48. Bar None
Bar None
“Had enough!?” Spider shouted from behind the pillar. I moved towards the bar as he fired off a few rounds for cover and crouched behind a stool. I could see Belle approaching from the other side of the suite, cautiously, her weapon trained on the last of Amir’s henchmen.
“Lay down your weapon and come out with your hands up! I promise we won’t shoot,” I pleaded with him.
“You take me for a fool?” He quipped. “I need guarantees. Protection.”
“I guarantee I’ll throw you out the window if you don’t toss your weapon over,” Spider said.
“That is not very nice.”
“Well, you did shoot at me,” Spider replied.
“Your boss is gone. Our guys outside probably already have in handcuffs. Don’t throw your life away for someone who—,” I said, when a gun landed by me.
“I don’t give a shit about Amir. And I’m not about to die for him. I’m coming out,” he said and sprang out from behind the bar.
“Hands! Let me see your hands,” I said to him, rounding the bar.
He was wounded in the shoulder. A scratch, but he could barely lift his left hand.
There was shattered glass everywhere and liquor spilling out behind him onto the floor.
When he was close enough, I grabbed his good arm and pulled him towards the bar’s end.
I quickly restrained him by tying his hands to the bar handle using zip ties.
“We swept the other rooms. They’re empty. Any word from Saint?” Widow said.
“Nothing yet. He’s been off coms for several minutes,” Belle replied.
“And the drive?”
“Not here,” Belle said. She grabbed an empty bottle of gin sitting on a mantle and smashed it against the tv. “It slipped past us once more. And now the drive is God knows where.”
I watched as Belle lost her composure. I had never seen her act this way before.
This case was getting to her. To all of us.
Spider stared blankly at our prisoner. And widow was busy burying her head in a bag filled with switches and cables and all manner of devices.
The rest of the team was equally demoralized.
Except, Jerry. His optimism continued to shine like a beacon from a lighthouse.
“So that’s it? We’re just going to pack our things and head back home? You can’t be serious. The drive is still out there. Right now. And it can’t be that far. We need to pursue it,” Jerry said, passionately.
“And go where, exactly? We had limited intel to find this location. That was difficult enough. It’s over. He got away with the drive and Saint might be dead or wounded,” Belle said, taking out her phone.
“Or hostage,” Widow said, reloading her weapon. I turned my attention to our prisoner.
“He might know. Well?” I said, tapping his leg.
“What?” He replied.
“Where’s your boss? Where did Amir go?”
“How should I know? I’m tied to the bar.”
“Well, then he’s useless to us,” Spider said, placing his gun’s barrel to his head.
“Wait! Wait! Stop! You can’t do this. This is illegal,” he replied, exasperatedly. He began to breathe heavily and his pupils dilated wider than a cats.
“We aren’t local police. In fact, we were never here. This is a CIA operation, and you, expendable,” Spider replied.
“CIA!? Wait! I can help!”
“He’s lying. Trying to buy time,” Widow said as she approached. “Just get on with it. Put a bullet in him and let’s go.”
“You heard her,” Belle said.
“No! I know where he is! I promise. Please,” the man begged.
“Wait a second. Let him finish,” Jerry said, pushing pass Belle and Widow.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Theo! My name’s Theo. I am French. A native.
Not like Amir and his men. They all came from Algeria and Morocco,” Theo said.
He looked like a dog dying of thirst. His lips were chapped ad his breathing worsened with the gun pressed to his head.
“There is a boat in a pier not far from here. The exchange was to take place there. Yes! It’s called Hercule. ”
“Really? That’s the main port in the city. Quite bold to hold any negotiations there,” Belle said. “The port is swarming with armed guards. Not too mention the extra security brought in for the F1 race.”
“Bold? Amir’s shadow is long. And his money is longer still,” Theo replied.
“That may be, but how do we know you’re telling the truth,” I said.
“You don’t. You’ll have to trust me. But I can tell you what this device looked like.
It’s deep red and black with the words APOLLO written on it.
The texture of its body. And what happened when I connected it to that computer,” Theo said, raising his chin to a laptop resting on a table by the smashed TV.
“Come again?! You connected it to the laptop?” Belle said, her voice wavering.
“Yes, yes. But at first it did not work! Amir became very angry with me because Nazim told him I knew everything about computers. But he lied!” Theo said.
He shifted his weight and relaxed his leg.
His hands were still tied to the bar, but he appeared more comfortable.
“I worked in a repair shop for several months. I only physically cleaned the old computers.”
“What happened then?” I said.
“A message appeared. Internet connection needed to open folder,” Theo said. “So, Amir asked me to connect it to the internet. I used the wall connection because the Wi-Fi refused to connect. Seconds later, the laptop turned on and off. Again and again. It became hot and loud. And then you came.”
“Oh, no. Tell me it didn’t,” Belle said, stopping herself short.
She rushed over to the laptop, but stopped suddenly when she noticed it.
A thin ethernet cable stretched past the TV and connected to the laptop’s rear port.
Its color blended with the wall, making it hard to notice at first. “It escaped.”
“What escaped? Amir? Yes, he is at the port,” Theo quipped.
“Not him, you imbecile,” Belle replied, furiously.
She took out the device monitoring spikes in the internet and associated networks.
Traffic was elevated when they arrived; that was no longer the case.
It was on fire. There was so much traffic raging through the network it could barely keep up.
It had spread all over the European continent in a matter of minutes.
“I don’t understand,” Theo said.
“Amir doesn’t know what he stole? He has no idea what he has in his possession, does he?” I said.
“Well, weapons technology. No? Rifles or tanks and such,” Theo replied, looking away.
Belle grabbed the laptop and opened it. The computer was still powered on.
“Your arrival didn’t allow us to see inside the folder.
Nothing was copied or transferred. Amir took it and fled through the window before you entered. ”
“There was something far more dangerous than weapon or vehicle designs inside that drive. And now it’s no longer contained,” I said.
“What is this?” Belle said, peering at the laptop screen. The operating system faded to black and the screen went dark once more. Save for a single green character that flashed at its center; one.