Operation 499

Prologue

3 Years Ago

Knock, knock, knock.

A small scrawny boy pounded his tiny fist against the towering oak door that stood in front of him. He was nervous, but he tried his best to maintain his confident posture. As he opened the door, he took a deep breath to calm himself. Almost right away his nostrils were engulfed with the scent of vanilla mixed with a slight tint of rose. And what was that other smell? "Was that blood?" The boy thought to himself.

"It better be something good, Stevie." A voice from behind the door boomed.

The boy, named Stevie, stopped for just a second to collect his thoughts. He then wrapped his long slender fingers around the silver door handle, immediately shivering at the cold metal underneath his fingertips. He then pulled back having to use all his strength to open the thick heavy door. He took 2 small steps inside the dimly lit room, keeping the door help open with all his might. He then took his arm off the door, causing it to swing shut with a boom, startling Stevie. He slowly looked up.

"S-Sir, we have a problem," Stevie responded in a meager voice. If anyone had been around, they would have been able to practically smell the fear radiating off of the boy.

"Well what is it?" the man questioned, clearly annoyed.

"U-umm s-someone"

"Spit it out Stevie!" the man boomed, his patience dwindling by the second.

"Sir, S-someone unidentified has been seen on the camera system sneaking around HQ."

"Impossible, no one can get in without an ID." the man spoke angrily, while slowly getting up from his big black metal chair.

"I'm sorry but I'm sure i-its true, Dad," Stevie responded, taking a step back in fear.

"Our plan has been going so well and someone has to come and try and ruin it for us. Will Step one of Operation 499 still be ready to go in a week?" Stevie's dad said slowly, each sentence raising his voice feeling the rage bottle up inside of him.

"I'm sure of it dad," Stevie responded, somehow a little more confident than before.

"You know how important this project is to me, right son?"

"Yes of course father," Stevie replied immediately to his father.

"Good. Operation 499 will be the one to end all of my operations and bring our family fame."  His father stated, then took a deep breath to calm himself. "So, where is he?" his father stated blankly.

"Who?" Stevie responded, clearly confused.

"Well, the intruder of course. Who else would I be talking about?" his father raged. He could feel the anger boiling up inside of him. Only workers were allowed in HQ, besides him of course.

"Hasn't b-been found yet, dad," Stevie responded with his newfound confidence slowly slipping away.

Stevie's father slowly raised his hand to his nose and pinched the bridge of it. He scrunched his eyes close in deep thought.

Stevie looked around the room to his left were 3 large mahogany bookshelves lined up against the wall, all filled to the brim with books of different sizes and colors. To the right was almost a mirror image of his left. The lighting was low giving Stevie no way to read the titles of any of the books.

He then looked to the ground trying anything to avoid looking at his father. Under his feet was a thick brown shaggy rug that covered the whole floor. It looked soft to the touch, but Stevie could feel nothing through his leather dress shoes.