Introduction- Part Four

"Tell him to set the bomb. It's going to kill everybody in that mansion. Everything will be destroyed by the time the SWAT gets down there. Boss' order." Pablo completed the statement after the abrupt pause and Brock was thrown into a state of utter bewilderment on hearing just how cruel his boss could be in a bid to cover up his tracks. This was the height of it all. Killing numerous people at once just because you don't want them to get caught. Selfish cruelty.

"But what about the diamond? Doing that will kill everyone and destroy the diamond as well. Everything we've been working for will be turned to ashes. Literally." 

"You think that boss isn't aware of that? He was the one that told me to call you so you should know he has thought this through and arrived at a conclusion which is to blow up the damn mansion. So just call James and have him do as instructed, do you hear me?" 

"Yes." Brock replied with a tone that lacked vigor and spirit. His mind was spinning fast. Approximately thirty people were going to be killed at one go and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He wouldn't dare defy his boss' order or else HE'D be blown into bits. He wasn't happy doing this but he had to.

   Pablo hung up and after the dial tone, Brock sighed bitterly and shook his head then with shaky hands placed a call across to James.

"James. Do you hear me?" Brock asked after James picked up the call.

"Yes, I do. What happened? Why are you calling."

"Boss said we should abort the mission."

"What? Why! We've gotten Williamson and we're pressuring him to tell us where the diamond is but he won't budge. He will soon though and we'd be out in a few minutes." James explained to Brock. 

"It doesn't matter. We have to abort the mission. The SWAT team are on their way here and we need to leave immediately." 

"What!?" James yelled. "Okay, let me inform the others." James added in a more calmer tone.

"Hey Guys Brock said-"

"Shut up James. Did I tell you to inform anyone?" Brock rebuked James and he swallowed his words. The other two rogues with James stared at him blankly waiting for him to announce what Brock had told him to but James had shut his mouth, like he was asked too.

"Brock said what?" One of the rogues asked James and he shook his head lightly telling off the rogue. 

"It's nothing." James denied and the rogue shrugged. 

"Okay, so if I don't inform them how will we be able to evacuate the building before the rogues arrive huh?" James asked returning to the phone conversation with a raised tone. 

"We don't have enough time on our hands. Before you guys leave the mansion, settle in the vans and drive a far distance, the SWAT team must've gotten to us. Boss doesn't want that to happen, it'll spell big trouble for him." 

"Okay, okay. So what do you want us or me to do?" James asked.

"Blow up the place." Brock said with a broken voice then he closed his eyes and cringed

"Wh-What!?" James yelled in shock not believing his ears. 

"I said, blow up the fucking place!" 

"I can't do that!" James strongly opposed.

"You have to do it, James. You have a freaking time bomb so just set the damn thing and blow the place up." Brock fired with a furious voice. James was opposing the order and that was wasting time, precious valuable time that they didn't have. But who wouldn't? Who wouldn't oppose such a thing like this? It was just voluntarily suicide. Suicide bombing, killing yourself and others too just because you're working for some selfish asshole.

"But that means- that means killing myself, the rest of the gang, the Williamson and his stupid family with the diamond too. That's insane Brock. All we've labored for? Blown into bits?" 

"That's what Costello instructed and we dare not oppose, you should know that. We knew what was involved when we took this job. You just have to do it." Brock replied, the intenstity of his voice had dropped as if to soothe James and a kind of apology for raising his voice at him. 

"I can't do it Brock. I can't."

"Let me tell you something James. If you don't blow this mansion up right now and by any chance this whole operation is traced down to boss, he won't use a gun to shoot you to death. No, he won't. He will kill you but in a slow and painful way. In such a way that you will regret ever disobeying his others. So it's up to you now to choose your mode of death. Blown up to bits or a slow and unimaginable painful death." Brock said and James was placed into a state of dilemma. Brock wasn't lying, James knew exactly what his boss was capable of. It was now clear that it was James' fate to die, but destiny was kind enough to have him choose the way he'd die. Generous.

"Okay. I'll do it." James reluctantly agreed with a shaky voice. A stream of tear ran down his left eye as his twenty-nine years of life flashed through his eyes. He remembered his dear mother who was going to take the news of her son's passing brutally. She might even have a stroke or heart attack. Sigh.

"Good decision." 

"Yeah."

"And one more thing James."

"Yeah?"

"I love you man." 

"I love you too bro." James sniffled and Brock ended the call. James then wiped the tear off his face and sneaked away from his comrades' presence to the back on the staircase. He unzipped his leather jacket and brought out the bomb, about the size of a fist from one of it's pockets. He set the bomb to five minutes because that was the minimum time it could be set too. He sighed then leaned on the wall and slowly lowered himself to the ground then buried his head inside his palms, reflecting and pondering.

    Unknowing to James, Jackson, one of Fernando's sons who was fleeing from the West Hall after loosing track of Beatrice and her son, was coming down the stairs and had seen everything. Jackson knew had to do something. But what?

    

    Outside the mansion, after Brock had dropped the call, he shook his head bitterly one more time before sliding the phone into his pocket.

    

"So he's really going to blow up the place?" One of his assistants asked Brock and he nodded in affirmation.

"Yes and we need to leave this vicinity immediately." Brock answered and got up from the seat then made his way to the driver's seat. He switched on the ignition, stepped on the acceleration pad and speedingly drove away.

    Inside the mansion, The rogue who had held Williamson was still threatening him with a gun to tell the whereabouts of the diamond while Williamson, who was slowly loosing strength continued to struggle. The other rogue still held Sapphire in place while she struggled and wiggled to get free, begging and crying to them to release she and her daddy. Jackson had heard the commotion going on there and decided to go be off help, he could help Williamson and his daughter escape. 

    

"Tell us now!" The rogue with a gun yelled at Williamson.

"I said never." Williamson emphasized then in a swift motion grabbed the rogue's gun and the rogue instantaneously let go off him. The two men were now dragging for the gun. Thug of war. Until, the rogue who was holding the butt side of the gun mistakenly held down the trigger and it fired a shot into Williamson's stomach. Williamson groaned and immediately held his stomach which was oozing out blood profusely as he slowly fell to the ground. 

"Daddy!!" Sapphire yelled in pains as the bullet was fired at her father. She watched in tears as her father slowly fell to the ground, holding his stomach and his eyes scarily wide open. 

    Jackson brought out a gun he had taken from one of the rogues at the West Wing and shot down the rogue who killed Williamson and also fired another at the rogue holding down Sapphire. Jackson put the gun into his pocket and ran to meet Sapphire who was crying uncontrollably.

    

"Stop crying Sapphire." Jackson tried to calm down the child but it just increased her tears. Jackson then knelt down to her height and wiped her tears gently.

"I'm sorry Sapphire, you've been through a lot tonight. Everything is going to be okay, trust me. But right now, we need to get out of here. There's a bomb here and it's going to explode soon. It's going to kill us if we don't leave so we have to go now." Jackson explained to the child and her eyes widened when she heard about the bomb. She nodded in affirmation, that she was going to run for her dear life with Jackson.

"Let's go. Quickly." Jackson said and rose to his feet taking Sapphire's hand then they began to run.

At this point, the bomb had three minutes to explode. It would be a miracle if the duo escapes the mansion.

    As the duo ran down the stairs and hallways, Sapphire tried her best not to cry and be strong. She had to escape alive for her father's sake. 

    

The duo made it to the main exit with time to spare but then a rogue jumped out of the shadows and startled the young children.

"Where do you think you're going?" The rogue asked with a smirk on his face, his parted lips giving room to showcase his silver dentures.

"Pretty necklace." The rogue said and yanked the necklace off Sapphire's neck and she winced and clutched her now bare chest.

"My neck chain! My father said I shouldn't give it to anyone." Sapphire said to the rogue and tried to collect the necklace from him.

"Sapphire you have to leave this mansion now. We don't have much time." Jackson said to Sapphire encouraging her to leave while the rogue was distracted by the necklace.

"But my neck chain." 

"Your life is more important than this neck chain Sapphire. Now get out! I'll stay behind and get your necklace." Jackson assured the child.

"But the bomb." The child cooed.

"Don't worry about that bomb. I'll be alright." Jackson assured the child with a smile. He knew he wasn't going to make it but it was worth the shot. He had to save the necklace, if he father instructed her not to give it to anyone then it must be important. 

"Bomb?" The rogue questioned in fear with a shocked and puzzled demeanor on his face.

"Yes. Bomb." Jackson said and punched the rogue. He would've shot the rogue down but the gun he had was out of ammo. He had to do this thing hard way.

"Get out of here Sapphire. Go! I'll get your necklace for you." Jackson urged Sapphire as the fight between he and the rogue began, they had started throwing punches and kicks at each other. Sapphire nodded and turned to leave, opening the door and running as fast as her two scrawny legs could carry her.

Sapphire successfully made it out of the mansion and a bit further, into the safe zone. Where the explosion's impact would not kill her. It may probably injure her but at least not death.

At this point, it was less than a minute before the bomb blows the place up.

    Sapphire stopped to catch her breath, panting heavily. She then looked up, at the last floor of the mansion. There she saw a female, holding a baby in her hand peeping through the window. It was hard to recognize who it was at first because of the distance but after squinting her eyes a bit and recognizing the silhouette of a flower petalled dress, instantly she recognized it was her mother.

    

"Mother!" She called out. But her mother couldn't hear her or maybe even see her. She was tempted to go back in and save her or die with her. She couldn't leave her mother. A fresh fog of tears formed in her eyes as she stared at her mother. To her surprise, the woman waved at her child through the window then turned around and left. Sapphire was still trying to wrap her head around her mother's action when she heard her name.

"Sapphire! Catch!" It was Jackson. He had successful ran out of the mansion's main gate and was running towards her. He had the neck chain in his hand and he tossed it to her with all his might since he was still a bit far from her. Sapphire leaped and caught the neck chain and just then, a loud explosion was heard and the mansion went up in flames, a loud eruption of flames and black smoke. Thick smoke covered the mansion and it's surrounding.

    The impact of the explosion threw Sapphire off the ground and she fell to the ground. Her eyes were closed, the hand she used to enclose the neck chain was open exposing the golden jewelry and she had fallen into an unconscious state. Could she be dead?

    

What about Jackson?

What happened to him?