3 Chapter Three

Six year old Peril and her dad cuddled on the couch with a blanket covering their feet watching an action movie.

It was in the middle of the night. The only sounds that could be heard out of the house was birds and insects chirping in the dark.

Inside the house however the story was different. The speakers of the television boomed whenever the hero bombed or shot the villains while father and daughter watched quietly but with a lot of enthusiasm.

The mother of  the house was in the master bedroom, sleeping peacefully and snoring softly. It was either from the tiredness of a whole day of home chores or she was not as enthusiastic as the two when it came to watching action films.

"Dad, why does our hero wear a mask?" Little Peril asked  in between, clearly confused.

"For his own safety and the safety of his family." Her dad answered simply with his eyes still glued on the screen.

"But the government can help him, right? He is also helping the government by taking out the bad guys." Little Peril argued looking at her father.

"My daughter, you can trust no one but yourself. Even the government can betray our hero to the criminals for a bargain of peace." Her father replied now looking at her.

Little Peril did not understand whatever his father said. She opened her mouth to argue but decided against it. After all they still had a movie to finish watching.

"You still have a lot to learn baby girl." Her father chuckled, looking back to the screen.

***

Peril lay silently in the bed as her ears strained themselves to hear anything suspicious or unusual.

She had been awake for thirty seconds now but due to her training, she was not supposed to open her eyes until she was sure that there was no threat looming.

You must think and act smart, the voice of her trainer lingered in her head as she opened her eyes satisfied that she was safe.

She had woken up a minute to 4am. In any minute now her alarm would go off. Sometimes she wondered why she even has an alarm clock in the first place.

Heading to her wardrobe, she picked up one of her many sports bra and pants and headed to her training room but not before switching off the alarm clock and stopped the annoying beep.

The training room was the biggest in the whole house. It contained everything that she needed. From punching bags to weight lifts to treadmill.

Wasting no time, she was on the treadmill. She started by jogging for some five minutes  and then adjusted the machine to her full speed.

The rush of adrenaline through her body was one of her favourite things. The way her heart sped up trying to match the steps of her legs and the way her attire cling to her body with sweat.

The feeling of passing out was what made her reduce her speed to a later stop.

And that was an hour later.

After that Peril went to weight lifting. She gave each of them her attention, starting from the lightest to the heaviest. Both her arms and feet lifted the weights, as a pair and singly too.

Peril watched the way her muscles moved with each weight lift. With every lift she inhaled and exhaled while putting it down.

When she was satisfied that every  one of the lifts was accounted for, she went to the punching bag.

Peril never bothered to wear gloves. She loved the feel at her knuckles as she threw punch after punch at the bag which in her mind was the enemy.

Who wears gloves in real fights anyway?

With every punch her mind drifted to the vigorous training for fifteen years.

Her trainers were the harshest, meanest and terrifying people she had ever come across. They treated her as a leeway to all their frustrations and anger and she sometimes acted as their punching bag.

Never even once did Peril complain. She took it all in like an obedient dog and it's master.

Everyday she trained to be better, stronger, faster and tougher. With every challenge she struggled until she could find a solution.

One day she finally defeated all her trainers in a duel.

She did not stop there though. She pushed herself harder. She improvised her skills and tactics to make herself unpredictable.

All this she did for the sole purpose of revenge.

Revenge against the human traffickers that had kidnapped her at the age of eight years from her home, taken one of her organs, and if that was not enough, they killed her parents.

Thanks to Mr. Storm and the secret agency for ambushing one of the human trafficker's hide outs one day and luckily saving Peril.

When she taken in Peril was too traumatized to even remember her name let alone her family. How else would an eight year old kid react after all the she went through?

Peril was then put into training while Mr. Storm was looking for her parents. A year later, Mr. Storm broke to her the news that the traffickers had killed her parents.

Peril did cry even an ounce. The only difference was seen in her level of training. Since then she trained for a purpose.

Revenge.

Mr. Storm then named her Peril for the fire he saw in her eyes.

The sound of pouring soil brought her back from the deep thoughts. She had punched the bag so much and so hard that it was now torn and the inner content were pouring out easily.

I guess i got carried away a little bit. She thought.

Her knuckles were now numb and bloodied. Her shoulders were hurting a little too but not that much.

She was used to this.

It was not the first time and neither will it be the last.

Deciding that the training was enough for the day, Peril left the room and went straight to the bathroom.

A warm bath was always the best after such training. The bathroom was the only place she could relax. It was the only place she made use of her girl time.

But even then, she never let her guard down. Not only were here ears on high alert but her instincts too.

Her ears picked on the distant vibration of her phone. Someone was calling her and since she had no friends or family, there was only one person that could call her.

Mr. Storm.

Finishing her bath earlier than expected, Peril went back to her room in a towel and quickly accepted the call before it was disconnected.

"Come to my office ASAP. David has something." The serious voice of Mr. Storm boomed on the speaker and without waiting for a reply the call was disconnected.

Twenty minutes later, Peril opened the door to Mr. Storm's office without knocking as usual though this time she was welcomed by two sets of eyes.

Mr. Storm was sitting on his usual chair on the other side of the table looking slightly pissed at his companion.

The next set of eyes belonged to David. Well, it was an eye since the other one was temporarily shut. He was on a wheelchair with a couple of bandages all over his body. He looked... worried.

"Thank you for responding very fast under short notice." David mumbled sarcastically.

"David here said he had an urgent information but he can't spill it out without you in the room." Storm said angrily looking at David.

Oh, that's why he is furious. She thought.

"Talk." Peril said loudly making it come out as a command.

"They have my wife." David dropped the bomb.

"Yeah, you already told me that." Storm said quickly not seeing the point.

"No, i lied to you. They didn't have my wife before." David explained carefully.

"Why the fuck did you lie to me?" A very livid Storm asked making David flinch.

"Because you were going to kill me?" David tried answering his question.

"Guys, we need to solve the problem not our egos." Peril said loudly not at all affected by the tension floating in the air.

Both of the men looked at her. David's eyes were thanking her while Storm's eyes seemed to say something like 'this is not over'.

"How do you know she was kidnapped?" Peril asked after a short silence.

"Before you kidnapped me i usually called my wife everyday and we could talk. Well, since yesterday i have been calling her and the phone goes unanswered every time." David answered.

"So you think she is kidnapped?" Storm asked.

"I know she is."David answered with confidence.

"What if she thought that you were captured and escaped to a safe place? I mean, we held you here for two days." Peril asked too.

"That place was the safest. Further more,  even if she would have left she would not have left her phone behind." David explained.

Peril wanted to tell him there is no safest place in this world but decided against it. Instead she asked. "Why wouldn't she leave her phone behind?"

"Because the phone cannot be traced or hacked by anyone else apart from me." David answered proudly.

"Did you install any hidden cameras in the house?" Storm asked.

"Of course i did. It was a safe house remember?" David answered rolling his one working eye.

"So we can go there and watch whatever happened and plan our next course of action." Mr. Storm said, ignoring the annoying questions from David.

"Or i can use your computer and type some magical words then... Viola!" David suggested while looking at the computer facing Mr. Storm.

Storm was ready to argue when Peril beat him to talking. "How fast can you do it?"

"It could have taken a minute but since you went easy on me and stabbed one of my hands, i will need ten minutes tops." David said looking at his bandaged hand.

"Lucky you! The one before you was stabbed on one of his balls till it split into two. The other ball she stepped on with her heels." Mr. Storm stated simply.

David's mouth opened in shock as he tried to digest Mr. Storm's words. He could feel the pain of whoever the person was.

Indeed i am lucky. David discovered.

"After you are done opening your mouth for the flies can we please continue?" Peril asked seeming impatient.

"Yeah. Right." David closed his mouth slightly embarrassed.

"Could you please lend me your computer?" David asked Mr. Storm with puppy dog eyes which seemed ridiculous with only one eye working.

Storm looked at the bandaged man in front of him and just sighed. "Just for ten minutes. Not a minute more."

"Yes dad." David mumbled lowly that Storm was not able to catch it but Peril did.

This David surely has a death wish. She thought while shaking her head on lowly.

Storm turned the monitor and keyboard from his side to face  David.

David did not waste any time. Using only his right uninjured arm, he dived into the keyboard and started typing away some commands.

With only one arm, David seemed to be working as fast as a normal tech guy which was impressive.

"There." David said after sometime, breaking the silence that was thickening with each minute.

On the screen was four real time videos of what was currently going on at David's supposed safe house.

By the look of them, one was by the front door facing out, the second one was centrally on top of the sitting room, the third was at the kitchen and the last was in the bedroom.

No one seemed to be in any of those rooms.

"Rewind it." Peril commanded impatiently.

David wanted to ask her if she had ever encountered the word 'please' in her life but one look at his bandages he kept mum.

The screen remained the same during rewinding. The pictures did not even shake one might think it was a paused video or simply a picture taken. The only thing that changed was the time which moved backwards at a lightening speed.

"Stop." Peril commanded when she noticed some changes making David to hit a button immediately.

The date and time indicated that it was the previous day at around seven in the morning.

The camera in the sitting room showed David's wife preparing something in the kitchen while the the camera at the door facing out showed a black SUV parked a meter from the house.

"Play." She commanded again and David complied.

One minute later, three huge men left the SUV and slowly walked to the door not before looking left and right.

With some weird keys, one of them, who seemed the leader, slowly opened the door. David's wife was still in the kitchen completely unaware of the impending danger.

The leader poured some liquid on a cloth from his pocket and approached the lady.

The two men with him had pistols on their hands ready to fire at anyone who would try to jeopardize their mission.

With the wet cloth, the leader slowly walked towards David's wife who had her back to him and shoved the wet cloth forcefully to her nose.

The lady struggled for some seconds, kicking and throwing her hands but the man did not loose his grip. Slowly the struggle reduced and she went limb.

The three men dragged her unconscious body out of the house and into the van but the man holding the wet cloth looked back at the camera. Directly, as if knowing all along that it was there.

And he smiled.

Wickedly.