“Thomas!” A voice sounded in his concealed microphone.

“Hort?” Thomas asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Thomas…COME….come to the….Central…Industrial….Art…building….right now,” Hort said under his breath.

“Why?”

“Its…Jake….COME!” 

Jake was his brother, one of the loyal bodyguards of Hort, the director of the CIA. It was an honor to be the bodyguard of such importance.

Thomas took a sharp right at the highway entrance ramp, barely missing a large Coke© truck. He stomped on his brakes, causing him to drift around a Lexus. Smoke clouds formed, clogging his throat and burning his eyes. He shut his eyes and swallowed. When he opened his eyes, a green minivan was no more than 100 feet away from him. He blasted his horn, and the minivan quickly turned left, crashing into the cement median. He ignored it and pressed on the gas pedal harder.

BEEP! BEEP! The air filled with shouts from angry drivers. “Get your licenses!” “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” “My grandma drives better than you!” “Here’s a life lesson: don’t drop out of driving school!”

It was not long before a police car was after him. Thomas calmly pulled over, got out of his car, reached into his back pocket and pulled out a black wallet. It flipped open. He was a CIA agent.

Thomas took the back entrance. He swiped his card, tapped a few bricks, inserted the key and put his hands on the scanner. The doors slid open and he raced to the elevator. He pushed the buttons for floor 3,6,9 and 13 then inserted the key and put his finger on the scanner. The elevator took him to LLG, the hidden floor. He ran to the end of the hallway and opened the only door. Hort lay unconscious, blood smeared on the wall. The bodyguards were dead.

“What the-” Thomas started.

There was one body missing though. Jake’s.

“Well, well, what have we here?” A voice said behind him. Thomas spun around, and faced the muzzle of a rifle. It was his brother.

“Why, Jake, Why?” Thomas asked.

“I’ve always hated you, Thomas,” Jake spat out with disgust, “Because of you, I wasn’t given the time of day! It was always, Thomas this Thomas that! Not a word of me! I was treated like nothing, a piece of dung left on the floor. Because of YOU! YOU!” Jake hissed while slamming Thomas’s head with the muzzle of the gun. “That’s why, Thomas. And just about now, you will no longer exist” Jake put his finger on the trigger. Thomas closed his eyes and waited for the blast. It never came. He opened his eyes and saw Hort with a plank of wood in his hands, Jake on the ground.

“Let’s go,” Hort whispered. Thomas took one last look at his brother and then followed Hort to the elevator.

“I told you never to trust your back,” Jake said. It was the last thing he heard before he fell into the realm of darkness.