The Other Side - Ela Bosak X Male Reader

Part 38: The Replacement

The next few days were quite similar to your first day. Everyone was in there respective locations, each of your security team members constantly checked in every 10 minutes without fail, and once each day at 2:00 pm, the same maintenance worker would come in to check the air filters and the system itself to make sure that everything was working as it should. You began to chat with the guy and he started to become much more acquainted and comfortable with you all. You learned that his name was Alex. He told you that he'd been working at the airport for 15 years and that he'd hoped to earn enough money to go back to school to learn to be a software engineer. He also stated that he had not missed a shift in the 15 years he'd been working there. He struck you as whole-hearted, and good guy, and each day you found yourself more excited for his arrival, as it was the only real action that had happened so far. Each day you received reports from not only your own team members stationed at other locations in the airport, but also the other teams stationed around the world. Each night a report had to be submitted to Six for filing. She kept each team up to date on the other teams. So far each of the other teams had reported that everything was as quiet as it was where you were.

On the first day of your second week, you awoke at your normal time with Ela, where you then both made some breakfast, got ready and did some reading from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." You had always enjoyed re-reading the book, but Ela was loving it as it was here first time reading it. The witty banter between the protagonists always got her to laugh. You had read so much in the past week that you were almost done the book. You and Ela seemed to have re-kindled your relationship to what it was before Red Wings happened. She was however starting to get frustrated at just waiting around in the same spot day in and day out. This was shown in how drained she was at the end of each day, although she brightened up when she was with you. You both grabbed your gun cases and headed for the car. Once you were at the airport, you both said your goodbyes for the day. "Don't die of boredom." you told her. "Don't die in general." she said back to you. "When have I ever done anything reckless?" you said sarcastically to her. You received a slight laugh, before you both turned away and headed for your areas.

Once you arrived at your post, you were updated by the CBRN on the events for the night. As usual nothing of interest had happened. You continued monitoring the radio traffic for any sort of encrypted signals. However this day at around 2:00 pm, Alex did not show up. This struck you as odd, as the man had not missed a shift in 15 years, and he seemed in no way ready to break that streak. It was almost a source of pride for him, and the fact that he'd miss this random day didn't sit right with you. The fact that Alex had not shown up quickly spread through your squad. Everyone was quite disappointed that he had not shown up. At around 4:03 pm, the 2 guards at the door called you down. "Sir, there's a new maintenance man here, says he's filling in for Alex." one said. "Hold him until I arrive." you instructed. "Understood sir." was the reply. You quickly made your way down to the doors. Outside was a small white man, in his 20s. He had dark brown hair and deep blue eyes. His forehead was also gleaming from the beads of sweat forming on his head. "How's it going sir?" you asked looking at his card. "Alright I guess." he replied. His name was Nathan Coburn. "Your the sub for Alex today huh?" you said continuing to look over his card. "Yes sir. That's correct." he replied. You noticed that he was beginning to sweat more profusely. "What's the matter son? You look a bit tense." you said handing him back the key card. "Just a bit nervous around people with guns." he said. "Don't worry son. See this insignia?" you asked pointing to your sleeve. "We're cops. We won't hurt you. Just here to do some investigation." you said reassuringly. He however did not calm down, instead it looked as though he became more nervous. "Alex never brings this many tools, do you mind us taking a look at your bag?" you asked. He seemed reluctant to hand over his bag. One of the guards at the door kept him away while you and the other checked the tools. There were various screwdrivers along with a socket wrench set, some vice grips and some channel locks. All of these tools were perfectly ordinary, although you weren't sure that he would need all of them to check the air filters and the system controllers. One item however stood out and struck you as odd. It was a can of compressed air. You could not find any sort of reason that he would need to have a can of compressed of air with him for this job. He was not responsible for cleaning the filters, nor the vents themselves. He had no use for a compressed air can, yet it was on the top of all of his tools. You and the other guard talked quietly amongst yourselves. "Something smells off to me." he said quietly to you. His name was Jack Reid. He had served 2 tours as an infantryman in Afghanistan. "This air can doesn't add up to me." you replied. "This coupled with how jumpy the kid is, spells suspicious." you added. "What do you want to do boss. "Well all his other tools seem to be in perfectly ordinary, correct?" you asked him. "As far as I can tell yeah. But I don't think he'll need all of them." he answered. "I think we confiscate the air can for now until we know what it actually is, but we can let him through to do his job." you said. "I'll put the reserve team to watch him for now, and everyone else will be on high alert." you added. "Sounds good to me." Jack replied. "I also want to know what happened to Alex." you said. "The fact he just disappears, and we get this jumpy suspicious guy doesn't sit right with me." you added. "Agreed." Jack replied. "If anyone else tries to get in, radio for me right away." you added before zipping up the bag.

"Alright Nathan, your good to go." you said handing him the bag back. "But we're going to keep this can of air, as you don't really need it for this job." you said to him. As the last words exited your mouth, the color dropped from his face. This further reinforced your fears that not everything was as it should be. The fact that he seemed defeated by your confiscation of an air can, signaled that this was more than just air. However you let him through so he could get to work on the filters. "Alright, reserve team, watch the new maintenance guy like a hawk, he smells of fish to me. He so much as gives off the scent of malicious intent, you report it to me." you said heading back up to your decryptor. "Yes sir." was the reply from the coms. "Kevin, get this can analyzed immediately, we might have a situation here." you said handing him the can. "Right away sir." he replied. "Also see if you could find out why Alex isn't here today. I fear something bad could have happened to him." you added. "Yes sir." he replied before hurrying off to complete his tasks. You sat back down and monitored the frequencies on your decryptor. "Really jumpy guy here boss." you heard from the reserve team. "I know, keep a close eye on him." you said again into the radio. You switched channels to the channel in which all your other Rainbow members were in to keep in contact with each other. "Cipher to all, be advised my team and I have a possible situation at hand, stay on high alert." you said over the coms. "Copy that." was the reply from every operator. "He's seems like he's freaking out sir." you heard again from the reserves. "He's getting more nervous." another one said. "Anything happened?" you asked. "No sir." one replied. "I'm going to go check on him." another team member said. "Extreme caution advised." you said. "Understood sir." was the reply. "Cipher, Buck here, we've got some suspicious figures grouping outside our area." he said. "Cipher, Rook here, we're seeing a similar situation here." Rook added "Keep your distance but keep a close eye." you said. Suddenly, Kevin was right behind you. "Any news?" you asked. "Sir, Alex was reported missing last night." he said to you. "What?" you asked stunned. "I just got confirmation that his body was found today by local police, in the forest near his home." he added. But before you had time to say anything the reserve team came on coms again. "SHIT! BOMB!" one yelled, before an explosion erupted from the other side of the room. You were knocked back against the wall, your ears ringing from the blast. Kevin was unconscious next to you. The explosion no doubt killed all the reserve team immediately. A fire was now spreading inside the room. The replacement had a backup plan, that fooled you all.