Something Unexpected
“Briefing room, now,” Ian said as he entered the office. Everyone just stared at him as he entered the briefing room. “Please,” he said, poking his head out the door as he realized no one was moving.
The Cornel and Monroe were the first to enter, followed by a few other members of the Cyber Crime division.
“This had better be good,” said someone as they entered.
“I thought we would only see you Monday,” said the Cornel.
“Yeah, well, long story. Anyway, I was looking for Thor yesterday,”
“And you found him?” asked Monroe.
“No, well. Sort of, that’s not important,”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” said the Cornel.
“Fine, I tacked his packets back to the Wi-Fi routers at Emperor’s Palace, last one was sent seconds before the predicted T.O.D,”
“Them we have him,”
“No, we don’t,”
“Yes we do,” said Monroe, “someone had to have seen him, if not then the camera’s had to,”
“I’ve looked through two hours of footage, it’s gonna be a nightmare,”
“How did you get hold of the footage?” asked the Cornel.
“How do you think? Can I now continue with the important stuff? Thank you,” Ian said and started typing things on the laptop connected to the projector, “Okay, here we have Victor Davis,”
“He’s a gun runner, not a cyber-criminal,” piped someone from the back of the room.
“Correct, but his brother is,” Ian said and another face appeared on the projector.
“Mathew Davis is a small time cracker,” said Monroe.
“Really? For the past eight months, Mathew had been syphoning money from one billion bank accounts across the planet. He takes the equivalent of one South African cent from one million accounts a day, always switching the sequence each cycle,
“I wouldn’t have noticed it if one of my roommate’s accounts hadn’t been targeted. So I traced the account and back traced the packets and found this,” he typed another command on the laptop and a satellite view of a villa popped up.
“Where did you get that?” asked the Cornel.
“Borrowed a Google satellite,” Ian said casually, “this is their staging area, it well guarded but a lightning raid should do the trick,”
“Wait,” said Monroe, “how are they moving the money, I mean, it would look strange if the money was added to one account,”
“You see why I gave you four tip offs? This man,” said Ian and a new face appeared on the projector, “is friends with the Davis brothers. He’s got a sex shop in Sandton, and that’s how they hide the money, most of it moves through his accounts. He is also on your wanted list, though like at the bottom. Small time child pornographer. Arrested a few times but never convicted. No surprise, with the money the Davis brothers are paying him, he can afford payoffs, an apparently most parents would sell their children’s innocence,”
“Sick,” said Monroe with distaste.
“So, green?”
“Why would we do this?” asked the Cornel.
“Ah, I was hoping you’d ask. Thor leant money from them, if we’re lucky they’ll tell us something we might not already know. And if they won’t, their computers might,”
The raid had turned into a massive fire fight. Ten Scorpions against a small army of thirty hired guns. They had gotten into the court yard but got pinned down. Ian had sent a message to Ed with three simple letters, SOS.
He knew Ed would know what it meant, he also knew the message would automatically attach his GPS coordinates so that Ed knew where to find him. He had sent this message when they got pinned down thirty minutes ago. Luckily they were blocking the only way out so no one could escape.
Slowly the Scorpions got the upper hand, Ian rolled out from cover and took down three of the LMGs on the second floor before taking cover again just in time as a fourth started suppressing him.
The others were somewhat amazed by the combat roll, but they didn’t have much time to think on it. The next few seconds went past in blur, they took out a few more of the guards and started gaining ground, the fight became easier and three of them broke off to enter the building and find the brothers and their partner.
As they did this, Ian got to his feet and let out a sigh of relieve, Ed wouldn’t be needed after all. Just as he though this, he heard barking and five Rottweilers came running around the corner of the building, one of them knocked Ian over, digging its teeth into his left arm.
As he lay sprawled on the ground, he saw Ed on the wall opposite him with his bow in hand and an arrow fully drawn.
“Shoot it!” Ian yelled lifting his left arm so Ed had a better shot at the dog, “For the love of fuck, shoot it!”
Edward released the arrow, which zipped through the air and skewered the dog through the head.
Ian entered the emergency room at the hospital. It was chaos. There were a great many injuries, some car accidents, some shootings, some from fires and others Ian didn’t even want to know about.
A blonde doctor in her late twenties came towards him. She looked exhausted.
“He looks worse,” said Ian, pointing to a man in a gurney next to him that had half his face missing.
The doctor gave him a questioning look and proceeded to help the man. Ian examined his wound, he still had a good bit of arrow sticking out both ends of his arm, surrounded by a handful of holes left there by the dog. He was grateful that Ed had taken his quiver with the slender arrows, and not the broadheads he used for hunting. The arrow had passed clean through between the bones in his fore arm.
He waited a good hour there for the doctor to return. Other doctors had offered to help, but he passed them on to other patients, finally the blonde doctor returned.
“You still alive?”
“I’m not really planning on dying any time soon,” Ian said.
“This way,” she said and led him to an empty bed in ICU. “Let me see that chart. So, Mister Erasmus,”
“Please, call me Ian,”
“Mister Erasmus, why is it an arrow is protruding from your arm?”
“Well it was hidden by a dog’s head, but we pulled that off,”
“A dog’s head? Why was there a dog’s head around your arm?”
“It was savaging me,”
“Do I want to know why?”
“I might have, not inadvertently, shot at his owner. Don’t give me that look, it was a raid, and I would have liked to avoid killing anyone today,”
“Should I call the police after I fixed your arm?”
“That would be pointless,” he said and produced his Scorpion’s ID tag, “Why is it so busy here today?”
“It’s always busy here,”
“Truly?”
“Why didn’t you let one of the other doctors take a look at you?”
“Coz they weren’t you,” Ian said with a smile, “Hey!” he yelped as she yanked the arrow from his arm. “When do you get off work?”
“It’s unethical to date patients,”
“Well, after you’ve patched me up, I won’t be your patient anymore,”
“Nine,” she said flatly, looking him in the eyes and he noticed for the first time she suffered from heterochromia iridum, she had one green eye and one light blue. Ian just smiled, “What?”
“Nothing, I’ll pick you up at ten, then,”
“How about we meet at the restaurant at ten?”
“Fair enough, but now I need to explain to you where I was thinking of taking you. I know of this little restaurant, romantic, great food, good music-“
“Forties themed? I know the place,”
“See you at ten then,”
“I still need to patch up your arm,”
“Of course,” said Ian with a smile.
Ed heard music coming from the roof, it sounded like a guitar. He made his way upstairs to find Ian strumming away in the riff for I Miss You by Blink 182 and JR by the bar pouring himself a drink. It was well past midnight.
“I see he met a blonde again,” said Ed.
“Jip,” said JR, “that’s his, ‘I met a blonde and she’s smoking hot’ song, though I have no more details than that,”
“I don’t have a ‘I met a blonde and she’s smoking hot’ song,” said Ian as he continued to strum without missing a beat. “You guys are just jealous that I can play guitar and you can’t,”
“Speak for JR, I can play just fine,” Ed said.
“Hello there, the angel from my nightmare,” Ian began to sing the first verse.
Ed took his guitar from the wall and fell in with the riff, JR stood by the bar nodding to the beat.
“Where are you, and I’m so sorry,” Ed started the second verse with Ian just strumming along.
“You’ve gotten good at that,” said Ian.
“He’s had a lot of practise,” said JR, “You always play that song after you met a beautiful blonde,”
“Maybe,” Ian said and replaced his guitar on the wall. “I’m off to bed, and don’t disturb me at all, no matter what you hear,” he said with a wink.
“Yeah, right, like we’d hear a girl scream from your room,” said Ed, “Wait, does he have a girl in his room?”
“I don’t know, I was out when he came in, you were home though,” said JR.
“I’ve been working on that manuscript for the last two hours,”
“I wonder?”
“He’ll kill you,”
“Maybe,”
“Definitely,”
The next morning Ed strolled down the stairs into the open plan kitchen, living room, dining room. Breakfast was served and coffee was ready but Ian was gone, this time so was his car.
“Morning,” said a female voice behind him.
He turned around and beheld the blonde doctor Ian had met the day before. Her hair was lose and dishevel from sleep but she still had a natural beauty about her.
“Morning,” Ed replied, somewhat suspiciously.
“Does Ian always leave his own house before the woman he had sex with wakes up the next morning?”
Ed sprayed his mouth full of coffee all over the kitchen island. He turned to her, trying to comprehend what she had just said.
The Cornel and Monroe were the first to enter, followed by a few other members of the Cyber Crime division.
“This had better be good,” said someone as they entered.
“I thought we would only see you Monday,” said the Cornel.
“Yeah, well, long story. Anyway, I was looking for Thor yesterday,”
“And you found him?” asked Monroe.
“No, well. Sort of, that’s not important,”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” said the Cornel.
“Fine, I tacked his packets back to the Wi-Fi routers at Emperor’s Palace, last one was sent seconds before the predicted T.O.D,”
“Them we have him,”
“No, we don’t,”
“Yes we do,” said Monroe, “someone had to have seen him, if not then the camera’s had to,”
“I’ve looked through two hours of footage, it’s gonna be a nightmare,”
“How did you get hold of the footage?” asked the Cornel.
“How do you think? Can I now continue with the important stuff? Thank you,” Ian said and started typing things on the laptop connected to the projector, “Okay, here we have Victor Davis,”
“He’s a gun runner, not a cyber-criminal,” piped someone from the back of the room.
“Correct, but his brother is,” Ian said and another face appeared on the projector.
“Mathew Davis is a small time cracker,” said Monroe.
“Really? For the past eight months, Mathew had been syphoning money from one billion bank accounts across the planet. He takes the equivalent of one South African cent from one million accounts a day, always switching the sequence each cycle,
“I wouldn’t have noticed it if one of my roommate’s accounts hadn’t been targeted. So I traced the account and back traced the packets and found this,” he typed another command on the laptop and a satellite view of a villa popped up.
“Where did you get that?” asked the Cornel.
“Borrowed a Google satellite,” Ian said casually, “this is their staging area, it well guarded but a lightning raid should do the trick,”
“Wait,” said Monroe, “how are they moving the money, I mean, it would look strange if the money was added to one account,”
“You see why I gave you four tip offs? This man,” said Ian and a new face appeared on the projector, “is friends with the Davis brothers. He’s got a sex shop in Sandton, and that’s how they hide the money, most of it moves through his accounts. He is also on your wanted list, though like at the bottom. Small time child pornographer. Arrested a few times but never convicted. No surprise, with the money the Davis brothers are paying him, he can afford payoffs, an apparently most parents would sell their children’s innocence,”
“Sick,” said Monroe with distaste.
“So, green?”
“Why would we do this?” asked the Cornel.
“Ah, I was hoping you’d ask. Thor leant money from them, if we’re lucky they’ll tell us something we might not already know. And if they won’t, their computers might,”
The raid had turned into a massive fire fight. Ten Scorpions against a small army of thirty hired guns. They had gotten into the court yard but got pinned down. Ian had sent a message to Ed with three simple letters, SOS.
He knew Ed would know what it meant, he also knew the message would automatically attach his GPS coordinates so that Ed knew where to find him. He had sent this message when they got pinned down thirty minutes ago. Luckily they were blocking the only way out so no one could escape.
Slowly the Scorpions got the upper hand, Ian rolled out from cover and took down three of the LMGs on the second floor before taking cover again just in time as a fourth started suppressing him.
The others were somewhat amazed by the combat roll, but they didn’t have much time to think on it. The next few seconds went past in blur, they took out a few more of the guards and started gaining ground, the fight became easier and three of them broke off to enter the building and find the brothers and their partner.
As they did this, Ian got to his feet and let out a sigh of relieve, Ed wouldn’t be needed after all. Just as he though this, he heard barking and five Rottweilers came running around the corner of the building, one of them knocked Ian over, digging its teeth into his left arm.
As he lay sprawled on the ground, he saw Ed on the wall opposite him with his bow in hand and an arrow fully drawn.
“Shoot it!” Ian yelled lifting his left arm so Ed had a better shot at the dog, “For the love of fuck, shoot it!”
Edward released the arrow, which zipped through the air and skewered the dog through the head.
Ian entered the emergency room at the hospital. It was chaos. There were a great many injuries, some car accidents, some shootings, some from fires and others Ian didn’t even want to know about.
A blonde doctor in her late twenties came towards him. She looked exhausted.
“He looks worse,” said Ian, pointing to a man in a gurney next to him that had half his face missing.
The doctor gave him a questioning look and proceeded to help the man. Ian examined his wound, he still had a good bit of arrow sticking out both ends of his arm, surrounded by a handful of holes left there by the dog. He was grateful that Ed had taken his quiver with the slender arrows, and not the broadheads he used for hunting. The arrow had passed clean through between the bones in his fore arm.
He waited a good hour there for the doctor to return. Other doctors had offered to help, but he passed them on to other patients, finally the blonde doctor returned.
“You still alive?”
“I’m not really planning on dying any time soon,” Ian said.
“This way,” she said and led him to an empty bed in ICU. “Let me see that chart. So, Mister Erasmus,”
“Please, call me Ian,”
“Mister Erasmus, why is it an arrow is protruding from your arm?”
“Well it was hidden by a dog’s head, but we pulled that off,”
“A dog’s head? Why was there a dog’s head around your arm?”
“It was savaging me,”
“Do I want to know why?”
“I might have, not inadvertently, shot at his owner. Don’t give me that look, it was a raid, and I would have liked to avoid killing anyone today,”
“Should I call the police after I fixed your arm?”
“That would be pointless,” he said and produced his Scorpion’s ID tag, “Why is it so busy here today?”
“It’s always busy here,”
“Truly?”
“Why didn’t you let one of the other doctors take a look at you?”
“Coz they weren’t you,” Ian said with a smile, “Hey!” he yelped as she yanked the arrow from his arm. “When do you get off work?”
“It’s unethical to date patients,”
“Well, after you’ve patched me up, I won’t be your patient anymore,”
“Nine,” she said flatly, looking him in the eyes and he noticed for the first time she suffered from heterochromia iridum, she had one green eye and one light blue. Ian just smiled, “What?”
“Nothing, I’ll pick you up at ten, then,”
“How about we meet at the restaurant at ten?”
“Fair enough, but now I need to explain to you where I was thinking of taking you. I know of this little restaurant, romantic, great food, good music-“
“Forties themed? I know the place,”
“See you at ten then,”
“I still need to patch up your arm,”
“Of course,” said Ian with a smile.
Ed heard music coming from the roof, it sounded like a guitar. He made his way upstairs to find Ian strumming away in the riff for I Miss You by Blink 182 and JR by the bar pouring himself a drink. It was well past midnight.
“I see he met a blonde again,” said Ed.
“Jip,” said JR, “that’s his, ‘I met a blonde and she’s smoking hot’ song, though I have no more details than that,”
“I don’t have a ‘I met a blonde and she’s smoking hot’ song,” said Ian as he continued to strum without missing a beat. “You guys are just jealous that I can play guitar and you can’t,”
“Speak for JR, I can play just fine,” Ed said.
“Hello there, the angel from my nightmare,” Ian began to sing the first verse.
Ed took his guitar from the wall and fell in with the riff, JR stood by the bar nodding to the beat.
“Where are you, and I’m so sorry,” Ed started the second verse with Ian just strumming along.
“You’ve gotten good at that,” said Ian.
“He’s had a lot of practise,” said JR, “You always play that song after you met a beautiful blonde,”
“Maybe,” Ian said and replaced his guitar on the wall. “I’m off to bed, and don’t disturb me at all, no matter what you hear,” he said with a wink.
“Yeah, right, like we’d hear a girl scream from your room,” said Ed, “Wait, does he have a girl in his room?”
“I don’t know, I was out when he came in, you were home though,” said JR.
“I’ve been working on that manuscript for the last two hours,”
“I wonder?”
“He’ll kill you,”
“Maybe,”
“Definitely,”
The next morning Ed strolled down the stairs into the open plan kitchen, living room, dining room. Breakfast was served and coffee was ready but Ian was gone, this time so was his car.
“Morning,” said a female voice behind him.
He turned around and beheld the blonde doctor Ian had met the day before. Her hair was lose and dishevel from sleep but she still had a natural beauty about her.
“Morning,” Ed replied, somewhat suspiciously.
“Does Ian always leave his own house before the woman he had sex with wakes up the next morning?”
Ed sprayed his mouth full of coffee all over the kitchen island. He turned to her, trying to comprehend what she had just said.