Checkmate By Patrick Tsai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs8X1SvCFC c&feature=youtu.be
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Checkmate Written by Patrick Tsai of XE45A Instructor: Kenneth M. Smith Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages Kaohsiung, Taiwan R.O.C 2014
Words in Oxford 3000™ : 91% Page | 2
About the Author
Patrick Tsai is a student currently studying in Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages. He was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1994. He is fond of reading English novels, especially in spy, mystery novels. With the assistance of his instructor, this is the first time to write a novel. He hopes to bring and share you his enthusiasm and passion Page | 3
for spy novels. This story is simply a combination of spy heroes that I read my childhood. He hopes you enjoy the story and let go of the leash of the spy in your mind.
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Contents 1. Stolen 2. The Deal 3. Blackburns 4. The Cabin 5. Checkmate
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Preface
Shanghai, China, 2015 Blackburns came to a wooden door and saw a white strip of light seeping out of the crack beneath. He raised his silenced .45 and reached for the handle, hoping it would be unlocked. The handle
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turned but the door was locked. He took a few steps back and bashed through. The wood cabin was surprisingly huge, a big circle with a green carpet and more wooden fittings on the wall. Two men are in the room. There was a man in military uniform stretched out beside a table on the carpet, as still as a corpse. Blood slowly dyed the carpet dark red. Blackburns points his gun at the other man looking outside and steps forward.
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Vladimir did not move as Blackburns approached, the gun held behind him. This was the closest he had ever been to the Russian, the man who betrayed his country for money and killed his partner
David. Blackburns could see every detail of his face, dry and wounded. The gun was less than an inch from Vladimir’s Page | 8
head. This could be the end. All he had to do is pull the trigger and it would be over.
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Chapter 1 Stolen
Russian Agency Fort Rushmore Four men are in a room. That is Steven, Yassen, David, and Vladimir. “Sir, I suspect there is a mole in the agency.” “There is no mole here, Vladimir. Only loyal gentlemen who do their jobs professionally.” said Steven as he unintentionally looked at David. Page | 10
“Yes Sir, everything will be taken from here.” Vladimir Gregorovich looked at Steven Briggs and closed the door gently as he went out. It was eight o’clock in the morning with the sun shining up high in sky. Vladimir walked rapidly to his office, took his suitcase, and then went for the elevator. He began to sweat as he waited for the elevator anxiously. “Are you ok, Vladimir? You look a little pale.” “No, just caught a cold” as he lied to his colleague Yassen. They got in elevator and Page | 11
headed downstairs. It stopped at the lobby. “Have a good day and be careful.� Vladimir greeted Yassen and continued down. He pushed P3 button for five seconds and the elevator stopped at C1, which is the top-secret file storage room, called the
Vault. Vladimir puts his hand on the screen and the face near the scanner. He Page | 12
threw two black smoke grenades before he went in. The smoke started to fill up the steel room quickly. “Hey, what is happening down there? Why is it all black?” “Sound the alarm; seal all exits, no one in or out, we might have an intruder!” The armed security guards rushed through the lobby and pushed the button of the elevator. “Come on, come on, and hurry up!” The elevator opened and they went downstairs fully armed. By the time they got there, the smoke Page | 13
was gone, and so was Vladimir. “What is going on here?” Steven yelled. “No idea, Sir. Everything seems to be untouched.” “Get someone and check everything top to bottom!” “Yes, Sir!” Vladimir threw his suitcase down with a loud thump, crawled down from the air vent, and landed in the cleaning cupboard. Now, disguised as a janitor, he walked out the building and got into his van and drove away unsuspected.
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Chapter 2 The Deal
Vladimir woke up and sat on his bed beside his table in his home. He stared at the black leathered suitcase for a minute and decide to open it. Inside, some scrap paper, pen and paper clips. Moreover, there is a secret interlayer, which he stored the files he took yesterday. The files were stamp with enormous red letters “CONDIFENTIAL, STRICT EYES Page | 15
ONLY� on the cover. He slowly opened the file. The files are design blueprints, weapon load, personnel names, etc. It is a state-of-art destroyer called XSS Titan. Designed for future battle, the vessel had many kinds of prototype weapons. Railguns, chemical assault rifles, Trident
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missiles. Nothing comes close to compete with it. While Vladimir kept reading the files he stole yesterday, his phone rang. “Is the file ready?” “I have it. Is the money wired to my Swiss bank account?” “Half wired, the other have will be given when I see the file.” “Meet me at Pier 7, 11
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o’clock sharp; make sure no one follows you.” “Deal.” Vladimir hung up the phone. He went to his little barn outside his home and removed all the tools that scattered on the floor. Then he hooked up a small rusty handle, which reveals a hidden basement full of weapons under a wooden trapdoor. He took some magnetic grenades, pistol magazines with piercing bullets, and a Kevlar vest then stuffed them in a black backpack. He gently closed the door and moved all the tools back in their same old Page | 18
place. His watch beeped to remind him it is almost time. Vladimir took the files, put them back into the suitcase, grabbed his backpack, got into his car and drove away. “Tail him” said Steven. Yassen’s car was parked across from Vladimir’s house and waited for him to come out and see what he is involved. Yassen started the engine
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and followed. “Slow down, don’t get too close, he might see us,” said Steven. “He turned right, don’t lose him.” Vladimir looked at the rear mirror and caught a glimpse of Yassen’s car. “What is Yassen doing here?” “Shit, I am being followed, I must lose them.” Vladimir pedaled to the metal and speed off down the road and took a hard left turn. “He must have seen us! Chase him”, yelled Steven. Vladimir used a remote key to open a garage which he used as a failsafe on his right, drove in Page | 20
and turned off the light and engine. He saw Yassen’s car passed through quickly and did not discover him. “Jesus, we lost him”, said Steven. Vladimir started his engine and drove back on the road. “Amateurs” muttered Vladimir. It was almost dark when Vladimir got to the docks. He parked his car inside a container then closed the heavy metal doors. The container started moving. It was hung up by a crane up in the air and moved and put down on a container ship. Page | 21
Vladimir raised his gun as he sees the metal doors are opening. David was standing outside the door pointing his gun to Vladimir. “Who are you, why are you wearing a mask?” “Where’s my file, the mask isn’t your business.” “Where’s my money?” David nodded his head to one of his men. The men took out a large silver briefcase and opened it.
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“There it is, the other half. Now, my files?” Vladimir put down the briefcase and kicked it over. “Are we done now?” “Not yet, I will need to verify the files.” “In order to prove that, you will need to shoot these guys called Steven and Yassen. We found them sneaking around the docks.” Vladimir looked at Yassen and Steven. His face showed nothing but his heart was Page | 23
pounding very fast. “Pufft, pufft” Two men fell to the ground. Vladimir heard Steven’s lastwords “Blackburns.” “Who is Blackburns?” “I do not know, doesn’t matter anyway.” “You can go now.”
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Chapter 3 Blackburns “Sir, sir, we have found the bodies over here.” Blackburns quickly walked to the bodies. “I will find out who did this.” “Sir, we have some footage over here, you might want to take a look.” “Isn’t that the Russian spy Vladimir? What the hell?” “I want him to be found now at all costs!” In the meanwhile, Vladimir was busy stacking his fresh green Benjamin’ behind his shelf at his safe house. Now, listening Page | 25
to Beethoven classical piece and drinking after the job leaving no traces. Back at Blackburn’s mobile operation center, technicians are busy finding out Vladimir’s whereabouts. “Sir, we have a satellite image that identified his car twenty minutes ago. There he is. These are the coordinates 52.308596, -99.321224.” Blackburns immediately suits up with full weapons and gear and boards the chopper named Helicat. The chopper turned on its silent mode when it almost arrived at Page | 26
Vladimir’s safe house. Then it landed quietly without making a sound. Blackburns storms the house and finds nothing and nobody in there. Except two words wrote in blood “The Cabin.” Blackburns immediately knew what that means because only four people know what it means. Chapter 4
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The Cabin “Were you followed by anyone before the deal Mr. Vladimir?” said David. “How did you know?” “Because those two people who were sneaking around were agency’s people. Are you one of them?” “No, no, no. I don’t want to die please.” Says Vladimir with a muzzle pointed at his head. “Maybe I can use you later.” Blackburns sneaks in the Cabin and quietly observes the situation from above. Page | 28
He realizes that his once best partner David is going to sell the agency’s most technologically advanced warship to the terrorist to destroy the world. He has to do something about it. “Hey! Who are you? What are you doing here? We have got company!” Guns and bullets started to fly around all over the place. While Blackburns is trying to fend off David’s men, David grabbed Vladimir and went inside a secret room. Page | 29
The gun shots were quiet after a few minutes. Corpses were lying around and blood were making their way around the floor. Blackburns was the last man standing. Now he is trying to find where David and Vladimir went.
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Chapter 5 Checkmate Blackburns came to a wooden door and saw a white strip of light seeping out of the crack beneath. He raised his silenced .45 and reached for the handle, hoping it would be unlocked. The handle turned but the door was locked. He took a few steps back and bashed through. The wood cabin was surprisingly huge, a big circle with a green carpet and more wooden fittings on the wall. Two Page | 31
men are in the room. There was a man in military uniform stretched out beside a table on the carpet, as still as a corpse. Blood slowly dyed the carpet dark red. Blackburns points his gun at the other man looking outside and steps forward. Vladimir did not move as Blackburns approached, the gun held behind him. This was the closest he had ever been to the Russian, the man who betrayed his country for money and killed his partner David. Blackburns could see every detail Page | 32
of his face, dry and wounded. The gun was less than an inch from Vladimir’s head. “This could be the end. All I have to do is pull the trigger and it will be over.” thought Blackburns. “Checkmate pal! You are not going anywhere!” “This is a setup. David was the guy who was going to sell the XSS Titan. That tape recorder on the table will prove everything.” Said Vladimir. Blackburns was confused but he still pointed his gun at Vladimir. He slowly Page | 33
walked to the tape recorder and played it. Then he left the Cabin with XSS Titan. A few months later, Vladimir is sitting on the balcony enjoying the sunshine that filled his face and warmed his body. Blackburns retired and disappeared since then. The world has another day to live.
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Prologue He operates outside of every law and kills in the line of duty. Only a few know he exists. He handles covert missions either to sensitive or too risky for other spy agencies and he operates alone. He has the right to spy, steal, destroy, and assassinate to protect the agency’s interests. Blackburns investigates a murder and weaves through a tangled web of clues to Page | 35
find the mastermind behind it.
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