It was a cool Friday evening, beautiful and promising. High-class citizens majestically strode the city hall in their expensive clothes as a jazz band performed on the podium. Waiters were going here and there with a tray of wine and glasses in their hands. Smiley faces were everywhere as the guests, most of whom were dripping with wealth, were chattering and laughing in groups.
Businessmen and women were talking about the economic state of the country, politicians were having their own discussion at a corner, and the civil servants with hidden glares gossiped about the nonchalant attitude of the government toward their affairs.
On this day, Mr. Logan was able to convince both low-born and high-born citizens to converge in one location for the unveiling of his new project. Getting them all together in one place wasn’t easy, it was like locking cats and dogs in the same cage and expecting maximum cooperation without both parties trying to kill each other. He’d taken a leap of faith and things seemed to be going fine. For now.
Senator Robert commended Mr. Logan for the success of his project, saying that it was proof that Logan Consolidated was the fastest-growing industry in the city and Logan humbly nodded in affirmation.
Nicole and Steve were standing beside a Champagne tower, not particularly interested in their father’s big day. She looked stunning in that black dress while his tight white tux made him look more like a bouncer.
“Where the hell is she?”Nicole asked after checking her wristwatch.
“Relax, she’ll be here soon,” he chuckled and took a sip out of his glass.
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“For your sake, she’d better.” Nicole walked away in a huff. She’d warned her brother against asking that Vera lady to be his date tonight. The two girls never agreed on anything. Nicole hated Vera because she was the only employee of her dad’s whom she couldn’t control. On Vera’s very first day at work barely three months ago, she stood up to Nicole after she’d embarrassed and publicly insulted a cleaner over accidentally bumping into her.
Vera had kicked a box of books into her path while she passed by her desk after yelling at everyone for being incompetent. Nicole made a mess herself as she stumbled upon the box that slid out from beneath Vera’s desk. The cocktail she had in her hand spilled all over her designer top. Nicole loathed Vera because she managed to maneuver her way into her family. First, it was her dad. He’d pardoned Vera for calling Nicole a spoiled brat in front of everyone after making her trip off a box. She’d reported Vera expecting her dad to fire her but instead, he took her side and punished her for being rude to his employees.
Now, Vera had captured her brother’s heart and he’d bought her an expensive dress to wear to the presentation tonight, a dress more expensive than hers. To make matters worse, Steve had even bought a diamond necklace worth millions of dollars just to make this ordinary lady fit into the gathering of the wealthy. Since Vera was late tonight, Nicole prayed that she stood Steve up and skipped town with the precious jewelry. Maybe then he’d realize she was right about her being a gold digger.
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Vera’s two colleagues turned friends were already feeling left out in this crowd of formal people, if only she’d just show up so they could have someone to talk to.
“Are you sure she’s coming?”April asked Pete.
“I hope so,” he replied and saw Nicole standing alone in a corner, absentmindedly running a finger over the rim of her glass. She looked so cute and innocent that anyone who didn’t know her would swear she was an angel, incapable of hurting anyone. He scoffed and smiled at the irony of that thought.
“Wow, she’s beautiful,” April said admirably.
“Yes, she is,” he replied, thinking his sister was referring to Nicole until he traced her gaze to Vera, graciously walking into the hall like a pageant queen. His jaw dropped. He’d never seen her in a gown before since she never wore one to work. She was always in corporate office wear, nothing sexy or revealing. Vera wasn’t on her recommended eyeglasses tonight and he barely even recognised her. She was completely different, looking like royalty. Her red gown exposed her fine curves which the bogus trousers and skirts she always wore to the office used to conceal. The diamond necklace around her neck, the matching earrings, and the bracelets on her wrist glittered in the chandelier lights like a thousand sapphires. Her curly hair fell loose on her shoulders and her eyes sparkled as she smiled. Very formal, very elegant, she glowed.
Even Nicole was swayed by Vera’s pulchritude although she hid her admiration behind something that resembled a frown.
She stopped by her friends and while they were still exchanging greetings, Steve showed up, “Now here’s a vision I prefer to any goddess.”
She thanked him for the compliment and of course for the dress. Steve stole her away from her friends, locking her arm into his as they walked around, all eyes on them. That was his plan, to show her off.
The master of ceremony climbed up the podium and tapped the mic a couple of times to be sure it was still on, “Ladies and gentlemen. Can I have your attention, please?”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and faced him as he celebrated the man of the hour.
On a flat rooftop, a figure crouched, elbows atop the parapet. Laying along the parapet was a rocket launcher. Its aluminum and polyurethane stock made it as light as it was deadly accurate.
“I’m in position,” he said.
“Good,” a raucous voice replied from the bud in his ear, “now take the shot.”
“Copy that.” He aimed at the hall, whistling a song.
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A heavy round of applause filled the air as the master of ceremony ushered Mr. Logan up the podium. Steve was standing somewhere by the left side of the podium at the back of which was a floor-to-ceiling glass window.
While Logan was giving his speech about how his company’s new speed train would positively affect the city and everyone in it, the figure launched the rocket and it traveled directly toward the building. The sound of the approaching rocket alarmed everyone in the hall and Mr. Logan was forced to stop talking. From the window behind his father, Steve saw it coming and sprinted toward him shouting, “Everybody, get down!”
Before he could get to him, the rocket hit the building, setting off a massive explosion. A wave from the collision threw him feet away from his father.
After the deafening blast, with the sound of the explosion still ringing and the dust, unsettled, armed men in military camouflage stormed the rubbled building, shooting whoever was alive. Steve coughed at the dust-choked air and sighted his father laying under a pile of bricks from the collapsed roof, “Dad,” he struggled to stand then sighted Vera and Nicole laying motionless amongst a couple of others who were still alive but badly hurt. He hadn’t even taken three steps forward when he got hit in the back of his head with the base of a gun. He fell. Out like a light.
“Bag him up with the others,” said one of the armed men, “take these two as well.” He pointed at Vera and Nicole as their slight and unconscious groan revealed that they were still alive.
Pete and April were unscathed but pretended to be dead lest they took a bullet.
By the time they regained consciousness, they realized that they were blindfolded and tied to the chair on which each of them was seated. Steve struggled to free himself but to no avail. Nicole with a faint voice asked him not to waste his time with the restraints that bound his hands. She must have tried before him. He asked if she was all right and she replied that she was fine. “Vera, what about Vera?” he asked, panicking.
“I’m here,” the voice came from beside him.
He gave out a sigh of relief and asked who else was there. Turned out that the senator and his wife were taken too.
His footsteps were heavy as he approached them and finally halted in front of Steve then pulled off the black fabric that covered his face. Steve sized him from the foot upwards. He was heavily built and muscular, tall with a Bear’s broad stance. One could say he was almost a giant.
“How was your nap, Mr. Logan?” That vigorous voice gave Nicole a fright. He pulled off the senator’s hood as well and ruffled the old man’s gray hair with an evil laugh, so thick. One by one he removed their hoods so they could see who their captor was.
Vera looked around, they were surrounded by armed masked men. She counted those on the round balcony above them to be seven plus the six standing over their heads in that large empty space that looked like an abandoned factory.
“Look at you,” he said to them, “all wealthy and reeking of power. Not so powerful now, are ya?”
Nicole sniggered rudely, “Is that why you picked her?” She nodded at Vera, “because you think she’s rich? I hate to break it to you, buddy but you took the wrong girl. She’s poorer than a church rat.”
Impressed by her courage and spunk, he smirked. Steve chipped in that he didn’t have to keep Vera there but he ignored him. The diamond necklace around Vera’s neck proved Nicole to be a liar. He clutched it off her neck and gave Nicole a slap with the back of his rigid hand for taking him for a fool. Steve fumed, warning the man never to touch his sister again and he too received one. His was a much more pronounced punch that made him spit blood.
Vera gritted her teeth in anger with a tightly balled fist on both hands.
He bragged about how he would make an example of them to show everyone that those in power would no longer oppress the poor. He was going to execute them and film it to the world. His hatred for rich people didn’t start that day. All his life, he’d been trampled upon by men in power. He lost his wife because men in power decided his neighborhood didn’t deserve a standard hospital. He couldn’t raise the money to take her to a better hospital because the same government had refused to pay the salary of civil servants, they’d rather release funds for meaningless projects in places that only mattered to them. The government had failed him and many others too. This was payback.
“And what about the innocent people you killed?”Vera finally spoke. She understood his anger but his method was just completely off.
“Ohh, she’s not dumb after all,” he replied.
“Fathers, mothers, all dead because of you. How are you any different from the very government you so much hate?” At this point, she too received a slap that moved her head backward.
He leaned forward to look her in the eyes as he warned her against comparing him with those pigs as he called them. Before he was done talking, she nodded his nose with every strength in her body and he staggered back in pain. She’d broken it.
He threw his head back, wiping the blood off his nose. “Take her upstairs,” he ordered, “do with her as you please.”
Steve begged him to let her go and switched to threats about killing him after his pleas fell on deaf ears.
The cops had been on their toes, searching for the senator and the Logans, using every tracking system that they had. They had seen the van that the assaulters escaped with after the raid on the CCTV footage all around the major roads starting from the city hall. Each time they got close to tracing a new turn it took, the van would just vanish out of sight.
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After being rescued by the paramedics and fire department, Pete and April were taken to the hospital alongside other survivors. Mr. Logan was taken into the intensive care unit for his critical condition. Pete borrowed a laptop from one of the nice nurses and as an IT expert, it didn’t take him long to track the van. He too was soon frustrated by the same vanishing problem the cops were having. One minute the van was there, the next minute, nothing, no sign of it at all. Pete figured that someone had tampered with the footage, and deleted it.
April brought his attention to a blurry figure on a small reflecting surface of a building on the laptop screen. Peering closely, it looked like a mirror. She gave him an idea; mirrors were reflectors which meant that whatever that particular camera had captured, the mirror she pointed at must have reflected it. The assaulters were smart enough to have erased the camera footage, but they didn’t consider the mirror. It was daunting to check through almost all the reflective surfaces that the vanishing van had passed by, but he finally found them. Now, he anonymously tipped off the cops by sending them the location of the assaulters.
Story by Samuel Francis
