Lucio, no longer a ten-year-olds but twelve, munched on his snack bar as he played on his phone with a bag slung over his back. Acting like a kid waiting for a bus. But the truth was from the scene. He was observing his target, a dark-skinned man in his fifties, standing not far from him.
He followed his target into the bus, still playing his phone. He made sure his steps faltered and stumbled into the target.
"I'm so sorry, sir," he stammered, pushing and fumbling on the man's shirt and jacket, trying to get up.
"Get off me, kid," the man reproved, trying to get Lucio off of him.
"Ah, right. Yes, sir!" Lucio stuttered. He pushed himself off, making sure his nails grazed the man's wrist.
He offered his hand, to apologize or to pull the man up. But the man slapped his hand away.
"Sorry, sir," Lucio mumbled, apologetically. He looked at his feet.
The man sneered at Lucio. He turned around and grumbled aloud, "Kids these days always on their phone."
Lucio scuffed his feet as he walked to the back of the bus, not before picking up his fallen phone. He sat down on the empty row, far from his target, and turned on his phone. A map and a blinking dot greeted him. He put on his earphones and waited. Not long after, voices entered his ears just as his target was calling someone.
"Felix, where the fuck are you?" the man snarled in English, not Italian, in a thick African-American accent. "I been waiting for you for hours."
"Get off the bus," ordered Felix, the man on the other side of the phone.
"Huh? What the hell you talking about? I just got here."
"I'll send someone to you. Just, get off the bus!"
"Hell no!" the man snapped, "I ain't spending another hour waiting for you. I'mma going to see my sister and her kids."
"You'll see them. I promise."
Lucio ignored the conversation. He focused on his phone, trying to locate Felix.
"You have any idea what I had to get here? I spent hours on a fucking airplane with a fucking baby cryin in my ears."
"Duwayne. Get. Off. Of. The. Bus."
"Give me one reason."
The other side was silent for a moment.
"Just, please get off of the bus. I, I'll take you sight-seeing," Felix said with a tone of defeat.
"Ain't nobody got time for that!"
The man, Duwayne, ended the call with a huff.
A short call to some people, but Lucio managed to get what he wanted. Felix's location. Lucio shoved his phone into his pocket and got off of the bus. He walked to the intersection and into a car, waiting for him.
"I got him."
Just those words uttered from Lucio's lips. The car sped up in a different direction. He then passed his phone to the woman sitting beside him.
"I'm starting to love you, mini-boss," Glida beamed as she looked at the data on the phone.
Lucio rolled his eyes fondly.
"Seriously," she probed, "have you ever thought joining my team." She whistled in appreciation. "Damn, what did those boys train you with? Not even my best man can get all of these," she pointed at the phone, "just from a single bug."
"I'm not done, yet."
Glida turned to Lucio and agreed, "True." She put down the phone. "Everything's already in place."
The car stopped.
"You can start working," Glida ordered as the door on Lucio's side opened.
Lucio walked out of the car and nodded at Glida. He watched the car speed away. He turned around and pulled the hood of his gray jacket over his head. Looking at the dense forest around him, Lucio stretched his arms above his head. He trekked through the forest. Many times he stopped to look at the sky, left, right, down, or back. To others, he seemed lost. He was not.
Once again, he kneeled down. He dug through the damp mulch, till his finger touched the smooth and cool surfaces of a metal box. He pocketed the box and fixed the ground, making sure everything was returned to its original.
Lucio returned trekking on the uneven ground, carefully watching his surroundings. Wary for those who meant him harm. His eyes jumped from one point to another. He scuffed his shoes together, a nervous tick he could not let go.
Ba-thump
Lucio snapped to his right. A sudden move caught his eyes. He pulled out a gun and a knife. Ready to defend himself.
Ba-thump
A rabbit jumped out of the bush.
Lucio released the breath he unknowingly held. He counted a few seconds in his head before he put down his weapons. He wiped his clammy hands on his pants and continued his journey.
A small hut. Greyed woods and broken down, full of holes. Moss and vegetation covered the surfaces, here and there. Tall and thick trees hid the hut from wandering eyes. To others, the hut was abandoned. But to Lucio, it was a perfect place for his job.
Lucio circled the hut a few times, making sure it was safe. Only after that, he pushed the creaking and decaying door aside, wincing at the sound it made. The smell of dust and rotted wood hit his nose, making cough and gag. He looked at the inside, surveying the place. A wooden bed frame, a small cabinet, a chair, and a table. All cramped in that small space with only two windows.
He took a deep breath, calming his raging heart. It just hit him. This was it. All of his training led to this. No more training wheels. No more teachers leading him. No more simulations. Just him and his mission. Failure meant death.
Lucio swallowed a lump in his throat and walked inside. He put down the box and his bag on the table, disturbing the thick dust. He pulled three heavy duty laptops, drones the size of a baby's hand, another drone the size of a woman's fist, a file, and communication equipment. He set everything up and turned on the drone, making sure everything was working as supposed to. Only then, he opened the box. Inside was a tube the size of a man's thumb and a small metal carrier. It glowed with eerie colors of purple, indigo, and blue. The glow shifted and shifted as if waiting for the moment to be released.
He clenched his hand and breathed, trying to calm his raging heart. He counted to ten and opened his eyes, he unknowingly closed. He immediately went to work. His body moved in a steady and known rhythm. Turned on the communication. Turned on and set the laptops. Checked the communication line. Turned on the surveillance cameras. Checked the drones. Attached the tube to the smaller drone. Pulled out and checked his weapon, ready to be used at any given moment. He looked down under the table. Eyes moved from one floorboard to the other, searching for something. He stood up, following a trail only he knew. He stood in front of the wall. His fingers trail its boards, till it slipped into a tiny groove. He pried it open, and a bunch of cables came out. He connected them to the laptops. Only then, he put on his headphones, a piece of communication set.
A map was shown on one of the screens. Blinking dots in red and blue, showing their position. "I'm in position," he said to the one on the other side of the communication.
He took the biggest drone and maneuvered it to the sky through the window. He looked at the screen on his left. It showed the view captured by the drone. He sent it over the forest, till it stopped over a waterfall. He typed a set of commands. A fog came out from the drone, creating a fake cloud. He typed another command. The drone scanned the waterfalls and dropped tiny bots the size of ants.
The bots moved around and inside the waterfall, scanning and creating a 3D map of the area. Apparently, there was a cave system behind the waterfall.
"All clear," Lucio said after he analyzed the data he found.
A few men and women carefully went inside the waterfall. Lucio looked at the map, making sure the blue dots would not meet any reds. Suddenly two dots came from the outside of the waterfall. He zoomed to their faces.
"Careful, two snakes coming from behind." Lucio opened the file, trying to identify them. "Diego Arco and Ercole Marino. Arco used guns as main weapon. His control over lightning flame is bad. Marino is a great sun. He is a good tracker. Step up and stay silent."
Lucio typed a set of commands and flipped the files. "10 meters from the entrance point."
He checked the two red dots, making sure they were no near his team. His heart stuttered. Marino was near the waterfall. Lucio waited and waited. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead.
The red dot blinked. Once. Twice. Not moving.
His heart dropped. Lucio hissed with a sense of urgency, "Marino is inside the cave."
Lucio watched his team go inside the groove from the screen. Marino was coming closer. He flipped his files and checked the map, checking everything. However, he could not understand anything. The words were swimming in front of him. He dumped the files on the table. Useless. His breathing sped up and hands shook.
"Calm down."
A sharp and husky voice whispered in his ears like electricity zapping through the haze of panic. Lucio took a deep breath and pressed his hands together, steadying his shaking hands. He closed his eyes with lips on his hands in the form of praying. He could hear the steady, almost silent, breath from the other side of the line. Unknowingly, he mimicked the rhythm. In and out. In and out.
Lucio opened his eyes, much calmer than before. Eyes gazed straight to the maps shown on the screen. He titled his head, brows furrowed. He put down his hands and leaned closer, getting a better look. He zoomed the screen. He gasped. Finally, he could see it.
The entrance point.
"There is a subterranean river behind you." He clicked the map, moving it around. "There should be a gap between the walls."
"Which ones?"
"Visual."
The screen on his right came alive in gray and green colours. Five different visuals with names written on the right corner splil it. Each visual showed different parts of the cave. Lucio scanned each one with eyes for details, paying attention to the red dots moving closer. He looked up the map and back to the screen.
Ears muffled. Hands clammed. He looked at the map. Marino was only 5 meters away from his team. Breath hitched. Something dropped in the pit of his stomach. He turned back to the visuals, biting his lips in concentration.
"There!" Lucio pointed at one of the visuals. "Ten degrees on June's left. Right behind that huge stalagmite."
"Copy that."
The visuals moved. But, they did not hold Lucio's attention. The map did. Marino was only a meter away.
He released his breath as the last blue dots escaped just as Marino entered the groove. He scuffed his heels together, waiting for his enemy to make a move. The red dot was there on the mouth of the groove, not moving.
"Come on. Come on. Leave," Lucio urged.
It felt like forever. Marino finally left.
Lucio waited for a few minutes before he gave, "All clear."
"Good job," Liam praised, the same voice that calmed Lucio. "What's next?"
Lucio hummed. "I hope you like the cold. You're going diving." He typed and looked at another screen that came alive. Voice entered his ears, Duwayne's voice. The screen showed his location and image of his surroundings. He was still on the bus.
"Our hawk is 18 minutes from the meeting point." Lucio muted Duwayne's voice.
He looked at his team's location. "Take the left. There's an underwater tunnel network three meters from you." He watched them get closer to the tunnel. " Two meters. One meter."
"We're going in," Liam said before he and the others jumped into the tunnel.
Lucio put a command into the laptop. The screen splitted a bit on the left side, showing the map and the beating hearts of the team. He turned to another screen, changing the visual given by his team to the images from the camera inside of their targeted mansion, the same place they were going to infiltrate. He looked into the file and hummed to himself. He glanced at the screen and counted in his head as he watched the guard patrol. He tapped his pointed finger on the table in rhythmic orders.
His lips pulled into a smirk. Eyes lighted up with glee. The guards had changed.
He clicked his mouse two times, pause, one time, pause, and three times, creating beeping sounds every time he did it. He was sending code to his teams. Not in morse code, but in code they had agreed on. Two clicks meant two guards. One click meant only one guard had flame. Three clicks means they had thirty minutes before the change.
Lucio turned to another screen and almost cackled in glee. It would be a matter of time before their enemy fell. On the laptop for his team, he typed 001. He sent the message in the form of a short song about New York. Their yankee had arrived.
"Good play, America."
