~~~JANUS was the god of beginnings and transitions in mythology and presided over passages, doors, gates, and endings, as well as in transitional periods such as from war to peace. He was usually depicted as having two faces looking in opposite ways, one towards the past and the other towards the future.~~~
(sometime in future)
Nora Johnson was a 40 year old, 5' 7" woman, right now, she was staring at men pointing guns at her and her three children, two daughters Debby aged 15, April aged 14, and a son 3-year-old Tyler, her husband Bob 38 was currently lying on the living room carpet unconscious with a huge gash at the back of his head. He was an Assistant District Attorney.
she carefully looked at the 5 masked armed home invaders. trying to commit any and all details to memory so she could turn it over to law enforcement once this was over.
she had already noticed that they were all too much at ease, which meant they were habitual criminals ,and were not afraid.
though they all seemed to have followed a plan, which was to enter the house with stealth take their daughter's hostage to force her and her husband into complying with their orders now they were all kneeling in the living room hands and feet zip-tied with their mouths stuffed, they didn't seem like a well-oiled crew, this was probably their first gig together.
then there was this man in front of her relatively small man, around 5'8" he walked with measured steps ex-military perhaps? the body language suggested he was the leader. they had not spoken a single word since they had entered the house.
She was proud of her children, they followed her instructions and remained calm, they trusted their mom in fact they had gone through this training in the house; after all their mother was a member of the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) an elite tactical unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
the leader signaled a man and he removed the cloth from my mouth. after another signal, they spread out through the house again and by the looks of it were picking and taking anything of value.
"Boss look you were right about this house having bling, look what I found a bucket load of money"
and he emptied a duffel bag filled with 100 dollar bills on the floor, almost a million dollars.
after 30 minutes they were done combing through the house and collecting everything of value.
Nora was relieved to see the leader ran the operation tight, the absence of violence and threats and the mask indicated that he ran a disciplined crew.
this meant they will take what they want and leave. And that is exactly what she wanted.
she still wondered why was she the only one who was not gagged. the only other person who seemed silent the entire time with a strict facade was a 6' 4" man who kept an eagle eye on her husband, which made her apprehensive because his eyes contained hostility.
"Boss we are are done, should we pack and load the trucks?"
"Yes transfer everything to the van and come back."
"Come back boss? didn't you say we needed to get out within 30 minutes?" asked the loudmouth.
the leader smiled at him and said there has been a slight change of plans. and then pointing out Nora and her two girls he said to the loudmouth, "You want to miss the entertainment?"
no no no, screamed Nora inside her head. what changed? what changed? she tried to re-assess the situation.
but the hungry lustful look in the loudmouth's eyes looking at her and her girls like prey to be feasted on scared her
"Please", she looked at the leader pleading, "Please take everything and go, we won't even report this " She was ignored.
only the leader and the large man remained the other three came after transferring the loot.
abruptly the leader removed his balaclava mask, no this was a bad sign.
this usually resulted in the hostage's death.
I looked at my children and screamed at them, "shut your eyes, keep them closed don't look at the people no matter what. don't open them until mommy says to okay." the children followed my instructions.
"So boss can we start?,
"Wait a minute, why don't i have a chat with the lady first?"
"Chat? oh of course sorry boss, of course you get the turn first to "chat" as you are the boss, hahaha"
"Why don't yall three sit on the sofa and watch the show while Big-Man over here keeps watch."
the situation looked as bad as Nora thought suddenly she spoke up, "Please you can have me, do whatever you want, leave my daughters. Please I am begging you."
The leader looked at the Big-Man and signaled, they both took out a SIG-Sauer P226R pistol each with red dot sights, Nora was startled to see that both had Osprey suppressors screwed on them .
This was not a hardware for robbery its is for assassination!
They raised the Guns and pointed at the three men sitting on the sofa,
"What the...!"
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!,
three shots were fired; even with the suppressors on them they still made a slamming noise,
unlike in movies these types of weapons were never ever really silent,
and three thugs lay dead on the sofa with bullets holes in their head.
The leader was smiling at me, "So who do you work for?"
What?
Who do you work for? I was still stunned by the turn of the events.
"What do you mean?" I knew why he was probably asking seeing how trained my children and husband behaved, with his military training he must have figured something out . Is that why he seems to have changed his plan? Is that why he killed them? to have way out for him. I looked at both remaining men, I saw no lust in either of them, so it seems my daughters and i were safe .
"I work for the federal government, I work for the CBP (Customs and Border Patrol)" I lied.
he frowned at my answer but the smile never left his face,
"No , Special Agent Nora Johnson of the FBI," he said mockingly with emphasis on 'of the FBI'.
"Who do you really work for?"
My heart dropped, this was not a home invasion oh my god, this was a targeted attack on her.
This time I decided to tell the truth, "Yes I work for the HRT, FBI."
"Let me introduce my self, I am Joshua Cox, Vice-President of International Sales for KHKN Investment Bank"
"but i am not asking about your federal government employers, as you can see I already know all about that, what I want to know is which CRIMINAL organization you work for?"
What? FUCK. i steeled myself. there was not a single word more
"Hmm, looks like you are not interested in being co-operative. do you perhaps find my lack of violence towards you as my unwillingness to go further?"
Joshua stuffed the cloth back in Nora;s mouth.
Joshua looked at Big-Man and gave the go ahead, and Big-Man shot Bob; Nora's husband dead.
Nora tried to scream eyes full of hatred, she now knew what he was asking of her, he knew about her, he knew about them, he was looking for them, willing to kill for it, but nobody ever looked for them, they were the shadows, they were the one who always hunted from the shadows.
She saw the hatred in his eyes, this was not business, It was personal! A survivor? Impossible!
The Organization she worked for didn't leave witnesses or survivors, even potential threats like family and friends were wiped out. Babies, pregnant women or old people? didn't matter everything was wiped out from the roots. As the Chinese said, even the dogs and chicken were killed.
she looked at Joshua,pleading and begging with her eyes.
"Would you like to answer my question now?"
But Joshua saw that no co-operation was forthcoming, without wasting his time, he raised his gun again and shot Debby, Nora's oldest daughter right between her eyes.
"Two gone, two to go!" he looked at her with intense hatred and rage in his eyes.
"So what is it? ready to talk?"