The Arena: The Awakening (1) (15 page)

She decided that it was a safe bet that Scott would be at work so, since it was now only 11am, it was a good time to check out his home address and the surrounding area. Laura had formulated a plan in her head that needed a few blanks filling in.

It took only twenty minutes to reach the Mountain Lakes Area. As she pulled from the main Boulevard into the Mountain Lakes estate, Laura noticed that there was an unmarked cop car parked up at the side of the road. There was only one officer in it and he had a speed enforcement gun in his hand pointing in the opposite direction from where she came from. It didn’t faze her as she had nothing to be worried about, especially with her car. As she pulled in, the cop turned his head and looked directly at her as she drove past. Laura just smiled and carried on as normal and the cop didn’t appear to give her a second thought.

As Laura drove around the area, it didn’t take too long for her to get a good feel for the place. It was quiet, with plenty of rest areas next to the lakes for people to stop and soak up the views. It was very picturesque. She pulled over into a small picnic area overlooking one of the lakes. There was a sign saying 'Wildwood' but from what she could see, there was nothing wild about it. It was beautiful.

She sat on one of the picnic benches and took a look at a map that Taylor had printed out in her information bundle. From where she was sitting, she could actually see Scott’s house at the other side of the lake. She looked around and worked out that if she was going to deal with him long range, this would be the perfect location. She had been there for quite a few minutes now and no one had come past her, either on foot or by car. Her mind momentarily wandered off track as she sat there. She wondered what it would be like to actually live here with this type of scenery and recreational facilities on your doorstep. Reality came back in a flash though when she thought about how much the taxes would be as she remembered that New Jersey was quite ruthless in its taxation.

Using a small pair of binoculars she had taken from her case at the hotel, she looked at Scott’s house. From what she could see, it was at least a four bedroom house and had extensive remodelling all around. She estimated that it had at least a two car garage attached. As she looked over it as much as she could, she identified an alarm attached to the house. There was a small control box mounted to the exterior wall high up along the roofline. On discovering that, she re-formatted her entry plan to the premises. She wouldn’t go in until he was actually home as she needed that alarm turned off so as not to cause any undue attention.

She jumped back into her car and drove around the lake towards his house. As she did, she could see that there was a school close to the address. It didn’t bother her too much as she would be going in at night when kids wouldn’t be around. As she drew alongside the premises, she slowed to a snail’s pace. As she looked over the front of the house it was just as she imagined. The house was built from white timber and there was a series of steps leading to the front door. That caused Laura to believe it had a rather large basement underneath. It did in fact have a two car garage attached. She could see that there was a sensor attached to the top of each door so they were probably electronically operated. The front garden was heavily covered in shrubbery and trees. There were no security lights visible on the outside of the house so, if she wanted, she could hide in the front garden without being seen. All she needed now was to actually find what time Scott came home and work out her timings to have a word in his ear.

It was still early in the day and with time to spare she headed out of the area. She left by a different route and exited onto the Boulevard from the other end of the estate. As she pulled onto the Boulevard and headed towards Morristown, she once again drove past the cop car which was still parked where she last saw it. She drove past him at the posted speed limit and he didn’t even acknowledge her. It looked like Taylor’s DMV hack had been worth the money. She needed gas for her car so it wasn’t long before she pulled into a service station to fill up. As she waited for the attendant to fill the tank, she went into the store to get a cup of coffee and pay. She noticed that attached to the building was a telephone kiosk. She knew that Taylor worked quickly in what he was doing so she decided to call him to see if her documents were ready. As it happens, they weren’t, but they would be by 4pm that day.

Laura wanted somewhere to relax that wasn’t too far away from Taylors address so, once she had paid for her fuel and got her coffee, she headed towards the city. She had typed in scenic spot into the GPS in her car and it recommended Liberty State Park just outside Jersey City, on the shore. Within about thirty minutes, she was walking along the block paved boardwalk soaking in the sunshine and the views of Manhattan once again.

She found a quiet bench seat to have a short rest and took in what was in front of her. Standing in the majestic view was the Statue of Liberty in all its glory. There was a clear blue sky above and the sun’s reflection was bouncing off the gold leaf on the torch. It was quite an impressive sight. There were a few people around, some families with children flying kites, people cycling and jogging along the boardwalk. This was the life that Laura wanted. Relaxing, peaceful and normal.

The hours passed quicker than Laura would have liked and it was time to go to Taylor’s house and pick up her things. She did have time to think about her next move after dealing with Scott. She knew that there would be uproar within the Arena once she had dealt with him and she knew she would need to lay low for a while to let the heat dissipate. She was going to need Taylor's help again.

It didn’t take long to get there from the park. She parked her car away from the address and walked the couple of block to the apartments. When she knocked on the door, she found it funny that he opened it in exactly the same way as before. The only difference this time was that he was wearing different coloured glasses. They were iridium green instead of orange.

As she walked inside, she commented “Nice glasses.”

His reply was “Well, it’s Tuesday,” and he followed her into the living room.

That comment made Laura think that he might actually have a pair for each day of the week. She smiled thinking about it.

Taylor handed her a small leather pouch. She opened it and in there were two passports, two new driving licences and a bank card.

“I didn’t ask for this Taylor,” Laura said while holding it in her hand.

“Yeah, that’s a little bonus from me. I figured that you’re going to need to pay for some things on a card, rather than cash, at some stage, so I’ve set you up with an account that you can use. You can walk into any bank and make a deposit which will activate the account. It’s completely untraceable.”

“
Wow,”
thought Laura,
“This guy is really good!”

“I also got you one of these this morning.” Taylor handed Laura a smart-phone.

As she looked at it, he explained, “It’s totally encrypted and untraceable. You can use it anywhere in the world and it cannot be hacked, listened into, or tracked.”

“How do you know it’s that secure?” enquired Laura.

“It’s my program that runs it, so I guarantee it” he replied.

He was almost bragging in his statement but Laura had sussed by now that he was no threat to her and only wanted to help. He was obviously loving what he was doing as he was getting to show off.

Thinking ahead, Laura said to him “With your computer bits and pieces, how good do you really think you are?”

He paused for a brief second before replying with “There’s nothing I can’t do with a computer. There’s nothing I can’t get you either, if it’s needed. Why?”

“Does this new cell phone send emails?” she enquired.

“Yep, still all encrypted” he replied.

“I can’t tell you what date, or what time you’ll get it, but you’ll get a message asking for you to arrange a couple of things for me. It’ll be fast-time and I will
need
you to come through with it.”

“Sounds like a challenge” replied Taylor rubbing his hands together.

He was like a child in some ways but full of self-confidence. Laura felt confident he could do what she asked so thanked him again for what he had done and left. It was time to get back to dealing with Scott.

Chapter 24

Answers

The traffic away from the city at that time of the day was horrendous. By the time Laura had something to eat, got changed into some dark clothing and reached the Mountain Lakes area, it was dark. She stopped again at the rest area overlooking the lake and took a brief look at the house. Through her binoculars, she could see that the house was in darkness so it was possible he hadn’t made it home yet. She drove past the premises and was frustrated that, as she did, she noticed that there was a light shining through a very small window of the basement of the house.

“Damn it!” she thought.

It was decision time. Did she carry on or put if off for another day? She drove on and back around to the rest area where she took a seat and thought about what to do next. She ran through various scenarios in her mind and calculated what could go wrong. She hadn’t seen him arrive home so there was a small chance he wasn’t alone. She needed to be sure otherwise she would need to put it off until another time.

As she looked around where she was sitting, there was a newspaper in the trashcan next to the picnic table. It was a local paper which gave Laura an idea. She quickly looked at the classifieds and adverts and found a local pizza delivery company. After a few minutes on the phone, there was a large pepperoni pizza on its way to Scott’s house. If she could get herself into position before it arrived, she could see if Scott answered the door. If he did have someone else with him, someone acting as security, they would answer the door at this time of night rather than him.

The delivery company said forty five minutes so Laura drove to the other end of the estate and parked her car before heading to Scott’s house. When she arrived, it was still in darkness so she slipped into the front garden and picked a suitably large piece of shrubbery to hide in. She sat there watching for what seemed like an age. It was starting to get cold. There was no movement at all from the house. For such big premises, you would have expected more. Laura’s thoughts were short lived as a beat-up old station wagon pulled into the driveway, with music blaring from it. Once the ignition was turned off, she could see that it was the delivery boy. He raced up the steps to the front door, pizza in hand and rang the doorbell. It took him a second ring to get any signs of life in the house. The hallway light came on and the door was opened. It was Scott!

There was a very brief discussion between the delivery boy and Scott as Scott obviously hadn’t ordered anything. She could hear the delivery boy saying to Scott that it had already been paid for but he didn’t want to hear any of it. The delivery boy, in frustration, put the pizza on the floor and walked off towards his car. Before long, he was reversing out of the drive-way with his music blaring. He didn’t care if the pizza wasn’t wanted, it was paid for so he got his money either way and off he went to his next delivery.

Scott stood on the doorstep briefly and looked around outside his house. He slowly scanned the front garden looking for any signs that there was someone around. He totally missed Laura hiding in the bushes. She was too good at making herself invisible for him to see her. Before long, he picked the pizza up and went back inside the house. There were still no lights on in the house and he disappeared out of sight. Laura had already picked her entry point to the house, which was a side door she had seen as she set herself up in the garden. It had a wooden frame with a glass panel on top and a wooden panel on the bottom and a single door lock that would be easy for her to pick without making a noise.

Laura gave it a few minutes before making her move. The door lock was opened in a few seconds and she was inside. She drew the pistol she had tucked in her side pocket and cleared each room as she went. She went upstairs just to make sure that the house was clear apart from the basement. It was cold upstairs. It looked like it wasn’t really used. Once she was happy with it, she made her move back downstairs and headed into the basement. Laura made no noise as she calmly walked down the stairs. It was light down there but fairly dim. The bulbs could have done with an upgrade. There was a television on in one corner of the room showing the daily news. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she could see that the pizza box was there opened and on the table. As it turned out, the basement was a bit of a man cave and had all amenities you could possibly need including cooking facilities, a fridge, sofa and a bed in the corner. As she scanned the room, she could see that Scott was actually eating a slice of the pizza with his back turned to her. He still had no idea she was there.

While pointing it at the back of his head, Laura slowly cocked the hammer on the pistol. She could see him visibly freeze at the sound. So not to give him a chance to do anything, she said “Turn around slowly Scott!”

He did as he was told and turned around, still with a piece of pizza in his mouth. The look on his face when he did so was one of those moments of realisation that he had a very serious problem to deal with. Using her pistol, Laura indicated for him to step to the side and sit on the chair nearest to him. As he sat down, he finished chewing the mouthful of pizza he was struggling to keep in his mouth.