Free Taken! Alphabet Series - 26 Original Taken! Tales (Donald Wells' Taken! Series Book 14) by Donald Wells

savor what’s to come.”
    Albert stared at the trigger device in Ivanov’s hand, as he unconsciously hunched his shoulders against the imminent blast, while pitying the children visible at the funeral.
    An instant later, the bomb detonated, destroying the Escalade , Ivanov, Albert, and ironically, the trigger device that made the blast possible, and, aided by the fuel that was contained in the SUV’s gas tank, the fire burned the few human remains to ash, making identification impossible.
    ***
    T WO WEEKS LATER
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    H e entered Lena’s house with caution, and knew immediately by the lack of decomposition odor that the Russian had managed to free himself. This pleased him greatly, as he had not been looking forward to the clean-up duty involved in removing a corpse.
    He then went to the closet and found the overturned chair, along with the discarded bonds.
    After straightening things up, he got back in his car, drove away, and never gave the missing Russian another thought.

TAKEN! P – THE OLD MAN
    (This one takes place in the future, a possible future.)
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    T he old man entered the bank and watched the guard at the door frown while studying his security screen.
    “The computer cleared you to enter, but there’s no info coming up on my panel.”
    The old man looked at him without expression.
    “What does that tell you?”
    The guard looked the old man over. He was a tall man with a full head of white hair and an erect posture, who was likely eighty or more, despite the sharpness of his eyes, which looked young. The clothes he wore were of the old style, and his boots shined like new.
    The lack of information showing on the screen only happened if someone was too important to have their details known, such as a politician, corporate bigwig, celebrity, or government operative. Old men like the one standing before him weren’t likely to rate such secrecy.
    “It tells me that this machine needs to be serviced. Go right on in, but please be quick; the bank is closing in twenty minutes.”
    The old man thanked him, walked down four steps, and moved towards the cubicles along the right side, where he would be able to access his safe deposit box.
    Moments later, a disturbance occurred at the entrance, and he spun around just in time to see the security guard fall to the floor with gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen, as three men entered with weapons drawn. The fired shots occurred without even a whisper of sound, as the gun used was a silent model.
    The men were clad in black from top to bottom, and their eyes were hidden behind mirrored lenses in their face masks, a precaution that stymied the security system’s attempts at facial recognition.
    The monochrome of their black outfits was only disrupted by the single word stenciled on their chests in white. The words were ONE, TWO and THREE.
    The old man studied the would-be thieves and saw that two of them were nearly his height, they were numbered TWO and THREE, while ONE, the man who shot the security guard, was shorter and of average stature.
    Their garb completely covered them so that no skin showed, but when the shorter man, ONE, shouted instructions to the bank’s employees and customers, the old man detected a slight German accent.
    “Everyone stay where you are and follow our orders.”
    The man remained by the door after speaking, as the other two men came down into the room and began herding their hostages. Once they had everyone together in the center, the man numbered One spoke again.
    “Who is the head bank employee?”
    A beautiful young woman with blond hair raised her hand timidly.
    “I am, sir, but this bank no longer handles cash, only credits.”
    “I am aware of that. We only want the contents of the safe deposit boxes, one in particular actually, but we have no way of knowing which one it is, and so, we must open them all and take the contents.”
    The woman blinked in surprise.
    “We have over