The silence of the night was rudely broken as a black Mercedes streaked down the suburban streets and into the night. Behind it three DN-o1 Honda Motorcycles joined the chase, its drivers armed with Uzi’s and the converted engines churning effortlessly as it perused the car. Suddenly the Mercedes made a sharp turn and headed for the highway as a bullet ricocheted off the rear fender. The driver sensing obvious danger shifted up on the stick and put the petal to the metal. The car engine moaned as the sudden speed began to occur. The speedometer on the car now read 120 with the rpm pushed up to six but the motorcycles were still faster and coming. Suddenly the rear window on the black car rolled down and pistol fire flashed out the window. Six shots were fired, one hitting the front fender of one of the cycles another embedding in the solid rubber tire causing no damage to the cycle at all. The window was then rolled back up again as the shooter reloaded and the cycles crept closer. The next set of pistol fire was more accurate, one hitting a rider in the hand causing him to lose control and crash into a tree, his cycle exploding as it was flattened against the massive oak tree. Again though the shooter had to reload and try again. This time he didn’t succeed. The cycles pulled up next to the car and unleashed their fury of bullets on the car. The bullets smashed through the windows and the expensive interior killing the passenger almost instantly. The driver knew he had failed so he rolled down his window and took the bullets head on. The Mercedes crashed into the guardrail at 100 and exploded in a show of gas fed fire. The cycles sped off into the night unseen.
Back at the mansion James was well prepared as he waited for his employer to return to eat dinner. He had been waiting for almost an hour now and some food had, had to been reheated but other than that everything was perfect. James was the butler but not the butler most people imagined. To most a butler is an old crabby man with slightly balding hair and a very intelligent yet snobby attitude. James was twenty four with a full head of hair a blonde wavy hair that was much like the average beach bums. He was about six foot three and was gifted with lean muscle that occupied most of his body. If someone bothered to guess they would probably assume he could bench about 200 pounds maybe a little less when really he was on the verge of 250. He was a fighting machine with a lot of butler expertise but was only inclined to show it when he was asked to which was very rarely. James was employed by Thomas McKnight or Tom who was actually paired with him. Every McKnight was paired with someone from James family and that was how it had always worked. When a McKnight was born he was automatically paired with a member of the Butler family (yes it was ironic that butler should have the last name butler.)It just happened that James was born at the same time as Tom making them the same age which rarely happened. So at the age of eighteen James had been assigned to tom and they had just kind of started with James actually being an equal to tom. James would never forget the first time he had met tom and how informal it had been. He had been flipped a bag of clothes as soon as tom walked in the door and when James assumed they were to go to his employers room tom had simply smiled and said “nope those are yours” he topped of the shock by saying “and don’t call me sir it makes me feel old.”
James original job description read something along the lines of cooking, serving, cleaning and protection but that was before he had actually met tom. After they did meet and get to know each other his resume changed a little to companion, friend, brother and travel partner. Actually on the first day of the job James received a watch, motorcycle, computer, TV and soda machine. He slept in a king sized bed in a massive room and was only told to have breakfast prepared by seven fifteen on the dot. After that he just had to organize travel stuff and wash clothes occasionally. There was an exception when Tom had female company which was rather often but it was a small dent in a perfect relationship. Unfortunately the relationship was about to end with the discovery of the burned out Mercedes on the highway. The one containing Tom McKnight’s body and the body of his unfortunate driver.
Tom boredom was creeping up on him as the clock hit the second hour. Several of James best dishes had to be reheated a third time and the food was starting to get stale on the table. It was unlike Tom to be late after all he was always perfectly on the button usually arriving at the exact time he’d said but sometimes there were exceptions and James knew it. To ease his boredom he switched on the 72 inch TV that was mounted to the wall in the living room. To most a 72 inch TV was something quite special but there was one in every room in Tom’s mansion. After all the man was a billionaire so he naturally bought nice things for himself and others. Still encased in his boredom James casually flipped through the channels, he watch a bit of NASCAR then some football and part of the movie Titanic before absentmindedly flipping to the local news channel. The picture on the screen was of a news reporter pointing at a picture of a burned out car and talking very excitedly about it. James muted it and went back to the kitchen to get a quick snack before sitting down again and unmuting the TV. He unmuted it at the same time a picture of Tom flashed up along with the words Tom McKnight 1991 – 2015. The news reporter then restated the death and the program went to commercial. James turned the TV off and headed for the garage.