Alias E.Rs

Chapter 1

Sultan Ali.

Berlin, Germany, fourth-august-2018 at precisely four pm, there is a hostage situation in the central bank. A heist involving armed assailants goes south after a guard takes out two of them. There are thirty-seven hostages in total with two wounded and one casualty. The hero guard is the casualty. The hostages are ordered to lay heads down on the floor. At precisely 4:55 pm, the lights in the bank turn on and off several times until they stop and everything electrical gets fried.

A geeky male bank employee aged mid-twenties gets up on his feet. He gets the assailants’ attention so they approach him, threatening to kill him if he does not lie back down. The thief that approached the nerd roughly shoves his gun at him in an attempt to knock him out when power shifts.

The nerd braces and stabs the robber with an office pen making him gag on his blood. He at that point seizes and turns the burglar’s weapon to his two accomplice aggressors, head shooting them with pinpoint accuracy. He then marches down the stairs that leads to the underground vault where the rest of the robbers were. German Special Forces breach the bank subsequent to hearing the gunshots to discover three dead hooligans. They lead the hostages out and are about done when the nerd walks out the entryway from the underground vault. The nerd is drenched in blood that is later discovered to be of the robbers. Without a single injury on his body from the showdown, he is declared a person of interest. The German intelligence profiles him to discover no match to his fingerprints, facial recognition, or DNA. The tactical response team coordinated down to the underground floor to discover a pool of blood with the robbers hanging onto their lives by a thread as they were knocked out with their arms disengaged and one dead with a knife in his chest. The Special Forces could not explain how a mid-twenties nerd civilian took out a whole posse of armed cheats in under five minutes without getting hurt. So, they made a cover-up story, tranquilized the ‘nerd’, and quietly moved him to a black site for questioning.

The black site in question is where Aheis’ (a radical terrorist group), leader is held. The Aheis’ leader, going by the name ‘Sultan Ali’, is the most wanted man in the world. The convoy transporting the ‘nerd’ arrives at the black site at ten pm. The ‘nerd’ is checked in and is to remain sedated till questioning which would be on the following morning.

The convoy departs the black site thirty minutes in the wake of making the drop. Coincidentally with really great timing, Aheis breach the black site camp in an attempt to break out their leader. A female German agent known as Eva (short for Evelyn) is the medic at the black site. The Aheis’ men break through security at the primary gate flooding in, overwhelming the guards. They penetrate the confinement wing looking for Sultan while taking out every other individual they go over. Eva rushes to the room the nerd is in after the upheaval, in her arms an assault rifle. The black site’s alarm goes off. Eva inclines, taking a closer look at the sleeping ‘nerd’ and grins. She recognizes him and her grin blurs. She pulls out a burner phone and makes a call. The black site’s structure was not excessively huge so it was only a matter of time before they got to her. She ends the call and measures a low dose of adrenaline. She has a watch with a timer set for eight minutes. With the Aheis’ aggressors drawing closer, she administered the shot to the ‘nerd’ and started her timer.

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It was a couple of minutes to eleven pm when I came to. I felt a rush through my whole system followed by a terrible headache. There was someone on my right, a lady. It was Eva; she unhand cuffed and helped me out of bed. She then ran a quick psych evaluation on me, which I fizzled at, then handed me an assault rifle. She seemed worried, most likely in line of the fact that she expected a high profiled agent; am not profiled.

We had problems with problems. I was in no condition whatsoever to go in the field. The adrenaline shot was not a remedy for the sedative, it was simply to raise my pulse enough to keep me conscious. At the point the adrenaline runs out, the sedative still running through my veins would kick in, and bring down my pulse, knocking me out. I had eight minutes to take out Sultan. There was no alternative for this one. Our timeline had been cut short by four hours. This would be one daunting task.

One week earlier, I intercepted communication between Aheis’ men conveying they discovered Sultan’s location. They were calling for reinforcements to Germany. My director allotted an agent to sort out if Sultan was alive and his location however; things did not go as planned. She got to the black site alright, after she was blindfolded all way there. The security measures at the black site were so severe; she had to close all communication with the director to avoid blowing her cover. So, plan B, me, was initiated. Time was not on our side so my plan was somewhat rushed. I had to make myself a person of interest then give myself up to German intelligence.

The Aheis’ men were to raid the black site in two days. Fortunately, I intercepted something that would make me a person of interest overnight, a heist. I was not planning on being an accomplice to robbing the bank though; I had something else in mind. I secured a teller job at the bank then stayed put awaiting the heist. The heist was on schedule and with my geeky disguise on, I was set. There was a slight issue though, a confrontation between a guard and the robbers at the entry door. The guard took out two of the eight robbers but it cost him his life. This shook the robbers making them take extreme precautions. They shot a woman who was attempting to reach for her terrified child. At the time, I was unable to do anything as the CCTV surveillance was on. All at once, the lights went on and off, it was Morse code. One letter at a time I deciphered the message. The message, from my computer analyst, was, ‘EMP ON, NICK’. Nick, our computer analyst, was about to trigger an EMP taking out everything electric in the bank. This was to conceal all the digital traces of me at this scene. When everything went off, so did the bets, of me against the thieves.

I rose, pulling out a pen from my right pocket. The robbers threateningly screamed at me, with one of them charging at me. He took a swing at me with the gun and I leaned to the side making him miss. I held the pen firm and constrained it into his neck. The rest of the thieves in the hostage area armed and pointed their guns at me. I held onto the thief as blood spouted from his neck using him as a human shield, seized his rifle, and headshot his friends. The hostages screamed in horror as the two thieves fell on the floor lifeless. They had murdered and decapitated the hero guard so I felt no remorse for them whatsoever. I dropped the loot I was clutching and set out for the underground vault to get the rest of them. This was going to be one heated confrontation and every last bit of me was firing ready.

There was no uncertainty that the thieves in the vault room heard the shots so I pulled another stunt. Ricochet. I shot at the titanium vault walls as I plummeted into the vault room and the bullets ricochet from the tough vault’s wall. A ricochet bullet hit one of them and the rest sought cover. I marched in locked on a target and squeezed the trigger to discover I was out of bullets. I sprinted to the thief, who was taking cover behind bags stacked with cash, jumped on him, and revert to my pen. Our battle got somewhat heated and we got on our feet. The thief, who got hit, got hit quite severely.

However, the last of the thieves joined in on our heated one-on-one fight carrying with him a dagger. I kept my eyes on the blade redirecting his jabs, making him stab his accomplice. The dagger stalled in the other thief’s chest cavity so I neutralized the incapacitated cheat by jabbing him on his throat and dislodging both of his hands. The thief, who got hit by the ricochet bullet, appeared more youthful than the rest of them. He was choking on his blood presumably on the grounds that the ricochet bullet got him on the chest. I felt some compassion and chose to help. I dismounted my ballpoint pen, got the ballpoint out and drained the ink then I disinfected the tip with a sanitizer from the vault room. I infused the tip into his chest releasing the pressure build in his chest cavity, helping him breathe. I messed up my clothes with blood while carrying out the little procedure.

I overheard commotion from the ground floor so I marched back up the stairs. I open the door to the lobby to meet an army of men in black with big guns pointed at me. I give myself in and they run my prints. My German was rusty so, much of what they were conversing I could not tell. I picked up one of the guys in charge say, “bag him up for transport.” That was when without a warning; one of the guys in black infused a drug in me knocking me out.

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The adrenaline shot used to awaken me was a risky enough move considering I had a pulse, taking an additional shot would be a death sentence. The sedative was making me drowsy causing me to suffer obscured vision. To top off all my misery, I had no clue of Sultan’s resemblance and neither did Eva. All Eva knew was the secluded area he was restrained. She pointed me in the direction and another issue sprung up. She pointed down illustrating it was underground. She gave me a summary of the black site’s plan and with that, I drowsily stumbled on.

The awesome thing about adrenaline is that it makes you quicker. With more than fifty Aheis’ men around, that would come in handy. As indicated by Eva, the maximum confinement area Sultan is held is a world war two bunker. The black site was built on top of it with the only access way down being a lift. There is a titanium vault placed around the bunker’s access lift at the surface. The Germans bored a large opening in the floor of a vault so the lift can ascend into it. Thus, to get to the lift, you need to go through the vault. Unfortunately, the vault consequently bolted when the alarm went off. The vault can withstand a nuclear blast however, the ground in which it sits is a different story.

Aheis’ men had beaten me to it and were squandering ammo shooting at it. The killed each other after bullets ricochet from the titanium vault wall. I was down to six minutes. If they tried to blow up the vault, they might damage the lift inside which would make it close to impossible, to get down to and up from the vault. That was it; contrary to the Aheis’ men I did not need Sultan alive, I needed him very much dead. All I needed was his identity confirmation to take him out. His followers would recognize him so I just had to help them get to him. Now down to five minutes, I ran back to the room I was locked up in, to check on Eva. I found Aheis’ men inside with their guns pointed at her. She was lying on the floor, alive. I went in.

I had to make sure they did not use their guns to avoid drawing attention to us. I kept close, jabbing ones’ throat, dislocating the others’ elbow then snapped their necks. Eva was somewhat shaken and lightly injured but she was alright. She was an agent and not a newbie in this. With four minutes till am out, Eva was my escape plan. The outside pavements were elusive yet not wet, it was salty. This could only mean one thing; we were close to the sea. With the sea being at Germany’s border, our escape strategy was falling into place. Strolling around the detainment rooms I could tell interrogation around here was not done to book, so there must be some way of wiping out all evidence; some way like a self-destruct bomb. The only place something to that effect could be initiated from would be the black sites’ security server. I helped Eva up reminding her of our escape strategy. She must have done some reconnaissance so she would realize the best place to execute the escape plan.

For the escape plan however, we would need propulsion so she would have to be close and ready when the bomb goes off. I abhorred this day.

I enquired on directions to the server room then handed her the assault gun as she headed out. She left me a parachute strap after alerting me to meet her out the west wings exit. Having fastened the parachute strap, I took one of the Aheis’ men’s AK47 gun and set out for the server room. There were a great deal of Aheis’ men around and the AK47 gun not being particularly stealthy would only draw more of them to me. I managed to get to the server room and sneaked in, to find a Special Forces agent inside. I could see the cameras’ feed from the screens behind him. He threatened me in German to drop my gun while pointing a nine mm pistol at me. All of a sudden, I could fluently understand German.

He was only a few steps away from me but I was not in my right state of mind to seize his gun from that distance. So, I dropped the AK47 and raised my hands. He ordered me to turn around and as I did, he approached from behind. He moved a step closer to me, and what an inept move. I seized the nine mm pistol pulling him towards me and tripping him. He pulled another pistol and I reacted fast shooting his hand before he could pull the trigger. I took the pistol from him and hit him on the head with it making him pass out. Within minutes the Aheis’ men would march in here as they must have heard the shot. I turned to the monitors, watching the camera feeds to see if there was any feed from the bunker underground. I noticed as I watched the different feeds, all the German special agents had been taken out. There were bodies everywhere of dead Aheis’ men but there were still more around. I spotted Eva, she ran with a bag on her back, out of the black site through the west wing exit. I discovered a round red button and a keyhole next to it at the server room’s desk. Then I detected a key in a glass box composed: ‘Break glass on emergency’. This was definitely an emergency. I broke the glass with the pistol, took the key, embedded it in the keyhole, and unlocked it. I at that point, hit the red button. The alarm went off again with all entryways automatically unlocking, the vault door included.

The Aheis’ men marched into the lift and descended to the bunker. Down to two minutes now, I had to wrap this up and leave. One thing disturbed me though, why would the German forces make it so simple to unlock every section of the black site. A timer went on addressing that question. I had just turned on the self-destruct sequence.

I watched the bunker’s CCTV feed as the Aheis’ men reunited with Sultan and there, I confirmed his identity. He was missing half of his left hand, from his elbow. With the two armed nine mm pistols in hand, I ran out fast heading for the lift. I have ideal right-hand accuracy in using a nine mm pistol. With no bullets to squander, I approached the Aheis’ men outside the vault taking headshots only. I took out four of them and jumped into the vault. There were more men inside. The dance began.

I battled with the two nines in my hands and damn I was fast. They were not few so I pulled instant kill moves. I shot the nine mm pistols as I fought, maximizing damage. They armed and started shooting forcing me to use one of them as cover. I used my perfect right-hand shot to take them out. The lift was now ascending. I would lose Sultan if he gets to the ground floor as his men would go to any length to protect him. Also, my right hand accuracy is perfect but my vision was poor. I was forcing open the lift door when another Aheis’ man joined me in the vault. With the lift door open, he shot at me damaging the lifts’ hoist rope behind me.

Alarmed after noticing he almost took out the lift’s hoist rope, he stopped shooting. I took this opening to attack him, sending him down the lift shaft. I picked up his AK47 and shot once more at the lifts’ hoist rope until it snapped. The rising lift descended but then its’ emergency brakes kicked in. I shot at the lifts’ guide rails but it did not budge. I picked up a hand grenade from one of the dead Aheis’ men, pulled out the safety pin and tossed it into the lift shaft. I sprinted out of the vault but then my time being down to seconds, the sedative was kicking in. I felt awfully tired and my running pace rapidly diminished. There was a huge blast from the lift shaft behind me. If Sultan survived that, there was the self-destruct which was also now down to seconds. With that in mind, I pushed on heading for the west wings’ exit.

The guy I just pushed down the lift shaft had shot me on my left shoulder. I pressed on the shoulder wound to get natural adrenaline streaming in my blood. Eva was my exit strategy and I trusted she was in position. The vaults’ blast drew the Aheis’ men’s attention giving me a clear way to Eva. Pressing on my shoulders wound helped raise my pulse and I increased my pace, running out the west wing’s exit. I could spot Sinclair at a distance. I sprinted towards her but with my heart rate quicker, the sedative spread through my body quicker. Pressing on my wound to get natural adrenaline streaming was no longer an option as the sedative made me numb. I was running short of breath and was heavily drowsy. I could not make out where Eva was anymore.

At that point, I saw the parachute, gaining lift as Eva ran towards me. It was bright yellow. I staggered towards it with every step I made being a milestone. I could not feel my limbs anymore and tumbled to my knees. The sedative was working full time. Somehow I was still conscious in spite of the fact that I had no influence over my body. With Eva a couple feet away from me, the self-destruct engaged and the black site blew up. She reached out to me and buckled her harness to mine. The blast sent shock waves giving the parachute a sizable amount of lift to get us airborne. I passed out right about then as Eva took control and paraglide towards the sea.