Convergence

CHAPTER FIVE

When John saw an unknown number popping up on his phone, he thought to himself, it must be Lincoln calling so that they can meet at the rendezvous in probably an hour or so. I mean, that’s what they do in movies right? He thought again in his mind. Without hesitation, he answered the call, but did not utter a word.

Vanessa: Hello! Babe!

John hearing that it was his girlfriend calling, he had a smile on his face, and his muscles suddenly relaxed.

John: Vanessa?! Is that you?! Gosh I’m glad you’re still alive.

Vanessa: Listen, I don’t have much time, I’m in Lupane. Please come get me. Some weird guy named Peter Gunda helped me escape but I don’t trust him.

John: I’m on my way, wait you said Peter Gunda?

Vanessa: Yes, why?

John: Can you describe him?

Vanessa: I don’t know, hmm, black hair, deep voice, slightly your height, he’s got skills I guess, he doesn’t miss his shots. He shot two guys back in the woods with only two bullets and killed them.

John: Does he have a tattoo on his neck below his right ear?

Vanessa: Yes, and a scar on his throat, I think someone tried to kill him before.

John realizing that he knew the guy from back in the day when he was still an active CIO agent, and that he was the one who slit his throat when they once fought. He somehow felt like this was going to be a payback of some sort.

John: Listen, I want you to stay with that guy, he will protect you, but be careful cause he’s dangerous.

Vanessa: you know that guy?

John: yes

Vanessa: From where?

John: I have to go, see you soon.

Vanessa: Wait, what are you not telling me?

John: I’ll be there in a few hours babe.

He hung up the phone and heads straight to his car.

As he set at the counter, the light seemed to fade. The need to revenge was like a rat gnawing at his soul. Peter was one guy who would hold a grudge until he died or until he took revenge. Nevertheless, he raised his fatigued hand to call for the bartender, and when she did not appear he turned his head slowly to the right to watch Vanessa come out of the bathroom.

Peter: So did he say he’s coming?

Vanessa: Who?

Peter: John, your boyfriend.

Vanessa leaned on the counter, her black hair lying over her right shoulder. She lolled her head to the right side, pushing out her lips a little bit, she tried to bamboozle Peter with her inquisitive face.

Vanessa: What you talking about?

Peter: if you really wanted to go to the toilet to freshen up, you wouldn’t have stolen that guy’s phone on your way.

She stood there at a loss of words, all she could do was look around and try hide her guilty face.

Peter: I don’t mind you lying to me, the least you could do is trust me. If I wanted to hurt you I would have done it a long time ago. The reason you’re still stuck with me is because, I need help, and your boyfriend is the only one who can help.

Vanessa: What sort of help do you require? He said he knows you!

Peter: Yes he does, he’s the one who gave me this scar on my neck.

Vanessa: where did you meet? What do you mean he gave you that scar?

Peter: Don’t worry, you will know everything once he gets here.

They left the bar and walked to the nearest motel. A few hours later, John shows up. He was already geared up for war. Having been given the room number, he prudently strolled through the door aiming his gun. Immediately Peter kicked the gun in John’s hand and it fell. He threw a fist to John’s right cheek, snapping his head to the left. John hit his head on the wall with a force such that he thought he had dropped to the ground. His tongue was soaked in the taste of blood. John quickly whipped his head twice from left to right trying to shake off the dizziness. He took a step forward, and hit him in the V under his ribs exactly where the sternum ends. It paralysed Peter’s diaphragm and he gasped, and fell on to the bed. John pitched forward, and brought him to his feet nearly tearing his collar, he banged his nose with his forehead and pushed him away then kicked him left cross and he fell over the other side of the bed. Immediately, he drew his other pistol from his back and prepared to shoot. Peter also drew his gun from his back and they both aim at each other. Vanessa seeing this, she could not bare the horror, so she shouted.

Vanessa: Stop!

They both turned their heads to look at her and realised they had to stop fighting. John decides to stand down and call for a truce. They both set on the floor with their backs resting on the wall, they kept starring at Vanessa who was sitting on the bed.

Vanessa: John, you said you know this guy?

John still trying to relax responds..

John: Yes, I do

Vanessa: Where do you know him from? He told me you gave him that scar, is that true?

John: I’m not the man you think I am.

Vanessa: What’s that supposed to mean?

Peter intervenes the conversation

Peter: What he’s trying to say is that, what you thought you knew about him is not just it, there’s a whole lot more to his life that you don’t know about.

Vanessa: John, what is he talking about?

John: I can explain.

Vanessa: I’m all ears.

John: Okay, umm, haha , I don’t even know where to start.

Vanessa: Start from the beginning.

John punts and opens his mouth to start talking.

John: When I was 18 I got recruited into a privately owned government operation, I was trained to be a CIO agent, I got all the training required but then at 22 I was assigned to another department where I spent almost all of my recruitment time as a torturer. Whenever the agency wanted to extract information from a captured prisoner, I was the guy whom they would call. And everyone at that agency is trained to be a spy, meaning that you can be assigned a mission to go undercover.

Vanessa set there on the bed motionless, trying to remember how to breathe. She was unable to speak and she was totally stunned by what John was saying. As she was starring at John, she tried connecting John’s face and the words coming out of his mouth. All she could picture was an image of a villain bouncing around inside her skull. She regretted making him talk as soon as she realised only pure darkness came out of his mouth. Despite all she had heard so far, she realised she couldn’t fit the key in the lock. She insisted in knowing more.

Vanessa: have you ever been undercover?

John: Yes

Vanessa: When?

John: Last year, remember when I told you I’m going on a 2 months business trip in Panama.

She felt coldness envelope her cause she could not take it anymore. She immediately stopped and turned her head in Peter’s direction.

Peter: Guys let’s not waste time talking about the past, there are more important issues to discuss about.

Vanessa: You said you needed John’s help? What do you want?

Peter: Yes, I’ve been undercover for almost two years now. All this time I’ve been trying to crack Lincoln and his syndicate. For me to crack him, I had to gain his trust and become his right hand man, and I managed to do that twice or so if I recall very well, that was because his most trusted dog, Franklin was not around probably on some other missions.

John: Why are you after the syndicate?

Peter: Have you ever heard of Anview?

John: Yes, they own the company I work for.

Peter: Well, they don’t just run the construction company you work for.

John: Wait, how did you know I’m working at a construction company?

Peter: That’s not the point, besides you should know better, we are trained to spy on everyone.

John: So what else are they into?

Peter: Drugs, illegal military weapons, human trafficking, politics, just to name a few.

John stares at Vanessa with a grin

John: It explains the weird folder I found in Mr Johns’ laptop. The folder contained videos of a group of men being murdered and some pictures of a secret meeting they had, there were boxes surrounding them, I guess they were boxes of guns and drugs cause in the picture one of the men was holding a SCAR-L , and on top of one of the boxes there we kilos of cocaine.

Peter: Yes that video was one of the reasons why I went undercover. The guy who took that video and those pictures was one of the rookie graduates, he was caught while filming that, they didn’t know that all he filmed was actually broadcasted to the agency. May his soul rest in peace. As I was saying, the matter was reported to the police by an unknownymous person, but then Mr Johns controls the police and part of the army. I don’t know how, but he does. Lincoln controls all the drugs and shipping ports, Steve deals with the political sector. These guys are real criminals, and the worst part is that they control almost everything in this country. And there is a guy who is known in the streets as Acoustic . No one knows his real name but rumour has it, he is the big fish, he is said to be the ring leader.

John: So how do you plan on catching these guys?

Peter: I was hoping you could help, consider it as a personal vendetta for kidnapping your girl and trying to kill you.

Vanessa: John I hope you’re not considering this.

John: I left the agency, but I guess one mission won’t hurt, after all, I miss doing this already. Peter I want to believe you have a plan?

Peter: Yes, but we will need a safe house, then we ‘ll need all the information we can get on Mr Johns at the Charge Office precinct.

John: We’ll use my basement, then tomorrow we’ll start taking these guys down.

Vanessa: Basement? What basement?

They drove back home, and when they got there, Vanessa was shocked to see that the house she lived in for the past two years had a basement full of guns, and blood all over the floor.

The morning fades in like a scene from a horrible movie. The air was very percipient and the morning shadows clearly-cut. Vanessa wakes up early because she always wakes up early. She was appreciative of her bed. Most comfortable. She pattered across to the window and pulled the curtains, admitting the little pallid capital city daylight. Glancing through the window, Peter and John were standing in the front porch talking. As she stood there staring, the news paper van came again as at other times before. She got back into her bed, plumed her pillows up, glanced at her clock, half-past seven, picked up the small photo album that always stayed under her mattress, and she browsed through the pictures as usual.

Vanessa: Another day.

Greeting the fact with her usual gentle pleasure.

Vanessa: Another day – who knows what it might bring forth?

She relaxed, and abandoning her photo album, let thoughts pass in an idle stream through her head. She gets up and goes to meet the Peter and John downstairs, hopping this time they had reconsidered their plan.

John: okay so tonight I’ll go to the station and see what I can find, you guys will stay back.

Vanessa: Why don’t you Peter go?

Peter: Everyone there knows me, and after rescuing you, I’m pretty sure I’m the most wanted man in the country.

Soon the night rolled over and the gathering gloom of the stars and the moon shone brighter in the sky. It brought a welcome coolness to the city after a stifling day. The journey that lay before John would be scupper. There was no safe way through the precinct front desk, and even if he made it through, there was absolutely no way he would leave unnoticed. At length, he reached the precinct. He enters the front door and goes straight to the reception desk.

Officer: Can I help you sir?

John: Yes I would like to see the officer in charge.

Officer: Unfortunately he’s out, he went to grab a coffee but you can wait for him if you can.

John: Sure no problem.

He sits on the bench and waits for him. As he was sitting, he noticed people wandered in from the other room with boxes of information. As he watched the officer walk off the reception desk, suddenly he had a fleeting impression of a pale oval that might have been a face that turned toward the evidence room for an instant. He stood up, and began to stealthily approach the evidence room. He listened intently, the voices he heard were upstairs. He quietly opened the door. The room had walls painted with modern paint, but there were heavy old shelves and piles of boxes. He browsed the boxes while he waited for the alarm on his wrist to go off. The alarm sounded like a siren wailing off electronically in the corridor and echoing everywhere. Not knowing that that someone had noticed him enter the room which was strictly out of bounds. By the time the alarm went off, he had come across five records someone would kill just to keep hidden. Suddenly another officer enters the room, leaving the records in the box, John drifts over to the entrance door and hides behind the door. The officer in the room grabs an evidence box and walks away, immediately John steps out and crosses over into the kitchen, on his way out, he kicks the bin by mistake, the officer on the other side of the hallway hears something, goes "Oh My God!,” and races back to the evidence room only to find it was a false alarm, the bin had just tipped over and the boxes were laying peacefully on the shelves.

Meanwhile when John steps into the kitchen, looking at the door behind, he turned to see a lovely woman in front. She was the type of girl women would love to hate. She had that movie star look. She was just flawless in her structure. She radiated an intelligent beauty. She blinked her eyes from time to time, allowing her eye lashes to flutter like the wings of a butterfly. She was new in town, she had been recruited as a rookie officer at the precinct. Her name was Jane. John shocked to see Jane in front he goes..

John: Oh s**t! I thought this was a toilet.

She smiles

Jane: This is actually a kitchen, the toilet is down the hall, last door to your right, but probably it’s locked.

She reaches over the key shelf and grabs the toilet keys. When she turned back John was gone. He took the backdoor and left the precinct. Looking surprised she checks the hallway and the reception but to no avail. Eventually John manages to escape from the precinct and heads home. He gets home around midnight and calls it a day.