Alex went out from the cab that stopped in front of her office building on a Tuesday morning after paying the driver her fare. It’s been two weeks since she got out of the hospital and much to her sister and aunt’s dismay, she finally decided to return to work.
“I’m basically okay now,” Alex told them over the weekend when she told them her decision. “I just had my check up with my doctor and told me that my wounds are already closing. I just must prevent myself from getting into strenuous activities.”
“Can’t you take another week?” Ashley begged.
“I’m going to die if I will,” Alex said dramatically. She gave them an assured smile. “Look, I promised that I will take better care of myself, okay? I will tell Mr. Montgomery that I will not be joining any operations for a while until all my wounds had healed up. I’ll only do desk jobs even if it will bore me to death.”
Zach looked up from the file that he is reading that afternoon when Gavin knocked on his office door and entered with a perplexed look on his face.“Stefan Malkus is here and demands to see you, sir,” Gavin said calmly.“Where is he?”“I had him in one of the small meeting rooms,” Gavin answered as he stepped aside to let Zach went out of the office first and following behind him. “He asked specifically for you. I asked him how he knew your name, but he won’t tell me until you go and meet him.”Heading towards the meeting room that Gavin had put the man inside, he stopped just before going inside and look through the glass. He saw a man around his sixties, sporting a silver side-part haircut and van dyke mustache with wire-rimmed glasses. He still looks physically fit from where he is standing but the small tremor that Zach managed to catch tells something else.“Mr. Malkus, my name is Zac
Alex moved her fingers along the keypad on her phone as she continued typing a message for Damon. After Stefan Malkus finally decided to go home, along with some agents that Zach had ordered to escort him, she looked at her superior.“Why are you giving him an escort?” She asked.“Because he could be a target,” Zach answered as he gestured for her to go out ahead of the room. “We were monitoring him but there were no instructions from the higher ups on anything. It could be his family has been taken by that person he mentioned. He could be our suspect in the bombings around the city.”She looked at his back as he went towards his office.“Why the hell would a student of his come here and sought him out?” She asked. “As well as setting off some bombs? That’s kind of preposterous, isn’t it? He could just immediately get to his target rather than do some bomb shows.”“Well,
Zach looked up when he heard knocking on his office door the following day. He saw Elise outside, and he nodded, gesturing for her to come in. He stood up and was about to pull the blinds closed when she shook her head at him subtly.“Mr. Montgomery, I know it’s too bold of me, but do you want to have some coffee at that shop at the other side of the block?” She stuttered slowly. She was clutching her Ipad tightly. “There’s this cousin of mine waiting and wants to ask you some questions for her thesis research.”He looked at her intently and finally saw that she had the screen of her Ipad faced towards him and he read the message silently.“Not safe to discuss here,” the message said.When he nodded, Elise immediately erased what she wrote and walked back to the door and opened it. “I made her promise that she won’t take too much of your time, sir,” she said casually as she stepped out. &ld
Alex made one last review of the summary she had gathered with regards to Stefan Malkus and Saood before deciding to submit her report to Montgomery the following day. She checked the locations she was able to gather over the server of the places where Malkus and Saood had met overseas.After her review and to her satisfaction, she finally emailed the document to Montgomery and had it printed out on the printer by her desk. She shuffled the pages, making sure that all are in order before she finally inserted them on the file that he had returned to her earlier.“Here you go, Anne,” she said a few minutes later, handing the file to the secretary. “I also emailed a copy of the report to him as well.”She then went back to her desk and listened over the handheld radio on her desk. Zach and the rest of the team had responded to a hostage incident in one of the town markets. Since she is still recovering from the injury, Alex had sat this one out although a major part of her wanted to join
Elise Reynolds rummaged through her bag when she heard her phone ringing that Friday afternoon the following week, after clocking out from the office and walking towards the bus stop where she usually boards to head back to her apartment, However, instead on getting on her usual bus route, she waited for another route that will take her to a restaurant from another side of town where she’s going to meet her contact. Her contact who has information about Alex that Mr. Montgomery had her do secretly. “Are you on your way?” The voice came after she answered her phone. “Yes. Why does it have to be there?” Elise answered quickly. “It’s almost an hour ride.” “It’s a complicated one, Elise,” her contact said firmly. “Just call me once you got down the bus and I’ll meet you at the corner. It’s the only file I got and it’s not pretty.” Elise abruptly turned to her right and scanned the area in front of her. She found nothing out of the ordinary with employees clocking out from different bu
Alex turned when she heard the door open to the condo late in the evening, that Damon had gotten for her as back-up of her hideout. She frowned when she saw Travis Jamison, another agent she had worked with lounging on the couch casually.“You needed his help for a mere slip of a girl?” She taunted as she closed the door.“She was feisty,” Travis answered with a grin, for them as he reached for his beer and took a drink. “Scratch my face a bit but then, where’s the fun when she’s going to be timid?”“Where is she?”Damon reached for his own beer and took a drink.“Spare room,” he answered as he led her towards it. He pushed the door and leaned on the frame. “Hey, sweetheart. Your visitor is here. The mastermind of your abduction.”Alex shoot daggers at him with her eyes as she entered the room and stopped dead on her tracks when she saw Elise, bound to a chair, her hands tied and a gagged over her mouth. “What the hell did you do to her?” She demanded as she crossed the room towards E
Zach, looked up from the file that he is reading when he heard a knock on his door, Wednesday, the following week. He saw Elise outside and he immediately beckoned her to come in.“You called for me, sir?” Elise asked a bit louder before she closed the door, as what he had instructed her to do every time, she would come to see him. She approached his desk and stood, to Zach’s surprise, behind one chair. “Sir, is there something you need?”“Take a seat, Elise,” Zach instructed firmly.When Elise finally did, he looked at her quietly, observing her posture.“What happened?” He finally asked her. “You were on an emergency leave the past two days. I do hope that nothing serious had happen to you or your family. Is there something that you need to tell me?”Elise looked at him nervously for a long while, not saying a thing. She is gripping her fists tightly above her tablet on her lap, looking down at her hands for a while. When she finally looked at Zach straight in the eyes, he had noted
Borrowing one of his brother’s sports car, Zach slowed to a stop and park by the sidewalk when he saw from afar Alex getting off her bike. He watched as she took her helmet off and shook her hair and brushing it back with her fingers before slinging the helmet over her one arm.Making sure not to make any noise, Zach went out from the car, closing the door quietly and carefully. He then looked towards the direction that she headed.It’s been a week since he had his top agents monitor Alex and Damon and to his annoyance, the two reported nothing out of the ordinary. They reported that the two would usually meet during lunch and eat together at some restaurants near the office building and would then get together after office hours for a round of few drinks before parting.“Or it’s either that they know we’re on them and are playing along,” Gavin said darkly when he reported to Zach that Damon had been going in and out the supermarket a couple of times one time and buying one or two ite