The Finale

Mr Seddon

Issue 1, Season 1

The sun arose over Leighton’s personal estate located in a Virginia woodland, completely owned by Leighton, and fitted with some of the most advanced security known to man, from automatic, heat sensing, turrets to pressure plates hidden beneath the dirt that sends signals to the security room in the main building and in the bunker located in New York City, that is able to manage all the security systems and anything that is linked to the Wi-Fi, all over a secure network of wires that run deep underground and are made of pure titanium that is coated with many layers of strong metals to prevent tampering.

The security isn’t just technological though, Leighton has a SCAR base located a few miles away that have special clearance to take off in a moment’s notice, for either a terrorist emergency or to aid the 340 strong bodyguard and mercenaries tasked with guarding the property from any outsiders that may want to snap a picture or do anything malicious. The bodyguards account for around 140 of the people guarding Leighton and the estate. The bodyguards are either guarding inside one of the 5 different buildings or following Leighton whilst the mercenaries on sight worked in thirds; one third would be resting; another would be on standby in one of the many checkpoints whilst the final third would either be on a scheduled patrol route generated by an AI system or guarding the exteriors of the buildings.

The estate was so secure that when the President, Leighton and Hamish’s (Mr Seddon’s) good friend, Mark Huntsman, that the Secret Service didn’t even require any presence on the property except the 2 personal agents that stand by him.

Leighton awoke in his deluxe, king-sized bed. He sat up on his bed before getting out, he approached his tall mirror and saw him in his cyan, silk pyjamas. He gave a yawn before making his way into the walk in wardrobe to put his tuxedo on, it was a black blazer with a pink shirt beneath it, it had a pocket with 3 pens at the top and was made out of Kevlar and over materials. His tie was white with the LXCO logo sprayed onto it.

After getting dressed, he approached his door and slipped his shiny black shoes on. He grabbed the handle of the door and turned it to open it, he walked out and stood beside Mr Seddon, who was wearing a tuxedo that was specially made for any sort of emergency that he might need to use it in order to protect Leighton.

“Good morning,” Leighton greeted before they began to walk down the private corridor with the maids pacing up and down with laundry, trying to clean everything from the LeightonX.co’s leader meets up. This is the annual event where all of the leaders and subsidiary CEO’s all meet in the Leighton estate for the night to discuss expansion plans and to get closer, basically a multi-million-dollar team-building/sleep over exercise, which went perfectly with each of the guests making plans for co-operation such as using some of Blue Star media’s new 3-D animation equipment to render in Cryptyc Games new game that’s upcoming.

They reached the end of the naturally lit, from the windows on the side of the corridor, corridor and they turned. The 2 door men, armed with pistols, saluted Leighton as he walked through the door and Hamish followed closely behind, he felt safe with Leighton taking the lead knowing this estate was impenetrable and everyone inside the building had been personally interviewed by him as well as the toughest interrogator that money could possible buy.

“What’s the plan for today?” asked Leighton as they entered the upstairs art gallery, full of antique art and many things that belong in a museum.

“No plans have been made, sir,” he formally replied whilst recalling the schedule he had to memorise at 6:30am, just before he walked around the entire estate to make sure everything was sound. Leighton nodded in reply as they left the art room and walked to grand stair case, both of the walked down it, with little rush involved.

Once at the bottom Romeo the butler stood in the stereotypical outfit with a white flannel on his bent arm and a silver plate. On the plate was a menu that was stood up and balancing majestically. “Sir” Romeo said with his deep British accent, “Your breakfast menu.” Romeo then lowered the silver plate and Leighton picked it up, as he walked across this well decorated room to the dining room, he looked down the options before picking the all-day breakfast one.

Leighton pushed the deluxe doors open and walked through to the dining hall. It was beautiful, 3 chandeliers hung from the ceiling and the table had enough space for at least 16 people to be sat on their own individual chairs, comfortably with a lot of room to themselves. When Leighton visited the estate originally, he didn’t realise the true potential of this table, until he had his first visit from the President.

Leighton sat down, Hamish also sat down at the next available seat, the waiter approached calmly. “Sir, what will you be having for breakfast?” he asked Leighton,

“I will be having an all-day breakfast, no tomatoes.” He replied before turning to Hamish, “What would you like?”

Hamish looked over to Leighton, knowing he had already had his breakfast, requested just a cup of coffee, to keep him going throughout the day. 2 waiters returned, one held the well-made and prepared all day breakfast on his tray, whilst the other had the cup of coffee Hamish had ordered. They laid their trays down in front of them and whilst Leighton dug into his breakfast, Hamish sipped his perfect cup of coffee, made with coffee beans that where all artificially grown on sight.

After the delightful breakfast, Leighton’s phone began to ring. He swiftly answered the phone call and placed it towards his head, silently thanking the waiter for the meal and placing some loose bills on the table, that he had scavenged out of his pocket.

The person on the other end of the phone was the LeightonX.co main secretary. She was clearly over worked and was scribbling something down in her fancy pansy notepad she is supplied with by the company. “Mr Sealeaf,” she said

“Speaking,” replied Leighton as he moved out of the room with Hamish,

“The President of the Toy Program, has requested that he could discuss something over a live chat,” she exclaimed,

“What time?” asked Leighton, now walking out of the building, towards the state office building. The building lay behind a wall that was nicer than the outer perimeter walls but wasn’t the best, most stunning thing out there. They arrived at the security check point, but just as Leighton was about to walk through the door, the security guard looked up and stopped him.

“Name?” he asked, barely looking up from his magazine,

“The Queen of England,” Leighton sarcastically replied, to an unexpected response,

“Okay, Mrs England.” The security guard said, “Please turn around, and come back with a clearance,” this immediately agitated Hamish, mainly because of the blatant stupidity he was showing,

“Officer what’s your name?” asked Hamish, this iconic voice instantly got him to look up from his magazine,

“Dan ‘Pickle’. Wait are you ‘the’ Mr Seddon,” the security guard said ecstatically, “Go right through, with your friend, Mrs England,” the security guard watched as they walked right through, not once recognising who ‘Mrs England’ actually was, until he receives his pay check with a ‘nice’ note attached, written in black ink on a red piece of paper.

On the other side, the stunning building stood tall and wide over the checkpoint that needs to be retrained. Both of them walked through the glass doors and to the reception, where they were proudly greeted to by the receptionist. Leighton informed that he was going to head to the ‘virtual’ meeting room, she typed something into the computer to make sure it was clear before Leighton and Hamish both walked past the reception and into the elevator. They went up to the 5th floor and walked to the white corridor. They walked passed a few doors until they arrived at the room, Leighton walked into it, Hamish stood outside after a quick look into the building and Leighton dialled up the person who wanted to talk to him and they sat down.

23 minutes later, Hamish got a bit bored of standing straight outside of the room, and strolled down the corridor, not too far away, but just to the big glass pane, overlooking the outside area, he looked outside to see that a hole was in the gate, he was instantly concerned and looked to the skid marks, leading to a black van, Dan, the security guard, approached the van, he knocked repeatedly on the back, with his hands on his holster. Hamish began to slowly head back as the door swung open and an orange cloud left the back of the van. Dan fell onto his knee caps, hands over throat, breaking his knee caps and making his face turn purple.

3 men wearing hazmat suits left, breathing from very strong ventilators. They carried LMG’s and a few other vans also arrived, they did the same thing, releasing this unknown chemical, although Hamish didn’t witness them open as he had already kicked down the door, being too impatient to be more modest about the situation and was now grabbing Leighton by the arm, rapping Leighton’s shoulders in his arms.

“Leighton, Leighton,” the man on the other side shouted as he saw his living pay check being pulled away by his top bodyguard, due to an emergency that could result in an economic crash if Leighton was killed, due to his will being so vigorous that it would result in too much money ending up in the wrong hands at the wrong time.

“What’s happening?” asked Leighton whilst Hamish slammed his hand against the fire alarm.

“Outside are hazmat men/woman, releasing an unknown bio-chemical into the atmosphere,” exclaimed Hamish whilst boarding the elevator, “the fire alarm is linked to the SCAR-14 camp, they should be sending an air evacuation unit to get you to safety,” once in the elevator, Hamish tapped the helipad button and they listened to the music playing within the elevator,

“Shouldn’t we be taking the stairs?” asked Leighton,

“No,” replied Hamish who had typed a key code and pressed his finger against the lock connected to the emergency supply bin that was in the elevator floor, it was vast with many different items, including rebreathers, 2 gas mask, enough of Leighton’s blood type to fill 3 adult bodies, and more. “The elevator is air tight, a special request I made to ensure that you would survive in this situation,” he continued whilst grabbing the gas masks and tightly fitting it on his head, before putting one on his own. Although the bio-chemical could, and likely would burn their skin and melt it, they will at least be able to contact through the encrypted communication sets with the emergency services on scene to get them help.

They arrived at the top floor, and the doors opened, Hamish stood right in front of Leighton as they walked out, and the helicopter could be seen within the distance as they looked down at the smoke quickly rising to the top of the tower. The skilled helicopter pilot looked down at the landing point, trying to land, until he received a distress notification that he was being locked onto, following protocol, of not only the unit, but also Hamish’s own requests, he immediately shot out flares and one of the agents quickly rappelled down, although he missed the actual building, grabbing hold of the side, Hamish helped him up onto the secure building.

“Good morning sir,” greeted the agent as he looked for a possible way down, other than an elevator that would be very obvious when they reach the very bottom, with the distinct ‘ding’ alerting any nosey ear in range.

“Good morning,” Leighton replied, as Hamish remained silent for the time being, instead casing around himself. “What’s the plan?” asked Leighton, who was nervous, not being a big fan of chemical-agents with unknown properties and side-affects.

“Ground units should be arriving, yes, there they are. Once they have cleared the area, the helicopter will immediately land and you will be picked up first, followed by Mr Seddon, and then I will just hook myself to the rope, to just hurry up the process.” The agent informed.

Meanwhile…

The SCAR-14 vans sirens wailed as they approached the office sector. The van had 4 people waiting in the back wearing advanced hazmat-suits and armed with weapons of different kinds. The team leader, Kian, sat the closest, to the door, facing Jim, the team’s arms man. Besides them where Kristie and John, both of which, had many duties to full fill.

They arrived and the door was opened by Kian, he looked at the gas, looked like mustard gas with some new chemical agents added. “Gas, Gas. Quick boys,” he muttered quietly to himself, something he does a lot, “an ecstasy of fumbling,” he said as he watched the employees and visitors on the floor, choking to death.

They both left the van quickly, Kian armed with his 9mm pistol and assault shotgun. Jim had his classic revolver in his holster and the LMG attached to him by a strap. The others in the van remained there, as they where quickly rushed and unequipped for the gas attack.

Kian and Jim both approached the massive hole in the wall, that had been caused by the van breaking into the compound. They breathed through the large ventilators, wired to their backs. As they emitted Co2, their window was fogged up slightly, however the lime water was able to absorb all of this. They continued to walk through the hole, tactically, they hopped over the rubble as the van drove away, to a safe distance.

“9-STAR,” Saturn, the drone operator said, using Kian’s code name, “there are 3 armed individuals in the reception area,”

“Saturn, any presence outside,” Kian replied.

“Negative,” replied Saturn, confidently,

“How many?” asked Kian as he tried to see through this misty, thick chemical agent,

“8 in total, or at least that I can see” Saturn informed, using the data from his infra-red scanner, that was able to use advanced high pitch receiving technology to send out a small burst of a high pitch frequency, and within seconds it would create a detailed 3D model of the building, by using complicated math equations to see how long it took for a burst of irritating noise, that was too high for anyone over the age of 2 to be able to hear.

“Where is Padlock?” Kian asked, using the codename for Leighton,

“Roof,” Saturn informed, “9-STAR, we have an issue,”

“Speak to me,” Kian said whilst approaching the reception area, where 3 of them rampaged through the boxes and other areas,

“The others are double timing it to the roof, they know he’s there,” Saturn said watching helplessly as the mercenaries ran up the stairs, edging closer and closer to the top floor.

“Rodger that,” said Kian before using hand signals to notify Jim to engage. Jim replied with a simplistic nod before both of them aimed at a victim and squeezed the trigger tightly, for a short time, enough time that a quick, 3 bullet burst flew out of Jim’s LMG and Kian was able to get a kill with his pistol. The remaining one turned around to see his comrades, he was horrified as he looked at the two, ominous men stood outside holding several guns. Their faded visors sunk deep into his soul and he dropped his weapon, before raising his hands, a successful attempt to not be killed by Kian and Jim, who the man could only identify by the numbers printed on the sides of their arms.

Kian walked in first, he kicked the man’s gun away and checked the nearby rooms, for any signs of human life. Jim followed quickly behind, he had a pair of zip-ties, he strung them to the man’s hands and attached them to a very conveniently placed bar. There was no time to loose. Whilst Kian and Jim ran to the elevator, noting that they would never reach the top floor in time by running up the stairs in their outfits, at the top a helicopter could be seen in the distance.

The roof SCAR-14 officer had managed to receive communications, despite the dull signal being weekend by some sort of witch craft they had deployed. However, the signal was way too weak for them to send literate communications, without the daunting risk that they would be drastically mis-heard and thus the mission might change from the typical evacuation, to a recovery of a deceased man.

The roof dwellers waited patiently, Hamish was directly besides Leighton and the SCAR-14 agent nearby. They each looked at the door, the two-gun wielding men held a cruel angle on the door way to the stairs and to the elevator.

The door to the stairs swung open. Armed men, of an uncountable number, walked out. Shots where passed on, but just as it seemed hopeless, the elevator door opened, Kian walked out, continuously pressing the trigger of his shot gun, whilst Jim squeezed tightly, their bullets, mercilessly penetrated their skin. The SCAR-14 officer peeked up, and was waved with a sigh of relief. He stood up and approached Kian, before saluting his commanding officer.

Hamish also got up, weary at the men who he was clueless of identity, due to his flaw in which he can’t memorize pages, upon pages of the different codes, names and positions within rankings of all units within the company.

The helicopter landed smoothly, with the thick smoke beneath. The co-pilot jumped out and opened the back, sliding door to the helicopter, out came the leader of bio-chemicals from Leighton laboratories worldwide. Whilst the man began to take pictures of the gas, Hamish directed Leighton into the helicopter with Kian. He also hopped in as the propelled air vehicle took off and into the sun set…

Epilogue

The crowd of reporters buzzed like thirst bees. They scrambled to ask every question imaginable as Leighton stood on the podium and spoke into the microphone:

“Today, early in the morning, my estate was attacked. It was attacked by a foe, known not to man, but to the very fear it creates within the laboratories. The gas used to attack me is unknown in every sense of the word, but what we do know is, that I was targeted by terrorists. Some may call them mercenaries, striving for money, but at least, most of them have some sense of care for the endangerment of civilian life. This is why, I am now spending £12 billion in order to catch these criminals. Thank you, the full, scientific report will be released soon, after the transport of the samples to the US Government, for testing.”

Leighton walked off, into his hive of security.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 29.03.2020

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