This entire situation took me off guard, and yet I wanted to act like the esteemed detective everyone is assuming I am. I held kept my back straight and face unmoving, but I was intimidated by the text that Mr. Hardy sent me. He's just about the most important person the ATAC has, and they entrust the detective who doesn't know a thing compared to any of their agents, seeing as Joe is sixteen years old and has a black belt in aikido and skills in tae kwon do and kung fu, and Frank knows morse code, sign language, and the martial arts.
Amber was calmly clicking away at her computer, perhaps trying to find out information from news stories or maps or something. Dean was in the kitchen behind me making coffee. These people didn't look like enemies but the ones you have to watch out for rarely do.
"Nancy, do you want anything? I've got the coffee almost done, or are you more of a tea person? I think detectives like tea." Dean said from the kitchen, pulling me away from my thoughts. "Uh, I got earl grey and jasmine."
I smiled a little bit and faced the kitchen so my voice would carry better. "I would love some jasmine."
"Got it." He responded. I held my hands together in front of me and sat on the couch beside Amber. She was looking at a satellite map of the mountains nearby. She was zooming in and analyzing and comparing it with a topo map and a road map.
"I don't see anything wrong with it." She said to herself, and sighed.
"May I have a look?" I asked. She nodded and flicked her hand carelessly. I took her computer and looked closely at the topo map; with every line closer to another meaning there's a change in elevation. I studied every line, and then looked at the road map, which had some information about the mountains, but seeing as there aren't any roads there, they didn't put too much care into the details. I compared to topo map and the road map and noticed a small slip up; one line curved closer to another on the topo map. The road map was published in 2003 and this topo map was published in 2013.
I then zoomed in on the location where the new shift in elevation was, and noticed a discoloration in the mountain; hardly enough to notice, but I'm assuming that's a door and they had to mess with the mountain a little bit to install their buildings. "I got it." I told her. I handed her the computer back and pointed at the small discoloration. "It's a door."
Amber looked at me like I was an alien. "I've been looking at these maps for days. And you just show up and point out something staring me right in the face." Her tone was slightly patronizing, but then she smiled slightly. "No wonder our company was wanting to work with you."
Dean walked in with a coffee for Amber and tea for myself. I sipped at the tea and let Amber tell him about the estimated location. They started discussing ways to get up to the mountains. The tea tasted awfully bitter. I sat the tea down on the table at the end of the couch and let them talk about cars and snowmobiles and airplanes and helicopters.
"If you don't mind, I have agents I need to get back in a very time sensitive manner." I said. "Figure out what's less obvious and gets the job done and we can go. It's four in the afternoon and the sun will be setting in a few hours."
They then started talking about other methods and things they might have to bring. They're not that well trained, or they don't recruit the toughest agents in the world. I looked through my bag and confirmed everything that should be in there was, and then made sure my cell phone battery was doing alright. They seemed to have gotten to a conclusion fast, and within the hour, we were on snowmobiles racing towards the mountain.
The wind was very cold, and the sun was slowing going down. I don't think my jacket was warm enough for this… The end of my jacket was flapping behind me and allowing the wind to billow into my shirt. I felt like I probably looked like some action star racing to rescue their friends from uncertain danger, but all I was feeling right now was very, very cold. And rather scared, as I've never driven a snowmobile this fast before, or over rugged mountain terrain.
I pressed on the gas even more despite my fear, because Amber and Dean were ahead of me. Even though I was wearing gloves, my hands hurt from the cold. I breathed out a puff of visible air, trying to will myself to warm up. We kept at this for a while, and when she last rays of sunlight were shining and the world was bitterly cold, we had made it to our location. We parked our snowmobiles out of sight, and walked for a short while the rest of the way.
I felt a gnawing sense of worry and achievement as we approached the hidden doors. Amber and Dean had stopped walking, but I moved between them to get closer. "They're right inside there. Clever, looks like a rock side. Matches the rest of the rocks but one thing they have in common that the rocks don't is frost build up, oh how clever." I smiled to myself, wanting to break in through those metal doors and find Joe. And Frank.
Oh god, Frank. How could I forget? Frank called me and he sounded awful, he sounded hurt. Where could he be? Not outside, surely not outside. I don't doubt that he'd be dead if he was outside. It's been too long for him to make it out here if he was wounded, or even if he was healthy but had no way down the mountain and to a warm, safe place. I put my hand over my mouth and pulled my phone out of my bag. I tore off my gloves and dialed Joe's number, praying Frank still had the phone and the phone was still in charge. I was hopping for a miracle.
"Nancy, why are you on the phone?" Amber asked. "Get off of the phone."
I ignored her, hearing it ring one and twice and then three times. After the fourth ring I got Joe's voice mail message. I hung up, dropping my phone in my bag and putting my gloves back on. "Checking. Um, doesn't.. it passed a test. I'm good." I said, my heart dropping into the pit of my stomach. "Let's get inside. I'd say the door is the main way to get in…but they had to get something into their actual buildings to help set up the entire thing, I don't doubt there's another way to get in."
I walked about the perimeter and checked for little faults in the mountain side. I walked around back to the door, and right then the doors swung open. Instinctively, I ducked behind a large rock and curled myself up as tightly as I could.
"Hands in the air!" Someone I didn't know shouted. "Right now, hands up." I heard a struggle; snow crunching rapidly, grunts, the sound of guns hitting skin, and then it was all quiet. I slowly turned around and peeked over the rock. The doors were slowly swinging shut, and there was no signs of Amber or Dean. I stumbled onto my feet and ran to the door as quickly as I could, catching it before it closed. I slipped into the building, and was in a cement corridor, lights on the ceiling placed five feet apart from each other in a line down the hallway.
It was still cold, but much warmer than the almost dark mountain. I'm inside, that's good. Inside is good. Closer to the boys. I saw Amber and Dean getting dragged down the hallway, towards an elevator. I moved behind them, trying to stay in whatever shadows I could find. No one heard me over their echoing voices and the sound of their shoes smacking concrete.
I hid behind a half circled arch supporting the roof that was placed every fifteen feet or so, and peeked out to watch the uniformed man punch a code into the elevator's side. 21406. Okay, 21406. Easy enough. I hid again as they boarded the elevator and rode it down for how ever deep it goes. A minute afterwards, I made my way to the elevator and punched the code in. I boarded the elevator, and there wasn't any other floors to go to except this top one and the bottom one. I pressed that single button and rode down.
It's going to be more heavily armed down there, I'm positive. I don't keep any weapons on me, and I guess I should've for this trip. But maybe I can sneak my way around if I get passed the very obvious entrance I'm about to make. I rode down for little while, and then felt the elevator come to a stop. I held my breathe in anticipation.
The doors opened, and no one was there. What…? I walked out slowly, looking around me to make sure this wasn't some sort of trap. It was a small room, similar to what a nice office waiting room was, and then the walls narrowed slightly and there was another hallway, only this one was more decorated. It was white, and looked very similar to an office building. It had potted plants dotted here and there, and doors leading this way and that. There were the same semi circular support beams for their ceiling, but it felt much nicer, and much warmer.
I saw a door near the end of the hallway finish closing, and I assume that's where they took Amber and Dean. This was my chance to go searching for Joe, and possibly Frank if he's even in this building. I took slow steps down the hallway, listening closely for any footsteps and watching for any security cameras. There weren't any. I peeked inside the small square window in the first room I walked by; I gasped and noticed a whole room full of people working for Jaclyn. It was like an office break room with a coffee machine, food, couches, chairs, even a tv.
I quickly ducked out of sight, and kept moving down the hallway. I checked in every room; empty, empty, empty, empty. And then I looked inside one, and there was a blond boy sitting on the floor. His head was in his hands and his body was curled up. It was Joe… Oh god, Joe. He looked so helpless in this little room. It looked very similar to the one I saw in my dream the other night. I knocked on the glass, making him jump. He looked up, and his eyes got wide when he saw my face.
"Nancy?" He asked. I could hardly hear him, but I knew what he said. It was nice to hear him say my name again. I put my hand on the handle. "I can't open it from in here" He said. "It might be locked."
There wasn't any visible place to put a key into, so I figured that maybe it locks once you're inside the room. But then that'd mean the people that went into the room with Amber and Dean are screwed, unless someone was going to get them out after… Oh. I looked around me and heard talking from the break room I just saw. I turned the handle, hoping I was right. I was, and the door opened up. I pulled a pencil out of my bag, and placed the very end of it between the door and the frame, making it look shut.
I turned around and saw Joe standing up. He looked like he had taken a beating; he was bruised and cut, and his hands were shaking. I don't know if he had eaten or drank anything since he has been here. He looked like he was going to fall over, or maybe he was just tired. He doesn't look like he's gotten any sleep… He ran up to me and held me extremely tight. All my doubts about his well being drifted away as I held him, too.
We stood here like this for a while, before he got his sense together and pulled me away from him, holding me by the arms. "How did you get in here?"
"That's a long story, Joe." I started from when I went to get coffee, and left out the part about Amber.
"Double F? Nancy, you didn't…" He breathed. "They're not exactly friends with the ATAC. I don't know why they even agreed to let you be with them."
"Why, what's wrong with them?" I asked, kind of nervous now. He sighed took a moment to gather his thoughts.
"Have you heard of WARD?" He asked me. I shook my head. "WARD is Warring Adolescents Revenge Division. It's led by a man named Poppa Noir, and they're first job was to send their best agents out to kill me and Frank. Double F is one of their aliases. They think the ATAC doesn't know, but that's why we have a rocky relationship with them is because we don't trust them. Whoever Dean and that girl are, they're dangerous. Their job is probably to try and kill us again. They've been captured, though, right?" I nodded. "Jaclyn will have no problem treating them like they've treated me."
I nodded, feeling very nervous. So Amber really is a terrible person, and maybe there isn't any Nichole Drew. Maybe it was a cover up to get me on board with their mission. I don't know anything anymore…
"Are you okay?" He asked me.
"I'm more worried about you. Joe, where's Frank?" I asked. He shook his head sadly, looking away from me.
"I don't know. The first night we were here, I was with him. Then they came in in the morning and beat us both up, and Frank got the worst of it. He was hauled out by some guys, and I haven't seen him since."
"I got a phone call from your brother. He said to find you, that it was 'too late' for him. I don't know what he was talking about… He had your phone." The look on his face when he heard me say that was devastating. He ran over to the door, pushing me into the corner as he ran. Probably he hide me from the sight of any guards, but it still knocked the wind out of me.
"Where's Frank!?" He screamed. "Give him back!" He screamed that over and over and over again, running his hands through his hair and hitting the door. I was scared my pencil was going to break. "Give him back!"
This was just like my dream; his movements, what he was yelling, it was just like my dream. However, I didn't dream about what he was doing now. He backed away from the door and covered his eyes, pressing he ends of his hands into his eyes. He was crying, his body trembling as he did. He fell onto the floor and his entire body shook with his sobs. Through his cries, I heard him say his brother's name. "Frank…"
