1 Adrian, Go!!

Saturday, June 23, 2012. Military convoy en-route to Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, Rome.

An armored convoy consisting of four armored vehicles and a black Mercedes Benz G-wagon were en route to a secret airstrip belonging to the US government.

"Alright, men. Mission briefing." Colonel Floyd, a well built man in his late thirties spoke into his satphone, addressing the soldiers in the other vehicles.

"In the primary vehicle is the CEO of Alexis Genetics, Dr. Cedric Hector Alexander and his son, Adrian Victor Alexander. Our mission here's simple.

In about ten minutes, we'll be turning left onto a dirt road. That road takes us directly to the private airstrip owned by the US government. There, we just have to escort them to the private plane that will take him out of the country. Let me hear your questions. Over. " He said and ended the briefing.

"Sir! Dean here. With all due respect, why are we doing this? I thought he couldn't be hurt here in Rome. Over." A lanky soldier named Dean, asked.

"Good question, Dean. Frankly, I thought so too but in the past two months, there were two murder attempts targeted at him, one of which led to the death of his wife, Dr. Mrs. Florence Alexander. Strangely no tracks were found as they have been expertly wiped from existence. We deduced that these attacks aren't coordinated by the locals here.

Mr. Cedric here is a very important asset to the United States and we can't keep him here anymore. He has to leave this country in order to remain safe. Do you understand, Dean? Over."

" Understood , sir." Dean replied.

About five minutes later, the convoy turned onto a dirt road as the Colonel said and kept going. About five minutes later, the convoy stopped." What's the matter, private?" Cedric asked the soldier who was driving the vehicle he was in. "There's a roadblock up ahead, sir." "A roadblock?" Cedric asked with wide eyes. There wasn't any roadblock there yesterday.

" Vehicle one. Check it out." The Colonel said.

" Yes, sir." A soldier replied and climbed out of the military truck, clutching his M4 and gently caressing the trigger. In the Mercedes, Cedric held tighter to the briefcase containing the cannister of the unknown serum cuffed to his left hand and Adrian in his right. Adrian noticed his dad was slightly trembling which also gave him the chills.

"Dad, is something wrong?" Adrian asked, worry showing in his voice.

"There weren't any roadblocks here yesterday, son. Something's wrong here."

At that moment, vehicle one blew up and flew few feet in the air before landing on the vehicle behind it, crushing them both and killing the soldiers in both vehicles. The other soldiers immediately readied themselves for hostiles but it proved futile because shots came from the bushes at both sides of the road, annihilating all the soldiers and vehicles. When the hidden shooters were sure they had eliminated all soldiers, they jumped out from their hiding places in the thickets, positioned themselves in front and behind the bulletproof Mercedes Benz and opened fire.

Inside the vehicle, Cedric, Adrian and their driver, Ivan, all ducked at the backseat of the car during the bullet rain.

"Listen, Adrian," Cedric said while undoing the cuff and opening the briefcase using the passcode. "I'm going to inject you with this liquid. If these guys get their hands on it, it's game over for the whole world." He said all this while hastily filling up a syringe with the strange solution. "Do you trust me?" Cedric asked while stretching his hand towards Adrian.

Adrian knew this was a tough decision for his dad to make and he had no choice but to do it. He had firm and unrivalled trust in his father because of how he handled his wife's demise.

Other men could have resorted to drinking and gambling and in some cases, womanizing to ease the pain, but Cedric mourned Florence's loss for a few months and came back to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of Adrian.

That was enough to buy his trust.

Adrian nodded positively and held out his right arm. His dad quickly found a blood vessel and emptied the whole cannister into his body. Surprisingly for Cedric, Adrian's body had no reaction to the liquid. When he was done, he tore a piece of his clothing and used it to dab Adrian's puncture when blood began trickling out.

After he stopped the blood from trickling out, the wound healed itself in seconds. At that moment, one bullet made it through the front windshield glass and went straight to the back, startling the group.

"Ivan. On three, open the door to the right and we all run into the thickets, alright?" Cedric said, turning to Ivan who was close to the door.

"But sir, they'll see us."

"Not in this bullet hail, they won't."

Cedric counted to three and Ivan slowly opened the mutilated door and rushed out first unnoticed. Cedric then lifted Adrian in his arms and ran out too. Unfortunately, his blonde hair have him away as one of the shooters spotted him and alerted the others, who immediately began chasing them.

Cedric kept running from the chasers, who released shots on seeing anyone of them. Unluckily for Ivan, he was shot clean between the eyebrows. Cedric ignored him because he had to make sure he and Adrian could at least keep their lives. He just kept running without any idea of where he was going.

Slowly he began hearing the faint roar of a waterfall, which was increasing slowly as he kept going in that direction. This was good news for him, as he and Adrian were pro swimmers. On getting close to the cliff that led to the river where the waterfall would flow into, he felt a searing pain in his right leg that made him to fall, together with his son. He looked back and saw his foot got inside an exposed tree root and he twisted his ankle when his leg got inside.

Adrian, who fell forward a few meters when his dad dropped him, quickly rushed back to him. "Dad what's wrong?" "I broke my leg." He said and stared at his twisted ankle. "Come on. Let me help you up." Adrian said and tried to help his dad up when they heard some voices.

"This way. I heard voices."

"Adrian, Go!! Leave me here. If they get you, they've gotten everything they want. You have to leave me here. I promise you, we'll meet again, son." Adrian's voice was already choked with his crying.

"No, dad. I can't let you leave me. You can't leave me. Mom already did."

" Adrian, I always keep my promises, don't I? We'll meet again, I promise. I love you, son." Cedric said as he fought back tears welling in his eyes.

"I love you too, dad." Adrian replied. On hearing his pursuers voices, he ran over the cliff and dove into the water below. But unknown to him, the cliff was higher than he thought and the force with which he hit the water passed him out. After floating for a while, the water current began carrying him in a certain direction.

Meanwhile, Cedric passed out due to the excess pain. The pursuers found him with a bleeding ankle and molecules of a greenish yellow substance on his left thumb. "Hmm. He must have ingested it. Let's take him to the lab." The leader of the shooters said, lifted Cedric atop his shoulders with little to no effort and returned back to the road.