by Enn Kae
PART THREE
The view from the tower of Priory Court Estate illustrated the expanse of a London that had exploded in size over the years. The rays of a new day pierced through the clouds and showered the streets. It was a solemn Wednesday morning in London's East End. When the sun shone on the embattled streets of Walthamstow you could see some of its beauty. The silence of the morning gave the streets some serenity. The scene spoke of possibilities. Then came the stirring of noises. It was the bang of the door, the thud of a man slamming his car door, the squeal of a cat fighting for territory in the bushes or the loom of a bus driving past the estates. The sounds were invasive, turning the mood instantly. Londoners crittered out as another day ushered in the lives of street survivors and indentured slaves. Abe stood outside the entrance of the tower as he smoked a cigarette and made an observation. Abe felt sick to his stomach. He just wanted the week to end and thought of nothing more than boarding the train to see Ophelia on Saturday. He planned to wade through the next two days until he could make his escape. In that moment he thought of running away but he couldn't do so without his bag, in which he slipped his money and train ticket before the events in his flat unfolded.
Abe was joined by J - who appeared out of nowhere - and was a rather unwelcome sight. J's presence broke the morning spell. J was a tall, heavy and imposing figure. Abe felt depressed. He would have to engage with J on some level about what to do with the freaks up in the flat.
"Listen J, I don't give a shit. I just want to get on with my life. I don't care about the gold. I'll get out of your hair, I'm not interested," said Abe in indignation over the position he was in.
"Two things, Abe. You're right, you're not getting the gold. The second thing - you're going to do the exchange," said J, firmly.
"What? Why me? You've got a whole army who can do that for you," protested Abe further.
"Cuz they know you and you know them," explained J in an attempt to finish the argument.
"They don't even talk to me!" continued Abe.
J pushed Abe against the wall and blew smoke in his face. J wasn't used to objections and Abe was too weak to fight back. Abe could feel J's eyes piercing through his body, as if he was being scanned from top to toe. Abe felt uneasy, uncomfortable at the examination. After J released his grip, Abe stirred to walk away but was stopped by J:
"Where are you going?"
"Back up to the flat."
"I'll come up with you."
In the elevator, Abe could feel J's eyes burning the side of his face. Abe sensed the tension in the air, wondering what J would do with the knowledge that he wanted to escape. As the elevator stopped on the eleventh floor, J pulled the stop button. He turned to Abe and said:
"You're not going anywhere. You're going to come with me tonight to do the exchange. I've changed plans to catch them off guard."
Abe's legs began to wobble at the suggestion. J walked out and looked at Abe, as if to beckon him to follow. Abe gulped a breath of air as he stepped out of the elevator as he saw the plans he made over the previous year flash before him. As they walked the corridor towards the front door of Abe's apartment, Abe felt his heart and body sink like the dead weight of the man laying on his bedsit floor. Abe was in over his head but he was determined to not let that scupper his plans to get to Ophelia.
They walked into the apartment, to the same scene they left behind: an unconscious reptilian and another hostage and all the men that were needed to keep them there. J examined the scene. Tired, he too thought of getting out of the set of circumstances but he knew he couldn't.
"Right, this is what we're going to do. We're going to make the drop tonight. I've changed plans cuz we don't wanna get ambushed by them. I'm going to wire through another call and they're going to have to deliver tonight or else their people are getting it. I'm not gonna let them hang around to make it worse for us. It's too risky. This needs to end tonight and Abe is going to do the exchange. We need to take them with us and we need to get the gold.''
J hatched out a plan and told everyone, in detail, what, where and when everything was going to happen. It seemed all Abe had to do was tag along. Abe would travel with the crew in one car and J would follow in another as back-up. Abe's task was to make the exchange and, if anything went wrong, J would be around the corner waiting to pounce. J needed time to assemble a third team just in case his car was also ambushed. So that was the plan. As J was laying this out, Abe couldn't help notice his bag protruding from under the bed. It had gone unnoticed in the events of the previous days. Abe needed to get access to the cash and the ticket. He needed to know what would happen after the exchange. All he could think about was the coming Saturday morning. Abe turned to J, to ask:
"What happens after the exchange and after you've got what you want?"
"'You're free to go."
Abe felt a rush of blood to his head. In a room full of antagonists, Abe thought of a way to get to his bag without arousing any suspicion. He tried to think of a subterfuge but couldn't. He knew J would sense something was up. His only chance was to grab the bag as they were all shuffling out of the flat. He could risk leaving and returning for it - unless, of course, J's plan backfired. As he couldn't trust that nothing would go awry, he sat and grew tense at the perplexity of the problem. He ran through different options but he knew that he would have to find a way to get the train ticket and the money from his bag before he left the apartment. The hours dragged by before anything happened. J, by that time, had assembled his cavalry and they began making preparations to leave the flat and head to their rendezvous point.
The vans were parked outside; white transit vans, grubby and marked with age. All three were parked alongside each other, forming a line. The hostages were shuffled in, followed by their captors and, lastly, Abe. He got in without the bag and with a heavy heart.
"Wait. I have a plan." It was J.
Abe hung onto J's every word in the hope that they offered some sort of solution to his problem:
"We might need some insurance so I'm gonna take the lizard with me and you can sit with the other Pro-gen in your van."
Abe nodded and his heart sank to the ground.
J ushered the driver out of the first van in which sat Abe, Amaron and three soldiers. J whispered something inaudible to the driver and the driver returned to the van. The three vans followed each other out in a neat formation - out of the estate and onto the road, backing through the same route as the black chariot had done a few nights earlier. The black Bugatti had lain in wait for its passenger to return but, as that didn't happen, the driver was instructed to remain there until further instructions. Then, as the vans passed the camouflaged Bugatti, the Bugatti rolled into action and began trailing behind them.
The fleet of vans rushed apace and trickled clockwise down the north circular road towards the Woolwich Ferry service. Over the River Thames, Abe's eyes glistened in the pain of possibly never again seeing the landscape that haunted his existence for fifteen years. Abe came to London when he left university with high hopes of landing a top-notch job at one of the city's top firms. He graduated with a degree in law but soon found himself starting at the bottom rung of the ladder and he never saw himself step up from it. As Abe gazed over the horizon a wave of loss overcame him. He drowned in his pity. His body stopped pumping the adrenaline that had kept him going all week. He resigned himself to his fate, rested his head against the seat and crashed into deep sleep.
The first van pulled to a halt at the embankment next to the power station, the rendezvous point. The driver rang J to find out what to do next. The driver had lost the other vans on the way to the power station. J, who had been following behind, veered off somewhere into the neighbourhood nearby and the third van, their back-up vehicle, lay in wait five minutes' drive away. Meanwhile, the cloaked Bugatti was instructed by Dawood to follow the first vehicle. The driver of the first van rang J and waited for him to pick up. J answered and told him to sit and wait until they saw their adversaries.
A short while later the black door opened to reveal a tall and aged man with soft blond and grey hair. It was Dawood. He was followed by several other men of the same gait and stature but of less aged appearance. They walked towards the footpath at the front of the building. As they approached the white van, the Bugatti that was parked behind it, de-cloaked and out stepped its driver.
Out also stepped the driver of the white van, who was accompanied by his crew, numbering three in total. They were heavily armed and shocked at the sight of the sudden appearance of a black car behind them. They pointed their guns at every Pro-gen around them. J's soldier spoke first:
"If there's any funny business, I want you to know that you're being watched on camera and the area is surrounded."
"Don't worry. A deal is a deal. All I want is my men and all of your photographs and videos,'' replied Dawood.
"We're not interested in exposing you. We only want the gold," maintained J's soldier.
"Fair enough."
With those two words, Dawood turned around. He motioned to his team to conduct the exchange. Firstly, two men in hoods were loaded out of the van and J's soldiers dumped them in the middle of the road. Shortly after, the Pro-gens threw over a bag. After it was checked, J's crew retreated back into their van. Amidst two teams of men who were each armed and pointing guns at each other, Dawood walked coolly back to the building. Perhaps it was an unwise thing for Dawood to do. As he walked towards the front entrance he didn't glance back, aside from momentarily turning before changing his mind. J's soldier hoped in earnest that Dawood would indeed not turn around to witness the exchange and, once they had their gold, they sped off.
The Pro-gens brought the former hostages inside the power station. Dawood was anxiously waiting. As the two men were assisted indoors, Dawood immediately saw what their captors did not want him to see. The two men were still hooded but that's where the similarity ended. It shouldn't have but it did. Both men should have been tall and broad but they were not. One of them walked in a timid manner, with an arched back and forward-facing gait and he was noticeably smaller. Dawood's eyes opened wide in astonishment:
"Take off their hoods, take off their hoods!" he bellowed.
There, sitting in the courtyard of Battersea Power Station, were indeed all their employees though both were not Pro-gens. Dawood's agent was still missing, presumably with J, either dead or alive. Amaron and Abe looked at each other after their hoods were removed, making eye contact for the first time since they met in Abe's apartment. Abe sat, indifferent, no longer afraid of Pro-gens nor his fate. Everything that Abe thought them to be was a fabrication. They were not perfect. It was all a lie, he thought, as he sat there helplessly awaiting his fate. It was all a lie, he told himself - they were not superhuman. It was all a lie - a lie that had been constructed to make people like him feel inferior. He began to pity them. His momentary lapse into analysis was swiftly cut short after he was approached by Dawood and struck several times on his face.