Ezekiel was standing among his guards, hands zip-tied behind his back, as he thought about how this had happened. He had stumbled upon this conspiracy, and with that discovery, the pool of those he could trust had shrunk drastically. The only reason he was alive, despite being in captivity, was due to his training. His days spent with special forces had transformed him into the living weapon he actually was. Unfortunately, even with that training, he couldn’t handle the sheer number of minions in this conspiracy that had swarmed him in the Rotunda.
As he examined his surroundings, one of his guards said irately, “Stop eyeballing me.”
“Calvin, calm down and relax.” The steely-eyed leader said as he shifted his gaze away from the man and towards Ezekiel. “Our friend here will answer all our questions.”
Ezekiel mentally chuckled at the lofty words, he had ducked into the Rotunda because a senator was being honored in death. He had managed to secure a few minutes of peace, and had managed to hide the evidence he had collected.
“Now, Ezekiel, please to spare us any further unpleasantness tell me where you hid the flash drive.”
Ezekiel shifted his eyes from the man’s feet to his cold and calculating eyes quipping, “You’re rapidly running out of time.”
One of the guards pulled him up and growled, “So are you.”
“I’ve got all the time in the world,” Ezekiel spoke with confidence.
“You’re zip-tied and unarmed, what makes you think you’re going to walk away from this?” Another of the guards asked.
Ezekiel turned to look at the man as he answered, “Because I’m better than all of you combined.”
The man who was pulling Ezekiel up was preparing to throw a punch when Ezekiel’s hand flew to the man’s holster faster than anyone could see. Ezekiel winked as he pulled the gun and shot the man in the chest, dropping him to the floor. In the echoing silence before anyone else could react, Ezekiel spun pulling the gun from the steely-eyed leader’s holster shooting him in the chest as well.
Ezekiel spun and studied the remaining dozen thugs. Fortunately, once he had been subdued the leader had dismissed two-thirds of their force thinking that fourteen men who were left would be able to handle a secured man. Unfortunately for those remaining, he was better than fourteen, well twelve, armed men.
He leapt over the fallen senator’s coffin, dragging the crest to the floor with him. Ezekiel waited for a pause in the ensuing explosions, then he looked over the coffin and with six well placed rounds half of the remaining thugs fell to the floor. But before he could shift his gaze to the remaining men, explosions announced the oncoming bullets. Ezekiel spun placing his back to the marble of the coffin stand, as he waited for his next opening. While he was waiting, he slipped the crest into his jacket.
Turning around he eased his eyes over the lid of the coffin and caught sight of three men warily approaching him. He dropped to the floor and rolled to the side, once he cleared the obstruction he fired three shots dropping the three approaching men. Without wasting any motions, he dropped the now empty gun as he got his feet under him and began racing for an exit.
As he ducked through the nearest doorway a bullet embedded itself into the door frame sending chips out like shrapnel from a mine. One of those jagged pieces sliced Ezekiel’s cheek, and as the blood began to swell, he turned bringing the second gun he appropriated to bear upon the final man in the room. He squeezed the trigger twice snuffing the sparkle from the eyes of two of the remaining thugs.
“You are certainly good.” The last man cried out.
“You can leave now, I won’t hurt you,” Ezekiel replied hoping the man would accept his arrangement.
The last man in the room walked towards the casket in the middle of the Rotunda, with great care saying, “If I let you out of here, I won’t make it out myself.”
“Your bosses are about to have bigger fish to fry than you.”
“You making it out won’t hurt them all that much.”
“I know I’ll never be more than an inconvenience to your bosses, but all that incriminating evidence I managed to extract won’t be just a mild irritation.”
“You don’t…”
“Last chance walk away and live.”
The other man tried to dive behind the senator’s final home, but Ezekiel knew what the man would attempt. And so as the man began his last movement, Ezekiel squeezed the trigger, and the bullet started its route. Just before the thug’s head disappeared behind the coffin, the shot ended its fatal journey.
Ezekiel shook his head at the senselessness of all the death before he sought a way out as stealthily as he could. As he was making his escape, he was surprised that the gunfire hadn’t drew security already. But that blessing allowed him to slip out of the building and reach a phone. He quickly called his contact, and in less than fifteen minutes a car was coming towards him.
When it stopped the window was rolled down, and he saw his contact with the press. Ezekiel extracted the flash drive from the crest and asked, “You’re sure you’ll be able to get this to the world?”
“Have I ever let you down Ezekiel?”
“Never Jacob,” Ezekiel answered as he handed over the flash drive.
“Go lay low, you’ve done enough,” Jacob said as he raised his window and sped off into the city to disseminate the information Ezekiel risked his life to retrieve.