Chapter 4 - Preparation

Jacques opened his eyes to see a group of unfamiliar faces looking down at him. He wasn't sure if what he had been through earlier was a dream or not, but he was vaguely sure who the people around him were. But still, he was slightly confused.

"Where am I?" He sat up and rubbed his head, which was still slightly aching.

"In safe hands, of course!"

"Thunder Bay," he replied seriously, "at least that's what your people call this place. You had a blackout while driving just now and almost got shot by a..."

"...Resistance assassin?"

"Right. But... How did..."

"A woman, I think so, told me when I was out cold. Say, she also did mention that you were coming..."

"Ah, so you've met our Queen already. She's a wonderful person." The captain grinned at Jacques.

"Guess I haven't properly introduced myself yet, I'm Captain DeMarco, head of this mission. Second-in-command over here is Smithson. The rest of the team are Blake, Terry, Jack, Tim, Scott, David, Fang, Tek and our top pilot, Andy."

"Nice to meet you..." One by one Jacques shook their hands. "What are we doing here?"

"Well, there was a second plan that we intended to use in case you were targeted, which was to bring you back to Kharak. But since we're currently too far away from the best spot for initiating Hyperspace Drive, we have to wait for at least another six hours before launching."

Something buzzed lightly in his pocket, it took Jacques a while before he remembered what it was. He retrieved the cellphone and saw that Mark had called him. Without skipping a beat, he pushed the green button and place it up to his ear. "Mark?"

"How does Starbucks sounds?" The caller exhaled. "In an hour?"

"Sure!" He looked at his wristwatch, it said 12:34 p.m..

Jacques kept the cellphone back in his pocket and scrambled to stand up.

"Just where are you planning to go?"

"To meet my son of course. I've been waiting for this chance in a million years"

"Uh, you do know that you're in danger, don't you?"

"Right, you guys can tag along, right?"

"I suppose so..."

"Do I really have to follow you all to Kharak?"

"Yes."

"And what if I don't want to?"

"Oh you definitely will."

"All right then. Another question: Is there enough room for another person? And a cat?"

"Err... I'll have to check that with the pilot. Wait a minute, did you say a cat?"

"I'm not leaving him behind if I have to go there."

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

He failed. Miserably. He wished that he could put the gun to his head and pull the trigger before anyone got word about it. But his objectives were not accomplished yet, he could not return to the Headquarters yet until Jacques was killed.

The Resistance will continue.

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

Mark never forgot that fateful day ten years ago. He was a young kid at that time, crossing the fringes of being a child into a teenager when the horrible accident happened. It shattered his life forever.

He remembering standing at the porch and waving goodbye to his parents, who had planned to dined at a fine restaurant to celebrate their thirteenth anniversary together. Little did he know that it was the last time he saw his mother alive again.

He clutched the coffee mug in his hands harder than usual.

Although ten years have passed, he never got over the pain of losing his mother and in so, he initially blamed his father for not protecting her enough, but he now reconsidered his actions, which was perhaps or maybe overboard. He was actually glad that his father called him earlier.

The tinkling bell at the door indicated that someone had come in, Mark spun around to see his father pushing the door and peeking into the shop. Once he spotted Mark, he stepped inside the shop, which was reeking with fine coffee.

Jacques took his seat at the table without a sound, both of them avoided eye contact and the silence lasted for another painful minute. Mark was the first one to speak up.

"So, was the thing that you mentioned on the phone earlier?"

"Mark, first of all, I just had to tell that I am VERY sorry at what had happened on that day of the accident. Yes it was an accident and there was no excuses for that. I missed her as much as you do.

Mark looked down in silence, still fiddling with his thumb.

"The thing is, your mother never got a chance to tell you that she was diagnosed with advanced brain tumour a month before the accident. She was naturally sad and depressed when she received the news but she avoided showing that emotion when you were around. She didn't want to upset you along with herself. She wanted you to lead a full life without her."

Mark's face was twisted in surprise after hearing it. He dropped his head to his hands and started to sob quietly.

Jacques got up to sit beside his son, he placed an arm over his shoulder and patted in sympathy.

"I know the feeling."

Jacques waited for him to calm down before telling him about his next plan.

"Son, I have to leave here soon, and I won't be back in a long time, possibly never. Someone is after my life, I'm scared that they might target you or hold you hostage if they can't find me, so I have to ask you this question: can you come along with me?"

"What? Is this a joke?"

"See those four men at the table over there? They're here to escort us to the place."

True enough, all four men turned to face Mark and Captain DeMarco nodded at him once.

"Holy shit, you're serious about this."

"So, yes or no?"

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

As soon as they left the café they were quickly bundled inside by the four men behind them. Before they returned to the ship, Jacques asked the driver, Jack to make a detour back to his house.

After a quick scan of the place again, Jacques retrieved a sleeping Kit from the sofa, snagged a bag of kitty treats from the kitchen, just in case he'd starve. He was about to declare "target retrieved" when he spotted the same photo album on the table. Jacques stood there for a few moments, looking at the same face he never wanted to forget.

"Are ya done yet? We're due to set off in less than an hour!"

What the heck, he took out the photo in a hurry with one hand and stuffed it into his jacket. He also shut down the main power switch, he didn't want the entire place to be reduced to a smouldering pile of ashes when he wasn't around.

"I'm done, let's go."

Chapter 3 - Explanations

He was already half-awake but the rush of the wind brought him to an alert state. He was still falling at a great speed, adrenaline pumped inside of him, but it never seemed to end. He looked up but there was no opening at the top, nothing below and neither at the sides.

Am I dreaming? Where is this place?

Jacques fall in the darkness seemed eternal when everything turned a blinding white in the blink of an eye, and he found himself on solid ground. This seemed awfully reminiscent of his dreams.

"Jacques..." A disembodied voice came from both nowhere and everywhere.

"Who are you? Where am I? What am I doing here?"

"Jacques, Jacques, Jacques, you ask too far many questions than you need to know..." The feminine voice continued.

"B... But..." Jacques stammered.

A blue mist floated out quietly from the floor, it swirled around his legs and circled around him. The bluish mist started to form into a loose shape right in front of him. Jacques was taken by surprise, but he stood frozen on the floor, unable to move.

"Three hundred years in the future, the human race was in total shambles. Our progress in technology has brought power to everyone, and in turn made everyone corrupt. The United Nations crumbled and countless wars erupted in the past century on almost every single territory on Earth. After a while it turned into a full-out nuclear war.

"In total, five billion humans were killed from the war, three billion from the nuclear explosions alone, two billion from fighting and a billion from the nuclear fallout."

It was noticeable that voice came from the mist, which now had emanated a slight glow.

"After the nuclear winter was over, only two billion were willing to group with each other and start anew. Three cities were built from the ground up in southern China, two in central Africa and my great-grandfather led the only city in nothern America. We couldn't resettle in the old cities..."

"...because of the radiation." Jacques stepped in.

A female figure slowly formed from the mist. It was solid and complete, but he couldn't see anything beyond the shape, only a silhouette.

"Yes. All of the new cities had dedicated themselves to the reconstruction of the human race and pledged for peace. But there were resistance groups who spat at the idea of peace. To them, the war has not ended yet.

"Jacques, You have an important duty. A duty on behalf of the human race. But right now your life is in danger, I have dispatched a team to protect you from the resistance groups, who have sent members to assassinate you. Time is running out for all of us, all you need to know now is to stay alive. I'll be contacting you in the future."

In a puff, the female figure turned back into the blue mist earlier and Jacques felt that he was being sucked up into the air, it became dark again.

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

He grabbed his tracker and took note at the current location of Jacques' car. He was too far away to see it by himself but he noticed that the green spot wasn't going anywhere. This would have made him a sitting duck, if it wasn't for the heavy traffic.

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

The team medic examined Jacques. "Pulse one hundred and fifty beats per minute, his heartbeat is above average. Other than that, he's okay. He just blacked out."

"That's a relief." No sooner than the captain uttered those words did an ear-piercing blast hit the spot to him, just barely missing him.

"We're under fire! Bring him back to the vehicle!" The captain yelled loudly to the men.

Blake, Jack and the captain took out their weapons in haste and returned fire at the shooter, who had now ducked behind his own car. Meanwhile Terry and Scott took advantage of the lapse in shooting to carry Jacques back into their van. All three managed to cover Jacques' and the other two men's backs and retreated along with them.

"Team B, return to landing site ASAP, we need backup! We've encountered a Resistance assassin a while ago, there might be more of them." He turned to the men and asked, "Anyone wounded?"

"No sir."

"That's good."

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

Everything was going smoothly before dinner, Jacques surprised his wife when a violinist appeared beside them playing Strauss waltzes, while he presented her with a bouquet of roses at the table.

"To my dear wife, who has lighted up the darkest corners of my life for the past twelve years, and to our everlasting love." With the clink of a glass, both of them smiled and drank the wine.

A slight drizzle appeared outside the restaurant while the couple were inside. They spent the last hour rekindling the past twelve years that they spent together and found some humourous bits.

"I still can't believe that you'd go through all of that effort to propose to me."

"At least I could say that no single person in the world has ever done it before."

"True, but that awful paint smell stuck to you for DAYS after that, even after bathing. I think I still could catch a wiff of it once in a while."

Jacques laughed and turned his gaze to the glass window outside. Roughly thirteen years ago, he proposed to his wife in the most unique way. He organised an elaborate plan which involved some of his closest friends and a whole lot of paint, in the end it backfired but nevertheless Elily accepted his proposal. He was ecstatic for days after that.

When the dinner was over they planned to return home, Jacques and Elily was travelling on the winding road when the drizzle turn into a downpour. He was getting increasingly worried since the vision ahead had been shorten greatly. The force of the raindrops pounded the windscreen and threaten to smash it.

"Slow down Jacques!"

"I'm trying my best Elily, I can't see the road..."

Jacques wasn't able to finish the sentence as at that moment a loud horn was blasted and they found themselves caught in the headlights of a semi-trailer. Their screams were cut short when the semi-trailer collided into the car, sending it dragging along the road for fifty metres.

The driver of the semi-trailer sat frozen in his seat, shocked. He didn't know what to do. Taking a few deep breaths, he reached out a trembling hand to his shortwave radio and requested for help. Since assistance was on the way, he jumped out of his semi-trailer and found the couple in their seats battered and bleeding, God, what had he done to them?

He was awake shortly after the crash, rain continueously splashed on his face, a sharp pain stabbed his left leg, unable to move. He tried to pull himself out of the wreckage but he was heavily pinned under the twisted piece of metal. He turned towards Elily and cried, she had been bleeding profusely from the head and barely breathing. Jacques struggled to stop the bleeding with his shirt by using both hands. He needed to call for help and mustered every ounce of his strength left to shout to anyone nearby.

"Please don't leave me Elily, stay awake, please!" He desperately called out to her. "Help is coming now, be strong!"

He only breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the sirens arrive at the scene twenty minutes after the accident. In those twenty minutes Jacques was stuck there, it was equivalent of him spending an eternity in hell.

Several firemen swarmed to the scene and switched on the Jaws of Life. The piece of machinery roared and snapped off a large chunk of Jacques' door and it was now quickly placed beside his feet. The piece of metal pinning his feet whined loudly as it shifted, making enough space for him to slip free. He turned towards Elily again and saw an oxygen mask covering her mouth, she was struggling to breathe.

Jacques was stretchered off into a waiting ambulance, he never got to saw how Elily was freed from the wreckage.