Two Steps From Hell

Chapter 6: Public Enemy

"No. I'm not a part of this. Whatever you think this is it's not happening. I will clear my name and I will get my life back."

"They won't allow it."

"You think I'm afraid of them, a bunch of cowards hiding behind lies and proxy soldiers. Well, I'm not."

"You should be. Detective Essen---do you mind me calling you Essen? I'm getting annoyingly tired of the formalities."

"Call me whatever you want, Kid."

"Right then. Essen, I urge you to reconsider your position. Leaving the sanctuary of this place is a very bad idea. It's suicide."

"While doing nothing and staying down here is a waste of time. I would rather take my chances up there."

"You need to listen to what I'm saying. The Family has influence all over: in our courts; the government; even the BCPD. Not to mention they have a battalion of assassins at their disposal. If you go up there, they will hunt you down like a rabid animal and gut you."

"Why is that so, huh? I haven't done these people anything. Why are they targeting me like this?"

"My uncle, he was deep in their cult back in the days. He like Antonio knew a lot of sensitive information that could be used against them. It is quite possible that he passed on this information to you." 

"Kid, you know that that didn't happen."

"Yes, but they don't. To them, you're now an irresistible itch that they can't allow to go unscratched. I would be in the same boat as you, but I doubt they even know I exist. Unlike you, I've managed to keep myself hidden."

"I can't just do nothing. Probably it is them who I should seek out and not the Captain. Linking them to Judas' and Antonio's murder with sufficient evidence may clear my name."

"That's a terrible plan. It won't work."

"You said I'm an itch to them. Well give me a way to find them and I'll be a pain in their arses. Win-win for both of us."

"I want no part of this."

"Names; I need names, Kid. Or do you prefer me to beat it out of you?" Essen asked while slapping his fist into his other hand.

"I don't know any of their names," Ezra insisted by folding his arms. 

Essen towering his ripped body over Ezra, walked him into a corner. "You know too much to not know who these people are. Might I remind you that I was in the army?" 

"Okay! Just give me some space to breathe. Gosh," Ezra relieved as he got himself around Essen and out of the belittling corner. "You know, Essen. You're nothing like what I had expected. You're worse."

"Stop irritating me, kid and give me the names already!"

"Singular," he corrected while jumping into his chair and pushing himself around the monitor. "I'm only aware of one person who is currently a member of The Family. In fact their newest member...Victor Gable." 

"Victor Gable as in Gable Finances...as in Gable Tower?"

"His company has been funding CERN and its research for years. The Dai Lee are his main security force working at his company's Hong Kong branch. The two assassins that attacked us at Antonio's warehouse were Dai Lee," Ezra explained, bringing up images on the screen of Victor and the Dai Lee security force in Hong Kong.

"That dried up, withered old bastard," Essen said, walking away from Ezra. 

"Wait. I urge you to reconsider what you're about to do. Every cop in the city is looking for you right now and you're still nursing gunshot wounds. I cannot emphasize how much you need to stay here where it is safe. We will have plenty of time to clear your name once we've stopped CERN in the proper and right way."

Essen without a smile on his face stubbornly pushed his painfully sore right arm through the right sleeve and his left arm through the left sleeve of his brown leather jacket that he found on a chair. "I have to do this. Now, how do I get back to the surface from this place?" 

Ezra pursed his lips, then sighed. "The elevator is around the corner, second door to your right. It will bring you to the street." 

"Woah, that's it? No resistance or anything," Essen said with a shallow grin. 

"What? You want a way out, so I'm giving it to you. I see now that there is no point in convincing you otherwise."

"Somehow I feel like this is a trap. Why are you really helping me now?" 

"I can assure you that this is not a trap. It is your life and most certainly you will lose it on your crazy venture to confront The Family. So I am helping me," Ezra fake smiled after saying this.

"I love you too, kid." 

Essen then following his instruction, walked around the corner and found the elevator. It was already open and waiting for him to board. Essen slowly walked into the elevator out of caution. It closed unexpectedly on his entry and started to move upward. Within a minute and a half, the elevator reached the surface and opened into a dark deserted alley. The door of the elevator was beautifully fashioned into a brick wall of a rundown building. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, the outer door closed and took on the features of the brick wall. Essen was lost for words when he saw this. However, out of nowhere, a woman screamed and it quickly drew his attention.

It was a mugger dragging a woman from off the road and into the poorly lit alley. Judging from where they had entered the alley, Essen was somewhere in the middle. The mugger placed his hand over the woman's mouth to prevent her from screaming again. Then as he backed up with her further into the alley, his mouth began to drool as he unbuttoned her blouse. But he was totally unaware that Essen was standing behind him. 

"That's enough," Essen boldly declared, raising his chin. In retrospect, his sudden appearance frightened both the mugger and the woman. 

The mugger pushing the woman into some trash cans, then cowardly pulled out a pocket knife and pointed it at Essen. "What, you think I'm scared of you...old man?" The young man bragged while using his other hand to keep his jeans from falling to the ground.

Without much effort, Essen headbutted the young man to the ground before he knew it; breaking his nose in the process. The mugger quickly touched under his nostrils and realized that there was blood. Wiping it with the back of his hand, he weepingly yelled, "You're crazy, old man!" He soon after ran away like a dog with its tail between its legs.

"Are you okay?" Essen asked, turning his attention on the woman who was on the wet ground among the garbage the mugger had thrown her in. He reached out to help her up, but the woman looked at him with total horror. More so than how she looked when the mugger was trying to drag her into the alley. 

"Please don't hurt me!" She shrieked.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm only trying to---" But before he could finish his sentence, the woman pushed him aside and made a run for it back onto the street. 

"You're welcome, lady!" Essen exclaimed after seeing the ungrateful, unusual behaviour of the woman. 

Brushing off his pants, he made it onto the street and began to walk in the opposite direction to which the woman ran. On walking, he came upon some flat-screen displays of news reruns. It had no sound. A couple of passersby had gathered at the displays to watch. So Essen went to join in. Then without any warning, his picture appeared on the screens with the same news broadcast saying that he was wanted for the murder of Antonio Versalez. The whole weight of the world suddenly came crashing down on his shoulders right there and then. His pupils dilated and sweat ran down his neck. He looked from left to right to see if anyone was looking at him, but everyone seemed glued to the screens. Still not satisfied, he reached for the hood of his brown leather jacket and pulled it over his head, stretching it down as far as possible for it to cover his brow. He then walked away in a hurry, putting some comfortable distance between him and the screens that were displaying his face.

As he hurried up the street with his head tilted down, he couldn't help but feel the eyes of his fellow pedestrians piercing through his hood, trying to see who was underneath it. Sweat and guilt washed his face. Yet his anxiety level spiked the moment a police drone flew over his head. Paranoia had taken root. Lucky for him though the drone was just making its routine patrol along this road and subsequently turned onto another road; going about its merry way. Truly though, more and more people were staring at him. Maybe they were a little concerned for him or maybe just maybe they had seen the news and knew who he was. Random people then began to gather around him to pass their remarks:

"Sir, are you okay?"

"Dude, you don't look too good..."

"Someone quickly, get him some water. He's going to pass out..."

"Wait I know him..."

But Essen threw his hands up in the air and ran from them, down into a subway station. He found a secluded column and braced his back against it. He faced the railway tracks and genuinely tried to get a hold of his unusual breathing. But for some weird reason he instinctively looked up and there, he found an active surveillance camera looking back at him. Looking to his left now, he saw another camera. One more was just above the stairway and would have seen him on his entry. He began to wheeze. 

It didn't take too long for him to realize that he was most certainly being watched; as all the public surveillance cameras in the city were connected to the Police Department's mainframe. A Chinese woman in a tiny black leather jacket soon walked down the rusty metal-rimmed stairway. She tried to conceal a handgun she had sloppily tucked away in her jacket, but Essen had already noticed it; that and a distinctive beauty mark she had at the corner of her right eye. The purple assassin, who was responsible for his injuries, had that exact beauty mark at the corner of her right eye as he could recall. He was without doubt about this and quickly made the connection that she was indeed the woman behind the mask. 

After remembering how the last time he faced this woman he ended up in a coma for two days, he felt that it was best to remain hidden behind the column. But this would soon prove to be riskier when he suddenly heard the sound of heals steadily pounding on the tiled floor, getting closer and closer to him. Then conveniently a train pulled up and opened one of its doors right in front him to let out its passengers. Essen quick-wittedly made use of the opportunity and ran straight into the train, boring his way through the out-going passengers. The woman spotted him and also followed. However, when she went into the train, Essen did the opposite through another door and ran towards the stairway. The woman after realizing that she had been swindled, aggressively began to push people out of her way as she tried to make her way back out of the train. 

Essen now reaching back onto the street, saw a yellow taxi letting off a passenger. He ran into it and closed the door. 

"Where to?" The Middle Eastern taxi driver pleasantly greeted.

"Anywhere but here!" Essen shouted hysterically. So the taxi drove off.

The woman a bit too late, observed him in the back seat of the car before it turned around a corner. She blew heavily from her nostrils. Then to her benefit, a biker pulled up his motorcycle right beside her.

At the same time, Essen looking back through the rear window of the taxi saw no trace of the woman. He released a breath of relief and leaned back in the seat. At that point, police cars began to pop up from every angle blazing at the taxi with their sirens on. This caused a big commotion in the city as people ran into shops for cover. Captain Briggs was leading the chase. 

"This is the Captain of the BCPD! I'm ordering you to pull over your vehicle to the side of the road!" The police Captain instructed through a megaphone he had while hanging out of his car. 

"Why are the police chasing us?" The clueless taxi driver asked.

"Just keep driving!" Essen replied, looking back to count the number of police cars that were following them. It was thirteen in all. 

"Last warning! Pull over your vehicle to the side of the road!" The Captain commanded again. 

"That's it, I'm pulling over," the driver flinched, getting ready to pull over.

But Essen grabbed the wheel for himself and reiterated, "I said to keep driving!" 

The two then struggled for control over the vehicle, causing it to swerve from one lane to the next. Finally, a police car speeding up to them slammed hard into their rear. This tipped the car just enough for them to fully lose control of it. The car shortly went off the road and onto a private property where it crashed into the wall of a building under construction. It was an unfinished port facility located right at the edge of one of the city's many water canals. The two survived the crash but soon they realized that the police cars had them surrounded. All the police officers were already aiming at them from behind their cars. 

"It's over, Essen! Now get out of the car with your hands in the air!" Captain Briggs instructed with his finger tentatively on the trigger. 

"I'm innocent, Captain!" Essen cried out. 

"I said to get out of the car!" The Captain replied, yelling harshly at him.

Essen pressed his eyes together and literal tears ran out. What did I do to deserve this, he wondered to himself. His stitches were most definitely ruptured at this point. The agony in his face confirmed this. Seeing that there was no other way out, he humbly decided to surrender. He and the driver stepped out of the car. But before Essen could properly plant his feet, a trigger-happy officer fired his g*n and accidentally shot the driver in the side of his face, killing the innocent man. This then sparked a chain reaction. Soon every police officer began to fire their guns at the taxi car out of reflex. Essen dodging as best as he could manage to escape into the building.

"Stop firing you, idiots!" The irritated captain barked. He then slammed his car door and began to walk towards the building alone. "Wait here. I will get him myself," he ordered. He was older than Essen and a little on the obese side which to his advantage, made him look taller and superimposing.

Meanwhile, Essen found refuge up in a half-finished room; half-finished in the sense that the walls had just started to be painted and the window frames were sealed off by plastic. After holding his stomach for the longest while, he moved his jacket apart and lifted his undershirt. To his distaste, his white bandages had turned red. He subsequently pulled down his shirt back, in the realization that there was nothing he could do about them at this time. He must first lose the officers that were on his tail. Sadly, on turning around to exit the room, he was pistol-whipped by the assassin woman and his head hit the wall.

Thereafter he woke up with both his hands cuffed to the handle of a wooden chair in which he found himself sitting. He was still in the same unfinished room, bleeding from his hairline where he had hit his head against the wall. He saw his captain standing in front of him with the woman not too far behind, leaning against the empty door frame.

At her sight, he vigorously tried to free his hand from the chair. "What is this, Captain? What is she doing here?" 

"Where is the flash drive?" Captain Briggs replied.

"What flash drive?!"

"The flash drive Antonio stole. Where is it?!"

"I'm sorry, but I honestly don't have a clue of what you're talking about." 

"You don't know what I'm talking about? Okay, maybe I need to drag your memory a little," the Captain then pulled out a taser and began walking up to him. "I didn't want it to come to this, Essen."

"Wait, what are you going to do with that? Captain, what are you going to with that?!"

"Hush up, Essen. This will hurt me more than it will hurt you. I just want you to know that," he said, tearing open his shirt. 

"Look, I'm guilty okay. You have me handcuffed. I surrender. So why don't you bring me in!" Essen demanded, secretly fearing what the Captain was about to do next.

However, just as he feared, the Captain used the taser to send paralytic jolts of electricity through his body, moving it up his belly. "Why didn't you just drop the case as I'd instructed, Essen?" He said, jamming the taser into his bandage and turning a little knob on it to dramatically increase the current penetrating him there. "It would have been so much better for both of us if you had," he continued while Essen wailed and gnashed his teeth in great anguish. Saliva flowed excessively from his mouth; so did tears of blood from his eyes. "Oh, what needless pain you bear now," the Captain finished saying with an almost genuine sorrowful face. 

After ten minutes, the Captain stopped. "Now, tell us where you've hidden the flash drive?" 

Still breathing and sweating heavily, Essen came to a shocking revelation. He remembered the flash drive that Ezra had with him; the one with the video recording exposing CERN; the same one Antonio died protecting. "It all makes sense now," he stated, finding the strength to laugh just a little. "You're working for them...The Family. They are your masters and you answer to them. Don't you?"

"Everyone answers to The Family. They just don't know it yet," Captain Briggs unequivocally replied, holding his head high.

"The question is why would The Family, a club of super billionaires and smart asses need you? God knows you're just as broke and stupid as I am. My guess is that your only purpose is to cover their tracks so that word doesn't get out about the Illuminati running the world. Your job is to clean up the mess once she's finished. Am I right, Captain?" Essen asked with a burning glare of resentment in his eyes.

"Bravo, Essen," the Captain slow clapped. "You're quite the detective. And yes, you are right...for the most part that is. They are not the 'Illuminati'. No. They are much worse. I live to serve The Family."

"Coward."

"Perhaps. But tell me, Essen. How do you think this ends for you now that you've revealed all this to me?" A malicious grin then tore its way across the Captain's face. 

"Not dead," Essen affirmed with soul and conviction, immediately getting up with the chair and turning around with it to hit the taser out of the Captain's hand with its foot. He then violently threw himself back to the ground, breaking up the wooden chair into fragments on his impact with the concrete floor. His hands were freed. Then grabbing Captain Briggs by his neck, he used him as a human shield against the woman who had just drawn for her g*n. "Uh-uh-uh," he cautioned her. 

"I should have finished you the last time we met," the woman reflected with sore bitterness. "My mistake..." 

"Wait!" The Captain yelled after seeing her getting ready to fire. 

But this didn't stop her from shooting. Every bullet she fired ended up in the Captain's body. Soon he was dead.

Essen seeing that she meant business didn't waste any time and pushed the Captain's bullet-riddled corpse into her way. He then ran and jumped towards one of the plastic sealed windows, bursting through its plastic and seemingly falling to his death in the water canal that ran close to the building. The assassin quickly went to see if she could still get a hit on him, but there was no sign of him in the roaring water below.