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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Lancashire, U.K.
Gender: Male
Posts: 111
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Chapter 7 – Nexus Xenon
The Burmstang hotel was one of America’s finest and most glamorous hotel buildings. For decades, America’s richest and most famous people regularly enjoyed lavish stays at the hotel. No magazine review had ever given it anything under a five star rating – none had dared to. Yet, as James drove the car towards the towering, illuminated monument, the thoughts of what had happened only ten minutes ago were still haunting him. The man on the telephone seemed to know exactly when their car was on the street and knew exactly what they should do. Lydia had pestered James since for him to take them back but he refused. Whoever was at the house wasn’t there for a good reason. James didn’t know why but he believed the stranger on the phone that if they had proceeded any further, they would have been killed.
“James, why are you doing this? Take me home for god sake!” Lydia shouted as James drove erratically away from the house. She saw that he seemed to be ignoring her and made an attempt to halt the driving, but James pushed her away. “What’s wrong with you?! Who was on the phone?”
“The guy on the phone said that those people outside your house were going to kill us if they found us and do you know what? I believe him. That’s where I’m going now. The Burmstang hotel” James replied in an annoyed tone. Lydia sat back in her seat and gawped at James as though he’d become an alien.
“And what? You just believed every word that came from his mouth?! Are you stupid?!!” Shouted Lydia. James, however, did nothing to acknowledge her speech and instead drove straight through a red light. At this point, Lydia fumbled around in her handbag, which was cast down on the floor, and produced another cell-phone. “I’m calling the cops you’ve gone mad!”
James saw what she was doing and snatched the phone from her, opened the window and threw it onto the road below them. People who were stood on the pavement were not only surprised that someone had practically given them a phone, but also the speed of the car was now reaching breaking point. However, James had no time to think about what he was exactly doing as he suddenly glanced into his side mirror. He had noticed that the same blue car had been behind them for at least three miles and something wasn’t right at all.
“Lydia, reach into the glove box and get my gun would you?” James instructed calmly. Lydia was hesitant at first but upon seeing Jame’s serious face, she did as he asked and produced a pistol from the glove box. James took it from her and again glanced at the mirror. The blue car showed no signs of stopping and James decided to do something drastic. He opened the window and, making sure he kept his eye on the road, shot at the car behind him.
“What the hell are you doing?!!!” screamed Lydia as she saw James opening fire upon the car behind them. Unfortunately for them both, the occupant of the other car had decided to do the same and return fire upon them both. Lydia ducked into her seat as a hail of machine gun fire ripped into the car. People around them were stood in shock as the two cars did battle on open road.
Suddenly, the Burmstang hotel came into their view. James could only hope that whoever was meeting them there could only offer an explanation as to what was going on. James cell-phone began ringing again and this time, Lydia answered it.
“I can see your car outside. Try to keep the guy still so I can get a clear shot…” The caller hung up and Lydia looked towards James.
“He said try to keep him still, the guy behind us…” she said as James concentrated on his driving. Although it seemed as though he’d ignored her, he began driving in a straight line, as did the person behind him. Out of nowhere, the blue car began swerving and suddenly toppled over onto its side. The driver had been shot by a sniper rifle – seemingly from the man on the other end of the phone call. The car rolled onto its side and exploded in a plume of flames and debris. Lydia dropped the phone onto the floor, but the caller was ringing again.
“Answer it Lydia…”
“No James! That creep just told you to help him kill the guy in that car! So you can talk to whoever that is because I’m not!” Lydia shouted as she thrust the phone into Jame’s lap. He picked up the phone and answered the call.
“I’ll be on floor 14, room R8H. The receptionist is already waiting for you.” The voice said. Before James could reply, the caller hung up again and James continued driving.
The main lobby of the Burmstang hotel was amazingly bright. All around there were tables that glimmered in the sunlight. Two security guards were stood on either side of the elevator and to the right of them the reception lay in wait.
“Yes sir, and madam, how can I help you?” the pretty receptionist said with a smile stretched across her face.
“Someone is expecting me in room R8H, floor 14. May I go up?” James said calmly as Lydia looked incredibly nervous and agitated.
“Yes sir let me check the records one moment”
The woman turned her back and began sifting through a tatty looking notebook before pulling out a key with a piece of paper attached to it.
“Well sir, whoever you’re meeting must be very important. Room R8H belongs only to one person and believe me, in all my time working here nobody has ever gone up there. Have a nice day sir!” she smiled as she handed over the key. James took it from her, gave her a courteous nod and strode off towards the elevators.
After a bumpy and slightly nauseating elevator ride, they finally arrived on floor 14. There was a short corridor ahead of them. On one side there was a giant window and on the other were two doors. The end of the corridor seemed to end at a blank wall. As James approached one of the doors, Lydia looked out of the window and saw that they were nearly at the top of the huge building, The sight below was slightly sickening and Lydia walked away from it in the fear of being violently sick. They stopped outside a golden looking door with the initials R8H embedded into the frame. The door next to it was similar, but with the initials F9L on it instead. James knocked on the door heavily and it clicked open as if by magic. The two of them walked through it and closed it behind them.
There was a man sat at the table in the middle of the room. There was also a bed nearby and several luxury hotel features. It was the most expensive hotel suite James had ever seen. The man was of a very muscly stature and dressed in casual clothing which consisted of a white shirt and black denim trousers. He stood up and offered his hand to James, who then accepted this offering and sat down at the same table as the man.
“I’m glad you came here. Part of me thought you ignored my first call and went to those vultures. Until I saw that chase down below which may I add, was stupid of you!” he laughed creepily. James did not laugh back – all he wanted was answers.
“Who are you and how the hell did you get my phone number?!” he asked in a violent manner. Lydia decided to sit beside him and get the answers she wanted as well.
“My name is Daniel Forsythe. You won’t know who I am or what I need of you yet I guess?” he smiled as he replied to Jame’s question. “Ok then enough of the chatter. Let’s get down to why we’re here.”
He stood up and went over to the window. He placed his hands in his pockets and began explaining things.
“I’m the manager of a company called Nexus Xenon. What we do is covert operations. We’re a mercenary group. All our people are experienced in the field of war, and crime and military operations. Nexus Xenon have been monitoring a case for a long time now and we believe we finally have what we need to bring down this company.” He explained casually as he viewed the scene below him. “We think we have enough to bring down Helix spire for good”
“Helix spire? Why would you want to bring them down?” Lydia asked after hearing Daniel’s speech. “
“Helix spire are fully aware that they’re being observed but they haven’t done anything about it. Their manager, Phillip Valaski, is a very intelligent man. Somebody like him won’t go into anything without a plan – a plan that wouldn’t fail. Many organizations in the past have tried bringing down Helix spire and none have been successful. It’s my job to make sure that Nexus Xenon does what it’s been told to do and …”
“Listen to me now! Enough about the back-story! I want to know how you got my number and how on earth you knew where I was and what I was doing!” demanded James. He stood up out of his chair to force Daniel into telling him what he wanted to know.
“Well aren’t you a man of urgency? Very well I’ll get straight to the point. Your records are on file at the Helix spire database because your lover here donated her DNA to the project. Well I say donated you could call it theft… Anyway, Helix spire are after you now. They want to take her away to one of their laboratories and test her. Steal her DNA. But that’s not all. Once they’re done they will kill her and then throw her body out into the open like a piece of meat. I won’t let that happen. If you come with me when we leave this room then you will survive. If you don’t, then I’m afraid you’re fuelling their motivation even more” Daniel explained. Lydia looked at him in awe whilst James knew what he was being told was the complete truth. But he still had many un-answered questions – things he needed to know.
“You say Helix spire is going to kill my girlfriend? Why would they want her DNA? Why her DNA specifically? What makes her so special?!” asked James as he pointed his finger at Lydia.
“Helix spire aren’t who they portray themselves as. The whole world thinks they’re a company who produces miracle medicines. The whole world thinks they’re a company who work for the benefit of mankind. Helix spire does none of the sort. Remember when the cure for breast cancer was discovered by them? Well the results were all faked. The actual “cure” came from a scientist in Australia whom they murdered and stole his work and posed it off as their own. They’re a terrorist organisation, except without the guns and the artillery.” Daniel explained thoroughly as he was still gazing out of the window. It was as though he remembered everything from the top of his head and was able to recite is without any problems. “Helix spire is based on one main objective and that is to discover a specific strand of DNA. There is only one strand of this DNA in the world and if they find out whom the people are that carry this DNA, then the entire world is at risk…”
“So what you’re saying is that Lydia is a carrier of this specific DNA?” asked James. Daniel nodded quickly and sat back down in his seat.
“Think of it like this James. There is a war going on as we speak. This war is between three parties. Two of those factions are Nexus Xenon and Helix spire. But there is another company involved in this whole situation. It is a company led by a man who goes by the name of Richard Holloway. His company is completely anonymous, it’s like it has no title. It’s more secret than Helix spire itself because nobody knows about it. The thing with Mr. Holloway is that he is obsessed with money and money alone. His primary goal is to use the holders of this strand of DNA and sell them for profit. This DNA can be used for producing the most impossible of cures. Just imagine how much money can be raked in from that sort of thing.”
“And why is your company getting involved? Why can’t you just allow the two to fight between themselves?” asked Lydia, just as James was about to ask the same thing.
“Nexus Xenon can’t allow Helix spire to get hold of this DNA because if they do, the entire planet is at risk. Helix spire want to construct a mass weapon and the only way for them to do this is by collecting eight individual samples of the DNA. Once they have this, then we can all only hope we survive the chaos that they bring. Like I said, Nexus Xenon is a mercenary organisation. If we have to slaughter everyone who gets in our way, then we shall do so without hesitation” Daniel explained. He suddenly stood up again and pulled a gun from his pockets. He handed one to Lydia and one to James. “We need to leave this hotel – it isn’t s secure building. I’ll take you to our H.Q., its safe there.”
“What if we don’t want to come with you, Daniel?” interrupted James as he too stood up, facing Daniel. A glimpse of anger was present on Daniel’s face but it disappeared after a second.
“Let me make this as clear as I can. We are a mercenary organisation. If you don’t come with me then I’d afraid I’m going to have to kill you both right now. I can’t allow her to leave and take the risk that Helix spire find her and collect her DNA” Daniel said, his pistol waving around in his hand. James looked at Lydia as Daniel made his subtle threat.
“Tell me Daniel There’s two of us, with two guns. There’s one of you, with just one gun. What’s to stop us killing you instead?” asked James as he tried to reverse the threat made upon them. Daniel smiled and turned around to face the window again.
“You’re not going to do that James and we both know that. There have been two snipers watching you every second of this meeting. If they so much as see you raise your gun to my head they will not hesitate to fire a bullet into your skulls. Now then, let me ask again. Shall we go now?” smiled Daniel a she ushered towards the door. James had wondered whether he had made the right decision in meeting Daniel. Something seemed out of place and it felt as though Daniel was hiding something from them. Regardless, he had to go with Daniel or they would both be killed.
“I have a last question before we go Daniel” said James as he walked for the door. “You seem to have a personal reason for attacking Helix spire. Am I right in assuming this?”
Daniel stopped in his tracks and turned back towards James. His grin was now as clear as ever and he replied to Jame’s question.
“Yes you would be right in thinking that. Phillip Valaski is my brother…”
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MY CURRENT PROJECTS:
Helix Spire - writing chapter 8 - The lesser of two evils
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