THE MAD BOMBER

Identification

The bus screeched as it came to a halt in front of Westbrook School of the Arts. Ethan was not ready for his first day. He had just moved from Hoboken, New Jersey to Albuquerque two days ago. He didn’t want to leave his friends and his school back in Hoboken, but his dad had gotten a new job and his family explained to him that it was for the best. And so here he was. At a private school. He’d always liked Art and Theater, and only for the fact that there wasn’t a lot of homework for those classes, but not enough to be sent to a school for it. He was sure he’d find nerds and geeks here of all sorts. He wondered if he’d find anyone like him here: smart, athletic, and lazy. Probably not. At 8:25 on the dot, the bell rang. As he walked to his locker, he contemplated on his decision to come here. He was about to spin the combination lock when he noticed something weird.  There wasn’t one. It seemed to be the only one that was different, but oddly enough, no one seemed to notice. Curious, he touched the locker where the lock should have been and it swung open, with the words, “Welcome to W.S.O.A.”

Recruitment

He walked into the locker as it indicated and found himself in a large room with, by his estimate, around 100 people on their high tech gadgets. “Why am I here?” he thought to himself. Then he saw a huge, muscular man walking towards him.”Hello,” he said, “I am Director Holmes, great grandson of Sherlock Holmes, director of the Western Special Operations Agency.” “Wow,” Ethan thought, “this place isn’t as bad as I thought it was!” Director Holmes suddenly turned very grave. “We have a problem, which is why we brought you in. Trust me, if we brought you in, it means the situation is really dire.” “Gee, thanks,” responded Ethan. 

Briefing

Ethan was led into a room with a large screen with the agency logo on it. The director changed the screen to a picture of a scarred man. “This is Darryl Chidsey, AKA The Mad Bomber. So far, he has been  involved in 85% of all bombing incidents. He either sells bombs or blows them up. Two days ago, 9 pounds of weapons-grade uranium was stolen from the nuclear power plant. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to recover the uranium and apprehend Mr. Chidsey here. Any questions?” “I have one,” responded Ethan, “Why me?” The Director looked at him with a slight smile and said, “Because you are smart, athletic, and fortunately sometimes a lazy kid, a rarity nowadays.” 

“Fortunately lazy?” Ethan thought.

    Preparation

“After Ethan had been briefed, he had been allowed to go back to class and finish the day. After school, he was to come back and have physical tests done on him. They took urine samples, and had his pulse rate and blood pressure and sugar tested. Afterwards, he was taken to the tech room where he was outfitted with gadgets, the most interesting being an explosive device posing as bubblegum and a gameboy in which different games indicated different purposes. Somehow, without his parents, teachers, and classmates knowing, he was on the road to Los Angeles, from where he was to catch a ship to an undisclosed location, the evil lair of The Mad Bomber. 

Commencing

On board the ship, which Ethan later learned was called the Morning Star, there wasn’t much to do. It was a regular cargo ship, after all, and it wasn’t meant for luxurious or rapid transportation. No, the reason Ethan was on a cargo ship was because he was less likely to get caught as a spy. Ethan found out that the games on the gameboy actually did work and that he only needed to press X thrice to activate the function. As he was playing his games, he remembered that one of the games had the function of tracking the Mad Bomber. He pressed X thrice in rapid succession and a map appeared, with a dot on Macau, with the words,

 “Darryl Chidsey, 

Location:Crystal Casino, 

Coordinates: 22 N,113 E

Conviction

Coincidentally, The Mad Bomber had also boarded a ship, but unlike Ethan, he was traveling on his very own $1 billion luxury yacht. He sighed and sat down on his bed in his private suite. He was amused at the antics of the WSOA. Still trying to catch him, the master of all criminal activity, the king of the underworld, and they were trying to catch him, and with a boy this time! He was deeply offended. The boy would hardly be a challenge for his talents. He used to be an agent too, and then one person in the agency showed him the way and he realized how much more lucrative the criminal business could be. He could barely afford to pay his electricity bill while he was at the W.S.O.A., and now, he had his private helicopter, yacht, jet, and a penthouse suite at the Trump Tower. It was easy money. Some rich person wanted to kill someone, he got it done. A few more people wouldn’t matter. Collateral damage was inevitable. Now, 2 years into the making, he was arguably the most feared and successful bomber of the 21st century. He still had one weakness, though, one that he needed to get rid of. He smiled. He figured the Agency would do the work for him.

Infiltration

“Land Ho!” Ethan woke quickly to the sound of shouts of, “Land Ho!” The sounds were music to his ears. He had at least reached the halfway point of the trip. He looked again at his map and he was shocked. Darryl was...here? According to the map, he was practically on top of Darryl. On closer inspection, however, he realized that Darryl was walking down the street in front of Ethan. He looked up and scrutinized every face until he found what he was looking for. He saw that familiar scarred face. He turned on another game that messaged the agency and said, “Code Red. Code Red. Target has been spotted. Awaiting Instructions.” With that, he put it away and decided to follow his target around, just to see what he was up to. He was led past various casinos and shops until Darryl disappeared inside one and stayed for quite some time. Curious about what was taking so long, Ethan headed inside. He turned on the game which acted as a microphone, and tuned in to the conversation. He identified two voices, one of which he recognised as Chidsey’s. “You have the uranium with you?” asked the other man. “Positive. Now, I hope you have the money?” 

“All 3 million.” 

Apprehension

Ethan was shocked. Three million dollars? He knew uranium was expensive, but this much? The Mad Bomber was ripping the man off! Suddenly, he felt a clammy hand clamp down on his shoulder. He flinched. “What are you doing here, boy?” Thinking fast, Ethan responded, “My father is downstairs, and I was looking for a restroom.” The man’s expression softened. “The restroom is down that way and to the left.” Ethan said, “Okay, thank you.” As he walked down towards the restrooms, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then, he wondered where the Agency was. They should have been there by now. He checked his map and realized he hadn’t known what island they were on until then (Tahiti, Coordinates:17, 149). The map showed the Agency backup arriving in about 15 minutes. When he walked out of the restroom, he realized that the meeting was over and they were walking out. Ethan cursed and ran after them, desperately trying to stop them before Chidsey could get away again. He took out the Gameboy and played the game that turned the device into an explosive. He quietly followed them to the ship and snuck on. After a couple of minutes of sneaking around, he found Chidsey's cabin. He chewed the expanding bubblegum and stuffed it into the keyhole, which was blown apart by it. He entered and found the case of money. He ran with the evidence he found and played Bomber Boy on the gameboy and pressed X three times which made it a bomb with a 10 second delay and pressed GO. He threw it onto the boat and 10 seconds later the boat was no more. Ethan figured the W.S.O.A would arrive later and deal with the rest.

Acclamation

When Ethan got back, he was applauded by the entire W.S.O.A. and was debriefed. Director Holmes made it perfectly clear that Ethan should not expect a medal, a certificate, or any sort of accolade, as all their work was highly classified and top secret, although Director Holmes had a funny look on his face as he said this. Ethan could have sworn the look was one of  Afterwards, Ethan approached Director Holmes and said, “You were at Tahiti, weren’t you? I saw you, except I didn’t recognize you because you were in your disguise, and I must admit, it was good. But I recognize you now. You were there in the room negotiating the deal with Chidsey.”

 Director Holmes’ smug smile turned into a look of worry. “Look here, Ethan, I was just trying to help…” 

“Sure you were. You were the reason the Agency took so long to back me up. Rest assured, you will never see my face, or anyone else’s, except for the prison guards, from you tiny, little cell in a big penitentiary for bad guys like you. So saying, Ethan walked away, alerting the guards of an impostor and traitor in the building. After all was said and done, Ethan, for the first time in days, saw his home again. ”Home sweet home.” he said, not being able to wait to sleep in his bed again . Two minutes later, he went to his desk, and to his shock and exasperation, there was a new folder with the words, “TOP SECRET - FOR YOUR EYES ONLY” With a sigh, he opened the beginning of a new adventure.

By: The Bro