John walks into the Library and finds Harold sitting at his desk. Noticeably missing is Ellie who usually arrives before John to the Library.
"Where is Ellie?" John asks Harold.
"I am not sure. I haven't heard from her since yesterday. I've tried to track her phone but it's off apparently. "Harold responds.
John looks concerned. "Do you think she's in trouble?"
"To be honest I don't know. I imagine if she were she would have figured out a way to let us know by now. But to be on the safe side I have sent Shaw to her apartment." Harold stands up and head over to Ellie's desk.
"What are you doing?" John follows Harold to her desk.
"Well I'm going to see if there is anything on here that might give me a clue about what's going on. She left last night in a hurry, earlier than typical and had I not been in the room I doubt she would have told me she was leaving."
John looks like he's frustrated. "Harold did you not see that as odd behavior for her?"
Harold looks up at John. "Of course I did, but I'm surrounded by odd behavior often, it didn't become concerning until this morning."
Harold works away at Ellie's computer. The screens change quickly but Harold seems to be coming up with nothing.
"Honestly, she's told you she's better at "this" than you are, do you think you can find anything if she didn't want it found?" John asks?
"I was holding onto hope that she isn't hiding something, but rather was following up on something she wouldn't want to hide." Harold sighs. "There's nothing on here at all."
Harold's phone rings at his desk. He quickly goes to his desk and answers the phone, which is on speaker phone so John can hear. "Ms. Shaw, have you found anything."
"Other than a very organized and clean apartment, no. Are you sure she even lives here Harold? It doesn't look lived in at all, too staged. The only sign of anyone living here are clothes in the closet and food in the pantry and refrigerator." Shaw reports to Harold.
John and Harold look at each other puzzled. "Perhaps she's just a very organized person Ms. Shaw."
"Well there is nothing here at all. No computer. No phone."
"Alright Ms. Shaw. Thank you for your help."
"I'll ask around, to see if she's been seen today. Perhaps she never came home yesterday."
"That is a good idea."
They hang up the phone. "We are going to have to find a way to track her." Harold says.
"We know when she left here. We should pull all the camera information from the area surrounding here." John suggests to Harold.
"Are you up to that task Mr. Reese? I have another appointment which can't be changed. I will keep monitoring the situation while I'm out." Harold states.
"Yes I believe I can pull the videos."
Harold grabs his coat and bag and heads out of the library.
Harold walks up to a large building in downtown. He heads into the lobby. The security guard nods a hello and Harold nods back. He heads to the elevator and pushes the button for floor elevator opens up at floor 25 and reveals the glass front for a company called AHN Technologies.
Harold walks in the front door and immediately several people that were conversing in the lobby stop and hurry back to their work areas. The receptionist smiles, "Hello Mr. Aracari. Good to see you."
"Hello. Thank you." Harold continues on to his office. Just outside his office sits a young woman at a desk. Her name is Janice. "Hello Janice."
"Hello Mr. Aracari. Everything is ready to go in your office. Your 1pm should be here soon."
"Thank you Janice." Harold walks into his office and shuts the door.
He sits down at the desk. It's been a while since he's been in the office. Harold likes to be a silent presence at the company but there is a major buy out deal happening between AHN Tech and a smaller yet lucrative technology company, KBJ Innovations. The owner of KBJ insisted on meeting Harold to ensure she was selling her business to the right company. Today Harold was meeting with a Kelly Johannson, the creator and founder of KBJ Innovations.
Harold hears a knock at the door and it slowly opens. Harold rises and comes around his desk.
"Mr. Aracari this is Ms. Johannson from KBJ Innovations." Harold holds out his hand to shake hers.
"Nice to meet you, call me Harold, please have a seat." Harold motions to the comfortable chairs that sit along the wall of his office. They both sit down in the chairs. Janice leaves the office.
"It's very nice to meet you Harold." Janice says.
Ellie knows that Harold, John and Shaw are all looking for her. She's set up a program on her phone to attempts to hijack or spy on her. She's kept the program off so as to not alert Harold that she has the ability to block his efforts but this time she needed to be able to move around without hindrance.
There's a lot about Ellie that Harold has yet to learn and it's not from lack of trying on Harold's part. Ellie has spent many years making sure her real identity reflects exactly the past she wants. What Harold doesn't know of are the multiple aliases and businesses that Ellie has. In many ways she's taken after her father, even though not knowing him until a year ago. She's built a wealth up that's securely hidden within companies under multiple names. Just as Harold has done she has built multiple aliases in an effort to maintain her privacy. But Ellie's past seems to have caught up to her and now Ellie was hoping to head it off before anyone else found out.
Ellie had spent half the night trying to track down the threat that had her so worried.
Ellie walks up to a building in New Jersey. Nothing fancy, just a standard office building. The name KBJ Innovations. Ellie walks into the lobby. "Hello. I have an appointment with Ms. Johannson."
The receptionist looks up confused. "Ms. Johannson has been out of country for two weeks and won't be returning for another 3 weeks."
"Really? Perhaps I mixed up my schedule."
"Would you like to leave your name and number and I'll pass it on to her when she returns?"
"No, I'll call her in a few weeks. Thank you."
Ellie leaves the building and heads to a Coffee Shop down the street. The fact that Ms. Johannson is out of the country is very concerning to her. Especially seeing as she's meeting with Harold at this very moment. Why would she tell the office she was out of the country when she's in New York? Ellie opens her laptop and starts her research.
First she has to find out where Ms. Johannson was heading out of the country. Ellie hacks into KBJ's computer system and find that airline tickets were booked to Paris, France. Ellie then checks the flight manifest and sees that Ms. Johannson did in fact fly to France.
Ellie checks the hotel that Ms. Johannson was supposed to stay in and finds that she checked in as scheduled and has yet to check out. Unable to shake the uneasy feeling she has about this whole situation Ellie does a quick search on recent deaths in Paris. Ellie pulls the files and reviews the pictures and compares them against a picture found in the company internal directory for KBJ Innovations.
Marci Kabolt, 55, stabbed in an apparent robbery gone bad. The pictures matched exactly. Whoever was here in New York was not Ms. Johannson and that greatly concerned Ellie because she had a good idea who was there in her place.
Ellie packs up her things and flags a taxi to go to the city.
While John was reviewing the cameras surrounding the Library he managed to find one that showed Ellie getting into a cab. He tracked the cab by its number and see that Ellie did in fact go home that night. He pulled cameras around her apartment and see that she didn't stay long, apparently going in to pick something up and then leave again. This time though she had a car service take her somewhere.
John couldn't identify which car service it was that picked Ellie up so he had been calling car services across the city trying to find which one had pick up Ellie. After 2 hours of no success he finally contacted the right car service which said it had picked up an Elfie Clarin and taken her to a hotel in New Jersey.
He calls Shaw, "She went to New Jersey. I'm not sure what's in New Jersey though. She checked into a hotel under the name Elfie Clarin. They don't show her checked out yet."
"I'll head out there and see if I can find her."
Ellie arrives at AHN Technologies hoping that he was still in his meeting with Ms. Johannson, or whoever she was. Ellie enters the lobby and quickly looks around to get the lay of the office.
"Can I help you?" the receptionist asks.
Ellie just continues on past her towards Harold's office.
"Hey, you can't go back there!"
Ellie walks up to Harold's office and opens the door. Janice jumps up from her desk.
"Can I help you?"
The office is empty.
"Where is he?" Ellie asks.
"He's left for the day." Janice says.
"Did he leave with anyone?"
"I don't see how that's any of your business." Janice replies.
"Did he leave with anyone?" Ellie asks more forcefully.
"Yes he did. She mentioned getting drinks. I don't know where."
Ellie turns around and walks out just as security arrives. Quickly she calls John.
"John I think Harold is in danger."
"What is going on Ellie?" John says.
"It's a long story, one that will just waste time. But Harold is with someone dangerous and I don't believe he knows she's dangerous. We need to find him." Ellie says.
"First you, now Harold." John says in frustration. "Shaw are you hearing this?"
"Yes I'm on my way back to the city."
"John you track Harold right?" Ellie asks.
"Yes I do."
"Well where is he then?" Ellie shouts.
"He's at a warehouse on the docks. But don't you date go alone there Ellie. You wait for me." John.
Ellie doesn't even respond. She hangs up the phone and immediately dials Harold. It just rings and rings.
In the warehouse Harold sits tied to a chair. Ms. Johannson, which Harold has managed to figure out, is probably not Ms. Johannson, sits in another chair waiting with gun in hand.
"What do you want?" Harold asks again.
"You'll see."
"At least tell me your name." Harold says.
She ignores him. Suddenly his phone rings. Ms. Johannson looks at the phone and a smile comes to her face. The phone rings again.
"Seems you're pretty important."
A text message comes in to Harold's phone. It says, "Let him go, you want me, not him."
Ms. Johannson looks up with a smile, "she's on her way."
Harold looks at Ms. Johannson confused and concerned. Who's on the way?
"I used to have a beautiful daughter, loving daughter, Harold. But she took so much after her father, and her curiosity caused me great pain. She just didn't know when to stop. I would tell her to not ask questions, just do as she was told and be happy. It was never enough. She had to defy me, challenge me. Then as a teenager she turned on me. I spent so many years loving and caring for her and what did I get in return? "
Harold didn't understand any of this rambling.
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Oh you'll see soon enough."
Ellie arrived outside the warehouse and although she knew she should wait she decided not to. She opened the door to the warehouse and quietly closed the door. She walked quietly towards the back where she could hear people speaking.
She stands in a dark corner behind a pallet with boxes on it and sees Harold tied to a chair and sitting across from him a woman about his age.
Ellie pulls out her gun and slowly walks out from behind the pallet. The woman stands quickly and points her gun at Harold. Harold turns his head to see Ellie walking towards them.
"Ellie!" the woman says.
"Let him go." Ellie says.
"I don't think so." She says.
"What do you want with him? He doesn't mean anything to you." Ellie says.
Ellie was still moving to position herself in a good place to protect Harold.
"Stop there. " She moves closer to Harold and puts the gun to his chest. Harold pulls away. "You always thought you were smarter than I. That you could just throw me out and replace me with someone new."
"I didn't throw you out! You tried to kill me! Twice!" Ellie said. "I was just a kid, mom! What was I supposed to do? I played along when you faked your death even though I knew you hadn't, but I had hoped that you'd let me go after that. And then you tried it again! And now here you are?! When will you let me be?!" Tears roll down her face.
"Janet?" Harold said. Janet looks down at Harold and then back up at Ellie.
"If you had only done what I asked then we wouldn't be here right now and he wouldn't have to die." Janet said. Janet pressed the gun harder into Harold's check and Harold closed his eyes.
A deafening gun shot sounded through out the warehouse. "NO!" Ellie shouts but instead of Harold being hurt she sees her mother fall to the ground and blood begin to pool around her.
John walks in from behind and kicks the gun away. Then he unties Harold. John looks at Ellie, "I told you to wait for me."
Ellie kneels down next to her mom who is still alive.
"Why couldn't you love me?" Ellie asked.
Janet doesn't say anything and passes on. Ellie begins to cry.
Harold comes up to Ellie and kneels down with her, arm over her shoulder. "We need to go."
They stand up and walk out.
Harold and Ellie arrive at Ellie's apartment. Ellie walks over to the couch and sits down.
"Are you going to be alright? Do you need anything?" Harold asks.
"You know as a child all I ever wanted was a normal family? I knew my mom wasn't normal. I mean how many kids get to change their names every few years. At around 8 I began rebelling against the changes. Maybe if I had never questioned any of it, she wouldn't have done all of this, she would have loved me."
Harold sits down next to Ellie, "I think she loved you, in her own way. She just wasn't healthy, Ellie. I can't say if you had done things differently she would have reacted differently, because there's no way to know that. I imagine though she would have found something that would help her rationalize her behavior."
"I knew she was alive, and I had thought I had hidden myself well enough for her to not find me. I underestimated her I guess. She must have been tracking me for a while, in order to find you. I should have told you that she wasn't really dead but I just figured I could handle it should it come up, just as I've always done." Ellie said.
"You didn't have to handle it alone though, you have us now. There's no reason to hide things from us." Harold said.
Ellie looked up at Harold critically. "I'll remember that when you fail to tell us things." She smirks.
"Thank you though." Ellie says.
Harold gives Ellie a hug, "Do you think you can stay a while?" Ellie asks.
"Sure."
Harold stands walks over to the book case to look at the books.
He turns to Ellie, "So how long have you known how to use a gun?"
Ellie laughs, "Quite sometime. I think John would be impressed with my weapon stash."
"Shaw didn't find anything here." Harold said.
"Good, it's not supposed to be easily found." Ellie smiles.
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