Back To Sydney

The following night, at Harrison Garison's apartment, he and Amy discussed their plans for coping up with such a loss as this. No Luther means no fun, no enjoyment, no curses to enemies, no offense to enemies, and no buddy.

Amy was still sobbing as Harrison walked about the room, trying to think how to complete his fifth job.

"Do you think it will be OK with you if I were to leave for Sydney on the morrow?"

She didn't stir, only kept staring at the floor, thinking blankly. Harrison took that as a yes.

He closed the door behind him as he readied himself for his ultimate challenge. He didn't have the money to afford for a flight to Australia; he had another option in mind. He had done it before.

That's right! He's gonna ride a GSFER to Sydney. The only problem would be to find it in the maze of New York City.

"Aaargh!" Someone squealed outside. And he knew what the reason was.

***

The GSFER was busy eating a car's fuel tank as Harrison approached it. It still didn't pay any attention as he used the grooves in its body to climb to its head. And there and then, Garison made his move. Onlookers on the road watched in awe as he slid a hand between a chink in its armor. He grabbed a wire, cut it in half, and connected it to his smartphone.

The GSFER jerked his head forwards as the controls were downloaded in Harrison's phone. When it was complete, he held onto the robot snake's body as it dug deep into the Earth, headed for Sydney streets.

After a couple of hours, the GSFER appeared above the streets again. But it wasn't NYC, or the US, it was Sydney, Australia. The snake robot was so tired that it powered down the moment Harrison set foot on the ground. Luckily, there was no one around, on the streets. He checked his watch.

[12:09 am]

Midnight. They had travelled thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy three miles, within a single night!

There was debris all around the GSFER's body, and Harrison's legs were stuck in it. Carefully, he removed his legs from the debris, and started jogging towards the north.

'What a bad day!' Harrison thought to himself. 'Hmmm... I remember Luther once told me about a hotel that he owned here, in Australia. If I can find it, I may be able to spend the night here.'

Luther used to own a cheap hotel in Sydney. If Harrison could find it, about 25% of all problems in hand, would be solved. But unfortunately, he hadn't brought much money with him, and his beloved Samsung Galaxy smartphone had been crushed while fighting the GSFER. Nobody was on the streets, so he cannot just barge into someone's house and ask for a phone in the dead of the night.

So he had to find the hotel the old-fashioned way: by walking.

It was almost dawn as Harrison approached the hotel. Luther was originally a pure citizen of Australia. But he lived in New York or California, trying to buy and sell stock. The habit of the stock market had turned Luther into a stock seller than a skilled gunman.

He had bought the hotel as a piece offering to Simon Kiff, one of his best friends. The hotel was managed by Simon, but the actual owner was John Luther.

The polished granite walls had now become dull and red as bricks. The building was less used, and its reputation gradually decreased till the hotel became almost deteriorated and was now used as a public rest house.

Harrison knocked on the sunbaked wooden door.

"Yes, how may I serve you?" a waitress opened the door. "I'm sorry, there's no more room left for street beggars."

Harrison reluctantly did what he didn't want to do. He shot her. She fell to the floor, instantly; her blood dissolving with the dirt. Innocent blood was spilt. How could he have done this?

The greed of suspense, and adventure had turned him into this... this monster inside him, that he always hid from view.

Einstein was right: "One day will surely come when technology shall rule the Earth, technology including guns, robots, and machinery."

Without saying another word, he kicked her dead corpse away and examined the interiors. Bunkbeds lay side by side along the left wall. Two vacant elevators were on the right. Harrison got into one and pressed '4F' on the control panel.

When he had arrived, the elevator doors were about to open, when Garison sensed something coming. He quickly yanked the trapdoor down and ledged upwards, to the ceiling. He grasped one of the ropes that the elevator hung from. The senses were tingling a lot. Harrison kept on climbing, before he got forced upwards, towards the glass ceilings. The glass shattered on impact, but Harrison stumbled and rolled sideways, and landed on the rooftop, unharmed.

The 4th floor had been wired to a bomb, which exploded just before he could escape. Garison got back to his feet, and staggered off to the edge. He could see a platform down below, with some SUVs parked on it. If only he could bring it up to his 'level', maybe he might be able to get down to the streets.

He looked about himself for a switch or a button when something caught his eye. A family of pigeons were resting on a nest, which stood atop a short pillar. There were two holes in the pillar, as if they both were intended for keys.

He glanced at the holes and ended up putting his fingers into them. But it wasn't enough; he took a twig from the nest and inserted it into one of the holes, along with his finger. Another hole appeared inside the nest, from which emerged an egg-shaped button. He released his fingers just as he pressed the button, at the same time.

Down below, a mechanism had been triggered: the platform rose slowly upwards.

There was another pillar at the center of the platform. But this time, the button was already there. He pressed it and the platform began its decent downwards, to the street-level.

***

Everything was in utter chaos. The people were shouting, screaming, and even crying, as they ran helter-skelter for cover. All the buildings were on fire. The sky was inflamed by the heat of the entire city. The hotel was no more – just a pile of ash and dust. A moment late, and Harrison would've joined those who were the inhabitants of Luther's hotel.

Harrison checked his watch.

[4:32 am]

He quietly sprinted off towards an upside-down double-decker bus.

The glass was all broken, and everything was in a ruin. The passengers must've crawled out, as there was not a single person inside in sight. Only the driver lay dead in his seat, with blood staining the dashboard and the windshield.

From the distance, he could hear cop sirens, but there's nothing they can do about it.

He caught the sight of three students, two boys and one girl, dangling from the balcony of a 5-storeyed college. Blood was dripping onto the road.

Harrison soon began to wonder if he was the real culprit behind all this chaos and carnage.

He glanced at some of the people once. Some were crying, some were weeping, some were praying, some were running, some were just walking silently, and some were carrying banners and festoons that said : "The end is nigh!"

Harrison Garison approached a street where a serious gang war was taking place. Two groups of people, on either side of the road, were blaming each other for the disaster. They started fighting with words first, and the brawl slowly shifted from words to pebbles to gravel to debris, and finally, to dueling with guns.

He covered his head with both hands as he crawled safely onto the other side. There was a milestone that read: "MBC Hq - 1000m ahead." The nearest headquarters was 1km away from his present location. He took to it seriously, and darted forwards.

***

It was too late. The MBC Hq was nothing more than a pile of rubble, with dead bodies of the agents sticking out. Every agent in Australia was dead, including-

"No, this can't be-" Harrison was horrified to recognize one of the chief agents. "Noooo!"

No one had been spared from these bombs. But these weren't bombs, they were nuclear warheads. And Luther's hotel wasn't the only target. Several other buildings had deployed that day. Each of them activated at the same time.

Harrison Garison fell to his knees. He had lost enough, but this was way too much. He couldn't control... he... he was transforming into his other self... his monster-side.

Yet, as he did so, tinkling tears dripped from his eyes.

Only one thing was left in his mind:

Revenge