At Gun Point

~08~

The thought of the information in the hard drive of the laptop dawned on me. If the cops were to reach here soon I will lost it,so I had to act fast. I knew it will take them thirty minutes or so to reach here from the capital,aerially. There was also time for preparation. So maybe in an hours' time they were to reach here.

I looked for the briefcase and saw it lying above the lying head of Melinda together with the black plastic bag containing the gadgets. I didn't want to disturb her,she deserved to sleep. I took an army jacket belonging to one of the guards which was hanging on the crates of cocaine, and placed it carefully on her. I also touched the chest of the white man,he was breathing and was now calm due to sleep.

I left them. Took the briefcase,the black plastic bag and rushed up the ladder,out into the room that led to the shopping malls' main room. The steel door was open a little bit. There was a great deal of smoke and some small fires in some places. The smoke was choking me so I was hurrying to get out. Upon entering the main room, the shelves and their contents were burnt down. It was a mess.
I then heard voices outside. Fear caught me and remembered I had a pistol at my back. I took it and made it ready to fire at any hostile figure. I walked stealthily towards the foyer. Once there,I lowered my weapon since I realised they were the fire brigade guys and some villagers from the near by farms.

Each one was relating what he or she has heard or see happening here. You know what people do when something has happened. They talk too much and even exaggerate to make it interesting. I heard some women crying,calling some names. I listened intently to what they were saying. One woman was telling a small group of people that her husband was forcibly taken from their farm by some strangers. When she went to the local police station to report the incident, they dismissed her.
I then realised I had made the right decision not to call them directly. They would have come and cause more harm than good. Why didn't I hear them coming?Maybe I was absorbed in my thoughts or the noise of the injured men and the fire burning property made it impossible. The urge to tell them the exact truth came upon me,but because I had an urgent and intrinsic task to carryout,I didn't bother. I decided to stay out of their way. That was best for business.

I quietly walked towards the left parking lot to where I have left my truck. Nobody seemed to notice me for they all were busy listening to each other. I staggered towards my truck, briefcase and the plastic bag in my right hand and the pistol in my left ,in case someone was hiding at the back of my truck. Upon reaching it,I discovered that the drivers door was hit several times in different places and part of the wind screen was shattered. The handle was dented. Someone was trying to get in and steal the car but wasn't successful. I had the keys so I unlocked it and struggled to open the driver's door.

I then quickly pulled the laptop out and put it on. It had a log in password. This wasn't a problem since I'm a computer geek. I opened it the other way round,using a trick up my sleeve. Upon opening it,I took a two terabyte external hard drive that was on my dash board,plugged it on one of the USB ports and started to copy all the things in the internal hard drive.

When it was about twenty five percent copying,I heard the sound of a vehicle with a whistling siren approaching from the road that led to the city. They were the local healthcare workers who had arrived. In a few minutes I saw the car veering the corner heading towards the mall,with a red light flickering on top of it. It looked more like a van.
My eyes were glued on the computer's monitor,silently begging it to hurry. It was taking its time downloading,some of the contents were movies,videos and music. I needed it all,everything. I had a feeling that the contents of the hard drive were going to answer most of my unanswered questions.

FROM THE AUTHOR:Thank you for reading!If you have enjoyed the story,please remember to vote and feel free to comment below. Note:All comments,good/bad,are also very welcome. I'd really like to know what you think.It would mean a lot to me as a budding writer, and may help my career.

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