Miami
The mission was simple. Once the distraction was made by Clay and Roque, Pooch would pick up the van after Jensen and I sealed it and get the hell out of there.
Right now, me and Jensen were eating hotdogs at the fake hotdog stand we had. Jensen got a call from Clay.
"Jensen, are we wired?", Clay asked Jensen.
"Max is westbound.", Jensen replied. "And these hotdogs are delicious!"
"Hey, Jens, do you see Cougar yet?", I asked him. As soon as I said that, the tire of one of the cars blew off and it blew up.
"There he is."
A swarm of men with guns came out and guarded the target. Guess that's our queue to go. Clay and Roque cause the distraction and Pooch got the target set.
Jensen then handed me the crossbow. "That's right, bitches. I got a crossbow."
I then shot at the door, sealing it shut.
"Door is sealed. Take him up."
Me and Jensen then left to meet up with Clay and Roque. We soon drove off. Clay called Pooch.
"Pooch, what's your status?"
"Completely irritated and possibly crashing, but the fish is on the hook. We got Max."
Pooch and Aisha arrived before the rest of us. They were waiting in the hanger when we pulled up.
All of us got of us climbed out of the car.
"How the hell did that car hold all of you? Looks like it can barely hold itself.", Pooch stated. "Fellas, you're not gonna believe this shit. I saw Wade."
"Wade Travis?", I questioned. "Seventh group?"
"The very same. He tried to shoot us down when we took the van."
"Who's Wade Travis?", asked Aisha.
"Ran counter gorilla ops with him.", Pooch said. "Let's just say he's a bad guy."
"I thought you were the bad guys."
"He's worse.", Cougar replied.
There was a brief silence. I was still stunned. I couldn't believe Wade Travis was there. He had to be with Max. That's probably why he was shooting at us.
"Alright, right now we need to deal with the heavily armored, evil genius inside this truck.", Roque said. "Come on."
"Wouldn't call him a genius", I said as we approached the van.
"You ready?", Clay asked.
Aisha climbed onto the truck and hooked the hose to the nozzle.
"Open the valve.", she said. Clay did what she said and gasoline was pumped into the truck.
Clay pulled the seal from the doors and they popped open. Men flooded out with protective gear and guns.
"Hit the ground or I'll blow your head off.", the lead man growled at Clay.
"I don't think so.", Clay responded.
Our cue. We stepped out from behind the van and tranquilized everyone. The last man standing was Clays opponent.
"Where is he?", Clay asked.
"Who?", the man asked.
"Max."
"Who the hell is Max?"
Without hesitation, the man was tranquilized as well. Aisha was quick to attempt to explain herself.
"I can explain.", she sighed.
"Shut up!", Clay snapped. "Jensen, open it."
Cougar had pulled the real cargo from inside the van: a white box. Roque and I raised our guns at Aisha, not letting her out of our sights.
"It's a hard drive from Goliath.", Jensen said holding up the drive. "The multinational manufacturer of...everything."
We moved outside to inspect the hard drive on Jensen's computer. Roque had tied Aisha's hands behind her back. She was say in front of us, each of us taking turns glaring at her.
I wrapped my arms around Jensen from behind, watching him work. My eyes flickered for a moment from the laptop to Aisha. She caught me looking and I glared before turning back to the computer. How the hell could we trust this girl?
"I'm completely locked out.", Jensen stated. "Without a decrytion key to go with this, you're looking at a really cool paperweight."
We all looked at Clay, waiting for his decision. He looked as disappointed and betrayed as I did. Finally, he sighed and said, "Shoot her. Burn everything."
"With pleasure.", I said glaring once again at Aisha.
"Don't you wanna find out what's on it?", Aisha asked Clay.
"I can't find Max."
Clay ignored her. The others began pouring gas on everything while Roque and I took care of Aisha. Roque pulled her arm and forced her to stand. I pulled out my gun from my holster.
"Nobody can.", Aisha continued her protest. "But I knew he was moving something that was very valuable to him. Clay! Whatever it is we can use it against him. It's leverage!"
"Shut the fuck up!", I snapped tired of her shit. Roque then pushed her forward to walk.
"The drive is proprietary technology built by Goliath. The algorithm is probably on the mainframe.", Jensen said to Clay.
I watched Clay turn in interest, like he was pondering this new information.
"Oh come on!", Roque exclaimed. "We're not considering that!"
"Roque.", Pooch said.
"We're not the good guys anymore!"
"25 kids.", Clay jumped in. "25 innocent lives were lost because of this guy, do you remember that, Roque?"
"Yeah, I do."
"You were there. Max is gonna pay."
"Is this a guilt trip?", Roque questioned. "No, I don't want him to pay. I want my life back. Okay? My life. Not this revenge bullshit. Come on, Ted, just kill her."
Roque pulled Aisha, but I didn't move. I was looking at Jensen. His eyes were set on me as well. I was hoping he could read my mind. I don't know what to do.
"Ted?", Roque repeated.
"Is it possible, Jake?", I asked ignoring Roque. "For you to get the key to unlock that thing?"
Jensen seemed shocked at first. It's been a while since I've called him by his first name. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He just nodded.
I turned back to Aisha.
"And it could lead us to Max?"
"I guarantee it."
"Ted, no!", Roque exclaimed. "You said it yourself: we can't trust her."
"Think about it, Roque.", I cut him off. "We don't have lives while Max is alive. He'll find us. Pooch has seen Wade and I'm pretty sure Wade saw him. For all we know, he could be working for Max and Max already knows that we're alive. The only way to get things back to the way they were is to find Max."
"No, I'm killing her now."
Roque yanked Aisha out of my grasp and grabbed his own gun.
"You don't like the way I'm running things, Roque?", Clay jumped in. "You can find the door.
"And go where, Clay? Huh? Go where? We're fugitives because of you. What the hell are you gonna do next? Put us in a box because you got beat by a guy on a radio?"
Clay threw the first punch. Jensen and Pooch were quick to jump in and hold the two back, but it didn't stop the verbal fight. I grabbed Aisha and pulled her away from the fight. I don't trust her, but we need her to find Max.
I pulled out my knife and clicked it open.
"If I cut you loose, you have to promise no more shit like this, alright?", I told Aisha. "It's the truth from now on."
"I promise."
The fight escalated to Roque pulling a knife. Cougar and I joined the Peace Squad, Cougar holding back Clay while I fought Roque for his knife.
"They know we're alive, Roque.", Pooch said trying to calm him down. "The only thing we have against them is that drive."
Roque looked at is in amazement. "She framed is. Are you guys blind? She framed us!"
"We hit Goliath World Wide Quarters in the morning.", Clay said turning once again to leave. "You want your life back? You're gonna have to steal it."
"You're wrong, you know that right?", Roque called after him. "Again, because of a woman!"
Roque followed Clay's lead and left.
I'm so done with this shit. I walked over to Jensen and leaned on the table next to him. I looked at him and he looked at me for a moment before wrapping his arms around my waist, bringing me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck, laying my head on his shoulder.
"This is on you.", Pooch told Aisha. She didn't reply. She didn't need to.