"Yes I know, please, just give me until 11 and I'll have the article done and on your desk," Helen sighed, speaking over the cell-phone. She frowned as the home phone rang. "Excuse me just a moment."
"Your child Kai Hiwatari is absent from school today…" came the nasal voice on message that was recording."I'll have to call you back, sorry," Helen sighed again, hanging up. "Oh Kai… when will you grow up?"
Helen picked up the home phone and dialed the public school's number, only to have someone hang up on her. She frowned and decided to call Shady Glen instead; maybe they had kept him there or something.
"The Shady Glen telephone system is currently down for repairs. If this is an emergency please dial 555 132."
Helen frowned again. If she couldn't phone the school, she'd go to the school. She grabbed her keys and pulled on the gray suit jacket, heading out the house and to the black jeep in the driveway.
She stopped at the security gate and wound down the window when the guard didn't open the gate for her. Pulling her ID from her purse, she got out the car and walked towards the security booth, her high heels clicking on the pavement.
"Excuse, I'm Helen Randal Hiwatari, I'm a parent. I want to know what's going on here," she called.
"Sorry Ma'am, the school is shut down for a security run, just to make sure everything is in order."
"I don't care, I want to know where my children are!"
The security guard turned away from her as his mobile phone rang. "Just a moment Ma'am."
Helen tapped her foot impatiently, not listening to the quiet mumbling.
"Sir?" the guard answered.
"It's time to make our true presence known. Destroy her car but don't kill her," came Boris's strict orders over the phone.
The guard shrugged and hung up as men in black combat uniforms stepped out from bushes and cars, guns held at ready in their hands.
Helen stood looking at the group of men, her mouth agape.
"Hey lady!" the leader of the small band of men called. "There's something wrong with your car!"
And they opened fire as Helen screamed and jumped behind the car to shield herself from the flying bullets, tears running down her face as they stopped. She stumbled up and ran away from her car. She needed to get the police and quickly.
xxxx
Queen looked ready to kill as the gun pointed towards her. "Why are you doing this?"
"Why does anyone do anything Queen? For money!"
"Now I need all these children," said Boris, as Kenny, Spencer, Bryan and Lee appeared in the doorway.
Queen looked at the list of 10 children, reading aloud all the names. "Robert Jurgen, Jonathon McGregor, Enrique Giancarlo, Oliver Polanski, Mariah Yin, Emily Gates, Salima Edmunds, Kane Lucianius, Kevin de Lion'are, and Wyatt Hunter…"
"Yes… 10 of the richest kids in America."
Queen narrowed her eyes as the blonde haired muscle man came to stand behind her.
"Now then Queen, why don't you go and call the whole school into the auditorium?"
The burly man pulled up Queen. "Get your hands off me!" she snapped.
Bryan smirked at his fellow soldier, showing that he didn't envy his position.
"Bryan go with them," came Boris's command as Kenny proceeded into the principle's office with the escorted Principle.
Spencer snickered as Bryan held back a snarl.
xxxx
Kai scrambled up onto the roof of the four-story high school, looking down at the organized mass of 'soldiers' that were taking the school hostage.
"K-Dog! Tala! Where are you man? K-Dog!" he pleaded over the walkie-talkie.
Tala glanced down at the instrument in his hands, waiting for everyone to leave the gym locker room before answering to his friend. He sighed as everyone disappeared. "Where are you man? As of five minutes ago you were officially absent… again! Man your dad is gonna kill you!"
"We have some serious problems here Tala, and I mean serious!" Kai snapped.
"Yeah I know… if we don't get Farcry to our customers soon they're gonna go retail man, and we cannot afford to do that, I need money," replied Tala, huddling behind a row of lockers.
"I'm not talking about that Tala. They've sealed off the compound here."
"What compound? You're in a school man," Tala replied, realizing that his best friend was still in Shady Glen.
"They've taken the fucking school hostage K-Dog! There are guys with guns everywhere."
"What the hell?"
"And I'm not talking about anything here, these guys have some hardcore artillery," replied Kai, sitting on the roof and watching as two police cars were allowed into the school grounds. He frowned, keeping an eye on what was happening. And all of a sudden gun shots were heard everywhere as all the 'soldiers' opened fire on the police cars, Kai started to scramble into a safer place again as he saw the policemen run from their cars and into the trees lining the school's driveway.
"What the hell man! What the fuck is happening! Action man! Where are you action man? Kai?" Tala called, only to hear a muffled explosion and no reply. "Kai?" Tala growled as he put down the walkie-talkie. "Damn piece of American merchandising," he hissed as he grabbed a jacket and his skateboard. "Listen action man. If you can hear me… I'll- I'll be right over."
Kai started screaming as the police began to shoot at him from where he had been lying on the roof. He ran over the slanted roof and slipped down the other side, screaming while attempting to find something to grab on before he fell to his early death. He almost yelled in relief as he caught hold of the drainpipes on the side of the roof. He panted as he felt his hands slipping from the metal. He let out a scream as the gutter under his right hand became dislodged and fell to the ground metres below. He breathed deeply as he made his way to the lower roof a few metres away from him. He sighed in relief as he climbed down another drainpipe to the lower roof. He was shaking like a leaf; that had been way too close for comfort. He groaned as he saw a flash of a gun from one of the higher roofs. If he didn't move they'd find him.
Kai ran quickly across the slanted tiles, keeping relatively low. His only escape was a chimney a meter ahead of him and he had to go down or he was dead, and quite literally.
Kai climbed up the chimney shoot and swung his legs in quickly, not waiting to see if there was any alternative. With a leap of faith he let pulled his hands close his body and dropped down the chimney, landing with a thud and cloud of ash and dust. He coughed and waved his hands around trying to settle the dust so he could breathe again.
He shifted out of the fireplace as the dust and soot settled around him, pulling away spider webs as he crawled to a dining table where he could make out a candelabra.
"This must be where they kept Uncle Fester," Kai muttered to himself, pulling out his lighter and lighting the wax lumps that were supposed to be candles. "K-Dog! Tala! Can you hear me?" he said into the walkie-talkie. He snarled when he got no reply. "Useless piece of shit."
Kai picked up the candelabra and walked into a web filled passage, stopping once he got to a small door. He tapped it, checking that nothing was on the other side. With a yank he pulled open the little door and crawled though it, making his way into another cleaning cupboard. Why hadn't he found this place before now? He could've skipped school countless times.
Blowing out the candles he set them on a shelf and opened the door silently. He peered through the open crack of the door to make sure no one was in the hall before he ran down the halls towards the security room where he knew the computers would be.
xxxx
"Oh look Queen! Here come the comedians! Right on time!" said Boris, looking out the window to the police cars driving through the front gates.
Spencer yawned, soon followed by Bryan. Kenny didn't move from his spot as he spoke to the drilling team leader Micheal. "Right Micheal. Start the drilling," said Kenny, tapping a few keys on the computer, making his step-by-step program start up.
xxxx
"Right boys! You 'eard the man! Start your engines!" Micheal yelled as the machine began to drill through rock.
xxxx
"Such a violent society you live in today Queen. Sad really," said Boris as he watched the police cars explode.
Queen glared at the leader of operations.
"Now then… to the auditorium we go," he said, pulling Queen along with him.
xxxx
Kai let out breath of relief as he closed the security room without any trouble. He smirked when saw the computer before him. Taking a seat he began, bringing up the system registry and then breaking the password through his encryption breaker he had slipped into his pocket earlier.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," Kai whispered as he waited for the registry to grant him access
ACCESS GRANTED suddenly dissolved onto the screen and the security overview came onto the screen. Kai cracked his knuckles before setting out to work.
'LOCK SECURITY ROOM DOOR' Kai typed quickly. He grinned when he heard the door lock electronically. Now that he was safe, he would have some fun.
"Time to open up the place…" he muttered to himself typing a command into the computer.
OPEN ALL SECURITY GATES had been typed quickly and he smirked as the gates opened on the program.
xxxx
"What the hell is happening Kenny?" growled Boris over the phone.
"I don't know Boss… I'm on my way down there right now!" Kenny replied, Bryan following behind the jumpy computer expert.
"Just fix the damn problem," came Boris's snappy reply.
"The door is jammed," Kenny said nervously as he ran the security card through the electronic system over and over. "How are we gonna get in?"
Bryan smirked before aiming and shooting down the door.
xxxx
Kai looked nervously at the door as he heard voices and the obvious nervous tone of whoever was trying to get in. Quickly typing up a program, he pulled the encryption breaker from the computer and jumped onto the desk, pulling himself into the air-conditioning vent and disappearing from sight as the door was shot down.
"I'm sure glad you're on our side," came Kenny's voice as he walked into the room and sat in front of the blank screen.
Bryan gave a grunt in response.
Kai looked down at the group of two as Kenny set to work on the computer. He smirked as the green writing appeared bouncing off the four walls of the screen.
"What the hell? 'Weinerhead'?" Kenny said, looking at the screen and typing furiously.
Bryan laughed. "Looks like the computer knows you already."
"Shut up… and stop breathing down my neck, don't you have a gun to clean or something?" Kenny snapped, breaking into the security system and closing the gates once more.