Gabriel: Only one gets out alive.

by mike Evans

  Gabriel handed him a backpack. “Toss this out your window near the building. I took it from the armory when I was gearing up. You pull this string here and you make sure that you are not anywhere in the vicinity when it goes off.”

  “It’s a bomb, isn’t it? How long do I have before it goes off?”

  “Twenty seconds maybe. I’d let it go and get the fuck out of dodge once you pull that. If there is one thing about the CIA, it’s that just because it has an ETA on detonation, that doesn’t mean anything when it comes to when the damn thing will actually go off.

  Jonathan nodded. “Don’t worry. I won’t keep this thing any longer than I need to. Once you get the place secured, you let me know and I can get reinforcements to back you up if you need it.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “You make sure that you get a medical team ready. There will be people who are going to need help if they’re doing human experiments in there.”

  Jonathan said, “No, I meant if you need backup with the terrorists.

  Gabriel said, “They will never know I’m coming.”

  Gabriel closed the door, twirling his finger to let him know to take off. Jonathan watched his gauges, making sure that he was set. When he looked back out, Gabriel had already disappeared into the woods. Gabriel had waited for him to take off and had sprinted across the field to the tunnel where the plant’s waste was sent out. Gabriel slipped on a hazardous waste mask, glad that he was going into an American waste tunnel and not a third world country, where the fluids coming out could cause him sure death. He ducked, running quickly through it. He had seen nothing but a few rats in the tunnel. When he came up into the building, he kept a watchful gaze. He heard the machines running that powered the building, boilers running full bore. He walked slowly and carefully, but after a few minutes, he realized that there was very little staff in the building. He had not seen or heard anyone yet. He walked through the basement, prying a map of the building off the wall. He saw the security room on the map and made his way there first. When he came to the room, he heard music blaring and looked inside.

  He saw an Iranian man sitting behind the tower of computer monitors that had almost every inch of the building under surveillance. Gabriel was glad that this man hadn’t been putting a lot of effort into his assignment; he had made it this far into the building undetected. He scratched on the door and a man yelled, “What do you want? It is not locked!”

  Gabriel said nothing, he just tapped on the door again, and after a moment, the man got up, cursing aloud as he walked to the door. He opened it up with his gun still slung on his shoulder, a fresh cigarette sitting between his lips. “I said what do you want?”

  Gabriel pulled the man out by the front of his collar and gripped his rifle from behind him, twisting the strap repeatedly until it was strangling the man. Gabriel slammed the man back into the security room hard. He tried everything he could to get Gabriel to let go, but it was useless, and after a minute, the man started to fall to his knees. He had never stopped twisting the rifle, and the man’s face was near purple by the time he’d finally taken his last breath. Gabriel let the man down easy, dragging him to the back of the office, knowing by the time he was found, it would be too late for any of them.

  Gabriel searched through the rooms, seeing that the company left very little to the imagination. They did not believe in their employees’ honesty, as he found that every room was wired. He scrolled through, finding one filled with a man and three small children. He pulled out his file, skimming it and coming to the section detailing the doctor. He saw a picture of him with his family noted in there as well. The children in the picture looked younger and smaller. He saw no wife in the picture and as he read further, he saw that she had been found dead in the family’s home.

  Gabriel finished scrolling through the footage, seeing only five men. Four were in the office holding the doctor and one man was guarding the children. He saw the parking lot in one shot and hit the rewind function on it. It showed two men a few hours ago, heading out to a large SUV, wheeling something behind them. He tried his radio to let Jonathan know to contact in, but had no signal this deep in the basement. He went back further seeing everyone in the office leaving at once and realized it was just the normal time that a regular person left work.

  He watched as the man with the children was talking on his radio. He pulled out his pistol and made sure that he had one in the chamber. The man ushered the children out into the hall and the four of them headed towards the office. Gabriel was confident that he knew what was about to happen and left the security room in a sprint. He peered at the map of the building as he made his way to where they were. Gabriel made it in between him and the office that they were heading to and waited patiently, catching his breath.

  When the man crossed the doorway, Gabriel reached out from the darkness and pulled the man back into the darkness with him. The man tried to scream, but Gabriel cupped his mouth as he slid the knife into his lung. The man elbowed at Gabriel and as he did, Gabriel gripped his arm, raising it up and slid the knife in the arteries of his armpit, turning the blade and bringing it down his side. The man screamed in pain behind Gabriel’s hand and Gabriel delivered one final blow to the man’s neck. He took the momentum going down his side and transferred it into an upward motion, jamming the knife up into the man's neck; his eyes bulged as the knife pierced. The man’s legs went out from beneath him and Gabriel let him fall to the floor.

  Gabriel put his fingers on his face, feeling nothing but the man’s blood. Not wanting to frighten the kids, he wiped it off. He moved to the hallway and found the three faces all looking numb. They didn’t look like they had seen anything that resembled love in a very long time. He knelt down in front of them, not wanting to assume. He asked, “Do you speak English?”

  The oldest of the three looked at Gabriel, his eyes filled with fear. Gabriel patted the boy on the shoulder. “It’s okay if you speak. You are safe now, I promise you.”

  The youngest whispered, “We speak English. That man is mean. He does not let us talk.”

  Gabriel nodded. “Well, I took care of him and he won’t hurt you again, I can promise you that. Have you seen your father recently?”

  The children shook their heads slowly; the oldest spoke, “We have not seen him in a very long time. These men came to our home and broke in. They killed our mother and took us on a very long trip. We have been kept in this place for as long as I can remember. We don’t know if our father is even alive.”

  Gabriel stood, looking around and motioned for the children to follow him. “You r father is safe and alive. I’m going to take you somewhere to hide. Do you think that you can do that for me? If you can stay in one place, I will get your dad and then the four of you can go somewhere safe.”

  The youngest asked, “Is there such a place away from them?”

  Gabriel never stopped walking. “There will be no one left to harm you after today.”

  They went through the halls slowly, the children mimicking his walk and trying to keep up with his long legs. When Gabriel found a break room, he ushered them in, setting them up with drinks and snacks. All of them looking like they could use a month or two of healthy meals. Their clothes were too short on their legs and too tight for their waists, and all of them worn and dingy; it appeared that they had not been allowed to change them very often. The children saw the food and attacked it. Gabriel said, “You stay here. Don’t leave and I will be back with your dad.”

  The little one gave a thumbs up, stuffing a package of cookies into his face. He smiled and Gabriel thought it might have been the first time he had done so since he had been taken and his mother murdered. He shut the door slowly and quietly, then went back to the dead man and stripped his radio off of his belt. The radio was going off with screams from his men who had been obviously waiting for him to come with the children. Gabriel answered, “I am on my way; one of the little bastards had to take a shit.”

  The voice said, “Well, why d
idn’t you answer before?”

  Gabriel barked back at him, “Who are you, my mother? What the hell hurry are you in? We will be there soon.”

  “We can leave once we give the disease to them. I am ready to leave and go home finally.”

  “We are all ready to go home, brother.”

  “Just hurry up,” the man said.

  Gabriel made his way down the hall to the wing where the doctor was being held. He walked slowly, peering into the room that the hostages were in, noticing that they were lying on the floor, not moving. He stared at the group while watching their chests. After a few minutes, he could just barely see the faintest of movement rising and falling, telling him that they weren’t lost yet. He knocked on the door and waited for the handle to twist. When it did, Gabriel slammed a foot into it. The man on the other end had his nose caught by the edge of the door, breaking it and covering his front with blood. Gabriel moved in through the doorway. The man with the broken nose stood just inside, doubled over in pain. Gabriel brought a boot straight up at the man’s head. The force of the kick propelled him back onto a table. The man left in charge cowered behind the doctor who held up his hands, eyes shut. The doctor was sure that his life was over. Gabriel aimed at the other two men, firing twice into each heart to make sure they would no longer be a threat.

  The man in charge screamed, “If you do not put your gun down, I will shoot him in the head! Do you hear me? I swear to you, I will shoot him!”

  Gabriel looked at the doctor and then back at the terrorist. “Who is this man? Is he important?”

  The man looked at Gabriel curiously, “If you are not here for him, then why are you here?”

  “Didn’t you hear?”

  “Hear what?”

  “There’s an abundance of assholes here.” Gabriel fired the pistol once, leaving a new hole in the man's forehead. The force of the bullet snapped his neck back and he crashed into the wall. A single stream of blood wound down his forehead from the hole. The man slid to the ground leaving a blood trail down the side of the office wall.

  Gabriel looked at the doctor, realizing he, too, looked like a skeleton, just barely standing on his own feet. Gabriel pointed the gun at the man. “What is your name? Who are you?”

  He looked at Gabriel, raising his hands slowly, unsure who the hell he was or that he was here to help. “My name is Dr. Akbar Abul. I have been held here for many months. These men have kidnapped my children and murdered my wife. They are bastards.”

  Gabriel lowered the pistol, looking at the three men, and Abul lowered his hands as well. The man who had been kicked in the face just seconds before was starting to come around. Gabriel raised the pistol, but the doctor walked straight in front of him and grabbed a laptop, gripping it with both hands; as the terrorist began to sit up, the doctor brought it back in an awkward baseball stance and swung the computer, putting everything that he had into it. The man’s nose, already looking bad, was now indescribable. The snapping sound that his nose made this time was gut wrenching. Gabriel winced, thinking of the pain the man was going to be feeling if he survived this day. Gabriel asked, “You feel better now?”

  The doctor looked at the blood-covered laptop, nodding his head and breathing very heavily. He brought the laptop up over his head again and smashed it into the man’s face once and then again. The man’s legs shook, and on the third swing, Gabriel stepped forward, gripping the doctor’s arm. “That’s enough, doctor, please stop.”

  “You sympathize with this piece of shit? He is a disease; he does not deserve to live, and I pray that he burns in hell for eternity.”

  Gabriel looked down at the man who was trying to regain his composure and not pass out. He gripped Gabriel’s arm limply. Gabriel, staring at the doctor said, “I do not feel for these men, but as of now there is no one to interrogate if this man is killed. Who is left to answer my questions?”

  The doctor nodded slowly. “So, we need to keep him alive?”

  Gabriel nodded. “It doesn’t mean he needs to be happy, though.” He gripped the man's wrist, twisting it hard and bending it backwards until he heard it break.

  The man screamed in pain and the doctor pointed at him. “His name is Jahid. I almost never get to see him. They have remedial jobs around the plant that they do. They tell me my children are still alive, but I don’t have any proof of that.”

  Gabriel looked at the man, seeing the worry. “I have your children already. They are safe… hungry and undernourished, but they are safe and that's as important as anything, isn’t it?”

  The doctor clasped his hands together, thanking his God. He looked at Gabriel for a moment, seeing the knives, the pistols, and grenades strapped onto his body. “Who are you, sir? Why are you here?”

  “I was hired to free you and your kids, and to take out Imad and his men before they became a threat.”

  Akbar nodded. “Are they still here? Can I see them?”

  Gabriel looked at the observation room. “Did you do this to them? Was that your doing, by chance?”

  “Can we speak in private for a minute, please? Do you have something that you can use to restrain him with, please?”

  Gabriel flipped the pistol over in his hand, lifted it high in the air, and brought it down with force, pistol-whipping the man. His screaming stopped instantly. He no longer was clutching his wrist, trying to stop the bleeding from the bone that had broken through his dark skin. Gabriel asked, “What is it? If it’s important, I need to know. Does it have something to do with the people inside that room?”

  The doctor stared at them, nodding. “It has everything to do with them. I have spent the last year of my life dealing with this, day after day. He would not let me leave until I completed his mission. He held the threat of my children’s death and my own over my head until he got what he wanted.”

  Gabriel asked, “So, you are saying that you did what he asked you to?”

  “I had no choice. But he knew nothing about what it was that I do. He had an idea, he had a plan, and that was all he could focus on.”

  Gabriel thought he understood what he was saying, but didn’t want to assume anything. “Spell it out. There is a strong chance men more powerful than I am are going to be asking questions and I’m going to need answers.”

  The doctor looked into the observation room and realized what Gabriel’s assumptions were. He put up his hands, trying to keep the stranger calm. “They are fine, sir.”

  Gabriel couldn’t take his eyes off of them, lying on the floor curled in balls; those that were still awake were shivering. The ones who had transitioned into a coma-like state looked as if they were close to the brink of death. “Yeah, they look fucking great. If I go in there, am I going to die?”

  The doctor laughed, which Gabriel took as mockery and an insult. He gripped the doctor and swung him in the air, lifting him off of his feet, and slammed him up against the window hard enough to make it shake. The doctor grunted as the air was knocked out of his lungs. Gabriel screamed, “You think this is funny? Do you have any fucking idea what these men were going to do? You do realize that when they were done with you, you and your family would be dead, right? I just saved your ass and now you think this is funny? How about I throw you in there with them? Would that be funny to you then?” Gabriel let him down and pulled his knife from its sheath and placed it up against his thin neck. “Do you think this would be funny? If I just push it in one inch, you die. Did you not want to see your kids again?”

  The doctor took in a long deep breath, trying to stay calm. He whispered, scared to have his neck twitch for fear that he would be dead if he did. “You misunderstand me, sir. I do not want anything to happen to you or to the people of America. If you lower the knife I can explain.” Gabriel nodded and pulled the knife back. He released the grip on the man’s shirt, patting him on the chest and trying to remain cool. The doctor cleared his throat. “I did what he asked, but I thought once he knew I had made what he wanted, he would leave and be in too big
a rush to stick around and see what happened with the disease.”

  “What are you trying to say? Get to it because you are saying he already left with the disease.”

  “Those men and women are in terrible pain. They would rather be dead right now than wait, and that is only speaking for those not sleeping.”

  “Wait for what?”

  “For it to pass, of course. I took a strain of the flu and made a hybrid strain. It makes two-week flu symptoms: fevers, shakes, sweats, and coma, all in a matter of forty-eight hours. It would cripple America, but that would only be for a few days.”

  Gabriel looked at the hostages. “So, you are saying that they will only have this for a few days? What took you a year to do it then?”

  The doctor stared. “I wanted to make sure they lived. It took a year to make sure it would act like a deadly virus while not having the same result. I could never do that even if it meant the death of my children and myself. I knew in my heart that I was doing the right thing. But I fear now that Imad might do something ignorant.”

  “Why do you think he will change his plans now that he has what he finally wants? Don’t you think he will keep on target going forward?”

  “Not when he finds out about his men, he won’t; he will deviate from it and God knows what he will do. If he follows the path of his father, he will probably resort back to bombs… especially if they find out about this being a hybrid flu.”

  Gabriel stared at the people lying in the room and said, “They need to die. You and your children need to die. It needs to be public, or they won’t come out from the shadows.”

  The doctor was confused as he gripped Gabriel’s chest crying, “I’ve been through too much to have you come along and kill us. We can disappear. We can leave and never be found again.”

  Gabriel nodded. “I am going to make some phone calls. These men will erase any existence of you being alive. By the time I make these phone calls, you’ll be dead, but you won’t feel a thing, I promise. Gabriel handed him a pistol and said, “Now keep an eye on that man in there. If he wakes up go ahead and shoot him. But remember, we do need him for a little bit longer.”