Elite 2: The Wrong Side of Revolution (25 page)

Blank took a step back. The fury in Daniel’s eyes showed that he believed in what he was saying, but it didn’t add up. “Norma died on the job. Richfield was here.”

Daniel took a deep breath. He didn’t want to believe that Blank was covering, but he had to be sure.

“He sent Titan to do it for him, but he orchestrated the whole thing,” Daniel explained.

“Who told you this?” Blank demanded. “Why the hell would Mister Richfield do a thing like that?”

Daniel cringed at the rising level of Blank’s voice. He hoped Richfield hadn’t noticed from within his office.

“Because he’s the leader of the Birthright,” Daniel stated flatly.

“The Birth…” Blank trailed off as he began to understand what Daniel was suggesting. “Gordon
Demérs
is the leader of the Birthright, Daniel. Not Chuck Richfield.”

Even through his rage, Daniel noticed that Blank had called him by his full name. “A position that he is fighting to take from Richfield. It’s the reason we’re all here—the reason he found you and brought me in.”

Blank shook his head and raised his hand, refusing to believe it. “What? Did Demérs tell you all this?”

“Henry!” Daniel half-shouted. “Think about it. I’m not the first person Richfield has attempted this on. They call themselves the Birthright of the
Elite
. He brought us here to be his soldiers. Think about who we protect.”

Blank looked down at the ground, calculating. Clearly Daniel calling him by his first name—a name very few even knew—had garnered his attention. Slowly, he began to see that the pieces of Daniel’s story fit together.

“Norma was FBI,” Daniel explained. “A special division that fights against the Birthright.”

Blank looked back up at Daniel, and for the first time ever, Daniel saw fear in his eyes.

“That
would
explain all the secret meetings with Titan,” he admitted.

Daniel gave a satisfied nod and placed his hand on Blank’s shoulder. “You should get out of here.” He then pushed his way past Blank and continued on to Richfield’s office.

“Where are you going, Daniel?” Concern now filled Blank’s voice.

Daniel turned and walked backward for a couple steps, throwing his arms out to his side. “I’m defending my country.”

Blank stood still and watched as Daniel finished his march on Richfield’s office. An instinctual part of him wanted to defend the man he had dedicated the last three years of his life to, but the logical part of him knew that even if he wanted to, nothing was going to stop Daniel anymore.

Daniel stormed into Richfield’s office uninvited and immediately closed the door behind him. He waited for Richfield to look up from his computer screen and meet his eyes. Daniel was wearing his every thought and emotion on his face. Richfield being as savvy as he was, didn’t need Daniel to speak to know what he was thinking.

“So,” Richfield began, “what did Demérs tell you?”

Daniel chewed on his response a moment, deciding where to begin. He often disliked when the characters in movies wasted time talking to one another rather than just killing their enemy, but Daniel felt that before he ended Richfield he needed some form of closure.

“Well,” Daniel spoke, “After shooting him six times and watching all six bullets bounce right off his skin, he asked me to join him on his throne.”

Richfield’s lip curled in disgust. “It seems he’s more powerful than I anticipated. But I was more interested in anything he may have told you about Elite.”

“Well there wasn’t too much he—and the good doctor FYI—could say before the FBI arrived,” Daniel countered.

Richfield licked his teeth and grinned, staring down at the floor. “So Harvell is the one you talked to.”

“Wait,” Daniel interjected, noticing Richfield’s lack of a reaction to finding out that Horchoff was with Demérs. “You knew about Doctor Horchoff?”

Richfield’s face scrunched up, almost insulted. “Of course I knew. If Demérs actually believed that changing his name would keep me from finding out who his father was, he’s not as intelligent as I gave him credit for.”

“But they were using you…”

“Who cares?” Richfield shrugged off the comment as if it were no coincidence. “I had what I wanted. I figured I’d have Horchoff use my resources to complete his little science project, then once he went running back to Demérs with his knowledge on how to duplicate the process I’d have you kill them both before they could kill you.”

Daniel stopped talking and continued to keep his gaze firmly on Richfield. Whatever his plan was for dealing with Horchoff and Demérs it had now failed, and though Daniel was still alive, Demérs was out there with the capability to create more like him, and Richfield was about to be killed by his own creation.

Richfield returned Daniel’s gaze. They appeared to be in a standoff for who would speak next.

Daniel had no qualms about losing the silent battle. “You had Norma killed.”

Richfield tilted his head to the side. Daniel noticed his hand sliding slowly toward his desk drawer.

“Don’t move!” Daniel shouted, pulling his gun from behind his back and pointing it at Richfield. “I may not be a great shot but I’m good enough. Hands on the desk.”

Richfield lifted his hands in the air and slowly placed them on top of his desk. At this point it was clear that anymore lies and deception would do him no good. Daniel had made up his mind on who to believe.

“She was going to ruin everything.” Richfield’s tone had now become dark and threatening.

“It looks like you’ve done a good enough job of that without her,” Daniel retorted.

Richfield snarled. “You don’t understand how great you are. I was going to restore this country to its natural form of government—the way God intended. You…” Richfield gestured toward the rest of the complex, “you were to be our knights. You would lead us to salvation and watch over our kingdoms. And
you
were to be the greatest of them all Daniel. You were to be my Lancelot.”

Tears began to fill Daniel’s eyes. He couldn’t believe he had been so stupid as to blindly follow the words of the leader of some twisted cult.

“We are
NOT
your army!”

Richfield threw his head back and to the side, his eyes rolling back into his head. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed Daniel, but these types of wars are no longer won by armies. They’re one by specialized individuals who can carry out specialized attacks.

“They are won…by who has the greatest technology and the most revolutionary thinkers on their side. Don’t you see? This is what the revolution has been waiting for since the beginning—A time when numbers alone will not win you a war! We can rule simply because we are
better—
because we are the
Elite!
”

Daniel’s hands began to shake with anger but he quickly went back into his mind and literally calmed his nerves. He would no longer have any qualms about killing this man. He was a cancer upon this Earth.

“You are insane,” Daniel managed to say softly.

“No, Gordon Demérs is insane,” Richfield countered. “He wants to rule over the entire continent himself—make it all one big kingdom where everyone bows to him.”

“But not you?” Daniel inquired.

“Of course not. The country—and then continent—will need to be divided into separate kingdoms, each ruled over by separate divine members of the Birthright. Then with the leadership of my knights, our united armies can work together to defend and expand our kingdoms.”

“And that seems sane to you?” Daniel asked sardonically. “You don’t see any flaws or problems with that at all?”

“Well sure, there would occasionally be territory disputes and fighting amongst ourselves, but that’s only natural…”

“You know what, fuck it!” Daniel blurted, cutting off Richfield. “Stand up!”

Daniel moved over to Richfield’s desk so fast that Richfield hadn’t had time to respond. Daniel stepped around the desk and grabbed Richfield by his collar, pulling him up and out of his chair by force. He then reared back with his right fist, and slammed it into the left side of Richfield’s face. It was the first time Daniel had ever used his control over his muscles to limit the amount of power behind a punch. Rather than be immediately rendered unconscious, Daniel wanted his deranged opponent to feel his knuckles slamming into his cheek bone.

The punch knocked Richfield onto the floor, where he spit out blood and a couple of teeth. “I always knew you were strong, but damn!”

Daniel bent down and picked Richfield back up off the floor. He stared at him with a hatred he had never felt before. Before now he had never been angrier than the day Norma had been killed. He was now staring into the face of the man responsible for her death.

As he stared down Richfield who continued to spit blood onto the ground beside him, Daniel noticed a panel of ceiling out of place near the back corner of the room. Beyond the panel Daniel could see a series of pipes running across the ceiling. One of the pipes had a label on it that indicated that it was a gas line.

Daniel grinned, now realizing the meaning behind Eva’s special gift from the parking lot. He turned his attention back to Richfield and tilted his head. Slowly, he lowered Richfield so that the weight of his body was being entirely supported by his feet, though Daniel maintained the grip on his collar.

Daniel then lifted his right foot, and thrust it into Richfield’s left knee, completely shattering his patella and hyperextending his knee at the joint, rendering it completely useless. Richfield cried out in agonizing pain, and Daniel felt his victim’s weight shift as he held him upright.

Daniel then repeated the process on Richfield’s right knee. Richfield again cried out in pain as Daniel removed his grip on the man’s collar and let him collapse onto the floor.

“Are you going to kill me or not?” Richfield managed to grunt through the pain.

“No,” Daniel replied calmly. He pulled out the lighter than Eva had given him and ignited it, placing it on the top of a filing cabinet that sat just underneath the gas line. “Even though you hired me to kill, I’m just not cut out to be an assassin. I have no desire to be.”

He then stepped over Richfield and moved to the door. “But that being said, in your case I’d be more than willing to arrange a circumstance in which you can’t prevent yourself from dying.” He chuckled. “I guess I finally understand what Doctor Evil was getting at.”

Daniel opened the door and pulled out his gun, taking aim at the gas pipe in the ceiling. He lined up his sights and fired, hitting the pipe dead on. The sound of leaking air began coming from the pipe.

“All hail the king,” Daniel said before stepping out of the door and closing it behind him.

Daniel quickly made his way to the catwalk so that he could exit the building before things got out of hand. Blank was still standing right where he left him. His face was pale.

Below Daniel saw a group of agents running around, confused by what was happening. Charlie was trying to talk them all into leaving the building, but after hearing the gunshot their attention had been diverted. Daniel looked up to see Titan flying over the top of the staircase.

“What happened?” He yelled as he charged in Daniel’s direction.

“You might want to go check on your boss,” Daniel responded, moving onto the catwalk and out of the way of the barreling behemoth. Titan flew past him and into Richfield’s office.

“Boss!” Titan yelled from the office once he discovered Richfield wounded on the floor inside.

Daniel began running across the catwalk until he got to Blank. “We have to go now.”

“What did you do, Danny?”

BOOM!

Suddenly an explosion went off from inside Richfield’s office. A ball of flame surged outward, tearing down the nearby walls and shattering the windows.

“Right,” Blank said, turning and heading for the elevator.

The fire began to spread quickly across the upper level of the complex. As they reached the elevator more explosions began to sound from behind them, fueled by the crippled gas line.

The elevator car was still at the top floor from when Daniel had ridden it up. As they stepped in they could hear the supports from the catwalk giving way under the intense heat of the flames. As the door slid shut Daniel turned to see the walkway on the other side of the complex collapse, bringing down the crossing catwalk with it. This was followed by another explosion, the heat wave of which made its way into the elevator. Daniel lifted his hands to shield his face and took a couple steps backward.

Once the doors were completely closed it didn’t take long for the car to reach the first floor, but all Daniel could think about was the fact that you were never supposed to use an elevator during a fire.

As soon as the doors were halfway open Blank and Daniel shot out of the elevator and made a B-line for the door. Blank lead the way and threw the front door open as they ran out into the cold air on the street. As they reached the bottom of the front steps, Blank turned around to witness the smoke rising from the center and rear sections of the building, holding onto his hat so that it wouldn’t blow away in the wind.