Rival of Atlantis

XVI

5:46PM

March 25, 2018

Johnson Private Wildlife Sanctuary

A tropical place somewhere on Earth

A PAIR OF EYES LOCKED on a monitor lizard as it stalked a small yellow toad that is lingering on a nearby tree where a bunch of wild vines are clinging their way up in pursuit of phototropism. The toad, not bigger than a thumb nail in size, hopped from a low leaf to another, the leaves trying to withstand its weight. The lizard, that had just stealthily climbed the tree, drew closer and is ready to strike as the pair of eyes watched in fascination to the outcome of the hunting game. The predator opened its mouth and out came a forked tongue in a speed as fast as a lightning bolt that struck nothing but the leaf as the toad jumped up the tree then to another leaf then towards the other and was lost in view.

The lizard, not knowing that he was being silently booed by the observer, made its way down then towards a cluster of bushes entangled with few blades of grasses. Soon, it was lost in view too. The observer's eyes was thrown to a nearby waterfalls which has a basin about a kiddy pool in size and a point of its rim is almost touching the tree where the toad clung away to save dear life.

As the man made its way towards a pavilion surrounded by dense and lush green vegetation of wild bushes and grasses, his eyes panned around to see how much has changed in his paradise, that is a escape from reality, since he went away about two months ago. Every detail was carefully observed from which of the grasses grew since then, what types of bushes withered and almost died to every pebble or rock that may have been moved. Satisfied that his wild getaway did not changed aside from the growth of the vegetation, he strode his way carefully to the pavilion.

His surrounding is his greatest achievement, not counting the long list of the dead that succumbed with the power of his grasp. It is in fact an artificial wild getaway that he designed and everything from the low trees and palms to tiniest weeds have been planted on a rich ground that was made by soil unloaded by trucks in the square lot that measures nearly two hectares. The nearby waterfalls is in fact powered by an electric motor and its walls are made of concrete that was painted with glossy black color to give it an effect like it is volcanic rock. From the waterfall basin, the water runs to a man-made stream which cuts the compound in an almost perfect diagonal and empties to a creek outside the back wall. Wild plants that included Poison Ivy, Pitcher Plant, Venus and Raffles were included in the variety of wildlife and all were shipped from various places around the globe. The animals consist of wild fowls, extinct species of birds, rare butterflies, toads, lizards and non-poisonous snakes. Nothing deadly such as predators and poisonous animals, like scorpions, were thriving in the sanctuary except for the hives of bees that were scattered throughout the place. It is guarded by walls that are painted powder blue on the exterior but is moss green inside. The walls making up the fence reach thirty feet in height while the ceiling is made of wire mesh so as not to allow the escape of the animals. The residence that is located at the heart of the lot is the only part of the walled compound where there is no wire mesh. A railcar running on tracks ferries people from the residence to the guarded gate or vice versa and a ride on it feels like a tour in a miniature forest.

As the man clad in dark jeans, high-cut black leather shoes and unprinted white shirt walked to sit on one of the four rosewood seats surrounding an elongated antique table made of forest wood, he gave the surroundings another look and took a mouthful of fresh air. A red light emitted from the ceiling of mesh wires and he hurriedly moved under the shade of the pavilion before water rained down on the ground. Sprinklers were strategically installed at the wire mesh ceiling that produces artificial rains when the computer mainframe monitoring the weather analyzed that it last rained exactly seven days ago.

As the scent of wet soil and plants invaded the air, the man reached for the wooden box situated at the center of the table. He opened it and picked one of the Cuban-rolled cigars, cut its butt end with a cutter and lit it with an expensive lighter. He puffed the stale smoke that reached the depths of his lungs and it seems to give the circulation of his blood extra thrusts. He looked down at the table again and found few things laid by his secretary earlier when he is still not in the compound. It's time to go down to business.

He reached out to a pile of folders and was about to pull the topmost one when he heard a sound. A covered rail car has just stopped in a distance and out came a woman dressed in fitting business suit and high-heeled leather shoes. The woman is embracing a folder with one hand while the other is holding a black umbrella that sheds off the artificial rain.

"Rain on this place is computed yet comes surprisingly like real weather," the woman said as an act of greeting him when she came near the pavilion.

Fred, short for Frederick, studied the newcomer like it is his first time to see her as she folded the umbrella and leaned it on one of the walls of the circular pavilion. She does not see his secretary too often that resides in one of the rooms of the residence building which is situated in a distance from the pavilion and is halfway along the railroad towards the villa. He in fact knew her very well down to her finest details and measures of the contour curves of her body.

Moon Yin Bishops, his secretary, has a Korean ancestry. She only stands five feet and two inches in a light frame that only weighs a little over than a hundred and twenty five pounds. Like most of her Korean relatives, her hair is black and straight and is cut a good distance from her shoulders. She got a white complexion and the smooth skin shows evidence of the absence of moles or freckles. Her face is almost round if not of the little pointy jaw. She got a prominent nose taken from her American father and a thin and small mouth that was her mother's. She gazes through eyes with shapes borrowed from her Korean heritage through the charcoal black irises that has a glint of seduction at the rim. When she smiles, which is often a lot, her perfect snow white teeth comes on display and it will definitely break any nearby glasses. She got a tight waist that only measures a little over than twenty centimeters but has a pair of healthy round breasts and a pair of meaty buttocks. Overall, the lady is a copy of a Korean doll.

Moon Yin's grandparents migrated to San Diego, California when South Korea was on the brink of economic collapse. They made a living through selling Korean foods and noodles which helped them raised five children in which one was Moon Yin's mother. Her mother, a US citizen by birth, graduated in a business course before she met Moon's father and eventually married him. Her father made a living planting taros and wheat in a farmland that also holds a number of cattle. Moon Yin was taking her college degree in marketing from San Diego State University when her mother was diagnosed with a stage three breast cancer. She was forced to quit schooling after her father sold out all his assets and was beneath a pile of enormous debt. She then jumped from a job to another to help support her mother's medication. She was with a crew of a known casino in Los Angeles when she met Fred.

After tipping him about the techniques of the players around the same poker table with him, Fred sacked a large amount of winnings. He waited until her shift was over then asked why did she tipped him about their techniques. She answered she just feels like helping him win. Impressed with her answer though it is her first time to meet him, he offered Moon Yin a job as his secretary with perks of residing in his residence, handling his paperwork and other tasks.

Not knowing where it will lead her, Moon Yin instantly jumped on the job. Since then, she was trained in paperwork, sent off to various points of the globe and takes care of the two-hectare wildlife sanctuary. One of her tasks includes instructing the maids in the residence or commanding the maintenance crew on which tree is to be cut when it is almost impaling the ceiling of mesh wire or which grove of grasses needs a trim. Aside from these, she is also a personal assistant to Fred. All of these jobs made her the third most powerful individual in the underground shadow group, or so she believed.

On all the tasks and big pay cut she has, she decided to give Fred an extra perk. She double-played as an assistant and his love affair; more like just affair and no love. The affair is what they dubbed as professional pleasure and Moon will not regret it if someday the affair bears them a child or two.

"You looked terrible," Moon Yin slid her light frame on one of the seats across him. She then gave Fred a study.

Frederick Johnson is a tall man with a muscular built. He has a tan skin and stands over six feet in a frame that has zero percent of fat. His irises are black and there is a definite hardness in them that says he had seen it all or more likely, he had killed them all. His hair is black and he crops it often with a clipper so as not to let them grow longer than a couple of millimeters. His face reflects a kind personality which you often see in the churches but there is a different hint on it like it was etched on brown rock. He got bushy eyebrows and a pair of lips always poised for a smile. His ears are proportional to his nearly oval face. Overall, he looks like any of your friendly and innocent neighbor.

But behind his friendly and innocent appearance, the man is a hunter. Aging just two years over thirty, he moved with the agility of a teenager and quickness of a tiger. He was born in Michigan and became an orphan in an institution after his parents died in a car accident along with his only sibling, an older brother. Having nowhere else to go, an orphanage operated by nuns, took him under its wings. He was twelve when he was adopted by a good-looking couple who cannot bear a child. When adopted by the couple that turned out to be rich, he was given with everything they can from techie gadgets to expensive schooling. After two years of being their adopted child, the wife died from a heart failure. It will be some time after the burial when he learned that the male is gay. He was abused every night for two years until he cannot take it anymore and one night, he stabbed the male to death with a pair of scissors. The incident made him learned that you can mutilate a human being by the use of regular tools, as joint after the other and muscles after the other; he chopped his abuser using the scissors. Police found him still mutilating his victim which is nothing more then but a heap of bones and ground meat.

After a hasty investigation, he was sent to a juvenile institution when he failed to defend himself well with the use of a lawyer provided by the state. One day, a company made an extension to the juvenile institution. The Chief Executive Officer saw a lone boy who is not interested in the activities. The boy has a kind and friendly face who also answered his questions with courtesy. He learned from interviewing the facility crew about the boy's case. One night, when he was deeply asleep, men in grey garments and masks came storming the institution. He woke up amid the soft tsub sounds as light from abrupt fires came and went. He saw how his friends were slaughtered to death with a hail of bullets. A pair of men grabbed him from his bed and sedated him to sleep with the use of some d**g in a syringe. He walked up in a well-guarded compound just to learn that the institution was burned down after the m******e.

In the well-guarded compound near a coast wherein a villa is at the heart of an island, he was briefed that he was chosen. Ever since then, private tutors came and went via chopper. He was thought with mathematics, science and major languages of the world. He was sixteen when he met the man he called "Dad" since then.

Dad briefed him of the things and poisoned his young mind for his advantage with each meeting. He was then sent to a school of his choice anywhere around the globe. He was given with bank cards where he can withdraw any amount to buy anything he likes in exchange for excelling in school. Amid his schoolings, he was also sent around the globe to learn martial arts. Jujitsu, Judo, Kick Boxing and Kung Fu are only parts of his arsenal. He was also sent frequently to private camps where he learned knife and melee combats. There he also learned to fire any kind of firearm and has mastered the art of killing at eighteen years old. A little lecture about the use of chemicals to make the murder look natural had been employed too. He was twenty when Dad gave him his first assignment. His task was to kill a Chinese businessman in Beijing and make it look like an accident. He killed the man in a hotel room by injecting an over dosage of epinephrine in his neck which led to hypertension and cardiac arrest. Ever since then, hit list comes with instructions on how their deaths will look like. He had taken care of everything from car accidents, ambushes and sniping jobs. He never failed except at the attempted setup murder in Costa Rica.

"Costa Rica's failure is haunting me like a boogeyman under the bed," Fred pronounced in a learned Texan accent.

Moon Yin laid down the folder on the table, stood, then walked around it. She reached a smooth hand to his face. "You never failed in any hit."

"I did this time," he looked down the curling smoke of his cigar and almost jumped out of his seat when the face of angry Dad materialized from it.

"It will be cleaned it up,"  Moon Yin's voice has this touch of spell that will make anyone feel drowsy.

"I will clean it up," Fred said almost a whisper as if talking to the curling smoke.

"You won't," Moon leaned on the table to get the folder she had in her hand a while ago. She handed it to Fred. "A file from Dad's sources and new instructions."

Fred opened the folder and studied the papers inside. It was a well-laid report of individuals complete with pictures from ID pictures to stolen shots. It contains information about the concerned individuals down to their least important details.

The first pages were Gillian's profile with her two inches by two inches picture at the top right part. The next pages are her pictures taken from different times. She could be seen on a bicycle around at the US capitol, at an exhibit of paintings in China, an archeological digging in Egypt and the last is a pose in her military officers' uniform. Next is Summer's profile. The next pages consist of shots from her days as combat engineer to various researches held under SAR.

"Dad wants this file to be sent to contract killers," she said with careful words so as not to inflict injury in Fred's inflaming ego.

"I guess I am off the grid for now," his words reflected every pain in it.

"You're not. Dad wants you to supervise project Ammia."

A sharp glint came and went from the corners of his eyes. The project is worth more than any hit list. It will define whether millions of lives will perish or not for the next weeks to come.

"I guess I must," Fred's voice has traces of excitement as he laid the folder atop the others. "Who will clean up the job then?"

"Sources say that Miss Santos has a flight booked to the Philippines a little over than two weeks from now. I already made arrangements about her."

Fred stared into nothingness for a moment. Flashes of replay about the Costa Rica operation played before her eyes. She can still see Gillian and Summer fire their own weapons at them. "But Costa Rica's failure will still haunt me," he said after a while.

"Let the haunting of Costa Rica be lost tonight," she uttered seductively as she skipped a leg over Fred and now sat on his lap facing him. Her hands went to the topmost button on her suit and loosened it.

Fred knows what Moon Yin is implying. He looked around the artificial wildlife, still caught in indecision. The rain from the sprinkle is coming to a halt. A maintenance crew might be wandering nearby.

He was about to make Moon Yin stop from what she is doing when a lightning ignited and temporarily lighted the surroundings. The computer mainframe controlling the sprinkler system only detects the last rain and will not likely stop the sprinklers from showering the artificial wildlife if there is a rain or thunderstorm coming.

"I'll guess I am the one who will do the haunting," Fred said as he reached for the cigar cutter and clipped the glowing end of the Cuban stick. 

As Moon Yin unbuttoned her tops all the way down, rain poured through the wire mesh. The raindrops are so big they are about the size of machine g*n ammunition and when it came through the mesh, it produced a curtain of mist. In a distance, the people inside the pavilion are covered by the wall of misty water drops. Anyone who accidentally lingers nearby cannot see what happened next through the rain and mist.