Authors: Philip Mcclennan
“Well I have to say this is a shame,” said Mr Saki with a disappointed tone in his voice. “Whenever I hear of disloyalty, it hurts me…deeply.” Mr Saki nodded to several security men, who took station behind the lined up group of staff. “However, betrayals such as this must be dealt with quickly, and cleanly.” Mr Saki walked over to where Sophie was stood and stopped directly in front of her. He looked into her eyes. Saki’s eyes were stern, but they gave nothing away.
He knows.
Sophie was certain that the mind readers had told him the truth about her and she prepared to strike out. If she was going down, she wasn’t going to go without a fight.
Much to Sophie’s surprise, Mr Saki moved away from her, instead turning his attention to Airsu, who stood two places further down the line. “And deal with it we shall,” said Mr Saki, who peered right into in the eye’s of Airsu. “Of all the people I expected to be loyal to this firm, I would never have thought you could have betrayed us.”
Airsu looked shocked and then afraid. She began to shake her head. “What…no!” she said, pleading her innocence.
“You’ve been in secret talks with Nagashima Law,” said Saki, who referred to the Miyamoto firm’s biggest rivals. Mr Saki hated that firm with all his heart and he acted accordingly to any of those who were in league with them.
All of the staff remained in line and completely silent, too afraid to speak or even glance a look as events unfolded before them. Sophie stood in confusion. She had thought that Mr Saki was referring to her when speaking of a betrayal. It seemed she had been able to fend off the mind readers mental probes after all.
Arisu stood frozen. She was terrified inside but did her best to hide it. She took a glance at the sisters before looking at her boss once more. “Sir, I…would…never do anything to betray this firm. I…”
Before Arisu could finish her sentence, Mr Saki nodded to a security man behind her, who proceeded to fire a bullet into her skull. The staff looked away in horror, but none dared to make a sound. The woman’s body fell to the floor in a heap, but not before her blood squirted into the face of Marty, who had been standing next to Arisu. Some blood also managed to find its way onto Sophie’s cheek and shirt.
Mr Saki walked back to the mind reading sisters. “Terminating an employee is never pleasant,” he said whilst looking at the sisters. “Ok everybody that’s all for today.”
Although feeling huge relief, Sophie’s joy was bittersweet because of the death of Arisu, whose body now laid face down in a pool of her own blood.
The staff prepared to make their exit from the conference room when Saki interrupted them one last time. “One more thing…”
Suddenly a security man struck Sophie on the back of her head with a baseball bat. The young Irish girl fell to the floor in agony, holding her head in pain.
“What the hell are you doing?” shouted Marty, who rushed down to the floor to try and aid Sophie.
“Don’t be a fool Marty, she’s a spy!” said Saki, who looked once more at the mind-reading twins. It appeared the sisters had indeed told Saki about Sophie’s true identity after all.
“What? You’re crazy!” said Marty, refusing to believe a word of it.
“Foolish boy, just because you’ve been screwing her doesn’t mean she loves you. She’s been using you,” Saki said. Two guards pulled Marty away from her. Saki nodded to one of the guards, who stood over her and pointed a gun at the fallen agents head.
“No!” shouted Marty, who tried desperately to break free from the guards hold.
The security man began to pull back the gun trigger. Sophie managed to barely sweep the man with her left leg before he was able to fire upon her. As the man fell, he fired the bullet up into the rooms ceiling. All of the staff began to scream.
Sophie, who was seriously bleeding from the impact of the bat on her skull, tried frantically to crawl away. She was too hurt to get very far though, and a host of guards stood all around her.
“Kill her now!” shouted Saki.
The guards took aim with their guns and prepared to send a rain of bullets over her.
From outside of the large glass window, which overlooked the city of Tokyo, something approached at great speed. Suddenly someone came crashing through the window. It was James, who had slingshot from the top of the building, down through the window of the conference room. Glass sprayed the entire room and everyone leapt for cover. James now stood next to the large broken window. He untied the harness around his stomach and addressed everyone inside. “Sorry, is this a bad time?”
All of the guards charged towards James. The first guard to him was flung over his shoulder and out of the window directly behind him. The next was punched into the wall on the far side of the room with one blow. One of the guards fired a gunshot, which went into James’ right side. James winced in pain, holding his side for a second. “You know, that really fucking hurt!” he said, rushing towards the man. He jumped onto a desk that was in front of him, using it as leverage to unleash a spinning kick to the guard’s face. This knocked the man out cold whilst he was still in mid-air and he crashed to the floor without even attempting to break his fall.
Just as James began to pick himself up from the ground after landing the kick, another guard rushed towards him from behind with a baseball bat. The guard swung the bat towards his head and struck him right on the top of the skull. Much to the guard’s surprise, the bat snapped in two and James seemed unfazed. The man paused for a moment, looking at the remains of the broken bat handle before dropping it and throwing a punch towards James. The agent blocked the attack and twisted the man’s arm right around, breaking it in the process. He then threw a punch, which landed cleanly on the guards chin. The man flew back over fifteen feet across the room. After watching the devastation that the agent had caused, the remaining guards fled the area, leaving just James, Mr Saki, Marty and a fallen Sophie.
“What the hell are you?” asked Saki, referring to James’ freakish fighting ability.
James ignored him, instead helping Sophie to her feet. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m…fine” she answered, sounding as if she didn’t know quite where she was.
James glanced at the large gash in her head where the bat had struck her.
You’re not fine at all. We have to get out of here.
A helicopter appeared out of nowhere outside of the shattered window. “Come one, that’s our ride. Let’s get you out of here,” James said helping his friend to walk.
“Sophie, what’s going on?” asked a bewildered Marty, who had stood in confusion whilst he watched the whole thing transpire. Marty called out to the Irish girl once more. “Sophie!” he shouted, as loud as he could.
“James, wait a minute,” said Sophie.
James stopped for a moment and helped her to turn around and face Marty. She could barely stand, and blood poured from her head. She made a conscious effort to look Marty in the eye.
I owe him that much
. Sadness filled her heart as she gazed upon him. She was filled with a deep sense of regret about the way she had lied to him, and also, for letting herself become close to him.
Marty realised that she was about to disappear from his life forever. “Sophie, please…I Love you…”
Sophie waited for a few moments and uttered her final words to him. “I’m sorry.”
James carried her on board the helicopter that was hovering right next to the window and it flew off into the distance. Sophie took one last look back at Marty as he stood at the edge of the window looking up at her. She looked down at him until she could see him no more. Deep down in her heart she knew that that would be the last time she would ever see Marty again.
Chapter 8: The Forbidden Lovers
A large plane flew through the red sky as the sun rose up from it’s nightly grave. Dawn was upon the passengers of the aircraft as it glided gracefully through the morning clouds. The plane touched down on the runway, landing safely at the airport of Paris, France. Stacey Cooper disembarked from the vessel and made her way through customs. The airport was frantic and people were rushing about, bumping into each other whilst they were coming to and from flights. As Stacey passed through customs, there was an angry exchange next to her between a man and a boarding officer. She could not speak a single word of French, however, she gathered by the aggressive manner of the man waving a passport, and the way the boarding officer was repeatedly shaking his head, the man was being refused access to his flight. Stacey rushed passed the argument and hurried towards the exit of the airport. The girl struggled along as she carried two large suitcases, being careful as she moved around the crowded area. As she neared the exit, her suitcases were knocked out of her hands by a group of people rushing to catch their flight. “Hey watch where you’re going!” she shouted back to them but the rushing passers-by were long gone.
Stacey continued her walk towards the airport’s exit. She passed through a group of people who held up signposts with people’s names on them. They were all waiting for other people or loved ones that had just disembarked from their flights. Stacey noticed an odd looking man within the group, holding up a large white cardboard sign with the words ‘Madam Cooper’ on it.
Does he mean me
? She cautiously walked towards the man. Upon closer examination of the gentleman, she realised that she had never seen him before in her life.
The man wore a dark blue suit jacket and pants, along with a dickie bow to match. He had a white shirt beneath the jacket and above the man’s head was an old fashioned top hat. He reminded Stacey of a butler by the way he dressed. The man also had a thick dark moustache, which curled upwards on either side. Stacey thought this looked ridiculous and struggled to keep a straight face when finally addressing the man.
She began to speak, but the man beat her to it. “Ah Madam Cooper, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said in a strong French accent.
Stacey looked the man up and down, examining him closely. She knew her father had many enemies, due to his particular line of employment. Stacey however, had been very careful to keep her trip to Paris very discreet. Indeed, even her father knew nothing of her journey to the French capital, and for good reason. Stacey could not for the life of her figure out who this man was. She figured the person she had come to visit in the city might have sent him here. She finally tired of guessing the man’s identity. “Who are you?” she asked bluntly.
“Why madam, I was sent here to pick you up and escort you to the Theatre De La Ville, as per request of my client.”
This much was true enough. Stacey was over in Paris for a few days and had arranged to meet up with a close friend. This man must have known her friend otherwise he would not have known about her planned trip to the famous theatre in Paris. Still there was something odd about him although what it was Stacey could not say.
The man felt Stacey’s mistrust and acted accordingly. “What’s the matter honey, don’t you recognize me?” he said. This time, there was not a hint of the French accent the man had displayed up until this point.
Stacey recognized the voice and smiled. She embraced the man with a hug. As Stacey held the man tight, he tossed his hat to one side, revealing him to be Chad.
The pair hugged for a few moments and then their lips locked as they passionately kissed. It had been two long months since they had last seen each other. Ever since the pair had met during Chad’s graduation night, over two years ago, they had been seeing each other in secret. Chad and Stacey were boyfriend and girlfriend now, however, this was far from a traditional relationship. The first obstacle they faced was Sergeant Cooper, Stacey’s father. The sergeant was overly protective of his daughter anyway, however he had grave concerns about Chad.
Had it been up to Sergeant Cooper, Chad would never have been promoted to the status of an agent. The sergeant thought Chad to be reckless and had kept a close watch over him ever since he had blown up the tower during his agent practical exam. Needless to say, Chad would be cast out of the World Order and into a civilian life if the truth about he and Stacey was ever to become common knowledge, and it was for this reason, above all, that the pair kept their relationship a secret.
Truth be told, Chad had no fear of Sergeant Cooper. In fact, Chad was not overly concerned if he was banished from the organisation for that matter. He loved the life and power that came with being an agent, of course, but he hated taking orders. Part of him wanted to be his own man and forge a destiny for himself, but he also appreciated what Professor Milton had done for him, and also the opportunities his job presented to him to travel the world. He had fallen deeply in love with Stacey over the course of their two years together, and he knew it would hurt her to be stuck in the middle of a feud between himself and her father.
For Stacey’s sake, he kept the peace. She was his world and he was hers. Chad who by nature was impatient and, at times, a short-tempered individual, was completely different around Stacey. She kept him calm, dampened his fears and he felt comfortable and at ease when with her.
Chad was a person who became bored easily. He had a short attention span and would indulge in the most random of activities to keep himself amused. He would volunteer for the most dangerous missions, as he loved the thrill and excitement that came with it. Outside of his job, he would undertake activities that always possessed an element of risk such as skydiving or rock climbing without wearing a harness. Chad never felt alive unless he was doing something big.
When he was around Stacey however things were different. He never felt the need to distract himself from boredom when he was with her. To begin with, their relationship had been very physically oriented. As time had passed though, Chad and Stacey had grown extremely close and were now very much in love. The only person besides themselves that knew of their relationship was James. If you remember, James had spotted the pair together the morning after his and Chad’s graduation. Even if James had not seen them together though, Chad would still have told him about Stacey. They were best friends after all, and besides, the suspense had been killing Chad. He had to tell someone about it!