than once. But the fear of being shot instead of getting his gear wasn't very real when dealing with 'The Supplier'. Nobody fucked around with him, and it was so tough to get in touch with him in the first place, the supplier knew he had filtered out only trustworthy clients.
Richard drank his coffee and left for the warehouse.
That night ran it's routine and within only half an hour Richard had collected over half his stock and was already back at his apartment sorting through the unmarked cardboard box. He had to sift through those styrofoam puffs that are used to pack VCR's and TV's, but instead of a TV Richard found a large steel ammunition box inside. It wasn't locked and in no time Richard had his rifle spread across the table (in about a dozen pieces mind you), a box of fifty rounds, a synthetic combat knife, and a stealth suit that adjusted his temperature to match the room and refracted sonar and night vision effectively making him invisible to those forms of surveillance.
Excellent.
The phone rang.
"Hello?"
The computerized cyborg voice was unmistakable, "Hello Richard. I have the information you requested, but I'm curious as to why you want to find the X Men."
"You already know that Eric broke out of prison today don't you?"
"Yes."
"Well, I know you don't know where his hideout is, but I know the X Men will be looking for it now. I need to find out from them."
"Clever. Although I don't know how you will get the information from them, I'm also not going to ask. It's one of my pleasures to watch my employee's come up with creative ways to complete their objectives. I know that this complicates any plans you have, so I will give you a two month extension to complete your mission." Richard was surprised that the computer voice managed to convey a mild form of sympathy. He also decided that Nemesis sounded alot like those cyborg's from that Star Trek movie with the bald captain, he could never remember his name.
"Thank you, it's muchly appreciated. But I expect I'll be able to finish this in it's regular time slot."
"I will be impressed if you do. Have a good night Richard."
"You, too." The line clicked off, Richard never hung up first, just in case Nemesis decided to have a change of mind and add one final note to the conversation. He flipped up the screen on his laptop and connected to his Email. Sure enough there was a message from Nemesis with the X Men's address. Apparently they hang out in a private school for gifted student's, with a man named Charles Xavier at it's head. The name rung a bell with Richard but he couldn't quite place it, oh well it didn't matter.
Oh shit it did matter! Charles Xavier is probably the only known mutant more powerful than Magneto, he's the cripple who can read men's thoughts and control their minds. Richard cursed under his breath. This ruled out just being able to play the cop routine. That meant he'd have to sneak onto their jet somehow. But what if the old bastard decided to go with the X Men when they went after Magneto? This was assuming they even did go after Magneto, they might just wait for him to strike again. Too many variables.
Richard decided that he had to go to the school one way or another. It was just outside of New York, well at least that was convenient enough. Tomorrow he'd go and scope out the school, then once he had all his equipment he would go talk to someone there who would know, he'd just have to make sure he didn't encounter Xavier. He must leave the school at some point, Richard was sure that even mutants took vacations from defending the world at some point. But the new challenge was how to find out. Richard was sure that Xavier wouldn't publish his travelling plans in the New Yorker. The only way to find out would be to get in the school, get into the computers? Hell, if he got in the computers he wouldn't have to bother wasting time with Xavier's travel plans, he could just find out if they knew where Magneto was hiding. Would it be possible to hack in through the net? It was worth a shot. But not now, Richard would have to go in through a different terminal. If they had a jet that couldn't be picked up by news crews and their camera's, then surely they'd have a trace program in their computers. Well, Richard was exceptionally skilled with computers and he believed that if there was a way to hack into the X network through the net, he could find a way. If not, he'd just get into the school itself. When face to face with any terminal, there was always a way to get the information one looked for.
Richard poured himself a cup of coffee and sat back down in front of his equipment and continued his inspections, at this point it was more for fun than to check it's quality. He went to bed early that night, he had a busy day ahead of him.
The road's were still relatively empty, however empty they would ever get in the New York city area. It was only four in the morning and Richard was starting to think that he should've drank just one more cup of coffee, or maybe seven more. A map was open on the passenger seat and Richard had highlighted the roads that led to Xavier's school. The back seat was covered with enough wires and computer bits that it struck Richard that it's contents were probably worth more than his car. All of that was hardware to put up another IP address to prevent the X Men's inevitable computer security programs from being able to trace him, as well as a cellular modem so he could connect from his car just outside the building. It still seemed to be a doubtful proposition to Richard but he had to give it a shot. If it failed he had a suit in a plastic dry cleaning back in the back of his car and he could just go and visit the school itself. If it came to that however, Richard would end up camping in his car until the early morning hours again before he'd try to break in and have a peak at their computers. For that, Richard had packed a black jump suit with necessary cat burglar gadgets in the compartment where the spare tire once rested.
Only once before did Richard have to break in someplace to get information before attempting the mark, and it went successfully well. Richard was following a man (this was before he was hunting mutants) named Frank Buntaro. Frank was an oriental businessman who had the bad luck of witnessing a mob shoot-out and saw clearly who was involved. Fortunately for Frank, because he was such a successful businessman he had professional security around at all times, among the best, which prevented the mob from just sending a hit man to take out the only key witness in their upcoming trial. Unfortunately for Frank, his security wasn't able to deal with Richard.
Frank was going back to Japan with the intention of laying low for a while and hoping that the mob wouldn't follow him across the Atlantic, after all the trial was still months away. Well, no mob hitmen followed Frank. Richard had to break into a bank to find out where Frank's home bank account was located in Japan (Richard swore he would never meet another man who kept his home address so secret as Frank Buntaro, until of course, he met Nemesis). The break in was as clean as Richard could've hoped for, they never new he was in there. It struck Richard how frequently it seemed that he got his ideas from movies and books, and this one had more than one resemblance to that movie where Sean Connery and that hot english woman were cat burglers trying to set each other up to be busted by the fuzz (Richard also seemed to be completely unable to remember the names of more than half a dozen movies he had seen in the last ten years.).
Richard had purchased four telescoping poles that connected to a window and cement it was mounted into. Then he had a tiny laser cutting torch to sever the window's connection to the building. Richard ran the laser all around the rim of the window and the poles extended making a three foot gap as it pulled the glass away from the bank. Richard knew that this particular bank didn't have any trip laser alarms, but it did have heat sensitive camera's and motion sensors. The camera's Richard dealt with by wearing a cold suit, not unlike the temperature matching suit he had bought to deal with Magneto, and he crawled low on his belly as the particular motion sensors in this bank were the type that only worked til about two feet off the ground, motion below that didn't register. When Richard reached a bank computer (which he was assured, by a bribed security officer in the mall the bank was connected to, would be left on), he raised himself just enough to see the screen, and even then he only got up on his knees so slowly that if anyone had seen him, they may have casually mistaken him for a fixed statue. The difficulty that the motion sensors presented was that the typing on the keyboard of moving the mouse could send them off, the way Richard knew to get past was by making his movements so slow that the sensors wouldn't register them as movement at all. This made an operation that would normally take a professional less than five minutes in and out of the bank last nearly twenty minutes. Richard got out of the bank and replaced the window, using a very special invisible adhesive at the normal joints to make the glass stick back into the building, and the next day he was on a plane to Tokyo.
In the end it didn't prove very difficult to find Frank and follow him back to his home, Richard waited at Frank's bank where he had some business to deal with, then followed him around downtown Tokyo for six hours until he finally went home. That night Richard picked the lock (which actually consisted of a card reader Richard forged), and crept into Frank's bedroom. Frank wasn't the only one in his bed tonight, and so far as Richard knew this wasn't planned as Frank wasn't married and Richard didn't see him wine and dine any young ladies that night. During his brief moment of hesitation he heard the creak of the floor boards behind him, someone had seen him and a gun was already pointed at his back, and here in Japan was the end of Richard Freyes rather promising career. The gun shot never came and Richard didn't bother to tempt fate by waiting to find out why. Richard spun around and saw a man in the shadows holding a stick in one hand trying to sneak up and bash him in the back of the skull. The blood was pumping through Richard's ears and he was sweating much more than he would normally allow himself too while on a job, but this time he couldn't help it. The man he was trying to kill was rich, and his house portrayed that in every way, wonderful scents from flowers, paintings that Richard couldn't make out in the dark, and a silk house coat slung over a chair by the bed. And now Richard was face to face with what he figured was a fifty thousand dollar a year live in body guard who would have absolutely no problems with bashing Richard's skull in first and asking questions later. The man was shorter than him but Richard could tell he was well built even though the darkness of the hall shadowed any real details. The body gaurd stopped and stared at Richard, probably surprised, that moments hesitation was all Richard needed.
The pistol swung it's barrel around to Frank's body gaurd and raised itself slightly. To Richard it seemed like the air he was swinging his gun through had turned to syrup and surely the guard would leap toward him and bring the club down on his head before he could get off one shot. But the guard just stood there and let Richard fire two rounds right into his chest. The man didn't make a noise, he just stood there for a moment and fell to his knees making a quite thump when they hit the carpet. Richard could tell the man was staring at him through the darkness and at that moment he didn't want that man staring at him at all, as if the man would steal his soul and suck the blood from his body with his dying gaze. Richard stared back, becoming more unsettled knowing this man was branding Richard with his last living moments, not bothering to check his wounds or call for help or even bother pleading for his life, just staring at Richard marking him. Probably so the man could find Richard in hell and pay him back when Richard's time came. Finally the man fell back and his arms splayed out to his sides. So far as Richard could tell he was dead, he would double check before he left. Richard let out a breath and he realized he was holding it ever since he heard the creak of the floor behind him. He turned back towards the man and woman sleeping peacefully (she was probably just a hired thrill to relieve the stress of being part of a mob trial), undisturbed with the demise of their security. The soft soled boots didn't make a sound on the carpet and Richard walked right up to the foot of the bed. The woman stirred in her sleep and turned over throwing the blanket off her revealing her breasts to Richard. The man rolled over and put his arm around her, then stopped. Richard watched Frank turn his head and stare right at Richard. Once again his breathing stopped and Richard hesitated one moment too long. Frank shot out of bed screaming in japanese, probably at the guard Richard just killed. The woman sat up in a confused muddle and didn't understand what was going on. Richard noticed that the man was going for a handgun which fell off his bedside table as he jump up. All the screaming and confused speach from the two of them seemed to be drowned out by the two muffled bangs of Richard's gun as he fired directly into Frank's back while he fumbled with his gun. Frank lurched, as the bullets carried through and punched holes into the floor, and flipped over onto his back looking at Richard with wide pleading eyes. In the dark it seemed like Frank's face just dissapeared, but Richard could see the shadow's of the former businessman's brains sliding down the side of his bed and sprayed all over the carpet. At this point the woman he was sleeping with clued in and began to scream. Panic had completely overtaken her and she just sat on the bed screaming into the night staring at Richard. The blanket had since been completely thrown off her and from where Richard stood nothing was left to the imagination. The gun was brought around and Richard fired a single shot which punched a hole right through her neck abruptly cutting off her ongoing soprano cry. She stared disbelieving at Richard, clutching her throat gasping for air. Richard could see blood running out from under her hands and sliding down between her perky breasts. He always found it odd how he remembered how hard her nipples seemed in the last few moments of her life.
Richard decided he didn't want to watch her clutch at her throat and gasp voicelessly for another ten minutes so he fired another shell which struck her right above her right eye. Her body seemed to fly off the bed and fall out of Richard's site, the only thing remaining was a dark shaded spray of blood on the headboard of Frank's impressive bed.
As Richard left he remembered a sudden impulse to see the gaurd he had killed so he switched on the hall light for a brief moment and his heart sank. The gaurd he killed was only a boy, no older than sixteen, the club that Richard figured was going to be used to dash his brains was a plastic flashlight which would have shattered if swung hard enough at Richard. He killed a sixteen year old kid who was now laying on a carpet soaked with his own blood, and a woman who's brains were all over the pillow she had her orgasm on less than five hours earlier, and neither probably knew any of what Frank had unwittingly seen back in America. Life's a bitch and then you die, some people more abruptly than others.
Richard decided that he didn't want to deal with these memories while he drove on to Xavier's school. Yeah okay, I'll take these memories away, but while were driving why don't I talk to you some more about them. The kid was probably only heading to the bathroom for a piss when he saw you. The woman sleeping in the afterglow of rockin' sex and you killed both of them for your paycheck. Richard turned on the radio and for the remainder of the drive, he managed to successfully think of nothing but that ill fated trip to Japan.
As the sun was rising, Richard's chevette came around the bend on the forest lined road and saw the stone wall marking the edge of Xavier's property. An iron plaque mounted next to the gate declared that this was
X
Xavier's School for Talented Youngsters.
Est. 1953
The gate was locked and another sign lower down told Richard that the school didn't open for another two and a half hours. That gave him plenty of time to set up his computer and try to hack his way in.
Setting up the computer and the extra software took longer than Richard expected, but not too long that someone might come out of the school and see a white chevette with a computer set up on the passenger seat with a two thousand dollar satellite modem pointed directly at the school. The computer connected quite successfully with the school's network, but only the public websites that were set up for normal net viewing. It didn't take long for Richard to realize it was a complete lost cause to try to hack in online. Well to tell the truth, Richard didn't have much choice after ten minutes of getting down to business.
Richard started with a program to get the IP address of the server computer the X Men were using to connect online, and that worked just fine. Once Richard had the IP address he sent a highly modified trojan program that was disguised as an Email which would open itself once accepted into the target computer and immediately make a connection between the host and the target. It was a simple method, but the software cost Richard seven thousand dollars and worked on everything. Until now.
When Richard sent the bugged Email his computer screen went blank, a moment later all the power shut down. Richard restarted the laptop he bought specifically for this purpose only to find out it's harddrive completely erased, except for a message which appeared on his screen. It was a simple text message in white which read, "Your computer has been cleaned and a subsequent program installed into your hardrive which has irreperably damaged your ram and modem hardware. This has happened as a result of an illegal attempt to network with a target computer, consider this a warning."
Richard just stared at his screen for fifteen minutes, too shocked to even swear. Eventually he just turned the power off and dissasembled the computer set up packing it under a blanket in the back seat of his chevette. He then got his suit out of his trunk and changed right in the middle of the road. The school opened in half an hour, but Richard started his car and drove off to look for a cafe for breakfast. Tonight Richard would break into Xavier's school and continue his hunt for Magneto. His stomach cramped up at that moment as a line from his dream came back to him, the young girl calling out "No Men Allowed." Only this time, he thought of the young japanese boy he killed. No men allowed to live. Or women for that matter.
Richard started thinking of how he would get into the school this afternoon, then breaking in later that evening, and ultimately resulting in his next paycheck.
