The Soul Within

Excerpt From: The Soul Within

The right honourable Brad Rhodes jumped at the knock on his office door. Quickly closing the files on his laptop, he called out. "Yes, who is it?"

"Security, Mr. Rhodes."

"Shit." He muttered under his breath. "One sec." He glanced nervously over at the door to his private bathroom.

His hands shook as he ejected the flash drive from his laptop, and slid the data on the new Defence contracts into his pocket. He stopped before the door, took a deep centring breath as he buttoned his suit jacket and smiled, his nervousness now hidden behind a mask of absolute confidence. Opening the door, he had only time to gasp before he went flying back into the room.

The sheer force of the kick to his chest had him gasping for air. With his chest burning and head spinning Brad was quickly pinned to the floor by two men. Stunned, he stared up at a masked face leaning in close. The vivid blue of the eyes that stared back were beautiful, divine and yet deeply disturbing. Those eyes saw more than just the government employee, husband and father, those eyes saw the dark secrets sitting on his soul.

"Who are you?" There was no answer as he was quickly patted down. A hand stopped on the pocket that held the Flash drive. Pulling it from his pocket the man with the blue eyes held it up and tossed it to his partner. He then stood, settling his eternal eyes on him, before stepping over him and proceeding behind his desk.

"Now Bradley," The second attacker began. This man was different from the other; his eyes were black, empty chasms. "You know very well who we are."

The quiet words sent a shiver through him. "Oh God!" These men were part of the Guardian Project and they were here. That meant the other members knew what he had been up to. That meant these men were here to kill him. "But you can’t...I’m a member on the committee that sanctions you."

"Yes, you are." The man reached into a pocket hidden on his sleeve and withdrew a syringe.

"That’s the reason why we didn’t shoot you. We don’t want any unwanted attention, so you will die of natural causes." The man squatted down next to him. "Your wife will be taken care of for the remainder of her life and your child will only know of a father that worked incessantly to improve our country." The masked man paused and shrugged casually. "If you ask me, that’s pretty good considering the amount of shit you stirred up." The man turned to his partner who was behind the desk. "Ace?"

"Just cleaning his hard drive." There was a brief silence before he announced, "Done."

The man ‘Ace’ walked around the desk and stopped by his feet, giving his partner a quick nod.

"Wait." Brad began to panic. "Please. You can’t do this. The people that want this..."

"Are dead." It was ‘Ace’ who finished. "Just like the soldiers you sold out."

"I didn’t know they would kill so many. Please..." Brad held up his trembling hands, his face now coated with a light sheen of sweat. "I have a...my family."

"Those soldiers had families." Ace gritted out between clenched teeth.

"Your family will be better off without you." The killer next to him said. "Now, are we going to have to hold you down or will you take your punishment like a man?"

Brad’s heart began to race, blood pounded in the ear. He was going die. He didn’t want to die.

The basic need for survival had Brad fighting the men the best he could, but they were too strong, too fast. He felt the pinch at the base of his hairline, before the killers released him. Their mission now complete.

Two sets of eyes stared down waiting for him to die. Both so dramatically different, yet both the same. "You’re monsters." He mumbled.

Miles nodded. "We have to be, in order to protect the world from people like you."

In the last seconds of his life, Right Honourable Brad Rhodes watched as the man who killed him took off his mask and he realised that the head of his own security team had killed him.

****

"Well that’s six months of my life I won’t get back." Miles sighed. Standing, he snapped the cover on the end of the syringe and slid it back inside his sleeve. "This guy was a real dick. Next time we’re tasked with a job like this, you’re on point."

Alex ‘Ace’ Hunter raised his eyebrows. "Stop whining like a bitch. We could still be in the desert roasting our asses off."

"Yeah!" Miles snorted. "That was by far the easiest part of this job. I didn’t have to do anything." Miles narrowed his eyes. "You still miss all that shit don’t you?"

Alex shrugged. "Not always. I have missed using my rifle though. It was nice to blow holes in things again."