Prologue
Antione Avendano, a tall, blond man, with unhappy eyes, was ripped from his sleep by a ringing sound. He rolled over and discovered it was his phone. Antione rubbed his eyes and picked up the phone without seeing who was calling.
“Hello, this is Antione Avendano, may I ask who is calling?”
“Hello, Antione,” Antione knew that voice from somewhere, but he couldn’t think through his grogginess. “This is Mr. Rockstone.”
Antione sat straight up in his bed. “Mr. Rockstone?”
Mr. Rockstone laughed at his surprise, “Yes, it’s me, Antione.”
Antione’s eyes narrowed, “What do you want? I don’t work for you anymore.”
“About that,” Mr. Rockstone began hesitantly, “I need a favor from you. I promise I will pay you well.”
“Of course, you do.” Antione heard Mr. Rockstone sigh. “I’ll help you Rockstone. I need a change of pace anyway. Life’s been boring lately.”
With relief, Mr. Rockstone thanked Antione. “Be in my office by eight-o-clock tomorrow morning.”
“I will.”
Rockstone hung up after that, which was slightly rude, but it was strictly a business call anyway. Antione smiled slightly as he thought of this new opportunity. He hadn’t worked for the government in a while, but being a freelance agent wasn’t enjoyable. He was excited to go back, yet also nervous. With a sigh, Antione forced himself to stop worrying, set an alarm, and fell back asleep.
<<<*>>>
The next morning, Antione found himself walking up the sidewalk to a large and familiar marble building. Admiring the trellises and columns, he climbed the front steps and stopped just in front of the security guard. He pulled out a small note and handed it to him. “I’m here to see Mr. Rockstone. I believe you’ll find that everything is in order.”
The guard glanced at the paper then nodded. “You may go in,” he said as he opened the door. The man walked through the spacious doorway and immediately took in his surroundings. After quickly and efficiently memorizing everything around him, he approached the receptionist. “I have an appointment with Mr. Rockstone.”
“What is your name?” She asked as she pulled out a schedule and a notepad.
“Mr. Avendano. Antione Avendano.” He clarified, just in case.
Her eyes scrolled quickly down the schedule. “Mr. Avendano. He’s been waiting for you. His office is the last one on the left.”
He nodded, “Thank you, ma’am.”
“You’re welcome.” She responded formally.
When he got to Mr. Rockstone’s room his hand hovered over the handle for a moment. He slowly opened it and walked into Rockstone’s office. “Hello, Mr. Rockstone.”
“Antione. How are you?” He said with a grin. He hoped Antoine couldn’t see how desperate he was for help.
“I’m doing great. What do you need me for?” He hoped it was an exciting job. He didn’t want a boring job, like the time he had to find somebody in the witness protection program to get them a new identity, while they were on a cruise ship. That was boring.
“I have a job for you. I know you’ve been freelancing for a while, but we need you to stop doing odd jobs for multiple government agencies and focus on one. I need you to track a certain criminal for us.” He responded as he reached into a filing cabinet.
Antione leaned forward with interest, “Who?” That sounded exciting.
He pulled out a file, “Here it is. We’ve been looking for him for years. This is his file.”
Antione read it quickly. It was all the basic information. Name: Alvin Mastermind. Height: 5’6’’-5 ‘8’’. Weight: About 120 lbs. Eye Color: Blue or Black. Hair Color: We’re pretty sure it’s black. “Mastermind, huh? Wasn’t he in jail a few days ago, what happened? Also, why do we know so little?”
“Yeah. He was. He escaped, and when he was in jail, Sunn didn’t know it was him—at least I don’t think he did. That means the file isn’t updated and was written by chance glances at him while he ran away from the cops. Now, we’re trying to get confirmation from General Atkin, or Sunn on what he looks like—since they are the only ones who have ever seen him.” Rockstone said in exasperation.
Antione smiled, “So let me get this straight, a seventeen-year-old boy got the best of you?”
Rockstone formed his hands into a steeple and stared Antione in the eye, “Actually, Sunn, and General Atkin were the ones who lost him. I had no part in it. I wasn’t even there, but I took matters into my own hands after my subordinates failed. Here are files on everything that we know about Mastermind, including this.” He held up a small notebook. “He left this in his cell block. It seems to be a personal journal that he kept. I have no idea why he chose to keep one anyway, it just gives us more leads. I suggest you read the entire thing.”
“Why?”
“It might give you some clues on how to catch him.”
Antione decided to toy with Rockstone a little. “How am I supposed to catch him, if you guys have been trying to catch him for years? What can I do better than Sunn or Atkin did? This seems like an impossible task, Mr. Rockstone.”
Rockstone frowned, “You are the only person who can catch him. You’re the best tracker we’ve ever had. You can take any people under my command to help you out. I really don’t care how you do it, just catch him, and bring him back to me. You’ll see from the notebook we found that the last place we know he’s been was the jail. The cops lost him after a while. We expected him to be at a hospital after the injuries he sustained while escaping, but we couldn’t find anything.”
“When do you want me to start?”
“Today.”
Antione grinned, “Well then, I’m going to read this, and then assemble my team. This is going to be fun.” He was extremely glad that it wasn’t going to be boring, like the time that he had staked-out a building for two weeks straight waiting for the criminals to get there.
“He’s not a quarry to joke around about.”
“I know, I just relish a challenge.”
Rockstone looked relieved. “Thank you, Antione. It’s good to have you back.”
Antione took Rockstone’s outstretched hand, and shook it, “This doesn’t mean I’m going to keep working for you after this Mr. Rockstone, so don’t get your hopes up.”
Rockstone smiled, “Just find Mastermind, and I’ll pay you well. All necessary expenses will be paid for. I’ll need a list of people you want on your team as soon as possible.”
“I can give you one name right away.”
“Who?”
“I want John.” Not only did he want John, but he also wanted to see how much Rockstone would give to get Mastermind put behind bars.
“Done.” Rockstone said, “Now, get started, Antione. There’s no time to waste.”
Antione nodded and left the room. He walked home enjoying the fresh air, and once he entered his home, he immediately sat down to read the notebook Rockstone had given him.
“Well,” he said to himself, “Let’s find out what Mastermind is like.”
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