Some people say that vigilantes’ are a menace. Apparently helping people in need when the police won’t is a problem for some people. In reality, if this so-called ‘menace’ knows what he’s doing and isn’t causing any problems, then why is it so wrong? I’ve certainly saved еще lives than I can count. I guess trying to be a hero is frowned upon these days. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying everyone should go out and take the law into their own hands. It takes years of training and skill to take such risks.

    That’s where my years of military service come in handy. I’d joined when I was 19, at which time I had already mastered jujitsu. In service, I became a sharp-shooter in no time; I can easily hit a target without taking time to aim. The highest rank I’d achieved was General of the Army. I could’ve stayed in service for years…that’s when it all came crashing down.

    When I met Sergeant Douglass Newman, I thought he was a loyal a friend as my lieutenant, but looks can be deceiving. About a месяц after he showed up, my lieutenant reported to me that General Wickman of Unit 7 was murdered. I almost didn’t believe him when he told me that my wife, Julie, was the prime suspect. Well, long story short, after weeks of investigating and trials, it became еще and еще clear to me who the murderer was…None other than Douglass Newman.

After I’d started catching on to his little game, I confronted him. It did not end well. Douglass and I ended up in a fist fight, which ended in a struggle for my 9mm. Gun went off and the Далее thing we knew the Corporal lay dead with a bullet in his heart. It was Douglass who’d pulled the trigger, but we both were put to blame. After Douglass and I broke out of prison, I changed my identity and moved to New York. Why New York? Because no one would think to look for me in one of the biggest cities in the world where I’d be in plain sight. I never heard from Douglass again.

    It’s not easy being a vigilante with a $25000 bounty on your head; it’s not hard to imagine how many times I’ve came close to being caught, или should I say we have gotten close to being caught. My lieutenant from the army was the only one that believed me when I was found guilty of 1st degree murder. After he found out I’d escaped prison, he came after me. I thought he was going to turn me in, but it was actually quite the opposite. He wanted to help. He gave up his military rank to keep me safe. We’ve been like brothers ever since. It makes life as a vigilante a little easier when Ты have someone who’s free as a bird there to get Ты out of a tight spot.

    William Richards is the most trustworthy friend I’ve ever had. I entrust him with my life, and the feeling is mutual. We’ve been through everything together. I remember when I had pneumonia; William stayed by my side until I recovered. I’d done the same for him when he’d gotten shot on our mission in Tallahassee. The wound was deep and on the verge of infection; he barely made it out alive. I felt so guilty; if he hadn’t come on that dangerous mission, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. But I guess that’s the price of friendship, Ты stick by them no matter what.

    It’s been kind of a slow week; I haven’t crossed any problems that the police hadn’t already taken care of. It’s a cool, rainy Thursday morning; my alarm sounds off promptly at 6:30am. Normally, I’d wake instantly and go straight into push-ups или sit-ups, but it must have been something about the soft pitter-patter of the raindrops on my window that lulled me back to sleep. However, it wasn’t too long before William came striding into my room.

    “Daniel! Ты didn’t tell me Ты were sleeping in today.”

    I covered my face with my blanket. “It’s only been ten minutes, William.” I muttered through the sheets.

    “Exactly, for you that’s sleeping in.” William joked. “Come on, we have a job to do.”

    “Yeah…just give me a minute.” I heard a brief swish-swish of jean-on-jean and the covers were yanked off of me. I laughed and turned on my side facing away from him, covering my face with my pillow. “Aw, Ma! I don’t wanna go to school!” I joked.

    William laughed and repeatedly poked my back. “Dan! Danny! Daniel! Dan-Man! Danielle! Wake up!”

    “William!” I exclaimed pushing his hand away.

    “Danny…I have coffee and I’m not afraid to use it…” He called in a sing-song voice.

    “You wouldn’t dare…” I сказал(-а) from under my pillow. A moment later, I could feel hot glass being gently pressed to my bare back. “I’m gonna kill you, William!” I exclaimed rolling out of постель, кровати as William made for the door.

    He closed the door in my face and when I opened it to go out after him, he was already in the living room; he’d set his cup on the counter in the кухня neighboring the living room. I stopped in the hallway and stared back at him; he was standing in the middle of the room with the диван, мягкий уголок to his right, feet spread apart, grinning mischievously. He extended out his right arm, palm up, and made a ‘bring it on’ motion with his index finger. I smiled and charged forward. “Get back here, William!” I exclaimed as he took off in the other direction.

    “Run, run, run! As fast as Ты can! Ты can’t catch me; I’m the gingerbread-Whoa!” William tripped on one of the rugs, the flipped onto his back, propping himself up on his hands. Neither of us could stop laughing. I was about to climb on вверх of him when he kicked me in the stomach.

    I doubled over with a grunt and looked into his devious brown eyes. “You’re so dead!” I grabbed his foot and pushed it aside and pinned him to the floor.

    “Hey, man! Let me go! Not fair!” William cried with a laugh. He struggled and managed to slip from my grasp and shoved his hand into my face, pushing me off of him. He tried to turn the tables on me, but I pushed the pressure point in his shoulder that works every time.

    I pinned him back down with ease and said: “I was always stronger than you!”

    William struggled for a moment before he said: “Yeah, right! Get off of me!”

    “Nope! I wanna hear Ты say it, ‘Daniel is superior!’”

    “Oh, come on! Gimme a break!”

    “Not until Ты say it!”

    William laughed. “Fine! Daniel is superior! Now get off!”

    I laughed and pushed myself to my feet and helped William up. He pushed my shoulder and said: “You suck, man!”

    I pushed him вперед as he passed me and shot back: “You’re just jealous of my awesomeness, dude.”

    “Ha! In your dreams.” He ran his fingers through his fair hair to clear the mats out and smoothed the wrinkles out of his blue T-shirt that had accumulated during our struggle. I wiped sweat off of my forehead with the back of my arm.

    When we entered the kitchen, I poured myself a cup of coffee as William opened his laptop, which was sitting on the counter. I sat in the стул Далее to him stirring my coffee with a spoon. “So what do we have this time, Richards?”

    For some reason, that’s become a habit between us. When we’d acquired a job to do, we’d call each other by our last names, but any other time we’d go by our first. I guess it’s just the military instinct buried deep inside us.

    “I have reason to believe a scam is taking place.” He answered bringing up a webpage. I looked on with him as he explained. “Erik Østergaard is a Danish diplomat who flew over from Denmark four days назад and arrived in New York at precisely 7:32am. He met the CEO of Korbey's Inc.-" He clicked on the link to the Korbey's main page and a picture of a man in a dark suit appeared on the screen. He had dashing blue eyes and a friendly, professional smile. "-Mr. Corbin Berns." William finished.

    "Korbey's...aren't they that big manufacturing company in Midtown?"

    "Yep. Makes everything from coffee machines, to security systems, to condos."

    "What does Østergaard want?"

    "Well, apparently, Østergaard has a small business of his own in Denmark. His co-workers have made a modification to their line of computers and want to strike a deal with Korbey's."

    "What makes Ты think it's a scam?" I asked, though I had a feeling I already partly knew the answer.

    William clicked on another link that took us to Østergaard's main page. "Østergaard's company profits have been steadily declining for about three years now. So, naturally, you'd want to find a way to bring your company back up. But why come all the way to America to try to make a deal that has a 50% chance of being turned down?"

    "Maybe he's just desperate." I pondered taking a sip of coffee, letting the warm liquid slide down my throat.

    "That's what I thought too, until I looked at his bank records." He pulled up Østergaard's bank statement. "The cost for making this modification and the flight over here put him almost $13000 dollars in debt. If this deal fell through, who knows how much еще he'd be in debt. And if the deal was accepted, he could acquire the money to get his company up and running again, but it would take too long to accomplish taking into account his debt, even with half of the profits. It just doesn't seem worth it unless he stayed in the U.S. and worked with Korbey's."

    "Mm-hm. So how are we gonna figure this out? Korbey's has one of the tightest security systems in the world. It's not like I can walk right through the front door." I asked finishing off my coffee.

    William smiled. "You aren't. We are."

    "We? But you're usually the one who stays here and hacks into mainframes." I pointed out. William has always been phenomenal with computers.

    "Yeah, but for what I have in mind, Ты need to be the one to keep a low Профиль so no one suspects you."

    "And what exactly did Ты have in mind?" I asked curiously.

    William just kept smiling. "Let's just say that a certain small town business owner has a...proposition for Mr. Berns. You're gonna need these." He placed a pair of glasses and a clipboard on the counter in front of me. He reached into his pocket. "Oh, and here's your cell back. I uploaded a map of the building onto it." He put my cell in my hand. I didn't even know he'd taken it.

    "But when did you...Damn it, Richards! I hate it when Ты do that!" I exclaimed putting my cell in the pocket of my pajama bottoms.

    He laughed and said: "Well, at least I didn't steal your wallet."

    "Hey, I only did that to get back at Ты for short-sheeting my bed!" I snapped back.

    "Yes, and that was the very mature way to deal with the situation." William сказал(-а) grinning idiotically.

    "And short-sheeting my постель, кровати was mature?" I pointed out.

    "Touche." William сказал(-а) simply. He brushed by me and said: "Go get dressed. We have work to do." He continued into the living room and I looked down at the clipboard and wire glasses sitting on the counter. "Richards, why exactly do I need these glasses?" I called watching him settle himself into the black leather couch, turning on the morning news.

    "So Ты can wear them!" He answered back.

    I poured another cup of coffee and brought it to him. "Ha-ha, very funny. Here's your coffee." I turned and headed back to my room when I heard William spit his coffee back into his cup.

    "Ew! Hey, Ты forgot the-" He abruptly stopped talking when he heard my laughing at the fact that I'd purposely didn't mix any cream или sugar into his coffee. "Oh, very funny, Chancellor! Very mature! This isn't over!"

    I could almost feel his eyes burrowing into me as I laughed my way to my room. I shut the door behind me and fixed the sheets that were strewed onto the floor. I pulled my cell out of my pocket and set it on my dresser. I then took a hot душ and took a moment to enjoy the warm water against my skin. Afterwards, I put on a black denim рубашка and dark blue jeans, then started combing back my sleek black hair. At the sound of a knocking at my door, I replied: "Who is it?"

    "It's Abraham Lincoln! Who do Ты think it is, Daniel?" William's voice сказал(-а) from the other side.

    "Sorry, Daniel's not here right now, please leave a message!" I joked.

    "Daniel! Can I come in или not?!" William tried to sound serious, but I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

    "Yeah, come on." I finally permitted. The doorknob turned and William stepped in. "Yes, mother?" I asked smiling and combing back another strand of wet hair.

    "Heheh, yeah, you're funny. I just found out what the modification to the computer is. It uses some kind of new circuit board that uses cheaper metal that would save millions on production. I don't know what kind of metal it is though." He explained.

    One pet peeve William has is that he hates it when he thinks I'm not listening. So just to annoy him, I admired my complexion in the mirror. And here it comes in 3...2...1...

    "Are Ты even listening, Chancellor?"

    Yep, there it is. "Yes, I'm listening! Did Ты discover anything else?"

    "No, not yet." He watched me comb my hair back a couple еще times before he rolled his eyes and said: "You're beautiful, now come on." He turned and walked down the hallway, leaving the door open for me to follow.

    I set my comb down and pocketed my cell, then I followed William, saying, "Thank you!" in a smart-alec tone of voice while I shut the door behind me.