The White Feather- A story of infinite worlds

Eagle's Eyes

Tony, Gabriel and Emma gathered around like a group of children to watch the drone surveillance on General Yusuf's territory. Olivia had expanded the live footage in a hologram over her watch.

“This is going to be the hardest part. We have to get the drone out of the warehouse and launch it into the air by using the army landing strip.” She said, sliding her fingers on the hologram, which moved the drone camera around.

“Have you hacked the security cameras to play a loop?” Tony asked.

“Yes, thanks to the drone’s antenna, I now have access to all the security protocols. I’ve already played a uniquely designed loop for every camera in the area surrounding the drone reserve. We are in the safe zone, I think.” Olivia said.

“Do you think we….” Gabriel was asking but Tony cut him in middle.

“No Gabriel, we can’t access information from the server room. We do have a backdoor for every technology of this decade, but human mind is a force to be reckoned with. They WILL know that we have breached the system, and if there is someone smart enough on the team, they will lock us out. In the worst case scenario, they might even know our location. We can’t take that risk. The information we got from Jamaila is more than enough.” Tony said and Gabriel shut up.

“Okay, so we use the security protocols to show an anomaly or a fake breach somewhere around the base, far away from the strip, to draw the army's attention. But not so far away that the soldiers from air strip don’t even care to check it out. Get what I’m saying?” Gabriel said.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. No one will notice an unmanned drone flying off when they spot some terrorists trying to get into the base. But when they find out it was a fake, make it look like the system had a glitch and accidentally played an old recording. I mean, the terrorists must have breached the base at some point earlier in time.” Tony said.

“Roger that, sir.” Olivia said and opened up a window on her hologram.

Then, after a few taps and some commands, she saw a file with a red flag. She knew it was the one where there must have been the recording of an attack. She took it and played it on the airplane hanger, which was not far from the drone reserve. In no time, there were alarms blaring all over the place, and the agents saw flashing red lights in the drone reserve too.

“I have successfully locked the hanger’s digital lock, which will buy us some time to get our bird in the air.” Olivia said and tapped on the gate shown on the hologram. The reserve door opened and the drone was in motion.

“s**t, they are marching right over the strip. I can’t stop the drone now, or it will raise suspicion.” She said after some time, struggling to steer the black hawk with just her palm.

“Turn it around. There is some open space behind you where the strip ends. We might just be able to cover enough ground to get it up.” Tony said, recalling his visit.

“It’s too risky. This is our best shot and we can’t just blow it over a chance.” Olivia cried.

“It WILL be blown if you pass the drone through that horde of soldiers. Turn it around, now!” Tony said, tapping Olivia’s shoulder.

No one had a better idea, so Olivia had no choice but to follow Tony’s orders. She slid her finger swiftly over the screen and the drone turned around, screeching and sparking on the tar below its wheels. After that, it was quickly set into motion. The strip looked barely enough, so there was a chance.

“Pull up now…” Gabriel said.

“Not now, it is too early.” Olivia said, more focused now than ever before.

There was a twenty foot brick wall in front of the drone, about a hundred meters away.

“Pull up or it will crash inside the wall!” Tony almost screamed but checked his pitch instantly.

“Not now!” Olivia said, as the distance between the drone and the wall reduced to fifty meters.

After a second, Olivia flicked her hand upwards, launching the drone at an angle equivalent to almost ninety degrees. The speed dropped drastically and the drone seemed to hit brick wall, but it somehow managed to graze right past the bricks.

“Well done guys!” Tony said and jumped up in excitement. The others were equally amazed.

It was like they had launched a rocket in space for the first time. They were greeting each other and shaking hands, and Olivia put the drone in autopilot to join in on the party.

“I’ve set the trajectory for the drone. In about ten minutes, we would be right above the general’s head, and we will be watching his every movement.” Olivia said and smiled proudly.

“That leap of faith deserves a celebration. I have never tried liquor, so Gabriel, go and get the finest bottle of liquor this hotel has.” Tony said and took a chair.

“No guys, we need to be focused for the surveillance.” Olivia said, and Emma nodded her head in affirmation.

“Okay, if you feel that way, I leave the responsibility of carrying out the investigation to you and Emma.” Tony said and grinned.

Olivia looked at him with a plain face and looked away in irritation. Emma on the other hand, wasn’t the stubborn type and was thinking whether she chose the wrong side.

“This is fifteen years old classic Afghani whiskey. This might just be able to get us drunk.” Gabriel said, holding a small bottle in his hand.

“That casing didn’t exist three years ago, so I highly doubt the bottle is that old.” Olivia said and scoffed.

Gabriel looked at his teammates, stupefied. He considered walking back to the front desk and punching the receptionist in the face, but he changed his mind soon after and thought 'f**k it, let’s just get on with it'.

The drone was hovering over the Khalq’s vicinity by the time Tony and Gabriel finished their second peg. They were drinking for the first time, so they didn’t know that alcohol takes time to show its effect. They finally felt dizzy on the fourth glass, and Tony started dancing. His moves were basically random steps, because the agency obviously didn’t teach them to dance. But he wasn’t laughed at, because the other ones didn’t know the first thing about dancing either.

“Get them under control, I need to take some snapshots.” Olivia said, without even caring to look at her stupid teammates.

Emma got up immediately, and sat Tony and Gabriel down on the couch. They were speaking gibberish, and were clearly way past their alcohol tolerance capacities. Emma went to fetch some water for the idiots, but Gabriel clutched her hand with an iron grip, and with one swift pull, she was sitting on his lap.

“Don’t leave me here alone. The world is a dark place and I would be so lost alone.” Gabriel said, with a child’s innocence in his eyes. He slid his fingers through Emma's hair, making her feel weirdly good.

On the other hand, Tony was waving his hands in the air. He had no idea what was going on, and he was just enjoying the moment.

“Come on Olivia, come back to bed now. It’s too late and I think I might need some of that warmth.” He said on an unusual pitch, trying to spot Olivia. But his eyes were swollen shut and he was fighting a losing battle with sleep.

Olivia was frozen for a moment, but she managed to reclaim her focus and zoomed in on the headquarters. At last, Tony’s voice weakened and he dozed off on the couch.

“Wha…what happened? f**k! My head’s about to burst.” Tony said, trying to barely open his swollen eyes.

“I told you not to drink!” Olivia cried, handing him an aspirin.

“Jesus-f*****g-Christ, not so loud. For f**k’s sake, I've got a terrible headache.” Tony said, pressing his hands over his ears.

“Okay, I’m sorry for being so UNPROFESSIONAL!!” Olivia yelled.

“AAHHHH!!” Tony screamed.

Finally, he was given a break to take some aspirin and look at the snapshots taken by the drone. He washed his face and came out from the bathroom. Gabriel was still sound asleep on the couch.

Tony fetched a glass of water and threw the water straight on Gabriel’s face. Gabriel got up screaming and ran around the room.

“Are you crazy? It was boiling hot water for my sore throat.” Emma said, snatching the glass from Tony’s hand. Tony was shocked for a moment, but when he looked at Gabriel falling on the ground after stumbling upon the table, he burst into laughing.

Okay, all practical jokes aside, the photographs taken from the drone proved very useful. The agents now knew the exact number of guards and officers inside the campus, and now they could focus on the points with less security.

“It won’t be as easy as it seems. The Khalqs know that the Americans have drones. I think these weak points are a decoy. Instead, they are the points with most security. Deception is not a very strange element for these people. That’s how they managed to gain power in the first place.” Gabriel said, touching his burning red face.

“He is right, we still need an inside man to give us the complete intel. But now, we have a way to test his loyalty. We can ask him about something we already know, like the position patterns of the guards of the main building. If he gives us the right information, it means we can trust him with the crucial part of our mission.

However, if he tries to make a fool out of us under the cover of that loyalty bullshit, we have no choice but to get rid of him and find another ‘volunteer’.” Tony said.

“Once a liar, always a liar.” Emma said and nodded.

“Exactly, our plan is going clean so far. Now we only have to find a contract killer.” Tony spoke again.

“And how will we do that? We don’t even know any civilians in this city, let alone assassins. And it’s too risky if we ask Jamaila, because then she would get a whiff of our plan. That’s strictly against the policy we agreed upon.” Olivia said.

“Right, so we ask the receptionist. He seems like a man with contacts, and we can stuff his mouth with so much money that he won't be able to speak anything.” Tony said.

“And when we leave, we will have to kill him and take our money back.” Gabriel said.

“Simple and balanced, as all things in this world should be.” Tony said and sighed.

“Hello, my fairy guests. I hear some noises upstairs, is all right?” Ehsaan (the receptionist) said.

“Yeah yeah, that’s perfectly fine. Now we need to talk to you about something. Ehsaan, right?” Tony said, keeping his hand on Ehsaan’s shoulder and taking him towards the store room.

“That is my name. What happen gentleman? I very poor and I have no kids. Please, I want kids before die.” Ehsaan started pleading even before Tony said a word to threaten him. But Tony’s silence was the thing that made Ehsaan all the more paranoid.

Tony and Gabriel almost dragged him inside the store room and locked the door from the inside.

“Please, I very poor and I have no….” He was saying but Tony slapped him.

“Shut the f**k up! I know you're poor and have no kids. If you want to be poor AND dead, keep talking that s**t and waste my time. But if you want to crawl out of poverty and have kids, stop talking that s**t and don’t waste my time.

Now I have a proposition for you, feel free to say no. I need you to give me the whereabouts and cell number of a contract killer. If you don’t know a contract killer, find one. In return, I will give you so much money that this hotel won't be able to give you in a lifetime. If you refuse to help us, there is no need to explain that you’ll die. However, if you choose to help us, you might still die. But I think it’s a chance worth taking.

So, my dear friend Ehsaan, what do you say? Are we partners in arms or are you dead?” Tony said and pressed his hand on Ehsaan’s throat.

“I will be glad to help dear guests.” Ehsaan meowed in a low voice. So Tony let him go, fearing that he might piss his pants if any more amount of pressure was laid upon him.

“Come on, let’s get the poor guy a drink.” Gabriel said, pushing Tony away from his prey.

“Now, can you help us?” Gabriel asked, handing Ehsaan a glass of whiskey.

Ehsaan took the drink with trembling hands, looking at Tony and Gabriel. Tony was sharpening his knife on the wooden table. It had nothing to do with Ehsaan, but fear has its ways of getting to us. Ehsaan couldn't get his eyes off the knife, and the devilish man holding it.

“This no need mention. I live here for many years, many of my close friends kill for pennies. I could meet you with any of them.” Ehsaan said after he gulped the whole glass in one go.

“No! We won’t meet them. We just need to know that how we contact them. We won’t talk to them, and neither will you. This will eliminate any threats to our lives. Do you understand?” Gabriel said, making another peg for the receptionist.

“I…I understand. I will give you phone numbers and address.” Ehsaan said, a little surprised by the sudden change of tone in Gabriel’s voice.

“Okay, I will search numbers and give them in evening. Cool him off until then…” Ehsaan said, still looking at Tony.

“Did you say something to me?” Anthony said, looking in Ehsaan’s deep blue eyes.

Ehsaan didn’t say a word. He just got up and ran away into the bathroom. Tony and Gabriel watched him run and then they climbed the stairs to their meeting room in silence.

As soon as they entered the room, both of them burst into laughter. Their trick, which they had decided to test as a joke, had worked surprisingly well.

“f**k dude! He was scared shitless when I took out the knife. He couldn't even speak!” Tony said as tears rolled out of his eyes.

“I told you that good cop bad cop thing would work…..” Gabriel said and joined in.

“Where did you find that s**t anyway? They don't teach us things like that in training.” Tony said, wiping off the tears from his eyes and coughing. He got up and drank some water.

“I don’t remember dude, it was probably some book somewhere.” Gabriel said and shrugged his shoulders.

“You wanna get another bottle? I don't know about you, but I'm thirsty for some alcohol.” Tony asked and smiled. Gabriel looked at him for a second and thought ‘why not’.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Gabriel said and opened the door.