THE ZILLIONAIRES XVI

(The Traitor)

Keith and Ryan had been on the Internet playing against the best players in the world for an hour in a 100 multi-player mission.

Ryan was the rank of 27^th place. He was on the Soviets side. His color was blue-green.

Keith had the rank of 21^st place. He was on the Soviets side, and his color was red.

In the game, you were against every color other than your own. If you wanted, you could ally with other players, if they would let you. The chances though, were virtually nil.

The game, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, was one of the best games ever invented. It was a war and strategy game where you control the many tanks and men.

Keith and Ryan played for a while longer. Then the phone rang as Keith was finishing off Ryan. He jumped out of his chair and raced to the phone just as he finished off Ryan’s last man. The caller was his boss, Martin Osler.

"Hello?" Keith asked.

"Hi Keith. Listen, I’ve been thinking, and, well, I think that I need another person to help me work. This is getting very hard and I want a vacation. Please?"

"Okay. I’ll do what I can."

"Thank you!"

"No prob. I’ll run an add in the paper. I’ll call you when I get someone."

"O.K.. Bye."

"Bye." Keith hung up and went back to beat the game. In less than an hour, he had won first place.

He then went into his living with his family and watched The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was a new one.

Then Keith and his son Eric went outside to meet Ryan and his son, Ryan Jr.. They began their usual Saturday night game. They would all put on night vision goggles, black suits, laser armor, and get two laser guns. The laser guns shot out beams that instantly froze anyone wearing the armor in their tracks. Then the person that shot them would take him to the "jail house".

Keith, Eric, Ryan Jr., and Ryan all ran out into the woods and hunted each other down. Some times the game, called Night Hunt, lasted all night long.

Ryan Jr. got hit by Ryan.

Ryan got hit by Eric.

Keith got hit by Eric.

Eric won.

This time, the game lasted for three hours. Afterwards, everyone went to the base camp and into the main tent. The scores for all of the games played were added up.

Ryan got a 24.

Keith got a 19.

Eric got a 17.

Ryan Jr. got a 13.

After a good nights sleep, Keith got up and worked on his add in the paper. It took him an hour to get it done. In the end, it said:

HELP NEEDED!

PAYS $2,000.00 A WEEK.

INCLUDED LARGE OFFICE AND ALL ACCESSORIES.

WILL RECEIVE ALL INFORMATION NEEDED.

MUST PASS PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EXAMS.

BACK GROUND INFORMATION NEEDED.

SIGN UP AT 202 LAKE DRIVE, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, 29385.

The next day, Keith put the add in the paper. The day after that, there were hundreds of people showing up at his house.

He took all of them to his giant lab where the testing area was. Chairs and tables were on one side. Obstacle courses were on the other side of the room.

Then everybody was examined. Their back grounds were checked on Keith"s computers. The back rounds were confirmed from the peoples fingerprints. Any ex-cons or people with bad back grounds were immediately disqualified. 236 people were disqualified.

Then Keith distributed the physical exam. It was the obstacle course with hard things to do on it. It was to train them for emergencies. 45 people failed.

Then mental exam was done. A lot of the people didn’t pass it. Now there were 31 people left.

Keith distributed the hardest test. It was a more advanced physical test. Only 2 people passed. Just as Keith was going to give them another test, one of them fainted. Only one person was left to do the job of Martine. Her name was miss Stacy English.

"Congratulations, Miss English. You are the only person to pass the last test and not faint."

"Thanks. I can’t believe that I got the job. I always wanted to do something like this. I’ve also wanted to be able to make a lot of money too. I’m planning on a vacation to Europe."

"I’m glad you got the job too. Now about this job. Come with me. I’ll show you your new office."

"An office?"

"Yeah. You’ll work here most of the time but when you don’t you’ll run errands and fight criminals."

"Cool."

They reached the office and went in.

"Wow!" she said, when she saw all of the stuff and the large space. A huge desk was in the middle of the room. It had papers and a computer on it.

"If you need anything, call me. Here." he said, handing her a Radio Watch L-X, "Call me on this. It’s a Radio Watch L-X. I made these about 5 years ago. They can be used from around the world. And another thing. Come with me. I need to put the chip in your hand."

"What?"

"The chip. It’s used to be able to track each other down. To do the tracking, you use the Radio Watch L-X. I have a chip in my hand too. They are small and you can’t see them. It doesn’t hurt either. I’ll show you."

They went to the lab and Keith put the chip in the back of her hand. She couldn’t see the chip, and there was just a tiny scar where Keith put it in.

Then she went to her office and started working. Her first job was to track down a C.W.S. (Criminal Warfare Ship).

It took Stacy only 12 minutes to do so. It was in the Pacific ocean.

"Good job." Keith said.

She worked a lot and learned a lot about spies and stuff too. Meanwhile, Martine had gone on vacation.

A few months later, Keith began to trust her enough let her now the codes to the secret vault room where all of the secret information was stored. Martine had come back, but Stacy still helped out. The jobs became easier for both of them.

Then Stacy decided that she needed more money. She went to Keith and asked for a raise.

"Oh, Okay." Keith said, "How much do you want?"

"Um, $3,000 more dollars a week."

"Sure, you can count on it. Do you need any thing else?"

"Well, I would like to be able try out some shooting and stuff. If I’m going to work for you, I need to have this stuff. Martine told me about what happened to her a while back. I want to be prepared for this kind of thing."

"Okay." Keith showed her the weapons building, and said that she could use the weapons if she needed them.

The next day, she started what she had planned to do even before she had applied for the job. Stacy went to the weapons facility and tampered with them, destroying them all.

The next day, she went to the secret vault room. It was here that she wanted to go. After taking a mini-CD from her pocket, she put it into the computer and uploaded all of the information onto it. "This should be enough to get the money." she thought. Then she erased the video camera in the room, and finished her job for that day.

She had been hired by the criminals to get the secret information. Then she would take it and sell it to the criminals for $3,000,000,000.00 dollars.

Stacy didn’t show up for work the next day. Keith was worried, so he called her house. Nobody answered. Then he went to his computer room and turned on his watch/tracker. he searched, and found out that she was in Moscow. "What is she doing there?" he thought aloud. He spoke through the watch.

"Stacy? What are you doing in Moscow? Hello? Are you listening to me?"

She didn’t answer. Then Keith turned on the video camera in her watch. She was walking down a hallway. "Hey wait a minute!" Keith exclaimed, "Is that... the secret base in Moscow! Oh no! She’s a traitor! Why does this always happen to me?!"

Keith called his brother. "Ryan!"

"What do you want?"

"Stacy English is a traitor!"

"Why do you say that? What did she do?"

"I don’t know yet, but she’s in the secret criminal base in Moscow, Russia!"

"What?"

"You heard me. Come to my lab right now!"

"Why?"

"Because I said, that’s why."

"What’ll you give me?"

"One billion dollars."

"O.K.."

Ryan met his brother and they reviewed the tape from Stacy’s watch. There was no doubt about it. She was in the criminal base.

"Why is it that everyone is a badguy or a traitor?" Ryan asked, "Stacy English, Max Welt, Bryce Adams, and Douglas Rancor."

"I know. After we get Stacy, we’ll never, ever hire anyone again!"

"That’s the best idea that you have ever come up with!"

"Thanks. Coming from you, I take that as a compliment."

"You’re welcome. It is a compliment."

Then the brothers went to the houses and got ready to go to Moscow. Keith and Ryan got on their spy suits and got in their new and improved Tiger Helis. They were the most sophisticated aircrafts ever designed. Keith and Ryan had designed and built them together less than a year ago.

After flying to Moscow, they blew up the warehouse where the entrance to the secret base was. Then they landed in the mountains and put the camouflages on the helicopters.

Keith shot a cord into a building in the city and then shot the other end to the tip of a mountain. Ryan slid down it first, and Keith followed.

The secret entrance was right were it used to be. The brothers went inside and looked around. This was the 3^rd time they had come here on a mission. The 1^st was when Max had stolen the computer files. The 2^nd time was when Bryce had stolen the National Defense Plans. Now Stacy had stolen the secret code name information.

"Remember what happened last time?" Keith asked, "We got knocked unconscious and were dragged to the secret compound and put in the dungeon."

"Sure I remember. Let’s do it again."

"What?"

"Let’s do it again. It’s fun and easy to get in the base."

"I guess so."

"Then let’s hurry up and do it. It’s kinda cool out here in the winter."

"Okay."

They went to the secret door and went in. The guards knocked them out cold and put them in the dungeon. When Ryan and Keith woke up, they were tied up good. Keith burned his ropes with his laser/watch/radio/tracker gizmo on his wrist. Then Ryan’s his own ropes.

The detonators that Ryan had buried in the dungeon were still there. The brothers each got five and put them in their pockets. The rest were re-buried. Ryan got another one and used it to blow up the door.

Outside on two hooks, were their backpacks. They still had their stuff in them. Ryan and Keith each pulled out a gun and quietly walked down the hallway.

They heard voices and hid in a doorway. The voices were from people walking down the hall. They were two Russian guards.

After they past by, Keith asked Ryan, "Do you remember were the secret pipe to the sewer is?"

"Sure. It’s down this hall to the left."

"Good. Let’s go there again and fall down, this time while covering our entire bodies with the invulnerable suits."

They put on their suits and went to the pipe. They fell down it and landed, but not in what they expected. They landed in the drainage from the rain water outside.

"Why is it that there is a different type of liquid every time we come in here?"

"Search me."

They went through the shower room and into the mess hall. Nobody was there. Ryan and Keith each got a soda and a dough-nut. They ate and then they left through the emergency exit.

While they were walking down the emergency exit, they came to the room where Max was once held. The brothers walked through the door to the right and into the bunk house room.

Most of the people were sleeping, but some were up and about. Keith stunned them and Ryan laid them on some beds. When they woke up, the never knew what happened.

Before that though, Keith and Ryan went to the computer room. The computers were still there. Keith turned them on and began to track down Stacy. She was in another room, one that they hadn’t been to before. Keith printed plans of the route to it and they followed them.

Stacy was talking to some Russians, discussing the plans.

"I don’t have the disk with me, dummy. They’re at my secret hiding place. Only I can find it."

"Then go get it." a guy growled.

"Not until I get my money. I want the $3,000,000,000.00 right now. I also want $2,000.00 of it cash."

"Fine."

The man handed her $2,000.00 and sent $2,999,998,000.00 to her back account.

Keith and Ryan burst into the room.

"Alright Stacy." Keith said, "You’re under arrest. Come with us unless you want things to get messy. You too, buster."

"Make me." Stacy kicked Ryan in the stomach and ran past Keith. They chased her through the corridors and out of the base. She hopped into a helicopter and took off.

Keith and Ryan got to their helicopters and chased her. She flew through the town and around the buildings, trying to lose Keith and his brother.

After about 4 hours, her helicopter ran out of fuel. She landed at an army base and hopped in a tank. Stacy drove out into the city. Keith and Ryan followed in the air, firing at her whenever possible.

Her tank ran under a bridge and smashed it flat. Then it went between two small buildings, tearing down the side walls. When Stacy came out of the other side, there were police cars waiting. She ran over them and they blew up. The tank got knocked over onto it’s side and skidded into a river after it ran through the guard rail.

She came out of the water and into the hands of Keith and Ryan. She was taken to the American police and put behind bars, after Keith got the disk back. Stacy had told him where it was after Keith said she would probably get less time in jail if she did.

"I’ll get you for Keith and Ryan Carter!" She screamed, "You’ll pay! I promise! Just you wait and see!"

"Not in this lifetime." Ryan said.

Keith and his brother went home and told Martine about what had happened.

"Oh well." she said, "Now I won’t have someone to help."

"That’s okay." Keith said, "We’ll give you a break whenever you need one."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Thanks."

Then Keith and Ryan went to their houses and promised each other that they would try not to hire anyone else ever again.