Maneuvering his way around the station, John made sure to take routes with less officer presence. Crossing paths with several officers was unavoidable, but most just walked right passed him; only two waving and saying a quick hello before continuing on. Stalking around was the temporary plan until John could know his father was out of his office. Perched on top of a landing, John stayed hidden in the spot for around an hour, switching off between monitoring and playing games on his cell phone. Seeing his father finally leave his office, he slipped inside during the absence, silently placing a hidden video and audio recorder in a plant found in the corner of the room. Afterwards, John felt it necessary to search Dick's work computer, and downloaded multiple files onto his small flash drive before continuing to look on the laptop in attempt to scan out anything of value. Finding nothing immediately sticking out, John silently dashed out of the office; it would be disappointing to get caught now that he was so far in.
After walking around a few more minutes to see if he heard anything informative from the police officers passing by, John slipped out of the building through a large window. Texting Fallon to let her know the plan was proceeding smoothly, John double checked to make sure the audio and video recorder worked. Seeing no issue, he breathed a sigh of relief before hopping on his motorcycle, planning on meeting a friend from school at the gym he frequented.
Getting home in the early afternoon, John plugged in the flashdrive to his computer and, with Fallon, went through it to see what they could scour. After a few minutes, they opened a file that peeked John's interest. Opening it, the two scanned over data and research until they found useful information; routes and valuable knowledge on their target. Though nameless, at least according to their fathers current knowledge, information on their supply, a new form of an addictive heroin mix still continuing to be tested, seemed to make all of John's risk worth it.
Pressing on into the available data, John's eyes were filled with all the present data, and he began attempting to find a pattern to determine where the team would most likely find the unnamed gang. After ten minutes, the location of their last two known shipping place, as well as two potential routes, popped up on the screen. Grinning, John copied down the information before sending it to Stephanie. She would no doubt look it over before sharing with the rest of the group. Next, John sent a text out that they should rondevu the following night to patrol and look into the gang with the new direction they found themselves going in.
"No problem Johnny," Nate fired back, before also adding. "But how did you find all this out?"
"Not important, what's vital is that we have new information and that we follow up on it before the case grows cold," John texted, rolling his eyes before turning back to his computer.
After a moment he felt a punch in his gut. John turned his head to see his attacker as his sister, a heated look on her face. This fighting, however, ceased almost immediately when the two heard the doorknob turn and Dick enter.
Playing it cool, John felt Fallon push the computer screen down before standing up to give their father a hug and persuading him to help her start dinner. Walking off into the kitchen, John was left alone in the living room, only the faint noise from his family in the background heard. Sighing, he gathered his laptop and trudged up the stairs to his room.
The rest of the evening went without much more excitement, and the following day soon crept on. John spent much of his morning sleeping, and immediately went to planning patrol and routes for the night when he finally woke up around 11am. Cross examining the files from Dick's office while doing so to tweek patrol plans and make sure no important information was missed the previous day; disregarding the glares he was receiving from Fallon. She wouldn't understand, John figured. This was his first real mission as a leader and hero; he needed it to go perfectly. The pressure he felt was only growing, and a need to make his father and team proud was all John could think about.
As the night drew near, John started gathering his final plans right as his father was due home from his shift. Strolling into the kitchen, John helped Fallon with cleaning and setting out their dinner. To be fair, John thought, he and his father would most likely forget to eat at all if it wasn't for Fallon. Over the past few years, she had really taken charge of the chores he and his father tended to slack on; he wouldn't say it, but it made him proud, yet hurt, to see his baby sister growing up on him. The two finished just as their father strolled in, John still given the cold shoulder by his sister.
Giving one of his usual bright smiles, he pulled them into a big hug before running off to grab a plate. Making the usual small talk while they ate, John kept re-running plans in his head; only commenting on and off. Cleaning the dishes when they finished eating with his dad, Dick finally decided to comment on this troublesome attitude John found himself in, "something wrong, you seem bothered today," he asked gently.
John laughed it off and shook his head, hoping to throw off any suspicion. In the back of his head though, he knew he needed to real himself in; less he give the whole plan away. Fleeing to his room after, he found Fallon sitting on her bed, seeming to have been waiting for him.
"Whats wrong," she asked, glaring at him."You're acting off and it's annoying to deal with. Did you find something?"
He shook his head no before diverting the conversation by showing her some of the ideas he had for the nights patrol. His hope holding that the task of planning and the excitement from patrol would keep Fallon occupied, atleast for the time being. John needed to keep her focused on the task at hand and illusive to his personal fears. However, being no stranger to his own demons, John knew exactly what he had to do to shake them off.
"Hey Fallon I'm going to try and catch some shut eye before patrol tonight. Don't wait up for me, I'll be sure to meet you there, and I don't want dad to be suspicious of you waking me up." John said, mentally crossing his fingers that she would leave the subject alone for now.
"Yup, no problem, but don't forget to wake up on time!" Fallon replied politely, some cheeky flare evident in her voice.
"You got it!" John quickly replied before bounding down the stairs, least he miss his opportunity.
Obviously John did not plan to head to bed as he had claimed, and instead snuck right out of the door. He needed to shake these nerves, and the only way to do so would be to make 100 percent sure things would go smoothly that night.
It felt necessary to investigate the site before the others. John needed to make sure that his family were not walking straight into gunfire; determined to make sure that his first mission wouldn't be one that was remembered for it's tragedy.
He needed to do this.
The wind whipped at his face as he ran from building to building, seeking out his prey.
John felt as fearless as a lion leading his pride; but he knew that a leader must be a master of many traits; and tonight he would be cool, calm, and collected as a lonesome panther slipping through the folds of the jungle trees, off into the cool night.