Deception

Deception

Jaciel Maldonado

         “Kevin! Come look quick, you’re on the news!”
I woke to my mother calling my voice, so I, already dressed, went upstairs to her room and saw her watching the computer screen. “Kevin Wright, the owner of ….” I heard the news reporter say. I stopped paying attention to the monitor and looked at her amused. “I thought you would be used tip it by now, mother.” “Well, it’s not that Kevin it’s just that every time I see something like this, it makes me so proud!” “ Kevin Wright has returned to his hometown, “the reporter continued, “ and plans to stay here for quite a while , his new product the—” “ You’re going to stay ?!” My mother said as she went to embrace me. “Yes mom, I think I deserve a break from all this work, I left my best man in charge of the company while I’m gone.” “Oh, you know I don’t like that young man.” said my mother disapprovingly. “Why don’t you like David?” I said, “He’s been my best friend since high school you know, he has my complete trust.”
         “You know very well why I don’t like him Kevin, he just disgusts me and I can’t stand him!”
         “Calm down mother, I didn’t mean to get you all worked up.”
         “Sorry dear. I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse ; shall we go get something to eat?”


         “Dammit.”
My first week in charge, and I already start to mess things up.
         “Mary, do I have any appointments today?”
         “Yes, sir, at 12:30,” said Mary, with a mock of politeness,” you have a meeting with the vice president of the company and Mr. wright. I think he might not come though, on the news it said that he would be staying in Texas for some time.”
         “Good, well that’s why I’m here; he did leave me in charge after all.”
I walked down the hall to my new office. I felt so powerful, in a seat of power, momentarily in charge of the biggest company in the country. I had always envied Kevin, but he has always been a good friend. He would never think of me overtaking the company and making it mine, stripping him of his power. And he was so religious; one of the few people in the country that still practiced the ancient religion of Christianity.
         “Fool”, I said to me, “he is a fool. Everybody knows science is everything. He worships a god which does not exist. A fool.”
I opened the door to my office and saw I had a missed call on my phone. It was from Kevin. I wonder what he wanted. I grabbed my phone and called him back.
         “Hello?”
         “Hey Kevin, did you need me?
         “Not really, I just wanted to see if everything is going on as planned and everything is the way I left it.”
         “Of course Kevin. Everything is running smoothly.”
         “I think you’ve heard I won’t be coming for a while now, I’m sorry to leave you with all this pressure, but you’re going to have be in my place for longer than I thought, I need to spend a little more time away from work and enjoy myself a little.”
         “I would be delighted to stay a while longer; in fact it would be an honor.”
         “Well that’s all I needed to say David, I have to go now, I have lunch with my mother, take care.”
The fool. He had no idea what was coming to him. Now this isn’t very easy for me, Kevin has been my best friend since college, before he was wealthy, but he had always been very smart, and I had always envied that. Now wealth, intelligence, public figure, famous, and very handsome. He has everything a man could ever want. Why can’t I be like him? Very soon I will have at least his wealth, but how can I get him to die in a way I won’t get caught? I knew that I was in his will; I would be given presidency to his company and half of his fortune. His mother will get the other half but that didn’t matter right now. I would deal with her later. Then I got an idea, I picked up my phone to call an old contact of mine.
After lunch with my mom I went to back to the house and my mom went to some class. I was real tired, even though I had just woken up a couple of hours ago. I plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. I went to some news channel and heard about a story where kids started a foundation to save the rainforest. I sat there amused. Nobody could save the rainforest now. It was so unbelievably small now. Then a story caught my attention, “It seems al-Qaeda have attacked yet another historical monument , this time a very important symbol for America, the statue of liberty, destroyed today at 2:30 pm , by 3 fighter jets crashing into the top of the statue and making the whole structure collapse and killing everyone inside , 543 known deaths and countless injuries…” I turned off the TV. It was their second attack this month. Now I’m sure, they would go for the tallest building in America or something like that. Then it hit me, my building the sphinx. Especially if the owner of the building is Christian. Dammit.
“Alice, beautiful as ever.”
“Thanks Dave, sorry if I came here a little too early, but I wanted to see what was the reason you needed me for?”
         “Alice, you already know why you are here, more or less.”
         “I need to know exactly why I have been called. I told you, this is the last time I’ll help you. After this, I no longer owe you my servitude”
         “Yes, I’m sure I won’t need you no more.”
         “Ok then, tell me your plan.”
         “I want Kevin Wright dead.”
         “I thought he was your best friend.”
         "Yes, but I have bigger plans than just friendship.”
         “Are you sure you want me to do this?”
         “Of course. And I need it done quickly before he returns to the company. Matter of fact, I want it done by tomorrow.”
         “Impossible!”
         “Get it done”, I said as I walked out of my own office “and don’t try to anything smart, I’ll be watching you.”
There I left Alice Stumped trying to figure how to accomplish this last task I gave her.
I needed to get to the sphinx as fast as I could. I didn’t know what I could do about it, but I needed to be present if anything bad happens. What a fool I had been to think that I should take a vacation. I own the biggest company in the country! I needed to be there 24/7. I got my phone and called my pilot.
         “Hey, Ivan?”
         “Yes boss, how can I help you?”
         “I need the plane as soon as possible, right now if you can.”
“The plane is ready to go; I just need to add more fuel.”
“Will it be ready in 45 minutes?”
“Of course boss.”
“Then I’ll be there in 45 minutes.”
I grabbed my suitcase and put some clothes in it, and then started heading down.
“Kevin, where are you going?” said my mom.
“I have to go to New York, emergency mother, you wouldn’t understand.”
“You’re going to leave me alone?” she said heartbrokenly, “Can I go with you?”
“Umm— ,” I hesitated, “ I don’t think you’ll like it over there, if you insist you can go, I guess, I’m leaving right now though, you have to leave immediately.
“Let’s go then Kevin.”
Dammit. Well I guess my mom is going too.

We drove to my pilot’s garage and got out the truck.
“Mr. Wright, are you ready to board the plane?”
“Yes, my mother is going too, will that be a problem?”
“Well yes, but I know what we can do.”
I tensed nervously because soon my best friend would be dead. What kind of friend am I? I needed to call Alice and tell her the deals over.
“Hello, Alice?”
“Yes?”
“I change my mind, stop don’t do it!”
“Sorry, it’s already done.”
“…..”
“David are you still there?”
I hung up the phone. What had I done?
I knew taking separate planes from my mom was a bad idea but with a bigger plane it would take another day. Plus her plane was right behind me. I should call her to see how she was doing. I called her and no answer, damn. I tried calling her many times but failed. Maybe she wasn’t getting signal in that small plane.
“Ivan, what was the name of your pilot friend?”
“Alice.”
I needed to call her back; I needed to know how he died.
“How did you do it?”
“I simply boarded his plane and got it in the air and then left it on autopilot and jumped out in a parachute. He should be dead in a few minutes.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“No he was asleep under a blanket, a light blue one, the color of the seats in the plane. I left him that way.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
“Who else would leave to New York in a private jet?”
“You didn’t check if it was him?”
“No. It was him though. In a matter of moments, you will be owner of the biggest company in the world.”
I hung up on her I didn’t need her anymore. I still needed to pay her for her services though. That will come soon enough. First to see where he crashes. I turned on the TV to see if it was on the news, or if any accidents or plane crashes have been reported. Sure enough, a plane crashed near Philadelphia, a small two passenger one. Fit the description. Said only one body was found, one of a middle aged woman wearing a purple dress. A middle aged woman? Impossible. My phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Hello, it’s me, Kevin; David I’ll be arriving shortly to New York, my mother is accompanying me, but in a separate flight, please meets us both in an hour at the plaza in front of the sphinx. Bye.”
What the hell? Why was he still alive? Someone knocked on my door; I went over to admit them in.
“Where’s my money David?” said Alice
“You imbecile! You killed his mother not him! They took two separate flights! Idiot!”
“I did everything you said, pay me.”
“I am not paying you anything!”
“Well alright then.”
With that she left my office.
“What are you planning to do?!”I shouted after her as she left. Dammit, dammit, dammit. Everything was going wrong. As always.
I waited for ages for my, loving mother, Karen and David to get to the plaza, half an hour later; I stopped waiting and entered the building. I took the elevator to the topmost floor, which was my office. I then got out of the elevator and walked in the room. Half way in, there’s David holding a gun at me.
“What are you doing?” I said trying to sound calm but inside I was panicking.
“Come on Kevin, your smart, add two and two together.
It took me a while but I finally got it.
“You’re going to try and kill me because you found out your in my will.”
“Well you’re smarter than I thought, Kevin.”
“Well you do know you don’t get everything.”
“I might have already accidently solved that problem.”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“You were supposed to go by yourself here to New York. Your mother unknowingly sacrificed herself to give you more time for you to live. Not much, here I am about to kill you, I always thought your mother was stupid anyways. Much like her—”
I didn’t give him time to finish his sentence, I caught him by surprise and tackled him and knocked the gun out of his hand. I picked it up and pocketed it.
“What did you do to my mother?!”
“She’s dead.”
I took out his gun and pointed it at him.
“How did you kill her, you coward?!”
“A pilot was sent to crash your plane, took your mothers instead.”
I could just end his miserable life right now, I had the gun. He was on the ground, injured and no way of anybody knowing he was killed by me. No I went against all my beliefs. I couldn’t do it, even if he did deserve it.
I knew he was about to kill me. I just wasn’t scared, as one might have been of death back then. There was no hell. I was curious, though. I waited for him to pull the trigger but he lowered to gun. He went to his phone and called security. Two minutes later armed officers came and handcuffed me and confiscated my gun. They took me and tranquillized me so I would sleep.

I woke in a cell; I was handcuffed to a chair.
“Where am I?!”
A Uniformed officer came and read something off a tablet.
“You have been asleep for one month now. The court has decided to have you put to death for the crimes you have committed. You are allowed one chance to defend yourself and prove your innocence. Come with me.”
I followed the man into a large round room. Kevin was there and there was a judge on a throne like chair.
“I give you one chance to prove yourself innocent. Even if there is video proof and witnesses that say you are guilty.”
“I am guilty.” I said simply.
“Take him” said the judge to the officer. Kevin followed us back to where we came from.
“Your last words?” said the officer as he injected me with a light blue substance I knew would kill me in less than a minute.
“I’m not ashamed or do I repent for what I have done.”
“I thought you might say that.” said Kevin as Alice walked in looking almost unrecognizable.
“Oh where are my manners, David, meet Diane, the new Vice-president of my company, I think I can trust her.” said Kevin.
“Nice to meet you,” said Alice winking so only I saw her, “too bad we only have this brief moment to know each other.”
I laughed my last laugh and looked at Alice.
“Clever Girl.”
After that David fell and died. The second most painful thing to see, but I would put this all behind me, in my past. My future started with the beautiful Diane. She was the most trustworthy person I had seen. Let’s see if she proves herself. Diane was still looking at David, I think with a look of disappointment.
“Come on let’s go, where would you like to go for lunch?”