A huge crowd had formed at the end of the room. They gathered around a small stage, which contained a table, and a stand with a microphone on it. A middle-aged man walked onto the stage and began to address the audience. “Good evening ladies and gentleman and welcome to the seventh annual Pennyworth foundation event. Mr Pennyworth regrets to inform you that he won’t be in attendance in person tonight, but he hopes that you’ll all have a wonderful evening.”
I know that voice! James thought.
The pair walked closer toward the crowd, getting as close to the stage as they could manage. It was just as James thought; the announcer on the stage was Cody! He was dressed in a bright white suit and had a thick moustache. He had tried to adopt an Australian accent whilst in Sydney in order to fit in with the locals, but he hadn’t been able to hide his strong Texan accent completely. James and Sophie shared a quick glance at each other in recognition that they both knew the true identity of the man on stage.
Cody carried on with his speech to the audience. After several minutes, he noticed James and Sophie in the crowd. Cody decided to have a little fun. “Ladies and gentlemen, at this time I’d like to give a special mention to two dear friends of mine.” Cody gestured in the couple’s direction. “Celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary today, Jimmy and Sally Robertson!” Several of the crowd began to applaud. James and Sophie smiled awkwardly as they acknowledged the applause.
This isn’t appropriate Cody, we’re meant to be under cover, thought James slightly annoyed.
Sophie wasn’t best pleased either, narrowing her eyes at Cody in a clear indication that she wasn’t amused by his actions.
Cody struggled to contain his laughter, barely managing to keep his composure. He began to introduce several exhibits that were placed onto the table for the auction. The exhibits were from Wayne Pennyworth’s personal collection. He was an Australian millionaire with an affinity for modern art and ancient artefacts. As each object was introduced, James and Sophie began to look around, trying to see if any of the three targets were in sight. A strange feeling suddenly began to flow through James’ body as the next object to be auctioned was placed on the table. A black cloth hid the item from view. James somehow felt a connection to the object, even though he had no idea what it was. It was the same feeling he had felt when drawn to the documents located within the vault of the Miyamoto building.
Cody removed the cloth, revealing a stone gem. It looked old, really old in fact, and had strange carvings on it. James had seen the carvings somewhere before, but he couldn’t quite remember where. All he knew was that this object, whatever it was, seemed familiar to him…and he wanted it.
The crowd began bidding on the strange object. No doubt, there were those in the audience that thought such an ancient looking artefact had great historical value. The bidding was up to two thousand Australian dollars.
“Six thousand!” shouted James.
Sophie and even Cody, who was doing his best not to break character up on the stage looked a little puzzled.
“What are your doing?” whispered Sophie.
“I don’t know,” answered James. The truth was, he didn’t know. He just knew he was drawn to the item and he needed to obtain it.
The bidding continued for a while longer, James continued to better the offer from any audience member that attempted to buy the artefact. “One million dollars!” spoke a posh and proper sounding voice from the back of the crowd. A few of the audience gasped by the size of the offer, some talking amongst themselves in surprise. Other people turned around to see who was crazy enough to bid such a huge amount of money.
At the rear of the crowd stood a tall man with long white hair. This man was Lucius, of Underworld, though none present knew that. He was also the leader of the Order of Lux and the World Order’s number one target. James and Sophie shared a quick glance of recognition of this fact. James could not match the man’s offer. He didn’t have the clearance to spend that much without prior warning and despite his agent’s salary, he couldn’t afford money like that. I’ll take the artefact from him when we reprimand him, he thought, convincing himself he would still gain possession of the item.
The white-haired man sent one of his henchmen who had just arrived to go onto the stage and collect the item for him. The man brought the object back to the white haired man and handed it over. The man held the gem close to his face. He gazed at the stone, looking at it so closely that you would not be mistaken to think he could see something beyond the hazel stone itself.
Cody brought the auction proceedings to a halt and made his way off the stage to James and Sophie. Although trying to keep a close eye on the white-haired man at the far end of the room, Cody lost focus on the mission slightly as this was the first time he had seen his friends in a long time. “Hey guys, you look great,” he said, patting James on the back as he spoke. He now focused his full attention on Sophie. “And look who it is, my favourite Irish girl in the world. You know, I didn’t think it was possible, but you’ve actually become more beautiful.”
James was pleasantly surprised with Cody. The last time he had seen him, he had trouble even looking Sophie in the eye, never mind talking to her. He seems to have built up his confidence over the years.
Sophie seemed very underwhelmed with Cody’s attempts at flattery. After all she had been through with her last relationship in Tokyo, she really didn’t appreciate Cody too much at the moment. Realising they were becoming distracted, James quickly refocused the agents on the job at hand.
“Come on guys, we’ve got an important job to do. Cody, you’ve been tracking these guys since they got here right? What’s the story?”
Cody dropped the goofy act and suddenly became all business. “Ok, you see that one, with the white hair,” Cody said referring to Lucius. “I’m not sure of his name, but our intelligence here tells us that he’s the ring leader of this merry little band. They’ve always been one step ahead of us, that is until you broke in and got those files that told us of their business here in Sydney.”
“Right, so why are they here?” asked James.
Cody huddled the agents closer together, but not in too much of a way to raise suspicion. “They’ve come to collect something, an artefact.”
“Why?” Sophie asked. The Irish girl really didn’t understand why a group that the World Order thought of as such a great threat, would go around collecting artefacts, rather than weapons or even political power.
“I’m not sure, but they’ve been amassing different types of artefacts all over the world.”
“What types of artefacts?” asked James.
Cody gave a shrug of the shoulders. “They all tend to be very rare and unique in design. They have these strange markings on, cult-like or something…”
“Markings? You mean like the markings on that stone you just sold to them?” said James, not sounding too thrilled.
Cody, not realising what James was getting at began to reply. “Come to think of it now, yeah…” Then it suddenly dawned upon the young Texan what he had done. “Oh shit!”
“Idiot!” said Sophie, putting her hands on her hips as she spoke.
Cody’s head dropped a little.
Now he looks as he did two years ago. “Look don’t worry about it, we’ll take these guys out here, and get the stone back, it won’t be a problem!” said James, trying to raise his friend’s spirit.
“You’re right,” said Cody raising his head again. He became serious once more. “Right we’ve got two more guys in here besides us. There’s agent Smith over by the window.” James and Sophie turned around, noticing a man standing by the window, observing every word they were saying. “And we’ve got your other guy, what’s his name?”
“Boris,” said James and Sophie simultaneously.
“Well, my guy sent him out into the hallway a while back. He’s keeping an eye on everyone that’s coming in and out of here.”
“That’ll work out well, that old fox doesn’t miss a th
ing,” muttered Sophie under her breath.
“What?” Cody asked.
“Nothing, carry on,” said James.
Cody now observed Lucius and the hence men he had arrived with. “There’s our main guy, a very slippery character,” referring to Lucius once more. As he said this, Lucius began to take his leave of the large room.
“Right, I’ll take him, be ready!” said James, who left Cody and Sophie quickly and followed on after his foe.
“Finally alone huh?” said Cody sarcastically.
“Come on Cody, stay focused!”
The young Texan realised this was not the time for games and focused on the mission. “Ok, see that man over there?” He was referring to the man that Lucius had arrived with. “His name is Jim Duggan, a close associate of the main guy. We need to take both of them in.”
“Alight, I’ll stick to him like glue,” replied the Young Irish girl. “I thought there were three targets, though?”
Cody gave a simple shrug. “My sources aren’t always one hundred percent accurate.”
Sophie smiled; she had always loved winding him up. Cody had begun to set off himself. The female agent stopped him before he left. “Hey Cody!” she shouted.
“Yeah?” he answered, walking back to her.
She smiled once more. “Nice moustache!” said the female agent, who began to laugh.
“Oh, it’s a fake look.” Cody tried to remove the fake moustache a little but winced in pain. It seemed to have placed on his upper lip a little tighter than he would have liked. Sophie chuckled once more when she realised Cody couldn’t remove it.
James followed Lucius down the long corridors of the hotel. Entrances scattered either side of the passageway, which were populated with guests. James had to weave in and out of people in order to keep up with the strange, white-haired figure. Lucius stopped at a lift and entered it. James upped his pace, rushing up to it. He just about managed to reach the lift in time before the doors closed completely. The doors reopened up for him and James walked into the lift, looking to confront the man. To his astonishment, the lift was completely empty. It was as if the white haired man had vanished into thin air. James realised he had lost his man. He really is a slippery character…
Cody walked outside the main party room of the hotel and gestured to Boris, who had been stationed outside the room, to follow him. “Come on man, we’re going to be the eyes and ears of this operation. No one gets in or out of this building without us knowing about it.”
The two men advanced down the hallway and exited the hotel via the main entrance.
Back in the main room, Sophie was shadowing Duggan’s movements. He had been stood at a table alone for around half and hour yet had drunk five pints of beer in that time. The man seemed on edge. The Irish girl waited patiently for Duggan to leave the room so she could reprimand the man without causing a scene in front of all the other guests. Come on, hurry up and get out of here, she thought. The girl was itching to get to work.
Sophie spotted a full glass of wine on the table next to her and picked it up, downing its contents in one attempt. She placed the empty glass back onto the table and looked to where Duggan was standing, however to her surprise the man was no longer there. The agent became alert and scanned the entire room with her eyes quickly, urgently trying to sight her target. He was watching me too, She realised. He was watching me, watching him, waiting for the moment that I took my gaze off him. She spotted Duggan exiting through the back door of the room and followed in pursuit. The door led to a narrow circular staircase. Duggan was already several floors up before Sophie even reached the stairs. Clearly the man was in a hurry.
Sophie rushed onto the roof after her foe. The rooftop was several storeys above the rest of the surrounding buildings. They were on top of the tallest building in the entire city. It was here that she looked to confront Duggan. She slipped out her gun and walked around the rooftop, but the man was nowhere to be found. Suddenly Duggan rushed her from behind. Sophie’s gun fell to the ground as she and the man grappled on the floor. The Irish agent quickly gained the upper hand by giving Duggan a very unflattering kick in the groin. She retrieved her gun and picked Duggan off the ground holding him from behind with her gun to his head. “I’m bringing you in, understand?”
A dark mist began to descend upon the rooftop. The mist began to swirl quickly around the pair, who both looked as equally confused as the other as to what was happening. The mist began to form eight man-like shadows around them. The shadows moulded together and quickly became solid. Now eight men stood before her, covering the agent’s movements in all directions. She could not believe her eyes, but Sophie remained cool. Let’s hope they’re concerned with the safety of their boss, Sophie thought, believing that to be Duggan himself.
Sophie yanked Duggan closer to her, increasing the grip on his arm and aimed the gun right at his temple. “Stay back!” she warned the strange men who began to circle in all around her. The girls voice echoed a mixture of menace and fear. Much to her surprise, the men ignored her threats and kept coming. She pressed the gun deep into Duggan’s temple. The man’s face winced in pain. “You think I’m bluffing? I’ll kill him right here!”
“They know you’re not bluffing,” said a softly spoken voice from within the shadows near the entrance to the roof. “They just don’t care.” Lucius emerged out of the shadows. “I was hoping the vermin would have followed me, and here his fate would have been yours. Yet it seems he hadn’t the sense do even do that. Truly disappointing.”
“Lucius, help me!” Duggan shouted to him.
“You’ve served your purpose, you may die now,” said Lucius. “Kill them both,” he continued in an almost uncaring fashion. The surrounding shadows advanced at speed on Sophie and Duggan. Sophie pushed Duggan into one of the advancing men to allow her to retreat a little. The men snapped Duggan’s neck in two in an instant and threw his body brutally to the floor.
Sophie looked on; slightly disturbed by the way Lucius had ruthlessly discarded his henchman. She retreated back but had run out of roof to walk on. She now stood near the edge of the building and the eight men advanced at pace. Sophie stood poised for battle knowing she was outnumbered. If I go down, I’ll go down swinging!
The men prepared to strike. Suddenly James pounded one of the men to the ground from behind. “Hi.”
“Hey” replied Sophie, relieved to see him.
The pair had no further time for pleasantries however as the men engaged them in battle. The men charged them from all sides, and they were strong, much stronger than James had first thought. The man James had pounded to the ground was already back to his feet and eager for more. Back to back, James and Sophie took on their anonymous attackers, lashing out with fists and boots. The men’s fighting style was similar to that of the ninja group they had fought in Costa Rico some two years earlier. Sophie was barely holding her own, on the back foot for most of her engagement. The men were slightly more advanced in their fighting style than she was. James, on the other, hand unleashed a flurry of lighting-fast strikes and dodges. He was more than a match for the men and he wasted not a single blow in taking them down.
Sophie was struggling so she decided to revert to her speciality, her skill with knives, the very thing that brought her to the dance in the first place. See picked out two knifes from her belt, which were underneath her dress and began to use them like fists. She jabbed and poked knife shots into the men, but to her surprise, the men were unfazed. She threw one of the knives in her hand with deadly accuracy towards one of the quickly advancing men. The knife landed directly in the middle of the man’s forehead and he crashed to the ground, disintegrating into dust as he did so.
From the entrance, Lucius nodded in slight approval at the Irish girl’s skill with knives but most of his attention was directed towards James. He watched James’ fighting technique closely. He paid specific attention to the speed and strength of his foe’s blows. James was clearly overpowering the men b
ut Lucius seemed unimpressed. He lifted his arm high above his head and raised his hand.
The remaining men vanished in a plume of dust and within seconds, only Lucius, James and Sophie remained on the roof. James and Sophie looked around in confusion at the men’s apparent vanishing into thin air.
“What the hell is going on?” shouted James.
Lucius stepped forward and began to laugh uncontrollably. He clearly found great amusement from James’ misunderstanding. “You are a shell, a hollow image, such an unworthy opponent. Like all vermin, you will be swept away.”
James had a hard time understanding Lucius’ riddle like speech, however, he understood that when saying the word ‘vermin’, he was referring to James himself.
Lucius turned to Sophie. “You, on the other hand, have heart. Truly impressive for such a primitive creature.”
The white haired man quickly unleashed a backhand blow to Sophie, which sent the Irish girl hurling twenty feet across the roof. She would have fallen off the side of the hotel roof had she not crashed against the small bank on the roof’s edge. James was taken back slightly by the strength of Lucius’ blow.
“Such pathetic creatures aren’t they?” mocked the white haired man.
James rushed towards him and threw a fierce right-handed punch, which found its mark. Much to James’ surprise, the blow only moved Lucius head back slightly. Such a strike from James would normally have sent a regular man crashing to the ground. Almost simultaneously after the right hand, James threw a left, which Lucius blocked, catching his fist as it drew towards him. Lucius quickly directed a thunderous blow into James’ ribs, which sent the agent crashing back at least ten feet.
James fell back but broke his fall with a backward roll, however, make no mistake about it, the punch had shaken him. He crouched on the floor holding his rib cage, struggling to catch his breath. The punch had actually hurt him like no man had ever hurt him before. He reached into the nether regions of his suit and pulled out his gun. Lucius, showing impressive speed, raced forward and kicked the gun out of the agent’s hand. The kick was so powerful it sent the gun flying over the edge of the rooftop and down the long drop to the ground below.
Clash Of Worlds Page 20
