CHAPTER 1 - The Break In

"Honey"-----no answer

"honey"-----still no answer

"honey!!! "

"Yeah yeah yeah...you don't need to yell you know, I heard you the first time "

"Oh really?" Margaret stared at her absent minded husband whose eyes were still glued to his phone.

"You do know you are late for work right?" Margaret asked still staring at her husband, this time a hint of impatience was evident in her eyes.

"You were yelling just to tell me that?" Bob reluctantly tore his eyes away from his phone only to behold the growing annoyance in his wife's glare.

"Oh come on.....am only a few minutes behind schedule, besides Michael would come pick me up".

"Well, he's not gonna 'pick you up' while you are still in your shorts, now would he?...besides why would you always believe everything Michael says...what if he doesn't come?"

"Well, he will come" Bob replied confidently, still nonchalant to move from his position.

"Well, I demand that you get dressed for work young man"

"Give me a break, am half dressed already, I just-------" Bob's voice trailed away as he saw the insisting stubbornness in Margaret's eyes. Sighing heavily he had to concede "okay okay okay, am getting dressed....jeez".

Margaret now satisfied with her husband's obedience smiled "that's more like it, you do know you have to take your job seriously if you want to feed our family and take care of our Tina".

At the mention of the name 'Tina', Bob couldn't help but look in the direction of the little girl playing in the restroom with her toys. Bob couldn't help but smile at his adorable little daughter. His wife was right, he should take his job more seriously, if not for anything but for his little Tina's sake.

He couldn't help but sigh, he never really liked his current job, his real passion was advertising, which he felt that he did fairly well, but due to lack of sponsors and companies to work with, he found himself wandering from place to place like a homeless hermit, but due to the vehement insistence of Margaret, he had to take on a job, whether he likes it or not which brought him this job of mini van sales and retailing. *Sigh* 'for his family', he had to remind himself 'for his little Tina'.

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~KPUUU ! KPUUU!~

Michael's horn was heard across the lawn. "yo Bob, you better hop in fast or we would miss our scheduled sales!!"

"Yo am coming already!" Bob could be seen hastily getting his things, he was also beginning to have some regret that he didn't heed Margaret's advice to dress up on time.

"If only someone had dressed up for work earlier" came the scolding remark from Margaret.

Bob glancing at her could see the look of 'I told you so' on her face, which irritated him a bit.

"Daddy!"

"Daddy!"

Seeing his daughter coming to meet him with her favorite toy in her hands, his mood was lifted a little.

"How's my little angel?" Tina looked so adorable as she giggled in his hands that he didn't want to let her go, save for the constant blaring of Michael's horn.

~KPUUU! KPUUU!~

"Daddy will buy Tina something nice okay?"

"Okay" Tina replied smiling. "Bye bye daddy"

"Bye bye little angel" Bob had to stop to wave back to his daughter before hopping into the minivan of an impatient Michael who quickly greets the female duo while driving away "hey Margaret, hey little Tina".

Margaret could only sigh resignedly, "well, there they go again".

"Mummy, would daddy come back soon?" little Tina asked while blinking her eyes.

"Of course sweetie" Margaret picked her up while heading to the kitchen. "Also, when he comes you can have lots of ice cream".

"Yay ice cream!"

Margaret went to the kitchen to tidy it up, while Tina sat on the kitchen table to munch on some cookies.

*Ring____Ring*

Her phone's back light switched on to reveal the caller. Margaret's eyes widened upon seeing the caller. Not hesitating, the phone was already by her ear "Stephanie!!"

**Hey Maggie, sorry for the untimely call**

"Long overdue call is more like it....haha!!" Margaret was all smiles and excitement due to hearing the voice of her best friend after a long time.

**Yeah, I guess you could say that** Stephanie giggled loudly, clearly affected by Maggie's excited tone.

"So where have you been all this while, don't tell me you guys are still in Africa".

**No, of course not we--------**

Margaret moved towards the kitchen door as she listened to Stephanie's tale of past adventures and experiences.

Tina, having finished the cookies, fell on the cup cakes without pause; and with her fully bloated cheeks watched her mother prance around the kitchen listening and giggling to whomever was on the phone.

Seeing the sausage boiling over on the gas cooker, Tina was about to call her absentminded mother's attention when she sighted a black sedan, parked beside the house, just across the kitchen window.

Tina would have ignored this as unimportant, except the driver pulled out something that looked like a harpoon and suspiciously stared through the kitchen window for a long time, while conversing with the other guy seated beside him. After sometime he raised the 'harpoon' and pointed it directly at the kitchen window. Tina's eyes widened as she heard a dull pop sound followed by a blur which went straight through the kitchen window and implant itself on Margaret's back.

*******************

Margaret was excitedly listening to Stephanie's joyous voyages around the world when she felt a slight tap on her back followed by an explosive and painful sensation, like a burst of electric current which paralysed every joint and muscle in her body

Maggie had never felt like this before, it was scary and agonising. Within seconds, she collapsed with a thud. Unable to scream or produce any vocal sound, she could only hear Stephanie's anxious voice over the phone which had fallen a distance away from her **Maggie? you still there? I heard a queer sound, is everything alright?**

"Mommy!!"

Margaret's eyes shifted to source of the anxious cry and saw her adorable Tina with a pained look on her face.

"T--in--a" was all Margaret could utter under her laboured breath before everything went black.

"Mommy!!", this single cry drew a lot of pain and sorrow from little Tina's heart. She looked frozen and about to burst into tears, moreover, what could a five year old girl do in this situation?

*********************

"Sure she's down?"

"Of course she's down" he looked at his partner, waving the harpoon alike weapon in his hand "you think this is a toy?"

"Well no" there was a short pause "so should we break in now?"

"I have to make sure that we don't attract anyone's attention".

"What of the girl? don't you think we should take her out too?"

He gave his partner a confused stare "why on earth would I want to electrocute a little girl?"

"Uh... "

**Pschhh** **Pschhh**

The transceiver in between them came alive with static sounds.

"shit" he quickly picked up the transceiver and pressed the receive button.

**Have you secured the package?** came the voice over the transceiver.

"Not yet boss, but we've just put the woman down"

**What is taking you so long?** the voice now sounded angry.

"We don't want to draw attention to ourselves boss, so we----"

"Just get the job done" the voice snapped. "Also remember, no room for failure, got that? "

"Yes boss"

"You know what happens when you fail"

**Pshhhhh** the line went static again.

"Whew... that was intense" his partner wiped beads of cold sweat from his forehead.

"Not as intense as our punishment if we fail, come on Abe let's get what we came for".

"You got it Gabe"

The two men got out of the sedan car and took a round turn to the front yard of the house.

Abraham and Gabriel, popularly known as Abe and Gabe are Mafian thugs who specialise in one time covert jobs such as theft, kidnapping, smuggling, and in some occasions, assassination. Though, not ambitious to become mafia lords themselves, they take the time to polish their skills to become the best in what they do.

Getting to the front door, Gabe stood on the lookout, while Abe bent down to disarm any security installation and alarm systems in the house.

"You done?" Gabe asked still on lookout.

"Yeah, just putting precautionary measures in place to avoid any surprises"

"Yeah hate those"

"Hate what?"

"Surprises"

"Me too". Few seconds later "All done, the house is ours"

"Not for long, we gotta be in and out before anyone's the wiser"

"Ooh, yeah like ninjas"

"No silly, ninjas are not that fast"

"Uh..... like the wind?"

"Nope"

"Like what then?"

"Like 'the flash' dummy... don't you watch movies?"

"You know am not into superheroes Gabe"

"Whatever"

Getting to the kitchen, they saw Maggie still lying motionless on the floor. The Electroshock dart seemed to have functioned well. Now, unto the next stage of their mission to acquire...but wait, wasn't there a little girl sitting on the kitchen table, happily munching on cookies when they took out the woman?

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