"Get this man to a hospital immediately," Matthew ordered as the paramedics brought Gregory, who was on a stretcher, into the ambulance.
Just as the paramedic was about to shut the ambulance doors, Gregory held his hand up slowly, shivering. "W-wait..." he said in a weak voice, his fingers trembling as he lowered his hand back down. As such, the paramedic let go of his grip on the doors.
Matthew moved closer to the ambulance, standing before Gregory. Gregory tried to sit up, but the other paramedic restrained him and informed him to avoid making any drastic movements. Hence, he relaxed and fell back on the stretcher.
"Mr. D-Davis, I... I can't say how sorry I am about the loss of your famil,y but I... I thank you for saving me," he expressed his gratitude. His eyes were watering once again, but he didn't have the strength to lift his hands to wipe the tears off. "I'll... see you next time," he said, a signal to the paramedics that they could shut the doors.
The workers then headed into the ambulance and got seated. Eventually, the sirens came back on, and the vehicle took off, heading for another hospital that was hopefully safer and better than the one they had just fled from.
Matthew, Daniel and Megan looked at each other. They all sighed tiredly, hoping to finally get some rest. They couldn't imagine that they had spent two whole days trapped in a hospital invaded by creatures; it had felt like an eternity to them.
It was past midnight—a clear signal to them to part ways and rest at home. The three thus took off and separated, flagging buses and taxis to get back to their apartments. As Matthew stepped into the cab, he thought about his day.
He realised that he hadn't actually made any progress on taking down Yael. After all, the incident at the hospital was just a nasty plot by Yael themselves to slow their work. However, he acknowledged that fact that he did save one person, and even though it was just one human, it was still a valuable life.
* * *
Two days later
Matthew entered his precinct building, adjusting his collar as he tried to appear neat. He cleared his throat, making sure that his voice wasn't full of hoarse. He carried a suitcase in his right hand—one that he would always place evidence files and field investigation reports in.
This time, it was rather empty, which was pretty much bad news for him as he needed as much evidence as possible to convict the assailant in the metro station incident. In this case, it was the chairwoman.
Matthew was prepared to be reprimanded for his and his friends' actions at both the hospital and the metro station. They had broken the law after all. However, the law couldn't assist in prosecuting corrupted figures, such as the chairwoman of Yael herself. With money, power and influence, what couldn't she achieve?
It would eventually take a devil to fight another devil. Perhaps, a vigilante of some sorts. And if Matthew had to become one to bring down Yael, he would contentedly do it.
He knocked on the captain's door, before opening it. He entered politely, keeping his posture upright and his hands by his side. He thought that if he was going to be punished for something wrong, he should at least make up for it with his tidiness.
"Relax a little, Sergeant Davis," the new precinct captain said. To Matthew, it was an unexpected first statement from the captain, as he had expected a very unsatisfied tone coming from the captain. "Have a seat," the captain added, glancing at Matthew's clenched fists, which was a result of the tenseness and uneasiness in him.
Matthew kindly pulled the chair out and sat on it carefully. He had the urge to place his right foot on his left knee, but for the sake of formality, he resisted it. Instead, he planted his feet on the ground, and sat up straight, awaiting the captain's remarks.
"I spoke to Detective Washington and Detective Stewart earlier on and got their input on the... incident at Edison Palmer station in Edison," the captain began, rubbing his red nose that frankly reminded Matthew of a ripe tomato.
The captain then stood up, turning around and walking slowly towards the windows. He then pulled up the blinds to let more sunlight into the room. He cleared his throat, continuing with their discussion. "You three, and another civilian—Gregory Adams, is it? You all defied direct quarantine orders from the CDC and the DOD."
Matthew frowned, pursing his lips. "How was the DOD involved?" he questioned, confused about the situation.
"For your actions, we would put you in quarantine," the captain chided, ignoring Matthew's previous question. Just as Matthew was about to protest, the captain stopped him. "But we won't," he said.
Matthew frowned. If the captain was so eager to settle a punishment with him, then why didn't he go ahead and it? He was utterly confused by the new captain's response to the situation; he just couldn't tell if he was disappointed or impressed.
"50 infected subjects escaped from Edison Palmer Hospital two days ago on a train," the captain started his explanation. "It ran on the same line as the one you took, except that it arrived in Brooklyn earlier. The infected had all dispersed into the neighbourhoods by the time your group and the paramedics arrived. The CDC has sent out workers to quarantine those of the infected that have been captured—around 35 of them. But the remaining 15 haven't been accounted for, and we require your assistance to curb an outbreak that might arise from this."
Matthew scratched his head. So, he broke the law within the Infectious Disease Act, angered a bunch of people, before some changed their minds and were now depending on him and his friends? It was honestly a great feeling for him. It was great for his efforts to finally be recognised. However, the captain—or the NYPD in general—was missing out on something.
Yael.
Yael was the reason for all of it. An outbreak couldn't have possibly emerged out of nowhere. Unfortunately, there was no way to trace evidence back to the corrupted company. The validity of the worksheet that he had snatched from the hospital days ago couldn't be proven, and neither had he checked the flash drive. He just had a feeling that neither of these two items were enough to prosecute Yael.
They needed more.
"Captain Watkins, have you heard of Yael Technologies Corporation?" Matthew questioned as he got up from his chair. He swiped dust off from the back of his pants, as the chair he had sat on was rather dusty. It wasn't a surprise for Matthew, however. He quickly recalled his times with Captain Jones.
Jones never had to speak with anyone privately. And all of that was owing to the fact that he would never keep conversations between two people only. He just felt that group discussions were healthier than secretive conversations between only two. And so, no one had ever entered his office, and thus no one had sat on the visitor chair.
However, Matthew quickly snapped back to reality as the captain answered his question promptly. "Yes, I have," the captain said. "What about them?" he asked further, curious to know what was on Matthew's mind.
Matthew turned away from the captain and headed towards the door. As he laid his hand on the doorknob, ready to exit the room, he turned his head to face the captain one last time. "Whatever the case is, don't trust them," he warned, before turning the doorknob and heading out of the captain's room.
"Where are you going?" the captain questioned him, as he hadn't technically dismissed Matthew. However, there wasn't any point in holding him back either. He would have dismissed him within the next few moments either way.
"I've got to speak to Washington and Stewart," Matthew said, trying to maintain his formalities, although his behaviour wasn't quite matching. He then closed the door, walking away from the captain's office and heading to Daniel and Megan's desks, one after the other.
"Hey, guys. Come over to my desk," he signalled over as he headed back to his desk afterward. The two followed over, moving towards him.
"What did you call us over for?" Megan asked, her hands resting on her hips.
"Not much really," Matthew answered. "I was just curious to know what the captain spoke to you about."
Daniel scratched his head, shrugging and grimacing. "Probably what he said to you too. About how he needs our help to stop a potential outbreak from happening and all that," he said, assuming that Matthew had the same conversation with the captain, which he did.
"Well, we're not going to be much help to them if we don't find the ones who started this. They might as well hand this all over to the CDC," Matthew lamented.
"Which they are probably doing," Daniel added to Matthew's statement. "The thing is that they can't work alone. Other than Yael, we know about these creatures more than anyone else."
Megan placed her hand on the desk, leaning on it. She let out a sigh as she focused on Matthew. "But how do we find Yael? I mean, we can't just step into their headquarters and demand for the chairwoman."
Matthew followed her, putting his body weight on the desk as he leaned his back against it. Creaking could be heard from the weight-overwhelmed table, but Matthew didn't care. He just looked away and gave a straightforward answer to Megan's query.
"We'll have to find Palmer first."
Matthew approached Sharon, his colleague. She was known as the technical geek in the precinct, but her appearance very unlike that of a stereotypical male nerd.
She had long, caramel brown hair and dark blue eyes. Her constant smile was dazzling, and the way she would dress when off-duty would basically seduce any men that didn't know her.
Until they found out about her interest, that is.
Noticing that she was rather engrossed in her work and didn't even notice him approaching, Matthew tapped on her desk twice with his fist. him. He chuckled a little as Sharon finally acknowledged his presence after much effort.
"Oh, pardon my oblivion," she laughed. "The new captain just threw the responsibility of digital work all on me. Looks like I'm the only tech geek available here," she explained her unawareness, joking afterwards.
Matthew laughed along, although he felt guilty that he wasn't experienced enough to help her ease her workload. In addition, he was about to add to it by giving her an additional task.
Sharon noticed that he wasn't saying anything for quite a while already. The silence soon became awkward, and so, she decided to end it.
"Is there something you want to ask me?" she enquired, waiting patiently for Matthew to finally begin talking again.
"Well..." he hesitated, pausing for a second, "I hope that this doesn't slow your work."
Sharon shook her head, putting on a smile. "Go ahead and make your request," she insisted.
Matthew nodded, going ahead to make his query. "I need you track down the place of residence for a man named James Edward Palmer. He's the founder and CEO of Palmer East Corporation if you didn't know already," he requested.
"All right, give me a minute or two to find it," she said as she began typing away.
Matthew turned back to Daniel and Megan for a moment while waiting. Daniel lifted his head up, asking Matthew what he was trying to do while only using gestures. Matthew, however, wanted to make the conversation easier, and so he walked back to Daniel.
The three made sure that they kept their conversation as quiet and discreet as possible. After all, they didn't know if Yael had sent in anyone else in the precinct to spy on them and their conversations.
"I'm getting Sharon to track down where Mr. Palmer lives," Matthew answered. "It might take a short while," he estimated. However, Sharon quickly found him, and so she called Matthew back over to her desk.
"I found him," she alerted him as she approached her desk.
Matthew rested his hands on her table as he peeped at the screen of Sharon's computer. Although he could see it for himself, the profile was very detailed and also very messy. Thus, he left it to Sharon to read the address out.
"He lives in Waldorf Tower, in unit 6204, on the sixty-second floor," she told Matthew. "I'll write the full address on a note here so you can keep it," she added as she began scribbling on a post-it note. Within a few seconds, she finished writing and handed it over to Matthew for him to keep.
"Thank you," Matthew said as he grabbed the note and slipped into his pocket. He walked away, returning to Daniel and Megan to give them updates on what he had found. "I've got the address. We should head there now."
Matthew put on his coat and he headed towards the elevator. The other two looked at each other for a moment. They didn't exactly know what they were going to do, but that wasn't surprising. At that point of time, everything was uncertain for them. The best they could do was to do something.
And so, the two caught up to Matthew, who was about to step into the elevator. After they entered the carriage, Matthew spammed the door-close button, hoping to move as fast as possible and to avoid any unnecessary stops.
Just as they descended down with the elevator, Sharon, who was still in the office, decided to make a call to someone. She brought her phone up and placed it to her ear, anticipating the receiver to pick up. And just as she had expected, the person picked up within seconds.
"Yeah?" the receiver spoke.
"They're coming after you now," Sharon said in a discreet voice, covering her mouth slightly with her other hand.
"Who?" the receiver questioned, confused by Sharon's vague statement.
"Davis, Washington and Stewart. They are aware that you joined hands with Yael," Sharon whispered. She looked around the precinct, slightly suspicious about the people around her. However, no one seemed to even notice her anyway.
The receiver broke the silence, assuming that Sharon wasn't going to speak if they didn't. "But how did they track—"
"That's not important," Sharon cut them off. She looked around again, getting increasingly paranoid by every second. "Look, I didn't have a choice in being recruited by Yael. They threatened my family, just like they did to Watson. So don't think that I'm helping you as a friend. I'm only doing this to preserve my family."
The receiver sighed. They cleared their throat, with phlegm hearable in their voice. "Then what do you want me to do?" they questioned impatiently.
"I don't exactly have a whole travel plan for you," Sharon blurted sarcastically. She thought that the receiver would be more independent than they really were. "Just book a flight to Philadelphia or something. Then you can head to Yael's headquarters and beg the chairwoman for a place to hide in that dreadful building."
"No... no..." the receiver repeated. They could be heard shivering distinctly. "Anywhere but Yael Tower or near the chairwoman."
Sharon groaned, rolling her eyes. "I don't give a crap about where you're heading to, okay? Just get out of there now. You already know about the situation down at Brooklyn. Things here aren't going to get better."
"W-what do you m-mean?" the receiver asked, stammering.
"You'll see," Sharon muttered quaintly before hanging up and placing the phone down on the wooden desk. She looked back up at her computer, wondering if what she was doing was truly right.
She pondered on.