FOX Corporation, Bexford
Bethanna
“The CCTV does not have records of those who used the car,” A man sitting at the corner of the office announced.
Paul Edwards glanced at his side immediately. “Where did the car move from?”
It was in a large open office with thirty sitting spaces in total, only three of the seats were empty, the remaining were occupied by FOX agents who were busy with the computers in front of them. Paul Edwards and Agent Mensah were standing at the center, moving from one point to another and checking the activities of the junior agents one after the other.
All the agents sitting were all monitoring the live stream from the CCTV except the man at the corner who was checking past footages, each agent had an area of the country’s capital assigned. There was nothing suspicious yet happening on most of the streets being monitored, the declared curfew was being well observed by the city, only very few people were seen occasionally stepping out to do something in the streets and there was almost no car being seen apart from the security forces patrol vehicles.
“A private indoor car park,” the agent replied the chairman’s question.
“Have you checked the vehicle information?” Paul asked as he got closer to the man.
“Yes, the vehicle belongs to Freddie King and he’s been out of Bexford for over a month,” the agent replied. “He was contacted and he mentioned that he left the car in care of no one, he took the keys and other things with him.”
“Well, that does not seem connected to the bomb attacks threats today?” Paul Edwards suggested.
“Yes, nothing was found in the building to point to the explosion threats.” the agent replied. “What happened is the case of a stolen vehicle used to attack and kill people in Newland estate, it has nothing to do with the case at hand. It’s merely a coincidence.”
“I beg to differ, I don’t think it was a coincidence.”
The men had their eyes turned towards the direction of the speaker. It was Steve and he looked fresher that morning than he was few hours before that time.
“Good morning sir,” Steve greeted Paul. He had already been so close to them without them noticing. He was at a few metres away, standing at the back of another agent and looking at her work on the screen when he began to hear the men’s conversation.
“Agent Steve, where have you been? I called for you last night,” Paul raised his brows.
“I had to do a patrol around some areas last night, I went with agent Evelyn.” Steve replied.
“I was told,” Paul Edwards stated, keeping a narrow look at Steve’s face. “How come you’ve got no intelligence information concerning this planned attack?”
“I’m here with some sir,” Steve replied confidently. “It wasn’t a coincidence, the car used for the armed robbery in Newland estate has been found to visit the place more than twice this week before the incidence.”
“Do you have proofs for what you’re saying?” Paul questioned.
“Yes, I do.” Steve said, dipping his hand into the inner pocket of his suit jacket to take out an item. He handed the flashdrive to the agent sitting in front of the computer. The agent inserted it into the system unit. The drive auto played and he selected open file, there were about ten short videos in the folder. “Open the first three videos.”
The agent opened the first video, it showed the same car which was being investigated driving into the building. The second and third also showed the same even though at different times of the day.
“So, this means the attack on the place wasn’t carried out by strangers to them?” Paul stated.
“Yes,” Steve nodded.
“Well, it still doesn’t show how it connects to what we have at hand.” Paul stated.
“It does sir,” Steve insisted. “We got to find out that all our previous suspects including the late ones made occasional visits to the place. Even the fugitive from Justice, Stanley Kennah.”
Paul squinted. “What in the world is that place used for?” He asked, his voice making his surprise obvious.
“From findings, meetings and conferences are held there.” Steve replied.
“What kind of meetings?”
“We’re not sure yet, but from the look of things, it is where the stakeholders of the wolves meet and make decisions.”
Paul squinted at the floor quietly for a while. He raised his head and looked at Steve’s face. “So, how does it help with today’s task.”
“I know the man who uses that car, if we are allowed to interrogate him, we may be able to stop the attacks.,”
“Who is this man?”
“Mr Daysman of Suntan Farms,” Steve replied. “I’ve got proofs.”
____
Jenny walked into the room with small nylon bags in her hands. Dave was sitting on a plastic chair, busy with the laptop in front of him. Henry was at the table he had been since the previous night, his forehead was rested on his arms which he placed before his laptop.
“Here’s some snacks for us to munch on,” Jenny took out a pack of snacks with a table water and dropped it in front of Dave.
Henry raised his head up and looked at her. “Where did you get it from?”
“In a kiosk down the streets,” Jenny replied as she dropped his in front of him.
“Thank you,” he said and took the bottled water first . He opened it and took a sip. “Are there so many stores opened around?”
“No, most of the stores are closed, even this kiosk was not fully opened.” She answered after settling on a seat.
Henry picked his phone and checked the time. “It’s ten minutes to ten now and we are yet to get a clear direction.”
“Boss, what exactly are we waiting for?” Dave asked.
Henry stared at his for a moment. He raised his brows and shook his head. “We need to know the location for the explosions.”
“But we’ve been monitoring since and we’ve found no clues.” Dave stated, almost inaudible with the snacks in his mouth.
“We’re just a team of three persons, we can’t monitor the whole of Bexford effectively.” Henry replied in a sad tone.
“But I think we should have had something close to a clue since we’ve been on it,” Dave said.
“The Wolves is a well coordinated organization, they probably have a network of close to a thousand people here in Bexford and have several thousands across the nations.” Henry said and got up to his feet. “The only organization that has the facilities to match them is the FOX.”
“So, we can’t do anything about today?”
“We would,” Henry said and sprung up from his seat. “We would continue with our plan of joining forces with the FOX.”
Henry unplugged the charger from the laptop and also took it out from the socket. He folded it neatly and put it into the bag beside him. He turned again to the table and closed up the laptop without shutting it down.
Dave who was still busy with his snacks began to do the same while Jenny got up to pick the neatly folded FOX vests and put them in a different bag.
Henry opened the front section of his backpack and took out the face cap and the artificial moustache and beards. He put on the face cap first before he attached the moustache and beards. He then zipped up his bag and strapped it to his back. He reached for the phones on the table and a waist purse, he was already inserting the phones into the waist purse when one of them began to ring, it was the phone seized from one of Hutton’s men.
Henry stared at the screen of the phone for a while. It was from “The Boss” and Henry had been expecting the call ever since daybreak. He was sure that the “boss” was not just telling him about the Wolves bomb attack for nothing but that something was wanted from him. He believed “the boss” was about to make his request and he in turn would ask for Samantha and Wilson’s return and also a stop to the explosions.
His eyes met with Jenny who was staring at him. “He’s calling,” he whispered to her before answering the call.
“Hey Carl, hope you are ready to experience the death of over five hundred people in Bexford today.”
The tablet device beside Jenny made a beep sound and she picked it up.
“You talk too much man, why exactly are you telling me all this?” Henry fired at him.
There was silence for a moment and Henry knew his response had got the caller thinking.
“Why don’t you just tell me what you want from me?” Henry spoke again.
“You’re always intelligent, Carl Winston. I want you to leave town and go somewhere far away,” Hutton replied.
“So that you can continue with the massacre of people?”
“You should let the FOX handle that, what you’re running against us is an illegal team and you’re a criminal.”
“I have to be a criminal to get you and your likes and make you pay for what you did to my friend and my family.”
“Your friend deserved what he got for trying to stop us, you only escaped narrowly. As for your family, they’re the sacrifice for your stupidity.”
“Who the hell are you and what do you want from me?” Henry asked angrily. He looked up to see Jenny standing in front of him and whispering something with the device in her hands.
“I’m an unstoppable Wolf,” Hutton chuckled.
“What the hell do you want from me?”
“Your life,” the reply came sharp. Henry was quiet for a moment.
“Would you stop the explosions and let Samantha go if I surrender myself to you?”
“You have my word man, there’ll be no more explosions today if I get you.” Hutton replied, emphasizing on the word “you”.
“Where do we meet?” Henry asked.
“At the Bexford City Complex by eleven a.m.”
“I can’t make it by eleven a.m,” Henry argued. “Let’s make it eleven thirty.”
“It would be too late to stop the first explosion by eleven thirty, you have to show up earlier.”
“Come on, it’s ten o’clock already,” Henry argued angrily. “There’s a curfew and vehicles are not allowed to move freely.”
“You caused the curfew, so find a way to go about it. I’ll see you in an hour time.”
“Hey…”
The line went off.
“D–n it!” Henry cursed, tightening the phone in his palm angrily.
“What is it boss? I heard you talk about surrendering yourself,” Dave got up from his chair and faced Henry with a questioning look.
“We gotta act fast now guys, we’re running out of time.” Henry said without replying to Dave’s query. “I’ll go into the society secondary school in the next compound now and you would trick the FOX men in after five minutes. It all has to happen within fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes, that’s too small, it’s against our original plan.” Dave retorted.
“There’s no time Dave, it has to happen in fifteen minutes.” Henry said in a commanding tone and turned quickly. “Where’s it?” he stretched his hand to collect the bag which contained the FOX vests from Jenny.
“I got his location,” Jenny said as she handed the bag over to him.
“Yeah, he possibly unhid it to make us find him. He has asked me to meet him at the Bexford City Complex,” Henry replied her and turned back to Dave. Dave was looking so confused. Henry began to speak to him. “You should call 811 and inform them that you saw a suspicious man with a bag walking into neighbouring secondary school, that would make the FOX respond faster to you. You stay outside and wait for them to meet you, you bring them in to me and then we’d disarm them in the compound, dress in our FOX vests and leave in their vehicle. Their vehicle is the only thing we need and the reason we’re taking them into the secondary school is because the CCTV does not get in there.”
___
10 Minutes Later.
FOX Corporation Headquarters
Paul Edwards sat in a pensive mood in his office, his eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling with his eyes lids gathered together and his lips were folded in. He had just ended a call from the President of the nation who had called to ask him to explain in details the reason for the sudden cause of alarm in Bexford. The President warned him to ensure that no lives were lost that day.
He wasn’t sure of what to think. Whether the bomb threats were real or if someone somewhere was just playing pranks with them but what got him so serious about it was the fact that the location of the informants could not be traced.
The landline on his table rang and he leaned forward quickly to answer the call.
“Sir, there’s been a call reporting a suspicious man in a school, the FOX officials there are on their way now and we are sending more backup.” A female voice reported from the other end.
“Good, diligently monitor the CCTV coverage for the area. I’ll be out of here to join you in a minute.”
“We’re on it already, but the cameras do not cover what happens behind the school fence. We can only have a little view through the always opened gate.”
“Have you captured the man who went in?”
“Yes, we got his images from the footages and we’re running a check on him already.”
“Be fast about it,” Paul ordered and then got on his feet immediately.
_____
The FOX official drove in through the opened gate of the Society Secondary School, they parked their vehicle just beside the security office and stepped out quickly. Five in total, they all pulled out their guns and cocked them ready to shoot. Two of the men who stepped out of the vehicle quickly walked to the security gate while two others proceeded further very slowly.
“Who’s in here?” One of the FOX official shouted as he got into the opened security house. He caught sight of no one.
He proceeded back out, not checking the toilet where two middle aged men were tied up and gagged.
“I called you people,” a man entering through the gate announced. The FOX officials except for the two already proceeding further turned towards him.
Dave walked further in and Jenny followed slowly behind, both of them wearing disguise.
“I and my wife saw him from the window, he was looking around like a thief before he walked in.” Dave further said to them.
“What about the people supposed to be at the security office?” One of the men asked Dave.
“I don’t know, they should also be around somewhere. But that man we saw was a stranger,” Dave answered.
“Please stay here,” an agent instructed Dave and Jenny while they proceeded further into the school compound to check the building.
As the FOX officials checked the classes, they knew it was unlikely for a bomber to set up a bomb in the school when the students had been asked to stay home. except it was being set up for another day.
It took the FOX officials about minutes before one of them found the stranger.
“Freeze!” The FOX official shouted.
Henry turned sharply and faced the man, he put his hands in the air on seeing the gun in the FOX official’s hand. He was just sitting in a chair there with a book in his hands which he pretended to be reading.
The FOX man beckoned on the others to come closer and they searched Henry, they found nothing on him. They also called Dave and his “wife” closer to confirm if Henry was the man they saw.
“This man is just here for a quiet study,” the FOX official said to Dave, reiterating what Henry had said to them as he kept his gun in his pocket.
“He looked suspicious,” Dave said again.
The FOX official shook his head.
“Withdraw immediately, no threat here, it’s only a man from the same street who came in to study.” Another FOX official said to someone on phone call.
Henry knew that was the official had just called the FOX office and it was time for them to attack and take the car needed.
_____
10:32AM
University Of Bexford.
More than thirty minutes after the phone call from Hutton, Samantha remained at the table with her head bowed. She had wiped the tears off her face but her mind was still unsettled. She knew her best option was to do what Hutton wanted and save the students from dying, she was sure Henry would be in total support of her choice. She was however not sure if Hutton would keep to his word. He could decide to still go on with the explosion after she carried out his instructions and if he did not eventually go ahead with the explosion, he would then continue to use her against Henry.
She decided to take the risk but wanted an opportunity to speak with Hutton again before she did. And just as if Hutton could read her thoughts from where he was, a call came in at that moment.
“Still undecided, Miss Samantha?” Hutton’s crooked voice sounded through the phone’s speaker.
“I’ll make the video but I hope you know it would be difficult to convince the people to believe whatever I say,” she replied.
“Tell me more, miss,” he said in a relaxed tone.
“Like you said yesterday, Carl Winston would have cleared his tracks and make me untraceable to him. There’s no way to proof any claim I make in the video,” Samantha explained.
“You seem to have forgotten that we have your phone with us since the day we abducted you,” Hutton replied. “And hope you don’t think only Carl Winston has people who can pull out data from secured phones like you did with Antonio Carlos and Vincent Shawn devices.”
Samantha was dumbfounded. She remembered they had her phone with them but she wondered what data could be on her phone that would implicate Henry. Henry had always warned them to clear their phone activity history and the apps caches from time to time. She didn’t think anything implicating could be found on her phone.
“There’s nothing useful for you on my phone,” she retorted.
“Oh! There’s something, you do a good job of keeping your phone clean but you forgot the Android phone keeps history of locations on Google maps.”
“Carl Winston would have disconnected himself from every location I know about him.”
“Yeah, but it’s a pity he can’t disconnect himself from himself.” Hutton said confidently.
“What do you mean?” Samantha frowned.
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
Samantha heaved a sign of relief. His last response gave her an idea that he would leave her alive after recording the video.
“Remember, you would have to say everything you see in that document.”
____
Hutton was sitting relaxed in his swivel and playfully turning himself around as he made the phone call. A desktop from which he watched Samantha was on the table in front of him.
“But the things in the document aren’t real,” he heard Samantha argue.
He chuckled. “They’ll get real soon, all you need is say what you see there, I’ll call you in fifteen minutes, I believe you should have finished preparing then.”
He ended the call immediately without giving her time to reply. He locked the phone and smiled to himself. Carl Winston was already walking into his trap. He was sure of this because he knew Carl was a man committed to saving people’s lives. He knew Carl as a man who could give anything to keep others safe and that was the exact weapon he would use against Carl.
____
“You won’t follow me there, you would drop me off.” Henry finally said to Dave after a long silence.
“I can’t believe we’re really doing this,” Dave spoke aloud in a arguing tone. He was driving the car and Carl was sitting in front beside him, Jenny was at the backseat. “I can’t believe you’re giving yourself to them.”
“But boss, the man’s location was different from where he asked you to meet them.” Jenny also put in, in a bid to convince Henry to change his mind.
“I know, he’s got a plan.” Henry replied. “I’ll stop the plans or I’ll die trying to.”
tbc
