Cipher (18 page)

“Snowball!” yelled Jonathan. Everyone turned and looked at
him, but only he and Jennifer knew what that meant.

“Snowball!” yelled Jennifer almost in unison with Jonathan. It
was the code word. Everyone looked at one another too confused to understand
what was going on. Had they heard them?

“Snowball!” Jonathan yelled it again, and again as he backed
away. Boris moved towards Jonathan again this time pointing the gun at him.

Agent Jenkins: “We have the command. Go. Go.”

Sniper 2: “I have the shot. Sir?”

Agent Jenkins: “Take out the Sheik’s body guards. We can’t
let him leave.”

Sniper 1: “Permission to fire?”

NSA Director Edwards: “Fire. Fire. Permission Granted.”

As Jonathan and Jennifer heard the chatter on the earpieces,
they dove down to the ground as the shots were fired. Two quick shots took out
the Sheik’s bodyguards, leaving him stunned. As the shots rang down in front of
the helicopter, the pilot quickly powered the chopper’s engines and the
propellers started spinning. The loud propellers made it difficult to hear
anything anyone else was saying.

Boris looked stunned as four more shots rung out and all of
the armed deckhands were taken out, and the Italians stood there stunned. In
the commotion, Viktor broke away from Don Cicerone and ran towards the railing
of the superyacht, jumped atop, and hurled himself off and into the ocean. Don
Cicerone, seeing this, pointed his gun towards the water and stared unloading,
firing his weapon into the dark blue waters. His two goons kept their guns
trained on Medviek, who was now unprotected.

Seeing this, Jonathan knew it was his only chance. He
bum-rushed the Russian as Dmitry took out his gun and pointed it towards
Jonathan. As he was about to fire, Vinnie and Tony started unloading their
weapons into Dmitry. The whole deck sounded like a fireworks parade as blood
was spattered everywhere. Jennifer, grasping her still hurt shoulder, watched
as bodies hit the polished wood decking of the superyacht with thuds.

“No! Jonathan!” she yelled at him as he rushed towards the
Russian. He slammed Medviek to the ground as Jonathan hit him with all the
force he could muster up. Then, he jumped on top of him and they struggled on
the deck, punching one another as Boris’s gun was kicked to the ground.
Jennifer was helpless and all she could do was watch. “No! Please stop!” she
yelled. “Please!”

She reached down, grabbed the gun in her hands, and stood up
slowly. She looked down at the two of them and yelled one more time: “Stop!”
The pair stopped wrestling on the deck and Jonathan broke free and stood up
slowly, backing away. Boris started to get up as well and Jennifer yelled at
him. “No! You stay right there,” she said as she pointed the gun directly at
him.

“Jennifer, put the gun down,” Jonathan said.

“No, he won’t stop coming after us until we’re dead. It’s
either him or us, Jonathan,” she said, gritting her teeth. She was seething
with anger. All of the stress and the anxiety had all boiled over until it had
erupted in a fit of rage, and now she was the one
calling the
shots
. She was the one that was holding the gun and had the power. She
was the one who had the option of ending someone’s life if she chose to. She
was no longer going to be a pawn in someone else’s chess game. “I’ve had it!”
she yelled again.

“No!” Jonathan yelled at her as she fired a shot right next
to Boris’s head. He had spun out of the way just in time and grabbed her leg,
sending her to the ground. She screamed and yelled as he pulled at her to get
the gun.

“You little bitch!” Boris yelled.

“No!” Jonathan yelled again. This time, the Italians came
forward and stood over the Russian, kicking the gun out of his hand just before
he had a chance to unload the bullets into Jennifer.
 

“You stay right there,” Don Cicerone said, pointing the gun
straight down at him. In the commotion, the Sheik had jumped into the
helicopter just as it was taking off, and the group turned their attention to
the chopper as it whirred to life, sending wind whipping across the entire
upper deck.

Jonathan and Jennifer listened into the chatter on their
earpieces as more commands were being yelled in their ears.

NSA Director Edwards: “Does he have the laptop? Does the
Sheik have the laptop?” he asked in a hastened manner.

Sniper 1: “I have a shot. Should I take out the bird?”

Jonathan: “He does not have the laptop. Repeat. He does not
have the laptop. Laptop is secure.”

NSA Director Edwards: “Snipers, stand down. I repeat. Stand
down. We don’t want to cause an international incident.”

Sniper 1: “Yes sir.”

Sniper 2: “Yes sir.
Understood.”

The EC155 chopper lifted off the deck of the superyacht and
made a thunderous noise as it turned and hovered away from the yacht,
disappearing into the distant horizon. The Sheik was gone, but the list was
safe. And, as Boris lay on the ground, the Italians approached him closely,
ready to unload their weapons when Agent Jenkins and Steiner showed up and told
everyone to put their guns down.

“Put your guns down. Everyone. Now,” Jenkins said
forcefully.

“Now, people.” Steiner reiterated the call to put down their
weapons.

As the Italians turned their backs on Boris, he took his one
and only chance to run. He bolted from the deck and into the depths of the
yacht, quietly disappearing out of sight.

“You let him get away,” Don Cicerone said to them.

“He’s not going anywhere. Don’t worry,” Agent Steiner said.
“There’s no where he can run.” They followed Boris down to the lower level and
into the bowels of the vessel. He had gone missing. They left the group out on
the upper deck and it was pure carnage. There were bodies everywhere.

Jonathan got up and walked over to Jennifer. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I think so,” she said.

Jonathan reached down, grabbed her by her good arm, and
lifted her up. “That was scary,” he said.

“Tell me about it,” she replied. “Oh my god, Jonathan, Boris
still has the cipher drive. We have to follow him.”

“You mean this cipher drive?” he said, pulling out both cipher
drives from his pocket.

“But? Wait… how did you? I don’t get it…” Jennifer was
confused,
somehow Jonathan had retrieved the cipher drive
and was holding both of them in his hand.

“On the ground, when we were wrestling together. I managed
to slip it out of his pocket,” he said, smiling. “That’s why I bum rushed him.
He probably thinks he still has it with him.”

“How did you…How did you do that?” she asked as they walked
off towards the stern of the yacht.

“Impressed?” he asked.

“Yeah, just a little,” she said smiling at him. He threw his
arms around her waist and pulled her in closer for a kiss. His lips melted as
he felt the electricity of her body near his.

Jonathan pulled back and looked into Jennifer’s eyes. “Hey,
we’re not out of the water yet,” he said. They could hear commotion coming from
one of the lower decks. They could hear yelling and screaming. Jonathan could
hear people running across the superyacht, even from up there.

“What’s going on down there?” Jennifer asked. Jonathan could
see the fear in her eyes again.

“I don’t know, but we should go see,” he said.

Boris had made his way to the lower
level in an attempt to board a speedboat, which was anchored to the side of the
yacht, but the two agents had him cornered. Jonathan and Jennifer appeared just
in time to see all of the commotion and yelling. They saw Boris run behind a
pillar and Jenkins barked at them to stay back. Just as Jenkins was yelling at
them, Boris fired two shots, just narrowly missing Jonathan and Jennifer, but
the slug traveled until it hit Steiner in the chest who had just rounded the
corner and was running towards the Russian.

“No!” Jenkins yelled. “Get down!” She tried to call to
Steiner but it was too late. He had already been hit and had fallen on the deck
of the boat in a pool of blood. Jenkins cursed and stood up discharging her
weapon as she moved towards Medviek. “You bastard!” she yelled as she unloaded
the weapon, hitting Boris in the shoulder, the arm, and the leg.

“Stand down! Stand down!” NSA Director Edwards could be
heard barking orders over the earpiece.

But the shots were too little too late. He was running. Boris
had made his escape, running across the dock, and tumbling over the railing and
into the awaiting speedboat, which roared its engines as it kicked up enormous
amounts of water, spun around, and sped off. He was gone. Before anyone could
say or do anything else, he had disappeared.

“He’s getting away!” yelled Jonathan, but it was too late.
Jenkins was weeping as Steiner gasped for air.

“That bastard,” she said, between tears. Jonathan and Jennifer
walked over to her and tried to console her.

“I’m so sorry,” Jennifer said. She kneeled down and placed
her hand on his head. “I’m so, so sorry.”

But, Steiner gasped for air and spit up blood. He tilted his
head to the side and he was still breathing. “Oh my god! Oh my god! He’s alive.
Steiner? Steiner, are you with me?” Jenkins asked.

Steiner looked her in the eyes and cracked a half smile, and
Jenkins burst into further tears. “You’re alive. I thought you were dead.”

Jonathan looked over at Steiner lying there. “Hang in there.
You’re going to be okay. Just hang in there,” he said.

“Someone call an ambulance!” Jennifer yelled.

“You’re going to be okay, Steiner. You’re going to be okay,”
Jenkins said. And as an ambulance arrived and left with Steiner, Jenkins stood
with Jonathan and Jennifer.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Jonathan said.

“I’m just happy we made it out in one piece,” Jenkins said.
“I was just doing my job.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Jennifer asked.

“Yeah, I think he’s going to be fine. He’s going to have
some battle wounds, but he’ll recover,” Jenkins said.

Jennifer looked at her and gave her a big hug. “Now what?”
Jennifer asked.

“Now, we destroy this cipher drive,” Jenkins said.

“We do?” Jennifer asked.

“Yes, we do,”
Jonathan
said.

“You do have the cipher drive right?” Jenkins asked.

“Yes, it’s right here,”
Jonathan
said. He pulled out the replica cipher drive from his pocket and the chrome
edge of the USB cipher drive glistened in the hot summer sun.

“I’ll take that,” Jenkins said, holding out her hands.

“Here you go. Happy to be rid of this thing once and for
all,” Jonathan said.

“Me too,” said Jennifer. “Me too…”

*****

“Kid, you did good,” said Don Cicerone back at the hotel in
Taksim Square.

Jonathan handed him the real cipher drive. “I think this
belongs to you,” he said.

Don Cicerone looked at the cipher drive in his hand, and
then he closed his pudgy fingers around it. “Yes. It most certainly does.”

“And how about our deal?” Jonathan asked. They were all
seated in the lobby of the hotel, which was awash with sunlight.

“Our deal?” asked the Don, who smiled at Jonathan.

“Yeah. Our deal?” he looked at Jennifer with uneasiness. She
could just see her telling him
I told you
so.

“Oh I’m just pulling your leg kid. Vinnie, give him the
briefcase,” said the Don.

“Here you go,” Vinnie barked in his deep Italian tone. “Here
it is.” He pushed over the black leather briefcase and Jonathan slid it onto
his lap and held it there. He unclicked the two locks and opened it up, peaking
inside. His eyes widened as he saw the stacks of hundred dollar bills that
lined the interior.

“It was a pleasure,” said the Don.

Jonathan smiled back, quickly closed the briefcase, and
locked it back up. “Pleasure was all mine,” Jonathan cooed as he reeled from
the shock of having nearly a million dollars in his hands.

“What’s next for you two?” the Don asked, looking directly
at Jennifer this time.

“Wherever the day takes us,” she said, reaching over to grab
Jonathan’s hand.

“Hey, look at these two lovebirds,” Tony said. He chuckled
and all the Italians laughed along with him.

Thank you

I sincerely hope that you enjoyed
reading this story just as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would appreciate it
if you could take a few moments out of your day to leave a review on Amazon.
Thank you.
 

All the Best,

Robert
Stohn