The Window Of Corruption

Rescue Mission

I fell to the floor, a sudden weakness pulsing through my body. My grandparents were gone. I looked solemnly at the floor, staring at nothing in particular. I sat there, on the floor for a minute longer before jumping to my feet. I had to give Dylan the briefcase.

Olivia and Vinnie had continued looking for anything useful and had started cleaning the place up. Olivia noticed that I had returned to my feet,

"Don't worry Tobiasz, we'll get them back" She hugged me, trying to comfort me. But I wasn't concentrating on that, I was trying to visualise exactly where I had hidden the case. I told Olivia and Vinnie to go home since Dylan won't bother sending assassins or hit men after them since it was me that he wanted and I was the one with his briefcase. Nevertheless they refused to go and both told me that we were in this together.

So as a team we went to the abandoned warehouse a few blocks from the apartment, I was very paranoid that we were being watched; once Dylan had the case he would no longer have any use for any of us and might just kill us to tie up loose ends. This was what I was worried about.

We managed to get to the warehouse without anyone seeing us, or at least we thought no one saw us. We walked in and I went to the corner where I had hidden it under a floor panel, I lifted up the panel and luckily it was still there. I had retrieved the case and now quickly made it back to the entrance where Olivia and Vinnie were waiting.

We had no time to lose, who knows what they might be doing to my grandparents. We were walking for around five minutes when Vinnie spoke up,

"Tobiasz, are you sure this is such a good idea? I mean if we give that case back Dylan might just decide to kill us. And who know if he even has your grandparents? I know we gotta get them back but, we need to think about this for a minute." He looked at me, with a bit of fear in his eyes like he thought I was going to snap at him. But in reality I fully understood where he was coming from.

"I'm sorry Vinnie but that's a risk I'll just have to take. But please, find somewhere to hide for the next couple of days; I'd hate it if something happened to you. And you better check on your own family, I doubt anything would have happened to them but you have to be sure." I warned him. Vinnie looked worried, shocked even.

"Oh no. I hadn't even thought that my family might be in danger." He started to panic.

"Don't worry Vinnie, I'm pretty sure that they'll be absolutely fine but you might want to check just in case." I reassured him, He calmed down a little.

"I'm gonna go and check on my family," he started running down the street before looking back to me, "Tobiasz. I hope you get your grandparents back safe. Good luck."

"Thank you Vinnie. You too." I replied, he nodded at me before continuing on down the street. I turned towards Olivia, "you should do the same and check to see if you're loved ones are safe."

"You know I don't have any other loved ones except you." She smiled at me.

"Still, I don't want you getting hurt, this thing could go bad and I don't want you there if it does."

"I'm not leaving you and that's final. Let's stop at my place first though, there's a few things I need to pick up, it won't take long." She requested, I complied and we detoured to her apartment. When we got there she went to get changed and I decided to look in the briefcase again. This evidence could absolutely ruin Dylan, I looked further and found blueprints for a bomb of some sorts, I hadn't recalled seeing that before.

There were more letters from Dylan about assassinating the Mayor, if we went to the media with this it would completely destroy his reputation and enquiries from more respectable police forces and detectives would surely be taken place, when they found him guilty he would be imprisoned for his crimes. It didn't matter now though; I had to give him the case, in order to get my grandparents back.

Olivia appeared in what sort of looked like combat gear, she was holding a pistol in her hand, checking the magazine of it.

"You ready?" She asked, I was surprised, I had never known she had a gun, and the gear she was wearing looked quite professional.

"When did you get that?" I asked, pointing her weapon.

"Oh this? I've had it for years; my Dad gave it to me when I was sixteen."

"You know how to use it?"

"Of course I do" She looked offended, "my dad taught me everything I needed to know about how to shoot." I remembered Olivia once mentioning that her father was an officer in the military and that he had passed away a few years ago.

"I guess it's nice to know that someone has my back. But let's hope that we won't need to use weapons." I said to Olivia, she nodded and put her gun in a holster attached to her waist which she then covered up with a jacket. I patted my lower back, just to check that my gun was still there, tucked into my jeans.

We were ready to go to Dylan's office in the Chrysler Building within the financial district. We took the subway and started briskly walking towards the Chrysler Building where his office was, you couldn't miss it. It was an extravagant building that was taller than any of the surrounding buildings. I was extremely nervous and my hands were shaking.

I was terrified that something might go wrong, maybe my grandparents might not be there, or maybe they had already been killed. A thousand different scenarios raced around my head, each one seeming worse than the previous one. There was no point worrying about it though, it had to be done. And it had to be now.

We arrived at the entrance to the building. I told Olivia to hold back for a few minutes, Dylan told me to come alone and I didn't want to anger him, especially when my grandparents were at his mercy. I walked into the Chrysler Building, praying that my grandparents were alright, and praying that this wasn't a trap.