Maxwell Strikes Again

Here is another wonderful version of the January Writing Prompt.

 

This is exciting, two stories in less than one week! Feel free to jump on the bandwagon if you're so inclined:)

This version was written by Cecelia Lester of Following My King.

This Is A Test

by Cecelia Lester

            “The map is taped to the underside of the chair on the balcony.” Maxwell whispered.

            I looked at him with a question in my eyes. Our captors across the room eyed us with disdain. 

            My question, simply put, was: How did our butler know the map interested us? My husband Gavin owns a company that manufactures armaments for the federal government. His office building has a security force that patrols each floor. In order to get inside the building, each person has to have an electronic card to scan with a  picture ID issued by the ATF.

            For security and personal privacy reasons, we have a non-published phone number. But somehow a car followed him home tonight.

            These three strange men barged into our house just after he entered the house. They brandished guns and ordered us to do as they say. One of them exited the foyer and returned with Maxwell, our butler, in tow.

            “You know what we want.” The biggest of the men yelled. 

            “Take what you want!  I’ll open the safe.” My husband Derek begged them.

            “We don’t want your money.” The ring leader shouted.

            “You can take my wife’s jewelry, just please don’t hurt us.” Derek’s voice quivered.

            “You have the plans for the TW6 here. We want them.” 

            “I don’t bring things from the office home. I can’t.” Derek became frantic. All at once we heard a voice outside our house.

            “This is the FBI, come out. We have the house surrounded.” 

            Our trio of intruders started firing at the agents outside. The FBI people returned fire, winging each of our captors.

            After things settled down, Derek confessed to the investigators. He had removed a map of the area from his office. The map was not what was important. Embedded in the map was a microchip containing the plans for the TW6. 

            “I received a call from Washington. An FBI agent said the ATF needed to do a security check on the company.” Derek looked at me. “I’m sorry to involve you in this.”

            “All that is true.” Maxwell spoke up. “I was the agent who called Derek. The microchip is a phony. We set that up to see who would take the bait. We knew there were people inside the company who weren’t loyal to our side.”

            This incident with the intruders took place three months ago. Maxwell has returned to Washington and we now have a real butler.

Copyright 2010, Cecelia Lester. Used with permission.