America demands invention and innovation to succeed. -Kit Bond
The quite murmuring of voices reached the man's ears as he walked into the room. A large conference table dominated the room, facing a large blank plasma screen mounted on the wall. Of the dozen chairs at the table, only one was empty.
The man stood in front of the screen and faced the various men and women seated around the room. The room fell silent with his presence and he waited a second before clearing his throat.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said in a clear, calm and strong voice. A voice that radiated authority. "As you know over the past year, America has been plagued by a thief. But not just any thief. This person has managed to steal some of the most priceless and heavily guarded objects in America, including the infamous 'Tatiana's Crown' which was stolen last night." He paused for a second, acknowledging the gasps of shock.
He continued. "Until last night, we were successful at keeping these thefts concealed from the media. Needless to say, the theft of the crown is now plastered on the front page of every major newspaper in America. The task force selected for this case have only had one major breakthrough. A camera concealed by an ATM was able to get an incomplete video of the thief exiting a street near the museum housing the crown."
A grainy picture came up on the screen. An empty street par one person obviously walking fast with their head pointed down as if to avoid the storefront cameras. Unfortunately for them, they seem to have missed the ATM's camera and the video revealed the face of a young woman as she glanced around quickly. The video froze and zoomed in on to the face then sharpened. Surprised whispers ran across the room as the people recognised what they were seeing. On the screen was an incredibly young woman, perhaps only sixteen years old.
"From this picture, we have been able to identify the woman in the picture." He paused to look imploringly at the audience. "Unfortunately, there is not trace of her. Nothing at all. So I am now asking you personally, you as the combined heads of separate intelligence companies have the manpower to find this woman."
A hand rose above the heads of the other people, and he looked at the small nondescript woman sitting before him. Although seemingly harmless, she was the head of the FBI and had proved on numerous occasions that she was not to be underestimated.
"Yes, Miss Martinez," he nodded at her.
"Excuse me for asking sir, but what makes her so important. She's just a thief; surely you do not need all of us to find her."
"And to my second order of business. You see, only one other piece of information has been revealed about this woman. Put simply, she is a genius. And an incredibly capable inventor. America is finding itself more and more behind other countries in technology, and Japan has far surpassed us. But this woman's inventions are decades ahead of Japan. We need to capture this woman, so America remains the superpower of Earth."
An aura of agreement filled the room and he knew he had their support.
He closed. "Ladies and Gentlemen. I implore you to give us the manpower to not only catch an extremely capable thief, but to give America the boost it needs. I need you to help us catch Maximum Ride."
A/N Well… that was shorter than expected. I've had this idea for months but it's taken me a while to put it into words. The next chapter will be up as soon as I've posted this one.
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~BookNerd7~