Questions for Answers

Chapter Twenty Three

39 years earlier, 1982...

Michael, Richard's father, was involved in several underground, illegal affairs. As a young teen, Richard had no choice but to work for him. During his time working with his father, Richard was an accomplice in the shady dealings Michael had done and would even have his loyalty tested by the people his father employed. It wasn't until Richard reached the age of seventeen that he became fully initiated after accidentally taking someone's life.

In doing so, Michael trusted Richard to handle more serious jobs, so he employed him full-time. Richard was forced to drop out of high school and work closely alongside his father. Just three years later, at twenty years old, Michael had given a big job to his son. Richard was to take out Elijah Bowers, one of Michael's biggest competitors, at a famous auction and wipe out the remainder of his crew before anyone from the opposing side could figure out who attacked them.

Michael grabbed Richard by the shoulder when he saw that his son looked nervous, "Hey, what's the matter with you, you good? This'll be easy. Once we get rid of him, we'll be smooth sailing. We just gotta make it to the auction in time. Mostly everything is already set up, we just need you to do your part once you're given the go-ahead."

Richard nodded, "Yeah, I got it."

He slapped the back of his head, "Now come on and help us load the trucks."

Richard brushed it off and helped load several trucks with guns, explosives, helmets, vests, gas masks, and a few other gadgets. Once they were finished, he hopped in one of the trucks, where his parents were, while the rest of the crew followed closely behind as they drove to the auction. Before turning into the parking lot, Michael pulled out his walkie-talkie and communicated with the other guys, "Let's pull up to the back so no one sees these trucks. And space them out."

"Roger that", they said in response as they did what they were told.

As everyone exited their vehicles, they headed toward the entrance and made their way through security. Each of them was patted down and passed through a metal detector to make sure no one was carrying anything on them. Once they were cleared, they were directed to sign in with the staff to ensure their names were on the guest list. They each flashed their fake IDs to get through and were let in shortly after.

Michael told Richard to split off from him as he pointed, "You need to be close to the stage so you can exit out the side door when it's time. You hear me?"

Richard snapped out of his mind, "Yeah, I hear you."

Michael sighed and dug his hand into his shoulder as he pulled him closer to whisper, "Don't mess this up."

Richard pulled away and gave his father a mean glare, but didn't talk back. He listened to him and sat near the exit that was close to the stage. All of the other men spread out in the auditorium as well so they wouldn't be clumped in one area, but Michael and Dianna, his wife, sat together.

As the room began to fill, and the auction about to commence, one of the men from Michael's crew, Jeremey, got up and discreetly walked out to do his job. He managed to gain access to the control room, killing the two guards that were inside. As he looked around, he noticed the vent up above and unscrewed it with a coin he'd been holding on to. Once he got it open, he removed the fire extinguisher that had been hanging on the wall and began tweaking it.

With his own powders and chemicals he snuck in, he was able to concoct a poisonous gas and spray it through the ventilation system. Since it was limited, it was only enough to knock out the security who stood at the front. That's all he needed though, since he just wanted to make sure that they wouldn't be able to notify the police or interfere once all the commotion had started. After he confirmed they were down from looking through the cameras, he hacked the footage to put it on a continuous loop, locked the door behind him, returned to his seat in the auditorium, and let Michael know that he was done.