Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 20:59:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Jonathan Lukenbill Subject: Lost in the Blaze Part 1: In the Mix Disclaimer: This story is intended for personal use, if the concept of intimate relationships and sex between a boy and a teenager are offensive to you do not continue reading, if such material is illegal in your locale do not continue reading. It is up to you to know the laws governing stories of this nature in your location, not me. All characters are fabricated for fictional purposes, none are intentionally based on anybody living or dead. Also, the history in this story is not entirely... and for the most part just isn't at all acurate. Don't use it in a conversation, you'll be laughed at... and more importantly don't give me a hard time about it! All that being said, this first chapter doesn't contain any sex, that comes later, this is what we call a plot based story! I've never written a story quite like this one before so we'll take it as we go. for now check out the Vibe, see if you like it, more is on the way soon. Lost in the Blaze by Devon Avery Chapter One: In the Mix OK, I'm not good at this introduction thing so lets just jump into it. Peace and Prayer, both my guns drawn I'm running from a whole squad of british police officers, I've got about a block on them, but I'm really hoping this plan falls into place. for a split second I see nothing, then out of thin air the car becomes visible, a bright red italian super car. "Nice touch," I think to myself, "Wonder if I get to keep it when this is over." A bullet whizzes by my ear and I am reassured that at the moment the car has to take a back seat to surviving. I fire 4 quick shots back at the angry police mob emptying completely the case in Peace, how Ironic all I have left is Prayer. The car swings around and the passenger door raised I leap in, and barely have time to tuck my legs in when we nail a negative G. Squealing tires ring in my amplification gear as I see the hood of the car go invisible I look in the driver seat, the car is being controlled remotely, no driver. Whatever I'm carrying in the pouch on my belt must be worth a whole lot of something to somebody. We lost the police miles ago and have entered traffic I'm baffled by the fact that nobody has run into the invisible car yet, until I notice the vehicles surrounding me are all black vans, and the drivers are all wearing black business suits... an entourage, this keeps getting deeper. I'm momentarily prepared for the worst as The car swings at an extreme rate of speed toward what looks to be a brick wall. I reach for the door handle, no go, I'm locked in. The procession around me boxes around the Ferrari concealing it from the view of onlookers. At the last moment the brick wall slides up in a jarred motion, a concealed entrance to a loft in downtown London, the entrance slams down behind the Ferrari and it's doors go up. as it screeches to a halt. Stepping out I stagger for a brief second and then survey the surroundings. We are parked on top of a platform with a lighted walkway velour in red there is only one door in the room leading into a hallway that bears several paintings lining darkly painted walls to contrast the red plush carpet. Not like home, but impressive nonetheless. as I walk through the hallway I am taking in every little detail trying to gauge the social stature of the individual whose apparently hosting me, I take the pause in action to reload Peace and leave the empty cartridge lying next to the Ferrari. My hand never leaves the handle of my gun. The pictures on the wall indicate to me that we are dealing with a serious British bloodline. Several crowns and unthinkably elaborate jewelry adorn the figures in the images. As I continue through the hallway along the lighted pathway, I enable my vision gear and magnify the hallway a few dozen times quickly confirming that there are no branching hallways or doors all the way to the steel cap at the end of the hallway. I continue forward enabling a reverse view... which turns out all clear..."I've been here for an entire minute and I'm not being ambushed looks like a good deal." I notice a portion of the wall ahead with painting spaced slightly further apart than the rest of the hall, This must my "out." as I approach it my suspicions prove true and the section of wall pivots open. I peer through this new doorway. It leads down a long corridor of solid white walls very dimly lit. This is no doubt a screening walk. They wanna know what I'm packing. Pretending to be puzzled I feel around the door sill planting mini explosive patches with my palms. I place Peace and Prayer in the X-Ray proof holsters around my chest and proceed down the corridor. as I walk I knock on the wall noting the difference in echoes between certain areas of the corridor. I already knew what this walk was for, but I wanted those on the other side of the window to know that I didn't roll off of the turnip truck yesterday. I follow the corridor to a room at the end not remembering this much space on the outside of the building. I reach the room. A single light in the entire room is shining on an empty seat in front of a ginormous mahogany desk. Behind the desk, a massive black leather chair facing the opposite direction, conveniently keeping me from a view of the man I'm no doubt supposed to be talking to. I go night vision and identify a man in the left corner bearing arms and lock a directional camera on him so that I can keep tabs on the firearm in the situation while I discuss matters with Mr. Cryptic behind the desk. "Good evening Mr. Black. They informed me that you were young, but I had no idea. You are but a child still in the grand scheme of things, please tell me, how did you come to be in such a dirty business." The voice was female, throwing me off guard slightly, I'd always found that when it comes down to business affairs via opposing black leather chairs it was primarily a man's venue. She was right, at 16 years old I should've been in school somewhere playing football and worrying about finals. I was however too far to turn back "The trivalries of my life are of no matter to you mam, now let's talk business" She swiveled around in her chair, I could get a full vie of her now. She appeared to be Young possibly in her mid to late twenties wearing a black business suite. She had jet black hair and her Green eyes seemed to reflect the spotlight on my char. "You should know that you came to us highly recommended and through your performance tonight I clearly see why. As you may have guessed the object you retrieved is quite valuable to my family. You showed a great deal of dedication making tonight's potentially messy affairs invaluably smooth and clean. Thus we must now entrust you with something else that is vital to the family." "My end of this deal has been completed, no other commitment was discussed, and I should have you know that keeping affairs like tonight's successful requires careful planning, so I'm afraid I will be unable to be of further services to you." "Twenty-Five Million Dollars, Mr. Black, is the price we are willing to pay for your continued services. In addition a life will be provided to you for the duration of this assignment. A residence, cars... you would be a fool to walk away from this, you could easily retire once this assignment is completed. She had me at Twenty, the five was just a bonus. "Very well then, go on." "Are you a history buff Mr. Black" "Somewhat" "During the crusades much land was ravaged and many royalties were devastated as the christians moved their way through the uncivilized east. In order to prevent the crusades from, shall we say, hitting home, the renowned blood tyrant Vlaad Dracul created the infamous wall of the impaled, horrifying would be warriors of enlightenment. The ruler was; however, not certain that this would work, and in his infinite preparation hid a large amount of his treasure in an unspecified location in Egypt. Through his exile and eventual death it is rumored that the treasure was never resurrected and all further mention of it failed to make record books." "Rousing story, but what you need is an archeologist and a team of historians, not me." "The whereabouts of this treasure were guarded through time by his minions who fled once he was exiled, it is said he vowed to return to lead them come any outcome, even death. Thus for years the secret location was guarded atimately, but as time passed, those devoted to him grew weary and it was decided the best way to maintain the secret was to encode it with three separate books, each one when properly decrypted holds the map to the treasure. We were able to purchase one off of a historian in Greece, The second, which you retrieved for us tonight was a bit harder to come by as you well know. The third however still eludes us. For it's owners passed away, and my father is convinced that their child may hold the only knowledge of it's whereabouts, he has however, become mute of the tragedy of witnessing his parents untimely demise." "I tire of story time, the chase please!" "Your assignment is to protect this child at all costs, those who came for his family will soon be coming for him. Should you befriend him along the way and possibly break his silence... especially regarding the whereabouts of seid book. Your pay would increase dramatically. "I can vow to protect this child, but I refuse to toy with his mind." "Very well then, the offer stands for your protection 25 million." "And what happens if the boy doesn't talk "If, after a year of your protection, the boy shows no signs of breaking through his mute state, he is no longer valuable to us, and... you know this business can be dark at times". "How old is this boy." "Ryan is 12." "You want me to play nanny for a 12 year old boy... I'm a renowned mercenary, I know nothing about child rearing." "Mr. Black he has had a family, we believe what he needs now is a friend." I couldn't believe that I was even considering this, it reeked of trouble, but when you are in my line of business your opportunity to make 25 million and retire for good doesn't come around very often. Especially when you are only 16 years old. But, how was I supposed to care for a 12 year old boy? In the end, as it always does. The money spoke louder than the reason. "I have terms that must be met before I accept." "Let's hear them then." "New names, and identity for both the boy and I to be established, and a residence far away from the core of his assassins to give me a head start on the situation. America. "Done" "another 10 million to be paid when the year is up, regardless of the outcome" "I suppose that could be arranged. You sure will be a rich child if you succeed." "And the car" "Hahha, Do you even have a driver's license, well no matter, we will create one for you. It's yours. Now do you accept?" "Your proposition meets my terms, I will accept this assignment. When do I acquire the child." "Now, Mr. Black, meet Ryan." A door near the man holding the gun slid open and another man escorted a child though the doorway. He didn't even look 12 years old. For a moment I thought I was in way over my head, and then I realized worst case scenario I could hire people to raise the boy. He looked up at me with fear in his eyes. He was most likely stricken by the guns strapped to my chest, the knife around my calf, the dark glasses the black getup... poor kid probably thought I was his slayer. I looked at him, he cowered from my gaze but out of curiosity turned back to look at me. "Listen Ryan, I'm going to do my best to make sure no harm comes your way, but we've got to get moving, I know you've been through a lot in the last few days and you have no good reason to, but you need to trust in me." "OK." He said, trembling, latched to the arm of the guard. I turned back to the woman, realizing I didn't even know her name. Hoping and silently praying this was all going to work out ok. She threw me a set of keys. "Mr. Black, you appear to be very good with children I must admit I feel more comfortable now leaving Ryan in your hands, take these to your new manor in the US, you should find it a quit accomadable manor in Seattle." Great, all I needed was rainy dreary days. Well, this was all going to take some getting used to, and may prove to be the most challenging year of my life, no matter the outcome. I'd been alone since I was old enough to hold a gun, I'd never had to worry about anybody else's safety, This was going to take all I had, yet somehow when I looked into his eyes I couldn't help but take it on, if nothing else just to put some hope back into this poor kid. END Chapter 1 cooleststories@yahoo.com (Take note those who've emailed me before at a different addy) I've got a couple other stories on nifty not at all like this one. Summer With Aaron is listed under Rural and Incest, There's also another one called Any Time You Want, not sure where that one fell. Check me out, Lates.