4 Ali Baba’s 40 Thieves Never Wore Tactical Boots

Water dripped down the side of a green bottle of Stella Artois beer onto the gravel of the roof below. Matt Hickson put the opening of the beer bottle to his mouth and took a swig as he looked out over the city of New York from the top of his hotel building.

Lights from the city blazed upward from the streets below to keep it from getting dark in the city that never sleeps. Blaring horns and sounds of moving vehicles traveled up the outside walls of the building bouncing back and forth from one side of the street to the other.

Looking down at the lights, Matt couldn't help but think about his best friend off somewhere with the love of his life. Deeply, he hoped that Michael and Delilah could get some rest after ten years of hell locked up in small rooms under lock and key of the NSA. Well, not all the time for Michael.

Matt had come to New York to meet with an exciting new company they were thinking about partnering up with. While Michael was off on vacation, he was running everything and they had set this up weeks before the vacation trip.

This new company had a new technology for hydroponics built around indoor agriculture. To move farming indoors would be huge business as the planet moved into the future. At least that was the way both Michael and Matt were seeing it.

A building in downtown Manhattan had this new technology on seven floors. Photos showed all seven floors looked like fields with walls around it and a ceiling. The food they had been producing during the last six to twelve months was enormous in size and flavored better than anything growing out in the sun. At least, that was the report the company had received.

Matt was schedule to meet with the owner early in the morning and tour the proof of concept facility. Tonight, he was reminiscing about how his life had become so focused on work and how it didn't have anything except Michael's world in it. Extraordinary was everything about his life, but it didn't really seem to be a life of his own that he had control over. Now, with Baal looking to hurt anyone that had anything to do with Michael, he would never be able to get out of it. Not unless he lived for a thousand years.

Matt's eyes wandered the buildings all around him searching for anything interesting. Across the street was another hotel with lights on here and there and plenty of dark windows. He chugged down the rest of the beer and set it next to the bag containing the rest of the six-pack.

"And I thought I would be the only one up here on the roof," a voice came from behind Matt.

Spinning around, the adrenaline was pumping through his veins as if he had been caught. A sign was posted on the door to the roof that said no guests allowed, but Matt very seldom heeded such warnings.

A man in a black suit with the color of his white shirt undone and his tie loosened stood at the top of the ladder leading up to the top of the roof. After a few moments, his heart rate slowed enough to stand up.

"Didn't mean to startle you," the man said as he approached. "You mind sharing?"

Shaking his head, "Not at all." Matt offered the space next to him. "Please." Matt was always great with people and socializing was a skill he had mastered.

"Can I have one of those," he pointed down to the beer at his feet.

"Sure," Matt grabbed a bottle and popped the top off with the opener on his keychain. Handing him the opened beer, "Here you go. I'm Matt." He offered his hand and the man took it.

"Colin. Thank," he lifted the beer. "What are we drinking to?"

"How about the complexity of life?" Matt threw out as he popped open a beer for himself and put the bottle out.

"Here, here," Colin clinked bottle necks and they both drank. "So, you here on business or do you live in the hotel." They both laughed.

"Business," not much more to say in Matt's mind.

"So, what do you do?" Colin asked.

"I'm partners with a friend and we own a few businesses mostly in technology. I'm here looking at another business we're thinking about partnering with for a new technology," he took a drink of the beer and reached into his jacket pocket to retrieve his cigarettes and lighter. "Want one."

"Sure. Thanks," Colin took the cigarette and let Matt light it for him. Blowing out a mouthful of smoke, "That's interesting. I'm sure there are a lot of companies doing similar things all the time. I'm here for a similar thing. I own a technology company and I have a meeting tomorrow morning for something like that."

Matt nodded his head, "You're right. I bet a lot of people in New York are here for that kind of purpose." He looked down over the edge at all the ant sized people walking through the streets.

"So, if you can say, what type of technology is it?" Colin asked as he took a drag.

"The company has brochures it sends out explaining it so I don't think it's private to talk about. It's a new type of Hydroponics," he was cut off by Colin.

"For Agriculture. Indoor farming," Matt took step away in defense. "I'm Colin S. Fofure. I own Consolidated Farming and Agriculture."

Matt took a step back placing his cigarette in his mouth and offering his hand again, "Small world. I'm Matt Hickson from M and M."

Colin shook his hand, "Nice to meet you. How remote a possibility is this? Running into each other on a hotel rooftop."

"I was just thinking that," Matt took a pull off the beer. "Why in the world are you staying in this small obscure hotel?" Matt's thought on it was simple; he didn't like staying in the huge posh hotels because he found them a little ridiculous.

Laughing, "It's kind of like cars in my mind." Matt looked a little baffled. "What is the point of owning a bunch of expensive cars? It seems more intelligent to me to just rent them when you want them and drive a Prius the rest of the time."

Matt agreed, "My best friend and I feel the exact same way."

Interesting to run into the person he came out to New York to meet. It was a much better setting than an office building, though. Getting to know someone over a beer was much easier than in a board room with several other people around.

"This place is nice and well run. It suits my need to sleep just fine," Colin pointed around as he dropped his cigarette butt on the gravel.

Matt drank the rest of the beer in his hand, "Did you want another one?"

"Sure," Colin handed back his empty bottle.

"A man after my own heart," he chuckled to himself as he opened two more beers.

For the first time in more than a month, Matt's thoughts were on something besides Michael or one of the several companies. It felt good to be doing something different.

"So, do you is the plan to do this thing with your board members tomorrow?" Colin asked killing Matt's thoughts of not thinking about work.

"No. It's just me," it was clear he didn't like being on the work subject.

"Well, you want to do this thing tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow?" he proposed.

It took a second for Matt to think about it. Still early, he didn't need to see or hear all the technical details for this meeting. Technically he understood the concept of growing food indoors and what they were doing differently.

"Sure. Why not?" Matt chugged the rest of his beer and threw the bottles in the bag.

"Great! Lets grab my car out front and I'll take you down. It isn't far away," Colin said as he drank down his beer.

Matt put Colin's bottle in the bag as he headed for the metal ladder. As he climbed down the ladder and off the roof with Colin following, he started to wonder what the odds were that the guy who owned the company he had come to New York to meet up with not only was staying in the same obscure hotel but came up on the roof to get away. It made him a suspicious and with how things had gone in the last few years it made him that much more nervous about coincidence.

"You do this kind of thing often? Come up to the roof of a hotel to just be alone?" perfect timing for Colin to ask such a question.

Holding the steel roof access door open, "Here and there. Not a lot. It just seemed like a good idea tonight." He didn't' want to tell him he just had his fill of going out and partying for awhile. That would sound bad to the owner of the company you are trying to partner with.

Entering the elevator and pressing the button for the lobby, "Same idea I had tonight, I guess. I should do it more often though." They stood in silence until the elevator dinged for the lobby stop.

Colin walked out of the elevator and right up to the concierge desk, "Can you bring my car around please?" Picking up the phone the concierge called someone.

"So, tell me, how much do you and your partner know about this technology?" Colin asked as they walked out the front entrance to wait for the vehicle.

Michael had not been around much during the planning for this. He was behind on all the detailed technical documentation that Matt had read up on. This was really his baby.

"Honestly, it's just me. I read enough and Michael skimmed over some documents. We both agreed it was a perfect idea for some of the goals we had set for ourselves. I've taken there rein's on this one."

"That's good. We only have to do this once then. I hate repetition," he sounded disgusted with even the thought of repeating things.

"Well, there won't be any of that. Either I like it or I don't. End of story," Matt said taking charge and control of the situation for a decision standpoint.

Over Colin's shoulder drove up some kind of Silver Supercar Matt had never seen before. It was a beautiful looking sports car and looked just as pricey. Two doormen opened the doors for both men to climb into the car.

"What happen to the Rent don't Buy attitude?" Matt laughed.

Colin chuckled as they were both sitting in the car, "This is borrowed. I know the guys a McLaren and they lent this to me while I'm in town. I think they want me to buy one, but like I said, there's no point in owning a vehicle like this," he winked at Matt.

In Matt's mind that was the right answer. Closing his door, Colin slammed the gas pedal to the floor and the force threw Matt back in his seat as the tires sounded like they were about to tear off the wheels. Heaping piles of metal were thrown out into the traffic as the engine roared pushing the elegant race car down the street.

Matt was terrified. It was like the last time he road anywhere with Michael in a super car like this one. Tightly holding onto the handle on the forward right of the passenger side he felt like he could die this night.

Cars moved toward them so fast he felt like it was all a video game. Colin barely had to move the wheel to speed around the traffic in front of them. As the tail lights came up to them he gently jerked the wheel in one direction or another. Squealing tires, though brief, were the result of his erratic driving.

Matt could feel his feet pushing on the gas pedal and the break as they come up to traffic. He felt really good about the decision to do this thing tonight instead of in the morning when there would be tons of traffic. No telling how many accidents they would get into if Colin drove with more objects on the road.

"Oh shit," Colin yelled out as they were in the far right lane.

"What?!" Matt yelled back obviously fearing for his life at this point.

"We need to turn left," he said calmly. With a maneuver that would make Formula 1 drivers proud, Colin cut off one car to his left and then turned the wheel hard while hitting the breaks. Sliding into the intersection, he jammed the gas down the car shot across the lanes of remaining traffic. Everything was a close call including the horn blowing Ford pickup that couldn't have been more than an inch from the rear bumper flying passed them.

"Wow, that was close," Colin glanced back as they cruised down a side street to a tall building that looked like a very nice office building. The car pulled into the turnabout in the front of the dimly lit lobby. A sign in the middle of the turnabout had the letters 'CFA' on it.

Colin hopped out of the car as Matt slowly reached his shaking hand for the door handle and couldn't grab onto it in order to open the door. Falling out of the car and looking up from the cement, Colin was standing over him.

"You alright?" he asked with a worried expression.

"Yeah, mate. I'm good." Crawling up to his knees he took a long deep breath before he stood up. "Crazy son of a bitch!" Matt yelled at him walking up to the doors. "I like that in a person."

Colin smiled, "Another reason to just rent." They both laughed as they walked up to the front doors and a brushed steel square panel to the right of the doors.

Not much bigger than a human hand, the steel panel looked like decoration and not function. Colin placed his hand on the panel and the door made a clicking sound.

Matt was a little dumbfounded. He had only seen something like this in the places that Michael really wanted to secure. Amazement passed over his face as he looked up at Colin.

"Biometrics. Keeps things safe and it's easier than using keys are card keys. Don't have to carry anything but this," waving his hand in front of them.

"Great," not an ounce of shock in his voice.

Pulling the doors open, they walked into the lobby and the lights blazed into action lighting up the lobby enough to make it somewhat painful. Black and gray marble tile was the décor all around the lobby and up the walls.

"Do you mind if we go up to my office first and collect some of the paperwork on this so I can talk intelligently about it?" he pushed the ninth floor button.

"Not at all. I guess it makes more sense if you want to sell me on this anyway, right?" smiling at him.

Watching the red numbers tick upward, Matt couldn't help but think about how Michael would feel about all this. Strangely, Michael and Colin were a lot alike. To the point that Matt was pretty sure Colin and Michael could be very good friends. A night of sitting on the rooftop of his hotel alone hand turned into a few beers with a friend and an insanely crazy drive through the city at night. Adrenaline was still coursing through his veins from car ride to the building.

Colin's hand was up to his mouth trying to hide his smile. Finally, he let out some laughter just before they reached the ninth floor.

"What's so funny?" Matt asked.

"I keep seeing that look on your face when you got out of the car. It was priceless," they both started laughing so hard that anyone in the building would hear the echoing laughter coming from the elevator shaft.

As the exited the metal car, Colin stopped laughing and his face went straight. Across Matt's chest he put his arm up stopping them both in their tracks. Down to the left was a noise, very brief and faint, like a clanging sound. Janitors would have made a lot more noise and anyone working there that late at night would have been moving around more.

Placing his index finger to his lips for silence, he pointed down the hallway. Matt couldn't help but feel like they were in some type of spy movie as Colin started giving him hand signals to take the left wall while he went down the right.

Both men moved slowly down the walks of the corridor making sure to make as little noise as possible. No lights were evident from anywhere but the dim overhead lights from the ceiling of the hallway.

As they made it to the offices, they were all glass fronts and the first two on either side were completely dark without any movement. A clanking sound came from the third office on Matt's side as they both stopped dead in their tracks.

Thudding out of his chest with the anticipation, Matt could feel the coursing excitement. Of course, he expected it to be a janitor or late night worked as he inched his way to the edge of the glass office front. Peering around the edge he saw something he didn't expect, two figures dressed from head to toe in black including ski masks. He pulled his body back quickly to be out of view of anyone in the office.

Colin slowly made his way across the hallway next to Matt. Two fingers were up on Matt's hand signaling the number of people in the office. Making a Trivial Pursuit motion with his hands for a mask, Colin nodded as he seemed to understand what he was trying to convey.

Peaking around the corner again, the people were going through desk drawers and filing cabinets. Paper was strewn all over the office floor and the desk. One of the thieves was trying to get into the computer on the desk. It seemed they were just trying random passwords.

Colin pulled his key from the inside jacket pocket. He made a motion to toss it down the hallway. Matt knew he was thinking the noise would drive the thieves into the hallway where they would have a better shot at them. One finger up, then two, then three and the key went sailing across the hall ricocheting off the wall and clanging around on the marble tile.

The rifling of paper sounds stopped coming from the office. After a few seconds a burst of sound came out the door as the masked intruders made a dash for the doorway hoping to leave as fast as they could.

Matt crouched down low and threw a leg sweep catching the first person off guard as they tripped and flew into and broke through the glass windows of the office across the hall. Watching, Matt noticed the person hit their head on the desk and just lie there motionless.

Hopping over Matt's leg on the way out behind his counterpart, the second intruder ran right into Colin standing in the hallway blocking them from escape. Throwing a punch, Colin blocked it to the side with his left hand and threw a right elbow across the mask of the assailant. Staggering backward, Matt rushed up behind him and wrapped his arm under the chin squeezing tight as the person struggled to get out of the hold. Slowly, the sleeper hold took effect and the struggle subsided as they went down to the ground and finally stopped waving their arms all together.

Colin ran off down the hallway and turned to the right. Matt could hear a door open and some commotion before hearing footsteps rushing back. In his hands, Colin was holding some large Zip Ties. Bending down he put the ties on the person's wrists behind their back and then around their ankles. Matt noticed, as he wrapped up the ankles, they were wearing black tactical boots.

Pulling their legs up, Colin hog tied the legs to the wrists with the person laying flat on their stomach. Running off to do the same to the person that went through the window, Matt started to dwell on the boots. Could it be that Michael had something to do with the break in?

Picking up the phone on the desk, Colin dialed 911 as Matt tied up the other intruder the same way as the other.

"Yes. We've had a break in at Consolidated Farming and Agriculture," he rattled off the address. "No, both intruders have been subdued and tied up," his breathing was quick and sporadic. He was trying to get control of it as he spoke. "Five minutes? Great!" He placed the phone on the cradle and looked down at Matt. "Well, guess you didn't think anything would be more exciting than the car ride over here, did you?"

Standing up, Matt smiled at him, "What the hell were they looking for?" Paperwork was all over this office as well.

Looking around the office Colin pointed across the hallway, "That office is the lead technical designer on the project. This one is just an accountant. Maybe they looked through this one first until they realized they had the wrong office."

It made a lot of sense. New technology was a hot commodity in the industrial espionage business. Something as big as what they were working on at CFA could be sold for millions of dollars on the open market, even if it was patented.

"Do you wanted to see if they got anything?" motioning toward the technical designer's office.

Shaking his head, "No need. It's all stored on a single server that doesn't have remote access. There are no technical documents on paper for this exact reason." Colin went out into the hallway and hunched over to catch his breath. "I'm going downstairs to let the Police in."

Matt nodded as he headed for the elevators. Hearing the person in the hallway start to groan, he left the office. He needed to know that this had nothing to do with his suspicion as he approached the intruder.

Kneeling down he pulled the mask off the man on the ground. His face wasn't familiar, but that didn't really mean much. Most of the people keeping an eye on Michael, during his stay in the NSA building, neither of them had ever seen before. Well, Michael from this time, anyway.

The man was staring directly into Matt's face. "Do you know me?" he asked. In response, the man shook his head. "Did Michael send you here?" His mouth dropped open as soon as he heard Michael's name mentioned. "Son of a bitch!"

Matt walked down the hallway in a rage and started to pace up and down the floor. Wrapping his mind around it, he tried to think of how to handle what was going on. Michael had set this up for a reason and he until he knew why he didn't want it to stop. He also didn't need this being traced to Michael and then to the company in the middle of this deal.

"Look, here's what you're going to do. You don't know me. You don't know Michael," the man nodded. "I'll setup an attorney to come bail you out. Do not say one fucking word to the police. Not one. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," the man replied simply and put his face back on the floor as the elevators opened up with Colin leading two officers out into the hallway.

"Here's one of them. The other one is in that office," he pointed to the office with the shattered glass.

One officer picked up the man without the mask and the other retrieved the second intruder. Coming out of the office the cop pulled the black ski mask off and revealed a man's face Matt had seen before. Reacting without thinking, he shook his head and looked up at the ceiling in disgust that Michael had not mentioned any of this to him.

"I'm going to run down to my office and pickup that paperwork we came here to get," looking at Matt as he made his way down the hall and out of sight.

Right now all he wanted to do was talk to Michael and he was stuck for at least the next couple of hours in this building. He pulled out his phone and sent a text message to Michael, 'Need to talk ASAP'.

Waiting for Colin to come back with the needed paperwork, he got his reply. 'Where are you?!' It was from Delilah and not Michael. Typing in 'CFA office building' he hit send just as Colin came around the corner.

"Got it. Now we can continue the tour," smiling as if nothing happened.

Another text came in, 'Get out of there!!!' Matt's mind started to race. They knew something he didn't. Messing around with crazy speculation was not something that Michael was inclined to do. He always had facts on things like this. If he said someone was kidnapping children, it was 100% that he had proof of it.

"Something wrong," Colin was looking at his eyes.

Wondering what his face must look like, "No. Not at all. Let's do this!" It was too late for him to get out of the building without raising major suspicion. He decided to act natural as if he knew nothing, which he didn't, and go on the tour.

"Okay. This won't take long. We have seven floors growing, but it only takes one to see what the effect of the technology is doing," he pressed the 7th floor button as they entered the elevator. "Hmm. Strange," looking down at the lit button. "I'm not sure why I hit seven."

It did seem strange, more so to Matt because of the last ten or so years, but that would be strange to Colin was beyond him. He had just said seven floors were growing and then pressed seven on the panel. Seemed like an innocent coincidence.

Opening, the elevator stopped on a floor that was mostly dark. He could see the faint shadows of corn stalks in front him. It was a bizarre feeling to get off an elevator, have cement under his feet and then see growing cornstalks from dirt in front of him.

"You have to get passed the oddity of seeing plants growing in a building like this. I know it seems strange, but you get use to it. Though it does take some time," Colin headed to the right up to a path that went down the center of one side of a cornfield and the other side which was a wheat field.

The entire floor felt like a warehouse with twenty foot ceilings. Hanging from the ceilings were streams of pipes and lights. Currently there were some very dark lights with tiny white holes that glowed making it look like stars in the night sky. Directly over the walkway was a giant strip of LCD screens as wide as the path that ran the length of the building. Currently the moon was about halfway down the center shedding light on both sides.

"We simulate night and day with lighting and the effect of the lights. When the sun it out we have all kinds of UV lights that pour out needed nutrients. When the moon is out, and we keep to the moon's changing lunar cycle, the lights above are painted black with tiny holes to simulate stars. These light too pour out specific energy needed by the plants."

Caught up in the middle of all the wonderment, Matt forgot about Delilah's text. Technology and the thought of growing food in a building had taken his imagination. He wanted to know more as they walked around. It was almost hypnotic to think about the accomplishment just in that one room.

"By boosting some of the Lighting nutrients and then adding to the soil even more nutrients, we have found a pretty good balance on what it takes to grow food better than in nature," Colin walked over and pulled an ear of corn off one of the stalks.

Handing the ear of corn to Matt, it almost fell out of his arms. It was about three foot long and weighed nearly ten pounds. Peeling back the husk, there were huge shining yellow kernels of corn. They were close to the size of a quarter.

"Good God, mate! This is absolutely incredible," Matt gushed out with nothing but astonishment in his voice. He could see so many third world countries never going hungry ever again.

Colin was laughing comically, "I guess that means you like it."

"Hell yes! This is amazing! Do you realize how quickly you could feed all of Africa with this?" Matt was so excited he could barely hold in his excitement. Pure astonishment and amazement was overwhelming him as he spun looking into the fields.

"We've been sending the harvests to third world countries by the planeful," he sounded self satisfied.

"Wait. Harvests? I thought you had only been doing this for six or twelve months?" he asked remembering the schedule.

"Yeah, well, we have been also working on a way to speed up the cycle rate. Right now, this crop," his arms waved around him, "took 3 weeks to get us here."

Matt dropped the ear of corn. "Are you telling me that you can produce a full oversized crop like this every three weeks?" It was almost to unbelievable.

"That's what I'm saying. Every three weeks we can produce this kind of food. We've even contacted some farmers to partner with out in Midwest. We are going to buy their land and have them run the farming on twelve to twenty story buildings."

Ludicrous was the first word that came to Matt's mind. Asking if it was possible was insane because his best friend could control matter and travel through space-time. Still, the question did seem like a valid one to be asked.

"So, Colin, what do you want from us?" he asked looking around the floor at the fields and thought about everyone eating large corn in Africa right now.

"Well, some of the costs for the buildings are expensive. Some of the technology could use refinement. I figured we go in as 60/40 partners so we can ramp this up faster. What do you think?" he crossed his arms.

"I think, where do I sign?" they both laughed together.

Colin whipped out the folder he had been carrying around as if he anticipated this reaction, "This is just the preliminary paperwork to get everything started. The lawyers can work out all the details, right?" he gave Matt a wink.

"You are right about that," Matt pulled a pen from the inside of his jacket. Colin turned around and Matt signed over the top of his name designated on the paper.

"There," he turned around, "we are now officially partners." He reached his hand out and Matt shook it without a flinch. "By the way, thanks a lot with your help earlier. I have no idea what those guys were doing here, but I appreciate the fact you were willing to get your hands dirty to help me out."

Actually, Matt didn't think a thing of it. Someone broke into the building and it was just a reaction to try and apprehend them.

"No worries. You would have done the same for me," throwing it out there to see his reaction.

"You're right about that! So, you want to grab some drinks in the hotel bar or something? Not like we have to do this again tomorrow. It's all done," he patted Matt on the shoulder.

Colin was right. This meeting was in place of the one in the morning. Going out with him and drinking sounded good and he didn't have to worry about how he felt in the morning.

"Sure! Let's do it," he cranked up the excitement. "One small catch, though."

"Yeah, what's that?" not expecting any catches on a yes.

"You let me drive," Matt said without flinching.

Colin burst into laughter so hard that Matt was sure he was going to cry, "You bet!"