The camera opens with a wide view of a dense city at night. Skyscrapers light up the scene as they tower high above one another. It’s clearly not New York. To clarify, the words at the bottom of the screen say Hong Kong. The camera slowly pans around the city, the lights on the tops of the major Skyscrapers blinking in the night to warn planes that they might be flying too low. The camera comes across the water to a tall building with a sloped top. Next to it stands a smaller tower of a similar design.
Pedro looked down from the roof of the Nina Tower (actually the Teddy tower, the smaller one was called the Nina Tower, but Pedro didn’t really know that) at the street over 1,000 feet below. All he could see were lights. He walked along the catwalk to look down at the smaller building, stepping over a roof guard in the process. On the smaller building, which was still quite a distance down, he could barely make out a guard circling the catwalk. Pedro pulled out a small notepad and a pencil.
He did some algebra. He tested the wind with his finger. He did some geometry and some calculus. He pulled out a baseball from his pocket. He looked it over in his hand, made sure there wasn’t any dust on it and held it firm in his fist. The man on the lower building paused as he neared the end of the catwalk. He checked his watch, right on schedule.
The baseball sailed through the night air, launched at a precise angle to cover the distance and to allow for wind speed and resistance. With a resounding thud it slammed into the top of the guard’s head, pitching him backwards with force onto the catwalk. His legs went to jell-o as he fell backwards, the baseball embedded in the top of his skull. The Dale Murphy signature covered by blood.
Pedro adjusted his backpack and slipped a pair of dark goggles over his eyes. He unzipped the flaps under his arms on his flight suit. He reached down and re-did the Velcro on his shoes. He checked the mags in the two SMG’s that were hanging off his belt. He stood on the top of the railing and held his arms out against the night sky, the wind whipping at his suit, the cars slowly moving 1,000 feet below. Pedro jumped.
He immediately pulled a cord hanging from his pack. The back part of the pack opened up and the chute came flying out. It was just enough to jerk him back and slow his descent. He glided over the other building until he was above a glass terrarium. About 40 feet above it, he put his feet together, boot tips pointed down, the silver tips reflecting the moonlight. He reached up with a hunting knife, sharpened to rival that of a Ginsu knife and sliced the cords attached to his pack. Pedro fell straight down. He smashed through the glass and landed superhero style on a circular coffee table another 30 feet down, breaking the table in half and sending three chairs flying backwards into a small jungle of exotic plants. The occupants of the chairs were stunned, but not out. They pulled glocks from side holsters and started firing wildly at the center of the room as they stumbled to get up. Pedro unhooked an SMG and still in his superhero crouch in the center of the room, sprayed a perfectly balanced circle of bullets around him, pivoting on his knee and back foot. The three men fell. The gun clicked and Pedro ejected the clip, quickly adding another one.
It was a large room. In the middle, Pedro stood up and looked around. There were exotic plants all around him, save for the empty space where the coffee table was. There was a path to an elevator about 25 feet away. The rest of the room was plants and windows. Some of the plants were still smoking from bullet holes in the leaves. The floor was solid marble. Pedro took off his pack, looked inside, the briefcase was still there. He took off his flight suit to reveal a black pair of jeans and a black long sleeve pullover. They matched the silver toed cowboy boots much better than the flight suit. He slipped the pack back on and picked up the SMG’s. Pedro looked towards the elevator. There was a slight ding as the elevator reached the floor.
Pedro ran. Towards the elevator. The doors slid open and Pedro slammed into the four men in the elevator, his elbows pointed out. They all fell down; Pedro dropped his arms and unloaded half a clip into each guard. He reloaded the guns as the doors bounced off a foot. He reached over with his foot and dragged the dead guards’ foot back into the elevator. He pressed the button for the 16th floor. Then every button below that.
He got off on 16. There were no guards. He wound through a maze of cubicles and offices before reaching the opposite side of the floor. It was dark in the office, but there was enough light from outside for Pedro to see the man sitting behind a large oak desk in the corner office. The office was glass, and the man was watching Pedro advance. The office door slid open; Pedro noticed a fingerprint scanner on the outside wall.
“Are you here to kill me?” Said the man behind the desk. He was older, maybe in his 50′s. Gray hair, balding. Asian, but with a clean English accent. He sat with his hands crossed on the desk. Pedro kept the gun trained on him. “Or are you here to make a delivery? A silver briefcase perhaps?”
Pedro nodded and started towards the man, not taking his gun off him. Something wasn’t right. The darkness of the office wasn’t helping, but it helped the illusion. Pedro noticed the man’s shoulder shift, but his arms & hands didn’t move. A click. Pedro spun to his right as a shotgun blast came from under the desk. Pedro whipped back around and laid a spray of bullets from the SMG across the man’s chest. The shotgun clattered to the floor, and his real arms fell to his sides. He gasped for air as the holes in his lungs denied him.
“Don’t you ever wonder – don’t you ever want to know what’s going on?” The man coughed, blood coming from his mouth. Pedro nodded and shot the man in the face. He fell back in his chair. Pedro walked over and took the briefcase out of his pack. He lay the silver case down on the desk, and using the dead man’s hand, unlocked the case with the fingerprint scanner. Pedro opened the case.
