The Aquarium Trap

Daniel Harcrow brought his elbows close to his sides as he made his way through the crowd of kids at the aquarium, feeling the small square of electronics tucked into his waistband, hidden by his jacket. Groups of kids and adult chaperones chattered around him, making it incredibly difficult to hear the voices in his earpiece crackling through the static. A crowded day at the aquarium and lousy reception on his communication device. This wasn't going to be an easy day.

He finally escaped the crowd of kids that he assumed were on a field trip from a local school, the only reasonable explanation for it being so crowded with school-aged children on a Thursday at one in the afternoon. They were at the shark exhibit, the aquarium's most popular and largest attraction. The tank was like looking up at a movie theatre screen. The exhibit towered a little over 45 feet, with massive sharks filling the tanks and all the children's gazes directed upwards in amazement.

But Daniel's attention was elsewhere. Sure, he was playing the part of a tourist well. But he kept his eyes moving, allowing nothing to escape his vision. He was experienced and trained to keep track of anything that moved, seeing things as clearly in his peripheral vision as if he were looking it dead on. He wanted badly to press his finger to his tiny earpiece to better hear the transmissions from the Secure Operations Center more clearly, but he didn't want to be identified.

"SOC to Crow. Confirm transmission," a voice said in his ear, breaking through the static.

He scratched his nose to signal, knowing they were watching. By now, they'd had plenty of time to get CCTV access to this place. Unlike the movies, there was no talking back to them. Tourists don't speak into hidden microphones in their jacket sleeves; that was a great way to blow his cover.

"Copy that. At your two o'clock, Echo Kilo is approaching."

Daniel slowly turned his head in the indicated direction, pretending to follow a swimming shark and looking out of his peripheral vision to see the indicated direction. He saw him immediately, Ethan Kane. He was approximately thirty-five years old and, unfortunately, already balding. His underbite made his jaw stick out, and his posture was horrendous. But, as weak and unthreatening as he looked, he was perhaps one of the most dangerous men on the planet.

Ethan Kane wasn't a physically dangerous man; his mind made him a lethal weapon. He had spent most of his life writing nefarious code. In his teens, it was code to bring down the high school servers or post embarrassing pictures on the school website. But later in life, he began to develop a more sinister taste. He had been accused of bringing down banking systems, leaking sensitive information from government intelligence agencies, and even altering code within medical software to manipulate advanced medical equipment. Of course, he knew how to cover his tracks so that he was never identified, only suspected.

But he had finally messed up. His plans to plant a logic bomb in the network of the aquarium's database had been leaked. When executed remotely by Ethan, the code would drain the bank accounts of the aquarium, which was currently holding large amounts of cash thanks to a very large recent donation. At any moment, Ethan would pull out his cell phone, a laptop, or anything with an internet connection and activate the malicious code buried within the system. Daniel Harcrow was going to make his move. Ethan Kane's career ended today; it had to. Daniel's career depended on it. He'd been paid the largest sum of his career to complete this task, and the day was finally here. Months of tracking had led to this. It was time.

Daniel moved in closer, still pretending to be in awe of the hammerhead shark that swam above him while keeping Ethan on the edge of his vision. Ethan looked around, a look of complete calm on his face. He dug into his pockets, and Daniel braced himself. Ethan fished around for a moment and pulled out a cell phone.

Daniel moved in quickly, from standing a reasonable distance from Ethan to now standing next to him. He grabbed his arm firmly and leaned in to speak discreetly.

"Ethan Kane. You'll come with me if you want to leave this place unharmed. Now."

Ethan immediately looked stunned and scared. "What? Please, I don't have any money, I swear." His voice quivered, and he drew back from Daniel's grip. Daniel didn't allow him to escape and pulled him back in.

"Listen to me, Ethan. I don't want to cause a scene, and I don't want to hurt you. But we know. We know about the logic bomb. We know what you're about to do. That phone in your hand is about to trigger the code that will drain every penny of it. You think th-"

Suddenly, a woman approached them, holding a small child's hand.

"Excuse me, please let go of him! What are you doing? Babe, who is this?"

The woman was tall, blonde, perhaps in her mid-40s. Daniel began to hear a voice in his earpiece, but he ignored it. He was now acting on the fly. He was caught off guard. Ethan was supposed to be operating alone.

"Ma'am," he said, not removing his grip from Ethan's arm, "I'm only here for Mr. Kane. I don't want to involve you or the child."

"What do you mean you're here for him? You better identify yourself right now and explain why you're grabbing my husband's arm!"

This sent Daniel reeling. No intel he had collected had indicated that Ethan Kane had a wife. He was a lone wolf, not a family man. But now, as he turned his attention away from the woman and looked at Ethan, he could see it. The fear in his eyes, the genuine confusion on his face.

"I'm just on vacation with my wife and kid. I-I don't know what you want from me." Ethan said, his eyes beginning to mist.

Daniel's stomach twisted into knots. Something wasn't right. While holding firm to Ethan's arm, he looked around the aquarium frantically. He felt panic rising in his chest, even though he couldn't articulate why. He lifted his shirt sleeve to his mouth, speaking into the mic, his cover being blown now an afterthought.

"Crow to SOC, something's wrong. Confirm transmission."

Only white noise.

"Crow to SOC, something's wrong. Can you hear me? Confirm transmission!"

"Excuse me, what the hell is going on!" The woman shouted, which triggered the child whose hand she was holding to cry.

The earpiece began to crackle, and a voice came through. Daniel's stomach churned as he heard the voice. It was not the voice of the SOC commander.

"Hook, line, and sinker."

The ground beneath their feet suddenly shook violently. A flash overtook the room, and the deafening sound of a large crack running through a 45-foot wall of glass tore through the air. Daniel shoved Ethan and the woman as hard as he could away from the sound, but he saw that Ethan was not moving, a large wound now on his head. He hung limp in Daniel's grip. He slowly let go, letting Ethan slump to the floor.

"Run!" he screamed, shoving the woman and child away as the crowd around them began stamping away. She hesitated for a moment and then darted away with the child, screaming as tears ran down her cheeks. Daniel checked Ethan's pulse and found that there was none. He was gone.

Daniel turned to face the glass, which was now gushing water from a massive split. It had to be hundreds of gallons a second. Smoke lingered in the air from whatever device had triggered the break. His ears rang painfully, and he realized that the last few people from the crowd had dashed out, and he now stood alone, the exhibit room filling with water and acrid smoke.

Daniel only had a moment to think about what to do next. He couldn't just run away; he was here for a mission. It had gone horribly in another direction, but the mission continued. He would figure this out. He'd risked his life before, and this was no different.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around his neck from behind. Someone had taken him into a chokehold. The smoke and the noise of the water spilling out like a waterfall had been enough of a distraction to allow someone to sneak up on him. The moment he felt the grip and was ripped backward, he felt instantly ashamed. He'd let his guard down, and this was his penalty.

"Dan Harcrow, it's good to see you're still in business." A voice from behind said coldly and with an eerie calm.

"Sam Hightower….nice to…see you're still alive," Daniel said with gritted teeth, barely breathing enough to speak through the massive chokehold. "I'd hoped we would get a round two."

"No, you didn't. You put a bullet in me and were glad to see me die. At least, so you hoped. It's embarrassing to be wrong, isn't it? Wrong about so many things."

"Embarrassment isn't something….I have time for…it's useless."

"Ah, I'll have to disagree. Mistaking me for dead isn't too embarrassing. I played the part well. However, tracking Ethan Kane to an aquarium because you believed him to be a notorious hacker is quite embarrassing."

Daniel felt himself go cold with a mixture of fear and shame. "What are you talking about?"

"Ethan Kane is an insurance salesman from Ohio, Dan. I didn't expect you to dig so deeply into the false information I planted. I had also forgotten how money hungry you were. You accepted this job without verifying your client. I led you right where I wanted you, which was the easiest thing I've done. You were my simplest target."

Daniel was speechless, both from the shock and lack of air. He had been fooled. It was all a trick, and his career was indeed over.

"It's a shame, really," Sam said in a voice of false sympathy, "He had a daughter and a good career. You can relate, can't you, Danny boy? Losing family and your career?" Sam said, ending with an ice-cold laugh. "Well, I suppose that's enough for now. We will talk again soon. Make it a little harder for me next time, Dan."

Daniel felt the arm release him, and he fell to the ground. His head pounded, he felt dizzy, and he felt sick. He heard splashing footsteps as Sam made his escape, and he wasn't able to go after him. He had just been vanquished by a man he had thought to be dead.

He took in gasps of air; he had been on the verge of blacking out. Water was now rising in the room. It was above his wrists and knees, and he crawled along the floor, trying to find his way through the smoke and flowing water.

He struggled for a few moments and eventually found a bench in the room and laid himself on it. He would wait here for the rescue. He would wait as a broken man, a failure. A failed mission from his past had been tracking him, and he hadn't known. He'd tracked down an innocent man, and now he was dead. It was all his fault.

After these thoughts raced through his mind for what seemed like a million times, he stood up. His knees nearly gave out, but he forced them to remain locked. Behind him, water continued to gush. Emergency personnel now began to file into the room. Smoke still clung to the air, illuminated by the red flashing alarm lights triggered by the explosion. Pure chaos unfolded behind him.

But Daniel saw none of this. His mind was entirely focused on one thing, one singular thought.

Sam Hightower must die, again.