Chapter 09: Uninvited

Alexa stared out the window of their location across from WET Headquarters. Her thoughts wandered to Randy, the hapless security guard who’d made the mistake of getting in their way on their first excursion into the building. She hadn’t wanted to take his life, but the alternative was out of the question.

Her teeth worried at her bottom lip as she continued watching the men and women pile inside the large office. So many threats. So many ways this mission could fail. “Penny for your thoughts,” Kasper said, announcing himself behind her.

“It’s a strange thing being hunted. You can never look at the lights; only the darkness between them. Like a living shadow reaching ever closer to pull you in,” she replied, still focused on the comings and goings of the employees below.

“What?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking about Randy, really. I’ve never taken an innocent life before and it haunts me.”

“Really? What about your first mission? The one that started all of this?”

“What about it?” Alexa asked without looking at him. “I killed a mafia boss and his equally as dirty capos. They made life hell where I grew up. I wouldn’t exactly call them innocent.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong but there was a little girl and mother murdered right along with those ‘not-so-innocent’ capos, right?” Kasper asked, his voice raising an octave as he seemingly grew angry at the thought.

“Are you crazy? I would never kill a child.”

“Sure.” Kasper grumbled something under his breath before moving towards the table and his computer. “Frank Delacroix has a penthouse apartment in that building,” Kasper disclosed. “It certainly takes ‘bringing your work home’ to a new level but, it also gives us an opportunity.”

“For?” Alexa asked, her gaze slowly climbing the structure.

“Blackmail.”

“Kasper, these people want us dead. I’m fairly certain that means they are not open to negotiation. And with their money still missing, I don’t think they’d be in the mood for a sit down.”

“Don’t be so sure. The security in that place, and the fact that Delacroix won’t leave the building, led me to believe they are holding something extremely valuable. Something they wouldn’t want the general public gaining knowledge of so I did some digging.” Setting his laptop on the table between them, he waited to gain Alexa’s attention before continuing. 

“January 24, 1995, a nerve gas attack in Bridgeport subway kills 30, injuring dozens of others. The attack was linked to some right wing paramilitary group but, no suspects were ever arrested. Do you remember that?” Alexa looked puzzled as she tried to use her recollection but, Kasper stepped in. “Probably not. That same day OJ Simpson’s trial for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson began…this story was pushed to the second page.”

“How about this: January 21, 1998, 63 killed as terrorist car bomb explodes in Riverview, again no suspects named leaving authorities baffled? No? President William J. Clinton's White House sex scandal rocked the nation!”

“Kasper, where are you going with this?” Alexa asked, stepping closer to view his screen.

“Last one. February 1, 2003, Chinese New Year’s Day parade in Monte Vista ends in tragedy when a drunk driver skips the curb, plunging his vehicle into dozens of onlookers. That same day, Space shuttle Columbia exploded, killing all 7 astronauts on board; the parade accident went unobserved.” Opening up a webpage, Kasper grinned, speaking excitedly as he began piecing the puzzle together for Alexa.

“There are dozens like this, starting as far back as ‘95, assassinations disguised as national tragedies, and all perpetrated by one person…or rather one entity: WET.” The logo to the company was center of Kasper’s screen but even with his enthusiasm, Alexa failed to see the connection. “I found a partial list of names: politicians, philanthropists, judges all killed by seemingly innocuous events spaced out years, and in some cases, decades apart so no one thought to look twice. But when that list just happens to have been found on the drives uncovered from WETs internal databases…”

“Oh my god…”

“Yeah. These people they’re…murdering countless of innocent bystanders in their desire to make these other deaths appear accidental.”

“So you want to break into Delacroix’s penthouse apartment in order to what? Recover the remaining names on the list? And then what?”

“Then we blackmail them. Get them to take our names off the list or else we expose them to the world.”

“Kasper, you just got finished telling me these people are ok with mass murder of innocent people in relation to one person they’re targeting. Do you really believe they wouldn’t do the same to two people trying to uncover their deepest darkest secrets? They would stop at nothing to keep this list from seeing the light of day.”

“So…does that mean I can’t count you in on the plan?”

“No. It just means we need to play this close to the vest. Kasper, I can’t let anything happen to you, but I also don’t want you to have to live the rest of your life in the shadows. If this is our only chance for a shot at normalcy, I say we give it a go.” Kasper exhaled noisily and nodded his head. “So what’s this grand plan?

“Well, actually…I was kinda hoping you would have an idea,” he shrugged. “But first, my job, I need to crack a few codes: namely, the service elevator for Frank Delacroix’s penthouse. It wasn’t in any of the shots from Harris, so I figured he either wasn’t privy to the big man’s private place OR he was too smart to get that tatted. Now, if we assume Delacroix is using numbers 0-9 with room for repetition, the number of permutations for a 6-digit combination would be 136,080.”

“No. He…he only used four numbers in his 6-digit combination.”

“And you know this how?”

“I saw the keypad the last time we were there,” she said with a shrug. “So the number of permutations is decreased.”

“Yeah, but it could still be anywhere from 4,000 and up,” he sighed. “It might help if we knew the numbers he used.”

“0-2-3-5; there was wear.”

“It’s a 6-digit code, so a few of those numbers must be repeated. Possible combinations for all 4 numbers in a 6-digit code…4,096. Awesome.”

“Wait. Only the 3 is repeated. 0-2-3-5,” Alexa said, flashing to something she remembered as she continued repeating the numbers. “I got it! The code is 03-23-53, March 23, 1953, his date of birth.”

“How do you know his date of birth?”

“I saw it in his Human Resources file. It was part of that list of data you retrieved from their servers.”

“You know sometimes you scare me,” Kasper said with a grin. “Great. Now all we have to do is sneak back inside a building that’s on high alert for break-ins in hopes of finding a smoking gun inside a safe locked inside the most secured office in the building.”

“Piece of cake,” Alexa said with a smile.

“Yeah…right. Just what I was thinking,” Kasper grunted with an eye roll. “Should I even bother with a cover story, or are we going covert ops for this one?”

“I don’t want to risk another innocent person dying. We’re doing this one under the radar.”

“If we can help it,” Kasper added as he stepped out of the room.

They made it across the street, avoiding security cameras wherever possible. Kasper had placed an infrared light in a pair of sunglasses he and Alexa wore. In theory, they would block out their faces if they accidentally were captured on video.

Alexa entered the backdoor first, having picked the lock once they’d navigated the delivery zone. Getting into the elevator and up to the penthouse was relatively easy…maybe a little too easy but, Alexa and Kasper didn’t let that stop them. 

Moving into Delacroix’s room, the duo quickly went to work. While Alexa scoured the apartment in search of safes, having already located two, Kasper busied himself at the man’s laptop, hoping to have better luck than the server room. “DAMMIT!” he shouted, slamming his hands on the keys as Alexa re-entered the living room from the hall.

“You ok?”

“Peachy. There’s another passcode,” Kasper announced as the first entered digits successfully unlocked the computer but he found himself staring at the same pin-code box to open the files folder.

“What?” Alexa gasped in surprise as she peeked over his shoulder.

“There’s another fucking…”

“Shh,” Alexa silenced him. A noise from the outer hallway rattled her. Someone was approaching. And it was only a matter of time before they were standing on top of them. “Hide!”

Kasper rushed for the office, diving beneath the desk, he pulled the rolling chair in to conceal himself. The sound of the office door opening behind him forced his eyes shut tight. Someone was in the room with him and they were getting closer. Kasper held his breath. From his position beneath the counter, he watched as black combat boots slipped soundlessly over the carpeted floor. 

They moved from the coat cabinet after checking through the wood-paneled closet to the only other possible hiding spot: the desk. The boots tiptoed stealthily towards him, creeping past the two leather office chairs and around the top corner of the bureau. The distinct click of a weapon perked his ears and he knew it wouldn’t be long before he was discovered. 

Resigning himself to his fate, Kasper inhaled deeply, closed his hands into fists and prepared himself for the worse. Just then, a loud crash caused his body to tense. The boots also froze on the side of the desk, inches away from where Kasper hid. He watched as they turned, and took a deep breath as they quickly rushed from the room.

Slowly he exhaled, giving himself a moment before flattening himself into a more comfortable position. And as he rested his head against the back of the desk, something caught his eye. There was something taped beneath the bottom of the table. Something its owner was hoping to keep concealed.  

Alexa moved to the other side of the large penthouse, ducking into the master bedroom. A quick scan left her very few options. The closet would make for suitable hiding, but she didn’t want to risk her attackers shooting it up before peering inside. That left only the elegantly decorated queen bed in the center of the room for shelter. Silently, Alexa hurried for the closet, opening the left side and giving the clothes a brief shuffle before pushing herself beneath the bed. 

Two thugs burst through the penthouse doors, scattering in opposite directions. The first man entered the master bedroom. Just as planned, his eyes fell on the tossed closet and he moved forward. Pawing through dresses and suits, he searched quickly for the intruder. He turned at the sound of shuffling. Slowly, he made his way over to the bed, his trigger finger at the ready. A knife-wielding hand suddenly lashed out, cutting one of his Achilles’ tendons. The goon screamed as he fell, his finger pulling back and releasing a wild shot in the air. 

Gun in hand, his partner rushed into the room to check on his fallen friend. He pointed at the bed. The man flipped back the comforter to carefully look beneath. Finding no one there, he glanced up just in time to see Alexa kick him across the face. Hearing the commotion, two more brutes crowded into the room.

Ripping the clothes rod from the closet, Alexa used it as a quarterstaff. Not only did she take down the two blocking her exit, she also drove the pole through the wall, impaling a third in the hallway.

With a key in hand, Kasper moved towards the large landscape painting that was obviously concealing a wall safe. Moving it to the floor, he smiled in triumph as the item he’d secured from beneath the desk unlocked the metal strongbox, revealing the drives he and Alexa had come for.

Kasper inspected the drives, expecting them to be encrypted, but with any luck, easily manageable. He was about to leave when a voice startled him from behind. “I don’t think those belong to you.” Kasper turned with a start towards the door. A man, dressed in a tailored silk suit, stood just inside the room. 

He wasn’t physically built that much Kasper could see but, he seemed to have command over the very sharp, very deadly katana in his hand. He was also blocking the only exit from the room. “Put them down and I promise to make this quick,” he said, turning the blade so that the steel glinted in the muted light, again stealing Kasper’s gaze.

He circled into the room as Kasper made a motion to place the items on the desk. As the man rounded the desk opposite him, Kasper snatched the hardware from the desk and darted from the room.

Still holding the hard drives from the office safe, Kasper rushed through the open kitchen, his assailant close behind. Using the tools at his disposal, he smashed the hired thug in the face with a bag of flour. Confused but, not out, the man tried to quickly clear his eyes of the white cooking powder just as the side of his head was met by a frying pan. “A! I have them,” Kasper shouted as he listened to the sounds of the ongoing scuffle in back. 

He started down the hallway, only to be chased back by Alexa as she dove out of the door of the master bedroom. “Get to work, K. I got this,” she said before charging towards her next target. The man looked up in time to see the lithe brunette tackle into him and both went hurtling through the drywall, landing on the cool bathroom floor. Alexa fell against the tub while the gunman slammed through the glass shower door, shattering it to pieces. Wrapping her hand in a towel, Alexa grabbed a large shard and used it as a knife. Angling it at her attacker, she quickly dashed the shard into his neck. 

Blood spewed like a geyser, covering the walls and porcelain floor as the man landed with a crash. Alexa stepped out of the bathroom and back into the hall but, before she had the chance to catch her breath, another hired thug stood between her and the main hall. He smirked, chancing a look over her shoulder at his downed associate as he withdrew a small caliber pistol from his hip holster.

Alexa didn’t give him the time to pull the trigger as she reacted, wrestling the man for his gun. The fight spilled over into the living room where Kasper was trying desperately to crack the last passcode. Tumbling over the sofa, Kasper snatched away the computer just as Alexa and the hood fell on top of his glass worktop. The metal frame creaked beneath their thrashing bodies as Alexa kicked to free herself of the man’s grasp. 

A lucky knee caught the man in the midsection. He fell back with a winded grunt and Alexa advanced, clobbering his throat with a powerful thrust that had him struggling to breathe. Placing the laptop back to the coffee table, Kasper’s fingers continued their meticulous work. From the corner of his eye, he saw another gunman approaching from the kitchen. “A!” he cried, diving to the floor as a bullet whizzed by, taking out the 60-inch LCD television sitting atop the bureau across from him.

Turning her attention from the man in front of her, she darted across the room, striking the other in the jaw with a superman punch. He fell against the wall but quickly raised his pistol to fire again. Alexa met his hand with a spinning heel kick, knocking the weapon to the ground. He charged for her and she side stepped, diving for the sofa once more.

On the table, the laptop’s progress bar showed Kasper’s endless download nearly complete. Alexa pulled Kasper to a seat and he went back to work. Finally regaining his breath, the thug to her left came forward, knife in hand, she kicked him through the wall. His knife fell to the floor with a clatter and she turned just as the robotic voice of the computer system announced over the speakers ‘File’s done!’

The last attacker rushed for his fallen firearm. The knife from the last goon lay at Kasper’s feet. With an unspoken accord, he leaned down and tossed it towards Alexa. Jumping over the arm of the sofa, she caught the blade with her right hand at the same time the man reached his gun. With all her strength, she plunged the razor-sharp dagger through his skull. He crumpled to the ground as blood oozed down his face, pooling beneath his head. 

Out of breath but, no worse for the wear, Alexa glanced over at Kasper who stood staring at the body at her feet. “Well?” she said, bringing his attention back to present.

“So much for a quiet assault,” he shrugged.

“Kas, the computer?”

“Oh, we got it,” he said, brandishing the thumb drive along with the others he’d uncovered from the office safe.

“Good. Let’s get out of here. There’s no telling how many more…” Alexa’s words caught in her throat as the windows facing the street shattered with a violent explosion that sent her and Kasper soaring through the air.

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