Inside some warehouse,
a man wearing glasses was seen working on a military-grade laptop. A woman seated next to him was speaking with someone on the phone, which was connected to the laptop.
"Sure, Mr. Winston-"
Teeee
Click
"I heard it," the woman informed the man on the laptop.
The man stopped for a second and grinned. He wasted no time in relaying the information to his comrades.
\"This is Eagle-1 to all units, rabbit is in the vehicle. The car is a black Tesla, and an extra bogey has been identified. Be on the lookout. Happy hunting, over."\
\"Tiger to Eagle-1, received. Hawk-1,2, this is Tiger. Respond, over,"\ a gruff voice filled with authority sounded on the device.
\"Hawk-1 to Tiger, in position, over."\
\"Hawk-2 to Tiger, in backup position, over."\
\"Don't miss,"\ the Tiger instructed in a sharp voice that required no reply. After his statement, the device went silent.
"Fuck! The bastards have got smarter, keep your head down this is not a bulletproof car."
After breaking his character, Andrew stepped on the throttle and went skidding on the snowy roads. Contrary to his passenger's concern-filled screams, he got the car under control and accelerated further away.
"What the fuck! Andrew, slow the car down!"
"That, I'm afraid, is no longer an option, Harry."
"What? Why not?"
"Well, if you do want to get shot, then I guess I can't help it."
"Sh-shot-uh, yeah, no thanks. By the way, who are you, Andrew?"
"That question is a bit weird, I guess, but my name is Thomas Wilson. I work for your father. You can call me Tom."
"Huh...okay...you said shot, by whom? Drake?" Harry had not yet dialed 911 but was secretly recording his conversation with Andrew, now Thomas.
"I don't know, but he was involved. I've been hired by your father for your protection, so I have to be overly cautious."
"I understand the hired part, but from what I know of my father, he wouldn't trust you alone to protect me, no? And what in the world made you think that Drake was going to kill me?"
"Well, I have a backup, but they are not picking up their fucking phones! For some reason, though, rest assured I'll get you to safety in a minute. About the guy Drake, well, first of all, that's not his real name. There exists no cartoon mermaid named Drake. A guy who lived with a name for 30 years should know that, could be ignorant. Second, he was looking too much to the back of the car, looking for you, could be curious. The nail in the coffin was the honking. I assume your number is not traceable, hence some practical trick to determine if you are in the car or not."
"Well, those are some valid arguments, and yes, my number is quite untraceable. So where are we going?"
"A rendezvous point my team selected in cases of emergencies. You have to leave the city as soon as possible."
"What about my family? They-"
Click
\"Yo! Hunter, something happened?"\
\"Yo, my ass! Of course, something happened! You dumbasses! Why do you think I called 16 times? 16 fucking times! I swear to God you must have had a gun shoved to your throats and your assholes for you both to ignore my calls!"\
\"Mr. Hunter, this is not the way you talk to a lady. I didn't know you were this rude."\ A lady's upset voice suddenly came out of the responder.
\"Well...Stem, I'm sorry, alright? I thought both of you were dead. I panicked. Anyway, get to the flower house; I have the bouquet with me, and pick up the phone next time."\
\"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. We'll be there."\ The yo-man was back with reassurance.
click
"These kids will be the death of me one day."
"'These kids' sure sound interesting."
"They may sound funny and all, but they are quite reliable, so don't worry. You'll meet them soon enough anyway."
"I'm sure they are. Anyway, what about my family? Will they be okay?"
"They will be fine; they have another team protecting them."
As they talked and moved, they did so while avoiding any isolated road and always staying on major roads, Tom had assumed they were not brave enough to openly fire on them while people were all around. After five minutes, they stopped at a red light.
Bang-Crack.
"GET DOWN!" Thomas screamed as their front window showed a hole and a lot of cracks.
"Are you hit?" Thomas asked Harry while dialing on his phone.
"No! No...no, are you?" Harry replied and then asked while checking his body for any wounds.
Click
"They have gone mad! They have snipers positioned, and they are shooting openly. I'll change cars first, then meet you guys at the shop. Fin, track my phone, hack any and all traffic cameras, ghost us." Tom didn't reply to Harry and talked on his phone. Tom then pulled out his handgun, putting the car in reverse; Tom pulled the car out of the pack of other cars and accelerated at an alley to their left.
Click
Driving at full speed, they came out on another road. Tom then got into the correct lane and started driving very fast, ignoring all red lights.
"Who are they?!"
"I don't know, Harry, but your father has many enemies."
"You know him well?"
"Kind of, worked for him on many occasions. This is my team's third time as your protection detail."
"Only protection?"
"Many other kinds..."
"Assassinations?"
"...We don't have time for this."
Harry looked down on his phone, where the recording was still going; his head was filled with many thoughts.
As Tom was busy speeding through roads, he was nearing the flower shop, which was a code word for a car-replacing place where they place their spare cars for switching. Coming to a four-way cross-section, Tom skidded the car to a stop as he saw the same car model from the package building which blew the horn. In two roads, the front one and the left one, leaving only the right one and the one they came from. Then Tom saw in the side mirror that another SUV of the same model was coming from behind them at full speed. Seeing no other choice, he accelerated the car towards the right road.
How did they know? there was no car following us, I was with the car all the time, no electronic device other than the car itself, leaving...Harry's fucking phone...but they could have done the same thing back there at the package building. But they used the car horn to confirm, so where is the tracer? Are they hacking the traffic cameras, but Fin is there, a drone?
"Harry, check the backseat thoroughly; they are tracing us."
"There is nothing here."
Click
\"Hunter, you went off-route?"\ the voice of yo-man inquired
\"Had to. Fin, check for any drone signals around us. They have many vehicles, look for any spare black SUV in the route, and if there is, make a new route and channel it to my screen. Hurry, and stay on the line."\
\"Copy that."\
"We have to our change transportation, fast."
\"..."\
Warehouse... a few minutes earlier
The man with the glasses was looking at multiple screens. On one of them, the map of New York was shown, and a red dot was moving around on the screen. On another big screen, many traffic cameras were working as the eyes of this group, and on another big screen, the live feed of various dashcams was playing, numbered #1, #2, #3...#10.
\"This is Eagle-1. Nice shot, Hawk-1,2. The tracer is unharmed and active. Now I have visual on their transportation; they are heading west into an alley... coming out on the highway; they are northbound on 35th road and speedy. Unit 9, 6, 7, you have permission to intercept them at the cross-section, make them go east from there. Over."\ he spoke over the radio
\"Unit-9 copy. Over."\
\"Unit-6 copy. Over."\
\"Unit-7 copy. Over."\
\"Unit-9, in about 30 seconds rabbit will pass you. Start tailing him after a 5-sec delay. Over."\
\"Unit-9 copy. Over."\
A few minutes later...
\"This is Eagle-1 to all units, rabbit has turned east. Good work; now keep pushing. over."\
As Eagle-1 was issuing orders, the female who previously talked to Harry on the phone came up to him.
"The cops have been alerted. Some calls slipped. we also have lost our traffic cameras."
"Tch. the cops offed the cameras?"
"No, it was somebody else."
Eagle-1 thought for a second before contacting Tiger for further permission.
\"This is Eagle-1 to Tiger. The donuts have heard; some...calls slipped. do we counter? over."\
\"This is Tiger, proceed to counter. Over."\
\"Eagle-1 copy. Over."\
The counter against the cops was prepared beforehand by them, foreseeing this situation. It was quite malicious as they had planned to burn down New York City to get their hands on Harry. They had contacted all the medium and large-sized gangs and hired them for the night with one task given to them: cause as much chaos as possible. No gang in their right mind would accept such a vague and dangerous contract, as after that, the cops would weed out most of them. But the money offered was too much to reject. Most gangs were planning to go underground right after tonight.
"People! Make three teams. Team A will support Angel in finding who took our cameras. Team B will give me an update on the man named Andrew Nelson, and Team C stop blocking calls and contact our associates. Tell them to do their money's worth." Looking over twelve people constantly typing on their computers, Eagle-1 efficiently ordered.
The man William Winston Field is many things, but a fool; he surely had a team deployed to protect his son. But where is this team? They have not shown themselves yet. The man Andrew seems like one of them, but where are the rest? Were they the ones to take over the cameras? The damn canine will want answers. They are the only variables in our plan.
Eagle-1, as always, was many steps ahead of his targets. They didn't know, but the moment Harry ordered his wares, he was already under the eyes of Eagle-1. Even before that, for a month and a half, they had compiled and scrapped many plans for this endeavor. Harry's temperament, illness, relationships, nearly everything about him was under his eyes. For such, they had crafted the perfect plan, which was going as it was for the moment.
As Tom and Harry were rushing away from the SUVs coming after them, they noticed a grey SUV speeding towards them from the back.
"Uh, this one isn't keen on keeping its distance, it seems," Harry nervously stated and fiddled with his pockets for his medicine.
"This one is friendly."
"Oh, nice."
Tom wasn't so sure that anything was quite nice. Any turn he decided to make, they were already there, making it hard for him to continue to the route. They were forcing him to take a route that was quite the opposite of where he wanted to go but had no choice.
The grey SUV had finally caught up to them, and a new male voice came out of the radio.
"Hunter!" Male1
"Fax! Good for you to come so early. Should've waited a few hours more. Why hurry?" Tom's sarcastic reply went flying towards the new people.
"Hah, I told you we were early. You know Hunter; he can handle this much, right, Hunter?" Male2
"Quit joking, Slipper. Sorry, boss, met some traffic at the back," Fax chided.
"Get them out of my hair."
"Aye aye, captain!" Slipper spoke enthusiastically.
BOOOOM!
As Tom and co. were talking about how to get out of this net of SUVs, all of New York flinched as an explosive went off in the center of the city.
As if this was a signal of sorts, a new kind of rush enveloped New York. All kinds of gangs, private contractors, and thugs started raining hell on the city... Phase 2 of the plan had just started.