Legacy of the Destroyer

Legacy

Of

The

Destroyer

by

Alec R Zeelie

Table of Contents

Title Page

Legacy of the Destroyer

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Man's greatest creation will inevitably lead to man's greatest destruction.

Creating

The Destroyer

Chapter I

Silent Filter

1

The time was 6:49am on a Monday morning in August 1999. The streets of Port Elizabeth were crawling with people who were on their way to work. The sound of people racing down the streets in cars, trucks, and on motorcycles to get to work on time, along with the sound of pedestrians talking to each other, broke the silence of the early morning. The morning rush hour had just begun.

Standing next to an empty bench at a bus stop in front of a small hotel in the central business district, Nekros waited patiently – but he was not waiting for the bus. His long black trench coat gave him little comfort from the cold. Underneath the trench coat he wore a black suit and tie. His attire made him almost invisible to the pedestrians who walked past him. He just looked like another businessman who was on his way to the office. Wearing black leather gloves, he held a slightly larger than usual attaché case in his hand.

Like a statue, he stood there motionless.  Not even the strong gust of wind which blew a dozen empty soda cans and beer bottles around in the long, dirty alleyway next to the hotel made him move a muscle. It almost looked as if he was completely frozen in time, but behind the metallic black lenses of his sunglasses, his eyes scanned through all of the pedestrians that passed him by. Who was he looking for?

By the time the clock struck 7:30am, he still stood there waiting patiently. He looked at the time on his wristwatch for the umpteenth time, breathed out a short sigh, looked up, and spotted a small light yellow sports car heading his way. It was only when the Italian sports car stopped in front of the small courier company across the street that Nekros sat down on the bench at the bus stop. Clearly he wanted to look as inconspicuous as possible. He stared at the large man who got out of the sports car, but quickly took his small black cell phone out of his trench coat’s inner pocket at the very same time in order not to draw suspicion.

The large man (who was only known as ‘the D-tycoon’) was well-dressed and, judging by all of his gold rings and necklaces, appeared to be wealthy. The hair gel in his light red hair glistened in the sunlight, but it didn’t help much in hiding the fact that he had a few bald spots here and there. The smug expression on his face, his cocky grin, and the manner in which he pushed an elderly businessman out of his way as he stepped onto the sidewalk made it clear that he probably thought he owned the entire block. He walked up to the courier company’s doors, unlocked them, entered the building and closed the doors behind him.

Nekros got up off the bench with his attaché case still in his hand and entered the hotel behind the bus stop.

Inside the hotel, he tried to sneak through the reception area without being seen, but the receptionist spotted him and asked, Have you forgotten something up in your room, sir?

He looked at the cute receptionist behind the reception desk, took off his sunglasses, and said, Yes. I left very important business documents up in my room. I have to take them to a very important business meeting.

The nosy receptionist wanted to ask him something but before she could say a single word, he looked at his wristwatch and said, Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go get those documents quickly, or else I might be late for my meeting, and quickly walked up the wooden staircase.

She stared at him until he disappeared up the staircase before she whispered softly, He’s really cute. Where was he when I was still single?

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2

Nekros entered room 305 on the third floor and locked the door behind him. 

He had been staying at the hotel for the past three days. During the three days he had kept a close eye on the D-tycoon’s each and every move.

He placed his attaché case on the double bed and opened it. He took out the parts of his state-of-the-art sniper rifle and assembled it in less than forty seconds. It was unlike any other sniper rifle. It was much smaller and much more advanced than any sniper rifle that the police and military had ever used. He attached a three inch long silencer to the barrel of his rifle.  He placed his right index finger on the two armour-piercing bullets, paused for a few seconds, and then took the two silver bullets next to the armour-piercing bullets out of the attaché case instead. 

In front of one of the two windows there stood a wooden chair. He opened the window only a few inches, drew the curtains, and sat on the wooden chair. After he loaded the sniper rifle with the two silver bullets, he drew one of the curtains back only an inch and took aim. Seeing as that the curtains were drawn, he knew that no one would notice him or his weapon. The only part of the sniper rifle that was visible in front of the curtains was the front half of the silencer.

Nekros sat there completely silent and motionless for the next ten minutes and waited patiently.

The courier company was just a front for a drug trafficking syndicate. D-tycoon was a notorious drug kingpin who supplied more than sixty drug dealers in the Eastern Cape, Southern Cape, Western Cape and Free State with large quantities of illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, meth and marijuana. He also had more than a dozen high-ranking police officers on his payroll who protected him from the long (sometimes crooked) arm of the law by warning him about any possible raids on his warehouses by the police. This made him virtually untouchable.

In the reception area of the courier company, the D-tycoon stood close to the front door with his cellphone in hand. He was waiting for someone to phone him.

When his cellphone finally rang, he answered it rather rudely, Where the hell are you? The dealer in Uitenhage wants his package before noon today! If you’re not here with that three pound package of cocaine in the next hour, you will go home tonight in a body bag!

He shoved his cellphone into his jacket’s inner pocket and began looking for his cigars. After searching through all of his pockets, he realized that he had left his cigars in his car.

Nekros saw the D-tycoon the very second that he stepped out onto the sidewalk. He had the kingpin in his sights. With his finger on the trigger, he waited for the right moment to shoot.

D-tycoon took his car keys out of his pocket, but before he even had a chance to unlock his car door, Nekros quickly but gently squeezed the trigger twice and fired both silver bullets straight at his chest. Both bullets entered his chest and tore straight through his heart. The kingpin coughed out blood with his final breath as his lifeless body struck the sidewalk. 

When two business women, four business men, and a security guard who were on their way to work saw the dead kingpin lying motionless on the sidewalk, they rushed closer to see if they could help him. It was only when they saw the large puddle of blood that was streaming out of his body, and the two bullet holes in his chest that they realized he had been shot. All of them panicked. Some of them ran away, thinking that the kingpin might have been killed by a trigger-happy gunman who would also shoot them. The security guard was the only one who still stood next to the dead body. He frantically took his cellphone out of his pocket and phoned the police.

As more and more pedestrians saw the dead body, a small group of them formed a circle around it. Some of them quickly walked away nauseated by the sight of the large pool of blood; some of them were just too shocked and horrified to do or say anything; while a few of them seemed rather fascinated by all the blood and gore as they stared at the dead body with wide open eyes.

Nekros – who had already disassembled his sniper rifle – quickly placed the disassembled parts of his weapon back in his attaché case and closed it. He took his small light brown duffle bag out from under the bed and made sure that he didn’t leave anything behind before he left the room.

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3

In the reception area of the hotel, the receptionist stood in front of the hotel’s entrance doors. She was staring at the small group of people who stood in a circle around the dead body. She wanted to go look but she knew that she couldn’t leave the reception area unattended.

Nekros came down the wooden staircase, walked up to her and asked, What’s going on over there?

I’m not sure. I think that there’s a dead body over there, but I’m not sure because I can’t really see anything from here. There are too many people standing over there. She turned around, faced Nekros, and asked, Aren’t you going to be late for your meeting?

I just found out that the meeting has been cancelled. I’ll be checking out of my room today.

Leaving so soon?

Nekros nodded.

Will you be paying with a credit card or cash?

Cash.

After paying for his stay, he left the hotel.

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4

Nekros crossed the street and joined the group of pedestrians who stood around the dead kingpin’s body. In order to blend into the crowd, he tried as hard as he could to appear shocked. He shook his head as he stared at the corpse. As soon as he was sure that the D-tycoon was dead, he walked away from the crowd, crossed the street, and began making his way down the long dirty alleyway next to the hotel.

Behind the hotel, there was a small parking area where the hotel guests and staff parked their cars.

Nekros walked up to a light grey hatchback that was parked close to the back entrance of the hotel. He unlocked the car and put his attaché case and duffle bag on the passenger seat.

He got into the car and looked around to make sure that no one was close enough to hear him. Then he took out his cellphone and pressed only three buttons. On the other end of the line he heard a phone ringing for more than a minute; after which he heard the voice of an elderly woman say: You have reached the number of Mrs. Smith. I am not home right now, so leave your name and number after the beep and I’ll phone you back as soon as possible.

After the beep, Nekros waited for another minute until he heard a deep voice on the other end of the line say: Report.

He looked around one more time to make sure that no one was close enough to hear him before he said, F Division. Silent Filter. There is silence, and ended the call.

He started the car and drove out of the hotel’s parking area.

Who was Nekros? Why did he kill the drug kingpin? And who did he work for?

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5

In Deal Party – an industrial area in Port Elizabeth – there were a number of scrap metal recycling plants, mechanical engineering workshops, panel beating workshops, and automotive components manufacturers and distributors.

It was a busy morning as usual in Deal Party. The streets were filled with cars, trucks, and delivery vans.

Nekros drove to what appeared to be a very large engineering workshop and pulled up in front of the entrance gate. The workshop was much larger than any of the other workshops in the area. It also had an eight foot high fence all around it.

At the entrance gate, there was a small security office. Wearing a light brown uniform, the skinny security guard (who had a shiny silver snub-nosed revolver hidden in his shoulder-holster beneath his jacket) came out of the security office.

Nekros wound the window down and greeted the security guard.

Good morning, sir. How may I help you? the security guard asked.

"Hi. There’s something wrong with my car. I don’t know why, but sometimes the engine just goes silent. I also think that there’s something wrong with the carburetor and the air filter. The car makes me so angry that I sometimes feel like I want to hit it with my red fist."

The security guard looked around to make sure that there wasn’t anyone close enough to hear what they were saying before he quietly asked, What is your code name?

Nekros.

What is the name of your division?

The F Division.

The security guard quickly stepped back into the security office, sat down in front of a small grey computer and typed in the words Nekros and F Division. As soon as he pressed the enter button, an image of Nekros’ face appeared on the screen. The words Nekros, the Silent Filter, and F Division appeared above the image before the words ACCESS GRANTED flashed in large bright green letters below the image.

The security guard looked at the image on the screen, looked at Nekros through the small open window of the security office, smiled, waved his hand, and pressed a small yellow button which opened the security gate.

To the naked eye, the large building looked like nothing more than an oversized workshop. But what exactly was going on behind the reinforced walls, locked reinforced doors, and tinted windows of the workshop?

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6

Nekros drove past three men who were dressed in dirty blue overalls. They looked harmless, but they were actually armed security guards who were patrolling around the workshop.

When he drove around to the back of the workshop, he stopped in front of one of the seven large garage doors. He took out his cellphone, pressed four buttons, pointed it at the small sign (a black sign with the picture of a red fist on it) next to the garage door, and pressed the call button. All of a sudden the garage door opened. He drove in and immediately pressed the cancel button on his cellphone which then closed the garage door.

Lights on, he said as he got out of the car.

The voice-activated lights immediately came on. The room wasn’t very big and there wasn’t really anything in it. There was a large metal closet in the corner. Right next to it was something that looked like a normal filing cabinet. 

Nekros took the duffle bag out of the car, opened it and took out a black folder which contained the criminal history, last known addresses, and photographs of the drug kingpin who he had assassinated. He pulled out the long deep top drawer of the filing cabinet and placed the black folder in it. He took a 9mm semi-automatic pistol out of his shoulder-holster along with two spare clips and also placed them in the drawer. He then took the attaché case out of the car, opened it and took out all the disassembled parts of the sniper rifle along with the two armour-piercing bullets which he also placed in the drawer before he closed it.

When he opened the metal closet, a bright white light came on along with the high-tech security system. In the back of the closet there was something which looked like nothing more than a small computer screen. When the screen came on, he pressed the palm of his right hand flat against it. The words Fingerprint Identification Complete appeared on the screen. After he took his hand off of it, a dim yellow light began flashing above the screen. The top of the screen opened and out of it came something which looked like an even smaller yellow computer screen. Nekros leaned forward until his forehead pressed the small oval black button above the yellow screen. With his wide-open eyes only a few millimeters away from the screen, he tried hard not to blink. As soon as the screen turned blue, the words Retina Scanning Complete appeared on the screen and a bright green light began flashing inside the closet.

Nekros stepped out of the closet. He heard strange electric and mechanical noises as the floor inside the closet slid open and revealed a metal stairway which led underground. Without saying a word, he began making his way down the long metal stairway.

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7

Hidden underground, beneath the large workshop, was the South African base for a secret organization called SI-FIST (which stood for Secret International Filtering, Infiltration, and Strike Teams).

The organization was established in 1981 by two South African politicians and two American politicians. Over the years they recruited more than seventeen thousand agents. By the end of 1993 they had seven secret bases in five different countries. It was a very well kept secret. None of the SI-FIST agents knew who the four politicians were. Everyone always referred to them as the four silhouettes. That was because before every important assignment (mission) the agents involved in that particular assignment would receive a briefing from them via videoconferencing, and all that the agents ever saw of them were four silhouettes. 

SI-FIST consisted of many different divisions. The three most important divisions – as shown in the name – were the Filtering, Infiltration, and Strike Team divisions. The Filtering Division consisted of a number of highly trained assassins – like Nekros – who were usually assigned to assassinate a variety of dangerous and powerful criminals (the leaders of terrorist groups, drug kingpins, the leaders of cults, etc.) It was called the Filtering Division because their job was basically to filter the most dangerous criminal masterminds out of society. There were more than a thousand infiltrators in the Infiltration Division. Their job was to infiltrate secret organizations, terrorist cells, political and religious extremist groups, cults, etc.

Altogether there were seventeen Strike Team Units in the organization. Each Strike Team Unit consisted of highly trained agents (soldiers) who secretly either captured of eliminated terrorist groups, extremist groups, etc.

There were a number of smaller divisions in the organization as well.  In the South African base of SI-FIST, the Research and Development Division consisted of fifteen scientists who, among other things, developed high-tech weapons and equipment for the other divisions. The Secrecy Division’s duty was to make sure that the government and the media never found out about the existence of SI-FIST by covering up any and all of the organization’s activities. The Recruiting Division was responsible for recruiting only the best of the best soldiers, infiltrators, scientific geniuses, etc for the organization. 

Nekros (whose code name means ‘corpse’ in Greek) was one of the organization’s best assassins. There were a number of reasons why he was chosen to be an assassin for the organization’s Filtering Division. Back when he was still in his early twenties he became a sniper in the police force. Only a week after his twenty-seventh birthday, he was recruited as a marksman by the military. He was recruited by SI-FIST only two years later.

Underground, at the bottom of the stairway, he stepped into a small stuffy room. In the middle of the room there was a wooden table and two chairs. He walked up to the thick metal door behind the table and pressed a small yellow button on the wall. He sat down on one of the two chairs at the table and waited. Less than three minutes later, the thick metal door was opened and a short chubby fellow entered the small room. Dressed in a dark grey business suit, the chubby bald gentleman – code-named Target-Seeker – greeted Nekros as he sat down in front of him at the table. Target-Seeker was the commanding agent of the Filtering Division.

Congratulations on the successful completion of your fiftieth assignment, Target-Seeker said.

Thank you.

Agents from the Secrecy Division are busy covering everything up. They’ll make it look as if the D-tycoon was killed by one of his own drug dealers. Payment for the completion of your assignment is being transferred into your bank account as we speak. When you leave here, you’ll find a different car in the garage. We’re going to spray-paint the hatchback a different colour and upgrade it a little bit. Today you’ll be driving home in something a bit more... sporty.

Nekros raised an eyebrow and grinned before he asked, "What do you mean by sporty?"

You’ll see as soon as you leave. I’ll contact you as soon as we have another assignment for you, Target-Seeker said before he and Nekros got up, shook hands and said goodbye to each other.

Just as Nekros wanted to leave the small room, Target-Seeker said, You know, I’ve been working for the organization for the last nineteen years. In all my years with SI-FIST, I’ve never met anyone as professional as you.

Nekros thanked him before he began making his way back up the stairway.

There stood a blood-red sports car in the garage. Nekros stepped out of the closet and froze when he saw it. He shook his head in disbelief as he walked around the car. He grinned when he read what was printed in pitch black letters on the hood of the car: ‘Are U Envious?’

On the passenger seat, on top of his duffle bag, he saw a small blue note. He picked it up and immediately recognized Target-Seeker’s handwriting. The note read: ‘Try not to get any speeding tickets!’

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8

After leaving the SI-FIST base, Nekros drove to his house in Walmer Park. His house wasn’t the biggest in the neighborhood, but it was still bigger than most houses. Most of the houses in the neighborhood had at least four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen, two living rooms, a study and a huge swimming pool.

Nekros’ house had six-foot high walls around it with razor-sharp metal spikes all around the top. He opened his electric driveway gate with a small remote control before he drove into his yard and parked the car in front of his garage. After he closed the driveway gate, he walked up to his front door and took out his keys to unlock it. Just as he unlocked the thick wooden front door, he heard a familiar voice call out, "Hey stranger! I haven’t seen