Nightfall

by Peter Hoole

  They did not. Matthew had not seen Caleb crawl out of the room, being more focused on the door opening. Matthew called out for Pierre.

  When no answer came, Matthew stepped towards the door, keeping his gun focused on the opening. He stood at the threshold of the bathroom and looked inside. He saw his leader, slumped unconscious on the floor.

  After several seconds, Pierre opened his eyes and spoke. “BEHIND YOU!!!” he whispered loudly, with all the meagre energy he could muster.

  It was then Matthew realised his mistake. He spun around, but not fast enough. Caleb had got the young apprentice in a choke hold, slowly cutting of the circulation to his brain.

  Matthew dropped his gun and struggled - proving to be more resilient that Caleb had hoped.

  The pair wrestled. Caleb tried to tighten his grip, and Matthew flailed his legs, knocking photos and other knick-knacks of the mantle that ran adjacent to the bathroom door. Matthew used the wall, and threw himself back into Caleb, causing them both to fall to the floor. Caleb released his grip, and Matthew broke free.

  As Caleb tried to stand up, Pierre emerged from the bathroom. He screamed at Caleb as he rushed towards him.

  Caleb was still crouched, when he saw Pierre running towards him. As Pierre approached, Caleb turned to face him.

  As Pierre closed in, in one fluid movement Caleb extended his arm, with his palm flat and facing to the roof. Using his legs for power, Caleb drove his full two hundred and forty pound frame into the movement. As the movement’s force reached its apex, the heel of Caleb’s hand connected with the underside of Pierre’s jaw, crushing the mandible bones on each side.

  The force of the blow caused Pierre’s skull to snap back and crush his C1 and C2 vertebrae, instantly crushing his spinal cord. The blow also caused Pierre’s instantly dead body to rise a foot in the air. When his body crashed back down, Pierre bounced before settling in its final resting place.

  Matthew, having just witnessed the violent death of his mentor, could not take his eyes away from the corpse. After the thud, a few silent moments passed.

  Caleb stood and walked over to Pierre’s body. He picked up Pierre’s gun and pointed it at Matthew. This attracted the young man’s attention. The death of his mentor was no longer his immediate concern. He now feared for his own life.

  Sensing the young man’s fear, Caleb tried to calm him down. He had seen too many people, friendly or not, become completely irrational and unpredictable when confronted with fear. “What’s your name?” he asked, in as calm a voice as he could muster.

  “Matt… Matthew,” he replied.

  “Well, Matthew. I assume that was your boss?”

  Matthew nodded.

  “If you do as you’re told, you will be fine… okay?”

  Matthew nodded again.

  “Good.”

  Caleb sensed it was time to leave the apartment. He told Matthew stand, keeping his hands on his head.

  Matthew complied, still compelled by fear.

  Caleb patted him down. He found a phone, which he placed in his own pocket. He kept the gun trained on Matthew, ensuring that his back was never towards the young man. He moved over to Pierre, patting down the dead man, in the same manner as he had with Matthew moments earlier. There was no ID, just a cell-phone, which Caleb also put in his pocket.

  Caleb walked over to Leon’s body. He hadn’t had an opportunity to search the first man, as he’d been interrupted by the second set of killers. Once again, he patted down the assailant, only to find no identification, only a cell phone.

  “Now… you stay right there.” Caleb said, after he had all three men’s phones.

  Caleb pulled out his own phone and dialled Darcy.

  “Babe,” she said, having waited anxiously for an update, “are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Did you get it?”

  “Hang on…” Caleb remembered the laptop. “Where is it?”

  “On the bed, remember?”

  “Oh yeah, hang on.” Caleb kept Darcy on the phone, and motioned for Matthew to move to the bedroom making sure he was never out of his sight.

  “Grab the computer,” he ordered Matthew.

  Darcy overheard the conversation. “Who are you talking to?” she asked.

  “I’ll explain it all soon.”

  Matthew grabbed the laptop.

  “Now bring it out and place it on the couch”

  Caleb returned back to his conversation with Darcy. “Drive over here now and meet me out the front in one minute.”

  “Alright, is everything okay?”

  “I’ll explain when I see you. It’s not safe to talk on the phone.”

  “Okay, we’re on the way.”

  “One minute”

  “Okay.”

  “And Darc? We’re gonna have company.” Caleb hung up. With the gun still aimed at Matthew, he ordered him to turn around and place his hands on his head.

  Caleb grabbed the only wire he could find – a phone charger. He walked across to Matthew pulling Matthews’s hands behind his back. He tied them together securely. Caleb retrieved the laptop, knowing they needed to deliver it to Chuck, and guided Matthew out of the apartment.

  “Where are we going?” Matthew asked.

  “That’s what you’re going to tell me,” Caleb replied.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Darcy watched anxiously as she drove towards the apartment, relieved when she saw Caleb appear from beneath the awning of the building. He was accompanied by a young man - who couldn’t have been more than twenty years old. The young man was about six feet and strongly built. She noticed his hands were tied behind his back as Caleb led him to the car.

  The car stopped, and Dunleavy got out, quickly opening the back door. Caleb shoved the young man into the back seat. Caleb slipped in beside him, and pointed the gun at the young man.

  Once Dunleavy got back into the front seat, Caleb spoke. “Drive.”

  “Where?” Darcy asked, pulling away from the sidewalk.

  “Just drive for now, I need to think for a few minutes,” Caleb said tiredly

  As Darcy drove, Dunleavy turned to better assess their prisoner. “Who the fuck is this?” he asked casually.

  “I have no idea,” replied Caleb, “but he was there to kill us.”

  “Act— Actually…” Matthew began, “We weren’t there to kill you.”

  “You’ve got a weird way of showing it,” Caleb replied.

  “Okay, my boss did try to stop you, but only because you were in the way.”

  Caleb shifted the gun to aim at Matthew’s knee, and leaned in closer, to reinforce his message. “I’m going to ask you some questions” he began, “and if I think for one second that you’re lying to me… you saw what I did to your boss”

  Matthew swallowed heavily. “Okay, okay.” he said, a hint of panic in his voice.

  “First, what’s your name? There was no ID on either you or your friends.” Caleb knew the young man’s name already, having just asked him while they were in the apartment. He only asked again for one main reason, to make sure the kid gave the same answer twice. Failure to do so would indicate he could be deceptive, even under strain.

  “Matthew,” he replied.

  “Okay, Matthew,” Caleb said, trying to build familiarity, “why were you in the apartment?”

  “The guy. The guy that was dead. The guy on the couch.”

  “Yes?”

  “I was sent to take him out.”

  “Him? Why him?”

  “I’m not sure. I was just told to take him out,” Matthew said, staring at the gun pointing at his knee, “Probably because he was no longer required —” He stopped abruptly.

  Caleb noticed the pause. “Now Matthew, when I say ‘don’t lie to me’, I should also add ‘Don’t hold anything back’.” Caleb took Pierre’s phone from his pocket and flipped through the contacts. All he saw were a series of alpha-numeric indicators. All starting with the letter Z, the numbers appe
ared in sequence. “Z-1-1, Z-1-2” etcetera, right down to Z-15-3. His most recent call had been from Z-1-1, and his most recent to Z-3-14. Frowning, Caleb scrolled through the text messages. All appeared to have been deleted but one and it had been sent to the last number called; Z-3-14. “What does this mean?” Caleb asked Matthew and showed him the screen.

  “I don’t… I really don’t know” Matthew replied, sounding as confused as Caleb about the message.

  “What does it say?” asked Dunleavy, who’d been paying close attention to the conversation.

  “All it says is,” Caleb read the message aloud, “E. Landing at 0700. Good luck. P”

  Caleb directed his next words to his prisoner. “What was your boss’ name, Matthew?”

  “Pierre,” the young man said.

  “So obviously, Pierre sent the message. Now, who is E?” Caleb demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Matthew said.

  Caleb saw the deception in Matthew’s eyes, and placed the gun more firmly against Matthew’s knee. “Now, Matthew, you remember what I said about lying, don’t you?” Caleb began to put pressure on the trigger.

  “Caleb! Wait!” Darcy shrieked from the front seat.

  “What? What is it Darc?” Caleb asked, surprised Darcy had interrupted the conversation.

  “Caleb, just, just wait a minute,” Darcy said, as she pulled over to the side of the vacant road. She stopped the car and turned to face Caleb. “You don’t need to do that.”

  “Darcy, sometimes a message needs to be sent.”

  “No, not like this,” she said swivelling. “Can’t you hear it?”

  “Hear what?”

  “The fear. The fear in his voice”

  Caleb frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Caleb… I’ve spoken to so many people. I’ve heard so many speeches. I’ve heard so many emotions. This guy… this kid is scared.”

  “Of course he’s scared, babe… that’s how I want him to be!” Caleb said, frustrated with the interruption.

  “Caleb, the only time he’s shown any real fear is when he said his boss’ name. He knows he’s betrayed him. Isn’t that right, Matthew?”

  Matthew didn’t respond.

  Now that Darcy had pointed it out, Caleb saw it too. He knew there was no threat he could make to cause Matthew to tell the truth. Perhaps a softer approach would be required.

  “You’re right.” Caleb said tucking the gun into the back of his jeans.

  “For fuck’s sake, Jackson, at least keep the gun on him!” Dunleavy demanded.

  “Nah, let’s give the kid a chance. Matthew, I know you’re scared, but we need some answers…”

  Pierre’s phone began to ring.

  Caleb pulled it back out of his pocket, discovering the display showed ‘Z-1-4’, “Who would be calling Pierre now?” Caleb asked

  “I… I don’t know.” Matthew replied, sounding just as surprised as Caleb.

  The phone rang again.

  And again.

  Caleb was still deciding what to do. Should he answer it? Or leave it?

  The questions was answered for him, as the phone abruptly stopped ringing.

  Shit, William thought. In all the time he’d worked with Pierre, regardless of the situation, he had never let his phone ring more than twice. And he certainly wouldn’t have on this occasion, especially with so much happening. Since they’d last spoken, William knew James had spoken with Pierre, but he had no idea what had happened in the interim.

  With Pierre’s apparent inability to answer the phone, William took the appropriate precautions, following procedure. He opened his phone again, and input the shutdown code. Each phone in the organisation was identical. It was manufactured by Molyneux Industries, and could only contact other members of the organisation. There was no Sim card, and there was no phone company involved. The phone calls and messages bounced off satellites – satellites that were owned by the group. Operating on a rotating frequency made the phones, and the conversations, untraceable.

  In fact, the only way to contact another member of the group was via these phones. There were no emails, no faxes, no Instant Messaging. All had been deemed as too insecure.

  In this case, when Pierre’s phone wasn’t answered in two rings, or even three in emergencies, then connection to the offending phone needed to be severed. The shutdown code William entered connected immediately to Pierre’s phone, sending a programmed algorithm to the phone, causing the system to shut down. The shutdown would also spark a chemical reaction in the battery, and the phone would self-destruct, acid from the battery destroying the interior workings.

  Some of the members of the colony believed the protocol to be extreme, and it had caused significant hurdles in the past, particularly for field operatives. On this occasion however, William felt the instigation of the protocol to be vital. He only hoped, that if the phone had been compromised, whoever had it hadn’t had enough time to retrieve any information from the device.

  While the possibility made him nervous, it paled in comparison to his next task – alerting James to the situation.

  Chapter Twenty

  Caleb contemplated the phone call, and wondered if he’d made a mistake in not answering it.

  “Who was it?” asked Dunleavy.

  “I don’t know,” Caleb replied. “Caller ID said Z-1-4”

  “What is that, some kind of code?” Dunleavy asked Matthew.

  Matthew remained silent.

  Caleb checked the phone again. When he reopened it, the screen was dead. No matter which buttons he pressed, he couldn’t get it operational. “Shit, the phone’s dead,” Caleb said. “Darcy, we haven’t got a choice now – we need to get some information from him.”

  Darcy turned in her seat to look at the young man. “Now, Matthew,” she began, “I’ve never been in this kind of situation before. I don’t really know how it works. But, I’m guessing - and I’m sure you’re thinking the same thing - I’m guessing that if you don’t give us the information we need, then we don’t need you anymore.”

  Matthew, glanced up, and saw the sincerity in Darcy’s eyes.

  “I’m sure you can understand that?” Darcy continued.

  Matthew nodded, resigned to the situation.

  “Just tell us what we need to know.”

  “I… I can’t. There’s… there too much at stake.”

  “What’s at stake, Matthew? I don’t even know why someone tried to kill me?”

  “You?” Matthew asked, seemingly surprised.

  “I’ll fill you in on what I know, Matthew…” Darcy began. She told Matthew everything. The email, the reporter in Australia, the tracking device. Everything about why she thought she was being targeted.

  “That’s it?” Matthew asked, stunned.

  “Yes… That’s it. So, please help us. I don’t want to die.”

  Matthew lapsed into silence, staring out the window.

  “Don’t think for too long,” Caleb warned, interrupting Matthew’s thoughts, “We can’t wait forever. Someone was sent to kill us, and they failed. If your group is as powerful as I think they are, they’ll send someone else. I’m not going to wait around for them.” Caleb paused, allowing time for his words to sink in. “I’m going to give you a minute. Once that minute’s up, you’re going to do one of two things. One; you’ll tell me who ‘E’ is… or two; you’ll prove that you’re of no use to us. It’s up to you.”

  Matthew remained stubbornly silent.

  “Fifty seconds left,” Caleb said, counting down the seconds on his watch.

  Matthew looked up at Darcy, his eyes pleading with her to help.

  “I… I can’t help you. Caleb is right… we can’t risk it,” she said

  “Forty seconds.”

  Matthew remained silent, still staring at Darcy.

  “Thirty seconds…”

  Still Matthew remained silent.

  “Twenty…”

  Suddenly, Matthew spoke. “Emmett. His name is Emmett.”r />
  Darcy was relieved he’d spoken. She didn’t want Caleb to kill anyone, unless he had to. “Thank you Matthew” she said.

  “Yes, thank you Matthew,” Caleb added. “Can you explain the rest of the message?”

  “No, no, I can’t. But I can tell you where he is.”

  “Okay, that’ll be a start.”

  “He’s in Seattle.”

  Caleb glanced over at Darcy. “Darcy, we need to get moving now”.

  She started the car, and pulled out onto the street.

  Emmett had received the text message and he checked all the flights that were inbound to Seattle International. There was only one due at 0700, a Pacifica flight arriving from Beijing. As instructed, he’d distributed the files Pierre had sent him. In the files were details, coded as before, that would lead investigators to believe there was a terrorist plot to take down a flight that had left China and been scheduled to land in the United States. This would, if protocols were followed, lead to an all-out attack on the terrorists by both governments. Hundreds of lives would be lost during the attack, but it would serve its purpose.

  The attack would provide a sufficient distraction for the governments of the world, and thus allow the plan to proceed uninterrupted.

  Emmett began his preparations. He collected up his identification papers – false of course – his wallet, and all the cash he had. He placed them in the metal garbage bin in his rented apartment, before standing on the bed, and unplugging the smoke alarm. Taking a match, he set fire to his belongings, ensuring no-one would be able to trace him. Then he grabbed his phone, and left the apartment for the last time.

  Emmett walked out to his car, and drove toward his destination. While the journey was the same, this time he felt very differently about it. He knew he was about to kill more than two hundred people and make a real difference to the world.

  Any feelings of guilt Emmett experienced were fleeting. He knew the deaths of the passengers on the plane were part of a greater plan, a plan that was going to help the whole world.