36/XXXVI. Dutiful Brother (Remastered)

In the MI7 building…

“Chief, they’ve approached a car in the parking lot and the young cub has been typing in a laptop.” One of the men who were sent to monitor the Smith family reported back through a secure line.

“Chief!” One of the IT guys barged into the main control room. Panting still, out of breath, and trying to form coherent words, he blurted, “Someone’s hacking.”

All of the men inside the room turned their faces to the IT guy and the chief was the first one to realize, the one that’s potentially creeping through the system was Edward’s son.

“Sir, we’re still…” He panted, and panted. “Still tracing where the hacker is, but as far as…”

He was trying his best to breathe in and out normally. “As we’re concerned, he’s not pulling up any sensitive information about international disputes.” The chief turned to the monitor that displays the twins and Matthew in the car.

He glanced, and sprang up from his chair and approached the monitor.

“What were the files being accessed?” Straight-forward, he interrogated the IT guy.

“Some case files that was submitted and published by the DA fifteen years ago.” He handed over his tablet to Mayer and Mayer slide the pictures and displayed it in one of the monitors near the chief.

“Is this the one he’s asking about?”

“That case has a connection to this one. Pull out everything on it, and make sure that you pinpoint the location of the hacker!” He gave the direct order, with the stern look in his eyes, he sent away the IT guy back to the Technology Department outside the hall to trace the hacker.

“Ye- ye- yes, sir!” The IT guy stumbled as he went out from the main control room.

“Chief, do we stop him from accessing these files?” Mayer whispered quietly behind the chief’s ears.

“No, we’ll follow his moves closely.” The chief almost pierced the monitor with his sharp, intense looks.

“Follow them, and tell IT to tap into that headset device that they’re wearing.” Mayer followed up the chief’s orders.

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“Michael!” Raphael excitedly waved at Michael from a distance.

Michael stayed on Earth for a very long time, and he frequented at the site of the Garden of Eden, the Euphrates, and Tigris River at those times.

The other Archangels could not protest to get the Captain back home, since the Almighty was not really pitching in.

“Raf, what are you doing here?” Michael turned to face his brother, running towards him from the east.

“I… I missed you.” He panted and gasped as he approached Michael at the bank of the Tigris River.

Michael softly let out a whiff of air from his nostrils, and sweetly smiled and turned back again to the river.

“Did they tell you to fetch me up?” They? Michael’s bitter feelings began to resurface as faced the angel of healing.

“Michael…” Raphael did not know how to respond to what Michael voiced out. “It’s normal for them to feel that way, how long have you been here anyway?” He tried to divert the situation to another subject.

“Thirteen years.” Michael answered without a thought, without speaking a beat.

“That’s too long. Let’s come back home with me.” He offered the Captain an escort service.

“It isn’t yet time.” The angel of mercy bowed down and faced his brother eye to eye.

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“They’re quite fast to catch on.” Arthur got a notification on the laptop about the VPN, it stopped pinging when it displayed an IP Address in Russia.

“What happened?” Johnny drew closer.

“They’ve blocked it. The last ping was an IP in Russia. Don’t worry, we got what we needed. We need to regroup. Johnny, you’re in charge of JW’s personal effects. I’ll send a clone to JP’s house to check any information about their chemical purchases. And as for me, I will find Andy McCrain to confirm that man’s connection to the terrorist group.” Arthur closed the laptop as Johnny went out of the car and entered the production floor through the parking lot door.

SFX: Teet, teet, teet

The blue tooth headset suddenly beeped with this tapping sound.

Three short taps, three long taps, and then three short taps again.

S… O… S… ? Morsecode? Arthur replied quickly.

“What is it?” His face drowned with worries. Of course, he’s an angel, but the rest of his team are humans, children at that fact, and they’re going against a group of terrorist for their first operation.

“I was just trying it out, don’t worry.” Jackson answered on the other line. No tremor, no choice words, and no fear in his voice. Arthur detected it quite clearly on the other side.

He breathed in and let go of his anxiety with a long exhale.

“I’m so sorry for worrying you. I just want to ask, what’s our call sign?” Jackson asked a question they should have known the answer to before the operations.

“I’m eagle.” Arthur’s coarse voice can be heard echoing in the parking lot. “Driver’s storm.” He continued.

“I’m Lion.” Eddie stared intently at JP on the production floor, listening to his every word, learning his every moves, and even the force of habits.

“I’m Tiger.” Jackson monitored JW from a distance. Checking out a crew is a bit unusual in the show business industry. He checked him out in the shadows.

“I’m Snake.” Johnny slithered around the production floor, slipping past many security cameras undetected.

“Make sure to maintain your positions for Operation Caught-In-the-Act.” The eagle instructed the rest of the crew.

“Where to, Eagle?” Matthew turned to Arthur in the backseat as he smiled to the kid.

“Can you lose the monitoring team?” Arthur smiled back, challenging the butler to race in time to lose the MI7 monitoring team.

“You can count on me.”

“We’re short of time, I need you to lose them in one hour.”

“Then hold tight.”

One of the Michael’s clones already teleported to Jamison Paul’s home once again for further information about the terrorist group, Abaddon – visually hidden.

The last time I was here, there wasn’t any particularly unusual behavior, just the dolls in a grown man’s house. Or so he thought.

The home was uniquely small, truly can be a paradise for one man only, but there’s something more.

The dolls in the room were a bit… weird?

Michael gently touched one of the dolls and upon inspecting the third one, he realized that the doll’s ornaments and clothes can be removed, truly a lecher.

He tried it on one, but instead of seeing a carved lady’s body, what he saw was much more interesting.

He grabbed one and peered at it intently, he ran his fingers on the creases of the doll’s body as he touched it.

“A keypad?”

Almost all of the dolls have their left hands raised up. If a keypad is in the body, then the arms and hands maybe-

He removed the plastic arm and hands of one of the model dolls, and lo and behold-

“An antennae, damn.” I thought this house was too weird.

Are these all phones? But for what? Abaddon?!

Everything was clicking right away. Michael circled around the place once more.

Jamison Pauls and Jones Williams were in contact with each other through that cave for almost ten years. Andy McCrain lived Williams’ family life to avoid detection from the Secret Intelligence Service, but wasn’t able to avoid jail due to assault and battery.

His trail of thought hit home.

“But something was amiss. The memories told me that JP disbanded the group, Abaddon, ten years ago, to avoid the law enforcers and intelligence agencies, but he kept in contact with everyone, confirming this theory, a doll here must be one way to connect to that man.

His eyes darted to each of the dolls, his fingers run through the smooth edges of the doll to see any additional clues.

And there it was – engraved letters. Located just underneath the doll’s foot, similar to what the movie has in Train Story 1, a kid engraved his initials on his toy train.

“J.W.” The clone approached the other dolls with curiosity.

“A.M., J.T., H.U., L.R., J.H.-“ That last doll’s initials stopped him in his tracks. J.H. that sounded familiar, it’s one of the initials and the name listed in the court case – Arthur wasn’t able to confirm it yet personally, but seeing that Jamison already had a phone, Michael decided to use it for a trap.

There’s too many coincidences – the ladles, his involvement in his brother’s death, and his connection to the assault case fifteen years ago, and this. JH, what’s your connection to Abaddon?

The angel of mercy was lost in his thoughts, still invisible, then he picked up one of the dolls, and noticed the tiny bents on its head.

What’s this?

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“Eagle, they’re still on our trail.” Matthew tried to lose the MI7 guys for half an hour now driving around the city in circles.

Arthur knew the layout of the city at the back of his mind, he only told the gang part one of his plans, acquiring evidence, as for part two, which is apprehending the targets, he only told them to let the police handle the arrests.

“Storm.” Arthur knew it was only a matter of time since they tapped into the phone frequency they’re in.

Matthew focused on driving but looked at Arthur at the back seat through his rear view mirror.

Arthur turned his head to the left as a signal he cannot give via his voice and words, and Matthew returned the same silence and only nodded.

He twisted the driving wheel around the corner, and got into an empty warehouse.

SFX: Ksssshk, Kssshk

The bluetooth headset was acting static, as if they’ve entered an electromagnetic field in that warehouse.

SFX: BADAM! BADAM! BADAM!

A strong pounding sound echoed just outside the warehouse.

“The GPS tech in the car is going haywire, Eagle.” The GPS screen glitch static screen and displayed white and black lines across the screen.

As soon as the pair busted out the metal doors at the end of the empty warehouse, the two were greeted by a landfill of junk cars and a large electromagnetic device that was attached to a car crusher.

“Damn. Don’t you think we took the wrong turn?“

Doubt seeped into Matthew’s mind, Is there any way out of this?

Sirens filled the air as he finds their way out of the largest junkyard in London.

“Storm, we need to take a detour, drop me off here, and continue on your way out, I need to go alone. We’re executing the contingency plan.” Matthew thought Arthur changed their plans in the last minute.

His butler saw the bravery of this young man ever since he was a kid, but it was getting extremely difficult for him to protect the child, knowing that every decision Arthur makes is one step of getting closer to being a law enforcer, which is a dangerous line of work.

“Eagle, make sure to keep safe, and call for back up once you have your evidence.” The car screeched to a halt at one corner nearest the exit of the junkyard.

Arthur threw himself out of the car, and manifested a lifeless, life-sized doll to confuse the MI7 guys that were tailing them.

He clothed the doll with his gothic leather jacket, and clipped on the seatbelt on the doll and slammed the door behind him.

The young man then proceeded to change his attire by going inside one of the dilapidated cars and transforming his black shirt and pants to a white polo shirt and blue pants.

He transformed his black boots to a pair of white sneakers as well. He quickly pulled the reins of his necktie, and materialized a grey hoody on top of the polo shirt.

Arthur then covered his head with the hood, and went out of his way.

Back in the studio…

“Tiger, I wasn’t able to contact Eagle and Storm about the taping being done.” Eddie tapped on the judges’ table frantically.

“Do we stall the targets?” Jackson suggested an alternative method. They weren’t able to reach Arthur and Matthew at this junction and they knew that Arthur was the one gathering the evidence outside of the production floor.

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“Chief, we located Mister Pierce and the kid. We’re now following their car outside of the junkyard.” The two MI7 agents at the back of that black sedan, a white van followed the black sedan and the two vehicle tailed the car Matthew was driving.

The chief and Mayer keenly observed the car from the monitors in the room.

“What have you got with the conversations?” Mayer phoned the IT department on the other line.

“We’ve already tapped on their phone, here’s the direct line, and the previous conversation for the last five minutes.” The IT guys recorded their conversations as soon as they tapped in the phone frequency.

“They weren’t able to reach the kid with the driver…” The chief listened closely to their words and to the background noises.

“We weren’t able to reach the guys when they went in the junkyard.” Mayer agreed.

“It’s the electromagnetic machine used to crush and haul-press the metal cars!” An IT guy from the other line shouted with excitement. The people in the control room got the scare of their lives.

“Damn, too loud!” A surveillance officer plucked his ears and concentrated on the other monitors.

“I’m sorry.” A timid voice replied awkwardly.

“What does that device do exactly?” The surveillance officer asked as soon as he turned to another monitor.

“Uhm… it disrupts any electronic devices near its radius of reach.” He softly answered on the other line.

“Radius? That large machine, how large is its radius of effect of disruption?” The chief began questioning the IT guy in the other line.

“Hmmmm, that large device…” He trailed, trying to calculate things on his end. “It maybe a hundred or hundred-fifty meters?” He continued.

“Did he plan everything beforehand?” The chief turned to Mayer in confusion.

“Plan? He already knew that we’re tailing him." Mayer looked as puzzled as the chief.

“The kid knew we’re already monitoring them and tapping their phones. You can hear his chosen words and the certainty in his voice.” That brat’s clever. The chief curled his brows as he put the puzzle together.

“Make sure you don’t lose the kid and the driver.” He’s planning something, I know it. He sighed heavily, Mayer calculating the chief’s body language, worried endlessly as well.

“Yes, chief!”

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The contestants scuffled and scattered with the production crew as the taping ended. The understudies and the judges were also sent home as the SFX team work on the video editing process.

“What now?” Jackson, and Eddie waited patiently for Irene at the front gate of Studio 72.

Jackson paced back and forth, while Eddie frantically glances at his watch from time to time, Johnny hovered at the back of the studio for the camera man.

Arthur was still in search for Andy McCrain’s last whereabouts without any help from his clones.

“It should be around here.” The hoody man hid in an alleyway to stake out a Chinese restaurant, Ming-Chi.

Located in the inner city of London, near the corner of Glimmering Taste, a five-star restaurant, Ming-Chi, was run by an Andy Lau, with a fake Chinese name, and with a face of Andy McCrain.

After his release from a ten-year sentence, he was paid by JP and Abaddon for serving his purpose.

The wise man invested everything in business and took over a Chinese Restaurant under the Chinese gangsters.

The original owners were apprehended and deported back to China as their illegal businesses underground were discovered and investigated.

McCrain personally runs the business and with its popularity amongst mafia and gangsters alike, he grew infamous in six months. Arthur hid in the shadows, and keenly observed the people going in and out.

I just need to check who is closest to be Jones’ look-alike.

Ming-Chi appeared to be so busy, particularly in the afternoon, soon it’ll grow dark, but…

After half an hour of wait, a barrage of black cars blockaded the entrance, and men in black suits barged into the restaurant.

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Irene went and recorded the artists’ dressing rooms one by one, and quickly got out of the studio and waited for Johnny.

“Where’s John?” Eddie’s face turned red with heat from the midday sun as they wait outside the studio.

“I think he’s still inside.” Jackson peered around the back of the studio as well to check if he’s gone at the back.

“We should check.” Irene’s suggestion knocked the two back to the reality that they’re not playing around, but dealing with terrorists.

Johnny hovered around the production floor as the crew wrapped up.

“Are you one of the understudies?” A personal assistant approached him from the cameras.

“Yes.”

“Why are you here?” The suspicion of the PA was natural – especially for wanna-be actors, they’re always in the limelight.

“OH, I just…” Johnny smiled awkwardly as he tried to step back from answering the question straight.

“Just wandering around, you know, trying to feel it…” He shyly continued on the nonsensical track.

“Feel?” The PA raised his brows, doubting the man’s words, but seeing his getup and his ID, he didn’t dare ask more questions. He simply smirked and walked away.

“Hmmmm…”

”Okay, I’ll leave you and your feel alone.” The PA turned his back from Johnny and got back in arranging for tomorrow’s show.

My feel, my feel, I’m feeling someone’s been watching me ever since I came to the dressing rooms… what is this feeling? Johnny carefully glanced around.