A R K E L L
Up until an hour ago, Fort Mayne had been swallowed in a roiling tumult, the security system setting on and off on command, with Joshua planning on the biggest reverse play of the decade.
I woke up to Mike clearing the air, my head aching like I was in a room of bells. Lucky enough, he was in time to finish the update and defuse the bomb on the third floor. As for Joshua, a couple of officers conducted him to the government reformatory, where he would be kept for a further inquisitory.
Meanwhile, the news of the intrusion spread like wildfire having the General of the Intelligence Council sit with us in the most oddly timed meeting of the day.
"So, can anyone explain me what happened?" He asked sitting at the head of the table.
I stared at the tired faces of the presents, not happy to have been called to work so early in the morning or not getting the chance to leave the place at all.
"A security breach," an Officer mumbled, his hands down the table and eyes wandering around.
"And how did that happen?" Wilson frowned with his dark, thick eyebrows, "Last time I checked... we hack people, they don't hack us back."
The tension in the room was so thick, that I could cut it with a knife. It was not an everyday thing to have our boss' boss scold us for the things we did wrong. Jack had his fingers crossed, sitting in the chair with eyes lost in the nothingness. He didn't mouth a word since we started.
"We had an infiltrator," Cavanaugh specified, setting the record straight. One of the Intelligence Agencies has let an intruder in, I could imagine it on the headlines of the New York Times.
Jack worked so hard to keep his head straight, but this was a clear inattention on his part. He would lose the reputation that proceeded him and probably his status as the Director of the NIA.
Anger boiled inside my head when I thought about the time I was at the underground, only a few meters away from the encroacher. At that time, I thought I could end this episode and throw it in the pile of victories I so proudly conserved. But life was everything but constantly winning. Like an iceberg, everything that didn't fit the agenda stayed at the bottom. Failure, losses, and hardships made the foundation stronger while the lucky victories and gold trophies stayed afloat. And there was no formula to predict the outcome of a given circumstance, at least not before it was already too late. I wondered how could I have ignored all the signs, but they were only visible afterward.
"So a stranger sneaked into the building and nobody noticed anything? Why do I keep surveillance cameras if they are of no use?"
"Actually," the senior guard of the department spoke, "He didn't enter the structure as a stranger. The badge detected at the entrance belonged to a guard and he was compatible for that shift."
"Whatever it was, it's something out of the competence of Walker," the General confessed, looking clearly pissed. "We might have to fix this. And pretty soon."
"I think we are done with this." Jack got up from the meeting table and headed to the exit, other people following him. As the room cleared out, everyone got back to their stations.
We didn't need a weather forecast to predict a big storm coming.
As soon as I walked past the corridor, I saw the General slamming the door to Jack's office, ready to paint him into a corner. I turned the knob to my room and got behind my desk.
"How's going with the head?" Mike entered a few seconds later, handing me a cup of espresso. I had never been that much of a coffee lover, even though sometimes it would be the only thing I had in the entire day. Tired or not, keeping our minds vigilant was a must given the job we did. And at nearly four a.m. this was the only thing that would keep me awake.
"Better." I took a sip and looked over the door, "What do you think they're talking about?"
Jack's office was placed in the center of the corridor, separated by a square hallway that led to the other stations.
"It doesn't happen every day to hack the Intelligence and get away with this." Cavanaugh had a fair point. Whatever Wilson had in mind, it must have been definitive. He was a man of virtue, willing to do anything to maintain the prestige and the good name of the departments under his directives. So I wouldn't be too surprised if he decided to demote the director or far worse — fire him.
"I hope it doesn't get worse than that." Mike and I chit chatted for the next couple of minutes before getting in my laptop and completing a few remaining tasks. After a long, long one versus one, the door over the hallway burst open. Jack accompanied Wilson out of his room, and I didn't see his face report anything good.
"In my office." He whispered as soon as my eyes met his. I immediately closed my laptop and bolted out. I couldn't let him wait.
"Please, sit down," he welcomed me, closing the door.
When I entered the room, my eyes fell on his loose tie and the bunch of folders piling up in his desk. He looked restless.
"What's going on?" I asked, following him with the corner of my eyes as he took a seat.
"What's not?" Jack rebutted, running his fingers through the short hair. I could tell he wasn't in the right state of mind, he wouldn't stop tapping his legs beneath the wooden table. I had never seen him so worried and mindless. "He gave me an ultimatum."
"What kind of ultimatum?"
"A collision with the NSA." The National Security Agency wasn't just an independent organization under Wilson, — directed by David Porter — but also Jack's number one competitor. In the past, Wilson have already proposed a collision between the two organizations, but didn't have enough reasons to backup his will. But after what happened, it wouldn't have been so difficult to prove us wrong.
"How would he do that?"
"A test period of two months," Jack affirmed, getting up and walking back and forth near the windows. "Porter and his staff will be transferred immediately. Can you imagine it? Porter putting into question every my decision, ready to report it to Wilson."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know," he sighed, "I don't know what I can do, but I can't give him access to the files."
"Why not?"
"We have an empty folder." Jack was on the verge of a breakdown. "We have to get the file back before it's too late."
"Which file?"
"It's the sigle most important document in our database, also known as the File X-13."
"With Joshua under the bars and the infiltrator out, do we have any track?"
"Five rings," Director Walker mumbled reminding me of the logo on the screens — five circles overlapping each other in the shape of a biohazard symbol, "This is how they call themselves. A conglomerateof five people who don't seem to have much to do with each other, but are far more connected than we imagine. When you are against one of them, you're automatically against all of them."
"Like a human version domino," I observed.
"Arkell," he paused to look at my black circled eyes, "It's a confidential mission. Nobody outside you and me get to know about this."
"Not even Wilson?"
"Especially Wilson. Tough times are about to come. We'll have his and Porter's breathing down our neck so we must be careful. It's a cold war."
Here was the storm, fierce and grieving.
"You should go home now," he added looking at the bruise on my forehead. "I need you ready and rested for tomorrow, whenever tomorrow will come."
I left Jack's office with a strange feeling in my stomach. The feeling that things would get messier by the day.
A twenty minutes cab ride and I was finally home. When I switched the lights on, wrinkled piles of clothing and a couple of coffee mugs awaited me in my apartment. After closing the door behind my shoulders, I did a quick round of the rooms to check everything was where I left it. Being and Officer and being paranoid went hand on hand, and what was life without a bit of madness after all?
I was so tired that I didn't even think of eating or having a shower before jumping on the white mattress. I didn't know what it was, but the minute I laid my head on the pillow, I fell asleep.
I woke up, a few hours later, to the sun peeking through the curtains. First thing in the morning, I checked my phone for any notice and headed directly to the washroom. When I came back, I let the voicemail start as I prepared myself breakfast. When I opened the fridge, I only saw empty bottles of beers and an expired container of milk.
I spent the rest of the morning running errands and unwinding myself. This job could get pretty lonely at times. Everytime I walked on the streets, I would only see strangers. No familiar faces or friends. Mike was the closest thing to a friend to me, but sometimes I just wondered how having a normal life would feel like. No guns or runs after criminals. Just me, a nine to five job and coming back to my loved ones — not just an empty apartment.
In the evening, after I ran to the grocery store and refilled the fridge, I turned the Tv on and sat on my couch. There wasn't much to see anyway, but I liked the sound of people echoing in the room, making me feel less of a loner.
When the doorbell rang, I thought it was the cleaning lady, so I was completely shocked to see Jack at my doorstep.
"Jack," I said in an undertone.
"Arkell," he repeated, "Are you letting me in?"
As he made his way to the living room, I noticed a yellow folder in his hands.
"You really need to clean this place," he mumbled, sitting in front of the TV.
I didn't know what he was doing here, especially at his duty-hour, but I was happy to see him.
"Do you want something to drink?" I offered, walking to the kitchen.
"Only if you have something strong," he replied, "A martini would be fine."
I opened a cabin and let the bottle of whiskey out, one that I kept only for emergencies.
"Here you are," I said putting it on the coffee twble, "It's not a Martini but strong, nevertheless."
"Porter took over the office today." Jack had a sip, "He asked me about everyone. He asked me about you, too, but I said you weren't available."
"Do you have any update for the mission?" I asked, and that was when he handed me the folder.
"Take a look."
I opened the folder and saw a name written in the middle. It was a girl's name. There was a brief description about her at the bottom.
"I want you to spy on her."
"Is she a member of the Five rings?" I asked, confused, looking at her age. She was just twentyone years old.
"No," he said after a long pause, "She is my daughter."
Saying that I was thunderstruck would be an understatement. All these years knowing him, and I wouldn't have guessed that he had a daughter. He surely did a great job at hiding it.
"Her mother is worried sick. She ran away from home."
"She is twentyone years old, don't you think that she could take care of herself?"
"It's not about that. You don't know what people like me face on a day to day basis. We can't show any signs of weaknesses and our family is our biggest keyptonite. I can't imagine what would happen should someone know about her..."
I turned to the second page and my jaw dropped when I saw her picture. It was the girl from the highway. One of the passengers in the Mazda that I hit and ran.
I tried to act cool but how could I feel nothing when my hands were coverd in dirt?
The more I looked at her, the more I knew I couldn't forget her.
She had eyes that pierced holes into people — the kind of gaze that made them unsettled — and I was no different. When she gazed up into the road, I could feel her eyes seize me from a distance.
I should have stayed as the ambulance lights fillen up the roads. I should have asked her how she was and help her, but I didn't. I couldn't let her thought distract me from my tasks. So when the crowd gathered around her, I walked away.
I wished I could do the same, but I had no other options left. In order to get to know her, this time I had to walk in and stay. Temporarily.
A/N
Hello readers, I hope you're loving the story. If yes, put the story in your library not to miss any of the updates!
A special shout-out to the lovely honeydrxps for supporting me, and her story 50 shades of blood because it's Amazing! Really worth the reading.