Black sat facing Arthur in a makeshift chair sipping a warm coffee saturated with condensed milk. Well, that was what his taste bud desired. Ever since his first visit to his mentor's house, he had always wondered what a rich man's coffee would taste like. For every sip he took, the tingling sensation from moisture, fat and sugar created a blissful euphoria. One of those type that he had longed for.
Giggling and energetic, Black couldn't help but smile and rant about his experiences at work and how he had tried to reach out to his mentor all along.
Arthur couldn't help but admire the adoration this lad in front of him has for him. As a reclusive individual with limited interactions and social activities with people, only few could have access to Arthur, and very few could ever boast of having a one on one physical meeting with him to the point of sharing a coffee discussion. So, he allowed Black to bask in his excitement before deciding to speak.
"I will not be able to teach you how to trade the forex market anymore". Arthur said while stirring his coffee which had already turned cold.
If there was something as a mind-quake, Black just had one at that moment, because everything about him, his hopes, his joy, his enthusiasm came crashing down. This was literally the most heartbreaking situations he had ever found himself, well second only to his teenage year mistake.
Silence descended on the room for the first few seconds. Arthur looked up, and Black eyes had welled up with tears, like a toddler about to cry a river.
"Well, I have discovered that I won't be alive for long to teach you properly for you to understand, because the secret societies will sooner or later have me killed. But cheer up, I have prepared structures in place that will deliver all my life's work to you and some other necessary things I think you might need".
Arthur said standing up. He went towards a box and brought out a flash drive.
"This flash drive has the introductory knowledge about the echo system, make use of the knowledge to access the system when you finally get it". Arthur placed the drive in Black's palm and wrapped his hands around it, "Guide this thing with your life, never give anyone, never lose it, and never ever let anyone know about it. When you get the system, you'll know why it can never be allowed to fall in the wrong hands".
Black nodded with amazement while sniffing his nose. Arthur smiled, stood up and asked while disappearing into an inner chamber in the warehouse that Black didn't know was there until now,
"Do you need more coffee?".
"Yes Sir, I sure do". Black responded examining the drive in his palm with amazement.
Unknown to neither of them, one of the secret societies had been monitoring Black's move and multiple attempts to reach out to Arthur for a long time. When the anonymous message came, all they needed to do was stealthily follow Black to wherever he was to go to. Once the location was confirmed, a paid hitman was contacted to incapacitate Arthur but keep him alive, so the secret societies can apprehend him by themselves and take him into their private custody.
Sneaking into the warehouse, the hit man was already very close to Black's sitting spot when Arthur came out of the inner chamber. Suddenly, caught unaware by the intrusion, Arthur screamed for Black to duck and he lunged after the stranger.
Missing been stabbed by an hairbreadth, Black ducked towards the floor and Arthur covered the space between them in two graceful steps attacking the intruder.
Arthur fought the intruder gracefully but was stabbed in the right upper part of his abdomen. The intruder ran away but Arthur was already gravely injured and was bleeding heavily.
As a licensed Nurse, Black sprang into action to save Arthur but he was stopped halfway and told to leave immediately.
"You have to leave now, this location is already exposed and they're definitely nearby and coming in soon. You need to run now and avoid being caught. RUN!".
Reluctant, Black tried more to save his mentor, in desperation, but Arthur grabbed his hands and screamed at him, "RUN!".
Black snapped and ran out of the warehouse through the inner chamber that led to an underground tunnel which opened into a gutter five blocks away from the warehouse.
Helicopters were already descending towards the location of the warehouse with cars racing alongside loaded with armed men all in black.
3 nights after, Black wore a green hoodie and sneaked his way on the busy street avoiding the eyes of passers-by. It was of note that Black has been alleged to the murder of Arthur Lannister, and also an accomplice to a fraud case. With his face plastered on posters everywhere and on the media, Black was declared a fugitive with a bounty of one million dollars if found.
'How much worse could these big people twist agenda..'. Black made it to the internet cafè at the subway which was the only obscure place where he might not be easily identified by people or CCTV.
'I need to be quick...' He thought while securing a spot at the distant corner of the room. He was glad that he doesn't need an internet connection to access the drive. Plugging in his earphones, he scanned around one more time before connecting the drive into the CPU.
A battalion unit was frantically trying to besiege the only internet cafè in the subway. With a hacked street CCTV, they had picked up a potential facial scan related to Black while he was making his way to the subway. Another CCTV had picked a clear picture of his face when he scanned the room one last time before proceeding to connect the drive. The battalion unit was already moving like trained experts with only one aim. To catch Black alive, no escape.
The Computer came on and welcomed the user shortly after booting. Black had connected the drive and was greeted with a voice recognition encryption request before he could access the contents of the drive.
"How am I supposed to get pass this lock without Arthur's voice". Black felt agitated. In a desperate to get pass the lock, Black spoke his own name.
"My name is William Junior".
The computer screen displayed....
'Voice recognition processing.'
'Voice recognised..'
'Access granted...'
"Yes! I'm in, I'm in..." Black hushed, then he located the file he needed and started listening to the recorded messages about the echo system.
The armed battalion unit had surrounded the café and was waiting for their Captain order before storming the room. Alert, they positioned and focused on any eventualities.
"Move in Now! They barged in, moving directly to the spot in which Black had occupied. All the café users were stunned by the sudden appearance of armed men in the most unusual of place, and they could only watch at the unfolding".
"The suspect and the package is not here, Sir!".
"What?? He is not there??".
"No Sir, He is gone..."
Black was already in one of the train coaches heading nowhere in particular, but at least to escape the battalion and forces after him.
He was already gone by the time they barged in.