Chapter 22

20th December 2050

Daniel parked his lavish Hover car in front of an elementary school. He was here to pick his daughter up. It was Daniel's routine to spend at least one hour with her daughter everyday unless he was out of town and could not bring her with him. No matter how busy he was, he always managed to take time out for his daughter.

It was cold and cloudy today. The weather forecast said that there was very little to no chance of rain or snow. Daniel wore jeans, brown shirt with long blue fur coat. Daniel sat in driver's seat as he looked at his wristwatch: It was 11:55. He was five minutes early. He turned the engine off, reclined his seat and pressed a button on his ear gear.

"Newspaper!" He commanded.

The ear gear created a holographic image of newspaper for him. It was right in front of his eyes. Daniel adjusted his head to feel mor comfortable. The newspaper did not move.

"Future Armageddon causes havoc today." Daniel read the headline aloud. His tone turned contemptuous as he finished the sentence.

"Idiots." He murmured.

"As the news of Armageddon spread, a record increase in crime has been reported. According to the City Police Chief, the crime rate has increased by 200% as compared to same period before the news of Armageddon arrived. The increase in crime is causing more tension among the people. It is the time when strong steps are needed to be taken by the Government towards crime control. An announcement of the plan regarding Armageddon might as well ease the public down." The report said. Daniel sighed and turned the page with his finger.

"Armageddon divides World." Next headline said. Daniel chuckled a little.

"In this time of crisis and confusion, when leaders across the globe are asking people to forget their differences and come together to escape the impending tragedy, the world has divided further into three major opinions: Religious, Acceptors and Conspirators.

The people of all the religions believe in Armageddon, in one appearance or another. The strong believers of religion are calling this "The warning from god" and are turning towards places of worship. They believe that with worship and prayer they can evade the Armageddon." Daniel laughed out loud. It's not that he did not believe in god. It's just that he found their logic amusing.

"The Acceptors believe that Armageddon is coming, and the mankind can escape this tragedy. The Conspirators believe that this whole situation is a conspiracy created by USA and their allies with some agenda yet unknown." Daniel laughed harder.

"We hope that the people could rise above their own opinions and come together to evade the disasters of Armageddon." Suddenly, Daniel got annoyed.

"Stupid News." He closed the newspaper by pressing red cross on the right corner of screen. The hologram vanished. He looked at his wristwatch. It was Twelve O'clock in the noon. He turned the engine on and got out of the car.

"These people do not even understand the concept of Armageddon." He thought as he stood leaning his back against his car.

"Armageddon is not an event with some option to bypass or evade it. It is not something that gives you time to think, plan, execute and escape. No one would know or survive to tell Armageddon arrived if it, in fact, were to arrive. Armageddon is like death. In fact, to an individual…" Daniel sighed.

"Death is Armageddon, and Armageddon is death." Daniel thought while looking at the gate of school. Children had started to come out.

A snowflake fell on his arm.

"Snow?" He looked up and it was snowing. He was surprised.

"Damn! These weathercasters…..." He was annoyed.

"Papa!" A voice got his attention.

He looked in front of him. It was Angel D. Youssef his daughter.

"Look who is here? Papa's prettiest girl. Angel" He screamed joyfully. All of a sudden, he was smiling brightly. He spread his arms and got down on his knees.

Angel was only 10 years old. She had Dark blue eyes from her father and long blonde hair from her mother. She was wearing long yellow frock and a Blue fur coat with a stylish earflap beanie. Her nose was a little red from cold.

Angel ran and fell into Daniel's arms.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cha Sang Ho was sitting in a sofa in living room. He was cleaning his rifle. Cha was average in height and had strong muscular built. He was an ex-army officer from South Korea. In force, he was a trained and successful sniper. He was dismissed from his services and was imprisoned for Five years after he was found guilty of corruption, ten years ago. After serving his time in jail, he came to USA and started his career as a criminal.

He did not divulge into normal heinous crimes like drugs, prostitution, organ trafficking, murder etc. Instead he started off as a private detective and a strategist. Within Five Years, He had successfully created a team called "CHOKA". Choka had four members led by Cha himself.

Omar Bagh was second member of Choka. He was slender and short Bengali. Omar was a software engineer back at home. He hacked into a bank's server in Bangladesh and eloped to USA after failed attempt at transferring funds into his account. Since then he had been doing small hacking jobs for different criminals until he met Cha four and a half years ago. Cha recognized his talent as a hacker and immediately hired him.

Kyle Lopez met Cha four years ago. Kyle's parents came from Mexico when his mother was pregnant with him. He was born and raised in America and had no criminal records. He was tallest and had least hair in the group. Kyle was an incredible expert in art and his position in the group was as con artist. He could fake documents, identify original art pieces from fakes, do make up and break into advanced safes and locks.