Prodigy (Complete)

Chapter Thirty-Six

With his instructions clearly given, Aris pulled up near the magnificent compound, ditched his bike in some thick bushes, and proceeded the rest of the way on foot – roughly 200 metres. Although the bike was fairly quiet, he felt it was best to be as stealthy as possible.

He approached the Leader’s compound from a ridge on the Northwest side. This gave him a clear vantage point of the property. The enormous palace was located on the most pristine landscape he had ever seen. It was obvious a lot of time and energy was spent maintaining the grounds. The landscaping was impeccable with lush flowers and perfectly trimmed arborvitae trees.

He kept in constant contact with Milo, who was acting as Alex’s assistant while she was occupied with another task.

“Okay, I’m at the edge of the property now. There’s an elaborate security system equipped with multiple heat sensing cameras, motion detectors, and an electricity pulse grid.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, there’s a large fence.”

“Alright, good luck with that. Keep us updated,” Milo responded. Milo was happy Alex had chosen him to be her companion and had assigned Aris to crawl around in the mud. Aris had a different way of viewing the situation. From Aris’ perspective, Alex trusted him to be on his own and did not assign him to be her subordinate. Aris was utterly infatuated with Alex and was convinced he had a better shot to be with her than Milo. He had convinced himself that Alex viewed him as the hero and that was why she sent him on the important solo mission. He thought success in this task would surely impress her and prove he was the right man for her.

Aris was still stationed high atop the ridge that overlooked the entire compound. He peered through his vision-enhancer glasses, which reminded him of being in a video game, and focused on the compound below. As he settled into position, he kept a keen eye on everything. He was looking for any flaws in the security detail that he could exploit.

After a thorough surveillance, Aris became hungry. He reached into his bag, pulled out an energy bar, and began eating it. As he chewed, he resumed his reconnaissance. As Aris peered through his lenses, something odd struck him – there did not appear to be a single person in the compound. He decided to make his way closer to the house to further his investigation.

He scaled down the embankment and inched his way toward the house. With each movement, something new came into his field of vision. His lenses automatically focused on the new objects and displayed a tiny message on the screen. It identified the species of plant, analyzed the moisture in the soil, and determined the distance between him and other objects. It also displayed wind, temperature, and GPS coordinates. He quickly disabled those features because they were becoming more of a distraction than anything else.

He continued to inch forward.

Once he reached the perimeter of the property, he was close enough to hack into the security system and disable it. Within minutes, Aris bypassed the firewall, disabled the energy grid alarm, and rendered the cameras inoperable. He had one last defensive barrier to worry about – the fence – which definitely could not be hacked. In front of him was a twelve-foot high steel-barred fence.

There appeared to be a simple choice regarding the matter: go over, under, or through, but he had already planned it out. Going over seemed to be the most sensible and discreet option of the three. He took a couple looks around before reaching into his bag and pulling out several powerful magnets. He placed each magnet perpendicularly between the bars to create a makeshift ladder. Once in place, he simply climbed over the fence with ease. The razor-sharp barbed wire at the top posed another problem. To deal with that, he pulled out a pair of wire cutters and snipped the barbed wire off.

Aris climbed down the other side of the fence and remained in a crouched position. Although he could not see much, he listened intently. He thought he heard something coming from the Northeast side of the building so he quickly responded. He darted into a shadowed area and disappeared from sight. A moment passed and nothing happened. I must be hearing things, he thought while remaining quiet. After a while, he stood up, wiped his dirty hands on his pant legs, and walked cautiously toward the house.

He was astonished at the weak security. If someone was so inclined, they could sneak into the home of the world’s most powerful man, and assassinate him. Of course, that was provided circumstances remained the same and there were no security personnel around, which was unlikely.

Aris approached the house and positioned himself next to one of the windows. With his back pressed up against the wall, he swivelled his torso around and peered into the house. He took a brief look around, then returned to his original position. His heart rate elevated and his palms became sweaty. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. So far everything was going smoothly and according to plan. Something about that didn’t sit right with him. It was almost too easy.

He reached into his bag and took out a container. He wiped the sweat from his hands and opened it up. Inside the container was a transparent mud-like substance that he smeared across the window. It was one of the many things he had obtained from Mara and her camp. A few moments later he took out another device, pressed it firmly against the glass, and activated a switch. A high-pitched frequency, inaudible to humans, rippled through the glass, leaving a large spider-web fracture. The glass was held together by the clear viscous goo that he had been applied earlier. Aris gave a light tap with the meaty part of his fist and the glass fell out of place. He slowly lowered the portion of glass down to the ground.

Just as he was about to climb in the window, a pack of aggressively barking dogs came charging from out of nowhere. They had heard the high-pitched sound and were now looking to sink their teeth into the would-be intruder. With no time to spare, Aris quickly jumped into the window opening and wiggled through just in time to avoid the dogs nipping at his feet.