Convergence

CHAPTER TWO

The moment he came to his car, another guy came from behind him and strangled him with a dental floss. And John fighting to get his air back, for a moment he looked like he would puke, and his skin turning purplish. Pure rage crossed his face. One fast straight punch to Tommy’s unprotected jaw and his head whipped back, his body arched backward, all of his momentum snapping back in him like a rubber band. And John drew a metal bar that lay idle on a pillar and stood in defence mode. When Tommy who was wearing a mask saw that he could not take out John without backup, he turned around and dashed away.

Lincoln: What happened?

Tommy: I couldn’t take him out sir, he is skilled.

Lincoln: What kind of skills?

Tommy: I think, special forces sir!

Furious with the incompetence of his team, Steve shoots Tommy directly through his head while the rest were watching. He shouted in his serious voice.

Lincoln: You have 24 hours to kill crack this bastard!

A minute passed, and the panic set in.

Franklin: Gentlemen, you heard the man, what do we know about this guy?

Kenney: He has a girlfriend!

Franklin: Perfect, so let’s use that on him.

Later on that day, when Vanessa was at work, a group of thugs entered the hospital, she saw them come then she knew what they were after. She immediately took the back door and rushed to the parking lot. As she got to her car, a van got up to her and men with masks kidnapped her and they vanished. Just a few hours later John arrived, he looked for her but she was M.I.A. Her phone was unreachable, her car was in the parking lot. He went straight to the police and reports, all they did was file a report. He realised, the cops will never do anything, or if they did, someone would do everything in their power to make sure the investigation is closed. Furious with the incompetence of the police, John takes matters into his own hands. Feeling bamboozled by the actions of the police, he left the precinct and headed straight home. He begins his search to find Vanessa, and nail every corrupt guy within Anview.

Contemplating on the issue at hand, he let thoughts pass in an idle stream through his head, walking down memory lane, the old him had to be brought back to life. As thoughts accumulated in his mind, he starts plotting his moves. He went into the basement of his house, Vanessa never knew that the house had a basement, he had changed the entry point to be a secret one. The walls of the room were painted with ancient paint, there were heavy old shelves and piles of boxes. He opened one box, it was full of guns, the 9 millimetre pistol was his favourite. Desperately seeking for the old 9 millimetre, he opened another, and laid every gun he had on the shelves accordingly, from pistols to Russian machine guns even sniper riffles. Staring at the board on the wall, his primary suspect was Mr Johns. He noted the stories from various newspapers, what an astonishing story they all had. As he was trying to figure out everything about Mr Johns, his phone rang, it was Vanessa’s phone. John feeling relieved answers the call.

John: Hello! Babe! Where are you?

In a deep male voice,

Lincoln: Your life for hers, you choose!

John: listen to me you son of a b***h! you played the wrong cards, my family was off limits. I’m coming for you, and when I find you, I’ll kill you!

He hangs up the phone. And when he stepped out into the bright hallway light from the darkness of the basement, he had only two things in mind – Mr Johns and revenge. As the saying goes, “revenge is a dish best saved cold,” he closed his eyes and meditated upon his belligerent thoughts. His eyes crinkled as he rolled his eyes, he looked heavenward and glanced up to the ceiling. He drew his lower lip between his teeth and gritted his teeth. That inscrutable face had come to life. And soon, when midnight arrived so quickly like a thief in the night, he embarked on a journey back to Vanessa’s work place that maybe he could get some leads to his investigation. As he was scouting around the parking lot, there were no witnesses, and neither were there any cameras. He found her car keys laying on the floor. Apparently there was some sort of tussle and the victim was badly injured, from the looks of the blood stain on the keys. As he was staring at the blood stain on the keys, suddenly he sees a ring that looked like a wedding ring laying idle on the ground. It had a similar blood stain as well. “This must have fallen off during the scuffle,” he thought to himself. He scrutinized the ring then realised, it had a mark inside. As he mulled over the ring, he walked into the elevator with a man looking at his watch, seeming to be in a hurry, as the doors were closing, another man rushed in, who seemed to be on the phone. Once he stepped in, he mutters

Miles: You don’t matter much to the time line.

He grabs John by the arms from his back. The other guy punched John right through his unprotected stomach that he coughed when the fists connected. He was totally defenceless at that point as they were confined in a small area.

And Billy seemed to laugh as his knuckle duster connected with John’s face, splitting the skin over his cheekbone with the force of the blow. He screamed and dropped to his knees—not incapacitated, but going for his boot knife. John lashed out with his heel, launching the man backward across the elevator. And Billy staggered away, fighting to get his balance back, for a moment he looked like he would fall, but he managed to stand firm. John snapped back, knocking Miles onto he walls of the elevator. His momentum ruptured back at him that he lost his grip and let John loose. And with John on the loose he turned back to Billy who threw one fast straight punch to his unprotected jaw and his head whipped to the right, all of his momentum drifted to the right. For one long moment his body hung in the air. Then he landed with a thud that shook the elevator. Obviously, this punch must have given him butterflies. From the look in Billy’s eyes, his chances of survival were very slim, but he couldn’t let that stop him. It was kill or be killed. Motivated by the fear of being weak, he pulled himself up, regained his momentum, he could feel Vanessa in her head, digging through his thoughts, and arrant furore crossed his face. Hyperventilating, he pulls out the 9mm pistol from his back, and before he could aim Miles had advanced to him with a round horse kick that he lurched to the left and the gun fell. Defeat ran through his veins, as much as instinct told him to surrender, he couldn’t, not with his life at stake and he knew he needed a contingency plan to survive this. In a the blink of an eye he had planned how he would attack again, he would begin with grabbing the gun and obviously taking out Billy the strongest. So he fell to the ground sprawled out on his chest. In a split second he rolled over his back and suddenly pulls the trigger, and lowered the gun to fire at Billy’s left knee. His knee whipped back and he fell to the ground. Snot running from his nose and blood from his knee, he sits at the other corner of the elevator and sobs disgustingly. A minute passed, and fear set in. Seeing this, Miles surrenders. So John drags he two guys back to his car. He throws them into the trunk of his BMW and drove back to his house. He covered their eyes so that they would not recognise where they were. He tied them on to chairs and began interrogating them.

John: I’m sure by now, you now know me and what I’m capable of. If you cooperate I will let you live, but if you don’t, you will leave me with no choice but to opt for the obvious. You took something from me, and I want it back, so you guys are going to tell me exactly where it is.

With a straight face, Billy replied,

Billy: we’d rather die than tell you s**t!

John: okay, fair enough, you going to wish you had told me already.

On the other hand, Vanessa , as a scared as she was, she was strapped to a chair in a dark room with limited light. Her chicks still stung from the slaps, her tears made it worse. She felt like a gigantic i***t. Her body wanted to fidget, every instinct telling her to move, to do something, preferably to run away. But she waited, listened, and watching. She had been contemplating mere seconds ago. She noticed people wandered in from the other room with boxes holding guns. She continued to fidget until the ropes strapped to her arms loosened. Apparently someone hadn’t done their job so well in tying her up. But nevertheless, she had a fleeting impression of a pale oval that might have been a face that turned toward the small window behind the shelves for an instant. She huddled in the cramped darkness, hearing footsteps in the corridor nearing the exit door. She fell through the window opposite the exit door and out into the forest , and during the process she broke the glass, that it alerted the guards in the corridor when it shattered. Her chances of survival were slim, but she didn’t let that stop her. It was escape or death. The tress and the bushes began to blur as she raced down them, swerving frantically to avoid her pursuers. Two sets of glowing eyes were visible in the limited light were bouncing in her direction. She only had seconds to evade them, they drew closer. She dared to turn her head so slowly, to peer around the tree trunk that was her camouflage. She looked around for any form of weapon and all she could get was a piece of wood. She allowed her muscles to tense, prepared for the swift movement for her wood that would rip their preternatural heads from their shoulders. And the crushing noise suggested she was suffering from the same hamper to her night vision which her pursuers struggled to overcome. Fear threatened to force her breathing into irregular gasps, but she remained controlled. The wind carried their strident voices, the strange barbaric language resonating through the interlacing branches overhead and she knew they were drawing closer. She could hear the sound of ranch vehicles nearing her, it didn’t occur to her if it was a rescue mission or if it was actually a hostage exchange. The chattering noise echoed through the trees, she fussed as she reached the scrub, feeling dizzy and nearly hyperventilating, her mind was racing. She had no phone to make a call, she was in the middle of nowhere. Minutes passed, and nature had taken over, as much as instinct told her to sit down and rest, the adrenaline within her system kept her going. It was when one pair of lamplight eyes appeared in front of her that she realised her hope of going unnoticed was in vain. She got recaptured immediately, and with the look in T-one’s eyes, she told herself,

Vanessa: This is going to hurt when it’s over.

She sobs horribly as she is dragged back to the warehouse.