Chapter 1:Enter The Assassins
The hall was dark,
No-one was around at the moment except for the 44 year janitor who
always was there at closing time, but his bulge in his wrist showed anyone
who was observant the true nature of "MULES TRANS-GLOBAL".
James sat down at reception and waited, he was instructed to wait until
further notice, which he thought was a complete waste of time, he lit one
of his cigarettes and having nothing better to do he glanced idly at the
cover.
SHINRA 100’s
The Best In Town
Below that it showed a person in a tux smoking a cigarette and holding
a class of wine, john smiled as he remembered Shinra’s anti-smoking campaign
and in and in particular one famous quote by the up and coming young Executive
Reeve……he couldn’t remember what his last name was,
"We at Shinra, Say that smoking causes death, and people, death is
not fashionable!!"
James shook his head
"Double standards" he muttered to himself as he inhaled,
He almost immediately started to cough violently, and he started sputtering
as well,
"Goddamn it" he said to himself "Can’t I least smoke one!!" his tone
was rising.
"hey" a figure said " those will kill if you ain’t careful."
"What do you know?" James replied,
The man came up to face him " I’ve seen many men your age die of less."
"I’m quite sure of that" said john remembering the code word,
"would you like to discuss our business upstairs?, I would like to
discuss it here but this hall has terrible acoustics."
James knew that this meant the hall was bugged,
"why not."
The man promptly led the way up the upstairs and though a winding maze
of doors until they came up to a huge looking steel door and the man started
drumming on the door with his fist in which john thought was a completely
random pattern and then to john’s surprise the door opened with a hiss.
"We Need to change that entrance code" the man said rubbing his knuckles.
Up to now all the corridors they had passed were dark and so he couldn’t
make out the features of the man but they were in a huge office space with
people running and a constant chatter of voices and telephones ringing.
"Impressive?" said the man.
James looked at the man and because of the light he could see that
the man was about 6 foot with slick jet black hair wearing a black suit
with a smile on his face, even thought john wasn’t an age expert he could
tell the man was in his early 30’s.
"Certainly" James remarked.
"My office is just around the corner" the man remarked indicting for
James to follow,
James followed him into his office and saw the plaque on the door.
Samuel Given
Head of S.D.I
James knew that S.D.I stood for "Shinra Department of Intelligence."
Samuel sat down at a chair behind a desk and motioned for James to
sit down
"what do you need?" Samuel asked,
"President Shinra wants this man eliminating" James said while producing
a picture of a young spiky-haired blond.
* * * * * *
"President Shinra."
The president turned round at the sound of the voice, hoping that it
wasn’t who he thought it was,
"Avalanche has struck again" the man said gasping for breath,
"They……" he took a very deep breath "they……." It seemed to president
Shinra that the man was about to collapse,
"spit it out man!" the president demanded.
"They killed General Simpson!!"
Suddenly president Shinra’s face plummeted from a what was smile while
listening to classical music to grimace as he learned that one of his most
respected Generals had been killed by what he thought was a two-bit street
gang.
"How in god’s name did they get into the compound!!" his tone was slowly
rising,
"a woman managed to knock out the perimeter guards and let the gate
open for a gang of about five people" said the man who was trembling at
the tone of the president’s voice,
"don’t tell me, they got away?" Said the President expecting the worse,
"don’t worry sir" the man said regaining his composure " the police
have managed to corner the suspects in a corner shop on 25th street on
the lower plate but they are having trouble keeping them under control".
"Send the army at once to reinforce the police and put SOLDIER on full
alert until further notice" the president said quickly "I want SOLDIER
able to react within….." he looked at his watch "ten minutes".
The man quickly saluted the president "right away sir!" he shouted
just the way he been practising for ten years and quickly set off to the
Command & Operations room.
President Shinra turned around to face the windows and he glanced at
the skyline wondering why some people were just so stubborn and even when
faced with impossible odds still continued to fight no matter what the
cost, he shook his head saying to himself that some people just deserved
to die and slowly strode off to the Command & Operations room.
* * * * * * *
"GET DOWN!!"
Two men managed to dive out of the way as the rocket slammed into the
police car turning it from the pride of the police force to a blazing inferno
in the blink of an eye.
"RETURN FIRE!! RETURN FIRE!! GODDAMN IT!" Screamed the Sargent and
soon all of the police’s guns were blazing away trying to inflict damage
on the members of Avalanche holed up in the corner shop but the Sargent
could plainly see that his officers, all 12 of them were seriously outgunned,
his men had at their disposal:
5 Revolvers
6 Semi-automatic handguns
1 Tom & James pump-action shotgun
12 rounds for each revolver
27 rounds for each handgun
14 shotgun shells
As Sargent Peterson of the Shinra constabulary crouched behind one
of the police cars he quickly realised that he didn’t have enough firepower
to even subdue the Avalanche rebels and then his worse fears were realised
when a 30cal. machine gun opened up on his police car which was his only
defence against the rebels and was quickly turned into a complete wreck.
"SHIT!" Shouted Peterson as he dived away just as the bullets started
flying through the car, he glanced back to see if king had got away in
time, but he face turned from a look of grim determination to a look of
sheer shock when he saw king lying in a pool of blood which was pouring
out of his arm onto the pavement and his fingers which were limp and had
a mixture of blood and sweat on them, as he looked at King he could still
remember the car journey to this hellhole……
"yummy" King remarked as he bit into the donut.
"This really is good" he said through a mouth full of donut and
Shinra fizz,
"I know" Peterson smiled back " I brought them at Johnny’s,
"he still in business?" replied king sounding rather surprised at
the idea of Johnny the well-renowned dodgy geezer managing to keep a business
running for any amount of time.
"Nah, it’s a different Johnny" said Peterson "Johnny…………"he tried
to remember the name "Cossack, Johnny Cossack" said Peterson.
"Too many Johnny’s in this city" remarked King,
"they should call it Johnny city" said Peterson,
"How about Rubber-Johnny city!?" replied King,
at that both of them started laughing out loud nearly drowning out
the radio which suddenly crackled into life,
" unit 551, come in unit 551" barked the dispatcher,
"unit 551 here" replied King,
"gunfire reported at Tux’s corner shop on 25th street lower plate,
investigate immediately,
"probably just some thugs firing shots in the air" observed King.
"Dunno what society coming to these days" remarked Peterson "unit
551 responding over" said Peterson into the radio,
"just another day in migdar" remarked King as he switched on the
siren.
But Peterson had already realised,
it wasn’t just Another day.
* * * * *
Cloud awoke to the sound of Johnny the dodgy geezer trying to flog another
one of those useless ash trays that he had brought from a warehouse a couple
of months ago,
"come on Joe" Johnny said in a persuasive tone "everyone knows that
you smoke about 50 a day and you always drop the stuff out the window and
that don’t make you many friends around here does it?"
"well I don’t know…………" replied Joe tailing off at the end.
"tell you what….. I’ll give you 5 ash trays for 10 gil instead of 20,
and then I’ll throw in another 5 for completely free no strings attached"
stated Johnny,
"what you say to that"? asked Johnny,
"well to that I say……….." Joe rubbed his stubble that he hadn’t shaved
off yet because he wasn’t expecting visitors, thinking as hard as his gullible
mind could,
"it’s a deal" responded Joe after what seemed an entirety of thinking
and trying to count on his fingers as best he could without any education,
"pleasure doing business with you" Johnny said shaking Joe enormous
shovel-like hands which made Johnny’s hands look like toothpicks.
Cloud was still in bed when Johnny walked in throwing his coat on the
nearby chair which looked like it been sat in by the sludge monster and
only partially been cleaned and opened the small mini-fridge taking out
two chilled beers.
"Wake up sleepy head!" Johnny shouted as he threw a beer at cloud which
landed right on his stomach, Cloud groaned loudly as he picked up and tried
his best to read the logo through one eye which was full of sleep,
"Shinra Rum, 20 % alcohol" John stated realising Cloud’s poor attempts
to read the label,
"actually it’s imported from Wutai" John added "I think it’s war compensation
for all the soldiers that were injured from our side,"
"Were you injured?" questioned Cloud,
"Injured?!" replied John sounding surprised "I wasn’t even in the Army
mate."
Cloud looked confused as he took a sip of the rum which quickly woke
him up and wiped the look of confusion off his face and made him cough
as the high alcohol drink which was Ice cold splashed again his throat
waking him up immediately,
"knew it would wake you up" mused john,
Cloud soon regained composure and soon starting getting changed into
what clothes he could find which was a T-shirt which was slightly ripped
at the back, a pair of heavily faded jeans, a pair of socks and some ragged
looking trainers which were surprisingly comfortable.
"So what are we doing today" Cloud asked.
"Gotta pick up some new designer gear from Tony at the Wall market
and try and sell as much as we can before delivering it Frank" John answered
Now that Cloud was fully awake he could make out the world-renowned
features of John which were permanent stubble, gelled back hair which got
him the nickname "Greasy John", the trench coat which he had put back on
and the grinning face which he used to sell his goods and he had lots of
experience behind him at 35 years old.
Ever since John found him walking the streets looking for a place to
lie down and die Cloud had built-up the profile of John which was a person
who despise all of his Dodgy deals was trying to make an honest living
below the plate which was very hard-
"alright" said John "enough day dreaming, we got work to do you know,
Cloud who had got lost in his thoughts suddenly turned around to face
John,
"sorry" said cloud,
"apology accepted" replied John wondering what was going on this kid’s
head.
*********************************************************
Author's note: this is my first attempt at writing so don't
blame me if it's not very good but i plan to get better as i go along ^_^
Michael J.F. Walshe