Ambitions Part 3

Mathew Lawrenson

As I and Kiara stepped out of the Rolls Royce when arriving at the capital, we were immediately greeted by an agent of FEAR.

“Good morning Agents Mathew and Kiara, I’m Agent Sean Smith,” he said.

“Good morning,” I replied. I had noticed the change of title from “Councillor” to “Agent.” It wasn’t worrying, but it felt weird to hear me being called that after so many years.

“I’m here to show you your housing,” Smith explained.

We nodded and he led us to a house. It wasn’t like our mansion back home in New Jersey, but it wasn’t that bad either. It had 2 floors and a nice bedroom. It also had a large table, but I’m sure that’s for planning, and not because FEAR was feeling generous.

“You have 2 weeks to carry out the mission,” Smith told us, “At the end of it, you have to escape without being seen, and arrive at this rendezvous point.”

He gave me a small piece of paper. The words “North Gate, The Hammond Hotel, Philadelphia Street.” I quickly tucked it into my pocket.

Smith continued with the instructions, “If you do not succeed in burning down the White House, you will be punished.”

“What’s the punishment?”

“Your memories will be sucked from your brains with a new gadget, which one of our inventors has made for the secrecy of FEAR. It was on the Terms and Conditions on the sign-up sheet actually,” he added while smirking a little.

It wasn’t funny. Our memories wiped? Horrible!

“Okay,” I said, “Is that all?”

“No, I also have to give you this,” he said and pulled out a white sheet of paper, with curious blue lines, letters, and symbols, “This is the map of the White House. It’ll come in handy.”

And with that, Smith gave me the map and swept out of the house.

I and Kiara set off to work. We had already formulated a plan and just had to revise it.

“Okay,” Kiara said, “first things first: We have to cause a power outage. Nothing should work, no telephones, lights, or computers. No way to call for help, unless someone sees the fires. We’ll start by cutting off the telephone lines, which are here, here, and here.”

And she marked places bordering the White House west, north, and east.

“We’ll have to pack some flamethrowers too, just in case, and some guns, luckily, FEAR has given us those.”

“And we’ll break into the House by … grappling hooks. In the dead of night, so that no one can see us, and we’ll have to be standing near a pillar so that anyone looking through a window won’t see us.” I said.

“Good. And we put fire to the whole thing by setting fire to the carpets, and escape the same way we got in.”

“Then we reach the rendezvous point Agent Smith gave us, and just hope for the best.”

“And all of this will be done tomorrow. In 1 day. And hopefully, Elliot won’t give too much information away”

Conan Lawrenson

“Sir! This man is here to see you!” my security officer, Sykes, said. I and about 20 officers were standing in the White House lawn, with pistols in our holsters and MP5s loaded and ready in our hands.

Our job as a part of the Secret Service was simple: Protect the president of the United States by any costs. That included listening to a random guy who says he has information on an attack.

“Bring him here!” I shouted.

Sykes held the man’s arms to his back and led him to me. “What’s your name?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter what my name is, because I know about an attack on the President,” he said.

“You do huh? Well, if that turns out to be wrong, you’ll be tracked down and kept in prison for a lot of years for distracting us and playing foolish games.”

“I’m not wrong. There will be an attack on the White House.”

“Take him into the interrogation center, but remember to leave a sufficient amount of security at the White House.”

I handcuffed the anonymous man, just in case he tried anything, and kept him in the back seat of the Chevy Suburban, and drove him to the center.

There, he told us everything he knew.

“There will be an attack on the White House this week,” he started, “A man and a woman will come. They will set fire to the whole thing. An organization has given them a lot of money to set fire to it.”

“Which organization?” I asked him. A cloud of fear was looming in my mind. Was it the same organization that my father and mother are a part of? Is it FEAR?

“I don’t know. Even if I did, I can’t tell you that.”

“Fine. How do the vigilantes look?”

“I know how they look but it won’t be of any use to you. They might be masked. But I’ll still give you their looks.”

We brought in a sketch artist and the man gave him the details. When he was done, I peered nervously at the art. It didn’t look like mother and father! So, it just can’t be them!

“Do you know anything else about the people? Like what they’ll be using to set the fire? Or how they’ll enter?”

“Nope. Nothing else.”

“Why and how are you giving us this information?”

“I just want to be a responsible citizen and protect our nation. As for how I got to know. I can’t tell you that.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Tell us, or you’ll be going to jail.”

“I heard a group of people talking about in an alley, about … 2 days ago, at midnight, when I was just buying some Cheetos from a convenience store in downtown Illinois Street. The name of the store is ‘Delicious Side.’ They make some killer sandwiches.”

I noted down the street and the name of the store. It could prove in handy if this organization had any more talks in this particular alleyway.

“Is that all?”

“That’s all I know.”

Mathew Lawrenson

Today was the day. It’s the day where we burn down the White House. The day where we attempt the most dangerous mission in our lives. The day where history will be repeated. The day where we regain our status as Councillors. The day where we prove to Elliot (curse him) that we’re better than him!

As night fell, we hopped into our car, a matte colored Honda Accord. We drove near the White House and tried to search for the telephone lines.

There they were! Hidden behind a tall oak tree was a thin wooden pole, with wires hanging to the top of it. “Keep looking for the other poles,” I whispered to Kiara, “I’ll handle this one.”

She nodded and sped off silently. I got to work straight away. I heaved my backpack onto the ground and rummaged inside it.

I felt the cold metal of the flamethrowers, and the smell of gasoline filled my nose. I looked around for about 10 more seconds and found the pliers.

I shoved them into my pocket and started to climb the pole. It was easy enough, despite what most people think. When I was almost at the top, my grip failed and I was dangling with my feet moving around in the air.

I gathered myself up and swung my feet back around the pole. I climbed up again and reached the top. I looked around for a moment and got out my pliers.

I held them up to the wires and presses. With a short “ZAP” the line snapped.

I jumped down and packed my things into my bag and started searching for the other poles.

Within half an hour, I and Kiara had snapped all the poles connected to the White House.

“Alright,” Kiara said, “Let’s get this thing over with.”

We walked silently and reached the White House.

We looked around to check if anyone was there. There were a few officers out in the distance, but, we weren’t in their line of sight.

We crouched down and headed over to the walls. There, right above us, was something that could ruin our plan completely. A window with a head sticking out of it.

I gestured to Kiara to lay down upon the ground, and we waited in tense silence. When I thought it was okay to look up, I found that The Head had gone out. Whew. Imagine if it was the President himself!

We gathered our minds and headed to the nearest pillar. I checked repeatedly to see if there were any windows with people inside near and climbed up. As Kiara ascended up, I checked the nearest window.

Jackpot! It led straight to the main corridor! And no one was present! We clambered in and took out our flamethrowers. “Let’s do this,” I said.

But before we could do anything, a man in a black and white suit came walking onto the scene. We stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, he spoke, “What are you guys doing-”

And Kiara shot him.

“Wha-” I said.

“It has a silencer on it, don’t worry,” she explained, “I thought it would handy in case a scenario like this occurred.”

We laughed a bit and got ready for the fiery inferno that would be in front of our eyes. We pointed our flamethrowers down on the carpet and pulled the trigger.

With a blast, a gust of fire filled the air and caught onto the carpet. But before we could escape, we heard the sounds of rapid footsteps.

A splash of water filled the room and we were drenched. A shout came.

“Who’s there?”

When we shook off the excess water, we were met by about 10 officers, all in suits, with pistols held up. But in the center was … Conan?

“You?”

“You?”