"Leonard Speaking"
'Leonard Thinking'
Langley, Virginia
Jeremy was new to his job. As an analyst at the CIA, he had never participated in anything exciting. At most, he dealt with local phenomena, strange sightings and hours of data to go through. Yet, today was not one of those boring days.
It was seven in the morning when Jeremy came for work. His off-white shirt, with a simple striped tie, unassuming navy-blue trousers and black leather shoes made him unremarkable. He was someone who would get lost in the crowd. Luckily for him, the CIA was always on the lookout for people like him. People who were smart and observant, yet unassuming at first glance. Jeremy walked into the headquarters with a simple brown sling bag and a cup of coffee from a local cafeteria. He casually greeted Ruby, the aging receptionist and walked up to the elevator. Walking in, he pressed the button for the fourth floor, taking a noisy sip of his coffee. The lift quickly deposited him at his destination, where he walked through the alley, claustrophobic white cubicles surrounding him.
Soon, Jeremy arrived at his cubicle, started his computer and sat at his desk, looking at fluctuations around Washington DC. The day moved slowly, his time being spent on mindless surveillance. He took breaks to smoke, chat with his colleagues and make plans for the evening.
Soon, it was four in the evening, about an hour before he would officially get off work. He combed through the DC area once more when he saw a fluctuation in the sensitive Geiger counters. Geiger counters were a precaution taken after 9/11, to ensure no terrorist activity occurred. A complete detection array was laid around major cities in the US. Jeremy looked at the Geiger readings. While the burst of gamma was short and weak, it was still worth checking out. He looked at the clock at his desk, gritting his teeth in frustration, at the 4:20 shown in the bright red numbers. Anything involving nuclear radiation warranted overtime, but he was thoroughly annoyed that he would have to cancel his plans. Printing out the Geiger readings and area maps, Jeremy walked towards his supervisor's office.
Warehouse, Washington DC
Leonard and his team were in the middle of packing the collider. They had hired the same truck, meant for hauling the device. The truck would then move towards the Port of Baltimore, where the device would be offloaded to Norway. As the team packed, still shaken from the rift, Leonard received an alert.
"Cygnus Alert: Gamma fluctuations detected at the Washington Warehouse by CIA analysts. The FBI will be informed soon."
Leonard looked at the alert, his expression tinged with urgency. He sighed with relief that he got the warning on time, and called his team together, " We have to hurry up, I just received information that the CIA is now aware of our experiment. They will deploy the FBI to the warehouse. I want most of us to evacuate before that happens."
The team was flustered and panicked, yet Leonard calmly assigned duties, "Gustin, take Natasha with you, along with two of the Chronon containers. I will provide shielding to the containers, to avoid any detectors. Burton, you take Karen, same task. William, you take one container and go back to Ravenport. I'll meet you there soon."
William asked with worry, "What about you? And Paige, is she going to stay with you?"
Leonard looked at Paige, who nodded to him, before he turned back and answered, "We will be going to New York for a while. We haven't seen Mike in a while. Besides, we might as well visit Pasadena, to check up on Sheldon and Amy."
William asked, "Your friends who married three months ago, you went to their wedding right?"
Leonard nodded, "Exactly. While it is a warehouse, it is also my home, so someone must be here to ensure the FBI doesn't label Chaldea a terrorist organisation."
The team quickly split up, each team carrying Chronon containers. The assistants were asked to take the containers to Canada, from where it would be transported to Norway. As the team started their cars, the young scientists looked reluctant. Over the past five months, Leonard, Paige and William had become somewhat of a family to them. It felt wrong to leave them here alone. But Leonard quickly said, "Don't worry about us. We have faced bigger problems than the FBI. Stay safe."
William approached Leonard, his eyes low, as if contemplating something, before he sighed. He said, "I never even said this to my own brother, but stay safe Leonard."
Before the FBI could even mobilize, the team was scattered. Leonard quickly contacted Finch, "Finch, I am sending you the details. Work with Cygnus and make sure they stay safe."
Finally, Leonard and Paige remained in the empty warehouse. Paige looked at the place, smiling slightly as she recalled the funny incidents and the small quarrels the team had during their stay. Leonard looked at her, before saying, "You want me to play something for you?"
Paige looked at Leonard, before smiling, "I would love that."
An Hour Later
A black Chevrolet Suburban drove quickly towards the outskirts of Washington DC. The car was being driven by Rocco, a burly, dark-skinned man, wearing a dark blue t-shirt, black cargo pants and tactical boots. At his side, sat Jenna, the current leader of Team Epsilon, FBI's elite recon team. Jenna was thirty-six this year, having spent her early career in the Marines, before being scouted for the FBI. As a recon team, Epsilon was usually the first team sent to hostile or uncertain territory. While being the first response was dangerous, it was also profitable. Among the many teams within the FBI, Epsilon was one of the highest paid, only slightly lower than the main combat units Alpha and Delta. Normally, an FBI team could have multiple teams with the same designation, but there was only one Team Epsilon. Jenna ran the team like a family, each member valuing the people over missions.
Pushing a black lock of hair behind her ear, Jenna started to brief her team, "Okay, everyone, about an hour and a half ago, the CIA detected the Geiger Net fluctuations in the sector. Normally, a small spike like this would not be a cause for concern, but since we are close to the White House, we are not taking chances. There is a warehouse in the location, but there are no CCTV cameras. So, we have no idea what we may find at the place. There have been no movements among terrorist cells, or any whispers of a planned attack. For the most part, we are flying blind, but we have flown blind before. I want you all to be very careful, prioritize your safety and investigate carefully."
Liam, a thin, light-skinned, blonde man with fine stubble, sat at the back with his laptop, "How about we use a drone to investigate?"
Jenna nodded with satisfaction. Liam was the smartest in their team, which came in handy when she had to skirt the inexperience issue for his recruitment. Suddenly, Brenda, a thickset woman with muscular arms, grumbled, "So, we might not have to fight anyone?"
Eric, her partner with a thick beard and grizzled look, sighed in exasperation, "Come on! When has it been a bad thing when we don't have to fight? Do you have to sound so disappointed?"
The final member of the team, Jin, a tall, thin man with long hair, laughed at Eric, "Did you expect anything else from our combat maniac? I am certain she would run off to fight wild animals if we don't keep her inside the headquarters."
The entire team burst into laughter as Brenda puffed up with anger. Jenna quickly controlled her laughter, before schooling her features to a neutral mask. She said, "Ok, we are here, be ready."
The car quickly pulled up to the warehouse. The team quickly got off, and started preparing with bullet-proof vests, and fully loaded weapons. The team quickly looked around, to see if there were any cameras around. Finding no security devices, the team carefully approached the door.
Liam reached into his bag, taking out a small tablet and a palm-sized drone. Jenna signaled him to start remote surveillance as the drone started to fly and approach the warehouse window. Liam kept his eyes on the camera feed as the team crouched with tense expressions. As the drone reached a certain height, the camera feed started to flicker as the signal became weaker.
Liam cursed, "Damn it! The warehouse has a jammer. I can't get a signal."
Jenna whispered, "Everyone, be extra careful now. Rocco, circle around. See if there are any exits or entry points other than this."
Rocco nodded, before creeping close to the wall, his gun trained at the corner. The rest approached the door, creeping closer. Eric reached behind his back, pulling out a small square device. Pulling out a small rod like extension, he called Liam over with a gesture. Liam quickly connected the device to his tablet and slowly slid the probe under the door. Liam whispered, "Can't you bring your own tablet as well?"
Eric flashed him a grin before turning back to the tablet. Turning the probe, Eric whispered, "Well, luckily, we don't have any explosives on the other side of the door. But the door itself is too sturdy. We can try to break the walls around the door, but it will take a lot of time and make quite a bit of noise. The lock itself is a digital one, with a five digit password and a biometric lock. Even if we brute force the password, breaking the encryption to force open the biometric lock will take time."
Liam grinned, "Don't worry about it. Let me work my magic on it. I'll be done by the time Rocco returns."
Liam soon approached the lock, removing the outer casing to reach the inner device port. Using his tablet, he started to code a backdoor passage. Normally, even a regular biometric lock would be a piece of cake for him, but his eyes narrowed at the encryption he had to break. Soon, he started to type quickly, sweat beading his forehead. About ten minutes later, Rocco arrived, confused as to why the team hadn't opened the door.
Brenda explained, "Mr. Smartass here has not broken through the biometric. Come on, we are wasting daylight here. Can't we just blow the door up."
Jenna spoke through gritted teeth, "This warehouse belongs to a billionaire. Even if we are from the FBI, the country would happily sell you out for profit. So, don't talk about blowing up doors again."
Suddenly, Liam let out a whoop, "And we are done. This was challenging for once."
The team slowly opened the door and crept in. Unbeknownst to them, as soon as they entered, a small sensor detected their entry. The team quickly looked around the warehouse. For the most part, the place was empty, although it had small platforms, with a dividing screen attached to them. Luckily, the screens were not obstructing anything. Jenna looked around, before whispering, "Okay, split up. Find me the source of that Gamma spike."
The team nodded and started to move. Suddenly, Brenda hissed, "Ouch! What fell on my head?"
Liam crouched down and picked something up. In his hand, was a small, spindle-shaped piece of metal. He looked up and saw the roof seem to shiver. He spoke unsurely, "I have a bad feeling about this."
Suddenly, many such pieces fell from the roof, like a rain of iron. The team quickly covered their head, enduring the sting in their arms as they tried to protect themselves. After ten seconds, the rain seemed to end as the team looked at the floor in bewilderment. Eric whispered, "What are these things?"
Before anyone could investigate more, a muffled shot sounded in the room, catching the team off guard. The team watched in horror as they saw Rocco fall to the ground. The team reacted quickly, shooting towards the sound. Suddenly, they watched someone dodge behind one of the screens. The screens promptly started to move, spreading around the room, creating obstacles for the team.
Everyone quickly became alert. Looking at the screens, they kept their guns up, trained against every moving screen, wary of the shadow that took down their partner. As the team separated, their wariness increased.
Liam was the second to go down. He had quickly swapped his tablet for a Glock, yet before he could fire a single shot, the shadow approached him, hitting his gun with a cane before hooking him with the handle. He couldn't even make a sound of alarm, as he found himself facing a barrel before everything went dark.
Eric looked around, his eyes watching every shadow carefully. He slowed his breathing, hoping to hear footsteps on the metal-ridden floor. Suddenly, he heard movement and turned quickly, but sighed with relief when he saw Jenna in front of him.
Eric whispered, "I almost shot you."
Jenna nodded, signaling him to be on a lookout. The two seamlessly went back to back, trying to cover each other's blind spots. As the two moved around, Eric stumbled as the small metal pieces created a small mound in front of his foot. That was all it took as a cane hooked his collar, pulling him back. Jenna turned quickly but the man placed the stick between her arms and pulled, making her pistol fall down. With a quick movement, the man, with brown eyes, black curly hair and a breathing mask pointed his gun at them. With two quick trigger pulls, darkness claimed them.
Suddenly, the man heard a command, "Freeze."
The man quickly turned to see a gun pointed at him. Without waiting, he quickly ran, as Jin fired three shots. Unfortunately, the shots missed as the man ran behind some screens. Jin quickly approached Jenna, crouching down to check her pulse. Sighing in relief, he quickly got up and gave chase. As he rounded a corner, he heard a pop, as he stumbled forward. The last thing he saw was the man crouched at the base of the screen, his gun pointed up just where Jin had appeared a second ago.
As the man looked at his downed foes, a kick made him drop his gun, he turned towards Brenda, the last member of the team. The woman pointed her gun towards him, but a sweeping strike to her wrist made her drop the gun. With no weapon, she engaged the man in hand to hand combat, barely dodging his cane strikes as he used the cane like a fighting stick. After a minute of exchanging strikes, the man suddenly dropped his cane, grabbing her arm with a feint and pulling her in a headlock. Brenda struggled as the man kept applying pressure to her carotid artery. Within a minute, her struggles weakened. Finally, she heard the man speak, "It's over. Go to sleep now."
With that, she lost consciousness.
AN: Another chapter completed. I apologize for the delay, but there were some technical issues that needed resolving. This is the first action scene I have ever written. I would really appreciate constructive criticism. Another chapter is in the works. Stay tuned for that.
AN2: I wish to thank all my Patrons who stuck by me, even when I was unable to upload on time. Thank you for appreciating this work.