Identity (A Short Story)
Chapter 5.
Martin was relieved to be back home, it was not so much that he did not enjoy the trip to England, it was more that it was not what he had expected. It did not take long for Martin to get back into his routine and if the trip had done anything it was that he was more relaxed. The left over paranoia from the break in and assault seemed to have faded into memory.
Having been home for a few days and with the time lag having passed, Martin checked his cameras. The cameras inside the house had not recorded anything but the outside cameras did, but the video was only of the odd cat or possum walking through the cameras view. So he reset the hidden cameras to only activate only when the front door was closed, this meant these cameras did not record him going through his daily routine. The cameras in plain sight recorded to SD cards and did not have the technology to do anything other than record anything that moved.
A few weeks later, Martin checked his cameras, not so much because he thought there would be anything untoward on them, but because he did not want them to get too full of video. He checked the SD cards in the, ‘in plain sight’ cameras and other than the usual cats and possums there was nothing of interest. But when he checked the hidden cameras he was shocked to see two men in the house.
Martin watched the video, on his lap top, from each of the hidden cameras, and they showed two men moving around his house, they did something to the land line phone, they played around at the back of his desk top computer and they put, what seemed to be small cameras in each room of the house. The videos were all time and date stamped which told Martin that this had happened the day before while he was out doing his weekly shopping.
Martin did not know what to make of this, who would want to spy on him, were they after his details, like passwords or banking details. They knew what they were doing as they had deleted everything from the SD cards in the ‘in plain sight’ cameras. The ‘in plain sight’ camera at the back door had recorded nothing yet the hidden camera at the back door showed the two men with one of them picking the lock and then both entering the house.
Studying the videos for a second time, Martin could see that the men were in their thirties, they were both well dressed, in fact they looked like young professionals. If you saw them in the street you would think that they were accountants or Doctors, not someone who would break into someone’s house and set up monitoring equipment.
By watching the videos, Martin determined the location of all the cameras and listening devises, basically there was a camera in each room.
Luckily he had taken his lap top with him while out doing his shopping so they had not managed to temper with it.
What to do now, was the question Martin asked himself, his experience with the Police last time did not inspirer him with confidence, but what else could he do.
After giving it some thought Martin decided on a course of action and it did not involve going to the Police.
Martin had some pictures in his spare room that were long overdue to be hung, he had purchased the hocks a long time ago but he just never got around to hanging them, now seemed to be a good time. Knowing he was being watched, he hung a picture in each room, in two of those rooms, his bed room and the lounge room, he hung pictures over the surveillance cameras placed there by the two men.
Now that he was not being watched in the lounge room and his bed room he used some of the light string he was using to hang the pictures, to create some trip hazards. He placed the string about one hundred millimetres above the floor in the door ways, pulled it tight, securing it with the small tacks he had used for hanging the pictures. He opened his bed room window, just a small amount, about ten millimetres, and then rummaged around in his wardrobe. After a few moments he located his old cricket bat under some shoe boxes, he placed it behind the bed room door.
Going into the spare room, Martin searched around under the bed, he was looking for a birthday present that he had no use for. After a bit of looking he found it, it was a cargo net, these cargo nets proofed to be unpopular as they tangled very easily, but that is just what Martin needed.
Martin closed the curtains, so as to darken the house, picked up his lap top and walked out the front door. The street looked normal, there was a van parked over the road, but that was not unusual, the street was parked out, as Martin lived not that far from a railway station, so commuters parked in his street during week days.
Martin backed out of his driveway and drove down the street, and turned left as if he was heading to the shopping centre, but he turned left again at the next street and then stoped outside the house that backed onto his. Martin knew the owners and he knew that they were at work during the day. He walked through their car port into their backyard, he climbed over the back fence and then he made his way to his bed room window.
Opening the window, he climbed through trying to make as little noise as possible, once he was in his bed room he crawled towards the doorway, got his cricket bat from behind the door and then he waited.
Martin did not have to wait long, only about ten minutes, before he heard the sound of the back door opening, a sound he was familiar with. He waited as the footsteps got closer and then he heard the sound of someone falling to the floor and someone laughing. Stepping out of his bed room he swung his cricket bat, hitting the intruder in the back of his leg, the intruder fell to his knees, Martin then pushed him in his back, he fell forward on top of the second intruder.
He then through the cargo net over the two intruders and as they tried to regain their feet, they become more and more entangled in the cargo net. One of them managed to pull a gun from under his jacket but he was so tangled in the cargo net he could not aim it. Martin hit his hand with the cricket bat coursing him to drop the gun.
Martin picked the gun up and pointed it at the intruders and said, in a calm voice, “stop struggling.”
The intruders stopped moving, one was laying on his back while the other one was on his hands and knees, both were well and truly tangled in the cargo net.
“You,” said Martin as he waved the gun at the intruders on his hands and knees, “lay on the floor.”
The intruder attempted to get to his feet and lunged at Martin but the cargo net prevented him. Martin pointed the gun at the floor and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened, both intruders made a concerted attempt to get to their feet and untangle themselves from the cargo net.
Martin looked at the gun, trying to determine why it would not work, he pushed a small catch on the side of the gun just above the trigger, hopping it was the safety catch. He again pointed the gun at the floor and pulled the trigger, the gun went off, the bullet hitting the floor just in front of the intruders.
The intruders had managed to get to their feet and partly untangle themselves from the cargo net, one of them was trying to get his gun from under his jacket.
Martin pointed the gun at the intruders and said, “drop the gun, lay on the floor.”
The intruder with the gun was reluctant to drop it so Martin said again, “drop it,” this time in a voice that portrayed some urgency.
The intruder dropped the gun and then Martin said, “kick it away and lay on the floor.”
Both intruders, still tangled in the cargo net, tried to get to the floor but the cargo net made it difficult, “hurry up,” said Martin.
“Face down,” said Martin.
With both intruders laying face down on the floor, Martin, still pointing the gun at the intruders, moved to the TV stand and opened a draw, removing a roll of gaffer tape. Picking at the tape to get it started he then dropped it on the floor next to one of the intruders, “tape your mates hands together,” said Martin.
The intruder searched around with his hand trying to find the tape, “you know, you’re in a lot of trouble, we are Government agent,” said one of the intruders.
“Pull the other one, it plays Australia fair,” replied Martin, then adding, “just get on with it.”
The intruder finished tapping his mates hands together and looked at Martin, “now yours,” said Martin.
“How am I suppose to do that?” replied the intruder.
“Just do it, you can if you try,” said Martin.
The intruder fumbled around trying to tape his own hands together but only ended up even more tangled in the cargo net and gaffer tape. Martin put the gun down on the coffee table, quickly grabbed the roll of gaffer tape and taped the intruders hands together, he then, without breaking the tape, pulled a long length of tape out and taped the intruders feet together. There ended up looking like a roped calf at a rodeo.
With both intruders now well and truly taped together and unable to move, Martin picked up the second gun from the floor and put it on the coffee table. Searching the intruders, Martin found their wallets, a set of car keys and much to his surprise, their ID cards. They were what they said they were, agent of the Federal Government, ASIO agents.
“Why on earth are ASIO spying on me?” asked Martin.
“You’re in a lot of trouble, untie us and we will work something out,” said one of the agents.
“I don’t like those gun holsters, let’s get them of you,” said Martin.
With the two agents gaffer taped and tangled in the cargo net, it was not possible to remove their gun holsters so Martin got a large pair of scissors and cut them off and placed the bits on the coffee table.
Martin picked up the car keys from the coffee table and said, “don’t go any were, I’ll be back in a minute.”
The keys were for a Toyota so once Martin was outside he looked up and down the street, there were a number of Toyotas but the van looked to most likely candidate. He walked over to it and bush the unlock button on the key, the van made the noise and the lights blinked. Getting in the front seat, Martin could not see anything of interest so he opened the side door. The van was fully kited out with TV screens, computers and just lots of technology that Martin did not understand. He got in the back of the van and closed the door, the first thing that struck him was that the computer was turned on and logged in.
Martin got out of the van, closed the door and walked back to his house, as he walked pasted the two agents he said, “one of you idiots left the computer logged on.”
Martin opened a draw of his computer desk and removed a portable hard drive, he also picked up a video camera from a shelve above the computer, he then headed back to the van. As he walked pasted the two agents laying on the floor, he just smiled and let them see the portable hard drive.
“Don’t be a fool,” said one of the agents.
Once back in the van, Martin set the video camera up, placed it on a chair, pointed in the direction of the computer but not really showing clearly what he was doing. He pretended to plug the portable hard drive into the computer and then he pretended to down load to the portable hard drive. After about ten minutes he again pretended to unplug the portable hard drive and smiled at the camera. He then videoed the interior of the van, he continued videoing as he walked back to his house, making sure he videoed the exterior of the van and its number plate.
Back in his house Martin searched around in his office looking for some padded envelopes, once he found some he went into the kitchen and got some rubber gloves before going to the lounge room and sitting on the lounge.
Using his lap top he searched the internet for the address of ASIO and he then addressed the envelopes, one each to the agents currently laying on his floor.
With the rubber glove on he started cleaning everything that he had touched, the guns, the agents wallets and ID’s. He then placed a gun, a ID and a wallet in one of the padded envelopes, doing the same with the second gun, ID and wallet.
Martin then removed most of the ‘in plain sight’ cameras, leaving only the one at the back door, he then copied their contents too four flash drives as well as copying of the video from his video camera, the camera he used to video the van. He place two of the flash drives in the envelopes.
Martin then addressed two more envelopes, one to a solicitor who had drawn up his will some time ago and another to an old school friend. He wrote short notes to both the solicitor and his old school friend, he asked his old school friend to send the flash drive to the media if anything should happen to him.
The note to the solicitor outlined the events of the day and asked for legal representation as he fully expected to be arrested in the near future. He asked the solicitor to contact him on receipt of this letter and that if he could not reach him, he should contact the Police and or ASIO to ascertain if I was in custody.
Martin then copied the last few weeks of video from the hidden cameras to his lap top computer before placing it in its carry bag.
In full view of the ASIO agents Martin pretended to upload to the internet from a portable hard drive.
“You think you are being so smart, but it want work, we have better technology and smart people, your just digging yourself a bigger hole,” said one of the agents.
“I’m going out for a while, I might be some time, feel free to try to escape, I’ll be back,” said Martin, he then added, “sorry about this.”
Martin then placed a bit of gaffer tape across the months of the agents.
“It will be over soon,” said Martin as he walked out of the house, taking the padded envelopes and his lap top with him.
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