Chapter One
July 3rd, 2011
"He's done it again," FBI director Tom Jones said with his hands on his hip, overlooking a dead body. Or what was left of one anyway. Tom Jones was investigating a murder on the property of the Washington monument. This case started in Texas and ended up in Washington D.C. Tom was thrilled that the FBI could finally step in to take this man to justice.
"Why would a person do such a thing?" A local sheriff asked.
"Don't refer to him as a person," Tom began. "That's giving this guy too big a compliment."
The two men were looking at nothing but floating body parts in the Washington monument's water area. The water tainted with blood. It had just turned twelve O'clock and Tom's stomach began to rumble. He knew that skipping lunch was a bad idea but the sound of catching this guy made his hunger disappear. He put his sun glasses on to stop the sun from beaming into his eyes and walked towards his car. He remembered he left some paper work in his glove box that could help fill the local sheriff in on what was going on. He opened the door and sat down in the driver's seat. He leaned over and searched the glove box.
"Looking for something?" A voice said in the car's back seat.
"Jesus Christ!" Tom said putting one hand on his holster and throwing himself back in his chair.
The man in the back seat chuckled and passed the papers forward.
"Conrad? You made me sh** myself. You're supposed to be with the rookie."
"He's fine," RSF agent Conrad Bracks said. "He's back at headquarters."
"Ah. Well go get him down here," Tom sighed heavily and exited the car to give the papers to the sheriff.
Conrad sighed and got out the back of the car. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He flipped it open and called his rookie.
"Hey Rob," Conrad began holding his arm up to block the sun. "Boss needs you down here."
"On my way," he replied hanging up.
Robert W. Powell was just recently picked for the FBI. Tom and Conrad would go around the nation sometimes to search for people like Robert. They had heard of his skills in the criminal field and immediately searched for him. Luckily they found him as the Navy SEALs were also recruiting him. Robert didn't want to put his entire life on the line so he chose the FBI. He also didn't count on being a part of the biggest investigation of the year, but he couldn't avoid it either. He got out of his car and walked over to Tom and Conrad who standing near the water area of the Washington Monument.
"What we got?" Robert asked.
"Body parts," Tom smirked. "And a Hell of a lot of blood."
"That's," He paused as he walked closer. "Disgusting, I would have vomited committing this crime."
"That's why you work to catch them," Conrad laughed patting him on the back.
"Why do we do what we do?" Tom asked.
"Simple, we hate these guys and put them behind bars," Conrad said using hand gestures.
"No, I mean why do humans do what they do?"
"They were raised differently."
"I could never leave the house without telling a story of why I was leaving," Robert joined in.
"See strict parents, Good man." Conrad laughed.
"Well we need to wait for the damn medical examiner," Tom said. "Where is he?"
"There he is," Conrad pointed to a van like vehicle arriving at the scene.
Nick Patterson was the F.B.I's most trusted medical examiner. He was called to about every case they were involved in, and was apparently always right. Nick took pride in his work as anyone would do but always showed a sign of laziness. Conrad was never fond of lazy people, but he knew that he was lazy. Just not on the job. Nick usually over looked things that caused Conrad to do more work than usual. He barely got credit for doing Nick's job and most of the time got yelled at. Conrad never understood how Tom could be blind to see the reports signed his name and not Nick's.
"You make your job look easy," Robert said watching Nick walk over casually.
"I'm good at what I do," Nick smiled.
"Bulls***," Conrad coughed.
"Conrad," Tom sneered.
"Allergies, sir," he laughed.
Tom turned back around and scanned the water. Tainted with blood what was once beautiful blue water, now a dark red. He scanned hoping for some sort of evidence, but he couldn't see any. Nick signaled a team over to take the body parts out of the water and dispose of them properly. Tom turned to Robert who was tapping something into his iPad. The agents always carried one around nowadays, similar to note pads but much more classy.
"Robert," Tom took a deep breath in.
"Yes, Sir?" Robert looked up.
"Look at this," he beckoned Robert over before Nick could pick up what was left of the man's upper chest.
"Something in his pocket," Robert said putting his iPad down and pulling out the paper.
"Let me see," Conrad walked over.
"Tomorrow at Twelve there shall be bells, which will release all of Hell," Tom read the note.
"What happens at twelve?" Robert asked.
"It's 4th of July tomorrow. Parade starts at twelve," Conrad said checking his phone for dates.
"Sh-, he's going to unleash hell onto the American people on Independence Day!" Tom said pacing.
"That's not all. The President's going to be attending the parade," Robert said hoping to bring attention to how serious this could turn out to be.
"It's going to be another JFK," Conrad sighed. "We have to alert the President."
"He won't cancel America's independence day for this," Tom frowned. "We have got to catch him fast."
"I'm pretty sure I'd cancel Christmas if I knew I was going to get shot," Nick mumbled to himself
"That's why you're not president," Robert laughed.
"We have no idea where he is!" Nick said frustrated. "So our best option is to just alert the president as Conrad suggested. Then catch the man while the streets are clear and safe."
"If we warn him and clear the streets, then he could move away or even closer to the white house itself," Tom said.
"But now we risk killing the president of the United States," Nick yelled. "Do you want that!"
"It's a risk I'm willing to take!" Tom yelled.
Nick got silent as he had now angered the one person he didn't want to anger; his boss.
"The President took an oath to help his country and he's going to fulfill his oath by helping us catch this guy. With his life if it comes to it! If we alert him, the secret service will be all over this place and Lincoln will vanish off into the night. He could go to another city, or even worse closer to the white house," Tom's angered had diminished to nothing after delivering his so called speech.
Conrad let out a small laugh to let Nick know he had just been told off. "I think Lincoln's got to be in his planning stages right now."
"You're probably right," Tom said rubbing his chin, "I think its best that we should too."
"Let's catch this son of a bitch," Robert smiled as the men walked towards a field HQ to begin their planning.
Chapter 2
July 4th, 2011
The Independence Day parade had started. People were waving little American flags, while also being waved to by the President. The President had no idea what was going on a couple streets over as all the cars shot towards a warehouse. The F.B.I had received a tip early that morning that a man matching Lincoln's description was spotted entering this warehouse. He was also seen carrying a case which the FBI automatically suspected was a sniper rifle. Tom Jones and Conrad Bracks stepped out of a car with bullet proof vests on. They took their handguns out and ran to the warehouse door. They positioned themselves in a breaching formation with one person on each side of the door.
"In position," Conrad said over his radio.
"Roger that, I'll see you guys in five minutes," Robert Powell replied.
Conrad looked at Tom with a frightened look. A look that was saying, what if we fail? Tom looked at him and shrugged. The parade was about half way through now and Tom knew they had to move fast.
"Ready?" Tom said leaning against the wall near the door.
Conrad nodded his head and gripped his handgun tighter.
Tom pushed away from the wall then kicked the door down. "FBI! Mr. Lincoln your time's up!"
As they entered an abandoned warehouse they were unaware of how open the ground floor was. Some large boxes provided cover but wood wouldn't stop large bullets.
"The fifth floor has a good view of the street," Tom said as he scanned the room.
"Yea, too bad the second floor has a good view of us," Conrad said with a hint of panic in his voice.
Conrad heard movement behind him and quickly turned around and aimed.
"Hey watch it!" screamed a police officer.
"Easy now, Conrad," Tom said walking towards stairs to the second floor. Tom walked up the stairs as fast as he could and then scanned the walkway that was the second floor. "We're clear here."
"Check the rest of the first floor," some cops were saying running around.
Robert Powell walked in the building with the cops. He looked up and immediately saw a man leaning over the third floor cat walk. The man's face was covered in a mask and he seemed to be looking straight at Robert.
"Hey! Percy Lincoln freeze!" Robert screamed at the top of his lungs.
Tom looked at Robert then up to where he was pointing. "Jesus, Conrad it's him! Go, go!"
Conrad and Tom ran up the stairs as fast as they could and reached the third floor and walked up to the man. Conrad put his hand on the man's shoulder but there was something odd with how fast he was able to pull him back. Conrad removed the mask and saw a blank, black face.
"It's a dummy," Conrad sighed.
"This wasn't here when I walked in," Tom said suspiciously.
"You weren't here when I walked in either," a voice said from the darkness. A gunshot rang out and Tom fell to the ground.
"No!" Conrad yelled turning around only to be shot in the shoulder and fall off the third floor cat walk. Conrad managed to grab a hold of the railing with one hand. His Shoulder had been shot and he was in incredible pain from suddenly catching on to the cat walk. Every second Conrad held on his shoulder got worse and worse. His grip began to loosen.
Robert could only watch as Conrad was hanging for dear life. Then The Marauder came into view.
"Mr. Powell, how nice of you to join us."
Conrad began to panic, showing signs of struggle. Panting and squirming. His eyes started to widen, fearing that Lincoln had come to finish him off.
"None of that please, Lieutenant. I'm not going to do anything drastic, yet."
Other officers ran towards Powell and aimed up. "Don't Shoot!" He said waving his arms at the officers.
"Your friend won't be able to survive much longer. And I can't stay much longer for I have a Parade to stop. So I bid you farewell." Lincoln walked away and the cops ran under Conrad to catch him.
"We have you Lieutenant Bracks, just let go!" An officer yelled.
Conrad did as he was instructed and let go. His life began to flash before him.
Thump.
"Touchdown," Powell walked over smiling. "You're going to be fine. Take him to the medical and have Mr. Patterson take care of him.
"Dear god," Conrad groaned.
Robert told officers to stay on the ground and watch the building. He was going to go up to the fifth floor alone. Robert began to ascend to the fifth floor and he was already feeling nervous. Every step he took up the stair well seemed to echo on forever. He slowed his pace down to about a snail. He hovered his hand over his holster to reassure himself his gun was still there. He finally reached the fifth floor of the building, which was the highest covered floor. The roof would have been too open for Lincoln to use as he would be seen. If Lincoln was in a covered area he could quickly jump back into the shadows and never been seen again. Robert opened the door that led to the floor from the stair well slowly. His gun was now drawn out, and he began scanning the room immediately to check for Lincoln. Just as he approached a window he heard a voice.
"I've got you now."
Robert immediately dove behind some nearby boxes and waited for a gunshot or person to walk near.
Bang.
"The President's been shot!" People yelled from outside. The street was now filled with panic as people ran in all direction.
Robert crawled to a window and saw the president holding his bloody shoulder. The President's limo suddenly sped off down the street to try and keep him alive. Robert turned around to look where Lincoln was. Lincoln saw him then ran into a stair well that led to the roof.
"It ends here!" Robert yelled.
Outside the building Conrad sat in a van being tended to by Nick Patterson. Nick seeing that he clearly held power over Conrad at the moment took full advantage of it. His sarcasm was becoming annoying to Conrad.
"It would suck if salt go in your wound," Nick laughed.
"For you," Conrad sneered.
"Be glad I was near here, otherwise you'd be in more pain."
"Yea, then I'd have a real doctor here," Conrad laughed.
"Wise guy."
"I like to think I am."
Conrad looked up at the warehouse building and noticed a man run out of a stair well door. It was Lincoln and Powell shortly followed him. Conrad pushed away from the Van, and then grabbed his pistol.
"Where the hell are you going?" Nick yelled as Conrad ran inside.
"I'm not going to let the assassin claim another victim."
On the roof of the warehouse Robert had Lincoln cornered. Lincoln had a choice of going with Robert or jumping to his death. Robert had his gun out and had it pointing at Lincoln's back. He was a good fifteen feet away from Lincoln, causing Lincoln to stop running and freeze.
"Show me your hands!" Robert Commanded.
Lincoln clapped his hands and laughed, "Bravo, Mr. Powell."
Robert's face got contorted with anger causing him to grip his gun tighter, "Turn around slowly!"
Lincoln did what he was told but was still laughing. His hands were now in the air.
"Keep them there," Robert said as he walked towards him getting his cuffs out.
Lincoln moved his hands behind his back; Robert stopped moving and aimed his gun back at Lincoln.
"Don't move!"
"I'm moving my hands so you can cuff them easier."
Robert walked closer and right as he was there Lincoln pulled out a gun from his pants. The Handgun was resting on Lincoln's back as his jean's waist line pushed up the gun. His shirt hid the gun from sight.
Lincoln now had the upper hand and had Robert off guard. "You see Mr. Powell. The President has already been shot. I've done my work." Lincoln began to gloat.
"Now the fun begins. I simply kill you and walk away ten grand richer than you."
Lincoln aimed the gun at Robert's face. Robert pulled his face back and shut his eyes.
A gun was fired.
Conrad stopped as he approached the stair well. He heard the gunshot and screamed, "No!"
He grabbed his radio, "Nick get in here with cops, we've lost one."
Robert looked up and saw Lincoln's eyes wide open. Robert immediately began to feel around himself to see if he had been shot. He felt no pain. He realized that Lincoln had been shot. Lincoln dropped his desert eagle hand gun and then to his knees. Blood began to pour out of a chest wound from where he had been shot. Lincoln then finished up face first on the roof of the warehouse. Robert turned around and saw Tom aiming his gun at where Lincoln once stood. He had one hand on his stomach to try and slow the bleeding from where Lincoln had shot him earlier.
"Tom, are you alright!" Robert said running over to his aid.
"Don't worry about me," Tom said nudging Robert off. "Twenty years of this job, this isn't the first time."
Conrad swung open the door to the roof after running up some stairs. Nick shortly followed him with a couple SWATS. The SWAT team immediately went over to Lincoln's body to see if he was still alive. They made sure he was dead and had Nick come take a quick look at him.
"Robert! You're alive!" Conrad ran over and man hugged him.
"Yea, Tom saved my ass."
"Lucky, Son of a bitch," Conrad laughed looking back at Tom.
"Sir, I'll take care of your wound come on," Nick said realizing Tom was bleeding. He walked over to Tom and helped him walk towards the stairs
"Thank you Nick, at least some one cares about his boss."
"Hey," Robert and Conrad both said to Tom.
As Nick was helping Tom limp towards the door Conrad and Robert followed him out claiming to be a better worker than Nick.
"For the record you did shake me off you sir," Robert said.
"What about that time I saved your ass sir?" Conrad laughed following closely to Robert.
"Give it a rest you two," Tom laughed.
Chapter 3 The After Math
July 10th, 2011
"The President would like to see you two now," A secret service official said outside the president's bedroom. After the attempted assassination of the President he was ordered to remain at the White house in his bed. He was also resting as his shoulder was practically blown off and was now currently in a cast.
Conrad Bracks walked in first and Robert Powell shortly followed. "Yes sir?"
"I've heard good things about you boys," he laughed throwing down a newspaper.
Robert glanced at the newspaper, as it showed his name in bold. The article written about him only mentioned what he had done in the past. The article was giving him credit on killing 'The Marauder' otherwise known as Percy Lincoln. He knew deep down if Tom hadn't of been there he would not be in the White house.
"You have, sir?" Conrad laughed.
"Killing America's number one most wanted is a great contribution to this great nation. Its people like you that keep this country under control."
"Thank you, sir."
"Send my secret service agent back in, I shall speak with you gentlemen later."
"We will, sir," Conrad smiled leaving the room with Robert.
Robert and Conrad proceeded to the main entrance of the White house to leave to return to HQ. As they were leaving the White house Robert felt a tug on his arm.
"Mr. Powell a word with you, please?" the figure holding his arm said.
"Yes, sir, but a name would be nice," Robert replied unsure looking at Conrad.
Conrad put his hand his coat pocket and thought it was a possible murder.
"Lieutenant, none of that," the person said holding up his I.D badge.
"My apologies, sir!" Conrad said shaking his hand.
"Who is this," Robert laughed.
"Robert, this is Major. Brian Cheung."
Brian gave a little salute, "we've been watching you."
"Who's we? And why me?" Robert asked confused.
"We as in RSF, Robert. Conrad is one of our top FBI agents for RSF."
Robert looked over at Conrad who was smiling at him.
"Why did you want me?"
"Is it not that obvious?" Conrad said walking up to Robert. "You have the talent to get the job done. Hell why do you think I was chosen to watch you. Not cause I'm the best in the FBI. But because RSF wanted you."
"That's right," Brian said joining in. "Conrad isn't the best in FBI."
Conrad let out a small laugh indicating Brian was being a smart ass. "I'm of course kidding, but we think you're ready for the RSF."
"What do you say?" Conrad said patting him on the shoulder.
"When do I start?" Robert smiled.
Conrad did a mini fist pump and screamed. "Woo! That's my man!"
"You start today," Brian said handing him a badge.
Robert grabbed the badge from Brian's hand. He felt this rush of sudden adrenaline go straight through his body. He wanted to suddenly do things a man couldn't do, he felt like he could take down any man. He scanned his badge.
Royal Sniping Force Agent: Robert W. Powell. Then he scanned across to the bottom and pointed it out to Conrad. It said "overseer: Conrad Bracks"
"That's in case you do anything stupid, I get in trouble," Conrad said pointing. "So watch it."
"I will," Robert laughed.
"Welcome to RSF, Mr. Powell," Brian smiled shaking Brian's hand.