III
1150 Words
He never really liked the wilds. But the senator wouldn’t stop whining about his own mess. Someone had to go and clean it up for him. And Mr.Wolf was one big loose end. So he had to handle the problem personally. That meant he had to go all the way to another continent just to make sure the problem was being dealt with appropriately.
The plan was simple enough. Two briefcases, both were carrying a C-4 charge enough to tear down a whole building. He filled half of each briefcase with dummy bills while making room for the explosive charge at the center. Afterwards, he filled them with real dollar bills amounting to half a million dollars. The senator was very reluctant at first. But when he explained that it was just a small price to pay for robbing a nation of its historical treasure, he finally agreed. The explosive charge could be triggered remotely. When the phone call made an electrical charge, it started the reaction and ultimately, the explosion that blew the cabin apart. The explosion itself would not leave any trace of the dollar bills nor the briefcases. Let alone the man who used to live in the cabin. The satellite phone sitting by the kitchen table would not stand a chance also. All in all, it was a clean operation.
“Yes sir, it is done. No sir, nobody saw what happened and we left no witnesses”, he patiently answered his employer through the phone.
He thought of Wolf’s men and the look on their faces as they took them one by one. He smiled. They thought they had the situation under their noses but when his men started to attack silently, they were like mice with nowhere to run. The best part of it was Wolf did not suspect anything amiss.
“You have the package with you, Jess?”
“Yes sir, I do have it. Don’t worry. You’ll have it as soon as we get there. For the meantime, go get yourself busy. Sir”, he said as he ended the call
Babysitting can be a serious pain in the ass, he thought. If it wasn’t for his new baby boy, Jess would have accepted another offer for security service. But the senator was paying him good money for his legal services and a generous fee for an occasional shady job. Plus an extra for every successful operation that he would finish so he tried hard to keep his temper since then. He was so deep in thoughts that he did not notice the plane had landed. He felt tired but he knew he could not delay the matter at hand. The good senator’s patience had quite a reputation. So as much as possible, he tried hard to not provoke it. Not because he feared it, but because another confrontation with the angry senator might snap him finally and he might do something unintended.
The white sedan was speeding through light traffic while he was sitting at the back, trying his best to steal some sleep. But the thing inside his suit kept him from drifting into unconsciousness. It was indeed a thing of beauty and he never saw anything like it, he admitted. But the senator had plenty of those valuable things, all of them much larger than that, with more precious gems in them than that one. Some weighed twice or even thrice than that little chest so why travel the world just for that tiny golden chest? What was it in that chest that the senator was so ready to kill just to have it? He felt his head throbbing. At last, the car stopped in front of the senator’s villa. He was standing at the door, waiting for their arrival. When they finally stepped out of the car, the senator greeted them excitedly.
“How was your trip, gentlemen?”
If he wasn’t too tired, he swore he could have laughed.
“Everything went well,Sir. We got what we came for. Should we go to your study now?”
The room was a picture of power and extravagance itself. There were three large bookshelves made of polished oak and an enormous center table with six meticulously-carved chairs. There was a small bar filled with brandies and wines and a 72” flat-screen television installed by the wall opposite the senator’s high table. They sat down and Jess took out the chest from his suit. The senator looked intently while rubbing his hands vigorously. Five years and a total of three million dollars spent have led to this moment. If the legend’s true, he could acquire power like no other. Jess put the chest on the table with the cloth on and let the senator lift the cover off it.
“Behold the power to change the world. The power to know the truth and to vanquish ignorance. The chance to make all things right and to shed light to every question the world has to ask. But of course, it all comes with a price. And the privilege of bestowing the truth to the ignorant is now mine”
Baynes produced a new wire cutter and with a shaking hand, cut the tiny lock. The lock was strangely harder to cut. Though being solid, it was still made of gold which must be malleable and soft. Still, he did not mind. He was about to witness the work of a god firsthand so what’s a little added work. When the lock snapped, he held his breath. Slowly, he lifted the lid. What he saw drove him mad. He started throwing everything on his table including the thick glass half-filled with the finest brandy. This made Jess duck for a while. When the storm weathered and the outraged senator sat on the floor crying, Jess took the chest and look at what’s inside. His eyes grew large, his mouth dried up and he felt his knees buckled. He never felt this kind of fear before. He has faced Death before, looked through its eyes and came back alive. He killed countless men in cold-blood before, took lives of innocent women and children but never felt any regret for them. Nor mercy. But nothing compared to that feeling when he saw what was inside the chest. He felt all the years of killing had finally caught up with him and was now ready to take its toll. Because after going through all those troubles, he ultimately failed.
For the golden chest of the god contained nothing. There was nothing in it but thin air. For the first time in his life, he got outplayed.And he knew that it was an expensive price to pay.
- Writer
