Kill the Truth

Are you going to shoot me or take the drive? The man on the floor asked this in a voice that was shaking and wet with blood and fear.

Damian Cross did not even blink. He kept his gun pointed at the man's chest.

Who sent you? Damian asked him. His voice was completely flat and cold.

The man said You would know. He said You are the one who can open this. The man coughed, it was a sound and he held out a small metal box. It was a kind of drive that had a lot of security on it. Take it now he said. Please. They are coming for us.

Damian did not put his gun down. He had been hiding for three years. Always looking over his shoulder. This had made him very careful. He was not an accountant anymore. He was like a ghost.. Ghosts do not take chances.

Drop the drive on the floor and step away Damian told him.

The man let the drive fall to the floor. He stepped back holding his side. He was a man but his eyes looked very old and scared.

They know you are here the man whispered. I did not tell them I swear.. They found the package. You have maybe ten minutes before they get into the building.

Damian kicked the drive away with his foot. It slid into the hallway. Why did they pick me?

The man said it was because you are the one who can find the truth no matter how hard it is to find. That is what the person who sent this said. The man swallowed hard.. They said the truth is going to get you killed tonight if you do not run away.

Get out of here Damian said. Go down the fire escape. Stay away from the main streets.

The man did not need to be told. He. Ran down the hallway. His footsteps got quieter and quieter.

Damian was alone now. He looked at the drive on the floor. For three years he had been living a quiet life. He had been working jobs under fake names. He thought the people who had hurt him and ruined his career had won. They had said he was an investigator and a thief. They had taken his name and his friend.

Now they were coming to take his life.

He picked up the drive. Went into his special room. It was a room with a lot of computers and machines. This was his life. This was where he had been tracking the people who had hurt him.

He put the drive into one of the computers. He knew how to get past the security. He wrote a code to open it. The screen went black. Then a message came up.

If you can read this it means they did not erase everything.

Damian leaned forward. He had been wanting to know the truth for three years. He had lost everything because he cared much about the truth.

Then a loud alarm went off.

His other computer screen turned red. It showed the alley behind his building. Three black cars had blocked the way out. Twelve men got out of the cars. They were not police. They had gear and guns. They moved quickly and quietly.

Damian's phone rang. He answered it.

Damian Cross a voice said. You are a hard man to find.

Who is this? Damian asked.

The man who is going to fix the mistake we made three years ago the voice said. You should have died with your friend. The voice stopped for a moment. Turn on the news. See what you have done.

Damian turned on the TV. The news anchor looked very upset.

There has been a murder in the city the anchor said. The victim was a man who was found shot to death. The police think Damian Cross did it.

A picture of Damian came up on the screen.

He is considered armed and very dangerous the anchor said. The police have permission to use force.

Damian looked at his picture on the screen. They had killed the man who came to his apartment.. They had already said he was the one who did it.

Your bank accounts are frozen the voice on the phone said. Your safe houses are not safe. The building is surrounded. You have nowhere to go. Give us the drive. We will make your death quick.

Damian felt very angry. For three years he had been living in fear. He had let them control his life. He had let them make him a victim.

Not tonight Damian said.

You are a man, Cross the voice said. The line went dead.

Damian hung up the phone. He was very calm. They thought he would be scared. They thought he would try to run

He went back to his computer. Had they frozen his accounts? Fine. He would freeze theirs.

He used a backdoor to get into the police computer. He found the police commissioner's accounts. He took all the money out of the accounts. Put it into a special place where they could not find it.

He sent a message to the commissioner. I have your money it said. I have the drive.. I am coming for you next.

Damian heard footsteps outside his door. They were, on his floor.

He took the drive and his gun. He put them in his bag.

He stood by the door waiting. He could hear them getting ready to come in.

The door exploded open. Two men came in with guns. Damian grabbed one of the guns. Made it point up. He hurt the man's leg. Used him as a shield. The other man shot at him. Damian was safe.

Damian shot the man. He fell to the ground.

The first man was trying to get his gun. Damian kicked it away. Pinned him to the ground.

Who told you to do this? Damian asked him.

The man said it was the police commissioner. He said Damian had a list.

Damian pressed down on the man's throat. Tell the commissioner I have his money he said. Tell him the accountant is fighting back.

Damian hit the man on the head. He fell asleep.

More footsteps were coming up the stairs. At six more men were heading his way.

Damian ran to the window of the apartment. He kicked the glass out. Did not even think about the pieces that fell into the alley below. He got onto the fire escape just as the men kicked in the bedroom door behind him.

Bullets hit the wall near his head. He went over the side of the fire escape. Slid down the ladder so fast that his hands hurt. He landed on the ground. Rolled, then got up behind some big trash cans.

He could hear police sirens in the distance. These were police officers. The people who were chasing him had sent some men to attack him first. Now they were sending the police to clean up the mess and show his dead body on television.

Damian moved through the alley staying in the shadows. He knew this city well. He knew where the cameras were and which ones did not work. He knew which alleys had no way

He came to a fence at the end of the block jumped over it easily and landed in the subway tunnels under the part of town where all the banks are.

It was very dark and smelled bad. He walked for two miles just remembering where he was until he came to a door that had been locked for fifty years. He opened the lock. Went inside then locked the door behind him.

He was safe for now.

Damian leaned against the cold wall trying to catch his breath. He was not in danger anymore. He was very upset.

His life was ruined again. The quiet life he had made for himself over the three years was all gone. He was the man the police wanted to catch more than anyone in the country. Again.

He thought about his teacher, David. David had taught him how to understand numbers and find secrets in them. David was murdered because he found a mistake in a government contract. They said it was a robbery but it was not.

Damian closed his eyes feeling very sad. He had tried to forget about the past and just move on.. He could not.

He took out a computer drive from his jacket.

He got out a tablet that could not be tracked and connected the drive. He needed to know why the people who were chasing him were willing to kill him in public. He needed to know what the man who died had been carrying.

The screen lit up in the tunnel.

He had already opened the part of the secret files in the apartment. It was a list of money moving around. Billions of dollars were being sent through companies and secret government accounts.

What really scared Damian was the names on the list.

He saw politicians who said they were against corruption. He saw media executives who controlled what was on the news. He saw judges who sent people to prison but took bribes themselves.

It was like another government. A secret one.

Then he opened another folder called Operations.

He saw a list of dates and names. It was a list of people who had been killed. They made it look like accidents or suicides.

Damian looked at the list his heart beating fast. He saw David's name on it. The date was right. Status: Done.

He kept looking down the list going back ten years, fifteen then twenty.

His heart stopped.

He saw one name from twenty years ago

Arthur Cross.

His father.

The police had said his father died in a car accident. The car had gone off a bridge in the winter. Damian was thirteen years old. He had always thought his father made a mistake.

The file on the screen said something different.

Operation: Silence. Target: Arthur Cross. Method: Car sabotage. Status: Done.

Damian stared at the screen until the words were stuck in his head. His hands were shaking, not because he was scared. Because he was so angry.

His whole life had been a lie. His father's death. His teacher's murder. His ruined life. It was not bad luck. It was all because of the people who were chasing him. They had been controlling his life since he was a kid.

His tablet made a sound. Someone was sending him a message.

Damian opened it. It was from someone he did not know. The name was just: Cipher.

The message was short.

They know you are alive. They know you have the list. Meet me at the docks in one hour. You will be dead before morning.

Damian looked at the message at his father's name, on the list.

The man who had been hiding for three years was gone. A new man was standing up a man who had nothing to lose.

Damian put a bullet in his gun and got ready. The sound of the gun echoed in the tunnel a promise of fighting

They wanted to kill the truth.

Damian was going to kill them.