The Story of Us

Chapter 8- A Serious Threat

When Amanda Hotchner woke up, she knew today was going to be different. It wasn't the fact that she was waking up in Italy. She was used to waking up in different countries after years working a job that required her to travel anywhere and everywhere to take out threats to the U.S. government and negotiate peace with people that may be thinking about attacking America. She was good at it because she only killed bad people and helped good people get out if they needed it. It allowed her to not feel guilt for her kills, which were plentiful.

Today was different because she had mail but it wasn't addressed to her house. Despite moving all over the world for work, Amanda had bought a nice mansion on the outskirts of Virginia. It wasn't exactly livable but she Amanda had simply used this to her advantage getting the huge house for around $500 and then talking her way into getting the buyers to pay for renovations to make it livable.

Not many people knew this address but it was where all the mail addressed to her mother's house, which had been left to Amanda and Sean, was rerouted and then all mail routed to her new address was sent to the CIA to be shipped out to wherever Amanda was at the time. This mail was different, however, as it had been shipped to the CIA. Amanda ignored this weird tidbit of information and opened the package anyway yet what was inside made her frown once more. Inside the small FedEx package was a tiara. Amanda recognized it as it was the same type that was used in the various competitions her mother made her compete in.

The thing that confused her was how someone knew. The only people aside from family that knew of her time as a long-reigning beauty queen were Spencer and his mother, neither of which would send her a tiara. It was then that she noticed a small note at the bottom. She pulled it out and read it, hoping to shed some light on the 'gift' only to come away even more confused.

"Amanda," it read. "It is up to you and him to save her. She needed help and you are the only ones who can give it."

"Who the hell is she?" Amanda whispers right as a knock sounds on her door.

"Amy," Zach calls. "He's back."

"Coming!" She shouts back. 'He' is a lower-level Italian mobster. Now the mob hasn't had a big impact on America in a while but it was one of Amanda's first jobs to ensure that they never made a comeback. It was quite simple as her easy-going personality and good looks made people agree with her easily. However, one of the lower levels that was a cousin to one of the inner circle disliked the arrangement so he was attempting to find somewhere to go to attack America and win the Italians back the glory he believes them to have lost.

It was an easy case which is why Amanda was letting the Alpha Unit take care of it. Each of them had a special set of skills that mirrored her own. First, there was Jenny Lewis, the only female of the group. Her specialty was computers. She wasn't as good as Garcia or Amanda but she was close. She didn't have an affinity for hacking but rather programming which made it easy for Amanda to teach her hacking.

Next was Kyle Manning. Kyle didn't seem like he had a specialty at all and was merely there for comic relief but he was one hell of a sniper. He could hit any shot from practically any distance. He was recruited away from a sniper unit of the US military during training by Amanda herself. At the time he was just gifted but with the tutelage of a perfect shot, he was by far the most deadly, legal sniper next to Amanda.

Then was Hector Ramirez. He was recruited with his cousin Carlos. Their mothers were sisters and when Hector's father killed both their mothers because he believed his wife was cheating on him, it was discovered that he had suffered a psychotic break after one of the cars he was working on blew up next to him at his car repair shop. He got out with no physical injuries so no one thought to check psychological ones. After that, Hector's brother joined a gang and tried to get Hector and Carlos to join. They declined and worked hard to get to the CIA. Hector's specialty is tracking people. He can find anyone anywhere at any time. He just needs a location to start from.