Wednesday 9 January 2013

Not the night the mayor wanted


One late night, Harris was sitting at the diner counter, discussing things with the bartender when a message popped up on the TV news-band.
"Donna Paul, the mayor's daughter has been found dead. More news to follow."
- What the hell was that? said Harris.
- Blasted children smoking and abusing themselves until they die of everything and anything, said the bartender, who sounded grumpy, despite being in his 40's.
- I kinda agree with that. You make 'em, you grow 'em, then you pay for 'em. Such a S.O.B. thing to do. Can you imagine the mayor, or his wife, now, all in tears and such?
- Well, I can and can't, because I don't have children, but I lost a pet once and it tore me to shreds.
- There ya go. And I bet it took you a while before you recovered. I say we let them mourn their loss and move on with our lives.
He drank his remaining beer and left the place, saluting the bartender with his hand.
Harris knew there was something afoot with this whole shindig, so he jumped on his motorcycle that was parked in the alley next to the diner, and left to the mayor's place.
However, on the way there, he knew that the mayor was at Marin County, and the only possible route to that was through the Golden Gate Bridge; well, the fastest, at least.
Once he stepped on it, he crossed the bridge with a new personal record, especially because there were fewer cars on the track than usual, most people coming from the county toward San Francisco, and he wondered why.
He called his source on the cell phone to find out the reason.
- They're saying the mayor has a bomb, but nothing is certain and I can't see squat from my position. Where are you?
- I've crossed the bridge and people are coming at me like I'm giving them free money.
- Funny. If you've passed the bridge, that mean you can see a hospital.
- Yeah.
- Turn right after it, then a left and then another right.
The man on the phone hung up and Harris followed the instructions, arriving to the place where he was. He parked his bike and entered the building. Although with no time to spare, he wanted to preserve his energy and pressed the elevator button; it didn't work, which meant he had to go up the stairs, all the way to the top; the 8th floor.
A little out of breath when he arrived, and cussed the man for taking position in such a high place, he went in.
- That took a while, said the one in the room, who was looking out the window through his binoculars.
- The elevator's broken, man.
- Crap, I think you might go back down again.
- No.
- Yes. The car the mayor was in is moving this way. Go and get it.
That frustrated him, but he had to do what was needed.
After running the stairs, the gasps for air were bigger and it made him feel older, but that was because he hadn't trained in a month.
He heard the engine of an approaching vehicle and figured it was the one. In five seconds, the bike was started and moving in pursuit.
Harris couldn't do anything because he was too far, but was gaining speed by the mile.
The car was nearing the bridge, and the bike the automobile.
Approaching... approaching... motorcycle right in it's tail, hitting it, and he jumped on the car.
The mayor heard and panicked, while the scattered people were running away, all over, in fear of getting run over by the now reckless driven vehicle.
Harris, although almost balanced off of the trunk, he leveraged himself and punched a hole in the windshield, shattering it to pieces.
Almost cutting his hand there, he was lucky the leather gloves helped with the bits and pieces of shard. Barely climbing in, due to the off-balance driving, he began telling the mayor to stop the car.
- I can't, or my daughter's going to die.
- Isn't she dead? They announce on the news a while ago.
- That was just a hoax.
- What do you have to do?
- Blow up the bridge.
- Does the bomb have a timer?
- I don't know.
- Where is it?
- Under my chair. I found out when I sat down and I heard the first beep, that's when they called me. That was four hours ago.
- Do you know their location?
- They're in my office and have something to track me.
- Okay, listen to me. Slow down. The bomb doesn't have a timer, but it will explode if you get up from the seat, so stay there. I'll make a short phone call.
In it he explained to another partner about the circumstances and the terrorists. The other line hung up.
Five minutes later he called to say the job was finished.
Harris told the mayor to slow down even more because his daughter was safe, and that to follow his instructions in order to be free.
They went back to Marin County and the man from the building fixed it.
The mayor was going through the motions, not knowing what to do first. Harris knew what. He drew a smoke grenade and dropped it on the ground. They were gone from sight, while the mayor was in tears, in both ways.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

First day, bad day


   Gabriel is starting his job today. He is excited to be a plane attendant and he gets to do it in a big company that flies across the seas. He waited for this big opportunity for the past two years, doing all sorts of menial jobs to pay for this real one.
   Everything went smooth with the passengers, he and his coworkers showed everyone to their seats and made sure they were comfortable.
   The plane took off and a state of relaxation set foot across the compartment. Gabriel was all smiles and interacted with several children who were energetic enough to tire their parents. But they annoyed the wrong people as well.
   A bearded man stood up and threatened everyone with his AK47 machine gun. Some screamed, some panicked and he approached several of them with a knife, shoving it in their faces to make sure they kept quiet.       Then, a stewardess who was having hysteria shouted "We have to get out of here," which only alarmed the hostage taker. He went to that woman and put his gun in her mouth and threatened to pull the trigger if she wouldn't stop, but she fainted instead. Then, the man went into the cockpit. While he was in there, Gabriel tried to keep to situation calm, and as expected, some shouted at him, but he said that if they weren't calm, they couldn't capture the man. They then looked at one another and decided to keep quiet until the hostage taker returned. Once he did, he liked that the people were silent and didn't think for a second that they wanted to apprehend him.
   He said that the plane was going to crash in the ocean, and that made Gabriel jump him, only to fail in saving the day.