The Bleeding Sun

by Abhishek Roy

  After locating the elevator, he needed to figure out a plan to bring his equipment up to the room without having to go through the baggage scanners and security personnel near the main reception and casino. He took the elevator, headed to the ground floor and walked through the main lobby into the streets. He took a right turn and headed off to the alleys leading to the back of the casino. Finding his backpack was not a big problem; it was lying in the elevator shaft where he had left it earlier. He needed to figure out a way to get it to the 18th floor. He took out the grappling gook and tied one end of the wire with his bag. Next he placed the bag on top of the small elevator car and attached the hook to the main cables to ensure that it did not fall off.

  He headed back to the hotel once again, passing through the main lobby, taking the main elevator to the 17th floor. Like the 18th floor, the corridors leading to this floor was empty as well. He headed to the service elevator. He had gathered a bottle of cleaning spray from a service cart that was left stranded at the end of the hallway by the room service personnel. As he went towards the service elevator, he sprayed the cleaning spray on the two security cameras to ensure the security personnel wouldn’t get a clear footage of what was going on. He quickly moved to the service elevator and pressed the button to bring up the elevator to the 17th floor. After that Lucas took the main elevator and moved up to the 18th floor.

  The hallway was still empty. He headed to his room and brought Sam’s shaving foam from the washroom. As he headed down the hallway towards the service elevator, he ensured that he sprayed the foam on each of the cameras. He forced open the service elevator door and stepped down on the elevator car to obtain his backpack. After securing the same, he used the grappling hook to pull himself up back to the 18th floor. On his way back to the room, he wiped off the foam from the security cams on the way. So by the time the security guys came up to check the glitch, the cams would be up and running once again causing minimal sense of alarm.

  Sam was still lying unconscious as Lucas opened up his backpack and started assembling his stuff. He took out a couple of C4 sticks and the smoke grenades. He would need them to create utter chaos during his exit plan. He carried the explosives with him along with the pistol and his goggles. He also took out the Swiss knife and secured it in a special compartment on the sole of his right boot. He wore the goggles, changed the color of the glass for easy visibility at night and turned the inbuilt infrared lights on so that the cameras could not detect his face. He also took out a few spare tracking patches. He put the rest of the contents in the backpack and headed out of the room.

  He went to the service elevator shaft and attached the bag to the cable using the grappling hook. He also closed the elevator door to ensure that no one would suspect that something was wrong. After this, Lucas went down the emergency stairs to the 17th floor and attached a C4 stick to the fire safety system itself. The detonator was embedded which could be detonated remotely using his watch. He headed to the 49th floor first and called up the service elevator. Next he headed back to the main elevator and went to the 50th floor to meet Romanovich. It was time for showdown.

  While the elevator was moving up, Lucas stacked another C4 stick to the elevator’s ceiling after removing the shaft. He also placed the smoke grenades there so that once the C4 was detonated, the whole elevator shaft would be covered in smoke. This would also ensure that all elevators including Romanovich’s express elevator was rendered useless. He had made enough arrangement to create a panic. He surely would not be able to carry the pistol with him while meeting Romanovich. So he had to think of an excuse for carrying one.

  The elevator came to a halt at the 50th floor. Romanovich’s personal guards were waiting outside the penthouse. Any visitor had to go through a pat down before they could head over to meet Romanovich. Lucas could clearly see four heavily built men waiting at the main entrance. They were surely carrying firearms and looked equally capable in hand to hand combat. The symbol of ‘Viper’ was tattooed on two of their necks. These guys were the very cream of Rosmus’s notorious and battle hardened security agency. Even before they searched him, Lucas handed over the pistol suggesting that being a CEO of a rapidly growing company, he had developed multiple enemies worldwide and hence he always carried the same for self-defense. However he would not need the same for his meeting with Mr. Romanovich and hence the security personnel should keep it in their custody.

  After a thorough pat down, the Viper operatives determined that Lucas did not possess any other form of weapon with him. So after a brief discussion with someone on the phone, Lucas was allowed to enter the penthouse while they kept the pistol in their custody. Lucas was happy. No matter how many times they would try, they would never be able to identify his face later from the camera footage since the infrared light would ensure that his face was not clearly visible in any of the cameras. So he could safely and anonymously cause havoc that night.

  Lucas was escorted to the master suite by one of the guards. As he entered the room, he could see Romanovich and Rosmus were having a heated discussion about some unfinished business. Romanovich ordered Rosmus to take care of the problem at any cost. Rosmus left the room in real haste while cursing along. He was not particularly pleased with whatever Romanovich had ordered him to do. Lucas turned the dial of his watch to ensure that the tracker was still in place with Rosmus and was transmitting the signal clearly.

  While shaking his hand, he attached a tracker patch to Romanovich’s shirt. He asked Lucas to be seated as he prepared a drink for himself. He came back with a glass of scotch, sat down on the recliner and pulled out a cigar. ‘Well Mr. Adams, how can I help you and your company?’ Lucas had a really interesting back story prepared for this purpose. His clientele included not only the big corporations but also organizations who paid a huge amount of money to use their logistics for transporting things which they couldn’t do officially using other companies. That was the USP of ‘Zipline’, they had normal customers as well as a range of special customers with special needs. His organization took care of such assignments in discretely delivering the cargo without getting intercepted by the law enforcement agencies. Recently, Zipline had setup their operations in India and Qatar. However the Indian enforcement agencies were creating obstacles to their operations while transferring cargo from the Middle East to India.

  He planned to setup operations in Cuba and the Americas in near future with a lucrative potential clientele consisting of dictators, cartel and the mafia. However owing to the debacle he was facing in India, and the recent involvement of security partnership between India, US and the South American countries, he would need serious connections to set up his operation. Also he needed help regarding the Indian debacle; he wanted to get the Indian agencies off his back. He believed that Romanovich was the right person who could guide him with his resources, connections and man power to achieve the same. In return, he was ready to transfer 35% of the shares of Zipline which would in turn make Romanovich the majority stakeholder of the company.

  Romanovich had presented a grim face at first, which gradually changed into a wry smile. ‘But why me Mr. Adams? With your clientele, you are already in touch with people dealing with things which I would barely call legal; so why come to me’. Lucas needed to disclose more to convince Romanovich. So he brought up details on Romanovich’s list of friends and employees about whom he had heard rumors ranging from Suleiman and Bakhtiyar to Rosmus. He explained that he had also heard about Romanovich’s connections in Cuban politics, Kremlin and the White House. So he believed that he was the only person who could help him with Zipline’s operational difficulties.

  Although Romanovich was pretty surprised regarding how he had obtained such details, he was pleased overall with the praise that was heaped upon him. Lucas also justified his narration by explaining that he too had some contacts in the Interpol as well as the CIA who had been helping him out in carrying out his operations. So Lucas’s backstory looked really convincing. Romanovich rose
up from the recliner and went back to the bar. He pulled out another glass, poured the scotch ad handed it over to Lucas.

  ‘This calls for celebration Mr. Adams; usually I tend to find the organizations that I would want to fund. However, yours would be the first case where the reverse is true. I am impressed by what I am hearing and I think I should be able to turn you into a true global organization. Let’s raise the toast.’ Lucas smiled and emptied his glass. He had done really well considering the very limited resources that he had. He couldn’t believe that convincing the Russian would be so easy. Now, all he needed to do was extract information on possible safe houses in Havana where Annie could have been held hostage.

  ‘Well Mr. Rosmus didn’t look too happy when he left the room earlier. Is everything all right? As far as I know, given his credentials and the inputs from Interpol, he is your right hand man.’ Romanovich was in a mood to brag. He talked about how he had set up is operations in Cuba a few years back and how Rosmus had ensured that every single person ranging from politicians, bureaucrats to even the law enforcement agencies had complied with the demands that Romanovich had put up. Well Rosmus’s way of working always ensured there was a bit of a blood trail, but that in return also served the purpose of setting an example for all those who dared to oppose him. Now Cuba is completely under my control. Anything and anyone that goes in and out of the country must have approval from my men.

  Lucas presented an amused look and directly asked the question, ’With all due respect, in spite of your authority across Cuba, I don’t think Cuba is still safe for business. The primetime news agencies were reporting about a suspected missile attack somewhere near Havana as well as the fact that a gunship had destroyed a reputed hotel yesterday. Based on this scenario have you ever considered building a safe house or a fortress for yourself, in case your organization came under attack in Havana?’

  Lucas had managed to hurt Romanovich’s pride by questioning his authority in the country. Romanovich’s face had turned red as he lighted another cigar. ‘Mr. Adams, first you come to me for help and then you decide to taunt me and my authority in Cuba. Well, if you must know the truth, the gunship that destroyed the hotel belonged to me. This is the second Indian agent that I have eliminated within the last month. The same folks who are causing you pain in the Indian subcontinent, are present here too; just that they are here with a death wish, and I’m granting their wish. I have a third one that was recently captured alive, you can only imagine how I’ll create an example out of that agent so that they never ever dare to set foot on the Cuban soil.

  Rosmus is personally taking care of it as we speak. As of the missile attack, it was actually a series of IEDs. Rosmus had personally ensured that the whole operation went smooth and the community was destroyed. We had information from India that the community had several Cuban residents who were helping the secret agents from India.’ The mobile phone vibrated as Romanovich checked the notification. He remained still for some time, then reached for the drawer, before continuing his narration. ‘So, it had to be destroyed; once again an example was set to ensure no one else dares to do the same type of mistakes in future. After all, Rosmus belonged to the Russian mafia before I roped him in. So you need not worry Mr. Adams, as I had said earlier, even a fly cannot enter or exit Cuba without my men knowing about it.

  Now tell me Mr. Adams, why and how a man like you would carry a gun in my hotel without the security agencies knowing about it. Also my security agents have informed me that you were using a room which is currently allocated to some other guest. I think you have been lying about a lot of things Mr. Adams, or should I say Mr. Lucas’

  Romanovich brought out and pointed a pistol at Lucas while alerting his guards by pressing the panic button on the side of the minibar. Lucas’s cover was blown. Someone had clearly disclosed his identity along with his aliases. Even if they had tracked his movement using the prototype device that he had recovered, it was not possible for others to know about his fake passports and identities. Also, he had planned this visit to the casino very discretely and had not made any form of contact with the head office. He had destroyed the power source of the prototype device and hence no one could have tracked him or followed him any further. He was also under disguise as the European businessman. On top of these he had failed to extract the location of the safe house.

  Since Rosmus was already on the way, Lucas didn’t have time to lose. He needed to follow Rosmus’s trail before the tracking signal was lost. He would need to get out of the casino and go for Annie. As the door flung open and the Viper agents entered the room, Lucas turned the dial of his watch and pressed a button. The C4 sticks he had placed along the fire extinguishers and the elevator detonated. The blast rocked the building as smoke and flame engulfed the upper floors. The elevator was stranded on the 45th floor when the C4 sticks had detonated. It went for a freefall. Due to the blast, both Romanovich and the Viper agents had started to panic.

  Before eliminating Lucas, their task at hand was to secure Romanovich and move him safely out of the building. Romanovich fired a shot and ran towards the door as Lucas took advantage of the situation. He jumped behind Romanovich’s recliner as the Vipers started firing their hand guns. He crawled to the back of the bar. The firing had temporarily stopped as two of the Viper agents secured Romanovich and headed out to take him to safety. He would surely be taken to a safe location, possibly the safe house where Annie was being held. It would probably be the same place where Rosmus had headed earlier.

  Lucas looked around for choice of weapons. He picked up a cork screw from the racks and also took out a bottle of tequila. He also pulled out his Swiss knife from his shoe. Romanovich’s half burnt cigar was still lighted up and was lying on the ground. The viper agent moved towards the bar with his eyes on the target and fingers firm on the trigger. As he came close enough, Lucas leapt out of the bar counter and smashed the bottle of tequila on his head. He used the cork screw and the Swiss knife to vigorously stab the agent a few times to force him to drop his gun. As the agent thrashed around in pain, Lucas picked up the gun and the half burnt cigar. He threw the cigar on the Viper agent’s face as he swiftly headed towards the main door. The tequila soaked agent immediately caught fire and scream out in pain.

  As he rushed to the front door, Lucas could hear footsteps of more agents heading towards the room in order to eliminate him. He took cover behind the door as two more agents rushed in. They were surprised to see that Lucas was missing and instead their fellow agent had been set on fire. As they moved towards the burning agent, Lucas took them down with two shots. He killed the agent who had been screaming out in pain owing to the burns, to put him out of his suffering. He headed out of the main door, collected his gun from the entrance and stormed down the stairs.

  As he headed to the floor below, he went straight for the service elevator. The guests on the floor were in utter panic. They screamed and ran around the corridor trying to get out of the floor. As they rushed out of the emergency staircase few people were injured in the stampede. Lucas opened the service elevator shaft to recover his backpack. He couldn’t possibly manage to swiftly head towards the basement using the emergency stairs owing to the large number of people that were present in the staircase in every floor. He would not be able to get hold of Romanovich as he escaped. Instead he had a much better idea.

  He headed towards Romanovich’s suite once again. The suite had a personal helipad located on the top. He could use his hand glider to glide down to the ground. He would also be able to track, trace and follow Romanovich’s car if he managed to leave the building before Lucas reached the ground. Lucas headed to the helipad on the roof and brought out his retractable hand glider. It took just a couple of minutes to set it up and attach it to his back. He set up his goggles in a tracking mode and pulled up the maps on the screen, so that he could use the same to navigate. He also checked the dial of his watch to redirect the signal to his goggles. He could see Rosmus’s last location on th
e map of his screen and was pretty sure that Romanovich would be heading over to the same direction.

  Rosmus’s tracker was not emitting a signal any more, most likely due to interference from signal jammers. Lucas jumped off the western end of the building like the paratrooper commandos with whom he had been trained. He opened up the hand glider and glided towards the harbor. He glided carefully as Romanovich’s tracking signal started to appear. His car was heading in the same direction as Lucas had anticipated. What really surprised him was that Romanovich had been able to get off the building so quickly even with the number of guests who had jammed up the emergency staircase. Surely a large number of guests must have been forcefully cleared or eliminated to ensure that the Russian could escape from the building unharmed. Romanovich was travelling in a black Rolls Royce being escorted by a black SUV.

  Lucas was lurking near the western entrance of the harbor as he noticed Romanovich’s convoy. Based on the tracking signal, he had anticipated that the safe house Romanovich was travelling to, was the Castillo De La Real Fuerza; a perfect place to set up operations. Being a UNESCO designated heritage site as well as a popular tourist attraction, no one would ever expect a base of operations to be located there. Also the fortification in the castle along with the number of mercenaries securing the place, made it a perfect place for Rosmus and Romanovich to carry out their shady operations.