CHAPTER 2
"Hey, son, wake up we have to go."
"Where to, dad?"
"I'll tell you everything when the time comes, but for now we need to leave."
His father picks James up in his arms.
Just as he's about to walk out the door, John realizes that his men have entered through the door; he notices that it's only a matter of moments before they come upstairs; so he takes James into the room right in front of him and puts him in the closet, quickly camouflaging James with as many clothes as possible.
The men are coming upstairs.
"Hey, son, whatever happens, don't leave this place, okay? Whatever you hear, whatever you see, hide here."
"Dad, wait, don't leave me, hold on."
"I have to go, please don't move."
John quickly leaves the room and enters the bedroom.
The men are coming. From behind the bedroom door he grabs one of the approaching men by the arm, makes a move for the man's gun and knocks it out of his hand. John floors him with a fast move; then he punches the second man. Just as he's about to kick the other one, the first man getting up from the floor hits John in the head with the gun's butt and John falls. Heading up the stairs is a middle-aged, bald, hard-faced man in a suit.
James, watching all this from the closet and about to run to his father, sees John shake his head "no" and he stays behind the door only watching what's happening.
The suited man comes to stand in front of John.
"Hey John, didn't I tell you? Didn't I say if you tried to interfere with my plans, my money, my business, I'd take your family from you?"
"Jessica and Tom," John thinks to himself.
"Yes, you were looking for one of your children and your wife, weren't you? You wondered why they didn't come, too, you know."
"They're dead, John," he says. "And I came to take the other child from you; I thought about taking you last, but I thought, why not let your pain continue with that child? Let him not wake up each time without knowing it was because of the wrongs his father did? Why should he not suffer for his father's mistake? That's why I'll leave him alive."
"I'm sure he's watching us from somewhere in the house right now. What was his name, Tom? Oh right, he left with his mother, didn't he?"
"James?"
"Yes, it was James; that was your father's name, right?"
"Ethan, if you're going to keep talking, go on; kill me if you must, but don't touch him."
"Don't worry John, he will live; but he will live seeing you die knowing that his family died because his father got involved in things beyond his capacity."
"HEY James, watch closely; see what a small man your father was."
And three gunshots ring out.
By morning the police have cordoned off the scene; James is frozen, staring at what he has seen. Alan, then a rookie officer, is at the scene. He asks about the condition at the scene for the investigation.
"Sir, I'm afraid Commissioner John was shot twice in the head and once in the heart."
"Damn it," Alan says, unable to look at the scene. Just then he turns his head toward the room where James is; he sees James standing in the doorway, frozen, staring at the same place; the spot where he last saw his father.
Alan quickly goes to James. "Hey, hey James," he says, "I'm so sorry," and he hugs him. James remains silent.
Transport time.
"Hey James, before we start transporting the samples, come to my office for two minutes," Alan says.
They enter the office.
"Yes, Commissioner," James says.
"Look James, your father was a commissioner, a very good man. He always wanted to move the organization forward. And look, you've been through a lot, and I know the situations at the hospital right now. If you don't want to be here, you don't have to. I don't want you to suffer the pain of losing another family member; if there's even a small chance of that, we want to be by your side."
"You're right, sir, but I have to take part in this transport maybe if I go on duty I'll pull myself together, I might be able to forget a bit of what happened."
"You're right, recent events must be very heavy for you, but if you want something, the entire force is with you."
"Thank you, sir," he says and leaves the room.
"Okay, be careful everyone; these are very important to us, don't let anything happen to these samples," Alan says.
James realizes in a quick move that he needs to swap the real samples with fake ones.
They set off in the vehicle carrying the evidence.
While they're driving, suddenly Blueshade appears on a motorcycle in front of them.
"Damn it, that's him!"
"Everyone be careful," Alan begins to shout, but before he can finish, the box of blood samples at the back of the vehicle explodes a small bomb, only powerful enough to blow the doors off. In a quick move Blueshade jumps onto the vehicle, sets the motorcycle on autopilot, grabs the box with the blood samples and throws it back onto his bike, then speeds away.
Before the police can understand what just happened, everything is over.
"Damn it, are you all okay?"
"We're fine but the samples are gone."
"Damn it, what do we do now?"
Eva comes outside and says, "That little bastard, he always does everything his own way."
In the evening they give their statements at the station and are released.
James quickly hops on his motorcycle and rides to the cliff near his hideout.