America’s Fall
Chapter One: Right Place, Wrong Time
November 11, 2011 Time Unknown
New York, NY – Arkansas Train Station
The sky was filled with dark, shivery clouds. The sun was invisible to the human eye, and all the birds seemed to have disappeared. There wasn’t a person on the sidewalks with a smile on their face. Many street lights, especially ones with a long line of cars waiting at them, had went out and there were no cops near by to help.
An eight-car train was accelerating toward Arkansas Train Station, a station designed to remind those of Arkansas. The train was being operated by a big man with a mustache and round glasses. He had a uniform with a white shirt and black tie. His hair was flat on his head and he seemed to be the only person who was actually enjoying his day.
“I’m coming up to Arkansas Train Station,” the man said into his radio. “It won’t be long. Tell everyone that I will be there soon.” The man hung the radio back on its charger.
All of the sudden, the train bounced violently. It was as if it hit a rock or something, something that nearly caused the train to derail.
“Never mind,” the train operator said into the radio. “I have to make a stop.”
“Well you better hurry,” someone said on the other line. “Garsh, these people are waiting. The train was already delayed 15 minutes. You don’t want them to wait longer.”
“Don’t worry. It will be quick.” Garsh put the radio back on its charger and climbed out of the operator’s cab.
As he walked down the side of the railroad, he noticed that some of the pedestrians on the street below him were observing the train. The traffic was stuck at an intersection, as usual, and many people were sticking their heads out of their car windows.
​Garsh stopped at the back of the train and looked down the curvy train tracks. There seemed to be nothing on the tracks. He turned around and ducked under the train to see if it was there.
As he was looking, he pulled out a small flashlight from his pocket. He observed the dark area carefully to see if anything was there. Out of nowhere, a loud clank scared him so much that he hit the back of his head on the train.
Guess there is nothing there, he thought. Slowly, he trudged back towards the cab of the train. Once he finally got in, he started the train’s engine and continued to travel his route.
“I should be about five minutes away,” Garsh said into his radio. “There will be no more delays as far as I know.”
As the train picked up speed, everything slowly turned back to its gloomy day; even though everyone on the train was frightened.
Just as everything seemed to be fine, another loud clank came from the back of the train, only this time it was much louder.
What the heck? Garsh thought. He grabbed his radio and began to speak. “I have bad news. I don’t think this train is safe. I will take it to the next stop.”
“Really?” someone replied. “Garsh, you’ve been a train operator for over ten years. Don’t let a little bit of troubles make you stop.”
“I’m being serious,” Garsh argued. “I think I should stop––”
The line went dead. Angry, Garsh put the radio back on the charger and squinted ahead to see if the train station was near by.
In the corner of his eye, Garsh suddenly saw something dark colored come up near the window. He jerked his head to the right, shooting pain right down his spine.
Once the pain lessened, he looked back up and noticed that the back of the train was swinging over the edge of the elevated train track.
Three teenage boys were grabbing onto the cushioned chairs. As the back of the train swung back and forth above the traffic, the hook that attached the car to the train was beginning to break.
“What are we going to do, Chase?” a skinny, dark haired boy asked. He had pale skin and wore a shirt that said “I’m not normal” in red letters on the front. His shoes were worn out and his clothes were dirty from playing a basketball game earlier.
“I don’t know,” Chase answered. He had spiked hair and was really tanned. Though he was a little on the heavier side, he was extremely athletic and wore basketball jerseys all the time. “We need to get to the front of the train!”
The teenagers slowly climbed up the tilted train car toward the next one. Once they reached the door, Chase grabbed the door handle and tried to pull it open. The two other teenagers were grabbing his ankle, making sure they didn’t fall to the back of the train.
Finally, after a lot of tugging, Chase got the door to open. On the outside, there was a small medal hook, that was almost broken completely, hooked to the other train car. Chase tried to reach the next car’s door handle, but just before he touched it, the next car derailed.
The very back of the train slammed into a parked car and sent it spinning everywhere. Finally, it crashed into an apartment and stayed there.
“Chase!” the teenager, Steven, at the end of the human line shouted. “Hurry! If I go any lower, my legs will hit all of the debris from the broken end of the train!”
Chase pulled as hard as he could and finally grabbed the second door handle. Once he turned it, it jerked open. He pulled the whole line of teenagers up into the next car. Once he got halfway, Steven and Jason began to help.
With all of them in the second car, they closed the door behind them and began to climb the less tilted car to the front. Once they reached the end, they opened the door and noticed that the third car was tilting.
“Guys! Get out here!” Chase yelled back. They all climbed to the front of the car and closed the door behind them. Jason looked behind him and noticed that an apartment complex was almost completely torn through by the train.
Chase pulled open the door to the third car. As they jumped in, the car behind them broke off the train and crashed to the street below, practically knocking down the rest of the apartment complex.
Jason, Chase, and Steven started running to the fourth and then fifth car of the train. Just before they got on the sixth, they realized the whole train was tilting. Eventually, the whole train would derail, not just the individual cars. Finally reaching the seventh car, the train started to stop.
“What’s going on?” Chase asked aloud.
“I think the train operator is trying to stop it,” Jason answered. “Come on! Let’s get to the cab!” The three of them finally made it to the cab to see that Garsh was pulling on the emergency brake.
“What’s going on?” Chase asked. “What happened to the train?”
“I don’t know,” Garsh hesitated. “But I need to stop this thing before we reach the train station or it will tear right through it!”
Jason, Chase, and Steven looked ahead to see Arkansas Train Station speeding toward them. It was only a matter of seconds before they collided with it.
“Sir,” Steven started, moving his dark bangs out of his face. “The train is going to derail any moment. You won’t be able to stop it!” Suddenly, the cab slowly started to tip.
25 feet from the station, the train was on one side. The more it traveled, the farther to the right it tipped. Finally, just as the train crashed into the train station, it derailed.
The cab landed, on its side, right on the wooden train station. There was only one car hooked to it while the rest lie beneath debris of the broken train track and an apartment complex.
“We need to get out of here!” Garsh exclaimed. “There is no way this wooden thing can hold a three ton cab!” The four of them climbed out of the emergency exit in the roof of the cab. Now on the wooden surface of the train station, they realized it was only made of a tall balcony, a staircase leading up, and a ticket booth.
“There’s the stairs!” Chase yelled. They ran toward the stairs when the train station shook and started to collapse.
“We won’t make it,” Garsh said. “We will have to jump!” In dismay, they all jumped over the one-foot railing just as the train station started to fall.
To Chase’s surprise, they were falling at the same speed as the train station. Just as they hit the ground, the train station collapsed under the weight of the cab and they landed in a thorny bush in the middle of the park.
As Chase got to his feet, pain shot through his back. He, by reflex, began to pull the thorns off of his body.
“That could not of been worse!” Chase complained. “Why did this have to happen to us, on a day like this?”
“Hey!” Garsh yelled, climbing out of the bush. “We could have been heading to Chinatown Station. Guess what’s over there, an oil factory! We are just lucky that we were heading to the only train station with a park nearby!”
All of the sudden, a police helicopter shined a search light at the four of them. “Don’t move!” someone said into a bull horn.
“I’m out of here!” Chase said, running down the sidewalk of the destroyed avenue. “I’m tired of being blamed for everything!”
“Chase! Stop!” Garsh began to chase after him. Following far behind, Steven and Jason were running after them.
“They’re making a run for it!” they heard from the police helicopter. Suddenly, the helicopter opened fire on them.
“What are they doing?” Chase panted. “We didn’t make the train derail!”
“Then stop running!” Garsh yelled. “That’s why they are shooting. They think we are trying to escape arrest!”
“Stop running? While they are shooting? I don’t think so.” They continued down the sidewalk, in search for a place to catch their breath.
After Jason and Steven caught up, they tried to stop them.
“Chase, we are not criminals!” Jason said, barely understandable. “Besides, it looks stormy and it is literally freezing out here!”
“Come on, Jason! They will find us anyway. Let’s just get to a place where they won’t shoot at us!” Jason rolled his eyes as they turned the corner onto another street.
On their right, there was an abandoned Mattress Firm warehouse. Chase climbed in through a broken window (cutting his arm as he did) and landed on the inside.
“What are you doing?” Jason asked. “We aren’t criminals!” Before he could persuade him, Chase had already gotten the boarded up door to open and pulled them in.
November 12, 2011 12:03am
Central Intelligence Agency – New York
A road stuck out of a large avenue that led to a dead end. Several closed stores and sleeping apartment complexes lined the road. By now, it started raining down from the cloudy, pitch black sky.
Suddenly, a black car turned onto the street and parked in front of the Bed and Breakfast Inn. A man got out of the driver’s seat wearing a suit with a yellow raincoat over it. Once he got onto the sidewalk, he walked down toward the end of the road, as if there were an invisible building at the end.
At the end of the sidewalk, there was a telephone booth. The man stepped in and dialed 842697 on the keypad. Suddenly, the booth shook. The man, without an expression on his face, began to descend into the Earth as if he were going into a secret lair.
After about two minutes, the phone booth stopped. The man exited it and walked down the long hallway that led to a wide control room.
“Where have you been, Dave?” another man in a suit said. This one had dark skin and a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes.
“I checked the crime scene,” Dave answered. “Based on where the train track damage started, it probably went out of control just before the Cozy Cat Apartments.”
“Do we have any causes to the train going out of control?” the second man asked. He turned away from the computer and stood up.
“Not yet,” Dave said. “There are two possibilities however. One of them was that this train is really old. Maybe over the last 200 years, the train began to fall apart. But the more likely reason is the traction on the rails. There was some weird liquid about ten meters before the train went out of control.”
“Do we know what liquid it is?”
“I’m having the Crime Scene Investigators figure that out now. They are in the crime lab testing it in New York.” Dave sat down at his desk and opened a folder with the CIA seal on the front.
“Do we have any suspects yet? Or are the criminals still loose?”
“First of all, Cothran, we do not know if there is more than one criminal. Second, we will be sending a few agents down there at one to investigate. After all, it is midnight,” Dave said, looking at his watch.
Cothran sat down to do a background check on the train. As he worked, he learned that the train was actually built 187 years ago. It had a very old engine and it was expected to stop working ten years prior.
After searching a lot, Cothran found an article on an unknown website. At first glance, the article was not that informational. However, to any intelligence agency, the article was full of very supportive facts on the train.
Before reading it, Cothran took a slurp of his coffee and leaned back in his chair. He had to make sure any codes or secrets could be found if there were any.
|
The Mallard Steam Engine During its time, this steam train was a record-breaking one. It traveled 126, Officially, miles per hour when trains only went 125 mph at the time. One Night, it broke down during its route. It took many hours and many men to Take their time and fix the train’s engine. At the time it was fixed, the train went back on the tracks. Many people Took the train to their daily errands and there were no problems with it. Today, the train still works. Working in routes in the heart of New York, About 15 routes a day, the train operators work the train very well and stay Cautious. The only problem they have had recently was reports of lots of Ketchup. Meaning, this train behaves better than the passengers. Can we use the train longer? There really is no certain answer. Nonetheless, It still works. Its usual routes are in New York, NY, but there are rumors About it being moved soon. Yachts are really expensive these days. If you try to imagine the price, Emptiness probably shows up. As hard as it is, many people believe that the Train costs more. It might not, but it is definitely worth more.
- C. Patrice |
Cothran reread the article about ten times to make sure he read it right. However, there was no difference every time he read it.
“Dave, can you come over here?” Cothran said aloud, not taking his eyes off the computer monitor.
“What is it?” Dave asked, arriving at Cothran’s right. After five minutes, Dave finally finished reading the article. “Wow. Now I see what you mean.”
“This article makes no sense at all,” Cothran said. “There are historical errors in it everywhere. This must have a code in it.”
“I’ll have the team analyze it,” Dave said. “We will also search C. Patrice in the database to see if we can find who wrote this article. In the meantime, it is almost one in the morning. We should go to the scene of the accident and investigate more.”
“Guys!” a woman near the entrance to the control room said. She was wearing a gray suit instead and had high heels on. “I have something to show you.”
After walking over there, Dave and Cothran looked at the photos in the woman’s hand. The photos seemed to be tinted slightly.
“What are these? Where did you get them?” Cothran asked.
“I recovered these photos from the Cozy Cat apartment complex,” the woman answered. “Even though there is nearly nothing left of the apartments, anything on the top floor would be at the top of the pile of debris. I searched the debris vigorously to see if there were any cameras and I found four of them. Three were too damaged, but one of them plugged into my laptop and worked.
“On the camera, there was footage of a hallway with wide windows on one side. These windows happened to face the train track that our steam train crashed on. So, I played the footage of November 11 on my laptop. By the time the train derailed, it was already about seven o’ clock.”
“Lucinda, did you find out how the train derailed?” Dave asked. “This footage probably caught the whole thing.”
“I actually was unable to find out,” Lucinda answered. “From the footage, it looked as if the train just derailed on its own.”
“Can we get the footage onto one of the computers here in the control room?” Cothran asked impatiently.
“I can do that,” Lucinda said. “But one more thing. After watching the footage, I found out that the train derailed from the back to the front, very unusual. It also happens that these were the only three people in the back-most car of the train.” Lucinda showed them a picture of three teenagers.
“Do you know who these people are?” Dave asked, observing the picture carefully.
“I don’t unfortunately. But, I think we can scan the picture and search the database to see if we can find out.”
“Are you saying that these are our suspects?” Dave inquired. “Just three teenagers?”
“Yes,” Lucinda answered. “At the moment, they are the only ones who could of caused the train to derail.”
2: Two: The Terrorists of 11/11America’s Fall
Chapter Two: The Terrorists of 11/11
November 12, 2011 8:32am
Abandoned Mattress Firm Warehouse
That morning, the streets near the train wreck site were closed until the CIA were done investigating. The damage from the train was devastating, especially since there was an overfill of traffic and pedestrians the night before.
Jason, Chase, and Steven were sleeping on mattresses that they took from the tall shelves inside of the Mattress Firm warehouse.
Garsh was in the small office to the left of the boarded up entrance. Inside, there was a small desk in the corner, a bulletin board with one piece of paper on it, a calendar, and a fire extinguisher. Garsh was searching the computer, checking to see if he had any train routes for the day.
“What are you doing?” Jason asked, appearing at the entrance of the small office.
“Checking to see if I have any routes today,” Garsh said, holding his chest to feel his fast beating heart.
“What? Do you think we’ll be here awhile?” Jason asked sarcastically. “The only reason I agreed to stay in this warehouse was one, I thought those cops would finds us quickly and two, it started to rain.”
“Look Jason,” Garsh started, turning away from the computer. “Now that we have ran from the police and we are pretty much their only suspects, we are wanted fugitives.”
“But we didn’t derail that train!”
“I know that!” Garsh said. “Chase and Steven know that. But, does anyone else? If we go to the police station and tell them that we’re innocent, do you think they will believe us?” Jason shook his head sadly. “We just need to let the cops figure this out.”
“But what about my parents?” Jason asked. “They will freak out if they see us on the news! Besides, not being home in awhile will be a bit suspicious.”
“Why weren’t you with your parents in the first place?” Garsh asked. “What were you three doing on the train?”
“We were going to stay the night. Chase and Steven are brothers, and we were all going to our friend Josh’s house.”
“That’s good. Your parents won’t suspect you to be home until late tonight. And about the news, it takes at least a day for train stories to get out. I would know, trust me. Also, the CIA are working a case so that should delay them.” Jason could tell he was stretching the truth.
“The CIA? How did you know the CIA were involved with the train crash?” Garsh went silent. It took him a minute before he answered.
“I recognized the helicopter,” Garsh said. “Anyway, you should get your friends up. I’m going to find the weather report for today on the computer, give us a little information.”
Jason went back into the atrium and woke Chase and Steven. When he brought them into Garsh’s small office, the computer had a YouTube video with an update of today’s news report. After listening to three news stories, the weather finally came on.
“Today will be unusual,” the weather reported said. “Temperatures may drop to 25 degrees or below as well as another overcast over the city of New York. In fact, later tonight, we might even see a few snow flurries due to the cold front moving in.”
“Snow?” Chase said aloud. “We can’t have snow! We don’t have gloves, coats, or boots. We’ll freeze in this warehouse!”
“Calm down,” Garsh said, exiting the YouTube video. “This is a mattress warehouse. I’m sure they have a heater in here some where.”
“And how do you suppose we find it?” Chase asked.
“You know, with your eyes.”
“Very funny. Out in the atrium, there is a small metal balcony that goes around about halfway to the ceiling. I bet the heater is activated somewhere up there.” Chase left the small office and immediately started climbing the ladders to get to the metal balcony. Once he got up, he found many switches and buttons that monitored the temperature, lights, and more things that he couldn’t understand.
“Guys!” Chase yelled. “You need to check this out!” Steven came out of the office and went up the ladders to join Chase. Once he got up there, he fell in awe.
“What is all of this stuff?” Steven asked. “How are we supposed to know which one is the heater?”
“I’m not sure,” Chase replied. “But isn’t it awesome? We could control this place once we figured out what all these switches do.”
“Um, I think we should have Garsh look at it. I mean, he is a train operator and we are only Seniors in high school.”
“Fine, but I call pushing at least one of the switches.” Steven sighed and rolled his eyes. After giving it a minute of thought, he motioned to Chase that it was alright.
As Steven climbed down the ladders, Chase pulled a switch down, the sound echoing through the atrium. Suddenly, a group of lights shut off.
“Hey!” Steven shouted, halfway down the ladders. “Turn them back on!” Chase pushed the switch up and the lights flashed back on.
“I figured out the switches that control the lights!” Chase shouted once Steven reached the bottom. “They were the six switches that we saw first thing when we got up here!”
“Cool!” Steven yelled back. “Now I’m going to get Garsh and have him look at those switches!” Steven entered the office and saw Garsh on the computer. Jason was in front of the calendar, marking days with a red pen.
“I’m marking the days that have already passed,” Jason said. “I don’t know how it happened, but Chase got me to stay here. There’s no way I’m going out in the snow or going out when I’m a wanted fugitive.”
“OK,” Steven said slowly. “Anyway, Garsh, we need you to check something. We can’t tell which switch is the heater on the balcony.”
“Alright,” Garsh said, lifting himself out of the computer chair. “Let me go check it out.” Once the three of them exited the office, they stopped in the middle of their tracks. Something looked different. All the lights in the atrium were off.
“Chase!” Steven yelled into the darkness. “Turn the lights back on!” Instead of the lights turning back on, there was complete silence.
“Here,” Garsh said after a minute. “I have a flashlight. Just show me where the ladders are.” Garsh turned on the flashlight and scanned the pitch black atrium. Slowly, he began to walk toward the ladders.
As they got closer, they began to hear dripping sounds and slumberous footsteps. Garsh, ignoring the sounds, began to climb the ladders to find Chase.
“Chase? You up here?” Garsh called, walking slowly on the balcony. “Hello?” Out of nowhere, a flash of light appeared and Chase, behind it, screamed.
Garsh jumped, dropping his flashlight off the edge and onto one of the mattresses.
“I got you!” Chase laughed. “You thought something was wrong but it was all just a prank.” Garsh flipped on the lights, revealing that he wasn’t very happy.
“Chase, what do you think you’re doing?” Garsh asked angrily. “Someone on the outside of the warehouse could have heard that scream.”
“Oh relax, no one heard me. Besides, don’t you think it would be a bit suspicious if the heater of a closed down warehouse came on randomly?”
“No,” Garsh answered. “Many closed down warehouses or stores are kept in its condition until another company buys it. That means, they come on on their own sometimes.” Garsh turned back towards the switches. After scanning it quickly, he flipped a switch and the heater came on.
“How’d you know?” Jason asked, peaking his head up to the balcony while on the ladders. “There must be a hundred switches up there.”
“It has the temperature symbol next to it,” Garsh said.
“Temperature symbol?” Jason climbed onto the balcony and stood next to Garsh, looking at the switch. “What’s the temperature symbol?”
“You know, a small sketch of a thermometer,” Garsh said, climbing down the ladders. Jason stood for a moment, feeling dumbfounded.
“I knew that,” he said, turning around and following Garsh down the ladders. “I was just testing you.” Once he got to the bottom, he started following Garsh back to the small office.
“Hello?” a random voice shouted out. Garsh and Jason turned around quickly. “What are you guys doing here?”
“Who are you?” Garsh asked, slowly backing away from the stranger.
“This is my home,” the stranger answered.
November 12, 2011 8:44am
Central Intelligence Agency
The video of the back car of the train replayed again, revealing that Jason, Steven, and Chase were the only ones in the back of the train.
“Lucinda,” Cothran said as she passed by his desk. “Did you find out who these three teenagers are yet?”
“Actually,” she started. “I’m on my way to see if the database found any results. You may come along if you wish.” Turning back onto her path, Lucinda continued toward the computer room.
Once she was in, she closed the door behind her. Inside, there was a large table with a few computer monitors on it. One of them showed the database searching for the teenagers’ pictures.
“Did you find anything?” Cothran asked after entering the room. He stood behind the chair Lucinda was sitting in to view the computer monitor.
“Looks like it did,” Lucinda replied. “The teenagers on the train are Steven, Jason, and Chase. Chase and Steven are brothers while, I’m guessing, Jason is their friend.”
“What were they doing on this train?” Cothran asked to himself, looking at the above monitor with a picture of the teenagers on the train. “Hang on!”
“What?” Lucinda asked impatiently. “What is it?”
“Look at the seat they were all sitting at,” Cothran said. “There are backpacks under the seat. What if they are on the run?”
“Or, they could be going to stay the night at a friend’s house,” Lucinda said.
“What? How could you know that?”
“Because I see one of their toothbrushes sticking out. A toothbrush really isn’t something you bring with you when you plan on running away.” Lucinda pressed a key on the keyboard repeatedly, making the video skip ahead.
Suddenly, she stopped on the second that the train began to derail. In slow motion, she viewed the teenagers’ reaction to the derailment.
“They got up almost instantly,” Cothran said. “It’s like they knew the train was going to derail.”
“No they didn’t,” Lucinda disagreed. “That was the train’s work. It moved fast enough that they were jerked out of their seats when the train derailed.” After pressing the same key about twenty more times, she stopped the video.
“What?” Cothran inquired, feeling insulted. “Is there something else you would like to mislead me on?”
“No,” Lucinda said, reaching for her cell phone. “Hang on.”
“What?” Cothran shouted, trying to get her attention. However, she continued with her call.
“Get all units to the train site immediately. We need to clear the area as fast as possible. We have a possible code eight, proceed carefully.” Lucinda hung up and stuck her cell phone back in her pocket.
“Let’s go!” she demanded, grabbing her coat from off the chair.
“What’s going on?” Cothran asked, chasing her out the door.
“I think,” she started. “I’m not sure, but I think there is a bomb on that train, and it still hasn’t blown yet.”
November 12, 2011 8:46am
Abandoned Mattress Firm Warehouse
After Jason, Chase, Steven, and Garsh introduced themselves, they sat down in the office to talk.
“So, Gerry, how long have you been here?” Garsh asked, still surprised that a stranger has been living in the warehouse.
“About two months,” Gerry answered. “Since a week after the warehouse was shut down. I didn’t have a place to live so I figured that if I hid here, it would be awhile before someone discovered me. Then you people showed up.”
“So wait,” Jason said. “You actually live here? So, you wouldn’t happen to have any food now would you?”
“As a matter of fact,” Gerry said, “I do. Far back in the warehouse, there is a soda machine that still works. That is were I keep all the perishables.”
“Can you show us where this soda machine of yours is?” Jason asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.
“Follow me,” Gerry said. With a line following behind him, Gerry left the office and traveled in a maze-like path to the other side of the warehouse. There was a mattress set up where he slept, blankets, pillows, breakfast, and even a small TV set.
“How did we not know you were here?” Garsh said to himself. “We slept in this place overnight!”
“That’s probably because I chose not to watch TV last night. Usually, I watch it every night but last night, I don’t know.”
“Wait,” Chase said. “You’ve turned on the TV and no one came in to catch you?”
“Well, I did put it on volume 16,” Gerry said. “Also, this place is huge. Since the sound echos, most of it doesn’t escape the building. And if some does, it is really muffled to outsiders.”
“Are you some kind of scientist?” Steven asked. “Because there are better places you could be now if you were.”
“No,” Gerry answered. “I looked that up on the computer. Of course, you can’t trust everything the internet says, but it said ‘trust this’ on the top of the website.” Garsh shook his head. “So, what are you guys doing here?”
The four exchanged nervous glances. They weren’t sure if Gerry would tell the police or not.
“We, uh,” Jason said. “We came here because––”
“Because we heard about the snow storm coming and couldn’t find any transportation home,” Garsh interrupted in the middle of Jason’s sentence.
“Fair enough,” Gerry said. “Oh and I want to thank you for turning on that heater. I was up there and couldn’t find the switch that turned that thing on. So, I guess it was a good thing that you four showed up after all.”
All of the sudden, loud sirens came into the entrance through the vent in the top. It sounded like there wasn’t just one, but a lot of police cars coming into the area. All five of them suddenly got really nervous.
“I forgot to tell you guys,” Gerry said. “There was a crazy train wreck outside of here yesterday. The cops are probably investigating right now. I’m surprised none of you even saw it.”
“Oh. Thanks for the information,” Jason lied. “Without knowing that we could have gone crazy just now.”
“What do you suppose they are doing out there?” Garsh asked. “I mean, why are the cops investigating?”
“Well, I heard that some terrorists might have caused the train to derail,” Gerry said. Garsh suddenly went wide-eyed. “The news said that they think it was a group of terrorists that did the job. Four of them, in fact.”
Jason, Chase, and Steven looked at each other. After sending silent messages to each other, they decided that the police think they are the terrorists.
Once the sirens turned off, they heard a helicopter coming in above the warehouse. It passed by really fast and then landed on the other side of the collision debris.
“Man, there sure are a lot of police out there,” Gerry said, sitting down on his mattress to finish his breakfast. “I wonder if they’re onto that terrorist group. That would be a miracle.” Garsh looked at the teenagers. He knew that any freedom they had the day before was now gone with the wind.
November 12, 2011 8:52am
Train Derailment Site
A black SUV with police lights flashing on it turned the corner to the street with the Mattress Firm warehouse on it. The street was cleared of all pedestrians and the sky already had winter storm clouds coming in.
“The police have been here for about three minutes,” Lucinda told the other CIA agents. “If there really is a bomb, we need to get it out of there by any means, even if it means having to blow it up in the middle of the ocean.”
The SUV turned left really hard, its wheels screaming against the dirty street. Ahead, the debris of the collapsed train station covered the street. To get to where the back car was, they had to get around the debris and into the Cozy Cat apartments debris.
Once they reached the Cozy Cat apartment complex, they came to a quick halt, and everyone nearly jumped out of the SUV.
“Is it a bomb?” Dave asked one of the bomb squad members.
“We aren’t sure yet,” the other person replied. “But we’re having someone x-ray it in about five minutes. Just be prepared to run a distance.”
The CIA agents and the bomb squad stood by until they were ready to scan the backpacks they found in the debris.
“Why do you think there is a bomb anyway?” Cothran whispered to Lucinda. “I didn’t see anything on the tape.”
“I saw wires coming out of the backpack,” Lucinda said. “After the train jerked, the backpacks moved and a few wires came out of one.”
Suddenly, the x-ray started to beep. The person holding it nodded to the rest of the bomb squad and everyone began to step back.
“Alright!” the bomb squad leader shouted. “I want two people in suits to come up and find out what type of bomb we’re dealing with. Then, I want a report on how we will be able to disarm it!” Two people volunteered and suited up in a lot of armor.
Slowly, they proceeded toward the backpack with the bomb in it. Sure enough, there were wires sticking out of it.
One of them slowly opened it to reveal the bomb’s complicated structure. The other one ducked down to get a closer look at the bomb.
“Looks like we’re dealing with a,” he said to himself. “A time bomb. Based on the wiring, this is one of the old ones. We can slow it down, but to disarm it would need a miracle.”
“That’s great,” Lucinda said sarcastically. “So we can’t disarm the bomb?”
“We can try. But, it would take awhile, time that we don’t have available,” he said. “This bomb is going to blow, and everyone in this area must be gone when it does.”
“How much time do we have, Erik?” the bomb squad leader asked. Erik turned to see the bomb again.
“About five minutes, maybe,” he replied. “Disarming it in five minutes is without question impossible with our technology.”
“Can you slow it down for us?” the leader asked. “I’m going to get everyone out of the area.” The leader turned to face the crowd, otherwise the bomb squad. “Everyone needs to get out of this area. As for the CIA, you guys should check the buildings and businesses within a half mile radius from the site. So, down to that Mattress Firm and on the other side, down to that second intersection.”
Once the leader was done talking, everyone got into action. The bomb squad started getting their members into the van and the CIA returned to their SUV, planning to go to the places on the right of the derailment site first.
“I’m going to send this story to the media,” the leader said to Erik. “They will need to know to get everyone out of the area.”
“Go ahead, sir,” he said. “Just be careful with the wording. The media really likes to exaggerate circumstances like this.”
November 12, 2011 8:59am
Abandoned Mattress Firm Warehouse
Gerry turned the TV back on. He thought that if there were enough police out there, the news would be reporting it. In fact, he was correct.
On channel nine, a news team was at the site, giving a bird’s eye view of the site, every now and then accidentally showing the warehouse that they were in.
“Guys!” Gerry yelled across the atrium. “They are reporting what’s going on!” Jason, Chase, Steven, and Garsh ran over to where Gerry was sitting on his mattress. The small TV in front of him showed the area not far from where they were breathing.
“If you are in this area, your life may be in danger,” the reporter said. “Police reports say that in a half a mile radius of this area should evacuate. If you are receiving this broadcast, we highly suggest you evacuate. We don’t have all the details but the police say there was a bomb in the area, a bomb that is very large.
“The ones responsible for setting the bomb may be connected to the terrorists who caused the train wreck, now named the Terrorists of 11/11. As devastating as this all sounds, we do have their pictures. If you see any of these four, please contact the CIA at the hotline immediately.” A picture of Jason, Garsh, Chase, and Steven appeared on the television. “It is said that they are still at stake and may be dangerous.”
Gerry froze. He turned off the TV after the news went to the weather and turned to look at the “terrorists.”
“Gerry,” Garsh finally said. “Listen, it isn’t what you think. We were––”
“Shut up!” Gerry suddenly yelled angrily. “You aren’t here because of the storm. You are here to escape the police!”
“No, it isn’t like that.”
“Then why’d you lie to me? Huh? If you are as innocent as you are telling me, you should have been able to explain the situation to me instead of lying!”
Garsh stepped forward. All of the sudden, Gerry pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Garsh’s forehead.
“Don’t take another step!” he threatened. “And as for you teenagers, I highly suggest you don’t try anything or I will shoot him!”
Slowly, Garsh rose his hands into the air. “I’m n-not armed,” Garsh stuttered. He lowered to his knees to show that he wouldn’t hurt him.
“Really?” Gerry said. “You’re trying to get me to put my gun away so that you can punch me and steal it. I’m not stupid!”
The atrium fell silent. Jason, Steven, and Chase were too petrified to speak and Garsh was sweating more than anyone. Gerry, on the other hand, was debating with himself whether to shoot him now or to get the whole story.
“Get into the office,” Gerry whispered, breaking the silence. “Now!” Garsh stood up and slowly walked toward the office, his hands still in the air. Jason, Steven, and Chase put their hands in the air and followed Garsh to the office.
Once they got in, they all got on their knees, making sure they didn’t say a word. Gerry finally got into the office, his pistol still aimed at Garsh, the one he saw as the biggest threat.
“The police are going to come in here,” Gerry said, sounding calmer. “They aren’t looking for you guys, they are looking for pedestrians. This has happened to me. Whenever there is an evacuation, they search the buildings within the radius. They search quickly so if this door to the office is locked, they won’t come in. They will knock, but they won’t enter as long as they don’t hear a sound.”
“Then what will you do with us?” Jason asked. “If you don’t want the police to find us, what do you want to happen to us?”
“I will figure out the story,” Gerry answered, now hardly paying attention to if he was pointing at Garsh or not. “If I deem you guys innocent, I will let you stay here until the cops find out it wasn’t you. But, if I don’t, I will report you to the police.”
Jason gulped. He knew that if the story wouldn’t sound like they were innocent to the police, there was no way they would to Gerry. On the other hand, he was homeless. He was probably used to crazy stories.
“Right now we need to wait,” Gerry said, sitting down on the computer seat. “The cops should be here soon. If this bomb will blow soon, they will definitely miss us.”
“What do we do while we wait?” Garsh asked. “They might not be here for awhile.”
“You can start on that story,” Gerry said. “If you finish before they get here, that is all the more better. That way, if I do deem you guilty, I can hand you to them on the spot.”
3: Three: A Taste of Bad LuckAmerica’s Fall
Chapter Three: A Taste of Bad Luck
November 12, 2011 9:03am
East of Half Mile Radius
The SUV stopped at the corner on the second intersection, its sirens blaring loudly. The CIA agents exited the vehicle and entered the pizza shop. There were about seven workers and four customers, unaware of the situation.
“This is the CIA,” Cothran said, holding his badge up high. “We need everyone to exit the area. Go as far away from this train wreckage as possible.” Suddenly, the customers stood up and rushed to their cars. The workers in the back just stood confused.
“What’s going on?” one of them asked. “Why do we need to leave?”
“Right now, just get out of here,” Dave said. “Once you are safe, you can turn to the news and they will explain everything.” As the CIA agents left the shop, the workers ran out the back door and got into their cars.
“Next,” Lucinda started. “We go to that bank, on the other side of the street.” Dave got in the driver’s seat and did a quick u-turn. Once he got across the street, he stopped at the bank, rushing out of the vehicle as fast as he could.
“Wait,” Lucinda said out of the car window. “We should split up. Two of us could go on foot while you drive.”
“Alright,” Dave said. As he got back into the car, Lucinda and Cothran got out. Lucinda went into the bank, while Cothran went to the next building over. Dave slammed on the gas pedal and started around the debris of the Cozy Cat apartment complex.
“Hello?” Dave said, answering his cell phone. “Who is this?”
“This is the bomb squad leader. I want you to know that we delayed the bomb to blow in no less than ten minutes from now. Unfortunately, we are unsure if we will be able to disarm it so please continue the evacuation.”
“OK,” Dave said. “Make sure to call Cothran and Lucinda. They aren’t with me right now because we split up, to cover more ground faster.”
“Alright, bye.” Dave hung up and threw his cell phone to the passenger’s seat. Finally, he reached the Mattress Firm warehouse. He stopped instantaneously and realized that the door to the warehouse was boarded up. Ignoring it, he kicked the door open.
“Anyone in here?” he shouted, echoing throughout the warehouse. “You need to leave! This is the CIA!” Still, there was no answer. He walked farther into the warehouse, passing the small office. “There is a bomb! If you are here within the next ten minutes, you may be in trouble. So if you don’t come out now, please leave the area soon! Go as far as possible from here!” With no answer, he turned around to leave the warehouse.
As he was leaving, he noticed a door to his right, just next to the exit. He walked up to it and tried to open it, but it was locked.
“Is anyone in there?” he yelled, knocking on the door. “If there is, please leave!” Getting impatient, he was ready to leave. However, he knew he couldn’t let any innocent die, so he continued.
“I don’t know if anyone is in there but please get away from the door! I’m coming in!” Dave lifted his foot and kicked on the door really hard, making it burst open.
November 12, 2011 Six Minutes till Detonation
Location Unavailable
“Thanks for letting us go!” Jason panted, running behind Gerry. “If you left without us, they probably would of found us for sure!”
“Well, I can see your situation!” Gerry said. They turned to cross a street as they ran, hoping that they were outside of the bomb’s radius. “The thing that doesn’t make sense is the bomb. I mean, if they wanted to blow up the train, why did they need to crash it?”
“Look at the radius,” Garsh said as he and the others ran past a barber shop to their left. “This bomb is obviously not meant for just the train. If they made the bomb this strong on purpose, it definitely wasn’t for the train.”
The four of them walked into a diner, panting. They noticed that there was a TV, but it wasn’t on the news channel.
“We might as well grab a bite,” Gerry said, gasping for air. “It doesn’t look like these folks know about the accident.”
“Folks?” Chase said. “Who says ‘folks’ these days?” After the four of them sat down in a booth, Chase dropped the subject.
“So,” Gerry said quietly. “You think that the train wreck was just a diversion? You think that these terrorists caused the train to crash so that the police wouldn’t be focused on the bomb?”
“That’s what I was saying,” Garsh said. “But, thinking about it, that could cause them to find the bomb faster. I mean, it is a steam train so they probably don’t check it after every pickup.”
“You know what’s weird,” Gerry said. “You guys were on the train with the bomb. And, you guys were in the crash. You think someone was trying to, you know, kill you guys?”
“I’m not sure. But the thing is, I don’t know how how the bomb got on. You three were the only ones that day who got on with backpacks.” Garsh looked at Jason, Steven, and Chase.
“Oh yeah,” Jason suddenly said. “Remember, guys. When we got on the train, there was already a backpack under the seat. That’s probably why they think we are the terrorists.”
“But that would make four backpacks,” Gerry said. “They think Garsh is a terrorist because they saw him running with you guys. But, that doesn’t explain why they think you three are terrorists.”
“Actually, it does,” Chase said. “Me and Steven––”
“Steven and I,” Jason interrupted.
“Whatever. Steven and I shared a backpack and Jason had his. So, the two backpacks added to the bomb made it look like it was also ours.”
“So the bomb was planted before you got on the train?” Gerry asked. “Either they are watching you, or we are dealing with terrorists smart enough to frame someone.”
“Can I get you something to drink?” the waitress suddenly asked. “Oh, you’re a fan of the Broncos?” Gerry looked down at his shirt and noticed he was wearing a jersey. He immediately nodded.
All five of them ordered a water to drink. Once they finished talking, they realized that the bomb still had yet to explode, if it was going to at all. Nonetheless, they didn’t dare return to the warehouse. The police have probably discovered it by now and there was no way they were going to take their chances.
All of the sudden, they heard a bunch of sirens. It sounded like a herd of police cars were coming up on the street.
Once they passed the diner, the four ‘fugitives’ ducked just in time. If the bomb was disarmed, the police were probably searching the city for them.
As far as the five of them could tell, there was no way out of the situation. All they could do was stop the terrorists themselves, something that not even a moron would attempt to do.
November 12, 2011 Two Minutes till Detonation
Train Derailment Site – Radius Epicenter
“The area is as cleared as we could possibly get it,” Dave said to the bomb squad leader. “How is the bomb doing?”
“Not so good. Erik did the best that he could, but it turns out that the bomb was going too long. The mercury output has released too much substance, so we are afraid that disarming it may no longer be a choice.”
“Then we need to get out of here,” Cothran said. “Look, the area is cleared so there will be no pedestrian casualties. All we need to do is leave before it detonates.” Cothran looked at his watch. He noticed that they had one minute and forty seconds left.
“How much time do we have?” The bomb squad leader asked, noticing Cothran look at his watch.
“About 100 seconds,” he answered. “We need to get out of here now!” Erik abandoned the bomb and got into the remaining van. The leader and the co-leader followed. “Let’s get out of here!” Cothran yelled to the other CIA agents. They got into the SUV and and sped off, down the street next to the warehouse.
Cothran looked at his watch. “You need to go faster, Dave. We have thirty seconds.”
“I need the sirens on,” he said. “At this speed, a collision would be very bad.” Dave switched on the sirens and the red and blue lights suddenly started flashing, reflecting off the buildings in the area.
“Fifteen seconds, Dave.” Cothran notified.
“I am at three tenths of a mile away. Don’t worry, we’ll make it.” As the clock reached ten seconds, the SUV was still at 0.3 miles, just making it to four tenths.
“Seven seconds!” Cothran panicked.
“Don’t worry,” Dave said. “Our speed is above 60 miles per hour, we can make it!” Just before they made it out of the area, the bomb exploded. The explosion, visible in the rear view mirrors, was extremely large and traveling the area fast.
Finally, the car was out of the area when the explosion size peaked. Debris from the train, the Cozy Cat apartment complex, and the outlying buildings flew everywhere. On top of all of the debris, the sound was excrutiatingly loud. Everyone’s ears started to ring loudly.
Cothran sighed. He was happy to find out that they made it out just in time. However, still upset that they were unable to stop the bomb from exploding.
“This is bad,” Lucinda said, finally exiting her moment of silence. “That explosion will cost the city millions. Not just that, but there will be panic when the full story finally releases. If the terrorists don’t cause New York to collapse, the panic sure will.”
“I’m pretty sure the full story will not be the thing causing the panic,” Cothran said. “That explosion had to have been heard for miles and miles.”
“Don’t worry,” Dave said. “We will catch them. We know their names, what they look like, and everything. The city is against them. There is no way they can survive out there.”
“Plus, we have the database. They are just teenagers, besides that Garsh guy who was with them, so all we have to do is find their address. Then, we can find out where they were going on that train.”
“They probably won’t be there now,” Lucinda said. “They probably know we would go to their home, which would lead us to their destination.”
“I know,” Dave said. “But going to their houses has to give us some kind of clue. Let’s just go back to HQ and figure this out. If we have to, we will even go back to Quantico where our full database is accessible.”
Suddenly, Cothran’s cell phone rang. He dug in his pockets to find it and finally answered, just before the answering machine.
“Hello?” Cothran said. “This is Agent Cothran.”
“You know that article you found?” the person on the other line said. “There is a secret message in it. Also we found out who C. Patrice is.”
“Really? Is it me?” Cothran joked. Instead of laughter, there was complete silence. “Who is it?” Cothran asked impatiently.
“Uh, we will tell you once you arrive. Bye.” They hung up. Cothran closed his cell phone and returned it to his pocket, really confused.
“Dave, we’re going to the base, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. They found a hidden message in that article.”
November 12, 2011 9:37am
Good Eats Diner
The four of them finished up their actual breakfast as the customers around them finally started calming down from the explosion and frantically leaving to check up on their families. Of course, a half mile wide explosion isn’t something someone sees everyday in New York.
Once the owner of the Good Eats diner turned the television to the news, Gerry encouraged them to leave. In agreement, they all left the diner and began walking along the sidewalk, the streets humming with traffic.
“What do we do now?” Jason asked. “It’s not like we can return to our normal lives. In fact, it’s dangerous just walking on the sidewalk like this.”
“I’m not sure,” Garsh said. “This is an unusual situation. We are enemies to the law enforcement and anyone in the city, assuming everyone has watched the news because of the explosion, who sees us will send us to the police.”
“You guys can stay with me,” Gerry said. “After all, I am homeless so your situation doesn’t sound that bad, besides the being at the top of the wanted list part.”
“We need to find a place quickly, though,” Chase shivered. “It’s starting to get cold out here and I don’t think that we will be OK with walking around in a snow storm.” All four of them began to look around for a place to stay.
“I have an idea,” Steven said. “What if we went to the place we were planning to go in the first place?”
“You mean Josh’s house?” Chase asked. “Are you crazy? By now, Josh has probably already watched the news and is freaking out that he was friends with terrorists!” Steven blushed in embarrassment. “Besides, the police are probably expecting us to be there. Well, checking there anyway.”
“This is stupid,” Jason said. “Being wanted for a crime that was committed by someone else. Since they are after us, the real criminals are probably out there getting ready for some other terrorist attack.”
“What’s your point?” Chase asked. “Are you saying we should go after them? Where would we start?”
“No,” Jason said. “That isn’t at all what I’m saying. I’m saying we should turn ourselves in.”
“What?” the others exclaimed at the same time, stopping in their tracks.
“What’s the worst that could happen? All they’d do is interrogate us. By doing that, we could show them that we are innocent and, they could probably find the actual terrorists.” Everyone fell silent. For a moment, they all felt extremely stupid.
“Wait,” Garsh said. “What happens if they have too much evidence suggesting that we are the ones who caused the terrorist attack? They could have probable cause for putting us in prison.”
“It’s worth a try,” Jason said as they continued to walk. “Would you rather continue to be in harm’s way while the terrorists are making some plot to destroy New York or would you rather give the police some help by letting them know that we aren’t the terrorists?”
“I choose number one,” Chase said. “They tried to shoot us, remember?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “For a good reason. Still, they take us in and interrogate us, for sure.”
“Where are we supposed to go?” Garsh asked. “I don’t know where New York’s CIA Headquarters are.”
“I thought they were in Quantico, Virginia,” Steven said. “Isn’t that where the CIA and the FBI are located?”
“Yes,” Jason said. “But they also have one in Washington D.C. as well as New York. It’s for a safety precaution. Anyway, all we have to do is show ourselves to someone. They will call the cops right away.”
“Wait, we are actually considering this idea?” Chase asked. “I don’t want to be in a police station while being interrogated.”
“We don’t have another choice!” Jason said. “Now come on! Let’s just go into this fast food restaurant.”
“Wait!” Gerry said. “I’m not wanted. What do I do?”
“You’re a witness,” Garsh said. “Sort of. You can just tell the police what you know about us. Are you OK with walking to the police station?”
“Yes, I am,” Gerry answered. “It’s been nice meeting new friends finally.” Gerry walked off in another direction. Garsh, Jason, Steven, and Chase waved at Gerry has he walked off on his own path.
The four of them entered the restaurant and sat down, acting like they were real customers buying food.
“Act like you would if you were the terrorist and you didn’t want them to call the police,” Garsh whispered. “I mean, if they start to panic, try to convince them that you aren’t a terrorist, even though we actually aren’t.”
They got in line to order food from the front counter. They stood there for a whole five minutes and no one noticed them at all.
All of the sudden, in the corner of Garsh’s eye, he could see someone dialing a number on their cell phone. He wasn’t sure if she was calling the cops or not, but he really didn’t care. He just wanted to get out of the situation.
“No one notices us,” Chase whispered to Garsh. “Maybe none of these people watched the news this morning.”
“Trust me, someone will call,” Garsh whispered back. “It is only a matter of time.” Finally, it was their turn to order food at the counter. Before Garsh began speaking, they heard sirens. Jason’s heart suddenly started beating faster. In fact, he thought someone might have heard it beating.
“Here they come,” Steven said, looking at the front door. “We may not see each other for awhile so I just want to say good luck.”
“Good luck to you too, my friend,” Garsh said. “Just remember, we aren’t real criminals so make sure to let them know that. We are innocent.”
About ten police cars, their lights flashing brightly, appeared in front of the restaurant. A few cops wearing armored vests came into the restaurant first, carrying fully loaded automatic weapons.
“Freeze! Put your hands in the air now!” one of the cops yelled, aiming the weapon at the four of them. They shot their hands into the air immediately to avoid being shot. Everyone else in the restaurant fell to the floor and ducked under tables in a panic.
The police tackled Garsh first and handcuffed him. Then, they tackled Jason and Steven. Finally, Chase was pushed to the ground as well.
“Call the CIA!” one of the cops yelled to another policeman. “Tell them we have the suspects of the time bomb.” They could hear a helicopter coming in from outside the opened entrance. It was like every cop in the city responded to the 911 call.
At the sight of the effort all the police were making, Garsh knew there was no turning back. He knew they could no longer escape the grasp of the law enforcement.
4: Four: Interrogation's CrueltyAmerica’s Fall
Chapter Four: Interrogation’s Cruelty
November 12, 2011 10:01am
Outside CIA Headquarters – New York City
The SUV slowly came up to the dead end, where the secret entrance was located. After fully stopping, the CIA agents exited the vehicle and proceeded toward the telephone booth.
“You go first,” Lucinda said to Cothran. “Dave and I will follow behind you once you are down.” After Cothran stepped into the telephone elevator, it descended into the Earth as if eating him. About two minutes later, the elevator came back up for Lucinda and Dave.
“Let’s both go,” Dave said, stepping into the elevator. Lucinda squeezed in after Dave and then the elevator started lowering.
After it finally reached the hallway, the elevator stopped. As Lucinda and Dave approached the main operations room, they heard a voice and stopped immediately.
“Don’t move!” they heard a female voice say. They both looked at each other and turned to their right. On the other side of the hallway, a room with a sign that said Printer Room next to it had its door wide open. Slowly, they walked over to investigate.
Once Lucinda and Dave made it to the doorway, they noticed one of the CIA agents with their pistol aimed at Cothran’s forehead.
“Stop!” Lucinda demanded, pulling out her pistol without warning. Dave followed her example. “What’s going on here?”
Cothran had his hands in the air, but the other agent refused to lower her weapon. Cothran was the only one not armed.
“Cothran is a mole,” the other CIA agent explained. “He is the one that sent that secret message in the article he ‘supposedly’ found.”
“What is she talking about?” Lucinda asked, now aiming the gun at Cothran. “Have you been spying on the Central Intelligence Agency?”
“No,” Cothran said, aghast. “Why would you even say that? I’ve known you for longer than I can even remember.”
“Be quiet,” Lucinda instantly demanded. “I’m going to go check out that article and all codes in it. In the meantime, you two are going to be in separate interview rooms. Understand, Cothran? Emilia?” Emilia had dark brown hair that was always in a ponytail. She had piercing green eyes and smooth, tanned skin. She could be really threatening at times, especially with betrayal. Except, at this point, she had decided to lower her weapon.
“Hello? This is Lucinda,” she said into her cell phone. “Someone has betrayed us. We aren’t sure who yet but we need to have Cothran and Emilia suspended. Can you come take them to separate interview rooms? They are in the printer room opposite of the main control. Thanks.” She stuck her cell phone back into her pocket.
“So, they are on their way?” Dave asked, not taking his eyes off of Cothran or Emilia.
“Yes,” Lucinda answered. “Can you keep an eye on them until they get here? I need to go look at this article that they were talking about.” Lucinda put her pistol back into her holster and walked to the control room, her shoes tapping against the tile floor.
“Can I see the article, Benjamin?” she asked one of the other CIA agents. Benjamin was in his mid-forties and had black hair. He always wore a suit to work and was always prepared for anything.
“Sure,” he replied. “It’s in the computer room, third monitor.” Lucinda went over to the computer room and sat on the chair in front of the computer. Sure enough, the article was on the third monitor.
The article looked exactly like it did before. Only this time, the secret message was bolded to make it obvious. All the capital letters of the “The Mallard Steam Engine” article that seemed to be misplaced revealed a message that read, “DONT ATTACK CIA YET.”
Lucinda leaned back in the chair, astonished. After five minutes of sitting there, she leaned forward to see who had written the article. At the bottom, it read, “C. Patrice.”
She stood up, feeling extremely angry, and returned to the main control room to see that Dave was finally out of the printer room.
“Dave,” she called to him. “Are they in the interview rooms yet?”
“Yes,” Dave answered. “Benjamin is watching them on the monitors, trying to make sure they don’t try anything.”
“Are you up to interviewing Emilia?” Lucinda asked. “If this article is right, Cothran is a mole. Now, I just need to figure out if it’s true or if he was framed.”
“Alright, I’ll talk to Emilia,” Dave said. “Cothran is in Interview Room 12B, next door to where Emilia is. Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Lucinda said. “We are going to need these.” She pulled out two small earpieces, something bystanders wouldn’t notice. “If Benjamin notices something, or we are needed, they can just tell us in the earpiece.”
Lucinda followed Benjamin to the interview rooms. First, Dave pointed out that Cothran was in the room that Dave mentioned earlier. Then, he stepped into Room 12A, prepared for his interview already.
Lucinda breathed in slowly, and exhaled shortly after. Then, she stepped in to see Cothran, handcuffed to the table.
“Hey, Cothran,” she said angrily, sitting down on the other side of the table. “I have a few questions to ask you.”
“Are you seriously interrogating me?” Cothran said. “This is messed up. I am not a mole! Why do you think I am?”
“You know that article,” Lucinda said. “The Mallard Steam Engine? Well, we did find a secret message in it.”
“What did it say?” Cothran asked, suddenly curious.
“I’m pretty sure you already know what it says, since your initials were at the end of it!”
“You mean C. Patrice?” Cothran asked. “Why do you think that is me? I would not hide a secret message!”
“Your name is Cothran Patrice, isn’t it?” Lucinda asked, sarcastically. “The last time I checked, it was.”
“Actually, my name is Dillan Cothran Patrice. Everyone calls me by my middle name.”
“Interesting,” Lucinda said. “But that still doesn’t make you innocent. We checked the database and there was only one other C. Patrice. You want to know where we found it? In Egypt!”
“That doesn’t make him innocent either.”
“True, but there is still one little detail. The C. Patrice we found was the founder of a neighborhood. Basically, we found a neighborhood by searching that name. And another thing, that founder died in 1802, much before the Mallard Steam Engine.”
“Well, I have something to back me up as well,” Cothran said. “First of all, that C. Patrice also happened to be a writer, one I was named after. Second, why would I make a code that simple? I am a CIA agent, so there is no way I’d make a code like that. And third, I don’t know anything about the Mallard Steam Engine.”
All of the sudden, a voice appeared in Lucinda’s ear. “We need to go to the New York Police Department right now. They have captured the terrorist suspects.”
November 12, 2011 10:54am
New York Police Department
The temperature had dropped to 40 degrees by the time Lucinda, Benjamin, and Dave arrived at the police department. They were all wearing light coats, making them actually look more professional for the situation.
“My name is Rayford Sover, police chief,” they were greeted. Rayford had gray-ish hair and a beard. He didn’t need glasses but used them to read. He was wearing a police uniform. “The suspects are in the back. We have an officer guarding the room they are in right now. One of them is in the interrogation room.”
“Can we speak to him?” Dave asked patiently. “We just need to ask a few questions from each one of them.”
“Be my guest,” Rayford said. “Just be careful, we struggled dragging them in here. He may try to escape.” Lucinda, Benjamin, and Dave were escorted to the interview room in the far back. Once they entered, the door was closed behind them.
“Hello,” Lucinda said. “My name is Agent Barnns, this is Agent Gerral and Agent Dave.”
“What do you want from me?” the suspect said impatiently.
“We’d like to ask you a few questions, mister––”
“My name is Garsh,” he interrupted. “Can we make this brief? I don’t feel like talking a lot right now.”
“Shut up!” Dave said angrily. “We will not treat terrorists like you with respect. You will answer our questions and you will deal with it.” The room suddenly fell silent. With the silence, Garsh suddenly began to feel cold.
Lucinda opened up a file with the CIA seal on the front and looked at some information before speaking. “If I may, where were you yesterday at approximately 7:18 in the afternoon?”
“And I’m supposed to remember that?” Garsh said.
“Doesn’t matter. The point is, we saw you running with a few of our suspects just seconds after the train accident. Is this true?” He stayed silent. “Anyway, we want to know how the train derailed in the first place.”
“I don’t know,” Garsh answered, sitting up. “But, I do know that I stopped the train five minutes before the train station because I felt a strange bump. I couldn’t find anything so I returned to the front cab.”
“Did you experience anything strange after that?” Lucinda asked.
“Actually, I did. About thirty seconds later, there was a loud sound. So, I––”
“What did it sound like?” Benjamin interrupted.
“I don’t really know,” Garsh replied. “Anyway, I called it in to Train Control and they told me not to worry about it. However, in my ten years of operating trains, I never heard anything like that before.”
Dave was recording everything Garsh said into another CIA file. To him, everything sounded reasonable, for now.
“Is that when the train derailed?” Lucinda asked.
“Well, about ten seconds after the sound, I saw something in the corner of my eye. When I turned by head, it took me a bit to realize that it was the back of the train. So, I tried to stop the train, but the brakes didn’t work. That’s when I went for the emergency brake.”
“What happened after that?” Lucinda asked.
“That’s when three teenagers, or your other ‘suspects’ came in. They wanted to know what happened. Not even a minute later, the front came off the track and landed on the train station that it was supposed to stop at.”
“OK, that’s all we need to know,” Lucinda said. “Thank you.” Garsh barely nodded in acknowledgment and the CIA agents left the room.
“This guy is telling the truth,” Benjamin said instantly. “First of all, there is no way he could of come up with that story on the spot. Second, the profile the police gave me matches what he said. He has been a train operator for ten years.”
“But that doesn’t explain why he didn’t recognize the back of the train,” Dave said.
“First of all,” Lucinda started. “That isn’t something you expect to see. Second, he is a train operator. He doesn’t visit the back often.”
“What about those light rail things?” Dave said.
“This is a steam engine, not a light rail,” Lucinda said. “Still, how did they get to the ground so quickly?”
“Maybe they jumped,” Benjamin suggested. “There was a park nearby the station. It could be possible they landed in a bush or that small pond.”
“Nothing seems too dangerous about this guy,” Dave admitted. “We just need to find out why he went after those teenagers.”
“Well, let’s see,” Lucinda said. “Why would they have ran in the first place? What was there to run from?”
“The helicopter,” Benjamin said. “Remember, they sent a helicopter to check it out and they saw some people running.”
“So, they don’t trust police?” Dave said.
“That’s not it,” Lucinda realized. “They started shooting. Why would someone run from the police even though they aren’t criminals? To avoid getting shot.”
“Who was flying the helicopter?” Benjamin asked. “I bet whoever was flying it was trying to get them to run, to make them look like they were escaping arrest.”
“That way, they has someone to blame the train wreck on,” Lucinda said. “But a CIA agent was flying the helicopter. Why would they do that?”
“Have you ever flown a helicopter before?” Dave asked.
“No, why?” Lucinda said.
“When you’re flying, you don’t control the guns on it. Someone else was shooting them.”
“Maybe the mole was on the helicopter,” Lucinda said. “In that case, Cothran isn’t a mole, he was framed. We need to find out who was on that helicopter, and fast.”
“What do we do with Garsh and the others?” Dave asked. “Are we absolutely sure they are innocent?”
“Definitely,” Lucinda said. “Like I said before, I knew it was strange that teenagers were terrorists. Now, we will let them free. Just have the police take them to their homes and tell their parents not to let them out until the investigation is over. In the meantime, we will follow this trace.”
November 12, 2011 12:06pm
Chase and Steven’s House
The police car pulled to the curb right in front of Chase and Steven’s house. It had two floors and a garage next to it. The front door was the only part of the house with a Halloween decoration still on it.
“Come on, guys,” the driver said. “Let’s go.” The driver got out of the police car and walked the two of them to the front door. Once he got on the porch, he rang the doorbell.
“Hello?” someone answered a minute later.
“This is the police,” the driver said. “Don’t worry ma’am, everything is OK. My name is Dirk Lonwood, I have your children.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” she said, opening the door wider. “I was extremely worried. What happened? What did they do?”
“Nothing, miss...”
“Roid. My name is Linda Roid. Thank you for bringing them back.” Chase and Steven ran into the house once they realized their mother was signaling them to come inside. They both ran upstairs and got into their room.
Both were silent for a few minutes. It seemed like everything happened extremely quickly, and as fast as it happened, everything was solved.
“What do we do now?” Steven said, feeling strange. “I honestly thought our lives came to a peak. But, now everything is good again.”
“I don’t know,” Chase said. “What do you think happened to Garsh? I wonder if he’s back at home yet.” The two of them fell silent. Out of awkwardness, Chase looked out the bedroom window to the surprise that it started snowing outside.
November 12, 2011 12:17pm
Jason’s House
Rayford pulled his car into the open driveway of Jason’s house. Even though it nearly just started snowing, the ground was already beginning to collect a good amount of snow.
Rayford knocked on the front door. After a little bit, a man answered, a worried expression on his face.
“Hello Mr. Parkins, how are you?” Rayford said sympathetically.
“What’s going on?” Mr. Parkins asked. “Do you know about my son by any chance? What happened?”
“Your son is right here,” Rayford said. “Everything is fine. He just was at the right place at the wrong time, that’s all.”
“Isn’t the saying––”
“Never mind,” Rayford interrupted. During their conversation, Jason went inside to warm up. As he went farther into the small house to find his mom, the cop and his dad continued talking.
“Hey mom,” Jason said, entering the living room.
“Oh. Hi, honey,” she said. “Where have you been? I thought you said your friends would drop you off at ten o’ clock?”
“Um, have you seen the news anytime recently?” Jason asked. “Just a random question, that’s all.”
“No, we were about to watch it,” she answered. “Why?”
“Just remember this,” he started. “Dad knows what’s going on, just ask him. Now, I’m goin’ back to my room. Love you.” Jason ran back to his room and closed the door behind him.
Relieved to be back, he sat down on his bed. All of the sudden, there was a strange static noise. It was coming from his closet, or at least he thought it was. He slid the closet door open and his walkie talkie was on the floor making a bunch of noise. He picked it up and put it next to his ear.
“Jason, can you hear me?” he heard from the walkie talkie. “Jason, please answer.”
“This is Jason,” he said into the walkie talkie. “I just got back home and I, wait, who exactly is this?”
“It’s Chase,” he replied nearly instantly. “Me and St––I mean Steven and I are up in our room. What do we do now?”
“I’m not sure. Do you know where Garsh is?”
“No. But, Steven thinks he is forgetting everything and moving on. Should we?”
“Heck no!” Jason exclaimed. “I’m not going to spend my day as a fugitive after experiencing a train wreck and then just let it all go. I want to know what’s going on.”
“But we aren’t aloud to leave the house,” Chase said. “Apparently, the cop told our parents to keep us in here. They probably did the same thing to you.”
“Really?” Jason said. “That stinks. Besides, where would we go if we were allowed out anyway?”
“I guess the police think we would try to get involved in the case. Is that necessarily a bad thing? We are only curious.”
“Well, I don’t normally do this but we could sneak out,” Jason said. “It wouldn’t be forever. I mean, we’d come back.” Suddenly, there was silence on the other line. Jason figured that they were thinking about it.
“OK, let’s do it,” Chase finally replied. “But let’s make it brief. I don’t want a risk of our parents calling the police and making us into real fugitives.”
November 12, 2011 1:24pm
Central Intelligence Agency
Lucinda, Benjamin, and Dave entered the main control room and got onto the computer in the computer room. They searched the staff members of the CIA and got four results for any helicopter pilots.
“OK, so one of these guys definitely flew the helicopter,” Lucinda said. “The problem is, which one did?”
“It’s not Larry, that’s for sure,” Benjamin said. “He was with me while the helicopter was sent to check out the accident.”
“So, it’s either Tony, Collin, or Jamar,” Lucinda said. “I know Tony is at his desk right now. We can ask him.”
“I think Collin’s the one watching the security monitors of the interview rooms,” Dave said. “Then we can ask him.” Lucinda and Benjamin went to see Tony while Dave went to talk to Collin.
“Were you the one that flew the helicopter?” Benjamin asked. “The one that caught those teenagers outside of the train wreck.”
“No,” Tony answered. “I think that might have been Jamar. But I can’t be sure.”
“Thanks, Tony,” Lucinda said, walking up to Dave as he returned to the main control room. “Got anything?”
“Not Collin,” he said. “He told me it was Jamar. The thing is, Jamar is not here right now. I guess he drove back home after he landed the helicopter.”
“We need to go to his house,” Lucinda said, nearly running out of the door. “Right now! He may be in danger.” Benjamin and Dave followed.
Just before she got onto the elevator, she demanded that more CIA agents come to the house. Dave, following her orders, went to get some.
“What’s his address?” Lucinda asked, now walking through the two centimeters of snow. “Tell me as we get into the car.”
“It’s not far,” Benjamin said. “Why don’t I just drive?” Lucinda took the deal and got into the passenger’s seat, waiting for Benjamin. Once he got in, Benjamin flipped on the sirens and turned the car around. He hit the gas pedal and sped out of the dead end.
“Get ready,” Lucinda said. “That gunman that was with him in the helicopter may be the mole. If he is, he may be armed.” The car came to a stop in front of Jamar’s house and the siren went silent, leaving the blue and red lights flashing.
Lucinda and Benjamin walked onto the yard and pulled out their pistols. The grass was already covered in snow, but neither of them seemed to be bothered by it.
“I’ll go around,” Lucinda whispered. “You knock on the door. If there is no answer, break it open. I will not take the chance of losing an agent.” Lucinda slowly snuck around to the back where there was a shed.
Benjamin crept onto the porch and knocked on the door. After 15 seconds, there was no answer. This time, Benjamin knocked and said, “Open up! This is the CIA!” With no answer again, he burst the door open and aimed his gun everywhere. The house seemed to be empty.
He noticed that he was in a living room with a set of couches around a coffee table and a TV hooked to a brick wall above a fireplace. To his right, the dining room looked as if no one had ever eaten at it.
Slowly, Benjamin entered the kitchen and still couldn’t find anyone. “I’m going upstairs,” Benjamin said into a device on his wrist. It transmitted to Lucinda’s earpiece so that she heard him.
“Go with caution,” Benjamin heard back in his earpiece. Slowly, he moved up the carpeted stairs, enclosed with thin walls on either side of it.
Once he reached the top, there was a small hallway that led to a door on the left and a slightly larger hallway that led to three doors on the right.
First, he decided to go to the left. As he opened the door slowly, he aimed his gun first, making sure that if anyone was in there, they wouldn’t attack.
Finally, he got all the way in and noticed it was a bedroom with a double bed. Jamar must have had a wife, or used to have one at least.
Benjamin checked the closet just in case and he came to the conclusion that the room was empty. In fact, the bed wasn’t even made yet.
As Benjamin backed out of the room, he closed the door so that if someone went into it, he would hear the door squeak open. However, when he turned around, there was someone standing there, just looking at him.
“Who are you?” Benjamin said, aiming his gun quickly at the person. He couldn’t recognize him because the window behind the mysterious figure was bringing in light, casting a shadow on the figure’s front.
“It’s Jamar,” he answered. “Just the person you came here looking for.” Benjamin suddenly noticed that there was a man not even a foot behind Jamar, aiming a gun at his head.
“What’s going on?” Benjamin asked, now aiming his gun at the guy behind Jamar. “What are you doing?”
“I think you know who I am,” the person said in a deep voice. “We have already met before.”
“So why is your voice altered?” Benjamin asked. “You don’t even know how to carry a gun right. And, you are a bit shorter than an average man. How old are you? 18 or 19?”
“Shut up!” he demanded. “You do realize that if you make me angry, I will kill your little friend. Then would you be happy?”
“You won’t kill him,” Benjamin said. “Think I’m stupid? You probably haven’t even ever pulled a trigger before, have you?”
“Let’s find out if I have the courage to,” he said. “All I have to do is try, and your agent here is no more.”
“Go ahead. You won’t be able to do it.” After a period of silence, the person suddenly pushed Jamar to the floor. Before he knew it, Benjamin suddenly had a pistol aimed right at his forehead.
5: Five: The Secret in the CIAAmerica’s Fall
Chapter Five: The Secret in the CIA
November 12, 2011 1:43pm
Good Eats Diner
Chase, Steven, and Jason sat in a booth as far from the entrance as they could. The last thing they needed was someone on the sidewalk calling the police because they think they caught the terrorists.
“Good thing we remembered our coats,” Jason said aloud to them. “I think it is freezing in here.”
“So, now that we’re here, what do we do?” Steven asked, sipping from his mug of hot chocolate. “It’s not like we can go to the police station and ask them what is going on with this terrorist situation.”
“My thoughts were that we could find a newspaper,” Jason said. “Honestly, they are probably more reliable right now than the media is.”
“That’s it?” Chase asked. “That was your ‘big plan’ all along? I was sort of hoping we could visit the train wreck site.”
“Are you kidding?” Jason asked. “If any evidence was even left there, and I’m pretty sure there wasn’t, it would of definitely been destroyed in the explosion.”
“What if we walked around and found another crime scene?” Steven suggested. “If the cops weren’t there, we could sneak in and take a look.” Jason looked at his watch.
“We have already been gone for 15 minutes,” he said. He slurped up the rest of his hot chocolate and continued. “I think we might want to head back soon. How about you?”
“I can’t let this go,” Chase said. “I need to know what’s happening and I won’t rest until I do.”
“Well, I’m sorry,” Jason said. “But this storm makes it look like it is already almost nighttime outside. It’s kind of hard to see anything out there. Besides, what do we do if the storm gets worse?” None of them answered. Instead, they all felt defeated.
“Fine,” Chase said. “But, tomorrow, this all better be over. I don’t want to have to live in my room for a week.”
“Besides,” Jason started. “It is a school night. And I don’t know about you, but I have homework to get done.”
“Come on, Jason,” Chase whined. Jason suddenly glared at him angrily. “Alright, let’s go back home then.” Chase and Steven finished up their hot chocolate and they paid at the cash register.
Suddenly, as they left the diner, a bunch of cop cars with their sirens going passed by really fast. Jason, Chase, and Steven immediately exchanged nervous glances. They ran out of the diner as fast as they could and headed on a course for their house. However, it seemed like the police cars were going in the opposite direction, but none of them noticed it.
November 12, 2011 1:48pm
Jamar’s House
A large group of cop cars and CIA vehicles pulled in front of the house, their sirens screaming. Cops exited their police cars and instantly pulled out pistols, aiming at the house from behind the cop cars.
An army of CIA agents covered in armor stormed into the house, carrying tons of automatic weapons. A few searched the first floor, but found nothing except for a dead body at the bottom of the steps. It was unrecognizable due the lighting.
Suddenly, the agents ran upstairs to see what happened, and they saw Lucinda and Benjamin, standing next to the agent known as Jamar.
“Everything’s safe here,” Benjamin said to the agent. “No one important died. However, a gunman did. But it was betrayal.”
“What happened?” the agent asked behind a riot mask. “Who exactly was the mole?”
“The gunman that was in the helicopter on the day of the train wreck,” Lucinda answered. “He has betrayed us and went after Jamar to make sure he didn’t tell us anything.”
“Here’s what happened,” Benjamin said, starting his story.
“You won’t kill him,” Benjamin said. “Think I’m stupid? You probably haven’t even ever pulled a trigger before, have you?”
“Let’s find out if I have the courage to,” the gunman said. “All I have to do is try, and your agent here is no more.”
“Go ahead. You won’t be able to do it.” After a period of silence, the gunman suddenly pushed Jamar to the ground. Before he knew it, Benjamin suddenly had a pistol aimed right at his forehead.
“How do you feel now?” he said. “Scared? Frustrated?”
“Perfectly fine,” Benjamin said, trying not to laugh. “In fact, better than I felt earlier.” All of the sudden, the gunman pulled the trigger. However, nothing happened.
“Oops,” Benjamin said. He pushed the gunman to the floor and picked up his gun, aiming it at him. “Plan didn’t work so well now did it.”
Out of nowhere, the gunman shot in the air and grabbed Benjamin’s arms. He twisted them enough to make him drop the gun, but before he could retrieve it, Benjamin pushed him down the stairs. Once he hit the bottom, he didn’t move.
“That’s it,” Benjamin said. “It was all about getting into the gunman’s head and making him go crazy, basically.”
“How’d you know the gun didn’t have any ammo?” the agent asked.
“Simple,” Benjamin answered. “When I first got out of the room, I saw Jamar. When he spoke is when I knew. He said, ‘just the person you came here looking for,’ in those exact words. He was calm. Obviously, he wasn’t afraid that there was a gun aimed at the back of his head. Not to mention, the gun didn’t even have a clip in it when he aimed it at me.”
Benjamin, Lucinda, and Jamar went downstairs and examined the body. Once they turned the light on, they were able to recognize him.
“Oh yeah,” Benjamin said, remembering. “This is the helicopter gunman. Man, I could not of guessed it was him. Uh, what was his name? Gerald? No, wait, it was Gerry.”
“Do you know anything about him?” Lucinda asked. “Maybe his profile could lead us on to why he did this and who the terrorists really are.”
“I know he had a successful life before becoming a CIA agent,” Benjamin said. “He had a career in politics and he was an author of a few books.”
“Anything more recent?” Lucinda asked. “I mean, this terrorist group was probably not formed that long ago.”
“I know he owned a Mattress Firm warehouse.”
“Really?” Jamar asked. “There was one down the block from where the train derailed. In fact, I saw those kids turn the corner right in front of it.”
“You think that’s where they hid to avoid police detection?” Benjamin guessed.
“No,” Lucinda said. “The SWAT people said they found them in a fast food restaurant. How could they have gotten there?”
“They were probably hungry,” Benjamin said. “They were hidden for about twelve hours when we found them.”
“But there is a diner much closer to the warehouse that was outside the bomb range.”
“Maybe we should interview them, see what happened,” Jamar suggested. “I mean, they aren’t criminals. I’m sure they’d help us find those terrorists.”
“Alright, we’ll do it,” Lucinda said. “We just need to gather the special agents and we will work out a way to interview them.” Suddenly, Dave walked up to them, wearing a bullet proof vest.
“You guys alright?” Dave asked. “I gathered a ton of backup just in case these terrorists were planning a war with us or something.”
“You did good,” Lucinda said. “You did your part correctly. Now, let’s gather the team and meet in room 11C.”
November 12, 2011 2:03pm
Garsh’s House
Garsh was sitting in front of his TV, slurping a mug of hot chocolate. He was watching one of his favorite TV shows, Life of a Criminal, from under a large blanket.
Suddenly, the power went out. Right in the middle of the television program, Garsh was forced to get up and find his way to the front door. He slipped on his jacket and trudged to his car, the snow now about four inches high.
Not in the mood to sit in the darkness of his home, he drove down to a nearby diner, one that was barely filled at all. He exited his car once he parked it and entered the diner, stomping his feet to get the snow off.
After grabbing a free newspaper from the basket near the front, he went and sat down in a booth. He opened up the newspaper and on the front page was an article stating what happened in the encounter just a few blocks away.
|
The CIA’s Encounter Not far from NY’s Central Intelligence Agency hideout, something many people didn’t know existed before today, there was an armed hostage situation. There were reports of an agent from the CIA who was involved, leading the cops to the fact that two agents went in before they were informed.
When the cops arrived, the house just looked normal. However, they sent in a group from the CIA that were in complete armor and armed with automatic weapons. When they arrived on the scene, there was a body, one they did not recognize at first. On the second floor, the CIA agents that went in first were found. They weren’t injured but it was obvious that they went through a lot. On another note, one of the heavily armed CIA agents spoke to these people. It was then learned that the hostage was an agent named Jamar Lewis.
By the time the media received the story, the special agents of the CIA identified the person at the bottom of the stairs as one of the terrorists, trying to restrain the only witness Jamar. It is also known that the body found at the crime scene was also the gunman of the helicopter that shot at the suspected terrorists, who are no longer suspected. This man’s name was Gerry Hutch, a traitor to the Central Intelligence Agency. |
“Would would you like for lunch?” a waitress suddenly asked. Startled, Garsh opened up his menu and told the waitress his order. He ordered some hot chocolate, a ham and cheese sandwich, and a small side salad.
Reviewing what he read, Garsh read the last line of the article again. Suddenly, he froze. At that moment, he realized the guy with them in the warehouse was Gerry, who just happens to be the person in the article.
Gerry was one of the terrorists? Garsh thought to himself. That means we ran into him. In fact, we sent him to the police department. Instantly, Garsh waved the waitress over.
“Can you put my order to go?” he asked. “I just realized I need to be somewhere.” The waitress nodded, and about five minutes later, she arrived with his meal to go. “Thank you.” Garsh ran out into the snow and got in his car.
Whoever Gerry was, whatever he did, Garsh was a witness. He knew he could do something to help the CIA. So, he decided to head straight to the police department.
November 12, 2011 2:19pm
Central Intelligence Agency
In room 11C, pretty far back in the hideout, the special agents of the CIA were together, talking about the terrorist case for the first time.
“So, what do we know?” Dave asked the group, standing in front of the white board with a green dry erase marker in his hand.
“We know that whoever the terrorists are tried to frame those teenagers,” Lucinda said. “It must be a more intelligent group of terrorists.”
“We also know that Gerry was the mole. He was with the group of terrorists,” Benjamin said. “Not to mention, he also tried to frame Cothran as well.”
“So why did he frame so many people?” Dave asked. “In some cases, getting deep into the framing technique can get dangerous and complicated. This is something Gerry wouldn’t do in his right mind.”
“He was probably trying to buy some time,” Emilia said. “If you notice, we didn’t really get deep into this case until now. Whatever they were trying to buy time for worked.”
“Why would they need to buy time?” Benjamin asked. “What could they be planning?”
“It must be something important,” Cothran said. “Not only did he use the technique of framing to buy time, but that whole bomb situation also took some time away from our investigations.”
“You think he used the bomb to buy time?” Emilia said. “Then why would it need to be so big? He could of made a small bomb to get our attention.”
“Remember,” Dave said. “Gerry was with them. He probably talked about the bomb squad with the other terrorists. They knew we would recognize it was a small bomb if they did that.”
“So if they need time,” Cothran said, “they must need a lot of it. To go out of your way and do all of this, just for time. They are definitely planning something.”
“We could probably assume that they are going to try something again,” Benjamin said. “If they need a lot more time, then they will.”
“What if they’re already done with their plan?” Lucinda said.
“OK, let’s slow down,” Dave said. “First off, to assume this is time buying, we need to know what for. Maybe the crimes are hints. What did the terrorists achieve at each crime scene and how did they do it?”
“The first scene was the train derailment,” Cothran said. “The crime lab agents called in already and said someone took a back part of the train.”
“How?” Dave asked. The agents went silent. Suddenly, Benjamin got an idea.
“Remember when we interrogated that train operator? He said he stopped the train. That must be when they did it.”
“Good thinking,” Dave said. “So the terrorists created noise to make the train operator check it. It’s not that hard to do so. All you need is a rock. What about the second scene?”
“The bomb,” Emilia mumbled. “It was a big bomb, big enough to cover a large radius. What could that be hinting?”
“That they aren’t afraid to threaten the lives of the innocent,” Lucinda said. “They are OK with doing that.”
“Or,” Dave started. “That means their plan is to threaten the lives of the innocent.”
“The third scene was a nice visit into a hostage negotiation,” Benjamin said. “What is that telling us?”
“He is trying to prove that he knows us,” Cothran said. “He knew we’d go to Jamar’s house to investigate. Could that have been time buying?”
“I don’t know,” Dave said, writing something on the white board. “But here’s what I do know. Gerry was a mole who was a CIA agent for a long time. There is no way he didn’t realize that the gun wasn’t loaded.”
“So he planned that?” Benjamin asked.
“Probably,” Dave answered. “You also said he was carrying the gun wrong and that his voice was altered. This was all to make it look like he wasn’t an agent. Based on that, it was definitely time buying.”
“So, going back to that subject, what for?” Emilia asked. “Obviously, if these are all attractions for us, they are doing something awful.”
“And whatever they’re doing will accompany with more time buying,” Lucinda said. “If they were done, they’d already be working their plan now, with how fast they are going with this.”
“A question I need to ask,” Dave started. “Where are they? We need to use the crime scenes to figure that out. We need to use the three crimes we encountered.”
“Two of them are blown away,” Cothran said. “And the third one didn’t have much to look at, since the only thing added was Gerry’s body.”
“That was Jamar’s house, remember,” Dave said. “If Gerry was keeping Jamar from speaking, he may have written it in a diary or something. There could also be some stuff in his house from Jamar’s encounters with Gerry.”
“So we should go investigate Jamar’s house?” Emilia asked. “That could lead us on to where the terrorists are located.”
“Yes. But first, we need to interview those original suspects,” Dave said. “Apparently, they ran right by the warehouse that Gerry used to own. If they had any encounters with Gerry at all, we need to find out about it.”
“We are just going to interview them individually?” Lucinda asked.
“Here’s what we’re doing,” Dave started. “Lucinda and Cothran, you will interview the Parkins family. Benjamin and Emilia, you will interview the Roid family. I will call Rayford and he and I will interview Garsh Kenton, that train operator.”
November 12, 2011 2:48pm
The Roid Household
The snow, now coming down twice as fast as it had before, made it seem like it was nine o’ clock at night. On the ground, snow piled at about five and a half inches high, enough for them to start needing boots.
Inside, Chase was working on his homework, realizing that it was due the next day. Steven was on the computer, checking for any news about the terrorists. Unfortunately, some sites were bad enough that they hadn’t deleted the news about them being the terrorists. Others that had updated weren’t far ahead.
“There’s got to be some website with a scoop,” Steven told to himself. “There is no way every site out there is this slow.”
“Steven,” Chase started. “It’s been a day. You are lucky the sites even have anything about the train wreck on them. And anyway, don’t you have homework?”
“I finished it,” Steven answered. “Besides, how can you sit there and do homework while this crisis is going on?”
“In case you didn’t notice, there hasn’t been anything going on since we came back home. Also, unless I want mom and dad hounding on me about my D again, I need to get this homework finished.” All of the sudden, the doorbell rang.
Steven and Chase perked up and ran downstairs, peeking around the edge to see their dad answering the door.
“Hello,” their dad said. “Who are you?”
“My name is Emilia Hamilton and I’m with the CIA,” she said, holding her badge up. “This is Benjamin Gerral, may we come in?”
“Of course,” Mr. Roid said. “What do you guys need?”
“We would like to ask a few question,” Benjamin said. “We would also like your children with us as well.”
“My children? Why do you need to speak with my children?” After Steven and Chase heard them, the quickly tip-toed upstairs in case their father called them down.
“We believe they were witnesses to the train accident, and we just need to ask them a few questions,” Benjamin said, following Mr. Roid to the living room.
“OK, I’ll call them down,” he said. “Chase! Steven! Come here!” After a minute, the two teenagers arrived at their dad’s side.
“What is it?” Chase asked, pretending not to know. “I’m in the middle of doing my homework, this better be good.”
“These polite CIA agents want to ask you a few questions,” Mr. Roid said. “It’s about the train accident, the one Dirk talked about.”
“When you guys left the collision scene, where did you go?” Emilia asked.
“We went to that––” Steven hit Chase to stop him from speaking. All of the sudden, the room went silent.
“You guys aren’t in trouble,” Emilia explained. “We are just asking these questions to find out who was responsible for causing the train to derail.”
“We went to that abandoned Mattress Firm warehouse,” Steven said, finally giving in. “We thought the police were chasing us. We were going to stop so we could explain everything to you, but we heard gunfire, so we were afraid to come out.” Benjamin and Emilia exchanged quick glances.
“How long were you in there before you guys left?” Benjamin asked.
“We left at around nine o’ clock this morning,” Chase explained. “That would be about 14 hours after the train derailed.”
“Did you guys find anyone in the warehouse?” Emilia asked. “Did anyone show up at random while you were in there by any chance?”
“Yes, someone did show up,” Steven said.
“Did they look like this?” Benjamin asked, showing a picture of Gerry to Steven and Chase. They both nodded. Immediately, Benjamin stood up and left the room, dialing a number on his cell phone.
“What’s going on?” Mr. Roid asked, becoming a little worried. “Who was that person?”
“Just one more question,” Emilia said. “For you, Mr. Roid. Where did you think your children were at last night and this morning?”
“I thought they were going to their friend, Josh’s house to stay the night,” he answered. “Can you just please tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m glad to meet you,” Emilia said, standing up. “But we really need to go. We are on a tight schedule unfortunately.” Emilia led Benjamin out to the snowy front yard. They got into the black car and drove off into the darkness.
Mr. Roid, Chase, and Steven just stood there, wondering what was going on, and why.
“Dad,” Chase said, finally breaking the silence. “You don’t need to worry. The man we met in that warehouse was completely harmless.”
“Really?” Mr. Roid said sarcastically. “So, you could just tell from his face that he wasn’t a killer in any way?”
“No,” Chase said. “But I’m just saying––”
“You’re done saying things Chase,” Mr. Roid interrupted. “I want you both to go up to your room and your mother and I will talk about this. Now go.”
“But dad––”
“Go!” Mr. Roid demanded. Mixed with anger and anxiety, Chase silently walked up the stairs. Steven slowly followed, wondering if the train wreck actually did change their lives or not.
November 12, 2011 3:14pm
The Parkins Household
Lucinda carefully parked the car on the curb of the road, keeping the snowy ground in mind. Once the car came to a full stop, Cothran and Lucinda exited the vehicle. Slowly, the walked toward the front door, feeling the snow softly land in their hair.
Cothran knocked on the door once they got to the front porch. It took only a few seconds before someone answered.
“How may I help you?” a man answered the door. “Is this about the think that’s been going on? Rayford already spoke to me about it.”
“No, Mr. Parkins,” Lucinda said. “This is about your children. We have realized that they may have seen a few things that can help us in the investigation.” Mr. Parkins motioned them to come in. When Lucinda and Cothran entered, they sat down in the living room. To their surprise, it was actually quite warm.
Out of nowhere, Jason came around the corner, as if he knew he was needed.
“Hello,” Cothran said. “You must be Jason. I understand you were already at the police department, but we would like to ask you a few questions. Do you want to sit?” Jason took Cothran’s offer and sat on the cushioned chair opposite of where Cothran and Lucinda were sitting.
“What is this about?” Jason asked. “Is it about that train wreck?”
“Sort of,” Lucinda answered. “Anyway, here’s your first question. Where did you go when you left the derailed train?”
“I ran after Chase and the train driver Garsh,” Jason said. “See, Chase thought the police were going to arrest him. I almost got him to stop and then we suddenly heard a gun.” Mr. Parkins entered the room with a mug of coffee in his hand. He sat down on the cushioned chair next to Jason. “Then, we went into that abandoned Mattress Firm warehouse at the end of the street.”
“For how long?” Lucinda asked almost immediately.
“I don’t know,” Jason said. “The only thing I know is when we left, it was still breakfast time. And we knew about the bomb.”
“Why did you leave?”
“We knew that you guys would show up in the warehouse,” Jason said. So, we ran off to the Good Eats diner.”
“Was someone else with you?” Lucinda asked, getting more interested. “I mean, other than Garsh, Chase, and Steven.”
“Yes,” Jason answered. “We met a man named Gerry. He was homeless and living in that warehouse.” Lucinda looked at Cothran, who happened to be writing everything down in a CIA folder.
“What did you guys do after you ate?” Lucinda asked.
“We left. As we were walking down the sidewalk, I managed to convince Chase, Steven, and Garsh that we needed to turn ourselves in. So, we walked into a fast food restaurant and someone called the police on us, just as we planned.”
“Where did Gerry go during all this?”
“Garsh suggested that he go to the police station and tell them everything he knew about us and the train wreck. He thought they could use a witness in their investigation.” Lucinda and Cothran were both surprised at how much Jason knew.
“Did this man, Gerry, look like this?” Cothran held up a photo of Gerry that he took from the CIA folder.
“Yes, that is definitely him,” Jason answered.
“Now one more thing,” Lucinda said. “Mr. Parkins, where did you think Jason was yesterday and this morning?”
“I thought him and his friends were going to see Josh,” Mr. Parkins answered. “I thought they were going to stay the night.”
“Wonderful,” Cothran said, jotting down Mr. Parkins’ answer. “That’s all we need. Thank you for your time.” Cothran and Lucinda left the house, leaving Mr. Parkins and Jason sitting in the living room.
“What was that?” Mr. Parkins said aloud. “How random.” Jason seemed to not be able to talk. He was shocked that the CIA had a picture of Gerry. Slowly, thoughts about Gerry roamed in his head, making Jason perceive a different image of Gerry.
November 12, 2011 3:37pm
The Kenton Household
Rayford and Dave pulled to the curb in the SUV. When they arrived, none of the lights were on. However, Rayford and Dave thought nothing of it.
Slamming the SUV’s doors behind them, Rayford and Dave walked on the snowy sidewalk to get to Garsh’s front door. It seemed like the sidewalk was already shoveled, as it was not nearly as high with snow as his yard was.
“Garsh!” Dave yelled. “We have a few questions. This is the CIA! Open up!” With still no answer, Dave and Rayford pulled out their Glock 17’s. Dave kicked the door open, revealing a dark house.
When Dave tried to turn on the lights, nothing happened. It was as if only Garsh’s power was knocked out.
“Flashlights on,” Rayford whispered. They both turned on the flashlights hooked to the barrel of their pistols. As they looked around the house, they saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Slowly, Dave proceeded toward Garsh’s bedroom, followed by Rayford. When Dave opened the door, he peaked around the corner, scanning the room with his gun.
“Clear,” Dave said quietly. They both left the bedroom and split up onto opposite sides of the house. Rayford went into the kitchen while Dave searched Garsh’s bathroom.
“Clear!” Dave shouted, making sure Rayford heard him.
“Clear!” Rayford yelled back. Finally, they reunited in the living room. “No one is here. So, where could Garsh be right now?”
“Well,” Dave said, thinking. All of the sudden, he remembered their talk in the headquarters. He remembered when Lucinda said something about time buying, and that the terrorists were sure to cause another distraction or trap. “We need to get out of here now!”
Without hesitation, Rayford followed Dave as he ran toward the exit. Just as they both jumped out of the doorway, Garsh’s house exploded. The door flew off its hinges, barely missed Dave and Rayford as they hit the ground, and hit the SUV they arrived in.
The other debris from the house shot out in different directions, fortunately not hitting anything else. Once the explosion died down and the debris was finally calm, Rayford and Dave rose from the snow and turned around to see the house.
“Again,” Rayford said angrily. “This is two explosions in one day. Whoever these terrorists are, they need to be stopped.”
“OK,” Dave said. “I will have my team regroup at the headquarters. Hopefully, they have something new to share and we can continue our lead on these terrorists.”
“Meanwhile, what do I do for the city?” Rayford asked. “We can’t have the public going around with the possibility of something exploding.”
“From the looks of it, the terrorists are trying to target more major subjects,” Dave explained. “But you are right. If we can, we should get this city on lock down. Can you call the fire department about this explosion? I need to make another call.” Rayford nodded and went over to the sidewalk.
Dave pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Lucinda’s number. It took about ten seconds for her to answer.
“Hello?” Lucinda answered.
“This is Dave,” he said. “I assume you have finished the interview and are ready to regroup. I’m still here with Rayford, but there’s been a little mishap. The terrorists dragged us into another trap. Apparently, they shut off Garsh’s power so that he would leave and then rigged his house with explosives.”
“Wait, it blew up?” Lucinda asked. “That’s not good. These terrorists must be working extremely fast. Whatever they are planning to do will happen soon.”
“I know,” Dave said. “We will regroup in room 11C again, and hopefully we can focus our full attention on finding these scumbags. Then, we will visit Jamar’s house.”
“You don’t think going to Jamar’s house is another trap set by the terrorists?” Lucinda asked.
“No. If they planned on blowing up his house, they would have done it when all those cops were in there.”
“Alright. See you at HQ.” Dave put his cell phone away and went over to speak with Rayford, who had just finished his call as well.
“My team is already regrouping,” Dave said. “Would you like to come along with us?”
“Yes,” Rayford said. “The more help, the better. Plus, I will do anything to find them. I’m sick of what they have been doing.” They both got into the SUV and Dave drove them toward the headquarters.
Once they arrived, Rayford felt astonished. He never realized that the mystery CIA headquarters of New York wasn’t even visible to pedestrians.
“Where is this place?” Rayford inquired. “I don’t see any sophisticated building anywhere near here.”
“First of all,” Dave started, walking down the sidewalk that was frozen with snow. “If the building did look sophisticated, other criminals in the city would be able to spot it. Second, you need to dial a certain number in that phone booth to get in.”
“Wait, the phone booth is an elevator?” Rayford asked. “That is just genius.”
“Actually, the phone in it doesn’t really work. We’ve set a recorded message for pedestrians who come and dial the wrong number.” Finally, Dave and Rayford reached the elevator and descended into the headquarters.
“This place is amazing,” Rayford said as the elevator continued down. “How far down are we going?”
“To the eleventh floor,” Dave said. “The CIA is built backwards where the 13th floor is actually the bottom floor. It is built like a regular skyscraper, except underground and upside down.”
Finally, the elevator reached the eleventh floor. Dave and Rayford got off to see a long hallway with different room numbers next to each room.
“Which room are we going in?” Rayford asked. “Is it way in the back?”
“Actually, it is,” Dave said. “It is room 11C. We mix up the room order so that from the back, it goes A, Y, C, W, E, and so forth. It may take you a bit to crack that code.”
Confused, Rayford just followed Dave until they reached 11C, and followed him in.
“Hello everyone,” Dave said, motioning for Rayford to take a seat at the round table. “Sorry we’re late, we ran into a little mishap. Anyway, this is Rayford, the chief of police for the New York Police Department. He is here to help us conduct the investigation. Anyway, I want to know what you know, starting with Emilia and Benjamin.”
“Sir,” Emilia started. “We found out where they hid after the train accident. They hid in the Mattress Firm Warehouse, the one that was shutdown. Turns out, they were there for approximately 14 hours before leaving due to the bomb.”
“So, we know that at this point, the city should be in panic,” Dave explained. “We are having the city put on lock down after this meeting. Unfortunately, that means pedestrians will have to stay in their homes. Those who are homeless will be taken to a stadium, where they will be held there and taken care of.”
“Anyway, as I was saying,” Emilia continued. “It turns out that they did run into Gerry. He didn’t try to harm them, at least that’s what we were told, and they didn’t find him as a threat.”
“OK,” Dave said, writing it on the white board. “Lucinda, Cothran, what did you guys find out from the interview?”
“They only hid in the warehouse because of Gerry, who shot at them while he was in the helicopter.” Lucinda explained. “Later, they did find Gerry inside the warehouse, like Emilia said they did.”
“Also,” Cothran said. “It turns out that they turned themselves in. When they left the warehouse after the 14 hours, they went to a diner for breakfast. That’s when Jason spoke to them, leading them to go into a fast food restaurant and have someone call the police on them.”
“What did they do with Gerry?” Dave asked. “The police didn’t find him there or else they would have told us.”
“They told Gerry to go to the police department,” Lucinda said. “They wanted Gerry, as a witness, to tell the police everything he knew.”
“He never arrived,” Rayford said. “Trust me. We recorded all the witnesses who came to the police station and none of the information was really that helpful.”
“So, he made a detour,” Dave said, writing more information on the white board. “He obviously went in the direction of the police department or else the teenagers would have suspected something.”
“Or, he could have turned around when they got in the fast food place,” Cothran suggested. “They probably wouldn’t of looked back.”
“Knowing Gerry on a personal level, he wouldn’t have,” Dave said, looking into the group of CIA agents. “He’s a person who really goes in a hurry, even though he may not have to. He knew the police would arrive any moment, so he had to get out of there quick.”
“So where could he have gone?” Emilia asked. “It’s not like he came back here, or else we wouldn’t have let him leave.” Suddenly, Dave pulled down a map over the white board.
“So, here was the accident location,” Dave said, pointing at the map. “Right here is the warehouse. If they knew there was a bomb, the teens would want to run as far as the could. So, they probably turned right when they exited the warehouse and went all the way to this first left, just off the edge of that half mile radius.”
“What’s your point?” Lucinda asked. “It’s not like they knew how much half a mile was.”
“No,” Dave agreed. “But they did have the addresses. They knew how many blocks they went, giving them a pretty good idea of how many miles they went.”
“So they turn here and have breakfast,” Benjamin said. “How do we know which restaurant they went to?”
“Probably the closest one,” Dave said. “They knew they were out of the radius, so they wanted to take a quick bite. This means that they ate at the Good Eats diner. When they were done, they walked a little ways and went into a fast food place. Unfortunately, there is no way of telling which one so we will need to use this general area.”
“So, from that area to the police department, where could he have gone?” Cothran said. “He could have gone to a terrorist base or something.”
“Wait!” Lucinda suddenly said. “From there to the police department, he could have detoured to Jamar’s house. Look, there is a perfect path right to it.”
“That’s true,” Dave said.
“You think he went there to torture Jamar or something?” Cothran asked.
“Maybe,” Lucinda said. “I mean, by the time he got there, it would have had to be a significant amount of time later.”
“Yeah,” Dave agreed. “We found out about Jamar around 2:30, so that means that it wasn’t long after he got there that we arrived.”
“So, he got there, put Jamar in a hostage situation, and then we got there?” Cothran asked. “Man, if only we could think faster.”
“Yes,” Dave said. “So now onto business, what we need to do. Someone needs to go speak with Jamar here in the CIA, someone needs to go to Jamar’s house and investigate, and someone needs to put all of the information into a document.”
“I’ll do the documenting,” Benjamin said. “I know that’s not a very popular job to do.”
“OK,” Dave said. “I’ll go to Jamar’s house with Lucinda and Cothran. Emilia, Rayford, can you two speak with Jamar about what happened?”
“Sure,” Rayford answered, not giving Emilia a chance to speak. “We’d be glad to.”
November 12, 2011 4:12pm
Jamar’s House
Dave, Cothran, and Lucinda arrived at Jamar’s abandoned house in an SUV. Dave carefully parked it on the curb, cautious to keep it out of the way of possible debris.
“I want anything you can find,” Dave said, before exiting the SUV. “Any photos, papers with today’s or yesterday’s date, anything that could possibly relate to this incident. Anything could help us.” They all got out of the vehicle, slamming the doors shut behind them as they did.
Once the three of them trudged through the sidewalk of snow, they began to search through Jamar’s house immediately.
“If Jamar can’t return here for awhile, where will he go?” Cothran asked as he searched a drawer in the living room on the first floor.
“I heard that he’s going to stay in an apartment,” Lucinda said. “And that was his choice too. He didn’t want to sleep in his house tonight, probably for a good reason.”
“No kidding,” Cothran agreed. “And what about Garsh? Where will he stay?”
“They already have Dirk, an officer from the New York Police Department, waiting at where his house used to be. I really don’t want to know how devastated he will be.” After the short conversation, everything went silent and there was five minutes of investigating.
“What have you guys found?” Dave suddenly asked, coming down stairs. “Anything useful at all?”
“Here’s what I found,” Cothran started. “There is this CIA file of someone I don’t recognize, some keys, and a book about martial arts.”
“Save it all,” Dave said. “One of the terrorists could have left this stuff here on accident, or even for us to find. What about you, Lucinda?”
“So far, all I’ve found is a wallet,” Lucinda said. “It must have been Gerry’s, from when he fell down the stairs.”
“Well, you won’t believe what I found,” Dave said. “I was looking in Jamar’s bedroom upstairs, and there were marks near the bed on the wooden floor. This means, Jamar was probably restrained by Gerry or one of the other terrorists, you know, tied to the bed. Also, in a drawer, I found a piece of paper with two boxes full of numbers. This is definitely something to bring back to headquarters.”
“It must be a secret code,” Cothran said. “Or some secret message. I think that when time is available, we should figure this out. And what about the book?”
“We’ll keep it with the rest of the evidence, just to be safe,” Dave said.
6: Six: RendezvousAmerica’s Fall
Chapter Six: Rendezvous
November 12, 2011 4:58pm
Location Unknown
The room was extremely dark and ordinary. There was a wooden desk in the center with an old computer and a computer chair. There were a few bookshelves against the room with two windows, covered with blinds.
There was a sudden knock on the wooden door. It sounded as if someone was expecting them to answer quickly, as there was another just five seconds later.
“Come in,” a deep voice answered. “The door is unlocked.” The door creaked open, revealing a man with a lot of strength and a tattoo of a knife on his left arm.
“I have some good news, sir,” the man said, smiling as he did. “The CIA fell into our trap. So far, they still don’t even suspect what our true plan is all about.”
“Good, good job, Dustin,” the man with a deep voice said. “All we need to do is wait. Tell the others that we will leave at sunrise tomorrow morning.”
“We still going with our plan to attack the government first?” Dustin asked.
“Of course we are,” the man answered. “With no government in our way, the nation loses a lot of its order, making it a lot easier to pull apart.” Dustin nodded and opened the door. Out of nowhere, the name Marcus glittered off the walls, the hallway light shining off of the nameplate.
“We’re leaving at sunrise!” Dustin shouted into the auditorium. “Make sure you get your rest for tomorrow. It will be a long and hard day!” He left the auditorium filled with cheers and returned to his office.
In Dustin’s office, there was a lot more light. Folders were stacked on counters and his desk was nearly filled with papers. Many of them seemed to be there for no reason, but he still did nothing to tidy up.
Slowly, Dustin leaned back in his office chair, prepared to fall asleep. He knew there was a big day ahead of him. Not only was he unsure if he was ready, he also needed to worry about making his boss happy, something that would take great bravery or even sacrifice to do.
November 12, 2011 5:13pm
Central Intelligence Agency
The computer room was filled with CIA agents, trying to figure out what the two boxes of number on a piece of paper meant. The piece of paper was posted alone on a bulletin board. It had two different codes on it.
13 5 5 20, 1 20, 20 8 5, 16 12 1 3 5 →
244-19-7 310-24-9 135-11-3
“The codes have to be connected,” Dave said. “The first box probably has the first half of the code while the second box has the second half.”
“Why would they want to divide it into two different codes?” Lucinda asked. “That just makes it harder to crack.”
“Exactly,” Cothran said. “Whoever wrote this code knew we might find it, making it harder for us to understand.” Lucinda continued to type as fast as she could on the computer, testing out several different codes but none seemed to match.
Meanwhile, Dave was starring at the paper, trying to see if he could crack the code. “Maybe the first half is a simple one,” Dave said. “If I am right, this code was probably sent to Gerry. They knew he was a CIA agent, so they needed to speak to him secretly.”
“But this code is hard for us to crack,” Lucinda said. “How could he have cracked it?” Dave spent more time examining the codes even closer.
“It was probably a code they used in the past,” Cothran said. “That way, Gerry could understand it.” All of the sudden, Emilia and Rayford came into the room.
“OK, here’s what Jamar had to say,” Emilia started. “When Gerry started firing at the teens, he tried to stop him. However, he was too busy flying to do anything. Then, Gerry pulled a pistol on him and told him to land the helicopter at the helipad a block from here. He was also told to get into his car and drive him to his house safely.”
“That’s when Gerry tied him to his own bed,” Rayford said. “Apparently, that’s where he left him while he went to the warehouse to see the teens. Basically, since Gerry was a gunman from the CIA, he knew how to tie Jamar to the bed. No matter how much Jamar struggled, he couldn’t break free.”
“Why would he want to see the teenagers?” Dave said, looking away from the code for once. “It’s not like they have any use to him.”
“You’re right,” Rayford said. “However, if he was there, he knew the CIA was still after the teenagers, and we weren’t gaining on him yet.”
“What did he have to say about the evidence we brought back from the house?” Dave asked.
“The wallet isn’t his, and it isn’t Gerry’s,” Rayford said. “Jamar also told us that Gerry left his wallet in the helicopter, probably to make less of a chance to leave evidence. The keys are emergency car keys, but I don’t know why he would keep it in his house.”
“The CIA file was something Jamar was working on,” Lucinda explained. “But he knows Gerry had access to it. In fact, he brought it upstairs to ask Jamar about it. The book is his, and he’s had it for a few years.”
“Gerry had access to the CIA file?” Cothran asked. “That’s interesting.”
“What is it?” Dave inquired.
“Why would Gerry go upstairs and ask Jamar about the file?” Cothran said. “It was probably someone he recognized, maybe even a terrorist in this group.”
“You’re not saying that––”
“I am,” Cothran said, interrupting Dave. “The person in that CIA file must be one of the terrorists.” Suddenly, Lucinda looked up Dustin Kenlot in the CIA database.
“I got him!” Lucinda said. “He was the one responsible for the bank robbery a few months ago.”
“Months?” Cothran repeated. “Do you think these terrorists have been planning that long?”
“Well, if he is a terrorist,” Dave said. “Then why is he out of prison? Robbing a bank should give more than a few months in prison.”
“That’s because he was never sent to prison,” Lucinda said. “The bank’s security cameras were the ones that caught him. He ended up escaping that night.”
“So he’s experienced,” Dave said. “He’s been on the move for a long time. Whatever they are planning, it is big. Lucinda, can you search to find the last place Dustin was seen, even if he wasn’t wanted during the time.”
“He spent a lot of money at the Sideshow Bar,” Lucinda said. “But, as of today, it is closed down.”
Dave went for the exit, putting on his coat as he did. “Perfect, let’s go.”
November 12, 2011 5:16pm
Outside of the Good Eats Diner
By now, Garsh thought his power had to be back on. He was out for nearly three hours, nothing was stopping him from checking.
Before he got into his car, he had to make a quick phone call on his cell phone.
“Hello?” someone on the other line answered. “Who is this?”
“This is Garsh Kenton, the train operator,” he answered. “I was wondering when I could get another assignment.”
“Oh, well,” the person said. “We can get you one by tomorrow. It will be in New York so you don’t have to travel far. Just call tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks,” Garsh said. “I will be there.” Garsh hung up and stuck the phone in his pocket. He entered his car, shivering from the snow. Luckily, it had stopped snowing for now, but the clouds were still covering the sky.
As Garsh drove back to his house, several thoughts went through his mind about what’s been going on. Still, he didn’t want to quit his life just because of curiosity. Nothing would make him forget about his job.
Before he arrived in front of his house, he saw a cop on the sidewalk. At that point, he knew something bad has happened.
He slowly stopped in front of his house, revealing the rubble left of his house from the explosion. Angry, he slammed the door shut after he got out of the car.
“What happened?” he yelled to the cop. “What happened to my house?”
“Sir, do not panic,” Dirk said. “We have it under control. Your insurance will pay for it and we will get you an apartment.”
“I asked a question,” Garsh said. “Again, what happened to my house?”
“There was a bomb,” Dirk explained. “Don’t worry, you aren’t in any danger. Some agents came to interview you and you weren’t here. So, they entered to investigate, and we’re lucky they are still alive.”
“Are you sure?” Garsh asked. “They aren’t trying to harm me?”
“Positive,” Dirk said. “You can follow me if you’d like. The apartment is just––”
All of the sudden, there was a gunshot that echoed loudly. Instead of taking cover, Dirk fell to the ground, revealing that he was shot in the back. Scared, Garsh ran up the sidewalk and used another house as cover.
Quickly, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911. It wasn’t even five seconds before they answered.
“Hello,” Garsh panted. “We have an officer who was shot. I don’t know where the shooter is but I’m in cover. Please hurry!” Garsh immediately hung up.
All of the sudden, everything was quiet. There was no wind, he heard no cars, and there were no people. Garsh suddenly felt as if he was in danger, as if a great evil were about to arise.
After a few minutes, Garsh heard footsteps in the snow. They were coming closer to where he was standing. As they got louder, Garsh began to sweat. He looked around for a weapon, but unfortunately, he couldn’t find one.
A cop turned the corner with a pistol in his hands. Immediately, seeing the fear in Garsh’s eyes, the cop lowered the pistol.
“Are you alright?” the cop asked him. “What happened?”
“I came back to my house and saw that it was gone,” Garsh said. “A cop told me that I had to stay in an apartment when someone shot him. I wasn’t sure if he was going to get me so I ran over here.”
“You did a good job,” the cop said. “We’re going to bring you to the police department. It may take some time, but I promise we will get everything under control.”
Garsh followed the cop to his police car, which had its lights flashing brightly on top of it. Also, there was an ambulance parked in front of it. Two medics were lifting Dirk onto a stretcher.
“I didn’t hear any sirens,” Garsh said when he arrived at the police car. “What happened?”
“We came silently,” the cop explained. “If the gunman were dangerous, we didn’t want him to run off before we got here. Unfortunately, he was gone before we arrived.”
Garsh got into the back seat of the police car and immediately buckled his seat belt. Shortly after, the cop got in as well.
Slowly, the police car drove back to the police department, the lights on top of it no longer flashing.
November 12, 2011 5:32pm
Sideshow Bar
The lights of the CIA vehicles and police cars outside of the bar were flashing, bouncing off of the nearby buildings. Inside, cops and agents were examining the area, checking for anything useful.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Cothran said. “Where else would these terrorists be hiding out at? It’s not like a group of people can just walk around on the streets all day.”
“This was obviously one of Dustin’s hangouts,” Dave said. “However, this may have been before he even became a terrorist.”
“Well, he must have known we’d be here,” Cothran said. “He couldn’t of left any clues or anything?”
“Wait, could this be another trap?” Lucinda asked. “Like what they’ve been doing all day long.”
“No, I sent in the bomb squad before us,” Dave said. “And besides, the terrorists know that we are up to their time buying technique. They couldn’t try that again.” Dave continued to look around, seeing tons of old newspapers laying on the ground.
Suddenly, he noticed one on a table and picked it up. “Guys, this newspaper is from the year 2008. Can you believe it?”
Lucinda, Cothran, and Emilia walked over to look at the newspaper. Dave turned to the next page, and something immediately caught his eye. One of the articles showed how a martial arts book was released.
“This is the book Jamar owns,” Dave said. “The newspaper says it was published on November 13th, 2008.”
“That’s three years ago from tomorrow,” Cothran said. “Could this have anything to do with the evidence we found?”
“I don’t know,” Dave answered. “But we will sure find out.” They left the bar and got back into the SUV. As they drove off, the area began to clear of police cars.
“It looks like the lock down worked,” Emilia said, in the middle seat. “I’ve never seen New York so quiet.”
“Yeah,” Lucinda said. “Just imagine how many families could be scared out of their minds right now. Probably hiding in some closet.” Cothran looked out the SUV window, feeling sorry for those who are petrified, or worse, actually in danger.
“We are almost there,” Dave said. “This is extremely important. When we arrive, I want you, Emilia, to go see if they cracked the code. Lucinda, I want you to go get Benjamin and have him come to room 11C. Cothran and Rayford, I want you to meet me in the same place.”
Finally, the SUV came to a stop just outside the elevator. In pairs, they all made it into the headquarters, splitting up into different directions.
During all of it, Dave went deeper into the headquarters, to the eleventh floor. When he got into the meeting room, he saw Rayford and Cothran waiting.
“This is all happening fast,” Cothran said. “I can’t keep up with it. What does the book have to do with this.”
“I don’t know,” Dave said. “But it has to mean something. It’s the third edition, it was made three years ago from tomorrow, and it belonged to Jamar.” Finally, once things were calmed down, Dave wrote all of the evidence and everything that’s happened so far on the white board.
“Here’s Benjamin,” Lucinda said, entering the room with him following.
“Good,” Dave said. “Benjamin, can you take a seat? We will go over a few things.” Suddenly, Emilia entered the room.
“Dave,” she started. “They know the first half of the code, but the second remains a mystery unfortunately. The message says, ‘meet at the place,’ and it has an arrow to the other set of numbers.”
“Why don’t you sit down as well,” Dave said, putting the marker down. “We are going to go over all of it.”
Once she sat down, Dave overlooked everything he had written on the white board, as if he needed a white board.
“So far,” he began. “We know that one of the CIA agents was a mole, Jamar was his hostage, and the terrorists are planning something big. The questions we need to answer now are the most important ones. What are the terrorists planning? When will they execute their plan? Where are they hiding at? Also, what does the code say?”
“I have an idea,” Cothran said. “Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day the martial arts book was published. I know that doesn’t seem important at the moment, but there are too many connections to that book for it all to be coincidence.”
“Well, what does the book mean?” Dave asked. “What does it represent? Why this particular book?”
“The terrorists could be learning martial arts,” Lucinda said. “That could be the connection.”
“I don’t know,” Dave said. “That doesn’t seem meaningful exactly. We know the book was important to Jamar, correct? So, maybe he was a target on purpose.”
“You think they wanted access to the book?” Cothran asked. “What could Gerry want with that book?”
“Wait,” Benjamin said. “That book belonged to Jamar, right? So, if Gerry needed it so bad, maybe he needed it to read the message he received.” For a moment, they were all silent. None of them could see how the book meant anything to the code.
“Hang on, he has a point,” Emilia said. “Remember that second set of numbers? They were in sets of three numbers. Maybe the first number represents a page.”
“You’re right,” Dave said. “OK, I’m going to go check that right now. In the meantime, can you guys work on this case?” They all nodded and Dave rushed out of the room.
After running down the hallway, getting on the elevator, and going into the computer room, he finally had access to the codes.
“Can you do something for me?” Dave asked the agent in the chair. “I’m going to say three numbers. The first is a page number, second is a line number, and the third is a, a, word? Yes, a word.”
“I can do it,” the agent said. Quickly, Dave opened a dry erase marker and stood next to the white board.
“Page 244, line 19, word 7.” It took a little bit, but the other agent finally came up with a word.
“The,” he said. Dave immediately wrote The on the white board in red. Then, he started with the next one.
“Page 310, line 24, word 9.” This time, it didn’t take as long.
“White,” he said. Again, Dave wrote the word on the white board, right next to the first one.
“The last one is on page 135, line 11, word 3.” The agent nearly went all the way back to the beginning so that he could find it quicker.
“The word is,” he said, pausing. “House. Does that make sense?” Dave wrote it on the board and looked at the entire thing.
“That’s not good,” he mumbled. Instantly, he ran back to the elevator and went up to the eleventh floor, returning to the meeting room. “I figured out the code. You won’t believe what it says!”
“That’s not important right now,” Rayford said. “We have another problem to deal with. Dirk has been shot.”
November 12, 2011 5:48pm
The Roid Household
The living room was completely silent. All the lights in the house were off, no electronics were on, and there seemed to be no movement at all.
“How long are we going to stay here?” Chase whispered to Linda. “We can’t be here forever.”
“I know,” she whispered back. “This thing with the CIA, it must be dangerous. As long as we stay quiet, we will be alright.”
“Does anyone know the time right now?” their dad asked. Steven looked at his watch, after turning on the back light.
“It is 5:48 right now,” he answered. “Wait, it just changed to 5:49. How much longer are we going to be here?”
“I don’t know,” his dad said. “But I will tell you this. They are having us do this for a reason, so as long as we are here, we don’t need to worry.”
“I’m getting hungry,” Chase complained. “We haven’t had dinner yet. Is it alright if I get up just for a snack?” Their parents exchanged looks. Neither of them liked the idea.
“Yes,” his dad said finally. “But I’m coming with you, just in case.” They both stood up and tip-toed to the kitchen. Chase slowly opened the pantry, trying not to make a sound. He pulled out enough snacks for all of them, knowing that they would get hungry soon.
All of the sudden, they heard a window break. It sounded like it came from the back door, just behind the staircase. The only way to get to it was through the kitchen.
“Back to the living room, now!” Chase’s dad whispered. They both nearly ran back and got under the table with their family.
“What was that noise?” the mom asked. “Is someone in the house? Timothy, you better tell me the truth.”
“Yes, I think someone is,” he answered. “But if we stay quiet, he may not find us in here.” Everything went silent. No one spoke, no one moved, and no one could see. It was just like it was minutes ago, when they were alone.
Out of nowhere they heard someone yell. Turns out the person was now in the living room. “Where are you?” he shouted. “I know you’re in here!”
Nobody answered. No matter what the man said, they chose not to speak.
“You know what,” the man said. “I don’t care! I will find you whether you come out or not! It is all only a matter of time.” The man faced the front door and Timothy took his chance.
He came out from under the table and jumped on the man’s back, making him start spinning until he was dizzy.
“Get off me!” he yelled angrily. He slammed Timothy into the door, followed by trying to pull him off his back. Once he finally threw Tim to the couch, he turned around and aimed a gun at his head.
“You think that was funny?” the man asked. “Now where’s the rest of your family? I know you don’t live alone so don’t even try to pull that on me!” Tim stayed silent. He didn’t dare give his family’s location up. “Tell me now, or I will shoot you!”
“We’re right here!” Steven shouted, coming out from under the table. He had his hands in the air once the man turned around and aimed the gun at his chest.
“Sit down!” he said angrily. “All of you, sit on the couch now!” Everyone sat down on the couch immediately, terror in their eyes.
“What are you going to do to us?” Chase asked.
“Be quiet!” the man barked. “What I want you to do is throw any cell phones you have on the floor now! I don’t care if they are on or off!” They all slowly pulled out their cell phones and tossed them to the floor, having them land at different times.
“Now, here is what I will do,” the man said. “You will do everything I say, or I will shoot each and every one of you!”
“Sounds easy enough,” Chase said calmly.
“Does it?” the man said. “Well, just wait till I tell you what to do. First, you will tell the police everything is OK when they come. Second, you will let me tie your hands together. Finally, you will pick one of you to be a sacrifice.”
They all looked at each other, afraid of what is going to happen. “We won’t do it!” Timothy yelled.
“Oh but I’m afraid you have no choice,” the man said. “See, if you don’t do what I say, each of you will end up dying anyway.”
November 12, 2011 6:01pm
Central Intelligence Agency
After everyone was finally calmed, Dave began to organize the situation with Rayford, trying to figure out all the details.
“So, do we know who the gunman was?” Dave asked.
“They never saw him,” Rayford explained. “It happened to be Garsh, that train operator, who called it in.”
“Where did the police find him when they arrived?”
“Taking cover behind his neighbor’s house. He probably just found out about what happened to his house when Dirk was shot.”
“They could have been trying to get to Garsh,” Cothran said. “If it were me, I would try to take out the bigger threat before going for my target.”
“Why would they be going for Garsh?” Dave asked. “Who could be angry with him?”
“The terrorists maybe,” Rayford said. “Gerry knew they were going to tell the police everything they know.”
“That means we need to go to the other witness’ houses,” Dave said. “They could be in danger right now.”
“What will we do afterward?” Benjamin asked as they all stood up to get their jackets on.
“We will put them in protection. If they are in real danger, they will be safe at the police department.” They left the room and left with the elevator.
“Let’s split up!” Rayford suggested. “We can check both houses that way!”
“Cothran, Emilia, and Benjamin, you go to the Parkins household. Rayford, Lucinda, and I will go to the Roid household. If there is anyone there, arrest them.”
They all got into two separate SUVs. Since there was no traffic and the siren would just alert the terrorists ahead of time, they left the lights off.
After five minutes, Dave finally arrived outside of the Roid’s house. “Before we go in,” Dave said. “One of us needs to go in the backdoor. If the family says everything is OK, that’s when we need to go in.”
“I’ll go around the back,” Rayford said. They all got out of the SUV and walked up to the house. Lucinda and Dave left their pistols in their holsters, but Rayford immediately pulled his out as he went around the back.
Dave knocked hard on the door twice. At first, there was no answer. Then, all of the sudden, Timothy answered the door.
“Hello?” he said. “What can I do for you?”
“There was another witness earlier who was attacked by a terrorist,” Dave said. “We were just checking up on you. Is everything OK?” Tim turned his head to the right to see the terrorist’s arm around Chase’s neck with a gun aimed at his head.
“Everything is alright, no need to worry,” Tim said. “Thanks for stopping by.” He slowly closed the door as Dave and Lucinda turned back toward the SUV.
“He wasn’t shocked,” Lucinda said. “When you told him the other witness was attacked.”
“I know,” Dave said. “There is definitely someone in that house.” Out of nowhere, Dave’s earpiece emitted a strange noise.
“This is Rayford,” Dave heard finally. “The back door has a broken window. There is someone in this house for sure.”
“Copy that,” Dave said into the device on his wrist. Him and Lucinda both pulled out their pistols and waited by the front door.
Dave nodded at Lucinda and then kicked the door open, immediately aiming his gun at the terrorist.
“Put your hands in the air now!” Dave yelled.
“Put your gun down,” the terrorist said, still aiming at Chase. “I will shoot him. I’m not afraid to either.” Dave put his hands in the air and slowly laid his gun on the floor.
“Listen to me, Dustin,” Dave said. “You don’t want to do this!”
“Shut up!” Dustin yelled. “And the fact that you know my name doesn’t scare me. The CIA file that your so called agent had was left at the scene. That’s how you know my name.”
“Oh but I know so much more about you,” Dave said. “I know that you are good with handguns, where you can’t handle automatic weapons. I also know that you depend on surveillance. Those cameras in the bank you robbed a few months ago only caught you twice, and they had one in every room and vault.”
“What’s your point?” Dustin asked angrily. “You know a little about me. How is that going to help you at all?”
“How do you think it will help me?” Dave asked. “I’m only telling you what I know.”
“That’s it! Stop talking!” Dustin said. “There are a few things I would like you to do for me.”
“No thanks,” Dave said, walking slowly toward him. “I’ll pass. Instead, why don’t you let this innocent family go?”
“Stop talking and quit moving!” Dustin yelled.
“Do you not appreciate the knowledge this family has?” Dave continued, ignoring him. “Is it that they did something to you?”
“I said stop moving!” Dustin barked, making Lucinda jump.
“Did they, Dustin? What did they do to you?” Suddenly, Dustin cocked the pistol and a loud gunshot echoed around the house.
At first, it was as if nothing happened. Everyone remained in their position, breathing heavily. Then, Dustin fell to the floor, revealing Rayford with his gun halfway lowered.
November 12, 2011 6:22pm
Central Intelligence Agency
All of the CIA agents finally returned to the meeting room, ready to continue the investigation on the terrorists. Garsh, Chase, Steven, and Jason were being protected by the police, now that they know how much danger they could be in.
“What did the secret message say?” Cothran asked. “You were going to tell us that we wouldn’t believe what it said before we got sidetracked.”
“Oh yeah,” Dave remembered after examining the white board. “The first part said, ‘Meet at the place,’ correct?” All the agents nodded in anticipation. “Well, the second part of the message said, ‘The White House.’ This is why I said you wouldn’t believe it.”
Everyone was silent. It was as if they all heard that the world was about to end and they could do nothing about it.
“The terrorists,” Lucinda started. “Are going to the White House? I thought they were focusing on New York?”
“So did I,” Dave said. “But here’s what I thought of while those witnesses were in danger. The code was based on the martial arts book that was published nearly three years ago. What if the only reason this book was used is because it published the day they started the plan? That would explain the only reason Gerry had to go to Jamar’s house.”
“That does make sense,” Emilia said. “But there’s only one problem with that theory. That was three whole years ago. How can a mole exist in the CIA working with terrorists for three years?”
“Think about it,” Dave said. “How did we figure out that Gerry was the mole? Only because he was the gunman that tried to shoot our witnesses. The only way we figured it out was because he broke the law.”
“Right,” Benjamin said. “All he had to do was keep his ‘terrorist’ life as his personal one while he kept his ‘agent’ life just like us, following the law.”
“But how couldn’t we figure it out?” Emilia asked. “When we get new CIA agents, we always do a thorough background check.”
“He wasn’t a terrorist when he joined the CIA,” Dave said. “He joined way before the terrorists started this plan, assuming they did start it in 2008.”
“So,” Cothran said, changing the subject. “If the terrorists are going to the White House, what do we do? Do we know when?”
“Well, maybe it’s tomorrow,” Benjamin said. “What would be a better time to put their plan in action than their third year working on it?”
“You might be right,” Dave said. “When they sent that code to Gerry, that means they didn’t mean for him to die. They wanted him to know where they will go. That means that they know we have the code, so they probably put the plan in action tomorrow because they knew we’d interfere.”
“Does that mean we need to protect the White House tomorrow?” Lucinda asked.
“With as much as we can, and for as long as we can,” Dave answered. “If they get to the president and rule over the government, they could have absolute control, especially to those soldiers who are out of the country right now and don’t know anything about what is happening.”
“The first thing they are planning to do is to take down the government,” Cothran said. “Then they plan on taking over the country and the free will of its citizens. It sounds like they are trying to overrun the country.”
“Right,” Dave said. “The White House is more than just where they are meeting. It is their rendezvous, their location to start their mission.”
“If that’s true, they must have a big plan ready,” Lucinda said. “They know our weaknesses, it’s time to fight back.”
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