Chapter 23: Heist III
Clutching the briefcase with every strength he could muster, the recipient made a dive out of the car, before the driver who had only just noticed, could step on the brakes.
As expected, the landing was not a pleasant sight, as he crashed face first to the ground due to the sudden jerk of the car, when the driver finally paid attention.
His foot had also been hooked, and held back by the seat belt, and before the car came to a stop, that limb was already torn apart in a gory fashion.
"Aaarggggghhhh!" The recipient screeched in pain like a banshee as he collided face first with the ground, bending an arm at an unnatural angle, plus the bruises that came with such crash landing, while rolling forward from momentum for a few seconds.
The briefcase flew away from his grasp, before colliding with the ground, and sliding forward for a few seconds, only to stop a few inches away from a foot.
BOOOM!
At the next second, the third and last car, was suddenly hit from the back by an explosive bullet, which caused it to lift off the ground from the force, summersault through the air, and crash on the second car which the recipient had just jumped off from.
"How devious," Thorne’s lips twitched, as he bent down to pick up the briefcase that had just delivered itself to his feet.
His body suddenly shuddered the moment he made contact with the case, like a tiny pulse of static electricity had just run through him.
His hand immediately recoiled, as he took a step back.
"What the fuck?" He cursed with a frown. "No one said thing could shock."
However, looking around at everything that seemed to have been taken care of, with Old Hanzo and Jasper taking care of the remaining guards, he quickly realized that everybody who should’ve had that information, was already, or would soon be dead.
Including the recipient who had become still and was still bleeding out profusely, after letting out that screech of mind numbing pain, and Old ghost.
Thorne’s expression immediately wrinkled a little further, as he opened an icon at the top screen of his system, showing two red, moving silhouettes, finish up a couple of other moving silhouettes, amidst ones that were lying still and scattered.
His eyes however, were trained to where one particularly silhouette was supposed to be, that it wasn’t.
When Jasper’s car had rammed into Old Ghost’s, it had threw the old man away, and into a huge pile of stacked of crates that reached the ceiling, causing them to crash on him.
If it was any other old foggie, they would have died, and perse the old man survives it, a few broken bones that would render him immobile, was guaranteed.
But contrary to his expectations, the red silhouette that was supposed to depict the old man’s infrared image, was not there, and amidst the scattered bodies, Thorne couldn’t find him.
His expression immediately darkened.
Though there was also the exception that he had managed to crawl out, and died to Jasper of Old Hanzo, the problem was that Thorne couldn’t see his body on the ground.
However, with the way the bodies were scattered, with some even piling over the other, it was possible that he just didn’t recognize the old man’s build, amongst the bodies anymore. Still he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something not good was going to happen.
"Guys, we need to leave quickly, my guts are not really giving me a good sign right now." He said into the inter comm, alerting them of the danger he sensed coming.
While Jasper and Hanzo could not access Nick’s shared, infrared live imaging, since they were in the range of Thorne’s jammers meant to kill and cut neural signals of the system (Aegis Protocol) embedded in every human’s brain, the comms could still carry information, which was why they were using them, instead of the mental messaging feature, that came with the system.
He bent down again, to pick up the briefcase, this time prepared for the shock. However to his greatest surprise, nothing happened.
No, not quite. Something did happen, but it was very different from what he was expecting, and in a way, even more surprising, to the extent that he was even too stunned to react.
’Is... Is that a heart beat?’
Like he thought, there was indeed, an odd rhyme that was being produced between the briefcase and Thorne, the moment he made contact, resonating with him, pulsing in sync with his heartbeat. However physically, there was no change to its appearance whatsoever.
’What the hell is with this thing?’ Thorne thought, as he let go of the briefcase again.
The moment he let go, it quickly stoped. He stared at the case for a few seconds frowning, he picked it up again. Instantly, the sensation returned.
There was only one explanation he could think of that was causing this, and that was that, whatever was inside this case was reacting to him. Considering how no one, amongst the guards that is, seemed to have reacted in any way to touching the briefcases, it seemed to be the most logical explanation.
And if he was correct, this was most likely the real package. However, he had to confirm all of these first, which coincided with why he was out here in the first place.
And with the sense of unease he couldn’t quite shake off, he had to be quick.
His eyes went to the first car, that was tumbled and smashed to a wall, and he made his way towards it.
Thankfully, technology had advanced so much that carbon powered engines, had basically become obsolete, and instead, electric and solar engines had taken the main stage, at least here in the slums, as well as the outer sector. Inside the inner sector, was a completely different world, and Elysium even more so.
He wouldn’t have to worry about the vehicle suddenly blowing up into flames.
Reaching to it, he immediately climbed on the car, and spotted the case, which was sandwiched between crushed human bodies.
The fourteen-year-old kid, did not even react, and reached into the vehicle, to pull it out.
******
I don’t need to tell y’all what to do today do I?
C’mon!!!! Make this Seat smile!!!!!!