continued from the last time i decided to post...
Tim walked forlornly down the road towards the beach house, with Emmy trudging beside him. They both were drenched for a heavy rain had just begun to pour down on them and they were not dressed for the occasion.
“How’s your Scottish accent, by the way?” Emmy asked.
“Pretty good, Chris slips into a Scottish accent all the time so I’ve been around it a lot.”
“Well mine’s not so polished so you do the talking.”
“Ok, sounds good. Remember what our story is, right?”
“Yeah… why do we have to be Scottish again?”
Tim shrugged. “Well because it sounds so much more deceptive when we’re using a different accent of course.”
“Oh… that doesn’t make sense.”
Tim sighed. “Never mind, just stick with it okay?” Just then the guardhouse came into view. “There it is, remember your lines!”
Tim walked up to the gate and was immediately stopped by two guards. “Wait! You can’t go in there!”
“Well why not?” Tim asked in a slightly perturbed Scottish accent. “I was invited by the Emperor, was I not?”
The guards frowned. “We have no such appointment on the schedule.”
Tim sighed and slapped his side in frustration. “Well doesn’t that just make the day!” He turned to Emmy. “Can you believe it sweetie? First our car breaks down, then it decides to rain on us, and now this!”
“It’s unbelievable!” Emmy echoed in her own Scottish accent.
The guards were by now starting to get a little skittish and the ruckus had caused several guards to leave their posts and check out the commotion at the front gate, which was exactly what Ryan and Jason wanted.
Realizing that the plan was working, Tim continued to play out the act. “All I’m trying to do is take my fiancée to a dinner we were invited to, by the emperor I might add!”
“Sir, this is a private facility,” one of the guards said. “I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”
“I will do no such thing, isn’t that right sweetie?”
Emmy stepped up behind him and grabbed his hand. “That is exactly right, we will stand here in protest!”
The guards sighed and one of them spoke into his radio. “We’re gonna need some backup at the gates, please.”
Good, Tim thought. Just what we need, this should get them through.
The distraction was working perfectly Ryan realized as they made their way towards the wall on the opposite side of the beach house. Every guard was now distracted by the diversion; this could actually work without them being shot two feet inside the walls!
Jason threw a grappling gun at Ryan. “Here, shoot this at the wall and we’ll pull ourselves up.”
Ryan and Jason both aimed their grappling guns at the wall and fired them. There was a soft clink as they hooked onto the wall. Then Ryan and Jason climbed the wall, working their way to the top.
When they reached the top, Jason whispered to Ryan. “Block the cameras with one of those pictures in your backpack.”
Ryan gave him the thumbs up and selected a picture of the same scenario that camera on the wall was trained on, only from a few hours ago. “Good to go,” Ryan whispered after he’d placed it in front of the camera.
Peter Long sighed, working security for the emperor had to be the most boring job ever, but nothing could be more boring that watching security cameras all day. Unfortunately though, that was his job. He swore that he’d die of boredom before he reached thirty. But wait! What was that! Camera 32 had just changed. It was now displaying the same area, but in daylight! That didn’t make any sense it was dark outside. Peter immediately picked up the phone to call the supervisor.
Jason peeked at the picture in front of the camera and sighed.
“What?” Ryan said.
“You put the wrong picture in front of this thing! It’s supposed to be dark not daytime!”
“Oh, whoops…” Ryan quickly changed it.
Just as Peter was dialing the number, however, the picture changed back. “Huh, there goes any excitement.” He hung up the phone and went back to drinking coffee.
Ryan and Jason dropped to the ground and quickly pulled out their backpacks. Inside each backpack was a guard’s uniform. They hurriedly pulled them on and walked casually out into the courtyard.
“Where’d you get these by the way?” Ryan asked.
“I found them,” was Jason’s simple reply.
“Well, they smell kinda funny.”
“That’s cause they’ve had a dead man in ‘em.”
“Oh… great.”
Back at the gates, Tim and Emmy were still causing a ruckus. “We wish to see the emperor this instant.” Tim demanded.
The guard sighed. “The emperor doesn’t see anyone right now.”
“He’ll see us!” Emmy insisted.
“We’re gonna have to escort them off the premises,” one of the guards said. They nodded to each other and each one grabbed one of Tim’s arms.
“No, no, don’t take me! You can’t take me! This is and outrage!” Tim cried still in a marvelous Scottish accent.
“Come back my love!” Emmy called, also giving an Oscar-worthy performance.
While all this excitement was going on, Sarah was stuck in the helicopter with Jordan, waiting for someone to check in.
“Come on, come on, it’s been too long!” Sarah said, stressing.
“Just be patient,” Jordan said. “These are my boys they’ll come through.”
Just then Ryan’s voice came over the radio. “We’re in,” he informed them.
“Copy that,” Sarah replied. Sarah sighed, “this is boring.”
“Welcome to my life,” Jordan said unsympathetically. “Course, I do get to fly.”
Sarah rolled her eyes and sighed. Then a thought came to her, why sit and wait? Why not just act? That didn’t sound like a bad idea at all…
With their guard uniforms on, Jason and Ryan easily made it past the few guards. They received only slightly curious glances, but none that warranted a call for security. It wasn’t until they reached the house that a guard approached them.
“Hey, what are you two doing here? What area are you supposed to be patrolling?”
“We’re your relief,” Ryan informed him.
“That’s impossible,” the guard shook his head. “I’m not supposed to be relieved for another hour.”
Ryan shrugged. “We thought we’d relieve you an hour early.”
“That’s not how things work here…” he paused and gave Ryan an inquisitive look. “Do I know you from somewhere?”
“No, I don’t think we’ve ever met,” Ryan stuck his hand out and the guard reached out to take it. “Ryan Cruise,” Ryan introduced himself as he grasped the guard’s hand. The guard gasped in recognition as he heard the infamous name, but before he could react Ryan clenched his hand. There was a soft zapping sound and the man fell over unconscious.
“What was that?” Jason asked.
Ryan revealed a buzzer strapped to his hand. “It was IMF’s newest gadget; I’ve been waiting forever to try this thing out. It’s kinda like those things you get your friends with you know, zap their hand when they shake yours.” He glanced at the fallen guard. “It has a little more kick though.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
They hid the body and work their way to the side of the building. “How are we getting in?” Ryan asked.
Jason pulled out a couple of guard I.D. cards with their pictures on them. “These should get us in the first line of security.”
“And from there?”
Jason shrugged indifferently. “We’re gonna have to improvise.”
“Great… that’s my specialty.”
Jordan sat in the cockpit of the helicopter, waiting for Tim and Emmy to report back. “Things are going well,” he commented to himself.
Just then Tim and Emmy ran up to the helicopter.
Jordan turned around. “Where are the guards?”
“We parted ways a mile down the road,” Emmy informed him. She glanced around the helicopter and frowned. “Where’s Sarah?”
“What do you mean?” it was Jordan’s turn to frown. “She’s right…” he trailed off. “Uh oh.”
“What? What?” Tim demanded an explanation.
Jordan swallowed nervously. “I think we have a serious problem. Sarah’s gone.”
Jason Ryan had made it past the first line of security now without innocent. “This is too easy,” Ryan commented.
“It gets harder,” Jason warned. He pointed to the stairs, “We need to climb those to get the emperor’s office.”
Ryan started towards the stairs. “Well let’s go.”
Jason’s arm shot out and stopped Ryan from going forward. “Wait, something’s not right. Put on your infrared goggles.”
Ryan pulled the goggles out of his backpack and put them on; Jason did the same. The entire stairway was covered with an intricate web of infrared lasers.
“Wow, this is gonna be fun to climb,” Ryan shook his head.
“Let’s get started,” Jason said, stepping towards the stairway. Suddenly, there was a click beneath his feet and the tile sunk an inch into the ground.
Jason and Ryan both froze. “Don’t move,” Ryan ordered.
“I’m not moving,” Jason replied just a tad testily. “Find a way to keep this tile from popping back up.”
“What happens if it pops up?” Ryan asked as he searched for something to pry into the tile to make it stick.
“We both die.”
“You are a man of many words my friend, you know that?” Ryan said sarcastically.
“Just find something!”
“Showing emotion are we?”
“I will show plenty emotion if you don’t just shut up and find something to pry this tile into place.”
Ryan dug through his bag, searching for anything. “How about a hairpin?”
Jason glared at Ryan. “I’m gonna kill you when this is over.”
“Ok, ok, I’m sorry. What can I say? Sarah packed this bag.” He glanced around their surroundings. On a mantel across the hall sat a bust of the emperor. Ryan grinned and walked over towards it. “Would this work?”
“How heavy is it?” Jason asked.
“Heavy enough to hold that tile down,” Ryan replied, he picked it up off the mantel and grunted. “Yeah, it’s heavy.”
“Ok, let’s make the switch… carefully.” Ryan carried the bust over to Jason and slowly set it on the tile. Jason carefully slid his foot off the tile as Ryan gradually moved the bust to replace it. Finally, Jason took his foot completely off the tile and they both held their breath. The tile stayed in place and didn’t move. They both sighed. “That was close,” Ryan said.
They turned back towards the stairway. All of the sudden, the tile clicked again and pushed back up, Ryan and Jason both stopped.
Ryan closed his eyes and waited for the imminent alarm, explosion, or some other booby trap that was bound to come about as a result, but nothing happened. “Soooo… what happens now?” Ryan asked.
Jason walked over and examined the tile. “I guess it was just a defective tile.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “You know I think this will be exciting enough without any false alarms.”
Jason ignored his comment and started to weave his way up the stairs, using his infrared goggles to guide him past the lasers.
“This will be fun,” Ryan commented. “It’s too bad I don’t do gymnastics anymore.”
“You did gymnastics?” Jason asked.
“When I was like five, yeah. Didn’t you?”
Jason shook his head. “No. What did your parents make you do it?”
“Yeah, foster parents.”
“Might come in handy now.”
“Well, we only learned how to somersault, it wasn’t anything too complex.”
“Then shut up and concentrate,” Jason snapped.
“Yes sir, wonder if Tim and Emmy are still out there? That was amusing.”
To be continued...
