By Grant Abella
An Unexpected Guest
12:45 AM
5/7/2008
It was night. Foya Gunther and Hugh +ulato were at the Russian bank, Grio. Oh, wait my mistake they were robbing the Russian bank, Grio.
“Got the anesthetic?” whispered Foya. Hugh rummaged through the pouch. “Yeah,” said Hugh in his Spanish accent, “and the powder.”
“Good. We can’t afford another mistake.”
“I kno—wait here comes the guard.” Hugh said. They both got in there ready positions. Hugh had the anesthetic cloth in his right hand, the left holding a dagger.
“And…….NOW!” They both jump onto the night guard. Hugh shoved the anesthetic cloth on the guard’s mouth while Foya held him down. After about twenty seconds the guard stopped moving.
“Well done.” Said a voice.
“Who’s there?” asked Foya. Then she saw who the voice belonged to. Swethely Vatoyie.
Prisoners
1:12 AM
Same Day
They were taken to the Russian Mafia base. From there they were blind folded, taken down a set of stairs and tied to metal chairs. When the blind folds were removed they were looking at two very large, very big and bulky men. The one on the left had a shaven head, black suit and a ten inch handgun. On the right black slicked hair, French mustache, a white suit and a 24 inch rifle.
Big and dumb, just how I like them. Thought Hugh.
“And who might these two be?” asked the man to the left.
“These are the two of the robbers we’ve been tracking.” Said Vatoyie as he walked into the room.
“Ahhhhhhh.”
“How did you know about us.” Asked Hugh, but he thought he already knew the answer.
“A mole.” Answered Vatoyie, fondly. “He’s been telling us everything, for a high some of money, of course.” He grinned. An evil grin. “We know about your little secret service.” He continued, “And all your plans and files. So… we basically know everything we need to, and then some.”
“Hehahe.” Chuckled the man to the right.
“Why are we here?” asked Foya.
“You’ll find that out in the morning. For now you stay here.” He said, and then they left.
“Why do you think they wanna keep us?”
“I don’t know bu—(yawn) uh, I’m tired.”
“Get some rest.” Then sleep dawned over them.
The Job
3: 34
Same Day
That night neither of them slept very well. Hugh woke up four times screaming, and Foya tipped her chair over. They both gave up trying to go back to sleep. So they sat there, awake. It was silent except for the unmistakable sound of a rat scurrying into a hole in the wall.
Finally, Hugh broke the silence and said, “I wonder what they’re going to do with us.” When Foya turned to look at him she saw that he looked scared. She had never seen him like that.
“Me too,” she said in a raspy voice “but it can’t be good.” Another three and a half minutes went by with silence. The only sound was Foya’s heavy breathing, and then the door opened. The same two bulky men walk into the room, along with Swethely Vatoyie.
“Good, you’re awake.” Said Vatoyie as he closed and locked the door. Foya was about to sigh, but thought better of it. Instead she bit her chapped, lower lip.
“We have a proposition for you.” Said Vatoyie. “Should you chose to except it you will be rewarded. If not, you will be terminated.”
“Well, you kind of already chose it for us.” Hugh said. He’s not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.
Swethely acted as though Hugh had said nothing. “We want you two to steal 641,949,987,412.500 ruble ($25,000,000,000) from the Russian bank, Áîëüøîé êðåí (The Great Bank).”
“WHAT! That’s the biggest bank in
“We will supply everything you’ll need and you will obtain an eighth of the money.” He continued. “Well?” There was a slight pause.
“We’ll do it.” They said together.
Dinner
The rest of the day was planning how to get into Áîëüøîé êðåí. At first Hugh thought that the two big men were the only ones but there were more, much more. Ten bought and sold illegal guns and other weaponry, 5 handled the money and split it up “equally”, and the two men I introduced first were Vatoyie’s personal assistants, Aleksei and Ivan.
“…or we could come in through the ceiling.” He explained as they looked at the plans for the bank. “But then we’ll have to worry about the laser beam alarms.” Hugh Debated.
“Hey, what I say goes!” yelled Swethely, “got it?” No one said anything for a whole minute. “Let’s have dinner.” He said to break the awkward silence. The five of them agreed so they hopped into two Vipers’, one red and the other yellow. They drove about three miles then parked at the nicest restaurant the two had ever seen.
When the group walked in they were immediately greeted, seated and handed a menu. Foya, Hugh and Vatoyie opened their menu but Aleksei and Ivan hardly moved. Hugh was about to ask why but thought better of it.
As Hugh looked at the menu he noticed two things. One, almost everything had the word ala in it (IE French Dufla ala Leonid). And two, everything was at least 1024 ruble (forty dollars). He decided to go with the Russian gourmet cryponia. Foya couldn’t make up her mind so she ordered the same. Vatoyie chose the Italiono Alfredo ala carte. As the waiter made the food the three of them discussed, in low voices when they were going to “borrow” from the bank.
“I’m shootin’ for sometime around next month.” He explained to the two. “We’ve got the “supplies” that we’ll need. We’ve also managed to set up a practice arena that’s exactly like the bank.”
“When’d you manage to put that together?” wondered Foya aloud. “That’s not important right now.” He answered. “What is important is how good my alfredo is going to taste.” He said as the waitress walked over to their table holding three steaming plates and three glasses of red wine. Vatoyie smiled at her and she smiled back. When she handed them their meal and left the three continued their conversation.
“During the course you’ll be tested in several different skills, climates and styles, some you might know but most will be new to you.” He explained as he chewed. “You’ll also get new weapons and equipment.”
“When does the test take place?” asked Foya.
“Tomorrow.”
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That night the two didn’t sleep in metal chairs, they were treated to two king-sized beds in a room that had a flat screen TV, a huge movie library, a CD collection and a ceiling fan. They slept soundlessly for nine strait hours.
The Test
8:45 AM
5/8/2008
That morning they were awakened by the smell of sizzling bacon and eggs. They stretched out of bed and walked to the kitchen. “Want em’ fried or scrambled?” asked Ivan. The two seemed not to have heard him. “What time is it?” yawned Foya.
“Six o’ clock.” Said Swethely, walking into the room. “Scrambled or fried?!” repeated the chef who’s face was turning cherry red.
“I’ll have fried.” Said Foya.
“Scrambled for me.”
“Can I have an omelet?” said Hugh.
“NO! FRIED OR SCRAMBLED?!?!” He shouted obviously mad.
“Relax I was just playin’ with ya. I’ll have fried.”
“Playin’?” he questioned scratching his head.
“Never mind.” He said, “So anyway, what are we doing today?”
“What we talked about last night.” He answered.
“Ohhhh. When do we start?”
“After breakfast.” He said with a smile.
“Great.” There was a long silence.
“Eggs are done.” Said the chef. Everyone seemed not to have heard him at all. “EGGS ARE DONE!” That woke them up. They each grabbed a plate and the angry chef slid the eggs on them.
“Eat up,” said Swethely, “You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”
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After they ate their breakfast they got themselves cleaned up. They got dressed into two black jumpsuits. When they walked out of the room Ivan was waiting for them. “That way.” He said pointing to a big door. He sounds like a caveman, Thought Hugh but he didn’t dare say it aloud. They went through the door.
“I go by Derek.” Said Mr. Bell who walked out of the shadow, into the light where they saw he was an American. “So, this must be Foya and Hugh. I’m Derek Bell. Nice to meet you.” He stuck out a hand. They both shook it, firmly.
“Now that we all know each other let’s get right to it.” Said Vatoyie obviously annoyed that they had introduced themselves. “This,” he said. “is the test. AKA a model of Áîëüøîé êðåí.”
“But what if we…” Hugh’s voice trailed off as a big truck pulled into the huge gymnasium. “Ah that’s the weapons.” Said Derek waving to the driver. “You can drop them off right here!” He yelled at the driver.
The truck was big and black with the letters D and B on it, which Hugh guessed stood for Derek Bell. I guess we’re getting new weapons thought Foya. “…keep going…keep going…k—stop!” the ugly truck driver shifted the truck into, park, climbed out of the vehicle and started walking toward Derek.
“You Son-of-a-bitch!” yelled the driver as he tried to hit Derek, who easily blocked it, punching him in the face. “Man, what has gotten into you?” asked Derek.
“You didn’t pay me last time. You’re lucky I even came here this time.” Answered the angry, ugly, emotionally disturbed truck driver. “Hey, it’s not my fault!” exclaimed Derek who pulled out a box from the truck and opened it. Inside there was what looked like a regular, everyday PDA. Something told Hugh that it wasn’t really a PDA. “And what did I tell you about plasma OPSAT’s. I asked for LCD screens.”
“Well, you’ll just have to get over it.” Said the truck driver clearly annoyed that Swethely was mad because he didn’t create the LCD OPSAT. “I guess I’ll have to pay you now.”
“That’s right. I didn’t drive all the way across the country to get ripped off…again!” he said. “I want a red Ferrari P45 with a six CD changer and hydraulics!” Exclaimed the driver.
“Well, considering the fact that you brought me plasma’s instead of LCD, I think it’s safe to say you don’t need a six CD changer.” He said with a hint of a smile in face.
“Fine.” He said, “But next time I’m asking for twice the money.”
“You do that.” Said Swethely. The truck driver then walked over to the truck and started unloading the boxes. Hugh walked over and offered to help. “Shut up.” He answered back.
“Well.” Said an insulted Hugh.
“Okay just unload and get out of here.” Said Swethely irritated at fighting. When the driver finished he got in his truck, slammed the door and drove away, fuming. “Who was he?” asked Foya.
“An old friend,” He said. “Who has grown to hate me even though I do pay him.” He walked over to one of the many boxes and opened it. He looked over his shoulder at the two, his face baring an expression like “Well? Come and help.” And they did.
“What are in these boxes?” asked Hugh with a strained expression to his face. “They weigh a ton.”
“These are the weapons and…instruments you’ll be using when robbing the bank.” He said with a hint of a smile on his face.
“Oh, cool.” Said Hugh grabbing one of the guns from one of the boxes. “Can we use them now?” he asked excitedly. “Yeah, can we?” asked Foya.
“No.” he answered. “Right now we start with the basics.” He grabbed the gun in Hugh’s hand. “AKA the rules.”
“One,” he said. “You trust only us.”
“Who’s “us?” asked Foya who was puzzled.
“You know.” He said obviously amused that she…misunderstood. “Like, you would trust me, him, Derek, and all the other people in this place.” Explained Hugh. “Exactly.” Said Swethely.
“Two, you always move silently.” He said. “Bu—” Hugh was interrupted by Vatoyie. “You will learn.” Answered Vatoyie as though he had read Hugh’s mind.
“Thr—” another interruption, this time by Hugh. “How many of these “rules” are there?”
“One hundred sixty-two.” He answered. “Like I was saying rule number three is never give your name out to people.”
46 Minutes Later
“And finally, number one hundred sixty-two, only kill civilians when necessary. And…that’s it.” He concluded. “Finally!” the two said with relieved looks on their faces.
“Now can we use the guns?” asked Hugh.
“Now,” he said “is the test.”
◊ ◊ ◊
After they had unloaded all the “instruments” from the boxes and set them on shelves Swethely led them to the other side of the gymnasium. There was a doorway that Swethely said they would enter through after he gave them the weapons and “instruments”. He got a gun and an attachment from a shelf.
“This,” he said, “is an SC-20K M.A.W.S. AKA modular assault weapon system. You can modify it to fit your standards.” He handed it to Foya then got the same one off the shelf and gave it to Hugh.
“That’s what I'm talkin’ bout.” said Hugh who loves guns. Swethely gave them each what looked like a speaker for a computer except thinner. “This little toy is a wa—”
Swethely got something else from the shelf. He held up two goggles that had three lenses on them. “These are special goggles.” He explained handing them to the two.
“Special?” questioned Hugh.
“They have night vision, binocular vision, thermal vision and I can talk to you through them.” He answered proudly.
“Awesome.” Said the two in awe. He got yet another thing from the shelf. It was that thing that looked like a PDA. “This,” he said. “is an OPSAT. It’s similar to and has all the functions of a standard civilian PDA except you can hack into about any computer, you can also put in clues; keypad codes and helpful data and you can also play games on it.” Swethely concluded, talking a deep breath.
“What kind of games?” asked Hugh.
“Tetris, pinball, solitaire and pac-man.” Said Foya.
“How do you know these things?” asked Hugh. She’s like a mind reader. He though it’s the second time in two minutes, something’s up.
“Just forget about it.” Said Foya. “Any other gadgets?”
“Yes actually there’s a couple more.” He answered as he got something that looked sort of like a kids sized pair of scissors. “This is a lock pick.” He said. “You probably don’t need me to explain it to you.” He gave them one each. Swethely noticed that they were having trouble holding all this stuff, so he introduced a belt that had holders for all the “instruments”.
“Here’s one of my favorites. Chemical flares.” He said. “You’ve probably used one of these before, not realizing its usefulness. Chemical flares are lightweight plastic sticks that glow when you crack them. They’re good for luring a guard into a darkened area, where you can knock him out and hide him.”
“Wow.”
“I know.” Said Swethely handing one to each of them.
“Who comes up with all this stuff?” asked Hugh.
“Never you mind.” Said Swethely. “And finally, that belt your wearing.” He pointed at their waists. “If you press that button on the bottom it ejects a rope for railing buildings.”
“So now can we start?” asked Hugh eagerly.
“You will start here and Derek will tell you what to do.” He said. He pointed at Foya, “You will start over there and I’ll tell you what to do. You’re each talking the same test so there’s no need for argument on which test’s easier.”
Derek walked over. “You ready?” he asked Hugh.
“Yeah.”
“’Ight.” He said. “Just enter through here. I’ll be talking to you through your goggles.” He turned and walked away. Foya and Swethely did the same.
He was about to enter but felt a strange feeling. What’s my purpose here on earth? He wondered Do I really want to spend the rest of my life as a criminal, living off of stolen money? Two minutes past. Then another two. He looked over to his right. Foya had just entered. Wh—his thought’s were interrupted by the voice of Derek on his goggles.
“Helloooooo. Anyone home?” he asked, “C’mon I don’t have all day…well, actually I do, but I don’t wanna spend the rest of it here, waiting for you.”
“Sorry.” Said Hugh rather quickly. He entered.
Enemy Attack
He was standing in a square room with short walls that didn’t connect to the ceiling. One of the walls was a ledge that was smaller than the other three. “+ulato, you there?” asked Derek through the goggles.
“Yeah…where am I, exactly?”
“This is a model of the bank.” Answered Derek.
“I already knew that. I'm wondering wh—” he was cut off.
“Enough talk let’s get started.” Interrupted Derek. “Look at the ceiling.” Hugh looked at the forty foot tall ceiling. It was gray and tiled with smooth granite “What about it?”
“See the camera’s?”
“Yeah.” Said Hugh.
“I’ll be watching you through them.”
“’Ight.”
“I’ll also be talking you just like this.” He said. “Ok?”
“Yeah.” Said Hugh nervously. All this pre-test talk was making him really nervous. I feel…different. He thought, what am I doing? After this is all said and done I'm going to turn over a new leaf, do good things.
“OK. Find a way over that ledge.” Instructed Derek. Hugh inhaled a big breath and walked over to the wall opposite of the ledge. He ran, jumped up, held on to it, pulled his body up half way and fell to the floor. When he hit the ground a huge groan could be heard for an eighth of a mile.
“(GROAN!)”
“Get up and do it again.” Derek said, flatly. “Don’t feel sorry for yourself. It doesn’t help you any.” Hugh stood up. He felt a surge of energy, and that’s what powered him. He went back to get a running start. He ran. Fast. He was half way to the ledge but forgot to jump and ran into the wall. How many times does that happen?
“What the…” said Derek. “You forgot to j—“
“I KNOW. NOW LEAVE ME ALONE, DAMMIT!”
“Well then.” Said Derek, insulted. Hugh got up again, walked over and started running. He jumped this time. He made it. “Yesssssss, finally.” He said to himself with a sigh of relief. “Good job.”
“Tanks.”
“Huh?”
“Dorry, I meant to say thanks.” Hugh corrected himself.
“Dorry? Let me guess. You meant to say sorry.”
“Nope, I meant to say dorry.” Said Hugh.
“I’m not even gonna ask about that.” Derek said. “Anyway, ok let’s get on with it. If you look ahead you’ll see a 16 foot pole going horizontally through a hole in the wall, just big enough for you to fit through. Go through it and make it to the other side of the wall. K?” There was no answer. “K…do it…like now…”
Hugh sighed but didn’t say anything. He jumped of the ledge to the ground of the other side. Then he jumped up and grabbed the pole that entered the hole in the wall. His hands moved across the pole, one over the other. Once he got about three feet to the hole in the wall he—without faltering—pulled his legs to his hand and kept on going. Within a half minute he had passed through the outlet in the wall.
He let go with a sigh of relief. Even though he was weary he didn’t show it. When his feet hit the ground a splash hit his face and he was almost knocked over by water.
“This is where you and Foya are going to enter the ban—what the?!...” just the there was an explosion. Brick, stone and rubble fly in all directions. “Hugh, look out!” yelled Derek just as a huge platinum jet plane flew into view. It fired randomly with its machine guns for a few seconds then turned around and flew out the same way it flew in.
Hugh slowly got up. His vision was blurred for a second then everything came into focus. “Was that part of the test?” he asked Derek. But all he could hear was static. Then he heard the sound of feet hitting water. Foya, Derek and Swethely came rushing into view.
“Everyone fallow
MI-6
When they got inside Swethely took them to the dining room. He then took out an electronic key and unlocked the drawer of an antique dresser. (Or was it antique?). His nose was stuffed in the drawer and he was obviously searching for something.
“…no…no…no…n—ah ha!” he yelled. He pulled out a tan portfolio with about fifty pieces of paper in it. “So who was that guy?” questioned Hugh. Swethely ignored Hugh’s question and pulled an overhead projector out from a closet. “So?” asked Hugh again, “who flew that jet and blew up the wall?!”
“Fine, do you really wanna know?” asked Swethely.
“I really wanna know.” Replied Hugh, calmly.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I'm sure.”
“Are you really, really sure?”
“YES I’M REALLY, REALLY, REALLY SURE THAT I WANT TO KNOW!!!”
“Ok.” Said Swethely. There was a long silence.
“Well? Who was it?”
“Who was who?” asked Swethely, smiling.
“You know who I'm taking about.”
“All right. Sit down and you'll find out.”
He said as he pulled out a piece of paper. The lights turned off and the overhead turned on. Swethely put the piece of paper on it.
“The plane that blew off the wall belonged to the British secret service called MI6.” Said Swethely.
“That name sounds familiar.” Said Hugh, “I can’t remember where I've heard it.”
“Have you ever seen James Bond.” Hugh nodded. “Bond worked for MI6 in those movies, so now the British secret service… isn’t so secret anymore.” He pointed to the projected paper. On it was a bar graph. “This graph shows how much the British hate us each year. As you can see in the year 2001 they hated us off the charts.”
“Why?” asked Hugh and Foya at the same time. “JINX!” yelled Hugh.
“I don’t take jinxes!” said Foya.
“Will you guys pay attention?! All right,” he continued, “the reason they hated us so much is because in 2001 the
“What do you mean?”
“It wasn’t the Muslims. It was the Russians."
“The Russians?!?!?!?!?! But that’s us! We're the good guys!”
“Exactly. You’re probably wondering why. Well here’s why. They think it was the Muslims which gives them more reason to go to war with
“How?” asked Hugh who was now paying close attention.
“When the Americans went to war the Iraqis forgot all about how many natural resources they owned. We went in there, right through the front door and took em all, dug up the diamonds, took over the oil wells and we even brought back a couple W.M.D.s. It was the perfect plan. And the world trade center was all blamed on that Saddam Hussein who the dumb Americans hung on the thirtieth of December in 2006.” He grinned hugely, show white teeth.
“December thirtieth?” said Hugh, “Merry Christmas.”
“I guess it was for the Americans.”
“Anyway, ever since that MI6 has been angry with us because their head agent claims that he came up with the idea and somehow we stole it. But that’s a load of shit.” Said Swethely.
“So… MI6 blasted through the wall because they were mad?” asked Foya her forehead was lined from concentration. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“You’d be surprised at what MI6 does when its angry.” Said Swethely, “So, since the gymnasium is ruined you won’t be taking the test.” Hugh sighed right before Foya. “So when we “get the loan from the bank” it’ll be all new to you. So don’t make any mistakes.” Foya and Hugh looked at each other then back at Swethely.
“We won’t.”
A Secret Revealed
