Break: An Urban Hero's Journey

by Wes Grant

  Neil lifted up his finger and pointed it at Nick to answer but didn’t say anything. He then said in a monotone voice, “I don’t like you finding holes in my logic. I’m going to be the first physical therapy nurse, and that’s it.”

  Nick and Von began to laugh. Nick then said, “No, but for real, just chill out here while Von searches this out for me.” Neil said, “OK, but only because Von has all the channels on satellite.” He then sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. Nick said, “Whatever man,” and went back over to Von. Von said, “OK, what do you need me to find?”

  Nick replied, “Find me any information you can find on the name Platinum.”

  Von said, “Why? You are planning on adding some bling- bling to your superhero outfit?” Nick chuckled and said, “No. And I don’t think anyone says bling-bling anymore. Anyways search for people or companies with that name in NJ or Jersey City to be more exact.”

  After a few seconds, Von said, “Got it.”

  Nick said, “What did you find?”

  Von said, “Mr. Platinum or full name Midas Platinum owner of Platinum Enterprise. Wait… the Midas Platinum.” Nick replied, “Why, what’s the big deal.” While typing Von responded with, “What’s the big deal?! He is that fastest CEO to join the billionaire club from essentially nowhere. And go up the ranks to become the second richest guy in the US. Nobody knows the secret to his success but statistics say he could be the richest man in the world in about 5 years and that’s just insane.”

  When Von looked back Nick was just staring at Von with a blank look on his face. Nick then said, “I didn’t know I was besties with Mr. Platinum’s number one fan. Maybe I’ll ask for an autograph if I see him.”

  Von replied, “Shut up. I’m not the biggest fan but when you’re talking about the most successful people in the US, he’s up there with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. He owns companies around the world. He has his hand in about every form of business from movies to clothing, real estate, and even politics.”

  Nick interrupted Von and asked, “Anyways, anything about Jersey City?!”

  Von said, “Yeah, it says here that he just had a skyscraper built in Jersey City named the PlatinumTower.”

  Nick got excited and yelled, “That’s it! That’s the building I saw!” Neil was startled and got up. He then said, “Do you mind, I’m watching the show ‘Bikinis Around the World’ and they’re about to do the sling portion, but it’s on commercial now so what did you find anyway?” He walked over to Nick and Von and looked at the computer screen.

  Neil then asked, “Who are you stalking now?” He looked at the picture of Midas and said, “I didn’t know you were into older men?” Von and Neil chuckled at the joke.

  Nick said, “Funny, but for real, remember what I told you that old man Master Chen Lou said? He mentioned a Mr. Platinum.” Neil then said, “How do you know this is the guy he was talking about?” Nick said sarcastically, “Yeah, because Platinum is a common last name, right?” Neil replied, “Hey, you never know.”

  Nick then said to Von, “Hey, just to make sure, could you go into his systems to see if he’s been in anything illegal and maybe blueprints.”

  Von said, “You mean illegally hack into his server, g o through his encrypted files, and get you unsolicited blueprints to his secure tower?”

  Nick asked unsurely, “Yeeeeah... is… that a problem?” Von said, “Nope. Just had to make sure that’s what you wanted.” He then flipped down a panel from his wall over his PC and pulled out three large devices. He took some wires and hooked them up to his PC.

  Neil said, “What are those?” Von said, “It’s just a little something I put together to bounce my signal off multiple satellites so no one can track me back to my house.”

  Nick said, “Why do I get the feeling you’ve done something like this before?”

  Neil asked, “Yea Von, have you done this before?” Von said, “Hey, the less you know the better you are, unless you want to be counted as an accomplice.”

  Neil said, “OK, but it better be worth it.”

  Nick turned to Neil and said, “Shut up, Neil.” He then looked at Von and said, “Just do what you gotta do to get me the info.” Von then flipped the switches on the devices, and they all lit up. He then began to type extremely fast. After a few minutes, Von said, “I’m in. The blueprint’s in a small file, so I’ll save that first.” That took a few seconds. He then said, “OK, time to go for the big prize.” He searched more and came to a screen that said, “Access Denied.”

  Nick said, “What happened?” Von said, “I don’t know, either I made a mistake, or this guy is packing some major security because I’ve gotten into the Pentagon before.”

  Nick said, “Dammit, can you… Wait, did you say Pentagon. You know what nevermind I didn’t hear that.”

  Neil replied, “But I did. What else did you get into.” as he leaned with his fist on his cheeks.

  Nick interrupted and said, “Forget about that, can you get past this screen?”

  Von replied, “I haven’t met a server I couldn’t get through yet.” He then began to go at it again. Meanwhile at the Platinum Tower in Mr. Platinum’s office, he was sitting at his desk. He got a buzz, and Midas pressed a button. One of his men appeared on his monitor, and told him, “Sorry to bother you sir, just thought it’d be important to inform you that someone is trying to hack into our servers.”

  Midas said calmly, “I take it you’re taking care of the situation already.”

  The person said, “Yes, sir, we’re tracking it back to the source as we speak.” Midas replied, “Just inform me wh en you track it and find the culprit . . . Oh, and, Mr. Willus, please make sure you get this under control and get the culprit. You know how I feel about things not under my control.”

  Willus said, “Of course, sir. Your best men are on it.” Then the screen cut off. Meanwhile back at Von’s house.

  Nick said, “Do you have access yet?”

  Von said, “Just a little bit more.” Just then a warning sign showed up on the screen.

  Neil said, “What’s that mean?”

  Von said, “Oh crap! That means they’re tracking us. I gotta pull out now.” Nick said, “Wait! You didn’t find anything yet!” Von said, “If I don’t pull out now, we’re in major trouble.”

  Neil chuckled, interrupted, and said, “Those are the same exact words I told this girl las—” Nick and Von turned to Neil and yelled at the same time, “Shut up, Neil!”

  Neil put up his hands and said, “OK, OK, I’m going back to my bikini show.” Von then pulled the cord from the wall, shutting off the PC. Nick said, “Come on!”

  Von replied, “Sorry, but you have to get your information the oldfashioned way. Breaking and entering.” He printed out the blueprints and handed them to Nick.

  Nick said, “I can’t do that.”

  Von said, “Then what was the point of me getting you the blueprints.”

  Nick said, “I was going to, but I have no evidence he did anything wrong yet.” Von said, “Sorry, but with security like that, he’s gotta be hiding something. Maybe not though, is does do international business so maybe he’s got measures to protect from other countries.”

  Nick said, “I guess I have no choice, I gotta figure something out.” He began to head to the stairs.

  Von said, “Wait, why are you so interested in this guy?” Nick said, “Let’s just say I think he might be the reason for my second job being so hard.” He then stepped on the first step and said, “See ya, Von. See ya, Neil, thanks for the help.”

  Neil lifted up his hand and waved bye without looking away from his show. Nick went up the stairs and left.

  Meanwhile at the Platinum Tower, Midas got a buzz. He answered, and Willus appeared on the monitor again. Midas said, “I take it everything has been taken care of.” Willus said, “Yes, sir, we stopped the intruder before he got anything of importance, but he disconnected before we could track them.”

  Midas said calmly, “That
doesn’t sound to me like everything has been taken care of.”

  Willus said, “Sir, we were able to narrow the intruder’s location down to the tristate area, most likely NJ.” Midas said, “You also said they didn’t get anything of importance. Tell me what they obtained, and I’ll judge whether it’s of importance or not.”

  Willus said, “Um, well, he got the blueprints to the tower.”

  Midas said calmly, “And you don’t think that’s important.” Willus said, “Sir, it’s the bare blueprints, it shows none of t he security measures we’ve installed or what’s in each room. The most he knows is how many rooms we have and how many floors we’ve got. And anybody can count that from outside. Don’t worry about it, sir, just continue as you were.”

  Midas put his fingers to gether and said very calmly, “Willus.” Willus replied, “Yes, sir.” Midas continued to say, “Are you telling me what to do?”

  Willus replied, “No, no, sir. What I meant to say was, you have nothing to worry about, sir. We’ve already raised the security justin case.”

  Midas got out of his seat and faced the view of New York. He walked toward the window and said, “Willus, do not let the culprit get away again if you ever encounter them again, or next time I won’t be so nice . . . do you understand?”

  Willus said, “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” Midas then began to talk to himself, “What would they want with the blueprints . . . Is anybody dumb enough to try to break into this building . . . Well, regardless of whoever they are, when they show up, I’ll be waiting. For now I’ll just enjoy the view.”

  Elsewhere Nick was at his house looking at the blueprints. While looking at them, Nick said to himself, “Damn, these blueprints don’t tell me jack. I don’t even know where to start.”

  The next couple of days Nick worked on his new grappling hook and studied the blueprints of the eighty-story building hoping to figure out where the best place to get in there was. Nick was looking at the blueprints and said to himself, “Now if I owned a company that big, what room would I keep the info in?” Something came to him, and he said, “Wait a second.” He got on his computer and searched for pictures of the building. He then said, “Just what I thought, it’s facing New York.” He did a little more searching online and found some interesting info. After that he had a pretty good idea of where Mr. Platinum’s office was.

  The next night, Nick got himself ready and put on his night outfit, but this time he changed it up a little. He was going to be breaking and entering, so he wore a long-sleeved hood and fullhand gloves to keep from leaving prints. He also put on a black cloth mask to hide his face even more so than usual. He put a mini tape recorder in his pocket and took off.

  Later that night Spear was on a rooftop looking at the Platinum Tower. He jumped off the roof and headed toward the tower. He got to the base of the tower and looked up. He said to himself, “Man, that’s tall.” He took a moment then jumped to the first roof of the multilevels. He made his way up to the highest multilevel he could, and by then, he was halfway up the building. Spear looked up and said, “Damn, how come I couldn’t get the power to fly?” He then pulled out of his backpack his power suction cups. He went to the corner of the building and climbed his way up the side of the building to the roof. After a long trip to the top, Spear climbed over the edge of the roof and rolled to the floor out of breath.

  He then mumbled to himself, “That’s it, the next invention I’m working on is rocket boots or something. Cause this climbing business is wearing me out.” He then got up and walked towards the exit door on the roof. While walking, he a duel helipad on the roof and said, “Why do you even need two helicopters.” He then opened the door and headed down the stairs. When he got to the seventy-eighth floor, he went to the middle door. He began to inspect it to see if it had an alarm trigger, but all of a sudden, the door unlocked and opened. When the door opened, a rather tall, well-dressed gentleman was standing at the end of the room facing away from him toward the view of the city.

  Midas in a sinister tone said, “I was wondering when you’d come.”

  Spear confuse replied, “So… you knew I was coming?” Midas replied, “I knew someone might be coming, whether or not they would be dumb enough to try was up in the air.” Spear said, “So you just normally stand in the dark by yourself.”

  Midas said, “No, I was just waiting for you.”

  Spear said, “OK, so you stood alone in the dark, every night, waiting for me. Even creepier.”

  Midas said, “Oh, I knew you were here from the second you stepped on my premises.” Spear said, “You knew I was here the whole time. You mean I could have just used the elevator to get up here, instead of climbing forty floors up the side of a building.”

  Midas said, “I take it if I had rolled out the red carpet for you, you would have been a little suspicious.” He then asked, “How did you know this floor was the one with my office on it?”

  Spear replied, “With a man so obsessed with platinum, I searched the atomic number of platinum and found out it was seventy-eight, so I figured you would go out of your way to make that floor your office.”

  Midas clapped his hands slowly and said, “You’re a lot more clever than I gave you credit for, Mr. Spear.”

  Spear walked in and said,“Spear . . . never heard of him. I’m . . . Roof Stalker. Yeah, that’s it. Roof Stalker, that’s my name.” Midas said, “Are we really going to play this game?” Spear walked toward Mr. Platinum and said, “OK, say, hypothetically I was this person Spear. Why do you want to talk to him?”

  Midas replied, “To talk business of course. After all, I am a businessman and not one of those thugs you beat up on a nightly basis.”

  Spear said, “Yea thugs, your in control of. And what makes you think a person like Spear would want to do business with a person like you.”

  Midas said, “Spear—” Spear interrupted and said, “Roof Stalker.”

  Midas sighed in agitation and said, “OK, Stalker, why wouldn’t Spear want to do business with me?”

  Spear said, “Because I know . . . I mean he knows . . . you’re just no good, OK.”

  Midas chuckled and said, “What makes you think I’m no good?”

  Spear replied, “Spear isn’t stupid, he knows you sent all those people after him.” Midas said, “That was nothing personal, it was just business. You were being a pest, and like all pests, you get rid of them with an exterminator, or in your case, sorry his case exterminators.”

  Spear said, “Well, now you know Spear can’t be taken out by any of your flunkies.”

  Midas said, “I know that now, which leads us to why I’ve been waiting for you.” Spear said, “Which is what?”

  Midas said, “I’m here to offer you a business proposition.” Spear said, “Like what?”

  Midas said, “Work for me.”

  Spear looked at him and said, “Momma say what?” Midas replied, “You heard me, work for me.”

  Spear replied, “Man, you crazy. What makes you think I’d, I mean he’d work for you?”

  Midas said, “Everybody has a price, the trick is how many zeros to add at the end until you come to an agreement.” Spear said, “Listen, I don’t do this for money, I—” Mr. Platinum interrupted and said, “One million.”

  Spear replied, “You can’t just buy people like—” Mr. Platinum interrupted again and said, “One million.” Spear says, “What? Sorry not for sale.”

  Midas replies, “Ten million.”

  Spear says, “Don’t you get it. No bueno.”

  Midas replies, “One hundred million.”

  Spear coughs a little and says, “Not happening. Why would you think you could buy me off like one of your flunkies?” Midas replies, “You’re right, I apologize. You’re much better than any flunky I could find. There’s something special about you. You have this determination that seems to have no bounds . . . and that is the reason why I’m going to say this. I’ve never offered a single person this just for their services, but
I will pay you one . . . billion . . . dollars.”

  Spear paused and said, “... You can’t be serious.” Midas replied, “Oh, but I am. And to show you how serious I am, I’ve got a suitcase here for you with 100 million dollars in it as a down payment.”

  Spear was very tempted and said apprehensively, “What would I have to do?” Midas said, “All you have to do is be my shield.” Spear replied, “And what does that mean?”

  Midas said, “All you have to do is protect me from my enemies, defeat my enemies, and do as I say.”

  Spear replied, “You mean like Voltedge, Crank, and those assassins you sent after me.”

  Midas replied, “I do apologize, but at the time I didn’t see your true value. You were just a pest I needed exterminated.” Spear then replied, “What about Master Chen Lou, you killed him and tried to pin it on me so his former students would take me out.”

  Midas replied, “His death was unfortunate but I’d like to move past that create a partnership.” Spear remembered Von was shot because of someone working for him. He wondered how many people died by people employed by this man.

  Spear looked Mr. Platinum in the eyes and said, “In other words, you want me to be your slave.” Spear chuckled and said, “Just like the man to think he can buy anything. What would you want me to do, beat people up, rob a bank, kill someone, then at the end of the day do a little dance for you too?”

  Midas said, “Why does every black person turn this into a slave thing. It’s just business.” Spear said, “It’s people like you that make the world as corrupt as it is. You think you can do whatever you want just because you can throw money at it.”

  Midas said in a more serious tone, “People like me! People like me keep your precious little economy stable. It’s my money that funds the things you regular people don’t want to pay for. Everybody whines and complains about how things are in the US, but when the taxes and bills go up to fix the problem, nobody wants to pay. Well, that’s where I come in. I am the bailout. I’m the new bridges and roads in your neighborhood. I am essential to everyone’s way of life.”