Chapter 2 - Setting up

At the edge of the forest, ten men exited the ship carrying bags of equipment for the mission, two multi-purpose vehicles vaguely looking like vans were constructed just especially for the mission, as they were considered very obsolete there. The pilot remained on board the ship on standby in case there was a need to escape immediately. Camouflage systems were enabled so that the ship would look literally blended into the background while the security forcefield was enabled so that no authorised persons could come in contact with the ship.

Though it was nighttime, there were plenty of activiy in the forest even before the ship landed, sounds of crickets chirping and frogs from the pond nearby croaking filled the forest as the men stood in a neat line at the side of the ship. The sound continued for a while until a firm and commanding voice finally broke the sounds.

"Men, may I remind you that we are currently on an undercover surveillance and security mission, and we are not to interfere with the lives of the locals here, the subject must not know of our existence yet, as it is not the time yet. Fall out and start moving!"

"Yessir!"

"Configure the map coordinates, let's head onto Toronto. We'd better get our asses there before that skank does."

*******************

The first rays of sunlight were piercing to the eyes and it managed to hit Jacques as he slept in the sofa. He stood up, yawned, stretched and suddenly realised that Kit wasn't on his lap anymore. Time to prepare for work.

Fragments of the dreams were flashing through his mind one by one as he brushed his teeth in the bathroom. He could see it almost every time he closed his eyes, they were always the same. First he was enveloped in an overwhelming darkness, moments later it was a blinding white light, he always grimaced at the sharp change in lighting and held up his hand against his eyes to cover it. After that it was all surreal, segments of his life, both good and bad were all assembled and strangely deformed before his eyes. He would usually wake up when it became too intense for him to bare.

Spit and rinse.

After all this time he still could not figure out what the dreams meant, except that it was definitely very stressful. He felt that rather than going to an expensive shrink and waste his money sitting on a couch, rambling about his life and taking more and more pills, at least he was knowledgeable enough to analyse his condition and make a rough guess what's wrong with his life. The chilly cold water splash hard on his face.

Grabbing a towel, Jacques wiped his face and went through the possible causes, the first being his working lifestyle. He immediately settled on that explanation, but then he would have to take a break from work, could he do that? But then again, if things did work out better with his son, this could actually work! A little grin creeped up in his face and for the first time today, Jacques actually went to work with a smile.

*******************

Both vehicles pulled to a stop 300 metres from the subject's house. The windows were heavily tinted, so strangers peering in wasn't a big concern for them. As head of Team A and his right-hand man was head of Team B, the captain held the transmitter to his mouth and barked orders to his men.

"Listen here, Team A, set up your surveillance post northwest from the subject's house. Team B, you set up your surveillance post southeast from the subject's house. We'll be able to cover all sides that way. Arm yourselves ONLY with light weapons for defensive purposes, this is a non-combat mission. And oh, by the way, don't ever address me as sir in public from now onwards, use the codenames provided."

"Yessir!"

Using a subtronic amplifier and binoculars that they brought, both teams settled down into their respective locations after a while and the area was secured. The crowd scanner was activated as the Resistance members would be registered differently from normal humans on the screen. It was now a matter of time.

He was sure that they would come for him, one-hundred percent sure.


"Sir--"

"Didn't I tell you not..."

"No, sir, the subject's about to leave."

"Oh, follow him and keep your distance. Just don't let him out of our sights." The captain then spoke into the transmitter again. "Team B, keep a close watch on the subject's premise, we're about to trail the subject."

*******************

He felt the tingling of the cool, morning air on his skin as he stepped out from his home. Clutching his workbag and a thick coat in his arms, Jacques walked to his car leisurely, which was parked somewhere down the street.

There were birds somewhere in the neighbourhood, their chirps audible from the park nearby. Children had started to fill the playground since it was the holiday season. Jacques turned back his attention to the car.

"Morning Mrs. Walker!"

"Good morning, Jacques!" The reply came from the sweet old lady 2 houses next door.

It wasn't very far from his house, and Jacques felt that there were very little parking space in this area. Getting crowded already, eh?

There it was, sitting in the parking lot, his old Toyota, looking plain as ever, how in the world did he get stuck with a boring job, boring life and heck, even such a boring car?

Jacques forked out his car keys from his pockets with quite a bit of struggle and managed to start the ageing car. It started with a meek roar, thankfully it didn't coughed and died like the previous time. He headed to his workplace without realising the white van behind him, which was just as well.

*******************

"Roger that," Smithson replied. He then turned towards his men, "Now that the subject's away, keep an eye for the Resistance, they might pass by here." All of them nodded silently.

*******************

His tracker started beeping wildly before he reached the the street. He took a closer look at the alert and growled.

Shit, they were already there.

The sensors in his tracker indicated that the signal of a scanner was in the vicinity of the area. He would get caught if he continued to approach the house.

He quickly slipped back into the alley behind the shophouses, no one was there except for a homeless bum. He had to quickly revise his plans. After all, time waits for no man.

He did an infrared scan of the house from afar, nobody was at home. He'd better be at work then, or at least on his way there.

*******************

At the half-way mark, Jacques saw stopped the car at the traffic lights of an intersection. While waiting for it to turn green, he turned on the radio and the morning news was currently on air.

News reports never seem to bring in good news, first it was earthquakes, typhoons, flash floods, droughts, all natural disasters, mostly out of man's control, so it was understandable. Perhaps it was God's will to control the human population, but he never reached an actual conclusion.

But then what about human-induced disasters? Wars, poverty, ethnic cleansing, everybody thought the worst was all over 60 years ago at the end of World War II, but that never happened.

Green light. The car moved and turned right, into a less busier street.

He focued on the road, and partly on the car driving in front of him when his vision started to become cloudy.

"Wh... What?" He blinked his eyes forcefully but all that he could see was just a blur. It did no use. What was happenning to him?

Jacques was losing control of the car as the Toyota started to swerve dangerously from side to side. The fewer cars on that particular stretch of road might've helped him avoid crashing into oncoming traffic.

"Oh God..." To make things even difficult for him, his head was starting to throb painfully, it seemed to be worse than a migrane and he felt as if his head was about to explode. He clutched his hard with an arm as he deperately tried to keep the other arm on the steering wheel.

"Pull over, pull over, pull over..." His brain was yelling at him loudly but his body couldn't respond. The last thing Jacques heard before blacking out in his seat was the jarring sound of a car horn, as for the second time in his life, he was certain that he'd never make out of this alive.

*******************

"What the heck is he doing? I don't think that's the correct way to drive." The captain questioned Jack.

"I have no idea either. He's swerving like crazy, suppose he's drunk?"

No sooner than Jack had finished that sentence, Jacques' Toyota veered off into the wrong lane at the wrong time, and clipped the front of the car coming into the opposite lane at high speeds, sending Jacques' car into a dramatic flip. Following the screeching sound of metal against asphalt, the car ended up upsidedown and on the grass beside the road.

"He just flipped his car! Stop in front of his car!"

"Yessir." Jack responded.

The white van pulled over few metres in front of the car and the whole team, with the exception of the driver, poured out from the van to remove their target from the overturned vehicle.

On finding that the car doors were pretty much stuck and almost impossible to open, Scott smashed the partly broken window on the back passenger side, struggled to cut open the seatbelts holding him in place and dragged him out of the car carefully, avoiding the broken bits of glasses.

They were working frantically to get him out, this is one subject they couldn't afford to lose.