Los Angeles, California
Tuesday June 7th, 2016 - Midnight
Axxess Plaza
Richard Williams enters the empty hallways of Axxess Plaza, a multi-story office building, which is usually crowded with businessmen and women from all sorts of different ventures, but as the clock strikes midnight, the building is seemingly empty - save for one man.
A seemingly frightened young man whose dark hair is soaking wet with nervous sweat.
"Ethan?"
The man recognizes Richard.
"Richard. Did anyone see you come in?"
"No."
"Are you sure you weren't followed?"
"I'm sure. Take it easy."
"No! I'm not gonna take it easy. I'm not even sure I should have called, to be honest."
"Ethan, if you have evidence that someone within my agency is involved in the attempted assassination of Senator Bruce Miller - you had no choice."
Ethan is shaking with fear, but his shaky hands go through his bag for an item he hands to Richard.
"Here. It's all yours."
Richard examines the item in his hand.
"It's a keycard?"
"Yeah."
"I'm not sure I understand."
"Normally, the magnetic strike only has an access code on it. To be used to get in and out of a building. But the strike can hold lots of data, and on this card, I found tons of references to Senator Bruce Miller."
"What's the point?"
"The point is to smuggle confidential information. These keycards easily get in and out of restricted areas. Without any scrutiny."
Richard now realizes where Ethan is coming from. And what they're possibly dealing with.
"I need you to be available to me throughout the day."
But Ethan wants none of it and turns to leave.
"No. I'm sorry, Richard, but I did my part. As soon as I learned what I had stumbled onto - that there's possibly a conspiracy within the agency to assassinate Senator Miller - I sent my family out of the state. I didn't tell them why. I've been in this world long enough to know what this means. And now, I'm out. I'm joining my family."
Richard grabs Ethan by the shoulder and tries to convince him otherwise.
"Ethan, I respect what you've done. It took a lot of bravery to get involved. And now I need you to see this through with me. I may need your help."
"You need to get someone else, Richard. If there is a plot against Senator Miller, these people are serious. And they're big time. I won't get involved."
Ethan then turns back around to head out of the main door. But he never makes it to his car as he is stopped in his tracks by a silenced bullet.
Richard can only watch Ethan falling lifeless on the ground, but has no time to mourn, making a run for it deeper inside the building complex.
ATC Headquarters
In his office, Adam is on the phone with someone, sipping the last remains of his coffee.
"Yes, I know Senator Miller gets a lot of death threats, but we have reason to believe this one has some weight to it. So, I'm gonna need you to tighten up security on your end. For the duration of the day. Yes, fine. Yes, we're doing the best we can. Okay, thank you."
Upon disconnecting, Adam has no time to put the phone down before receiving another call.
It's from Richard.
"Richard?"
"Adam, I need you."
"What's going on?"
"I have hard information on who's behind the hit on Miller. At the Axxess Plaza. I have an agent down. There's a shooter in the area, possibly several."
Without hesitation, Adam gets up and grabs his coat and gun from his locker.
"I think Scott can get there before me."
"No! We still don't know who we can trust, Adam. Don't say a word to anyone. Adam, get me out of here."
"I will. I can be there in 10 minutes."
"I'm heading to the roof."
Adam storms out of his office and heads outside through the corridors.
He comes across Kevin, who was on his way to deliver some papers to Adam's office, and they almost bump into each other.
"Wow, hey! Where are you going? I have the reports you asked for."
"I don't have time to explain, I need to go. Stay available, I may need you.."
Kevin is slightly confused, but he knows Adam, and knows that he never does anything without a good reason. So, throughout the years, Kevin has gotten used to this side of him.
"Alright. I will."
Unknown Location
A motorcycle stops at the site of a seemingly remote house, outside of the main city. No lights are on, it seems like no one is home, and hasn't been in years.
Mia takes off her helmet, gets off her bike, and heads inside.
The door is opened for her by a massive, bald-headed man with a blank expression. Everything about him tells you to stay away from him. And most people do.
Mia greets him, but he doesn't greet her back.
She then enters the building to look for someone.
"It's me."
Before the person Mia is calling for enters the room, three other men enter with their guns pointed at her.
This doesn't phase Mia, though. She knew to expect this.
The man she came to see finally enters the room, and signals for the guards to lower their weapons.
The light-haired, very casual-looking man is carrying a high-class briefcase, which is a giant departure from his leather jacket and jeans look.
He places the briefcase on a table and opens it. This reveals a pile of dollar bills, placed neatly inside.
Mia takes a step closer and starts counting the bills. The man gives her about a half a minute to go through them, but he also wants something.
"It's all there, Mia. Do you have it?"
Mia doesn't respond and keeps counting the dollars.
"Mia?"
Finally, Mia replies.
"No. I don't have it."
This enrages the man, and his angered reaction prompts the thugs to get their weapons back in position, pointing at Mia.
"What? What do you mean you don't have it? You better not me screwing with me, Mia."
"I'm sorry, Noah, but-"
Mia then turns her focus back onto the briefcase.
"See, I'm looking at all these dollar bills, and I just have this nasty feeling that this just ain't enough."
Infuriated, Noah expression all but tells his men to pull the trigger.
Mia calls his bluff.
"Oh, go ahead. Do it. I don't have the damn card. And no one else besides me knows where it is."
Mia and Noah have a staring contest for a good 20 seconds - until Mia wins. Noah still tries to convince her to play along with what they agreed on.
"Mia, there is no more money. There's a million dollars in there for fuck's sake."
"You were able to get your hands on one million - men like you know how to get their hands on two."
"You've got to be kidding-"
"Two million dollars. For the ID. That's the deal."
Noah then receives a phone call.
"Yes? No. No, I don't have it yet. Yes. I understand. I'm working on it right now. I will get back to you as soon as we're ready."
The call ends. Noah and Mia have another staredown. Mia doesn't back down. She's not intimidated at all; she's been in situations such as this for all her life. Every time up to this point, she's also gotten what she's wanted.
This seems to another one of those cases as Noah seems to agree to her terms.
"I'm gonna make a few phone calls and see what I can do. But stay put."
Mia answers with a smile.
"Oh, don't worry. I will."
Noah storms into another one of the rooms.
In it, a man is assembling a sniper rifle. Testing it, checking and measuring every single detail with care. It's easy to tell he is a proven professional at handling it, knowing what he's doing.
"I need to leave soon, Noah."
"I know, I know. But I need a little more time. There's been a change of plans. Hang in there for a little longer, okay?"
On the Road to Axxess Plaza
Adam is speeding through traffic, on his way to Axxess Plaza, where Richard instructed him to, as his phone receives a call from Susan.
"Hey. What's going on? Did Megan come home yet?"
"No, no, she didn't. I'm actually on my way over to where we think she might be, so I was calling to-"
"We?"
"Yea, umm, I'm with Doug Harris, Julie's father. I told you about him earlier. He was able to get the address for where Megan and Julie might be, and we're actually on our way there right now."
"So, you're with this man, this Doug Harris, right now? What are you gonna do if they're not there?"
"Yes, well. We haven't thought that far yet, I was calling to ask if you could come over here, as well. What's the situation at work?"
"Look, I don't have time right now. I can't talk about it, but some bad things are going down today."
"Adam, our daughter is missing. I think that's pretty bad. Don't you?"
Adam and Susan can get along these days when they agree on things, but any sign of disagreements can easily steer them back into the old patterns of arguing and fighting. Adam picks up on the familiar agitated tone of Susan's voice.
"Of course I do. But she's not missing, Susan. She's a teenager, she's partying. And she's our daughter, she's smart. She knows where her limits are."
"Well, I hope you're right."
Adam then starts to close in on the site of the Axxess Plaza.
"Look, Susan, I'm gonna have to call you back. There's something I need to do."
"Adam, I-"
"I'll call you back, I promise."
Adam hangs up and stops his car near the Plaza.
In the car with Susan, Doug notices her being seemingly distressed at the end of that phone call.
"Is everything alright? Is your husband going to come to pick you and your daughter up?"
Susan just stares blankly through the car window.
"No. It's... it's his job. This happens. And I understand. He has obligations. But sometimes I wish he could... Oh, never mind."
"You can talk about. We still have some time before we get there. What was it that your husband did for a living? You mentioned him working for the government."
"Yes. Adam works as the head of the Antiterrorist Coalition here in Los Angeles. He used to work as the head of field operations, but... he basically switched to a desk job because I, quite frankly, couldn't handle it anymore."
"Handle what? If you don't mind me asking."
"Handling not knowing if he would come back home for the night. I was so afraid of receiving that phone call. That maybe something happened, some operation went wrong, and... he wasn't coming back. Every time the phone rang when he was gone, my heart skipped a beat."
Susan begins to reminiscence and becomes even more distant.
"But things are better now, right?"
"Yeah. They've been getting better. I just- I just hope it's never like that again."
Axxess Plaza
Adam, careful with his movement, makes his way to the back of the Plaza while dialing Kevin's number. He realizes Richard said they can't trust anyone, but Adam decides to trust Kevin. If there's anyone he knows he can trust, besides Richard himself, it's Kevin.
"Kev, I need an access code."
Usually, a request like that would spark up questions, but because it's Adam, Kevin knows better.
"What's up?"
"I'm at the back door of the Axxess Plaza."
"I'm assuming you can't tell me what's up?"
"Correct."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do."
Kevin takes a second to pull some data from his computer.
"Alright, 762-591-446-Star."
Adam enters the code in the numpad, and the door unlocks.
"Okay, I got it. Thanks, Kev."
Kevin manages to get one more thing in before Adam hangs up.
"And, uhh, Adam?"
"Yeah?"
"Whatever it is that you're doing, be careful, alright?"
"Yeah, I will. Thanks."
Adam hangs up and enters the building.
It seems empty. Not a soul. Adam extends his gun out. And that's the moment that makes him think of all the things Susan was telling Doug earlier. He did make a promise to her. After this is done, could he tell her the truth? But there's no one else that can help Richard right now.
To Adam, Richard has been a second father. Maybe more of a father than his own father was.
Ironically, it was this line of work that prevented Adam's father for really being there for him.
And it's also what cost him his life.
But Adam can't think of those things right now. He quietly makes his way up to the roof of the building, being careful of his every step, remembering what Richard told him about the shooters in the area.
A bit of a shorter chapter, but I wanted to write something. I decided that I'll at least post these shorter ones if that makes it possible for me to post them more often. A standard chapter is about 5,000 words. That's what I consider sufficient, but I think the last scene here was a good break point, so I decided to post this.
