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DaftRaincloud · 03-14-2020, 07:38 PM

(2,220 words. 2x Draft Media, of course.)

Chad Johnson looked out the window of his Gulfstream G650 and watched the sprawling favelas of Brazil get larger and larger as the plane descended to the hidden runway. Chad had received an urgent phone call less than twelve hours ago. It was Sam White – Director of the CIA. A ghost had come back to the realm of the living. That ghost – A New Zealand based bio-terrorist known only by his alias “Acsolap”, had popped back up on the radar.

Acsolap was Johnson’s biggest prize. The trophy on the mantle that he could hang his hat on. Twelve years ago in La Paz, Bolivia Chad tracked a series of murders, attacks, and robberies directly to Acsolap. It was a multi month man hunt during which Acsolap had been one step ahead the entire time. But eventually Chad had won and after a prolonged firefight brought a building down on top of Acsolap’s head. The intelligence communities assumed that one of the most dangerous threat’s the world had ever seen had been neutralized, and the case was closed.

Now, after the information had been double and triple checked, a blip was confirmed. A small piece of information – perhaps if attached to a different person would be ignored – has re-opened the Acsolap case. An image had been posted to Instagram. An image so innocuous that anybody scrolling past the picture would think it just a normal selfie of a woman in front of her favorite restaurant, but the devil is always in the details. Plastered across the front shop window was the graffiti tag that Acsolap had always used to signal his presence and intentions to the Boats – a nameless, faceless group of anonymous followers that would never meet him or each other in person. The anonymity and obsessive cult-like nature of the Boats had made them dangerous to deal with and almost impossible to find. The tag, the image of a tongue pressed against the glass as if it were licking the window, was the one piece of information that Chad had personally discovered, and it ended up being the lynch pin in the case.
 ***

In his penthouse office high above the city of San Francisco Jeff Kirkstone paced anxiously back and forth. A knock on his office door caught his attention and stopped his pacing.
“Come in,” Kirkstone barked.
The door opened and in shuffled a shaky looking young male intern.
“Um, Mister Kirkstone, so I’ve been calling Chad like you said-“
“And?” Kirkstone slowly approached the intern, towering over him as the intern looked at the ground refusing to meet his gaze.

“Well, sir-“ the intern started. “I’ve tried calling him a couple dozen times and he isn’t answering.”
“Did you leave a message informing my co-gm that we are mere hours away from playing the first game in the cup final and he hasn’t been to work in months?” Spit flung from Kirkstone’s mouth as his vision began to turn red. Veins in his neck began to pulse aggressive and he clenched his hands into tight, shaking fists.
“I did not s-“ the intern’s sentence was cut off by the punishing fist of Jeff Kirkstone crushing squarely into his jaw. The intern crumpled to the ground as Kirkstone walked back to his desk and a took a sip from his “world’s best boss” mug.

***

Agent Johnson stood in front of the shop window surveying the tongue graffiti. It was identical the ones from over a decade ago. As Chad went to open the door to the shop and see if there was anything to be found inside a nearby pay phone rang. Chad stopped in his tracks and moved to stand in front of the phone. It rang again.
“Who is this?” Chad asked as he lifted the phone from the receiver.
“Agent Johnson.” The cold, calculating voice with the thickest most disgusting Kiwi accent spoke back. “Long time no see. How’s your son?”
“Acsolap…” Chad started to think of an intimidating one liner when the absurdity of the question he was just asked washed over him. “Son? I don’t have a son..”
“Gabriel Johson” Acsolap said back.
“Gabriel? Whose...” Chad sat and contemplated for a second “I don’t know about that. Doesn’t ring a bell.”
As Chad stalled on the phone answering weird nonsense questions he looked around the various rooftops and office building windows to see where Acsolap could be viewing him from. That’s when Chad spotted it – a glint of light twenty stories up that just barely caught his eye.

Chad dropped the phone and sprinted towards the building. As he did so the window he had clocked the target in shattered as bullets tore through the glass. Chad leapt through the front window of the office building, tumbling to the marble floor inside in a hail of broken glass in an effort to avoid the flurry of bullets.

Johnson withdrew the Glock 17 that was concealed by his suit jacket and took to the stairwell. He began to sprint up the stairs, pistol in hand. As Chad quickly ascended the stairs the assailant leaned over a higher railing and began to fire down the stairs towards Chad. Chad returned fire as he climbed the stairs rapidly.

***

Kirkstone stood on the balcony outside his office. The cool salty San Francisco air whipped his grey hair to and fro. He had dispatched an intern to Johnson’s office to find any information he could – flight plans, receipts, etc. about an hour ago. Kirkstone wondered if he wasn’t now just biding his time in that office, avoiding the confrontation that was sure to come when he disappointed Jeff like all the rest of the interns.

“Mister Kirkstone.” The intern stepped out from the office to the balcony to lean against the railing beside Jeff. This one had confidence, Jeff didn’t like that.
“This better be good.”
“Well, I searched Mister Johnson’s office, sir.”
“And?” Jeff interjected.
“I searched every drawer, every cabinet, every nook and cranny.”
“It sounds like you didn’t find anything.” “No, I did not-“
At that moment Kirkstone grabbed the intern by the collar of his shirt and spun him so that his back was against the railing of the balcony.
“You have disappointed me for the last time.”
Using his leverage Kirkstone flipped the intern over the railing, sending him plummeting over a hundred stories to the ground below.
“Somebody find Chad Johnson!” he screamed to the void

***

Chad had finally finished his ascent of the stairs and was now in hot pursuit of his target. He was tight on the man’s tail, but a series of parkour and free running moves allowed the target to bound over the unfinished floor by jumping over exposed rebar, pallets of construction material, and steel pipes. Chad tried to match him move for move, but the other man was much lither and more agile.

Johnson quickly realized that there was no way he would catch the much more agile man, so he stopped running and drew his pistol. Three pulls of the trigger and on the third shot the 9mm bullet grazed the right ankle of the assailant. The man spilled to the ground and turned to face Johnson who was towering over him, his sidearm pointed down towards the man’s face.

Chad’s heart sank. The man looking back up at him was not Acsolap. He was younger and thinner – much thinner.
“Agent Johnson.” The voice came from the darkness to Chad’s right. He quickly turned to face the source of the voice. Emerging from the darkness, holding a carbine rifle pointed firmly at Chad’s chest was Acsolap. It was undeniably him, although there was significant scarring and burns around his face and neck – surely form the last encounter the two men had.

Chad’s stomach tightened. It was like the face of a ghost was staring back at him.
“Your lackey, I assume.” Chad said in regard to the man cowering on the ground in front of him.
“Yes, his name is Artemis.”
“I could put him down right now. Surrender.”
BANG.
The crack of Acsolap’s rifle filled the air. Artemis laid dead on the ground in front of Chad.
“Why?!” Chad called out.
Acsolap started to laugh a sinister, cold laugh. “You think I care about Artemis? I have already replaced him!”
Out of the shadows stepped a tall male figure. His tight t-shirt revealed an extremely muscular and toned frame.
“Meet my new lackey, Apricot!”
Chad paused for a moment. “His name is Apricot?”
“Yes..” Acsolap sounded confused by Chad’s question.
“That’s a dumb name.”

Apricot lurched forward and grabbed Chad around the neck with his large, strong hands. Chad was helpless to the assault and was tossed to the ground. He landed with a heavy thud and felt the air leave his lungs. Before Chad could become aware of his surroundings a punishing fist came across his cheek. Then another and another as Apricot pummeled Chad into the cold cement floor.

Chad heard the laughter of Acsolap faintly through the ringing in his ears. His vision was becoming blurry. He knew that if he didn’t act soon that he certainly would die here at the hands of his arch-nemesis.

BANG.

Chad felt the weight of the steroid addled behemoth that was on top of him slump over. Through his blurry vision he could see the outline of a young man holding his pistol which must have fallen to the ground during the scuffle. As things came into focus Chad was able to make out that the mysterious figure, but did not recognize who it was.

“Dad!” the figure dropped the gun and ran towards Chad and embraced him in a hug. Chad physically recoiled at the contact of the stranger. Why would they refer to him as dad?
“Who are you?”
“Dad it’s me, Gabe!”
Chad got to his feet. He thought for a second. “I don’t know.. I’ll have to think about that.”
“Ahem.” Acsolap brought the attention back to himself. Chad and Gabe turned their attention to the New Zealand terrorist who now had his weapon leveled at them. “I hate to interrupt this touching bonding moment, but I am going to kill you!”
“Well I hate to break the bad news, Acsolap, but I don’t even know who this is.”
Chad sprinted towards Acsolap. Acsolap fired his rifle. Chad felt the 5.56 round hit him square in the chest but he continued to power forward. Chad reached behind to the small of his back and withdrew his fixed blade knife from it’s sheath. Bang. Chad took another bullet from Acsolap, this time to his shoulder. Chad closed the distance and with one swift movement of his hand sank the blade into the side of Acsolap’s neck. With his free hand Chad grabbed the barrel of Acsolap’s rifle and directed it straight up into the air. Acsolap continued to pull the trigger. Rubble and sparks fell down on the men’s heads as the bullets slammed through the ceiling above.

Chad withdrew the knife before sinking it into Acsolap’s stomach. He planted his feet then pushed off and began to drive Acsolap back towards the floor to ceiling glass window. The two men crashed through the glass and started to plummet twenty-five feet towards the earth.
“So we die together Agent Johnson!” Acsolap yelled against the rushing wind.
“We will die, but only you will die today!” Chad let go of Acsolap and worked to remove his suit jacket, revealing the low profile parachute that was hidden beneath.
Acsolap gave Chad a grin. “Very clever, Agent Johnson. Until we meet again.”
Chad pulled the string. His parachute deployed. He felt a quick pull as the parachute halted his momentum and Chad watched as Acsolap collided with the pavement below.

***

Jeff Kirkstone paced back and forth behind his desk. The three interns standing in front of them winced in terrified anticipation.
“Now,” he started through gritted teeth “I’m only going to ask you guys one time.” Kirkstone stopped his pacing to stare at each of them in their eyes before moving on to the next. “Where is-“
At that moment Chad Johnson walked in through the open office door.
“Hey boss.” Chad said.
The interns breathed a sigh of relief.
“Johnson!” Kirkstone let out in surprise. “Where have you been?”
“Around.” Johnson shot back dryly.
Kirkstone dismissed the interns from the office and they quickly scurried away to the safety of the hallway.
“I have bad news, Chad. We lost in the final.”
“Ah man that sucks.”
Chad walked out of the office.
“The draft is tomorrow! Don’t miss it!” Kirkstone yelled out through the open door.
“I won’t! Promise!” Chad yelled back.

Chad walked down the hallway and started to trot down the stairs towards the front door of the San Francisco Pride office. As he opened the door his cell phone rang. He withdrew it from his pocket. Across the screen the contact info was displayed as ‘POTUS’. The president was calling, not unusual for such a high profile agent such as Chad.
“Mister President!” Chad answered as he accepted the call.
“Agent Johnson.” The gross weird voice of Acsolap came back across the speaker.

TO BE CONTINUED