Part 3 Chapter 10
30/11/2018 11:59 (San Francisco Time) Palo Alto Hills, Palo Alto
What a fatal mistake!
Kyle regretted he recklessly entered Andrew’s house five minutes ago. The garden was tranquil, but only hostility existed inside the house.
He thought he had prepared for everything, but currently he knew he would not get anything. In fact, he had no idea if he would survive this ‘lunch’.
There was no way he could have foreseen a gunfight in an African wilderness ensue right after he entered the house. He tried to escape, but the door had been automatically locked. He wanted to call for help, but his cell phone did not receive any signal. Immersed in such an authentic virtual environment, he could not find any windows or exits. He had just managed to avoid a bullet, and taken refuge behind a ‘tree’ with a gun in his hand.
“Seems like you haven’t got used to the VR battlefield,” Andrew, the mastermind behind the plot smirked coyly. Wearing all black, he was hiding behind another tree. “I’m a fair opponent. At least the bullets and the gun I gave you are real.” The specially designed VR hardware that projected this battlefield was still not yet on sale. Users did not have to rely on VR goggles and/or hard disk backpacks to experience its simulated environment.
‘You won’t get any help. Very few people stay in this area at noon. The house is noise-proof, so no one outside can hear what’s going on here.’
Kyle wanted to shoot Andrew, but his opponent was faster. He fired back another round of shots and one of them almost hit his right hand.
You tried to kill me…..I sensed your enmity against me at that time!
‘Who the heck are you? Why are you doing this?’ questioned Kyle angrily. He never thought this harmless-looking young tycoon would have wanted to kill him with his own hand. Andrew’s public profile was too simple for a tech tycoon - After earning a bachelor's degree in computer sciences from Caltech in 2012, he became an intelligence analyst in the NSA, but he resigned in less than a year. A reporter once asked what he did during the two-year gap after his resignation, he just explained that he travelled around the world and wrote the source code for VidChat. He only returned to the US and founded Vid in 2015. And at this age he still did not have any spouse or lover. Currently Kyle knew for sure that the two-year gap was not a gap at all.
Just like Helen, he was Olympus’ operative.
‘Let me show you my gun.” An image of a remodeled silver blue CZ SP-01 Phantom appeared in the middle. Its slider had the pattern of a silver trident on it.
‘You’re…..’ A glimpse of this gun reminded Kyle of a Greek God. He unconsciously trembled with fear.
‘I’m Poseidon.’ Andrew confirmed his guess - his codename was Poseidon. Coldness seethed within his deep azure eyes.
In Greek mythology, after overthrowing their father Cronus’ tyrannic rule,Poseidon and his brothers Zeus and Hades divided the world by drawing lots. It made him the god of the Sea and other waters. He is as capricious as the ocean- Though he is often calm, when he is in rage he triggers storms, chaotic waves and tsunamis that flood the land, and even shakes the earth with earthquakes. He is also vindictive- According to Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus escaped from the cyclops Polyphemus’ capture by blinding him with a wooden stick, but the cyclops was Poseidon’s son. When he prayed for Poseidon to avenge for him, the god was angered and cursed the hero to wander around the sea for more than ten years. In the end, it took Odysseus eighteen years just to return to his home Ithaca, though he had the patronage of the other deities.
‘You’ve anticipated my visit to Palo Alto, so you’ve prepared all these!’
‘Yea, I leaked the intelligence on the virus to you.’
Kyle finally realized this man was a terrible schemer- a month ago he deliberately leaked the virus source via INTERPOL to lure him to his trap. Obviously he had plotted to murder him for a long time, but he still feigned hospitality before the hackathon. He only showed his true colors at this moment. Throughout their meeting he spotted nothing strange about him.
He was a strong, patient, calculating rival. No wonder he was chosen as a core member of Olympus and his codename was named after the great god of ocean.
Kyle attempted to watch his surroundings so he moved out of his cover a bit. Right at this moment his shoulder suffered a hit. He smelled some blood from his wound.
‘At first I really overestimated you as Helen still insisted to marry you in the face of our boss’ wrath, but now I know you’re just a layman,’ teased Poseidon, who was reloading bullets into his gun. It sounded like a note of the Death’s music piece. ‘I have wanted to fight you for a long time. As our boss finally authorized me to take you out, I’ll be the one to send you to meet Jesus. You should feel lucky that I took the job, or you’ll have died without knowing why.’
Based on his words, Kyle deduced Helen must be another core member of Olympus. ‘What’s the meaning of……’Before Kyle finished his question, Poseidon fired another gunshot.
‘She should never choose you as her husband! I don’t understand why she loves you, not me!’Poseidon burst out, and his graceful appearance became twisted out of envy.
Damn! A rival in love! He’ll not let me stay alive! How can I escape?
Kyle tried to keep his cool in the face of death.
The afterglow of sunset dominated the sky of the virtual battlefield as it turned to dusk. He noticed a mini flashlight up there.
This is it! He stopped hiding and swiftly moved forward to shoot at the flashlight.
Sparks erupted when the bullet crushed one of the VR projectors and the connected hard disk into pieces. The African wilderness was gone. Only darkness was left. Projector screens had been installed on most walls, and black window blinds blocked most light from the outside.Still with shimmers of light from the crevices between the windows and the blinds, Kyle could tell he was in an empty house. He also spotted a backdoor beside the open kitchen.
As Poseidon had lost the field advantage, Kyle instinctively knew he would try to end his life quickly. They kept firing many rounds of bullets at each other while running to the other side.It was a miracle that they did not suffer any hit but almost a hundred bullet holes appeared on the adjacent walls and a scorching smell permeated in the air after the intense gunfight.
Both rivals ran out of bullets, so they tossed their guns aside. But Poseidon had already sprinted near Kyle and tried to give him a hammerfist. Luckily Kyle evaded it in time. He then shoved Poseidon on the ground heftily.
He wanted to do a follow-up punch, but Poseidon suddenly clutched his right hand and dragged him down. He then smoothly placed his right forearm across the front of his neck, and his left hand grabbed the wrist and pulled back the forearm, hence driving the forearm into the front of the neck. In the meantime, his both legs firmly locked his waist and thighs in a triangular position - This is the arm bar choke, a classic Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA technique. Poseidon wanted to choke Kyle to his death.
I’m not gonna die here!
Kyle almost lost his breath, but the near death experience awakened his survival.While he attempted to grab Poseidon’s forearm to loosen the choke, he took out a dagger from his jeans’ lower right pocket. While Poseidon was intent on suffocating him, he pierced it into his left forearm.
‘Ahhh!’ Poseidon screamed out loud and let go of him unwillingly.
Kyle seized this golden chance. He swiftly pierced his right thigh and left arm with the other two daggers. He planned to use them in case of danger before visiting Poseidon’s home, but he never thought he had to defend himself with them that soon.
Due to sudden pain, Poseidon could not move and Kyle proceeded to press him down on the ground. As he was heavier and more muscular, Poseidon could not strike back at all.
Blood streams flowed out from their wounds and tainted their clothes. They really smelled bloody.
‘You’d better kill me now!’Poseidon had never experienced such a humiliating defeat. He lost the will to fight back, as he knew too well the fate of an agent captured by an enemy - torture and death.
‘I wanna kill you too, badass!’ Kyle punched his rival’s boyish face hard. His eyes burned with rage. He was very angry at the rival’s well-planned murder plot. ‘But I’m different from murderers like you! I never kill anyone!’ He slapped his face again and shouted, ‘I want you to tell me everything you know. If you don’t say anything, I’ll continue to punch you till you talk!’
Crack!
A bullet had just one through the window bear Kyle. He tried to dodge it when he heard the window crack, but his right arm still received the blow. He then lost his balance and fell on the ground. Poseidon was saved.
‘I can’t believe you’ve got a sniper!’ complained Kyle . Poseidon just looked at him with disdain and sneered. ‘Not my man, but you better run. Hades should be here now. Before becoming one of us, he was the best sniper in SWAT.’
Hades- the king of the underworld?
‘Bastard!’ Kyle was truly frightened. He hastily moved to escape from the backdoor near the open kitchen. He discovered there was a vast swimming pool outside. There was no place for a sniper to conceal himself, but Kyle decided not to stay there as he did not want to face an attack on two fronts. Therefore he rushed to the parking lot facing the forest and climbed the fence to leave the house, despite the risk of getting another hit by the sniper.
He raced downhill on the road, but he heard another noise on his left - a bullet had just hit his left shoulder. Its impact thrust him onto the ground. More blood spilled out.
I don’t want to die here!
He dared not to walk on the open road. With a strong will to survive, he crawled his way into the forest. Although he would have to climb down the slope, the densely grown trees may shelter him from the sniper’s eyesight. Shortly later he barely got up and trudged into the forest.
Still it did not work out. The sniper had already arrived with a solid black Desert Eagle Mark 19 in his right hand. He had put his sniper rifle back into his backpack. With a lean and athletic figure, the tall Caucasian man had a flat top-cut black hair. He appeared to be in his early thirties. Like any assassin, he preferred black outfit. When his grey eagle eyes were fixated on his prey, he just pulled the trigger. The gunshot was aiming at Kyle’s heart…..
Kyle knew he was doomed. He could not escape from this close-distance gunfire. Narcissus, the symbol of Hades, was marked on the slider of the assassin’s handgun.
All of a sudden, another gunfire came. It precisely hit Hades’ bullet and altered its ballistic course, so two bullets just ended up hitting the trunks of two large trees.
Kyle was stunned by such marvelous marksmanship. He turned around to trace its origin - A woman with very beautiful curly brown hair just quietly came to the forest. She was in a black leather jacket, a white tee and light blue skinny jeans. Her rose gold Glock 17 was aimed at Hades.
Her decisive gunshot had saved Kyle from the fate of death.
If this lady joined an international beauty pageant contest, she may get the title ‘ the most beautiful woman in the world’ - A perfect model figure with a refined sweet appearance and a healthy light-tanned skin tone. Her watery black eyes were as sparkling as the starlight. Even without any attractive make-up or sexy outfit, her beauty was way beyond comparison. Though Kyle remained faithful to Helen, he was mesmerized by this beauty who just showed up out of nowhere.
‘Athena’s boy, if you wanna live, then don’t just stand there and stare at me. Come here now,’ she snapped. She never wanted to be any man’s eye candy. Her warning reminded him that he was still in danger. His arms were in great pain.
Hades frowned at her. He apparently knew her well. ‘Aphrodite, you can’t even defend yourself. Now you still wanna save this kid?’
Aphrodite- the goddess of love and beauty in the world of Greek myths. Kyle had already stood by the pretty lady. He noticed some patterns of roses were printed on her handgun, which confirmed she was another Olympus’ core member.
‘I’ve been entrusted with this kid’s life. Hades, I bet you only wanna protect Poseidon so you’ve come alone. Your men mostly operate in Europe, and you never want Poseidon to have any direct contact with them, so that means no one else has returned to the States with you,’ Aphrodite narrated Hades’ plan with a calm smile. ‘I was trained to neutralize your strengths. If you still wanna fight with me, both of us will be losers. If I were you, I’d better leave and take care of Poseidon. That kid has been at the back. He has not had any concrete field experience. ’
That kid with no field experience has almost killed me……Kyle sighed.
‘Fine, I don’t want us to kill ourselves over the unknown,’ Hades compromised. Both operatives placed their guns back to their holsters at the same time. ‘But our boss has already issued the assassination order against him. Poseidon has snatched the job from me, and actually stalled it for some time. When the news of his failure is out, he’ll send in someone else to finish the job. You’ve been protecting your partner, and you’re on a run, so you’re not capable of protecting someone else.’
‘Why does your boss want me dead?’ Kyle tried hard to withstand the pain of his bullet wounds. They had stopped bleeding. ‘How’s Helen?’
‘Because you met someone you weren’t supposed to meet and you’re investigating things you should never have known in the first place,’ retorted Hades sternly, but he still revealed what he knew about Helen. He seemed to have some pity for him ‘She has been identified as a rogue agent. She’s now a suspect of the explosion case in Hong Kong. We’ll go after her soon.’
**
12:45 (San Francisco Time) Poseidon’s house
Poseidon was still unable to move. The left side of his face became swollen after taking in Kyle’s slaps and punches. Traces of blood seeped from the corner of his lips.
Hades may return in 30 minutes. He may not kill Kyle. Someone might take care of it for our boss.
In Olympus, he was one of the best performers in intelligence analysis. Though he felt ashamed about his defeat at the hands of a layman, he still remained cool-headed and analyzed the situation.
Looks like now is the only time to call her…...
With his only voice, he commanded the electronic communications system installed within the wall to dial a French phone number. It was capable of voice recognition
‘Winter’s here.’ A lady answered the call. She sounded tired.
‘But the dolphin still swims in winter.’ Dolphin used to be Poseidon’s codename, while Winter used to be Helen’s in the past. All core members changed their codenames after their organization was renamed as Olympus. Through their secret codes they confirmed each other’s identity. ‘In the safe house?’
‘Yea. No one seemed to have cleaned it for a long time. Too dusty.’ Helen looked sickly pale and skinny. She was hiding in a barely furnished cottage house in Paris suburbs. Her hair had been dyed blonde and made curly. She was in a linen-colored long sleeved tee and a pair of navy blue loose pants. While talking with Poseidon, she was meticulously pasting a fake eyebrow on a latex face mask with a pair of tweezers. She had only managed to find some fake passports, few notebook computers and other gadgets from a safe box inside for later use. Their phone call had been set to be encrypted and untraceable earlier. ‘Are you ok? Sounds like you’re not well.’
Poseidon grew silent. He was trying hard to suppress his pain, but it seemed Helen sensed it. Hence, he decided to reveal part of the truth. ‘I just fought with your fiance. He knows you’re alive, and he’s now searching for you. Actually he traced the origin of the virus I made for you to my house.’
‘Then what did you do to him?’ Gloom was all over Helen’s complexion. She recalled the moment she decided to abandon her lover and fake her death. ‘If he dies, we’re not bros. I’ll come back to to kill you!’ she threatened him.
‘Holy…..That’s your first reaction? I was hurt ! I’m not the one who issued that fucking order. I only took this opportunity to test him. By the way, I actually kept him alive for more than a month!’ Poseidon sobbed pretentiously, acting as if he unwillingly followed his boss’ order.
‘I ‘ve known you for too long, Andrew. I know the true meaning of your little test. You deserve it,’ she snapped back at her long-time colleague. She knew what he was up to. Looks like Kyle really crossed our badass boss’ line. She just dropped her tweezers and rubbed her temples.
Ha! I really didn’t just want to test him. He took my bait and came here to investigate us! And that bastard has stolen you away from me. Of course I want him dead!
Poseidon had been contemplating to murder his rival for some time. He had loved her for many years.
‘He’s a bit injured but still alive. ’Seems like I’ve lost to both of you. I started to get why you chose him,’ He smiled bitterly. Just like Helen, he had received a certain degree of training in deception, so he swiftly pretended to be accommodating, but if another right moment came, he would strike again. ‘You still have a choice, Helen. You should have returned to that bastard’s arms much earlier!’
‘Can I? 301 people died on that day, including the Firm’s men and my man! If I hadn’t gone there just for a stupid live drop, they wouldn’t have been dead!’ Helen had been guilt-ridden since that explosion. ‘Now we still have no clue about who’s behind this. He’ll only be screwed if I get back to him.’
Am I worthy of his love? I’m only a fraudster.
Both in the past and at present, she had committed many unforgivable crimes. This explosion did not just take away lives. It was also a grave omen. The secrets that she had tried hard to conceal would only be laid bare in front of her loved one.
‘You can’t take care of him. They confirmed you’re still alive. The Firm issued an arrest warrant about an hour ago- Their case officers and our operatives can capture you alive, and we’re forbidden from covering you or giving you any assistance. We’ve also received a shoot-to-kill authorization.’ Poseidon warned her as he noticed that time was running out.
‘Thanks a lot. You guys have already done a lot. Our jerky boss would have found out I’m alive sooner or later. It’s a miracle for you guys to have bided a long time for me.’
‘Ha, he must have known you survived much earlier, so he just organized your funeral in LA sloppily and only sent me to attend the one in Hong Kong. He’s our teacher/criminal mastermind. Our tricks look like a child’s play to him.’ Poseidon started to have a headache when he thought of their boss. Soon he would have to explain to him the operation he ran behind his back. ‘In fact what have you found exactly besides taking out the three small fish?’ ‘ Small fish’ is their jargon for the lower-ranking members or informants of a terrorist organization or a hostile intelligence agency.
‘Nothing substantial. That Indonesian entrepreneur only gave me the name of a small company registered in Luxembourg. It seems like a shell company.’ Actually Helen was mining numerous bank accounts on her notebook computer. She had hacked into many French and Luxembourg banks’ computer systems. A list of account holders was being gathered, but she deliberately withheld this intelligence from him.
‘Even our badass boss almost failed to withstand the pressure from the Firm. The situation can change at any moment. Many lives can be at risk if we’re not careful.’ Poseidon reminded her. ‘From now on you’ve got to keep it low. I hope you will dig up useful leads, Athena, but we can’t be in touch anymore. I just hope after everything settles we’ll still meet as partners and good friends.’ He then hung up the phone. It was rare for him to address her as Athena, as she was dear to him, but he felt really troubled at the circumstances: they may be enemies in the future, as their boss might send him to go after her .
He suddenly remembered Athena and Poseidon were always rivals in Greek myths- They once battled for dominion over Athens by trying to win the Athenian’s heart with their gifts.Poseidon thrust his trident into the Acropolis and produced a stream of sea water, while Athena offered the Athenians an olive tree. It was much more useful than Poseidon’s -Olives could be food as well as a source of oil for lamps, cooking and wood, so the Athenians supported her and made her the city’s patron. Poseidon was bitter about it, so he sent a monstrous flood to the Attic Plain in retaliation.
I hope we’ll never be like them…...I really love you.
A light sigh pulled him back into reality. Hades had already stood by him for some time.
He felt the urge to laugh at the sight of his co-worker’s wretched state, but as Poseidon glared at him, he maintained his poker face. ‘The medical team and the cleaning squad will arrive in 10 minutes. You still have to wait.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Forget Athena. We may have to deal with her in the next battle. You can’t let your feelings for her control you.’ Hades deleted the dialing record without a single thought once he peeped at the screen of the electronic communications system.
@writing-and-snark @requiemesque @ill-write-when-im-dead @adie-dee @thingswaitingtobewritten
