Takeover || (Completed)

Exposition

Caryna looked at Daniel, still petrified by the mangled mess of flesh that was Daniel's face, but remained silent. Daniel waited a moment before continuing, his forced speech impediment stretching out all his s's.

"My s- story began after Luke threw me off the boat," said Daniel slowly, his voice filled with malice, "I got s- sucked into the boat rotors, shredding my legs and face. One of the people onboard cared to me, preventing me from dying. I had to get multiple skin-grafts and prosthetic legs. I was so close to death on the boat, and it was all because of Luke. Well, he's dead now."

"How do you know that?" interrupted Caryna. Although it had been a few days since Luke's death, she hadn't expected for it to be publicly announced yet. Just to be sure, Caryna took out her phone and went onto google while Daniel continued to talk.

"I stayed under the radar while I tried to recover from my injuries and Luke was completely unaware of my continued existence. What I didn't tell Luke before we left to Tristan was that I had an extra half a million on one of my bank accounts; at the time, I was still suspicious of Luke. I used that money to recover and plot my revenge. Eventually, I had gained enough power to take Luke hostage and kill him. Killing him straight away would have been no fun, so I kept him around to be tortured. Unfortunately, you managed to rescue him before I could put a bullet through his brains. So, I began to concoct another plan. Obviously, it took quite a while to put together but we got there eventually. That plan was to use one of Luke's old friends, George, as bait to get him to a location where he was vulnerable. I picked an abandoned apartment block, cleaned up one of the apartments and set this plan in motion. As you know, it worked."

"So you're the reason Luke's dead?" exclaimed Caryna in rage, "you tried to kill me? Wow, you are a piece of shit."

Caryna pulled out one of the guns that she had kept on her after escaping the van and pointed it at Daniel's forehead.

"Go ahead," said Daniel confidently, "but just know that there are five snipers outside who can easily kill you if you fire a shot against me. Even better, I've got all of your friends trapped upstairs, linked to a bomb. You shoot me, and everyone here dies. I suggest you put the gun down and listen to what I have to say."

Shit, thought Caryna, I've been outsmarted. Reluctantly, she threw the gun behind her and it bounced around on the floor.

"Good," said Daniel confidently, evidently controlling the situation, "what's going to happen is that you are going to give me the role of leader of this empire that Luke has taken over for me. Okay? That is unless you want to be blown to smithereens by the bomb upstairs. I'll give you some time to think it through, but I want an answer by tomorrow."

And with that, Daniel slowly hobbled out of the room with his cane and slammed the door behind him. Caryna looked out onto the grass field that the conservatory observed to try and see where the snipers were hiding. Didn't one of Praevalens have a thermal scanner? Thought Caryna, jumping out of her seat to scavenge the drawers of the manor. Bingo, she thought as she opened the top drawer in Jacob's room. She ran back to the conservatory as she fired up the app and aimed the camera at the field. Nothing. Apart from a few red spots which probably signified small animals, there was nothing that resembled a human. She ran back upstairs and searched through all of the rooms to see where the people were being held. After seeing the first room, however, Caryna realised that Daniel had been calling her bluff. Everyone was safe and sleeping in their beds and Daniel had left in the SUV that Caryna had arrived in.

Daniel arrived the next morning at 8:30 AM, hobbling into the room, leaning on his jewelled cane. He stood in the doorframe and shouted into the manor, "your time is up, Jones." Okay, thought Caryna, let's hope this works. She put on her clothes and walked down to the entrance of the manor, where Daniel was patiently waiting.

"Hello Daniel," said Caryna, inviting Daniel further into the house.

"It's a pleasure to see you," replied Daniel unenthusiastically as he hobbled into the living room. He sat on the sofa while Caryna made some tea. Once Caryna came back with two steaming mugs of tea, Daniel began to monologue.

"You know," said Daniel, seemingly reminiscing, "I came up with all this when I was 15. My parents were still alive and I had been expelled from my school for constant harassment of another student. I was so pissed off at the school, mainly because they didn't believe my justification for the incident. I knew that I would probably end up working some manual labour job like construction, which is what actually happened. But I realised that I didn't want that. Everyone wants to be noticed in their life in some way, shape or form, and I was no exception. However, I was different. I wanted to do something no-one had ever done before. I wanted to,"

"Take over the world," finished Caryna quickly.

"Yes," replied Daniel, annoyed that Caryna had interrupted him, "I couldn't act it out with at least a few accomplices, so I focused my life around that. That one main goal. And that basically brings us up to speed. In the meantime, however, what will your choice be?"

"You think you're so smart," said Caryna mockingly, "you come to me, expecting me to bow down to your deformed ass and give over a throne that I deserved. You even lied to stop me from killing you. But oh, how the tables have turned. Your dumbass didn't realize that I have put a solution containing gold-encased cyanide balls into your drink. I got the idea from an Alex Rider book. At the press of a button, I can kill you. So either you get the hell out of here, or I will murder you. And don't even try to blackmail me with the presence of snipers, I checked for them when I was in the kitchen. Plus, you wouldn't have enough time to set my friends up to a bomb so they're not in danger. Basically, get out of my house."

"How can I tell you're not lying," replied Daniel confidently.

"Try me," said Caryna quickly in response.

Daniel, after many moments of intense debate with himself, obliged to Caryna's will and hobbled out of the house just as he had come in. Caryna sighed a huge sigh of relief the moment Daniel left the manor. I can finally rest, she thought to herself as she laid back on the sofa, I mean I still have to defeat Germany, but life will be easier.